"You always listened to me when we used to perform for the crowds on Sundays, Suok.
You'd stand there on the striped platform and I'd say Allez! And then you'd step on to the wire and walk towards me.
I'd be waiting for you in the middle, high over the crowds.
Then I'd bend one knee, say Allez! again, and you'd place your foot on my knee and climb to my shoulders.
Were you frightened then?"
"No.
You'd say Allez! and that meant I had to be calm and not be afraid of anything."
"Well then," said Tibul. "I'm saying Allez! now.
You will be a doll!"
"All right, I'll be a doll."
"A doll?" said Doctor Caspar. "What's this all about?"
I am sure, dear reader, that you have understood.
You did not live through as much excitement and worry as poor Doctor Gas-par, and so you are calmer and understand things more quickly.
Just think, the doctor hadn't even had an hour's sleep for two days.
As it is, one can only wonder at his strength.
Before the second rooster awoke, everything had been decided.
Tibul drew up a detailed plan of action.
"Suok, you're a very good actress, even though you're so young.
When we put on the pantomime
'The Stupid King' last spring you played the part of the Golden Cabbage Stump admirably.
"Then you had the part of a transfer picture in the ballet, and you were very good as the miller changing into a teapot.
You dance and sing better than anyone else, you have a good imagination and, most important of all, you're a brave and intelligent girl."
Suok was aglow from happiness.
So much praise was making her shy.
"Now you'll have to play the part of Tutti the Heir's doll."
Suok clapped her hands and kissed everyone in turn: first Tibul, then old August, then Doctor Caspar.
"Wait," Tibul said. "That's not all.
You know that Prospero the Gunsmith is locked up in an iron cage in the Palace of the Three Fat Men.
It's up to you to set him free."
"Must I unlock the cage?"
"Yes, I know a secret that will help Prospero escape from the Palace."
"A secret?" '
"Yes.
There's a secret tunnel there."
Then Tibul told them about the balloon man.
"The tunnel starts somewhere in a big pot, probably in the Palace kitchen.
You'll have to find it."
"All right."
The sun had not yet risen, but the birds were awake.
The grass on the little plot outside the door showed green.
Now that it was light, the strange animal in the cage turned out to be an ordinary red fox.
"There's no time to lose!
We have far to go."
"But first, you must put on the prettiest dress you have," Doctor Caspar said.
Suok brought out all her circus costumes.
They were magnificent, because she had made them herself.
Like any talented actress, she had very good taste.
Doctor Caspar rummaged through the colourful pile of clothes.
"I think this will do," he said at last.
"It's not a bit worse than the one on the broken doll.