The Legend of the Corrib King (8 page)

‘That's right,' said Cowlick, ‘he said nobody would find them as long as they stayed close to the little people.'

They paid their money to a plump lady in riding breeches, and were glad they had left Prince to mind the caravan when they heard her telling people no dogs were allowed in as they might frighten the horses. Moving inside, they found they were in a miniature circus tent complete with sawdust ring and tiers of wooden seats. A good many people had already taken their places, but they spotted a vacant spot about three rows from the front. It was another fifteen minutes or so before the tent was considered full enough for the show to begin.

The lady who had taken the money at the entrance came into the ring and asked for silence for Titania. Soft woodland music filled the tent from some hidden source. Beyond the sawdust ring, curtains were drawn back and in swept the fattest lady they had ever seen … so fat, indeed, that the plump lady in the riding breeches looked almost thin by comparison.

Titania smiled graciously and bowed around the ring. A thousand silver sequins sparkled on her red dress and in her blonde hair. She waved her wand and the colours of the rainbow rolled across the tent as someone somewhere pulled a switch to work a spell for the fairy queen.

‘And now,' smiled Titania, ‘let me introduce you to my merry little band.'

With a wave of her wand, the curtains fell aside once more, and out rode a dozen little men on a dozen little white ponies. Round and round the ring they went with the speed of the wind, for all the world like a band of fairies riding through the night.

There was a gasp from the audience, and Jamesie whispered, ‘The little people!'

‘Shush,' Róisín told him. ‘Can't you see they're just small men?'

Titania held up her wand, and the little riders brought their mounts to a stop. ‘And now,' she said, ‘let me introduce you to Puck.'

Even as she spoke another little man stepped into the ring. Taller than the others, and muscular, he was naked to the waist and wielded a whip in his tiny hand. He bowed, then cracked his whip, and the little riders immediately spurred into action. Walking around Titania, he cracked his whip again and again. At each crack the riders turned this way and that, never pausing, never stopping, until suddenly Titania held up her wand again. The ponies stopped. The riders faced them inwards, and each of the little animals knelt down on its front knees in a salute to the fairy queen.

There was silence. Then everyone burst into loud applause. A moment later, before the applause had died away, the little riders were away again, only this time they were performing acrobatics while their little mounts carried them round and round the ring. And so it went on, a most splendid performance that lasted the best part of an hour. At the end of it Titania called for a special round of applause for her Little People. There was no need. The audience was absolutely enchanted by them and rose to their feet and clapped and clapped as they sped from the ring.

‘That was fantastic,' exclaimed Jamesie on the way back to the caravan.

‘Fantastic,' agreed Cowlick.

‘I've never seen anything like it,' said Rachel.

‘Nor I,' said Róisín. ‘They were really magnificent.'

Tapser agreed. ‘But the question is, what's the connection between them and Pakie's kidnappers?'

‘Do you think he could have meant them?' wondered Rachel. ‘You know, when he wrote that bit,
Nymphs dance in the moonlight and secrets unfold
.'

‘Could be,' said Cowlick. ‘And if he did, it means Titania's Palace may hold the answer to it all.'

‘But how will we find out?' wondered Jamesie.

‘We'll just have to go back and check it out,' said Róisín.

‘You mean, search it?' asked Jamesie, and the others could see that while he didn't mind rowing around the lake in the middle of the night, he had reservations about invading the home of the fairy queen.

‘Róisín's right,' said Tapser. ‘We've got to find out what Pakie meant, and there's no other way to do it.'

It seemed a long time before the carnival closed down for the night, but eventually the crowds drifted away, the generator stopped and the coloured lights went out. Then, when the moon was up and the people who ran the carnival were in their mobile homes, Tapser led his cousins under the lighted windows and down towards Titania's Palace. Quietly they lifted the edge of the tent and crawled underneath. The moon shining through the canvas filled the inside of the tent with a ghostly green. Not quite knowing what to do, they stole silently forward between the seats until they were standing in the centre of the sawdust ring.

Someone coughed.

‘Quiet,' whispered Tapser. ‘Keep close together and follow me.'

Before they could go anywhere a light flashed on. A dozen little men leapt out of nowhere onto the wooden circle, and a crack of a whip brought them face to face with the one called Puck. Panic-stricken, they turned to run, but found to their horror that they were surrounded.

It was almost as if they had been lured into a fairy ring and could find no way out. Cowering closely together for support, they watched as the little men danced on the wooden circle and clapped their hands in glee. For a moment Puck stood at the opening in the circle, hands on his hips, glaring at them. Then he cracked his whip. The other little men stopped dancing and in strode Titania, now wearing a dressing gown instead of her sparkling fairy costume.

‘What have we here, Puck?' she asked, her smiling face no longer smiling.

‘Intruders, Ma'am.'

‘How did they get in?'

‘Under the canvas, Ma'am.'

‘Is that true?' Titania asked them.

They nodded.

‘But why do you come here?'

No one answered. What could they say?

‘All right, if that's the way you want it. Puck, bring them along.'

Titania walked away between the curtains and Puck cracked his whip again. Immediately the other little men started pushing and jostling them. Puck kept cracking his whip, and they had no option but to go along.

Beyond the curtains they were taken through a rear exit and around to a smaller, square-shaped tent. The little men ushered them inside. From the fancy costumes scattered here and there on boxes and cases, they guessed this tent was used as a changing room. Titania was seated regally at the far end, and she ordered them to sit on an old settee on her left. Puck sat on a box to her right, while the others seated themselves on the ground, legs crossed, like elves awaiting her commands.

‘Now,' she said rather crossly, ‘why have you come to Titania's Palace?'

‘Yes,' said Puck in a small husky voice, ‘why?'

‘Why, why, why?' echoed the others in a chorus of little voices.

‘Silence,' ordered Titania, and her Little People were immediately quiet. ‘If you don't speak up,' she continued, ‘I will have to call the police.'

That was something they didn't want. Martin would take a very poor view of their breaking into Titania's Palace, and it would also be very embarrassing for him.

‘All right,' said Tapser, ‘we'll tell you. We're looking for our Uncle Pakie.'

‘He's been kidnapped,' added Jamesie.

‘But why come here to look for him?'

‘Yes, why come here?' asked Puck, and the other little men joined in chanting, ‘Why come here? Why come here?'

Titania silenced them with an outstretched hand, and added, ‘I think you had better tell me more.'

There was nothing else for it, so between them they told her about Pakie's disappearance, and about what the two men had said about taking someone to the fairy queen and arranging to meet at the fair.

When they had finished, Titania held up the palms of her hands and said, ‘We're not poachers, we're show people. My Little People and I like to have a captive audience, but we don't kidnap anyone.'

The little men smiled and clapped their hands.

‘Then you don't know the man with the rings?' asked Rachel.

‘I know many men with rings,' Titania confessed. ‘Some who even wear rings in their ears. But show people are like that. And let's face it, they could have meant any fair. Perhaps a cattle fair or a horse fair. Even a game fair. So why pick on us?'

There was obviously a lot of sense in what Titania was saying, so Róisín said, ‘You're right. They could have meant any fair.'

The others nodded in agreement, and Tapser added, ‘We're sorry if we made a mistake. It was all my fault.'

‘Your apology,' said Titania graciously, ‘is accepted. And what's more, if there is something going on here, you can rely on us to give you any help we can. You will find that my Little People are good people, and if you require any help in the search for your Uncle Pakie you need only ask.'

To their surprise, the little men clapped their hands vigorously and smiled and nodded their approval.

‘And now,' said Titania, ‘you are free to go.'

Disappointed and confused, they returned to their caravan, and next morning made their way back to the campsite by the lake. What had gone wrong, they asked themselves? What else could the poachers have been talking about if it wasn't the carnival? It fitted perfectly, right down to the fairy queen and the little people. Even Pakie's poem suggested that the secret must lie in Titania's tent when it said,
Nymphs dance in the moonlight and secrets unfold
.

‘Unless,' said Cowlick as they got their breakfast ready the following morning, ‘the poem ended on the island.'

‘But every other part of it meant more than one thing,' Tapser reminded him. ‘And Titania's palace fits the last lines exactly.'

‘It also fits what the man with the rings said about taking Pakie to the fairy queen,' said Jamesie.

‘But let's look at it another way,' said Róisín. ‘Rachel and I have always had the feeling that what they were talking about was a boat. So maybe when the man with the rings said he'd take him to the fairy queen he meant that they were planning to take him off the island.'

‘Then we came along,' added Rachel, ‘and they had to move him anyway.'

‘But the fat man did say nobody would find him so long as they stayed close to the little people,' Jamesie pointed out.

‘Then maybe we're not far wrong after all,' exclaimed Tapser, jumping to his feet. ‘Maybe they just intend using the funfair the same way they used the travellers' camp, you know, as a place where they can meet without attracting attention.'

‘That could be it all right,' agreed Cowlick. ‘That van of theirs, and the caravan, would fit in perfectly at the fairground. And Titania would know nothing about it.'

‘Come on,' cried Róisín, ‘what are we waiting for?'

Prince barked loudly, almost as if he sensed by their excitement that they were on the trail again, and a few minutes later they were trotting back to Nymphsfield.

The morning passed slowly. The amusements were at a standstill and the fairground was deserted. Then, after lunch, the scene suddenly changed. The generator burst into life again, the coloured lights came on, Titania's Little People saddled up their ponies, and people began streaming in.

‘An afternoon show,' observed Jamesie. ‘That's going to make it more difficult.'

‘You can say that again,' said Tapser. ‘Look at the crowd.'

‘And look at the caravans,' added Rachel. ‘They all seem the same.'

People were coming by car, by bicycle and on foot.

‘Isn't that like their van over there?' asked Róisín after a while. She was pointing to a blue van that had pulled in beside a cream-coloured caravan parked on the fringe of the fairground.

‘Could be,' said Cowlick. ‘It's like it all right, but it's hard to say.'

‘There's only one way to find out,' said Róisín. ‘Come on Rachel.'

‘Careful,' warned Cowlick, but they had already gone.

Anxiously the boys watched the two girls circle around to the van and walk casually past.

‘Well?' asked Tapser when they returned.

Triumphantly, Róisín held up her thumb. It was smudged with blue paint.

‘And it's green underneath,' Rachel told them.

‘So that is their van!' cried Tapser. ‘Great work. Come on Jamesie, let's get a bit closer.'

They yoked up Nuadha again and when they had moved closer to the van they parked in a way that they could pretend they were just watching the fair.

A few minutes later, Jamesie whispered, ‘Look!'

Out of the corner of their eye they saw the thin man with the rings arriving at the cream-coloured caravan and going inside.

‘Now we'll see what happens,' said Tapser.

Several times in the next half hour the man with the rings came out and looked around. Everywhere people were milling about. Anxiously they scanned the crowd for the fat man.

‘There he is,' cried Cowlick. ‘Over there.'

When the others looked they saw the fat man parking his pony and trap some distance back from the funfair. Casually he made his way over to the cream-coloured caravan, and with a furtive glance around to see if the coast was clear, went inside.

‘I bet Uncle Pakie's in there,' said Jamesie.

‘So do I,' said Tapser. ‘They said nobody would find him so long as they stayed close to the Little People, remember?'

‘But what can we do about it?' asked Rachel.

‘This time I think we should tell the police before we do anything,' Róisín suggested.

‘They're over at the fair in Clonbur,' Jamesie reminded them.

‘The Little People!' said Cowlick. ‘Titania said if we needed help all we had to do was ask.'

‘Good idea,' said Róisín. ‘Let's tell them.'

‘Your horseshoe nails,' said Tapser. ‘Quick, give them to me.'

The girls didn't stop to ask him why. They just stuffed their horseshoe necklaces into his hand and made a beeline for Titania's tent.

‘What are you going to do?' asked Jamesie.

‘We have to make sure they don't leave,' Tapser told him. ‘Here, give me your nails too.'

Jamesie and Cowlick watched as Tapser crept over to the front wheels of the van and wedged the nails firmly under them.

‘The ground's stony over there,' he panted when he came back. ‘So with any luck the nails will stop them going anywhere until we get help.'

A few minutes later the two men came out of the caravan, hitched it to the van and got in. The man with the rings started up the engine and they moved off. However, they had only gone a few yards when there was a hissing noise and one of the front tyres of the van went flat.

From the doorway of their caravan, Tapser, Cowlick and Jamesie nudged each other and smiled.

Realising they had a problem, the two men got out and after looking at the flat tyre, went off into the fairground.

‘Now's our chance,' said Cowlick. ‘Come on. Let's see if Pakie's in there.'

Tapser stood guard beside the van with Prince while Jamesie and Cowlick ran to the door of the caravan and tried to open it. It was locked. Anxiously they glanced around. There was still no sign of the two men. Frantically they banged on the door with their fists.

Suddenly the door burst open and a man tumbled out. His feet were tied and his mouth was covered with a strip of tape.

‘It's Uncle Pakie,' cried Jamesie, flinging himself down beside him. ‘Uncle Pakie!'

Cowlick knelt down to give Jamesie a hand, and they were working to untie him when Tapser warned them that the two men were coming back.

Seeing what had happened, the two men rushed forward but hesitated when Prince, urged on by Tapser, began to bark at them. They looked around. People were beginning to gather now, wondering what was going on. Realising the game was up, the two turned and made off. Prince ran after them a short distance, barking, and returned as Tapser was helping to untie Pakie. At the same time the girls ran up shouting, ‘Pakie, Pakie,' and in the next breath warned, ‘Hurry, they're getting away.'

Running around the caravan, the boys saw the fat man rushing to the waiting pony and trap. Climbing in, he whipped the pony into action, slowed momentarily to hoist the man with the rings on board, and galloped away towards the road.

‘Come on,' cried Jamesie.

The girls were already taking Pakie over to their caravan. They all helped him to get on board and clambered in after him. Jamesie gave a sharp flick of the reins, and the chase was on.

As they bowled along the Galway road, the girls hugged Pakie and told him how delighted they were to see him.

‘Not half as delighted as I am to see you, my darlings,' he smiled. ‘It's lucky I got my hands free, or I'd never have got out.'

Tapser and Cowlick also came back and they helped Pakie to rub the cramps out of his wrists and ankles.

‘I'm grand now, I'm grand,' he assured them, and struggling to the doorway, asked, ‘How's it going Jamesie?'

‘We'll never catch them,' Jamesie shouted back. In desperation he urged Nuadha on, but it was obvious that the caravan was much heavier than the trap.

‘Look,' cried Rachel, who was craning her neck around the edge of the door, ‘it's the Little People!'

Glancing around, Jamesie was delighted to see Titania's Little People coming abreast of them. He also saw the look of astonishment on Pakie's face, and explained, ‘They're from the funfair. They said they would help us if they could.'

The others were crowding around the doorway now, and they waved and cheered when they saw what was happening, for the Little People were going like the wind, for all the world like the fairytale warriors of long ago riding across the Plain of Southern Moytura.

Soon the little riders had left the caravan behind, and were catching up with the trap when it careered around a corner and disappeared down a side road. The little riders followed and a few minutes later Jamesie turned in too. Before long they came to the Corrib, and what an amazing sight met their eyes.

Fleeing madly from the Little People as if their lives depended on it, the men in the trap urged their pony on towards the lake shore. There they suddenly came upon a party of gardaí who immediately raised their hands to try and stop them. Ignoring the gardaí, they kept going, and for a moment it looked as if they were going to drive straight into the lake. However, their's was no enchanted water-horse. The frightened animal swerved abruptly, and the two of them were thrown into the water.

Afraid that the pony might crash into someone or injure itself, the gardaí gathered around to stop it. Seizing their chance, the two men gathered themselves up, and high-stepping frantically across the shallows, scrambled into a thicket of alders. A few seconds later there was the roar of an engine and a boat streaked out of an inlet behind the thicket.

‘It's the motor cruiser,' cried Róisín. ‘But how …'

Before she could finish, the engine spluttered into silence and the boat glided to a halt. For a moment the two men and those on shore looked at each other, not knowing what to do. Then they heard the sound of another engine and a launch with gardaí on board came into view. It drew alongside the motor cruiser and several gardaí jumped on board.

Martin was among the gardaí waiting on shore to take the two men into custody, and Pakie, who had suffered from them for so long, gave a helping hand.

‘There's no way they're going to escape this time,' grinned Cowlick.

Rachel laughed. ‘Not unless they know a good fairy who can open handcuffs.'

‘Look at the heap of netting they had,' said Tapser.

Róisín smiled. ‘And look at the name of the boat …'

‘Would you believe it?' said Jamesie. ‘The
Fairy Queen
!'

* * *

Pakie, who looked thin and underfed at the best of times, had lost weight during his captivity. Otherwise, he assured everyone when he arrived back at Big Jim's house, there was nothing wrong with him that a good bite to eat wouldn't cure.

Mag and Mary were overjoyed to have their brother back safe and sound, and it wasn't long before they had a hefty meal ready for him. As he devoured it, he listened while Jamesie and his cousins told him how they had tried to solve the riddle of the poem and how they had come to find him at the funfair. By the time they had finished their story, he had finished his meal and, pushing back the empty plate, said, ‘Well, full marks to you.'

‘And were they right?' asked Mag. ‘I mean, about the poem?'

‘They were,' said Pakie. ‘Dead right. You see, I convinced the poachers there was no harm in letting me scribble a few poems to pass the time. That way I was able to compose the one with all the clues in it. But I had to make sure they weren't too obvious, so they wouldn't cop on.'

‘We didn't really cop on either,' Martin admitted, ‘but luckily Jamesie and these other young detectives here did.'

‘Lucky for me,' said Pakie smiling over at them. ‘As I say, I couldn't make it too obvious. But what I was saying was really simple. As you know, the poem was in two parts, and my idea was to give as many clues as possible. In the first part, the message I was trying to get across was that the salmon, the king of fish, was being netted by a gang of poachers on its way to the spawning beds and that there should be a search for them.'

‘We thought maybe you were also saying you had been struck down and that we should look for you, too,' said Rachel.

‘Me, the Corrib king?' laughed Pakie, and his laugh turned into that dry smoker's cough they remembered so well.

‘Aye,' said Dan, ‘and king of the poets too if you ask me. What about the second part?'

Recovering from his fit of coughing, Pakie explained, ‘In the second part I was trying to indicate where they could be found. So all the clues there pointed to the islands, especially Lusmore where they kept me for most of the time.'