"Look!" and raised his torch higher.
Everyone looked up.
The green top of the tree seemed black against the sky.
The leaves were motionless.
It was a very quiet night.
"See that?" the Guard bellowed.
He shook his torch.
"Yes.
It's something pink."
"And little."
"It's sitting up there."
"Idiots!
Don't you know what that is?
It's a parrot.
It flew out of the cage and into the tree."
The Guard who had been on duty and had sounded the alarm looked embarrassed.
"We'll have to get it down.
It got all the animals excited."
"That's right.
Go on up after it, Vurm.
You're the youngest here."
The one they had called Vurm went over to the tree.
He didn't know what to do.
"Go on up and grab it by the beard."
The parrot sat very still.
Its feathers were a shiny pink among the dark leaves.
Vurm pushed his hat towards his nose and scratched the back of his head.
"I'm scared.
You know how parrots bite."
"Go on, stupid! Get up there!"
Vurm finally began to climb the tree.
But when he was halfway up, he stopped, hung on for a second, and then slid back down again.
"I can't do it! And you won't make me!
I'm not supposed to fight parrots."
Just then they heard a cackling, angry voice.
Someone was hurrying towards them in the darkness, scrapping his shoes on the gravel.
"Don't touch him!" he shouted. "Don't disturb him!"
It was the head animal keeper of the zoo.
He was a very learned man, a zoologist by profession, who knew all there was to know about animals.
He had been awakened by the noise.
The head animal keeper lived near by. He had been in such a hurry that he still had on his nightcap.
He was very excited, for a bunch of clumsy soldiers had dared to barge into his zoo, and now some silly fool wanted to grab his parrot by the beard!
The Guards let him pass.
The animal keeper tilted back his head.
There was definitely something pink among the leaves.
"Yes," he said. "It's a parrot.
It's my best parrot.
It has a terrible temper and never likes to stay in the cage.
It's Laura.
Laura!