The Kingdom Of Carbonel Part 19

*They look like Noggin and Swabber, those two cats we met on the high place!' she whispered to John.

*Will you finish the wall today?' asked Mrs Brown.

*Bless you, yes!' said the man, skilfully sc.r.a.ping off a piece of unwanted mortar and slapping it into position.

The cats were wide awake now. They were staring at the bricklayer with unblinking eyes.

*By five o'clock this afternoon it'll all be done, and smooth on the top as your Ma's tape measure!' he said to Rosemary, and at the word *five', Noggin and Swabber were off down the road to Broomhurst like greased lightning, as John put it.

*And talking of lightning, I think there's thunder about,' said Mr Featherstone.

It was certainly very close. *I vote we have tea in Bagshott Wood. It may be cooler there.'

The tea was delicious, with ice cream and some late raspberries brought by Mr Featherstone as his share of the feast. Afterwards, John and Rosemary lay on their backs in the dry beech leaves, and looked up at the s.h.i.+fting c.h.i.n.ks of sky between the branches above them. They had so much to think about that they were rather quiet. The grownups talked earnestly together, but the children lay there listening to the animal conversations going on around them.

A bird sang a song somewhere about the joys of bringing up a family. The song had a chorus of trills and tralas, and the last verse went on to say that perhaps the joy of being free again when the family had flown away was even better. Two spiders were arguing about the best way to start a web between two trees. A rabbit looked around a stump and said in disgust, *More humans!' and disappeared again.

Mrs Brown and Mr Featherstone went off for a walk, and as the flowered dress and the grey flannels disappeared between the trees, Rosemary said, *You know, the best part of all this magic has been the power to hear animals talk. I don't think I could bear to have it taken away now!'

*Nor me,' said John, not bothering about his grammar. *You know, I think waiting is the hardest thing of all to do. I don't think half past eleven tonight will ever come!'

28.

The Attack

In spite of their doubt, half past eleven did come at last. Mrs Brown had gone to bed early.

*That long walk with Mr Featherstone this afternoon must have made her tired,' whispered John as they crept downstairs with their sandals in their hands. This time they were taking no chances and were fully dressed.

It was hot and very still in the darkened garden. In the Green Cave, not a leaf stirred above them. They took it in turns to sit on the biscuit tin to put on their sandals. Presently a darker shadow slipped between the bushes, and the brisk voice of the cat who had delivered the message that morning said, *Greetings to you, sir and miss!'

*Greetings to you!' said Rosemary politely.

*I have been instructed to see you safely to headquarters, and I a.s.sure you, you will be perfectly safe in my charge.'

*That's very good of you,' said John, who felt quite capable of looking after himself and Rosemary. *But all the same a"'

*Not at all!' broke in the animal, as they crawled out of the Green Cave. *Not that it is for everybody I'd risk missing my place in the battle, no sir! But your fame has gone far and wide, as the gallant rescuers of the royal kittens, and I'd look on it as an honour,' he said graciously. *Leadbitter is the name.'

They followed him out of the garden into the road.

*Where are the headquarters?' asked Rosemary.

*Ss.h.!.+' said Leadbitter hurriedly. *The very lampposts may have ears!' he whispered. *Follow me!'

John and Rosemary followed. Leadbitter trotted on in the swift, effortless way of the cat with a purpose, and they had their work cut out to keep up with him. An occasional car sped by, and sometimes a late homecomer walked quickly past, and looked curiously at the two children. Several times they were overtaken by other cats hurrying in the same direction. To each one Leadbitter called softly, *Bittem?' and the animal would answer, *Haddock heads!' And apparently satisfied, Leadbitter would trot on again. Once they saw a large tabby cat accompanied by a very small one. *This is not a night for kittens to be abroad, ma'am!' said Leadbitter firmly. *Better take him indoors as quickly as possible!'

*Yes, sir, this very minute, sir. I'm taking him out of harm's way to his auntie, sir!' came the answer.

They hurried on, and as they neared the Old Town, John said, *Rosie, look at that wall!'

The pavement along which they were hurrying ran beside a wall which towered like a cliff above them. Rosemary looked up and saw along the top a steady stream of animals, trotting silently, purposefully along. Leadbitter turned to see why they had stopped, and looked up, too.

*Ours,' he said briefly. *Come on!'

When at last they turned the corner at the end of the street, they found themselves by a churchyard.

*St Michael's!' said Rosemary.

*It's a ruin, isn't it?' asked John.

Rosemary nodded.

*Only since the war. The tower is complete, though. People pay sixpence to go up and see the view from the top through the telescope. Is that where the headquarters are?' she asked. *But how can we get inside? The keeper locks it every night.'

*Well, tonight isn't the first time he's forgotten!' said Leadbitter, and trotted across the road and up to the iron studded door. *Go on! Open it! We have other means of getting to the top, but you will have to use the stairs.'

John turned the handle. The door opened easily. It was dark inside the tower, but as their eyes grew accustomed to the gloom, they saw a winding stair up which they followed their guide, who was, of course, able to see perfectly well. As they stumbled up behind him, they pa.s.sed three narrow windows, by which they paused to regain their breath. Through the first they saw they were level with the second floor windows of the houses opposite. Through the second window they were level with the roof tops. But when they plodded rather breathlessly past the third window, they could see nothing but the deep blue of the night sky. At last they reached the belfry where the three church bells hung, silent, above them. Rosemary put up her arm as something swooped and fluttered around their heads. It was a bat.

*A disgraceful intrusion!' it complained in a high, peevish voice. *Bats in the belfry I always understood it was, not dozens of cats, and now two great lumbering humans as well!'

*I'm so sorry,' said Rosemary. *We didn't mean to disturb you, and we will try not to lumber.'

*Hearing humans, eh?' twittered the bat. *Well, I suppose that's different,' and he darted through the open trap door above them.

Leadbitter, followed by John and Rosemary, climbed up the wooden ladder that led to the square of star-studded sky. He paused as a cat's head was outlined against the stars, and a pair of green eyes looked down on them. *Halt, and give the pa.s.sword!' said the head.

*Haddock heads!' said Leadbitter. *I've brought the sir and miss.'

*The Councillor is waiting for you. Look lively and come up.'

They came out into the night air. Many times Rosemary had paid her sixpence and climbed the tall church tower to look through the telescope which stood at the top. You could see the roofs of Fallowhithe spread beneath. Away in the distance to the south, across the fields, you could see the smudge of houses that was Broomhurst. But that, of course, was in daylight. With John she came out, not on to the leaded roof she had expected, but on to an uneven rocky hollow, surrounded, not by the carved pinnacles of the church tower, but by strangely formed jagged rocks. There was no telescope. Where Rosemary thought it stood was a little, stunted tree. But they had no time to examine anything as Merbeck trotted up.

*My dear John and Rosemary, you are just in time! From here you will be able to watch the progress of the attack in safety. What are you fidgeting for, Leadbitter? Yes, yes, of course you may go now!'

Leadbitter gave a quick bow to Rosemary.

*Good luck, my boy!' called Merbeck. *For Queen and country! I only wish I were ten years younger!' But Leadbitter had already disappeared.

*But where is Queen Blandamour?' asked John.

*She insisted on addressing our faithful Fallowhithe animals before the attack.'

*Like Queen Elizabeth the First at Tilbury before the Spanish Armada,' whispered Rosemary.

*She is surrounded by a powerful bodyguard, and already she should be on her way back here. But come and see.'

He led them to the rocky parapet where several cats, who were gazing down, made room for them. From their dizzy pinnacle of rock they could see Fallowhithe spread out beneath, but just as the roof of the high place had seemed not a roof but a gra.s.sy plateau, so it seemed in the clear starlit night that they were looking down, not on the roofs and chimneys of a town, but on a mountainous, craggy country, scored with valleys and canyons. It stretched away to the north till it was lost in the darkness. To the south, a low range of hills narrowed to what looked like a spur of land, which dwindled in its turn into a ribbon which pointed straight as a ruler into the darkness where they knew Broomhurst must be.

*Is that the Causeway?' asked John.

Merbeck nodded.

There was a low mist over the fields on either side which might well have been the sea.

*It all looks so peaceful!' said Rosemary.

*Maybe,' said Merbeck. *But wait until the clocks strike midnight! My spies discovered that that is when the attack is planned. Do you remember the old skating rink?'

Rosemary nodded. She remembered the rink as a low building enclosed by a jumble of tall shops and offices. The Councillor waved with his paw toward a low lying hollow surrounded by rocky hills.

*That is one of the places where the Broomhurst cats plan to gather, when they have crept in secretly by the Causeway, and there they expect to be joined by their friends who have already wormed their way into the town. There is a second meeting place to the north on Fire Station Heights.'

*But I can't see any cats!' said John.

*There is nothing so still as a cat that does not wish to be seen,' said Merbeck. *Wait!'

As he spoke, behind them the Cathedral clock struck twelve, with its deep, booming voice, to be joined by the quick eager chimes of the clock of the Market Hall. Hard on its heels came the station clock, and like distant echoes sounded the clocks of St Anne's Church and Fallowhithe High School. When there was nothing left of the chimes but a faint vibration in the air, Merbeck said, *Now look at Skating Rink Hollow!'

*Something's moving!' said John.

*The enemy!' said Merbeck.

It was as though the surface of the hollow was a giant cauldron, and someone was stirring it with a huge wooden spoon. Little eddies of cats ran up the surrounding slopes and joined the ones already there.

*Hm,' said Merbeck, *there were more of them already here than I imagined.'

He turned toward the Causeway. It was as though in the dark, out of sight, a bottle of ink had been spilled along its width, and had seeped along the top toward Fallowhithe.

*Broomhurst cats,' said Merbeck briefly.

*Two hundred strong they must be!' said one of the animals standing at Merbeck's side.

*Oh dear, can't we do something?' said Rosemary anxiously. *Before it's too late!'

*Have patience. Remember they do not know we have been warned!' said Merbeck.

The Causeway cats had nearly reached the walls, or hills, of Fallowhithe. *Give the signal,' he said sharply. *Now!'

The cat beside him threw back his head and gave a low bubbling cry which rose in the air, growing shrill and clear till it split the silence like a bugle call. Far away came an answering cry, then from different parts of the town, another and another.

*You see we are not unprepared! That was the signal for the defenders to advance!' said Merbeck. *Now watch. Their orders are to stop the animals on the Causeway from joining their friends on Skating Rink Hollow and Fire Station Heights, both of which are surrounded by picked Fallowhithe cats.'

Something was happening on the Causeway. At the sound of the bugle call the oncoming army of Broomhurst cats halted, then they moved on again more slowly. They kept closely together, but finding themselves unhindered, quickened their pace until they reached the slopes that were the first roof tops of Fallowhithe, and as they spread out and moved up the incline, the slope on the other side seemed to come alive and move up to meet them. It was the Fallowhithe cats who had been waiting, so still and silent that they had seemed part of the landscape itself. With bloodcurdling cries they surged up to the top and hurled themselves on the enemy, spitting their defiance.

From the lookout John and Rosemary could see the struggling ma.s.s swaying first one way and then another.

*But we can't tell what's happening!' said Rosemary in distress.

*I think all is going well!' said Merbeck. *We shall know more when the dispatches start coming in. I wish Her Majesty were here to watch. It is high time she returned,' he said uneasily.

But John and Rosemary were looking towards Skating Rink Hollow. This was farther away, so that they could not see so clearly what was going on. But whereas it had looked like a cauldron stirred with a spoon when the enemy cats first began to move, it now looked as though the cauldron was boiling furiously, as more and more Fallowhithe animals hurled themselves into the hollow. From time to time a rallying cry would break the silence of the night with its shrill eerie note, while small skirmishes broke out all over the town as the Broomhurst animals scattered, spitting and swearing.

The clocks chimed the quarter, and the half hour, and a messenger cat came panting up to Merbeck.

*The Causeway fight is going well, sir. A number of the enemy have turned tail!'

*The Fire Station Heights affair is satisfactory, sir!' said another cat breathlessly. *But there is trouble at Skating Rink Hollow. We're outnumbered!'

*Bring up some of the reserves,' snapped Merbeck. *Better use the Garbage Foragers a" sc.u.m of the town, but magnificent fighters!' he added for John's benefit. *Why does not Her Majesty come?'

*Councillor! Sir!' said a voice. *It's Leadbitter! He's wounded.'

They turned. Leadbitter stood panting behind them. One ear was torn, and there was a gash in his side.

*Terrible news!' he said. *The Queen! She's gone!'

29.

Minuscule Magic

*The Queen gone?' repeated Merbeck. *When? How did it happen?'

*She was returning after her speech. Things were getting pretty hot, and the Captain of the Queen's Guard enrolled a few cats who were pa.s.sing a" in case of trouble a" and I was one. Well, we were in a solid ring around her, nose to tail, and one minute she was therea and the nexta she was nowhere to be seen!'