Catweazle and the Magic Zodiac

Catweazle.
    Covered
in confusion the wretched conjuror turned once more towards his audience. ‘And
now it’s time to introduce you to Percy — the invisible rabbit.’
    Cedric
was listening to a scratching sound coming from the cardboard box at his feet.
    ‘Percy
lives in here,’ continued Vadanti, picking up his top hat, ‘but you can’t see
him because he’s — ’
    ‘Invisible!’
shouted the children.
    Catweazle
began to get very apprehensive as Vadanti put his top hat down over the hole in
his magic table.
    ‘But if
I say the magic words I can make Percy appear,’ said Vadanti.
    Catweazle
wondered what magic words would be able to do that.
    Vadanti
put his hand through the trap door in the hat and his expression changed
abruptly when, instead of Percy, he brought out a large bunch of bananas.
    Once
more the children roared with laughter and Vadanti glared at Catweazle who
suddenly looked very sheepish.
    Cedric
had undone the parcel by now and found the little rabbit. ‘Is this Percy?’ he
called and brought him to Vadanti.
    The
conjuror was now completely mystified although he felt sure that Catweazle had
had something to do with it. He decided to skip to the end of his programme and
do the cabinet trick. It was the only way he could possibly win back his
audience.
    ‘And
now, as final proof of my amazing power,’ he said loudly, ‘my assistant will
get inside this simple box,’ He pushed Catweazle roughly inside a big three-ply
cabinet and shut it firmly. Catweazle’s head stuck out of the top and he made a
few frightened fizzing noises.
    ‘Very
few men can survive the Swords of Scheherazade,’ said Vadanti, feeling that he
was once more in charge of the situation. ‘I shall now pass no less than eight
swords into the cabinet and through my assistant’s body,’
    Catweazle
gave an anguished howl.
    ‘Don’t
overdo it, you old ham,’ hissed Vadanti and picked up a sword and advanced on
the cabinet. The cabinet suddenly grew legs and moved away.
    ‘Stand
still, will you,’ said Vadanti, beginning to lose his temper.
    ‘Nay,
thou wilt kill me,’ moaned Catweazle.
    Vadanti
lunged at the cabinet and Catweazle cried out in terror and, lifting the cabinet,
ran round the stage in a frantic effort to avoid the sword. Finally he jumped
down and tore off through the french windows with Vadanti in hot pursuit. The
children cheered and stamped their feet with delight. There was complete
pandemonium. Vadanti eventually gave up the chase, and Catweazle, vowing he
would have nothing more to do with the magicians of the New Magic, scampered
home in the cabinet. Much later that night Cedric managed to extricate him and
then insisted that they took the cabinet back to Vadanti’s house. They dumped
it in the garden and went back to Duck Halt.
    ‘No
more stealing,’ said Cedric firmly. ‘The rabbit would have been a lovely
present, but it wasn’t yours to give.’
    Catweazle
ignored Cedric completely and knelt by the Zodiac circle.
    ‘See! I
have found the Sign,’ he said and put two little olastic dolls above the House
of Gemini.
    ‘You’re
incorrigible,’ sighed Cedric.

CANCER
     
    ‘We’ve been burgled,’ Mrs
Gowdie told Cedric one morning as he came down to breakfast. ‘Everything’s been
taken from the mantelpiece in the sitting-room. The cups, the candlesticks,
everything. Even that nasty inkwell. The Inspector’s in there now. Come on!’
    Cedric
felt terrible. He was sure that Catweazle was to blame and wished that he’d
told his parents about the old man long ago. He followed Mrs Gowdie with a
heavy heart. It was clear that Catweazle would take anything he could lay his
hands on.
    In the
sitting-room Inspector Pugh, a big saturnine-looking man, was examining the
mantelpiece very carefully. ‘The big one stood in the middle,’ said Lord
Collingford helpfully, ‘with two smaller ones each side of it. There was a bowl
thing on the left — ’
    ‘No,
Charles,’ interrupted Lady Collingford, ‘the bowl was on the right. The little
statue was on the left. Next to that creepy-looking inkwell.’
    ‘Look,'
said Inspector Pugh with a sigh, ‘I have to circulate an accurate description
of the stolen property. I can’t put down, “that creepy-looking inkwell”.’
    ‘Of
course you can’t, Inspector,’ said Lord Collingford. He turned to Lady
Collingford. We must be accurate, Dottie. Now then, the big one’s the British
Isles Individual Grand Challenge Cup —