Freddy and the Dragon (17 page)

Samuel backed hastily out and told Mr. Pomeroy what was going on. “She stepped on me once,” he said, “and pretty soon she'll begin tearing up the grass and find my burrow.”

Mr. Pomeroy got the sheriff who went right into the tent.

“Come, come, ma'am,” he said; “this is no way to act. If you don't like the fortune that was told you, I suppose you can ask for your money back. But you hadn't ought to smash things up.”

“I haven't had any fortune told, but I know what it was going to be, and I know who was going to tell it.” Mrs. Underdunk was so mad that she went right on pulling the table to pieces. “It is that pig of Bean's, and if you were doing your duty, sheriff, you'd be out hunting for him now instead of pestering me. Go on about your business.”

“Ma'am,” said the sheriff quietly, “there is no pig here, and there ain't any pig that has anything to do with this fortune-telling. As to my duty: my duty is to arrest people that are causing ructions, and you're causing plenty. I don't want to arrest you. But you're not only destroyin' property—namely, this here chair and table—but you are destroyin' fun. These folks out here have all come to this circus to have fun, and you're tryin' to break it up. To me, spoilin' other folks' fun is a lot more serious than damagin' their property. I ain't never arrested a lady before, but—”

“Oh, get out of here!” exclaimed Mrs. Underdunk, and made a swing at him with the table leg.

The sheriff backed off. “She's too much for me,” he muttered.

Mr. Pomeroy had gone to Jimmy Wiggs, and after a short consultation with the three parts of the dragon, the barn door rolled open ten minutes ahead of the scheduled time, and the dragon walked out.

He made straight for the fortune-telling tent.

Mrs. Underdunk had arrived after the dragon's first appearance, so she had never seen him. She had done so many mean tricks to Freddy in the past—indeed had conspired with her brother to have him killed—that Freddy was glad of the chance to throw a good scare into her. So the dragon poked his nose into the tent. Mrs. Underdunk gave a yell. Then Freddy threw a handful of cut-up paper and a lot of pieces of rubber in the little stove and blew hard three times. The dragon gave three snorts, and fire came out of his nostrils on the first one, along with bits of burning paper, but I don't think Mrs. Underdunk noticed them, for the second and third snorts were thick black smoke that filled the tent and smelled awful.

Mrs. Underdunk started another yell, but it turned into a cough. The dragon backed out, and the sheriff ran in and picked her up, coughing and with her face all black from the smoke, and carried her out to her car. And her chauffeur drove her home.

So Jimmy brought down another chair and table from the house, and Samuel crept into his burrow and went into business again.

CHAPTER 15

The circus was a great success. Many people who had come early stayed right through until after the dragon's last appearance at eight o'clock. It was late in the afternoon before Mrs. Peppercorn and Mrs. Talcum got to see the dragon. When the dragon saw them he went toward them, snorting fire and smoke.

“By good'ess!” said Mrs. Talcum. “He's got worse hay fever thad I have!”

She went over and patted him on the shoulder, and then she gave two good resounding sneezes. And the dragon jumped both times, and then laid his head right down on the ground in front of Mrs. Talcum, so that his chin was in the grass, as if to show that he acknowledged her as the better sneezer. Mrs. Talcum patted him again and said: “You're very polite, but you kdow very well you're a great deal better thad I ab at this busidess.”

She and Mrs. Peppercorn walked away. “Rebarkably gifted creature,” she remarked. “I wish I could sdeeze like that.”

“I'm glad you can't,” said Mrs. Peppercorn. “As long as you're occupying my guest room. Set fire to the window curtains.”

“Be haddy getting a fire goi'g id the kitched ra'ge,” replied her aunt.

The circus made quite a lot of money, but still not enough for the baseball uniforms. But when Mrs. Church heard this, she said she'd be glad to make up the amount. “And what's more,” she said, “I'll come to your first game and cheer for South Pharisee.”

Jimmy Wiggs was delighted, and when they had collapsed the dragon and were packing it into the back of Uncle Ben's station wagon, he said to Freddy: “This is the second time you've taken a lot of trouble to help me out, and I don't know how to thank you for it, but if you ever need any help that our club can give you—and there's fifteen of us—you just send word, and we'll jump on our bikes and be over at the Bean farm in half an hour. Whether it's a school day or not.”

When they got back home most of the animals, who had left the circus earlier, were in the cow barn, listening to Mrs. Pomeroy, who was reporting on the news that the A.B.I. operative had brought back from Centerboro. Jack had been brought up before Judge Willey, and his trial had been set for early in September. Then he had been released on $1,000 bail.

“Bail? What's that?” asked Mrs. Wogus.

Mrs. Pomeroy explained that somebody had handed $1,000 to the judge. This would be returned to him if Jack showed up for his trial. But if he didn't show up, the money would be forfeited and would go to the town or the county, she wasn't sure which. Mr. E. H. Anderson, a real-estate dealer, had put up the money.

“Wow!” said Freddy. “There's something crooked about that.”

“I think you're right,” said Mrs. Pomeroy. “Anderson's a crook. We all remember how he tried to steal that hotel up on the lake, and how you stopped him.”

“When they searched Jack did they find all the money he had collected in those envelopes?” Jinx asked.

“I think not.”

“Then it's up in the cave somewhere,” said the pig. “He collected a lot more than a thousand dollars. My guess is Jack has made a deal with Anderson so he'll be free to go up and collect it. Then he'll give Anderson his thousand and a little more, and beat it with the rest. Anything been heard from the Webbs?”

“No. But until they come out and report, we've got to put a strong guard on the entrance to the cave so we can grab Jack if he comes up to get his money, or stop those others animals from coming out. Those two troopers are still lost somewhere in the cave, too. Their flashlights will be gone by this time, and they can't possibly move around without them. They'll starve if we don't get them out somehow.”

“We'd better all go up to the cave,” Freddy said, “so that if the Webbs have found anything, we'll be ready to plan right off what to do.”

So after explaining where they were going to Mr. Bean, the animals started up past the duck pond to cut into the back road and get up to the cave. Uncle Ben, with the dragon still in the station wagon, drove around by road. He thought the dragon might be useful.

Seeing the procession passing the duck pond, the ducks paddled ashore to find out what was going on. Even Uncle Wesley came out from under the dock leaf where he usually sat to exchange polite and gentlemanly words with Percy. When they found out the purpose of the expedition, Emma said: “It's dark. By the time you get there, it will be night. Why don't you wait until morning?”

Freddy explained. “We're keeping a watch there round the clock in case the Webbs come out with some information for us. Who's on tonight, Mrs. P.?”

“Uncle Solomon. He'll be on until daylight, and then Mr. Pomeroy will take over.”

Uncle Solomon was a small screech owl. Many of the animals avoided him because he was always correcting their English or criticizing their incorrect use of words. Freddy rather liked him.

“Well, if you're going up to the cave,” Emma said, “I'm going along.”

“Quite right, sister,” Alice said. “So am I.”

“Nonsense!” said Uncle Wesley. “Roaming the roads at this time of night! I absolutely forbid—”

Alice interrupted him. “We're sorry to go against your wishes, dear Uncle Wesley,” she said, “but we are resolved. We are going.”

“We were members of the original expedition to Florida,” said Emma. “I see nearly all the members of that expedition here. When the Bean animals march, we march with them. It would be to our everlasting shame if we were to stay behind.”

Freddy thought they were making an unnecessary point, since they would be of little help in catching the gangsters; nevertheless he admired their courage. “Of course you're coming,” he said.

Uncle Wesley quacked indignantly for a minute or two, then went back under his burdock leaf and stuck his head under his wing.

Up at the east end of the lake they all concealed themselves along the road, by the path which led up to the cave. They got the dragon out, and Freddy built a small fire in him in case he would be needed.

While they were doing this they heard faintly a horn or bugle being blown at regular intervals. “It's the troopers,” said Freddy. “They're trying to locate the two lost men. They've got a copy of the Webbs' map, and they go in as far as that will take them and blow. But in all that maze of passages and halls nobody could tell where the sound was coming from. Maybe those two guys are so far in they can't even hear it.”

Presently a dim little something flitted noiselessly through the dusk and lit on a branch above them. “Dear me,” said Uncle Solomon in his precise voice. “What are you all hiding from? I may say you're making a very poor job of it.” And he laughed his cold little rippling laugh.

“Have the Webbs come out yet?” Freddy asked. He was not going to be drawn into an argument if he could help it.

“Mrs. Webb has come out,” said Uncle Solomon, “and she has talked with me, and she has gone in again.”

“Did they find the troopers?” Mrs. Wiggins asked.

“Yes. The two men are lost in a maze of passages in the north side of the hill. They are exhausted, and they have no light and no food. But there is a little underground stream of water, and they are lying beside it. Mrs. Webb thinks they have given up hope. But if you take a flashlight, she can guide you to them.”

“But where's Webb?” Freddy asked.

“She's gone to find out. When that gangster, Jack, came back here—”

“He's
here?”
Freddy interrupted. “In the cave?”

“You should have watched him more carefully when he was released. But I suppose one cannot expect animals to take the ordinary precautions which even the dullest bird would automatically think of.”

“We'll discuss the difference between animals and birds some other time,” Freddy said. “In the meantime you might ponder over why very silly people are sometimes called bird-brains. Now what else did the Webbs find out?”

“At the back of the room in which Jack was living,” Uncle Solomon said, “there was what appeared to be a straight wall. In reality it is a sort of screen of rock, behind which a passage opens. Off that passage are several rooms. In one there were two pigs, in another a dog and a horse. In the latter room was a hole in the wall, and in the hole was a shoe box. The Webbs got into the box. It was full of money and jewelry.

“So Webb stayed to keep an eye on the money, and Mrs. Webb came out to report. Then she went back in to—”

He was interrupted by a clatter of hoofs at the cave entrance. A man on a horse came pitching down the path to the road. He wrenched the horse's head around to the right and spurred him to a fast gallop. It was not the horse the headless man had ridden, nor was it apparently the same horseman, for this one was short and had a head. Then the lights of Uncle Ben's station wagon went on, and they saw it was Jack, with a shoe box under his arm.

With a series of tremendous bangs, which sounded like battleships saluting one another, Uncle Ben's engine started. In two seconds the wagon was out on the road and bounding after the flying horseman: Percy was just behind it, galloping hard, head down, tail up. And behind him again, Hank and the three cows. On a rough dirt road Uncle Ben didn't dare let his engine out full; it might have hit a bump and turned a double somersault. But he caught up rapidly. And when Jack came to the turn and swung into the back road, he touched the button, the stubby fins shot out, and he sailed right over the horseman's head. Having gained the lead he slowed down quickly, braked, and swung the car across the road.