The Runaways Read online

  Carl and his boss were reported to have been furious when they found out Shanti had given birth to a healthy calf.

  ‘Hardly time to draw a breath let alone look out at the audience whilst you’re doing your act, surely,’ the ringmaster continued, interrupting Albert’s thoughts. ‘Especially keeping that young Tara in check.’

  ‘And you’re sure the new owner is used to elephants?’ Albert asked again.

  ‘Yes, yes – we’ve been through this. Don’t you worry, it’s all sorted out,’ the ringmaster said, as they headed briskly into the station and out on to the platform where Albert’s train was already waiting.

  But Albert did worry. ‘Tara can be a bit of a handful,’ he said.

  ‘Everyone has their moments,’ the ringmaster told him.

  ‘What are you going to do yourself now that the circus has disbanded?’ Albert asked the ringmaster. He’d been so busy thinking about himself that he hadn’t given a thought to the older man, now that his livelihood had gone.

  ‘Oh, I’ll think of something –’

  The ringmaster was interrupted by a loud bark that Albert would have recognized anywhere.

  His heart leapt as he turned round to find Harvey bounding towards him.

  ‘I told you to wait, Harvey,’ Albert said, but he was smiling and Harvey knew he was pleased to see him.

  ‘Dozy dog,’ the ringmaster muttered as Albert crouched down and Harvey ran over to him and licked his face. Albert laughed and buried his face in Harvey’s fur so the ringmaster wouldn’t see his tears.

  ‘You’re sure you don’t mind looking after him while I’m away?’ Albert said.

  The ringmaster shook his head. ‘Not at all.’ He opened the carriage door. ‘In you get now.’

  Harvey whined and tried to follow Albert on to the train, but the ringmaster’s boot pushed him roughly back.

  A moment later the train whistled and started to move off with a whoosh of steam.

  Harvey barked again and again. Where was Albert going without him? He didn’t want to be left behind. He looked up at the train with Albert on it and he started to whine as the train slowly moved away. The next moment Harvey was running down the platform after the train, barking as he swerved in between the people on the platform. He wanted to be with Albert wherever he went, whatever he was doing. Albert saw Harvey and pushed down the window.

  ‘Go back, Harvey!’ he shouted. ‘Please, please go back.’

  There was nothing he would have liked more than to have Harvey with him, but the dog wouldn’t like the heat of the desert, even if the army allowed him to keep him. He was better off staying here and being cared for by the ringmaster.

  The platform came to an end but Harvey still ran on, desperately following the train. He ran and ran until he couldn’t run any more and could only watch as the train sped on ever further into the distance taking Albert away from him.

  Harvey threw back his head and howled his despair up into the sky.

  Then he lay down with his head in his paws and waited for the metal beast that had taken his Albert away from him to return. But the train didn’t come back.

  ‘Come on you,’ growled the ringmaster, as he looped a rope round Harvey’s neck and pulled him up.

  ‘You’re coming with me.’

  Chapter 4

  Tara had never met the red-faced man with the broken nose before and so she didn’t know that she was supposed to be frightened of him when he came into the elephant tent.

  But Shanti remembered Carl from the time she’d spent at Cullen’s Circus and she trembled with fear and moved as far away from him as she could get, which wasn’t very far as the tent was small.

  Unaware, Tara trotted over to Carl and opened her mouth wide hoping for a treat. But when Shanti saw what she was doing she hurried over and blocked her daughter from the man.

  Carl looked into Shanti’s big eyes. ‘Remember me, do you? They say an elephant never forgets.’

  He lifted up a long stick with a straight sharp point like a spear on one end and beside it a curved point like a hook. Elephant’s skin looked thick but Carl knew that it was very sensitive and in some places paper thin and incredibly tender. Carl knew where all those places were and how to use the elephant goad to inflict the most pain. Elephants soon learnt to obey his every command.

  ‘Remember this?’ he said.

  ‘Right,’ said the ringmaster, coming into the tent. ‘The boy’s gone and the little elephant is yours now.’

  ‘Should have always been mine,’ Carl said, pointing the elephant goad at Tara. ‘The father’s one of our bulls so the daughter belongs to Cullen’s.’

  The ringmaster had heard this a hundred times before. ‘Well she’s yours now, as I promised she would be in return for a job at Cullen’s. Let’s get her mother on to the train.’ He hadn’t told Albert about the two hundred pounds he’d been paid for Shanti and he didn’t tell Carl either. ‘We’ve wasted enough time already today.’

  But Shanti didn’t want to go anywhere without her daughter.

  Harvey was tied up outside the ringmaster’s caravan when he heard the terrible distressed sounds coming from the elephant tent, and he wrenched himself free.

  The ringmaster and Carl were trying to force Shanti out of the tent having tied up Tara to a stake in the ground, to prevent her from following her mother. Carl pushed the sharp spike of the elephant goad at Shanti into the sensitive spots on her skin and her soft ears. Shanti cried out in pain, but refused to leave Tara, however much they struck her.

  Harvey barked and ran towards the ringmaster and Carl who were hurting his friend. He growled, but they didn’t stop. As Carl went to strike Shanti again Harvey clamped on to his brown trouser leg with his sharp teeth.

  ‘Ger-roff!’ Carl tried to shake Harvey away. ‘That mutt will need to learn some discipline, too if he’s coming with you,’ he snarled at the ringmaster.

  But Harvey didn’t let go, pulling harder on Carl’s trouser leg until Carl turned and lashed out at him with the elephant goad. Harvey yelped in pain. The hook was as sharp as a knife and it tore through the fur on his leg to his skin and drew blood. Harvey whined and slowly backed away.

  ‘That’ll show him who’s boss,’ Carl said, as they turned their attention back to Shanti.

  The ringmaster took the opportunity to grab Harvey by the scruff of his neck.

  ‘You’re supposed to be tied up,’ he said roughly, pulling Harvey back. Both men were out of breath from all the effort.

  ‘They’d never dare to behave like this if they were at Cullen’s Circus,’ Carl said.

  The ringmaster was getting a bit tired of hearing about how much better Cullen’s was. He looked down at Harvey, whom he now tied firmly to a tent pole, licking his leg wound.

  ‘Right, bring the baby elephant – it’s the only way we’ll get her mother on the train,’ the ringmaster said. ‘That’s the thing about elephants,’ he continued, mopping the sweat from his brow with his handkerchief. ‘Well, all animals except humans, really.’

  Carl raised an eyebrow. ‘What’s that then?’

  ‘They don’t lie so they’re easy to trick.’

  The ringmaster released the rope holding Tara to the ground stake and the little elephant ran to her mother, squealing in distress. Shanti wrapped her trunk round her and made soothing sounds to her frightened daughter. She looked over at Harvey, who jumped up and pulled against the tent peg, leg wound forgotten.

  ‘Right, let’s get going,’ the ringmaster said, taking hold of the rope round Tara’s neck. ‘He’s not going anywhere,’ he added with a nod at Harvey. Harvey let out a low growl.

  Shanti looked over at Harvey and reached out to him with her trunk. But before she could touch him Carl prodded her with the horrible goad, while the ringmaster pulled Tara out of the tent. Shanti’s attention quickly turned to her daughter and she followed them.

  ‘Just need a little bit of guile,’ the ringmaster said smugly as he led Tara along the roa
d towards the freight siding. There was no way an elephant, or a dog, or even most humans were getting the better of him.

  It was already almost six o’clock, but it was still light when they got to the station. They got some strange looks from the passengers as the stationmaster directed them to the goods-train siding far away from the passenger platforms to wait for the train that would transport Shanti.

  ‘No special elephant carriage?’ Carl said, when the train finally pulled in and the ringmaster headed towards a livestock carriage used for horses.

  ‘Too expensive,’ Jedediah told him.

  ‘But what if the elephant breaks out?’

  ‘She won’t – and anyway if she gets out of a moving train and injures herself, well, that won’t be our fault, will it? We sent her off in a calm, placid condition. Can’t help it if something spooks her on the journey, can we?’

  He led Tara up the ramp into the horse carriage and Shanti quickly followed her, just as the ringmaster had hoped.

  There wasn’t much room inside but Shanti still tried to protect her daughter by getting in between Tara and Carl. The horse carriage had no windows and was hot from being shut up all day. It smelt musty and Shanti trembled as she lay her trunk along her terrified daughter’s back. Both elephants’ eyes were wide with fear and pain.

  ‘Chain Shanti up then,’ said the ringmaster and Carl set to work, winding the strong chains back and forth round Shanti’s legs, her neck and her trunk and back.

  ‘Got enough chains to hold four elephants here,’ Carl said. ‘No way this one’s going anywhere.’

  ‘Good,’ said the ringmaster. ‘All secure? Now it’s time for you to come with us,’ he said, turning his attention to Tara who was standing as close to her mother as she could and touching her with her trunk. He gave the baby elephant a sharp prod with the elephant goad to force her out of the carriage.

  Tara gave a squeal of surprise and pain. She’d never been struck before. Shanti bellowed and pulled against the chains, but they held fast. Carl pulled at the rope round Tara’s neck with one hand and grabbed one of her ears with the other.

  ‘Come on!’

  The ringmaster struck and pushed the little elephant from behind forcing her away from her mother.

  Shanti bellowed in desperation and despair as she twisted and turned, but the chains didn’t give way as they tore into her flesh. The door slammed shut and she was left in darkness as Tara was dragged away, screaming and crying.

  Shanti roared and roared and got herself more and more tangled up until she was kneeling rather than standing, but she couldn’t break free of her chains in the hot, airless carriage.

  The ringmaster gave the station crew and the conductor some money for their inconvenience.

  ‘The new owner’ll need this,’ Carl said, handing over the elephant goad to the conductor.

  ‘Won’t you need it?’ the ringmaster asked, surprised at Carl’s unusual generosity.

  ‘Got plenty more back at Cullen’s,’ Carl told him. ‘And a stick’ll be enough to keep the little one in line.’

  ‘No point us heading off till the morning now is there?’ the ringmaster asked Carl as they forced Tara along the street back to the circus. ‘We’ll have some supper and a bottle or two back the caravan once we’ve sorted the little elephant out.’

  Carl thought that was a very good idea. Herding elephants was hungry and thirsty work.

  In the darkness of the horse carriage, with the windows boarded up, Shanti finally stopped roaring and trying to break free from the chains that bound her. Tara had gone.

  Tears fell from the mother elephant’s eyes as the whistle blew and the train left the station.

  Chapter 5

  At last, Yolanda heard the sound of their dad’s study door opening and the squeak of his wheelchair wheels.

  ‘You two ready?’ Mr Jones called out. ‘Ajaz?’

  Only his dad ever called him that. Everyone else always called him AJ.

  ‘Yes, Dad,’ AJ shouted.

  ‘At last,’ Yolanda said, as the two of them scrambled off the sofa.

  AJ pushed his dad’s squeaky-wheeled wheelchair as the three of them headed to Stony Oakhill railway station, ten minutes’ walk away. Yolanda walked behind pushing a wheelbarrow full of food for the elephant.

  ‘Your wheels need oiling, Dad,’ she said.

  ‘I know. I’m reminding myself of a giant-sized mouse,’ he smiled.

  ‘Elephants don’t eat people, do they?’ AJ asked him. He’d been worrying about an elephant biting him quite a lot ever since he’d learnt that they were going to have one living with them. Last night he’d had a nasty dream about becoming an elephant’s supper. He had to ask his dad now. It would be too late by the time the elephant arrived. He had to know.

  ‘Of course not,’ Yolanda said, her eyes opening wide. ‘Why on earth would you think that?’

  AJ didn’t seem to have listened to anything Mr Soames had tried to teach them at school today.

  ‘Elephants only eat plant foods,’ their dad said, and AJ sighed with relief. That was all right then.

  ‘They’re frightened of tiny mice aren’t they, Dad?’ Yolanda said.

  But their dad wasn’t quite sure if they were frightened of them or not. ‘It could be a myth,’ he said. ‘We’ll have to see.’

  ‘It’ll probably be terrified of all the mice in the barn then,’ AJ said, and then he gulped as he found he had a whole new problem to worry about. What if the elephant got frightened and stampeded and what if … what if … it was so terrible he couldn’t say it out loud … what if he got in its way by mistake? Being run over by an elephant would be a lot worse than being bitten by one.

  ‘Here we are,’ his dad said, and they turned into the station.

  ‘We’ve come to pick up Shanti,’ AJ told the stationmaster.

  ‘Our elephant,’ said Yolanda.

  ‘Have you indeed?’ the stationmaster said, and he pointed along the platform. ‘You’ll find it in a carriage in the sidings. Just follow the noise.’

  As they got closer they could hear a deep mournful rumbling noise coming from a horse carriage without windows. Some of the station workers were standing outside it and they pulled open the door as they arrived.

  Yolanda and AJ stared at the elephant bundled up like a parcel with chains. Her eyes stared at them desperately.

  Yolanda felt sick. Why was the elephant being treated like this?

  ‘Why’s she chained up like that?’ AJ asked.

  The elephant couldn’t even move her head.

  ‘Needs to be,’ one of the station men said.

  ‘Only way,’ said another.

  ‘All those chains wouldn’t be strong enough to hold a crazed elephant,’ the first man said.

  ‘Elephants can be very dangerous,’ said the second.

  ‘Unchain her,’ Mr Jones said.

  The station crew didn’t look like they thought this was a very good idea.

  ‘Are you sure that’s wise, sir?’ one of them asked.

  ‘Yes,’ AJ and Yolanda’s dad said.

  ‘Your funeral,’ the man sighed, hoping it wouldn’t be his funeral too.

  Two of them released the chains that had been wound like a spider’s web around Shanti’s legs and trunk to hobble her. She had raw cuts on her skin where she’d pulled against them, but hadn’t been able to break free. The elephant rocked from side to side as the mournful sounds continued.

  ‘Is there a storm coming?’ AJ asked.

  One of the station men looked up at the sky. It was perfectly clear.

  ‘It’s coming from Shanti.’ Yolanda said. She too sensed the low throbbing AJ had felt, although it was so low she couldn’t hear it. ‘It makes me feel weird.’

  ‘It makes me feel like I do when there’s thunder in the air,’ said AJ.

  The station man shrugged.

  ‘I think I know what it is,’ said Mr Jones. ‘It’s the elephant call. When I was in Ceylon, people spoke of
the special song that only elephants can hear. It’s too low for most humans to detect, although some people, like you, may feel it as a throbbing sensation like when there’s a very deep note on the organ in church.’

  AJ nodded.

  ‘The elephant’s call can travel for miles and other elephants can hear it. I expect Shanti’s calling out because she’s been so distressed shut up in that carriage,’ Mr Jones said. ‘Elephants are able to meet up in the same exact spot at the same time when they’ve been miles apart, thanks to that song.’

  ‘I’d be crying out if I was shut in there too,’ AJ said. ‘Poor Shanti must have been so frightened.’

  ‘It’s stopped now,’ Yolanda said. She looked at the elephant and had never felt so sorry for a creature in her life.

  ‘You’ll be needing this,’ another of the station men said, picking up a stick with a sharp hook at the end of it. ‘Circus folk told us it’d get the brute to do what you needed it to do.’

  Shanti shied away from the sight of the elephant goad.

  ‘We will most certainly not be needing that,’ Mr Jones said firmly.

  Once the chains were off Shanti started to move and the station men quickly jumped out of the horse carriage.

  ‘Don’t want to get stepped on by an elephant,’ one of them told AJ.

  AJ couldn’t agree more. The elephant was absolutely huge. Bigger than the steam engine Annie and the other the Land Army girls used before it was taken away. Twice as tall as him, and ten of him could stand side by side and still only just be as long as her.

  ‘Elephants’ feet are very sensitive,’ his dad told him. ‘So that probably wouldn’t happen.’

  AJ breathed a sigh of relief.

  ‘Their footpads are filled with a special sort of oil and really pretty amazing,’ Mr Jones continued. ‘They can pick up tiny vibrations in the ground as elephants call to each other. Like whales do.’

  They put a ramp up by the horse carriage door, but Shanti didn’t come down it. She just stood at the door looking out at them. Then she raised her trunk and sniffed the air. There was not even the faintest scent of Tara in any direction.