Hugh Lofting - Doctor Dolittle's Circus

Once more Jip tried his hardest to make Matthew understand that something was wrong. But the Cat's–Meat–Man merely took the dog's signals of distress for joy and marched off to join his wife's cocoa party, feeling that his share of the night's work had been well done.

In the mean time Sophie had waddled her way laboriously to the gate and found it locked.

Jip had then gone all around the fence, trying to find a hole big enough for her to get through. But he wet with no success. Poor Sophie had escaped the captivity of her tank only to find herself still a prisoner within the circus enclosure.

Everything that had happened up to this had been carefully watched by a little round bird perched on the roof of the menagerie. Too–Too, the listener, the night seer, the mathematician, was more than usually wide awake. And presently, while Jip was still nosing round the fence trying to find Sophie a way out, he heard the whir of wings over his head and an owl alighted by his side.

"For heaven's sake, Jip," whispered Too–Too, "keep your head. The game will be up if you don't. You're doing no good by running round like that. Get Sophie into hiding—push her under the flap of a tent or something. Look at her, lying out in the moonlight there, as though this were Greenland! If any one should come along and see her we're lost. Hide her until Matthew sees what has happened to the gate. Hurry—I see some one coming."

As Too–Too flew back to his place on the menagerie roof, Jip rushed off to Sophie and in a few hurried words explained the situation to her.

"Come over here," he said, "Get under the skirt of this tent. So— Gosh! Only just in time! There's the light of a lantern moving. Now lie perfectly still and wait till I come and tell you."

And in his little dark passage beyond the circus fence John Dolittle once more looked at his watch and muttered:

"What can have happened? Will she never come?"

It was not many minutes after Matthew had joined the cocoa party in his own wagon that the watchman rose from the table and said he ought to be getting along on his rounds. The Cat's–Meat–Man, anxious to give Sophie as much time as possible to get away, tried to persuade him to stay.

"Oh, stop and have another cup of cocoa!" said he. "This is a quiet town. Nobody's going to break in. Fill your pipe and let's chat a while."

"No," said the watchman—"thank ye. I'd like to, but I mustn't. Blossom give me strict orders to keep movin' the whole night. If he was to come and not find me on the job I'd catch it hot."

And in spite of everything Matthew could do to keep him, the watchman took his lamp and left.

Higgins, however, remained. And while the Cat's–Meat–Man and his wife talked pleasantly to him of politics and the weather, they expected any moment to hear a shout outside warning the circus that Sophie had escaped.

But the watchman, when he found the stand open and empty, did not begin by shouting. He came running back to Matthew's wagon.

"Higgins," he yelled, "your seal's gone!"

"Gone!" cried Higgins.

"Gone!" said Matthew. "Can't be possible!"

"I tell you she 'as," said the watchman. "Er door's open and she ain't there."

"Good heavens!" cried Higgins springing up. "I could swear I locked the door as usual. But if the gates in the fence was all closed she can't be far away. We can soon find 'er again. Come on!"

And he ran out of the wagon—with Matthew and Theodosia, pretending to be greatly disturbed, close at his heels.

"I'll go take another look at the gates," said the watchman. "I'm sure they're all right. But I'll make double certain anyway."

Then Higgins, Matthew and Theodosia raced off for the seal's stand.

"The door's open, sure enough," said Matthew as they came up to it. "'Ow very peculiar!"

"Let's go inside," said Higgins. "Maybe she's hiding at the bottom of the tank."

Then all three of them went in and by the light of matches peered down into the dark water.

Meanwhile the watchman turned up again.

"The gates are all right," he said—"closed and locked, every one of them."

Then at last Matthew knew something had gone wrong. And while Higgins and the watchman were examining the water with the lamp, he whispered something to his wife, slipped out and ran for the gate, hoping Theodosia would keep the other two at the stand long enough for his purpose.

As a matter of fact she played her part very well, did Mrs. Mugg. Presently Higgins said:

"There ain't nothing under the water. Sophie's not here. Let's go outside and look for her."

Then just as the two men turned to leave Theodosia cried, "What's that?"

"What's what?" said Higgins turning back.

"That—down there," said Mrs. Mugg pointing into the dirty water. "I thought I saw something move. Bring the lantern nearer."

The watchman crouched over the edge of the tank; and Higgins, beside him, screwed up his eyes to see better.

"'Oh! Oh! I'm feeling faint!'"

"I don't see nothing," said the keeper.

"Oh! Oh! I'm feeling faint!" cried Mrs. Mugg. "Help me. I'm going to fall in!"

And Theodosia, a heavy woman, swayed and suddenly crumpled up on the top of the two crouching men.

Then, splash! splash! —in fell, not Theodosia, but Higgins and the watchman—lamp and all.

The white mouse was the only one of the Doctor's pets that witnessed that scene in Sophie's tank–house when Mrs. Mugg pushed the two men into the water by–accident–on–purpose. And for weeks afterward he used to entertain the Dolittle family circle with his description of Mr. Higgins, the seal keeper, diving for fish and coming up for air.

That was one of the busiest and jolliest nights the circus ever had— from the animals' point of view; and the two men falling in the water and yelling for help was the beginning of a grand and noble racket which lasted for a good half hour and finally woke every soul in Ashby out of his sleep.

First of all, Blossom, hearing cries of alarm, came rushing out of his caravan. At the foot of the steps a pig appeared from nowhere, rushed between his legs and brought him down on his nose. Throughout the whole proceedings Gub–Gub never let Blossom get very far without popping out from behind something and upsetting him.

"A small pig tripped him up"

Next Fatima, the snake charmer, ran from her boudoir with a candle in one hand and a hammer in the other. She hadn't gone two steps before a mysterious duck flew over her head and with one sweep of its wing blew the candle out. Fatima ran back, relit the candle and tried again to go to the rescue. But the same thing happened. Dab–Dab kept Fatima almost as busy as Gub–Gub kept Blossom.

Then Mrs. Blossom hastily donning a dressing–gown, appeared upon the scene. She was met by the old horse Beppo, who had a habit of asking people for sugar. She tried to get by him and Beppo made politely to get out of her way. But in doing so he trod on her corns so badly that she went howling back to bed again and did not reappear.

But, although the animals managed by various tricks to keep many people occupied, they could not attend to all the circus folk; and before long the watchman and Higgins, yelling murder in the tank, had attracted a whole lot of tent riggers and other showmen to Sophie's stand.

Now, in the meantime, Matthew Mugg had reopened the gate in the fence. But when he looked around for Sophie she was nowhere to be seen. Jip and Too–Too, as a matter of fact, were the only ones who really knew where she was. Jip, however, with all this crowd of men rushing around the seal's stand near the gate, was afraid to give Sophie the word to leave her hiding place. More of Blossom's men kept arriving and adding to the throng. Several lanterns were lit and brought onto the scene. Everybody was shouting, one half asking what the matter was, the other half telling them. Mr. Blossom, after being thrown down in the mud by Gub–Gub for the sixth time, was hitting every one he met and bellowing like a mad bull. The hubbub and confusion were awful.