The Wind on the Moon (11 page)

‘He has a key!' murmured Dinah, who, if she had not been a kangaroo, would certainly have felt extremely frightened to see a grizzly bear going out for a walk. ‘But where can he have got it, and how? Did he steal it from Mr. Plum? He must be a
professional
thief!'

Bendigo had left the door of his cage open, so Dinah concluded that he did not mean to be out for long. It would be a good idea, she thought, to stay up till he returned and give him a fright. But then it occurred to her that she might be the one to get a fright, for Bendigo would be fearfully angry when he knew that his secret had been discovered, and because he had a key which would open his or her or Mr. Parker's cage—Mr. Plum always used the same key for all three of them—he might even come in and hug her. Bears did hug people when they were annoyed with them. She knew that, because Miss Serendip had told her so.

It was a frightening thought, and Dinah was on the point of going back to bed when she saw something which made her change her mind immediately. Bendigo had not only left his door open, but he had left the key in the lock.

If she could only reach it!

She put her arm through the railings between her cage and Bendigo's, and stretched her fingers as far as she could. She could just touch the edge of the door. She managed to give it a little pull, and made it move inwards till it was nearly shut. The lock was a few inches nearer now. She reached again, pressing her shoulder against the bars till they hurt her, and she felt the end of the key.

She wriggled it in the lock, and it came out. But her fingers were stretched so straight that she couldn't hold it. It fell with a tinkle to the floor, it gave a little jump, and lay farther away than ever.

Dinah nearly began to cry. Their hope of escape had been so near, and now it had vanished again.

But she made up her mind to be brave, and no sooner had she done that than she remembered that she had a tail. And her tail was much longer than her arm.

She turned round, with her back to the railing, and put her tail between the bars. Then, looking over her shoulder, she began to fish for the key. She got the tip of her tail round it and pulled it towards her. Nearer and nearer it came. Then she could reach it with her hand, and a moment later she had unlocked the door of her own cage.

She wondered for a moment whether to go in and wake Dorinda, but she knew that she must not waste time, so without more than a moment's hesitation she set off in the direction that Bendigo had taken. She went quickly, using her tail to leap far ahead into the darkness. How well she could see in the dark, now that she was a kangaroo! She wondered if her eyes were shining, as the eyes of other animals gleam at night, and if so what colour they were.

She felt that she was being very brave, and at the same time she could not deny that she was rather frightened. For no one could say that pursuing a grizzly bear was not a dangerous thing to be doing, even though he was a highly educated bear who read
The Times
. But somehow she was convinced that it was most important to find out where he had gone, so she did her best to stop feeling frightened, and to think instead how excellent a thing it was to be brave.

Suddenly, in the middle of a long jump, she heard a kind of hoarse whistle, and twisting herself round in mid-air she landed softly on the grass, and then went forward very, very cautiously.

A few yards farther on she peeped carefully round a holly-tree, and saw Bendigo. He was sitting up, and in the darkness he looked enormous. Low in the sky there were a few stars, and the brightest of them seemed to be resting on top of his head. Then Bendigo put one paw into his mouth and whistled through his claws. It must be a signal, thought Dinah.

She waited patiently, and presently against the starlit sky she saw a tall creature with long legs and a long nodding neck and a big pale body. It was Sir Bobadil the Ostrich. He and Bendigo had a whispered conversation, and then Bendigo gave him
The Times
. Sir Bobadil immediately began to eat it, and appeared to enjoy his meal very much indeed.

‘So Miss Serendip was right,' murmured Dinah.

Miss Serendip had often told her that an ostrich will eat anything, but neither she nor Dorinda had quite believed such a story. Here, however, was the proof of it, and this was how Bendigo got rid of his stolen newspapers. Bendigo and Sir Bobadil were in partnership, and it was, in a way, a partnership of crime. Mr. Parker, thought Dinah, will be interested to hear about this.

Then to her horror she saw that Sir Bobadil had nearly finished
The Times
, and she knew she must hurry, for Bendigo would be going home at any minute now. So quietly and carefully she crept away, and when she felt safe took a great leap, and another, and another, and speedily got back to her cage, which now seemed very safe and comfortable. She went in, and closed the door, and locked it carefully, and put the key in her pouch. She lay down beside Dorinda, and waited.

In a few minutes' time she heard Bendigo closing his door with a gentle click. Then came a deep growl of astonishment and dismay. He had discovered that the key was missing! She could hear him shuffling about, and breathing hoarsely. Then she heard the gate click again.

The key hung on a loop of tarry string, and Bendigo had probably worn it round his neck, where it would be hidden by his thick hair. ‘He probably thinks that he dropped it in the park,' said Dinah to herself, ‘and now he has gone back to look for it. Poor Bendigo!' And suddenly she felt sorry for him, because it struck her that he must now be almost as worried as she and Dorinda had been when they discovered the loss of Mrs. Grimble's bottle.

‘Poor Bendigo!' she repeated. But she was very tired, as well as sympathetic, and before she knew how it happened she was fast asleep.

Bendigo had indeed gone back to look for the key. He searched everywhere for it, but naturally could not find it. He was about to call Sir Bobadil to come and help him, when the suspicion occurred to him that he might have dropped the key at the same time as he gave Sir Bobadil
The Times
, and Sir Bobadil had swallowed both of them. The Ostrich, he knew, had a perfectly insatiable appetite, and he was probably just as fond of old iron as he was of paper.

The more he thought of it, the more strongly was Bendigo convinced that this had actually happened, and he became so furiously angry that all the hair on his neck stood out as stiffly as the bristles of a new hair-brush. He put his paw to his mouth and whistled through his claws. He whistled three times, and then Sir Bobadil, thinking that here was another meal, came running to him.

‘You swallowed my key,' growled Bendigo.

‘No, I didn't,' said Sir Bobadil.

‘Then where is it?'

‘How should I know?'

‘It's in your stomach.'

‘Nothing of the sort! I never eat keys.'

‘You're a liar. You eat everything you can get.'

‘No, I don't. I've got a very delicate digestion, and you're a rude old bear!'

Then they began to quarrel in earnest, and Bendigo chased Sir Bobadil all round the park, but couldn't catch him, and while they were still arguing the sun came up and it was broad daylight.

Bendigo suddenly remembered that he had no business to be out of his cage, and without another word he turned and went lumbering home as quickly as he could. But he was too late.

Mr. Plum had got up early, and was taking a walk round the zoo. Just as Bendigo was approaching his cage from one side, Mr. Plum approached it from the other. Mr. Plum was extremely astonished to see Bendigo, and Bendigo was totally dismayed to see Mr. Plum. So they stood and looked at each other for half a minute without speaking or moving.

Then Mr. Plum said in a very angry voice, ‘What are you doing out at this time of the morning?'

And Bendigo hung his head, and Mr. Plum put a rope round his neck and led him off to a dark uncomfortable cage that stood all by itself in the loneliest corner of the zoo.

As soon as they woke, Dinah told Dorinda everything that had happened the night before, and Dorinda looked at Bendigo's key and said, ‘Now we can escape.'

‘Not immediately,' said Dinah. ‘There's not much use in escaping before we have found Mrs. Grimble's bottle. And don't you think it's our duty to stay till Mr. Parker has solved the mystery of the missing eggs?'

‘He may take a long time to do that,' said Dorinda.

‘He'll take much longer if we're not here to help him,' said Dinah. ‘I think the first thing we ought to do\??\—'

‘I know!' said Dorinda. ‘Let out the Silver Falcon!'

‘Yes,' said Dinah. ‘Give the Falcon his freedom, and he'll look for Mrs. Grimble's bottle while we're looking for the missing eggs.'

‘He may fly away altogether,' said Dorinda.

‘I don't think so. I feel sure that he's an honourable falcon, and he wouldn't go away and leave his friend the Puma in captivity.'

‘Suppose we do find Mrs. Grimble's bottle, and turn ourselves into girls again: how are we going to get the Puma out of the zoo?'

‘I haven't thought of that yet,' said Dinah, ‘but we'll find a way. And now I think I must have a talk with Mr. Parker.'

Before she could call Mr. Parker, however, Sir Lankester and Mr. Plum came to pay their usual morning visit to the animals, and they stood before Bendigo's cage talking gravely about his wicked behaviour.

‘You were perfectly right to put him in solitary confinement,' said Sir Lankester. ‘I should have done the same myself.'

‘I got the shock of my life when I saw him standing there,' said Mr. Plum. ‘But luckily I had a bit of rope with me, so I put a noose round his neck and led him off to the solitary cage right away. He came quietly, I'm glad to say.'

Dinah and Dorinda listened to this conversation with great surprise, for they had been sound asleep when Bendigo was discovered by Mr. Plum, and it had never occurred to them that he was anywhere but in his own house. As he was often late in getting up, there was nothing unusual in not seeing him out in his cage. Now again Dinah felt sorry for Bendigo in his misfortune, even though he was a newspaper thief, and possibly worse.

‘I wonder how he got out,' said Sir Lankester for the seventh time.

‘If we knew that,' said Mr. Plum, ‘we'd know a lot.'

‘Are you
sure
that his door was locked?'

‘I've been locking doors for eighteen years,' said Mr. Plum, ‘and I've never made a mistake yet.'

‘It's a complete mystery,' said Sir Lankester.

Slowly they walked on to the next group of cages, and as soon as they were out of earshot Mr. Parker demanded excitedly, ‘What is it all about? What is the mystery now?'

Dinah told him the whole story, and Mr. Parker's great dark eyes grew so large with amazement that Dinah and Dorinda could see their whole reflection in them.

‘Quickly, quickly!' he exclaimed. ‘Get out your note-book. Write it all down. Write down C
onspiracy
to begin with. Do you know how to spell it? C–
o
–n–s–p. . .
s
–
p
. . .Well, call it a Plot. P–
l
–
o
–
t
, Plot.'

‘I can spell Conspiracy, thank you,' said Dinah, and wrote it down.

‘It's very bad manners to use a difficult word when a simple word will do just as well,' said Mr. Parker. ‘And what is worse, you've interrupted my train of thought.'

‘Oh, all right,' said Dinah. ‘I'll call it a Plot.'

‘Good,' said Mr. Parker. ‘Now write this: There is a Plot between Bendigo and Sir Bobadil. Therefore Bendigo is Sir Bobadil's accomplice. A–
c
–
c
–
m
. . . No, that's not right. A–
c
–
u
–
m
. . . Oh, call him a Partner. Therefore Bendigo is Sir Bobadil's partner. Have you written that?'

‘Yes,' said Dinah, and this time she didn't argue, because she herself wasn't quite sure how to spell
accomplice
.

‘Alternatively,' said Mr. Parker, ‘Sir Bobadil is Bendigo's accomplice—or partner, as we have agreed to call it.'

‘I've written that,' said Dinah.

‘Good,' repeated Mr. Parker. ‘And what can we deduce from that?'

‘I don't know,' said Dinah.

‘Neither do I,' said Dorinda.

‘Nor do I,' added Mr. Parker after a minute or so of hard thinking. ‘It's baffling, isn't it? Very baffling indeed. But we have two suspects now instead of one,' he went on more cheerfully, ‘and it's always a good thing to have several suspects. Because if you're disappointed in the first, you may still be lucky with the second.'

Mr. Parker scratched his right ear with his right hind foot, and a new thought seemed to strike him. ‘Have you ever,' he asked, ‘seen egg stains on Bendigo's chest?'