Читать книгу Doctor Dolittle's Circus (Musaicum Children's Classics) - Hugh Lofting - Страница 12

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Although the plans for Sophie’s escape were of course kept a strict secret from any of the people in Blossom’s establishment, the animals of the circus soon got to know of them through Jip, Toby and Swizzle. And for days before the flight took place it was the one subject of conversation in the menagerie, in the stables and in the Doctor’s caravan.

When John Dolittle returned from telling Blossom that he was about to leave the circus on business for a few days, he found his own animals seated about the table in the wagon talking in whispers.

“Well, Doctor,” said Matthew, who was sitting on the steps, “did you speak to the boss?”

“Yes,” said the Doctor. “I told him. It’s all right. I’m leaving tonight. I felt frightfully guilty, and underhanded. I do wish I could do this openly.”

“You’d stand a fat chance of succeeding, if you did!” said Matthew. “I don’t feel guilty none.”

“Listen, Doctor,” said Jip. “All the circus animals are tremendously interested in your scheme. They’ve asked if there’s anything they can do to help. When is Sophie going to get away?”

“The day after tomorrow,” said John Dolittle. “Matthew, here, will undo the door of her stand just after closing time. But listen, Matthew: you’ll have to be awfully careful no one sees you tinkering with the lock. If we should get caught we would indeed be in a bad fix then. Tinkering with locks makes it a felony instead of a misdemeanor, or something like that. Do be careful, won’t you?”

“You can rely on me, Doctor,” said the Cat’s-Meat-Man, proudly puffing out his chest. “I’ve got a way of me own with locks, I have. No force, sort of persuasion like.”

“Get clear out of the way as soon as you have let her free,” said the Doctor, “so you won’t be connected with it at all. Dear me, how like a low-down conspiracy it sounds!”

“Sounds like lots of fun to me,” said Matthew.

“To me too,” said Jip.

“It’ll be the best trick that’s been done in this show for a long while,” put in Swizzle. “Ladies and Gentlemen: John Dolittle, the world-famous conjurer, will now make a live seal disappear from the stage before your eyes. Abracadabra, Mumble-and-Jabberer, Hoop la – Hey Presto! – Gone.”

And Swizzle stood on his hind legs and bowed to an imaginary audience behind the stove.

Swizzle bowed to an imaginary audience

“Well,” said the Doctor, “even though it sounds underhanded, I don’t feel I’m doing anything wrong – myself. They’ve no right to keep Sophie in this slavery. How would you and I like it,” he asked of Matthew, “to be made to dive for fish into a tub of dirty water for the amusement of loafers?”

“Rotten!” said Matthew, “I never did care for fish – nor water, neither. But look here, have you arranged with Sophie where she’s to meet you?”

“Yes,” said John Dolittle. “As soon as she gets clear of the circus enclosure – and don’t forget we are relying on you to leave the back gate open as well as Sophie’s own door – as soon as she’s out of the fence, she is to cross the road where she will find an empty house. Alongside of that there is a little, dark passage and in that passage I will be waiting for her. My goodness, I do hope everything goes right! It’s so dreadfully important for her – and for all those seals in Alaska, too.”

“And what are you going to do then,” asked Matthew, “when she’s got as far as the passage?”

“Well, it’s no use trying to plan too far as to detail. My general idea is to make for the Bristol Channel. That’s about our shortest cut to the sea from here. Once there, she’s all right. But it’s nearly a hundred miles as the crow flies; and as we’ll have to keep concealed most of the way I’m not expecting an easy journey. However, there’s no sense in meeting your troubles half way. I’ve no doubt we shall get along all right once she’s safely away from the circus.”

Many of the Doctor’s pets wanted to accompany him on his coming adventure. Jip tried especially hard to be taken. But in spite of his great desire to have the assistance of his friends, John Dolittle felt that he would arouse less suspicion if he left his entire family with the circus just as it was.

So that night, after a final talk with Sophie, he set out alone – on business. He took with him most of what money he had, leaving a little with Matthew to pay for the small needs of his establishment while he was away. His “business” as a matter of fact did not take him further than the next town – which journey he made by a stage coach. In those days, you see, although there were railways, to be sure, they were as yet very scarce. And most of the cross-country travelling between the smaller towns was still done in the old-fashioned way.

On his arrival at the next town he took a room in an inn and remained there the whole time. Two nights later he returned to Ashby after dark and, entering the town from the far side, made his way through unfrequented streets till he reached the passage which was to be his meeting place with Sophie.

He made his way through unfrequented streets

Now all his pets, though they had not been given any particular parts to play in the plot of Sophie’s escape, were determined to do anything they could to help things on their own account – which, as you will see, turned out to be a good deal. And as they waited for the arrival of the appointed hour, their excitement (which Gub-Gub, for one, had hard work to conceal) grew every minute.

About ten o’clock, when the circus was beginning to close up, Too-Too stationed himself on the top of the menagerie where he could see everything that went on. He had arranged with the elephant and the animals of the collection to start a rumpus in the menagerie on a given signal – to attract, if necessary, the attention of the circus men away from the escaping seal. Gub-Gub gave himself the job of watching Blossom, and he took up a post underneath the ringmaster’s private caravan.

There was a full moon, and even after the circus lamps were put out there was still a good deal of light. The Doctor would have postponed the escape on this account until later, but he realized that the state of affairs among the Alaskan seals made it necessary for Sophie to get away as soon as possible.

Well, about an hour after Blossom had locked up the fence gates and retired to his caravan, Matthew slipped away from the pushmi-pullyu’s stand and sauntered off across the enclosure. Jip, also pretending he was doing nothing in particular, followed him at a short distance. Everyone seemed to be abed and not a soul did Matthew meet till he came to the gate the Doctor had spoken of. Making sure that no one saw him, the Cat’s-Meat-Man quickly undid the latch and set the gate ajar. Then he strolled away toward Sophie’s stand while Jip remained to watch the gate.

He hadn’t been gone more than a minute when along came the circus watchman with a lantern. He closed the gate, and, to Jip’s horror, locked it with a key. Jip, still pretending he was just sniffing round the fence after rats, waited till the man had disappeared again. Then raced off toward Sophie’s stand to find Matthew.

Now things had not turned out for the Cat’s-Meat-Man as easy as he had expected. On approaching the seal’s tank house, he had seen from a distance the figure of Higgins sitting on the steps smoking and looking at the moon. Matthew therefore withdrew into the shadow of a tent and waited till the seal’s keeper should go away to bed.

Higgins, he knew, slept in a wagon close to Blossom’s on the other side of the enclosure. But while he watched and waited, instead of Higgins going away, another figure, the watchman’s, came joined the man on the steps, sat down and started chatting. Presently Jip, smelling out Matthew behind the tent, came up and tried frantically to make him understand that the gate he had opened had been closed again and locked.

Jip had very little success in trying to make the Cat’s-Meat-Man understand him, and for nearly an hour Matthew stayed in the shadow waiting for the two figures on the steps of Sophie’s stand to move away and leave the coast clear for him to let the seal free. In the meantime John Dolittle in his narrow dark passage outside the circus enclosure wondered what the delay was and tried to read his watch by the dim light of the moon.

Finally Matthew decided that the two men were never going to bed. So, swearing under his breath, he crept away from the shadow of the tent and set off to seek Theodosia, his wife.

On arrival at his own wagon he found her darning socks by the light of the candle.

“Pst! – Theodosia,” he whispered through the window. “Listen.”

“Good Lord!” gasped Mrs. Mugg dropping her needlework. “What a fright you gave me, Matthew! Is it all right? Has the seal got away?”

“No, it’s all wrong. Higgins and the watchman are sitting on the steps talking. I can’t get near the door while they’re there. Go up and draw ’em off for me, will yer? Tell ’em a tent’s blown down or something – anything to get ’em away. They’re going to set there all night if something ain’t done.”

“All right,” said Theodosia. “Wait till I get my shawl. I’ll bring them over here for some cocoa.”

Then the helpful Mrs. Mugg went off and invited Higgins and the watchman to come to her husband’s wagon for a little party. Matthew would be along to join them presently, she said.

His nimble fingers soon had the door unlocked

As soon as the coast was clear the Cat’s-Meat-Man sped up the steps of the seal’s stand and in a minute his nimble fingers had the door unlocked. Just inside lay Sophie, all ready to start out upon her long journey. With a grunt of thanks she waddled forth into the moonlight, slid down the steps and set off clumsily towards the gate.

Once more Jip tried his hardest to make Matthew understand that something was wrong. But the Cat’s-Meat-Man merely took the dog’s signals of distress for joy and marched off to join his wife’s cocoa party, feeling that his share of the night’s work had been well done.

In the meantime Sophie had waddled her way labouriously to the gate and found it locked.

Jip had then gone all around the fence, trying to find a hole big enough for her to get through. But he met with no success. Poor Sophie had escaped the captivity of her tank only to find herself still a prisoner within the circus enclosure.

Everything that had happened up to this had been carefully watched by a little round bird perched on the roof of the menagerie. Too-Too, the listener, the night seer, the mathematician, was more than usually wide awake. And presently, while Jip was still nosing round the fence trying to find Sophie a way out, he heard the whir of wings over his head and an owl alighted by his side.

“For heaven’s sake, Jip,” whispered Too-Too, “keep your head. The game will be up if you don’t. You’re doing no good by running round like that. Get Sophie into hiding – push her under the flap of a tent or something. Look at her, lying out in the moonlight there, as though this were Greenland! If anyone should come along and see her we’re lost. Hide her until Matthew sees what has happened to the gate. Hurry – I see someone coming.”

As Too-Too flew back to his place on the menagerie roof, Jip rushed off to Sophie and in a few hurried words explained the situation to her.

“Come over here,” he said, “Get under the skirt of this tent. So – Gosh! Only just in time! There’s the light of a lantern moving. Now lie perfectly still and wait till I come and tell you.”

And in his little dark passage beyond the circus fence John Dolittle once more looked at his watch and muttered:

“What can have happened? Will she never come?”

It was not many minutes after Matthew had joined the cocoa party in his own wagon that the watchman rose from the table and said he ought to be getting along on his rounds. The Cat’s-Meat-Man, anxious to give Sophie as much time as possible to get away, tried to persuade him to stay.

“Oh, stop and have another cup of cocoa!” said he. “This is a quiet town. Nobody’s going to break in. Fill your pipe and let’s chat a while.”

“No,” said the watchman – “thank ye. I’d like to, but I mustn’t. Blossom give me strict orders to keep movin’ the whole night. If he was to come and not find me on the job I’d catch it hot.”

And in spite of everything Matthew could do to keep him, the watchman took his lamp and left.

Higgins, however, remained. And while the Cat’s-Meat-Man and his wife talked pleasantly to him of politics and the weather, they expected any moment to hear a shout outside warning the circus that Sophie had escaped.

But the watchman, when he found the stand open and empty, did not begin by shouting. He came running back to Matthew’s wagon.

“Higgins,” he yelled, “your seal’s gone!”

“Gone!” cried Higgins.

“Gone!” said Matthew. “Can’t be possible!”

“I tell you she ’as,” said the watchman. “Er door’s open and she ain’t there.”

“Good heavens!” cried Higgins springing up. “I could swear I locked the door as usual. But if the gates in the fence was all closed she can’t be far away. We can soon find ’er again. Come on!”

And he ran out of the wagon – with Matthew and Theodosia, pretending to be greatly disturbed, close at his heels.

“I’ll go take another look at the gates,” said the watchman. “I’m sure they’re all right. But I’ll make double certain anyway.”

Then Higgins, Matthew and Theodosia raced off for the seal’s stand.

“The door’s open, sure enough,” said Matthew as they came up to it. “’Ow very peculiar!”

“Let’s go inside,” said Higgins. “Maybe she’s hiding at the bottom of the tank.”

Then all three of them went in and by the light of matches peered down into the dark water.

Meanwhile the watchman turned up again.

“The gates are all right,” he said – “closed and locked, every one of them.”

Then at last Matthew knew something had gone wrong. And while Higgins and the watchman were examining the water with the lamp, he whispered something to his wife, slipped out and ran for the gate, hoping Theodosia would keep the other two at the stand long enough for his purpose.

As a matter of fact she played her part very well, did Mrs. Mugg. Presently Higgins said:

“There ain’t nothing under the water. Sophie’s not here. Let’s go outside and look for her.”

Then just as the two men turned to leave Theodosia cried, “What’s that?”

“What’s what?” said Higgins turning back.

“That – down there,” said Mrs. Mugg pointing into the dirty water. “I thought I saw something move. Bring the lantern nearer.”

The watchman crouched over the edge of the tank; and Higgins, beside him, screwed up his eyes to see better.

“I don’t see nothing,” said the keeper.

“Oh! Oh! I’m feeling faint!”

“Oh! Oh! I’m feeling faint!” cried Mrs. Mugg. “Help me. I’m going to fall in!”

And Theodosia, a heavy woman, swayed and suddenly crumpled up on the top of the two crouching men.

Then, splash! splash! – in fell, not Theodosia, but Higgins and the watchman – lamp and all.