Tilly Sweetrick
Everybody wanted us. They flocked to the Castle Hotel to make proposals to me and Ruby. There were so many offers of venues that it was hard for us to decide where to go next. We did another show at d’Angeli’s before moving on to the first floor of Misquith’s Music Shop. It was after our third successful show that the trouble started.
Eddie and Lo and little Bertie, Mr Milligan, Jimmy and Miss Thrupp had gone to the Commercial Hotel on the night of the strike but eventually the lot of them turned up at the Castle, looking very sorry for themselves. Ruby and I were eating breakfast when Eddie Quedda came simpering into the dining room while the rest of them waited in the foyer.
Eddie sat down at our table, bobbing his head. ‘Girls, it’s good to see you all looking so well. You know, me and Lo and the others, we’ve been worried about you lot.’
‘You weren’t very worried about us when the Butcher was knocking us about,’ said Ruby tersely.
Eddie looked to the foyer where Lo was bouncing the baby on her knee. ‘I got a family to support, girls. You got to see things from my point of view. That Mr Ruse of yours, he won’t let us work with you,’ he said, his voice almost wheedling. ‘Mr Arthur has left us in the lurch. We don’t have our fares home and we don’t have much to live on neither.’
‘Pish-posh,’ I said, ‘I saw the Butcher hand you a big wad of cash the night we went on strike. Have you spent it already?’
‘But you didn’t see what he gave me, did you?’ Eddie slapped a couple of funny old Java notes onto the table. ‘They’re worth almost nothing here. It’s rupees we need.’
‘I don’t see why we should help you,’ I said. ‘I know you told the Butcher if he’d pay you, you’d work for him again.’
‘Business is business, Tilly. When we’re back in Melbourne, we’ve got to find work again, just like you. Be fair.’
‘You’re the one that’s not being fair. You never stuck up for us. Why should we stick up for you? Your “business” is with the Butcher, not us. We don’t owe you a fig. If you want to harass someone, go and sue the pants off Mr Arthur Percival.’
Eddie slunk away then and I was glad to see the back of him. We thought we had washed our hands of him. Little did we know! Eddie marched straight down to the Police Courts and filed a case against the Butcher, setting in chain events that the newspapers would feed upon for months to come. I was to become famous, but not in the way I’d always imagined.
A week later, we fled Madras in a flurry of confusion. Mr Arthur had filed a case against both Mr Ruse and Mr Wilkes in the Police Court, accusing them of kidnapping. Within hours we were on a train heading west. We had to leave the Presidency of Madras before the morning was out.
By late afternoon, we were in Bangalore, where we were greeted by crowds of admirers and members of the press. I kept our story clear and simple, though I knew it was being reported as an international scandal.
I had far too many other things to worry about. The shows in Bangalore were dreadful. After the last awful production of Florodora in Kolar where everyone missed their cues, Ruby and I called a meeting. We weren’t going to attempt the musicals any more. We were only going to do revues. Ruby and I made everyone perform their best pieces in front of a panel of me, Ruby, Myrtle and the Kreutz twins. At the end of the auditions, I stood up and made an announcement.
‘I have two pieces of news, one rather lovely and one a bit awful. Firstly, we’ve received an invitation from the Maharajah of Mysore to perform at his palace.’
When the flurry of excited chatter had settled, I went on, ‘Secondly, Eddie Quedda has won his case and the Butcher has produced rather a lot of money to prevent himself being thrown into jail.’
Everyone cheered, which was quite stupid of them.
‘Stop it! There’s nothing to cheer about. Eddie winning is not particularly good news for us. As you know, the Butcher has been scribbling nasty letters to the press from his hidey hole in Pondicherry and has filed that ridiculous case against Mr Ruse and Mr Wilkes as kidnappers that led to us having to leave the Presidency. Of course he also said we are in breach of our contracts. Now, the magistrate in the Police Court has let Wilkesy off but Mr Ruse has lost his defence against the Butcher. The case is going to be heard in the High Court. The wretched magistrate thought Mr Ruse has a kidnapping case to answer. We all have to return to Madras to give evidence.’
‘But that’s stupid,’ said Ruby. ‘He didn’t kidnap us. We couldn’t run away fast enough.’
‘Of course it’s stupid,’ I said. ‘You might just as well say we kidnapped Mr Ruse! The thing is we are in breach of our contracts because we’re not meant to perform unless the Butcher agrees. So now the Butcher is going to try to sue Mr Ruse for more than sixty thousand rupees!’
A murmur went through the troupe. It was such a vast sum of money it made everyone shiver to think of what would happen to poor Mr Ruse if he lost the case. I put my hands up to quieten them all.
‘Now it’s our turn to help Mr Ruse. After everything he’s done for us, it’s only decent that we go back to Madras and get him off the hook.’
I wasn’t afraid of the court. I wanted to march straight up to the bench and give that judge a piece of my mind. I had truth on my side.
Poesy had grown white as a ghost. You could smell her fear. But what did she expect? Every folly comes back to you. Now Poesy Swift would have to swear under oath, to swear on the Bible, that Mr Arthur Percival had tried to kiss her.