Free The Borribles: Across the Dark Metropolis by Michael de Larrabeiti Page A

and to an enormous burst of applause the horses disappeared and once again Signor Buffoni took his position at the centre of the ring.
    ‘Er-ran-neow, mee Lorse, Ladies and Gennermen, at no small hexpense Buffoni’s circus would like to er-present for your pleasure, Amurishi Patadi and a fearsome tiger as was h-onlee per-rowling the luxuriant rain forests of hunhexplored Bengawl h-onlee two weeks h-ago. Mee Lorse, Ladies and Gennermen … Tanka the Tiger.’
    The audience made not a single sound as the lights changed colour and half a dozen clowns pushed a huge cage into the centre of the ring. Arthur Buffoni followed, carrying a small whip and looking like a maharajah with his face properly stained to the hue of strong coffee and his head crowned with a jewel-studded turban.
    Arthur bowed to the audience and then began to circle the cage on tiptoe as if approaching a desperate and starving maneater. He kept about six feet from the bars most of the time but occasionally he leapt closer, cracking his whip and then immediately leaping backwards to safety. It didn’t look very dangerous and Tanka meanwhile lay unperturbed
on the floor of the cage with one eye only watching the audience; the other was firmly closed.
    The loudspeakers crackled next and Signor Buffoni spoke from somewhere backstage: ‘Mee Lorse, Ladies and Gennermen, I have to point out of course that these Bengawli tigers are at their most dangerous and lethal when they h-appear to be at their most somnolent. We beg the h-audience not to be h-alarmed. All precautions will be taken.’
    The sound of the loudspeakers died away and two men in white overalls appeared, both of them carrying rifles, and they went to stand near the bars of the cage. Slowly, to a roll of drums, Arthur opened the cage door and each member of the audience could hear his or her heart thumping. Arthur next seized a chair and poked Tanka with it as he entered the cage. The audience gasped. Then Arthur cracked his whip and with a roar Tanka got to her feet and clambered on to a pedestal, raised a paw and roared again. There was rapturous applause and in response to it Arthur Buffoni did the bravest thing of all and prodded the animal with his whip and insolently turned his back on her, kneeling on the floor.
    The audience went delirious but Arthur had not finished with them. He got to his feet and, as a finale, placed both arms around Tanka’s neck and kissed the tiger right on the nose. The audience cheered and cheered like madmen but then fell silent in fear as the maneater suddenly bared her teeth and growled with anger. The two men in white overalls cocked their guns and Arthur crept backwards to the door of the cage, slipped through and clanged it shut behind him, securing the lock with a large key which he afterwards placed in his pocket. Smiling, he bowed low several times towards the rear of the tent and wallowed in the generous sound of hundreds of hands clapping. ‘Hooray!’ shouted the children. ‘Bravo!’ bawled their parents. ‘More, more,’ screamed the Adventurers.
    After Tanka and Arthur the acts came thick and fast. There were so many that the Borribles could not keep count; and all of them Buffonis. There was Wanda on her one-wheeled bike; Marco the Strong Man with a moustache that looked like a coiled spring; and there was Marmaduke Buffoni too, defying gravity on a high wire.
    ‘You’ve got to hand it to them,’ said Stonks, ‘when you think that
it’s all the same people doubling up most of the time. You wouldn’t know unless you knew, would you?’
    The interval came all too soon and the Borribles relaxed. The house lights were brought up again and from backstage out rushed six or seven clowns to entertain the audience while it ate ice cream and hot dogs. The clowns were big men, acrobats and tumblers all, and threw each other across the ring, fell over, drove a broken car and sprayed themselves with coloured water from a hosepipe. Everybody watching was