Hairy Hezekiah by Dick King-Smith Page A

and for a while he could not move it. “Easy enough for keepers with fingers and thumbs,” he grumbled, “but not for Bactrian camels.”
    He was on the point of giving up, but then he said to himself, “Oh, come on, Hezekiah, one last try.” He gave it one last push and at last the bar slid across and the gate swung open. “Bless my humps!” he said, and walked out.

2

    The whole of the zoo was dark now, except for lights in a few of the buildings. As Hezekiah made his way toward the nearest one, he heard from within it a deep rolling roar that ended in a couple of grunts. So he made his entrance through the half-open door into the Lion House.
    Now, people cannot understand camel talk and camels can’t understand human language. But in one way almost all animals are cleverer than
humans, because they can understand one another! To Hezekiah the noise that the lion was making meant, “I am the lion, the King of Beasts, and I’m locked up in this horrible cage. Darn it!”
    The camel made his lumbering way into the dimly lit Lion House and walked along in front of the row of cages. At the sight of him, there was a burst of noise from within them.
    â€œMom! Mom!” cried some cubs. “Whatever is that thing? Will it hurt us?” “Of course not,” replied a lioness. “First, it can’t get into our cage, and second, if it could, I’d kill it and we’d eat it.”
    â€œAnd so would we if only we could get out of our cages,” growled several lions.

    â€œBut what is it, Mom?” said the cubs.
    â€œAsk it,” said their mother.
    So they did.
    Hezekiah stopped and stood, looking into that cage. He didn’t like the smell of the lions, so he closed his nostrils as all camels can. He didn’t like the sight of them either, with their gleaming teeth and sharp claws, and certainly he didn’t like what they had said they wanted to do to him.
    But the bars of the cages looked nice and strong, thank goodness, and, in reply to the cubs’ question, he said, “Good evening” (for politeness costs nothing). “I am a Bactrian camel.”
    â€œBactrian camel?” said one of the cubs. “What have you got on your back?”
    â€œTwo humps.”
    â€œWhat’s in them?”
    â€œFat,” said Hezekiah, and all the lions licked their lips.

    The biggest of the lions came forward to the front of his cage.
    â€œWhat are you doing in here?” he asked. “Why aren’t you in the Camel House?”
    â€œThere isn’t one,” said Hezekiah. “I live in a paddock.”
    â€œWell, why aren’t you there?”

    â€œI’ve escaped,” replied Hezekiah, and a huge sigh of envy rippled through the Lion House.
    â€œHow did you manage that?” asked the lion, moving closer to the bars. “Oh, and come a little closer, will you? I’m a bit deaf.”
    I’m not that stupid, thought Hezekiah.
    â€œTell you some other time,” he said, and he turned and hurried out of the Lion House.
    He walked along a path to the next building, which was the Ape House, and made his way inside. In the first cage was a big gorilla.
    â€œGood evening,” said Hezekiah.
    â€œIs it?” replied the gorilla. “Why?”
    â€œI’ve escaped.”
    â€œAll right for some,” said the gorilla gloomily.

    â€œForgive me for asking,” said Hezekiah, “but you don’t want to eat me, do you?”
    â€œEat you? No, I’m a vegetarian.”
    â€œOh, that’s a relief,” said Hezekiah, and he moved on to the next cage, in which were two chimpanzees.
    â€œWe heard that,” said one.
    â€œAnd before you ask,” said the other, “we are also mostly vegetarians. But now and again we do like a nice bit of monkey meat.”
    â€œBut not camel meat?” wondered Hezekiah.
    â€œWhat’s a camel?” asked the first