The Wind on the Moon (22 page)

Then, quietly and quickly, they went upstairs and found the Judge's bedroom. They knew it was his, because on a table in a corner there were three busts, of Caesar and Shakespeare and the Duke of Wellington, and each of them was wearing one of the Judge's spare wigs.

‘And now,' said Dinah, ‘what do you want to do with the mice?'

‘Come here,' said Dorinda, who had crawled under the bed, and when Dinah followed her, she pointed to the spiral springs on which the mattress rested.

‘They look rather like little cages, don't they?' she asked. ‘It would be a very appropriate place to put mice, and nobody will ever think of looking for them there.'

Dinah agreed, so they pushed the six dead field-mice into six of the spiral springs that supported the Judge's bed, and crawling from under it, looked through the window at the lawn where the Judge was playing clock-golf with his Cook, his Tablemaid, and his Housemaid. Then they set to work again.

‘This must be his dressing-room,' said Dinah, opening another door.

‘What a lot of clothes he has!' said Dorinda, looking into a wardrobe.

‘And dozens and dozens of shirts,' said Dinah, examining a chest of drawers.

Some of the postcards which they had written were concealed in the neat array of shirts, and others thrust into the pockets of his various suits, and when that was done Dinah said they must look for the library.

That was on the ground floor, and as soon as they went in they saw, on a very ornamental marble mantelpiece, two tall Greek vases of the sort which Miss Serendip had taught them to call an amphora.

‘The very thing!' said Dinah, and drawing a chair to the mantelpiece she climbed up, and having pulled the cork from the bottle containing the dead eels, she hid it in the nearer vase.

‘Isn't it horrible!' cried Dorinda, as she sniffed the dreadful smell that came from the uncorked bottle.

‘It's worse than horrible,' said Dinah. ‘If that doesn't make him change his mind, nothing will.'

‘And we still have the kippers,' said Dorinda.

‘I think the dining-room is the proper place for them. You remember those enormous oil-paintings which are probably his father and his mother? And another, of sheep walking over a mountain? We could pin the kippers to the wall behind them with these drawing-pins that I brought.'

Dorinda had no better suggestion to make, so that was quickly done, and they left the house through the open dining-room window, and walked into Midmeddlecum. They wanted to see Catherine Crumb, the baker's daughter.

They both heartily disliked Catherine, with her wicked face and her long thin legs, and they had by no means forgiven her for what she had once done to them when, after eating too much, they had swollen into something very like balloons. But they knew that Catherine was the most useful person in the village for their present purpose, because she had a natural gift for mischief and loved nothing better.

She was very much surprised, and rather frightened, when they arrived at her house and told her they had something very secret to talk about. But no sooner had they explained their plan to her, and described what they had done already, and made clear what they wanted her to do, than her wicked face grew pale with excitement, her dark eyes gleamed with pleasure, and she pulled the joints of her fingers so that each of them made a noise like a stick breaking.

‘You can depend on me,' she promised. ‘All the children here will do what I tell them, and if the Judge doesn't change his mind within a week, you can stick more pins in me than I ever stuck into you.'

‘Thank you,' said Dinah, a trifle haughtily, ‘but we never stick pins in people.'

‘Don't if you don't want to,' said Catherine. ‘It won't make any difference to what I've promised.'

Then for a day or two Dinah and Dorinda waited impatiently to see how their plan was going to work, and before long they had very good news of it. The Judge was beginning to look thoroughly unhappy, and his Cook reported that he had entirely lost his appetite.

After finishing his game of clock-golf, on the afternoon when Dinah and Dorinda left the mice and the eels and the kippers in his house, the Judge had gone into the library to read, and was immediately aware of a strange smell in the room. So he rang the bell and the Tablemaid came in, and when he told her to sniff she sniffed, and looked rather surprised, but answered, ‘I smell nothing but your cigar.'

Then he rang for the Housemaid and made her sniff. ‘I smell nothing but the nice leather smell of your armchair,' she said.

Then the Judge, growing angry, sent for the Cook, and made her sniff all round the room like a bloodhound. But the Cook, in a very determined voice, said, ‘I smell nothing but that bowl of lovely roses, which I cut for you myself, and which I myself put on your desk.'

The truth was that all of them could smell the strange odour in the room, but none would admit it, because they worked very hard to keep the house tidy and clean, and they refused to believe there could be anything dirty or out of place in it.

So the Judge sent them away and tried to persuade himself that the smell was nothing but imagination, and after an hour or two he became used to it and did not notice it. But on the following morning, going to breakfast in the dining-room, he sniffed and sniffed, and summoning again his Cook and his Tablemaid and his Housemaid, declared, ‘There is a disgusting smell in this room also. What is it, what causes it, and why do you permit it?'

But all of them, looking very smart and clean in their print dresses and white aprons, with their faces newly washed, indignantly replied that the room smelt sweet as a garden, and always would while the house was in their charge. So the Judge ate his breakfast unhappily and went out quickly. But on his way through Midmeddlecum he passed several little boys and several little girls who, when they saw him coming, hurriedly avoided him and held their noses in a very ostentatious way.

The smell in the library was much worse that evening, and when he went to bed he lay awake for at least an hour, sniffing from time to time, and saying to himself, ‘It is only imagination. It can be nothing but imagination.'

In the morning, however, the smell of mouse was undeniable, and rising early he searched the room for the source of it, but found nothing. He did find, however, in the folds of a clean shirt, a postcard on which was written:

H
AVE YOU CHANGED YOUR MIND TO-DAY
?

This made him very angry, but as soon as he went into the dining-room he felt more worried than angry, for by now the room was smelling unmistakably of bad fish. Quickly he felt for his handkerchief—and found in his pocket another postcard with the inscription:

H
AVE YOU CHANGED YOUR MIND TO-DAY
?

In Midmeddlecum that morning at least thirty little boys and girls, in the most pointed manner, held their noses while he passed, and twice he heard Catherine Crumb explaining to them in her shrill voice: ‘He hasn't changed his mind for weeks and weeks!'

This state of affairs lasted for several days, and the Judge grew more and more worried, and the several odours of mice and kippers and eels grew worse and worse in his house, for though the Cook and the Tablemaid and the Housemaid dusted and cleaned from morning till night, and searched again and again for the source of the smell, they never thought of looking in the springs under the bed, or in the Greek amphora, or behind the paintings of the Judge's father and mother. So in a few days' time he became thin and haggard, and wherever he went he heard voices saying, ‘He hasn't changed his mind for weeks and weeks!' He began to wonder whether that indeed was the cause of all the disagreeable odours in his house.

And then one night he could not sleep at all, for the smell of mouse was stronger than ever, and the dining-room had smelt abominably of fish, and the smell of decay in the library had been perfectly disgusting. He sat up in bed and turned on the light, and looked at his watch. It was four o'clock. Quite soon he would have to get up, and walk into Midmeddlecum, where all the little boys and girls would hold their noses when they saw him coming, and ostentatiously avoid him.

‘Oh, what shall I do, what shall I do?' he exclaimed, and tore a strip off the top sheet before he realised what he
was
doing.

Then he seemed to hear a mysterious voice say to him: ‘Tearing sheets won't help you, what you've got to do is to change your mind.
Change your mind
. C
hange your mind
!'

A hundred and fifty-seven times the voice repeated its message, and then the Judge lost his temper and shouted, ‘All right, all right. I heard you the first time! I'll change it, if that's the only way to get rid of these confounded smells. I'll change it, I tell you, but give me a chance! I've got to get my trousers on first.'

He got up and dressed as quickly as he could, and walked through Midmeddlecum to the prison, which was on the other side of the town. The sun rose as he crossed the Square, and the windows of the houses blinked in the morning light, and the bowl of the sky was like a Chinese tea-cup that you can almost see through, and a flock of little clouds stood perfectly still, like sheep when a strange dog first appears. Mr. Justice Rumple felt happier than he had been for a long time, and hurried to the prison as fast as he could. How delighted the poor Members of the Jury would be, he thought, when they heard that he had decided to release them! They would probably give him three cheers, he decided.

He pulled the big brass bell at the prison gate, and heard it ring far inside:
Inkle-bangle-bankle-bang. Inkle-bangle-bankle-bang. Inkle-bangle, inkle-bangle, bang
.

No one came to let him in, so he pulled it again and again:
Inkle-bangle, inkle-bangle, inkle-bangle-bankle-bang
. . .

Then a window opened, and another and another and another, and all the prisoners put out their heads and shouted, ‘Who's making all that noise?'

‘I am!' shouted the Judge. ‘I've come to tell you that I've changed my mind, and you can all go home. You can go home at once!'

‘I'm not going home at this time in the morning for you or anyone else!' shouted Mr. Whitloe the drayman, and shut his window with a bang.

‘Aren't we even allowed to sleep?' yelled Mrs. Leathercow, and shut her window with a still louder bang.

‘You don't think we're going before we've had breakfast, do you?' exclaimed Mr. Fullalove, and shut his window too.

‘Go away!' shouted all the others. ‘Wait till we've had our breakfast!' And they all shut their windows very firmly indeed.

An expression of great sadness settled on the Judge's face, but making an effort he decided to be patient, and sitting down on a grassy bank opposite the prison gate he lighted a cigar and prepared to wait until nine o'clock, which was the usual breakfast-time at Midmeddlecum Gaol.

Far above him, while he sat there smoking, a great bird crossed the sky, then turned in a wide sweep, circled above him, and presently flew swiftly to Major Palfrey's house, where he landed on a window-ledge and with his beak tapped loudly on the glass.

Dinah and Dorinda woke immediately and let the Falcon in.

‘I think your plan has worked,' he said. ‘The Judge is sitting outside the prison, waiting, I suppose, till the slugabeds wake and let him in.'

‘He has changed his mind!' exclaimed Dinah.

‘And Mr. Corvo will be free,' said Dorinda, clapping her hands.

‘So it appears,' said the Falcon.

‘We must go at once,' said Dinah, ‘and take away the kippers and the mice and the eels before the Judge gets back. Hurry up and get dressed, Dorinda. Good-bye, Falcon, and thank you for coming. We'll see you very soon!'

So the Falcon flew away, and Dinah and Dorinda got dressed in three minutes, and ran all the way across the fields to the Judge's house.

Just before they reached it they saw the Cook and the Tablemaid and the Housemaid hurrying in the direction of Midmeddlecum, for the news had spread rapidly, and everybody by now had heard what was happening, and practically all the inhabitants except very small babies and people who were bedridden were on their way to the prison to see the release of the Members of the Jury.

So Dinah and Dorinda found it quite easy to remove the mice from under the bed, and the kippers from the dining-room wall, and the eels from the Greek vase, and quickly they buried them in one of the Judge's own flower-beds. Then they washed their hands and ran to the prison too.

They were in plenty of time, for the Members of the Jury still refused to leave until they had had their breakfast, and would not even allow Mrs. Jehu to serve it half an hour before the usual time.

But at half-past nine they came out, looking very serious and important, and the Judge stood on a chair and politely announced that he had changed his mind, and so they would be released from prison and could go where they liked and do as they pleased—‘Within reason, of course, always within reason,' he quickly added.