Adolphus playing cards at the Jockey Club
This was the moment of danger. Perez the Mouse, slowly waggling his tail from side to side, put his
head very cautiously through the hole and looked around; he then went back two steps, and finally, suddenly seizing the King’s paw, dashed through the hole like an arrow, crossed a big kitchen, and disappeared through another hole on the opposite side near the range. As one sees telegraph posts out of the train so Bubi saw that kitchen. By the hearth, in the glow of the fire, lay an enormous cat, the dreadful Don Pedro, its great whiskers heaving up and down as it breathed.
The guards silently formed up, from hole to hole, ready to fire, to protect the King’s route from the
sleeping cat. It was all very grand and imposing. An ugly old woman sat in a chair, also asleep, with her knitting on her knee.
Once through the hole the danger was over, and they had only to get upstairs, as this was where little Giles lived. Everything was open in his poor room, which was all cracks and draughts.
King Bubi scrambled on to the arm of a seatless chair, the only one in the room, and from there could see a picture of poverty such as he had never dreamt of.
