Chapter 25 Chapter Twenty-Three

The first day after the animal escaped. We're still hunting for animals, and we've caught a lot of them.But these captured are not the henchmen of the townspeople.Most of the big cats are still missing, and the bears are also missing. Just after lunch, we were called to a local restaurant.When we got there, Leo the lion was hiding under the kitchen sink, shaking with terror.Crowded against it are equally terrified dishwashers.One person, one lion meat paste meat next to each other. Uncle Allan also disappeared, but no one was surprised.The camp was full of police coming and going.Last night, August's body was found and removed.The police are investigating, but only for the sake of it, as he was apparently trampled to death by an animal.I heard that Uncle Ailan hid, and he will not come back until he is sure that he will not be prosecuted.

The day after the animal escaped. The animals were caught one by one, and the tent was full again.The sheriff took the people from the railway company back to the camp, and brought out the immigration law to suppress them.The sheriff wants us to pull the train off the spur, to know who's in charge here. That night, the kitchen ran out of food. The third day after the animal escaped. In the middle of the morning, the Nessie Brothers Circus train came and stopped on the line of tracks next to ours.The sheriff and the railway company greeted Nessie's manager as if he were a visiting prince.They wandered around the camp together, and finally shook hands warmly and laughed.

When the Nessie brothers started moving our animals, our equipment, into their tents and trains, even the most optimistic people couldn't deny the obvious. Uncle Ailan has slipped away, and our entire regiment has lost their errands. Jacob, think about it, think about it. Marina and I have enough money to leave the group, but we have nowhere to stay, so what if we leave?With an unborn child, there has to be a plan.I need to find an errand. I went to the post office in town and called Dean Wilkin.At first I was afraid that he would not remember me, but he seemed relieved to receive my call.He said that he often wondered where I went and whether I was safe, so he asked me what I had done in the past three and a half months.

I took a deep breath, still trying to explain everything in my heart, and my mouth was already talking.The words came rushing out, each sentence scrambling to be the first, and sometimes the words were so entangled that I had to stop my tongue and go back and repeat it in a different way.When I finally fell silent, Dean Wilkin remained silent for a long time, so long that I wondered if the phone was disconnected. "Dean Wilkin, are you still there?" I took the microphone from my ear to my eyes, thinking whether to knock on the wall with it, but I didn't do it. The female director was staring at me.In fact, it should be said that she was looking at me eagerly, listening to my every word.I turned to the wall and put the mic back on my ear.

Dean Wilkin cleared his throat, stuttered for a second, and then said yes, everything is fine, and I am welcome to go back and make up the exam. When I got back to camp, Rosie was standing near the animal tent, and the Nessie brothers' manager, the sheriff, and a railroad executive were there.I ran over. "What the hell?" I stopped by Rosie's shoulder. The sheriff turned to me and said, "Are you in charge of this regiment?" "No." I said. "Then it's out of your business," he said. "This elephant is mine, of course it's my business." "It's the property of the Benzini Brothers Circus, and as sheriff I have the authority to represent—" "It's the property of the troupe, it is mine."

People began to come over, most of them were handymen in our regiment who had lost their jobs.The sheriff and the railroad executive exchanged nervous glances. Greg walked up to me, looked me in the eye, and he said to the sheriff, "He's telling the truth. The elephant is his, and he's a self-made mahout, and he's coming with us, but The elephant is his." "You should have some proof?" My face is hot.Greg glared at the Sheriff hostilely, and after a few seconds he began gnashing his teeth. "In that case, everyone, please leave and let us deal with things."

I turned quickly to the manager of Brother Nessie.His eyes widened in surprise. "You won't want it. A dead pig is smarter than it. I can make it do things, but you can't make it." He raised his eyebrows. "yes?" "Try it and tell it to do something." I urged him. His eyes looked as if two horns had suddenly appeared on my head. "I mean, do you have a mahout? Tell him to tell this elephant to do something. This elephant is a piece of shit, stupid." He looked at me for a while, then turned and called, "Dick, tell the elephant to do something."

A man with an elephant hook stepped forward. I looked into Rosie's eyes.Rosie, please, please make sure you understand what this is about.please. "What's its name?" Dick said, turning to look at me. "Gertrude." He said to Rosie, "Gertrude, come over to me, come over to me at once." He raised his voice sharply. Rosie growled and began to wiggle her proboscis. "Gertrude, come to me at once," he repeated. Rosie blinked, and the proboscis waved back and forth on the ground, then stopped, rolled up the fleshy fingers on the tip of the nose, and kicked the sand to the tip of the nose with her feet.Then it started to wave its proboscis, throwing the sand it picked up on its back and the people around it.Many people laughed out loud.

"Gertrude, put your foot up," said Dick, and going up to his shoulder, he patted the back of the elephant's leg with the hook. "lift it up!" Rosie flapped her ears and sniffed him with her proboscis. "Lift up!" He slapped the elephant's legs more vigorously. Rosie smiled, rummaged through his pockets, and stood firmly on the ground with four legs. The mahout pushed the trunk away and said to his boss, "This guy is right, this elephant can't fart. How do you manage to bring him here?" "That guy brought it here." The manager pointed to Greg.He said to me, "What does it do?"

"It stands on the animal tent and eats the candy given by others." "That's it?" He was full of suspicion. "Yes." I replied. "No wonder this rotten bastard is going down." He shook his head, turned to the Sheriff, and said, "What other animals do you have?" Then my ears buzzed and I couldn't hear what they were saying. What have I done? I stared helplessly at the window of carriage No. 48, wondering how to tell Marina that we were now elephant owners.Marlena suddenly rushed out the door, jumped off the rear platform like a wild antelope, landed and continued to run, with arms and legs wide open and flying away.

I turned around and followed the direction she was running, and immediately understood everything.The Sheriff and the Manager of the Nancy Brothers were standing by the tent, shaking hands and smiling, and the Nancy Brothers' men stood behind them, holding Malena's horse by the hand. She rushed there, and the manager and the sheriff turned sharply back.I was too far away from them to hear their conversation clearly, except for a few sporadic curses in her roaring voice, such as "so bold", "presumptuous", and "shameless".She pointed at the sky and the earth for a while, and the words "thief" and "report" came from there. Well, is it "report" or "prison"? They were dumbfounded and stunned. She finally stopped talking, crossed her arms, smirked, and slapped her feet on the ground.The manager and the sheriff looked at me and I looked at you, their eyes widened.The sheriff turned around and was about to speak, but before he could speak, Marlena went berserk again, screaming like a goblin, and poked his face with her finger.He took a step back, and Marina took a step forward.The sheriff stopped, folded his arms, puffed out his chest, and closed his eyes.Marlena withdrew the finger that poked the sheriff fiercely, crossed her arms again, slapped her feet on the ground, and nodded her head. The sheriff opened his eyes and turned to look at the manager.The manager remained silent for a long time, and finally shrugged slightly, frowning and facing Marlena. He lasted for about five seconds, then stepped back again and again, raising his hands in surrender.He has an "uncle" face.Malena waited for an answer with her hands on her hips, glaring at each other.Finally, his face flushed, and he turned around and yelled at the man who led the horse. Marina watched all the eleven horses return to the animal tent, and then strode back to the No. 48 carriage. My God, instead of an errand and no shelter, I have a pregnant woman to look after, mourning dogs, elephants, and eleven horses. I went to the post office again and called Dean Wilkin.This time he was silent for even longer than last time, finally stammering that he was really sorry and hoped he could help me.Of course, he still welcomed me back for my final exams, and he had no idea what to do with the elephant. I went back to camp, stiff with panic.I can't leave Marlena and the animals here and go back to Ithaca for the exam by myself.Otherwise, what if the sheriff took advantage of the situation and sold the animal tent?We could put the horses in the carriages and have the money to put Malena and Queenie in a hotel for a while, but what about Rosie? I made my way across the camp, circling over a pile of loose canvas.The workers of the Nessy Brothers Circus are spreading several pieces of canvas for the big tent, and the foreman is watching carefully.It looked like they were inspecting the damage before they could make an offer. I stepped on the doorstep of carriage No. 48, my heart was beating like thunder, and my breath was short of breath.I have to calm down, the more I turn my mind, the more I can't think about it.It won't work, not at all. I push open the door.Queenie came up to me and looked up at me with a pathetic look of confusion and gratitude.It shook its short tail hesitantly, and I bent down to scratch its head. "Marlena!" I said, straightening up. She emerged from behind the green curtain, looking worried, twitching her fingers to avoid meeting my eyes. "Jacob - oh, Jacob, I've done a great stupid thing." "Oh? You mean about horses? It doesn't matter, I already know." She looked up quickly. "You know what?" "I saw it, and I knew what you were doing at a glance." She blushed. "I'm sorry, I'm just... out of my mind. I didn't think about what I'd do when I got the horses. I just loved them so much I couldn't bear to let that man take them. He's as bad as Uncle Allan. " "It's okay, I understand." I paused, and then said, "Marlena, I also have something to say." "yes?" I opened and closed my mouth, unable to utter a word. Anxiety came to her face. "What's wrong? What happened? Is it bad news?" "I called the dean of Cornell, and he was willing to let me go back and make up the exam." Her face brightened. "Great!" "Also, Rosie is ours." "What do we have?" I hastily defended myself. "It's the same thing as your horse. That mahout looks disgusting, and I can't let him take Rosie away, or God knows what will happen to Rosie. The elephant is my heart, and I can't let it go." It fell into someone else's hands. So I pretended Rosie was mine, and now it's really my elephant." Marlena stared at me blankly for a long while before she nodded and said, "You are right to do this, and I love it too. It should have a better life. It's just that we are in a really difficult situation now." I relaxed Take a breath.She looked out the window, squinted in thought, and finally said, "We must join another circus, it's as simple as that." "How to join? No one wants to hire new people." "As long as you are capable enough, there will always be vacancies in the Linling Circus." "Do you think we really have hope?" "Of course, I have an awesome elephant show, and you're a veterinarian at Cornell, so there's definitely a chance. But they're a decent circus, and we have to be married first." "My dear, I intend to marry you as soon as the ink on the death certificate dries." Her face suddenly turned pale. "Oh, Marlena, I'm so sorry, I didn't mean that. I mean, I'm married to you, and my confidence has never wavered." She was silent for a moment, put a hand on my cheek, and picked up her purse and hat. "Where are you going?" She stood on tiptoe and kissed me. "Go make that call and wish me luck." "good luck." I sent her out, sat on the iron platform and watched her figure fade away.Her steps were firm, she stepped straight out step by step, with her head held high and her chest held high. Wherever she went, everyone looked sideways.I watched her turn and disappear behind a building. I got up to go back to the wing, when there was an exclamation from the group of workers who spread the canvas.One took a big step back, clasped his belly with his hands, then bent over and vomited into the grass.Others kept their eyes on what they had found.The head waiter took off his hat and pressed it to his chest.Others took off their hats one by one to express their condolences. I walked over and looked straight at the blackened thing.The thing was fat, and as I got closer, I recognized little patches of scarlet and gold fabric, and black and white checked stuff. It was Uncle Ailan, with a rope that acted as a noose tightly wrapped around his blackened neck. Later that night, Marina and I slipped into the animal tent and took Bobo back to the wing. If you don't do it, you will never stop.