The Sugar-Cane Prison arrives: The Rats water it with Soy
fluid to keep the canes growing as fast as the Prisoner
breaks them down: The time for siesta draws on, and Smaly
and Redy go into the house of the Historian.
While the Wigs were in the kitchen, and Smaly and Redy were seated in
the doorway sharing Papylick's provisions, distant cries rose upon the
air. Smaly and Redy turned to gaze out at the public square, which was
hot and empty; but in a moment several Wigs arrived at the far end,
running hard with their little short legs, and crying out:
[Illustration: RUNNING HARD WITH THEIR LITTLE SHORT LEGS]
"The prison has turned round, it's coming in this direction."
The Chief Contractor, who was eating in the kitchen in company with the
Despoiler, the Confectioner, the Crow, Mistigris, the Stork, and
various other people, precipitated himself towards the door, followed by
the rest. Listening to their scraps of conversation Smaly gathered that
the Wigs held some stranger captive, and that this prisoner lived in a
perambulating prison which travelled about the country. This astonished
Smaly very much, as, indeed, it would have astonished you had you been
in his place. Even I, who have seen many strange things, was very
astonished when I first heard about it.
[Illustration: SOY MILL]
[Illustration: SOY RESERVOIR]
The shouting grew nearer, and there appeared at the far end of the
square a forest of sugar-canes moving steadily onwards. The canes reared
up into the air like rockets which never rose any higher, or like a
field of gigantic corn, and they formed a solid wall which came ever
nearer and nearer.
The wall came onward and hit against a house which stood in its way, and
mowed it down. The sugar-canes were far more powerful than the pastry of
which the house was composed.
The sugar-cane forest came closer, so close that Smaly and Redy
perceived how amongst the base of the canes there was a multitude of
Water-Rats who were busy watering the roots.
These Rats were all provided with large mackintoshes, which, however,
they took off for greater freedom of movement while they were watering.
They wore boots like those you see upon the men who clean out drains,
and each Rat had upon its head a fireman's helmet similar to that worn
by the Stork.
Some watered with a watering-can, some with firemen's hose, connected
with reservoirs shaped like enormous bottles of champagne, and mounted
upon wheels.
One of the Rats, who wore a long red feather trailing from its helmet,
was mounted upon a Hare whose pads were wrapped in linen. The Rat
galloped backwards and forwards upon the Hare from the forest to a big
windmill marked "Soy," where the reservoirs were.
Still the forest kept on advancing until the quiet square was
transformed into a den of noise and activity. The sugar-canes grew
higher and more numerous every moment under the influence of the water
of Soy, which was as productive as the Soy powder.
The kitchen was by now emptied of everything movable; the Wigs ran
hither and thither carrying away every object that they could lift, as
people move furniture when a neighbouring house is burning; only Smaly
and Redy remained, stupefied before this moving forest which marched
down upon them.
[Illustration: CARRYING AWAY EVERY OBJECT THAT THEY COULD LIFT]
When it was almost on them they ran to one side, and there, where the
sugar-canes were less thick, they could see into the heart of the
forest, and they saw crouching within it a strange-looking man dressed
in rags. Little of his face showed between his long hair and his tangled
beard. He wore no shoes; but carried at the end of a string several
boxes of matches. Perpetually he made the same rhythmic gesture with his
arms, and with every gesture the sugar-canes around him broke as if they
were made of brittle glass. His eyes stared straight in front of him,
and he seemed to be laughing to himself.
"He is a madman," said Redy.
"They have driven him mad," replied Smaly in a low voice.
Smaly and Redy joined hands. "We ought to save him," they said together.
* * * * *
The Prisoner never ceased to break the sugar-canes, and fresh canes
sprang up around him also without a pause.
Fish that had wings and paws flew above the forest, brushing the heads
of the canes with their ringed noses. Whenever they did this the
sugar-canes seemed to shrivel up and vanish.
And thus the forest advanced, new canes springing up ahead, and the old
canes withering behind; but always surrounding the Prisoner, no matter
how he shattered them.
Now these rings which the Flying-Fish wore in their noses had been fixed
there by the Despoiler, and the rings worn by all the Wigs came from the
same source and served the same purpose, that of stopping all growth.
This was how the Despoiler came by his name, for mere creature of
insensate pasteboard as he was, he had the power from his magic ring to
arrest all life--a blade of grass in the ground, or the passage of a
bird in the air.
[Illustration: THE PRISONER]
Suddenly the Prisoner paused in his frantic toil and fell asleep like a
child. The rats also left off their work and wrapped themselves in their
mackintoshes.
[Illustration: THE PRISONER NEVER CEASED TO BREAK THE SUGAR-CANES]
Smaly and Redy wished to attract the attention of the Prisoner; but the
strange man slept on, and they did not dare speak to him too loudly, for
they were afraid that he might be quite mad, and also they did not know
how the Wigs would take interference with their prisoner. Indeed,
Papylick and the Young Stork had already noticed what they were trying
to do, and since the kitchen had been destroyed by the passing of the
forest they now drew Smaly and Redy gently but firmly into one of the
houses in the square.
"This is the house of the Historian," said Papylick, "and here you must
stay until the setting of the sun."
[Illustration]