The music-room on the top floor of Number Five was filled with the "Aladdin" company at rehearsal. Dickson Quartus, commonly known as **** Four, was Aladdin, stage-manager, ballet-master, half the orchestra, and largely librettist, for the "book" had been rewritten and filled with local allusions. The pantomime was to be given next week, in the down-stairs study occupied by Aladdin, Abanazar, and the Emperor of China. The Slave of the Lamp, with the Princess Badroulbadour and the Widow Twankay, owned Number Five study across the same landing, so that the company could be easily assembled. The floor shook to the stamp-and-go of the ballet, while Aladdin, in pink cotton tights, a blue and tinsel jacket, and a plumed hat, banged alternately on the piano and his banjo. He was the moving spirit of the game, as befitted a senior who had passed his Army Preliminary and hoped to enter Sandhurst next spring.
Aladdin came to his own at last, Abanazar lay poisoned on the floor, the Widow Twankay danced her dance, and the company decided it would "come all right on the night.""What about the last song, though?" said the Emperor, a tallish, fair-headed boy with a ghost of a mustache, at which he pulled manfully. "We need a rousing old tune.""'John Peel'? 'Drink, Puppy, Drink'?" suggested Abanazar, smoothing his baggy lilac pajamas. "Pussy" Abanazar never looked more than one-half awake, but he owned a soft, slow smile which well suited the part of the Wicked Uncle.
"Stale," said Aladdin. "Might as well have 'Grandfather's Clock.' What's that thing you were humming at prep. last night, Stalky?"Stalky, The Slave of the Lamp, in black tights and doublet, a black silk half-mask on his forehead, whistled lazily where he lay on the top of the piano. It was a catchy music-hall tune.
**** Four cocked his head critically, and squinted down a large red nose.
"Once more, and I can pick it up," he said, strumming. "Sing the words.""Arrah, Patsy, mind the baby! Arrah, Patsy, mind the child!
Wrap him in an overcoat, he's surely going wild!
Arrah, Patsy, mind the baby! just you mind the child awhile!
He'll kick and bite and cry all night! Arrah, Patsy, mind the child!""Rippin'! Oh, rippin'!" said **** Four. "Only we shan't have any piano on the night.
We must work it with the banjoes--play an' dance at the same time. You try, Tertius."The Emperor pushed aside his pea-green sleeves of state, and followed **** Four on a heavy nickel plated banjo.
"Yes, but I'm dead all this time. Bung in the middle of the stage, too," said Abanazar.
"Oh, that's Beetle's biznai," said **** Four. "Vamp it up, Beetle. Don't keep us waiting all night. You've got to get Pussy out of the light somehow, and bring us all in dancin' at the end.""All right. You two play it again," said Beetle, who, in a gray skirt and a wig of chestnut sausage-curls, set slantwise above a pair of spectacles mended with an old boot-lace, represented the Widow Twankay. He waved one leg in time to the hammered refrain, and the banjoes grew louder.
"Um! Ah! Er--'Aladdin now has won his wife,'" he sang, and **** Four repeated it.
"'Your Emperor is appeased.'" Tertius flung out his chest as he delivered his line.
"Now jump up, Pussy! Say, 'I think I'd better come to life!" Then we all take hands and come forward: 'We hope you've all been pleased.' _Twiggez-vous_?""_Nous_twiggons_. Good enough. What's the chorus for the final ballet? It's four kicks and a turn," said **** Four.
"Oh! Er!
John Short will ring the curtain down.
And ring the prompter's bell;
We hope you know before you go That we all wish you well.""Rippin'! Rippin'! Now for the Widow's scene with the Princess. Hurry up, Turkey."McTurk, in a violet silk skirt and a coquettish blue turban, slouched forward as one thoroughly ashamed of himself. The Slave of the Lamp climbed down from the piano, and dispassionately kicked him. "Play up, Turkey," he said; "this is serious." But there fell on the door the knock of authority. It happened to be King, in gown and mortar-board, enjoying a Saturday evening prowl before dinner.
"Locked doors! Locked doors!" he snapped with a scowl. "What's the meaning of this;and what, may I ask, is the intention of this--this epicene attire?""Pantomime, sir. The Head gave us leave," said Abanazar, as the only member of the Sixth concerned. **** Four stood firm in the confidence born of well-fitting tights, but Beetle strove to efface himself behind the piano. A gray princess-skirt borrowed from a day-boy's mother and a spotted cotton bodice unsystematically padded with imposition-paper make one ridiculous. And in other regards Beetle had a bad conscience.
"As usual!" sneered King. "Futile foolery just when your careers, such as they may be, are hanging in the balance. I see! Ah, I see! The old gang of criminals--allied forces of disorder--Corkran"--the Slave of the Lamp smiled politely--"McTurk"--the Irishman scowled--"and, of course, the unspeakable Beetle, our friend Gigadibs."Abanazar, the Emperor, and Aladdin had more or less of characters, and King passed them over. "Come forth, my inky buffoon, from behind yonder instrument of music! You supply, I presume, the doggerel for this entertainment. Esteem yourself to be, as it were, a poet?""He's found one of 'em," thought Beetle, noting the flush on King's cheek-bone.
"I have just had the pleasure of reading an effusion of yours to my address, Ibelieve--an effusion intended to rhyme. So--so you despise me, Master Gigadibs, do you? I am quite aware--you need not explain --that it was ostensibly not intended for my edification. I read it with laughter--yes, with laughter. These paper pellets of inky boys --still a boy we are, Master Gigadibs--do not disturb my equanimity.""Wonder which it was," thought Beetle. He had launched many lampoons on an appreciative public ever since he discovered that it was possible to convey reproof in rhyme.
