The Wind on the Moon (7 page)

Then Dinah said, ‘Father is a soldier. He would never flinch from the enemy. Charge, Dorinda, charge!'

Bounding and waving their arms, they advanced at top speed. Never before had such a sight been seen in Elm Lane.

The villagers turned and ran in all directions, but the prisoners, who were handcuffed two by two, were rather at a disadvantage, and some of them were left in the lurch. Only one man tried to defend the village, and that was Constable Drum. He stood very bravely in the middle of the lane, and shouted to the kangaroos, ‘Halt, in the King's name! Halt, and be arrested!'

But Dinah, with a kick as she passed, knocked him head over heels. She did this as gently as she could, because she was quite fond of Constable Drum who was a good man, but her great kangaroo legs were so strong that even a gentle kick made him turn two complete somersaults. Then she caught Tom Leathercow the butcher's son, and kicked him into a ditch. And Dorinda caught Robin and Robina Wax, who were trying to climb a tree, but the tree was already full of people, so there was no room for them, and Dorinda kicked them both into a convenient garden.

All the trees in Elm Lane were crowded with people who had climbed into their branches to get away from the kangaroos. But a great many villagers, including the prisoners who were handcuffed and therefore could not climb trees, were running towards the Square, and Dinah and Dorinda chased them across Elm Street, and up Tulip Street, and round the statue of Queen Victoria. As they passed the door of the Police Court, Mr. Justice Rumple came out to see what all the noise was about. His shirt-sleeves were still rolled up, and he was smoking a cigar. When he saw the kangaroos he retreated very quickly into the Police Court, and slammed the door behind him, and bolted it and locked it. Then he went to the telephone, and telephoned to Sir Lankester Lemon.

Dinah and Dorinda chased the people three times round the statue of Queen Victoria. The Vicar, who was good at climbing, was sitting on her lap with Mrs. Fullalove, and the Vicar was saying, ‘I wish I had my camera! Oh, I
wish
I had my camera!' But everybody else had only one wish in the world, and that was not to be kicked by the kangaroos.

On their way round for the third time, Dinah and Dorinda caught sight of Catherine Crumb, who was riding a bicycle that belonged to Wilfrid Leathercow, the butcher's second son.

‘Look!' shouted Dinah. ‘There's Catherine Crumb!'

‘Chase her,' shouted Dorinda.

So they chased her up Rose Street, and across Oak Street, and along Oak Lane. At the end of Oak Lane, Catherine Crumb turned left into Meddlecum Road, and Dinah and Dorinda were close behind her. But Wilfrid Leathercow's bicycle was a racing bicycle, and Catherine Crumb rode very fast, with her head right down over the handlebars, and her long thin legs going like pistons. Several times she was nearly caught, but she managed to keep ahead, and rode faster and faster. Dinah and Dorinda, because they had not had very much practice at being kangaroos, were by now somewhat tired.

Meddlecum Road led to Meddlecum Hall, where Sir Lankester Lemon lived. There were large iron gates at the entrance to his estate, and a little farther on the road went over a humpbacked bridge across the River Brill.

The iron gates were wide open, and Catherine Crumb rode straight on. She crossed the bridge, and Dinah and Dorinda were scarcely a yard behind her. But suddenly, from behind a tree that grew on the left-hand side of the road, a long coil of rope came leaping through the air, and a noose of it fell round Dinah's neck. At the same time, from behind a tree on the right-hand side of the road, another rope leapt into sight, and encircled Dorinda's neck. They were jerked from their feet, and rolled over and over in the grass. They came down with a bump, and they saw, as it seemed, the road and the bridge and the grass and the trees, and Catherine Crumb on her bicycle and the two men who had thrown the ropes, all going round and round. Then they stopped rolling, and sat up, and got a clearer view of the scene.

It was Sir Lankester Lemon and Mr. Plum, his keeper, who had lassooed and captured them. Warned by Mr. Justice Rumple that there were kangaroos in the neighbourhood, Sir Lankester had made the necessary preparations, and he and Mr. Plum were all ready when Dinah and Dorinda came chasing Catherine Crumb into his estate.

He was very pleased at having two fine kangaroos to put in his zoo, and he gave Catherine Crumb a shilling as a reward for her part in the capture. Catherine Crumb looked very hot and untidy, but she was glad to get a whole shilling for herself, and rode away with a great air of triumph.

But Dinah and Dorinda were by no means pleased. They were, quite naturally, a little frightened, and they were rather sore from their fall. And they felt extremely angry with Sir Lankester for giving money to Catherine Crumb. But they did not try to escape when Mr. Plum began to lead them towards the zoo, and they went meekly into the cage that had been prepared for them.

It was large and clean, with a little house behind it, and behind that a sort of small garden surrounded by a tall fence. It was a well-kept zoo, and everything in it was very tidy and comfortable. Mr. Plum took the ropes off their necks, and, locking the cage behind him, left them alone.

‘And now what are we going to do?' asked Dorinda miserably.

‘I don't see that we can do anything at all,' answered Dinah.

‘Oh, look!' Dorinda exclaimed, and pointed to the next-door cage on the right.

From the house behind it, a much bigger house than theirs, came a tall Giraffe with bulging eyes, who stared at them in the most suspicious manner.

‘And look there!' said Dorinda, pointing to the next-door cage on the other side. ‘It's the Grizzly Bear that went into Mr. Horrabin the ironmonger's,' she whispered.

The Bear was looking at them in a rather surly way, as if he were a bear that did not like company. But he did not say anything.

‘I don't like being stared at by a Giraffe and a Grizzly Bear,' said Dorinda.

‘Neither do I,' said Dinah; ‘let's go into our house, where they can't see us.'

There was nothing in the house except a rack for food, but it gave them privacy, and they sat on the floor, leaning against their tails, and considered what to do.

At last, after thinking for a long time, Dorinda said, ‘Well, we've had our revenge, and we've still got some of Mrs. Grimble's magic draught. If we take the other two doses, and change ourselves back into girls, Sir Lankester will have to let us go. He can't keep girls in a zoo.'

‘It would be difficult to explain how we got here,' said Dinah.

‘You could make up a story,' said Dorinda.

‘It wouldn't be easy,' said Dinah, but all the same she felt in her pouch for the bottle of magic medicine. She took out the note-book and pencil, the tablespoon and a pocket-handkerchief. She felt again, and yet again. But there was nothing else in her pouch!

‘Oh, Dorinda!' she exclaimed, ‘I've lost it! I've lost the key of the back door as well, and my chocolate and my tooth-brush, but that doesn't really matter. But what is going to become of us without Mrs. Grimble's medicine?'

‘Perhaps we shall have to be kangaroos all the rest of our lives!' said Dorinda. ‘Oh, Dinah!'

‘Oh, Dorinda!' said Dinah.

Sir Lankester Lemon was a tall thin man with a small head and large pale-blue eyes that gave him a kindly but rather a goggling look. He was a great traveller, and in various far-away countries he had learnt to use such strange weapons as bow and arrow, blowpipe, bolas, lasso, throwing-spear, and boomerang. He used to practise with them, twice a week, in the park. He had a tall thin wife, who did not matter much, however. She did nothing but grumble because she didn't enjoy herself as much as she would like to, and Sir Lankester took no notice of her. All his attention was devoted to the animals in his zoo, and he did everything he could to make them happy. Most of them were quite contented with the life they led, but there was a Puma, a lovely animal of a fine golden colour, who could not forget the freedom of her native jungle, the hot sun by day and the hunting moon; and she was not happy. And there was a Greenland Falcon, whose plumage was nearly as white as snow, who kept thinking of the crystal air of the Far North, and long bright views of the ice-edged mountains; and he was not happy.

On the morning after the capture of Dinah and Dorinda, Sir Lankester came very early to see how they were getting on. Dinah and Dorinda were glad to see him. They knew him well by sight, and once, when he came to a tea-party at their house, they had actually spoken to him. It was comforting to remember that, and Dinah thought how surprised he would be if he discovered who his kangaroos really were.

Sir Lankester was wearing a tweed suit with a yellow waistcoat and a green hat, he was smoking a pipe, and there was a copy of
The Times
sticking out of his coat pocket. In appearance, thought Dorinda, he was not very unlike her father. And wistfully she remembered how far away her father was, in a foreign country, and perhaps in danger.

Mr. Plum the keeper, who was with Sir Lankester, was a short broad-shouldered man with a cheerful expression and red cheeks. He wore a canvas jacket, whipcord breeches, and a bowler hat. He and Sir Lankester, leaning against the next-door cage, where the Grizzly Bear was yawning in the early sun, gazed thoughtfully at the kangaroos, and Sir Lankester said to Mr. Plum: ‘They are the finest kangaroos I have ever seen, but they don't look happy. Let us take them for a walk and show them the zoo. Perhaps that will cheer them up a little.'

So Mr. Plum unlocked their cage, and put collars like big dog-collars round their necks, and led them out. There were steel chains attached to the collars, and Sir Lankester led Dinah, and Mr. Plum led Dorinda.

‘And now,' said Sir Lankester in a friendly voice, ‘we are going to introduce you to our other members, and we hope you will become friendly with them. Most of them get on very well together, and those who do so come out every day to play in the park, and down by the river. You have already seen Bendigo the Grizzly Bear, of course, and Mr. Parker the Giraffe. They are among the most highly respected members of my zoo. And here is Marie Louise, a Peruvian Llama. She is rather proud, and from her expression you may think she is sneering at you. But she has, in truth, a heart of gold. Haven't you, Marie Louise?'

The Llama, indeed, wore a very cold and disdainful look, but when Sir Lankester reached through the bars of her cage and scratched her neck, she smiled in her own way, and half-closed her eyes, and murmured, ‘Hasn't he the most charming manners? Don't you think Sir Lankester is quite the handsomest man you have ever seen?'

Neither Sir Lankester nor Mr. Plum, of course, could understand what Marie Louise was saying, but Dinah and Dorinda, to their surprise, understood her perfectly. Being kangaroos, they now knew the language of animals, as well as English, and they had learnt it without any trouble to themselves. This was very gratifying when they remembered the weary hours they had spent with Miss Serendip trying to learn French.

And after all, thought Dinah, what is the point of learning French? Because French people talk about the same things as we do, and why we should want to talk about the same things in two different languages I can't think. But a conversation with a camel or a leopard, for example, should be really interesting.

She and Dorinda grew more cheerful, and Sir Lankester introduced them to an Antelope, a Ring-tailed Lemur, an Ant-eater, and a Zebra. A very large Python, however, of whom he was particularly proud, was fast asleep and they did not disturb him.

‘He sleeps a great deal,' said Sir Lankester, ‘but if you ever manage to meet him when he's awake, you'll find him very interesting. He is certainly one of our most distinguished members.'

Then they walked across the park, in a corner of which was a small enclosure where a pair of Ostriches lived. They were called Sir Bobadil and Lady Lil.