See how fat they are!
But we have won.
Now we will work for ourselves and we will all be equal.
There won't be any more rich people, idlers or gluttons.
Then we will all live well, we will all have enough to eat.
And if times are bad, we will know that there is no one who is getting fat when others go hungry."
"Hooray!
Hooray!" the people shouted.
The Three Fat Men huffed and puffed.
"Today is the day of our victory.
See how brightly the sun is shining!
Hear how beautifully the birds are singing!
Can you smell the lovely flowers?
Remember this day, remember this hour!"
When he said "hour", all heads turned towards the clock.
It hung on the wall in a space between two columns.
It was in a huge oaken box with lots of carving and enamelled ornaments on it.
In the middle was the large dark clock face.
"What time is it?" everyone in the Palace Hall thought at that moment.
And suddenly ... suddenly the oaken door of the clock opened.
And everyone could see there were no wheels inside. It was just an empty box.
Instead of brass springs and wheels, there sat a pink and smiling girl. It was Suok.
"Suok!" they all gasped.
"Suok!" the children shouted.
"Suok!
Suok!
Suok!" Everyone began to applaud.
The blue-eyed Guard lifted her down from the box.
It was the same blue-eyed Guard who had made off with the doll that belonged to Tutti the Heir. He had picked it up from the cardboard box in which One-Two-Three the dancing master had all his belongings.
He had brought it to the Palace, he had knocked over the State Councillor and the Guard who had been dangling the real, live Suok.
He had hidden Suok in the empty clock and in her place he had brought the dead, torn doll to the Three Fat Men.
Remember how he had shaken and cuffed the stuffed doll in the Court Hall and how he later threw it to the tigers?
Suok was now handed down the rows.
People who had said she was the best dancer in the world and had tossed her their last coppers when she danced now hugged and kissed her, pressing her to their hearts.
For there, under the rough, torn, soot-covered jackets were their much-suffering, kind and tender hearts.
She laughed, stroked their hair, wiped the blood from their faces, made funny faces at the children, cried and chattered.
"Bring her over here," Prospero the Gunsmith said in a choking voice, and many thought they could see tears in his eyes. "It was she who saved my life!"
"Here!
Over here!" Tibul shouted, waving his green cape as if it were a giant green leaf. "She is my little friend.
Come here, Suok!"
And from far back in the crowd, smiling old Doctor Caspar was elbowing his way forward.
The Three Fat Men were put in the same cage in which they had once locked Prospero the Gunsmith.
EPILOGUE
A year later there was a great and merry celebration.
The people were celebrating the first anniversary of their liberation from the rule of the Three Fat Men.
There was to be a children's performance in Star Square.
Posters everywhere announced:
SUOK!
SUOK!
SUOK!