The Hounds of the Morrigan (51 page)

She showed this to Pidge, who whispered to her, and then she offered a sweet to the strawboy again. It was pink and heart-shaped and it asked:

In answer, the strawboy held out the paper bag to her and she took a white diamond-shaped one. It had pink letters that read:

Then he handed her an orange one with words in white that said:

It took only one second for Pidge to search his memory and then realize that these were Boodie’s very words. He remembered that day on the island when they were waiting for their father to come back from the Horse Show in Dublin—oh, so long ago. He whispered to Brigit and her face lit up even more. She now knew that the strawboy was a friend to Boodie and Patsy.

They paused to eat the sweets that had been read up to now. As soon as they popped them inside their mouths, the hard sweets melted away instantly like wafers and they seemed to have centres of jelly. And a dot of sweetness was created for a second or two on the tongue before they were gone!

‘I could eat tons of these!’ Brigit whispered to Pidge.

The hounds had cocked up their ears as she spoke, but looked disappointed when they heard what she said.

Brigit’s next sweet was blue with purple writing. It inquired:

A green sweet replied:

Although it wasn’t his turn, the strawboy offered another sweet.

it warned, in white on orange.

The blue one Brigit gave him answered:

‘I’m going now,’ the strawboy said loudly. Thank you for swapping your sweets with me.’

He gave one last sweet to Brigit. The instructions on it were:

After bowing sedately, the strawboy danced away.

A sweet that had worked its way up to the edge of Brigit’s box fell out and down onto the ground. Quick as a flash one of the tall thin people made a dive for it, picked it up and read it. Pidge watched anxiously, wondering what the writing on the sweet said. The hound looked disgusted and threw it away, and Pidge retrieved it and read it out to Brigit. It said:

They burst into laughter and strolled off through the crowds, pretending as they went that they were only interested in sideshows. But no matter where they went, the thin ones were always close behind them; so in the end they gave up the pretence and went to the place where they had earlier seen the barrel-organ man.

But he had moved from his pitch.

‘Now what do we do?’ Brigit asked.

‘Keep looking,’ Pidge answered; and they searched for a little while. Then they heard the music start up in the next street and they weaved in and out of the throng until they got to him.

He was at the opening of a sidestreet, playing and smiling and holding out his cap to passers-by. He had only one leg.

Why! Pidge thought, it could be the man who had the megaphone that time in the railway station at Galway, but he looks much younger.

The man greeted them as old friends.

‘Here we are again,’ he said. ‘I’m very happy to see you and I’m glad you took the job. Have you been well?’

‘Yes, very well,’ Brigit replied.

The man had let his eyes wander while he was speaking to them. The tall thin ones were lurking close by, letting on that they were only interested in a man who wanted to swap a very sociable pig for a melodeon. The barrel-organ man frowned with meaning in their direction and cut short any further conversation with the children by saying:

‘Swap me a sweet.’

The sweet that Brigit gave him said:

Popping it into his mouth, the man pulled a paper bag from his pocket and gave Brigit her choice. The message was: