However, his going off like that was not so bad as it might have been. If it had been left to the Lord Chancellor to say what was to be done next, it would have taken a long time to do anything, and then very likely what would have been done would have been wrong. And Colonel Jim, though brave as a lion, and handsome, too, was not intellectual. But Mr. Noah seemed to have a few ideas in his head, and some spirit to carry them out. Of course he was not exactly a doll, though he lived in Dolltown, and he had Oriental blood in his veins, or whatever fluid dolls do have, and this made him rather more clever than might have been expected from his wooden expression. He was angry, too, at having had orders given him about his Ark by Selim, and wanted to get at him and tell him what he thought of him.
Anyhow, as the Lord Chancellor was talking and talking, Mr. Noah cut him short. “What are you wasting all this time for?” he asked. “What we’ve got to do is to go after them as quick as we can, and take the soldiers with us. Give me a horse, and let’s be off.”
There was a horse to spare, and Mr. Noah got on to it. He looked rather funny in his long yellow robe, and being a sort of sailor he was not used to horses. But he managed to stick on all right, and as the horse was fortunately a quiet one, he soon got used to the unusual motion. He said to the others, “Now, you come after me!” and without waiting any longer he trotted off.
The others all followed him. Colonel Jim gave some orders to his men, and they formed themselves into fours and fell behind. It was quite a gay cavalcade that went trotting through the streets of Dolltown, and this time the crowd cheered them to the echo, and forgot to hiss and boo at the Lord Chancellor.
XV
THE PURSUIT
They trotted along through the streets of the town, and soon got clear of the crowd. But the news of what had happened had spread all over Dolltown by this time, and there were many dolls at the windows and on the pavements to see them pass. They did not know yet that Selim had kidnapped Queen Rosebud, but they knew that she was alive, and that he was a usurper. When they saw all the soldiers they knew that something stirring was going to happen, and by the way they shouted and waved their hands it seemed that Selim had very few friends in Dolltown, and had better look out for himself if he ever came back there.
At the end of the town, where the country began, there was a gate, and a sentry box beside it, where a wooden sentry was keeping guard. They stopped to question him. He remembered the two carriages driving through the gate, and had wondered who they belonged to. It was not his duty to challenge them, as he was there chiefly for ornament; but when Teddy had galloped up, he had asked him, more out of curiosity than anything else, why he was going so fast. Teddy had said, “Open the gate and I’ll tell you.” So he had opened the gate, and the moment Teddy had got through it he had galloped off again, shouting out to the sentry, “I’m going fast because my horse is.” Of course this was true, but it had made the sentry angry; and he had been still more annoyed when Teddy had jumped himself round on his horse, just as if he had been a rider in a circus, and ridden away backwards, making long noses at him. The sentry said that this was disrespectful to a servant of the Crown, and asked the Lord Chancellor to send Teddy to prison for it. But they had no time to waste over his grievances, and set off again.
They trotted through the country roads, and Peggy enjoyed the ride very much. She felt quite safe, with all the soldiers riding behind them, but thought it was hardly necessary to have brought so many of them, as Mr. Noah and Teddy, to say nothing of Colonel Jim and his two special troopers, would have been enough to take Selim prisoner when they caught up with him. But it was a good thing that they had brought the soldiers, as will presently appear.
By-and-by they came to an inn, which was a farm as well, and looked very peaceful and comfortable, with its neat toy barns and outhouses among the trees and fields, and the toy animals feeding all about them. They stopped for a minute or two to ask questions of the innkeeper, who was a wooden doll of a rather stolid appearance. When the Lord Chancellor began to ask him questions he went and fetched his wife, and she was more intelligent, and gave her answers well.