The Beasts of Clawstone Castle

CHAPTER TWENTY

It was easy to see that the building they were taken to had been a hotel — and not an ordinary hotel: a hotel for people who had been very rich indeed.

As the children were led along a corridor their feet sank into deep-pile carpets; there were chandeliers instead of ordinary lamps; hot air came up through vents in the walls, and the fireplaces were made of marble. It was extraordinary, finding all this luxury while outside lay the bleak island with its wind-flattened grass.

And floating invisibly above the children were the ghosts. The men with baggy trousers did not seem to be allowed in the hotel. They had pushed the children inside and it was a large, muscular woman in a maid’s uniform who led them up the wide staircase and knocked on a door with a brass plate on it saying ‘Dr Maurice Manners M.B.B.S. M.R.C.G.P.’

A voice said, ‘Come in,’ and they were pushed forward into the study of the man who owned the island.

Dr Manners sat behind an enormous desk on which was a bust of the great naturalist Charles Darwin. Although it was early in the morning, he was formally dressed in a pale grey suit with a mauve silk shirt and matching tie. He had fair wavy hair lightly touched with silver at the temples, and his hands, with their long fingers and beautifully manicured nails, were folded over a neat sheaf of papers on his desk. The sweet smell of toilet water, which he had mixed for him specially, hung over the room.

When he saw the children he smiled — a warm, friendly smile.

‘Well, well,’ he said. ‘You’re very early. You’ve come to thank me, I imagine, but there was no need. I don’t require praise. What I do, I do for the satisfaction of a job well done.’

All three children gaped at him. Madlyn was the first to find her voice.

‘You stole our cows — the Clawstone cattle. You needn’t think we didn’t recognize them just because they were dyed.’

Dr Manners’s smile grew even more charming.

‘You could say I stole them. But I prefer the word “rescue”.’

‘What do you mean?’ said Madlyn. ‘I don’t understand.’

‘It’s quite simple. Your cows were under sentence of death, were they not? They were due to be killed?’

‘Yes.’ Rollo had found his voice. ‘They had Klappert’s Disease.’

‘Exactly so. The vets from the ministry found that they had this disease and the vets were perfectly correct. People like that don’t make a mistake.’ He pressed the tips of his fingers together. ‘And the regulations say that animals infected in this way must be destroyed instantly and the carcasses buried. That is the law and the law must be obeyed, must it not?’

‘Yes.’ All three children nodded their heads.

‘But to kill animals unnecessarily is a sin. To kill at all, except in self-defence, is wicked. At least that is what I believe.’

‘It is what we believe too,’ said Ned.

‘Good. Good.’ Again he smiled that very charming smile. ‘Not everybody can act on their beliefs, of course. However, I am fortunate in that I can.’ He glanced out of the window at a group of men who were going past. Some wore white coats, some were in overalls — all of them looked purposeful and busy. ‘I have helpers, you see. Marvellous helpers for whom I give thanks every day of my life. I have scientists trained in all the problems of animal health. And not only scientists.’ He leaned across to the children. ‘I wonder if you have ever heard of a country called Mundania?’

The children shook their heads.

‘It is a beautiful place, high in the mountains of central Europe. The people who live there are strong and fearless — but noble too — and when they heard rumours of my mission they came of their own free will to work for me.’

‘Are those the people who brought us here?’ asked Ned.

‘They are.’

‘But I still don’t understand what happened to our cattle,’ said Rollo. ‘I still don’t understand what it is that you do.’

‘No, I dare say you don’t. My work is unusual — but I will try to explain. As you know, your cows have Klappert’s Disease, and animals with Klappert’s must be killed immediately. But suppose there is an antidote. Suppose there is something that can remove the diseased cells in the blood? Suppose there is a treatment that will cure the animals, wouldn’t you think that they should have it?’

‘Yes. Yes, of course.’

Dr Manners leaned back in his chair. A shaft of light fell on his golden head.

‘And there is such a treatment,’ he said softly. ‘We have found it here, and developed it in our laboratories. There is a vaccine but it is very, very expensive — and no government will ever pay out money if it doesn’t have to. We tried to convince them, of course, but they refused to listen — they didn’t believe in our results. Killing the animals was quicker and more economical. So we have had to act outside the law. You see, the vets from the ministry don’t actually kill and bury the animals themselves; they give that work to other people. It’s called outsourcing — you may have heard of it. And sometimes they give that work to me and my assistants. They think we are a slaughtering company but actually, secretly, we are quite the opposite. We are the Manners Save the Animals Mission — SAM for short.’

He got up and went over to the window.

‘So we took the cattle to the gravel pit — they’d been stunned with anaesthetic darts in the field — and officially we buried them so that the trail went cold. But in fact we dyed them so that they would not be recognized, and brought them here. As far as the men from the ministry were concerned, the cattle were dead and buried. It was over. But for your beautiful beasts,’ he said, turning back to the children, ‘for the famous Wild White Cattle of Clawstone, a new life has begun. Because soon now — very soon — perhaps even tonight,’ said Dr Manners, and his high voice rang out across the room, ‘a boat will come. A boat which will carry them to a far country where they can graze in peace till the end of their lives… to a park with shady trees and wonderful flowers and sparkling streams…’

‘Where?’ asked Madlyn. ‘Where is there such a park?’

Dr Manners shook his head. ‘That I cannot tell you. There is always a danger that they would be found and brought back and slaughtered — slaughtered unnecessarily like so many animals in this cruel, harsh world. But I swear that the place they are going to is as close as you can get to paradise on earth.’

He looked down and his expression, as his eyes fell on Rollo, was very kind. ‘I know how hard it is to let go of creatures that you have grown to love,’ he said. ‘But there is no gift that you can give them that is greater than the gift of freedom.’

‘Do you do this to other animals too?’ asked Madlyn. ‘Rescue them and heal them, and let them go?’

Dr Manners nodded. ‘I have a mission,’ he said. ‘It came to me when I was a little boy and saying my prayers by my mother’s side. I had to work hard to get the money — you won’t believe how hard I worked. I was a surgeon in London and often I did six or seven operations in a single day, trying to help spoilt women who were never satisfied. But as soon as I had saved enough, I came here. I won’t speak of the things I’ve seen — we have chickens here that were on their way to be turned into nuggets because they have fowl pest. But fowl pest can be cured, if you spend the time and the money — and we are curing them. I could tell you many such stories but I won’t distress you. But you must understand we work outside the law.’

‘Like Robin Hood,’ said Rollo.

‘Yes, like that. But remember that outlaws work in secret. If you breathe a word about what you have seen here on the island, your cattle will be slaughtered and buried even now. You understand that?’

The children nodded and Dr Manners pressed a button on his desk.

‘Show my visitors out,’ he said to the secretary who came. ‘Drive them over the causeway — they’ve had enough walking for one day.’

Left alone, Manners leaned back in his chair and smiled. Then he pressed the buzzer again and his second in command, Dr Fangster, came into the room. He was a small man, as dark as Manners was fair — and formidably clever.

‘Any news from the boat?’ asked Manners.

Fangster nodded. ‘We’ve had a signal. They’re hoping to get here tonight.’

‘Good. Good.’

It looked as though the biggest mission they had yet attempted was on course.