JIMMY RUNS AWAY AGAIN
Now, Jimmy thought that he also would like to be in the procession. He
would have liked to dress up as Nan had done, although perhaps he would
not have cared to sit quite so close to the lion. They seemed to have
forgotten all about him, and he was left to do just as he liked. So what
he did was to walk beside the procession into the town, and then to run
on ahead to find a good place to see it pass.
He got back to the van long before Nan and her father, and being quite
alone, he began to look about him. Hanging on a peg, he saw a lot of old
clothes, which seemed rather interesting, especially one suit that must
have belonged to the little clown.
Jimmy looked at the dress again and again. There were long things like
socks, of a dirty white colour, with a kind of flowery pattern in red
along the sides. Then he saw what looked like a very short and baggy
pair of light red and blue knickerbockers, and also the jacket of light
red and blue too, with curious loose sleeves.
He would very much have liked to put them all on just to see how he
looked in them, only that he felt afraid that Nan or her father might
return before he had time to take them off again.
No sooner did they come back than they began to prepare for the evening
performance, and still everybody seemed too busy to give many thoughts
to Jimmy.
'Whose is that little clown's suit?' he asked, while Nan was busy about
the van.
'Ah,' she answered, 'that was my little brother's,' and she spoke so
unhappily that he did not like to say any more about it.
But Jimmy wanted more and more to try the suit on himself only just for
a few moments, and he thought it could not possibly do any harm.
Presently Nan, who had taken off Britannia's dress, put on her green
velvet riding-habit, and Jimmy could hear the band playing close by, and
he guessed that the performance was soon going to begin.
'You can go to bed whenever you like,' said Nan, before she left the
van.
'Thank you,' he answered, and when she had gone he stood at the door
looking out into the darkness. He could see the flaming naphtha lamps,
and hear the music and a loud clapping inside the great tent, and now
they seemed all so busy that it might be a good time to put on the
little clown's dress.
First of all Jimmy shut the upper part of the door, so that nobody who
happened to look that way could see inside the van. He took down the
clothes from the peg, and removed his own jacket and waistcoat and
knickerbockers as quickly as possible. Then he found that he must take
off his boots and stockings, and he sat down on the floor of the van to
draw on those with the pattern on each side. They did not go on very
easily, but he managed it at last, and then it was a simple matter to
put on the loose knickerbockers and the jacket.
As his feet felt cold, he put on his own boots again, and then he stood
on a chair without a back to take down the piece of broken looking-glass
which he had seen Nan use that day. He could not get a very good view of
himself, but he could see that his face was much dirtier than it had
ever been before in his life, and this was not to be wondered at,
because he had not washed it since he left his Aunt Selina's yesterday
morning. And yesterday morning seemed a very long time ago.
He stood in the middle of the van, trying to look at himself in the
glass, when suddenly it fell from his hand and broke, and Jimmy gave a
violent jump. For to his great alarm he heard distinctly the voice of
Coote, the railway policeman, just outside the van.
Now Coote had been greatly astonished last night, on coming out of the
ham and beef shop, to see no sign of Jimmy. He had spent two hours
looking for him, and then he gave him up as a bad job. When he told the
station-master what had happened, he was ordered to do nothing else
until he found the boy again, and so Coote had spent the whole day
searching for him. And Coote's instructions were, on finding the boy, to
take him direct to his aunt's house at Chesterham.
Coote, after looking all over Barstead, thought that perhaps Jimmy had
gone away with the circus people, so he took a train and followed them.
But Jimmy felt as much afraid as ever; he made sure that if Coote caught
him he would be locked up in prison. Thinking that the policeman was
coming into the van, he looked about for a place to hide himself, and at
last he made up his mind to crawl under the bed. It was not at all easy,
because the bed was close to the floor; but still, Jimmy managed it at
last, and lay quite still on the floor, expecting every moment that
Coote would enter. Then he remembered that he had left his own clothes
on the floor, so that if Coote saw them he would guess that their owner
was hiding. Jimmy felt that he would do anything to get safely away, and
he lay on the floor scarcely daring to breathe, until Coote's voice
sounded farther off.
Crawling out from under the bed again, presently, without stopping to
think, Jimmy opened the door of the van, ran down the steps, and on
putting his feet to the grass, he at once dodged round the van and set
off at a run away from the tent.
He ran and ran until he was quite out of breath. He seemed to have
reached a country lane; it was very quiet and dark, and the stars shone
in the sky. Jimmy sat down by the wayside, feeling very hot and tired,
and then he remembered that he was wearing the clown's clothes. He
remembered also that he had left all his money and his knife behind him;
but still he did not think of going back, because if he went back he
would be certain to fall into the hands of Coote.
No, he would not go back; what he would do was to make his way to
Chesterham. It could not be very far, for the clown had said he should
be there in a few days, although the caravan travelled slowly. Why
shouldn't he walk to his aunt's house, and then he would see his mother
and father, who no doubt would look surprised to see him dressed as a
clown. If his mother was really like Aunt Selina she might be very
angry, but then he hoped she wasn't like his aunt, and, at all events,
Jimmy thought she could not be angry with him just the first time she
saw him.
But, then, he might not be in the right road for Chesterham, and he did
not wish to lose his way, because he had no money to buy anything to
eat, and already he was beginning to feel hungry. The sooner he got
along the better, so he rose from his seat beside the road and walked on
in the hope of seeing some one who could tell him the way. He walked
rather slowly, but still he went a few miles, passing a cottage with
lights in the windows now and then, but not liking to knock at the door.
But presently he felt so tired that he made up his mind to knock at the
next. When he came to it he walked up to the garden gate, but then his
courage failed. He stood leaning against the gate, hoping that some of
the people whose voices he could hear might come out; but presently the
windows became dark, and Jimmy guessed that, instead of coming out, the
people in the cottage had gone to bed.
Now that he knew it must be very late, Jimmy began to feel a little
afraid. It seemed very dull and lonely, and he longed to meet somebody,
never mind who it was. There was only one thing which seemed to be
moving, and that was a windmill standing on a slight hill a little way
from the road. It seemed very curious to watch the sails going round in
the darkness, but Jimmy could see them rise and fall, because they
looked black against the blue sky. The mill was so near that he could
hear the noise of the sails as they went round, it sounded like a very
loud humming-top, and there were one or two patches of light to be seen
in the mill.
Jimmy thought that perhaps he might be able to lie down near to it,
although the difficulty was to get to it. But when he had walked on a
little farther, he saw a dark-looking lane on his right hand, and after
stopping to think a little, he walked along it. With every step he took
the humming sounded louder, but presently Jimmy stopped suddenly.