Stig of the Dump Page 8

  He stood by the entrance and waved the policeman in. The policeman doubled himself up and crawled in through the low entrance. Then he gasped.

  It looked like Aladdin’s cave. Necklaces and bracelets hung winking from the roof of the shelter. The floor of the cave was carpeted with the skin of the car seats. Stig’s bed was made up with padding from the seats and covered with fur coats, and above it, stuck into the wall, was a driving mirror and a set of switches and buttons saying ‘HEADLIGHTS’ and ‘WIPER’ and ‘HEATER’. And all round the floor, stuck into the ground and set out like tin soldiers on parade, were troops of silver spoons and forks. Stig had been enjoying himself!

  ‘Well, I’m blest!’ exclaimed the policeman. He took out his notebook. ‘I take it all back, Barney, me boy. And if you’ll just help me tick off in my book all this stolen property which someone has so kindly put out on parade for us, we’ll get it back to its rightful owners all the quicker. And I shouldn’t be surprised if there was a reward for a bright boy at the end of all this.’

  Barney started to explain all over again what had happened, but the policeman said he’d had a tiring day and he’d rather not have any more explanations.

  But that time, when he went home from his Grandmother’s house, he took a brand-new bicycle with him. And Stig? Well, Stig was disappointed at not being allowed to keep all the treasure, but before he went, Barney found some spanners in the wreck of the car and he taught Stig how to use them. Stig was very proud of his necklace of steel nuts strung on wire cable, and his bangles of piston rings.

  Chapter Seven

  Party Manners

  It was the Easter holiday. Barney and Lou were doing some painting in the dining-room and Granny had spread some sheets of newspaper over the table in case they made a mess. Barney had his elbows on the table and was reading the newspaper.

  ‘Hey, Lou!’ he suddenly cried. ‘Look what it says here. It says “BOTTOM’S MAMMOTH CIRCUS”. D’you think we can go to it?’

  ‘I expect it’s an old newspaper,’ said Lou, without looking up from the horse she was drawing. ‘The circus has probably been and gone a long time ago.’

  ‘No, but Lou, do come and see,’ begged Barney. ‘It might not have.’

  Lou came round the table and looked at the advertisement. ‘“WORLD’S GREATEST TRAVELLING SHOW,”’ she read. ‘Golly! Liberty horses, Ranji and his elephants, Daring Wild Animal Act.’

  ‘Yes, but Lou, when is it?’ said Barney impatiently.

  ‘Wait a minute. Opens at Maidsford, April 17. That’s next week! Come on Barney, let’s ask Granny if we can go!’

  But when they bounced into the drawing room their Grandmother was sitting in a chair talking to a strange lady. This sort of thing was unusual enough in Granny’s house. They stood in the doorway goggling until their Grandmother said: ‘Come and say how-do-you-do to Mrs Fawkham-Greene, children!’ They came in and shook hands.

  ‘These are my grandchildren, Barney and Lou,’ explained Grandmother to the strange lady. ‘They’re staying with me for part of the holidays.’

  ‘But how nice for you!’ cooed Mrs Fawkham-Greene. ‘And such bonny children too! I do wish I had known about them. I’m giving a fancy-dress party for my little niece on Wednesday. Do you think Barney and Lou would like to come? Most children nowadays seem to hate parties, but I think they’re good for them, don’t you?’

  ‘Oo, a fancy-dress party!’ exclaimed Lou. ‘Do let’s go Granny! I’ll go as a puma!’

  ‘And I’ll be a cave man!’ said Barney. ‘Granny, can we? And Granny, can we go to the circus too? It’s next Monday. Please Granny, let’s!’

  ‘Now, now, now!’ exclaimed Granny. ‘Circuses and cave men and pumas! I’m afraid we’ll have to see, dears.’

  ‘They do seem to be keen, the darlings,’ said Mrs Fawkham-Greene. ‘Do bring them if you can, I’m sure they’d look charming as a puma and a cave man. My little niece is going to be a Dresden shepherdess. We got the costume specially from London, and she looks so sweet in it. It’s been so delightful meeting your charming grandchildren. I do hope we shall be seeing them on Wednesday.’

  Mrs Fawkham-Greene swept out and drove off in a large shiny car, and Granny began to explain the difficulties of making fancy-dress costumes with only a day and a half to do it in. Perhaps they could go to the circus instead of the party, but she thought their parents were coming at the weekend to take them home.

  The children went off rather gloomily. They hadn’t the heart to go on painting. Lou curled up with an animal story book: Barney stood by the window and thought.

  Then without a word Barney slipped out of the house. When he got to the middle of the back lawn he stopped and thought again. He went back into the house, crept upstairs, and searched around his bedroom until he found his precious collection of glass marbles, then he slipped out of the house again and set off for the chalk pit.

  He was wondering if the plan he had thought of would work. Or rather he hadn’t got a plan – he just had a feeling that Stig could help him once more. But it was going to be difficult to explain this time. He was sure that Stig wouldn’t understand about fancy-dress parties. But Stig had such a lot of things in his den that some of them were bound to come in useful – if he could get Stig to part with them.

  When he got to the den he found Stig happily peeling an old umbrella somebody had thrown away down the pit. He ripped the cover off and tried it on himself in different ways. By tearing a bigger hole in the middle and climbing into it he found it made quite a useful sort of skirt.

  ‘That’s clever, Stig!’ exclaimed Barney. ‘It’ll keep the rain off too.’

  Stig then turned his attention to the frame of the umbrella. He wrenched the little struts off one by one, and then sat looking at them as they lay in a heap in front of him. Barney could tell he was wondering what he could use them for. He found the first use without thinking – it was just right for scratching an itch in the middle of his back. He looked at another one for some time and played with it in his hands. He found that he could stick its two legs into the ground so that the long part reached forward at an angle. Suddenly he reached for a small turnip and stuck it on the end that was in the air. The whole thing wobbled a bit, so he fitted another strut so that there were four legs to hold up the turnip. Then he brought it near the fire so that the turnip was hanging over the hot embers – and there it was, a standing toasting-fork, or spit. Stig played with another of the pieces of metal and bent it with his strong hands so that one of the ends snapped off. So then he had a thin piece of metal with a hole in the end. It was not long before he had rubbed the other end to a point on a rough stone – and there was a useful big needle.

  Stig seemed very pleased with all the things he could do with his bits of umbrella. He put the other metal parts aside, broke off the handle, which was carved like a Scottie-dog, and stuck that into the wall as a decoration, and put the point of the umbrella against the wall with his weapons. It would make a good arrow.

  Barney had been so fascinated, watching Stig inventing uses for the bits of umbrella, that he had almost forgotten what he had come for. Then he remembered about the fancy-dress party. He put his hand into his pocket, and took out a glass marble.

  ‘I brought this for you, Stig,’ he said.

  Stig took the marble with interest, held it up to the light, grinned, and put it in his mouth.

  ‘No, no, Stig!’ cried Barney. ‘It’s not for eating. Spit it out, Stig, please!’

  Stig took the marble out of his mouth and looked at Barney questioningly.

  ‘It’s just for playing with,’ explained Barney. ‘Look, here’s another!’ He rolled the second marble along the ground to Stig. Stig seemed amused at the way the little glass ball rolled around, flashing in the light. He rolled his marble at Barney’s, and they struck and bounced apart. He played with both of them for a bit, and then handed them back to Barney.

  ‘No, they’re for you, Stig,’ said Barney. ‘You can kee
p them.’ Stig put them carefully in a niche in the wall and then seemed to look about for something to give Barney in exchange. He picked up two or three of his precious umbrella-bones and offered them to Barney, but Barney pushed them away.

  ‘No thank you, I don’t think I want bits of umbrella,’ he said. Stig looked relieved. He didn’t really want to part with them. He went to a pile of metal things and came back with a brass bedstead-knob and offered it to Barney. Still Barney shook his head, hoping that Stig would not be offended if he kept on refusing things. He had his eye on a pile of skins in the corner, and Stig seemed to notice this, for he went across to it and picked up a sort of apron of rabbit-skins stitched together, just like what he usually wore himself.

  Barney’s face lit up. ‘Can I have that, Stig? Oo, thank you!’ He took the skins under his arm.

  There were a lot more skins in the pile. Barney squatted down and turned them over. There were mole-skins, squirrel-skins, things that looked like cat-skins, and they made Barney wonder how they got there. Then he gave a gasp of surprise. Near the bottom was the skin of a great animal, head and all, and it was golden and spotted with black. A leopard! Barney dragged it out and goggled at it. ‘Gosh, Stig! Did you kill this?’ he asked.

  Stig looked at him.

  Barney made spearing movements at the skin, put a questioning expression on his face, and pointed to Stig. Stig grinned and shrugged his shoulders. He seemed to be willing that Barney should think he had killed a leopard, but Barney was rather suspicious. He had seen leopard-skins like this worn by soldiers in military bands, and he had seen them on floors in people’s houses. Perhaps someone had just thrown this one away. It was amazing what people did throw away, you only had to look around the dump and in Stig’s cave to see that sometimes they were quite valuable. Anyhow, there was the leopard-skin, and Lou wanted to go to the party as a leopard, or was it a puma? She ought to be quite satisfied with this leopard anyway There were only a few patches where the hair was falling out. But would Stig want to part with it?

  Barney felt in his pocket. He had only spent two marbles so far, and he had quite a lot more. He took out two more, held them out to Stig, and pointed at the leopard-skin.

  Stig looked at the marbles, looked at the skins, and looked very doubtful.

  Barney added another marble to the two in his hand.

  Stig still looked doubtful.

  Barney took two more marbles from his pocket. Now there were five.

  Suddenly Stig seemed to understand that Barney had quite a pocketful of marbles to spend. He held out both hands to Barney, with all the fingers spread out. Ten! A leopard-skin costs ten marbles, thought Barney. He hoped he had that many. He put the first five marbles on the ground and counted out what was left in his pocket. Six, seven, eight, nine – there were three more.

  ‘Here, you might as well have them all,’ said Barney, and handed over all twelve. Stig had been checking the marbles on his fingers while Barney counted. When he found he had more marbles than fingers he was so delighted that he went to another corner of the cave and came back with a stone axe on a wooden handle and gave it to Barney with the skin.

  ‘Golly, Stig, can I have that as well?’ exclaimed Barney He was delighted too. ‘Oh, Stig, you are kind to let me have all these things. Thank you, thank you! I’ve got to go now, Stig, and show Lou what we’ve got. We’ll be able to go to the fancy-dress party now. Good-bye!’

  And Barney danced out, clutching the two bundles of skins and the stone axe.

  When he got back to the house he had an idea. He took the bundles quietly to his own room, undressed except for his underclothes, and after some struggles with a couple of safety-pins, got himself dressed in the rabbit-skins. He looked at himself in the mirror and scowled fiercely. But there was something missing. Bother! He had had a haircut only two weeks ago and he didn’t have nearly enough hair. He had another idea. He crept downstairs to the broom cupboard and took the head off a mop. When he tried it on his own head in front of the mirror it looked just right. He found a way of tying it under his chin so it stayed there.

  He took his axe in one hand and the leopard-skin in the other and crept along the passage to his sister’s room. As he expected, she was still lying on her bed with a book. He gave a whoop and charged into the room, waving his axe.

  Lou jumped like a startled cat and faced Barney furiously ‘You’re not to frighten people like that when they’re not expecting it!’ she said angrily. ‘I knew it was you, Barney.’

  ‘Oh no you didn’t,’ chuckled Barney. ‘Anyhow I’m not Barney, I’m Stog – Stig’s brother.’ And he did a war dance round the bedroom.

  ‘Where have you been?’ asked Lou, more calmly.

  ‘Me? Me been hunting,’ said Barney. ‘Look what I killed!’ And he threw the leopard-skin on the floor.

  Lou’s eyes nearly popped out of her head. ‘Golly, Barney, where did you get that?’ she said.

  ‘Killed it in the wood,’ boasted Barney.

  ‘No, tell me honestly, Barney, please!’

  ‘Well, I didn’t really kill it, I was just pretending,’ said Barney. ‘I got it from Stig.’

  ‘Oh, Stig!’ scoffed Lou. ‘You and your Stig! You mean you found it in the dump?’

  ‘I got it from Stig, I tell you,’ repeated Barney. ‘And you owe me twelve marbles. You needn’t have it if you don’t want it.’ And he snatched it away.

  ‘No, no, please Barney, let me have it. It’s a lovely leopard-skin. I’ll get you some marbles next time we go into town. Come on, help me try it on!’

  Between them, with the help of pins and strings, they managed to dress Lou in the

  leopard-skin. The bare patches hardly showed and it didn’t really smell any more than a real leopard would. And once Lou was inside the skin she became more like a big cat than any leopard had ever been. She wrinkled up her nose and spat, she slunk and clawed. They hunted each other in and out of the bedrooms and along the passages, and then Lou said, ‘Pretend I’m a tame leopard and you’re my master, and we live in this cave.’ And they crept under Lou’s bed and curled up.

  Barney said, ‘Look, Lou, about this party on Wednesday. I know where the house is, just through the woods. We needn’t even ask Granny to take us, we’ll just go…’

  One or two stars had come out in the dark blue sky overhead and there was a golden wash of sunset in the west, above the dark woods. A blackbird was trying out his new spring voice from the elm tree. It had been the first mild dry day of spring and the air was beginning to feel alive with the earth warming up, and buds opening, and things creeping out of their winter beds. A leopard and a Stone-Age hunter, as they let themselves quietly out of the back door, felt they couldn’t possibly have stayed indoors any longer without bursting.

  The leopard dropped to hands and feet as soon as it reached the lawn, but the hunter said, ‘Oh, come on Lou, we’ll be late if you’re going to crawl all the way!’

  ‘I can go just as fast like this,’ said the leopard, and went bounding off towards the back gate. As they let themselves into the paddock, Flash the pony pricked up his ears, snorted, and went careering round the paddock in alarm and excitement. ‘Silly old Flash!’ called the leopard. ‘It’s only me.’

  ‘I thought you were a leopard,’ said Barney. ‘So did Flash. No wonder he’s frightened!’

  They made their way along darkening tracks and footpaths. Sometimes the leopard would go ahead and leap out from behind a bush at the hunter: sometimes the hunter would run on and lie in wait for the leopard.

  One time when Barney was lying in ambush behind a hollow beech-stump, Lou crept up behind him and jumped on him instead of coming along the path and being jumped on. Barney was cross. ‘That’s not fair,’ he complained. ‘It’s my turn to do you!

  But Lou only laughed in a catty sort of way and went bouncing off ahead again. Barney sat down rather sulkily and let her go on. He should have had another turn, he thought. He heard Lou’s footsteps dying away along
the track and then suddenly there was the snarl and roar she usually gave when she was ambushed. It sounded rather astonished this time. Then he heard Lou’s voice: ‘Barney, it was my turn for an ambush. How did you get ahead so quickly?’

  But he hadn’t gone ahead! He’d been sitting here. Who was Lou talking to, and what was going on?

  He got up and ran along the path between the dark thickets. He found Lou a good distance ahead, crouching down and panting.

  ‘You did make me jump that time,’ said Lou. ‘I wasn’t expecting you. How did you get there so soon?’

  ‘Get where?’ asked Barney, wondering.

  ‘Behind that oak tree. I know it was you all right, but I wasn’t expecting you,’ said Lou.

  ‘But I wasn’t behind that oak tree. I was along the path there,’ said Barney.

  ‘Oh don’t be silly, Barney. I saw you with my own eyes didn’t I?’ said Lou crossly. ‘You must have been there.’

  ‘But I wasn’t. I promise,’ Barney protested. ‘How could I have got there?’

  Lou said nothing for a moment, then in a different voice she said, ‘I think we’d better stop playing this game. We’ll only be late for the party. Let’s just walk on.’

  They went on side by side. The wood was getting really dark now, and as they went along by the fir plantation the leopard and the hunter actually found themselves holding hands.

  ‘You know people say they sometimes have a feeling someone’s following them?’ Lou suddenly said in a voice that tried to be bright and ordinary.

  ‘What about it?’ said Barney.

  ‘Oh nothing,’ said Lou. ‘I suppose it’s not far now to the Fawkham-Greenes’.’

  But Barney had suddenly had an idea. Lou had seen something behind an oak tree, looking like him. And now there was this feeling of being followed. Barney thought he knew what was going on. But Lou didn’t. And he laughed softly to himself.