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.
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