by Anne Digby
'Curly!'
She turned quickly and gave the thumbs-up sign. He stopped drumming, left the bandstand and came with uneven steps to the driver's cab. Then he started hammering loudly on the back of it.
'Mr Slade!' he shouted.
They were just passing the hidden figure.
'What is it, Watson?' yelled the housemaster, craning his neck out of the window and looking back at Curly. 'Want me to stop?'
'Just for a minute, sir!' Curly shouted. 'We're a girl short. She had a bit of trouble with her costume! She's back there!'
The brakes screeched and the lorry juddered to a halt. The band played on loudly as a veiled figure in white raced out from behind a tree and ran to the back of the float. Mike bent over and lifted her aboard, swiftly.
'Okay, sir!' yelled Curly. 'We've got her!'
'Right-o!' The master revved up the engine and the lorry moved forward. He didn't even look back. 'That the lot? Let's get going.'
Mike held the girl steady and Curly weaved past the ticket office, almost tripping over the other girls' spreadeagled legs, to hug her exuberantly. Her half veil began to slip down from her face.
'Mara!' shrieked Tish, the first to recognize her.
'I made it!' Mara was laughing with joy. 'I made it!'
'Quick!' said Curly. He and Mike started to propel Mara along the moving float. 'Open the door, Tish – quick, Mara, get inside!'
Tish, Margot and Elf had all scrambled to their feet and they tugged the door of the ticket office open. As the boys pushed Mara inside the girls slapped her on the back, their dumbfounded surprise now giving way to delight.
'Mara – you had us completely fooled!'
'You weren't sick at all!'
'Oh, Mara – this is fantastic!'
'Ssssh!' Seated inside the dark ticket booth, Mara adjusted her veil and wagged a finger up at them as they shut the door and crowded round the hatch. Her large luminous brown eyes were full of amusement. 'I am not Mara! I am a mysterious lady from Arabia and you have never seen me before in your lives!'
'Look at her!' said Curly in delight. 'Doesn't she look marvellous in there? Fascinating . . . mysterious . . .'
'A riddle wrapped in an enigma!' butted in Mike. 'Queen Cleopatra herself!'
'And I bet she'll sell loads of tickets!' added Curly. He turned to Rebecca, who had now joined them, hat askew and blue eyes watering with relief. 'Rebecca, that Arabian costume is out of this world! It's every bit as marvellous as Mara told me on the phone – nobody will know who it is! Nobody!'
They were turning out of the main gates.
'Come on, Curly – back on the drums!' shouted John Bates. 'We're about to make our first public appearance.'
'Rebecca!' said Tish. As the lorry turned out into the public highway, the four girls draped themselves around the box office into a pre-arranged tableau. 'Oh, Rebecca!'
They looked at each other and laughed.
'How could you?' asked Tish.
'Yes, fancy keeping it secret from us!' said Margot.
'You rotten thing,' added Elf.
'I had to,' laughed Rebecca. 'It was hard enough with just me knowing!'
'She mustn't get found out!' declared Tish. It was exciting – it added spice to the day – but it was nerve-racking, too! 'We have to make sure of that! Even if I have to nip back to Crockers and get into that sick bed myself. Hey, Mara –'
'Ssssh!' said the veiled lips as the brown eyes peered out of the hatch.
'Sorry, I mean – er – Cleopatra. How did you leave things fixed with Matron?'
'I told her I just wanted to sleep and sleep!' hissed Mara. 'She gave me some tablets and I pretended to take them and then she tucked me up and left me some glucose drink in case I woke up. She said she'd wake me up at one o'clock to take my temperature again.'
'You've got all morning then!' said Rebecca in relief. 'When we break for lunch you can grab a taxi and get back to school!'
Margot and Elf, who'd been listening to all this rather anxiously, felt reassured.
People straggling into the town came in sight and Mara drew back so that she was completely out of sight. Rebecca glanced at Elf and Margot.
'Cheer up, you two,' she said confidently. 'Nothing will go wrong. Besides, it's done now!'
Rebecca wasn't going to admit to anyone how scared she'd been feeling. That she'd made this pact with Mara on the spur of the moment and ever since, in odd moments when she'd had time to think about it, she'd regretted it. But it was too late to think about that now!
As they drove slowly into the town, the boys began to play at full pitch – exciting, swinging music. Shoppers on the pavements stopped, cheering and waving as the float went past. A wintry sun came out from behind cloud and suddenly the girls started laughing with the sheer excitement of it all.
'Rebecca, you and Mara are fantastic, working all this out!' exclaimed Tish. 'It's the most brilliant idea I've ever come across.'
'Something we can tell our children about,' said Margot solemnly.
'Not to mention our grandchildren!' giggled Elf.
'I wonder how many tickets we'll sell?' wondered Rebecca.
They paraded once round the town, slowly, and the excitement grew. Children ran along after the float and three boys from Trebizon Tech drove behind them in an old yellow saloon car, banging the horn from time to time and waving scarves out of the car windows, which added to the general noise and fun. Finally Mr Slade parked the huge float in a comer of the market square, at the bottom end of the High Street, as had been arranged with the local police. A crowd surged round immediately.
By half past eleven the town's allocation of tickets was sold out! The remainder had to be kept back for the afternoon, for the villages.
The girls had brought a pile of school capes with them. As soon as all the tickets were sold they flung them over their costumes, for they were blue with cold and their teeth were chattering. John Slade had gone across to the Market Restaurant earlier. When he came back he found them standing by the float and running up and down on the spot to keep warm.
'The girls are freezing, sir!' said Curly. 'We'd better get them inside somewhere!'
'It's all fixed up,' nodded Mr Slade. He pointed above the restaurant to a big plate glass window on the first floor. 'I've booked the Market's upstairs room and hot lunch for the lot of you. You might as well get straight over there. I'll take the money back to school, Watson –'
As Curly handed over a locked attache case, the master felt the weight of it and smiled broadly. He gave Curly a pat on the back.
'First rate idea of yours, Watson.' He beamed at Mara, who looked distinctly odd in a blue Trebizon cape and a white yashmak. 'First rate little ticket seller, too – everybody's been calling her Cleopatra!' He gazed round at all of them, approvingly. 'Well done, the lot of you. Take your time over lunch and get warm again. I'll be back in an hour and then we can start on the villages!'
He strode off and climbed into a waiting taxi with the case full of money, gave them a cheery wave and then departed.
'Yippee! Let's go and eat!' cried Tish.
Mara looked radiant. It had been a marvellous morning! Curly's idea was a success and she'd been able to help! Now Mr Slade was going to treat them to a hot meal!
But the sight of that taxi reminded her –
Her face fell.
'Maybe – maybe I ought to get back now –'
They all roared at her, furiously.
'Miss the food?' exclaimed the boys.
'Come on, Mara!' said Tish. 'You're safe for at least another hour!'
They surrounded her and lifted her up. She giggled helplessly as they carried her bodily across to the Market Restaurant chanting:
'Long live Queen Cleopatra!'
Lucy Hubbard parked her bike by the back door of Crockers. Stealthily she took a book out of the saddlebag, then gently eased the metal doors open and tip-toed into a long white-painted corridor that smelt faintly of disinfectant. A Seco
nd Year girl appeared in pyjamas and dressing-gown.
'Which room is Mara Leonodis in?' whispered Lucy.
Nicola Hodges stared at her.
'Over there. Number 8. I saw Matron put her in there this morning. Hey – does anyone know you're here?'
'I'm only going to slip this book into the room for her to read!' hissed Lucy. 'Don't tell on me!'
'If you catch 'flu that's your look out,' said Nicola, with a shrug, going back into her own room. She had other things to think about. How was she going to win the Hilary Camberwell Music Scholarship when Matron wouldn't let her practise her violin?
Lucy tip-toed across to Mara's room, full of suppressed excitement. Nobody was interested in her theory, not even her mother. Especially her mother. 'You've come to Trebizon to work, not to waste time looking for grottos!' she'd told her daughter an hour ago. 'Now take your set book to the library and learn it off by heart. How could you bear to let Rebecca Mason beat you in the English test this week?'
'Mummy would have a fit if she could see me now!' thought Lucy. Just lately she'd been beginning to wonder about having her mother at Trebizon. It was a nuisance sometimes. 'But I know I won't catch 'flu! I'm sure Mara hasn't got a real illness. She's just unhappy that's all. She needs something really interesting to take her mind off those silly boys. It's not really that much fun, dressing up and going on their freezing old lorry!'
Lucy looked at the book in her hand. She hoped that Mara would find it as exciting as she did. It wasn't her English set book. It was a rather dusty volume on local history that she'd found on a junk stall in the town on Wednesday afternoon. She eased open the door, gently.
'Mara!' she whispered.
Mara was under the blankets -she seemed to have pulled them right up over her head. Was she fast asleep? There was a glucose drink on her bedside locker, untouched. Oh, poor thing.
Lucy crossed the room and gently pulled the covers back.
'Mara – oh!'
She stared in shock. There was nobody there! Just a pillow and a rolled up blanket for the body and a bag stuffed full of night clothes for the head. She flung the covers back on top of them again and gazed wildly round the room. Mara had gone! She'd played a disgusting trick on everyone and gone down town! On that float.
Lucy didn't even stop to tell Matron. That would be too complicated because she'd get into trouble for being there! The main thing was to make sure that Mara was rescued – quickly – before anything happened to her. She rushed outside and put her book back in the saddlebag and then mounted her bike.
'She ought to be punished properly this time!' thought Lucy, angrily. 'If she's been kidnapped it just serves her right! It'll teach her a lesson. I'll go straight and tell Mr Papaconstantopoulos what she's done!'
She pedalled her hardest along the main drive until she reached the school gates. Then she turned right towards the Trebizon Bay Hotel.
NINE
MARA GOES MISSING
The meal had been delicious, a meal to remember. They'd had fresh local fish grilled with mushrooms, served with a delicious red bean bake and brown rice, followed by homemade apple pie and yoghurt and lashings of hot coffee. The boys had gone back down to the float, but the girls were lingering over their coffee, laughing and talking excitedly and enjoying the panoramic view of the crowded market square with Trebizon High Street beyond, winding up hill towards the distant hotels.
But then Curly came rushing back.
'There's no need to get a taxi, Mara!' he said excitedly. 'Mr Slade wants to do the villages to the east first, so we'll go right by your school gates. I'll get him to drop you off there – you can be back in bed, ten minutes from now!'
'Great!' laughed Mara. 'I suppose you want that loan back –'
'No, no!' Curly spoke urgently. 'Don't bother now. Sir's sitting in the driving cab, waiting to go. Hurry up and drink that coffee.'
Both Tish and Mara had just poured themselves more coffee from the big pot. The others had finished.
'You three go on!' said Tish. 'Mara and I'll be down in two ticks!'
Rebecca, Margot and Elf rushed down the stairs after Curly.
'Better hurry up, Mara,' said Tish, swallowing down the last of her coffee. 'Mmmm. Delicious. Hey! What's the matter with you?'
Mara was staring out of the window, towards the top end of the High Street. There were people everywhere, but she had spotted two figures that she distinctly recognized. One was small and was holding a bicycle. The other was big and was talking to a policeman, who was pointing this way, towards the big float parked in the market square.
'I don't believe it!' said Mara. Her face was white with anger. 'Oh, Tish, it can't be true!'
Down in the market square, Rebecca had to fight her way back on to the float. There was a lot of noise and confusion. A crowd of children had climbed aboard while they'd been having their lunch and the boys were laughing and chasing them off. More shoppers had arrived and were clamouring for tickets and Mr Slade was leaning out of the driver's cab, trying to explain that they were sold out. The boys from Trebizon Tech were back and one of them was sitting on the bonnet of the yellow ear, strumming a guitar.
Laughing with excitement, Rebecca straightened up the big banner Mara had made as Mr Slade sounded the horn loudly to signal that they were about to move off. Moments later, she caught a glimpse of Mara scrambling back on to the float in white veil and school cape, ducking into the ticket office – where was Tish? she must have got on the other side – and then the engine roared and the lorry started to move away. There were cheers and shouts.
The big vehicle crawled up the steep High Street and then, with a sudden juddering of brakes, it ground to a halt. A policeman was waving them down!
Rebecca, Margot and Elf stared at each other in horror.
The policeman was coming round to the back of the float accompanied by a great hulking figure in a purple sweater with a completely bald head.
'It's Papa!' gasped Rebecca.
Quite a crowd was gathering.
Curly's face had gone a sickly hue and the drum sticks dangled limply in his hands as the policeman called up to them.
'Now, I gather there's a young lady on here what shouldn't be here. Likely as not the one who's been wearing the veil all morning.'
He nodded to the big Greek, who immediately heaved himself on to the float. Papa looked at every face in turn and then strode straight over to the ticket office, opened the door, and pulled the occupant out. She was still wearing the blue cape and a pair of dark brown eyes gazed steadfastly at Papa above the mysterious half-veil.
They all waited and Rebecca felt her legs turn to jelly as slowly, very slowly, Papa took the veil away from the face.
Its owner was grinning broadly.
Tish!
Rebecca's whole body began to tremble with relief. She looked across to Curly and saw his eyes alight with joy. Papa was backing away, covered in confusion and embarrassment. He took one last, baffled look at each of the float's occupants in turn and then dropped off, over the side.
'False alarm?' asked the policeman, slightly irritable. A traffic jam was building up. He signalled to Mr Slade who was hanging out of the cab, looking impatient. 'Okay, sir! Full speed ahead. Sorry you've been troubled.'
The lorry roared away up the hill and Margot suddenly clutched Rebecca's arm.
'Look!'
Papa was talking to somebody in a shop doorway: a diminutive figure holding a bicycle. He appeared to be scolding her. It was Lucy Hubbard.
'Tish!' gasped Rebecca, as they helped her back into the ticket office. 'Lucy's back there – with Papa. How did you and Mara know –?'
Tish was shaking with laughter.
'Mara spotted them! Was she furious – I've never seen anyone so furious in my life! She just gave me the headgear and fled!'
'D'you think she's found a taxi?' said Elf, weak with relief and excitement. 'D'you think she'll get back to school in time?'
'Surely!' exclaimed
Tish. 'I don't know how Lucy suspected, but she looks a real fool now. She'll look an even bigger fool when they find Mara tucked safely up in bed at Crockers!'
They drove out of town and past Trebizon Bay, humming and swaying to the music of the band. What a morning! Mara would be in a taxi now, speeding back to school. With just the merest touch of luck, she should be safe! Lucy could suspect what she liked, but she couldn't prove a thing. They'd find Mara where she was supposed to be, fast asleep in bed at Crockers!
Only it didn't turn out like that at all.
'I'm surprised at you, Rebecca,' said Mrs Barrington. 'It was quite the worst turn you could have done for Mara, encouraging her to go on the float. I've spent half the afternoon calming Mr Papaconstantopoulos down. He's convinced she's been kidnapped, but of course we know that's ridiculous.'
The four friends sat in Mrs Barrington's sitting room, still wearing their dressing-up clothes. The ticket-selling in the villages had been a great success and they'd arrived back at Court House with half an hour to spare before tea. But before they'd even had time to change, they'd been hauled in to see the house mistress. Mrs Barrington was feeling very irritated with them.
'I'm sorry,' said Rebecca, the picture of misery.
Mara hadn't come back to her sick bed, after all. Lucy Hubbard had reported everything to Mrs Barrington as soon as she'd arrived back at Court House and put her cycle away. Mrs Barrington had at once phoned Matron who had, in fact, been right on the point of phoning her . . . having just that minute discovered that what she'd taken to be the sleeping figure of Mara all morning was no more than some things piled under the blankets!
After that, prefects had hunted everywhere for Mara, but she was nowhere to be found.
'You'd better get changed and then go and have tea,' Mrs Barrington said wearily. 'It's obvious that Mara is in a fine old sulk because her bodyguard came hunting for her, just when she was having a good time. I expect she's hiding somewhere. However, it's a cold day and a little hunger can work wonders. Let's hope she turns up when she hears the tea-bell go.'