The Legend of the Corrib King

by Tom McCaughren

  ‘Yes,’ said Puck in a small husky voice, ‘why?’

  ‘Why, why, why?’ echoed the others in a chorus of little voices.

  ‘Silence,’ ordered Titania, and her Little People were immediately quiet. ‘If you don’t speak up,’ she continued, ‘I will have to call the police.’

  That was something they didn’t want. Martin would take a very poor view of their breaking into Titania’s Palace, and it would also be very embarrassing for him.

  ‘All right,’ said Tapser, ‘we’ll tell you. We’re looking for our Uncle Pakie.’

  ‘He’s been kidnapped,’ added Jamesie.

  ‘But why come here to look for him?’

  ‘Yes, why come here?’ asked Puck, and the other little men joined in chanting, ‘Why come here? Why come here?’

  Titania silenced them with an outstretched hand, and added, ‘I think you had better tell me more.’

  There was nothing else for it, so between them they told her about Pakie’s disappearance, and about what the two men had said about taking someone to the fairy queen and arranging to meet at the fair.

  When they had finished, Titania held up the palms of her hands and said, ‘We’re not poachers, we’re show people. My Little People and I like to have a captive audience, but we don’t kidnap anyone.’

  The little men smiled and clapped their hands.

  ‘Then you don’t know the man with the rings?’ asked Rachel.

  ‘I know many men with rings,’ Titania confessed. ‘Some who even wear rings in their ears. But show people are like that. And let’s face it, they could have meant any fair. Perhaps a cattle fair or a horse fair. Even a game fair. So why pick on us?’

  There was obviously a lot of sense in what Titania was saying, so Róisín said, ‘You’re right. They could have meant any fair.’

  The others nodded in agreement, and Tapser added, ‘We’re sorry if we made a mistake. It was all my fault.’

  ‘Your apology,’ said Titania graciously, ‘is accepted. And what’s more, if there is something going on here, you can rely on us to give you any help we can. You will find that my Little People are good people, and if you require any help in the search for your Uncle Pakie you need only ask.’

  To their surprise, the little men clapped their hands vigorously and smiled and nodded their approval.

  ‘And now,’ said Titania, ‘you are free to go.’

  8. SECRETS UNFOLD

  Disappointed and confused, they returned to their caravan, and next morning made their way back to the campsite by the lake. What had gone wrong, they asked themselves? What else could the poachers have been talking about if it wasn’t the carnival? It fitted perfectly, right down to the fairy queen and the little people. Even Pakie’s poem suggested that the secret must lie in Titania’s tent when it said, Nymphs dance in the moonlight and secrets unfold.

  ‘Unless,’ said Cowlick as they got their breakfast ready the following morning, ‘the poem ended on the island.’

  ‘But every other part of it meant more than one thing,’ Tapser reminded him. ‘And Titania’s palace fits the last lines exactly.’

  ‘It also fits what the man with the rings said about taking Pakie to the fairy queen,’ said Jamesie.

  ‘But let’s look at it another way,’ said Róisín. ‘Rachel and I have always had the feeling that what they were talking about was a boat. So maybe when the man with the rings said he’d take him to the fairy queen he meant that they were planning to take him off the island.’

  ‘Then we came along,’ added Rachel, ‘and they had to move him anyway.’

  ‘But the fat man did say nobody would find him so long as they stayed close to the little people,’ Jamesie pointed out.

  ‘Then maybe we’re not far wrong after all,’ exclaimed Tapser, jumping to his feet. ‘Maybe they just intend using the funfair the same way they used the travellers’ camp, you know, as a place where they can meet without attracting attention.’

  ‘That could be it all right,’ agreed Cowlick. ‘That van of theirs, and the caravan, would fit in perfectly at the fairground. And Titania would know nothing about it.’

  ‘Come on,’ cried Róisín, ‘what are we waiting for?’

  Prince barked loudly, almost as if he sensed by their excitement that they were on the trail again, and a few minutes later they were trotting back to Nymphsfield.

  The morning passed slowly. The amusements were at a standstill and the fairground was deserted. Then, after lunch, the scene suddenly changed. The generator burst into life again, the coloured lights came on, Titania’s Little People saddled up their ponies, and people began streaming in.

  ‘An afternoon show,’ observed Jamesie. ‘That’s going to make it more difficult.’

  ‘You can say that again,’ said Tapser. ‘Look at the crowd.’

  ‘And look at the caravans,’ added Rachel. ‘They all seem the same.’

  People were coming by car, by bicycle and on foot.

  ‘Isn’t that like their van over there?’ asked Róisín after a while. She was pointing to a blue van that had pulled in beside a cream-coloured caravan parked on the fringe of the fairground.

  ‘Could be,’ said Cowlick. ‘It’s like it all right, but it’s hard to say.’

  ‘There’s only one way to find out,’ said Róisín. ‘Come on Rachel.’

  ‘Careful,’ warned Cowlick, but they had already gone.

  Anxiously the boys watched the two girls circle around to the van and walk casually past.

  ‘Well?’ asked Tapser when they returned.

  Triumphantly, Róisín held up her thumb. It was smudged with blue paint.

  ‘And it’s green underneath,’ Rachel told them.

  ‘So that is their van!’ cried Tapser. ‘Great work. Come on Jamesie, let’s get a bit closer.’

  They yoked up Nuadha again and when they had moved closer to the van they parked in a way that they could pretend they were just watching the fair.

  A few minutes later, Jamesie whispered, ‘Look!’

  Out of the corner of their eye they saw the thin man with the rings arriving at the cream-coloured caravan and going inside.

  ‘Now we’ll see what happens,’ said Tapser.

  Several times in the next half hour the man with the rings came out and looked around. Everywhere people were milling about. Anxiously they scanned the crowd for the fat man.

  ‘There he is,’ cried Cowlick. ‘Over there.’

  When the others looked they saw the fat man parking his pony and trap some distance back from the funfair. Casually he made his way over to the cream-coloured caravan, and with a furtive glance around to see if the coast was clear, went inside.

  ‘I bet Uncle Pakie’s in there,’ said Jamesie.

  ‘So do I,’ said Tapser. ‘They said nobody would find him so long as they stayed close to the Little People, remember?’

  ‘But what can we do about it?’ asked Rachel.

  ‘This time I think we should tell the police before we do anything,’ Róisín suggested.

  ‘They’re over at the fair in Clonbur,’ Jamesie reminded them.

  ‘The Little People!’ said Cowlick. ‘Titania said if we needed help all we had to do was ask.’

  ‘Good idea,’ said Róisín. ‘Let’s tell them.’

  ‘Your horseshoe nails,’ said Tapser. ‘Quick, give them to me.’

  The girls didn’t stop to ask him why. They just stuffed their horseshoe necklaces into his hand and made a beeline for Titania’s tent.

  ‘What are you going to do?’ asked Jamesie.

  ‘We have to make sure they don’t leave,’ Tapser told him. ‘Here, give me your nails too.’

  Jamesie and Cowlick watched as Tapser crept over to the front wheels of the van and wedged the nails firmly under them.

  ‘The ground’s stony over there,’ he panted when he came back. ‘So with any luck the nails will stop them going anywhere until we get help.’

  A few minutes later the tw
o men came out of the caravan, hitched it to the van and got in. The man with the rings started up the engine and they moved off. However, they had only gone a few yards when there was a hissing noise and one of the front tyres of the van went flat.

  From the doorway of their caravan, Tapser, Cowlick and Jamesie nudged each other and smiled.

  Realising they had a problem, the two men got out and after looking at the flat tyre, went off into the fairground.

  ‘Now’s our chance,’ said Cowlick. ‘Come on. Let’s see if Pakie’s in there.’

  Tapser stood guard beside the van with Prince while Jamesie and Cowlick ran to the door of the caravan and tried to open it. It was locked. Anxiously they glanced around. There was still no sign of the two men. Frantically they banged on the door with their fists.

  Suddenly the door burst open and a man tumbled out. His feet were tied and his mouth was covered with a strip of tape.

  ‘It’s Uncle Pakie,’ cried Jamesie, flinging himself down beside him. ‘Uncle Pakie!’

  Cowlick knelt down to give Jamesie a hand, and they were working to untie him when Tapser warned them that the two men were coming back.

  Seeing what had happened, the two men rushed forward but hesitated when Prince, urged on by Tapser, began to bark at them. They looked around. People were beginning to gather now, wondering what was going on. Realising the game was up, the two turned and made off. Prince ran after them a short distance, barking, and returned as Tapser was helping to untie Pakie. At the same time the girls ran up shouting, ‘Pakie, Pakie,’ and in the next breath warned, ‘Hurry, they’re getting away.’

  Running around the caravan, the boys saw the fat man rushing to the waiting pony and trap. Climbing in, he whipped the pony into action, slowed momentarily to hoist the man with the rings on board, and galloped away towards the road.

  ‘Come on,’ cried Jamesie.

  The girls were already taking Pakie over to their caravan. They all helped him to get on board and clambered in after him. Jamesie gave a sharp flick of the reins, and the chase was on.

  As they bowled along the Galway road, the girls hugged Pakie and told him how delighted they were to see him.

  ‘Not half as delighted as I am to see you, my darlings,’ he smiled. ‘It’s lucky I got my hands free, or I’d never have got out.’

  Tapser and Cowlick also came back and they helped Pakie to rub the cramps out of his wrists and ankles.

  ‘I’m grand now, I’m grand,’ he assured them, and struggling to the doorway, asked, ‘How’s it going Jamesie?’

  ‘We’ll never catch them,’ Jamesie shouted back. In desperation he urged Nuadha on, but it was obvious that the caravan was much heavier than the trap.

  ‘Look,’ cried Rachel, who was craning her neck around the edge of the door, ‘it’s the Little People!’

  Glancing around, Jamesie was delighted to see Titania’s Little People coming abreast of them. He also saw the look of astonishment on Pakie’s face, and explained, ‘They’re from the funfair. They said they would help us if they could.’

  The others were crowding around the doorway now, and they waved and cheered when they saw what was happening, for the Little People were going like the wind, for all the world like the fairytale warriors of long ago riding across the Plain of Southern Moytura.

  Soon the little riders had left the caravan behind, and were catching up with the trap when it careered around a corner and disappeared down a side road. The little riders followed and a few minutes later Jamesie turned in too. Before long they came to the Corrib, and what an amazing sight met their eyes.

  Fleeing madly from the Little People as if their lives depended on it, the men in the trap urged their pony on towards the lake shore. There they suddenly came upon a party of gardaí who immediately raised their hands to try and stop them. Ignoring the gardaí, they kept going, and for a moment it looked as if they were going to drive straight into the lake. However, their’s was no enchanted water-horse. The frightened animal swerved abruptly, and the two of them were thrown into the water.

  Afraid that the pony might crash into someone or injure itself, the gardaí gathered around to stop it. Seizing their chance, the two men gathered themselves up, and high-stepping frantically across the shallows, scrambled into a thicket of alders. A few seconds later there was the roar of an engine and a boat streaked out of an inlet behind the thicket.

  ‘It’s the motor cruiser,’ cried Róisín. ‘But how …’

  Before she could finish, the engine spluttered into silence and the boat glided to a halt. For a moment the two men and those on shore looked at each other, not knowing what to do. Then they heard the sound of another engine and a launch with gardaí on board came into view. It drew alongside the motor cruiser and several gardaí jumped on board.

  Martin was among the gardaí waiting on shore to take the two men into custody, and Pakie, who had suffered from them for so long, gave a helping hand.

  ‘There’s no way they’re going to escape this time,’ grinned Cowlick.

  Rachel laughed. ‘Not unless they know a good fairy who can open handcuffs.’

  ‘Look at the heap of netting they had,’ said Tapser.

  Róisín smiled. ‘And look at the name of the boat …’

  ‘Would you believe it?’ said Jamesie. ‘The Fairy Queen!’

  * * *

  Pakie, who looked thin and underfed at the best of times, had lost weight during his captivity. Otherwise, he assured everyone when he arrived back at Big Jim’s house, there was nothing wrong with him that a good bite to eat wouldn’t cure.

  Mag and Mary were overjoyed to have their brother back safe and sound, and it wasn’t long before they had a hefty meal ready for him. As he devoured it, he listened while Jamesie and his cousins told him how they had tried to solve the riddle of the poem and how they had come to find him at the funfair. By the time they had finished their story, he had finished his meal and, pushing back the empty plate, said, ‘Well, full marks to you.’

  ‘And were they right?’ asked Mag. ‘I mean, about the poem?’

  ‘They were,’ said Pakie. ‘Dead right. You see, I convinced the poachers there was no harm in letting me scribble a few poems to pass the time. That way I was able to compose the one with all the clues in it. But I had to make sure they weren’t too obvious, so they wouldn’t cop on.’

  ‘We didn’t really cop on either,’ Martin admitted, ‘but luckily Jamesie and these other young detectives here did.’

  ‘Lucky for me,’ said Pakie smiling over at them. ‘As I say, I couldn’t make it too obvious. But what I was saying was really simple. As you know, the poem was in two parts, and my idea was to give as many clues as possible. In the first part, the message I was trying to get across was that the salmon, the king of fish, was being netted by a gang of poachers on its way to the spawning beds and that there should be a search for them.’

  ‘We thought maybe you were also saying you had been struck down and that we should look for you, too,’ said Rachel.

  ‘Me, the Corrib king?’ laughed Pakie, and his laugh turned into that dry smoker’s cough they remembered so well.

  ‘Aye,’ said Dan, ‘and king of the poets too if you ask me. What about the second part?’

  Recovering from his fit of coughing, Pakie explained, ‘In the second part I was trying to indicate where they could be found. So all the clues there pointed to the islands, especially Lusmore where they kept me for most of the time.’

  ‘At one stage we thought that when you were talking about nymphs dancing in the moonlight, you meant Titania’s Little People,’ said Cowlick.

  Pakie shook his head. ‘No, that just meant that it was all happening out there among the islands where the fish feed on young flies called nymphs and the poachers’ children sometimes danced by the light of the moon. I had no idea they were going to take me to the funfair. Fortunately I had the opportunity to put the poem in the salmon over at Illaun na Shee. I knew nothing would attract mor
e attention on the lake than a dead salmon, so I was hoping somebody might cop on to what was happening.’

  ‘Why did they kidnap you in the first place?’ asked Mary.

  ‘I must have been getting too close to them. I had seized their nets a few times, and I suppose they reckoned that sooner or later I’d get them too. So they just burst in on me one night, drugged me and took me with them.’

  ‘What do you think they’d have done with you if we hadn’t found you?’ asked Tapser.

  ‘I don’t think they’d have killed me if that’s what you mean. No, I reckon that once they were finished here they’d have let me go. At least I hope they would!’

  ‘But you’ve still only got two of them,’ said Dan.

  ‘True, but I’ll know the others whenever I come across them again.’

  ‘And what about the motor cruiser?’ asked Big Jim. ‘Where did they get that?’

  ‘Stolen of course,’ Martin told him. ‘The owner lives in Dublin, so he didn’t even know it was gone.’

  ‘Rachel and I thought the fairy queen was a boat all along,’ said Róisín, ‘and we were right.’

  Pakie smiled. ‘You were right about a lot of things, I’m glad to say, or I wouldn’t be here now. And so was Biddy. I must call and thank her.’

  ‘They all did very well,’ said Big Jim, but Mary wasn’t amused.

  ‘If I’d known you were going to be out in the lake in the middle of the night,’ she told them, ‘I wouldn’t have let you go in the first place. Dear knows what might have happened to you.’

  ‘Well, they’re all back safely now,’ said Mag, ‘and so is Pakie. That’s the main thing. Anyway, Jamesie was with them, so there was no danger they were going to be drowned.’

  ‘But they could have been poisoned,’ Mary protested, ‘picking flowers like that.’

  ‘If it hadn’t been for the flowers and Biddy’s magic bottle,’ Róisín pointed out, ‘Pakie wouldn’t have been rescued and the poachers wouldn’t have been caught.’

  ‘That’s true,’ said Rachel. ‘You see Biddy, or whatever you call her,’ – and she threw Jamesie a dirty look – ‘she told us to give the bottle to Pakie. She said it was a tonic, but with all the talk about poisonous flowers, we decided to pour it into the fuel tank of the Fairy Queen instead. It took a while to work its way into the engine, but that’s what stopped it.’