Arabel and Mortimer (12 page)

Mortimer made no answer but jumped up and down on top of the machine.

So Arabel put her coin in the slot, and Mortimer, almost standing on his head with interest and enthusiasm, watched the doughnut slide down into the oil to cook; then he watched the hook hoist it out and the puffer blow white crystals all over it; then he watched it tumble out into the paper cup; then he grabbed it, jumped down off the machine, and disappeared in the direction of the giraffe house.

"Mortimer, come back!" called Arabel. "You promised—!"

But that was all she said, for the next minute she found herself wrapped up as tightly as if twenty yards of oil pipeline had been wound round her, and she found herself staring, stiff with fright, straight into the thoughtful face of Noah the boa.

Meanwhile the thieves, working at top speed, had packed all the drugged zebras into their truck, with layers of foam rubber in between. Then they went on to the ostriches. It was easy to drug the ostriches; all they needed to do was sprinkle chloroform on the sand where the ostriches hid their heads, and then make an alarming noise; in five minutes all the ostriches were out flat.

"D'you reckon we've time to take in a few camels as well as the giraffes?" asked Fred, the truck driver, when the ostriches were packed in. "Camels are fetching very fancy prices just now up Blackpool way."

But the short fat man was looking toward Lord Donisthorpe's castle, where a light had come on in one of the windows high up.

"That looks like trouble," he said. "Maybe the old geezer heard something. We better not fool around; go straight for the giraffes, get them packed in, and get away."

At this moment Lord Donisthorpe was speaking on the phone to the local police. "Yes, Inspector; as I just told you, we have reason to believe that there are thieves on my estate, engaged in stealing animals—
who
told me so? I understand that a raven, of unusually acute hearing, informed a young person named Arabel Jones, who informed a youthful attendant at the zoo—who informed
me
—"

At this moment also, Noah the boa, who had decided, after careful inspection of Arabel, that she looked as if she might be good to eat—probably not
quite
as good as a doughnut, but still much better than a rabbit—had thrown an extra loop of himself round both Arabel and the doughnut machine, to which he was hitched, and had begun to squeeze, at the same time opening his mouth wider and wider.

But his squeezing had an unexpected effect. It started the doughnut machine working, just as if somebody had put in a coin.

Arabel, doing her best to keep quite calm, said politely, "Excuse me, but if you wouldn't mind undoing the coil that is holding my hands,
here,
I would be able to press the lever and then I could get you a doughnut, if you'd like?"

Noah was not very bright, but he did understand the word
doughnut,
and Arabel's wriggling of her hands indicated what she meant. He loosened one of his coils; Arabel pressed the lever twice; and the machine ever so quickly sugared a doughnut and tossed it out into a paper cup. Noah swallowed it in a flash and, as the machine was still working, Arabel pressed the lever again.

Meanwhile the thieves had quietly moved their truck on to the giraffe house, parked, and gone inside.

"
Blimey,
" said Fred, "what, in the name of all that's 'orrible, 'as been going on 'ere?"

For when they shone their flashlights around, a scene of perfectly hopeless confusion was revealed: all that could be seen was legs of giraffes at the
bottom of the spiral stair, while their necks, like some dreadfully tangled piece of knitting, were all twined up inside the spiral.

"Strewth!" said the short fat man. "How are we
ever
going to get them out of there?"

Meanwhile Lord Donisthorpe and Chris, both riding bicycles, were dashing through the zoo, hunting for the malefactors. Chris was dreadfully worried about Arabel because he had found his hut empty; he kept calling, as he rode along, "Arabel? Mortimer? Where are you?"

At this moment the thieves, feverishly trying to untangle the necks of the giraffes and drag them out of the spiral stair, heard the unmistakable gulping howl of a police-car siren coming fast.

"Here, we better scram," said the fat man.

"They got cops in helicopters?" said Fred. "The sound o' that siren seems to be coming from dead overhead."

"It's the acoustics of this building, thickhead."

"Never mind where the perishing sound's
coming
from," said the pale man. "We better hop it. At least we've got the ostriches and the zebras."

They ran for their truck. But Chris, who reached it just before them, had taken the key out of the ignition. The thieves were obliged to abandon their van and escape on foot. And as they pounded toward the distant gate, something like an enormous tube traveling at thirty miles an hour caught up with them, flung a half hitch round each of them, and brought them to the ground.

It was Noah, who, having for once in his life eaten as many doughnuts as he wanted, was now prepared to do his job of burglar catching.

Chris went in search of Arabel and found her, rather pale and faint, sitting by the doughnut machine. Mortimer, looking very pleased with himself indeed, was perched on her shoulder, still giving his celebrated imitation of a police-car siren.

When the real police turned up half an hour later, all they had to do was take the thieves off to jail. Then, greatly to Arabel's relief, Lord Donisthorpe took Noah back to his cage, wheeling him in a barrow.

Chris and Lord Donisthorpe had already unpacked the ostriches and zebras and laid them out in the fresh air to sleep off the effects of the drug they had been given.

But it took ever so much longer to untangle the giraffes from the spiral stair. In fact, they were obliged to dismantle the top part of their stair altogether.

"I can't think how they ever
got
their necks in like this," said Lord Donisthorpe, panting. "Let alone
why.
"

Chris thought he could guess. He had found traces of doughnut on each step all the way up.

"Perhaps it's not such a good idea to have a spiral stair in the giraffe house," murmured Lord Donisthorpe as the last captive—Wendy—was carefully pulled out, set upright on her spindly legs, and given a pail of giraffe food to revive her.

"Well, I certainly am greatly obliged to you three," added Lord Donisthorpe to Arabel and Chris, who had helped to extract Wendy, and to Mortimer, who had been sitting on the stair rail and enjoying the spectacle. "If not for you, my zoo would have suffered severe losses tonight, and I hope I can do something for you in return."

Chris said politely that he didn't think he wanted anything. He just liked working in the zoo.

Mortimer didn't even bother to reply. He was remembering how enjoyable it had been to entice
Wendy, Elsie, and Derek farther and farther up the spiral stair by holding the doughnut just in front of their noses.

But Arabel said, "Oh, please, Lord Donisthorpe. Could you please ask Aunt Effie
not
to shut Mortimer up in the meat safe? He does hate it so."

"Perhaps it would be best," said Lord Donisthorpe thoughtfully, "if Mortimer came to stay with me in my castle while you remain at Foxwell. I believe ravens are often to be found in castles. And there is really very little harm he can do there, if any."

"Oh,
yes,
" said Arabel. "He'd
love
to live in a castle, wouldn't you, Mortimer?"

"Kaaark," said Mortimer.

And so that is what happened.

Aunt Effie and Uncle Urk were quite astonished when they woke up next morning and learned all that had been going on during the night. But Aunt Effie was not able to scold Arabel or Mortimer, as Lord Donisthorpe said they had been the means of saving all his ostriches and zebras, not to mention the giraffes.

Arabel soon became very fond of Wendy, Derek, and Elsie; though she had continual trouble preventing Mortimer from teasing them.

But she never did get to like Noah the boa.

It was a fine spring morning in Rainwater Crescent, Rumbury Town, north London. Arabel Jones and Mortimer, Arabel's raven, were sitting on Arabel's bedroom windowsill, which was a very wide and comfortable one, with plenty of room for both of them and a cushion as well. They were both looking out of the window, watching the work that was going on across the road in Rainwater Crescent Garden.

This garden, which was quite large, went most of the way along the inside of Rainwater Crescent, which curved round like a banana. So the garden was curved on one side and straight on the other, like a section from an enormous orange. In it there were ten trees,
quite a wide lawn, some flower beds, six benches, two statues, a sandpit for children, and a flat paved bit in the middle, where a band sometimes played.

Arabel liked spending the afternoon in Rainwater Garden, but she was not allowed to go there on her own, because of crossing the street. However, sometimes Mrs. Jones took her across and left her if Mr. Walpole, the Rumbury Town municipal gardener, was there to keep an eye on her.