"I'll try my best," he said. "But you must realise that this is a very serious matter."
"Certainly!" the official barked and brought his finger down. "I've given you the order. It's your duty to obey it.
Good-bye!"
Auntie Ganimed sprang back from the keyhole and scuttled off to her room, where the happy mouse was squeaking in the corner.
The terrible visitors left.
The Palace official climbed back into the black carriage. Captain Bonaventura, his spurs flashing and jangling, jumped on to his horse.
The Guards pulled their hats down and were off.
The doll that belonged to Tutti the Heir was left in the doctor's workshop.
Doctor Caspar saw his visitors out and then went to find Auntie Ganimed. His voice was unusually stern when he said:
"Auntie Ganimed!
I want you to listen carefully.
I'm known as a wise man, a good doctor and a skilled craftsman.
I value both my fame and my head.
Tomorrow morning I may lose both.
I have a very difficult job to do tonight.
Do you understand?" Here he waved the order of the State Councillor of the Three Fat Men in front of her. "I don't want anyone or anything to bother me!
I don't want any noise in the house.
Don't clatter about with the dishes.
Don't burn food on the stove.
Don't call out to your hens.
Don't go catching mice.
I don't want to hear about fried eggs, or cauliflower, or Turkish delight, or medicines!
Do you understand?"
Doctor Caspar was very angry.
Auntie Ganimed locked herself in her room.
"Such strange things are going on," she mumbled. "I simply can't understand a thing.
First the Negro, now the doll, and an order of some kind or other.
Yes, strange things are happening these days!"
To calm her nerves she decided to write a letter to her niece.
She had to write very slowly, to keep the pen from scratching, for she didn't want to disturb the doctor.
A whole hour passed.
Auntie Ganimed was still writing.
She had just come to the part about the strange Negro who had appeared in Doctor Caspar's study that morning.
''They left together.
The doctor came back later with a Palace official and some Guards.
They had a doll that looks just like a little girl, but the Negro wasn't with them.
I don't know what's become of him."
Doctor Caspar was also wondering what had become of the Negro, that is, of Tibul the Acrobat.
While the doctor worked on the doll, his thoughts kept turning back to Tibul.
He was angry.
He was talking to himself.
"How careless he was!
I turned him into a Negro, I made him such a beautiful colour, no one would ever have recognised him. But then he had to go and give himself away at the Fourteenth Market Place!
He may get caught any minute!
Oh, dear!
He's so careless!
Does he want to be put into an iron cage?"
Doctor Caspar was very worried.
First, Tibul had been so careless, and now here was this doll that had to be fixed.
Then there was all the trouble of the day before and the ten scaffolds on Court Square.