The Worst Witch to the Rescue (12 page)

‘I suppose so,’ said Ethel grudgingly. ‘We can pick up some carrots and lettuce from the kitchen dustbins on our way out. You’d better go back to your room now and get some sleep. I’ll come and fetch you later on.’

Einstein pulled his head away from the airholes. ‘Sorry about that,’ he said politely to the toad. ‘I just wanted to know what they were going to do with me. I must admit, I
am
petrified of being left on my own at the top of a tree. It goes very badly for tortoises if we drop from a height.’

‘What happens if you do?’ asked the toad.

‘I’d rather not go into details, if you don’t mind,’ replied Einstein in a quavering voice. ‘Let’s just say we always avoid being up high. We get claustrophobia too, so a small hollow at the top of a tall tree is just about the worst thing that can happen to a tortoise.’

‘Is there anything I can do to help?’ asked the toad.

Einstein pondered for a moment.

‘Yes, there
is
actually,’ he said. ‘When this Ethel person takes me to the prison in the sky, I’d like you to set off and find Mildred Hubble’s room. It’s three doors from here if you turn left, on the other side of the corridor. Tell her that Einstein is in the hollow pine outside the school gates. That way, I might get rescued before there’s a gale or some other mishap.’

‘I’ll
try,’
said the toad. ‘Trouble is, I’m not very good at jumping like frogs do.
Perhaps I can lean up against the side of the box so it falls to one side. There’s a big enough gap under this door for me to fatten myself and crawl under. Toads are good at fattening. Einstein’s a very nice name, by the way. Mine is Cyril.’

‘Pleased to meet you, Cyril,’ said Einstein.

‘Pleased to meet you too,’ said the toad, ‘and I really will try my best to get assistance if I can possibly manage it.’

long the corridor, Mildred huddled in her bed, listening to the wind rising outside the glassless window. Tabby had burrowed right under the bedclothes to get out of the draught, which was already so strong that Mildred’s hair was blowing about on the pillow. She had undone her usual plaits and given the hair a thorough brushing before she’d
gone to bed and now it was dancing about all over the place, reminding her of the dreadful occasion last term when she had tried out a regrowth spell and her hair had taken off at such a fantastic speed that it had practically engulfed the whole school.

She sat up in bed and started replaiting it to keep it under control.

‘Oh, Tabs,’ she said miserably. ‘I wonder where on earth Einstein has got to. If I had any idea, I’d go and fetch him, but I haven’t a clue.’

Einstein was (just as Ethel had said) in the hollow at the top of the tallest pine outside the school gate.

Ethel hadn’t relished the idea of being caught herself, so she had persuaded Drusilla to get dressed again and do the deed in her place. She gave her precise instructions how to creep within the dark shadow of the school, then zoom over the wall and hover up behind the
pine trees so she would be covered by the forest. Einstein was in a PE bag across her shoulder underneath her cloak.

He was tempted to try and plead with Drusilla, but he could tell that it would be useless by the way they had talked about him.

Drusilla hovered next to the hollow, which fortunately dropped lower inside than the entrance, lifted Einstein out and placed him in the musty depths with a handful of cabbage leaves and apple peelings.

‘Ethel says don’t try and get out or you’ll fall thirty metres, OK?’ said Drusilla helpfully.

Einstein stayed tucked up inside his shell and didn’t move.

Drusilla tapped the shell. ‘DID YOU HEAR THAT?’ she shouted. ‘DON’T TRY AND ESCAPE, OR YOU’LL FALL. WE’LL COME AND GET YOU SOON.’

Then she was gone and Einstein was left alone in the pine tree, which was already bending from side to side in a most alarming way.

The minute Ethel took Einstein out of the box and crept off to Drusilla’s room, Cyril set to work on his rescue plan. Fortunately, the lid of the box was not very tight-fitting and he found that he could dislodge it by jumping a short distance and bashing it with his head – like heading a football. Then it was quite easy to stand on tiptoe and jump enough to land half-and-half on the top edge and slither down the other side. The box was on the bedside
locker, which was quite a height from the floor, but Cyril aimed for Ethel’s school bag, which broke his fall. After that he was soon squeezing himself fat underneath the door and out into the shadowy corridor.

‘So far, so good!’ he thought proudly.

Mildred had finished replaiting her hair, moved her bed away from the window in case of rain and snuggled right under the bedcovers. The wind outside had begun to roar and moan in the pine trees, sounding like a stormy sea. She was so far down the bed that she didn’t hear the tiny sound of a toad flapping his feet against the heavy wooden door. Cyril was outside, tapping as hard as he could with a back and front foot. He had tried to squeeze underneath, but the space was far smaller than the gap below Ethel’s door.

‘Excuse me!’ he called out in his tiny toad voice.

Fortunately, cats can detect the very smallest sound and movement. Tabby wriggled out from the bedclothes and rushed over to the crack beneath the door, where he started scrabbling with his paw.

Mildred got out of bed and lit her candle. ‘What is it, Tab?’ she asked. ‘Is someone there? Is it Einstein?’

She opened the door and saw Cyril, still with his front and back leg upraised to continue his attempt at knocking.

‘Oh, hello!’ he said, relieved to see her. ‘Are you Mildred Hubble?’

Mildred bent down and picked up the little toad very carefully.

‘I am,’ she whispered.

‘Brilliant!’ said Cyril. ‘I’m Cyril. I was Ethel Hallow’s demonstration toad in the potion lab today. I’ve brought you a message from Einstein.’

ildred sat on her bed, listening to the message from her lost tortoise with a sinking heart.