The Beasts of Clawstone Castle

On the hill opposite the island, Rollo watched the boat. The sailors had finished unloading; soon now the cattle would go on board. Dr Manners had said they would be washed clean first, restored to their whiteness. Only how would they all fit in? Dr Manners knew everything there was to know about animals; he would not let them travel in cramped or unsuitable conditions; but all the same, the boat was small.

And what about the man who had walked past the windows of the hotel? Of course, he might have been somebody quite different, but if not...

From the doorway of the church, Madlyn called up to him.

‘Come on, Rollo. It’s time to go.’

They had packed up; anything they could not carry was locked in the car. It was going to be a long trek to the village.

But if Rollo heard her, he took no notice. When she looked again, she saw that he had left the hill and was running down the beach towards the causeway.

‘Come back,’ she yelled. ‘Come back at once.’

But Rollo went on running.

‘We can’t let him go alone,’ said Ned.

‘One day I’m going to kill him,’ said Madlyn, as they set off in pursuit. ‘What’s more, I shall enjoy doing it. I shall enjoy killing him.’

They caught up with him as he crouched behind a boulder overlooking the bay and the jetty, and dropped down beside him. The boat was still tied up, there were no signs of any preparations for loading the cattle.

‘What on earth are you up to?’ said Madlyn angrily.

But before Rollo could explain, they heard a hissing noise – a noise like ‘Psst’ but not really an English ‘Psst’. Then a swarthy face with a curving black moustache appeared round the side of the boulder, followed by a second face like the first.

It was the two men who had caught them and taken them to Dr Manners, but they looked different. Not fierce now but almost smiling – and they carried no pitchforks or wooden sticks.

‘You come with us,’ said the first man. ‘We show you something. Quick! We not hurt you.’

‘We not hurt you,’ repeated the second man. ‘Please, you come. Now.’

The children came.

They were led into a low wooden hut. They had seen it when they were looking for the cattle, but it hadn’t seemed like the sort of place that people lived in; it looked more like a shed for animals, a chicken house or a pigsty.

But people certainly lived in it. They not only lived in it, they were having a party. There were candles on the table and a wooden platter piled with pancakes. Red and green and purple paper streamers were tacked to the walls. In one corner a man was playing a mouth harp, making music that was both reedy and exciting, and the men were dancing, their arms resting on each other’s shoulders, while the women twirled round and round, sending their heavy skirts spinning. From the crackly radio came the sound of an excited voice talking in a language the children had never heard. Then the voice stopped and a blaring military tune was played, and when it came on everybody stopped dancing and stood to attention and the women beat their chests.

The children were completely bewildered. Why had they been brought here? Were they going to be frogmarched away, or beaten, or tied up as part of this strange feast? But instead they were handed glasses of a colourless fiery liquid and told to drink a toast.

‘Mundania – the Motherland!’ cried their hosts, and tossed their glasses over their shoulders, and the children did the same.

But at last there was a lull, the radio was turned down and packing cases were pulled out for the children to sit on while the Mundanians explained what had happened.

‘Is revolution in our country,’ said Slavek – and to make it clear he stuck out two fingers and said, ‘Bang, bang!’

‘Bad man has gone – dead,’ put in Izaak happily.

With all the Mundanians helping out with words and gestures, the children gathered that the dictator who had terrorized their country had been overthrown. It was news of the revolution that they had heard on the radio, and now they were free to go home.

‘Home,’ they repeated joyfully, nodding their heads and smiling. ‘We go home.’

But the children had not been called in just to hear the good news. There was something which the Mundanians wanted them to do and it was important.

‘We call you because you must see what is here happening. You must tell and you must make stop.’

‘Yes, yes,’ said the other Mundanians. ‘You must go quick from island and make it to stop.’

‘But what is it?’ asked Madlyn. ‘What is it we must stop?’

Slavek’s face was grim.

‘We show. Now. But you must very quiet be. You must cripp.’

‘Cripp?’

‘Cripp like mouses. And stay behind from me.’

He turned and took a bunch of keys from a shelf.

Then he led the children from the hut across a covered way and unlocked a door.

‘Zis,’ he said. ‘Zis you must stop.’