Carbonel: The King Of Cats. Kingdom Of Carbonel. Carbonel And Calidor

‘Perhaps it would help if we found something to keep Mrs Cantrip busy,’ said Rosemary. ‘Then she wouldn’t have time for much mischief.’

They had just reached the house as she spoke.

‘It looks as though she’s been pretty busy already,’ said John.

The lace curtains were gone from the window. Over the top, on a board which had been newly nailed, was some wobbly lettering, the paint still wet. It read:

K. CANTRIP, GREENGROCER

By Special Appointment to Her Majesty the Queen.

Displayed below was a box lid full of nettles and another of dandelions, a tray full of clumps of whitish stalks which might have been celery but which Rosemary suspected were hemlock. There were one or two jam jars containing a dark brown substance labelled HENBANE HONEY, and a soup plate full of toadstools of every colour of the rainbow supported a notice which said,‘Try them with bacon.’

‘We aren’t a minute too soon!’ said John. ‘Come on!’

The shop door was open as though to welcome early customers. Mrs Cantrip was sitting beside the counter she had arranged, slowly printing something on a piece of cardboard.

‘Good morning! What can I do for you?’ she said, barely looking up from her work.

‘You can give me back my Queen!’ said Carbonel.

At the sound of his voice, her pen dug deep into the cardboard in a spatter of ink. Carbonel leapt on to the counter. The black cat and the old woman stared at each other through narrowed eyes.

‘So you’re back, are you? Why should I give you back your Queen?’ said Mrs Cantrip harshly.

‘Because your day is over and your power is done!’

The old woman looked around at the ring of accusing faces. Merbeck, Tudge and Woppit had joined Carbonel on the counter. Even the kittens stared with angry eyes from the safety of Rosemary’s shoulder.

‘You’re all against me!’ she said at last. ‘Just when I’ve turned honest shopkeeper!’

‘Honest!’ said John indignantly. ‘What about those toadstools? Have you ever tried them with bacon?’

‘I shouldn’t be so silly,’ said Mrs Cantrip scornfully. ‘I can’t help what my customers do, can I? Well, can I?’

‘And the “Special Appointment to Her Majesty the Queen”,’ said Rosemary. ‘That couldn’t be true!’

‘I never said which queen, did I?’ snapped the old woman. ‘There’s a queen bee I know comes to my garden regular.’

‘But you can’t go on like this!’ said Rosemary. ‘Think of all the trouble and anxiety you’ve caused us. And then there’s Queen Blandamour and poor Miss Dibdin. Why, you’re crying! I believe you’re sorry!’

Two hard, round tears fell from Mrs Cantrip’s dimmed eyes, and steered an uneven course down her wrinkled cheeks.

‘Sorry?’ said Mrs Cantrip. ‘Ah, I’m sorry right enough, but not because I made a bit of bother, not me. As promising a bit of mischief as ever I had a hand in. I’m sorry because I didn’t enjoy it. And when a witch doesn’t enjoy her wickedness any more, it means she’s finished, done for!’

‘But surely you could enjoy doing something else if you only tried?’ asked John.

‘Only if I could do the final magic, and I won’t ever be able to do that.’

‘But why not?’

‘Because I can’t do it by myself. To make it work. not one, but two people must give up the thing they value most for my sake.’

‘But what will the final magic do to you?’ asked Rosemary.

‘It will turn me into what I might have been if I’d not taken up with the ways of darkness.’

‘And if you make this final magic,’ said Carbonel, ‘what of my Queen, my Blandamour and this… this potted person here?’ He waved toward Miss Dibdin, who was anxiously peering over the edge of the green glass jar which stood on the counter.

‘The spell that changed me would undo all that is left of my magic. They’d become their own size sure enough. But what’s the good of talking? Who’d give a bent farthing for me, let alone their dearest possession?’

‘I would!’ said Rosemary.

‘And so would I!’ said John stoutly.

‘Think well what you’re saying,’ said Mrs Cantrip.

‘I’d give up my new cricket bat!’ said John.

‘I’d give my sewing box. It’s inlaid with mother of pearl, and it belonged to my great-grandmother,’ said Rosemary.

‘Think well, think well!’ said Mrs Cantrip again. For a moment her eyes looked large and appealing as they might have done when she was a girl. The slyness seemed to have been wiped from her face as though with a sponge, leaving nothing behind but a deep anxiety. ‘It must be the most preciousthing you have, or it’s no good!’

‘Oh, John,’ said Rosemary. ‘Do you remember what we said in the wood yesterday – that being able to hear Carbonel and the animals talk was the most exciting thing that had happened to us, and that we couldn’t bear it to be taken away?’

John pressed his lips tightly together. He was very pale, but he nodded.

‘Oh, Carbonel!’ said Rosemary. ‘Must it be that?’

‘If that is your most precious possession, and if you want to save Mrs Cantrip and undo her magic, it must.’

Very slowly John drew from his pocket the bottle of red mixture.

‘Come into the garden,’ said Mrs Cantrip, and led the way.

The garden was much the same as the last time Rosemary had seen it, on the day when she had escaped in the flying chair. The curious weeds were still neatly staked, and the beehive stood in the corner.

Mrs Cantrip moved the garden seat from the little square of grass. Then, in the middle of the grass, she spread the scarlet headscarf with the black squiggles. She looked around.

‘Seven! I must have seven living things of a kind.’

‘We are seven cats!’ said Carbonel, and then Merbeck, Tudge and Woppit, the two kittens and Blandamour, made a ring around the red scarf, nose to tail.

‘Can you do it without a book?’ asked John.

Mrs Cantrip nodded.

‘Every witch carries the final magic in her head. Give me the bottle.’

Very slowly John handed her the red mixture and watched her take her place in the centre of the red-silk, cat-ringed square.

‘Goodbye, Tudge, Woppit and Blandamour,’ said Rosemary, her eyes hot with tears.

‘Goodbye Tudge, Woppit and Blandamour,’ said John.

‘Not good-bye,’ said Carbonel, and his voice was so faint that the two children had to bend down to hear him. ‘You may not hear us talk again,’ he said, ‘but you will always hear us purr. Your fame will stretch far and wide, and cats of Fallowhithe will sing songs about you to their children and their children’s children. Whenever any of them purr beneath your stroking fingers, it will be a purr of gratitude, an echo of what my Queen and I will feel always in our hearts. Do not look so sad. Listen, and perhaps we can ease your…’

The last word was so faint that they could not hear it. They were standing side by side, and in her misery Rosemary clutched John’s hand. Mrs Cantrip was standing very stiff and straight. She took the cork from the bottle and poured the red mixture which would have made it possible for them to hear again, not only cats talking, but the birds in the trees, the little scuttling wood creatures, the tiny things that crawl and fly and burrow. She poured it in a ring around the seven cats. They saw her lips move silently as, with her eyes closed, she said the final magic.

Then the purring began. Carbonel began first, loud and clear, not on two pulsing notes as he usually did, but in many notes that made a solemn tune. Then Merbeck joined in, and the two sounds merged and then parted like the instruments of an orchestra. And like the instruments of an orchestra the purrs of Tudge and Woppit joined in, weaving around each other, up and down, now loud, now soft, with Calidor and Pergamond supplying their light treble, making the sweetest music they had ever heard.

John and Rosemary listened, delighted, for how long they did not know, but gradually the sorrow seemed to lift from their hearts, and although their eyes filled with tears, they were not hot tears of unhappiness. Through them the outline of Mrs Cantrip seemed to swell and waver.

‘Lend me a hankie,’ said John unsteadily. ‘I’ve lost mine.’

They took it in turns to wipe their eyes and noses, and when they looked up again they thought at first that Mrs Cantrip had gone. In her place was a tall, upright old lady. Over her neat cotton dress, she wore a gardening apron, and a pair of leather gardening gloves were on her hands. She looked down at John and Rosemary with eyes that twinkled kindly over her rather large nose.

‘You know,’ she said as though they were in the middle of a conversation, ‘animals can always tell when you like them. That’s why so many pussies come to see me.’

She bent down and stroked a magnificent white cat with blue eyes which was sitting at her feet.

‘Blandamour!’ whispered Rosemary. ‘I’m so glad you are your right size again.’

‘There is no doubt that you like cats, too!’ said Mrs Cantrip.

Blandamour and Carbonel were weaving in and out between the two children, pressing so hard against their bare legs that they found it quite hard to keep their balance. Merbeck, Tudge and Woppit had slipped away. Both children fell on their knees beside the black and the white cat.

‘Come and see us sometimes!’ whispered Rosemary, and as if in answer a rough tongue licked her cheek.

John stirred Calidor and Pergamond with his foot. They were rolling over each other in an effort to rub themselves against his right ankle.

‘Be good kittens!’ he said.

With a little‘prrt!’ Blandamour called her children to her. One behind the other, Carbonel leading, they trotted away. When they reached the flower bed they paused, gave a quick look back, and disappeared.

‘Look!’ said John. ‘The high wall has gone!’ In its place was a low fence which let the sun come streaming in. Instead of hemlock, nettles and deadly nightshade, there were roses, tiger lilies, and round, scarlet dahlias; there were marigolds and nasturtiums and sweet-scented stock.

Mrs Cantrip was cutting a bunch of sweet peas which she said were for Mrs Brown, and while she snipped away she talked over her shoulder.

‘Very good of Mr Fudge to give me the morning off. But of course after working with him for so long… What’s the matter, dear?’

‘Hedgem and Fudge? Do you work there?’ asked Rosemary.

‘Of course! I’ve been dispensing for him for years.’

John and Rosemary looked at each other in a puzzled way.

‘Luckily Albert Flackett is back at work again,’ she went on. ‘He seems quite recovered, and he tells me he and Myrtle are getting married soon. I’m so glad! Ah, here comes Dorothy with the lemonade.’

They turned. Miss Dibdin, her own size and none the worse for her adventure, was coming out of the house carrying a tray with two glasses on it. She gave no sign of anything except pleasure at their approval of the lemonade. The children drank it politely.

‘Miss Dibdin,’ said John, as he replaced his empty glass on the tray. ‘Have you known Mrs Cantrip for long?’

Miss Dibdin laughed comfortably.

‘Why, Katie and I have been friends since we both wore plaits. We were at school together!’

‘It’s very puzzling,’ John said on the way home as they turned to look back at the front of the house. The neat front door was pale yellow now, and golden linen curtains hung at the windows, which were edged with flower-filled window boxes.

‘I suppose the magic had to work backwards,’ said Rosemary. ‘Mrs Cantrip couldn’t become what she might have been, without having been all the other things she might have been before.’

John nodded. He seemed to understand, as I hope you do, too.

‘How kind of Mrs Cantrip!’ said her mother when Rosemary gave her the bunch of sweet peas from Mrs Cantrip’s garden.

‘Mother, have you known her for long?’

‘Why, she’s one of my oldest customers!’ said Mrs Brown.

‘She has lived with that friend of hers – Miss Dibdin – ever since I can remember,’ said Mr Featherstone, who was suddenly there again. ‘I’m just going down to my flat for a minute – I’ve left a large block of ice cream on the kitchen table. Your mother and I thought we ought to have a celebration. Come with me, John.’

John went off with Mr Featherstone. Mrs Brown had buried her face in the bunch of sweet peas.

‘I think Mr Featherstone ought to have a lift put in. Then he wouldn’t have to keep running up and down the stairs when he comes to see us every day,’ said Rosemary.

Her mother lifted her face from the bunch of flowers. It was as pink as the sweet peas.

‘I can think of a better plan, darling,’ she said. ‘Supposing he came to live here with us. Would you like that, Rosie?’ She paused for a moment, and then she said with a rush, ‘We’re going to be married!’

Rosemary’s eyes were round as saucers.

‘Mummy, how lovely!’ she said.

As she spoke, John came bursting in, and by the way he pumped Mrs Brown’s hand up and down and grinned from ear to ear, it was quite clear that he had been let into the secret and entirely approved. As for Mr Featherstone, he said shyly, ‘Will I do, Rosie? I’ll take such care of you both!’

‘I should just think you will do!’ said Rosemary, and they laughed and talked until Mrs Brown said, ‘My goodness, the chicken will be ruined!’ and rushed into the kitchen. But it was not ruined, it was cooked to a turn. When they had all eaten as much as they could manage, Rosemary gave a great sigh.

‘A father, and a high school, and chicken for dinner altogether. How perfectly gorgeous!’

The wedding was a quiet one, but among the guests were Mrs Cantrip and Miss Dibdin. As Mr and Mrs Featherstone left the church, not only a black cat, but a snow-white one as well, ran across their path as though to wish them luck.

3. CARBONEL AND CALIDOR

1. The Puzzle

ROSEMARY guessed it was kippers for breakfast by the smell that tickled her nose when she poked her head through the neck of her sweater. It told her too that she was late, so she ran downstairs, picking up the letters from the door-mat on her way into the kitchen.

‘Two for you,’ she said to her step-father. ‘They’ve both got little windows in them, so I expect they’re only bills. And one for you, Mum.’

‘I hope your letters are nicer than mine,’ said Mr Featherstone to his wife after a pause.

‘I’m pretty sure Rosemary will think so,’ she replied. ‘There’s something inside which I think must be meant for you, dear.’

As she spoke she handed Rosemary a small wad of paper that had been folded over and over so many times that it was not much bigger than a pat of butter. On the outside was a figure 4, and under that was a drawing of a flower, done by someone who was clearly not very good at drawing.

‘Whatever …?’ began Rosemary, and then she stopped. ‘Of course,’ she said to herself. ‘The flower is meant to be a rose. “For Rose.” That’s me!’

Only one person was likely to address a letter to her in such a secret, roundabout way, and, her kipper forgotten, she undid the screw of paper. Beneath the first fold was printed in large letters: IMPORTANT. Under the next fold was: VERY IMPORTANT, and the next: EXTREMELY IMPORTANT. In fact, when she finally smoothed out the sheet of paper, there were so many‘importants’ that there was not much room left for a message; but squeezed into a corner in very small writing, she read: ‘Do if you can. Uncle Zack is good fun, but it will be dull on my own.’ It was signed: ‘John’.

‘Oh, please may I?’ asked Rosemary eagerly.

‘May you what?’ asked her step-father, as he helped himself to marmalade.

‘Well, whatever it is John wants me to do, of course!’ said Rosemary.

Her mother laughed.

‘It’s a good thing John’s mother is better at explaining things than he is! Apparently he is going to spend the Easter holidays with his uncle at Highdown. Isn’t that the village the other side of Fallowhithe? Well, it seems his uncle is afraid that without someone his own age it won’t bemuch fun for John, so he wants him to bring a friend.’

‘You mean he wantsme to go?’ said Rosemary.

‘Wait a minute, I haven’t finished the letter yet,’ said her mother. ‘Now where was I? Oh yes … “Our house has to be re-wired for electricity”,’ she read, “‘and you know what that means! Floor boards up, and endless upheaval, so Zachary wants John to come and stay with him till it’s finished. He is my husband’s eldest brother, and John’s godfather. He will be rather busy with the antique shop he runs on the edge of the village, which is why he wants John to have a companion. He is not married, but he has an old housekeeper who has been with him for years, and I know she will keep an eye on the two of them. John says he would rather have Rosemary than anyone else, so I hope you will let her go.”’

‘You will, won’t you?’ asked Rosemary.

‘What do you think?’ said Mrs Featherstone to her husband.

‘I don’t see why not,’ he replied. ‘Though the ancient housekeeper is going to have her work cut out, from what I seem to remember of you and John when you get together. She doesn’t know what she’s in for! Wasn’t there some game you used to play — now what was it? I know a witch’shat came into it somewhere!’

Mr Featherstone laughed heartily. Rosemary did not laugh.

‘It wasn’t …’ she began quickly, and then she stopped. The mention of a witch’s hat had stirred something at the back of her mind that she had quite forgotten. It had not been a game; of that she was certain. But how was it possible to explain, when all she could remember was such a jumble in her own mind, like a broken reflection in a pool of water? Rosemary sat puzzling over this with a piece of buttered toast halfway to her mouth. Perhaps John would be able to clear up the mystery. She was suddenly aware of her mother saying:

‘Rosie! Rosiedear! Do come to! I’ve asked you three times.’

‘Sorry,’ said Rosemary. ‘I was thinking. Asked me what?’

‘Whether you’d like John to come and stay for the weekend, as soon as you break up next week?’

‘And then we can take you both over to Highdown on Monday,’ said her step-father, ‘and meet Uncle Zachary and the unsuspecting housekeeper.’

‘That would be gorgeous!’ said Rosemary, in an enthusiastic but muffled voice, round the piece of toast which had at last found its way to her mouth. ‘It’s a funny thing,’ she went on to herself, ‘I’m not an adventure kind of person as a rule, but whenever John and I are together things seem to happen.’

‘I say,’ she said, several days later. ‘What is your uncle like, John? I wish you’d tell me.’

It was the morning after the evening he had arrived: a taller, thinner John than before, with unnaturally tidy hair. They were sitting on the garden seat under the apple tree.

‘He’s rather hard to describe. He’s very tall and straight and thin, with big spectacles. Dad says he can’t think how he manages to keep his antique shop going, because he hates selling so many things. He gets quite cross when people buy his favourite bits of furniture. But he’s super really. The sort of person who lets you get on with your own thing without interfering, but he’s there when you want him.’

Rosemary nodded.‘I think I’m going to like him.’

‘One day last summer he was just going to …’

‘Last summer,’ interrupted Rosemary. ‘Why do you think we can’t either of us remember what we did when you came to stay?’

‘How you do go on about last summer! It is a bit funny we don’t either of us remember,’ he said. ‘P’raps we got hit on the head and lost our memories, and we shan’t get them back till we are clonked again, like people in books!’ He laughed. ‘Either that or we’re plain bewitched … What’s the matter?’

‘Bewitched! That’s it! It was magic that happened!’

‘Magic?’ said John. ‘Oh, grow up, Rosie! I was just fooling. Only soppy kids believe in magic. Anyway, what does it matter what we did last summer? All I know is that we had a gorgeous time.’

John didn’t notice Rosemary’s crimson face. Torn between anxiety that he should not think her a ‘soppy kid’, and the certainty that itwas something magic that had happened, she held her tongue, but she said to herself:‘This is awful. Whatever’s happened to John? And this stuff about magic. I’msure …’ But was she sure?

They sat in silence: John with his hands in his pockets, legs outstretched, bouncing his heels up and down on the grass, and Rosemary uncomfortably popping blisters of paint on the wooden slats. Her thoughts went on miserably: Suppose he’s feeling it’s awful because I don’t feel the way he does any more? That’s two awfuls. And I’ve got to go and stay with him in a strange house with a strange uncle, and that’s the most awful, awful of all. And yet there was the ‘4 Rose’ letter, which belonged to the old familiar John.

The uncomfortable silence was broken by her mother, who came down the garden path with three mugs of hot chocolate and a tin of ginger biscuits on a tray.

‘Hallo, dears!’ she said, as she sat down beside them. ‘I thought you might be feeling hungry. Help yourselves.’ She picked up a mug and began to sip her chocolate. ‘By the way, would you be kind children and do an errand for me? Mrs Cantrip rang up this morning … Good gracious, poor John! He’s choking. Pat him on the back, Rosie!’

Rosemary thumped him heartily between the shoulder blades. When he had recovered his breath, a red-faced John said:

‘Sorry … drink and biscuit … got mixed up and went the wrong way. Mrs Cantrip, did you say?’

Mrs Featherstone nodded.‘You remember her, don’t you?’

‘Oh yes!’ said John. ‘Does she still live in that funny little house in Fairfax Market with her friend? What was her name? Dibdin, wasn’t it?’

‘Yes, they’re still there,’ said Mrs Featherstone. ‘But with so much building going on all round them I shouldn’t think they’ll want to stay much longer.’

‘It used to be a queer, old-fashioned sort of place,’ said John. He frowned in a puzzled way, and ran his fingers through his hair. Suddenly he looked at Rosemary and grinned. The grin, and the ruffled hair, both belonged to the John of last summer. Perhaps, thought Rosemary, the differentness was only a sort of outside skin, and it was going to be all right after all. She beamed happily back at him.

‘I want you to take a recipe I promised her,’ said Mrs Featherstone. ‘When Mrs Cantrip heard you were here, John, she said she would love to see you, and if you both went this afternoon perhaps you could stay for a cup of tea. But if you’d rather not go, of course I could post the recipe.’

‘Oh no, I should love to!’ said John, with such enthusiasm that Mrs Featherstone looked at him in mild surprise.

‘Splendid!’ she said, and got up from the seat. ‘Bring the tray in with you when you’ve finished, dears. I must go and make a steak and kidney pie for dinner, so don’t eat too many biscuits.’

John watched her go.

‘Do you really want to go to Fairfax Market?’ asked Rosemary. ‘Or were you just being polite?’

‘Heavens no!’ said John. ‘Of course I want to go.’ He frowned thoughtfully. ‘You know, I think Mrs Cantrip and Miss Dibdin have something to do with that business we can’t remember. It suddenly came into my head when your mother mentioned Mrs Cantrip’s name. That’s what made me choke over my biscuit. And I say …’ he wriggled uncomfortably. ‘I’m sorry I was so squashing, about magic, I mean. It might happen … to some people.’

‘Us?’ said Rosemary.

‘Perhaps,’ replied John cautiously.

‘That’s six,’ said Rosemary.

‘Six what?’

‘Biscuits.’

‘Crikey, is it really? Funny how you can go on eating them without noticing. Let’s go and play space-ships in the greenhouse.’

So they did.

2. Crumpet

‘IT’s all different,’ said John that afternoon when they reached Fairfax Market. ‘All those new, tall buildings and grand shops! Where is Mrs Cantrip’s house?’

‘Over there, squeezed in between two blocks of offices. Let’s cross the road while there’s a hold-up.’

Mrs Cantrip’s house was so small, and the buildings on either side so very large, that it looked as though it might be cracked like a walnut in between the two of them. But the paint gleamed white and fresh on the woodwork, and the brass knocker shone in the afternoon sunlight. In response to their tap the door was opened by a short, roundabout person. John recognized her as Mrs Cantrip’s friend, Miss Dibdin. She peered at them short-sightedly.

‘Bother! It’s only you!’ she said ungraciously, and then went on hurriedly, forcing a polite smile: ‘How dreadfully rude of me! But I hoped you were the postman. I’m expecting an extremely important parcel. Of course I’m glad to see you really. Come in, my dears, Katie is so looking forward to seeing you.’

The front door opened directly into the little sitting-room. It was a cheerful place, neat and shining with much polishing of furniture, with a vase of daffodils on the table. Rosemary noticed a faint smell, as though the flower water needed changing, which was odd when everything else seemed so well cared for.

Mrs Cantrip was sitting in a flower-patterned armchair, knitting something in mauve wool. She rose at once to welcome them, holding out both hands as she did so.

‘Why, John and Rosemary,’ she cried. ‘How delightful! Gracious me, how you’ve both grown! Now come and sit down and tell me all about yourselves. John, dear, could you rescue my knitting for me?’

A handsome black cat with white paws was chasing her ball of wool so that it was already tangled round the legs of several chairs. Rosemary tried to hold the creature while John unwound the thread, but the cat turned and spat at her, so she let it go.

‘Crumpet, you bad puss!’ said Mrs Cantrip. ‘I’m afraid he is rather naughty. Do you know, he just walked in one day a short time ago and adopted Dorothy! He won’t allow anyone else to touch him.’

She turned to the open door. Miss Dibdin was standing on the pavement outside, gazing across Fairfax Market under the shadow of her hand.

‘Dorothy, dear!’ called Mrs Cantrip impatiently. ‘Do come in and close the door. Such a draught! I told you, the postman has already gone by.’

Miss Dibdin turned and reluctantly came inside.

‘I know the postman’s been,’ she said peevishly. ‘But my parcel might come by special messenger, or something.’

‘Well,’ said Mrs Cantrip crisply, ‘as you won’t tell me what’s in this precious parcel of yours, or where it’s coming from, I can’t help; so I may as well go and put the kettle on. Then we can have a cosy chat with John and Rosemary over a nice cup of tea. It’s all ready, dears. I shall only be a minute.’

She put her knitting on the table, looked at the cat, thought better of it and placed the woolly bundle out of reach, on top of a high bookcase. Crumpet watched her slyly through half-closed eyes, then he padded to the hearthrug, curled himself up with his chin on his tail, as close to the fire as he was able, and closed his eyes. Miss Dibdin laughed.

‘You can see why we call him Crumpet,’ she said. ‘He will toast himself as near to the fire as he possibly can. How long are you staying with Rosemary, John?’

‘Only for the weekend,’ he said.

‘What a pity,’ said Miss Dibdin. ‘I have just retired from teaching, and I thought it would be rather jolly to have a little party on Monday for a few of the senior girls. That’s why I asked Katie to find out your mother’s recipe for short-cake, Rosemary.’

‘And how we shall all squeeze into our tiny sitting-room I don’t know!’ added Mrs Cantrip cheerfully, as she returned with the tea-tray. ‘Oh, Dorothy, I’ve forgotten the chocolate biscuits. They are in the kitchen cupboard, top shelf, dear.’

She watched Miss Dibdin with an anxious frown as she disappeared into the kitchen, and went on in a lowered voice:‘To tell you the truth I’m worried about Dorothy. She’s not …’ She paused as though she couldn’t think of the right word. ‘Not … very well. I’m glad she has stopped working. For the last three weeks she has behaved in such a strange, mysterious way. I know you can’t call that a proper symptom, like spots, or a temperature, but it’s so unlike her.’

‘She does look rather different from last summer,’ said Rosemary.

‘Sort of … beaky about the face, although she’s still quite fat,’ said John. He stopped, not sure if he had been rude, but Mrs Cantrip didn’t seem offended.

‘A very good way of describing her,’ she said, and lifted a warning finger as her friend returned with the biscuit tin.

‘I was just wondering,’ said Miss Dibdin, ‘whether you would be able to put off going away until Tuesday, so that you could both come to my little party? Such nice girls, and all of them prefects!’

Rosemary was just opening her mouth to say they’d love to, when she caught sight of John’s horrified face, so she cleared her throat instead and went on: ‘Of course we should like to, but we’re going to stay with John’s uncle at Highdown.’

Miss Dibdin gave a little screech.

‘Well, what a coincidence! That’s just where I’m going the day after the party, to do some house-hunting! Fairfax Market has changed so, and not for the better. So we thought we’d move to a little cottage in the country — if I can find something suitable.’

‘Of course, I shall be sorry to leave the Market in many ways, after so long,’ said Mrs Cantrip. ‘But what with all this building, and the noise …’ As she spoke, above the hum of the traffic outside, they heard an eerie, wailing cry. ‘There’s that cat again!’ she went on, as the sound was repeated, rising higher and higher, till at last it sank to a low bubbling murmur.

At the first wild note, Crumpet had leapt to his feet, ears back, coat bristling, and his green eyes wide. He stood with lifted head as the cry died away, then he dashed for cover beneath the frill of Mrs Cantrip’s armchair, where they heard him swearing quietly to himself behind the flowery frill.

‘Whenever he hears that cat, Crumpet runs and hides under my chair!’ said Mrs Cantrip. ‘Milk and sugar, Rosemary?’

Miss Dibdin, who was on her knees trying to persuade Crumpet to come out, and assuring him that the‘nasty rough animal’ shouldn’t do him any harm, suddenly sat back on her heels.

‘Was that someone at the door? Do go and see, John.’

He looked out into the Market.

‘There’s nobody there,’ he said.

‘Oh bother your old parcel!’ said Mrs Cantrip cheerfully. ‘I suppose it’s to do with this mysterious hobby you’ve taken up. Surely you can tell us that much?’

Miss Dibdin frowned for a moment. At last she nodded.‘Yes,’ she said slowly. ‘It is to do with my … er … hobby. Well, now I’ve retired I must have something to do. I can’t sit and twiddle my thumbs all day. I’ll tell you what I can about the parcel. Not what’s inside, because I don’t know.’

‘All this fuss, and you don’t even know what’s inside it!’ said Mrs Cantrip.

Miss Dibdin went on as though she had not heard.

‘I’ve been doing a correspondence course. You know, lessons by post. I shan’t tell you what in, because I know you’d disapprove, Katie. Well, I learned all I could about … about my hobby, from books and so on, and was just ready to start on some practical work, when the correspondence course people wrote and said they were closing down. Not enough customers. So disappointing!’

‘Does that mean you can’t go on with it? Your hobby, I mean?’ asked Rosemary.

‘Certainly not,’ said Miss Dibdin, stirring her tea with vigour. ‘They went on to say they would tell a local shop to send me a Do-It-Yourself Kit instead, with instructions how to use it, if I would send the money and the postage. So of course I wrote off at once. But nothing has come.’

‘Why didn’t you go to the shop and make inquiries?’ said Mrs Cantrip.

‘I did,’ said Miss Dibdin shortly, ‘when a week had gone by. It was the other side of the town, in a queer little back street. “NOSTRADAMUS LTD. Fancy Goods” it said over the window, which was full of all kinds of rubbish. False noses and paper hats, and tricks to play on people, and the sort of thing that conjurers use: wands and top hats and so on. They were having a sale.’

‘I say, I like that kind of shop,’ said John. ‘Couldn’t Rosie and I go and fetch your parcel for you?’

Miss Dibdin didn’t answer at first. She was staring into her tea-cup as though it was something other than the dregs of tea she saw there.

‘It was dark and poky inside the shop,’ she went on at last, as though she hadn’t heard. ‘When I rapped on the counter, a queer little old man with a long beard came out from the back and said, yes, he had had the order, but he was short of staff, and had done nothing about it, and wouldn’t I take the parcel back with me instead, as I was there?’

‘Well, why didn’t you?’ asked Mrs Cantrip.

‘Because I’d got too much to carry already. All those groceries, and a box of crackers for the party. They were on the counter, marked down to half-price. I know there’s nothing inside them as a rule except rubbishy gew-gaws. But they do help to make a party go. Besides,’ went on Miss Dibdin in an aggrieved voice, ‘I’dpaid for the postage. Quite cross with him I had to be. When at last I told him to stop arguing and pack up the box of crackers, and see that the other parcel was sent to Fairfax Market at once, he began to laugh. More of a cackle it was really. Then he took the cracker box to the back of the shop. Quite a long time he was over it.’

‘But didn’t you ask him when you could expect your precious parcel to arrive?’ asked Mrs Cantrip.

‘Of course I did,’ said Miss Dibdin, ‘and all he said was: “It’ll be there the minute you’re home yourself, ma’am.” His very words. And then he went off into such a fit of cackling I thought he’d do himself a mischief. So I came away and left him to it. But there was no sign of the parcel when I got home. So disappointing.’

‘How funny,’ said Rosemary. ‘Did you go back again and tell him?’

‘That’s the queer part,’ said Miss Dibdin slowly. ‘When I went the second time the shop wasn’t there. It was number thirteen. I distinctly remember seeing it written up over the door that first time. But there wasn’t a number thirteen any more. The neighbours said there never had been. But I’m still hoping that the parcel will come.’

‘Well, if you will only stop being mysterious, and tell me where you’re staying at Highdown, I’ll send it after you if it comes,’ said Mrs Cantrip. ‘Besides, you might arrange for John and Rosemary to come and see you there.’

‘I can’t tell you what I don’t know!’ snapped Miss Dibdin. ‘I am going to Highdown Station where I shall be met by … by a friend. Besides, I shall be far too busy for callers. How you do badger a body, Katie! And another thing, I mean to take Crumpet with me.’

The cat, now quite recovered from his fright, was weaving round Miss Dibdin’s ankles. ‘He shall help me choose a house for us to live in. Shan’t he, my pussididdlums!’

‘Help you choose a house? Really, Dorothy, I never heard such nonsense!’ said Mrs Cantrip sharply. But clearly feeling it was time to change the subject, she turned to John and Rosemary. ‘How kind of your mother to let me have her favourite recipe! John, dear, do have another piece of cake.’

The rest of the tea-party passed quite pleasantly, though Miss Dibdin rose several times to answer imaginary knocks on the door.

3. The Purple Cracker

WHEN at last John and Rosemary got up to go, Mrs Cantrip said:‘I tell you what, Dorothy! As these two can’t come to the party on Monday, don’t you think it would be a good idea if they chose a pretty cracker to take home instead?’

‘Splendid!’ said Miss Dibdin. ‘Why didn’t I think of it? Rosemary, you know which is my room? Run upstairs, dear, and take whichever one you fancy. They are in a brown paper parcel on my dressing-table.’

As she climbed the narrow stairs, Rosemary couldn’t help thinking that to pull crackers at a party was one thing, but to pull one without any jollification beforehand didn’t seem quite the right thing to do.

The small bedroom was dark and rather stuffy. The faint smell of stale flower water was stronger here, although she could see no flowers. Although the room was neat and tidy in every other way, on the hearthrug, before the old-fashioned gas-fire, was a large untidy pile of twigs.

‘What a funny thing to have in your bedroom!’ said Rosemary to herself. ‘Ow!’ she went on. She had caught her ankle against a long stick which had been leaning against the wall. It fell with a clatter. Rosemary picked it up and looked at it curiously before propping it up again. It was about four feet long, rather crooked, with the twigs that had grown from it very roughly hacked off.

She found the brown paper parcel and undid the plastic ribbon that took the place of string. It had‘NOSTRADAMUS LTD. Fancy Goods’ printed on it all the way along its length, so she knew it was what she was looking for. Rosemary took off the lid of the cardboard box inside. The crackers were fat and pink and spangled at the ends. Each one had a shiny picture of a flower stuck on in the middle. They were kept neatly in place by two strands of thread; but lying loose on top, slightly squashed, for there was not really room for it, was a single cracker, clearly of a different kind. It was made of dark purple, crinkled paper, and instead of a flower it had a plain shape glued to it, which looked like a five-pointed star. It seemed a pity to disturb the neat pink row, so she took the loose purple cracker and slipped it into her pocket. When she ran downstairs she found John already standing by the door and ready to go.

‘I say,’ he said as they walked down the street. ‘That was decent of you to let me off the party. What a ghastly idea, six girl prefects and me the only boy!’

‘Miss Dibdin didn’t seem very anxious to meet us at Highdown,’ said Rosemary. ‘I wonder what’s inside her mysterious parcel?’

‘Another funny thing,’ said John, ‘saying she was being met at Highdown Station. It’s been closed for donkey’s years. There aren’t any trains.’

‘Bother!’ said Rosemary when they reached the bus stop. ‘Nobody here. It looks as though we’ve just missed one. Now we shall have to wait for the next.’

‘Let’s pull that silly old cracker while we’re waiting,’ said John. Rosemary took it from her pocket and held it up. ‘What a crumby, squashed-looking thing!’ They both giggled. ‘Here give me an end. When I say “go” we both pull.’

The purple paper of the cracker was tough, and they had to tug really hard before it gave way at last, so suddenly, that Rosemary nearly fell over backwards, which set them off giggling once more.

‘What a great bang!’ she said. ‘I don’t think I’ve ever pulled such a noisy cracker. Did you see all those coloured sparks when it went off?’

John was peering down the torn end of the tube of paper.

‘Well, it looks as though coloured sparks is about all we’re going to get. I can’t see anything inside, though I expect there’s a motto. What a rotten cracker!’

Rosemary watched as he tore open the crumpled paper and pulled out a small printed slip.‘Go on! What does the motto say?’

He was peering at the tiny print, for it was beginning to grow dusk. He cleared his throat and began to read:

‘Choose your wishes carefully

Seven steps to gramarye

Build each wish upon another…’

He broke off.‘Boring old grammar.’

‘But what on earth does it mean?’ said Rosemary.

‘Search me. Some silly grownup joke, I suppose,’ said John. He passed her the slip of paper. She shrugged her shoulders, and pushed it into her coat pocket.

‘What’s that in the gutter?’ said John.

Rosemary stooped and picked up a small, neat packet.‘A paper hat, I expect,’ she said, and breaking the band that held it together, undid the little roll of tissue paper inside, and smoothed it out.

‘What a funny-looking hat!’ said John. ‘Black and pointed!’

Rosemary did her best to make the crumpled point stick up, and then she put it on. It was a good deal too big, and half extinguished her face.

‘Good heavens!’ said John. ‘I believe it’s a witch’s hat! You do look a Charlie in it!’ he said, and collapsed into giggles again. Suddenly Rosemary didn’t want to laugh any more. She felt strangely solemn.

‘Let’s look round and see if anything else fell out,’ she said.

‘What was it Miss Dibdin said about crackers?’ said John.

‘That they only had “rubbishy gew-gaws inside”. I remember thinking what a funny word it was. Gew-gaws I mean.’

‘What’s that?’ interrupted John.

Rosemary looked where he was pointing. In a crack between the paving stones something glittered, redly. The street lamp above had been suddenly switched on, and whatever it was lit up like an unwinking red eye. John stooped and picked it up.

[????????: _2.jpg]

‘It’s a ring,’ he said. They peered at it for a moment as it lay on the palm of his hand, then Rosemary slipped it on to her forefinger and admired it at arm’s length. The broad gold band in which the stone was set was made for a much larger hand than hers.

‘What an enormous piece of glass for a stone!’ said John.

‘P’raps it isn’t glass,’ said Rosemary. ‘It seems to … well, smoulder inside. How queer. I don’t think it’s “rubbishy”, whatever Miss Dibdin says.’ She looked at the shining band round her finger. ‘I think it’s agolden gew-gaw!’

‘I say, what a long time this bus is being,’ said John. ‘If I had a motor bike we shouldn’t have to wait. Or better still, I wish I had my own private aeroplane.’

‘So do I,’ said Rosemary, tapping her feet impatiently, and suddenly, she didn’t know why, she began to sing.

‘Oh so do I,

I wish I could fly

A little way up

And then I’d come down,

I’d be a bit scared

To fly over the town.’

As she sang, she began to dance in a circle. When she got to‘over the town’ she made a great soaring leap in the air …

And then she came down, smack, so that the soles of her feet tingled. At the same time, the ring, which was far too big for her finger, fell off and bounced on to the pavement.

John looked at her with surprise.

‘Whatever made me do that?’ said Rosemary in a puzzled voice.

‘I thought you were going to take off,’ said John. ‘It made me feel quite queer!’

Rosemary had picked up the ring again. She pushed up the paper hat so that she could see it better.

‘John, why did you say that, when I was dancing about?’ she asked suddenly.

‘Say what?’

‘Just before the ring fell off, you said “John and Rosemary, help”!’

‘I didn’t!’ said John indignantly.

‘You must have done!’ said Rosemary. ‘I heard you say it, twice, quite distinctly, in a funny sort of voice. It must have been you. There was nobody else here.’

‘But why on earth should I say “John and Rosemary, help”? You must be off your nut! You’ll be saying next it was that great black cat who’s been staring at us from the alleyway there! But look out, here comes the bus. Better take that silly thing off your head.’

Rosemary clutched the paper hat and crammed it into her pocket with the ring, and together they ran to the bus stop. (Searching for things out of the cracker, they had moved quite a long way down the pavement.)

Rosemary was the first to jump on the bus. She heard an exclamation from John behind her, but she had no time to look round. It was a double-decker, so they went upstairs.

‘We’ve got the whole of the top to ourselves,’ said John. ‘Super!’

With all the seats to choose from, of course they chose to sit in front.

‘Did you see that black cat?’ he went on. ‘The one that was staring at us? It nearly tripped me up just as I was going to jump on the bus!’

‘I was thinking about black cats,’ went on Rosemary thoughtfully. ‘You know, I believe last summer … What are you poking me for?’

‘Shut up!’ said John in a whisper. ‘Talking of black cats, look over your shoulder.’

Rosemary turned. Sitting on the seat behind was a magnificent cat. It was coal black, from the top of its sleek head to the tip of its tail, with a wide span of snow-white whiskers curving on either side of its disdainfully raised nose. It sat calmly on the seat, paws neatly together, gazing fixedly at the two children with large amber eyes, as self-possessed as though it were quite used to travelling by bus, and had already paid its fare. John and Rosemary stared back, and then with one voice they shouted :

‘Carbonel!’

The black cat jumped down from the seat. After wreathing round their ankles for a moment, he jumped up, first on to Rosemary’s lap, and then on to John’s, stepping from one to the other, kneading their thighs with his front paws, and thrusting the firm silkiness of his head beneath the chin of each of them in turn, and all the time purring so loudly that they could hear the small warm waves of sound even above the noises of the bus.

‘Now I remember,’ said Rosemary. ‘It was Carbonel we had adventures with last year!’

‘Of course it was!’ said John, as he stroked the black cat, running his hand from head to tail, feeling the firm body beneath the soft fur. ‘Good old Carbonel!’

At that moment the bus stopped, and several passengers came clambering up the stairs. Carbonel jumped to the floor, and disappeared discreetly under the seat, until it was time for John and Rosemary to get off, when he slipped down behind them, a silent black shadow, padding beside them along the darkening street.

‘I wonder why he’s following us?’ said Rosemary.

‘If only he could tell us …’ began John. ‘Look out, Carbonel!’ he went on. ‘That’s twice you’ve nearly tripped me up!’

‘Let’s take him home and give him a saucer of milk,’ said Rosemary. ‘That is, if he comes with us that far.’

4. Carbonel

SURE enough, the black cat was close on their heels when they reached home. He trotted straight into the kitchen, sat down in the middle of the floor and looked up at them expectantly.

Rosemary took off her jacket and dropped it on a chair; then she fetched some milk and poured it into a saucer and put it on the floor. Carbonel flashed a long look at them before settling down to a steady lap-lap, lap-lap, from the china rim. They watched the white circle of milk grow smaller and smaller.

‘He might have understood every word we said as we walked from the bus, the way he kept looking at us,’ said John.

‘I know,’ answered Rosemary. ‘Though I wouldn’t have thought all that talk about Highdown and Uncle Zack would have interested him. How funny that Miss Dibdin should be going there just when we are — even if she didn’t seem very pleased about it.’

‘And funnier still that she’s going to take that cat with her,’ went on John. ‘What was its name? Crumpet, wasn’t it?’

Rosemary laughed and nodded.‘Whoever heard of a cat …’ she began, and stopped abruptly as John nudged her sharply.

‘Look at Carbonel,’ he whispered.

There was still a small white disc of milk at the bottom of the saucer, but at the word‘Crumpet’, he had raised his head with a jerk. He stood with splayed legs and flattened ears, the sleek fur along his back bristling as they watched. Suddenly he spat, viciously.

‘Hi! Steady on. Whatever is the matter?’ asked John.

‘It was the creamy top of the milk, and one of the best saucers with the flowery pattern!’ said Rosemary reproachfully. ‘What more do you want?’

For answer, Carbonel turned his back on them disdainfully, and with tail erect, padded towards the chair on which lay Rosemary’s coat. He began to pat a hanging sleeve, first on one side and then on the other, leaping and pouncing on its dangling end so that it swung from side to side.

‘Here! Look out!’ said Rosemary, as an extra-vigorous cuff brought it slithering to the ground.

As it fell, something red and glittering spun across the floor, till it came to rest against the table leg.

‘The Golden Gew-Gaw!’ said Rosemary, and picked up the ring. Carbonel watched her eagerly. ‘What a pity it’s too big to wear. I believe we could both put our little fingers through it at the same time. Here, hold your hand up, John.’

‘You silly twit!’ said John, but he grinned, and did as she asked. Sure enough, the ring slipped easily over both his little finger and Rosemary’s when they held them upraised, side by side. They both laughed, but stopped abruptly when Carbonel said loudly and distinctly: ‘You always were slow on the uptake, the pair of you!’

Both the children’s heads whipped round.

‘Carbonel!’ they said with one voice.

‘Making me caper round like a silly kitten!’ said the black cat. ‘Not that you don’t do your best, but I’ve been trying to make you understand for hours.’

‘Understand what?’ said John.

‘That I wanted you to put the ring on again, so that you can hear me talk. As soon as I saw it fall from the purple cracker, and young Rosemary here beginning to spout poetry, and acting so daft, when she’d got it on her finger, Iguessed it was magic. And Iknew it was, when I called for help and she heard me. But you wouldn’t believe her,’ he added, flashing a golden reproachful look at John.

‘Do you mean at the bus stop?’ said John. ‘Then it was you lurking in the alleyway?’

‘I happened to be there,’ said Carbonel coldly. ‘Inever lurk. You forget, I am a royal cat.’

‘Sorry,’ said John. ‘But the ring. Is it really magic?’

‘It must be,’ said Carbonel. ‘But what sort I don’t know. For there are many kinds of magic.’

Rosemary hurriedly slipped her finger from the golden band, then, realizing that without it she could not hear Carbonel, as hurriedly poked it back again.

‘Both Rosie and I seem to remember getting mixed up in some sort of magic business last summer,’ went on John. ‘But it’s all smudged and misty, as though someone has tried to rub it out. All we can remember is that you were there too.’

‘Maybe I was,’ said Carbonel. ‘But I remember no more than you. There’s magic in that too. If it wants to be forgot, best let it lie. The trouble is that once magic is in your blood it attracts more magic, as sure as a magnet attracts a packet of pins. You’re likely to have another go of it.’

‘Like malaria,’ said John. ‘That’s a sort of fever. Uncle Zack had it in India when he was quite young, ages ago, and it still comes back sometimes.’

‘Oh, bother Uncle Zack’s malaria!’ said Rosemary. ‘Carbonel said he wanted us to help him. Dear Carbonel, what’s the matter?’

‘Sit down on the floor, and I will tell you,’ he said. ‘I’m getting a crick in my neck with all this squinneying up at you. Grown like a couple of runner-beans you have, since I saw you last.’

John and Rosemary sat cross-legged on the kitchen floor with Carbonel facing them, sitting very upright in the middle of the folds of Rosemary’s coat, his tail curled neatly round his paws. She noticed that his muzzle was flecked with grey.

[????????: _3.jpg]

‘What’s the trouble?’ asked John.

‘Calidor, my son, heir to the Throne of Fallowhithe Cats, he is the trouble,’ said Carbonel.

‘What’s the matter with him?’ asked Rosemary.

‘Matter?’ went on Carbonel. ‘Wickedness is the matter. Wickedness and folly! Here have I been training him, day in, day out, for the high office that will one day be his, and what does he do? First he gets into bad company and refuses to make the marriage that was planned for him since he wasa kitten …’ He paused and swallowed, as though steeling himself to go on. ‘And then one day, after saying he didn’t care a herring bone who is King of Fallowhithe when I am gone, he runs away. Disappears without a trace.’

He looked so unhappy that Rosemary leaned forward, and stroked the top of his drooping head with one shy finger.

‘Poor Carbonel!’ she said softly. ‘But what did you do?’

‘Do? What could I do? If any ordinary cat had disappeared, I could have alerted every animal in the kingdom: but not for Calidor, Prince of the royal blood. How could I tell the world that he is no longer worthy to be their King? Before the news becomes public property I hope to find him, and perhaps persuade him to a change of heart. So far only Blandamour, his poor mother, and my faithful Councillor Marbeck know what has happened.’

‘Did you never find any trace of him?’ asked John.

Carbonel raised his head wearily.

‘After searching high and low I tracked him down at last to Fairfax Market. He seems to have taken up with two old women I’ve crossed claws with before, though how I don’t remember. I felt a tingling in my paws the minute I set eyes on them.’

‘Do they live in a funny little house squashed in between two new blocks of offices?’ asked John suddenly. At the same time he looked at Rosemary with lifted eyebrows. She nodded in return.

‘They do,’ said Carbonel. ‘For some reason my son Calidor has joined them, but for no good purpose I am afraid. Once, I got my head round the door and heard them talking for a little, before it was slammed on my whiskers; but I could smell it, the smell of wickedness! Ever since, I have forgotten my pride, and called to him from time to time, pleading. I, Carbonel, pleading! But he gave no answer. I was in despair … and then I thought I recognized you at the bus stop.’

‘Your son, Calidor,’ asked John. ‘Is he a black cat with white paws?’

‘He is,’ said Carbonel.

‘Then I shouldn’t think there’s much doubt,’ went on John, turning to Rosemary. ‘Calidor must be Crumpet!’

‘Cr-r-r-umpet!’ spat Carbonel, with ears flattened once more, and bristling back. ‘They dare to call a cat of the royal blood by such a name! Cr-r-r-umpet indeed!’

‘I don’t suppose they know he’s royal,’ said Rosemary. ‘And he does toast himself in front of the fire. We saw him.’

‘You saw him?’ exclaimed Carbonel.

Rosemary nodded.‘This afternoon. We were having tea there, with Mrs Cantrip and Miss Dibdin. I think we heard you calling,’ she went on. She remembered how Crumpet had dived for cover under the armchair when he heard the strange, bubbling cat cry.

‘You mean you can come and go in the little house that smells of wickedness?’

‘Yes, I suppose so,’ said Rosemary doubtfully. ‘There was rather a funny smell. I thought it was just the flower water needed changing.’

‘Then you and John are the only ones who can help,’ said Carbonel. ‘But there,’ he went on reproachfully. ‘Now you are going away and leaving me in the lurch. I heard you talking about it on the way from the bus.’

‘We aren’t leaving anyone in the lurch!’ said John indignantly. ‘Rosie and I are going to stay with my uncle at Highdown. It was arranged ages ago. Miss Dibdin, that’s the short fat one, is going there as well, and she’s taking Crump … I mean Calidor with her.’

‘She is? And you will be there too?’ said Carbonel, leaping to his feet. ‘Then everything’s settled!’ His splendid white whiskers, which had been drooping unhappily, suddenly rose, as the spokes rise when you put up your umbrella.

‘Wait a minute!’ said John. ‘What’s settled?’

Carbonel went on as though he had not heard.

‘You realize that I have important affairs of state to attend to, and that I can’t go on gallivanting off for days on end. I’ve already been away too long. Besides, I’m getting old and stiff in the joints. But now that you are taking over …’

‘Taking over?’ said Rosemary. ‘I don’t think …’

But Carbonel swept on.‘I shall allow you twenty-four hours to make contact with Calidor and persuade him to return. Then I shall visit you at Highdown, so that you can report progress.’ He held up a restraining paw as John tried to interrupt again. ‘Keep the Golden Gew-Gaw, as you call it, within sight or feel. Inthe wrong hands, someone who does not know its powers, it might be a deadly danger, and besides …’

‘Oh do listen!’ said John in an exasperated voice. ‘What on earth do you expect us to do? And this magic ring, is it …?’

He broke off as the kitchen door opened behind them. Both John and Rosemary turned round. It was Mrs Featherstone.

‘Hallo, dears!’ she said. ‘I didn’t hear you come back. Oh, Rosie, your coat just thrown on the floor! How many times have I told you to hang up your things when you come in. And one of the saucers from the best tea-set on the floor too. What on earth are you both doing waving your hands inthe air?’ She laughed, and John and Rosemary hurriedly disengaged their fingers. It was John who slipped the ring in his pocket this time.

‘I’m sorry, Mum,’ said Rosemary. ‘About the coat and the saucer, but you see …’ She turned. Carbonel was nowhere to be seen. She picked up her coat from the floor. There were only a few black hairs clinging to its surface to show where he had been sitting, and the gentle swinging of thecasement window to show how he had gone.

‘All right, never mind. But do try to remember, dear,’ said her mother. ‘You might lay the table for supper, will you? Fish fingers and jam tart to follow. I’ll be back in a minute.’ She closed the door behind her.

Rosemary looked at John. His face was red, and he began slapping knives and forks on the table in a cross sort of way.

‘What’s the matter?’ she asked.

‘Matter?’ exploded John. ‘I’m blowed if I’m going to be bossed about by a mere cat!’

‘He isn’t “mere”,’ said Rosemary indignantly. ‘He’s Carbonel.’

‘I don’t care who he is!’ said John. ‘If he thinks we’re going to spend all our time at Highdown looking for his wretched Calidor, he’s got another think coming!’

‘But if he wants us to help him it would be beastly not to try!’ said Rosemary hotly.

‘My good girl,’ snapped John. ‘What on earth can we possibly do, even if we find his wretched Calidor? Nothing, except tell him to be a good pussy and go home to mummy and daddy. Not me!’

‘If only Carbonel had explained a bit more before we were interrupted,’ went on Rosemary unhappily. ‘And what about the Golden Gew-Gaw? He said if it got into the wrong hands it might be a “deadly danger”, and we’ve no idea how it works.’

John took the ring from his pocket, and held it gingerly in the hollow of his palm, where the red stone glowed like a living coal.

‘By the barmy way you went on when you put it on at the bus stop, I can believe him!’ he said. ‘And how do you know thatwe aren’t “the wrong hands”? We haven’t the faintest idea what it does.’

‘Except it lets us hear Carbonel when he talks,’ said Rosemary obstinately. She frowned, and then said urgently, ‘John, I’ve just thought of something! Miss Dibdin’s parcel — do you think that was it?’

‘Which was what?’ asked John impatiently.

‘The purple cracker! Do you think that could possibly have been the mysterious parcel? I told you it was lying loose on top of the pink crackers as though it didn’t belong. Well, whoever put it there must have thought that she would open the box and find it!’

‘You mean the queer old man? Good grief! I wonder if you’re right?’

‘Don’t you remember, Miss Dibdin said what a long time he was at the back of the shop doing up the parcel?’ went on Rosemary.

‘And that was why he cackled fit to “do himself a mischief”,’ went on John. ‘When he said it would reach Fairfax Market at the very same time that Miss Dibdin did. She was carrying it home herself after all, and she didn’t know!’ He exploded with laughter, but Rosemary was frowning.

‘But how could it be a Do-It-Yourself Kit?’ she said. ‘Do what yourself?’

‘Why, magic of course! That must be what her hobby was! A witch’s hat and a magic ring would be …’ He broke off when he found he was talking to empty air. Rosemary had rushed out into the passage where she had obediently hung up her coat. Her muffled voice came from outside.

‘I’m sure it’s here somewhere. I shoved it in my coat pocket when the bus came.’

She returned with a handful of crumpled paper, which was all that was left of the purple cracker. Very carefully she smoothed it out among the supper knives and forks. The paper hat was there. She gave a sigh of relief. It had been screwed into a ball, but was still recognizable.

‘And we’ve got the ring,’ said John. ‘I suppose we’d better take them both to Fairfax Market tomorrow, and explain to Miss Dibdin what happened. But wait a minute …’ He stopped, and then went on with a frown: ‘Didn’t Miss Dibdin say something about the instructions how to use the things being in the parcel too?’

Rosemary went hurriedly through every inch of the crumpled paper again.‘Well, I can’t see anything that looks like instructions here,’ she said.

‘Crikey! What do we do now?’ said John. ‘I suppose the whole lot is useless, the ring and the hat, without knowing how to use them. I don’t much like the idea of telling Miss Dibdin what’s happened, even if it wasn’t our fault.’

‘Anyway, we can’t go to Fairfax Market tomorrow,’ said Rosemary. ‘Don’t you remember? Dad is taking us to the airport to watch the aeroplanes.’

‘Ooh, yes, we don’t want to miss that,’ said John. ‘I tell you what. Supposing we keep everything absolutely safe until we get to Highdown. It’s such a little place, we are sure to bump into Miss Dibdin some time or other. She may not want callers, but I bet she’ll be glad to see us if we’ve got the Golden Gew-Gaw, even if we have gone and lost the directions. I’ll put the ring, and the witch’s hat, rolled up small, as it was inside the purple cracker, in my box for Special Things.’

As he spoke he pulled a flat tin box from his pocket which had once held his father’s tobacco. Inside were some foreign stamps, a Turkish coin and an owl pellet. He put the ring and the screwed-up paper hat carefully inside, replaced the lid, and returned the box to his pocket.

‘Carbonel said: “Keep the ring always within sight or feel.” Well it’ll be within feel all right.’ He patted the bulge the box made in the pocket of his jeans, so that it gave a hollow rattle. ‘Agreed?’ he said.

Rosemary nodded.‘And just suppose we do meet Crumpet …?’

‘Wait till we do,’ said John. ‘And then … well, we’ll just see what happens.’

As things turned out, quite a lot happened.

5. Highdown

SEVERAL days later Rosemary wrote:

Dear Mum

I felt a bit funny when I saw the car drive away without me, but it’s all right now. I love Highdown. I like Uncle Zack. He is adopting me as a niece for the holidays. Mother Boddles — that’s what John calls Mrs Bodkin, who is the housekeeper — is a bit grumpy because of the spring-cleaning. I mean, she can’t do it yet because of John and me, but Uncle Zack says she has a layer of niceness inside like a jam sandwich and to take no notice. Please send my old coat because my new one is much too hot. I must stop now because John and I are going round the village giving out leaflets about a sale in the antique shop on Saturday with refreshments.

With love from

ROSIE

PS. I know what a Cromwellian table looks like… it has bulgy legs.

As Rosemary slid the letter into an envelope, John burst into the room.

‘What an age you’ve been over that old letter! Do buck up. Oh, and send my love to your Mum.’

‘Too late,’ said Rosemary. ‘I’ve just licked it up. I wonder why they don’t make envelope gum taste nice. They might have different flavours, like orange and peppermint.’

‘And chocolate-flavoured stamps,’ said John. ‘But for goodness’ sake put a spurt on. It’s so late I’ve asked Mother Boddles if she will make us some sandwiches, so that we shan’t have to waste time coming home in the middle of the leaflet business. Uncle Zack said I could.’

Rosemary had been writing with the pad on her knee sitting on the end of her bed, which is not the best way to write a letter; but she loved her tiny bedroom under the eaves.

Roundels, Uncle Zack’s house, stood on the outskirts of the village, a little way back from the road. A notice which said ‘Antiques’, on each of the gateposts of the semi-circular drive, was the only sign that there was a shop behind the bow windows of the two front rooms which opened off the stone-flagged hall.The living part of the house was at the back, overlooking the rambling garden.

‘Oh, buck up!’ said John impatiently, as Rosemary wrote the address. She slid off the patchwork quilt which covered the bed, and they ran down the two flights of stairs that led to the kitchen.

Mrs Bodkin was sitting at the well-scrubbed kitchen table, polishing silver, and singing in a tuneless way something that Rosemary thought she recognized as a hymn. She was an immensely fat person, who for all her size was surprisingly light on her small feet.

‘There’s your sandwiches,’ she said, nodding her head sideways in the direction of the two bulging paper bags at the end of the table, without looking up from her polishing. ‘Giving your orders like a young lord! I don’t know. I’ve put in a couple of rock cakes each, and there’s milk in the medicine bottle. Oh, and a bit of chocolate. And mind you don’t get into mischief.’

‘Thank you,’ said John. ‘I don’t know how long it will take us. The leaflet business I mean. We might not be back in time for tea.’

‘Then you won’t get none,’ replied Mrs Bodkin tartly. ‘Please yourselves.’

She looked up from her work for the first time, and her frowning face creased into a quick smile.‘Get along with you! Do you think I wasn’t a nipper once myself? A bit of a limb I was too. I thought maybe you’d want to skip your tea, that’s why I put in the rock cakes. They’re the ones you won’t be eating if you’re not back in time.’

Rosemary was looking at Mrs Bodkin doubtfully.

‘Well, what are you staring at? You’ll know me next time!’

‘I was trying to imagine …’ began Rosemary.

‘Me as a nipper?’ said Mrs Bodkin. ‘Skinny I was, believe it or not, with two pigtails. Well, you’d best be getting along, instead of hindering.’

‘All right,’ said John. ‘And thank you for the rock cakes.’

‘And the chocolate and everything,’ added Rosemary.

Mrs Bodkin gave her sudden smile and a flip of the duster in dismissal, and turned to her polishing and hymn singing. John and Rosemary went to collect the leaflets from Uncle Zack.

He was tall and thin, as John had described, dressed in the most shapeless tweeds that Rosemary had ever seen. He was in one of the showrooms, sitting in front of a small desk, pulling out each of the drawers and sliding it back again.

‘Uncle Zack …’ began John, but his uncle held up a warning hand.

‘Sh!’ he said. ‘Listen!’ and slid the top drawer in and out again.

‘I can’t hear anything,’ said John after a pause.

‘Neither can I,’ said Rosemary.

‘That’s the point!’ said Uncle Zack triumphantly. ‘The drawers move like silk, without a sound! Made by a top-notch craftsman!’ He patted the rosewood surface of the desk affectionately, as though it was a favourite horse or a dog. ‘Isn’t she a beauty? But of course, you want the leaflets. They’re in a satchel on the table in the sitting-room.’

‘On the Cromwellian table?’ asked Rosemary.

Uncle Zack’s large mouth widened still further in a smile.

‘Good girl, you’re learning!’ he said. ‘Have you got plenty of sandwiches? A leaflet through every letterbox, mind, and don’t forget Tucket Towers. I don’t suppose Mrs Witherspoon will spend much, but you never know. She’s a strange old thing. Pedals about on a tricycle now she’s sold her car.’

‘Where is Tucket Towers?’ asked John.

‘Go down Sheepshank Lane. That’s the road that leads from the other side of the Market Place, then over the crossroads and the old railway bridge, and you’ll see the tower sticking up behind a clump of trees. Old Colonel Witherspoon built it fifty years ago, to be near the railway station. And now, of course, the station is closed. But that’s life. Now away with you, and thank you very much.’

John and Rosemary closed the front door behind them and started up the road in thoughtful silence.

‘It’s a funny thing,’ said John. ‘I’d forgotten about Miss Dibdin, and the purple cracker and everything, ever since we came to Highdown, until Uncle Zack mentioned the old railway station.’

‘So had I,’ said Rosemary. ‘Have you got the ring safely?’

John patted his pocket, and the ring made a dull rattling sound inside the tin.

‘Do you remember Carbonel said he would give us twenty-four hours to get in touch with Calidor before he came to Highdown? Well, we’ve been here for several days and he hasn’t turned up. I wonder why?’ Rosemary said thoughtfully. ‘It’s not like him not to keep his word.’

‘Just as well he hasn’t,’ said John. ‘We haven’t met Miss Dibdin, or seen so much as a whisker of Calidor. I tell you what. When we’ve finished delivering leaflets, let’s go and have a peek at the old railway station.’

They pushed leaflets through every letterbox they could find on the way to the village, each of them going to alternate houses.

‘I’m ringing all the bells, and knocking all the knockers as well, to make sure everyone notices!’ shouted John, as they passed one another, shuttling backwards and forwards.

‘So am I!’ Rosemary called over her shoulder. ‘I like to hear what sort of doorbell each house has. Some go “ping”, some go “ping-pong”, and some just “tinkle”.’

‘And some go “squawk”!’ shouted John as he passed her again.

When they reached the Market Square they handed in a leaflet over every counter. Rosemary liked shops. By the time they had worked their way round they were getting rather tired, and very hungry.

‘I’m simply starving,’ said John. He looked at the rows of cars parked in the Square. ‘But we can’t eat our sandwiches here. Let’s go down Sheepshanks Lane and find somewhere there. We can go on to Tucket Towers afterwards.’

After running beside the road for some way down Sheepshanks Lane, the footpath was swallowed up by a grassy verge.

‘Let’s stop here,’ said Rosemary. ‘Under that bit of hedge with the catkins … What are you staring at?’ she asked.

‘That great pile of chunky earth. It must have come out of a huge great hole. I expect they are mending the road. Let’s go and see.’

Just as Rosemary liked shops, John liked holes, so they went to inspect it. A little way away was one of those cheerful-looking stripy tents, put up by men who mend roads.

‘I say, what a smashing hole!’ said John, as they looked down into its murky depths. They neither of them noticed the road-man come out of the tent and walk towards them.

‘Oy!’ he shouted. ‘Now then you two! How long ’ave you been messing about ’ere?’

‘We aren’t messing. Only looking,’ said John.

‘Well, what have you done with my cones?’

‘Cones?’ said John. ‘Do you mean those red and white pointed things for warning people the road is up?’ The man nodded.

‘We haven’t done anything with them.’

‘Six there were this morning. I put them there myself. And I’m blowed if someone didn’t nick the lot while I was having my cuppa back there.’ He pointed with a grimy thumb to the little tent. ‘About ten o’clock it must have been, and me not away above five minutes.’

‘Well, it wasn’t us!’ said John indignantly.

‘We’ve only just come,’ went on Rosemary. ‘And whatever should we want the cones for, anyway?’

‘You never know with kids,’ said the man darkly.

‘Well, you can see we haven’t got them,’ said John. ‘They aren’t the sort of thing you can put in your pocket.’

‘All right, all right, I believe you,’ said the man reluctantly. ‘But there’s some as ’ld pinch their grannie’s back hair, given half a chance … ’Allo, ’allo! It’s coming on to rain! Looks like being heavy. You’d best run for it. Turn left there at the crossroads and there’sa shed you can shelter in before you come to the old railway station.’

They thanked him and said they hoped he would find his missing cones, and turned to go; but not before Rosemary had pressed a leaflet into his hand. They left him looking at it in a puzzled way.

‘Come on!’ said John, and broke into a jog-trot, for it was beginning to rain quite hard; but of course they did not stop at the shed. They ran straight on till they came to the railway station.

It stood by itself, with no houses in sight. The entrance was locked, so they crawled through a hole in the hedge at one side and climbed up on to the deserted platform.

‘Food first, explore later,’ said John, and Rosemary agreed.

They sat down on a rickety old seat which was propped against a wall beneath a torn and mildewed poster, urging them to‘Come to Sunny Southport’.

‘Good old Mother Boddles!’ said John as he unpacked the sandwiches. ‘Sardine and hard-boiled egg. She isn’t so bad really.’

At first they were too busy eating to talk, but they looked about them as they munched. The railway lines had been taken up. Only two long parallel smudges of darker green on the weedy track, stretching away into the distance in both directions, showed where they had once been. The rain pattered steadily on the glass roof above them, and dripped through a few broken panes on the discoloured platform below. Little pillows of green moss bulged here and there between the boards where once the impatient feet of passengers had paced up and down. A clump of nettles grew by the seat on which they were sitting.

‘I think it’s the most alone place I’ve ever been in,’ said Rosemary. ‘It’s a bit creepy,’ she added, looking at the fields, now misty with rain, on the other side of what had been the railway line.

‘I suppose it’s because you expect stations to be busy,’ said John with his mouth full of sandwich. He looked at the door leading to the small booking hall beside him. It hung awkwardly on a single hinge.

‘That’s queer. Two empty milk bottles by the door!’

‘What’s so funny about that?’ said Rosemary. ‘I expect a porter left them behind ages ago and nobody bothered to collect them.’

John got up from the bench and picked up one of the bottles. There was a dribble of milk at the bottom. He put his nose to the neck and sniffed.

‘If they’d been left ages ago the milk would be all mouldy. It doesn’t even smell sour! It looks as though someone has been here not so long ago. I’m going to explore.’

Rosemary didn’t much want to be left by herself on the deserted platform, so she went with him.

‘I expect it was somebody like us, just sheltering,’ she said, but she looked uneasily over her shoulder as she followed him into the booking hall. The door of the Station Master’s office on the left was locked. There was a shutter over the little window where tickets had once been sold, but the waiting-room opposite was open. There was nothing there but dust and cobwebs, and a scattering of soot on the floor round the old-fashioned fireplace.

‘There was another door, outside, further up the platform,’ said John. ‘Let’s have a look at that.’

6. Miss Dibdin Makes Do

JOHN led the way, with Rosemary close behind. LADIES’ WAITING ROOM was written in fat, frosted letters on the glass which filled the upper half of the door.

‘I don’t suppose anyone …’ he began, as he pushed the door open. Then he stopped.

The remains of a small fire were burning in the grate and a large, red fire-bucket stood in the hearth, with a wooden spoon resting across the top. A battered bench, like the one on the platform, was drawn up to the fireplace. An attempt had been made to sweep the dusty floor, and in a corner someone had propped a broom. It was not the usual household kind, but the sort that gardeners use, with a bunch of twigs tied to one end, instead of bristles.

‘I say!’ said John. ‘Look over there!’ Rosemary looked.

‘The road-man’s cones, all six of them, and somebody’s painted one of them black!’

They stood in a row, with an open tin in front with‘Perkin’s Ebony Gloss’ printed in large letters on the label.

‘Well, whoever did it isn’t very good at painting,’ said John. ‘Just look at the splodges all over the floor. But who can have done it, and whatever for?’

‘I’ve got an idea,’ said Rosemary. She walked over to the corner, picked up the broom, and began to examine the narrow band that secured the twigs to the handle. ‘I believe I know who did it, but not why.’

‘Oh, lay off it, Rosie! How could you know?’ said John.

‘Well, I do, so there!’ said Rosemary. ‘The twigs are tied on with a piece of plastic ribbon with printing on it.’

‘So what!’ said John scornfully.

‘You needn’t be so squashing,’ said Rosemary. ‘The printing says “NOSTRADAMUS LTD. Fancy Goods”. The same as the tape that tied up Miss Dibdin’s box of crackers for the party. Now do you understand?’

‘You mean, Miss Dibdin …?’

Rosemary interrupted.‘When I went into her bedroom that evening there was a stick just like this one, leaning against the mantelpiece, and there was a pile of twigs on the hearthrug. She must have tied them on with the tape from the parcel, to make the broom.’

‘Then it must have been Miss Dibdin who pinched the road-man’s cones as well!’ said John. ‘Good heavens!’ He knelt, and touched the cone that had been painted black. ‘And the paint’s still wet, so she can’t have been gone very long.’

‘And now,’ said an acid voice from the doorway, ‘she’s come back.’

John and Rosemary whipped round. Miss Dibdin, with Crumpet peering round her ankles, was standing in the opening. There was a long uncomfortable pause. Miss Dibdin stood tapping one foot on the floor. Her grey hair straggled in wet rats’ tails from a scarlet headscarf. Rain trickled from the long folds of her black mackintosh, and even dripped from the end of her nose, which looked even more beaky than ever. Crumpet stalked towards the fireplace, shaking each wet paw in turn as he went.

Miss Dibdin broke the uneasy silence.

‘What are you doing here?’ she snapped. ‘Snooping and interfering!’

‘We didn’t mean to snoop,’ said John.

‘We only came to the station to shelter from the rain,’ went on Rosemary. There was another pause, at the end of which Miss Dibdin took a deep breath, as though she had made up her mind about something.

‘Well,’ she began, almost amiably. ‘Since you’ve stumbled on my secret, you had better sit down, and we can have a little chat. But first you must promise to tell nobody about it. Not a human soul!’

‘Promise!’ said John. ‘Not a human soul!’

‘Promise!’ said Rosemary.

Miss Dibdin motioned them to the bench, and they perched themselves uneasily on the edge.

‘First of all we must make up the fire for Crumpet. He wants to dry his wet paws, don’t you, my pussididdlums!’ she cooed. ‘Such a wet afternoon.’ She added a few sticks to the smouldering embers, and coaxed them into life, before seating herself on a broken packing case. Crumpet sat downby the hearth and began to lick his paws, from time to time flashing a quick, green glance at John and Rosemary.

‘Well,’ said Miss Dibdin at last. ‘What do you think of my little den, dears? Cosy, isn’t it?’

Rosemary looked round, and thought that‘cosy’ was one thing it was not.

‘You see,’ said Miss Dibdin, ‘I have taken rooms at Tucket Towers. So very kind of Mrs Witherspoon. I think she likes the company, and we have both started on the same … hobby. Quite rivals we are becoming! So of course I wanted somewhere private where I could get on with things. Make messes with no one interfering, you know. After all, you can’t boil a cauldron in a bed-sitting-room, can you?’ She waved airily at the fire bucket which stood in the hearth, its red sides smudged with soot.

‘Do you mean youcook things in the fire-bucket?’ asked John.

Miss Dibdin nodded.‘A sort of cooking, you might call it,’ she replied, pushing out her underlip. ‘You can imagine how pleased I was when I discovered this place that nobody seems to want! That was a couple of weeks ago, when I came to Highdown for the day to look round. There’s even a short cut to the station, through the fields from Tucket Towers. I didn’t tell Katie about it, at first. She’s so inclined to interfere.’

‘I remember you telling Mrs Cantrip you were going to be met by a friend at Highdown Station,’ said John.

Miss Dibdin smothered a laugh behind her hand.

‘That was rather naughty of me!’ she said coyly. ‘But I didn’t say what kind, did I? It was a furry, four-footed friend. A beautiful smooth-haired pussy! It belongs to Mrs Witherspoon. She told me it seemed to take a fancy to her, just as Crumpet did to me. Her cat met her first when she was coming home from church one Sunday morning. What with that, and the fact that it was a beautiful smoky grey, just the colour of the suit the vicar always wears, she called it Mattins. Mattins and Crumpet aresuch friends! Aren’t you, my precious?’

Crumpet, now warm and dry once more, was purring furiously as Miss Dibdin rubbed him behind his ears.

‘You see, at first Mrs Witherspoon wanted time to decide whether to take me in, not being used to letting rooms, and that was to be the sign. If, when I arrived at Highdown I found Mattins sitting in the Ladies’ Waiting Room, it would mean she would have me. And he was. So fortunate! But you remember that parcel I was expecting, with the Do-It-Yourself Kit? It never came, after all. I can’t think what went wrong!’

Rosemary flashed a look at John and began uncomfortably:‘Miss Dibdin …’

But Miss Dibdin snapped:‘Don’t interrupt! I am telling you! Without it I am just having to make do. Why, I had to come to Highdown by bus and taxi, andcarry my broom, instead of …’ She looked up, and broke off as she saw the children’s fascinated gaze.

The windows of the little room were so clouded with dirt that not much light filtered through. The firelight flickered on her frowning face.

‘Well, anyway, here I am,’ she ended lamely. ‘But it is surprising the number of ways it is possible to make the best of things.’ She nodded towards the cones standing on the newspaper.

‘Did you really take them from the hole in the road?’ asked John. ‘The cones, I mean.’

Miss Dibdin shuffled her feet in their sensible flat-heeled shoes.

‘Well, I’ve just been telling you, I have to make do,’ she said irritably. ‘They were the right shape, though perhaps they aren’t very comfortable. The human head is oval, and the hollow inside the cones is round. I know, because I tried one on before I, er, borrowed them. The colour is soon put right. Oh, I shall put them all back when Katie sends my parcel on. I shan’t need them when it arrives. I told her where I was staying in the end. Tucket Towers sounds such a respectable address, don’t you think? I’m sure the parcel will come at last, and when it does,when it does …!’ She threw back her head and laughed shrilly with wide-flung arms. ‘There will benothing I cannot have andnothing I cannot do!’

‘But do you mean you are going to wear that cone thing on your head, like a witch’s hat?’ said John.

Miss Dibdin clapped her hand over her mouth.‘Oh dear,’ she said. ‘I’ve said too much!’

‘Then your hobby really is magic?’ said Rosemary.

Miss Dibdin nodded slowly.‘If you’ve guessed so much it’s no use pretending. But don’t forget, you promised not to tell!’ she added quickly.

‘Is there a witch’s hat in this — this parcel you’re expecting?’ asked John.

Again Miss Dibdin nodded, and he exchanged a quick glance with Rosemary. Miss Dibdin’s eyes glittered strangely in the firelight, as she stared into the dancing flames. Her voice dropped to a whisper, almost as though she was talking to herself.

‘And that’s not all,’ she muttered. ‘There is something else in the parcel besides the hat. Something more precious than the Bank of England. Something that would give me power; such power that …’

‘But Miss Dibdin,’ began Rosemary. ‘Dolisten! When I went up to your room in Fairfax Market … Ow!’ she went on, looking reproachfully at John who had dug his elbow sharply into her ribs. ‘That hurt!’

‘Shut up!’ he whispered.

Miss Dibdin didn’t seem to have noticed. She sat gazing into the fire, wrapped in her own thoughts, and mumbling to herself. But Crumpet was watching, with eyes that never wavered. John cleared his throat loudly, and Miss Dibdin roused herself.

‘But what do you wantsix witches’ hats for?’ he asked.

She looked at him thoughtfully for a moment, and then she said sulkily:‘I only meant to take one at first. Then when I found it didn’t fit very well, I thought it might blow off when I was flying high. So I took the others as spares.’

‘You mean when you fly on your broomstick?’ said Rosemary. ‘Can you fly very high?’

‘I can’t fly at all yet. Didn’t I tell you I had to come to Highdown by bus?’ said Miss Dibdin crossly. ‘But I shall! Make no mistake! When my parcel comes … What is it, John?’ she broke off irritably. He had made several attempts to say something.

‘But Miss Dibdin, that hole in the road where you pinched the cones. Aren’t you afraid someone will fall into it if there is nothing there to warn them?’

Miss Dibdin flushed with anger.‘Pinched them, did you say?Pinched them? I should not dream of doing anything so vulgar!Borrowed, you mean. I told you, I shall put them back when my parcel comes. Besides,’ she went on sulkily, ‘I don’t believe in mollycoddling. People should look where they’re going!’

‘But isn’t stealing the cones breaking the law?’ persisted John.

‘Talking of breaking the law,’ said Miss Dibdin, drawing herself up, ‘what about you, pray?’

‘Me?’ said John in surprise. ‘Whatever do you mean?’

‘Well, what are you, aboy, doing in aLadies’ Waiting Room? Go along with you, shoo! Shoo!’

She advanced on John, flapping her black mackintosh at him, and shushed him out of the door. Rosemary was only too glad to sidle out after him. A shrill voice followed them as they scuttled down the platform. They paused for a moment to listen, before crawling through the hole in the hedge.

‘Don’t forget!’ called Miss Dibdin. ‘You promised not to tell! Not a human soul!’

7. The Scrabbles

‘WHEW!’ said John when they had scrambled out on to the road side of the hedge. ‘So Miss Dibdin really does want to be a witch!’

‘All the same,’ said Rosemary, as she picked bits of twig out of her hair, ‘we ought to have told her about the purple cracker. Why did you make me shut up?’

‘Oh grow up, Rosie!’ said John. ‘Do you really think that if that queer old thing got hold of the Golden Gew-Gaw it would be in “the right hands”? I’m sure it was the ring she meant when she talked about something that would give her all that power.’

‘ “More precious than the Bank of England”?’ went on Rosemary. ‘I suppose you’re right. What’s the matter?’

John had suddenly clapped his hand to his forehead.‘We’ve left the satchel with the leaflets behind — on the bench where we began to have lunch.And the rest of the sandwiches. We’d only eaten half of them. We shall have to go back and get them.’

‘Must we?’ said Rosemary, remembering how very strange Miss Dibdin had been.

‘We must,’ said John. ‘I’ll go by myself if you’re scared.’

‘If you’re going, of course I’m coming too,’ said Rosemary.

John was peering cautiously over the hedge.‘Hold on a minute … I think it’s all right! Yes, look over there!’

Rosemary looked.

It had stopped raining, and a shaft of pale, watery sunshine had broken through the clouds. Pinpricks of light sparkled on the raindrops still hanging from the bare hawthorn hedge. Two fields distant, on the other side of the railway, a figure in a flapping black mackintosh was bobbing its way through the wet grass.

‘Miss Dibdin,’ said Rosemary. ‘She must be going back to Tucket Towers by that short cut she told us about.’

‘You can see the tower sticking up behind that clump of trees,’ said John.

The path sloped downhill, and they watched Miss Dibdin’s dumpy figure grow smaller and smaller, until she seemed to merge into the mist, which still lay on the low ground. Finally, she disappeared among the dark shadows of the trees.

‘Come on!’ said John. ‘We don’t want to be caught in the station if she decides to come back again.’

They wriggled their way once more through the hole in the hedge, and hurried up the ramp which led to the platform. Then they stopped. Sitting on the bench on which they had eaten the sandwiches, licking his paws, was Crumpet.

‘Quick!’ whispered Rosemary. ‘The Golden Gew-Gaw! Let’s see if he will talk to us. You promised!’

John nodded, and felt in his pocket for the tin of Special Things. Then, each with a finger looped through the golden band, they advanced on tip-toe.

‘Hallo, Calidor!’ said John suddenly.

The cat started, turning quickly, and looked furtively to left and right, muttering to himself:‘No tact, humans haven’t. How in the world do they know what my real name is? Crumpet I’m called hereabouts.’

He looked suspiciously up at the children, with flattened ears.

‘We know quite a lot about you,’ said Rosemary. ‘About Carbonel, and you not caring a herring bone who becomes King of the Cats after him. But we’ll call you Crumpet if you’d rather.’

The cat rose slowly, his legs with their white paws splayed, so that he could balance on the slats of the station seat. He stared up at them with wide green eyes.

‘Who are you?’ he asked at last. ‘And how is it you can hear me talk? Even She can’t do that.’ He nodded towards the Ladies’ Waiting Room.

Once again John nudged Rosemary as she was about to speak.

‘Oh, we just — happen to be able to hear — a lot of things,’ he said airily.

Crumpet was squinting up at them now through half-closed eyes.

‘Fairfax Market!’ he said suddenly. ‘That’s where I’ve seen you before.’

Rosemary nodded.‘We met Carbonel on the way home afterwards,’ she said. ‘We told him we were going to Highdown, and that Miss Dibdin was bringing you here too.’

‘You told him that?’ said Crumpet angrily. ‘Just when I thought I’d escaped! It’s “Calidor, do this”, and “Calidor, do that”, “Royal cats do this”, and “Royal cats don’t do the other”, morning, noon and night. Sick of it, I am! It’s not as though I am a kitten any longer. Why, I’m not even allowed to choose my own friends!’

‘Carbonel did say something about you getting into bad company,’ began John.

‘Bad company?’ interrupted Calidor. ‘Is that what he calls her? The prettiest little tabby that ever lapped a saucer! And as nice manners as any stuck-up royal kitten, and honest too. None of your sly-paws like the other one they’ve planned I shall marry.’

‘But why don’t you want anyone to know your real name?’ asked John.

‘For two reasons,’ replied Crumpet. ‘This is not my father Carbonel’s kingdom. It is enemy country. It belongs to Grisana, Queen of the Broomhurst cats.’

‘But I don’t understand,’ said Rosemary. ‘Why should Grisana mind you being here?’

‘Because she hates me for refusing to marry her daughter, Melissa,’ said Crumpet.

‘The one you meant by “sly-paws”?’ asked Rosemary.

Calidor nodded.‘It was all arranged when we were kittens. At first my parents thought that if my sister Pergamond were to marry Grisana’s son Gracilis, it might end the feud between Broomhurst and Fallowhithe cats. But they decided he was too feeble; like his father King Castrum, to be of any importance. Instead they approached Grisana, and it was arranged that when we were both grown up I should marry her daughter Melissa. But the only cat I mean to marry is my one and only dear little Dumpsie! Turned spiteful, Grisana has, because of it. Says I’ve insulted the royal house of Castrum. If she finds out I am in her kingdom, she’d do anything to get her own back. As Crumpet, she need never know who I am.’

‘But if you’re in danger here, why do you stay?’ said Rosemary.

‘Come closer, and I’ll tell you,’ said Crumpet. He looked cautiously round while John and Rosemary knelt down beside the seat. Then he lifted his chin and said proudly: ‘I want to make my own way. Show the world I can stand on my own paws. Not because I’m Carbonel’s son and a royal cat,but because I’mme, Calidor or Crumpet. Call me what you like. I have decided to become a witch’s cat.’ He dropped his voice again. ‘She is learning to be a witch.’ He nodded sideways towards the Ladies’ Waiting Room. ‘So we can both learn together.’

‘I don’t think I should like to belong to Miss Dibdin,’ said Rosemary.

‘Who said anything about “belonging”?’ replied Calidor indignantly. ‘Mattins and I have our plans, I tell you. He has decided to be witch’s cat to the other one at Tucket Towers. He knows nothing of my royal blood, of course. But keep out of this, Hearing Humans, for your own good! I must go. I have important things to see to.’

As he spoke, Calidor jumped down from the seat, slipped over the edge of the platform and crossed the weedy track below. When he reached the tangle of grass and cow-parsley the other side, he turned.

‘Keep out of this!’ he called, and with a flick of his tail he disappeared. Without thinking, Rosemary slipped the ring into her pocket. When they could no longer follow Calidor’s progress through the field by the waving of the long grass, John said crossly: ‘What cheek, telling us what we ought to do! He’s as bad as Carbonel!’

As he spoke, there was a clatter behind them. They turned quickly. Someone or something had upset the two milk bottles.

‘Look!’ said John. ‘That grey cat streaking down the platform!’

‘It must be Mattins!’ said Rosemary.

‘Hi, Mattins!’ called John. ‘Mattins!’ But either the grey cat did not hear, or didn’t want to hear. He disappeared round the corner of the station.

‘Oh well,’ said John. ‘I suppose we ought to go and take that leaflet to Tucket Towers.’

‘Do we have to?’ said Rosemary uneasily. ‘I don’t think I want to meet this Mrs Witherspoon much. One witch is quite enough for today!’

‘I know,’ said John. ‘But we promised Uncle Zack we would. We could go by Miss Dibdin’s short cut.’

‘Don’t let’s!’ said Rosemary. ‘We might meet her coming back.’

‘All right,’ said John. ‘I shouldn’t much like that either. We can go by the road, drop the leaflet through the letterbox, and run.’

They set off the way they had come, eating the remains of the sandwiches and the rock cakes as they went. When they reached the crossroads, the road-man had gone home to his tea. Four lamps, already lit, stood at the corners of the hole. Instead of taking the road back to the village they turned to the left towards Tucket Towers and crossed the bridge that spanned the old railway line.

The brief burst of sunshine was gone. The clouds were even darker than before. A chill little breeze had sprung up, and Rosemary pushed her cold hands deep into her pockets. The sky was so overcast that a car coming over the hump of the bridge had its lights on. They stood back as it passed.

‘Did you see how it made the cat’s eyes in the road light up?’ said John.

Rosemary nodded, and poked one of the small rubbery squares with the toe of her shoe. The glass‘eyes’ which had shone so brightly as the car approached were dull now, and lifeless.

‘It’s a super idea!’ said John, looking at the row of studs marking the middle of the road stretching ahead of them. ‘I mean having “eyes” back and front to reflect the light when a car comes either way.’

‘Yes, but what for?’ said Rosemary.

‘To show where the middle of the road is when it’s dark, of course,’ said John. ‘Didn’t you know? Really Rosie, you are a prize ass sometimes!’

Rosemary flushed.‘Well anyway, I don’t think they ought to be called cat’s eyes,’ she said. ‘They look more like a row of little crabs squatting down in the road.’

‘Don’t be silly,’ said John. ‘Crab’s eyes don’t light up in the dark like cat’s eyes.’

‘But they only light up for a second when a car passes,’ said Rosemary. ‘All the rest of the time they sit in their holes in the roads looking like little square crabs.’

‘Cats!’ said John.

‘Crabs!’ said Rosemary.

‘Cats!’ said John with an infuriating grin, and quite suddenly Rosemary completely lost her temper.

‘Stop it!’ she burst out. ‘Stop it! You’re always being a know-all!’ She stamped her feet in rage. ‘You don’t like Carbonel and Crumpet bossing you. Well, I don’t like you always bossing me! You go on making me shut up when I’m going to say something. I’m quite sore where you keep poking me with your bony great elbow. I say they’re like crabs!’

‘All right. Keep your hair on!’ began John. But Rosemary was thoroughly roused, and she swept on.

‘I wish they’d come alive. I do! I do! I do!’ And each time she said ‘I do’ she stamped her foot. ‘I wish they’d come alive, and that would just show you!’

She stopped suddenly, interrupted by a loud‘pop’! It seemed to come from somewhere between her feet. She stepped back hurriedly.

‘Look at the stud,’ said John. ‘It’s moving!’

Rosemary looked.

It was the one she had poked with her foot. It had come loose from the metal rim which kept it in its place, and was moving up and down, of its own accord, in a jerky sort of way. Then, to Rosemary’s astonishment, it tilted so that the glass ‘eyes’ in front were looking up at her, and at the same time, two rather bandy legs unfolded themselves from the two front corners, waved wildly in the air, scrabbled for a second on the metal rim, then, helped by two more legs growing from the corners at the back, heaved the stud clean out of its square hole. For a minute it stood flexing its legs as though to get the stiffness out of them. Then it scuttled towards Rosemary, bouncing up and down at her feet and making little squeaks of what seemed like pleasure.

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All this took much less time than it takes to describe, and before the little creature had reached her there was a second‘pop’!

‘Crikey, there’s another! And another!And another!’ said John. ‘It’s like a machine-gun going off “Pop! Pop! Pop!” ’ One by one the line of studs running away down the middle of the road rose from their holes and scuttled up to Rosemary, till she was surrounded by a bouncing horde of them: their glass ‘eyes’ glinting back and frontas they all jumped up and down, as a dog does when it is pleased to see you, and all of them twittering, like a cage full of sparrows.

‘You see,’ said Rosemary with lifted chin. ‘It proves I’m right. They aren’t like cats!’

‘Or much like crabs either,’ said John shortly.

‘I don’t see why they have to be like anything,’ went on Rosemary. ‘I think they are just themselves. I shall call them …’ She stopped and looked thoughtfully at the swarming mass at her feet. ‘I know. I shall call them the Scrabbles … because they are a bit like crabs, and they …sort of scrabble with their paws.’

‘All right. Call them what you like,’ said John in an exasperated voice. ‘They hop about so, I can’t count them, but there must be dozens of the things! I suppose you’ve made your point. P’raps they do look more like crabs than cats. But what are we going to do with them now?’

The first flush of Rosemary’s triumph at having proved John wrong for once had begun to ebb away.

‘It’s going to be a bit awkward if they are prancing about all over the place when it gets dark,’ went on John. ‘How are cars to know where the middle of the road is? Can’t you make them go back again?’

‘I suppose I can try,’ replied Rosemary doubtfully. She thought for a moment, and then she said to the Scrabbles in her best polite voice: ‘Of course we are both very pleased to have met you, but hadn’t you better be going home now? I mean back to your holes?’ She made flapping go-away movements with her hands. The Scrabbles stopped bouncing, and shuffled together in a tight little group, and their twittering dropped to a sad little moan. Then, as if they had come to a decision among themselves, they sat firmly down where they were, their front eyes glinting up at Rosemary, and their back eyes, on which of course they were sitting, protected from the dust and dirt of the road by their back paws which they folded underneath them.

‘Well, that hasn’t worked,’ said John.

‘Could we pick them up one by one and put them back in their holes?’ said Rosemary doubtfully. But she made no move to do it.

Reluctantly John stooped down, and gingerly stretched out his hand to the nearest Scrabble. Just as he was about to pick it up, quick as lightning, it turned and nipped him on the thumb.

‘Ow! That hurt!’ he said.

The creatures were silent now, but very watchful.

‘Well,’ said John. ‘I don’t see what else we can do. Maybe they’ll go back of their own accord if we leave them to it. Let’s go home,’ he went on. ‘I vote we put off going to Tucket Towers till tomorrow. It must be getting frightfully late.’

Rosemary agreed. They turned to go back to Highdown with a feeling of relief. But the relief was short lived. They had only gone a few yards before there was a shrill, excited twittering, and the Scrabbles came streaming after them, their feet pattering on the hard road with a sound like the keys of forty typewriters all typing together.

‘That’s torn it!’ said John. ‘If they want to follow I don’t see how we can stop them.’

‘But if they come home with us, what shall we do with them? And what on earth will Uncle Zack and Mrs Bodkin say?’ said Rosemary. ‘If we tell them they are road studs come alive, they’ll have a fit. Isn’t there somewhere we can hide them till we can think of some plan?’

‘There’s probably some ghastly law about stealing road studs,’ said John gloomily.

‘Let me think,’ he went on desperately, his fists clenched against his forehead. ‘I know,’ he said at last. ‘Once we’ve got them home, we can shut them in that old shed at the bottom of the garden, where Uncle Zack used to keep hens. Nobody ever goes there.’

‘But we can’t go through the village with a pack of Scrabbles squeaking and squawking behind us!’ said Rosemary.

‘Well then, we shall just have to goround the village. I think I can find the way. But it’ll take much longer, so we’d better get going. Come on!’

They set off at a brisk pace, with the Scrabbles, twittering excitedly, streaming behind them.

8. Unwishing

IT was a weary, untidy pair who at last reached home. It took a great deal longer than they expected, to find their way round the village. Once, they got lost in a small wood, and had to crawl through a thicket to find the path again. Twice, they had to climb a wall. Rosemary’s half-hope that they would lose the Scrabbles on the way came to nothing. As they reached each obstacle, their twittering grew a little agitated, but after some excited scurrying to and fro, they squeezed themselves over, under or through everything in their way, to join John and Rosemary the other side, squeaking with renewed vigour at their cleverness.

Once, when they were on a well-marked path, they heard someone coming towards them. The only way the Scrabbles could be persuaded to hide in a rather muddy ditch was to crouch down in it themselves, till the danger was past.

It was nearly dark when they reached home.

‘Just as well,’ said John. ‘Uncle Zack wouldn’t notice what we looked like anyway, but Mother Boddles will want to know exactly how we’ve got in such a mess if she spots us before we can clean up a bit.’

‘As soon as we’ve shut the Scrabbles up, we can sneak in through the side door,’ said Rosemary.

It was easier said than done to persuade the creatures to go into the shed. When they tried to shoo them in, they stood stock still, muttering suspiciously.

‘It’s no good,’ said John. ‘It’s you they always follow: you’ll have to go in first, then nip out quickly when they are all inside and I’ll slam the door behind you.’

It took quite a lot of courage for Rosemary to walk into the dark shed with the Scrabbles twittering round her feet. She could not see them clearly, but she could feel them tickling her ankles as they jostled their way in beside her. When a quick glance over her shoulder showed that the last one was through the opening, before they realized what she was doing, she turned, and with a flying leap escaped from the shed. Instantly John slammed the door behind her. Rosemary leaned against it with a sigh of relief.

‘Good old Rosie!’ said John.

‘But I feel such apig!’ said Rosemary. ‘Tricking them like that when they were trusting us. Listen! They’re squeaking so unhappily. Will they be all right? Do you think they’re hungry?’

‘Goodness knows,’ said John. ‘But what on earth do Scrabbles eat?’

‘We found a hedgehog once in the garden at home, and we fed it on bread and milk,’ said Rosemary doubtfully. ‘We might try that.’

‘All right, but we’ll have to wait till after supper. I expect they’ll have calmed down a bit by then. We’d better have a good tidy up first. We’re pretty muddy from that ditch.’

‘I’ve been thinking all the way home,’ said Rosemary, as they washed their hands. ‘I think I know how it happened. The Scrabbles I mean. …’

‘Well, go on, clever!’ said John.

‘Do you remember when we pulled the purple cracker at the bus stop?’ said Rosemary. ‘I was wearing the Golden Gew-Gaw, and when I said “I wish I could fly”, I did a little way, but then I came down, smack.’

‘So what?’ said John.

‘I was wearing it again when we had that silly row about the cat’s eyes, and when I said “I wish they’d come alive”, they did. I think it’s a wishing ring.’

‘I say, fancy you thinking all that out!’ said John, and the respect with which he said it made up for the number of times he had made her shut up. ‘But wait a minute. You hadn’t got the ring when we were scrapping. It was in my tin for Special Things.’

Rosemary shook her head.‘That’s just where you’re wrong. We took it out of the box so that we could talk to Calidor, and I must have put it in my pocket afterwards, and when I shoved my hands in too, because they were cold, I must have slipped it on without thinking. I remember taking it off on the way home with theScrabbles.’

John gave a slow, breathy whistle. Then he said:‘But look here! If it’s a wishing ring as well as letting us hear cats talk, all we’ve got to do is to wish the Scrabbles back in their holes again. Where is it now?’

‘In my bedroom, in my coat pocket.’

‘Then what are we waiting for?’ said John.

Together they stampeded up the stairs. Rosemary didn’t wait to switch the bedroom light on, but rushed to the peg on which her coat was hanging, and after some frantic fumbling in the wrong pockets she found it at last. Standing very straight and stiff, with the Golden Gew-Gaw on her upraised finger, in a solemn voice she said: ‘I wish to goodness the Scrabbles were back in their holes again.’ Then feeling she had perhaps not been very polite she added under her breath: ‘Yours sincerely, Rosemary Brown.’

For a moment they stood very still.

‘The stone in the ring,’ said John. ‘It gave a sort of wink!’ But Rosemary had switched on the light. Its hard, white glare banished the shadows, and shone in every corner of the room.

‘Carbonel was right. The ring is dangerous. Do you think we ought to put it in the dustbin, or bury it or something?’

‘If we did we couldn’t hear Carbonel or Calidor talking. Here, stick it back in the tin, and we must be very careful not to take it out unless we specially want to hear them.’ He snapped the lid firmly down on the Gew-Gaw as he spoke.

‘I do wish Carbonel would come so that we can tell him everything that’s happened.’

‘But we promised Miss Dibdin we wouldn’t tell a human soul,’ said John.

‘Carbonel isn’t human. He’s a cat,’ said Rosemary.

John grinned.‘You aren’t as stupid as you look!’ he said. But by the friendly way he tweaked her hair, she knew he was paying her a compliment.

‘You don’t think something has happened to him, do you?’ said Rosemary. ‘Carbonel I mean?’

‘Something’ll happen to us if we don’t go down to supper!’

On their way downstairs they met Mrs Bodkin.‘Where have you been all this time?’ she said. ‘I didn’t hear you come in. All that smarmed-down hair! It isn’t natural,’ she added suspiciously.

‘Oh, we’ve been in for ages,’ said John airily. ‘Getting cleaned up for supper.’

‘Lucky for you supper’s late. Mr Sprules, him that keeps the second-hand book shop in Broomhurst, called, and he’s staying on.’

Mr Sprules was a large, bald, friendly man, and both John and Rosemary were glad of his presence over supper, because they had so much to think about. They sat in silent thought, munching their food, barely aware of Mr Sprules’s boom and Uncle Zack’s lighter voice answering one another; their talk bouncing backwards and forwards across the table, like a ball in a game of tennis. But they both looked up sharply from their plates when they heard the words ‘cat’s eyes’.

‘A funny thing,’ Mr Sprules was saying. ‘Some silly young vandals have dug up the studs on the stretch of road beyond the railway bridge, down Sheepshank Lane. They were talking about it at the tobacconist’s when I looked in on my way here.’

Rosemary sat up with a jerk. Her face was red, and her eyes wide.‘It might not have been “stupid vandals”,’ she said indignantly. ‘And — how do the tobacconist people know about it so soon? It was only …’

But at this point, John, who was unable to nudge her in the ribs this time, because of the width of the Cromwellian table, broke into a prolonged, rather artificial cough.

‘Have some water, my boy,’ said Uncle Zack. ‘You’d be surprised how soon news gets round in a village.’ He looked thoughtfully from John to Rosemary. ‘You’re unusually quiet, you two! Sure you’re all right?’ Reassured by their nods he went on: ‘How did you get on this afternoon?They’ve been delivering leaflets for me, for the Sale on Saturday,’ he explained to Mr Sprules.

‘Except for Tucket Towers, we went everywhere, I think,’ said John. ‘It was getting rather late, so we thought we’d better leave that till tomorrow.’

‘Well done!’ said Uncle Zack. ‘I’m very grateful to you both. I’m afraid I have left the leaflets rather late.’

‘Don’t forget I said I’d come and lend a hand at the Sale,’ said Mr Sprules.

‘Very good of you, my dear chap,’ said Uncle Zack.

‘Talking of Tucket Towers,’ went on Mr Sprules, ‘Mrs Witherspoon came into my shop the other day and bought a couple of battered old books from the bargain tray and asked my young assistant to take them out to her tricycle. Very high and mighty she was!’

‘She is a strange old thing,’ said Uncle Zack. ‘Lives in that great house all alone, and dresses up for dinner every night, they say, although it’s probably nothing but baked beans on toast. The house used to be full of really lovely stuff, furniture and old silver, but she’s sold it now,I believe. I dare say she’ll come to the Sale, buy an old cracked plate, and eat an enormous tea!’

‘You’ve never provided refreshments before?’ said Mr Sprules.

‘It has never been so important for me to sell things before,’ said Uncle Zack ruefully. ‘I wish I had a better head for figures. I had another very disturbing letter this morning. I’m afraid I shall have to sell nearly all my favourite things.’

‘Not your special treasures?’ said Rosemary. Uncle Zack nodded.

‘It was Mrs Bodkin’s idea about refreshments. She said it would make people in a better mood to buy things, with a cup of hot tea inside them and a couple of her macaroon biscuits.’

‘A very sensible woman!’ said Mr Sprules.

‘Oh well, let’s talk about something more cheerful,’ said Uncle Zack. ‘I tell you what! How about a game of Heads-Bodies-and-Tails or something, after supper? Could you face it, Sprules?’

‘There’s nothing I’d like better!’

Next morning, when Mrs Bodkin brought in the scrambled eggs for breakfast, she was breathing rather heavily and her usually neat hair straggled over her forehead.

‘Why, Mrs Bodkin!’ said Uncle Zack. ‘Is anything the matter? You look upset.’

‘I’ve had a nasty turn,’ said Mrs Bodkin, with a hand on the heaving bib of her apron. ‘I would never have believed it! I can’t abide rats. Never could from a child.’

‘Rats?’ said Uncle Zack. ‘I’m glad to say we’ve never been troubled with them in this house.’

‘Not in the house,’ said Mrs Bodkin. ‘That shed at the bottom of the garden!’ John and Rosemary exchanged anxious glances. ‘I went down there before getting breakfast, to see if that big old enamel bowl was there — for the biscuit mixture for the Sale. As soon as I opened the door they came pouring out. Hundreds of them! They nearly knocked me over. They went streaming up the garden in a sort of huddle. The queerest-looking rats you ever saw! Square they were, with great shining eyes, and not a tail amongst ’em. And squeaking! You never heard the like!’

‘How extraordinary!’ said Uncle Zack. ‘What did you do?’

‘I came over quite queer,’ replied Mrs Bodkin. ‘So I sat down on that broken old wheelbarrow, till I felt a bit better.’

‘I’m very sorry you’ve had such a shock,’ said Uncle Zack. ‘Perhaps you’d better go and lie down for a little.’ Then he turned to John and Rosemary. ‘Come on, you youngsters. We’d better go and look into this straight away.’

And leaving Mrs Bodkin protesting at the untouched scrambled egg cooling on their plates, they hurried away down the garden.

The door of the shed was open, and swinging on its hinges. John and Rosemary, their curiosity overcoming their reluctance, followed close behind as Uncle Zack stooped to go inside. They looked anxiously round in silence while he poked into every corner, behind piles of empty flower-pots and rusty garden tools.

‘Not a trace of a rat or a rat-hole,’ he said at last.

Nor a Scrabble either! thought both John and Rosemary. They grinned at each other with relief.

‘Curious,’ went on Uncle Zack. ‘Mrs Bodkin is a sensible woman. She can’t have imagined it; though she may have exaggerated the number of them, of course. “Squarish and not a tail between them”?’ He laughed. ‘A new kind of rat, perhaps? Sprules will be interested when I tell him.’

‘Then we can’t have unwished the Scrabbles after all,’ said John gloomily, when they had finished their breakfast of stone-cold scrambled egg and leathery toast, and Uncle Zack had gone off to the little room he called his office. ‘If it is a wishing ring, why didn’t it work this time?’

‘P’raps I didn’t do the wishing properly,’ said Rosemary. ‘Or more likely it won’t unwish its own wishes.’

‘Well, let’s hope when Mother Boddles saw them scuttle off up the garden they were making for their holes,’ said John, with more confidence than he really felt. They went and hung over the gate in front of the house and looked up and down the road. There was nothing to be seen of the Scrabbles. ‘What are you staring at?’ said John.

‘I was watching that little cat limping along on the other side of the road,’ said Rosemary.

9. Dumpsie

ROSEMARY crossed to where, in the shadow of the hedge opposite, a small, draggled-looking tabby cat, not much bigger than a kitten, was stumbling on three paws over the rough grass. The fourth paw it seemed unable to put to the ground. It shrank back when she came near and, with flattened ears, spat halfheartedly, as she bent over it.

‘It’s all right, Puss,’ said Rosemary gently. ‘I’m not going to hurt you.’ She knelt on the grass, and with two careful fingers stroked the silky top of its head. ‘It looks as if its paw is cut quite badly,’ she went on to John, who had joined her. ‘I wonder how it happened? Let’s get out the Golden Gew-Gaw and find out.’ Under her stroking fingers Rosemary felt the little animal’s tense body begin to relax.

‘Where do you come from, Puss?’ she asked, when she and John had both crooked little fingers through the ring.

‘We’re Hearing Humans,’ added John, ‘so you can tell us.’

‘I don’t care a whisker who you be!’ said the cat, looking up at them suspiciously. ‘I’m not telling nothing. Neither where nor why, because there’s some in high places trusts me not to. Trouble brewing, there is.Bad trouble, where I come from. Mind you, I’m not telling what, neither.’

‘Can’t you even tell us how you hurt your paw?’

‘Ah, that’s different,’ said the cat. ‘Boys that was. Threw a stone at me. Them Fallowhithe lads …’ She broke off, and went on sulkily: ‘There, I’ve gone and told you “where”, and I didn’t mean to.’

‘Do you mean you’ve come all the way from Fallowhithe?’ said Rosemary. ‘That’s miles!’

‘Since the edge of last night I’ve been padding it. But with only three paws it’s hard going.’

‘Won’t you tell us who you are?’ asked John.

‘Me?’ replied the cat. ‘I’m a nobody, I am. That’s why I sez to myself, no one won’t notice the likes of me searching here and seeking there.’

‘What are you seeking and searching for?’ asked John.

‘That ‘ld be telling!’ said the little cat. ‘But I’ll go so far as to say it’s for who, not what.’ A small pink tongue flicked out for a moment. The cat gave a little moan. ‘What wouldn’t I give for so much as a dribble of milk!’

‘Look here,’ said Rosemary, turning to John. ‘Couldn’t we carry the poor thing indoors and bathe its paw?’

‘Just what I was thinking,’ he said. ‘And give it some milk. Come on!’

‘Here, wait a minute! Suppose I don’t want to come?’ said the little animal, shrinking back even further into the hedge. ‘Where might “indoors” be, I should like to know?’

‘Why here. Uncle Zack’s house, at Highdown.’

‘Highdown?’ said the little cat, with a sudden lift of her drooping head. ‘Then I’m in luck. For that’s where the seeking and searching really has to begin!’

‘Come on then,’ said John. ‘We’d better ask if we can keep her.’

Uncle Zack was busy in his office. He looked up absently for a moment from the papers that littered his desk, and waved distractedly at the one on which he seemed to be working. It was covered with figures, and almost as many doodles.

‘A cat?’ he said absently. ‘Yes, of course, of course. Might help with those rats. What is 425 divided by nineteen?’ Luckily he did not seem to expect an answer.

Mrs Bodkin, on the other hand, frowned rather fiercely.

‘A cat? Well, I don’t know! As if I hadn’t enough to do, what with you two, and the things to make for the Sale and …’ She broke off: ‘My goodness me, that’s a nasty cut on its paw! Poor little thing! Well, what are you waiting for? Go and get the First Aid Box. It’s in the cupboardin the bathroom, and there’s some milk in a jug on the kitchen table.’

So that was all right.

Presently, bathed, bandaged and fed, with an empty milk saucer alongside, the little cat sat and washed itself by the sitting-room fire. Only then did John and Rosemary realize what a pretty creature it was, with shining tabby coat, snow-white stockings and wide white ruff.

‘It’s awfully difficult to talk to someone when you don’t know what to call them,’ said John.

‘You are a “she” anyway, aren’t you?’ asked Rosemary.

The cat looked up from licking a hind leg.‘Ah, a she I be, right enough. And you’ve been that kind I don’t mind telling you my mammy calls me Wellingtonia.’

‘What a grand name!’ said Rosemary.

‘Not really. Born and bred in a Wellington boot I was, that’s why. Wellingtonia for best, but Dumpsie for ordinary, because the boot was on Fallowhithe Rubbish Dump. There’s some as turns up their grand noses at anywhere so low, but snug and warm it was, and handy for haddock heads, and the licking of sardine tins and such.’

‘Dumpsie,’ said Rosemary thoughtfully. ‘Where have I heard that name …?’ But John interrupted.

‘Of course, I remember! This seeking and searching,’ he said to Dumpsie. ‘It wouldn’t be for a cat called Calidor?’

She lifted a startled face.‘Ssh!’ she said, looking nervously over her shoulder. ‘Don’t you go for to call him by that name! Crumpet he’s called in these parts. He toldme all about it, but he didn’t say a word to anyone else. How in the world do the likes of you know who he really is, when he was so set on it being a secret?’

‘We know because we talked to him only yesterday,’ said John.

‘NowI remember,’ said Rosemary. ‘He told us that his dear little Dumpsie was the only cat he could ever marry!’

‘And there can’t be two cats with such a sil … I mean, unusual name,’ went on John. (Rosemary’s nudge had been nearly too late, but Dumpsie did not seem to have noticed.)

‘Did he really say that?’ she said softly, and she lifted her chin and purred such a purr as John and Rosemary had never heard before; but not for long. She stopped abruptly, and rose unsteadily on her three sound paws.

‘And while I’ve been guzzling and gossiping here the bad trouble may be getting worse. I must go. Where can I find him as calls himself Crumpet?’

Rosemary looked at John.‘Couldn’t we take her to the station on our way to Tucket Towers? We must get on and do it. That’s if you’d like that, Dumpsie?’

‘That I would! You can carry me there just as soon as your great clumping feet can take you. Must be awkward, only having two paws apiece to walk on.’

They met Mrs Bodkin as they were about to set out.

‘Going for a walk?’ she said. ‘You’d better wear your macs and gum-boots. It poured in the night, and it looks like rain again.’

They hurried off, taking it in turns to carry Dumpsie, and rather uncomfortably linked together by the magic ring, so that they could listen to the little cat’s stories of life on the Dump, where there never seemed to be a dull moment. They were halfway down Sheepshank Lane when Rosemary said: ‘Half a minute. I’ve got a stone in my shoe.’

She slipped her finger from the Golden Gew-Gaw, and sat down on the grass by the side of the road, while she wrestled with the knot in her shoe-lace. John sat down beside her, and Dumpsie wandered towards the hedge.

‘What are you looking like that for?’ said Rosemary when, the stone removed, she had tied up her shoe-lace again. Both John and Dumpsie were leaning towards the hedge with a listening expression on their faces. ‘I can’t hear anything.’

‘Ssh! Of course you can’t,’ whispered John. ‘Cats! Talking! The other side of the hedge.’ And at the same time he held out his hand so that Rosemary could slip her finger through the golden band of the magic ring. And at once she heard a high-and-mighty cat voice say in surprise:

‘Calidor! Here alone in Broomhurst country?’ And although it was a purring voice, it had a cold and cruel undertone. ‘My faithful Mattins!’ John and Rosemary exchanged glances. ‘This Calidor, who refuses to marry my daughter, has the impertinence to wander into my country as though it belongs to him! What do you think of that, my darling child?’

‘Grisana! It must be!’ whispered John, and Dumpsie nodded.

‘What do I think, Mama?’ drawled a second voice. ‘Calidor is nothing to me. I was resigned to becoming his wife only because our two united countries would have made a single kingdom worth my ruling later on.’

‘Dear child, always so ambitious!’ purred Grisana.

‘Of course, I should see to it that Fallowhithe cats would be taught their place. Best fish bits for Broomhurst beasts, and so on.’

‘Always thinking of other people!’ said Grisana, but the purr left her voice when she went on: ‘All the same, think of the insult to the Royal house of Castrum, when the marriage was planned so long ago. It must be avenged!’

‘Of course, I never bear a grudge,’ replied the second voice, ‘but perhaps he should be … well … punished!’ And the lingering hiss with which it said ‘punished’ made Dumpsie’s fur bristle.

‘That must be Melissa. The one Crumpet called Slypaws,’ whispered Rosemary.

‘Never fear, my child,’ went on Grisana. ‘For his own good, of course, he shall be well and truly … scrodged!’ Here her voice sank to a yowling spit.

‘He has run away from Fallowhithe to become a common witch’s cat, you say, Mattins? Wretched animal! But not so wretched as he will be whenwe have finished with him! But I am glad to hear that you, at least, have seen the error of your ways, and have decided to give up such an unworthy trade.’

‘My witch doesn’t want me any more,’ said Mattins sulkily. ‘Says she’s found another cat she thinks will look better on her broomstick than I should. Not that I’ve seen him, mind you. She says she’ll find me a few odd jobs to do instead. Me, doing odd jobs instead of magic! Grow … ouch!’ he spat.

‘How very humbling for you,’ said Grisana sweetly. ‘So unreliable, witches! But do not leave your witch woman, for my sake. You may overhear something quite useful. Pretend to oblige her. Come, Melissa! We must go. And remember, my good Mattins, I should like to hear more about this cat who is to take your place. You shall be rewarded for what you have told us today.’ The voices faded as the three cats moved away.

‘That beastly sneaking Mattins!’ burst out John. ‘He must have been listening to every word when Calidor was talking to us yesterday at the station. No wonder he ran off when we called to him.’

‘But I thought he was Calidor’s friend?’ said Rosemary.

‘Well, he doesn’t seem to be now,’ said John shortly. ‘We must warn him!’

‘And about Grisana too,’ said Rosemary. ‘Come on. We must hurry. Hi! Dumpsie, wait for us!’

The little cat was already limping ahead as fast as her three paws could carry her.

‘Oh, make haste! Make haste! Calidor is in danger!’

John scooped her up from the road, and together they all three hurried towards the station.

‘I wish to goodness Carbonel was here,’ said Rosemary. ‘I wonder why he doesn’t come? I’m sure he’d know what to do about Calidor and Grisana.’

‘And the Golden Gew-Gaw. I don’t trust that ring,’ said John. ‘We still don’t know what has happened to the Scrabbles.’

‘I wonder if the instructions really were in the purple cracker, and we just didn’t find them,’ went on Rosemary.

‘It’s possible …’ John, who was carrying Dumpsie, broke off. ‘Ow! That hurt. You scratched me!’

‘I know. I meant to,’ said Dumpsie coolly. ‘Because you won’t listen. Just go on yammer, yammer, you do. I’ve been trying to tell you. Carbonel has disappeared! Gone! And nobody don’t know where he be. That’s what I’ve come all the way from Fallowhithe to tell Calidor.’

10. Where is Carbonel?

WHEN they reached the hole in the hedge, John and Rosemary slowed down.

‘After all, we’ve got as much right as Miss Dibdin to be in the station, though I suppose I’d better not go into the Ladies’ Waiting Room again,’ said John.

‘That’s Miss Dibdin’s special place,’ Rosemary explained to Dumpsie. ‘She’s Cal … I mean Crumpet’s witch. I don’t think she likes us much, specially John. Let’s hope she isn’t there.’

‘S’pose I go first and find out?’ said Dumpsie. ‘She won’t mind the likes of me. I’ll give one yowl if there’s no one there, and two if there is. Just you wait round the corner.’

She limped out of sight, and John and Rosemary waited… and waited. But there was not so much as a mew from Dumpsie.

‘Come on,’ said John at last. ‘We’d better go and see what’s happening.’

They tiptoed cautiously up on to the platform. It all seemed much the same as before, except for a large pile of what looked like firewood, stacked by the door to the booking office. There was no sign of Miss Dibdin. Dumpsie and Calidor were sitting side by side on the battered station bench. Their two tails were intertwined, and they were gazing at one another with unblinking eyes. Dumpsie was making little croodling noises in her throat, and round the gentle sound Calidor wove a mighty purr.‘As though they were singing a part-song together,’ as John said afterwards.

‘She’s forgotten all about us!’ said Rosemary.

At the sound of her voice the two cats stopped singing abruptly, and turned quickly round.

‘Welcome, Hearing Humans!’ said Crumpet. ‘I am more grateful than I can say for your kindness to my friend Dumpsie. So Grisana and Slypaws are on the war-path? You began explaining some further cause for alarm,’ he turned towards Dumpsie, ‘when we broke off on to … well, more, personalmatters. And I hear that Mattins — may his whiskers wilt! — has turned traitor!’

‘But there’s worse to tell,’ broke in Dumpsie. ‘That’s what I came all the way from Fallowhithe for. King Carbonel has disappeared! No one knows where.’

‘My father disappeared!’ said Crumpet in astonishment.

‘I thought you ought to know,’ went on Dumpsie. ‘And me being the only one as knowed where you were … well, here I be … Oh, I told no one else, trust me!’

‘And she came all that long way with a wounded paw!’ added Rosemary.

‘I hope I done right?’ said Dumpsie, looking anxiously at Crumpet.

‘Of course,’ he said gravely. ‘You are as brave as you are beautiful, my dear.’ She looked down modestly at her paws, and then went on:

‘Such a scurrying and hurrying there is, all over Fallowhithe, in search of His Majesty. Such mewking and miaowing in corners and on rooftops! Them alley cats is getting out of hand, as you’d expect. Roving around the rooftops at night singing rude songs. Queen Blandamour is at her wits’ end to know what’s to do for the best.’

‘My poor mama,’ said Crumpet soberly. ‘The alley cats are good enough creatures, but a bit wild. When did my father disappear?’

‘Three days after you left for Highdown,’ said Dumpsie.

‘That’s funny,’ said John. ‘When we talked to him at Rosie’s house, he said he could spend no more time away searching for you, and that he must get back to affairs of state.’

Calidor jumped down from the seat. He stood with head up and tail erect.

‘This matter is serious,’ he said crisply, and there was no mistaking that it was Calidor, the royal son of Carbonel, who was speaking; no longer Crumpet, the witch’s cat.

‘I must return to Fallowhithe immediately and take matters in hand. Dumpsie, you will stay here with the Hearing Humans, until your paw is healed. I must make all the haste I can, and you could not keep up with me.’

‘But whatever has happened to Carbonel?’ said Rosemary. ‘We thought it was queer when he didn’t turn up at Highdown when he said he would.’

‘He said that, did he?’ went on Calidor. ‘Then I shall search in Fallowhithe, and you will keep your eyes and ears open here. I shall depend on you.’

‘Yes, but wait a minute …’ began John. Calidor held up a restraining paw.

‘In the meantime, look out for Grisana and Slypaws Melissa! Guard against the traitor Mattins, and keep a watch on the goings-on at Tucket Towers.’

‘That’s all very well!’ began John again.

‘I have no time to discuss things further,’ broke in Calidor impatiently. ‘I have a long way to go. Goodbye. I shall come back.’ And with a flick of his tail he turned and hurried away down the platform.

‘Well, of all the cheek!’ said John angrily. ‘Exactly like Carbonel again, ordering us about. Do this! Do that!’

‘Well, I think he’s rather splendid,’ said Rosemary. ‘After all, he’s doing exactly what Carbonel wanted him to, without any fussing from us. You ought to be pleased. I’m sure he’s done the right thing. What do you think, Dumpsie?’

The little cat was not listening. She was gazing at the spot where Calidor had turned the corner out of sight, making the same little croodling noise, and kneading the hard boards of the platform with her front paws.

‘Eh? What’s that?’ she said, suddenly coming to. ‘Of course Calidor is right!’

‘Well, come on, Rosie,’ said John. ‘We must get going, and leave that leaflet at Tucket Towers. Hallo, it’s raining again.’

‘Then you’d best leave me behind here under the shelter,’ said Dumpsie. ‘You can’t dodge the raindrops on three paws, and I don’t like to get my whiskers wet.’

‘But suppose Miss Dibdin comes back and finds you here?’ said Rosemary.

‘It’s easy for the likes of me to hide,’ said Dumpsie. ‘She won’t see me.’

‘If you’re sure,’ said Rosemary uncertainly.

‘We should be much quicker on our own, without wearing the ring between us,’ went on John. ‘We’re late as it is. We’ll pick you up on the way back.’

‘All right,’ said Rosemary. ‘But keep on the lookout for us, Dumpsie. We don’t want to meet Miss Dibdin again if we can help it. And do take care.’

As they hurried down the road Rosemary said:‘I’d almost forgotten about the Scrabbles. We’ve got to see if they have gone back to their holes.’

On reaching the spot where the cat’s eye studs should have started they stopped dead. The small square holes were still empty.

‘Well, that proves it. The unwishing didn’t work, and the Scrabbles must still be somewhere about,’ said John, as he poked a stick down one of the holes to make quite sure.

‘But if they aren’t here, wherever can they be?’ said Rosemary, looking uneasily over her shoulder.

‘It’s no good asking me,’ said John. ‘But if they’ve taken themselves off, it’s their lookout, not ours.’

‘I suppose so,’ Rosemary agreed doubtfully.

‘And what’s more,’ went on John, ‘we fussed enough yesterday because we couldn’t get rid of them, so I’m blowed if I’m going to get fussed today because they’ve gone! Bother the Scrabbles! Race you to the drive of Tucket Towers.’

11.‘May The Best Witch Win!’

‘SUPPOSE we meet Miss Dibdin?’ said Rosemary, as they walked up the long weedy drive, which was dark with overhanging trees and jostling rhododendron bushes.

‘Even if we do, she can’t stop us shoving the leaflet in the letterbox and coming away again,’ said John.

Presently they emerged from the gloom of the drive, on to what had once been a wide carriage sweep in front of the steps leading to the front door.

‘I say, what a grand house!’ said Rosemary, standing still to admire it. ‘All those rows of windows, and the tower, and the up-and-down edge to the roof. Just like a castle!’

‘It really was grand once, Uncle Zack says; but most of it’s shut up now.’

‘I suppose that’s why the curtains are drawn in nearly all the windows. It makes it look … sort of blind and sad. Look, there’s Mrs Witherspoon’s tricycle!’

It stood at the bottom of the flight of steps. They walked across the carriage sweep to look at it, rather wishing their feet didn’t scrunch so loudly on the gravel.

‘Gosh!’ said John. ‘Do you see what’s sitting in the basket on the handlebars? A great warty toad!’

They peered at it in astonishment, and the toad, squat and unmoving, stared back with unblinking yellow eyes.

‘I suppose it is alive?’ said Rosemary. ‘It’s so still it might be stuffed.’

‘Must be alive. Look at that pulse thing beating in its throat,’ said John. And as if to prove it, the creature’s long tongue suddenly whipped out and caught an unwary fly that had settled on the edge of the basket.

‘Ugh! What a horrid-looking creature!’ said Rosemary. ‘Not my idea of a cosy sort of pet. Come on, let’s get rid of the leaflets and go home.’

When they reached the front door, which was large and heavy, and studded with nails, they found it was not quite closed, and the sound of arguing voices could be heard on the other side.

‘I keep telling you, Dulcie,’ said a voice they recognized as Miss Dibdin’s. ‘Itmust be black. Agrey cat won’t do. You can’t use Mattins. Unless you keep to the rules, nothing will work properly.’

‘My dear Dorothy,’ replied a high commanding voice. ‘I no longer need your advice. I told you. Yesterday I discovered a treasure in Sprules’s book shop in Broomhurst, in the bargain tray. Half the cover is missing, and unfortunately some of the pages, but even so it will teach me far more than you are ever likely to know. What with Gullion sitting on my pillow every night. …’

‘You mean to say you let that horrid toad sleep on your pillow?’ interrupted Miss Dibdin.

‘My precious Gullion, horrid? Rubbish! He is invaluable. All night long he whispers delicious wicked schemes in my ear. I can hear them in my dreams. As for Mattins, I dare say I shall use him to run a few simple errands now and then, but I have discovered the perfect cat. Black as ebony, and with dignity that would do credit to any broomstick turn-out!’

‘I’m sure I’m glad to hear it,’ said Miss Dibdin coldly, in the sort of voice that showed she was not really glad at all. ‘And where is this precious perfect animal, I should like to know? I haven’t seen him about the house.’

‘Well, there I must admit I am in a small difficulty. The ungrateful creature says that nothing will make it become a witch’s cat. On Gullion’s advice I have shut it up until it comes to its senses, and I keep the key of its prison on a string round my neck.’

‘You’ll need eyes back and front, to keep a cat prisoner that means to escape,’ said Miss Dibdin.

‘I might even manage that,’ said Mrs Witherspoon, and she laughed harshly. ‘At least, I have set a day-and-night guard over it who might have been made for the job. I met them wandering about in Sheepshank Lane. He won’t escape! And if the cat persists in disobliging me, Gullion has suggested a number of ways to … shall we say …persuade it; such as plaiting its whiskers, which are remarkably fine.’

‘But how will you know when it has come to its senses?’ asked Miss Dibdin.

‘Ah ha!’ said Mrs Witherspoon triumphantly. ‘It so happens that I have succeeded in making a magic by which I can hold a conversation with any cat I choose.’ There was a gasp from Miss Dibdin, but Mrs Witherspoon swept on. ‘The instructions were in the book. A special purple brew it was, chanting the right words while you mix it — in rhyme, of course.’

By this time John and Rosemary had quite forgotten that they had no business to be listening, and had pushed the door open wide enough to peer inside. It opened on to a large hall, which was high and raftered, with a number of doors leading from it, each with a pair of stag’s antlers above it. A wide staircase mounted to a gallery at the far end.

‘Dulcie, dear!’ pleaded Miss Dibdin in a wheedling voice. ‘Couldn’t you spare me a teeny weeny drop of the mixture for hearing cats? Just enough for one ear perhaps?’

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‘Certainly not,’ said Mrs Witherspoon coldly. ‘Anyway it boiled over. There’s none left. Perhaps I should have brewed it in something bigger than the egg saucepan. You chose to experiment in secret in the Ladies’ Waiting Room at the station. Well, Gullion and I shall experiment in secret at Tucket Towers; and may the best witch win!’

‘Very well,’ said Miss Dibdin angrily. ‘When my parcel comes …’

‘You and your parcel! I don’t believe the silly thing exists!’

Miss Dibdin drew herself up.‘Well, there is something that evenI have managed to do. I don’t think I can have got the proportionsquite right, or else I stirred it in the wrong direction, so that the result is not quite perfect, but it nearly works. How do you think I came from the station just now?’

‘Walked by the field path as usual, I suppose,’ said Mrs Witherspoon impatiently.

‘That’s just where you’re wrong!’ said Miss Dibdin triumphantly. ‘I came by broom!’

‘You mean you flew by broomstick?’ Mrs Witherspoon laughed scornfully. ‘I shall believe that when I see it!’

‘Very well, you shall see it!’ said Miss Dibdin defiantly.

She strutted to the umbrella stand. In it, beside a very baggy old umbrella, was the broom they had seen in the station waiting room. She straddled the handle. Then, with her head held high, she cried in a shrill, singsong voice:‘To the Ladies’ Waiting Room. Kindly take me, faithful broom!’

For a moment nothing happened, then the broom gave a quiver, and very slowly rose from the floor. When it reached a height of about three feet it lurched sharply down again, and bumped on the ground with such force that she nearly fell off; then up it rose again, rising and falling, gaining no more height but gathering speed. Up and down, up and down it flew towards the door, in a series of hops— Miss Dibdin, hair coming down, tall black hat crooked and legs straight in front of her, laughing triumphantly. As the broom headed for the hall door John and Rosemary pushed it wide open, just in time for it to sweep through. As they watched it plummet down the steps, pick itself up and bouncetowards the drive, they heard the sound of striding footsteps crossing the hall, and hurriedly flattened themselves against the outside wall, on either side of the door. Mrs Witherspoon, as many old people do who live by themselves, was talking aloud to herself.

‘Just what I should expect,’ she said with a sniff. ‘She’s muddled her magic!’

All three watched Miss Dibdin’s strange progress down the drive; the broom sending up a small bow wave of gravel every time it swished along the ground, until it disappeared among the shadows of the trees, and Miss Dibdin’s wild laughter faded into silence. The last thing they heard was her distant voice calling shrilly: ‘May the best witch win!’ Then there was silence.

‘Well,’ said Mrs Witherspoon. ‘This is the last time I let lodgings! I shall certainly give her notice to leave!’ She slammed the door, and there was the grinding, grating sound of the turning of a key in a rusty lock.

For a few moments John and Rosemary stood pressed against the wall, not daring to move, then John whispered:‘I don’t think she saw us.’

‘Thank goodness!’ said Rosemary. ‘Let’s stick the leaflet in the letterbox and run!’

And that is exactly what they did. But as they slowed down before reaching the gate, John suddenly stopped dead.

‘I say, I’ve suddenly thought of something. Do you think that cat Mrs Witherspoon has made a prisoner could possibly be Carbonel? She said it was “black as ebony” …’

‘And would do credit to any broomstick turn-out …’ went on Rosemary. ‘With exceptionally fine whiskers.’

‘That describes him exactly!’

‘And explains why he hasn’t shown up as he said he would.’

‘John, how awful!’ said Rosemary. ‘What are we to do?’

‘First we’d better make quite sure it reallyis Carbonel, and find out where he is hidden. But we’ve got to pick up Dumpsie from the station, then let’s go home and think like mad.’

But when they reached Roundels at last they had something else to think about.

12. Light As Air

THERE was no sign of Miss Dibdin on the platform of the station when John and Rosemary peered cautiously round the corner. Dumpsie was sitting on the bench, licking her already spotless shirt front.

‘Quick!’ whispered Rosemary. ‘Let’s put the ring on!’

‘Hi, Dumpsie,’ hissed John when they had both slipped a finger through the golden band. ‘Is she inside?’

‘It’s all right,’ said the little cat. ‘I’m all alone. The witch woman has gone hopping over the fields on her broom to look for some plants she wants, to add to a special strong spell she’s got on the boil. I heard her mumbling to herself about it.’

‘I wonder what she’s up to?’ said John. ‘Let’s have a quick peek into her precious Ladies’ Waiting Room. We can open the door and just look.’

But the door was locked.

‘And we can’t look through the window because it’s made of frosted glass,’ said Rosemary. ‘What about pushing the bench underneath? If we stood on it, we might just be able to reach that strip of plain glass at the top.’

‘Stand on that old thing? It’d fall to bits if we so much as looked at it,’ said John. ‘Tell you what. If you made a back, so that I could stand on it, I think I could just reach the plain bit.’

‘What aboutyou making a back andme standing on it?’ said Rosemary, with some warmth.

‘No good. I’m taller than you.’

Grumbling under her breath, Rosemary bent over with her hands on her knees. John slipped off his Wellington boots, and climbed up on to her back, steadying himself with hands outstretched against the frosted glass.

‘What can you see?’ said Rosemary.

‘Not much. The fire is burning quite brightly, and the red fire-bucket is balanced on it, with masses of steam billowing out. That’s funny, the steam isgreen! I’ve never seen coloured steam before. What with the steam and the dirty window it’s hard to see anything. Wait a sec, and I’ll see if I can clean it up a bit.’

He breathed hard on the glass and rubbed it vigorously with his sleeve.

‘Look out!’ said Rosemary in a muffled voice. ‘Don’t wriggle and jiggle like that, it makes you twice as heavy!’

‘Sorry!’ said John. ‘I bet Miss Dibdin’s up to something. I wish I could see inside more clearly. It needs a bit of light and air. Green steam’s a warning. Crumbs! I wonder …’ he began, but Rosemary interrupted.

Now, with her shoulders hunched, and hair and coat collar round her ears, she could not hear John plainly. Repeating what shethought he had said, she went on crossly:‘Light as air? I wish you were, till morning comes. You weigh ten tons! That’s better,’ she went on, because suddenly she no longer felt the pressure of John’s feet on her shoulders. She pushed aside the lock of hair a little breeze had blown across her face but when she looked round he wasnowhere to be seen.

‘John!’ she called anxiously. ‘John! Where are you?’

A distant voice above her head called out:‘Help! Help! I’m up here!’

She looked up. John was spread-eagled, arms outstretched, with his back against the glass roof of the platform.

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‘What are you doing up there? Don’t be so silly!’ said Rosemary crossly. ‘Come down!’

‘I’m not being silly, it’syou. Ican’t come down,’ said John, in an exasperated voice. ‘When you said you wished I was as light as air, I suddenly floated up here. I couldn’t stop myself. How on earth am I going to get down again?’

‘Try kicking with your feet,’ said Rosemary, trying desperately not to panic. ‘You know, like you do when you’re swimming.’

John kicked with his feet. There was a tinkle of broken glass, and Rosemary ducked as a shower of splinters pattered down, missing her by inches.

‘It’s no good,’ said John. ‘I bet it’s that ring again. Are you wearing it?’

Rosemary looked at her hands. The Golden Gew-Gaw was on her forefinger.

‘The beastly thing has done it again,’ said John gloomily. ‘And we know it won’t un-wish its own wishes. I can see its red stone winking from up here, almost as though it’s making fun of us. I daren’t move. If I break another pane of glass in the roof I might float out through the hole and goodness knows where I’d get to. There’s quite a wind. Can’t you hook me down with something?’

‘I’ll see what I can find,’ said Rosemary doubtfully. She looked about her. Sticking out from the bottom of the pile of firewood waiting to be broken up, was a long branch. ‘Hold on,’ she called to John. ‘I think I’ve found something that will do!’

She held it up with both hands directly below him.‘Bother, it isn’t long enough, but it might be if I stand on something. I shall have to climb on the seat. I can’t help it if it is rotten.’

‘Do be careful!’ called John. But Rosemary was already pushing the ramshackle bench into position. ‘Hurry!’ shouted John. ‘I can see over the fields to Tucket Towers. Miss Dibdin has just come out of the clump of trees, and I think she’s carrying the broom!’

Rosemary climbed on to the bench, holding the branch in one hand, and steadying herself with the other against the window of the waiting room. Using the slats of the back of the seat as a ladder, she mounted on to the wide band of wood at the top.

‘I can’t look … up!’ she panted. ‘The seat’s too near the wall … And I can’t … hold the branch up for long … it’s too heavy.’

‘And I just can’t reach it. Oh help!’ said John in a despairing voice. ‘Miss Dibdin has got on to her broom and she’s swooping up the field! Hold the branch a bit to the left, Rosie. No, the other way, and a bit higher!’

The branch was so heavy that Rosemary had great difficulty in controlling it at all, and in her agitation, forgetting she might lose her balance if she moved her hand from the window, she clutched the branch with both fists, and, making a desperate attempt to reach John, pushed it as high in the air as she possibly could.

‘Got it!’ cried John triumphantly. ‘Hooray! Now I’ll hold on tight while you pull me down!’

But the sudden thrust of Rosemary’s feet against the top of the bench when she made her final attempt to reach John had been too much for the rotten wood. Just as he spoke, there was a sharp crack, the bench gave a lurch, the back collapsed, and John, Rosemary, branch and broken bench fell in a heap on the platform.

‘Are you all right, John?’ asked Rosemary anxiously.

‘I think I am,’ said John in a muffled voice, for he was at the bottom of the pile.

Rosemary began to stand up, just as a little breeze wafted across the platform, and immediately, still lying down, John started to rise from the ground.‘Look out!’ he yelled. She was just in time to turn and clutch his flapping arm and pull him down again.

‘You’d better sit on me. That ought to keep me down to earth. You’ve no idea how beastly it was up there. Why did you have to go and wish anything so asinine as me being “light as air”?’

‘Well, you were so beastly heavy,’ said Rosemary, who was wondering which bruise to rub first. ‘Besides, you said it first.’

‘I didn’t say anything of the sort!’ said John crossly. ‘I said Miss Dibdin’s room needed “light and air”. What on earth am I to do? I can’t spend the rest of my life with someone sitting on me!’

‘You might find it useful for something. Get a job as an astronaut or something. They float about, don’t they?’

‘Oh, be your age, Rosie! That’s not because … Oh, don’t let’s waste time scrapping.’

Rosemary picked up the magic ring, which had fallen from her finger when she fell, and absently slipped it on again, and at once she heard Dumpsie say:‘Eeh, what a fedaddle! Real interesting it was, seeing you float up in the air, like a bit of burnt paper on the Rubbish Dump! But what a fuss you’re making, when it’s only going to last till morning.’

‘Till morning?’ exclaimed Rosemary. John struggled up to a half-sitting position as she held out her hand so that he could slip his finger through the ring as well.

Dumpsie had started licking her snow-white ruff as calmly as though nothing unusual had happened, but she paused in her licking to say:

‘Well, that’s whatshe sez,’ waving her bandaged paw at Rosemary. ‘Trust me. Best memory on the Dump. She sez:

“Light as air?

I wish you were

Till morning comes.

You weigh ten tons!” ’

‘A sort of rhyme,’ said Rosemary.

‘A pretty rotten rhyme!’ grumbled John.

‘Then all we’ve got to do is to find some way of keeping you down to earth till tomorrow morning!’ said Rosemary.

‘Well, that’s something, I suppose. But I can’t spend all night lying here with you sitting on top of me! Wait a minute, though. I’ve got an idea. You remember you said something about me being an astronaut? Well, you know how they wear great thick soles to their space suits? Well, if we could make my feet heavy …’

‘Of course!’ Rosemary broke in. ‘We could stuff your Wellingtons with sand and earth!’

‘And stones in my pockets!’

‘I’ll go and get some!’ she said, and jumped to her feet. John gave a warning shout. She whipped round. A sudden breeze had already wafted him shoulder high. She was just in time to pull him down again.

‘Phew! That was a near thing!’ said John. ‘You’d better pile the broken bits of seat on top of me, and any other old rubbish you can find.’

With a couple of brickends, two rusty iron wheels that might have once belonged to a porter’s truck, and a dented fire-bucket with a hole in it, balanced on top of him, as well as the broken seat, Rosemary felt he should be safe.

‘It would take a typhoon to shift me, with this lot on top,’ he said. ‘Talk about uncomfortable!’

Dumpsie had added her small weight by clambering on to the upturned bucket. Luckily John was not wearing the ring, so he did not hear her say wistfully as she looked at the pile of rubbish beneath her:‘Just like a bit of the dear old Dump!’ Oddly enough, he felt comforted to see her sitting there, unconcernedly licking her undamaged front paw.

In the meantime, Rosemary was frantically scooping up sand and stones with one hand, and anything heavy she could find on the track, while she held up her skirt, in which to carry it, with the other; for, halfway across the field, and heading straight for the station, she had seen Miss Dibdin. There was no time to lose. She scrambled back on to the platform, and, pushing John’s feet so that their soles were flat on the ground and his knees were up, she shovelled as much of her load as she could push into his Wellington boots.

‘Now, can you stand up?’ she said breathlessly. ‘Hurry, Miss Dibdin is nearly here.’

John sat up cautiously. With a clatter the collection of rubbish slid off him on to the platform. He stuffed the brickends into his mackintosh pockets on either side, together with as much of the remaining earth and stones as they would hold: then, very gingerly, he got to his feet. For a moment he stood there quite firmly, with Rosemary hovering near with outstretched hands to grab him back if he began to drift up into the air again. A slow grin spread over his face.

‘It’s all right. Come on, let’s go!’

As he spoke they heard Miss Dibdin’s shrill voice urging on her broom.

‘Up! Up! Come up, my beauty! One more bound and we shall be home!’

They did not wait to hear more. With Rosemary clutching on to one arm, while she clasped Dumpsie with the other, they hurried for the hole in the hedge. They were only just in time. There was a clatter as the broom collapsed on the platform.

‘Crumpet! Crumpet!’ they heard Miss Dibdin’s shrill cry. With rising irritation she went on: ‘Why don’t you come when I call you?’

John and Rosemary knew why there was no answer, but they thought it better not to wait till Miss Dibdin found out.

13.‘Clumping As Ever’

IF you have ever tried to hurry, wearing Wellington boots filled with earth, mixed with as many pebbles as there are currants in a plum pudding, you will understand why John and Rosemary made such slow progress on their way home.

There had been no time to balance the extra weight in John’s pockets evenly, so that he walked in a slightly lopsided way, bent uncomfortably at the knees: but he did not dare to leave any of the extra weight behind. Away from the shelter of the station there was quite a strong breeze.

When Rosemary suggested, as tactfully as she could, that perhaps it would be better to go home the long way, round the village, so that they should attract as little attention as possible, he replied with some heat:‘I don’t care how silly I look, I’m not walking one step further than I’ve got to. My feet are killing me!’ So that was that.

As it happened, there were not many people about when they reached the village, and apart from two girls, who giggled and whispered behind their hands, and an old woman, who shook her head pityingly, they reached home without comment.

Never had they been so thankful to turn in to Uncle Zack’s gate.

‘I can’t wear gum-boots and a mac indoors,’ said John anxiously. ‘The pockets in my jeans are too small to hold anything. I don’t suppose Uncle Zack would notice, but Mrs Bodkin doesn’t miss a thing. I bet she’d spot the brickends, and make me turn my pockets out. Do you think if I ate an enormous dinner that would hold me down?’

‘If you ate the weight of two brickends, I should think even Uncle Zack would notice,’ said Rosemary. ‘I tell you what. Supposing you make some excuse to go straight to bed? You’d be safe from draughts if I piled my bedclothes on top of yours, and tucked them well in all round. We’re terribly late. The Post Office clock said half past three, so we’ve missed dinner, and it’s nearly tea time.’

‘Help!’ said John. ‘I’m starving!’

Mrs Bodkin’s crossness at their late return evaporated as soon as John asked if he could go to bed. ‘I’ve got a splitting headache,’ he said, which was perfectly true.

‘Go to bed?’ repeated Mrs Bodkin. ‘I hope to goodness you aren’t sickening for something! But it’s the best place if you’re feeling poorly. You go straight upstairs, and I’ll come up presently and take your temperature.’

Getting undressed and between the sheets presented a good deal of difficulty; but with John clutching the bed-post with both hands, and Rosemary peeling off most of his clothes, it was managed at last. Rosemary tucked him hurriedly in and went to fetch her own blankets for extra weight. She was just returning with her arms full, when a gust of wind made a downstairs door slam, and she remembered she had forgotten to close John’s bedroom door behind her. She hurried in, only to find that the window opposite was open too, and John, with bedclothes still trailing, had wafted halfway up to the ceiling. ‘Shut the door!’ he yelled. ‘There’s a through draught!’

Rosemary dropped the bundle she was carrying, banged the door to behind her, dashed to the window, slammed it shut and latched it securely. There was a‘flump’ behind her, and she turned to find John once more lying on his bed. With no draught the blankets were heavy enough to bring him down again.

‘You’d only tucked the blankets in properly one side,’ he said faintly. He lay, eyes closed, looking rather white. ‘I can’t take much more of this,’ he said. His eyes, when he opened them again, looked so worried that Rosemary put her hand over one of his which clutched the slipping blanket. He didn’t seem to mind.

‘You won’t have to,’ she said. ‘It won’t be long till morning. It’s all my fault for making that idiotic wish. Of course, I didn’t really mean it to happen. It was just one of those silly things you say sometimes.’

‘I know,’ said John. ‘I’m sorry if I’ve been bad-tempered. But you can’t think how beastly this is all being. It was clever of you, the way you got me down from the roof — in the station, I mean. And thinking of the brickends and things. You’d better put those extra blankets on topof me, and tuck them well in onboth sides this time.’

Ten minutes later Mrs Bodkin came in with a tray.

‘Temperature first, tea after,’ she said briskly, and while John’s mouth was firmly closed round the thermometer, watch in hand, she looked round the room. ‘Well! I never saw such a mess! Dirt and stones all over the place! What on earth have you been up to?’

‘I’m awfully sorry,’ said Rosemary. ‘It was a … a game we’ve been playing. I’ll clear it up, every bit. I promise.’

‘You’re a bit big for mud pies, aren’t you?’

Mrs Bodkin picked up John’s clothes which were scattered about the floor. ‘And look at your trousers and your sweater! Filthy, they are! Andyour things aren’t much better,’ she added as she caught sight of Rosemary. ‘Clean clothes for both of you in the morning, and don’t you forget it!’

She peered at the thermometer through narrowed eyes, holding it now near, now far.‘Normal!’ she said at last. ‘That’s a good thing! Is your throat sore? No? Then you’ll do. I’ve brought you a pot of tea. More than you deserve, coming home at all hours! There’s some ham sandwiches and a few of those left-over rock cakes for you, Rosie; but I’ve put a nice dry biscuit for young John. Just in case,’ she added mysteriously. ‘We don’t want to take any risks, do we? He looks a bit flushed, doesn’t he?’

‘Flushed?’ growled John, when she had gone downstairs again. ‘She’d look flushed with seven blankets and two eiderdowns tucked in on top of her. I’m simply sweltering! And one “nice dry biscuit” when I’m starving!’

In the end, of course, they shared the ham sandwiches and rock cakes between them. Dumpsie was curled up at the foot of the bed, a small purring ball. Doing something so ordinary and everyday as pouring tea, and stirring in milk and sugar with the shared kitchen spoon, began to work its own gentle kind of magic, and they both began to feel better. They even got a bit giggly.

‘You’ve still got that beastly ring?’ asked John suddenly. Rosemary nodded. She felt in her pocket and held out the Golden Gew-Gaw in the palm of her hand. ‘Then for goodness’ sake, put it back in the box before you go making another crazy wish. When Dumpsie wakes up, we shall have to explain why we can’t hear her. She’ll have to invent a sign to make if she wants to speak to us.’

‘I don’t see why it should always be you in charge of the ring,’ said Rosemary.

‘Because, you twit, I’m the one who always has a pocket to put it in.’

‘I suppose so,’ said Rosemary reluctantly.

‘You can keep the paper hat if you like,’ said John.

‘All right,’ said Rosemary. She had just returned the box to John’s trouser pocket, when Uncle Zack came in.

‘Hallo, old chap! Mrs Bodkin tells me you aren’t feeling very well.’ He lowered his long body into the small chair by the bed. ‘I’m afraid I’m being rather a neglectful uncle, and leaving you both on your own most of the time; but I’ve had rather a lot of bothersome business to see to. I do hope you aren’t being bored?’

‘Bored? Good heavens, no!’ said John.

‘We’ve been much too busy,’ said Rosemary.

‘That’s a good thing,’ said Uncle Zack. ‘What have you been doing with yourselves?’

‘Oh, this and that,’ said John cautiously.

‘Exploring the old railway station mostly,’ said Rosemary. John, who was out of nudging distance, gave her a warning glance.

‘Well, I suppose there’s no harm in that, as long as you don’t do any damage,’ said Uncle Zack. They both thought guiltily of the broken glass roof. ‘Pity you aren’t well,’ he went on. ‘I’ve got to go to Broomhurst tomorrow to see my solicitor, and I’d planned an expedition for all three of us. I shall shut up shop. We might have gone to the pictures, when I’ve done my business, which won’t take long. There’s a good Western on, and Mr Sprules wanted us to go and have tea with him in his shop afterwards. I thought Mrs Bodkin would be glad to be rid of us so that she can get on with the cooking for the Sale on Saturday.’

‘I’msure I shall be all right by the morning,’ said John eagerly, beginning to sit up. Catching sight of Rosemary’s warning head-shake, he hurriedly slid under the pile of bedclothes again.

‘Well, we shall have to see how you are,’ said Uncle Zack.

‘Bother!’ said John later. ‘We ought to be spending tomorrow searching Tucket Towers for Carbonel. But I don’t see how we can say we won’t go to Broomhurst with Uncle Zack, unless I pretend I’ve still got a headache; and then Mother Boddles won’t let me go out.’

‘I think I should rather like a day off from all this magic business,’ said Rosemary, with which John rather shamefacedly agreed.

Rosemary woke early next morning. It had been an uncomfortable night. She jumped out of bed at once and ran into John’s room. He was fast asleep, but stirred when she tripped over the untidy pile of extra blankets straggling over the floor by his bed.

‘John! John!’ she said urgently. ‘How are you?’

He gave a tremendous yawn.

‘What do you mean, how am I?’ he said sleepily; then suddenly remembering the happenings of the day before, he opened his eyes wide. ‘Shut the door, just in case, and I’ll see.’

Very cautiously he climbed out of bed… and to Rosemary’s enormous relief stood squarely on the floor. A slow smile spread over his face. He jumped a few inches off the ground, and came down with a heartening thud; then he jumped half a dozen times, higher and higher, just for the pleasure of feeling himself come down again.

Dumpsie uncurled herself for a moment to watch.‘Clumping as ever!’ she said, then she tucked her nose under her tail and went to sleep again.

‘Thank goodness!’ said Rosemary. ‘Help me take my bedclothes back. We don’t want Mother Boddles finding them here and asking questions. We’d better get dressed. Clean things, remember.’

‘You’re dressed already,’ said John. ‘Why did you put that dirty old pullover on again?’

‘I haven’t put anything on,’ said Rosemary, who might be forgiven for being a bit snappish. ‘I didn’t take anythingoff last night, because you’ve got all my bedclothes. I put my coat on top of me,and the hearthrug because I was cold; but they kept slipping, and my feet stuck out.’

‘I say,’ said John. ‘What a pig I am! I just never thought of you not having any blankets. It was decent of you. I am grateful. Truly I am and I’ll never call you a silly twit again.’

‘That’s all right,’ said Rosemary. ‘I’m going to put on my best dress,’ she went on. ‘We’re going to Broomhurst with Uncle Zack. Remember? At least, I suppose they’ll think you’re well enough.’

John came down to breakfast looking so spruce and healthy, with his cheeks well scrubbed, and hair actually lying flat, that there was little difficulty in persuading his uncle that he was quite recovered. Mrs Bodkin was not convinced so easily. She took his temperature again, and on examining his chest seemed almost disappointed to find no spots; but at last she agreed that he was well enough for the day’s expedition.

‘You never know with children,’ she said to Uncle Zack. ‘Up one minute and down the next!’ which in John’s case had been only too true.

14. Gone!

THE expedition to Broomhurst was a success. Uncle Zack seemed a bit worried when he left the solicitor’s office, but he soon cheered up. From the lunch at a Chinese restaurant to the moment when the cowboy hero of the film rode off into the sunset, they both enjoyed every minute.

Tea at Mr Sprules’s shop followed, in what seemed a cave of books. By an ancient gas fire there was a clearing among the shelves, with just enough room for a desk and two chairs.

‘I’m afraid you two youngsters will have to sit on the floor. Do you think you could toast some crumpets by the fire? Plenty of butter, mind,’ said Mr Sprules.

In thoughtful, buttery silence, John and Rosemary toasted a pile of crumpets which were eaten up in no time at all. But you do not need to be told why toasted crumpets reminded them of Calidor, and the mysterious disappearance of Carbonel.

After handing down two steaming mugs of tea Mr Sprules rattled a teaspoon against a saucer and called:‘Splodger! Splodger! Where are you?’ After a pause, he went on: ‘Funny. He generally comes at a gallop for his saucer of milk, when he hears the tea things tinkle.’ From which John and Rosemary guessed that Splodger was a cat. ‘He’s a wonderful mouser. Oh, there you are, you old sinner!’

As he spoke, a large, rangy animal with patches of black and orange on his white coat came trotting out from one of the aisles between the bookcases. He stopped, and looked at the newcomers with an impudent stare, then settled down to the milk Mr Sprules had put down for him, spraying a shower of drops on the floor round the rim of the saucer as he lapped. Mr Sprules laughed.

‘You can see why he’s called “Splodger”!’ he said, and stirred the animal with his foot in a friendly way.

‘Talking of cats,’ said Uncle Zack. ‘What a lot of them there seem to be in Broomhurst. They are all over the place, dashing about and slinking round corners.’

‘Strange creatures, cats,’ said Mr Sprules thoughtfully. ‘I always feel old Splodger here could tell a thing or two, if only he could talk.’

The cat looked up from the saucer and flashed his master a bold, golden glance, then settled down to wash himself. John slipped his hand into his hip pocket, paused for a moment, then pulled an anxious face.

‘What’s the matter?’ whispered Rosemary. A discussion had started between Uncle Zack and Mr Sprules as to whether cats were more intelligent than dogs.

‘The ring, the Golden Gew-Gaw! I left the box in the pocket of my other jeans when I put clean ones on this morning …’

‘Well, it’ll still be there when we get home,’ said Rosemary comfortably. ‘But I wish we’d got it now so that we could talk to Splodger. Look how he is staring at us with his great yellow eyes!’

‘But you remember what Carbonel said about that business of not letting it “out of sight or feel”?’ said John.

‘Well, it can’t be helped,’ began Rosemary, when she was interrupted by Mr Sprules. ‘I wonder if you two would do something for me. Could you deliver a letter to Tucket Towers?’

There was nothing else to do but say:‘Of course.’

‘I came across a page that had dropped out of a battered old book Mrs Witherspoon bought the other day, and I thought she would be glad to have it.’

‘What an extraordinary building Tucket Towers is,’ said Uncle Zack. ‘I suppose Colonel Witherspoon wanted to make it as much like a castle as possible, but without the discomforts.’

‘Why is it called Tucket Towers when there is only one?’ asked John.

‘It sounds grander, I suppose,’ said Mr Sprules. ‘I bet the Colonel would have added a moat, and a draw-bridge too, if it would not have been awkward for callers, and people like the postman.’ The two men laughed.

‘By the way,’ said Mr Sprules, turning to John and Rosemary. ‘You’ll find some children’s books on the shelves on the right of the street door. Go and choose one each: that is, if you would like to. They are all in pretty good condition.’

‘Whatever made you look so queer just now?’ said Rosemary as they studied the backs of the books.

‘Don’t you see?’ said John. ‘Taking Mr Sprules’s letter to Tucket Towers gives us an excuse to ring the bell. So all we’ve got to do is to think of another excuse to go inside when someone answers the door.’

‘Well, I think …’ began Rosemary. There was a sudden ‘Squark’ from Splodger. ‘Oh, puss, I’m so sorry. Did I tread on your tail? I didn’t see you down there.’

She bent down, but Splodger shrugged off her stroking hand, ran to the door leading to the street, where he looked up at her expectantly, impatiently clawing at the mat. As soon as she opened the door he went streaking down the pavement, weaving his way through the legs of passers-by with surprising speed.

‘You don’t think he heard what we were saying?’ said Rosemary.

‘I don’t suppose it would have meant anything to him if he did,’ said John. ‘I’m going to chooseTreasure Island.’

‘The Jungle Book for me,’ said Rosemary. ‘Then we can exchange afterwards.’

They all three sat in thoughtful silence on the journey home. Uncle Zack wore his worried face again.

‘Time for a quick wash and brush-up,’ he said as the car turned in to the drive. ‘It’s just about supper time, and Mrs Bodkin gets cross if I keep it waiting.’

‘Does she get cross withyou?’ said Rosemary in surprise. Uncle Zack pulled a wry face.

‘It isn’t so much what shesays. She goes about in a sort of cloud of crossness. You can’t see it, of course, but you can feel it.’

‘I know,’ said John. ‘There’s a master at school who does that, and you have to mind your p’s and q’s.’

‘Well, you’d better mind them now!’ said Uncle Zack, looking at his watch.

But no smell of cooking supper greeted them as they went indoors, and no supper was laid on the Cromwellian table. Even more important to John and Rosemary, there were no grubby jeans hanging on the back of John’s bedroom chair, where he had left them that morning. Without a word, they clattered down the stairs to the kitchen.

Dumpsie ran forward to greet them with a welcoming‘Prrrt!’ Rosemary bent down and stroked her. Mrs Bodkin was pricking sausages with a fork.

‘I know!’ she said, lifting a frowning face. ‘You want your supper, and I’m all behind and it’s not ready, but I’ve only got one pair of hands.’

‘Oh, never mind about supper,’ said John, rather to her surprise. ‘Have you seen my dirty old jeans?’

‘What do you think?’ said Mrs Bodkin. ‘I gave them a wash.’

‘Thanks awfully. But did you find a tin box in the pocket?’ Mrs Bodkin gave a sniff.

‘A medal for bravery I ought to get. I never know what my fingers are going to sink into when I go through young John’s pockets. A dead mouse it was once when you was last here. Of course I found your precious box. It’s on the dresser there. My hands was soapy, and I dropped it, and the things fell all over the place, but I put ’em all back again.’

John hurried to the dresser and fetched the box. The Golden Gew-Gaw was not there.

‘There was a ring in it too,’ said John.

‘With a big red stone,’ added Rosemary.

‘Oh yes, I forgot about that,’ said Mrs Bodkin. ‘I found it on the floor when I’d put the box on the shelf for safety. Nearly trod on it. I slipped it on my finger while I finished the wash, just to keep it safe … and then it happened. I must have come over queer. I shall have to see a doctor.’

She put a hand to her forehead and John and Rosemary gave one another an anxious glance.

‘I’m so sorry,’ said Rosemary. ‘Do sit down and tell us about it!’

Mrs Bodkin sank gratefully into the chair that John brought forward.

‘I don’t know what came over me,’ she said. ‘I’d done all the cooking, and polished most of the furniture for the Sale tomorrow, and then I thought I’d just wash your jeans through, seeing as you’ve only got one spare pair, before I had a nice sit-down. Tired, I was, with all I’d done. Well, I’d collected one or two things. You know how it is once you start, but not worth getting out the washing machine. I’d got my hands in the suds, and my back was aching, and the thinking of all that spring-cleaning wash I’d put off till you kids had gone. I remember saying to pussy here something about wishing all the dirty things were ready washed and on the line … And next thing, I looked out of the window — and they were! On the line, I mean. Stretching all the way down the garden and back. Loose covers, cushions, blankets, bedspreads … The lot! And me still with my hands in the suds, and not remembering a thing about it: not taking down the curtains even, which means getting out the step-ladder, nor hanging it all on the line or anything. It seemed done in a flash, like. A sort of fit I must have had, not remembering!’ Distractedly she waved the fork she was still holding.

‘I shouldn’t worry,’ said Rosemary soothingly. ‘I don’t suppose it will happen again.’

‘And then of course, I had to turn to and iron the blooming lot!And air the blankets so we don’t catch our deaths tonight. I’ve been at it ever since. I’m about done in.’

‘I’m not surprised,’ said John.

‘But I expect you are glad it’s all finished,’ went on Rosemary.

‘I suppose so,’ said Mrs Bodkin. ‘The things is as clean as anyone could wish, I’ll say that. But doing all that great enormous wash, and not remembering anything about it, I must be going queer in the head.’

‘Well, you seem as right as rain now,’ said John. ‘But the ring. Could we have it?’

‘Now, what did I do with it?’ said Mrs Bodkin. ‘Oh, I remember. It slipped off my finger in the soapy water and I put it on the window-sill. That’s funny, it isn’t there now!’

‘I expect it’s fallen out on to the path outside,’ said John. But search as they would, they could not find it.

‘I suppose no one could have taken it?’ said John. ‘Has anyone been to the back door?’

‘Only that Mrs Whatshername. Lives in the big house down Sheepshank Lane. Widdlespoon is it? You should have seen her hat! Enough to make a cat laugh.’

Dumpsie drew herself up in an offended way.

‘Said she couldn’t make anyone hear at the front. She wanted to know if there was one of those big black coalscuttles in the Sale. Like an old-fashioned cooking pot with a handle over the top. Well of course I don’t know. Very hoity-toity she was.’

‘Wemust find the ring,’ said John. ‘It’s valuable.’

Mrs Bodkin looked at him curiously.‘What’s a lad like you doing with a valuable ring?’

‘It’s only valuable to us,’ said Rosemary hastily. ‘It came out of a cracker.’

‘A lady like that would never bother about a trumpery cracker ring,’ said Mrs Bodkin, rising to her feet. ‘But I must get on. Sausages and a bit of fried potato it’ll have to be for your supper. And do me a favour. Don’t tell your uncle. About my funny turn, I mean. He’ll start talking again about getting someone in to help. As if I can’t manage! Now be good children, and lay the table. I’m feeling worn out, with all that work and the worry of being took bad. I’ll slip down to the doctor first thing tomorrow.’

‘The beastly ring, it’s done it again!’ said John, as they laid knives and forks on the spotless, newly washed and ironed tablecloth. ‘That’s the third mess it’s got us into.’

‘And how on earth are we going to get it back from Mrs Witherspoon? I bet she’s “the wrong hands”. She may wish something simply frightful with it.’

15. Tucket Towers

‘WEmust settle on some plan of action,’ said John, as he walked with Rosemary up the weedy drive of Tucket Towers early next morning. ‘We keep talking about it, and not deciding anything.’

‘Well, first we hand over the letter to Mrs Witherspoon. … That ought to give us a chance to see if she is wearing the Golden Gew-Gaw,’ said Rosemary … ‘And then what? That’s where we always get stuck. Last Christmas,’ she went on thoughtfully, ‘I went carol singing with Sally Simson in aid of Orphan Children’s Homes. Sometimes people asked us inside.’

‘We can’t go carol singing in April, you owl!’ said John.

‘Not carols, of course,’ said Rosemary. ‘But couldn’t we say we are collecting for Orphan Children’s Homes? And … I know! Has she any odd jobs we could do?’

‘That’s not a bad idea!’ said John. ‘And if we did get any money we really would give it to the Orphan Children.’

‘But what do we do next when we get inside?’ said Rosemary.

‘That depends on the job she gives us. Let’s wait and see. We’re nearly there.’

‘I know,’ said Rosemary. ‘I’m beginning to get a funny feeling in my inside.’

‘Me too,’ said John.

‘Don’t let’s stop for a single second, or I shan’t be brave enough to go on again.’

‘We’d better be quick and get it over,’ said John. ‘One, two, three … Go!’

At a brisk trot they crossed the weedy carriage sweep in front of the house, and ran up the steps to the front door. John tugged at the wrought-iron bell-pull. It was stiff and rusty, as though it was not used very often. Somewhere in the distance, they heard the clanging of the bell. After a long pause, during which they nearly turned tail and ran, a key grated in the lock, and the door swung open.

‘Yes? What do you want?’ said Mrs Witherspoon sharply.

‘We’ve brought a letter …’

‘Mr Sprules asked us …’

They both started to speak at the same time and then stopped. Rosemary giggled nervously.

‘Come along! Come along!’ said Mrs Witherspoon crossly.

‘Mr Sprules asked us if we would bring you this,’ said John. ‘It’s one of the missing pages of the book you bought the other day.’

‘Aha!’ said Mrs Witherspoon, in quite a different voice. ‘That is another matter. Give it to me!’

She almost snatched the envelope from John, tore it open impatiently and pulled out the yellowing page. Ignoring both children, she stood framed in the doorway as she studied the cramped print. Very upright she was, in a long black skirt and high-necked blouse. Her pale face, ringed and wrinkled like a cauliflower, was surrounded by straggling white hair. They had plenty of time to examine her fingers. She wore two plain gold rings, one was wide and the other narrow: but there was no sign of the glowing stone of the Golden Gew-Gaw.

Presently she looked up, and now she was smiling, but not at them. It was a sly, secret sort of smile.

‘This is what I’ve been waiting for!’ she said, more to herself than to John and Rosemary. ‘Thank you. That will be all, children!’

‘Oh please,’ said Rosemary. ‘We’re collecting for Orphan Children’s Homes, and we wondered if you had any odd jobs we could do?’

‘We don’t mind what it is!’ added John.

‘You mean you want to bepaid for it?’ said Mrs Witherspoon. All trace of a smile disappeared. ‘I’m not made of money, you know!’

‘Oh, only what you feel like giving us,’ said John.

‘Well, yes,’ she said after a thoughtful pause. ‘Perhaps there is something you could do. You may come inside. Wipe your feet!’

John and Rosemary could scarcely control their grins of triumph as they followed the tall gaunt figure into the hall.

‘Follow me to the kitchen,’ she said over her shoulder.

The hall looked even more dusty and shabby than it had done when they peered at it from outside. Cobwebs hung thickly from the deer’s antlers that hung over every door, and the ragged carpet nearly tripped up Rosemary as she stared about her. There was no broomstick in the umbrella stand this time.

At the end of the hall they went through a swing door covered with moth-eaten green baize. It closed behind them with a‘whoosh’. The kitchen was down a short passage on the other side. John and Rosemary just had time to notice a huge old-fashioned range, with a very small fire burning in it, and two cats sitting on the hearthrug in front.

‘Come along! Don’t loiter!’ said Mrs Witherspoon sharply. ‘The scullery is through here.’

As she spoke she opened the door into a smaller room, leading from the kitchen. The first thing they saw when they went inside was a large earthenware sink, loaded with tottering piles of unwashed dishes, and dirty saucepans.

‘I have got aleetle bit behind with the washing-up,’ said Mrs Witherspoon. ‘There’s your job for you. When it is all done you shall have a whole penny each. You will find an apron hanging over there, behind the door into the garden. I have to go and pick some herbs.’ She glanced at the printed page Mr Sprules had sent her, and smiled the same secret smile again. ‘For there is an important experiment I have to make. But I shall be back shortly to see that you’ve done your work properly.’

She opened the door, locked it behind her, and went out into the garden. There was a window over the draining board, and they watched her peering about in the overgrown flower beds.

John stood with his hands on his hips, and glowered at the pile of dirty dishes.‘Just aleetle bit behind with the washing-up!’ he mimicked. ‘She can’t have done any for weeks! I didn’t bargain for this. And one penny each. The Orphan Children won’t get very fat on that!’

‘Never mind,’ said Rosemary. ‘At least it has got us inside.’ She held her hand hopefully under a running tap. ‘No hot water either. Come on. Do stop glaring and help me move these saucepans from the sink. Put them on the floor, or anywhere out of the way. If only we’d got the ring we might have learned something from those two cats in the kitchen.’

Everyone knows that the longer washing-up is left, the harder it is to do. Some of the saucepans had clearly been left for a very long time indeed. With a good deal of clattering they cleared the sink.

‘What on earth are you staring at that little enamel thing for?’ asked John.

‘Do you think it’s an egg saucepan?’ asked Rosemary.

‘For goodness’ sake! Have we got to guess what’s been cooked in each one?’ said John.

‘Do stop being cross. There’s some bright purple runny stuff at the bottom,’ went on Rosemary. ‘Don’t you remember Mrs Witherspoon saying that she cooked her Hearing Mixture in the egg saucepan, and it was purple? Quick, get a teaspoon and pour a drop into each of my ears. That’s what she said she did, and then she could hear all cats talking.’

‘But suppose it’s just the remains of some pudding or other? Or … or even worse, some different kind of magic? It might turn you into something — well, creepy crawly!’

‘I hadn’t thought of that,’ said Rosemary uneasily. ‘But we shall have to risk it. Don’t you see? Without the ring we can’t talk to Carbonel or Calidor, or any of the other cats, and we are stuck unless we do. Hurry! Mrs Witherspoon may be back any minute.’

She rinsed a teaspoon under the tap and pushed it into John’s reluctant hand, put her head on one side and held her hair back. ‘Go on,’ she said, and took a deep breath.

Very gingerly John took the saucepan, scooped up a little of the liquid, and poured a drop into each of her ears. Rosemary raised her head. She was looking rather pale.

‘Rosie … are you all right?’ asked John anxiously. At first she did not answer; instead she lifted her hand as if to silence him. Then she ran to the kitchen door and opened it carefully, the merest crack, and stood listening. Her face broke into a smile. ‘It has worked! I can hear those two cats next door,’ she whispered. ‘But I can’t make out all they are saying. Something about a clever plan … I think.’ Then her eyes widened. ‘Help! It’s Grisana and Melissa! I recognize their voices. What on earth are they doing here?’

‘I bet they’re up to no good, whatever it is,’ said John. ‘Quick, there’s just about enough purple stuff to pour down my ears too, if you scrape the saucepan, then let’s go and talk to them.’ When Rosemary had done as he asked he went on: ‘Better make friends with them first, beforewe let on that we can understand them.’

Together they walked into the kitchen and up to the hearthrug and held out their hands to the small fire.‘Beastly cold,’ said John in a loud voice. ‘Isn’t it, pussy?’ he went on, dropping on his knees and stroking the nearest cat on the head. It happened to be Melissa.

‘You’ve got a nice warm place!’ said Rosemary to the other cat, who of course was Grisana. Grisana looked up and gave them a conceited stare.

‘Shall I scratch them, mama?’ said Melissa in a voice with a hiss behind it. ‘If there is anything I hate it is being addressed as “pussy”, as though I am a common or garden cat!’

‘They aren’t worth scratching,’ said Grisana languidly.

‘But suppose they are the two children Splodger told you about? The ones who guessed that the cat Mrs Witherspoon has imprisoned is Carbonel?’ John and Rosemary exchanged glances.

‘It doesn’t matter if they are,’ said Grisana. ‘I have already looked at their hands, and they are neither of them wearing the ring that makes them understand us. Splodger explained about that too, so I can go on telling you about the arrangement I have made with Mrs Witherspoon, and they won’t have any idea what we are talking about.’ John and Rosemary suppressed their smiles, and redoubled their stroking.

‘Do go on, you clever mama!’ said Melissa. ‘I must say this boy strokes rather well. I can’t help purring.’

‘Mrs Witherspoon has been keeping Carbonel prisoner’ because he refuses to be her witch’s cat, and she grows impatient. She has promised me that if he will not do as she wishes by moonrise tonight, and of course he won’t, she will let him go. She will turn him out of the front door of Tucket Towers, and then …’ Grisana’s purring was loud and deep.

‘And then, mama?’

‘He is mine to do with as I please!’

‘And what will you please?’ said Melissa in her sly voice.

‘When he thinks he is free, and steps out of the hall door of Tucket Towers, he shall be pounced upon by a picked troop of Broomhurst cats, who will take him prisoner in triumph back to Broomhurst, where he will be well and truly …scrodged!’ There was no trace of a purr about Grisana’s voice now, and she kneaded the hearthrug with rhythmic claws as she hissed the last word. ‘But you look sulky, daughter? Does this not please you?’

‘I don’t care a sardine tail what happens to Carbonel. It is Calidor I want humbled,’ growled Melissa.