Part III Chapter 1 Doctor Dolittle's Circus by Hugh Lofting
THE HIGHWAYMAN'S DOUBLE
"Is he a decent fellow, this farmer you're working for now?" asked the Doctor, seating himself in the grass of the meadow.
"Oh, yes," said the old horse. "He means well. But I haven't done much work this year. He's got a younger team for plowing. I'm sort of pensioned off--only do odd jobs. You see, I'm getting pretty old-- thirty-nine, you know."
"Are you, indeed?" said the Doctor. "You don't look it--nothing like it. Thirty-nine! Well, well! Yes, to be sure, now I recollect. You had your thirty-sixth birthday the same week I got you your spectacles. You remember the garden party we gave for you-- in the kitchen garden--when Gub-Gub overate himself with ripe peaches?"
"Very well, I do. Ah, those were the days! Good, old Puddleby! But what's this animal you have with you," asked the plow horse as Sophie moved restlessly in the grass, "a badger?"
"No, that's a seal. Let me introduce you: this is Sophie, from Alaska. We're escaping from the circus. She has to go back to her country on urgent business, and I'm helping her get to the sea."
"Sh!" said Sophie. "Look, Doctor, there's the coach going by."
"Thank goodness for that!" murmured John Dolittle as the lights disappeared down the road.
"You know," said he, turning to the old horse again, "we've had a hard time getting even this far. Sophie has to keep concealed, and she can't walk much. We are making for the Kippet River, at Talbot's Bridge. We came by coach up to Shottlake, but we had to leave it. We were just wondering how we could continue our journey when you scared the life out of us behind that hedge."
"You want to get to Talbot's Bridge?" said the old horse. "Well, that should be easy. Listen; you see that barn up on the sky-line? Well, there's an old wagon in it. There's no harness but there's plenty of ropes. Let's run up there, and you can hitch me between the shafts, put your seal in the wagon and we'll go."
"But you'll get into trouble," said the Doctor, "taking your farmer's wagon off like that."
"My farmer will never know," said the old horse, grinning behind his spectacles. "You leave the gate on the latch as we go out and I'll bring the wagon back and put it where we found it."
"But how will you get out of your harness alone?"
"That's easy. If you knot the ropes the way I tell you, I can undo them with my teeth. I won't be able to take you the whole way, because I couldn't get back in time to put the wagon up before daylight comes. But I've got a friend about nine miles down the Grantchester Road, on the Redhill Farm. He gets put out to graze nights, like me. He'll take you the rest of the way. It'll be easy for him to get back to his place before any one's about."
"Old friend," said the Doctor, "you have a great head. Let's hurry and get on our way."
Then they climbed the hill to the barn. Inside they found an old wagon. The Doctor dragged it out. Then, getting down some ropes that hung coiled against the wall, he rigged up a kind of harness, with the help of an old collar, which he found thrown up in the manger. And when the plow horse had set himself between the shafts John Dolittle hitched him up, being careful to make all the knots exactly the way he was told.
Then he lifted Sophie into the wagon and they started off down the meadow towards the gate.
As they were going out the Doctor said:
"But suppose any one should meet me driving a wagon in a high hat? Wouldn't it seem sort of suspicious? Oh, look: there's a scarecrow in the next field. I'll borrow his hat."
"Bring the whole scarecrow with you," the old horse called after him as the Doctor started off. "I'll need something as a dummy driver when I'm coming back. Folks would stop me if they thought I was straying around the country without a driver."
"All right," said the Doctor and he ran off.
In a few minutes he came marching back with the scarecrow on his shoulder. Then he set the gate on the latch, so the old horse could push it open on his return, threw the scarecrow up into the wagon and climbed in himself.
Next, he took the scarecrow's tattered hat and put in on his own head, in place of his high one. Then he got into the driver's seat, lifted the rope reins in his hands, called "Gee-up!" to his old friend between the shafts and they started off.
"You better keep your cloak and bonnet ready to slip on, Sophie," said he. "Somebody might ask for a ride. And if we are compelled to give any one a lift you'll have to be a lady again."
"I'd sooner be almost anything in the world than a lady," sighed Sophie, remembering the tickling veil. "But I'll do it if you say so."
Thus, driving his own farm-wagon coach, with a scarecrow and a seal for passengers, John Dolittle successfully completed the next stage in his strange journey. They passed very few people, and no one asked for a ride. They had one anxious moment, however, when a gentleman armed with pistols in his saddle-holsters galloped up on a very fine horse and asked if they had seen anything of a man and a veiled woman along the road.
The Doctor, sitting on top of Sophie, leaned on the side of his wagon, with his scarecrow hat pulled well down over his eyes.
"I saw a couple getting into a field a few miles back," he said, trying to talk like a yokel. "But I reckon they be a long ways from there by now."
"That'll be they, sure enough," said the man putting spurs to his horse: "Finch and Gresham the highwayman. They boarded the coach below Shottlake. But they got away before we could arrest them. Never mind, we'll get 'em yet. Good night!"
And he galloped off down the road.
"Poor Mr. Finch!" said the Doctor, as the old horse moved on. "I'm afraid we are not improving his reputation for him."
"It's a good thing I got you away from Shottlake," said the old horse. "I reckon that fellow will set the whole country busy hunting for you now."
"Their hunting won't do us any harm back at Shottlake," said the Doctor. "Good thing if they're kept busy. But I hope you don't get into trouble on your return to the farm."
"No, I don't suppose so," said the old horse. "Even if I'm seen they'll never guess how I got hitched up. Don't bother about me. I'll manage."
A little further on the plow horse stopped.
"This is Redhill Farm on the right," said he. "Wait till I call Joe."
Then he went close to the hedge beside the road and neighed softly. Presently there was a scampering of hoofs and his friend, a much younger horse, poked his head over the hawthorns.
"I've got John Dolittle here," whispered the plow horse. "He wants to get to Talbot's Bridge in a hurry. Can you take him?"
"Why, certainly," said the other.
"You'll have to use a wagon of your own," said the plow horse. "I must get mine back to the barn before my farmer wakes up. Got a cart or something anywhere about the place?"
"Yes, there's a trap up in the yard. It'll be faster than a wagon. Come over this side of the hedge, Doctor, and I'll show you where it is."
Then, hurrying lest daylight overtake them, they made the exchange. Madame Sophie was transferred from a farm wagon to a smart trap. The old plow horse, after an affectionate farewell from the Doctor, started back with his own wagon, driven by his scarecrow propped up on the front seat. At the same time John Dolittle and Sophie were carried at a good, swift pace in the opposite direction, towards the Kippet River.
It was not until some time afterward, when the Doctor revisited his old friend--in a way you will hear of later on--that he learned the story of that return journey which the plow horse made alone. About halfway back to his farm he met the gentleman with the pistols again, still galloping up and down the Grantchester Road, looking for Robert Finch, the highwayman. Recognizing the wagon and the driver whom he had met before, the rider stopped and asked some more questions. The driver of the wagon didn't answer. The man repeated his questions. Still the driver sat motionless in his seat, saying not a word. Growing at last somewhat suspicious, the horseman leaned forward in his saddle and pulled the hat off the driver's face.
The face was made of straw and rags!
The horsemen, seeing he had been fooled, felt sure that the man who drove the wagon the first time he met it must have been the real highwayman, and that this scarecrow driver was just another of Finch's clever dodges to put the police on the wrong scent. Another wild story was added to the list of Finch's wonderful pranks--in one night he had passed himself off as a woman and as a scarecrow!
Then, to mix things up still more, that same day at two o'clock in the morning the real Robert Finch held up and robbed the Ipswich coach, more than a hundred miles away. And how he got across England to do it in that short time is still one of the great mysteries in the history of highway robbery. John Dolittle had been quite right when he said that they were adding to Finch's reputation!
On arriving at his own farm, the old horse found every one in a great state of excitement. People are rushing wildly up and down the fields with lanterns. The scarecrow had been missed--so had the old wagon, so had the old horse. The farm laborers were following the wheel tracks across the meadow. As soon as the plow horse reached the gate he was surrounded by a mob with lamps and guns, all guessing and advising and chattering at once. But his owner, thinking he had been stolen and harnessed by the highwayman, did not blame him for the adventure. And for long afterward he was visited in his pasture and pointed out by the village gossips as the horse who had been driven by Finch's scarecrow double.
In the meantime the Doctor and Sophie, in their trap, were spanking along the road in the direction of Talbot's Bridge. And, although the horseman (he was the County Constable's Assistant) galloped after them as hard as he could, he never overtook them, with the good start they had gained.
On reaching the river, the Doctor lifted Sophie out of the trap and dropped her over the bridge into the stream. Telling the Redhill horse to go back to his farm by a different way, lest he be met by the man again, John Dolittle leapt off the parapet of the bridge on to the bank. Then, while he ran along the stream beside her, Sophie, with gurgles of delight, plunged and darted through the river, catching all the fish she wanted on the way.