24 Kiki gives a performance
　　Up in the castle courtyard Tassie passed an exciting night. She had tried to go to sleep in themiddle of the gorse bush, and had fallen into a doze¹, when Kiki began to get restless. She dug herclaws into Tassie, and woke her up.
　　‘Don’t, Kiki,’ said Tassie sleepily. ‘Keep still, do!’
　　But Kiki was waiting for Jack², and couldn’t make out why he hadn’t come back. She began tomurmur to herself, and Tassie reached out a hand and tapped her on the beak³.
　　‘Be quiet, Kiki! Do go to sleep! Button is as good as gold.’
　　There was a sound in the courtyard outside. Kiki put her head on one side, and listened. Shethought it was Jack.
　　‘Put the kettle on!’ she cried joyfully⁴, and scrambled⁵ out from the bush. ‘Put the kettle on!’
　　There was an astonished silence in the yard below. Then a torch was switched on, and itspowerful beam swept round. But Kiki was behind a rock and could not be seen.
　　Two men were down in the yard. They had heard Kiki’s voice, and, not knowing there was aparrot about, they thought it was someone talking.
　　‘Wipe your feet!’ called Kiki. ‘How many times have I told you to wipe your feet?’
　　The men began to talk together in low voices, planning to capture whoever it was calling insuch a loud voice. Kiki began to realise that it was not Jack down there, and she was disappointedand cross.
　　‘Pop goes the weasel,’ she said in a mournful voice. One of the men stooped down in thedarkness, felt about for a stone, and sent it whizzing in Kiki’s direction. The parrot would certainlyhave been killed if the stone had hit it. But it missed by about an inch.
　　Kiki was startled. No one had ever thrown a stone at her in her life. She spread her wings andflew up to the wall behind the men.
　　‘Naughty boy!’ she said reprovingly, ‘naughty, naughty boy!’
　　The men gave cries of fury, and swung round, trying in vain to see who was now on the wall.
　　They thought there must be two people now, one up on the crag, and the other on the wall.

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