"Mr Ramball!" cried the boys in a breath. "Aha! Good-morning! Only
to think of me looking over here to see if I could catch sight of you
two young gents, and hitting upon just the right spot, and--Oh my!"
There was a rushing sound as the wild-beast proprietor suddenly
disappeared--so suddenly that, moved as by one impulse, the two lads
made a dash at the palings, sprang up, and held on to look over, and see
Ramball seated on the ground in the act of taking off his hat and
extricating his yellow silk handkerchief to dab his bald and dewy head.
"Hurt?" cried Glyn anxiously. "Well, I--I don't quite know yet," said
their unexpected visitor. "I haven't sat down as quick as that for a
precious long time. Well, no, I don't think I am; it wasn't pleasant,
though. But my toe might have given me notice that it was coming off
that ledge. Well, how are you? If you'd come over here I'd offer to
shake hands, but I would rather sit still for a few minutes to get my
breath again. It seemed to be all knocked out of me at once."
The two lads glanced across the fields towards the orchard where the
elephant had eaten his fill of apples, and, seeing nobody near, they
both broke bounds by swinging their legs over the palings and dropping
on the other side by the fat little man.
Glyn offered his hand to help him up, and Ramball took it and shook it.
"By-and-by," he said. "I am all right here.--And how are you, my hero?"
he continued, extending his hand to Singh.
"Quite well," said Singh good-humouredly, looking at the showman but in
imagination seeing the great elephant instead.
"That's right," cried Ramball. "You look it--hearty, both of you!"
"Where's the elephant?" said Singh.
"Oh, he's all right, sir. Fine."
"Is he coming into the town?" cried Glyn.
"What, here, sir? Bless you, no! He's in Birmingham, where we are
doing a splendid business; crowded houses--tents, I mean--twice a day."
"And what are you doing here?" cried Singh.
"Oh, killing two birds with one stone," said the man, laughing.
"Where are they?" asked Glyn, laughing in turn.
"Get out! Poking fun at me! It was like this 'ere. The gent
yonder,"--and the man gave his head a jerk backwards--"wrote to me and
said that he'd had to pay a pound for a bit of damage to the fence about
his orchard, and that he thought, as my elephant had done the mischief,
and I had only paid him for the apples he ate, the money ought to come
out of my pocket. Well, young gentlemen, I always pay up directly for
any damage done by my beasts if the claim's made honest. This gent,
your neighbour, sent in a very honest demand, and I set that down as one
of the birds I wanted to kill. T'other was that I wanted to see my farm
and how some of the young stock was getting on. So I nips into the
train yesterday, travelled all night, and been to see the gentleman,
paid up, and he was very civil--give me a bit of breakfast, and when I
said I should like to look round the place again where my elephant went
in for his apples he said I was quite welcome to look about as much as I
liked. Well, we have been lately in the iron country and among the
potteries; and bless you, it's quite a treat to be away from the smoke
and to see things all a-growing and a-blowing. Then I catches sight of
this bit of new fence, and that set me thinking of your school and you
two young gents; and for the moment I thought that I would go back, say
good-morning to the gentleman, and come round to the school and ask to
see you two. But then I said to myself, `Well, they are not their own
masters yet, and the Doctor mightn't be pleased to have a common sort of
fellow like me coming the visitor where I had no business,' and I says
to myself, `It might make it unpleasant for those two young fellows, and
so I won't go.' Then I thought I should like to catch sight of you both
again, for I took quite a fancy to you young gents. And here I am."
"Well," said Glyn, laughing, "we are glad to see you; eh, Singh?"
"Yes, of course. But hadn't you better get up, Mr Ramball? It seems
so queer for us to be standing talking to you and you sitting there,"
said Singh.
"Oh, I'm all right, bless you, my lad. It makes me think about my
Rajah."
"And me too. He's a grand beast."
"Isn't he, my lad? And the way he's been putting flesh on is wonderful.
I won't say he weighs a ton more than when you saw him last, but he's a
heap heavier than he was."
"But," cried Glyn mischievously, "his trunk's fine enough, only he's got
such a miserable little tail."
"You leave his tail alone," said Ramball, wagging his head. "What he's
got is his nature to."
"But I say, Mr Ramball," cried Singh merrily, "don't you want me to
come and ride him in your show?"
"Well, no, sir; you chucked your opportunity away. I have got a new
keeper now as fits exactly."
"What a pity!" said Glyn merrily.
"Well, that's what I thought, sir," said Ramball quite seriously, "when
the young gent threw away his chance. You know we are common sort of
people; but the money we earn sometimes ain't to be sneezed at. Why, of
course I ought to tell you. Who do you think I have got?"
"Oh, how should we know?" cried Glyn.
"Friend of yours, gentlemen, that come to my show when it was here and
wanted me to take him on."
"Friend of ours?" said Glyn.
"Yes; just after squire here had ridden Rajah. Said he was hard-up and
couldn't get anything to do, but that he could talk Ingyrubber tongue as
well as squire here. But I wouldn't have anything to do with him then,
for I didn't believe in him."
"Professor Barclay!" cried Glyn excitedly.
"That's the man, sir. Well, he come to me, followed me up like, and I
engaged him."
"But he's gone to India!" cried Singh excitedly.
"Gone to India, sir? Well, he's only got as far as the elephant, and
that's in Brummagem town as sure as I am sitting here."
"Do you hear this, Glyn?" cried Singh excitedly.
"Oh yes, I hear," was the reply, and the two lads exchanged glances,
while Ramball sat shaking and nodding his head like a mandarin image.
"It's no use, gentlemen. You threw that chance away. He come after me
and followed me up all through the Midlands. Half-starved he was, pore
chap. I never see such a gentlemanly sort of chap so hard pushed as he
was; and at last out of charity like I took him on. And very glad I am,
for he's turned out capital. He talks that Indian gibberish to the old
Rajah, and the big beast follows him about like a lamb. Never have a
bit of trouble with him now, only when he tries to shove one of the
caravans over with that big head of his, just in play; and then Bah
Klay--that's his show-name, and a very good one too--comes and says
`Hookah-bah-dah' and `Shallahballah,' and the Rajah follows him as quiet
as can be."
"Oh," said Singh.
"Ah, I wish you could see him, sir," continued Ramball, dabbing his head
pleasantly with his yellow handkerchief. "Bah Klay is quite an addition
to my show, and the people come in hundreds to see him and the Rajah
alone. It was him himself as came to me one day and proposed it."
"What, the Rajah?" cried Glyn.
"The Rajah! Tchah! What are you talking about? No; Bah Klay. He said
it wouldn't cost much, and that if I'd pay for the white cotton bed-gown
sort of thing for him to wear and some scarlet muslin to roll up to make
a muzzle to wear upon his head--"
"Muzzle! Over his mouth, you mean," cried Glyn.
"Who said anything about muzzle?" cried Ramball tetchily. "I said
puggamaree--and that if I'd buy them, he'd dress up, and that he'd got a
property to finish it all up fine. Well, I'd never seen any property
that he'd got except a few things in a very shabby old carpet-bag that I
wouldn't have picked up off the street. Still, I couldn't help thinking
that him in a white bed-gown and a red turban on his head, cocked up
there on the elephant's neck, wouldn't make a bad picture; so I said I
would, and the very next week when we had paraded for a procession to go
through one of the pottery towns and draw the people in, Mr Bah Klay
came out in what he called his property. Ah, and he done it well! He'd
washed his face in walnut juice, and his hands too. There he was in his
white bed-gown and scarlet puggaree turban thing, and round his waist
he'd got on a yellow leathern belt all dekkyrated with gold and buckled
on with three great green glass ornaments that twinkled in the sun like
hooray."
Singh started, his lips dropped apart, and he made a snatch at Glyn's
wrist just as his companion clutched him by the arm, and the lads stood
gazing into each other's eyes.
"Yes, gents, I tell you he looked fine, and it would have done your
hearts good to see him. That there idea of his put steady vittles into
his mouth and a few shillings a week into his pockets; but it always
puzzled me why, him being so hard-up, he hadn't tried to sell that there
belt. I said so to him one day, but he only gave a curious kind of grin
and said he should have done so, but nobody would buy it, for it wasn't
real. Well, of course I never supposed it was, being a theaytrical kind
of property. Still, I don't suppose it was made for less than a
five-pun note. Well, gentlemen," cried Ramball, rising slowly and
giving his head a final dab, "I must be off. I go back to Brummagem
again this afternoon, and all the better for seeing you two gents; so if
you will shake hands, your sarvint to command, Titus Ramball, of the
Imperial Wide World Menagerie."
The two lads shook hands heartily, but they were too full of thought to
say much; and as the visitor went in one direction, they slipped over
the palings and sat down with their backs against the fence to have a
good long talk, for Fate seemed to have provided them with a subject
upon which they could discourse; and it was this:
There was the criminal, almost within touch, for they had only to give
notice to the police and the Professor would be lodged in jail for
theft.
"And what then?" said Singh slowly. "I wouldn't have that belt again if
it were brought to me. And what was it your father said about the
Professor being punished?"
"Oh! about the punishment coming when he found that he had made himself
a thief to get something that was not worth the pains."
"Yes," said Singh, "but not in those words. Then we don't want to
punish the miserable cheat any more."
"And do harm to droll old Ramball," said Glyn. "My word, though, I
should almost like to go to Birmingham and suddenly come upon the
Professor riding upon old Rajah's neck!"
"Pah!" exclaimed Singh, with his lip curling and a look of disgust in
his eyes, "I shouldn't like to see the miserable creature for the poor
elephant's sake. Here, let's go and tell Mr Morris."
"No, no!" cried Glyn excitedly. "All that trouble is being forgotten,
and it would hurt his feelings if it were brought up again."
"Think so?" said Singh.
"Yes. Promise me you'll never say a word to any one here."
"Well," said Singh thoughtfully, "I won't."
Salaam To All!