Читать книгу Boys' and Girls' Circus Book - Enid blyton - Страница 9

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Jerry did bring them some breakfast. Trust Jerry! It was not so good a breakfast as supper had been, but it was very nice.

Jerry opened the door and handed in a jar of potted meat, some biscuits, and two apples. He took something out of the caravan and went off with it. Nobody guessed that he had been to feed two runaway children! Pip and Susy-Ann ate happily, and took a drink from the water-jar.

It wasn’t very long before the whole circus was on the road again, and the children felt the caravan jolting and jerking as it rumbled over the lanes.

Pip opened the peep-hole. He and Jerry talked as they went along.

“We arrive at our next show-place this afternoon,” said Jerry. “I shall be very busy to-night and to-morrow helping everyone to get ready for our next show. But I’ll bring you food whenever I can, and maybe we’ll be able to sleep out of doors again to-night.”

It wasn’t quite so exciting being in the old caravan the second day. Susy-Ann was rather bored and wished she had something to do. But fortunately the circus arrived at its next show-place about two o’clock that afternoon, so the time was not too long.

Jerry once more backed their caravan on to a hedge. There was a gap in the hedge, and Jerry whispered to Pip that when night came they could slip through the gap into the next field.

The children had eaten some bread and cold sausages that Jerry had pushed in through the peep-hole at twelve o’clock. They looked out of the windows longingly, wishing they could join Jerry as he rushed here and there, helping everyone to settle in.

Suddenly they heard him nearby, and he was singing loudly.

“Half a pound of twopenny rice,

Half a pound of treacle,

Stir it up and make it nice,

Pop goes the weasel!”

That was the signal for danger, as Pip very well knew. In a fright he pulled Susy-Ann down behind the sacks, and covered them both with tent canvas.

“Lie still!” he whispered. “Jerry said someone might be coming into the caravan if he sang that song.”

“Pop goes the weasel!” sang Jerry again, loudly, and the caravan door opened.

“I think it’s in here somewhere,” said the voice of Madame Clara.

“What is it you want, Madame Clara?” asked Jerry’s voice, politely. “Can I get it for you?”

“Oh, I can find it myself, thank you,” said Madame Clara, and she stepped over to the front of the caravan, where the two children were hiding.

Snowball the mouse had been squashed when Pip had lain down so suddenly, and with a frightened squeal she had run from Pip’s sleeve. She sat on the top of a sack, looking at Madame Clara with her bright pink eyes.

Madame Clara saw her suddenly and gave a scream! “Oh! Oh! A mouse! Quick, get me out of here. There’s a mouse!”

The parrot-woman was dreadfully frightened of mice, though she would go into a cage of lions without being at all afraid! Jerry grinned, and helped her down the steps. “You tell me what you want and I’ll get it,” he said.

“I want my old parrot-cage,” said Madame Clara. “I think I saw it at the back where that tent canvas was.”

Jerry gave a low whistle of dismay. The children were just by the cage, and to get it he would have to uncover them.

“I’ll bring it along to your caravan, Madame Clara,” he said, hurriedly. “Look out—there’s that mouse again! You’d better go! It’s no trouble to me to bring the cage.”

Madame Clara gave a squeal and fled. Jerry was thankful to see her go. He hauled at the parrot cage and took it to the caravan door.

“She’s gone,” he said to the frightened children in a low voice. “It was a narrow squeak though!”

But it wasn’t long before another frightening thing happened! A strange man appeared at the circus gate and asked to see Mr. Phillipino. Jerry was nearby when he came, and he kept near enough to hear what was said.

Mr. Phillipino came in surprise to talk to the man, and he was even more astonished when he heard what the man said!

“We have reason to think that two children have joined this circus and run away with you,” said the man, looking straight at the circus-owner.

“Nonsense!” said Mr. Phillipino at once. “What would we do with two children? They are not here, I can tell you that!”

“I shall have to search your circus, if you will give me permission,” said the man. “They may be hiding somewhere without your knowledge.”

“Search it all you like!” cried the ring-master, angrily. “You won’t find any children—except Jerry, who belongs to us!”

Jerry ran off to the caravan in a great fright. He slipped inside and told the two scared children about the man who had come to find them.

“Oh, Jerry, are we safe in here?” cried Susy-Ann, tears rolling down her cheeks. “I don’t want to go away. I don’t want to go to a Home. I want to stay with you and Pip.”

“I don’t want you to go either,” said Jerry, very worried. “Look here, I think I can find a good hiding-place for you; but if they don’t find you, we shall have to tell my mother about you. She is a good sort and she will know some way of stopping you from being taken to a Home. Do you agree to that?”

The children were willing to agree to anything. “Can’t we slip out of the caravan, squeeze through the hedge, and hide somewhere in the fields till it’s safe?” said Pip.

“No,” said Jerry. “Everyone is on the look-out for you now. You mustn’t do that. I’ve another idea, but I don’t know if it will work.”

“What is it?” asked Pip.

“Well, I’ve got to store some things on the roof of this caravan,” said Jerry. “I can do it this afternoon, and if you can manage to slip up there I can cover you with some canvas so that you won’t be seen. Nobody would ever guess you were there on the roof.”

“Oh, Pip, what a good idea!” cried Susy-Ann. “But how shall we get on to the roof?”

“Same way as I do—up a ladder!” said Jerry. “Well, I’d better get busy. I’ll go and get our ladder.”

He went off and soon came back with the ladder, which he set up against the caravan at the back. He ran up it, carrying a load of things, which he arranged on the roof. He took a quick look round. The circus folk were busy and no one was looking his way.

“Susy-Ann! Come along up!” he called in a low voice. Susy-Ann scrambled up the ladder. She was flat on the roof among the odd bundles almost at once. Then Pip came up, and Jerry covered them both with some old canvas.

“Lie as flat as you can,” he said. “You can hardly be seen from the ground. I think I can see the searchers coming now.”

It was true—the searchers were coming in at the gate, one policeman and two men. Jerry slipped down from the roof, took away the ladder, and ran back to his own caravan with it. He couldn’t help feeling very anxious for he knew he might get into trouble.

The searchers went into caravan after caravan. They even peeped inside the animals’ cages! Last of all they came to the little odd caravan over by the hedge.

“What’s that caravan used for?” asked the policeman.

“Oh, just for odd things,” said Mr. Phillipino.

“Ah! A likely place for children to hide, then!” said one of the men, and he opened the door.

It was a very good thing that the children were not inside, for every sack, every pole, every bit of tent canvas was lifted up! But nothing was found, for Jerry had had the sense to put the children’s bags up on the roof too.

The men climbed down the caravan steps and brushed the dust from their coats. The policeman looked up to the roof.

“I suppose they wouldn’t be up there?” he said.

Pip and Susy-Ann trembled so much that they were sure they shook the caravan. Now surely they would be found!

One of the men laughed. “Up there!” he said. “Of course not! How would they get up there without a ladder? And there’s none to be seen. Come along. They’re not in this circus, that’s certain!”

They walked off, had a word with the circus-master, and then went off down the lane. Pip and Susy-Ann didn’t know they had gone till Jerry came and whispered the news to them. How glad they were!

“I’ll get the ladder again soon and get you down!” he said. “Better wait till everyone is having a meal. Then I must tell my mother about you.”

So, in fear and trembling, the two children lay still on the roof, wondering what Jerry’s mother would say to them. Would she be angry? Would she send them away? Oh dear, whatever would happen?