Put it on!"
Suok changed her dress.
She stood there in the first rays of the morning sun, looking prettier than any birthday girl in the world.
Her dress was pink, but when she moved, it seemed covered with golden raindrops.
The dress glittered, rustled and smelled lovely.
"I'm ready," Suok said.
It only took them a minute to say good-bye.
Circus performers don't like tears.
They risk their lives too often.
Besides, there couldn't be any hugging for fear of spoiling her dress.
"Come back soon!" old August said and sighed.
"I'm off to the workers' quarters.
We have to see how many men we have left.
The workers are waiting for me.
They've found out that I'm alive and free."
With these words Tibul wrapped his cape about him, put on a wide-brimmed hat, a pair of dark glasses and a large fake nose that was part of the Turk's costume in the pantomime entitled
"A Journey to Cairo".
No one could ever recognise him now.
True, the big nose made him look horrible, but it was the safest way.
Old August stood on the threshold.
The doctor, Tibul and Suok went down the steps of the carnival wagon.
It was now bright daylight.
"Hurry, hurry!" the doctor said.
A minute later he and Suok were seated in the carriage.
"Are you frightened?" the doctor asked.
Suok smiled in reply.
The doctor kissed her forehead.
The streets were still empty.
There were hardly any voices to be heard.
Suddenly, there was a loud barking.
Then a dog began to growl, just as if someone were trying to take away its bone.
The doctor looked out of the carriage window.
Imagine, it was the very same dog that had bitten Lapitup the Strong Man!
But that was not all.
The doctor saw something else.
A tall thin man with a small head, dressed in a fine but strange-looking suit and looking very much like a grasshopper, was tugging at something pink and pretty that the dog held in its teeth.
Pink shreds were flying in all directions.
The man finally won.
He snatched his prize and pressed it to his chest as he rushed off in the very same direction the doctor's carriage was coming from.
When he was abreast of the carriage, Suok, who was peeping out from behind the doctor's shoulder, saw something terrible.
The strange man was not running, he was flying along in graceful leaps, barely touching the ground, like a real ballet dancer.
The green flaps of his frock coat waved in the wind like the arms of a windmill.
And he was carrying ... he was carrying a girl with black wounds in her chest.
"It's me!" Suok cried.
She fell back on the seat and hid her face in the plush cushion.
At the sound of her cry, the running man turned to look back, and Doctor Caspar recognised him. It was One-Two-Three, the dancing master.
CHAPTER NINE
THE DOLL HAS A VERY GOOD APPETITE
Tutti the Heir was standing on the balcony.
His Geography tutor was peering through a telescope.