24 kiki gives a performance

up in the castle courtyard tassie passed an exciting night. she had tried to go to sleep in themiddle of the gorse bush, and had fallen into a doze, when kiki began to get restless. she dug herclaws into tassie, and woke her up.

‘don’t, kiki,’ said tassie sleepily. ‘keep still, do!’

but kiki was waiting for jack, and couldn’t make out why he hadn’t come back. she began tomurmur to herself, and tassie reached out a hand and tapped her on the beak.

‘be quiet, kiki! do go to sleep! button is as good as gold.’

there was a sound in the courtyard outside. kiki put her head on one side, and listened. shethought it was jack.

‘put the kettle on!’ she cried joyfully, and scrambled out from the bush. ‘put the kettle on!’

there was an astonished silence in the yard below. then a torch was switched on, and itspowerful beam swept round. but kiki was behind a rock and could not be seen.

two men were down in the yard. they had heard kiki’s voice, and, not knowing there was aparrot about, they thought it was someone talking.

‘wipe your feet!’ called kiki. ‘how many times have i told you to wipe your feet?’

the men began to talk together in low voices, planning to capture whoever it was calling insuch a loud voice. kiki began to realise that it was not jack down there, and she was disappointedand cross.

‘pop goes the weasel,’ she said in a mournful voice. one of the men stooped down in thedarkness, felt about for a stone, and sent it whizzing in kiki’s direction. the parrot would certainlyhave been killed if the stone had hit it. but it missed by about an inch.

kiki was startled. no one had ever thrown a stone at her in her life. she spread her wings andflew up to the wall behind the men.

‘naughty boy!’ she said reprovingly, ‘naughty, naughty boy!’

the men gave cries of fury, and swung round, trying in vain to see who was now on the wall.

they thought there must be two people now, one up on the crag, and the other on the wall.

‘you come down,’ said one of the men threateningly. ‘we’ve got you covered! we’re notstanding any more of this nonsense!’

‘fusty, musty, dusty!’ chanted kiki, and then flew down into the courtyard, just behind the men.

they were in darkness and so was she.

kiki growled like a dog, and the men jumped in fright. the sound was just behind them.

‘there’s a dog about too,’ said one of the men. ‘look out! shoot, if you like!’

the frightened man pressed the trigger of the revolver he was carrying, and the sound of theshot cracked out in the night, making tassie, in the gorse bush, jump almost out of her skin.

button, too, leapt with fright and ran out of the bush.

he still had his lead on. he ran down into the courtyard, and his lead dragged after him. as heran by the men the lead touched one of them, and he fired again. button yelped, though he was nothit, and the man switched on his torch. he caught sight of the cub slinking away.

‘was that the dog?’ he said. ‘it’s a mighty small one.’

kiki was enjoying herself. she flew to a tree near by, and began to mew. she could mew just aswell as she could bark. the men listened to this new sound in the greatest surprise.

‘cats now,’ said one. ‘i can’t understand it! there never seems anything here in the daytime. isit children having a joke?’

‘god save the king, silly-billy, silly-billy,’ said kiki from the tree, and went off into one of hercackling laughs. then she clucked like a hen, and finished up with an eagle’s yelping scream. itwas a very fine performance, but the men didn’t like it at all.

‘let’s go back inside,’ said one of them nervously. ‘this place is bewitched. it’s all voices andnoises but nothing much to show for them. let’s go back.’

kiki let off one of her express-train screeches, and that finished the men completely. they ranfor the castle as if an engine was about to run them down! kiki laughed again, and her cacklesounded very eerie in the dark courtyard. even tassie felt frightened, though she knew it was onlykiki.

there was peace after that. kiki, after flying round a little while to look for jack, came back tothe old gorse bush and struggled inside to join tassie.

the little girl was glad of her company. ‘button’s gone,’ she said to kiki. ‘i expect he’s gonedown that watery tunnel again. now, kiki, settle down and go to sleep. i’m so very tired.’

this time kiki did settle down. she put her head under her wing, gave a little sigh, and went tosleep. tassie too slept, and there was complete silence except for the trickling noise made by thespring in the corner of the yard.

tassie was wakened by dinah and lucy-ann. they had passed quite a peaceful night down inthe hidden room, undisturbed this time, with philip on the floor under the bed. he was getting verytired of living underground, and wanted to make a dash for it with the girls. but dinah persuadedhim that that would be dangerous for him, and make things even worse for them. so, grumbling,he had resumed his place under the big bed, where the girls had also put a good supply of food.

‘jack!’ said lucy-ann, in a low voice, as she came to the bush. ‘jack! are you there?’

jack was not there, of course, but lucy- ann didn’t know that. tassie awoke and sat up,pricking herself against the bush.

‘jack!’ said lucy-ann again, and parted the bush to see inside. ‘oh – you, tassie! how did youget here?’

tassie grinned. she was feeling quite all right again after a night’s rest. her face lookeddreadful. it was muddy and scratched, and her hair was a wild mass of muddy tangles. she had puton her old dress once more.

‘hallo,’ said tassie. ‘i came to help you. i got your note, but i couldn’t read it. so i came up tosee what it was all about. but the plank was gone. so i found out where button came in and out,and came with him!’

‘did you really?’ said dinah. ‘where did button get in, tassie?’

tassie told her. the girls listened in surprise. ‘how could you crawl up a horrid, wet tunnel likethat?’ said lucy-ann, shuddering at the thought. ‘tassie, you are marvellous, you really are! icould never do that, i know i couldn’t.’

‘i don’t believe i could either,’ said dinah. ‘it was wonderful of you, tassie.’

tassie felt pleased, and smiled at the two girls. it was nice to be praised like this.

‘but where’s jack?’ asked lucy-ann.

‘gone down the tunnel to get help,’ said tassie. ‘he said i was to tell you he was sorry to gowithout saying goodbye, but he thought it best to go at once.’

‘oh,’ said lucy-ann, her face falling in dismay. ‘i wish he hadn’t gone without me.’

‘well, you know you’ve just said that you couldn’t possibly go down that tunnel,’ said dinah.

‘i’m jolly glad you came up, tassie, so that jack knew the way to escape. he’ll get help and bringsomebody up here, i’m sure. that’s good!’

‘but how will they get in?’ asked lucy-ann.

‘they could bring a plank again, couldn’t they?’ said tassie.

kiki joined in the conversation. ‘don’t sniff,’ she said amiably. ‘where’s your handkerchief?’

‘oh, kiki was so funny last night!’ said tassie, remembering, and told the two girls what hadhappened. when she described how the men had shot at kiki, lucy-ann looked alarmed.

‘gracious! they are very dangerous men!’ she said. ‘i don’t like them. i want to escape too. ithink i’ll crawl down that horrid tunnel after all, dinah. you come too, and tassie as well. we’llall go.’

‘what, and leave philip all alone here?’ cried tassie indignantly. ‘you go if you like, but ishan’t.’

lsquo;yes, of course – we can’t leave philip,’ said dinah. ‘oh, tassie, do come and wash yourface. it’s simply awful. you look like a sweep. and your clothes! gracious, they’re filthy, and allin rags.’

‘i couldn’t help it,’ said tassie. ‘it was awful in that tunnel. i kept getting caught on things. i’llcome and wash if you think it’s safe.’

‘well – i suppose it isn’t, really,’ said dinah, thinking about it. ‘the men might come out andsee you, and know you’re not one of us two. we’ll bring you some water, and you can cleanyourself up, outside the bush.’

‘then we’ll all have breakfast,’ said lucy-ann, who was hungry.

it was difficult to get tassie clean, because all they had to bring water in was an empty ginger-beer bottle and a cardboard cup. but by means of a couple of handkerchiefs and the water, she didmanage to clean her face and hands a bit. then they ate breakfast.

kiki ate breakfast with them. of button there was no sign. they thought he must have gonedown the tunnel some time in the night, and was probably with jack again.

‘look – there are the eagles back again!’ said dinah suddenly. tassie looked round withinterest, for she had not seen them that morning. the three birds came dropping down to the ledge,and sat there, looking regally out on the courtyard.

‘the young one flies as well as the older birds now, doesn’t he?’ said lucy-ann, and threw hima biscuit. but he didn’t even give it a look! he continued his impassive stare, appearing to befrowning deeply.

‘i wish jack was here. he would like to snap them all together like that,’ said lucy-ann. ‘hiscamera is still in the bush, but i don’t like to use it. i suppose it’s all right there if it rains, dinah?’

‘it doesn’t look as if it will rain,’ said dinah. but tassie disagreed.

‘it feels stormy,’ she said. ‘i think there will be a thunderstorm, and maybe torrents of rain. ihope we shan’t be here, on the top of the hill, if there is a storm, because it would be a frighteningsight. the thunder rolls round and round the top, and the lightning seems to run down the hillside!’

‘i expect we’ll all be rescued before the storm comes,’ said dinah. ‘i’m expecting to see jackany time now – bringing us help of some sort!’