Do you think I'll climb into a pot instead?"
"Yes, that's just what you have to do."
"Get into the pot?"
"Yes."
"And then what?"
"You'll see.
First, get into the pot.
That's the best way to escape."
The copper pot was so big that the fattest of the Three Fat Men could easily have got inside it, to say nothing of the skinny balloon man.
"Hurry up, if you don't want to get caught."
The balloon man looked down into the pot.
It had no bottom.
He saw a big dark hole, just like a well.
"All right," he sighed. "Into the pot it is.
At least it's no worse than flying through the air and being covered with icing.
Well, good-bye, you rascals!
Here's the payment for my escape."
He untied the knot and gave each boy a balloon.
There was one for each: twenty boys and twenty balloons, each one tied to its own string.
Then he climbed into the pot feet first.
One of the boys put on the lid.
"Balloons, balloons!" they shouted happily.
They rushed out of the kitchen to a little lawn in the park near the bakery windows.
It was much more fun to run around with the balloons out in the open.
Suddenly, the three pastrycooks stuck their heads out of three windows.
"What's going on here?!" they all cried.
"Come back inside this minute!"
The boys were so frightened by the shouting that they let go of the strings and the balloons flew off.
Their happiness had ended.
Twenty balloons were caught up by the wind. Higher and higher they flew into the blue sky.
Meanwhile, the kitchen-boys stood below on the grass among the flowering sweet-peas, their mouths open and their heads in white caps thrown back as they looked up at the sky.
CHAPTER FIVE
THE NEGRO AND THE HEAD OF CABBAGE
You probably remember that Doctor Caspar's frightening adventures ended with Tibul the Acrobat climbing out of the fireplace in his study.
No one knows what went on in Doctor Caspar's workshop after that.
Auntie Ganimed was exhausted from all the excitement and the long waiting. She was fast asleep, dreaming of roast chicken.
The next day (this is the day on which the balloon man flew into the Palace of the Three Fat Men and the Guards broke the doll that belonged to Tutti the Heir) Auntie Ganimed had a most unpleasant accident.
She let a mouse out of a mousetrap.
The night before the very same mouse had eaten a pound of Turkish delight.
And the night before that it had knocked over a glass with carnations.
The glass had broken and for some strange reason the carnations had begun to smell like catnip.
The mouse got caught that terrible night.
The next morning Auntie Ganimed awoke very early. She picked up the mousetrap.
The mouse was sitting inside the little cage looking quite at home, as if it didn't mind being there at all.
It was a very sly mouse.
"Next time, you won't eat Turkish delight that doesn't belong to you!" Auntie Ganimed said, putting the cage with the mouse where she could keep an eye on it.
When she had dressed, Auntie Gammed went downstairs to Doctor Caspar's workshop.
She wanted to tell him the good news.
The morning before he had said it was really a shame that so much tasty candy had disappeared.
"Mice like Turkish delight, because it contains a lot of acids," he had explained.