Arabel and Mortimer by Joan Aiken Page A

Lord Donisthorpe took Noah back to his cage, wheeling him in a barrow.

    Chris and Lord Donisthorpe had already unpacked the ostriches and zebras and laid them out in the fresh air to sleep off the effects of the drug they had been given.

    But it took ever so much longer to untangle the giraffes from the spiral stair. In fact, they were obliged to dismantle the top part of their stair altogether.
    "I can't think how they ever
got
their necks in like this," said Lord Donisthorpe, panting. "Let alone
why.
"
    Chris thought he could guess. He had found traces of doughnut on each step all the way up.
    "Perhaps it's not such a good idea to have a spiral stair in the giraffe house," murmured Lord Donisthorpe as the last captive—Wendy—was carefully pulled out, set upright on her spindly legs, and given a pail of giraffe food to revive her.
    "Well, I certainly am greatly obliged to you three," added Lord Donisthorpe to Arabel and Chris, who had helped to extract Wendy, and to Mortimer, who had been sitting on the stair rail and enjoying the spectacle. "If not for you, my zoo would have suffered severe losses tonight, and I hope I can do something for you in return."
    Chris said politely that he didn't think he wanted anything. He just liked working in the zoo.
    Mortimer didn't even bother to reply. He was remembering how enjoyable it had been to entice
Wendy, Elsie, and Derek farther and farther up the spiral stair by holding the doughnut just in front of their noses.

    But Arabel said, "Oh, please, Lord Donisthorpe. Could you please ask Aunt Effie
not
to shut Mortimer up in the meat safe? He does hate it so."
    "Perhaps it would be best," said Lord Donisthorpe thoughtfully, "if Mortimer came to stay with me in my castle while you remain at Foxwell. I believe ravens are often to be found in castles. And there is really very little harm he can do there, if any."
    "Oh,
yes,
" said Arabel. "He'd
love
to live in a castle, wouldn't you, Mortimer?"
    "Kaaark," said Mortimer.
    And so that is what happened.
    Aunt Effie and Uncle Urk were quite astonished when they woke up next morning and learned all that had been going on during the night. But Aunt Effie was not able to scold Arabel or Mortimer, as Lord Donisthorpe said they had been the means of saving all his ostriches and zebras, not to mention the giraffes.
    Arabel soon became very fond of Wendy, Derek, and Elsie; though she had continual trouble preventing Mortimer from teasing them.
    But she never did get to like Noah the boa.

Mortimer and the Sword Excalibur

1
    It was a fine spring morning in Rainwater Crescent, Rumbury Town, north London. Arabel Jones and Mortimer, Arabel's raven, were sitting on Arabel's bedroom windowsill, which was a very wide and comfortable one, with plenty of room for both of them and a cushion as well. They were both looking out of the window, watching the work that was going on across the road in Rainwater Crescent Garden.

    This garden, which was quite large, went most of the way along the inside of Rainwater Crescent, which curved round like a banana. So the garden was curved on one side and straight on the other, like a section from an enormous orange. In it there were ten trees,
quite a wide lawn, some flower beds, six benches, two statues, a sandpit for children, and a flat paved bit in the middle, where a band sometimes played.

    Arabel liked spending the afternoon in Rainwater Garden, but she was not allowed to go there on her own, because of crossing the street. However, sometimes Mrs. Jones took her across and left her if Mr. Walpole, the Rumbury Town municipal gardener, was there to keep an eye on her.
    Today a whole lot of interesting things were happening in the garden directly across the road from the Joneses' house.
    Before breakfast a huge excavator with a long metal neck and a pair of grabbing jaws like a crocodile had come trundling along the road. And it had started in at once, very fast, digging a deep hole. This was to be the