Slowly a figure emerged from the trees. It was a bear.
Slowly a second figure emerged from the trees.
It was another bear.
Slowly a third figure emerged from the trees. It was Jonathan Ripples. ‘Hello, Polly,’ he said. ‘Have you found any snack – ooh, what’s happening here?’
‘Shh,’ said Polly, ‘it’s the Kingdom of the Beasters, come to full power at last.’
One by one, more and more bears stepped out from among the trees, until very soon Mr Gum and Billy were completely surrounded by a circle of the big brown creatures, all grinning and growling and showing their sharp white teeth.
‘What we gonna do?’ wibbed the villains, clutching on to each other. ‘They’re gonna rip us apart an’ suck the marrow out our bones, whatever marrow is!’
But now all sorts of other animals were beginning to show themselves as the news spread: apes, mice, bees, antelopes, parrots, toucans, wild horses, even wilder horses, completely livid horses, bright tree frogs so poisonous they kept killing themselves by accident, orang-utans, blue lizards, elephants, tigers, a rhino called Larry Bennett, stag beetles, beetle stags, giant centipedes, a little dog riding on a monkey and tons of other tropical weirdies you’ve never even heard of – all of them came trotting or flying or slithering up to join the party. A blue whale came running out of the ocean just to have a look, and a piglet sent a note to say he was terribly sorry he couldn’t make it but he was busy being eaten by a python.
And then, once all the animals were assembled, Padlock rose to his full height. And very slowly and deliberately he began to stomp his paws upon the ground.
STOMP.
STOMP.
STOMP.
STOMP.
One by one the other animals joined in, stomping their feet or swishing their tails in time, and what a racket they raised that day, my friends! You’ve never heard anything like it, or maybe you have, who knows what you get up to in your spare time? Anyway, what a racket! And the way those animals stared at the villains! You would have sworn they were trying to tell them something.
‘Oh, if only we poor animals could talk,’ exclaimed a large red parrot, flapping his wings in despair, ‘then we could tell you what was on our minds.’
But Jonathan Ripples had already figured it out.
‘Pardon me,’ he said to the villains, ‘but I think . . . um . . . well, I think the animals want you to dance for them.’
At this the animals threw back their heads and shrieked and stomped even harder than before.
‘WHAT?!’ shouted Mr Gum in horror. ‘I ain’t no fancy dancin’ man!’
‘Me neither,’ moaned Billy. ‘I ain’t flappin’ around like no disco boogie-boy for some stupid bunch of wildlife!’
But at this the animals began to growl and bare their teeth, stomping closer and closer and louder and louder, raising their hooves and paws dangerously.
There was nothing for it. Shaking with rage and embarrassment, Mr Gum and Billy lifted up their clodhopping old hobnail boots and, their faces redder than ever, they began to dance.
‘They’re makin’ us into their fun,’ sobbed Billy as he capered.
‘What if they never let us stop?’ whimpered Mr Gum, doing a twirl.
Never had such a sight been seen on that island. The animals stamped and brayed and nodded their heads, bellowing and roaring and squawking and buzzing and hooting. And indeed it did seem as if the beasts might carry on forever – but Polly was shaking her head. She just couldn’t stand to see another person in trouble, even if that person happened to be Mr Gum and Billy William the Third.
‘Oh, Padders, this isn’t right!’ cried Polly, hopping into the circle alongside the astonished villains and throwing her arms around the big old bear. ‘If you treats Mr Gum an’ Billy like they done treated you, then you’re no better than them! An’ the Kingdom of the Beasters will become like the World of Men, full of bad revenges an’ hatreds an’ makin’ people dance. Please, I begs you! Remember you are Beasters, not Men, an’ stop this dreadful punishment at once!’
Did Padlock understand Polly’s speech? Well, not exactly. He didn’t understand the words, of course. But animals are clever animals and they can sense all sorts of things that you and I have no way of knowing about, like emotions and feelings and dog food. So yes. When he gazed into Polly’s pleading eyes, Padlock sensed the truth of the matter and truly he was ashamed.
‘Mmph,’ he said softly, looking around the forest clearing at the animals he had called to that leafy place. ‘Mmph.’
All at once the other animals understood and they too were ashamed of what they had become. They ceased their excited frenzy at once, and one by one they crept back into their shadows to resume their peaceful lives of eating each other.
‘Quick,’ said Mr Gum, seizing the chance. ‘Let’s get out of here, Billy!’
Away they raced through the forest, away from the shining natural world of the animals, a world they could never understand or learn to stroke gently. Arriving at the beach, they fired up The Dirty Oyster and they were off. That was the last that was ever heard of them in the South Pacific Islands, and where they ended up only time will tell.