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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/34410-8.txt b/34410-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..8738040 --- /dev/null +++ b/34410-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4191 @@ +Project Gutenberg's The Treasure of the Isle of Mist, by W. W. Tarn + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Treasure of the Isle of Mist + +Author: W. W. Tarn + +Release Date: November 23, 2010 [EBook #34410] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE TREASURE OF THE ISLE OF MIST *** + + + + +Produced by Steven desJardins and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +THE +TREASURE +OF THE +ISLE OF MIST + +BY +W. W. TARN + +[Illustration] + +G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS +NEW YORK AND LONDON +The Knickerbocker Press +1920 + +COPYRIGHT, 1920, BY +W. W. TARN + +[Illustration] + + + + +A FAIRY TALE FOR +MY DAUGHTER + + + + +CONTENTS + + CHAPTER PAGE + I. THE GIFT OF THE SEARCH 1 + II. THE BEGINNING OF TROUBLE 14 + III. THE HAUNTED CAVE 31 + IV. THE URCHIN VANISHES 47 + V. THE OREAD 88 + VI. THE KING OF THE WOODCOCK 111 + VII. FIONA IN THE FAIRY-WORLD 131 + VIII. FIONA FINDS HER TREASURE 181 + + + + +The Treasure of the Isle of Mist + +CHAPTER I + +THE GIFT OF THE SEARCH + + +The Student and Fiona lived in a little gray house on the shores of a +gray sea-loch in the Isle of Mist. The Student was a thin man with a +stoop to his shoulders, which old Anne MacDermott said came of reading +books; but really it was because he had been educated at a place where +this is expected of you. Fiona, when she was doing nothing else, used +to help Anne to keep house, rather jerkily, in the way a learned man +may be supposed to like. She was a long-legged creature of fifteen, +who laughed when her father threatened her with school on the +mainland, and she had a warm heart and a largish size in shoes. +Sometimes they had dinner; sometimes nobody remembered in time, and +they had sunset and salt herrings, with a bowl of glorious yellow +corn-daisies to catch the sunset. + +It was Anne who saw the old hawker crossing the field behind the +house, and burst in on the bookroom to inform the Student that he +wanted buttons. She was met by a patient remonstrance on her ambiguous +use of language: + +"For," said the Student, "if you mean that buttons are lacking to me, +there may be something to be said for you; but if you mean that I +desire buttons, then indeed I do not desire buttons; I desire . . ." + +Whereon Anne fled, and went out to meet the hawker. The frail old man, +bending under his pack, was crossing the meadow behind the house, +brushing his way through the September clover. His white hair was +uncovered save for the huge umbrella which he carried alike in sun +and rain; but youth still lingered in his eyes, which were bright as +the dawn and deep as the sea-caves. Behind him followed a little +rough-haired terrier, black as jet, his inseparable companion. At the +door he unslung his pack, and, leaving Anne to select her buttons, +passed straight through, knocked at the bookroom door, and went in. + +The Student wheeled round in his chair and began to grope about. + +"Have you seen my spectacles?" he said. "I can't see who you are till +I put them on, and I can't put them on till you find them for me, for +I can't see to find them myself unless I have them on. Pardon this +involved sentence." + +The old hawker picked up the missing spectacles and handed them over. + +"You wouldn't remember me, in any case," he said. "I last saw you +twenty-five years ago, when you were trying to dig at Verria. There +was an old man there, do you remember, being beaten by armed +Bashi-Bazouks, and you held them up with an empty revolver, and took +the old man to your camp and nursed him, and you said things to the +Turkish Governor, and . . ." + +"My excavations came to an untimely end," said the Student. "I always +owed that old man a grudge for being beaten before my tent. Why +couldn't he have been beaten somewhere else? I should like to meet him +again and tell him precisely what I thought of his conduct." + +"You have done both now," said the hawker. "And it is his turn." + +"Impossible," said the Student. "He was as old twenty-five years ago +as you are now." + +"At my age," said the old man, "one grows no older. No one who walks +the world as I do need ever grow any older. You can walk thirty miles +on Monday when you are twenty years old; good. If you can do it on +Monday you can do it on Tuesday; and if on Tuesday, then on Wednesday; +therefore, by an easy reckoning, you can do it as well at eighty +years old as at twenty. Thus you never age." + +"There's a flaw in that somewhere," said the Student. "I know; it's +the Heap. How many grains of sand make a heap?" + +"How many buttons do you want?" said the hawker. "You saved my life +once; you shall have all the buttons you want for nothing." + +"I thought you couldn't answer my question," said the Student. "But we +are getting on much too fast; we haven't really begun yet. I suppose +you came here to sell things? Anne seemed to know you, and she said I +wanted buttons. I pointed out to her that her statement was either an +untruth or a truism, and equally objectionable in either sense; and +now you repeat it, just as I was beginning to consider you quite an +intelligent person. By the way, who are you?" + +"I have a different name in most countries which I visit," said the +old man. "But by profession I sell buttons--and other things." + +"What sort of things?" said the Student. + +"I have dreams," said the old man, "dreams and the matter of dreams; +imaginings of the impossible come true; the wonder of the hills at +sunrise; the quest of unearthly treasure among the moon-flowers; the +look in the eyes of a child that trusts you." + +The Student took off his spectacles, rubbed his eyes hard, and settled +his shoulders. + +"I desire something very much," he said. "If you can do all that, you +can give me what I desire." + +The hawker frowned. + +"You are a scholar," he said, "and I can do nothing for scholars. You +need no ideal, for you have one. You need no dreams, for your life is +one. For you, the earth pours out hidden treasure, and the impossible +comes true day by day. What you desire just now is a long definite +inscription to settle a controverted point in your favor. And if I +could give it you, just think how miserable you'd be. Nothing further +to argue about, there; and several quite happy and contentious +professors would be reduced to such straits that I don't know what +crimes you might all commit. You might even take to making money." + +"If I wanted money," said the Student, "I should, being an intelligent +person, at once proceed to make it. Then I should have to live in the +big house again, instead of letting it, and my precious time would be +spent in arguing with my gardener and endeavoring to conceal my +ignorance from my chauffeur. As it is, we live anyhow, and I am +happy." + +"Happiness doesn't score any points in the game," said the hawker. +"What good do you and your inscriptions do, anyway?" + +"That's not my job here," said the Student. "That will come on +afterwards. Besides, I don't want to do good. I am old-fashioned; why +should I take my neighbor by the throat and say, 'Let me do good to +you, or it shall be the worse for you and yours'? Besides, I can't do +good. You can't dot the wilderness with prosperous homesteads when +half the years the oats don't ripen till the year after. Besides, I +do do good; I have let the big house to shooting tenants, and it's +excellent for their health. Besides seventeen other reasons, which I +can enumerate if you are able to bear them. Besides, Fiona is fond of +me." + +"Yes," said the old man softly, "that's your real justification. And +it's a great deal more than I could give you; my hawker's licence +doesn't cover the big things. How many buttons do you want?" + +Fiona came scrambling through the open window, and curled herself up +on the rug with her head on the Student's knee. The Student stroked +her hair. + +"Tell me what it's all about," she said. + +"This gentleman," he said, "once interrupted a very important piece of +work which I was doing, and I was just about to tell him exactly what +I thought of him when you interrupted me." + +The old hawker had risen and bowed courteously to the girl. + +"My dear young lady," he said, "I have been searching my pack for a +present for your father, and found nothing suitable. But perhaps I +could find something for you." + +Fiona jumped up. + +"Have you a hedgehog?" was her question. + +"I do not carry them with me, as a general thing," said the old man. +"No doubt one could be got. But why a hedgehog?" + +"I want one for the Urchin," she said. "You see, it's his namesake." + +"I see," said the old man, quite gravely. "And who is the Urchin?" + +"The Urchin," said the Student, "is a young rascal who is the son of +my shooting tenant. He plunders my daughter of all her possessions, +and she abets him in every form of villainy." + +"I do try to stop him throwing stones at things," said the girl. + +"Here are hedgehogs," said the hawker. "Isn't that lucky, now?" + +Past the window came five hedgehogs in a solemn row, two big and +three little. Behind them, marshalling the procession, walked the +black terrier, with an eye of happy drollery. + +"There's something wrong about those hedgehogs," said the girl. "They +don't do things like that. I don't think I want a hedgehog any more, +thank you. How did you make them do that? Is your dog a conjurer?" + +"I never harm anything," said the old man, "so that many creatures +will come to me when I call. But I have better presents than that." + +"Choose for her, my friend," said the Student. + +The old man began talking to himself in a low voice. + +"Youth she has," he said, "and freedom, and the joy of life. Wonder +also, and dim imaginings of unseen things. And of the things which men +desire, fame and power are not worth giving, and love is not mine to +give. I have it. I give you the Search," he said. "The search for the +treasure of the Isle of Mist. Others have searched for it before; and +some have found; but the treasure never grows less." + +"That's splendid," said the girl. "And when I find the treasure I will +buy my father seven great books which no one else wants to read, and +he will be perfectly happy." + +"But I did not promise treasure," said the old man. "I promised a +search." + +Fiona's face fell. + +"Then am I not to find anything at the end of it?" she asked. + +The old man chuckled quietly. + +"I did not say that either," he said. "There _is_ a treasure, and you +shall search for it; and you will find it if you are able. Many there +are who helped to build it up. Cuchulain and the forgotten heroes who +fought before Cuchulain; Ossian and the forgotten bards who sang +before Ossian; Columba and the forgotten saints who died before +Columba; each has added something to the pile. It is their treasure +which you shall seek for; that is my gift to you." + +"How shall I know where to begin?" asked the girl. "And may I take the +Urchin with me?" + +"Whether you can take the Urchin with you or not depends on his +capacity to go," said the old man. "And as to beginning, I think you +will find that the Search will begin itself, independently of you. It +always does. But I can give you something that will help you," and he +took out of his pocket a red copper bangle, rudely hammered out with +some rough implement, which he slipped over her wrist. "That was made +long ago," he said, "made by men to whom metal was a new toy, men who +perhaps were nearer to the heart of things than we are." + +"You will stay and have some dinner, will you not?" said the Student. +"At least, if this is a dinner night. Fiona, is this a dinner night?" + +"I have my doubts," said the girl. "Oat cake and honeysuckle, I +expect." + +"And what better?" said the old man. "But I fear I could not dine with +you, were it ortolans and Tokay. For I may never eat beneath a roof. +The open moor is my dining hall, and the stars serve me. And the long +white road is calling me even now. But I think that before the +treasure is found you will see me again." + + + + +CHAPTER II + +THE BEGINNING OF TROUBLE + + +"Man," said the Student, "is a weird creature. He dimly remembers that +he began his evolution, not as a pair, but as a horde; and to the +horde he still seeks, forming huge crowds during his working days, and +on his holidays merely transferring the same crowds in their totality +to some other place, accompanied by a great deal of purposeless noise. +Apart from his crowd he apparently feels chilly, and without noise +unhappy. Nothing is more striking to the reflective mind than the +abdication of civilization in the face of meaningless noises." + +"Daddy," said Fiona, "I want your advice on the matter of treasure +hunting. For if two go together, they don't make a crowd, and they +needn't make a noise." + +"Quote correctly," said the Student. "What Homer said was, that if you +and I went to look for a treasure, I, being a mere man, would find it +at once by logical processes of induction and deduction, while you, +being a superior woman, were losing yourself in the quicksands of the +intuitive short cut." + +"Sir," said the girl, "your word is law to me. Therefore deduce." + +"Persiflage," said the Student, "is not to be encouraged in young +children. Remember that if you were to force me to do so I might come +with you, and then I should see exactly how you bungled the thing." + +"But that's what I want you to do, daddy," said Fiona. + +"I don't," said the Student. "Though treasure hunting is quite an +ancient and respectable amusement. For treasure, some have descended +the crater of Popocatapetl; some have dived at Tobermory; some have +dug in Kensington Gardens. Alexander found a treasure at Persepolis, +and Essex lost another in Cadiz harbor. The treasure of the Incas lies +hid in a Peruvian ravine, known but to two Indians at a time; the +plunder which Alaric took from Rome is still beneath the river which +he diverted to guard it. No one has ever found the hoard of Captain +Kidd, or the gold carried in the Venetian galleon which sailed with +the Armada and went on the rocks in this loch. The pursuit of treasure +is, therefore, no doubt, for the young, a legitimate pastime." + +"Daddy," said Fiona, "did one of the Armada ships really go ashore +here?" + +"Yes, my dear," said the Student. "She was a great Venetian, called +after the Madonna of the Holy Cross, and she carried the doubloons +contributed by the Church." + +"That's not the treasure the old man meant," said the girl. + +"It is not," said the Student. "We know all about the Venetian ship. +The crew were mostly knocked on the head, but the captain brought the +doubloons ashore and hid them. He himself was saved by my ancestor for +the time being, to whom he gave a map showing the place in the cave in +which the treasure was hidden. He never came back for it. So far, +everything proceeded on approved lines. Unhappily, my ancestor was a +careless sort of person, and gambled the plan away. We never heard any +more of it. It is, however, a family tradition that there was nothing +on the plan to identify the cave; and as this coast, and the islands +in the loch, are honeycombed with caves, it would be of little use if +we had it. No one knows whereabouts the galleon went ashore. On calm +nights her officers may be seen swimming round the cliffs, keeping +guard still over their holy gold. Angus MacEachan saw one once, and +tried to speak to him; but he turned into a seal, and just looked at +Angus with large patient eyes; and Angus' boat was wrecked the week +after." + +"And did you never search for the gold, daddy?" asked Fiona. + +"Never, my dear," he said. "In the first place, it would mean a minute +examination of some 170 caves. In the second place, half of the caves +are not mine. In the third place, it is not the kind of treasure I +want. In the fourth place, I haven't time. In the fifth place, I am +morally certain it is not there now. In the sixth place, the +Government would claim it as treasure-trove. And in the seventh and +last place, I never thought about it till you asked me." + +"I'm not getting any further with _my_ treasure hunting, daddy," said +Fiona. "Let's go out together and start." + +"My dear," said the Student, "it's your search, not mine. It's no use +my trying to come with you. And I have a fancy that it won't begin +like that." + +"Can you tell me how to begin then, daddy?" she asked. + +"I suppose by taking no notice of it," he said. "It was to begin +itself, wasn't it? And I have an uncomfortable suspicion that you hunt +this kind of treasure by turning round and going the other way. So I +think you'd better run out and find the Urchin, and I'll get back to +my inscriptions." + +The Urchin was Fiona's principal ally; a troublesome ally, owing to +his propensity for throwing stones. She found him now on the shore, +steadily bombarding a shore lark, that would move a little way out of +range and then sit down again, affording a splendid target. Luckily +the enthusiasm of the persecutor in pursuit was well matched by the +inaccuracy of his aim. + +"Urchin," she called out, "if you hurt that bird the Little People +will take you; I thought I'd knocked that into you all right, even if +you _are_ English and slow in the uptake." + +"All right," said the Urchin with a grin. "We conquered you, anyway." + +"As a matter of fact," said the girl, "it was we who annexed you. If +your people were as bad shots as you, Urchin, it must have been quite +easy. You can't hit a bird sitting." + +"Can't I?" said the Urchin. "You watch." Another fling, and horrors! +the shore lark rolled over, twittering helplessly and miserably. + +Fiona was across the rocks like a young goat; and when the Urchin, +contrite but defiant, arrived, she had the wounded bird in her hands +and was holding it to her breast, feeling gently for its hurt. It lay +quite still, panting, and watching her with quick bright eyes. + +"Broken wing," she said. "I believe it will mend. Urchin, you are a +mere beast. You'd better go home; I don't want ever to see you again." + +The Urchin turned scarlet. + +"That's just like a girl," he said. "First you tell me I can't hit the +old bird, which is the same thing as telling me to hit it; and then +when I do hit it you turn round on me and call names; and all the time +you're just as bad as I am." And the Urchin turned and stalked off, +an heroic figure with the mien of a Marcus Curtius about to save his +country by leaping into the gulf. Unhappily there was a real gulf, and +the boy, head in air, rolled neatly into it, and emerged from between +two rocks, dripping and no longer heroic, rubbing a torn stocking and +a scraped shin. + +It was too much for Fiona's gravity. + +"Urchin," she called, "come back here, _quick_." And as the unhappy +Urchin stood in doubt, hither and thither dividing the swift mind, she +slid over the rocks and caught him. "My fault," she said, "and I'm +sorry all the way through. Now I'll mend you first, and then we must +mend the bird." + +"And then what'll we do?" said the boy. "Let's do something harmless +for a bit, hunt for shells or shrimps or . . ." + +"Treasure," suggested Fiona, rather shyly. And by the time they had +reached the house, and she had repaired the Urchin, and disposed the +wounded bird as comfortably as possible, the boy had been put in +possession of the essential facts of the case. + +"Mar-vellous," was the Urchin's comment. "Now, don't you see, Fiona? +you can have your treasure when we find it, and I'll have the Spanish +treasure when we find it, and there we both are. I want lots and lots +and lots of those doubloons." + +"What for?" said Fiona. + +"Gun," said the Urchin. "Donald Ruadh has an old gun which he would +sell me for two pounds. He says one barrel shoots all right sometimes. +And I would use the rest of the doubloons to buy cartridges, and then +I could kill curlews." + +"You little wretch," said the girl. "You won't kill my curlews while +I'm about. And anyhow your old gun would probably blow you up first. +And anyhow you haven't got the doubloons yet. And they're not yours if +you do find them." + +"Whose would they be?" asked the Urchin. + +"I suppose my father's," said Fiona. "But it depends on which cave +they were in." + +"Come on, then," said the boy. "I'm going to ask him for them." + +The Student took the interruption good-humoredly. + +"I am in the second century," he said. "Doubloons have not yet been +coined. As to these doubloons, I am quite sure they are not there, +wherever 'there' may be; but if they are there, I have no objection to +the Urchin fighting the Government for them. Urchin, would you like a +deed?" + +And, to the delight of the Urchin, the Student proceeded to make out a +document, which called on all men to know that the said Student +thereby assigned to the said Urchin all the estate, right, title, and +interest, if any, of the said Student in and to a certain treasure of +doubloons or other coins once carried in the galleon called _Our Lady +of the Holy Cross_ were the same a little more or less ("all good +deeds get that in somewhere," said the Student) to hold to the said +Urchin and his heirs ("but I don't suppose the heirs will see much of +it") to the intent that he might become a wiser and a better Urchin +and not interrupt the said Student any more when he wanted to work. +This being done, the Student signed his name at the end, made a +beautiful blot of hot red sealing wax and put his signet ring on it, +and made Fiona sign her name as witness ("which is probably not +legal," he explained cheerfully); then he handed over the deed to the +rejoicing Urchin, with the remark that it was quite as good as many +lawyers' deeds, and drove the pair of them out of the bookroom. + +"Good," said the Urchin. "Now I've a treasure just the same as you." + +"If we find them," said Fiona. + +"Well, let's go and start hunting for them at any rate," said the boy. + +"Pardon me," said the shore lark, "if I interrupt; but you might be +the better of a few hints." + +Fiona dropped on her knees and took the little bird in her hands +again. + +"So you can talk," she said. "That's jolly. You've a first-rate chance +of returning good for evil, and making us feel worms." + +"Don't talk of worms," said the shore lark, "you have entirely omitted +to provide me with any. Send him to get some, and I'll tell you +something. He can't understand what I'm saying, anyhow." + +"Urchin," said the girl, "he's asking for worms. Go and get him some." + +"One would think you and he could talk to each other," said the boy. +"Silly, I call it, going on like that. I suppose that's what girls +do." + +"Urchin," said Fiona, "when you and I have a row, what happens?" + +"_You_ happen," said the Urchin. "You've three years' pull; 'tisn't +fair; just like a girl, to go and have three years' pull of a chap." + +"Stop grousing," said the girl, "and get me the worms, there's a dear +little boy." + +The Urchin flung the nearest book at her, missed as usual, and, having +thus made his honor white, departed, declaring in simpler language +that the love of worms was the root of all evil. + +"I can't tell you much," said the shore lark, "but one sometimes picks +up things, hopping about, and I heard you say treasure. If you mean +the Venetian ship, don't start without consulting the finner. He is +very old, and I believe that he knows everything that happens in this +loch." + +"I don't really mean that," said Fiona. "That's half a jest. I mean my +own search, the search for the treasure of the Isle of Mist." + +"We have all heard of it," said the shore lark, "and we all know that +you cannot find it by looking for it. All I can tell you is this: the +curlews have a tradition that the last man who found it went up a +hill. That is what they tell each other when they call in the spring; +and I believe they know." + +"They are like the spirits of the hills themselves," said Fiona. +"Tell me why it is I can understand you." + +"I have no idea," said the shore lark. "I am only a little bird, and I +don't know very much. I chanced speaking to you because I wanted +worms." + +The girl slipped across into the bookroom. + +"Daddy," she said, "come back out of the second century, and tell me +why I can understand the shore lark." + +The Student looked up with a patient smile in far-away eyes. + +"It isn't time to come back yet," he said. "And I have not fully +grasped your meaning. You appear to refer to some conversation with +some bird. There are precedents, of course. For instance, the +philosopher Empedocles, having been a bird himself in a former life, +remembered their speech; he ended by leaping into Ætna. Siegfried +also, having bathed in the blood of Fafnir, followed the voice of a +bird of the wood; he ended by losing his love and his life. There was +once a sailor who took the advice of a parrot, and was hanged. Birds +are light-minded, as the poet Aristophanes discovered; and it would +seem that little good comes of talking to them." + +"My shore lark is a darling," said Fiona. "And I don't intend to be +hanged." + +"That," said the Student, "is as Providence pleases. One never knows, +as my poor ancestor said when he fell into a bear-trap and found the +bear there before him." + +"O daddy," said the girl, "did he really? And what happened?" + +"This ancestor of mine," said the Student, "was a very strong man. If +he had not been, someone else would have killed him first, and he +would not have been my ancestor; the other man would have been someone +else's ancestor, so to speak. Being a very strong man, he naturally +killed the bear. He must have, or he would not have lived to be my +ancestor. In those days everyone lived in caves, and he lived in a +cave too; and he always killed the other man, sometimes fairly, +sometimes, I regret to say, otherwise. He courted my ancestress by +knocking her down from behind with the blunt end of a stone ax, a +method which I do not defend; but when her senses returned she told +him he had acted like a man, and they became a most devoted couple. +This was partly due, no doubt, to the fact that he never saw the +meaning of the things she said; she took good care that he shouldn't, +for though slow of wit he was handy with his ax. Their life I think +must have been very happy till one day he found a red stone which he +could heat and shape with his ax, and he hammered out that copper +bracelet you're wearing; and then came the deluge, for metal meant +magic then, as you know. Next day my ancestress found him conversing +with the local vulture; within a week he was giving exhibitions in the +other caves with the vulture's assistance; in a month he had become +the tribal god; and about two years after, owing to the persistent +failure of some of his magic to come off, he was, for a brief moment, +the tribal banquet. Now you know what comes of talking to shore +larks." + +"Daddy," she said, "you can't know if that's true or not, can you?" + +"It may not all be what _you_ call true," said the Student, "but it's +true in quite a lot of ways. It's true psychologically, and +anthropologically, and palæethnologically; and that does to start +with. And I certainly _had_ ancestors. And there _is_ a bracelet. And +you _were_ talking strange words about a shore lark. And you must +really take care, my dear daughter; for you _ought_ now to become a +tribal priestess, and be hurled from a high place into the sea the +first season that the herring fail." + + + + +CHAPTER III + +THE HAUNTED CAVE + + +A sunlit sheet of sea, violet and azure, clothed in slender cloud +shadows and heaving gently to the long Atlantic ground-swell. Up +through the calm water, to meet the eye of the gazer, came the green +clearness of stone, and blinks of unveined sand showing white between +the brown tangled blades of the great oar-weed; and you might see a +school of little cuddies, heads all one way, playing hide and seek in +the sea forest, and caring no whit for the clumsy armored crab beneath +them, who crawled sideways, a laborious patch of color in the +shimmering transparency. Up out of the deep water the gray rocks rose +clear and fine, a mass of platforms and pinnacles, roughened with +barnacles and tufted with dulse, whose crimson leaves floated and +swung in the white foam of the lisping swell; and above the rocks and +beyond the sea's reach the cliff stood up black, showing all the +strata that had gone to the making of it outlined with little patches +of coarse grass. On one such patch grazed without concern a sheep +which had slipped over, happy in her ignorance of the fact that she +could never be drawn up again alive; the wiser raven overhead was +clanging away with short barks to tell his mate. On a ridge on the +cliff side sat a pair of young scarfs, almost invisible save when they +twisted their long necks about like two snakes, trying to make up +their minds to follow their mother, who had just flopped clumsily into +the water, feet first, and had turned there and then into a miracle of +easy grace, as she used her head to dash the spray over her back. Out +at sea a solan rose steadily in a sweeping spiral, the white and black +of him glittering in the sun; suddenly he checked, reversed engines, +and fell plump like an inverted cross, his long raking wings clapping +to as he struck the water; a moment, and he was up, and there sat, +choking and gobbling over his fish, ere he rose again in his majestic +rings. + +The two children had grounded their boat on a little pebble beach +between the rocks, and were sitting on a big tuft of sea pinks, +munching handfuls of the sweet dulse and watching the solan at his +fishing. They were by way of fishing themselves, but the afternoon was +as yet too early and too clear for them. The Urchin had a pile of +stones beside him, and was apparently trying to see how many times in +twenty he could miss a large and obvious spur of rock. Fiona had a +book of poetry, and was making intermittent efforts to read; but the +world was too full of things to give poetry a fair chance. + +The Urchin threw his last stone away. + +"Silly sitting here," he said; "come and explore." + +So, scrambling and sliding, the two made their way across the rocks, +stopping at every rock pool to raise its fringe of weed with careful +hands and investigate the wonder of the little world below; sea +flowers of every hue, white and green, gray and orange, purple and +white and gray and purple again, some smooth and satisfied, others +with tentacles greedily awash, that could be induced to suck at a +small finger dexterously inserted; sea shells of every contour, some +living and clutching at the rock, some cast off and dead, others again +protruding alien claws, resurrected to a life of artificial movement +by the little hermit crabs whose tails they sheltered; here and there +the spiky pink globe of a sea urchin, waiting for the tide to float +him off. And in one deep little pot, with sides green like a grotto of +ferns, they found a miniature battle. A small green crab, who had cast +his shell, sat humped in a recess of the grotto, a thing soft and +vulnerable, a delight to the enemy; and in front of him, excited and +transparent, were half a dozen shrimps, the horn on each forehead +pointed at him; from time to time some young gallant would dash in to +prod the helpless monster, and at once backwater again into the ranks +of his friends. The crab bore his torment with a patience born of the +knowledge that each minute his new carapace was hardening; the shrimps +had no wit to count the cost, or reckon the odds that the rising tide +might bear them away in safety from the day of vengeance. + +On hands and knees, not daring to breathe on the limpid surface of the +pool, the children watched the little drama. From the cliff top the +heated air rose dancing into the sky. So still were earth and air and +sea that the old finner's rise sounded as though the cliff were +falling. He had worked nearer in to the rocks than seemed possible for +his ninety feet of blubber and muscle, and as his black side rolled +over, the water about him boiled like a pot; but he did not splash, +for he had been well brought up and always knew what his tail was +doing, though it was so far away. + +"Shiver these rocks," he began in a rage, as he flung two fountains +out of his nose. Then he caught sight of Fiona and the gleam of the +red bracelet. + +"Oh my fins and flippers!" he spouted. "I ask pardon, young lady; I +haven't the manners of a grampus. And they told me about you." + +"Who's they?" asked Fiona, ungrammatically. + +"Friends at Court, friends at Court," said the finner. "What a thing +to have. 'No need of the old sailorman,' said I. But they said I must +go. And I've scraped the barnacles off my precious tail. Will it run +to some tobacco?" + +"Will what run?" said the girl. "Your tail? What is it you want?" + +"Hints are wasted, I see," said the whale. "'One question,' said I. +Only one. But magic is magic, you know, even for a tough old +sailorman. Come now, one question. I'm too far inshore for my +liking." + +Fiona understood. + +"Is it about my treasure?" she said. + +"Yours, or that boy's there, whichever you like," said the whale. "But +only one, only one." + +For about two seconds Fiona did some hard mental drill. Then she said: + +"Will you please tell me where the Urchin can find his treasure?" + +"You do have luck," said the finner. "Think of it, then. O you little +fishes, think of it. If you'd asked the other, I didn't know the +answer. Wouldn't have got an answer, and my tail all scraped for +nothing. And this one, my great-great-grandmother saw it all, and +nobody knows here but me and the seals and one man, and he's too fat +to count. West cave, Scargill Island; and bring you luck, my dear. +Will it run to some tobacco?" + +"Thank you so much," said Fiona politely. "And I'm sorry I haven't any +tobacco with me. But if you could wait a few minutes . . ." + +"Shiver it, I'm scraping again," said the whale. "No tobacco and very +few barnacles in this world. O my grandmother's flukes, I might as +well be a bottlenose!" + +Once more the water boiled, and beneath it the huge black body shot +away for the open sea. + +"Fiona," said the boy, "do you really think it's cricket?" + +"What isn't cricket?" she asked. + +"Fiona," he said, "I've been a brother to you. I have done all the +things a brother ought to do. I have taught you to throw like a boy. I +have pinched you for new clothes. I have called you names, to make you +good-tempered. I have made remarks on your personal appearance, to +prevent your being vain. I have even fought with you, solely for your +good. And this is how you repay me. The other day you pretended to be +talking to a shore lark; to-day it was an old whale, who spouted and +banged his tail on the rock. If it's a joke, I don't see it. If it's +not a joke, do go into a lunatic asylum, and let me find a simpler +job." + +Fiona tossed up mentally between hitting him and laughing; it came +down laughing. + +"Urchin," she said, "it's all right. I don't understand it much better +than you do, but it has something to do with this bracelet of mine. I +can really understand them and they can understand me. If you doubt my +word, we will fight a duel with the boat stretchers, and I will bury +you in the sand here afterwards." + +"Oh, I believe you when you talk like that," said the Urchin; "only +it's worse than the Latin grammar. _Psittacus loquitur_, "the parrot +talks"; but this thing seemed to be a whale; it was very like one." + +"It was a whale," said Fiona. "He said his great-great-grandmother had +seen the Spanish captain land his doubloons, and that it was in the +west cave on Scargill Island." + +"That means the big cave at the end facing the sea," said the boy. + +"The cave that no one has ever got to the end of," said Fiona. + +"The cave that's haunted," said the boy. + +"But of course it's haunted; it's the ghosts of the Spaniards. Silly +of us not to have guessed." + +Fiona had a hazy recollection of things her father used to say. + +"I expect the haunting is thousands of years older than the +Spaniards," she said. "Urchin, are you afraid of ghosts?" + +"Not a bit," said the Urchin stoutly. "They would be splendid to throw +stones at. It wouldn't hurt them." + +"Come on then, let's go," said the girl. "There's lots of daylight." + +"None of the people here will go into it, you know," said the Urchin. + +"I know," said Fiona. "All the more reason for going on our own. There +might really be something there, if no one ever goes to take it away." + +So the boat was launched, and the adventure also. Fiona pulled stroke; +the Urchin was a clumsy and unpunctual bow, and the girl had to steer +from the stroke oar, which needs more doing than you may think if you +haven't tried it. But they made the end of Scargill in time, and then +Fiona took both the oars and coasted, while the Urchin got out a +couple of bamboo poles, garnished with white flies, and let the casts +trail, occasionally getting one of the beautiful little scarlet lythe, +that came at the fly with the spring and dash of a sea trout. For even +adventurers need supper. And so they came, past many a smaller cave +mouth in the black side of the island, to the huge bluff that fronts +the full Atlantic, and the great west cave. + +Atlantic was half asleep to-day, and muttered drowsily to the quiet +rocks outside. But the great cave was seldom quiet. In the winter, +when Atlantic turned himself restlessly and spoke aloud, the sound of +his speaking came back from its depths like the roar of a heavy gun; +and even in the stillness the lisp of the swell in it echoed as from +the roots of the island in a low intermittent boom. Outside, on the +calm water, floated the whiskered head of a seal, watching the boat +with gentle, fearless eyes,--"the officer on guard," Fiona +whispered;--and from the black cliff's face, like a hanging fringe +over the mouth of the cave, the water splashed down, trickle by +trickle, in quick, heavy drops. The children rowed in through the +little shower, and Fiona paddled gently up the cave. Its huge +limestone walls stood up stark on either hand, rising into the +darkness above, and sinking below into the green water, as far as eye +could follow them. Near the water-line grew a little seaweed, and some +white whelks clung; but as they went down the waterway these vanished, +and gray cliff and green water alike began to turn black. Looking +back, Fiona could see a bright patch, a patch of sky and +sky-reflecting sea, framed in the narrow slit of the cave's mouth. The +waterway was narrowing now; she shipped her oars and stood up, using +one as a paddle, and instructing the Urchin how to fend off the boat's +stern with his hands. In front, on a ledge in the cave's roof, it was +just possible to make out a row of blue dots in the growing darkness; +as the boat drew nearer, the blue dots fluttered, detached themselves +from the cliff, and a swarm of pigeons came whirring over the boat and +down the cave toward the sunlight;--"Your ghosts, Urchin," said the +girl. Henceforward the cave was void of life, unless some strange, +eyeless fish lurked in its inky depths. Darker and darker grew the +waterway, and the last gleam of light vanished. Fiona was feeling her +way now, aided by the phosphorescent drip from her oar blade; the +Urchin, with unusual sense, splashed his hands in the water to +increase the pale glow, which just revealed the line of the cliff. +Neither dare speak now; possibly, had Fiona not had some idea of what +was coming, she would have turned. But already there was a faint gleam +ahead, faint as a glow worm, but still a gleam; and as the boat slid +forward, and the low boom in the depths of the cave grew closer, the +cave walls very slowly began to grow gray again out of the blackness. +A few minutes more, and the walls were an outline, and before them, a +fringe of white on round wet stones, the end of the waterway. And as +the boat grounded, Fiona pointed up, and the Urchin, looking, saw a +little round hole; a natural shaft ran down into the cave from the +surface of the island, giving light enough for their eyes, now +accustomed to the darkness, to distinguish outlines. + +They drew their boat up on the stones far enough for the swell not to +dislodge it; then the same impulse seized them both and they burst out +laughing, not aloud, for something in the place made it impossible to +laugh or talk aloud, but in a kind of mirthless whisper. + +"We've come without any lights," said Fiona in an undertone. + +"We have," said the Urchin. "But probably the stuff is only a few +yards above high-water mark; they wouldn't go far in." + +"They might have," said Fiona; "they'd have had torches or +something." + +"Let's go as far as we can, anyway, as we are here," said the Urchin. + +So they started scrambling over the stones in the gray half-light. +Presently there rose before them a great mass of rock and earth, half +blocking the cave; it looked like some old landslip. + +"It's easy at this end, Fiona," said the boy; and up they went, to +find that the rock barrier blocked most of what little light remained. +Beyond was darkness. + +"We must go back and get light," said Fiona. "I can't even see the +stones below." A pause; then, "Stop swinging your feet, Urchin; I want +to listen." + +"I'm not," said the Urchin. + +Another pause, and then the Urchin spoke again, in a kind of stage +whisper, "I'm frightened." The words seemed squeezed out of him. + +"We may as well go back, anyhow," said Fiona, in a strained voice. +"Down you go, Urchin." + +The Urchin did go down at a considerable pace, and ran for the boat. +Fiona managed to walk, by repeating to herself all the time under her +breath, "You mustn't run, you mustn't run." But once in the boat she +did not rebuke the Urchin for standing up and taking the other oar; +and the pair paddled out, with many bumpings and scrapings, in a more +speedy and less scientific manner than that in which they had entered. + +Once out in the sunlight they felt better. They started automatically +to fish home, and presently were talking again. But neither of them +referred to the thing that was uppermost in each mind, though each was +wondering if the other knew. For as they had sat on the wall of rock, +each had heard clearly, in the utter darkness of the unvisited cave, +the sound of heavy footsteps. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +THE URCHIN VANISHES + + +To most people there is some corner of the earth which means more than +all others; and there are two or three in the world whose holy place +is the old house on the sea-loch which the Student's humbler neighbors +called the "big house." An old square building of gray stone, that +matches the gray sky and the gray sea, it has small claims to beauty; +it was built in the days of blank windows, and every wind in the +island meets and screams round the battered iron balustrade which +leads up its steps to the door, and strives to tear down the tendrils +of ivy that cling to the east front. To the south front, lashed by the +full Atlantic gales, not even ivy can cling; only a few twisted elders +and stunted planes grow there, and take the first force of the winter +wind; but the old lawn to the north bursts in summer into a cloud of +white marguerites, whose ethereal beauty at sunset is like the ghosts +of the dreams that haunt the place. For to some of us the old house is +full of dreams, that cling to the dark passages and the uneven floors, +and play in and out of the little windows that are still propped open +with wood, as they were a hundred years ago; dreams of the bright +lights and the bright voices that greeted us, coming in out of the +blinding rain; dreams of the dance and the song, songs of old lost +causes from which all bitterness has died away, leaving to-day nothing +but beauty behind them; dreams of faded joys and forgotten sorrows, of +loves that have passed elsewhere and of memories that abide; dreams of +faces that are seen no more. Some day it will change ownership; it +will be sold to someone from whom understanding of these things has +been withheld, and who will see only the darkness of the old +corridors, the shabbiness of the old doorway; and he will build new +doors, and porticoes and a wide verandah, and make it fair within and +without, levelling the floors and trimming the lawns; and he will have +destroyed the old house and the fragrance of it, and it will never +return. But to-day it still stands as it has stood for many a long +year, clothed in the memories that never leave it and rich in all that +the past has built into it; and to some who may never dwell there +again it is yet ever present as the home of their hearts' desire, a +true house of faery. + +The Student had let the old house to the Urchin's father. He was a +tall, thin man with a hooked nose, and he knew more about one +particular family of Coleoptera than anyone living. He had taken the +place, not because he wanted it for its shooting, but because one of +the beetles of his family was reputed to be plentiful in the +neighborhood. He was never there long; he was never anywhere long. For +thirty years he had pursued his beetles over five continents; his +measurements of their wing cases alone filled nine enormous MS. +volumes. His great work on the variation of the length of the wing +case in beetles kept in captivity had become a classic. Scientific men +had nothing but praise for the book; several even read it. The +majority believed that he had re-founded Neo-Mendelism past any +overthrowing; a small but persistent minority argued that, on the +contrary, he had utterly overthrown the Neo-Mendelians. All, however, +agreed that the book was epoch-making, even though they differed +utterly as to the sort of epoch which it made. The author himself was +a shy and modest person, who never lost his temper except when people +sent him unpaid parcels from Timbuctoo or Khamchatka containing +beetles of other families in which he took no interest. On the rare +occasions when he could be induced to go into society, kind-hearted +hostesses, who saw no reason why one crawling thing should not do as +well as another had been known to try to please him by starting a +conversation about ladybirds or earwigs; and it was said to be worth +foregoing one's cigar to hear him explain, with a chuckle, that though +earwigs or ladybirds were no doubt meritorious creatures in their +several spheres, and possibly legitimate objects of study to others, +they were not his subject; his subject was a particular family of +Coleoptera. He and the Student had become great friends, and when he +was in the island he would often drop in to see the Student's bookroom +after dinner and there the two would sit, one on either side of the +fire, each smoking at a tremendous pace and talking hard on his own +subject. Neither ever expected an answer from the other; neither ever +got one. But they had silently established an unwritten law that when +one had talked for three minutes by the clock on the mantelpiece he +was to stop and let the other have a turn; and when at last they said +good night, each felt that they had both had a thoroughly enjoyable +evening. And so they had. + +Unlike to unlike. The Urchin's father had married the daughter of a +stockbroker, who, on her death, had left him two legacies; one was the +Urchin, and the other was an occasional visitation from her brother +Jeconiah. Mr. Jeconiah P. Johnson, the well-known promoter of +companies, was a short, stout man with a red face and a shifty blue +eye, always immaculately dressed in broadcloth with a huge expanse of +white waistcoat, over which sprawled his double watch chain and his +triple chin. There were possibly some good points even about Jeconiah, +if anything so rotund could be said to have points; but there were +certainly not many. He was supposed by some to possess what is called +"a high standard of business morality"; it would be truer to say that +his code was prehistoric. He had so far kept himself right with the +law, because he had mastered the sordid maxim which proclaims that +honesty is the best policy; no other reason was likely to occur to +him. With some effort he had succeeded in formulating a rule of +conduct of which he was rather proud: Do good to yourself and your +friends and evil to those who stand in your way. If anyone had told +him that the philosophy of ethics took its rise, some twenty-two +centuries ago, in a reaction against a similar rule, he would have +remarked jocosely that he never studied back numbers. Of anything more +exalted than "policy," anything not to be reckoned in terms of £.s.d., +he was as ignorant as a hippopotamus. + +He was never very fond of his right hand's knowing what his left hand +did; for while the right hand promoted companies, the left hand, by +means of a manager and a registered alias, carried on a very useful +little money-lender's business. He was never averse to putting the +screw on, if there was anything to be got by it; and sometimes he got +rather funny things. Recently he had had a broken debtor on his hands, +and had taken what he could get; among other things, an old bureau +full of papers. Jeconiah, being a methodical soul, had turned a clerk +on to sort the papers; and the clerk had presently brought him the +long lost map of the Scargill cave, and a sheet of paper containing +somebody's rough explanation of what it was supposed to be. Jeconiah, +who had heard the story, scented possibilities, and, it being a slack +time in the City, promptly invited himself to his brother-in-law's +house to recover from an attack of influenza. That is how Jeconiah +comes into this story. It could not be helped, for he had the map. The +finner had said he was too fat to count; but that is where the finner +was wrong. + +Jeconiah forthwith gave his mind, such as it was, to the subject of +caves. Diffidence was not his failing, and he cross-examined every +person he could find, concealing, of course, his real object. He +collected a splendid amount of rubbish; but he was acute enough where +his pocket was concerned, and out of the rubbish he presently dragged +forth the fact of the haunted cave which no one would enter. Whereon +Jeconiah went over to Scargill to fish, and had a look at the lie of +the island; settled with himself that it seemed a good enough place +for a wreck, and told the keeper to row him into the west cave. But +the keeper, who had no particular liking for Jeconiah, refused +point-blank, and told him he would not find a man in the island who +would do it; and Jeconiah, who had suddenly lost interest in the +fishing, went home in a bad temper. This happened the day after the +two children were in the cave; and the day after that the Urchin's +father received an excited cablegram from Brazil on the subject of his +beloved beetles. He rushed down at once to see the Student. + +"I am going to Brazil, I don't know for how long," he said. "And my +boy can't go back to school for a month or more, as they have scarlet +fever in the village there. And I don't like to leave him with the +housekeeper, and I start in two hours. Will you take him?" + +"Delighted," said the Student. "Fiona will look after him." + +So the Urchin came, and with him came to Fiona a sense of +responsibility for him. She couldn't help it. + +But Jeconiah showed no intention of moving. On the contrary, the +after-effects of influenza were still troubling him sorely, it seemed. +At last the Urchin's father had to tell him to stay a week or two +longer, if he wanted to; the servants would be there anyhow. And +Jeconiah thanked him and settled down to stay, as he had meant to do +all along. But as soon as his brother-in-law was gone he took the car +and went off for the day. The chauffeur said that he went to a lot of +places and talked to a lot of people; and a couple of days later two +strange men in a boat entered the bay and proceeded to camp out on a +part of the shore which was not the Student's property. Jeconiah had, +in fact, hired the boat, and found a couple of ne'er-do-wells from the +mainland who knew nothing of him and were ready to row him anywhere in +pursuit of his business, which was understood to be photographing wild +birds for an illustrated paper. + +Jeconiah had, however, made one great mistake. He was aware that you +must not neglect little things, and he had neglected quite a big +little thing--the Urchin. He had never spoken to him about caves, or +taken the least notice of the boy's movements. And the Urchin on his +side had been hard at work. He had confessed to Fiona on the subject +of the footsteps, and she to him; and they had agreed, under the broad +healthy light of day, that probably they had been mistaken and afraid +of the dark, and that with lanterns it would be all right. They +agreed, however, that it was necessary to have a really good light, +and the difficulty was to find one. It was the Urchin who came forward +as the saviour of society by proposing to win over Jones, the +chauffeur, and get the loan of one of the big acetylene head-lamps +from the car. Jones, a newcomer, had not yet heard about the cave, +and, being English, he had not yet found his feet among his fellows +and was glad of any sort of diversion. The Urchin wound up a +triumphant half hour of diplomacy by making Jones promise to lend him +one of the headlights and show him how to work it. Then the Urchin +fell, as many greater men have fallen; he was lifted up with pride, +and told Jones that Fiona and he were going treasure-hunting. Jones +grinned; but that evening he talked; and in due course Jeconiah heard. + + * * * * * + +Fiona was digging in her garden, or rather in the Urchin's, for she +had assigned him one bit of it, which she had to cultivate for him; +otherwise it would have run waste, for all the work the Urchin put +into it. Her garden was one corner of the old walled garden of the +Student's house, which was not very well kept now. Once it had been +gay with flowers and rich with fruit; but now few flowers grew there +save such as could look after themselves, and the fruit had come down +to two gnarled old apple trees, in which Fiona had made her earliest +experiments in climbing. Most of the ground, so far as it was in use, +was now given over to cabbages and potatoes; but in June the borders +were sweet with double white narcissus, and now in September there was +a revel of unpruned roses, their blooms growing smaller year by year, +and a mass of the dark-red blossoms of the little west coast fuchsia, +which knows how to live through the winter. One deserted corner was +gay with Turk's turban, which still had strength to push up through +the ever-thickening tangle of weeds; and groups of winter crocus were +coming up in the borders, and among them a few Shirley poppies which +Fiona had sown herself. Fiona had had thoughts of taking the garden in +hand, but the space enclosed by the old walls was far too large for +her to manage unaided; and as there was no money to pay a proper +gardener, she had had to content herself with clearing one corner. +Here she had achieved a riot of color. She had made a little rockery +of oak-leaf and beech ferns brought down from the hill, sentinelled by +tall pink foxgloves; the worn-out plum trees against the wall behind +were threaded and festooned with thick trailers of yellow and scarlet +nasturtium; and in front of the rockery, her especial pride, was a +great bed of velvet pansies, rich with every hue of the rainbow. They +were flanked by simple annuals, filmy pink poppies, orange escholtzias +and sweet-scented mignonette; and in a bed by themselves were the gold +and crimson snapdragons which the Urchin had begged for her from the +gardener at the big house. + +She must needs dig up a centipede, one of the small yellow ones. They +were her special dislike. The centipede did not like being dug up +either, and writhed himself into seven different sets of tangles at +once, as is the way of the smaller centipedes. + +"You horrid little yellow beast," she said, forgetting that he could +understand, and made a dab at him with her spade, which, to her +relief, missed him. She felt she had done her duty by hitting at him, +but did not hide from herself that she had really missed him on +purpose. + +"Little's all right," said the centipede, "and yellow's all right; and +though I'm not really a beast, we will let it go at that. But I'm not +a bit horrid." + +"But I don't like you," said Fiona, "and you wriggle so." + +"In the circles in which I move," said the centipede, "my wriggling is +much admired. And the mere fact that you do not like me--which, I may +remind you, is only a subjective impression and has neither objective +validity nor permanent value--does not entitle you to call me names. +You ought to have learnt better, with that bangle of yours. For all +you know, I may be a model of the more unselfish virtues." + +"But you eat the roots of my flowers," said Fiona. + +"That is the first I have heard of it," said the centipede. "But one +lives and learns. It need not be the same one, though, who does both. +So in the present case I propose that I should live and you should +learn." + +"I wasn't going to kill you really," said Fiona. + +The centipede bowed. + +"A little courtesy does oil the creaking machinery of life, doesn't +it?" he said. "Please lift me up, for I have something to tell you, +and your head is so far away. Shouting at you hurts my throat." + +Fiona stooped down and took up the little yellow creature in her hand. + +"Congratulations," said the centipede. "We _are_ getting on. You +wanted badly to shudder, and you didn't. We shall make something of +you yet. My old friend the bookworm--who lives in your father's +library, by the way--has recently supplied me with a new quotation +from the great poet Virgil, who had once, you may remember, quite a +reputation as a magician. It was to the effect that if you couldn't +get what you wanted by beginning at the top, you should start again at +the bottom. I am the bottom. I am not the _very_ bottom, but I am near +enough to it for your purpose. Now you see what you have gained by +not killing me." + +"I don't see anything yet, I'm afraid," said Fiona. + +"One must have patience with weaker vessels," said the centipede. "So +I will explain. My friend the bookworm, who supplies me with my +quotations, has a cousin of the same profession in the library at the +big house. It was through him that I got the story I am going to tell +you about the fat man." + +"Mr. Johnson!" exclaimed Fiona. "He has nothing to do with me." She +disliked Jeconiah heartily, so far as she had given any thought to +him. + +"Oh, yes, he has," said the centipede. "This is where I come in. My +bookworm's cousin, who is a great linguist and understands English +perfectly, was at work in the library the other evening, and the fat +man was having his coffee there. After coffee he lit a cigar and began +to walk up and down, and presently he started talking to himself out +loud, as my informant says he often does when he is excited. And by +piecing his talk together, my informant made out that he had the map +of the Scargill cave, which one of your ancestors once gambled away, +and that somehow or other he had found out that the cave of the map +_was_ the Scargill cave, and that he was only waiting for a smooth day +to go and locate the treasure." + +"Well?" said Fiona. + +"Oh, come now," said the centipede, "it's no use pretending. We all +know that you are treasure-hunting--remember we can all understand +everything _you_ say, whether we are linguists or not--and my advice +to you is, to be quick about it, before the fat man can get his oar +in." + +"Thank you so much," said Fiona. "And I am so sorry I began by being +rude. Tell me, why have you told me all this when I began by being +rude?" + +"Because I am a model of the more unselfish virtues, of course," said +the centipede with a suppressed chuckle. "As a fact, I had an +earth-phone from headquarters. But we are all backing you, you know. +And now will you put me down, please; the upper air is chilly." + +He wriggled into a crack in the ground, and was gone. + +That evening Fiona and the Urchin made their final preparations, in +case the morrow should fall calm. That evening also Jeconiah heard +that he had rivals in the field. His language, as he walked up and +down the library, would have been very bad for the bookworm's morals +had that intelligent insect been able to understand it all; but the +bookworm's English, though good, was literary, and much of the modern +idiom employed by Jeconiah slid off its back. Jeconiah's plan had been +to make sure that the gold was there, and then charter a launch from +Glasgow and take it straight to railway-head; he saw now that he could +not afford the time, and that unless he could deal with the children +in some way he might have to take the gold off in his boat, which +would entail some risk, as well as cost him a heavy sum to buy his two +boatmen. Also he made up his mind that he must go the next morning, +whatever the weather, if it were possible to launch the boat; he knew +that the children, with their little skiff, could only go to sea on +calm days. + +Unfortunately for Jeconiah, the night fell calm, and though he rose +early, he had no notion of starting without a good breakfast. By the +time his boat was launched and he himself aboard, he had the pleasure +of seeing through his glasses the children's boat off the east or +nearer end of Scargill. The wealth of adjectives which he employed in +the circumstances filled his two loafers with awe and admiration. + +Fiona, having the Urchin securely under her roof, had breakfasted +before dawn, and as soon as it was light enough the children launched +their little boat. The Urchin had the precious headlight, ready +charged, tied up in an old sack which would also serve to bring away +the plunder; and round his waist he had twisted a length of cast-off +rope. Its use was not apparent, but he thought it looked +business-like. They saw that Jeconiah's boat was still drawn up +ashore, and in good heart they started on their long pull. They had +reached the island before Jeconiah had his boat out; having no +glasses, they could not see if it was being launched or not. But off +the eastern end of the island, which is low and grassy, they had a +fright, for an empty boat was drawn ashore there. However, when they +rowed close in to look at it, Fiona recognized it. + +"It's Angus MacEachan's boat," she said. "He has come to see after the +sheep he has on the island. There he is, I can see him; he has got a +sheep that has hurt its foot." And indeed they could see Angus tending +a sick sheep. + +"Fiona," said the boy, "we are too silly for anything. Of course the +footsteps we heard in the cave were Angus's. There is another way in +somewhere, and he would be looking for a sheep." + +Fiona said nothing. As they neared the cave, the problem of the +footsteps kept intruding itself more and more vividly upon her; but +the Urchin was happy in his theory, and she did not think it necessary +to remind him that the footsteps could not possibly have been those of +Angus, who walked with a limp. She began to feel a vague sense of +disquiet, which she tried in vain to put aside. + +They entered the cave, and the Urchin, with much pride, lit his great +lamp. The powerful burner threw a wonderful circle of light on to +black water and black walls, making them glow and sparkle with a soft +radiance till they looked like the very gateway of fairyland. Outside +the circle everything became black as pitch. They paddled quietly up +the bright waterway, and grounded on the stones at the end. The Urchin +was hot after his long row, and helping to draw the boat up on the +stones did not make him any cooler; he took off his jacket and pitched +it on to a thwart. + +"Yes, it is hot, and stuffy," said Fiona. She recollected some story +she had read about a coal mine, and sniffed. "I hope there is no gas +here," she said. + +The Urchin grinned. + +"Oh, you girls!" he said. "Who ever heard of gas in a sea cave. What +you are smelling is the lamp." + +Fiona took the lamp up. + +"I'm going to take charge of this myself," she said. "You can carry +the treasure." + +The Urchin picked up the sack and threw it over his shoulder. + +"Go ahead, lady with the lamp," he said, and grinned again. He felt +very adventurous. He would rather have liked to be photographed. + +With considerable caution, necessitated by the heavy lamp, they +climbed the rock barrier and descended into the darkness of the inner +cave. The walking was better here; the rounded slippery boulders had +given place to a floor of pebbles and sand. Quite a short way from the +barrier the wall of the cave curved away in a semicircle on the +right, its smooth surface forming a kind of small recess. Fiona swept +the recess with her lamp, and on the sandy floor something gleamed +back; the Urchin pounced on it and picked it up. It was a gold coin, +not the least like any which the children had ever seen. It was, in +fact, a doubloon. + +"This must be one of them," said the boy exultantly as he pocketed it; +"one that got dropped. Come on, it can't be much farther." + +But Fiona held the lamp steady and stared at the sand. + +"Look at the marks on the sand," she said. "They are like the marks of +heavy boxes. The treasure has been here, Urchin, and it's not here +now. Someone has been here and taken it, and dropped one piece." + +"I don't think so," said the Urchin. "We shall find them a bit farther +on." + +So they went on, but not very far. For the light of the lamp suddenly +fell on a rock wall before them, the end of the cave. And it had +ended, not as the other caves do, by the roof growing lower and lower +till it meets the floor; it had ended in this huge chamber of high +rocky walls. + +"So this is the cave that no one has ever reached the end of," said +Fiona. "Why, it goes no distance at all." + +They retraced their steps to the recess, and then back to the end +again, looking on this side and on that for openings, but it seemed +quite clear that there were none. + +"The boxes must have been carried off by sea," said Fiona. + +But the Urchin had an idea. + +"No one would try to carry great heavy boxes over the rock barrier," +he said. "They'd just take the gold out in sacks." + +"The barrier may be a rock-fall," said Fiona. "The treasure may all +have been cleared out long ago." + +And then there came to the Urchin the realization of the fact that he +had lost his gun. He turned very red. + +"It's a shame," he said angrily, "an awful shame. It was given to me, +and someone has taken it. Can't you think where it could be, Fiona? +I'd go _anywhere_ to find it." + +Whatever Fiona may have been going to say, her words tailed off into +sudden silence. For from beyond the cave wall, as it seemed, sounded +again the footsteps which they had heard before; and this time they +knew that there was no cave there, and that It was walking through +solid rock as if along a road. There was no question this time of any +concealment or pretence; both frankly turned tail and made for the +rock barrier. Halfway there the Urchin tripped and fell heavily on his +head. Fiona put the lamp down and helped him up, dizzy and shaking. + +"Can you go on, Urchin?" she said. "If not, I'll try and carry you." + +The Urchin looked back into the blackness, unrelieved by any ray of +the lamp, which faced the other way. The footsteps were steadily +drawing nearer, neither hasting nor staying. What the Urchin may have +thought he saw Fiona could not guess; he gave one shriek, slid out of +her grasp, and bolted for the rock barrier as fast as his trembling +feet would carry him. + +For one moment Fiona all but followed him. Then it suddenly came to +her that she was responsible for the boy's safety. She never knew +afterwards how she managed to do what she did; but she turned, and +with the courage of utter desperation--the courage which enables the +hen partridge to face the sparrow hawk--stood at bay, swinging up the +heavy lamp to see and face whatever should come. + +And into the circle of lamplight quietly walked the figure of the old +hawker. + +The revulsion of feeling was too much for Fiona. She sprang forward +and caught the old man's hand and clung to it. + +"Oh," she said, "I'm so glad it's you. We heard the footsteps and we +were so frightened." The relief of it all was overwhelming; she was +almost crying, and went on saying anything, hardly knowing what she +said, just for the mere human companionableness of it. "How did you +come here? I suppose you came over with Angus in his boat. Of course +you would. Then there must be another way into the cave after all, and +we couldn't find it." + +"And so I frightened you?" said the old man gently, making no effort +to withdraw his hand. "Yes, there is another way in." He made no +attempt to answer all her questions. + +"Urchin," called Fiona, raising her voice. "Urchin, come back; it's +all right." + +But there was no answer. + +"Urchin," she shouted; "Urchin." + +But there was no answer save the echoing of the empty cave. + +"He was going down to the boat," she said, loyally repressing the fact +that the Urchin had bolted. "We must go after him, for he had hurt his +head, and I am afraid of his falling again." + +They climbed the rock barrier, and made their way to the boat. The +boat lay there as it had been left, half ashore, with the swell +rippling against the stern, and over one thwart the Urchin's jacket, +just as he had thrown it down. And the boat was as empty as the cave. + +Into Fiona's eyes came a sudden fear. + +"He must have fallen again, and be lying somewhere," she said. + +They went back, searching every nook and corner of the cave, turning +the light into every crevice, under every rock, making a minute +examination of the rock barrier; and there was no sign. + +And then Fiona broke down. + +"He is drowned," she said, and just sat and sobbed. + +After a few moments the old man came and sat down beside her. In his +gentle voice he said that the Urchin could not possibly be drowned. +The water was quite shallow at the edge, and he was a good swimmer, +was he not? And even if he had not been, the swell would have rolled +him ashore. He himself had no doubt that all would come right. + +Fiona ceased sobbing and turned on him. + +"Do you know where he is?" she demanded bluntly. + +"How would I know when you do not know?" said the old man. "Could I +see what you could not see?" And then "Listen." + +Down the waterway came voices, and the sound of oars. It was in fact +Jeconiah's boat entering the cave. + +Fiona caught at the straw. + +"He may have swum out to the other boat," she said. + +But there was no one in the other boat but Jeconiah and his two men. +They had powerful lanterns, and the boat was full of sacks. Jeconiah +himself was purple with suppressed rage and impatience. The moment he +could get ashore, he waddled up to Fiona and shook the map of the cave +in her face, exclaiming, "Remember, if you have found anything it +belongs to me and I claim it." + +Fiona had only one thought in her mind at the moment, and the foolish +impertinence of the little fat man was to her merely so much +unnecessary sound. Her answer was "Have you seen the Urchin? We have +lost him. Did he not swim out to your boat?" She was almost sobbing +again. + +"Confound the brat!" said Jeconiah roughly. "I've not come here to +play hide-and-seek with a parcel of children. Tell me at once what +you've found." + +Fiona straightened herself, and looked at Jeconiah as though he were +some noxious reptile. + +"There was nothing here to find," she said. "And this cave belongs to +my father. And anything in it he gave to the Urchin." + +"Well, he's not here," said Jeconiah brutally, "and I am. Who finds, +keeps." + +And calling to his men to bring the lights, he set off, between +stumbling and crawling, for the rock barrier. One of the men had the +decency to stop a moment and tell Fiona that they had seen nothing of +any boy; Jeconiah turned and abused him for a laggard. + +With a good deal of difficulty the two men hoisted and shoved Jeconiah +over the rock barrier. Once over, he took a light himself, told the +men to wait where they were, and after a good look at the map set out +for the recess where the Urchin had found the doubloon. Fiona followed +him; there was some vague idea in her mind of protecting the Urchin's +property; behind that there was still a faint subconscious hope that +in some way or other the Urchin would suddenly reappear, and laugh at +her terrors. + +Jeconiah reached the recess. He saw and understood the marks of the +boxes on the sand. He swung round on Fiona with a snarl like that of a +hungry wolf. + +"You think you're clever, don't you, you and your father," he said. "I +suppose you've had the stuff moved. But I'll have it if I go to the +middle of the earth for it." + +It was the old hawker who shouted. He had stood apart, a silent +spectator of the scene. And at this moment he called out, in a voice +of surprising power for so frail a body: + +"Look out above you. Jump." + +Fiona, who had learned to obey, jumped back just in time. But Jeconiah +had never learnt to obey any orders but his own. He stood, stupidly +staring, as a bit of the roof of the cave bowed downward, gave way, +and came cascading about him in a shower of earth and big stones, that +filled the air with thick dust. When the dust cleared again, they saw +Jeconiah lying on his back in the middle of the cliff fall, +motionless, and to all appearance dead. + +But Fiona was not looking at Jeconiah. She was looking at the place +where the roof of the cave had bowed itself before falling; and into +her mind came crowding dim forgotten legends, legends of fear and +hope. And she was saying over and over again to herself, as though she +might miss its purport, that behind the cliff fall, as if impelling +and directing it, she had seen a small brown elfin hand. + + * * * * * + +It was the old hawker who took charge of the situation. The two men, +who at first had looked as if they would run, became amenable when he +spoke to them. They carried Jeconiah's body to his boat, and laid it +in the stern-sheets. One of the men pointed out that there was no mark +at all on his face or head, and that he did not believe he had been +struck. + +"Died of fright, I expect," he said curtly. + +"Lucky we stood out for wages in advance," said his companion. It +looked as if this might be Jeconiah's fitting epitaph. + +The old man himself went with Fiona in her boat. But he was too feeble +to row far, so he landed on the island and went in search of Angus. In +due course Angus came down and rowed Fiona home, saying that the old +man was going to look after his sheep for him till he returned. It did +not occur to Fiona, until they had gone too far to turn back, that it +looked as though the old man wished to avoid questions. Her mind was +in a helpless whirl in which everything seemed unreal, except the +Urchin and that small brown hand. She could not give her father any +very coherent account of what had happened; but he went out at once to +find a boat and men to search the cave. + +Jeconiah was laid on his bed in the big house, and there was much +commotion there; this one must go for the doctor and that one for the +Student; scared maids stood and whispered in the corridors; the two +loafers, heroes of the hour, feasted happily in the kitchen. Then the +doctor came, and went upstairs with a grave face, as befitted the +occasion; but he did not come down again, and surmise grew. Half an +hour passed before the door opened, and the doctor, smiling and +rubbing his hands together, came into the library, where the Student +had just entered and was talking to the housekeeper. + +"He's not dead at all," said the doctor. "It's catalepsy--suspended +animation, you know. Like the frog in the marble. Had a shock, you +tell me? Just so, just so. How long? Oh, he may be an hour, and he +may be a month; no one can ever say. Never had the good luck to see a +case before. Not _very_ uncommon, no. Mustn't try to rouse him, you +know; might be dangerous. Just wait. Send for me at once if he comes +to. Can get two nurses to watch him, if you like; just as well +perhaps. Sometimes they are odd when they wake; think they are someone +else for a bit, you know, change their habits, and so on. Dual +personality? Oh, yes, several well-attested cases; but I don't mean as +much as that. Might arise this way, of course; but what I mean is more +just queer. But of course he need not be; might wake up as if he'd +been asleep. If it lasts long, take away all the almanacs and things, +in case he gets a shock. Well, good day, good day." + +And the doctor went; and Jeconiah's body lay still on the bed, waiting +till his soul, if he had one, should return to it. + +So the Student went home again; and on his way he met the old hawker, +who stopped and spoke to him; and for a few moments the two walked +together, the old man talking rather quickly. Fiona, watching from the +window of the bookroom, could see that her father first looked puzzled +and then grave and then considerably relieved; in a dim kind of way +she found herself thinking that Angus must have rowed back very fast +to Scargill, if the old hawker were already landed. She was wondering +who he really was and why her father talked to him. + +"Tell Anne to get us something to eat--anything," said the Student. +"The boat will be here directly." + +The Student, by straining what remained of old loyalty as far as he +dared, had found half a dozen volunteers, good men, to face the +haunted cave, provided he went himself. + +"Do you want to come, Fiona?" he said. Of course Fiona meant to come. + +And while they waited, the Student questioned Fiona, and had the whole +story coherently, except the hand. That part Fiona felt she could not +tell; there, in the cheerful bookroom, it seemed so impossible. Once +or twice he nodded, and said, "That would be so"; and at the end he +pointed out that whatever had happened had happened when her back was +turned, as she faced the coming footsteps. She had not thought of +that. What puzzled her, and hurt her a little, was that, though her +father seemed to feel for _her_, he did not appear to be particularly +concerned about the Urchin. "I believe it will come right," was all he +said. + +The boat arrived, rowed by strong hands; the men worked with a will, +and the distance to the cave seemed short. They had brought good +lights, and the Student had a powerful electric torch. High and low +they searched the cave, and found nothing. One man, who was a good +swimmer, dived several times and found nothing there either. Tracking +footsteps was impossible; the sand, where there was any, had been +hopelessly trampled. + +When nothing more could be done, the Student said that he wanted to +look for a thing himself which he had an idea of. He went down to the +end of the cave with his torch and tapped the wall with a geological +hammer. Fiona sat on the rock barrier and watched him; what he was +seeking she had no idea. He came slowly back down the cave, tapping +the wall, till he reached the recess where the Urchin had picked up +the doubloon. He went straight to the back of the recess and tapped +the wall there; and even as he did so a large piece of stone fell from +above, and smashed the electric torch in his hand. He came back to the +rock barrier quite unperturbed, looking as if he had found what he +sought. + +"Not very safe, this cave," he said calmly; and told the men to push +off the boat. "There is nothing more we can do," he said; "the boy is +certainly not here." + +The men's courage was fast ebbing away; they were glad to get out of +the haunted place. + +Fiona sat in silence all the way home. It was dark before they +reached the house. She waited while Anne bustled over supper; she +thought she would never see her father alone. At last supper was over, +and he went into the bookroom and began to light his pipe; she +followed him. Her words came out in a torrent. + +"Daddy," she said, "what does it all mean? and why are you so strange +and unconcerned? What did that old man tell you? If I couldn't see, +_he_ must have seen, for he was facing. What is it you know? And why +have you told me nothing?" + +"Sit down, little daughter," said the Student. He drew her beside his +knee, with her head on his arm. "I will tell you now what I can. The +old man gave me a sort of hint. He did not really see, for the lamp +was the other way; I fancy he guessed. I wanted to test what he said +to me. I have tested it now with my hammer; it all agrees. I am +absolutely certain that no harm has come to the Urchin. But I can do +nothing for him myself. And I must not even tell you what I think; +for if I do it ruins everything. All I may tell you is this, that you +are the only person who can do anything. You will have to do it all +yourself and by yourself, little daughter. I believe you have ways and +means of your own of finding out. Are you going through with it, +Fiona?" + +"Of course I am, daddy," she said. "How can I do anything else? If +only I knew what it is I have to do to find him--how to begin even." + +"I cannot even tell you that," said the Student. But his fingers +played with the copper bangle on her wrist. And out of some dim corner +of subconsciousness she seemed to hear a small voice which said "If +you can't get what you want by beginning at the top you must start +again at the bottom." Her father, with his learning, was the top; the +bottom . . . ? + +Fiona went to bed less miserable than she had expected. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +THE OREAD + + +Fiona was out long before breakfast next morning, digging furiously in +her garden. Not many minutes passed before she was rewarded by a glint +of something yellow in a shovelful of earth, and there was the +centipede. + +"You dear creature," she said, and caught it up quickly before it +could wriggle away. + +"How polite we are this morning," said the centipede, swelling with +conscious pride. "I suppose we want something." + +Fiona's mind was far too completely taken up with her one object to +notice or resent any insinuations. + +"Yes, I do," she said. "You told me that if I could not get what I +wanted by beginning at the top I must start again at the bottom. I +can do nothing from the top this time, so I've come to you." + +"Flattered, to be sure," said the centipede. "How frank we are." + +"Please don't be cross," said Fiona, humbly. "I am only doing what you +told me to do." + +"Bless you, child, I'm not cross," said the centipede. "I'm a +philosopher." + +"Don't philosophers get cross?" asked the girl. + +"Never," said the centipede. "And when they do they call it something +else. What's the matter with me is, that I've sprained my seventh +ankle on bow side, counting from the tail. Don't say you're sorry, for +you're not. Anyone can see you're not." + +"You are horrid to-day," said Fiona. "And the other day you were so +nice." + +"That's what makes me such a charming companion," said the centipede. +"You never know what to expect. So I never pall." + +"I want to know where the Urchin is, and how I am to find him," said +Fiona. + +"Is that all?" said the centipede. "Fancy interrupting my breakfast on +account of that boy. Well, one question at a time. We'll have the last +one first; I'm in that sort of mood to-day." + +"How can I find the Urchin, then, please?" asked Fiona. + +"Well, you've been told _that_ already," said the centipede. "Haven't +you a memory?" + +Fiona thought and thought, but could make nothing of it. + +"My friend the bookworm was there at the time," said the centipede, +"and heard the shore lark tell you that the last man went up a hill. +Very well. Go up a hill." + +"But that was for something quite different," said Fiona. "That was +for my treasure. I am not thinking of any treasure now." + +"Silly of you, then," said the centipede. "I would be. Ever studied +philosophy?" + +"No," said Fiona. + +"That's a pity," said the centipede. "Then you've never heard of Hegel +and the unity of opposites? Black and white are only different +aspects of the same thing, you know. And as soon as you begin to think +about it, you see at once how sensible it is. Well, a treasure-hunt +and a boy-hunt are only different aspects of a hunt, aren't they? +Therefore they are the same thing. Therefore what does for one does +for the other. Therefore you go up a hill. There's logic for you," and +once more he swelled proudly. + +"Thank you very much," said Fiona. "And now will you please tell me +where the Urchin is?" + +"Tell you!" exclaimed the centipede. "Why, it was you told me. You +prophesied the whole thing." + +"I'm sure I don't remember it, then," said Fiona. + +"What's the matter with _you_," said the centipede, "is that you +refuse to exert your intelligence, such as it is. You should take a +lesson by me. You humans are all forgetting nowadays that the spoken +word is an instrument of great power, and that once it is launched it +goes on and on, and can work magic on its own account, quite +independently of you. If you say a thing will happen, it frequently +does happen." + +"But what did I say?" asked Fiona. + +"You told the Urchin that if he hurt the shore lark the Little People +would take him. Well, they've taken him. That's all." + +And the centipede slid down on to the ground, and with something like +a chuckle vanished. He had evidently learned from his philosophy to +bear with resignation the misfortunes of others. + +But Fiona did not set off up a hill at once. After breakfast she went +to the bookroom and spoke to her father. + +"I have found out where the Urchin is, daddy," she said. "He was +carried off by the fairies." + +The Student showed no surprise. + +"You have not been long finding out, Fiona," he said. "I thought you +had ways and means of your own." + +"But, daddy," she said, "I don't _really_ believe it, you know. It +sounds so absurd nowadays. Do you believe it?" + +"I believe it, yes," said the Student. "I knew yesterday. Now that you +know, I may talk to you about it, so far." + +"I don't know that I do really know," she said. "Things like that +don't _really_ happen, do they? Whoever heard of it?" + +"You and I have heard of it," he answered. "And that is enough. The +proposition that people are not carried off by fairies is a mere +working hypothesis, liable to be overthrown by any one case to the +contrary. Well, we've got a case to the contrary, and that's the end +of the hypothesis." + +"I'm arguing against myself, daddy, you know," she said. "I want to +believe that we do know where he is." + +"No difficulty at all," said the Student, "to anyone with a properly +trained mind, like yours and mine. Take it this way. No one has ever +crossed the South Arabian desert or explored the snow ranges of New +Guinea, have they? Well, for all anyone can say to the contrary, +people may be carried off by fairies every day of the week in New +Guinea or South Arabia, mayn't they? It may even be the rule there. It +may be a working hypothesis among the pygmies of New Guinea that such +a thing _always_ happens--at death, for instance. It would be just as +good a working hypothesis as it is that it _never_ happens." + +"But, daddy, it would be so extraordinary, wouldn't it?" + +"Not a bit more extraordinary," he said, "than the inside of a bit of +radium, or the inside of an egg, for that matter. It is probably +simpler for the Urchin to become a fairy than for an egg to become a +bird, or a caterpillar a butterfly. It would not be nearly as strange +as it is that there is a water beast which can shed its gills and +become a land beast, or that Uranus moons go round the wrong way. You +can't knock it out by any reasoning of that kind, Fiona. It's merely a +matter of fact; and if we have found a case we _have_ found a case." + +"Then you knew yesterday, daddy?" she said. + +"I had a very fair idea," he answered. "That is why I was tapping in +the cave with a hammer. Can you guess why?" + +Fiona saw. + +"To find the rest of the cave," she said. "That is where he would be." + +"Just so," said the Student. "These caves cannot end in a wall, as +that one seems to. I thought the wall must ring hollow somewhere, and +the hollow is in the recess where the stone nearly fell on me. The +apparent end of the cave is not in the line of the true cave at all." + +"It is the same place where the stones fell on Mr. Johnson," said +Fiona. + +"That is strange," said the Student. + +And then Fiona told about the hand she had seen. + +"Of course, of course," said the Student. "That explains the whole +thing. They threw the stone down on me too. They did not wish me to +know that the wall was hollow just there. They must use it as a +doorway. They will have carried the boy through at the moment that you +turned your back, of course. I suppose he invited them in some way; +they could have no power otherwise." + +"He said he would go _anywhere_ to find his treasure," said Fiona. + +"That would be quite sufficient for them to act on," said the Student. + +"Then the stories about the cruelty of the Little People are true," +asked Fiona. + +"Only in part," said the Student. "I take it that they are all sorts, +like ourselves. They are, as you know, the vanished débris of all the +peoples that have helped to make this planet what it is. Good people, +many of them. But they cannot altogether love those who have driven +them under the ground." + +"And who is the old hawker, daddy," she asked, "and what has he to do +with it all?" + +"I can't talk about anything except what you already know," said the +Student. "Have you found out yet how to start?" + +"I am to go up a hill," said Fiona. "And I am going up Heleval now. +And I came to see if you would come with me." + +"I wish I could; I wish very much I could," said the Student. "I do +not know what you may find; but I know well that if I went with you, +you would find nothing but grass and rock. I am too old to see the +things you can see, you know. You have to do it alone, little +daughter." + +So Fiona filled her pocket with bread and cheese, and started; and the +Student, after a useless attempt to settle down to his inscriptions, +set up a little three-inch telescope with which he sometimes +entertained Fiona on fine nights, gazing at Jupiter's moons or +Saturn's rings, and followed her across the moor as far as he could. +It was the only way he could go with her. + + * * * * * + +There are many worse things in the world than setting out to climb +Heleval on a beautiful morning on the first of October, when the grass +in unsunned corners is still pearly with the frost of the night, and +the whole earth is touched with the wonderful caress of the cool +autumn sunshine. Fiona's way lay along the shore road, past the bank +of heather and fern which in August had been gay with flowers, napperd +and potentilla, blue milkwort and starry eye-bright, and alive with +butterflies, blues and small heaths and pearl-bordered fritillaries; +but the flowers were faded now, and in their place, in the little burn +where the hazelnuts grew, was a tapestry of purple burrs and scarlet +hips. The shore road ended at a little burn; here an old stone bridge, +grown over with grass, crossed the pool which in times of spate would +hold a fat, white sea-trout, and here Fiona and the Urchin had used +to come in summer to gather globe flowers. From this point a sheep +track led up the valley beside the burn, through great spaces of +yellowing bracken, by little swampy springs where late forget-me-nots +still lingered and an early snipe might rise with a skeep, and across +low-lying wastes of bog-myrtle, perfuming all the air with its dying +leaves; then the ground began to rise, and fern and bog-myrtle gave +place to short, hard grass tufted with bulrushes, and beds of matted +unburnt heather, seamed with rabbit tracks. + +After a time Fiona left the valley and began to climb the hillside, +rising steeply through heather and red grass and heather again, most +of it dying by now, but with patches still in full flower, worked by +the wild bees and making the moorland smell like a honey-pot. Then +more grass, and limestone ridges, and she stood on the crest of the +moor, which billowed away on her right, wave after wave, till it ran +down to the low ground and the sea, and rose up on her left till it +ended in the great mass of Heleval, standing up into the cloudless +sky. The ground before her was scarred with deep peat-hags, their gray +banks touched with the tiny scarlet blossoms of the trumpet-moss, +while from their crumbling sides projected bits of the whitened trunks +of trees long since dead, last vestiges of the forests that had +clothed the island ere ever the Gael first fought his way in. Walking +became impossible, and she jumped from gray bank to gray bank, +occasionally floundering across a little lake of soft peat, where the +wild cotton grass still bloomed, and the mountain hares had left +telltale tracks. Now and again a hare itself would scurry away before +her up one of the peat ditches, rising to the moor level as soon as he +thought he was out of gunshot and sitting up on his haunches to watch; +now and again an old grouse, his head and hackles red as a berry in +the sunlight, would rise, crow, and swing away over the brow of the +moor. And presently from behind Heleval came drifting a gray bird +with a long bill who on hovering wings wheeled three times in the air +above her and gave his full spring call, the most wonderful sound that +the hills ever hear; then he stooped close over her head and with +wings spread sickle-wise shot away for the sea. One may see a curlew +on the moor in October, but he will not give his spring call; and +Fiona felt of good courage, for she knew that the bird had called for +her, to tell her she was in the right way. + +So she came to the foot of Heleval itself, and started to climb the +steep slope of short grass, slippery as polished board, which led up +to the rock pinnacle above; the hillside twinkled with the white scuts +of rabbits racing up before her to their holes, as round the side of +the mountain came their enemy, perhaps the last kite in the island, +glittering in the sun as only a glede can, till the beautiful cowardly +creature caught sight of Fiona and swept away across the valley. She +passed the great cairn where the hill foxes live, and began the last +climb to the pinnacle of rock that fronts the flat crest of the +mountain. And now something white on the rock, which she had noticed +from below without taking account of, began to become insistent. It +could not possibly be a patch of snow yet, she thought. Perhaps the +shepherd had hung a sheepskin there. But no sheepskin was ever so +white. + +Then she came up near the pinnacle, and saw. Standing upright against +it was a girl, not much older than herself. Her long dark hair blew +back over the rock; her white body was half hidden in a trembling veil +of white light, which shimmered and played all about her, waving with +every breath of the wind. Her face was beautiful and cold, like a +frosty moonrise; her eyes shone like the drip of phosphorescent water +under the stars. + +"You have come at last," said the girl. "Every day for many days I +have watched for you." + +"Who are you, you beautiful girl?" asked Fiona. + +"I am an Oread," said the girl. "I am the spirit of Heleval." + +"I have heard," said Fiona, "that long ago people used to believe that +everything had a spirit of its own, mountains and rivers and trees. Is +it true then?" + +"It _was_ true," said the girl. "The world was full of my sisters, +once. There were the Naiads in the streams, and the Hamadryads in the +woods, and we, the Oreads, in the mountains. Men were wiser and +simpler in those days. But now my sisters are nearly all gone. When a +tree has become so many cubic feet of timber, how can it shelter a +Dryad? When a stream is merely so many units of waterpower, how can a +Naiad dwell there? Only the barren mountains, if they contain neither +gold nor iron, have been left unappraised and unexploited; and a few +Oreads still linger here and there. Once in a while a man fancies that +he sees one of us; then he must climb and climb till the day he dies, +hoping to see her indeed; down in your world people call him mountain +mad." + +"How is it then that I have seen you?" asked Fiona. + +The Oread touched her bracelet. + +"Partly because of this," she said. "But chiefly because you are a +child, and can still see. What is it you have come to ask me?" + +"How to find the Urchin," said Fiona. + +"You know of course where he is?" the girl asked; and Fiona said, +"Yes, he is in Fairyland; but I do not know the way to go." + +"That is easily told," said the Oread. "The King of the Woodcock will +let you in, and any of his people can tell you where to find him. But +do you know the danger? If you do arrive, which is very doubtful, the +fairies will make you wish a wish; and if your wish be one that does +not find favor with them, they will keep you there forever, till you +lose your memory and yourself and become even as one of them." + +"I will take the risk," said Fiona, "for I must go and try to bring +him back." + +"Why do you want to bring him back?" asked the Oread. "He is much +better where he is. Will he thank you for bringing him back? Not a +bit. You will have the labor and the danger, and he will take it all +for granted. And then he will become a man, and what use is that? He +may be a financier, and cheat somebody; or a politician, and slander +somebody; or a learned man, and hinder wisdom. He is much better in +Fairyland. Why are you going?" + +"I can't help it," said Fiona. "You can't leave people in the lurch, +you know." + +"Of course you can," said the Oread. "Be sensible and go home; eat, +drink, and be merry." + +"O, don't you understand?" said Fiona. "Don't you see that there are +some things you _can't_ do, whatever anybody says? It's not the reason +of the thing; it's only just because I am I, and he is lost. You are +so beautiful; haven't you any heart?" + +"Neither heart nor soul," said the Oread. "So I ought to be perfectly +happy. You have a heart and a soul, and you are not. Which of us is +the better off?" + +"I wouldn't change, anyhow," said Fiona. + +The Oread laughed. + +"Of course you wouldn't. It is I who would change if I could. But as I +have no soul, and cannot get one, and do not know what it would mean +to get one, it is no use worrying; it is best to be happy as I am. In +any case, I would not care to be like men and women. I would not mind +having a child's heart, like you. I had a heart once, but it is so +long ago that I have almost forgotten what it was like. How old do you +think I am?" + +"You _look_ about seventeen," said Fiona. + +"I am exactly as old as Heleval," said the girl. "And that is more +hundreds of thousands of years than you or I could ever count. I am +older than any of the fishes or birds or beasts; far older than men or +fairies. Look at that," and the Oread swept her arm over the glorious +prospect around her; the two great wings of the Isle of Mist stretched +far out into the sea, the Atlantic throbbing and sparkling under the +blue sky, and across the loch the jagged gray range of the Cuchullins, +peak upon peak. "Isn't it all beautiful? We came into being together. +Heleval was a giant in those days, a king among other kings; and there +was no sea there, and the Cuchullin Hills stood right up into the sky, +and twisted and bubbled while the Earth cooled and cracked, and my +sisters of the Fire came out of the cracks and taught us mountain +spirits the fire dance, and we danced it all night on the great peaks +till the stars reeled to watch us. And then the fiery summits cooled +and sank down, and my sisters of the Fire sank with them, and a mighty +river went foaming out down the valley yonder to a distant sea; and +every evening my sisters the Naiads came floating up in a circle with +garlands of green on their hair, and they taught us mountain spirits +the water dance, and we danced it all night on the moonlit water, +while the Ocean crept nearer and nearer to gaze. And then the sea +came up, and the river carved Heleval out as you see it, and shrank +away, and my sisters the Naiads shrank away with it; and the island +was covered with great forests, and my sisters the Hamadryads came out +of the tree-trunks and taught us mountain spirits the tree dance, and +we danced it all night in the forest glades, till one night men saw; +and men felled the forests to capture my sisters of the trees and +enslave them, but they vanished as the trees vanished. And to-day only +the hills are left, and we, the Oreads, a people few and fading away; +and we no longer dance, for we have lost all our sisters, and we no +longer have hearts." + +The girl's face had filled with color as she spoke, and her eyes had +become soft, and her voice sounded like the music of waters far away. +Fiona looked at her in wonder. + +"Indeed, indeed, you have your heart still," she said. "And you are +far more beautiful even than I thought you were. Come home with me, +and I will love you as you loved your sisters." + +"It is not possible," said the Oread. "It is not free to me to leave +Heleval. I _am_ Heleval. And I shall be here till one day men find +iron or copper in my mountain, and come up with great engines to carve +it and tear its flanks and carry it away; and then I shall go too, as +my sisters have gone." + +"Will you die?" asked Fiona. + +"I do not know what death means," said the girl. "I shall just go +back, like a drop of water when it falls into the sea. But do you know +what you have done to-day? For a few moments, because you are brave +and loyal, you have given me back my heart, which was lost thousands +of years ago. It will all fade away again; but before it fades, will +you kiss me?" + +So Fiona took her in her arms and kissed her, and then turned and went +down the hill. Once she faced round, and saw the Oread standing, +frosty and white, against the pinnacle of rock, holding out her arms; +and she started to go back to her. And even as she moved the whiteness +vanished, and there was nothing there but the rocky pinnacle, shining +in the slanting sunlight. Rather sadly she went home. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +THE KING OF THE WOODCOCK + + +That night Fiona told her father that she believed she had found the +way to go. They also discussed the question of catching a woodcock; +with the result that Fiona was up at dawn and off to the kennels +behind the big house, where the Urchin's father kept his dogs. She +understood that she must take advantage both of the night frost and +the habits of the keeper, who was apt to lie in bed awhile when no one +was about. + +The two setters stood on their hind legs to greet her, and pawed at +the bars, whining and dancing with joy. Artemis was white and brown +and Apollo was white and black. Fiona threw open the door, and they +were out in a moment, tumbling over each other as they made wild +rings round the grass, and dashing back in between to lick her hand. +She had to sit down and wait till the first exuberance was over, and +they came and lay down at her feet with their tongues out. + +"It is good to be out so early," said Apollo. + +"It's so slow in the kennel," said Artemis. "And we can't even talk to +each other, because Apollo was broken in English and doesn't know any +Gaelic, and I was broken by another man in Gaelic and don't know any +English." + +"You'll interpret, won't you?" said Apollo. "Of course we've the +international code, but it doesn't take one much further than the +passwords." + +So for the rest of the morning Fiona had not only to interpret but to +make every remark twice over, once in each language. But it will do if +the reader takes this for granted. + +"What are we going to do?" asked Apollo. + +So Fiona explained to them that she wanted to catch a woodcock and ask +him a question, and she hoped they would help her. + +"Of course we will," said Artemis. "We know all about woodcock. When +we go out with himself, we find them for him and stand still, and then +he makes a noise and they fall down dead." + +"Sometimes," said Apollo. + +"Generally," corrected Artemis, loyally. "Will you make them fall down +dead?" + +Fiona explained that she only wanted to catch one and talk to it. + +"We never saw that done," said Apollo. "But we will find one, and then +you can catch it." + +"It's very early for woodcock," said Artemis. "There won't be any in +the heather on the second of October. But there may be an early pair +in the ferns." + +"The first ones always pitch in the ferns on Glenollisdal," said +Apollo. + +So to Glenollisdal they went, down the shore road and across the +little bridge and then by the shepherd's track along the top of the +black cliffs, over grass and stones all rough and white with the +frost. The cold morning air was like new wine, and Fiona had to shade +her eyes from the low sun. Then the track left the cliffs and began to +climb up a sunless valley, across little burns beautiful with fading +ferns, till between two great moorland crags it reached the pass, more +a watercourse now than a track; and then came the cairn at the summit +of the pass, with its glorious view of sea and mountain, and down at +one's very feet the deep narrow valley that was Glenollisdal, seamed +from crest to foot by its deep burn, which ran half its length through +faded brown heather and then out to sea through a huge bed of dying +bracken, the whole bathed in the bright morning sun. + +"We always come here the first day," said Apollo. "Oh, we are going to +have fun." + +The three followed the track down to where it passed the top of the +fern bed. There was a good deal of grass there, dotted with sheep, and +in one place, looking well out to sea, a curious little hard circle +in the grass, where no sheep ever came. + +"That is the fairy ring," said Artemis. "Where they dance, you know." + +"They dance on All Hallows E'en," said Apollo. "But no one ever sees +them." + +"Because everyone's afraid to go and look," said Artemis. + +"Please, may we start?" said Apollo. + +"All you have to do is to wait till we point," said Artemis, "and then +come to us." + +And the two dogs dashed off into the great fern bed, crossing each +other backwards and forwards like a pair of scissors as they quartered +it. + +They were not long about it. Apollo's gallop became a sort of run, a +yard or two of stealthy crawl, and he stopped dead, tail stiff and +throat distended, like a dog of marble, and looked round for Fiona. +Artemis was just crossing him; she whipped round in her stride as if +shot and became a second marble image where she stood. + +Fiona walked down to Apollo. But the ferns rustled a good deal as she +made her way through, and as she reached the dog's side the cock rose, +five yards away, with a lazy careless flap as if it felt only the +bother of being disturbed. For a moment she had a vivid impression of +the white patches at the end of its fan of tail feathers, and then it +gradually gathered speed and swept away over the side of the valley; +for an instant it showed black as it crossed the sky line, and then it +was gone. + +Apollo turned to Fiona with unhappy eyes and licked her hand. But +Artemis never moved a muscle. + +"Come to me," she said in a low whisper. + +Very quietly Fiona reached her side. + +"The other bird is here," whispered Artemis, "just under my nose. +Stoop down." + +Fiona bent down between the stalks of the bracken. The woodcock was +sitting with its back to her, a little brown bunch of feathers. Very +gently she put her hand out, and even as she did so she became aware +of a wise black eye looking at her, though the bird faced the other +way. Her hand closed on the empty air, and the woodcock, with a +wonderful spring, was well on its way to seek its mate. + +"I believe I could have put a foot on it," said Artemis regretfully. +"But of course we are not allowed to." + +"I don't know how I came to be so foolish," said Fiona. "I ought to +have spoken to it instead of trying to catch it. But I forgot." + +"Better luck next time," said Apollo; "we must try again." + +But though the dogs worked the whole of the ferns carefully, there was +no other bird there. + +They came back and lay down beside Fiona, tongues out and panting. + +"It's no use trying the heather yet, I know," said Artemis. "Birds are +never in it at this time of year." + +"There are some more ferns two miles on," said Apollo doubtfully. "I +saw a bird there once, three years ago." + +"I wish I knew what to do," said Fiona. + +"We can leave it for a day or two and come back," said Artemis. "Those +two birds will be back again to look for each other." + +"But they won't be so confiding again," added Apollo. + +They were all so preoccupied that they never noticed the shepherd till +he was quite close to them. He was striding down the track, a big, +raw-boned man with red hair; a plaid was thrown loosely across his +shoulder; at his heels followed a jet black collie. + +The dogs saw him first. It would seem that they did not like him. +Every hair on their necks bristled; they shrank close to Fiona, making +little moaning noises in their throats, and flattening themselves as +if they were trying to burrow into the ground. Their eyes were full of +terror. + +"Why, Artemis, Apollo, what's the matter?" said Fiona. Then she looked +up and saw the shepherd. "Why, it's only the new shepherd and his +collie. There's nothing to be afraid of." + +"Collie!" said Apollo. "That thing's not a collie. Can't you see?" + +"Shepherd!" echoed Artemis. "That thing's not a shepherd. Oh, can't +you see?" + +The shepherd came up to Fiona, and said that Miss Fiona was out early +and was there anything he could be doing for her. He spoke in the soft +correct English of the Gael. + +"I came out to catch a woodcock to talk to it," said Fiona, "and we +can't catch one." + +It occurred to her, even as she spoke, that the statement sounded a +little out of the ordinary. But the rough shepherd never let the least +sign of this show on his face. He answered in the most matter-of-fact +way, with the gentle courtesy of the west coast, that there would not +be many woodcock in yet, and would he try to catch one for Miss Fiona? + +"Oh, do you think you could?" said Fiona eagerly. "I should be so +grateful." + +Then the shepherd saw the trouble of the dogs. He said something to +them in a language that was neither English nor Gaelic, and waved his +own dog to go. The collie went straight off up the moor, and sat down +on the top of the nearest rock ledge, an odd little blot of black on +the brown and yellow moorland. Apollo and Artemis got up and shook +themselves violently. + +"It was the international password," said Apollo. "Goodness knows +where he got it from. But we have to recognize it." + +"I'm not happy," said Artemis. "I was well brought up. I never +associated with this sort of thing before." + +Fiona, who knew that a new shepherd had been coming, could make +nothing of their trouble, and did her best to smooth them down. The +shepherd led the way up the hill, and on to a little rough plateau +broken with rocks and bits of heather, lying under the main rise of +the hill where it rounds away toward the Glenollisdal burn. "I am +thinking that there should be a woodcock about here," he said. + +"This is one of the earliest places in all the heather," whispered +Artemis to Fiona. "He must know this moor very well." + +"It's too early yet, all the same, even for here," said Apollo. + +It looked as if Apollo were right. For when at the shepherd's request +Fiona threw the dogs off, they quartered the whole plateau and found +nothing. + +But the shepherd stuck to his guns. + +"I am thinking that there should be a bird here," he said. "Will Miss +Fiona give me leave to try my own dog?" + +Fiona nodded and called the setters to heel; the shepherd waved his +hand, and the black collie came racing to him. Some collies will work +a ground like a spaniel, and some will even do a little pointing, but +the black collie troubled himself neither with one nor the other. When +the shepherd spoke to him, he just cantered straight forward to a +small patch of heather on the sunless side of a rock, where the frost +still lingered, and there sat down quite unconcerned, as though the +matter in hand were altogether beneath the scope of his talents. + +"I think he has a bird," said the shepherd. + +"I tried that place," said Apollo. "There's nothing there." + +But the shepherd had gone up to his dog and was peering carefully into +the heather. Then he beckoned Fiona. + +"Does Miss Fiona see the bird?" he asked, pointing. + +Fiona looked long before she saw. The woodcock had squeezed himself +right into the roots of a frost-covered clump of heather, and even +when the heather was parted nothing showed but his little orange tail, +with its white and black points. + +"Shall I catch him for Miss Fiona?" asked the shepherd; and Fiona +said, "Oh yes, please, if you will." + +The shepherd knelt down and brought his two great hands slowly to +either side of the tuft of heather; then he closed them with a snap, +and drew out the largest woodcock Fiona had ever seen. It struggled +and thrashed at his wrists with its powerful wings. + +"Will Miss Fiona take the bird now?" he said. "Just behind the wings, +with her thumbs on its back." + +So Fiona took her bird, and as she did so its back-seeing eye caught +the glint of her copper bangle. It stopped thrashing with its wings +and lay quite still in her hands. + +"Oh, I say," he said, "why didn't you say before, instead of employing +these people and frightening an honest bird out of his senses?" + +"My dogs couldn't find you," said Fiona. "And I think it was so good +of the shepherd to find you for me." + +"Shepherd!" said the woodcock. "That wasn't a shepherd. And it wasn't +a collie either." + +Fiona suddenly recollected that she had not yet thanked the shepherd, +and turned to do so. But the shepherd and collie were gone. They must +have walked very quickly to have turned the corner of the hill +already. + +"Where did he go?" she asked Artemis. Artemis shivered. + +"To his own place, I hope," said Artemis severely. "Well brought up +dogs should not be asked to associate with things like that." + +"But it was only the new shepherd," said Fiona. + +"There's the new shepherd," said Artemis, nodding toward a distant +slope, where a figure with a brown collie could be seen gathering +sheep. + +"What were they, then?" asked Fiona. + +"Two of the Little People, of course," said Apollo. "Oh dear, oh dear, +I'm afraid you'll have trouble." + +"One generally dies," said Artemis, with cheerful consolation. + +"But they were very nice to me indeed," said Fiona. + +"Of course they were," said the woodcock. "You're privileged, you +know. _We_ all know it. And don't you mind the dogs, my dear. They +are good creatures, but they and their forbears have lived so long +with humans that they have forgotten most of the things we know. They +are nearly as blind as humans now, saving your presence, my dear. And +now what is it you want with me?" + +"I want to find the King of the Woodcock," said Fiona. + +"Bless your heart," said the bird, "and who do you suppose We are? You +never saw a woodcock Our size before, did you?" And indeed Fiona never +had; for he was as big as a young grouse. + +"Eighteen and a half ounces, if I'm a pennyweight," said the woodcock. +"I am the heaviest king that we have ever had. Will you please put me +down if you want to talk to me? It is hardly consonant with my royal +dignity to be held. I shan't fly away; _noblesse oblige_, you know." + +So Fiona put him down, and he arranged himself like a bunch of +feathers on the ground, his head well back between his shoulders and +his beady black eyes looking all round him at once. + +"Why didn't Apollo find you?" asked Fiona. + +"No scent," said the woodcock, proudly. "I am not like a common bird. +No dog can find a king woodcock; and no dog ever has. We can be beaten +out of a wood, of course; my great-great-grandfather was shot like +that when the family lived in Norfolk, many years ago. So we came up +here to the open heather, and have been quite safe ever since. And now +what do you want, my dear?" + +"I was told you could let me into Fairyland," said Fiona. + +"I can let you in by the back door," the bird said. "But are you +really going to Fairyland? You'll need some courage, you know, if you +are going the back way." + +"Is there another way?" asked Fiona. + +"There's the front door, of course," said the bird. "But no one can go +that way without an invitation. Have you an invitation?" + +"No," said Fiona. + +"A pity," said the woodcock. "There is no danger that way. But without +an invitation you could not even find the door. As it is, you'll have +to go in by the back way and take your risks." + +"I have to go, whatever they are," said Fiona. + +"_Noblesse oblige_," said the woodcock. "Quite so, quite so. Have you +been told about the wish?" + +"Yes," said Fiona. "I know about that." + +"The other thing," continued the bird, "is that you must stick to the +main path. Remember that. You must not turn out of it for any reason +of any kind. You'll see lots of side paths, and you'll see other +things too; but if you once leave the main path by so much as one step +you'll never get home again. There are no short cuts to Fairyland." + +"Thank you so much," said Fiona. "But how shall I know the main path?" + +With his long bill the woodcock tweaked the point feather out of one +of his wings and gave it to her. + +"This will take you through," he said. "It will point the right way +for you; that's why it is called the point feather. Just follow it. If +you are frightened and want to leave your search and come home, tap on +the ground with it and you will be back in Glenollisdal. But somehow I +don't think you will. And whatever you do, don't lose it. When you +reach the fairy grove, show it to the guardian, and he will let you +in; and mind you don't go in unless he shows you its fellow. Oh, I'm +all right, thank you; I'll have grown others long before they are +needed. There is no great rush to Fairyland on the part of people who +haven't _got_ to go, my dear." + +"It all sounds so much more difficult than I thought," said poor +Fiona. + +"Nothing worth while is ever easy," said the woodcock. "And now I'll +show you where to start. By the bye, you can't take the dogs with +you." + +"This dog wouldn't go," said Artemis, shivering. "That black collie's +there somewhere." + +"Don't bother about us," said Apollo. "We'll be home long before the +keeper is out of bed." + +So Fiona took a warm farewell of the two dogs, who lamented her sad +fate and wished her luck all in one breath, and then set off homeward +with their long swinging gallop. + +"And now, if you want to be in time for the great gathering, which you +humans call Hallow E'en, you'll have to hurry," said the woodcock. + +"But it's nearly a month to Hallow E'en," said Fiona. + +"You'll want every minute of it," said the bird. "Come on." + +And they started off for the fairy ring, the woodcock pattering along +on his little feet at a pace which would have surprised anyone who had +never seen a woodcock do it. + +"How come you to be doorkeeper?" asked Fiona, as they went. + +"Hereditary," said the bird. "We used to go to all the lost lands, you +know, like Lyonesse and Lemuria and Bresil and Atlantis. We still +cross Ireland once a year and pass on into the Atlantic to salute the +site of Plato's island, before we settle in Britain. And Fairyland is +only another of the lost lands. Here we are." + +They had come to the fairy ring. + +"There's nothing more I can do now," said the woodcock. "A straight +step and a stout heart, my dear." + +Fiona took the feather in her hand and stood in the fairy ring. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +FIONA IN THE FAIRY-WORLD + + +It was very, very dark. Fiona could not see her hand if she held it +close before her eyes. It was just blackness. Only one thing broke it; +far away--many miles it might be--was a tiny speck of white, like the +point of a pin. All round her in the dark were little soft sounds; +they brushed against her feet, and passed before her face; little soft +sounds, apparently without bodies. She held the tiny point-feather +firmly in the fingers of her left hand, and touched it from time to +time with her right, as she felt her way, one foot before the +other--she could not walk--towards the point of light. And with her +and about her went the small soft sounds; one would have said that +they whispered and chuckled in the darkness. + +How far and how long she went she could never guess; there was nothing +by which to measure time or distance, and evidently she was not going +to feel hunger or fatigue. + +At last she became conscious of a change. The white speck of light was +growing brighter and larger; and the small soft sounds were becoming +tangible. One brushed past her face, and she felt it; she put out a +hand, and there was a scuffing and chuckling, as if they were playing +blind man's buff with her. Then the light began to take shape; it was +a circular pool lying on the floor and wall of the avenue of blackness +down which she was passing; and it came from something on the other +side. And the little soft sounds crowded round her; they laughed, they +whispered, they clutched at her dress; they were trying to guide her +in a certain direction. She tried to shake them off, and found that, +though they could touch her, she could not touch them. And then she +came into the pool of light. + +The light came down a sort of short passage between rocks, with a +well-trodden floor; and at the end of it, not twenty yards from where +she stood, she could see the fairy grotto. One grand white carbuncle, +as big as an arc lamp, hung from the roof, filling the grotto with +dazzling white light; and the radiance of the carbuncle was flung back +in a million points of new splendor from the walls of the grotto, +shifting and shimmering like the rainbow across a waterfall, ruby and +orange, yellow and emerald, sapphire and violet, changing as each new +facet came into play; for the walls of the grotto were set thick with +cut jewels of every hue and color. A glorious sight it looked; and +Fiona suddenly became aware that the soft things that clutched at her +dress and the soft things that whispered in her ear, were all trying +to draw her toward the beautiful grotto. But she felt her feather, and +it pointed straight on into the dark. So she moved forward; and with +the first step she saw the trap. The floor of the beautiful grotto +yawned wide, showing the horrible abyss beneath it; and the darkness +was full of soft flutterings, and the chuckling of mocking laughter. +But they touched her no more at the time; and suddenly the darkness +fell away on each side like a wall, and she stepped out into daylight. + +She was in the desert. The yellow burning sand stretched all round +her, a mass of glittering particles that made the eyes sore; wave +after wave, it went billowing away to the red burning hills that faced +and flung back the burning sun. Mile after mile she stumbled along in +that aching heat; and then, as she topped a great hillock of sand, she +suddenly saw the fairy city. Very beautiful it looked, rose-pink on a +wooded island in a fair lake of water, whose blue mirror gave back +every trembling cupola and minaret; and toward it, down a broad track +marked by tamarisk bushes, went a goodly company of merchants, with +tinkling bells on their camels' necks and golden ornaments on their +camels' heads, the company of a chief who rode ahead on a white Arab +steed with his long jezail laid across his saddle-bow. Here could no +doubt be; and Fiona all but stepped on to the broad path in the track +of the caravan. But even as she turned she caught sight of the feather +and checked herself just in time; and the beautiful city of mirage +melted away, and there was no caravan there, but only sand marked by +the bones of men, and in place of the tamarisk bushes were gray +vultures feasting in a row. She followed the feather straight on +across the burning desert; and on a sudden she walked out of the sand +into shade. + +She was out in the forest. Huge trees rose like the pillars of a +cathedral nave, branching far above her head and shutting out the +daylight; and up their trunks ran starred creepers of every hue, +fighting their way up to the sun. Down from the branches hung orchids +of all fantastic shapes, in long still streamers, and great moon moths +fluttered round them, taking their joy in the dim light. And the +farther she went the thicker grew the forest, and the more oppressive +the airless heat. Trailing plants ran across her feet and tried to +trip her up; the great trunks closed together till there was barely +room to force a way between; the thorns of the creepers tore at her +flesh, and instead of the beautiful orchids there came on the trees +huge funguses red as blood. And the small soft voices began again; +they had caught her up; the forest was full of the same little sounds +which she had heard before, whispering and chuckling and fingering her +dress. And then, just as it seemed impossible to fight a way farther +through the dense jungle, she came to the open glade. Full of grass +and flowers and sunshine it was, and across it ran a gurgling brook, +crossed by a little plank bridge; a sweet breeze moved the grass, and +beyond the brook two little spotted deer were feeding; far in the +distance were tiny peaks of snow. The soft fingers were all tugging at +Fiona's dress, impelling her down the glade; but she had had ample +warning of those soft fingers, and she saw that the feather pointed +straight on through the tangled forest. And even as she moved she saw +that the little bridge was the back of a great water-python; and the +fingers loosed their hold of her dress, and the air was full of soft +whisperings and laughter. And she walked straight on into the tangled +thicket before her; and the forest parted to right and left, and she +walked out. + +She was in a fair country of green grass and temperate airs, where the +path lay true and straight before her through vineyards and groves of +oranges. Here and there a cherry tree swung its crown of white blossom +above her head, or a cypress stood up tall and straight as a sentinel +on duty. Purple flags bloomed under the rocks, and on a clump of brown +orchises sat two little jewelled butterflies, burnished green as old +copper; up the path of the sunlight came a swallowtail with its +stately glancing flight. Everything spoke to her here of fair peace +and security; and when she heard the air still rustling with little +soft sounds and chuckles, and knew that they had followed her, she +began to wonder how it was that, now that she knew their ways, they +should think it worth while. And they were becoming most active. The +soft sounds brushed all round her; the soft fingers grasped her arms; +tiny weightless bodies behind her seemed to be impelling her forward. + +And then before her she saw the inevitable two paths: the broad flat +path that passed through a fair orchard of lemon trees, where the +sunlight threw chequers on to the grass beneath, starred with scarlet +and purple anemones; and the narrow stony track, terribly steep, which +toiled away up the bare hillside in heat radiated from the rocks. +Never had the soft sounds been so insistent; a myriad gentle hands +were trying to steer her, even to push her by force, toward the lemon +trees. She saw the folly of them so very clearly; and her foot was +actually raised to take the first step up the hill path, when she felt +the feather turn of itself in her hand, and she became ice from head +to foot as she realized that she had all but destroyed herself by +despising her opponents. They had striven this time to force her into +the _true_ path, believing that she would certainly take the opposite +one. + +She saw now the end of the fatal hill path, the sudden crumbling +precipice which flung men on to pointed rocks far below; and the air +behind her became full of woe, voiceless wailings and silent howls of +rage, and she saw what she had fought against; a troop of small +formless black things, like immature bats, with pale fingers, that +fled moaning down the path of the sunlight. She knew now that they +would not vex her again. + +She passed on through the lemon orchard, and out on to a bare +hillside, rough with stones and dotted here and there with great oak +trees; plants of asphodel were thrusting their blossoms up among the +coarse tufts of grass, and far below, in all its laughing splendor, +lay the sea. And as she turned the shoulder of the hill she saw the +temple, a fair Doric temple of gray marble, standing in lonely beauty +among the scattered oak trees. Its metopes were carved with the +figures of gods and heroes of an older day, and round it ran a frieze +of warriors who fought with Amazon women. The singing was just over, +it seemed; and the double choir of white-robed girls, who had been +giving strophe and antistrophe of some festival ode, had broken into +groups, these playing at ball, those reclining in the shade or +strolling about with their arms round each other's waists. In her +chair in the cool portico sat the fair-faced matronly priestess, still +crowned with red roses, and before her two little boys poured wine +into a crystal goblet. And as she saw Fiona she rose from her chair +and greeted her by name, calling her happy that she had now come +safely through the path of danger and that her troubles were ended. + +"Come here to us," she said, "and rest, for it is but a little way now +that you must go, and there is ample time; slake your thirst at this +crystal goblet, and lie awhile in the shade, while these maidens crown +you with flowers." + +But Fiona had learnt her lesson, and she looked at her feather; and +the feather pointed straight along the hillside. So she passed on +without a look or a word; and as she passed came a noise as of the +earth opening; and the pillars of the temple bowed themselves, and the +middle of the building collapsed stone by stone, till only the outer +columns remained among a mass of fallen blocks, and triglyph and +metope and sculptured frieze lay in fragments about them. And among +the ruins a red fox with two cubs sat and snarled, as she watched a +company of toads crawling in the dust; and of that fair scene all that +had not changed was the pallid asphodel, the asphodel whose home is in +those other meadows where walk the pallid dead. + +And as Fiona passed on, the hillside itself dissolved in mist, and +there before her lay the fairy grove. And the guardian of the grove, +with white beard sweeping the ground, and old trembling hands, came +out to meet her. And she showed him her feather, and from his belt he +drew out and held up its fellow; and she knew that the path of danger +was over. + +"No one has come through by the way you have come for more years than +my old memory can follow," he said. "They always fail at the lemon +orchard. How did you escape?" + +And Fiona told him how the feather had turned in her hand of itself. + +The old man bowed almost to the ground. + +"That was the direct grace of the King," he said. "You must be a +person of the greatest consequence." + +And when Fiona said, "I am just an ordinary girl," he again bowed low +and said: "Young lady, I take leave to doubt it." + +Then he gave Fiona her directions for finding the King, and warned her +that she must not loiter in the fairy grove, for the fairies were +already gathering for All Hallows E'en. + +So Fiona walked swiftly through the grove, not seeing one half of its +beauties, though she would have loved to have lingered among the +trees. For in the grove grew every tree and plant famous in legend or +in history, of which not the tenth part can be told here. There was +the Norse ash, whose roots bind together the framework of the earth; +there the Irish hazel, of whose nuts could a man but taste he would +know all knowledge and all wisdom; there the African pomegranate, but +for whose sweetness the Corn-spirit would have disdained to stay +beneath the earth, and the race of men would have perished. There +stood Deborah's terebinth and Diotima's plane, and the Bô-tree beneath +whose branches Gautama Buddha sought and found the path of +Enlightenment. There grew the paper-reeds of Egypt, the repository +through many centuries of a whole world's learning, the paper-reeds +that grow no longer in their old home, even as the prophet Isaiah +foretold; and there the clove, for whose perfumed pistils great +nations had warred together and brave men died under torture. There +stood the English trees, the oak and the white acacia, which had built +the three-deckers for the greatest sea captain the world has seen. +There was that great traveller, the mulberry, which had left its home +on the Yangtse to follow the old Silk Route across Asia; which had +crossed the stony Gobi, where wild camels run and the Djinn light +their lamps at night to decoy travellers; which had seen the Khotan +girls wading knee-deep in the Khotan River, searching for the previous +white jade which should make gods for China, as erstwhile for Nineveh +and Troy; which had skirted the wandering lake of Lop-nor, and had +tarried awhile in old dead cities, now buried under the sands of the +dreaded Taklamakan; which had seen the turquoise mines of Khorassan, +and voyaged on the broad Oxus stream, till from Iran its way lay clear +to the west. There grew the cedars of the Atlas, which had aided their +great mountain to support the sky, and had sailed south with Hanno to +the Guinea Gulf, to bring home those gorilla hides which lay on the +altar of Melcarth at Carthage; and there the most famous of all the +trees of the forest, the proud cedars of Lebanon, which had once +exulted with their voices over the fall of the king of Assyria, which +had built for Solomon his temple and his house for the daughter of +Pharaoh, and which had given to the princes of Tyre the ships in +which, greatly daring, they had ranged the three seas, bringing home +the gold of India and the silver of Spain and the tin of Cornwall, the +wealth of the east and the west, myrrh and frankincense and purple +dye, ivory and apes and peacocks. And last of all was the twisted gray +olive, beloved of gray-eyed Pallas Athene, the symbol of all that +raises man above the savage, the tree in whose train, as it moved out +from its home in Asia, had grown up all the civilizations that ringed +the Mediterranean. + +So Fiona passed through the grove and came out on a broad place of +grass, and right before her stood the fairy ring. But not such a one +as the ring on Glenollisdal which she knew. This ring was of vast +size, and round it grew in a circle huge red toadstools splotched with +white, the red toadstools from which the witches of Lapland had used +to brew philtres of love and death. But vast as it was, it could not +hold all the creatures that swarmed round it. It was a gathering such +as Fiona had never dreamt of. On the outskirts stood an innumerable +host of little strange beings, of every sort and shape, elves and +brownies, gnomes and pixies, trolls and kobolds, goblins and +leprechauns; and the babel of them as they whispered together was like +the noise of a flock of fieldfares. And within them and around the +ring itself stood the fairies. + +All the lost peoples and nations and languages, it seemed, were there +in miniature; everyone that Fiona had ever heard her father speak of, +and many another of which even he knew nothing. There were fairies of +the Old Stone peoples, brave-eyed, clad in pelts of the saber-tooth, +bearing the blade-bones of bisons on which were carved pictures of the +mammoth and the reindeer. Fairies from Egypt, clad in fine white linen +with girdles of topaz and aquamarine, with fillets round their brows +from which the golden uræus lifted its snake's head, bearing blossoms +of the blue lotus. Fairies from Babylon, glowing in coats of scarlet +or of many colors, their eyes deep with immemorial learning, bearing +clay tablets on which were signs like the footprints of birds. Fairies +from Crete, light of foot in the dance, in flounced skirts adorned +with golden butterflies, crowned with yellow crocuses and bearing +vases on which were painted the creatures of the sea, nautilus and +flying fish and polyp. Fairies of the Iberians, black-haired and +black-eyed, clad in black cloaks, small and shy and dusty, bearing +ingots of tin. Fairies from Cappadocia, in peaked shoes, and pelisses +of lion's skin trimmed with the fur of hares, moving to the clash of +cymbals, bearing grapes and ears of corn. Fairies from Mexico, with +heavy cheek bones, resplendent in mantles woven of the plumage of the +quetzal bird, carrying bricks of gold. Fairies from Ethiopia, black as +the black diamond, clad in leopard skins and plumed with the feathers +of ostriches, carrying tusks of ivory. Fairies from the land of Sheba, +well skilled in riddles, in cloaks of camel's hair buckled with clasps +of onyx, bearing caskets of agate filled with spices. Buddhist fairies +of the Naga race, with the sevenfold cobra's hood springing from their +shoulders and shadowing them, languorous and heavy-eyed, carrying +crimson water lilies. Fairies from Cambodia, in stiff dresses of cloth +of gold, with gilded faces and scarlet eyebrows, bearing pagoda bells +which tinkled. Fairies of the Golden Horde, bandy-legged, with pug +noses and slits of eyes, clad in dyed sheepskins and carrying the +tails of horses. Fairies of the Picts, tattooed to the eyelids, their +plaids dyed with crotal and the root of the yellow iris, wearing +badges of mountain fern or bog-myrtle and bearing jars of heather ale. +Fairies of Britain, in deerskin cloaks fastened with brooches of +enamel, with golden torques circling their throats, bearing sprays of +mistletoe. Fairies of the Tuatha-dé, with all the youth of the world +in their eyes, clad in robes of saffron, crowned with rowans and +bearing harps. Fairies from Greece, erect and lissom, beautiful as a +sculptor's dream, crowned with wild olive and bearing each the roll of +a book. Fairies of old England, in Lincoln green, with feathers of the +gray goose in their caps, bearing bows of yew and branches of the may. +Fairies from Baghdad, radiant as visions of the night-time, their +turbans and their crooked scimitars jewelled with rubies of Badakshan, +bearing magic lamps. Fairies from Quinsay, dainty as porcelain, their +silken robes embroidered with blossoms of the almond and the peach +tree, bearing jars of coral lac wrought in the likeness of dragons, +and on their heads the poppy flowers that bring sleep. + +And in the middle of the ring stood a throne carved out of a single +beryl, green as the sea; and on the throne sat the King of the +Fairies, with eyes bright as the dawn and deep as the sea caves, in a +cloak of Tyrian purple with clasps of amethyst. His crown and sceptre +were of white gold, white gold which has long since perished out of +the upper world, and in the end of his sceptre was set a double +pentacle of clear crystal brought from the Island of Desire. And in +the beryl throne, if he looked at it through the crystal, were shown +to him the reflections of all things that he might wish to see. If he +looked directly, he saw all that had happened in the world in the +past; and if he reversed the crystal, he saw all that should happen in +the future; but if he held the pentacle edgewise, then he saw the +present, which no man ever sees, and was the greatest magic of all. +Round the throne stood his guards, black as Moors, in jackets and +trousers of emerald green clasped with orange zircons; half of them +bore trumpets of silver, and half of them carried spears with heads of +green obsidian as sharp as steel. And on either side of the throne, on +a stool, sat a strange creature, a little wizened elf with a large +book on his knee. One wore a white cap, and he bore an inkhorn and a +bundle of long quills; the other wore a black cap, and he bore a +penknife. + +Fiona edged herself as far forward as she could into the ring of +strange beings, and found herself next an old Leprechaun with a face +like a wrinkled apple, who seemed quite inclined to be friendly. + +"A human!" he said. "We do not see as many as we used to. But they say +there are two to be tried to-night. As you see, we have attempted +something out of the ordinary in the way of a welcome." And he waved +his arm proudly round the enormous assembly. "Had far to come?" he +asked. + +Fiona told him how long it had taken her. + +"That's nothing," he said. "There are people here to-night who, as +soon as the dance is over, will start travelling as fast as they can, +and will only just arrive in time for next year's meeting. Good for +the shoemaking trade!" + +"Where do they try the prisoners?" she asked him. + +"Here, in the ring," said the Leprechaun. "The King tries them. +There's the Public Prosecutor," and he pointed to a fairy of pompous +aspect, with a hooked nose and a Roman toga, and a roll under his arm. +"He's a terrible fellow. And there's the King's Remembrancer, those +two with the books." + +"Why are there two?" asked Fiona. + +"One to remember and one to forget, of course, stupid," said the +Leprechaun. "Whereever were you educated? Do you think kings want to +remember _everything_?" + +"It must be very easy forgetting," said Fiona. + +"Hardest job in Fairyland," said the Leprechaun. "I suppose you know +lots of people with perfect memories; but you never knew one with a +perfect forgetfulness, eh? Whitecap there only has to write his book +up; but poor Blackcap--he's the one that forgets--his book is written +up to start with, and he has to get the pages clean again with his +penknife. He never gets them _quite_ clean. They say he has nightmare +every night over the things he can't forget altogether." + +The King had been talking to one of the officers of his guard. He now +rose and held out his sceptre, and there was a great silence round the +Fairy ring. + +"Before we dance to-night," he said, "we have, as you know, to try two +prisoners." He turned to the officer of the guard, and said, "Let them +be produced." + +The officer at once produced the Urchin from nowhere in particular, as +a conjurer produces half-crowns. The boy looked rather large among the +Little People, but otherwise he was much as Fiona had last seen him; +his shirt and knickerbockers were covered with earthstains and he +still had the same length of useless rope coiled round his waist. + +But Jeconiah? Was this the prosperous financier, this wretched apology +for a living being which the officer held out on the palm of his hand? +Not two inches high, its white waistcoat hanging in loose flaps, +speechless, and wide-eyed with terror and abject entreaty, it was like +the ghost of a parody; the officer had to set it on one of the great +toadstools, and mark the place with a stick, lest it should be lost. +The King regarded it with interest. + +"I understood that the elder prisoner was a very stout man," he said. + +"That was so, your Majesty," said the officer. "He was so stout that +we thought it useless to attempt to take him through the doorway as he +was, so we left his body behind and only brought away the essential +part of him. This is all that there really is of him, sire; the rest +was wind. When we began to sift him we were afraid that he had no +real existence at all, and that there would be nothing to bring +before you." + +"Well, well," said the King, "there's enough of him to be tried, +anyhow. Are the prisoners provided with counsel?" + +The Public Prosecutor was understood to say that they were not yet +represented. + +"Counsel had better be assigned them in the usual way," said the King. +"Catch, somebody." + +He took a guinea from his pocket and flung it, apparently without +looking, into the crowd. But thick as the crowd was, the guinea passed +straight through the forest of hands held out for it, and fell into a +tiny brown hand behind them. Fiona knew where she had seen that hand +before. + +The owner of the hand at once stepped forward into the ring. He seemed +to be the most singular being in Fairyland. Fiona's first impression +was that he was just a large bald head, the color of parchment and +wrinkled all over; and this impression remained, even when she +realized that he did possess a small body, with the usual allowance of +arms and legs. Out of his great head looked a pair of quite +incongruous eyes, bright as beads, and full of happy drollery. Behind +him came a couple of stout goblins, each laden with dusty law books. +They piled the books up in a stack on the ground, and the singular +creature with the head proceeded to climb to the top of the stack, +where he sat down, cracking his fingers and laughing hugely at some +jest of his own, evidently on the best of terms both with himself and +his audience. Then he caught Fiona's eye, and deliberately winked at +her; but somehow it carried no offence, for the creature seemed +absolutely free from malice. + +"Privilege honorable profession defend oppressed," he remarked; "duty +clients submit large number points," and he patted the books he sat +on. He had a habit of clipping his words as he spoke which was totally +destructive of the smaller parts of speech, and made his remarks +sound like a series of unedited cablegrams. + +"We will take the younger prisoner first," announced the King; +whereupon the Public Prosecutor proceeded to read, all in one breath, +the indictment against the Urchin, to the effect that he did on or +about the 20th day of September then last past in despite of the peace +of the realm and the safety of the lieges with a stone or some other +missile or thing throw at and break the wing of or otherwise hit, cut, +hurt, maim, destroy and do wrong to one of the said lieges, to wit, a +shore lark, and so forth. When he had finished, instead of evidence +being taken, the King merely glanced into the beryl throne. + +"True in fact," he said. "Any defence?" + +The creature on the bookstack began at once. + +"Please Majesty duty client submit series points. First point no +intention." + +But Fiona did not wait to hear what it had to say. Forcing her way +into the ring, she said: + +"Please, your Majesty, it was my fault. I told him he couldn't." + +The King turned to look at her. + +"So this is the young lady," he said. "Very good of you to come, you +know. We rarely receive visitors now. We shall try to make you welcome +when the trial is over." He turned again to the bookstack, and said: +"I will hear the defence." + +"It was my fault, your Majesty," said Fiona again. + +With grave patience the King started to explain to her. + +"Your part of it was your fault, of course. But we are not trying you, +for you have come here of your own free will, so we can neither try +nor punish. But his part of it was equally his own fault, and unless +there is a good defence he will have to be punished." + +The creature on the bookstack was nodding and signing to Fiona, but +she was too engrossed with a single thought to notice him. + +"Then I claim my wish, your Majesty," she said. + +"Quite in order," said the King. "The trial will be suspended while +the young lady wishes. Officer!" + +And immediately the fairy ring was strewn with a strange collection of +objects, looking rather like the contents of an old curiosity shop +that had gone bankrupt. The officer held them up one by one for Fiona +to see. + +"When we heard you were coming," said the King, "we collected a few +little things for your inspection. It is so long since we had any use +for any of them that many of them seem to have developed serious +defects, which we regret; but they are the best we could find at short +notice. This," he pointed to an old ring, "is a common wishing ring. +It used to do all the usual things. The genie attached to it has +unfortunately become very deaf with age; but if you can make him hear, +we believe he is still in fair working order. This," as a frayed +girdle was held up, "is the famous cestus of Aphrodite, which she +lent to Helen of Troy. Its wearer used to become the most beautiful +and unpopular creature in the world. It will still confer beauty, +though hardly suited to the modern style; the unpopularity we +guarantee. This," pointing to a huge book, "contains the truth of that +which in your world passes as knowledge. It would delight your father. +He might publish selected chapters, and watch the critics cut them to +pieces. This," as a battered trumpet was exhibited, "is Fame. Your +praises would be sung all over the world; and the world would say, +'Never mind what she has _achieved_; tell us about her faults.' This," +and he contemplated an old iron sceptre, "is Power. You would become a +great ruler, and would probably die in exile. And under this," and he +pointed to a sheet of black velvet, thrown loosely over some object, +"under this is the treasure of the Isle of Mist, which I am told that +you have heard of. Do any of these please you? If not, we have +others." + +Fiona never thought about it for a moment, of course. She had not done +all that she had done to hesitate now. She did not look at the King's +face, and she took not the least notice of the creature with the head, +who was dancing about in a perfect agony, trying to attract her +attention. + +"Please your Majesty," she said in breathless haste, "I came here to +find the Urchin and take him home with me. That is my wish." + +She had hardly spoken the words when her instinct told her something +was wrong. A sort of chill seemed to run through the air, and the +color seemed to go out of the fairy world. The creature with the head +stopped dancing about and began to wring its little hands. She looked +up at the King's face, and read there, was it disappointment? was it +regret? She hardly knew. + +"A very natural and proper wish," said the King gravely. "We shall of +course accept it as such, and grant it with great pleasure. The +younger prisoner is discharged. Take the next case." + +And then Fiona saw. She saw the thing which had once been Jeconiah, +with that look of abject terror and entreaty in its eyes; and she +realized that it would have meant nothing to her to have included +Jeconiah in her wish, and that for Jeconiah it would have meant +everything. And she realized also that, worthless and evil as he had +been in life, selfish, mean, a thief and a liar, he was still a human +being, and had a soul and possibilities of which the fairy world could +know nothing. She felt a wave of humiliation pass over her; and she +resolved that, whatever he was, and whatever happened, she would not +go home without Jeconiah. + +The charges against Jeconiah were then read: stealing a treasure, and +being a worthless character. + +"Any defence?" said the King. + +The creature with the head got to work. + +"Please Majesty," he said, "admit second count. Character worthless. +Object pity however not vindictive punishment. Behalf client offer +submit State cure. First count plead not guilty; intention steal +treasure admitted but did not succeed." + +Fiona, in her new-found humility, had been listening to what the +creature with the head was saying. And suddenly it dawned on her that, +all through, both he and the King had been trying to help her, so far +as was consistent with their own rules; and that perhaps the creature +with the head, for all his oddity, knew what he was doing. She asked +the Leprechaun who he was. + +"You might have asked that with advantage before you interrupted him," +said the Leprechaun severely. "He is our Chancellor here. He is the +King's most intimate friend, and far the ablest lawyer in Fairyland." + +"Defence to first count not admitted," the King was saying. "Your +client cannot plead his own bungling of the theft in mitigation of his +wrongdoing. Only the intention counts here." + +The Chancellor looked immensely relieved at the King's words, though +it passed Fiona's wit to see why. + +"Apply formal ruling," he said. "Take down," this to Whitecap. + +"I hold that nothing counts here but the intention," said the King. + +"Majesty pleases," said the Chancellor. "Settles point. Retire defence +this prisoner. Submit excellent point younger client." + +"We will pass sentence here first," said the King. "Jeconiah P. +Johnson, your counsel has very properly thrown up his brief. You are +convicted of stealing a treasure, and it is admitted that you are a +worthless character. On the first count, I sentence you to be handed +over to the executioner to be extended until you become a proper size. +If you survive, you will then undergo, as offered by your counsel, the +State cure at the hands of the State hypnotizer." He turned to the +Chancellor. "Any further submission?" + +Fiona had gone over to the stack of books, and bent down over the +little creature with the head. + +"I have made a most terrible mistake," she said, in a low voice. "I +have spoilt everything. I see that you are kind; can you help us?" + +"Should have come me first," said the creature, quite gently. "Tried +attract attention. Never neglect anyone merely because odd and ugly. +May have good heart. Sad mess now; but think see daylight. Any +influence that boy?" + +"Oh, yes," said Fiona eagerly. + +"Right," said the creature. "Make boy wish. Now follow my argument." +And he turned to the King. + +"Please Majesty submit good point. Majesty just ruled nothing counts +here but intention. Younger prisoner no intention hurt shore lark; +therefore on Majesty's ruling same as if did not hurt it. Therefore +never was guilty. Human prisoner adjudged not guilty is just same as +if came here own free will; so held Majesty's father"; and by some +extraordinary trick he got the top book open and flopped down among +the leaves, from which position he read out bits of an ancient +judgment. "Consequently younger prisoner both entitled and bound +wish." + +The King consulted Whitecap. + +"It seems a sound chain of reasoning," he said. Then he turned to the +Public Prosecutor. "Have you anything to urge against it?" + +"Only that, if he wishes wrong, we can't detain him, because of the +young lady's wish," said that official. + +"Daniel come judgment," cried the Chancellor triumphantly. "Heads win, +tails can't lose. Younger prisoner wish." + +He turned to Fiona and whispered to her, "Mind he wishes right." + +Fiona started to go over to the Urchin; instantly the guard crossed +their spears before her. + +"No interference allowed with anyone who is going to wish," said the +officer. + +Then she tried to call to him, and found that she could not speak. It +was like a nightmare. She looked helplessly at the Chancellor; he +nodded, and spelt on his fingers the word "think." + +Then Fiona understood what he had meant by asking her if she had any +influence over the Urchin. She knew that she had a good deal; and bits +of conversations with her father came back into her mind. She had made +one bad blunder, and she had to correct it as best she could; and +without more ado she concentrated her whole mind on taking possession +of the mind of the Urchin. Could it be done at all? And if so could it +be done in time? + +The King stretched out his sceptre, and there was silence. + +"The younger prisoner is going to wish," said the King. "Officer!" + +And immediately there appeared in the middle of the ring six great +boxes, old sea chests made of Spanish chestnut, battered and stained +and clamped with bands of iron; and on each was the picture, half +obliterated by time and salt water, of the Madonna of the Holy Cross. +The officer flung back the lids, and showed each chest full to the +brim of glittering golden doubloons. + +"That is the treasure from the Venetian galleon which you were +seeking," said the King. "We removed it long ago into our safe +custody, lest it should tempt men; but it would seem that it tempts +them none the less. Now wish." + +The Urchin, his eyes bulging out of his head, stared at the shining +gold. He murmured "gun," but fortunately so low that the King did not +hear him. + +Fiona kept her eyes fixed hard on the boy, and bent every effort of +mind and will to the one thought, that he must wish as she wished. If +only he would turn round. She had already lost sight of the fairies; +she now lost sight of the King; she was conscious only of the abject +wretched creature that was Jeconiah, and of the back of the Urchin's +head. He was still staring at the gold, but he had not yet spoken; +that was to the good, and--no, it was not fancy--his ears were turning +pink, as they always did when he was in a difficulty. Then he began to +shuffle his feet uneasily. Fiona felt that every atom of life and +force in her was being concentrated on that one act of will; she did +not think she could go through with it many seconds longer, or she +would collapse. And then the Urchin turned his head toward her; his +face was scarlet, and his eyes were wavering before the fixed gaze of +her own; he _must_ do as she wished. She flung everything into one +supreme effort--the last reserves which no one thinks they possess +till utter necessity teaches them the contrary; and then the Urchin +spoke, in a strange voice and all in one breath: + +"I want my uncle to go free." + +Fiona's will let go with a snap; she felt so dizzy that she had to +lean against one of the great toadstools or she would have fallen. +Round the assemblage ran a sound like the wind through the tree tops, +the noise of thousands drawing in breath at once; and the Chancellor +started a war dance on his stack of books, and nearly fell off on his +head. The King rose from his throne, but he took no notice of the +Urchin; he turned straight to Fiona and bowed to her. + +"My compliments, young lady," he said; "the prettiest piece of +thought-transference it has ever been our privilege to see. Where did +you learn to do it?" + +"I never learnt," stammered Fiona. "I made a great mistake, as your +Majesty saw, and something had to be done, and your friend suggested +this way." + +"You needn't mind having made a mistake," said the King. "If you don't +make mistakes sometimes you'll never make anything else. And you have +made something else this time with a vengeance. As for you, sirrah +. . ." and he shook his fist at the Chancellor. + +The creature snapped all its fingers in reply. + +"Majesty pleases," it began triumphantly. "Duty younger client submit +new point arising young lady's action. Client entitled wish. Did not +wish himself; young lady wished. Therefore client still entitled wish. +Propose develop point considerable length with authorities." + +The King raised his hand. + +"I think I shall have to intervene," he said. "I believe you would +submit points till cockcrow." + +"Submit points till next year, if Majesty pleases," said the creature, +gleefully. + +"If these proceedings don't end soon," said the King, "there will be +no time to dance; and if we didn't dance no one knows what would +happen to the world above. Even I don't know that. So as we do not +generally have three human beings here at once, and as substantial +justice has been done, I propose now to exercise the royal prerogative +of generosity. Jeconiah P. Johnson, you will, as requested, go free, +so far as we can set you free. We cannot set you free from your own +worthless character. In order, however, to do the best for you that +can be done, before you leave us the State hypnotizer will take you in +hand and instil into you a few decent feelings. He won't hurt you, and +you won't remember. The effect, I fear, will not be permanent, but it +will ease our conscience. And as a sign to the world above that we +have treated you liberally, you will find that you will be unable to +attend to business until you have told your nephew a fairy tale. +Urchin! A doubt exists as to whether you have had your wish or not. +You shall have the benefit of the doubt, so far as is good for you. +You will find that you will get your gun." + +And then the King turned to Fiona. + +"Young lady," he said, "you have given us a display of courage which +we are not likely to forget. You have rescued your friend; you have, +which is much more to the point, rescued your enemy. You have got +_two_ wishes out of us, which no one ever did before; and you have +asked nothing for yourself. And now what are we to do for you?" + +"I think I have everything I want, now, thank your Majesty," said +Fiona. + +"Did we not hear talk of a treasure?" said the King. + +"Yes," said Fiona; "but--I was not thinking about a treasure, your +Majesty." + +"I know," said the King. "But I was; all the time." + +"I must leave it all in your Majesty's hands," said Fiona. + +"It is not here," said the King. "What you saw was only a pretence. +And we cannot send for it to-night. But if you will honor us sometime +by returning to our kingdom, we will see what can be done in memory of +your visit. Any time you like. And by the front door, please. You will +run no risks that way." + +"And now," said the King, stretching out his sceptre over the great +throng, "we will dance." He turned to Fiona and the Urchin. "It will +be a little while before Mr. Johnson is ready to accompany you home," +he said. "Perhaps you will honor us meanwhile by attending the dance +also." + +So the fairies danced before the King; and the fairy ring whirled and +blazed with the color of them, till it was gayer than a gorse-bank in +blossom, and brighter than a swarm of dragon-flies on a June +grass-field, and more vivid than a fall of shooting stars; and the +music that they made was wilder than the wind in the strings of a +harp, and sweeter than the blackbird's song, and dearer than all the +burns on the moor murmuring in unison. And the two children sat at the +King's feet on the steps of the beryl throne and watched the dancers; +and the Chancellor sat between them, and held Fiona's hand, and told +them such stories as they had never heard before, till between +laughter and tears they nearly fell off the steps of the throne, and +the Chancellor laughed and cried with them for sheer joy in his own +story-telling; and if there were three happier people in the world +that night I do not know where they were. And the night itself passed +away as a dream that men dream, and its hours seemed to them but as a +few minutes--and then across the music and the dance cut the shrill +harsh scream of a peacock as he greeted the day. The children saw the +King rise from his throne and stretch his sceptre out over the ring; +and the ring and the dancers were shrouded in a white mist which rose +from the ground and wreathed its arms about them; and the beryl throne +dissolved in mist, and the figure of the King above them, pointing, +grew dim and huge, and spread and grew, a purple shadow that hung over +them, . . . and they were standing alone in the fairy ring on +Glenollisdal, under the purple sky, with the white mist wreathing +itself about their feet, and the pale November dawn coming slowly up +out of the sea. + +Did the Urchin fling himself on the grass at Fiona's feet and thank +her in broken accents for all she had done for him? I regret to state +that the first thing which the Urchin did was to feel in his pocket +and draw out the doubloon which he had found in the cave. + +"I've got this one, anyhow, Fiona," he said. "But I wonder how I'm +going to get that gun." + +Then something seemed to prick him; he began to look uncomfortable and +shuffle his feet, while his ears turned pink; and at last he managed +to blurt out: + +"I say, Fiona, it was jolly decent of you, you know." + +Fiona only smiled, the wise smile of perfect understanding. + + * * * * * + +That morning the doctor was hastily summoned with the news that +Jeconiah was awake. The nurse met him in the passage, wide-eyed and +rather frightened. + +"He's so strange," she said. + +"Tut, tut," said the doctor; "told you he might wake like that. Kind +of change in personality? Just so. Often happens. Seldom permanent +though. What's he done?" + +"Well, doctor, of course we all know Mr. Johnson's reputation," said +the nurse. "He's thanked me three times, and hoped I didn't tire +myself; and he had all the servants up and said he'd see their wages +were raised, and the cook gave notice on the spot because she said she +didn't like practical jokes; and he says he wants to go out and gather +buttercups and daisies, and play with the little frogs; and he's sent +for some old gun that he says he's got to buy for his nephew; and he +hasn't opened any of the telegrams that have been waiting for him; he +says he mayn't attend to business till he has learnt a fairy tale, and +he's had the library ransacked, and he's tearing his hair because +there's no such thing in it." + +"Oh, well," said the doctor, "we must just have patience, nurse. I +expected something of the sort. Just humor him; if you can't find a +fairy tale, try him with a history book; he'll never know the +difference; and I'll send him up a nice soothing mixture. Very +interesting case; ve-ry interesting." + +And the doctor, calling up his best professional smile, bustled into +Jeconiah's room. + + * * * * * + +It was the same afternoon, a still afternoon of Indian summer, that +the old hawker, accompanied again by the black terrier, was going down +the shore road. He must have had business at the cottage on the beach. +But his business was probably not urgent; for he stopped to watch with +interest a group on the shore. It consisted of Jeconiah and the +Urchin, and they sat on the little patch of sand at the mouth of the +burn. The Urchin had across his knees the rusty old gun bought for him +by Jeconiah, who had nevertheless exacted the doubloon from him in +exchange. He fingered the gun lovingly, while he gazed with +undisguised impatience at the proceedings of his uncle. Jeconiah's +coat lay on the grounds beside a sheaf of unopened telegrams, and he +was putting the finishing touches to a noble castle of sand; its +drawbridge was supported by his double watch chain, and its turrets +bore a suspicious resemblance in contour to the inside of his hat. He +patted his work and gazed at it with pride. + +"Fine, isn't it?" he said. + +"You'd better hurry up with that fairy tale," said the boy. "If you've +got to, you've got to, you know; and you won't keep me much once I get +some cartridges." + +Jeconiah began to look alarmed. + +"But I haven't found one yet," he said, and glanced anxiously at the +pile of telegrams. + +"Make one up, then," said the boy. "Anybody can do it." + +Thus adjured, Jeconiah started. + +"Once upon a time there was a very grizzly old bear, and he lived in a +beautiful place called Capel Court, and he used to hunt the wild bulls +and the stags and the poor little guinea pigs that abounded in that +salubrious locality. And there were two young ladies there, called +Cora and Dora. . . ." + +"Are those the princesses?" asked the boy. + +"No, I think not," said Jeconiah. "They were of quite ordinary stock. +Well, the old bear thought they were too high and mighty, and that he +would like to take them down a point or two. . . ." + +"Oh, this won't do," said the Urchin rudely. "This isn't a _real_ +fairy tale at all. You must do something better than that." + +The wretched Jeconiah groaned, and looked again at his telegrams. Then +he started afresh. + +"Once upon a time there was a great dragon with seven heads, and he +ate seven princesses every day for dinner. . . ." + +"That's better," said the boy, encouragingly, as he settled himself to +listen. + +The old hawker resumed his walk. + +"They haven't made a very good job of him, after all," he remarked +aloud, apparently to the terrier. "But I expect that sort is +incurable." + +Was it a flicker of sunlight? Or did the black terrier really wink? + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +FIONA FINDS HER TREASURE + + +And Fiona? + +Fiona sat on the hearthrug in the bookroom, and told her father the +whole story from beginning to end, as it has been told here. And +sometimes he asked a question, and sometimes he said, "Yes, that would +be so," and sometimes he stroked her hair and said nothing. And when +she had ended, he said, "So you never found your own treasure after +all, Fiona?" + +She said, "I suppose I can have it now, if I go back." + +"Do you think you will go back?" he asked. + +She replied with another question. + +"Have you found out what my treasure is, daddy?" + +"I believe I could guess," he answered. "But you have found a good +many things already, apart from treasure, haven't you, little +daughter?" + +She sat silent and looked into the fire. + +"I suppose I have," she said. + +"We won't enumerate them," said the Student. "It spoils things +entirely, sometimes, to put them into words. But I will tell you +something an old writer once said. He was talking of that particular +kind of treasure which men call Truth; and he said that if he were +offered Truth itself on the one hand, and the everlasting search for +it on the other hand, he would choose the search. I expect you can +understand that now; for you have seen what has happened to you over +your own search." + +"I think I can understand," said Fiona. "I must be growing older, +daddy." + +"You'll be too old soon to go back to Fairyland at all, little +daughter," said the Student. "If you are going, you will have to go at +once." + +"What do you think, daddy?" she questioned. + +"I can only tell you that, in my case, I went back," the Student +answered. + +"Why, daddy, have you been in Fairyland too?" cried Fiona. "And you +never told me." + +"Yes," said the Student. "Even a musty old scholar like myself was +young once, you know," and he looked into the fire with eyes which +seemed to see things very, very far away. "It was not quite the same +as the Fairyland you have been in, Fiona; but we called it Fairyland." + +"Can't you come back with me if I go daddy?" asked the girl. + +"I'm too old now, little daughter," he said. "For good or for bad, I +could never find the way again. I can only see it now through your +eyes. I'll come as far as the door with you, and that's all that an +old man can do. I suppose you know where the door is?" + +"I never felt there was any doubt," said Fiona. + +"Then we'll start first thing to-morrow, if it's calm enough," he +said. + +But that evening was the last of the golden autumn; and when Fiona +woke in the morning, the Isle of Mist was justifying its name. The +southwest gale was raging round the house like a live animal, seizing +it and shaking it, and wailing in the chimneys pitifully, like an +unburied ghost; and before the gale the long lead-colored rollers were +racing in from the Atlantic, smashing themselves on the crags and +shooting up heavenward in columns of spray thrice the height of the +cliffs, while the noise of the surf in the Scargill cave came booming +across the water like the roar of a battleship's guns. The hills were +all shrouded in mist, and the mist was fine salt rain that rolled in +from the sea, driving in billows over the moor and across the fields; +the gulls were tossed about in it like little bits of waste paper, and +every green thing on the island opened its heart to the rain and drank +till it could drink no more. Toward evening Fiona and the Student, in +oilskins and sou'-westers, went down to the rocks and out seaward as +far as was possible, and there stood, unable to speak for the noise. +They balanced themselves against the gusts, and felt the tingling +drops of salt spray rattle like hail off their coats, while they +watched the cliff waterfalls, unable to fall for the wind, go straight +up heavenward in clouds of smoke, and the sea foam and tear at the +rocks below; and once for a moment the cloud-mist parted, and the +hills started out, their dark sides all gashed and seamed with white +streaks where every tiny runlet and burn was rushing in spate down +toward the sea. Fiona managed to shout, with her clear young voice, +"No one can really love this island who only knows it in summer;" and +then they went home, out of the dusk and the lashing of the wet wind, +to the quiet bookroom and tea things, and lamps, and books; for man +may love Nature, but he loves still better the contrast between Nature +and the things which he has fashioned for himself. + +For three weeks the wind blew; and though there were days when the +sea-mist lifted, there was no day on which the sea was calm enough for +the launching of their small boat. Then one afternoon came change. The +warm air turned chill, and the warm rain became sleet; that night the +wind backed to the north, and next day was a blizzard of snow. And the +night after the wind fell away, and the snow ceased, and Orion and his +two dogs shone huge in a frosty sky; and Fiona woke to the glories of +a scarlet sunrise on a great field of white. + +"We must hurry, daddy," she said. "It's perfectly calm." + +"It's a pet day," said the Student, sniffing the air. "It won't last; +the wind backed too suddenly. But it's all right till sunset." + +Directly breakfast was over they launched the little boat, and +started. The snow shone white in the sunshine, and the calm sea +against the snow was as blue as a blue lotus; but the shadows on the +snow were a wonder, and the woven complexity of their colorings would +have taxed every hue on an artist's palette. So they pulled down and +into the cave, at whose mouth the great bluff looked barer and blacker +than ever against the world's whiteness; and they grounded their boat +and climbed the rock barrier. There the Student sat down and filled +and lit his pipe. + +"This is as far as I can go," he said. "If I mistake not, you will +find that they have opened the door for you." + +So Fiona went on to the recess where the Urchin had found the +doubloon, and where the torch had been smashed in her father's hand; +and the solid wall of the cliff had opened, and there was an archway +leading into the black vaulting of the long cave behind. Fiona passed +through into the darkness . . . and the darkness parted to right and +left of her, and she stood again in the fairy ring where she had stood +on All Hallows E'en. + +But how changed. Of all the bright throng of fairies that had +clustered round it, not one stood there to-day. The circle of scarlet +toadstools was broken down and shattered, as though by a great storm; +and the ring itself was no longer grass, but was covered deep in snow. +Of all the things she had seen there that evening, only one remained. +The beryl throne still stood lonely in the midst of the bare ring; and +on the throne sat the King of the Fairies. His face rested on his +hand, as though he were deep in thought; his eyes were looking at +something far away. On the steps of the throne sat the Chancellor, the +King's inseparable friend; and he, too, was deep in thought. It was a +view of the fairy world which Fiona had never expected. + +The King must have heard her step, for he rose from his throne and +came down to meet her. + +"Have you come for your treasure, Fiona?" he said. + +And she said, "I have come because you asked me to come back." + +The King held out his sceptre to her; and again the mist came up from +the ground and enwrapped the beryl throne, and the figures of the +King and the Chancellor wavered and became dim before her. _Were_ they +the King and the Chancellor? Was not what she saw, so dim through the +mist, the figures of the shepherd who had helped her on Glenollisdal +and his black collie? But the mist was wavering again about them, and +again all was a blur; and then the mist suddenly cleared, and there +was no one there at all but just the old hawker and the little terrier +which followed him. + +"So you were the King of the Fairies all the time," said Fiona. + +"All the time," said the old man gently. "We go about in the world as +you see us. And some still entertain angels unaware. Have you come for +your treasure, Fiona?" + +And this time Fiona answered, "Yes." + +"You have earned it," said the King. "And you have found much more +than any treasure. Your father has told you that?" + +And again Fiona said, "Yes." + +"I cannot really give you your treasure," said the King, "for you +have it already. I think you have had it all the time; but you did not +know. But now you have learnt." + +"What is it?" asked Fiona. "But I think I can guess now." + +"It is the spirit of the island which you love," said the King, "and +which henceforth loves you. You have spoken face to face with bird and +beast and with the beings who knew and loved the land before your race +was. To-day you have the freedom of the island, and of all living +things in it; they are your friends forever. And to the dead in its +graveyards you are kin. All that is there has passed into your blood, +the old lost loves, the old impossible loyalties, the old forgotten +heroisms and tendernesses; all these are yours; and yours are the +songs that were sung long ago, and the tales which were told by the +fireside; and the deeds of the men and women of old have become part +of you. You can walk now through the crowded city and never know it, +for the wind from the heather will be about you where you go; you can +stand in the tumult of men and never hear them, for round you will be +the silence of your own sea. That is the treasure of the Isle of Mist; +the island has given you of its soul. You have found greater things +already; you will find greater things yet again. But such as it is, it +is the best gift which we of the fairy world have to give." + +"And now," continued the King, "you will not see us again. And I will +take back the bracelet. It would be no further use to you, for you are +no longer a child. You are too old for Fairyland." + +"But my father could see you," said Fiona. + +"He could only see me as I really am through your eyes," said the +King. "It may be that some day you too will see me again through the +eyes of a child. But for the present it is farewell." + +So Fiona stooped down and stroked the little dog, who looked at her +with wistful eyes, and took her farewell of the King; and the King +raised his hand, and the mist rose again and enwrapped the fairy ring +and those in it . . . and Fiona walked out through the archway into +the cave, and there sat the Student on the rock barrier, just as she +had left him, knocking the ashes out of his pipe. And even as she came +to him there was a noise behind her, and when she looked round it was +to see the archway blocked by a great fall of rock. + +"You will not use that way again, little daughter," said the Student. + +"I shall not use any way again now, daddy," she said. "I am too old. +But oh, daddy, it has been worth it." + +Then they launched their boat and paddled slowly out of the cave, out +of the dark into daylight; and before them lay the quiet sea bathed in +the winter sun, and the Isle of Mist dreaming under its mantle of +white. + + +THE END. + + + + +_A Selection from the +Catalogue of_ + +G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS + +[Illustration] + +Complete Catalogues sent +on application + + + + +THE MOON POOL + +BY A. MERRITT + +Romance, real romance, and wonderful adventure,--absolutely +impossible, yet utterly probable! A story one almost regrets having +read, since one can then no longer read it for the first time. Once in +the proverbial blue moon there comes to the fore an author who can +conceive and write such a tale. Here is one! + +Few indeed will forget, who, with the Professor, watch the mystic +approach of the Shining One down the moon path,--who follow with him +and the others the path below the Moon Pool, beyond the Door of the +Seven Lights;--and would there were more characters in fiction like +Lakla the lovely and Larry O'Keefe the lovable. + +Perhaps you readers will know who were those weird and awe-inspiring +Silent Ones. + + +G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS +NEW YORK LONDON + + + + +Visions and Beliefs in +the West of Ireland + +By Lady Gregory + +With Two Essays and Notes by W. B. Yeats +_Two Volumes. 12º_ + + +To those who have felt the haunting charm that inheres in the Celtic +consciousness of an imminent supernaturalism, this collection of Irish +fancy, belief, and folk-lore, gathered from the lips of the people +with patient and reverent care, will have particular value. It has +interest as an exceptionally thorough and representative study of +psychic sensitiveness in Ireland, and the slightness of the barrier +between worlds seen and unseen. + + +G. P. Putnam's Sons +New York London + + + + + +The Substance +of a Dream + +By F. W. Bain + + +"In this new and wholly charming Hindu story a very old world speaks +to us, but one that has not lost its childhood with age and +sophistication. It is a world of innocent voluptuousness where passion +is not contrary to faith but is itself faith. + +"Mr. Bain's people have character, as there are colors in moonlight, a +character with a common beauty in all its diversities; and because of +its utter and inner harmony, this creation of his has a very rare +beauty." + + +G. P. Putnam's Sons +New York London + + + + +Transcriber's Note: The following typographical errors present in the +original edition have been corrected. + +In Chapter II, a quotation mark was deleted after "the love of worms +was the root of all evil". + +In Chapter III, a quotation mark was added after "if you could wait a +few minutes . . .". + +In Chapter IV, _said Fiona," and you wriggle so."_ was changed to +_said Fiona, "and you wriggle so."_, and _"Urchin," she shouted; +"Urchin.'_ was changed to _"Urchin," she shouted; "Urchin."_ + +In Chapter V, quotation marks were added after "Go up a hill." and +"the true cave at all." + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Treasure of the Isle of Mist, by W. W. 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W. Tarn + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Treasure of the Isle of Mist + +Author: W. W. Tarn + +Release Date: November 23, 2010 [EBook #34410] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE TREASURE OF THE ISLE OF MIST *** + + + + +Produced by Steven desJardins and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 329px;"> +<img src="images/cover.jpg" width="329" height="500" alt="cover" title="The Treasure of the Isle of Mist" /> +</div> + +<h1>THE<br /> +TREASURE<br /> +<span class="smalltext">OF THE</span><br /> +ISLE OF MIST</h1> + +<h2><i><span class="smalltext">BY</span> +W. W. TARN</i></h2> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 80px;"> +<img src="images/logo-1.png" width="80" height="64" alt="logo" title="" /> +</div> + +<p class="center">G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS<br /> +NEW YORK AND LONDON<br /> +<b>The Knickerbocker Press</b><br /> +1920</p> + +<p class="center smalltext"><span class="smcap">Copyright, 1920, by</span><br /> +W. W. TARN</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 189px;"> +<img src="images/logo-2.png" width="189" height="300" alt="logo" title="" /> +</div> + + +<p class="center newchapter">A FAIRY TALE FOR<br /> +MY DAUGHTER</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<h2><a name="CONTENTS" id="CONTENTS"></a>CONTENTS</h2> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" summary="Table of Contents"> +<tr> +<td class="chapnum smalltext">CHAPTER</td> +<td class="chapname smalltext"> </td> +<td class="chappage smalltext">PAGE</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapnum">I.</td> +<td class="chapname">The Gift of the Search</td> +<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_I">1</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapnum">II.</td> +<td class="chapname">The Beginning of Trouble</td> +<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_II">14</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapnum">III.</td> +<td class="chapname">The Haunted Cave</td> +<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_III">31</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapnum">IV.</td> +<td class="chapname">The Urchin Vanishes</td> +<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_IV">47</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapnum">V.</td> +<td class="chapname">The Oread</td> +<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_V">88</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapnum">VI.</td> +<td class="chapname">The King of the Woodcock</td> +<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_VI">111</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapnum">VII.</td> +<td class="chapname">Fiona in the Fairy-World</td> +<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_VII">131</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="chapnum">VIII.</td> +<td class="chapname">Fiona Finds her Treasure</td> +<td class="chappage"><a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">181</a></td> +</tr> +</table> +</div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[Pg 1]</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="The_Treasure_of_the_Isle_of_Mist" id="The_Treasure_of_the_Isle_of_Mist"></a>The Treasure of the Isle of Mist</h2> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I<br /> +<span class="smalltext">THE GIFT OF THE SEARCH</span></h2> + + +<p>The Student and Fiona lived in a little gray house on the shores of a +gray sea-loch in the Isle of Mist. The Student was a thin man with a +stoop to his shoulders, which old Anne MacDermott said came of reading +books; but really it was because he had been educated at a place where +this is expected of you. Fiona, when she was doing nothing else, used +to help Anne to keep house, rather jerkily, in the way a learned man +may be supposed to like. She was a long-legged creature of fifteen, +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[Pg 2]</a></span>who laughed when her father threatened her with school on the +mainland, and she had a warm heart and a largish size in shoes. +Sometimes they had dinner; sometimes nobody remembered in time, and +they had sunset and salt herrings, with a bowl of glorious yellow +corn-daisies to catch the sunset.</p> + +<p>It was Anne who saw the old hawker crossing the field behind the +house, and burst in on the bookroom to inform the Student that he +wanted buttons. She was met by a patient remonstrance on her ambiguous +use of language:</p> + +<p>"For," said the Student, "if you mean that buttons are lacking to me, +there may be something to be said for you; but if you mean that I +desire buttons, then indeed I do not desire buttons; I desire . . ."</p> + +<p>Whereon Anne fled, and went out to meet the hawker. The frail old man, +bending under his pack, was crossing the meadow behind the house, +brushing his way through the September clover. His white hair was +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</a></span>uncovered save for the huge umbrella which he carried alike in sun +and rain; but youth still lingered in his eyes, which were bright as +the dawn and deep as the sea-caves. Behind him followed a little +rough-haired terrier, black as jet, his inseparable companion. At the +door he unslung his pack, and, leaving Anne to select her buttons, +passed straight through, knocked at the bookroom door, and went in.</p> + +<p>The Student wheeled round in his chair and began to grope about.</p> + +<p>"Have you seen my spectacles?" he said. "I can't see who you are till +I put them on, and I can't put them on till you find them for me, for +I can't see to find them myself unless I have them on. Pardon this +involved sentence."</p> + +<p>The old hawker picked up the missing spectacles and handed them over.</p> + +<p>"You wouldn't remember me, in any case," he said. "I last saw you +twenty-five years ago, when you were trying to dig at Verria. There +was an old man there, do you remember, being beaten by armed +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</a></span>Bashi-Bazouks, and you held them up with an empty revolver, and took +the old man to your camp and nursed him, and you said things to the +Turkish Governor, and . . ."</p> + +<p>"My excavations came to an untimely end," said the Student. "I always +owed that old man a grudge for being beaten before my tent. Why +couldn't he have been beaten somewhere else? I should like to meet him +again and tell him precisely what I thought of his conduct."</p> + +<p>"You have done both now," said the hawker. "And it is his turn."</p> + +<p>"Impossible," said the Student. "He was as old twenty-five years ago +as you are now."</p> + +<p>"At my age," said the old man, "one grows no older. No one who walks +the world as I do need ever grow any older. You can walk thirty miles +on Monday when you are twenty years old; good. If you can do it on +Monday you can do it on Tuesday; and if on Tuesday, then on Wednesday; +therefore, by an easy reckoning, you can do it as well at<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span> eighty +years old as at twenty. Thus you never age."</p> + +<p>"There's a flaw in that somewhere," said the Student. "I know; it's +the Heap. How many grains of sand make a heap?"</p> + +<p>"How many buttons do you want?" said the hawker. "You saved my life +once; you shall have all the buttons you want for nothing."</p> + +<p>"I thought you couldn't answer my question," said the Student. "But we +are getting on much too fast; we haven't really begun yet. I suppose +you came here to sell things? Anne seemed to know you, and she said I +wanted buttons. I pointed out to her that her statement was either an +untruth or a truism, and equally objectionable in either sense; and +now you repeat it, just as I was beginning to consider you quite an +intelligent person. By the way, who are you?"</p> + +<p>"I have a different name in most countries which I visit," said the +old man. "But by profession I sell buttons—and other things."</p> + +<p>"What sort of things?" said the Student.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span>"I have dreams," said the old man, "dreams and the matter of dreams; +imaginings of the impossible come true; the wonder of the hills at +sunrise; the quest of unearthly treasure among the moon-flowers; the +look in the eyes of a child that trusts you."</p> + +<p>The Student took off his spectacles, rubbed his eyes hard, and settled +his shoulders.</p> + +<p>"I desire something very much," he said. "If you can do all that, you +can give me what I desire."</p> + +<p>The hawker frowned.</p> + +<p>"You are a scholar," he said, "and I can do nothing for scholars. You +need no ideal, for you have one. You need no dreams, for your life is +one. For you, the earth pours out hidden treasure, and the impossible +comes true day by day. What you desire just now is a long definite +inscription to settle a controverted point in your favor. And if I +could give it you, just think how miserable you'd be. Nothing further +to argue about, there; and several quite happy and contentious +profes<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span>sors would be reduced to such straits that I don't know what +crimes you might all commit. You might even take to making money."</p> + +<p>"If I wanted money," said the Student, "I should, being an intelligent +person, at once proceed to make it. Then I should have to live in the +big house again, instead of letting it, and my precious time would be +spent in arguing with my gardener and endeavoring to conceal my +ignorance from my chauffeur. As it is, we live anyhow, and I am +happy."</p> + +<p>"Happiness doesn't score any points in the game," said the hawker. +"What good do you and your inscriptions do, anyway?"</p> + +<p>"That's not my job here," said the Student. "That will come on +afterwards. Besides, I don't want to do good. I am old-fashioned; why +should I take my neighbor by the throat and say, 'Let me do good to +you, or it shall be the worse for you and yours'? Besides, I can't do +good. You can't dot the wilderness with prosperous homesteads when +half the years the oats don't ripen till the year after.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span> Besides, I +do do good; I have let the big house to shooting tenants, and it's +excellent for their health. Besides seventeen other reasons, which I +can enumerate if you are able to bear them. Besides, Fiona is fond of +me."</p> + +<p>"Yes," said the old man softly, "that's your real justification. And +it's a great deal more than I could give you; my hawker's licence +doesn't cover the big things. How many buttons do you want?"</p> + +<p>Fiona came scrambling through the open window, and curled herself up +on the rug with her head on the Student's knee. The Student stroked +her hair.</p> + +<p>"Tell me what it's all about," she said.</p> + +<p>"This gentleman," he said, "once interrupted a very important piece of +work which I was doing, and I was just about to tell him exactly what +I thought of him when you interrupted me."</p> + +<p>The old hawker had risen and bowed courteously to the girl.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span>"My dear young lady," he said, "I have been searching my pack for a +present for your father, and found nothing suitable. But perhaps I +could find something for you."</p> + +<p>Fiona jumped up.</p> + +<p>"Have you a hedgehog?" was her question.</p> + +<p>"I do not carry them with me, as a general thing," said the old man. +"No doubt one could be got. But why a hedgehog?"</p> + +<p>"I want one for the Urchin," she said. "You see, it's his namesake."</p> + +<p>"I see," said the old man, quite gravely. "And who is the Urchin?"</p> + +<p>"The Urchin," said the Student, "is a young rascal who is the son of +my shooting tenant. He plunders my daughter of all her possessions, +and she abets him in every form of villainy."</p> + +<p>"I do try to stop him throwing stones at things," said the girl.</p> + +<p>"Here are hedgehogs," said the hawker. "Isn't that lucky, now?"</p> + +<p>Past the window came five hedgehogs in a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span> solemn row, two big and +three little. Behind them, marshalling the procession, walked the +black terrier, with an eye of happy drollery.</p> + +<p>"There's something wrong about those hedgehogs," said the girl. "They +don't do things like that. I don't think I want a hedgehog any more, +thank you. How did you make them do that? Is your dog a conjurer?"</p> + +<p>"I never harm anything," said the old man, "so that many creatures +will come to me when I call. But I have better presents than that."</p> + +<p>"Choose for her, my friend," said the Student.</p> + +<p>The old man began talking to himself in a low voice.</p> + +<p>"Youth she has," he said, "and freedom, and the joy of life. Wonder +also, and dim imaginings of unseen things. And of the things which men +desire, fame and power are not worth giving, and love is not mine to +give. I have it. I give you the Search," he said. "The search for the +treasure of the Isle of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span> Mist. Others have searched for it before; and +some have found; but the treasure never grows less."</p> + +<p>"That's splendid," said the girl. "And when I find the treasure I will +buy my father seven great books which no one else wants to read, and +he will be perfectly happy."</p> + +<p>"But I did not promise treasure," said the old man. "I promised a +search."</p> + +<p>Fiona's face fell.</p> + +<p>"Then am I not to find anything at the end of it?" she asked.</p> + +<p>The old man chuckled quietly.</p> + +<p>"I did not say that either," he said. "There <i>is</i> a treasure, and you +shall search for it; and you will find it if you are able. Many there +are who helped to build it up. Cuchulain and the forgotten heroes who +fought before Cuchulain; Ossian and the forgotten bards who sang +before Ossian; Columba and the forgotten saints who died before +Columba; each has added something to the pile. It is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span> their treasure +which you shall seek for; that is my gift to you."</p> + +<p>"How shall I know where to begin?" asked the girl. "And may I take the +Urchin with me?"</p> + +<p>"Whether you can take the Urchin with you or not depends on his +capacity to go," said the old man. "And as to beginning, I think you +will find that the Search will begin itself, independently of you. It +always does. But I can give you something that will help you," and he +took out of his pocket a red copper bangle, rudely hammered out with +some rough implement, which he slipped over her wrist. "That was made +long ago," he said, "made by men to whom metal was a new toy, men who +perhaps were nearer to the heart of things than we are."</p> + +<p>"You will stay and have some dinner, will you not?" said the Student. +"At least, if this is a dinner night. Fiona, is this a dinner night?"</p> + +<p>"I have my doubts," said the girl. "Oat cake and honeysuckle, I +expect."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span>"And what better?" said the old man. "But I fear I could not dine with +you, were it ortolans and Tokay. For I may never eat beneath a roof. +The open moor is my dining hall, and the stars serve me. And the long +white road is calling me even now. But I think that before the +treasure is found you will see me again."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span></p> + +<h2 class="newchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II<br /> +<span class="smalltext">THE BEGINNING OF TROUBLE</span></h2> + + +<p>"Man," said the Student, "is a weird creature. He dimly remembers that +he began his evolution, not as a pair, but as a horde; and to the +horde he still seeks, forming huge crowds during his working days, and +on his holidays merely transferring the same crowds in their totality +to some other place, accompanied by a great deal of purposeless noise. +Apart from his crowd he apparently feels chilly, and without noise +unhappy. Nothing is more striking to the reflective mind than the +abdication of civilization in the face of meaningless noises."</p> + +<p>"Daddy," said Fiona, "I want your advice on the matter of treasure +hunting. For if<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span> two go together, they don't make a crowd, and they +needn't make a noise."</p> + +<p>"Quote correctly," said the Student. "What Homer said was, that if you +and I went to look for a treasure, I, being a mere man, would find it +at once by logical processes of induction and deduction, while you, +being a superior woman, were losing yourself in the quicksands of the +intuitive short cut."</p> + +<p>"Sir," said the girl, "your word is law to me. Therefore deduce."</p> + +<p>"Persiflage," said the Student, "is not to be encouraged in young +children. Remember that if you were to force me to do so I might come +with you, and then I should see exactly how you bungled the thing."</p> + +<p>"But that's what I want you to do, daddy," said Fiona.</p> + +<p>"I don't," said the Student. "Though treasure hunting is quite an +ancient and respectable amusement. For treasure, some have descended +the crater of Popocatapetl; some have dived at Tobermory; some have +dug<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span> in Kensington Gardens. Alexander found a treasure at Persepolis, +and Essex lost another in Cadiz harbor. The treasure of the Incas lies +hid in a Peruvian ravine, known but to two Indians at a time; the +plunder which Alaric took from Rome is still beneath the river which +he diverted to guard it. No one has ever found the hoard of Captain +Kidd, or the gold carried in the Venetian galleon which sailed with +the Armada and went on the rocks in this loch. The pursuit of treasure +is, therefore, no doubt, for the young, a legitimate pastime."</p> + +<p>"Daddy," said Fiona, "did one of the Armada ships really go ashore +here?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, my dear," said the Student. "She was a great Venetian, called +after the Madonna of the Holy Cross, and she carried the doubloons +contributed by the Church."</p> + +<p>"That's not the treasure the old man meant," said the girl.</p> + +<p>"It is not," said the Student. "We know all about the Venetian ship. +The crew were<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span> mostly knocked on the head, but the captain brought the +doubloons ashore and hid them. He himself was saved by my ancestor for +the time being, to whom he gave a map showing the place in the cave in +which the treasure was hidden. He never came back for it. So far, +everything proceeded on approved lines. Unhappily, my ancestor was a +careless sort of person, and gambled the plan away. We never heard any +more of it. It is, however, a family tradition that there was nothing +on the plan to identify the cave; and as this coast, and the islands +in the loch, are honeycombed with caves, it would be of little use if +we had it. No one knows whereabouts the galleon went ashore. On calm +nights her officers may be seen swimming round the cliffs, keeping +guard still over their holy gold. Angus MacEachan saw one once, and +tried to speak to him; but he turned into a seal, and just looked at +Angus with large patient eyes; and Angus' boat was wrecked the week +after."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span>"And did you never search for the gold, daddy?" asked Fiona.</p> + +<p>"Never, my dear," he said. "In the first place, it would mean a minute +examination of some 170 caves. In the second place, half of the caves +are not mine. In the third place, it is not the kind of treasure I +want. In the fourth place, I haven't time. In the fifth place, I am +morally certain it is not there now. In the sixth place, the +Government would claim it as treasure-trove. And in the seventh and +last place, I never thought about it till you asked me."</p> + +<p>"I'm not getting any further with <i>my</i> treasure hunting, daddy," said +Fiona. "Let's go out together and start."</p> + +<p>"My dear," said the Student, "it's your search, not mine. It's no use +my trying to come with you. And I have a fancy that it won't begin +like that."</p> + +<p>"Can you tell me how to begin then, daddy?" she asked.</p> + +<p>"I suppose by taking no notice of it," he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span> said. "It was to begin +itself, wasn't it? And I have an uncomfortable suspicion that you hunt +this kind of treasure by turning round and going the other way. So I +think you'd better run out and find the Urchin, and I'll get back to +my inscriptions."</p> + +<p>The Urchin was Fiona's principal ally; a troublesome ally, owing to +his propensity for throwing stones. She found him now on the shore, +steadily bombarding a shore lark, that would move a little way out of +range and then sit down again, affording a splendid target. Luckily +the enthusiasm of the persecutor in pursuit was well matched by the +inaccuracy of his aim.</p> + +<p>"Urchin," she called out, "if you hurt that bird the Little People +will take you; I thought I'd knocked that into you all right, even if +you <i>are</i> English and slow in the uptake."</p> + +<p>"All right," said the Urchin with a grin. "We conquered you, anyway."</p> + +<p>"As a matter of fact," said the girl, "it was we who annexed you. If +your people were<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span> as bad shots as you, Urchin, it must have been quite +easy. You can't hit a bird sitting."</p> + +<p>"Can't I?" said the Urchin. "You watch." Another fling, and horrors! +the shore lark rolled over, twittering helplessly and miserably.</p> + +<p>Fiona was across the rocks like a young goat; and when the Urchin, +contrite but defiant, arrived, she had the wounded bird in her hands +and was holding it to her breast, feeling gently for its hurt. It lay +quite still, panting, and watching her with quick bright eyes.</p> + +<p>"Broken wing," she said. "I believe it will mend. Urchin, you are a +mere beast. You'd better go home; I don't want ever to see you again."</p> + +<p>The Urchin turned scarlet.</p> + +<p>"That's just like a girl," he said. "First you tell me I can't hit the +old bird, which is the same thing as telling me to hit it; and then +when I do hit it you turn round on me and call names; and all the time +you're just as bad as I am." And the Urchin turned and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span> stalked off, +an heroic figure with the mien of a Marcus Curtius about to save his +country by leaping into the gulf. Unhappily there was a real gulf, and +the boy, head in air, rolled neatly into it, and emerged from between +two rocks, dripping and no longer heroic, rubbing a torn stocking and +a scraped shin.</p> + +<p>It was too much for Fiona's gravity.</p> + +<p>"Urchin," she called, "come back here, <i>quick</i>." And as the unhappy +Urchin stood in doubt, hither and thither dividing the swift mind, she +slid over the rocks and caught him. "My fault," she said, "and I'm +sorry all the way through. Now I'll mend you first, and then we must +mend the bird."</p> + +<p>"And then what'll we do?" said the boy. "Let's do something harmless +for a bit, hunt for shells or shrimps or . . ."</p> + +<p>"Treasure," suggested Fiona, rather shyly. And by the time they had +reached the house, and she had repaired the Urchin, and disposed the +wounded bird as comfortably as possible,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span> the boy had been put in +possession of the essential facts of the case.</p> + +<p>"Mar-vellous," was the Urchin's comment. "Now, don't you see, Fiona? +you can have your treasure when we find it, and I'll have the Spanish +treasure when we find it, and there we both are. I want lots and lots +and lots of those doubloons."</p> + +<p>"What for?" said Fiona.</p> + +<p>"Gun," said the Urchin. "Donald Ruadh has an old gun which he would +sell me for two pounds. He says one barrel shoots all right sometimes. +And I would use the rest of the doubloons to buy cartridges, and then +I could kill curlews."</p> + +<p>"You little wretch," said the girl. "You won't kill my curlews while +I'm about. And anyhow your old gun would probably blow you up first. +And anyhow you haven't got the doubloons yet. And they're not yours if +you do find them."</p> + +<p>"Whose would they be?" asked the Urchin.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span>"I suppose my father's," said Fiona. "But it depends on which cave +they were in."</p> + +<p>"Come on, then," said the boy. "I'm going to ask him for them."</p> + +<p>The Student took the interruption good-humoredly.</p> + +<p>"I am in the second century," he said. "Doubloons have not yet been +coined. As to these doubloons, I am quite sure they are not there, +wherever 'there' may be; but if they are there, I have no objection to +the Urchin fighting the Government for them. Urchin, would you like a +deed?"</p> + +<p>And, to the delight of the Urchin, the Student proceeded to make out a +document, which called on all men to know that the said Student +thereby assigned to the said Urchin all the estate, right, title, and +interest, if any, of the said Student in and to a certain treasure of +doubloons or other coins once carried in the galleon called <i>Our Lady +of the Holy Cross</i> were the same a little more or less ("all good +deeds get that in somewhere," said the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span> Student) to hold to the said +Urchin and his heirs ("but I don't suppose the heirs will see much of +it") to the intent that he might become a wiser and a better Urchin +and not interrupt the said Student any more when he wanted to work. +This being done, the Student signed his name at the end, made a +beautiful blot of hot red sealing wax and put his signet ring on it, +and made Fiona sign her name as witness ("which is probably not +legal," he explained cheerfully); then he handed over the deed to the +rejoicing Urchin, with the remark that it was quite as good as many +lawyers' deeds, and drove the pair of them out of the bookroom.</p> + +<p>"Good," said the Urchin. "Now I've a treasure just the same as you."</p> + +<p>"If we find them," said Fiona.</p> + +<p>"Well, let's go and start hunting for them at any rate," said the boy.</p> + +<p>"Pardon me," said the shore lark, "if I interrupt; but you might be +the better of a few hints."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span>Fiona dropped on her knees and took the little bird in her hands +again.</p> + +<p>"So you can talk," she said. "That's jolly. You've a first-rate chance +of returning good for evil, and making us feel worms."</p> + +<p>"Don't talk of worms," said the shore lark, "you have entirely omitted +to provide me with any. Send him to get some, and I'll tell you +something. He can't understand what I'm saying, anyhow."</p> + +<p>"Urchin," said the girl, "he's asking for worms. Go and get him some."</p> + +<p>"One would think you and he could talk to each other," said the boy. +"Silly, I call it, going on like that. I suppose that's what girls +do."</p> + +<p>"Urchin," said Fiona, "when you and I have a row, what happens?"</p> + +<p>"<i>You</i> happen," said the Urchin. "You've three years' pull; 'tisn't +fair; just like a girl, to go and have three years' pull of a chap."</p> + +<p>"Stop grousing," said the girl, "and get me the worms, there's a dear +little boy."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span>The Urchin flung the nearest book at her, missed as usual, and, having +thus made his honor white, departed, declaring in simpler language +that the love of worms was the root of all evil.</p> + +<p>"I can't tell you much," said the shore lark, "but one sometimes picks +up things, hopping about, and I heard you say treasure. If you mean +the Venetian ship, don't start without consulting the finner. He is +very old, and I believe that he knows everything that happens in this +loch."</p> + +<p>"I don't really mean that," said Fiona. "That's half a jest. I mean my +own search, the search for the treasure of the Isle of Mist."</p> + +<p>"We have all heard of it," said the shore lark, "and we all know that +you cannot find it by looking for it. All I can tell you is this: the +curlews have a tradition that the last man who found it went up a +hill. That is what they tell each other when they call in the spring; +and I believe they know."</p> + +<p>"They are like the spirits of the hills them<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span>selves," said Fiona. +"Tell me why it is I can understand you."</p> + +<p>"I have no idea," said the shore lark. "I am only a little bird, and I +don't know very much. I chanced speaking to you because I wanted +worms."</p> + +<p>The girl slipped across into the bookroom.</p> + +<p>"Daddy," she said, "come back out of the second century, and tell me +why I can understand the shore lark."</p> + +<p>The Student looked up with a patient smile in far-away eyes.</p> + +<p>"It isn't time to come back yet," he said. "And I have not fully +grasped your meaning. You appear to refer to some conversation with +some bird. There are precedents, of course. For instance, the +philosopher Empedocles, having been a bird himself in a former life, +remembered their speech; he ended by leaping into Ætna. Siegfried +also, having bathed in the blood of Fafnir, followed the voice of a +bird of the wood; he ended by losing his love and his life. There was +once a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span> sailor who took the advice of a parrot, and was hanged. Birds +are light-minded, as the poet Aristophanes discovered; and it would +seem that little good comes of talking to them."</p> + +<p>"My shore lark is a darling," said Fiona. "And I don't intend to be +hanged."</p> + +<p>"That," said the Student, "is as Providence pleases. One never knows, +as my poor ancestor said when he fell into a bear-trap and found the +bear there before him."</p> + +<p>"O daddy," said the girl, "did he really? And what happened?"</p> + +<p>"This ancestor of mine," said the Student, "was a very strong man. If +he had not been, someone else would have killed him first, and he +would not have been my ancestor; the other man would have been someone +else's ancestor, so to speak. Being a very strong man, he naturally +killed the bear. He must have, or he would not have lived to be my +ancestor. In those days everyone lived in caves, and he lived in a +cave too; and he always killed the other man, sometimes fairly,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span> +sometimes, I regret to say, otherwise. He courted my ancestress by +knocking her down from behind with the blunt end of a stone ax, a +method which I do not defend; but when her senses returned she told +him he had acted like a man, and they became a most devoted couple. +This was partly due, no doubt, to the fact that he never saw the +meaning of the things she said; she took good care that he shouldn't, +for though slow of wit he was handy with his ax. Their life I think +must have been very happy till one day he found a red stone which he +could heat and shape with his ax, and he hammered out that copper +bracelet you're wearing; and then came the deluge, for metal meant +magic then, as you know. Next day my ancestress found him conversing +with the local vulture; within a week he was giving exhibitions in the +other caves with the vulture's assistance; in a month he had become +the tribal god; and about two years after, owing to the persistent +failure of some of his magic to come off, he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span> was, for a brief moment, +the tribal banquet. Now you know what comes of talking to shore +larks."</p> + +<p>"Daddy," she said, "you can't know if that's true or not, can you?"</p> + +<p>"It may not all be what <i>you</i> call true," said the Student, "but it's +true in quite a lot of ways. It's true psychologically, and +anthropologically, and palæethnologically; and that does to start +with. And I certainly <i>had</i> ancestors. And there <i>is</i> a bracelet. And +you <i>were</i> talking strange words about a shore lark. And you must +really take care, my dear daughter; for you <i>ought</i> now to become a +tribal priestess, and be hurled from a high place into the sea the +first season that the herring fail."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span></p> + +<h2 class="newchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III<br /> +<span class="smalltext">THE HAUNTED CAVE</span></h2> + + +<p>A sunlit sheet of sea, violet and azure, clothed in slender cloud +shadows and heaving gently to the long Atlantic ground-swell. Up +through the calm water, to meet the eye of the gazer, came the green +clearness of stone, and blinks of unveined sand showing white between +the brown tangled blades of the great oar-weed; and you might see a +school of little cuddies, heads all one way, playing hide and seek in +the sea forest, and caring no whit for the clumsy armored crab beneath +them, who crawled sideways, a laborious patch of color in the +shimmering transparency. Up out of the deep water the gray rocks rose +clear and fine, a mass of platforms and pinnacles, roughened with +barnacles and tufted<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span> with dulse, whose crimson leaves floated and +swung in the white foam of the lisping swell; and above the rocks and +beyond the sea's reach the cliff stood up black, showing all the +strata that had gone to the making of it outlined with little patches +of coarse grass. On one such patch grazed without concern a sheep +which had slipped over, happy in her ignorance of the fact that she +could never be drawn up again alive; the wiser raven overhead was +clanging away with short barks to tell his mate. On a ridge on the +cliff side sat a pair of young scarfs, almost invisible save when they +twisted their long necks about like two snakes, trying to make up +their minds to follow their mother, who had just flopped clumsily into +the water, feet first, and had turned there and then into a miracle of +easy grace, as she used her head to dash the spray over her back. Out +at sea a solan rose steadily in a sweeping spiral, the white and black +of him glittering in the sun; suddenly he checked, reversed engines, +and fell plump<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span> like an inverted cross, his long raking wings clapping +to as he struck the water; a moment, and he was up, and there sat, +choking and gobbling over his fish, ere he rose again in his majestic +rings.</p> + +<p>The two children had grounded their boat on a little pebble beach +between the rocks, and were sitting on a big tuft of sea pinks, +munching handfuls of the sweet dulse and watching the solan at his +fishing. They were by way of fishing themselves, but the afternoon was +as yet too early and too clear for them. The Urchin had a pile of +stones beside him, and was apparently trying to see how many times in +twenty he could miss a large and obvious spur of rock. Fiona had a +book of poetry, and was making intermittent efforts to read; but the +world was too full of things to give poetry a fair chance.</p> + +<p>The Urchin threw his last stone away.</p> + +<p>"Silly sitting here," he said; "come and explore."</p> + +<p>So, scrambling and sliding, the two made<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span> their way across the rocks, +stopping at every rock pool to raise its fringe of weed with careful +hands and investigate the wonder of the little world below; sea +flowers of every hue, white and green, gray and orange, purple and +white and gray and purple again, some smooth and satisfied, others +with tentacles greedily awash, that could be induced to suck at a +small finger dexterously inserted; sea shells of every contour, some +living and clutching at the rock, some cast off and dead, others again +protruding alien claws, resurrected to a life of artificial movement +by the little hermit crabs whose tails they sheltered; here and there +the spiky pink globe of a sea urchin, waiting for the tide to float +him off. And in one deep little pot, with sides green like a grotto of +ferns, they found a miniature battle. A small green crab, who had cast +his shell, sat humped in a recess of the grotto, a thing soft and +vulnerable, a delight to the enemy; and in front of him, excited and +transparent, were half a dozen shrimps, the horn on each<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span> forehead +pointed at him; from time to time some young gallant would dash in to +prod the helpless monster, and at once backwater again into the ranks +of his friends. The crab bore his torment with a patience born of the +knowledge that each minute his new carapace was hardening; the shrimps +had no wit to count the cost, or reckon the odds that the rising tide +might bear them away in safety from the day of vengeance.</p> + +<p>On hands and knees, not daring to breathe on the limpid surface of the +pool, the children watched the little drama. From the cliff top the +heated air rose dancing into the sky. So still were earth and air and +sea that the old finner's rise sounded as though the cliff were +falling. He had worked nearer in to the rocks than seemed possible for +his ninety feet of blubber and muscle, and as his black side rolled +over, the water about him boiled like a pot; but he did not splash, +for he had been well brought up and always knew what his tail was +doing, though it was so far away.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span>"Shiver these rocks," he began in a rage, as he flung two fountains +out of his nose. Then he caught sight of Fiona and the gleam of the +red bracelet.</p> + +<p>"Oh my fins and flippers!" he spouted. "I ask pardon, young lady; I +haven't the manners of a grampus. And they told me about you."</p> + +<p>"Who's they?" asked Fiona, ungrammatically.</p> + +<p>"Friends at Court, friends at Court," said the finner. "What a thing +to have. 'No need of the old sailorman,' said I. But they said I must +go. And I've scraped the barnacles off my precious tail. Will it run +to some tobacco?"</p> + +<p>"Will what run?" said the girl. "Your tail? What is it you want?"</p> + +<p>"Hints are wasted, I see," said the whale. "'One question,' said I. +Only one. But magic is magic, you know, even for a tough old +sailorman. Come now, one question. I'm too far inshore for my +liking."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span>Fiona understood.</p> + +<p>"Is it about my treasure?" she said.</p> + +<p>"Yours, or that boy's there, whichever you like," said the whale. "But +only one, only one."</p> + +<p>For about two seconds Fiona did some hard mental drill. Then she said:</p> + +<p>"Will you please tell me where the Urchin can find his treasure?"</p> + +<p>"You do have luck," said the finner. "Think of it, then. O you little +fishes, think of it. If you'd asked the other, I didn't know the +answer. Wouldn't have got an answer, and my tail all scraped for +nothing. And this one, my great-great-grandmother saw it all, and +nobody knows here but me and the seals and one man, and he's too fat +to count. West cave, Scargill Island; and bring you luck, my dear. +Will it run to some tobacco?"</p> + +<p>"Thank you so much," said Fiona politely. "And I'm sorry I haven't any +tobacco with me. But if you could wait a few minutes . . ."</p> + +<p>"Shiver it, I'm scraping again," said the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span> whale. "No tobacco and very +few barnacles in this world. O my grandmother's flukes, I might as +well be a bottlenose!"</p> + +<p>Once more the water boiled, and beneath it the huge black body shot +away for the open sea.</p> + +<p>"Fiona," said the boy, "do you really think it's cricket?"</p> + +<p>"What isn't cricket?" she asked.</p> + +<p>"Fiona," he said, "I've been a brother to you. I have done all the +things a brother ought to do. I have taught you to throw like a boy. I +have pinched you for new clothes. I have called you names, to make you +good-tempered. I have made remarks on your personal appearance, to +prevent your being vain. I have even fought with you, solely for your +good. And this is how you repay me. The other day you pretended to be +talking to a shore lark; to-day it was an old whale, who spouted and +banged his tail on the rock. If it's a joke, I don't see it. If it's +not a joke, do go into a lunatic asylum, and let me find a simpler +job."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span>Fiona tossed up mentally between hitting him and laughing; it came +down laughing.</p> + +<p>"Urchin," she said, "it's all right. I don't understand it much better +than you do, but it has something to do with this bracelet of mine. I +can really understand them and they can understand me. If you doubt my +word, we will fight a duel with the boat stretchers, and I will bury +you in the sand here afterwards."</p> + +<p>"Oh, I believe you when you talk like that," said the Urchin; "only +it's worse than the Latin grammar. <i>Psittacus loquitur</i>, "the parrot +talks"; but this thing seemed to be a whale; it was very like one."</p> + +<p>"It was a whale," said Fiona. "He said his great-great-grandmother had +seen the Spanish captain land his doubloons, and that it was in the +west cave on Scargill Island."</p> + +<p>"That means the big cave at the end facing the sea," said the boy.</p> + +<p>"The cave that no one has ever got to the end of," said Fiona.</p> + +<p>"The cave that's haunted," said the boy.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span>"But of course it's haunted; it's the ghosts of the Spaniards. Silly +of us not to have guessed."</p> + +<p>Fiona had a hazy recollection of things her father used to say.</p> + +<p>"I expect the haunting is thousands of years older than the +Spaniards," she said. "Urchin, are you afraid of ghosts?"</p> + +<p>"Not a bit," said the Urchin stoutly. "They would be splendid to throw +stones at. It wouldn't hurt them."</p> + +<p>"Come on then, let's go," said the girl. "There's lots of daylight."</p> + +<p>"None of the people here will go into it, you know," said the Urchin.</p> + +<p>"I know," said Fiona. "All the more reason for going on our own. There +might really be something there, if no one ever goes to take it away."</p> + +<p>So the boat was launched, and the adventure also. Fiona pulled stroke; +the Urchin was a clumsy and unpunctual bow, and the girl had to steer +from the stroke oar, which needs<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span> more doing than you may think if you +haven't tried it. But they made the end of Scargill in time, and then +Fiona took both the oars and coasted, while the Urchin got out a +couple of bamboo poles, garnished with white flies, and let the casts +trail, occasionally getting one of the beautiful little scarlet lythe, +that came at the fly with the spring and dash of a sea trout. For even +adventurers need supper. And so they came, past many a smaller cave +mouth in the black side of the island, to the huge bluff that fronts +the full Atlantic, and the great west cave.</p> + +<p>Atlantic was half asleep to-day, and muttered drowsily to the quiet +rocks outside. But the great cave was seldom quiet. In the winter, +when Atlantic turned himself restlessly and spoke aloud, the sound of +his speaking came back from its depths like the roar of a heavy gun; +and even in the stillness the lisp of the swell in it echoed as from +the roots of the island in a low intermittent boom. Outside, on the +calm water, floated the whiskered head<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span> of a seal, watching the boat +with gentle, fearless eyes,—"the officer on guard," Fiona +whispered;—and from the black cliff's face, like a hanging fringe +over the mouth of the cave, the water splashed down, trickle by +trickle, in quick, heavy drops. The children rowed in through the +little shower, and Fiona paddled gently up the cave. Its huge +limestone walls stood up stark on either hand, rising into the +darkness above, and sinking below into the green water, as far as eye +could follow them. Near the water-line grew a little seaweed, and some +white whelks clung; but as they went down the waterway these vanished, +and gray cliff and green water alike began to turn black. Looking +back, Fiona could see a bright patch, a patch of sky and +sky-reflecting sea, framed in the narrow slit of the cave's mouth. The +waterway was narrowing now; she shipped her oars and stood up, using +one as a paddle, and instructing the Urchin how to fend off the boat's +stern with his hands. In front, on a ledge in the cave's roof, it was +just<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span> possible to make out a row of blue dots in the growing darkness; +as the boat drew nearer, the blue dots fluttered, detached themselves +from the cliff, and a swarm of pigeons came whirring over the boat and +down the cave toward the sunlight;—"Your ghosts, Urchin," said the +girl. Henceforward the cave was void of life, unless some strange, +eyeless fish lurked in its inky depths. Darker and darker grew the +waterway, and the last gleam of light vanished. Fiona was feeling her +way now, aided by the phosphorescent drip from her oar blade; the +Urchin, with unusual sense, splashed his hands in the water to +increase the pale glow, which just revealed the line of the cliff. +Neither dare speak now; possibly, had Fiona not had some idea of what +was coming, she would have turned. But already there was a faint gleam +ahead, faint as a glow worm, but still a gleam; and as the boat slid +forward, and the low boom in the depths of the cave grew closer, the +cave walls very slowly began to grow gray again out of the blackness. +A few<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span> minutes more, and the walls were an outline, and before them, a +fringe of white on round wet stones, the end of the waterway. And as +the boat grounded, Fiona pointed up, and the Urchin, looking, saw a +little round hole; a natural shaft ran down into the cave from the +surface of the island, giving light enough for their eyes, now +accustomed to the darkness, to distinguish outlines.</p> + +<p>They drew their boat up on the stones far enough for the swell not to +dislodge it; then the same impulse seized them both and they burst out +laughing, not aloud, for something in the place made it impossible to +laugh or talk aloud, but in a kind of mirthless whisper.</p> + +<p>"We've come without any lights," said Fiona in an undertone.</p> + +<p>"We have," said the Urchin. "But probably the stuff is only a few +yards above high-water mark; they wouldn't go far in."</p> + +<p>"They might have," said Fiona; "they'd have had torches or +something."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span>"Let's go as far as we can, anyway, as we are here," said the Urchin.</p> + +<p>So they started scrambling over the stones in the gray half-light. +Presently there rose before them a great mass of rock and earth, half +blocking the cave; it looked like some old landslip.</p> + +<p>"It's easy at this end, Fiona," said the boy; and up they went, to +find that the rock barrier blocked most of what little light remained. +Beyond was darkness.</p> + +<p>"We must go back and get light," said Fiona. "I can't even see the +stones below." A pause; then, "Stop swinging your feet, Urchin; I want +to listen."</p> + +<p>"I'm not," said the Urchin.</p> + +<p>Another pause, and then the Urchin spoke again, in a kind of stage +whisper, "I'm frightened." The words seemed squeezed out of him.</p> + +<p>"We may as well go back, anyhow," said Fiona, in a strained voice. +"Down you go, Urchin."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span>The Urchin did go down at a considerable pace, and ran for the boat. +Fiona managed to walk, by repeating to herself all the time under her +breath, "You mustn't run, you mustn't run." But once in the boat she +did not rebuke the Urchin for standing up and taking the other oar; +and the pair paddled out, with many bumpings and scrapings, in a more +speedy and less scientific manner than that in which they had entered.</p> + +<p>Once out in the sunlight they felt better. They started automatically +to fish home, and presently were talking again. But neither of them +referred to the thing that was uppermost in each mind, though each was +wondering if the other knew. For as they had sat on the wall of rock, +each had heard clearly, in the utter darkness of the unvisited cave, +the sound of heavy footsteps.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span></p> + +<h2 class="newchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV<br /> +<span class="smalltext">THE URCHIN VANISHES</span></h2> + + +<p>To most people there is some corner of the earth which means more than +all others; and there are two or three in the world whose holy place +is the old house on the sea-loch which the Student's humbler neighbors +called the "big house." An old square building of gray stone, that +matches the gray sky and the gray sea, it has small claims to beauty; +it was built in the days of blank windows, and every wind in the +island meets and screams round the battered iron balustrade which +leads up its steps to the door, and strives to tear down the tendrils +of ivy that cling to the east front. To the south front, lashed by the +full Atlantic gales, not even ivy can cling; only a few twisted elders +and stunted planes grow there, and take the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span> first force of the winter +wind; but the old lawn to the north bursts in summer into a cloud of +white marguerites, whose ethereal beauty at sunset is like the ghosts +of the dreams that haunt the place. For to some of us the old house is +full of dreams, that cling to the dark passages and the uneven floors, +and play in and out of the little windows that are still propped open +with wood, as they were a hundred years ago; dreams of the bright +lights and the bright voices that greeted us, coming in out of the +blinding rain; dreams of the dance and the song, songs of old lost +causes from which all bitterness has died away, leaving to-day nothing +but beauty behind them; dreams of faded joys and forgotten sorrows, of +loves that have passed elsewhere and of memories that abide; dreams of +faces that are seen no more. Some day it will change ownership; it +will be sold to someone from whom understanding of these things has +been withheld, and who will see only the darkness of the old +corridors, the shabbiness of the old doorway;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span> and he will build new +doors, and porticoes and a wide verandah, and make it fair within and +without, levelling the floors and trimming the lawns; and he will have +destroyed the old house and the fragrance of it, and it will never +return. But to-day it still stands as it has stood for many a long +year, clothed in the memories that never leave it and rich in all that +the past has built into it; and to some who may never dwell there +again it is yet ever present as the home of their hearts' desire, a +true house of faery.</p> + +<p>The Student had let the old house to the Urchin's father. He was a +tall, thin man with a hooked nose, and he knew more about one +particular family of Coleoptera than anyone living. He had taken the +place, not because he wanted it for its shooting, but because one of +the beetles of his family was reputed to be plentiful in the +neighborhood. He was never there long; he was never anywhere long. For +thirty years he had pursued his beetles over five continents; his +measurements of their wing<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span> cases alone filled nine enormous MS. +volumes. His great work on the variation of the length of the wing +case in beetles kept in captivity had become a classic. Scientific men +had nothing but praise for the book; several even read it. The +majority believed that he had re-founded Neo-Mendelism past any +overthrowing; a small but persistent minority argued that, on the +contrary, he had utterly overthrown the Neo-Mendelians. All, however, +agreed that the book was epoch-making, even though they differed +utterly as to the sort of epoch which it made. The author himself was +a shy and modest person, who never lost his temper except when people +sent him unpaid parcels from Timbuctoo or Khamchatka containing +beetles of other families in which he took no interest. On the rare +occasions when he could be induced to go into society, kind-hearted +hostesses, who saw no reason why one crawling thing should not do as +well as another had been known to try to please him by starting a +conversation about ladybirds or earwigs;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span> and it was said to be worth +foregoing one's cigar to hear him explain, with a chuckle, that though +earwigs or ladybirds were no doubt meritorious creatures in their +several spheres, and possibly legitimate objects of study to others, +they were not his subject; his subject was a particular family of +Coleoptera. He and the Student had become great friends, and when he +was in the island he would often drop in to see the Student's bookroom +after dinner and there the two would sit, one on either side of the +fire, each smoking at a tremendous pace and talking hard on his own +subject. Neither ever expected an answer from the other; neither ever +got one. But they had silently established an unwritten law that when +one had talked for three minutes by the clock on the mantelpiece he +was to stop and let the other have a turn; and when at last they said +good night, each felt that they had both had a thoroughly enjoyable +evening. And so they had.</p> + +<p>Unlike to unlike. The Urchin's father had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span> married the daughter of a +stockbroker, who, on her death, had left him two legacies; one was the +Urchin, and the other was an occasional visitation from her brother +Jeconiah. Mr. Jeconiah P. Johnson, the well-known promoter of +companies, was a short, stout man with a red face and a shifty blue +eye, always immaculately dressed in broadcloth with a huge expanse of +white waistcoat, over which sprawled his double watch chain and his +triple chin. There were possibly some good points even about Jeconiah, +if anything so rotund could be said to have points; but there were +certainly not many. He was supposed by some to possess what is called +"a high standard of business morality"; it would be truer to say that +his code was prehistoric. He had so far kept himself right with the +law, because he had mastered the sordid maxim which proclaims that +honesty is the best policy; no other reason was likely to occur to +him. With some effort he had succeeded in formulating a rule of +conduct of which he was rather proud:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span> Do good to yourself and your +friends and evil to those who stand in your way. If anyone had told +him that the philosophy of ethics took its rise, some twenty-two +centuries ago, in a reaction against a similar rule, he would have +remarked jocosely that he never studied back numbers. Of anything more +exalted than "policy," anything not to be reckoned in terms of £.s.d., +he was as ignorant as a hippopotamus.</p> + +<p>He was never very fond of his right hand's knowing what his left hand +did; for while the right hand promoted companies, the left hand, by +means of a manager and a registered alias, carried on a very useful +little money-lender's business. He was never averse to putting the +screw on, if there was anything to be got by it; and sometimes he got +rather funny things. Recently he had had a broken debtor on his hands, +and had taken what he could get; among other things, an old bureau +full of papers. Jeconiah, being a methodical soul, had turned a clerk +on to sort the papers; and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span> the clerk had presently brought him the +long lost map of the Scargill cave, and a sheet of paper containing +somebody's rough explanation of what it was supposed to be. Jeconiah, +who had heard the story, scented possibilities, and, it being a slack +time in the City, promptly invited himself to his brother-in-law's +house to recover from an attack of influenza. That is how Jeconiah +comes into this story. It could not be helped, for he had the map. The +finner had said he was too fat to count; but that is where the finner +was wrong.</p> + +<p>Jeconiah forthwith gave his mind, such as it was, to the subject of +caves. Diffidence was not his failing, and he cross-examined every +person he could find, concealing, of course, his real object. He +collected a splendid amount of rubbish; but he was acute enough where +his pocket was concerned, and out of the rubbish he presently dragged +forth the fact of the haunted cave which no one would enter. Whereon +Jeconiah went over to Scargill to fish, and had a look at the lie of +the island; settled<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span> with himself that it seemed a good enough place +for a wreck, and told the keeper to row him into the west cave. But +the keeper, who had no particular liking for Jeconiah, refused +point-blank, and told him he would not find a man in the island who +would do it; and Jeconiah, who had suddenly lost interest in the +fishing, went home in a bad temper. This happened the day after the +two children were in the cave; and the day after that the Urchin's +father received an excited cablegram from Brazil on the subject of his +beloved beetles. He rushed down at once to see the Student.</p> + +<p>"I am going to Brazil, I don't know for how long," he said. "And my +boy can't go back to school for a month or more, as they have scarlet +fever in the village there. And I don't like to leave him with the +housekeeper, and I start in two hours. Will you take him?"</p> + +<p>"Delighted," said the Student. "Fiona will look after him."</p> + +<p>So the Urchin came, and with him came to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span> Fiona a sense of +responsibility for him. She couldn't help it.</p> + +<p>But Jeconiah showed no intention of moving. On the contrary, the +after-effects of influenza were still troubling him sorely, it seemed. +At last the Urchin's father had to tell him to stay a week or two +longer, if he wanted to; the servants would be there anyhow. And +Jeconiah thanked him and settled down to stay, as he had meant to do +all along. But as soon as his brother-in-law was gone he took the car +and went off for the day. The chauffeur said that he went to a lot of +places and talked to a lot of people; and a couple of days later two +strange men in a boat entered the bay and proceeded to camp out on a +part of the shore which was not the Student's property. Jeconiah had, +in fact, hired the boat, and found a couple of ne'er-do-wells from the +mainland who knew nothing of him and were ready to row him anywhere in +pursuit of his business, which was understood to be photographing wild +birds for an illustrated paper.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span>Jeconiah had, however, made one great mistake. He was aware that you +must not neglect little things, and he had neglected quite a big +little thing—the Urchin. He had never spoken to him about caves, or +taken the least notice of the boy's movements. And the Urchin on his +side had been hard at work. He had confessed to Fiona on the subject +of the footsteps, and she to him; and they had agreed, under the broad +healthy light of day, that probably they had been mistaken and afraid +of the dark, and that with lanterns it would be all right. They +agreed, however, that it was necessary to have a really good light, +and the difficulty was to find one. It was the Urchin who came forward +as the saviour of society by proposing to win over Jones, the +chauffeur, and get the loan of one of the big acetylene head-lamps +from the car. Jones, a newcomer, had not yet heard about the cave, +and, being English, he had not yet found his feet among his fellows +and was glad of any sort of diversion. The Urchin wound up a +triumphant half hour<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span> of diplomacy by making Jones promise to lend him +one of the headlights and show him how to work it. Then the Urchin +fell, as many greater men have fallen; he was lifted up with pride, +and told Jones that Fiona and he were going treasure-hunting. Jones +grinned; but that evening he talked; and in due course Jeconiah heard.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Fiona was digging in her garden, or rather in the Urchin's, for she +had assigned him one bit of it, which she had to cultivate for him; +otherwise it would have run waste, for all the work the Urchin put +into it. Her garden was one corner of the old walled garden of the +Student's house, which was not very well kept now. Once it had been +gay with flowers and rich with fruit; but now few flowers grew there +save such as could look after themselves, and the fruit had come down +to two gnarled old apple trees, in which Fiona had made her earliest +experiments in climbing. Most of the ground,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span> so far as it was in use, +was now given over to cabbages and potatoes; but in June the borders +were sweet with double white narcissus, and now in September there was +a revel of unpruned roses, their blooms growing smaller year by year, +and a mass of the dark-red blossoms of the little west coast fuchsia, +which knows how to live through the winter. One deserted corner was +gay with Turk's turban, which still had strength to push up through +the ever-thickening tangle of weeds; and groups of winter crocus were +coming up in the borders, and among them a few Shirley poppies which +Fiona had sown herself. Fiona had had thoughts of taking the garden in +hand, but the space enclosed by the old walls was far too large for +her to manage unaided; and as there was no money to pay a proper +gardener, she had had to content herself with clearing one corner. +Here she had achieved a riot of color. She had made a little rockery +of oak-leaf and beech ferns brought down from the hill, sentinelled by +tall pink foxgloves; the worn-out<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span> plum trees against the wall behind +were threaded and festooned with thick trailers of yellow and scarlet +nasturtium; and in front of the rockery, her especial pride, was a +great bed of velvet pansies, rich with every hue of the rainbow. They +were flanked by simple annuals, filmy pink poppies, orange escholtzias +and sweet-scented mignonette; and in a bed by themselves were the gold +and crimson snapdragons which the Urchin had begged for her from the +gardener at the big house.</p> + +<p>She must needs dig up a centipede, one of the small yellow ones. They +were her special dislike. The centipede did not like being dug up +either, and writhed himself into seven different sets of tangles at +once, as is the way of the smaller centipedes.</p> + +<p>"You horrid little yellow beast," she said, forgetting that he could +understand, and made a dab at him with her spade, which, to her +relief, missed him. She felt she had done her duty by hitting at him, +but did not hide from herself that she had really missed him on +purpose.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span>"Little's all right," said the centipede, "and yellow's all right; and +though I'm not really a beast, we will let it go at that. But I'm not +a bit horrid."</p> + +<p>"But I don't like you," said Fiona, "and you wriggle so."</p> + +<p>"In the circles in which I move," said the centipede, "my wriggling is +much admired. And the mere fact that you do not like me—which, I may +remind you, is only a subjective impression and has neither objective +validity nor permanent value—does not entitle you to call me names. +You ought to have learnt better, with that bangle of yours. For all +you know, I may be a model of the more unselfish virtues."</p> + +<p>"But you eat the roots of my flowers," said Fiona.</p> + +<p>"That is the first I have heard of it," said the centipede. "But one +lives and learns. It need not be the same one, though, who does both. +So in the present case I propose that I should live and you should +learn."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span>"I wasn't going to kill you really," said Fiona.</p> + +<p>The centipede bowed.</p> + +<p>"A little courtesy does oil the creaking machinery of life, doesn't +it?" he said. "Please lift me up, for I have something to tell you, +and your head is so far away. Shouting at you hurts my throat."</p> + +<p>Fiona stooped down and took up the little yellow creature in her hand.</p> + +<p>"Congratulations," said the centipede. "We <i>are</i> getting on. You +wanted badly to shudder, and you didn't. We shall make something of +you yet. My old friend the bookworm—who lives in your father's +library, by the way—has recently supplied me with a new quotation +from the great poet Virgil, who had once, you may remember, quite a +reputation as a magician. It was to the effect that if you couldn't +get what you wanted by beginning at the top, you should start again at +the bottom. I am the bottom. I am not the <i>very</i> bottom, but I am near +enough to it for your purpose. Now<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span> you see what you have gained by +not killing me."</p> + +<p>"I don't see anything yet, I'm afraid," said Fiona.</p> + +<p>"One must have patience with weaker vessels," said the centipede. "So +I will explain. My friend the bookworm, who supplies me with my +quotations, has a cousin of the same profession in the library at the +big house. It was through him that I got the story I am going to tell +you about the fat man."</p> + +<p>"Mr. Johnson!" exclaimed Fiona. "He has nothing to do with me." She +disliked Jeconiah heartily, so far as she had given any thought to +him.</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes, he has," said the centipede. "This is where I come in. My +bookworm's cousin, who is a great linguist and understands English +perfectly, was at work in the library the other evening, and the fat +man was having his coffee there. After coffee he lit a cigar and began +to walk up and down, and presently he started talking to himself out +loud, as my informant<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span> says he often does when he is excited. And by +piecing his talk together, my informant made out that he had the map +of the Scargill cave, which one of your ancestors once gambled away, +and that somehow or other he had found out that the cave of the map +<i>was</i> the Scargill cave, and that he was only waiting for a smooth day +to go and locate the treasure."</p> + +<p>"Well?" said Fiona.</p> + +<p>"Oh, come now," said the centipede, "it's no use pretending. We all +know that you are treasure-hunting—remember we can all understand +everything <i>you</i> say, whether we are linguists or not—and my advice +to you is, to be quick about it, before the fat man can get his oar +in."</p> + +<p>"Thank you so much," said Fiona. "And I am so sorry I began by being +rude. Tell me, why have you told me all this when I began by being +rude?"</p> + +<p>"Because I am a model of the more unselfish virtues, of course," said +the centipede with a suppressed chuckle. "As a fact, I had an<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span> +earth-phone from headquarters. But we are all backing you, you know. +And now will you put me down, please; the upper air is chilly."</p> + +<p>He wriggled into a crack in the ground, and was gone.</p> + +<p>That evening Fiona and the Urchin made their final preparations, in +case the morrow should fall calm. That evening also Jeconiah heard +that he had rivals in the field. His language, as he walked up and +down the library, would have been very bad for the bookworm's morals +had that intelligent insect been able to understand it all; but the +bookworm's English, though good, was literary, and much of the modern +idiom employed by Jeconiah slid off its back. Jeconiah's plan had been +to make sure that the gold was there, and then charter a launch from +Glasgow and take it straight to railway-head; he saw now that he could +not afford the time, and that unless he could deal with the children +in some way he might have to take the gold off in his boat,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span> which +would entail some risk, as well as cost him a heavy sum to buy his two +boatmen. Also he made up his mind that he must go the next morning, +whatever the weather, if it were possible to launch the boat; he knew +that the children, with their little skiff, could only go to sea on +calm days.</p> + +<p>Unfortunately for Jeconiah, the night fell calm, and though he rose +early, he had no notion of starting without a good breakfast. By the +time his boat was launched and he himself aboard, he had the pleasure +of seeing through his glasses the children's boat off the east or +nearer end of Scargill. The wealth of adjectives which he employed in +the circumstances filled his two loafers with awe and admiration.</p> + +<p>Fiona, having the Urchin securely under her roof, had breakfasted +before dawn, and as soon as it was light enough the children launched +their little boat. The Urchin had the precious headlight, ready +charged, tied up in an old sack which would also serve to bring away +the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span> plunder; and round his waist he had twisted a length of cast-off +rope. Its use was not apparent, but he thought it looked +business-like. They saw that Jeconiah's boat was still drawn up +ashore, and in good heart they started on their long pull. They had +reached the island before Jeconiah had his boat out; having no +glasses, they could not see if it was being launched or not. But off +the eastern end of the island, which is low and grassy, they had a +fright, for an empty boat was drawn ashore there. However, when they +rowed close in to look at it, Fiona recognized it.</p> + +<p>"It's Angus MacEachan's boat," she said. "He has come to see after the +sheep he has on the island. There he is, I can see him; he has got a +sheep that has hurt its foot." And indeed they could see Angus tending +a sick sheep.</p> + +<p>"Fiona," said the boy, "we are too silly for anything. Of course the +footsteps we heard in the cave were Angus's. There is another way in +somewhere, and he would be looking for a sheep."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span>Fiona said nothing. As they neared the cave, the problem of the +footsteps kept intruding itself more and more vividly upon her; but +the Urchin was happy in his theory, and she did not think it necessary +to remind him that the footsteps could not possibly have been those of +Angus, who walked with a limp. She began to feel a vague sense of +disquiet, which she tried in vain to put aside.</p> + +<p>They entered the cave, and the Urchin, with much pride, lit his great +lamp. The powerful burner threw a wonderful circle of light on to +black water and black walls, making them glow and sparkle with a soft +radiance till they looked like the very gateway of fairyland. Outside +the circle everything became black as pitch. They paddled quietly up +the bright waterway, and grounded on the stones at the end. The Urchin +was hot after his long row, and helping to draw the boat up on the +stones did not make him any cooler; he took off his jacket and pitched +it on to a thwart.</p> + +<p>"Yes, it is hot, and stuffy," said Fiona.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span> She recollected some story +she had read about a coal mine, and sniffed. "I hope there is no gas +here," she said.</p> + +<p>The Urchin grinned.</p> + +<p>"Oh, you girls!" he said. "Who ever heard of gas in a sea cave. What +you are smelling is the lamp."</p> + +<p>Fiona took the lamp up.</p> + +<p>"I'm going to take charge of this myself," she said. "You can carry +the treasure."</p> + +<p>The Urchin picked up the sack and threw it over his shoulder.</p> + +<p>"Go ahead, lady with the lamp," he said, and grinned again. He felt +very adventurous. He would rather have liked to be photographed.</p> + +<p>With considerable caution, necessitated by the heavy lamp, they +climbed the rock barrier and descended into the darkness of the inner +cave. The walking was better here; the rounded slippery boulders had +given place to a floor of pebbles and sand. Quite a short way from the +barrier the wall of the cave curved<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span> away in a semicircle on the +right, its smooth surface forming a kind of small recess. Fiona swept +the recess with her lamp, and on the sandy floor something gleamed +back; the Urchin pounced on it and picked it up. It was a gold coin, +not the least like any which the children had ever seen. It was, in +fact, a doubloon.</p> + +<p>"This must be one of them," said the boy exultantly as he pocketed it; +"one that got dropped. Come on, it can't be much farther."</p> + +<p>But Fiona held the lamp steady and stared at the sand.</p> + +<p>"Look at the marks on the sand," she said. "They are like the marks of +heavy boxes. The treasure has been here, Urchin, and it's not here +now. Someone has been here and taken it, and dropped one piece."</p> + +<p>"I don't think so," said the Urchin. "We shall find them a bit farther +on."</p> + +<p>So they went on, but not very far. For the light of the lamp suddenly +fell on a rock wall before them, the end of the cave. And it had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span> +ended, not as the other caves do, by the roof growing lower and lower +till it meets the floor; it had ended in this huge chamber of high +rocky walls.</p> + +<p>"So this is the cave that no one has ever reached the end of," said +Fiona. "Why, it goes no distance at all."</p> + +<p>They retraced their steps to the recess, and then back to the end +again, looking on this side and on that for openings, but it seemed +quite clear that there were none.</p> + +<p>"The boxes must have been carried off by sea," said Fiona.</p> + +<p>But the Urchin had an idea.</p> + +<p>"No one would try to carry great heavy boxes over the rock barrier," +he said. "They'd just take the gold out in sacks."</p> + +<p>"The barrier may be a rock-fall," said Fiona. "The treasure may all +have been cleared out long ago."</p> + +<p>And then there came to the Urchin the realization of the fact that he +had lost his gun. He turned very red.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span>"It's a shame," he said angrily, "an awful shame. It was given to me, +and someone has taken it. Can't you think where it could be, Fiona? +I'd go <i>anywhere</i> to find it."</p> + +<p>Whatever Fiona may have been going to say, her words tailed off into +sudden silence. For from beyond the cave wall, as it seemed, sounded +again the footsteps which they had heard before; and this time they +knew that there was no cave there, and that It was walking through +solid rock as if along a road. There was no question this time of any +concealment or pretence; both frankly turned tail and made for the +rock barrier. Halfway there the Urchin tripped and fell heavily on his +head. Fiona put the lamp down and helped him up, dizzy and shaking.</p> + +<p>"Can you go on, Urchin?" she said. "If not, I'll try and carry you."</p> + +<p>The Urchin looked back into the blackness, unrelieved by any ray of +the lamp, which faced the other way. The footsteps were steadily +drawing nearer, neither hasting nor<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span> staying. What the Urchin may have +thought he saw Fiona could not guess; he gave one shriek, slid out of +her grasp, and bolted for the rock barrier as fast as his trembling +feet would carry him.</p> + +<p>For one moment Fiona all but followed him. Then it suddenly came to +her that she was responsible for the boy's safety. She never knew +afterwards how she managed to do what she did; but she turned, and +with the courage of utter desperation—the courage which enables the +hen partridge to face the sparrow hawk—stood at bay, swinging up the +heavy lamp to see and face whatever should come.</p> + +<p>And into the circle of lamplight quietly walked the figure of the old +hawker.</p> + +<p>The revulsion of feeling was too much for Fiona. She sprang forward +and caught the old man's hand and clung to it.</p> + +<p>"Oh," she said, "I'm so glad it's you. We heard the footsteps and we +were so frightened." The relief of it all was overwhelming; she was +almost crying, and went on saying anything,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span> hardly knowing what she +said, just for the mere human companionableness of it. "How did you +come here? I suppose you came over with Angus in his boat. Of course +you would. Then there must be another way into the cave after all, and +we couldn't find it."</p> + +<p>"And so I frightened you?" said the old man gently, making no effort +to withdraw his hand. "Yes, there is another way in." He made no +attempt to answer all her questions.</p> + +<p>"Urchin," called Fiona, raising her voice. "Urchin, come back; it's +all right."</p> + +<p>But there was no answer.</p> + +<p>"Urchin," she shouted; "Urchin."</p> + +<p>But there was no answer save the echoing of the empty cave.</p> + +<p>"He was going down to the boat," she said, loyally repressing the fact +that the Urchin had bolted. "We must go after him, for he had hurt his +head, and I am afraid of his falling again."</p> + +<p>They climbed the rock barrier, and made their way to the boat. The +boat lay there as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span> it had been left, half ashore, with the swell +rippling against the stern, and over one thwart the Urchin's jacket, +just as he had thrown it down. And the boat was as empty as the cave.</p> + +<p>Into Fiona's eyes came a sudden fear.</p> + +<p>"He must have fallen again, and be lying somewhere," she said.</p> + +<p>They went back, searching every nook and corner of the cave, turning +the light into every crevice, under every rock, making a minute +examination of the rock barrier; and there was no sign.</p> + +<p>And then Fiona broke down.</p> + +<p>"He is drowned," she said, and just sat and sobbed.</p> + +<p>After a few moments the old man came and sat down beside her. In his +gentle voice he said that the Urchin could not possibly be drowned. +The water was quite shallow at the edge, and he was a good swimmer, +was he not? And even if he had not been, the swell would have rolled +him ashore. He himself had no doubt that all would come right.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span>Fiona ceased sobbing and turned on him.</p> + +<p>"Do you know where he is?" she demanded bluntly.</p> + +<p>"How would I know when you do not know?" said the old man. "Could I +see what you could not see?" And then "Listen."</p> + +<p>Down the waterway came voices, and the sound of oars. It was in fact +Jeconiah's boat entering the cave.</p> + +<p>Fiona caught at the straw.</p> + +<p>"He may have swum out to the other boat," she said.</p> + +<p>But there was no one in the other boat but Jeconiah and his two men. +They had powerful lanterns, and the boat was full of sacks. Jeconiah +himself was purple with suppressed rage and impatience. The moment he +could get ashore, he waddled up to Fiona and shook the map of the cave +in her face, exclaiming, "Remember, if you have found anything it +belongs to me and I claim it."</p> + +<p>Fiona had only one thought in her mind at the moment, and the foolish +impertinence of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span> the little fat man was to her merely so much +unnecessary sound. Her answer was "Have you seen the Urchin? We have +lost him. Did he not swim out to your boat?" She was almost sobbing +again.</p> + +<p>"Confound the brat!" said Jeconiah roughly. "I've not come here to +play hide-and-seek with a parcel of children. Tell me at once what +you've found."</p> + +<p>Fiona straightened herself, and looked at Jeconiah as though he were +some noxious reptile.</p> + +<p>"There was nothing here to find," she said. "And this cave belongs to +my father. And anything in it he gave to the Urchin."</p> + +<p>"Well, he's not here," said Jeconiah brutally, "and I am. Who finds, +keeps."</p> + +<p>And calling to his men to bring the lights, he set off, between +stumbling and crawling, for the rock barrier. One of the men had the +decency to stop a moment and tell Fiona that they had seen nothing of +any boy; Jeconiah turned and abused him for a laggard.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span>With a good deal of difficulty the two men hoisted and shoved Jeconiah +over the rock barrier. Once over, he took a light himself, told the +men to wait where they were, and after a good look at the map set out +for the recess where the Urchin had found the doubloon. Fiona followed +him; there was some vague idea in her mind of protecting the Urchin's +property; behind that there was still a faint subconscious hope that +in some way or other the Urchin would suddenly reappear, and laugh at +her terrors.</p> + +<p>Jeconiah reached the recess. He saw and understood the marks of the +boxes on the sand. He swung round on Fiona with a snarl like that of a +hungry wolf.</p> + +<p>"You think you're clever, don't you, you and your father," he said. "I +suppose you've had the stuff moved. But I'll have it if I go to the +middle of the earth for it."</p> + +<p>It was the old hawker who shouted. He had stood apart, a silent +spectator of the scene. And at this moment he called out,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span> in a voice +of surprising power for so frail a body:</p> + +<p>"Look out above you. Jump."</p> + +<p>Fiona, who had learned to obey, jumped back just in time. But Jeconiah +had never learnt to obey any orders but his own. He stood, stupidly +staring, as a bit of the roof of the cave bowed downward, gave way, +and came cascading about him in a shower of earth and big stones, that +filled the air with thick dust. When the dust cleared again, they saw +Jeconiah lying on his back in the middle of the cliff fall, +motionless, and to all appearance dead.</p> + +<p>But Fiona was not looking at Jeconiah. She was looking at the place +where the roof of the cave had bowed itself before falling; and into +her mind came crowding dim forgotten legends, legends of fear and +hope. And she was saying over and over again to herself, as though she +might miss its purport, that behind the cliff fall, as if impelling +and directing it, she had seen a small brown elfin hand.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span></p><hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>It was the old hawker who took charge of the situation. The two men, +who at first had looked as if they would run, became amenable when he +spoke to them. They carried Jeconiah's body to his boat, and laid it +in the stern-sheets. One of the men pointed out that there was no mark +at all on his face or head, and that he did not believe he had been +struck.</p> + +<p>"Died of fright, I expect," he said curtly.</p> + +<p>"Lucky we stood out for wages in advance," said his companion. It +looked as if this might be Jeconiah's fitting epitaph.</p> + +<p>The old man himself went with Fiona in her boat. But he was too feeble +to row far, so he landed on the island and went in search of Angus. In +due course Angus came down and rowed Fiona home, saying that the old +man was going to look after his sheep for him till he returned. It did +not occur to Fiona, until they had gone too far to turn back, that it +looked as though the old man wished to avoid questions. Her mind was +in a helpless whirl in which everything seemed unreal, except<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span> the +Urchin and that small brown hand. She could not give her father any +very coherent account of what had happened; but he went out at once to +find a boat and men to search the cave.</p> + +<p>Jeconiah was laid on his bed in the big house, and there was much +commotion there; this one must go for the doctor and that one for the +Student; scared maids stood and whispered in the corridors; the two +loafers, heroes of the hour, feasted happily in the kitchen. Then the +doctor came, and went upstairs with a grave face, as befitted the +occasion; but he did not come down again, and surmise grew. Half an +hour passed before the door opened, and the doctor, smiling and +rubbing his hands together, came into the library, where the Student +had just entered and was talking to the housekeeper.</p> + +<p>"He's not dead at all," said the doctor. "It's catalepsy—suspended +animation, you know. Like the frog in the marble. Had a shock, you +tell me? Just so, just so. How<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span> long? Oh, he may be an hour, and he +may be a month; no one can ever say. Never had the good luck to see a +case before. Not <i>very</i> uncommon, no. Mustn't try to rouse him, you +know; might be dangerous. Just wait. Send for me at once if he comes +to. Can get two nurses to watch him, if you like; just as well +perhaps. Sometimes they are odd when they wake; think they are someone +else for a bit, you know, change their habits, and so on. Dual +personality? Oh, yes, several well-attested cases; but I don't mean as +much as that. Might arise this way, of course; but what I mean is more +just queer. But of course he need not be; might wake up as if he'd +been asleep. If it lasts long, take away all the almanacs and things, +in case he gets a shock. Well, good day, good day."</p> + +<p>And the doctor went; and Jeconiah's body lay still on the bed, waiting +till his soul, if he had one, should return to it.</p> + +<p>So the Student went home again; and on his way he met the old hawker, +who stopped and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span> spoke to him; and for a few moments the two walked +together, the old man talking rather quickly. Fiona, watching from the +window of the bookroom, could see that her father first looked puzzled +and then grave and then considerably relieved; in a dim kind of way +she found herself thinking that Angus must have rowed back very fast +to Scargill, if the old hawker were already landed. She was wondering +who he really was and why her father talked to him.</p> + +<p>"Tell Anne to get us something to eat—anything," said the Student. +"The boat will be here directly."</p> + +<p>The Student, by straining what remained of old loyalty as far as he +dared, had found half a dozen volunteers, good men, to face the +haunted cave, provided he went himself.</p> + +<p>"Do you want to come, Fiona?" he said. Of course Fiona meant to come.</p> + +<p>And while they waited, the Student questioned Fiona, and had the whole +story coherently, except the hand. That part Fiona<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span> felt she could not +tell; there, in the cheerful bookroom, it seemed so impossible. Once +or twice he nodded, and said, "That would be so"; and at the end he +pointed out that whatever had happened had happened when her back was +turned, as she faced the coming footsteps. She had not thought of +that. What puzzled her, and hurt her a little, was that, though her +father seemed to feel for <i>her</i>, he did not appear to be particularly +concerned about the Urchin. "I believe it will come right," was all he +said.</p> + +<p>The boat arrived, rowed by strong hands; the men worked with a will, +and the distance to the cave seemed short. They had brought good +lights, and the Student had a powerful electric torch. High and low +they searched the cave, and found nothing. One man, who was a good +swimmer, dived several times and found nothing there either. Tracking +footsteps was impossible; the sand, where there was any, had been +hopelessly trampled.</p> + +<p>When nothing more could be done, the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span> Student said that he wanted to +look for a thing himself which he had an idea of. He went down to the +end of the cave with his torch and tapped the wall with a geological +hammer. Fiona sat on the rock barrier and watched him; what he was +seeking she had no idea. He came slowly back down the cave, tapping +the wall, till he reached the recess where the Urchin had picked up +the doubloon. He went straight to the back of the recess and tapped +the wall there; and even as he did so a large piece of stone fell from +above, and smashed the electric torch in his hand. He came back to the +rock barrier quite unperturbed, looking as if he had found what he +sought.</p> + +<p>"Not very safe, this cave," he said calmly; and told the men to push +off the boat. "There is nothing more we can do," he said; "the boy is +certainly not here."</p> + +<p>The men's courage was fast ebbing away; they were glad to get out of +the haunted place.</p> + +<p>Fiona sat in silence all the way home. It<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span> was dark before they +reached the house. She waited while Anne bustled over supper; she +thought she would never see her father alone. At last supper was over, +and he went into the bookroom and began to light his pipe; she +followed him. Her words came out in a torrent.</p> + +<p>"Daddy," she said, "what does it all mean? and why are you so strange +and unconcerned? What did that old man tell you? If I couldn't see, +<i>he</i> must have seen, for he was facing. What is it you know? And why +have you told me nothing?"</p> + +<p>"Sit down, little daughter," said the Student. He drew her beside his +knee, with her head on his arm. "I will tell you now what I can. The +old man gave me a sort of hint. He did not really see, for the lamp +was the other way; I fancy he guessed. I wanted to test what he said +to me. I have tested it now with my hammer; it all agrees. I am +absolutely certain that no harm has come to the Urchin. But I can do +nothing for him myself. And I must not even tell you what I think; +for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span> if I do it ruins everything. All I may tell you is this, that you +are the only person who can do anything. You will have to do it all +yourself and by yourself, little daughter. I believe you have ways and +means of your own of finding out. Are you going through with it, +Fiona?"</p> + +<p>"Of course I am, daddy," she said. "How can I do anything else? If +only I knew what it is I have to do to find him—how to begin even."</p> + +<p>"I cannot even tell you that," said the Student. But his fingers +played with the copper bangle on her wrist. And out of some dim corner +of subconsciousness she seemed to hear a small voice which said "If +you can't get what you want by beginning at the top you must start +again at the bottom." Her father, with his learning, was the top; the +bottom . . . ?</p> + +<p>Fiona went to bed less miserable than she had expected.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span></p> + +<h2 class="newchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V<br /> +<span class="smalltext">THE OREAD</span></h2> + + +<p>Fiona was out long before breakfast next morning, digging furiously in +her garden. Not many minutes passed before she was rewarded by a glint +of something yellow in a shovelful of earth, and there was the +centipede.</p> + +<p>"You dear creature," she said, and caught it up quickly before it +could wriggle away.</p> + +<p>"How polite we are this morning," said the centipede, swelling with +conscious pride. "I suppose we want something."</p> + +<p>Fiona's mind was far too completely taken up with her one object to +notice or resent any insinuations.</p> + +<p>"Yes, I do," she said. "You told me that if I could not get what I +wanted by beginning at the top I must start again at the bottom.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span> I +can do nothing from the top this time, so I've come to you."</p> + +<p>"Flattered, to be sure," said the centipede. "How frank we are."</p> + +<p>"Please don't be cross," said Fiona, humbly. "I am only doing what you +told me to do."</p> + +<p>"Bless you, child, I'm not cross," said the centipede. "I'm a +philosopher."</p> + +<p>"Don't philosophers get cross?" asked the girl.</p> + +<p>"Never," said the centipede. "And when they do they call it something +else. What's the matter with me is, that I've sprained my seventh +ankle on bow side, counting from the tail. Don't say you're sorry, for +you're not. Anyone can see you're not."</p> + +<p>"You are horrid to-day," said Fiona. "And the other day you were so +nice."</p> + +<p>"That's what makes me such a charming companion," said the centipede. +"You never know what to expect. So I never pall."</p> + +<p>"I want to know where the Urchin is, and how I am to find him," said +Fiona.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span>"Is that all?" said the centipede. "Fancy interrupting my breakfast on +account of that boy. Well, one question at a time. We'll have the last +one first; I'm in that sort of mood to-day."</p> + +<p>"How can I find the Urchin, then, please?" asked Fiona.</p> + +<p>"Well, you've been told <i>that</i> already," said the centipede. "Haven't +you a memory?"</p> + +<p>Fiona thought and thought, but could make nothing of it.</p> + +<p>"My friend the bookworm was there at the time," said the centipede, +"and heard the shore lark tell you that the last man went up a hill. +Very well. Go up a hill."</p> + +<p>"But that was for something quite different," said Fiona. "That was +for my treasure. I am not thinking of any treasure now."</p> + +<p>"Silly of you, then," said the centipede. "I would be. Ever studied +philosophy?"</p> + +<p>"No," said Fiona.</p> + +<p>"That's a pity," said the centipede. "Then you've never heard of Hegel +and the unity of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span> opposites? Black and white are only different +aspects of the same thing, you know. And as soon as you begin to think +about it, you see at once how sensible it is. Well, a treasure-hunt +and a boy-hunt are only different aspects of a hunt, aren't they? +Therefore they are the same thing. Therefore what does for one does +for the other. Therefore you go up a hill. There's logic for you," and +once more he swelled proudly.</p> + +<p>"Thank you very much," said Fiona. "And now will you please tell me +where the Urchin is?"</p> + +<p>"Tell you!" exclaimed the centipede. "Why, it was you told me. You +prophesied the whole thing."</p> + +<p>"I'm sure I don't remember it, then," said Fiona.</p> + +<p>"What's the matter with <i>you</i>," said the centipede, "is that you +refuse to exert your intelligence, such as it is. You should take a +lesson by me. You humans are all forgetting nowadays that the spoken +word is an instru<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span>ment of great power, and that once it is launched it +goes on and on, and can work magic on its own account, quite +independently of you. If you say a thing will happen, it frequently +does happen."</p> + +<p>"But what did I say?" asked Fiona.</p> + +<p>"You told the Urchin that if he hurt the shore lark the Little People +would take him. Well, they've taken him. That's all."</p> + +<p>And the centipede slid down on to the ground, and with something like +a chuckle vanished. He had evidently learned from his philosophy to +bear with resignation the misfortunes of others.</p> + +<p>But Fiona did not set off up a hill at once. After breakfast she went +to the bookroom and spoke to her father.</p> + +<p>"I have found out where the Urchin is, daddy," she said. "He was +carried off by the fairies."</p> + +<p>The Student showed no surprise.</p> + +<p>"You have not been long finding out,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span> Fiona," he said. "I thought you +had ways and means of your own."</p> + +<p>"But, daddy," she said, "I don't <i>really</i> believe it, you know. It +sounds so absurd nowadays. Do you believe it?"</p> + +<p>"I believe it, yes," said the Student. "I knew yesterday. Now that you +know, I may talk to you about it, so far."</p> + +<p>"I don't know that I do really know," she said. "Things like that +don't <i>really</i> happen, do they? Whoever heard of it?"</p> + +<p>"You and I have heard of it," he answered. "And that is enough. The +proposition that people are not carried off by fairies is a mere +working hypothesis, liable to be overthrown by any one case to the +contrary. Well, we've got a case to the contrary, and that's the end +of the hypothesis."</p> + +<p>"I'm arguing against myself, daddy, you know," she said. "I want to +believe that we do know where he is."</p> + +<p>"No difficulty at all," said the Student, "to anyone with a properly +trained mind, like<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span> yours and mine. Take it this way. No one has ever +crossed the South Arabian desert or explored the snow ranges of New +Guinea, have they? Well, for all anyone can say to the contrary, +people may be carried off by fairies every day of the week in New +Guinea or South Arabia, mayn't they? It may even be the rule there. It +may be a working hypothesis among the pygmies of New Guinea that such +a thing <i>always</i> happens—at death, for instance. It would be just as +good a working hypothesis as it is that it <i>never</i> happens."</p> + +<p>"But, daddy, it would be so extraordinary, wouldn't it?"</p> + +<p>"Not a bit more extraordinary," he said, "than the inside of a bit of +radium, or the inside of an egg, for that matter. It is probably +simpler for the Urchin to become a fairy than for an egg to become a +bird, or a caterpillar a butterfly. It would not be nearly as strange +as it is that there is a water beast which can shed its gills and +become a land beast, or that Uranus moons go round the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span> wrong way. You +can't knock it out by any reasoning of that kind, Fiona. It's merely a +matter of fact; and if we have found a case we <i>have</i> found a case."</p> + +<p>"Then you knew yesterday, daddy?" she said.</p> + +<p>"I had a very fair idea," he answered. "That is why I was tapping in +the cave with a hammer. Can you guess why?"</p> + +<p>Fiona saw.</p> + +<p>"To find the rest of the cave," she said. "That is where he would be."</p> + +<p>"Just so," said the Student. "These caves cannot end in a wall, as +that one seems to. I thought the wall must ring hollow somewhere, and +the hollow is in the recess where the stone nearly fell on me. The +apparent end of the cave is not in the line of the true cave at all."</p> + +<p>"It is the same place where the stones fell on Mr. Johnson," said +Fiona.</p> + +<p>"That is strange," said the Student.</p> + +<p>And then Fiona told about the hand she had seen.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span>"Of course, of course," said the Student. "That explains the whole +thing. They threw the stone down on me too. They did not wish me to +know that the wall was hollow just there. They must use it as a +doorway. They will have carried the boy through at the moment that you +turned your back, of course. I suppose he invited them in some way; +they could have no power otherwise."</p> + +<p>"He said he would go <i>anywhere</i> to find his treasure," said Fiona.</p> + +<p>"That would be quite sufficient for them to act on," said the Student.</p> + +<p>"Then the stories about the cruelty of the Little People are true," +asked Fiona.</p> + +<p>"Only in part," said the Student. "I take it that they are all sorts, +like ourselves. They are, as you know, the vanished débris of all the +peoples that have helped to make this planet what it is. Good people, +many of them. But they cannot altogether love those who have driven +them under the ground."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span>"And who is the old hawker, daddy," she asked, "and what has he to do +with it all?"</p> + +<p>"I can't talk about anything except what you already know," said the +Student. "Have you found out yet how to start?"</p> + +<p>"I am to go up a hill," said Fiona. "And I am going up Heleval now. +And I came to see if you would come with me."</p> + +<p>"I wish I could; I wish very much I could," said the Student. "I do +not know what you may find; but I know well that if I went with you, +you would find nothing but grass and rock. I am too old to see the +things you can see, you know. You have to do it alone, little +daughter."</p> + +<p>So Fiona filled her pocket with bread and cheese, and started; and the +Student, after a useless attempt to settle down to his inscriptions, +set up a little three-inch telescope with which he sometimes +entertained Fiona on fine nights, gazing at Jupiter's moons or +Saturn's rings, and followed her across the moor as far<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span> as he could. +It was the only way he could go with her.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>There are many worse things in the world than setting out to climb +Heleval on a beautiful morning on the first of October, when the grass +in unsunned corners is still pearly with the frost of the night, and +the whole earth is touched with the wonderful caress of the cool +autumn sunshine. Fiona's way lay along the shore road, past the bank +of heather and fern which in August had been gay with flowers, napperd +and potentilla, blue milkwort and starry eye-bright, and alive with +butterflies, blues and small heaths and pearl-bordered fritillaries; +but the flowers were faded now, and in their place, in the little burn +where the hazelnuts grew, was a tapestry of purple burrs and scarlet +hips. The shore road ended at a little burn; here an old stone bridge, +grown over with grass, crossed the pool which in times of spate would +hold a fat, white sea-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span>trout, and here Fiona and the Urchin had used +to come in summer to gather globe flowers. From this point a sheep +track led up the valley beside the burn, through great spaces of +yellowing bracken, by little swampy springs where late forget-me-nots +still lingered and an early snipe might rise with a skeep, and across +low-lying wastes of bog-myrtle, perfuming all the air with its dying +leaves; then the ground began to rise, and fern and bog-myrtle gave +place to short, hard grass tufted with bulrushes, and beds of matted +unburnt heather, seamed with rabbit tracks.</p> + +<p>After a time Fiona left the valley and began to climb the hillside, +rising steeply through heather and red grass and heather again, most +of it dying by now, but with patches still in full flower, worked by +the wild bees and making the moorland smell like a honey-pot. Then +more grass, and limestone ridges, and she stood on the crest of the +moor, which billowed away on her right, wave after wave, till it ran +down to the low ground and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span> the sea, and rose up on her left till it +ended in the great mass of Heleval, standing up into the cloudless +sky. The ground before her was scarred with deep peat-hags, their gray +banks touched with the tiny scarlet blossoms of the trumpet-moss, +while from their crumbling sides projected bits of the whitened trunks +of trees long since dead, last vestiges of the forests that had +clothed the island ere ever the Gael first fought his way in. Walking +became impossible, and she jumped from gray bank to gray bank, +occasionally floundering across a little lake of soft peat, where the +wild cotton grass still bloomed, and the mountain hares had left +telltale tracks. Now and again a hare itself would scurry away before +her up one of the peat ditches, rising to the moor level as soon as he +thought he was out of gunshot and sitting up on his haunches to watch; +now and again an old grouse, his head and hackles red as a berry in +the sunlight, would rise, crow, and swing away over the brow of the +moor. And presently from behind Hele<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span>val came drifting a gray bird +with a long bill who on hovering wings wheeled three times in the air +above her and gave his full spring call, the most wonderful sound that +the hills ever hear; then he stooped close over her head and with +wings spread sickle-wise shot away for the sea. One may see a curlew +on the moor in October, but he will not give his spring call; and +Fiona felt of good courage, for she knew that the bird had called for +her, to tell her she was in the right way.</p> + +<p>So she came to the foot of Heleval itself, and started to climb the +steep slope of short grass, slippery as polished board, which led up +to the rock pinnacle above; the hillside twinkled with the white scuts +of rabbits racing up before her to their holes, as round the side of +the mountain came their enemy, perhaps the last kite in the island, +glittering in the sun as only a glede can, till the beautiful cowardly +creature caught sight of Fiona and swept away across the valley. She +passed the great cairn where the hill foxes live, and began the last +climb<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span> to the pinnacle of rock that fronts the flat crest of the +mountain. And now something white on the rock, which she had noticed +from below without taking account of, began to become insistent. It +could not possibly be a patch of snow yet, she thought. Perhaps the +shepherd had hung a sheepskin there. But no sheepskin was ever so +white.</p> + +<p>Then she came up near the pinnacle, and saw. Standing upright against +it was a girl, not much older than herself. Her long dark hair blew +back over the rock; her white body was half hidden in a trembling veil +of white light, which shimmered and played all about her, waving with +every breath of the wind. Her face was beautiful and cold, like a +frosty moonrise; her eyes shone like the drip of phosphorescent water +under the stars.</p> + +<p>"You have come at last," said the girl. "Every day for many days I +have watched for you."</p> + +<p>"Who are you, you beautiful girl?" asked Fiona.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span>"I am an Oread," said the girl. "I am the spirit of Heleval."</p> + +<p>"I have heard," said Fiona, "that long ago people used to believe that +everything had a spirit of its own, mountains and rivers and trees. Is +it true then?"</p> + +<p>"It <i>was</i> true," said the girl. "The world was full of my sisters, +once. There were the Naiads in the streams, and the Hamadryads in the +woods, and we, the Oreads, in the mountains. Men were wiser and +simpler in those days. But now my sisters are nearly all gone. When a +tree has become so many cubic feet of timber, how can it shelter a +Dryad? When a stream is merely so many units of waterpower, how can a +Naiad dwell there? Only the barren mountains, if they contain neither +gold nor iron, have been left unappraised and unexploited; and a few +Oreads still linger here and there. Once in a while a man fancies that +he sees one of us; then he must climb and climb till the day he dies, +hoping to see her indeed; down<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span> in your world people call him mountain +mad."</p> + +<p>"How is it then that I have seen you?" asked Fiona.</p> + +<p>The Oread touched her bracelet.</p> + +<p>"Partly because of this," she said. "But chiefly because you are a +child, and can still see. What is it you have come to ask me?"</p> + +<p>"How to find the Urchin," said Fiona.</p> + +<p>"You know of course where he is?" the girl asked; and Fiona said, +"Yes, he is in Fairyland; but I do not know the way to go."</p> + +<p>"That is easily told," said the Oread. "The King of the Woodcock will +let you in, and any of his people can tell you where to find him. But +do you know the danger? If you do arrive, which is very doubtful, the +fairies will make you wish a wish; and if your wish be one that does +not find favor with them, they will keep you there forever, till you +lose your memory and yourself and become even as one of them."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span>"I will take the risk," said Fiona, "for I must go and try to bring +him back."</p> + +<p>"Why do you want to bring him back?" asked the Oread. "He is much +better where he is. Will he thank you for bringing him back? Not a +bit. You will have the labor and the danger, and he will take it all +for granted. And then he will become a man, and what use is that? He +may be a financier, and cheat somebody; or a politician, and slander +somebody; or a learned man, and hinder wisdom. He is much better in +Fairyland. Why are you going?"</p> + +<p>"I can't help it," said Fiona. "You can't leave people in the lurch, +you know."</p> + +<p>"Of course you can," said the Oread. "Be sensible and go home; eat, +drink, and be merry."</p> + +<p>"O, don't you understand?" said Fiona. "Don't you see that there are +some things you <i>can't</i> do, whatever anybody says? It's not the reason +of the thing; it's only just because I am I, and he is lost. You are +so beautiful; haven't you any heart?"</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span>"Neither heart nor soul," said the Oread. "So I ought to be perfectly +happy. You have a heart and a soul, and you are not. Which of us is +the better off?"</p> + +<p>"I wouldn't change, anyhow," said Fiona.</p> + +<p>The Oread laughed.</p> + +<p>"Of course you wouldn't. It is I who would change if I could. But as I +have no soul, and cannot get one, and do not know what it would mean +to get one, it is no use worrying; it is best to be happy as I am. In +any case, I would not care to be like men and women. I would not mind +having a child's heart, like you. I had a heart once, but it is so +long ago that I have almost forgotten what it was like. How old do you +think I am?"</p> + +<p>"You <i>look</i> about seventeen," said Fiona.</p> + +<p>"I am exactly as old as Heleval," said the girl. "And that is more +hundreds of thousands of years than you or I could ever count. I am +older than any of the fishes or birds or beasts; far older than men or +fairies. Look at that," and the Oread swept her arm over the glorious<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span> +prospect around her; the two great wings of the Isle of Mist stretched +far out into the sea, the Atlantic throbbing and sparkling under the +blue sky, and across the loch the jagged gray range of the Cuchullins, +peak upon peak. "Isn't it all beautiful? We came into being together. +Heleval was a giant in those days, a king among other kings; and there +was no sea there, and the Cuchullin Hills stood right up into the sky, +and twisted and bubbled while the Earth cooled and cracked, and my +sisters of the Fire came out of the cracks and taught us mountain +spirits the fire dance, and we danced it all night on the great peaks +till the stars reeled to watch us. And then the fiery summits cooled +and sank down, and my sisters of the Fire sank with them, and a mighty +river went foaming out down the valley yonder to a distant sea; and +every evening my sisters the Naiads came floating up in a circle with +garlands of green on their hair, and they taught us mountain spirits +the water dance, and we danced it all night on the moonlit water, +while<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span> the Ocean crept nearer and nearer to gaze. And then the sea +came up, and the river carved Heleval out as you see it, and shrank +away, and my sisters the Naiads shrank away with it; and the island +was covered with great forests, and my sisters the Hamadryads came out +of the tree-trunks and taught us mountain spirits the tree dance, and +we danced it all night in the forest glades, till one night men saw; +and men felled the forests to capture my sisters of the trees and +enslave them, but they vanished as the trees vanished. And to-day only +the hills are left, and we, the Oreads, a people few and fading away; +and we no longer dance, for we have lost all our sisters, and we no +longer have hearts."</p> + +<p>The girl's face had filled with color as she spoke, and her eyes had +become soft, and her voice sounded like the music of waters far away. +Fiona looked at her in wonder.</p> + +<p>"Indeed, indeed, you have your heart still," she said. "And you are +far more beautiful even than I thought you were. Come home<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span> with me, +and I will love you as you loved your sisters."</p> + +<p>"It is not possible," said the Oread. "It is not free to me to leave +Heleval. I <i>am</i> Heleval. And I shall be here till one day men find +iron or copper in my mountain, and come up with great engines to carve +it and tear its flanks and carry it away; and then I shall go too, as +my sisters have gone."</p> + +<p>"Will you die?" asked Fiona.</p> + +<p>"I do not know what death means," said the girl. "I shall just go +back, like a drop of water when it falls into the sea. But do you know +what you have done to-day? For a few moments, because you are brave +and loyal, you have given me back my heart, which was lost thousands +of years ago. It will all fade away again; but before it fades, will +you kiss me?"</p> + +<p>So Fiona took her in her arms and kissed her, and then turned and went +down the hill. Once she faced round, and saw the Oread standing, +frosty and white, against the pin<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span>nacle of rock, holding out her arms; +and she started to go back to her. And even as she moved the whiteness +vanished, and there was nothing there but the rocky pinnacle, shining +in the slanting sunlight. Rather sadly she went home.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span></p> + +<h2 class="newchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI<br /> +<span class="smalltext">THE KING OF THE WOODCOCK</span></h2> + + +<p>That night Fiona told her father that she believed she had found the +way to go. They also discussed the question of catching a woodcock; +with the result that Fiona was up at dawn and off to the kennels +behind the big house, where the Urchin's father kept his dogs. She +understood that she must take advantage both of the night frost and +the habits of the keeper, who was apt to lie in bed awhile when no one +was about.</p> + +<p>The two setters stood on their hind legs to greet her, and pawed at +the bars, whining and dancing with joy. Artemis was white and brown +and Apollo was white and black. Fiona threw open the door, and they +were out in a moment, tumbling over each other as they<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span> made wild +rings round the grass, and dashing back in between to lick her hand. +She had to sit down and wait till the first exuberance was over, and +they came and lay down at her feet with their tongues out.</p> + +<p>"It is good to be out so early," said Apollo.</p> + +<p>"It's so slow in the kennel," said Artemis. "And we can't even talk to +each other, because Apollo was broken in English and doesn't know any +Gaelic, and I was broken by another man in Gaelic and don't know any +English."</p> + +<p>"You'll interpret, won't you?" said Apollo. "Of course we've the +international code, but it doesn't take one much further than the +passwords."</p> + +<p>So for the rest of the morning Fiona had not only to interpret but to +make every remark twice over, once in each language. But it will do if +the reader takes this for granted.</p> + +<p>"What are we going to do?" asked Apollo.</p> + +<p>So Fiona explained to them that she wanted to catch a woodcock and ask +him a question, and she hoped they would help her.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span>"Of course we will," said Artemis. "We know all about woodcock. When +we go out with himself, we find them for him and stand still, and then +he makes a noise and they fall down dead."</p> + +<p>"Sometimes," said Apollo.</p> + +<p>"Generally," corrected Artemis, loyally. "Will you make them fall down +dead?"</p> + +<p>Fiona explained that she only wanted to catch one and talk to it.</p> + +<p>"We never saw that done," said Apollo. "But we will find one, and then +you can catch it."</p> + +<p>"It's very early for woodcock," said Artemis. "There won't be any in +the heather on the second of October. But there may be an early pair +in the ferns."</p> + +<p>"The first ones always pitch in the ferns on Glenollisdal," said +Apollo.</p> + +<p>So to Glenollisdal they went, down the shore road and across the +little bridge and then by the shepherd's track along the top of the +black cliffs, over grass and stones all<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span> rough and white with the +frost. The cold morning air was like new wine, and Fiona had to shade +her eyes from the low sun. Then the track left the cliffs and began to +climb up a sunless valley, across little burns beautiful with fading +ferns, till between two great moorland crags it reached the pass, more +a watercourse now than a track; and then came the cairn at the summit +of the pass, with its glorious view of sea and mountain, and down at +one's very feet the deep narrow valley that was Glenollisdal, seamed +from crest to foot by its deep burn, which ran half its length through +faded brown heather and then out to sea through a huge bed of dying +bracken, the whole bathed in the bright morning sun.</p> + +<p>"We always come here the first day," said Apollo. "Oh, we are going to +have fun."</p> + +<p>The three followed the track down to where it passed the top of the +fern bed. There was a good deal of grass there, dotted with sheep, and +in one place, looking well out to sea, a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span> curious little hard circle +in the grass, where no sheep ever came.</p> + +<p>"That is the fairy ring," said Artemis. "Where they dance, you know."</p> + +<p>"They dance on All Hallows E'en," said Apollo. "But no one ever sees +them."</p> + +<p>"Because everyone's afraid to go and look," said Artemis.</p> + +<p>"Please, may we start?" said Apollo.</p> + +<p>"All you have to do is to wait till we point," said Artemis, "and then +come to us."</p> + +<p>And the two dogs dashed off into the great fern bed, crossing each +other backwards and forwards like a pair of scissors as they quartered +it.</p> + +<p>They were not long about it. Apollo's gallop became a sort of run, a +yard or two of stealthy crawl, and he stopped dead, tail stiff and +throat distended, like a dog of marble, and looked round for Fiona. +Artemis was just crossing him; she whipped round in her stride as if +shot and became a second marble image where she stood.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span>Fiona walked down to Apollo. But the ferns rustled a good deal as she +made her way through, and as she reached the dog's side the cock rose, +five yards away, with a lazy careless flap as if it felt only the +bother of being disturbed. For a moment she had a vivid impression of +the white patches at the end of its fan of tail feathers, and then it +gradually gathered speed and swept away over the side of the valley; +for an instant it showed black as it crossed the sky line, and then it +was gone.</p> + +<p>Apollo turned to Fiona with unhappy eyes and licked her hand. But +Artemis never moved a muscle.</p> + +<p>"Come to me," she said in a low whisper.</p> + +<p>Very quietly Fiona reached her side.</p> + +<p>"The other bird is here," whispered Artemis, "just under my nose. +Stoop down."</p> + +<p>Fiona bent down between the stalks of the bracken. The woodcock was +sitting with its back to her, a little brown bunch of feathers. Very +gently she put her hand out, and even<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span> as she did so she became aware +of a wise black eye looking at her, though the bird faced the other +way. Her hand closed on the empty air, and the woodcock, with a +wonderful spring, was well on its way to seek its mate.</p> + +<p>"I believe I could have put a foot on it," said Artemis regretfully. +"But of course we are not allowed to."</p> + +<p>"I don't know how I came to be so foolish," said Fiona. "I ought to +have spoken to it instead of trying to catch it. But I forgot."</p> + +<p>"Better luck next time," said Apollo; "we must try again."</p> + +<p>But though the dogs worked the whole of the ferns carefully, there was +no other bird there.</p> + +<p>They came back and lay down beside Fiona, tongues out and panting.</p> + +<p>"It's no use trying the heather yet, I know," said Artemis. "Birds are +never in it at this time of year."</p> + +<p>"There are some more ferns two miles on," said Apollo doubtfully. "I +saw a bird there once, three years ago."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span>"I wish I knew what to do," said Fiona.</p> + +<p>"We can leave it for a day or two and come back," said Artemis. "Those +two birds will be back again to look for each other."</p> + +<p>"But they won't be so confiding again," added Apollo.</p> + +<p>They were all so preoccupied that they never noticed the shepherd till +he was quite close to them. He was striding down the track, a big, +raw-boned man with red hair; a plaid was thrown loosely across his +shoulder; at his heels followed a jet black collie.</p> + +<p>The dogs saw him first. It would seem that they did not like him. +Every hair on their necks bristled; they shrank close to Fiona, making +little moaning noises in their throats, and flattening themselves as +if they were trying to burrow into the ground. Their eyes were full of +terror.</p> + +<p>"Why, Artemis, Apollo, what's the matter?" said Fiona. Then she looked +up and saw the shepherd. "Why, it's only the new shepherd and his +collie. There's nothing to be afraid of."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span>"Collie!" said Apollo. "That thing's not a collie. Can't you see?"</p> + +<p>"Shepherd!" echoed Artemis. "That thing's not a shepherd. Oh, can't +you see?"</p> + +<p>The shepherd came up to Fiona, and said that Miss Fiona was out early +and was there anything he could be doing for her. He spoke in the soft +correct English of the Gael.</p> + +<p>"I came out to catch a woodcock to talk to it," said Fiona, "and we +can't catch one."</p> + +<p>It occurred to her, even as she spoke, that the statement sounded a +little out of the ordinary. But the rough shepherd never let the least +sign of this show on his face. He answered in the most matter-of-fact +way, with the gentle courtesy of the west coast, that there would not +be many woodcock in yet, and would he try to catch one for Miss Fiona?</p> + +<p>"Oh, do you think you could?" said Fiona eagerly. "I should be so +grateful."</p> + +<p>Then the shepherd saw the trouble of the dogs. He said something to +them in a lan<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span>guage that was neither English nor Gaelic, and waved his +own dog to go. The collie went straight off up the moor, and sat down +on the top of the nearest rock ledge, an odd little blot of black on +the brown and yellow moorland. Apollo and Artemis got up and shook +themselves violently.</p> + +<p>"It was the international password," said Apollo. "Goodness knows +where he got it from. But we have to recognize it."</p> + +<p>"I'm not happy," said Artemis. "I was well brought up. I never +associated with this sort of thing before."</p> + +<p>Fiona, who knew that a new shepherd had been coming, could make +nothing of their trouble, and did her best to smooth them down. The +shepherd led the way up the hill, and on to a little rough plateau +broken with rocks and bits of heather, lying under the main rise of +the hill where it rounds away toward the Glenollisdal burn. "I am +thinking that there should be a woodcock about here," he said.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span>"This is one of the earliest places in all the heather," whispered +Artemis to Fiona. "He must know this moor very well."</p> + +<p>"It's too early yet, all the same, even for here," said Apollo.</p> + +<p>It looked as if Apollo were right. For when at the shepherd's request +Fiona threw the dogs off, they quartered the whole plateau and found +nothing.</p> + +<p>But the shepherd stuck to his guns.</p> + +<p>"I am thinking that there should be a bird here," he said. "Will Miss +Fiona give me leave to try my own dog?"</p> + +<p>Fiona nodded and called the setters to heel; the shepherd waved his +hand, and the black collie came racing to him. Some collies will work +a ground like a spaniel, and some will even do a little pointing, but +the black collie troubled himself neither with one nor the other. When +the shepherd spoke to him, he just cantered straight forward to a +small patch of heather on the sunless side of a rock, where the frost +still lingered, and there sat<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span> down quite unconcerned, as though the +matter in hand were altogether beneath the scope of his talents.</p> + +<p>"I think he has a bird," said the shepherd.</p> + +<p>"I tried that place," said Apollo. "There's nothing there."</p> + +<p>But the shepherd had gone up to his dog and was peering carefully into +the heather. Then he beckoned Fiona.</p> + +<p>"Does Miss Fiona see the bird?" he asked, pointing.</p> + +<p>Fiona looked long before she saw. The woodcock had squeezed himself +right into the roots of a frost-covered clump of heather, and even +when the heather was parted nothing showed but his little orange tail, +with its white and black points.</p> + +<p>"Shall I catch him for Miss Fiona?" asked the shepherd; and Fiona +said, "Oh yes, please, if you will."</p> + +<p>The shepherd knelt down and brought his two great hands slowly to +either side of the tuft of heather; then he closed them with a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span> snap, +and drew out the largest woodcock Fiona had ever seen. It struggled +and thrashed at his wrists with its powerful wings.</p> + +<p>"Will Miss Fiona take the bird now?" he said. "Just behind the wings, +with her thumbs on its back."</p> + +<p>So Fiona took her bird, and as she did so its back-seeing eye caught +the glint of her copper bangle. It stopped thrashing with its wings +and lay quite still in her hands.</p> + +<p>"Oh, I say," he said, "why didn't you say before, instead of employing +these people and frightening an honest bird out of his senses?"</p> + +<p>"My dogs couldn't find you," said Fiona. "And I think it was so good +of the shepherd to find you for me."</p> + +<p>"Shepherd!" said the woodcock. "That wasn't a shepherd. And it wasn't +a collie either."</p> + +<p>Fiona suddenly recollected that she had not yet thanked the shepherd, +and turned to do so. But the shepherd and collie were gone.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span> They must +have walked very quickly to have turned the corner of the hill +already.</p> + +<p>"Where did he go?" she asked Artemis. Artemis shivered.</p> + +<p>"To his own place, I hope," said Artemis severely. "Well brought up +dogs should not be asked to associate with things like that."</p> + +<p>"But it was only the new shepherd," said Fiona.</p> + +<p>"There's the new shepherd," said Artemis, nodding toward a distant +slope, where a figure with a brown collie could be seen gathering +sheep.</p> + +<p>"What were they, then?" asked Fiona.</p> + +<p>"Two of the Little People, of course," said Apollo. "Oh dear, oh dear, +I'm afraid you'll have trouble."</p> + +<p>"One generally dies," said Artemis, with cheerful consolation.</p> + +<p>"But they were very nice to me indeed," said Fiona.</p> + +<p>"Of course they were," said the woodcock. "You're privileged, you +know. <i>We</i> all know<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span> it. And don't you mind the dogs, my dear. They +are good creatures, but they and their forbears have lived so long +with humans that they have forgotten most of the things we know. They +are nearly as blind as humans now, saving your presence, my dear. And +now what is it you want with me?"</p> + +<p>"I want to find the King of the Woodcock," said Fiona.</p> + +<p>"Bless your heart," said the bird, "and who do you suppose We are? You +never saw a woodcock Our size before, did you?" And indeed Fiona never +had; for he was as big as a young grouse.</p> + +<p>"Eighteen and a half ounces, if I'm a pennyweight," said the woodcock. +"I am the heaviest king that we have ever had. Will you please put me +down if you want to talk to me? It is hardly consonant with my royal +dignity to be held. I shan't fly away; <i>noblesse oblige</i>, you know."</p> + +<p>So Fiona put him down, and he arranged himself like a bunch of +feathers on the ground,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span> his head well back between his shoulders and +his beady black eyes looking all round him at once.</p> + +<p>"Why didn't Apollo find you?" asked Fiona.</p> + +<p>"No scent," said the woodcock, proudly. "I am not like a common bird. +No dog can find a king woodcock; and no dog ever has. We can be beaten +out of a wood, of course; my great-great-grandfather was shot like +that when the family lived in Norfolk, many years ago. So we came up +here to the open heather, and have been quite safe ever since. And now +what do you want, my dear?"</p> + +<p>"I was told you could let me into Fairyland," said Fiona.</p> + +<p>"I can let you in by the back door," the bird said. "But are you +really going to Fairyland? You'll need some courage, you know, if you +are going the back way."</p> + +<p>"Is there another way?" asked Fiona.</p> + +<p>"There's the front door, of course," said the bird. "But no one can go +that way without an invitation. Have you an invitation?"</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span>"No," said Fiona.</p> + +<p>"A pity," said the woodcock. "There is no danger that way. But without +an invitation you could not even find the door. As it is, you'll have +to go in by the back way and take your risks."</p> + +<p>"I have to go, whatever they are," said Fiona.</p> + +<p>"<i>Noblesse oblige</i>," said the woodcock. "Quite so, quite so. Have you +been told about the wish?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Fiona. "I know about that."</p> + +<p>"The other thing," continued the bird, "is that you must stick to the +main path. Remember that. You must not turn out of it for any reason +of any kind. You'll see lots of side paths, and you'll see other +things too; but if you once leave the main path by so much as one step +you'll never get home again. There are no short cuts to Fairyland."</p> + +<p>"Thank you so much," said Fiona. "But how shall I know the main path?"</p> + +<p>With his long bill the woodcock tweaked<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span> the point feather out of one +of his wings and gave it to her.</p> + +<p>"This will take you through," he said. "It will point the right way +for you; that's why it is called the point feather. Just follow it. If +you are frightened and want to leave your search and come home, tap on +the ground with it and you will be back in Glenollisdal. But somehow I +don't think you will. And whatever you do, don't lose it. When you +reach the fairy grove, show it to the guardian, and he will let you +in; and mind you don't go in unless he shows you its fellow. Oh, I'm +all right, thank you; I'll have grown others long before they are +needed. There is no great rush to Fairyland on the part of people who +haven't <i>got</i> to go, my dear."</p> + +<p>"It all sounds so much more difficult than I thought," said poor +Fiona.</p> + +<p>"Nothing worth while is ever easy," said the woodcock. "And now I'll +show you where to start. By the bye, you can't take the dogs with +you."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span>"This dog wouldn't go," said Artemis, shivering. "That black collie's +there somewhere."</p> + +<p>"Don't bother about us," said Apollo. "We'll be home long before the +keeper is out of bed."</p> + +<p>So Fiona took a warm farewell of the two dogs, who lamented her sad +fate and wished her luck all in one breath, and then set off homeward +with their long swinging gallop.</p> + +<p>"And now, if you want to be in time for the great gathering, which you +humans call Hallow E'en, you'll have to hurry," said the woodcock.</p> + +<p>"But it's nearly a month to Hallow E'en," said Fiona.</p> + +<p>"You'll want every minute of it," said the bird. "Come on."</p> + +<p>And they started off for the fairy ring, the woodcock pattering along +on his little feet at a pace which would have surprised anyone who had +never seen a woodcock do it.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span>"How come you to be doorkeeper?" asked Fiona, as they went.</p> + +<p>"Hereditary," said the bird. "We used to go to all the lost lands, you +know, like Lyonesse and Lemuria and Bresil and Atlantis. We still +cross Ireland once a year and pass on into the Atlantic to salute the +site of Plato's island, before we settle in Britain. And Fairyland is +only another of the lost lands. Here we are."</p> + +<p>They had come to the fairy ring.</p> + +<p>"There's nothing more I can do now," said the woodcock. "A straight +step and a stout heart, my dear."</p> + +<p>Fiona took the feather in her hand and stood in the fairy ring.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span></p> + +<h2 class="newchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII<br /> +<span class="smalltext">FIONA IN THE FAIRY-WORLD</span></h2> + + +<p>It was very, very dark. Fiona could not see her hand if she held it +close before her eyes. It was just blackness. Only one thing broke it; +far away—many miles it might be—was a tiny speck of white, like the +point of a pin. All round her in the dark were little soft sounds; +they brushed against her feet, and passed before her face; little soft +sounds, apparently without bodies. She held the tiny point-feather +firmly in the fingers of her left hand, and touched it from time to +time with her right, as she felt her way, one foot before the +other—she could not walk—towards the point of light. And with her +and about her went the small soft sounds; one would have said that +they whispered and chuckled in the darkness.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span>How far and how long she went she could never guess; there was nothing +by which to measure time or distance, and evidently she was not going +to feel hunger or fatigue.</p> + +<p>At last she became conscious of a change. The white speck of light was +growing brighter and larger; and the small soft sounds were becoming +tangible. One brushed past her face, and she felt it; she put out a +hand, and there was a scuffing and chuckling, as if they were playing +blind man's buff with her. Then the light began to take shape; it was +a circular pool lying on the floor and wall of the avenue of blackness +down which she was passing; and it came from something on the other +side. And the little soft sounds crowded round her; they laughed, they +whispered, they clutched at her dress; they were trying to guide her +in a certain direction. She tried to shake them off, and found that, +though they could touch her, she could not touch them. And then she +came into the pool of light.</p> + +<p>The light came down a sort of short passage<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span> between rocks, with a +well-trodden floor; and at the end of it, not twenty yards from where +she stood, she could see the fairy grotto. One grand white carbuncle, +as big as an arc lamp, hung from the roof, filling the grotto with +dazzling white light; and the radiance of the carbuncle was flung back +in a million points of new splendor from the walls of the grotto, +shifting and shimmering like the rainbow across a waterfall, ruby and +orange, yellow and emerald, sapphire and violet, changing as each new +facet came into play; for the walls of the grotto were set thick with +cut jewels of every hue and color. A glorious sight it looked; and +Fiona suddenly became aware that the soft things that clutched at her +dress and the soft things that whispered in her ear, were all trying +to draw her toward the beautiful grotto. But she felt her feather, and +it pointed straight on into the dark. So she moved forward; and with +the first step she saw the trap. The floor of the beautiful grotto +yawned wide, showing the horrible<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span> abyss beneath it; and the darkness +was full of soft flutterings, and the chuckling of mocking laughter. +But they touched her no more at the time; and suddenly the darkness +fell away on each side like a wall, and she stepped out into daylight.</p> + +<p>She was in the desert. The yellow burning sand stretched all round +her, a mass of glittering particles that made the eyes sore; wave +after wave, it went billowing away to the red burning hills that faced +and flung back the burning sun. Mile after mile she stumbled along in +that aching heat; and then, as she topped a great hillock of sand, she +suddenly saw the fairy city. Very beautiful it looked, rose-pink on a +wooded island in a fair lake of water, whose blue mirror gave back +every trembling cupola and minaret; and toward it, down a broad track +marked by tamarisk bushes, went a goodly company of merchants, with +tinkling bells on their camels' necks and golden ornaments on their +camels' heads, the company of a chief who<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span> rode ahead on a white Arab +steed with his long jezail laid across his saddle-bow. Here could no +doubt be; and Fiona all but stepped on to the broad path in the track +of the caravan. But even as she turned she caught sight of the feather +and checked herself just in time; and the beautiful city of mirage +melted away, and there was no caravan there, but only sand marked by +the bones of men, and in place of the tamarisk bushes were gray +vultures feasting in a row. She followed the feather straight on +across the burning desert; and on a sudden she walked out of the sand +into shade.</p> + +<p>She was out in the forest. Huge trees rose like the pillars of a +cathedral nave, branching far above her head and shutting out the +daylight; and up their trunks ran starred creepers of every hue, +fighting their way up to the sun. Down from the branches hung orchids +of all fantastic shapes, in long still streamers, and great moon moths +fluttered round them, taking their joy in the dim light. And the +farther she went the thicker grew the forest,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span> and the more oppressive +the airless heat. Trailing plants ran across her feet and tried to +trip her up; the great trunks closed together till there was barely +room to force a way between; the thorns of the creepers tore at her +flesh, and instead of the beautiful orchids there came on the trees +huge funguses red as blood. And the small soft voices began again; +they had caught her up; the forest was full of the same little sounds +which she had heard before, whispering and chuckling and fingering her +dress. And then, just as it seemed impossible to fight a way farther +through the dense jungle, she came to the open glade. Full of grass +and flowers and sunshine it was, and across it ran a gurgling brook, +crossed by a little plank bridge; a sweet breeze moved the grass, and +beyond the brook two little spotted deer were feeding; far in the +distance were tiny peaks of snow. The soft fingers were all tugging at +Fiona's dress, impelling her down the glade; but she had had ample +warning of those soft fingers,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span> and she saw that the feather pointed +straight on through the tangled forest. And even as she moved she saw +that the little bridge was the back of a great water-python; and the +fingers loosed their hold of her dress, and the air was full of soft +whisperings and laughter. And she walked straight on into the tangled +thicket before her; and the forest parted to right and left, and she +walked out.</p> + +<p>She was in a fair country of green grass and temperate airs, where the +path lay true and straight before her through vineyards and groves of +oranges. Here and there a cherry tree swung its crown of white blossom +above her head, or a cypress stood up tall and straight as a sentinel +on duty. Purple flags bloomed under the rocks, and on a clump of brown +orchises sat two little jewelled butterflies, burnished green as old +copper; up the path of the sunlight came a swallowtail with its +stately glancing flight. Everything spoke to her here of fair peace +and security; and when she heard the air still rustling with little<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span> +soft sounds and chuckles, and knew that they had followed her, she +began to wonder how it was that, now that she knew their ways, they +should think it worth while. And they were becoming most active. The +soft sounds brushed all round her; the soft fingers grasped her arms; +tiny weightless bodies behind her seemed to be impelling her forward.</p> + +<p>And then before her she saw the inevitable two paths: the broad flat +path that passed through a fair orchard of lemon trees, where the +sunlight threw chequers on to the grass beneath, starred with scarlet +and purple anemones; and the narrow stony track, terribly steep, which +toiled away up the bare hillside in heat radiated from the rocks. +Never had the soft sounds been so insistent; a myriad gentle hands +were trying to steer her, even to push her by force, toward the lemon +trees. She saw the folly of them so very clearly; and her foot was +actually raised to take the first step up the hill path, when she felt +the feather turn of itself in her hand, and she became ice<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span> from head +to foot as she realized that she had all but destroyed herself by +despising her opponents. They had striven this time to force her into +the <i>true</i> path, believing that she would certainly take the opposite +one.</p> + +<p>She saw now the end of the fatal hill path, the sudden crumbling +precipice which flung men on to pointed rocks far below; and the air +behind her became full of woe, voiceless wailings and silent howls of +rage, and she saw what she had fought against; a troop of small +formless black things, like immature bats, with pale fingers, that +fled moaning down the path of the sunlight. She knew now that they +would not vex her again.</p> + +<p>She passed on through the lemon orchard, and out on to a bare +hillside, rough with stones and dotted here and there with great oak +trees; plants of asphodel were thrusting their blossoms up among the +coarse tufts of grass, and far below, in all its laughing splendor, +lay the sea. And as she turned the shoulder of the hill she saw the +temple, a fair<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span> Doric temple of gray marble, standing in lonely beauty +among the scattered oak trees. Its metopes were carved with the +figures of gods and heroes of an older day, and round it ran a frieze +of warriors who fought with Amazon women. The singing was just over, +it seemed; and the double choir of white-robed girls, who had been +giving strophe and antistrophe of some festival ode, had broken into +groups, these playing at ball, those reclining in the shade or +strolling about with their arms round each other's waists. In her +chair in the cool portico sat the fair-faced matronly priestess, still +crowned with red roses, and before her two little boys poured wine +into a crystal goblet. And as she saw Fiona she rose from her chair +and greeted her by name, calling her happy that she had now come +safely through the path of danger and that her troubles were ended.</p> + +<p>"Come here to us," she said, "and rest, for it is but a little way now +that you must go, and there is ample time; slake your thirst<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span> at this +crystal goblet, and lie awhile in the shade, while these maidens crown +you with flowers."</p> + +<p>But Fiona had learnt her lesson, and she looked at her feather; and +the feather pointed straight along the hillside. So she passed on +without a look or a word; and as she passed came a noise as of the +earth opening; and the pillars of the temple bowed themselves, and the +middle of the building collapsed stone by stone, till only the outer +columns remained among a mass of fallen blocks, and triglyph and +metope and sculptured frieze lay in fragments about them. And among +the ruins a red fox with two cubs sat and snarled, as she watched a +company of toads crawling in the dust; and of that fair scene all that +had not changed was the pallid asphodel, the asphodel whose home is in +those other meadows where walk the pallid dead.</p> + +<p>And as Fiona passed on, the hillside itself dissolved in mist, and +there before her lay the fairy grove. And the guardian of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span> grove, +with white beard sweeping the ground, and old trembling hands, came +out to meet her. And she showed him her feather, and from his belt he +drew out and held up its fellow; and she knew that the path of danger +was over.</p> + +<p>"No one has come through by the way you have come for more years than +my old memory can follow," he said. "They always fail at the lemon +orchard. How did you escape?"</p> + +<p>And Fiona told him how the feather had turned in her hand of itself.</p> + +<p>The old man bowed almost to the ground.</p> + +<p>"That was the direct grace of the King," he said. "You must be a +person of the greatest consequence."</p> + +<p>And when Fiona said, "I am just an ordinary girl," he again bowed low +and said: "Young lady, I take leave to doubt it."</p> + +<p>Then he gave Fiona her directions for finding the King, and warned her +that she must not loiter in the fairy grove, for the fairies were +already gathering for All Hallows E'en.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span>So Fiona walked swiftly through the grove, not seeing one half of its +beauties, though she would have loved to have lingered among the +trees. For in the grove grew every tree and plant famous in legend or +in history, of which not the tenth part can be told here. There was +the Norse ash, whose roots bind together the framework of the earth; +there the Irish hazel, of whose nuts could a man but taste he would +know all knowledge and all wisdom; there the African pomegranate, but +for whose sweetness the Corn-spirit would have disdained to stay +beneath the earth, and the race of men would have perished. There +stood Deborah's terebinth and Diotima's plane, and the Bô-tree beneath +whose branches Gautama Buddha sought and found the path of +Enlightenment. There grew the paper-reeds of Egypt, the repository +through many centuries of a whole world's learning, the paper-reeds +that grow no longer in their old home, even as the prophet Isaiah +foretold; and there the clove, for whose perfumed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span> pistils great +nations had warred together and brave men died under torture. There +stood the English trees, the oak and the white acacia, which had built +the three-deckers for the greatest sea captain the world has seen. +There was that great traveller, the mulberry, which had left its home +on the Yangtse to follow the old Silk Route across Asia; which had +crossed the stony Gobi, where wild camels run and the Djinn light +their lamps at night to decoy travellers; which had seen the Khotan +girls wading knee-deep in the Khotan River, searching for the previous +white jade which should make gods for China, as erstwhile for Nineveh +and Troy; which had skirted the wandering lake of Lop-nor, and had +tarried awhile in old dead cities, now buried under the sands of the +dreaded Taklamakan; which had seen the turquoise mines of Khorassan, +and voyaged on the broad Oxus stream, till from Iran its way lay clear +to the west. There grew the cedars of the Atlas, which had aided their +great mountain to support the sky, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</a></span> had sailed south with Hanno to +the Guinea Gulf, to bring home those gorilla hides which lay on the +altar of Melcarth at Carthage; and there the most famous of all the +trees of the forest, the proud cedars of Lebanon, which had once +exulted with their voices over the fall of the king of Assyria, which +had built for Solomon his temple and his house for the daughter of +Pharaoh, and which had given to the princes of Tyre the ships in +which, greatly daring, they had ranged the three seas, bringing home +the gold of India and the silver of Spain and the tin of Cornwall, the +wealth of the east and the west, myrrh and frankincense and purple +dye, ivory and apes and peacocks. And last of all was the twisted gray +olive, beloved of gray-eyed Pallas Athene, the symbol of all that +raises man above the savage, the tree in whose train, as it moved out +from its home in Asia, had grown up all the civilizations that ringed +the Mediterranean.</p> + +<p>So Fiona passed through the grove and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</a></span> came out on a broad place of +grass, and right before her stood the fairy ring. But not such a one +as the ring on Glenollisdal which she knew. This ring was of vast +size, and round it grew in a circle huge red toadstools splotched with +white, the red toadstools from which the witches of Lapland had used +to brew philtres of love and death. But vast as it was, it could not +hold all the creatures that swarmed round it. It was a gathering such +as Fiona had never dreamt of. On the outskirts stood an innumerable +host of little strange beings, of every sort and shape, elves and +brownies, gnomes and pixies, trolls and kobolds, goblins and +leprechauns; and the babel of them as they whispered together was like +the noise of a flock of fieldfares. And within them and around the +ring itself stood the fairies.</p> + +<p>All the lost peoples and nations and languages, it seemed, were there +in miniature; everyone that Fiona had ever heard her father speak of, +and many another of which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span> even he knew nothing. There were fairies of +the Old Stone peoples, brave-eyed, clad in pelts of the saber-tooth, +bearing the blade-bones of bisons on which were carved pictures of the +mammoth and the reindeer. Fairies from Egypt, clad in fine white linen +with girdles of topaz and aquamarine, with fillets round their brows +from which the golden uræus lifted its snake's head, bearing blossoms +of the blue lotus. Fairies from Babylon, glowing in coats of scarlet +or of many colors, their eyes deep with immemorial learning, bearing +clay tablets on which were signs like the footprints of birds. Fairies +from Crete, light of foot in the dance, in flounced skirts adorned +with golden butterflies, crowned with yellow crocuses and bearing +vases on which were painted the creatures of the sea, nautilus and +flying fish and polyp. Fairies of the Iberians, black-haired and +black-eyed, clad in black cloaks, small and shy and dusty, bearing +ingots of tin. Fairies from Cappadocia, in peaked shoes, and pelisses +of lion's<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span> skin trimmed with the fur of hares, moving to the clash of +cymbals, bearing grapes and ears of corn. Fairies from Mexico, with +heavy cheek bones, resplendent in mantles woven of the plumage of the +quetzal bird, carrying bricks of gold. Fairies from Ethiopia, black as +the black diamond, clad in leopard skins and plumed with the feathers +of ostriches, carrying tusks of ivory. Fairies from the land of Sheba, +well skilled in riddles, in cloaks of camel's hair buckled with clasps +of onyx, bearing caskets of agate filled with spices. Buddhist fairies +of the Naga race, with the sevenfold cobra's hood springing from their +shoulders and shadowing them, languorous and heavy-eyed, carrying +crimson water lilies. Fairies from Cambodia, in stiff dresses of cloth +of gold, with gilded faces and scarlet eyebrows, bearing pagoda bells +which tinkled. Fairies of the Golden Horde, bandy-legged, with pug +noses and slits of eyes, clad in dyed sheepskins and carrying the +tails of horses. Fairies of the Picts, tattooed to the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span> eyelids, their +plaids dyed with crotal and the root of the yellow iris, wearing +badges of mountain fern or bog-myrtle and bearing jars of heather ale. +Fairies of Britain, in deerskin cloaks fastened with brooches of +enamel, with golden torques circling their throats, bearing sprays of +mistletoe. Fairies of the Tuatha-dé, with all the youth of the world +in their eyes, clad in robes of saffron, crowned with rowans and +bearing harps. Fairies from Greece, erect and lissom, beautiful as a +sculptor's dream, crowned with wild olive and bearing each the roll of +a book. Fairies of old England, in Lincoln green, with feathers of the +gray goose in their caps, bearing bows of yew and branches of the may. +Fairies from Baghdad, radiant as visions of the night-time, their +turbans and their crooked scimitars jewelled with rubies of Badakshan, +bearing magic lamps. Fairies from Quinsay, dainty as porcelain, their +silken robes embroidered with blossoms of the almond and the peach +tree, bearing jars of coral lac wrought<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</a></span> in the likeness of dragons, +and on their heads the poppy flowers that bring sleep.</p> + +<p>And in the middle of the ring stood a throne carved out of a single +beryl, green as the sea; and on the throne sat the King of the +Fairies, with eyes bright as the dawn and deep as the sea caves, in a +cloak of Tyrian purple with clasps of amethyst. His crown and sceptre +were of white gold, white gold which has long since perished out of +the upper world, and in the end of his sceptre was set a double +pentacle of clear crystal brought from the Island of Desire. And in +the beryl throne, if he looked at it through the crystal, were shown +to him the reflections of all things that he might wish to see. If he +looked directly, he saw all that had happened in the world in the +past; and if he reversed the crystal, he saw all that should happen in +the future; but if he held the pentacle edgewise, then he saw the +present, which no man ever sees, and was the greatest magic of all. +Round the throne stood his guards, black as Moors,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span> in jackets and +trousers of emerald green clasped with orange zircons; half of them +bore trumpets of silver, and half of them carried spears with heads of +green obsidian as sharp as steel. And on either side of the throne, on +a stool, sat a strange creature, a little wizened elf with a large +book on his knee. One wore a white cap, and he bore an inkhorn and a +bundle of long quills; the other wore a black cap, and he bore a +penknife.</p> + +<p>Fiona edged herself as far forward as she could into the ring of +strange beings, and found herself next an old Leprechaun with a face +like a wrinkled apple, who seemed quite inclined to be friendly.</p> + +<p>"A human!" he said. "We do not see as many as we used to. But they say +there are two to be tried to-night. As you see, we have attempted +something out of the ordinary in the way of a welcome." And he waved +his arm proudly round the enormous assembly. "Had far to come?" he +asked.</p> + +<p>Fiona told him how long it had taken her.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</a></span>"That's nothing," he said. "There are people here to-night who, as +soon as the dance is over, will start travelling as fast as they can, +and will only just arrive in time for next year's meeting. Good for +the shoemaking trade!"</p> + +<p>"Where do they try the prisoners?" she asked him.</p> + +<p>"Here, in the ring," said the Leprechaun. "The King tries them. +There's the Public Prosecutor," and he pointed to a fairy of pompous +aspect, with a hooked nose and a Roman toga, and a roll under his arm. +"He's a terrible fellow. And there's the King's Remembrancer, those +two with the books."</p> + +<p>"Why are there two?" asked Fiona.</p> + +<p>"One to remember and one to forget, of course, stupid," said the +Leprechaun. "Whereever were you educated? Do you think kings want to +remember <i>everything</i>?"</p> + +<p>"It must be very easy forgetting," said Fiona.</p> + +<p>"Hardest job in Fairyland," said the Leprechaun. "I suppose you know +lots of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</a></span> people with perfect memories; but you never knew one with a +perfect forgetfulness, eh? Whitecap there only has to write his book +up; but poor Blackcap—he's the one that forgets—his book is written +up to start with, and he has to get the pages clean again with his +penknife. He never gets them <i>quite</i> clean. They say he has nightmare +every night over the things he can't forget altogether."</p> + +<p>The King had been talking to one of the officers of his guard. He now +rose and held out his sceptre, and there was a great silence round the +Fairy ring.</p> + +<p>"Before we dance to-night," he said, "we have, as you know, to try two +prisoners." He turned to the officer of the guard, and said, "Let them +be produced."</p> + +<p>The officer at once produced the Urchin from nowhere in particular, as +a conjurer produces half-crowns. The boy looked rather large among the +Little People, but otherwise he was much as Fiona had last seen him; +his shirt and knickerbockers were covered with earthstains<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</a></span> and he +still had the same length of useless rope coiled round his waist.</p> + +<p>But Jeconiah? Was this the prosperous financier, this wretched apology +for a living being which the officer held out on the palm of his hand? +Not two inches high, its white waistcoat hanging in loose flaps, +speechless, and wide-eyed with terror and abject entreaty, it was like +the ghost of a parody; the officer had to set it on one of the great +toadstools, and mark the place with a stick, lest it should be lost. +The King regarded it with interest.</p> + +<p>"I understood that the elder prisoner was a very stout man," he said.</p> + +<p>"That was so, your Majesty," said the officer. "He was so stout that +we thought it useless to attempt to take him through the doorway as he +was, so we left his body behind and only brought away the essential +part of him. This is all that there really is of him, sire; the rest +was wind. When we began to sift him we were afraid that he had no +real<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</a></span> existence at all, and that there would be nothing to bring +before you."</p> + +<p>"Well, well," said the King, "there's enough of him to be tried, +anyhow. Are the prisoners provided with counsel?"</p> + +<p>The Public Prosecutor was understood to say that they were not yet +represented.</p> + +<p>"Counsel had better be assigned them in the usual way," said the King. +"Catch, somebody."</p> + +<p>He took a guinea from his pocket and flung it, apparently without +looking, into the crowd. But thick as the crowd was, the guinea passed +straight through the forest of hands held out for it, and fell into a +tiny brown hand behind them. Fiona knew where she had seen that hand +before.</p> + +<p>The owner of the hand at once stepped forward into the ring. He seemed +to be the most singular being in Fairyland. Fiona's first impression +was that he was just a large bald head, the color of parchment and +wrinkled all over; and this impression remained, even when<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</a></span> she +realized that he did possess a small body, with the usual allowance of +arms and legs. Out of his great head looked a pair of quite +incongruous eyes, bright as beads, and full of happy drollery. Behind +him came a couple of stout goblins, each laden with dusty law books. +They piled the books up in a stack on the ground, and the singular +creature with the head proceeded to climb to the top of the stack, +where he sat down, cracking his fingers and laughing hugely at some +jest of his own, evidently on the best of terms both with himself and +his audience. Then he caught Fiona's eye, and deliberately winked at +her; but somehow it carried no offence, for the creature seemed +absolutely free from malice.</p> + +<p>"Privilege honorable profession defend oppressed," he remarked; "duty +clients submit large number points," and he patted the books he sat +on. He had a habit of clipping his words as he spoke which was totally +destructive of the smaller parts of speech, and made<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</a></span> his remarks +sound like a series of unedited cablegrams.</p> + +<p>"We will take the younger prisoner first," announced the King; +whereupon the Public Prosecutor proceeded to read, all in one breath, +the indictment against the Urchin, to the effect that he did on or +about the 20th day of September then last past in despite of the peace +of the realm and the safety of the lieges with a stone or some other +missile or thing throw at and break the wing of or otherwise hit, cut, +hurt, maim, destroy and do wrong to one of the said lieges, to wit, a +shore lark, and so forth. When he had finished, instead of evidence +being taken, the King merely glanced into the beryl throne.</p> + +<p>"True in fact," he said. "Any defence?"</p> + +<p>The creature on the bookstack began at once.</p> + +<p>"Please Majesty duty client submit series points. First point no +intention."</p> + +<p>But Fiona did not wait to hear what it had to say. Forcing her way +into the ring, she said:</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</a></span>"Please, your Majesty, it was my fault. I told him he couldn't."</p> + +<p>The King turned to look at her.</p> + +<p>"So this is the young lady," he said. "Very good of you to come, you +know. We rarely receive visitors now. We shall try to make you welcome +when the trial is over." He turned again to the bookstack, and said: +"I will hear the defence."</p> + +<p>"It was my fault, your Majesty," said Fiona again.</p> + +<p>With grave patience the King started to explain to her.</p> + +<p>"Your part of it was your fault, of course. But we are not trying you, +for you have come here of your own free will, so we can neither try +nor punish. But his part of it was equally his own fault, and unless +there is a good defence he will have to be punished."</p> + +<p>The creature on the bookstack was nodding and signing to Fiona, but +she was too engrossed with a single thought to notice him.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</a></span>"Then I claim my wish, your Majesty," she said.</p> + +<p>"Quite in order," said the King. "The trial will be suspended while +the young lady wishes. Officer!"</p> + +<p>And immediately the fairy ring was strewn with a strange collection of +objects, looking rather like the contents of an old curiosity shop +that had gone bankrupt. The officer held them up one by one for Fiona +to see.</p> + +<p>"When we heard you were coming," said the King, "we collected a few +little things for your inspection. It is so long since we had any use +for any of them that many of them seem to have developed serious +defects, which we regret; but they are the best we could find at short +notice. This," he pointed to an old ring, "is a common wishing ring. +It used to do all the usual things. The genie attached to it has +unfortunately become very deaf with age; but if you can make him hear, +we believe he is still in fair working order. This," as a frayed +girdle was held up, "is the famous<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</a></span> cestus of Aphrodite, which she +lent to Helen of Troy. Its wearer used to become the most beautiful +and unpopular creature in the world. It will still confer beauty, +though hardly suited to the modern style; the unpopularity we +guarantee. This," pointing to a huge book, "contains the truth of that +which in your world passes as knowledge. It would delight your father. +He might publish selected chapters, and watch the critics cut them to +pieces. This," as a battered trumpet was exhibited, "is Fame. Your +praises would be sung all over the world; and the world would say, +'Never mind what she has <i>achieved</i>; tell us about her faults.' This," +and he contemplated an old iron sceptre, "is Power. You would become a +great ruler, and would probably die in exile. And under this," and he +pointed to a sheet of black velvet, thrown loosely over some object, +"under this is the treasure of the Isle of Mist, which I am told that +you have heard of. Do any of these please you? If not, we have +others."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</a></span>Fiona never thought about it for a moment, of course. She had not done +all that she had done to hesitate now. She did not look at the King's +face, and she took not the least notice of the creature with the head, +who was dancing about in a perfect agony, trying to attract her +attention.</p> + +<p>"Please your Majesty," she said in breathless haste, "I came here to +find the Urchin and take him home with me. That is my wish."</p> + +<p>She had hardly spoken the words when her instinct told her something +was wrong. A sort of chill seemed to run through the air, and the +color seemed to go out of the fairy world. The creature with the head +stopped dancing about and began to wring its little hands. She looked +up at the King's face, and read there, was it disappointment? was it +regret? She hardly knew.</p> + +<p>"A very natural and proper wish," said the King gravely. "We shall of +course accept it as such, and grant it with great pleasure. The<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</a></span> +younger prisoner is discharged. Take the next case."</p> + +<p>And then Fiona saw. She saw the thing which had once been Jeconiah, +with that look of abject terror and entreaty in its eyes; and she +realized that it would have meant nothing to her to have included +Jeconiah in her wish, and that for Jeconiah it would have meant +everything. And she realized also that, worthless and evil as he had +been in life, selfish, mean, a thief and a liar, he was still a human +being, and had a soul and possibilities of which the fairy world could +know nothing. She felt a wave of humiliation pass over her; and she +resolved that, whatever he was, and whatever happened, she would not +go home without Jeconiah.</p> + +<p>The charges against Jeconiah were then read: stealing a treasure, and +being a worthless character.</p> + +<p>"Any defence?" said the King.</p> + +<p>The creature with the head got to work.</p> + +<p>"Please Majesty," he said, "admit second count. Character worthless. +Object pity<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</a></span> however not vindictive punishment. Behalf client offer +submit State cure. First count plead not guilty; intention steal +treasure admitted but did not succeed."</p> + +<p>Fiona, in her new-found humility, had been listening to what the +creature with the head was saying. And suddenly it dawned on her that, +all through, both he and the King had been trying to help her, so far +as was consistent with their own rules; and that perhaps the creature +with the head, for all his oddity, knew what he was doing. She asked +the Leprechaun who he was.</p> + +<p>"You might have asked that with advantage before you interrupted him," +said the Leprechaun severely. "He is our Chancellor here. He is the +King's most intimate friend, and far the ablest lawyer in Fairyland."</p> + +<p>"Defence to first count not admitted," the King was saying. "Your +client cannot plead his own bungling of the theft in mitigation of his +wrongdoing. Only the intention counts here."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</a></span>The Chancellor looked immensely relieved at the King's words, though +it passed Fiona's wit to see why.</p> + +<p>"Apply formal ruling," he said. "Take down," this to Whitecap.</p> + +<p>"I hold that nothing counts here but the intention," said the King.</p> + +<p>"Majesty pleases," said the Chancellor. "Settles point. Retire defence +this prisoner. Submit excellent point younger client."</p> + +<p>"We will pass sentence here first," said the King. "Jeconiah P. +Johnson, your counsel has very properly thrown up his brief. You are +convicted of stealing a treasure, and it is admitted that you are a +worthless character. On the first count, I sentence you to be handed +over to the executioner to be extended until you become a proper size. +If you survive, you will then undergo, as offered by your counsel, the +State cure at the hands of the State hypnotizer." He turned to the +Chancellor. "Any further submission?"</p> + +<p>Fiona had gone over to the stack of books,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</a></span> and bent down over the +little creature with the head.</p> + +<p>"I have made a most terrible mistake," she said, in a low voice. "I +have spoilt everything. I see that you are kind; can you help us?"</p> + +<p>"Should have come me first," said the creature, quite gently. "Tried +attract attention. Never neglect anyone merely because odd and ugly. +May have good heart. Sad mess now; but think see daylight. Any +influence that boy?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes," said Fiona eagerly.</p> + +<p>"Right," said the creature. "Make boy wish. Now follow my argument." +And he turned to the King.</p> + +<p>"Please Majesty submit good point. Majesty just ruled nothing counts +here but intention. Younger prisoner no intention hurt shore lark; +therefore on Majesty's ruling same as if did not hurt it. Therefore +never was guilty. Human prisoner adjudged not guilty is just same as +if came here own free will; so held Majesty's father"; and by some +extra<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</a></span>ordinary trick he got the top book open and flopped down among +the leaves, from which position he read out bits of an ancient +judgment. "Consequently younger prisoner both entitled and bound +wish."</p> + +<p>The King consulted Whitecap.</p> + +<p>"It seems a sound chain of reasoning," he said. Then he turned to the +Public Prosecutor. "Have you anything to urge against it?"</p> + +<p>"Only that, if he wishes wrong, we can't detain him, because of the +young lady's wish," said that official.</p> + +<p>"Daniel come judgment," cried the Chancellor triumphantly. "Heads win, +tails can't lose. Younger prisoner wish."</p> + +<p>He turned to Fiona and whispered to her, "Mind he wishes right."</p> + +<p>Fiona started to go over to the Urchin; instantly the guard crossed +their spears before her.</p> + +<p>"No interference allowed with anyone who is going to wish," said the +officer.</p> + +<p>Then she tried to call to him, and found<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</a></span> that she could not speak. It +was like a nightmare. She looked helplessly at the Chancellor; he +nodded, and spelt on his fingers the word "think."</p> + +<p>Then Fiona understood what he had meant by asking her if she had any +influence over the Urchin. She knew that she had a good deal; and bits +of conversations with her father came back into her mind. She had made +one bad blunder, and she had to correct it as best she could; and +without more ado she concentrated her whole mind on taking possession +of the mind of the Urchin. Could it be done at all? And if so could it +be done in time?</p> + +<p>The King stretched out his sceptre, and there was silence.</p> + +<p>"The younger prisoner is going to wish," said the King. "Officer!"</p> + +<p>And immediately there appeared in the middle of the ring six great +boxes, old sea chests made of Spanish chestnut, battered and stained +and clamped with bands of iron; and on each was the picture, half +obliterated by<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</a></span> time and salt water, of the Madonna of the Holy Cross. +The officer flung back the lids, and showed each chest full to the +brim of glittering golden doubloons.</p> + +<p>"That is the treasure from the Venetian galleon which you were +seeking," said the King. "We removed it long ago into our safe +custody, lest it should tempt men; but it would seem that it tempts +them none the less. Now wish."</p> + +<p>The Urchin, his eyes bulging out of his head, stared at the shining +gold. He murmured "gun," but fortunately so low that the King did not +hear him.</p> + +<p>Fiona kept her eyes fixed hard on the boy, and bent every effort of +mind and will to the one thought, that he must wish as she wished. If +only he would turn round. She had already lost sight of the fairies; +she now lost sight of the King; she was conscious only of the abject +wretched creature that was Jeconiah, and of the back of the Urchin's +head. He was still staring at the gold, but he had not yet spoken;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</a></span> +that was to the good, and—no, it was not fancy—his ears were turning +pink, as they always did when he was in a difficulty. Then he began to +shuffle his feet uneasily. Fiona felt that every atom of life and +force in her was being concentrated on that one act of will; she did +not think she could go through with it many seconds longer, or she +would collapse. And then the Urchin turned his head toward her; his +face was scarlet, and his eyes were wavering before the fixed gaze of +her own; he <i>must</i> do as she wished. She flung everything into one +supreme effort—the last reserves which no one thinks they possess +till utter necessity teaches them the contrary; and then the Urchin +spoke, in a strange voice and all in one breath:</p> + +<p>"I want my uncle to go free."</p> + +<p>Fiona's will let go with a snap; she felt so dizzy that she had to +lean against one of the great toadstools or she would have fallen. +Round the assemblage ran a sound like the wind through the tree tops, +the noise of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</a></span> thousands drawing in breath at once; and the Chancellor +started a war dance on his stack of books, and nearly fell off on his +head. The King rose from his throne, but he took no notice of the +Urchin; he turned straight to Fiona and bowed to her.</p> + +<p>"My compliments, young lady," he said; "the prettiest piece of +thought-transference it has ever been our privilege to see. Where did +you learn to do it?"</p> + +<p>"I never learnt," stammered Fiona. "I made a great mistake, as your +Majesty saw, and something had to be done, and your friend suggested +this way."</p> + +<p>"You needn't mind having made a mistake," said the King. "If you don't +make mistakes sometimes you'll never make anything else. And you have +made something else this time with a vengeance. As for you, sirrah +. . ." and he shook his fist at the Chancellor.</p> + +<p>The creature snapped all its fingers in reply.</p> + +<p>"Majesty pleases," it began triumphantly. "Duty younger client submit +new point arising<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</a></span> young lady's action. Client entitled wish. Did not +wish himself; young lady wished. Therefore client still entitled wish. +Propose develop point considerable length with authorities."</p> + +<p>The King raised his hand.</p> + +<p>"I think I shall have to intervene," he said. "I believe you would +submit points till cockcrow."</p> + +<p>"Submit points till next year, if Majesty pleases," said the creature, +gleefully.</p> + +<p>"If these proceedings don't end soon," said the King, "there will be +no time to dance; and if we didn't dance no one knows what would +happen to the world above. Even I don't know that. So as we do not +generally have three human beings here at once, and as substantial +justice has been done, I propose now to exercise the royal prerogative +of generosity. Jeconiah P. Johnson, you will, as requested, go free, +so far as we can set you free. We cannot set you free from your own +worthless character. In order, however, to do<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</a></span> the best for you that +can be done, before you leave us the State hypnotizer will take you in +hand and instil into you a few decent feelings. He won't hurt you, and +you won't remember. The effect, I fear, will not be permanent, but it +will ease our conscience. And as a sign to the world above that we +have treated you liberally, you will find that you will be unable to +attend to business until you have told your nephew a fairy tale. +Urchin! A doubt exists as to whether you have had your wish or not. +You shall have the benefit of the doubt, so far as is good for you. +You will find that you will get your gun."</p> + +<p>And then the King turned to Fiona.</p> + +<p>"Young lady," he said, "you have given us a display of courage which +we are not likely to forget. You have rescued your friend; you have, +which is much more to the point, rescued your enemy. You have got +<i>two</i> wishes out of us, which no one ever did before; and you have +asked nothing for yourself. And now what are we to do for you?"</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</a></span>"I think I have everything I want, now, thank your Majesty," said +Fiona.</p> + +<p>"Did we not hear talk of a treasure?" said the King.</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Fiona; "but—I was not thinking about a treasure, your +Majesty."</p> + +<p>"I know," said the King. "But I was; all the time."</p> + +<p>"I must leave it all in your Majesty's hands," said Fiona.</p> + +<p>"It is not here," said the King. "What you saw was only a pretence. +And we cannot send for it to-night. But if you will honor us sometime +by returning to our kingdom, we will see what can be done in memory of +your visit. Any time you like. And by the front door, please. You will +run no risks that way."</p> + +<p>"And now," said the King, stretching out his sceptre over the great +throng, "we will dance." He turned to Fiona and the Urchin. "It will +be a little while before Mr. Johnson is ready to accompany you home," +he said.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</a></span> "Perhaps you will honor us meanwhile by attending the dance +also."</p> + +<p>So the fairies danced before the King; and the fairy ring whirled and +blazed with the color of them, till it was gayer than a gorse-bank in +blossom, and brighter than a swarm of dragon-flies on a June +grass-field, and more vivid than a fall of shooting stars; and the +music that they made was wilder than the wind in the strings of a +harp, and sweeter than the blackbird's song, and dearer than all the +burns on the moor murmuring in unison. And the two children sat at the +King's feet on the steps of the beryl throne and watched the dancers; +and the Chancellor sat between them, and held Fiona's hand, and told +them such stories as they had never heard before, till between +laughter and tears they nearly fell off the steps of the throne, and +the Chancellor laughed and cried with them for sheer joy in his own +story-telling; and if there were three happier people in the world +that night I do not know where they were. And the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</a></span> night itself passed +away as a dream that men dream, and its hours seemed to them but as a +few minutes—and then across the music and the dance cut the shrill +harsh scream of a peacock as he greeted the day. The children saw the +King rise from his throne and stretch his sceptre out over the ring; +and the ring and the dancers were shrouded in a white mist which rose +from the ground and wreathed its arms about them; and the beryl throne +dissolved in mist, and the figure of the King above them, pointing, +grew dim and huge, and spread and grew, a purple shadow that hung over +them, . . . and they were standing alone in the fairy ring on +Glenollisdal, under the purple sky, with the white mist wreathing +itself about their feet, and the pale November dawn coming slowly up +out of the sea.</p> + +<p>Did the Urchin fling himself on the grass at Fiona's feet and thank +her in broken accents for all she had done for him? I regret to state +that the first thing which the Urchin did was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</a></span> to feel in his pocket +and draw out the doubloon which he had found in the cave.</p> + +<p>"I've got this one, anyhow, Fiona," he said. "But I wonder how I'm +going to get that gun."</p> + +<p>Then something seemed to prick him; he began to look uncomfortable and +shuffle his feet, while his ears turned pink; and at last he managed +to blurt out:</p> + +<p>"I say, Fiona, it was jolly decent of you, you know."</p> + +<p>Fiona only smiled, the wise smile of perfect understanding.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>That morning the doctor was hastily summoned with the news that +Jeconiah was awake. The nurse met him in the passage, wide-eyed and +rather frightened.</p> + +<p>"He's so strange," she said.</p> + +<p>"Tut, tut," said the doctor; "told you he might wake like that. Kind +of change in personality? Just so. Often happens. Seldom permanent +though. What's he done?"</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</a></span>"Well, doctor, of course we all know Mr. Johnson's reputation," said +the nurse. "He's thanked me three times, and hoped I didn't tire +myself; and he had all the servants up and said he'd see their wages +were raised, and the cook gave notice on the spot because she said she +didn't like practical jokes; and he says he wants to go out and gather +buttercups and daisies, and play with the little frogs; and he's sent +for some old gun that he says he's got to buy for his nephew; and he +hasn't opened any of the telegrams that have been waiting for him; he +says he mayn't attend to business till he has learnt a fairy tale, and +he's had the library ransacked, and he's tearing his hair because +there's no such thing in it."</p> + +<p>"Oh, well," said the doctor, "we must just have patience, nurse. I +expected something of the sort. Just humor him; if you can't find a +fairy tale, try him with a history book; he'll never know the +difference; and I'll send him up a nice soothing mixture. Very +interesting case; ve-ry interesting."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</a></span>And the doctor, calling up his best professional smile, bustled into +Jeconiah's room.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>It was the same afternoon, a still afternoon of Indian summer, that +the old hawker, accompanied again by the black terrier, was going down +the shore road. He must have had business at the cottage on the beach. +But his business was probably not urgent; for he stopped to watch with +interest a group on the shore. It consisted of Jeconiah and the +Urchin, and they sat on the little patch of sand at the mouth of the +burn. The Urchin had across his knees the rusty old gun bought for him +by Jeconiah, who had nevertheless exacted the doubloon from him in +exchange. He fingered the gun lovingly, while he gazed with +undisguised impatience at the proceedings of his uncle. Jeconiah's +coat lay on the grounds beside a sheaf of unopened telegrams, and he +was putting the finishing touches to a noble castle of sand; its +drawbridge was supported by his double watch chain, and its turrets<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</a></span> +bore a suspicious resemblance in contour to the inside of his hat. He +patted his work and gazed at it with pride.</p> + +<p>"Fine, isn't it?" he said.</p> + +<p>"You'd better hurry up with that fairy tale," said the boy. "If you've +got to, you've got to, you know; and you won't keep me much once I get +some cartridges."</p> + +<p>Jeconiah began to look alarmed.</p> + +<p>"But I haven't found one yet," he said, and glanced anxiously at the +pile of telegrams.</p> + +<p>"Make one up, then," said the boy. "Anybody can do it."</p> + +<p>Thus adjured, Jeconiah started.</p> + +<p>"Once upon a time there was a very grizzly old bear, and he lived in a +beautiful place called Capel Court, and he used to hunt the wild bulls +and the stags and the poor little guinea pigs that abounded in that +salubrious locality. And there were two young ladies there, called +Cora and Dora. . . ."</p> + +<p>"Are those the princesses?" asked the boy.</p> + +<p>"No, I think not," said Jeconiah. "They<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</a></span> were of quite ordinary stock. +Well, the old bear thought they were too high and mighty, and that he +would like to take them down a point or two. . . ."</p> + +<p>"Oh, this won't do," said the Urchin rudely. "This isn't a <i>real</i> +fairy tale at all. You must do something better than that."</p> + +<p>The wretched Jeconiah groaned, and looked again at his telegrams. Then +he started afresh.</p> + +<p>"Once upon a time there was a great dragon with seven heads, and he +ate seven princesses every day for dinner. . . ."</p> + +<p>"That's better," said the boy, encouragingly, as he settled himself to +listen.</p> + +<p>The old hawker resumed his walk.</p> + +<p>"They haven't made a very good job of him, after all," he remarked +aloud, apparently to the terrier. "But I expect that sort is +incurable."</p> + +<p>Was it a flicker of sunlight? Or did the black terrier really wink?</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</a></span></p> + +<h2 class="newchapter"><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII<br /> +<span class="smalltext">FIONA FINDS HER TREASURE</span></h2> + + +<p>And Fiona?</p> + +<p>Fiona sat on the hearthrug in the bookroom, and told her father the +whole story from beginning to end, as it has been told here. And +sometimes he asked a question, and sometimes he said, "Yes, that would +be so," and sometimes he stroked her hair and said nothing. And when +she had ended, he said, "So you never found your own treasure after +all, Fiona?"</p> + +<p>She said, "I suppose I can have it now, if I go back."</p> + +<p>"Do you think you will go back?" he asked.</p> + +<p>She replied with another question.</p> + +<p>"Have you found out what my treasure is, daddy?"</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</a></span>"I believe I could guess," he answered. "But you have found a good +many things already, apart from treasure, haven't you, little +daughter?"</p> + +<p>She sat silent and looked into the fire.</p> + +<p>"I suppose I have," she said.</p> + +<p>"We won't enumerate them," said the Student. "It spoils things +entirely, sometimes, to put them into words. But I will tell you +something an old writer once said. He was talking of that particular +kind of treasure which men call Truth; and he said that if he were +offered Truth itself on the one hand, and the everlasting search for +it on the other hand, he would choose the search. I expect you can +understand that now; for you have seen what has happened to you over +your own search."</p> + +<p>"I think I can understand," said Fiona. "I must be growing older, +daddy."</p> + +<p>"You'll be too old soon to go back to Fairyland at all, little +daughter," said the Student. "If you are going, you will have to go at +once."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</a></span>"What do you think, daddy?" she questioned.</p> + +<p>"I can only tell you that, in my case, I went back," the Student +answered.</p> + +<p>"Why, daddy, have you been in Fairyland too?" cried Fiona. "And you +never told me."</p> + +<p>"Yes," said the Student. "Even a musty old scholar like myself was +young once, you know," and he looked into the fire with eyes which +seemed to see things very, very far away. "It was not quite the same +as the Fairyland you have been in, Fiona; but we called it Fairyland."</p> + +<p>"Can't you come back with me if I go daddy?" asked the girl.</p> + +<p>"I'm too old now, little daughter," he said. "For good or for bad, I +could never find the way again. I can only see it now through your +eyes. I'll come as far as the door with you, and that's all that an +old man can do. I suppose you know where the door is?"</p> + +<p>"I never felt there was any doubt," said Fiona.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[Pg 184]</a></span>"Then we'll start first thing to-morrow, if it's calm enough," he +said.</p> + +<p>But that evening was the last of the golden autumn; and when Fiona +woke in the morning, the Isle of Mist was justifying its name. The +southwest gale was raging round the house like a live animal, seizing +it and shaking it, and wailing in the chimneys pitifully, like an +unburied ghost; and before the gale the long lead-colored rollers were +racing in from the Atlantic, smashing themselves on the crags and +shooting up heavenward in columns of spray thrice the height of the +cliffs, while the noise of the surf in the Scargill cave came booming +across the water like the roar of a battleship's guns. The hills were +all shrouded in mist, and the mist was fine salt rain that rolled in +from the sea, driving in billows over the moor and across the fields; +the gulls were tossed about in it like little bits of waste paper, and +every green thing on the island opened its heart to the rain and drank +till it could drink no more. Toward evening Fiona and the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[Pg 185]</a></span> Student, in +oilskins and sou'-westers, went down to the rocks and out seaward as +far as was possible, and there stood, unable to speak for the noise. +They balanced themselves against the gusts, and felt the tingling +drops of salt spray rattle like hail off their coats, while they +watched the cliff waterfalls, unable to fall for the wind, go straight +up heavenward in clouds of smoke, and the sea foam and tear at the +rocks below; and once for a moment the cloud-mist parted, and the +hills started out, their dark sides all gashed and seamed with white +streaks where every tiny runlet and burn was rushing in spate down +toward the sea. Fiona managed to shout, with her clear young voice, +"No one can really love this island who only knows it in summer;" and +then they went home, out of the dusk and the lashing of the wet wind, +to the quiet bookroom and tea things, and lamps, and books; for man +may love Nature, but he loves still better the contrast between Nature +and the things which he has fashioned for himself.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[Pg 186]</a></span>For three weeks the wind blew; and though there were days when the +sea-mist lifted, there was no day on which the sea was calm enough for +the launching of their small boat. Then one afternoon came change. The +warm air turned chill, and the warm rain became sleet; that night the +wind backed to the north, and next day was a blizzard of snow. And the +night after the wind fell away, and the snow ceased, and Orion and his +two dogs shone huge in a frosty sky; and Fiona woke to the glories of +a scarlet sunrise on a great field of white.</p> + +<p>"We must hurry, daddy," she said. "It's perfectly calm."</p> + +<p>"It's a pet day," said the Student, sniffing the air. "It won't last; +the wind backed too suddenly. But it's all right till sunset."</p> + +<p>Directly breakfast was over they launched the little boat, and +started. The snow shone white in the sunshine, and the calm sea +against the snow was as blue as a blue lotus; but the shadows on the +snow were a wonder, and the woven complexity of their colorings would<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[Pg 187]</a></span> +have taxed every hue on an artist's palette. So they pulled down and +into the cave, at whose mouth the great bluff looked barer and blacker +than ever against the world's whiteness; and they grounded their boat +and climbed the rock barrier. There the Student sat down and filled +and lit his pipe.</p> + +<p>"This is as far as I can go," he said. "If I mistake not, you will +find that they have opened the door for you."</p> + +<p>So Fiona went on to the recess where the Urchin had found the +doubloon, and where the torch had been smashed in her father's hand; +and the solid wall of the cliff had opened, and there was an archway +leading into the black vaulting of the long cave behind. Fiona passed +through into the darkness . . . and the darkness parted to right and +left of her, and she stood again in the fairy ring where she had stood +on All Hallows E'en.</p> + +<p>But how changed. Of all the bright throng of fairies that had +clustered round it, not one stood there to-day. The circle of scarlet +toad<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[Pg 188]</a></span>stools was broken down and shattered, as though by a great storm; +and the ring itself was no longer grass, but was covered deep in snow. +Of all the things she had seen there that evening, only one remained. +The beryl throne still stood lonely in the midst of the bare ring; and +on the throne sat the King of the Fairies. His face rested on his +hand, as though he were deep in thought; his eyes were looking at +something far away. On the steps of the throne sat the Chancellor, the +King's inseparable friend; and he, too, was deep in thought. It was a +view of the fairy world which Fiona had never expected.</p> + +<p>The King must have heard her step, for he rose from his throne and +came down to meet her.</p> + +<p>"Have you come for your treasure, Fiona?" he said.</p> + +<p>And she said, "I have come because you asked me to come back."</p> + +<p>The King held out his sceptre to her; and again the mist came up from +the ground and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[Pg 189]</a></span> enwrapped the beryl throne, and the figures of the +King and the Chancellor wavered and became dim before her. <i>Were</i> they +the King and the Chancellor? Was not what she saw, so dim through the +mist, the figures of the shepherd who had helped her on Glenollisdal +and his black collie? But the mist was wavering again about them, and +again all was a blur; and then the mist suddenly cleared, and there +was no one there at all but just the old hawker and the little terrier +which followed him.</p> + +<p>"So you were the King of the Fairies all the time," said Fiona.</p> + +<p>"All the time," said the old man gently. "We go about in the world as +you see us. And some still entertain angels unaware. Have you come for +your treasure, Fiona?"</p> + +<p>And this time Fiona answered, "Yes."</p> + +<p>"You have earned it," said the King. "And you have found much more +than any treasure. Your father has told you that?"</p> + +<p>And again Fiona said, "Yes."</p> + +<p>"I cannot really give you your treasure,"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[Pg 190]</a></span> said the King, "for you +have it already. I think you have had it all the time; but you did not +know. But now you have learnt."</p> + +<p>"What is it?" asked Fiona. "But I think I can guess now."</p> + +<p>"It is the spirit of the island which you love," said the King, "and +which henceforth loves you. You have spoken face to face with bird and +beast and with the beings who knew and loved the land before your race +was. To-day you have the freedom of the island, and of all living +things in it; they are your friends forever. And to the dead in its +graveyards you are kin. All that is there has passed into your blood, +the old lost loves, the old impossible loyalties, the old forgotten +heroisms and tendernesses; all these are yours; and yours are the +songs that were sung long ago, and the tales which were told by the +fireside; and the deeds of the men and women of old have become part +of you. You can walk now through the crowded city and never know it, +for the wind from the heather will be about you<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[Pg 191]</a></span> where you go; you can +stand in the tumult of men and never hear them, for round you will be +the silence of your own sea. That is the treasure of the Isle of Mist; +the island has given you of its soul. You have found greater things +already; you will find greater things yet again. But such as it is, it +is the best gift which we of the fairy world have to give."</p> + +<p>"And now," continued the King, "you will not see us again. And I will +take back the bracelet. It would be no further use to you, for you are +no longer a child. You are too old for Fairyland."</p> + +<p>"But my father could see you," said Fiona.</p> + +<p>"He could only see me as I really am through your eyes," said the +King. "It may be that some day you too will see me again through the +eyes of a child. But for the present it is farewell."</p> + +<p>So Fiona stooped down and stroked the little dog, who looked at her +with wistful eyes, and took her farewell of the King; and the King +raised his hand, and the mist rose again<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[Pg 192]</a></span> and enwrapped the fairy ring +and those in it . . . and Fiona walked out through the archway into +the cave, and there sat the Student on the rock barrier, just as she +had left him, knocking the ashes out of his pipe. And even as she came +to him there was a noise behind her, and when she looked round it was +to see the archway blocked by a great fall of rock.</p> + +<p>"You will not use that way again, little daughter," said the Student.</p> + +<p>"I shall not use any way again now, daddy," she said. "I am too old. +But oh, daddy, it has been worth it."</p> + +<p>Then they launched their boat and paddled slowly out of the cave, out +of the dark into daylight; and before them lay the quiet sea bathed in +the winter sun, and the Isle of Mist dreaming under its mantle of +white.</p> + + +<p class="newchapter center">THE END.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p class="center"><b><i>A Selection from the<br /> +Catalogue of</i><br /> +G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS</b></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 75px;"> +<img src="images/logo-3.png" width="75" height="66" alt="logo" title="" /> +</div> + +<p class="center"><b>Complete Catalogues sent<br /> +on application</b></p> + + +<p class="center biggertext newchapter">THE MOON POOL</p> + +<p class="center">BY<br /> +<span class="bigtext">A. MERRITT</span></p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p>Romance, real romance, and wonderful adventure,—absolutely +impossible, yet utterly probable! A story one almost regrets having +read, since one can then no longer read it for the first time. Once in +the proverbial blue moon there comes to the fore an author who can +conceive and write such a tale. Here is one!</p> + +<p>Few indeed will forget, who, with the Professor, watch the mystic +approach of the Shining One down the moon path,—who follow with him +and the others the path below the Moon Pool, beyond the Door of the +Seven Lights;—and would there were more characters in fiction like +Lakla the lovely and Larry O'Keefe the lovable.</p> + +<p>Perhaps you readers will know who were those weird and awe-inspiring +Silent Ones.</p> +</div> + +<hr class="advert" /> + +<p class="center"><span class="bigtext"><b>G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS</b></span><br /> +NEW <span style="word-spacing: 3em;">YORK LONDON</span></p> + + + + +<p class="center biggertext newchapter">Visions and Beliefs in<br /> +the West of Ireland</p> + +<p class="center">By<br /> +<span class="bigtext">Lady Gregory</span></p> + +<p class="center">With Two Essays and Notes by W. B. Yeats</p> + +<p class="center"><i>Two Volumes. 12º</i></p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p>To those who have felt the haunting charm that inheres in the Celtic +consciousness of an imminent supernaturalism, this collection of Irish +fancy, belief, and folk-lore, gathered from the lips of the people +with patient and reverent care, will have particular value. It has +interest as an exceptionally thorough and representative study of +psychic sensitiveness in Ireland, and the slightness of the barrier +between worlds seen and unseen.</p> +</div> + +<hr class="advert" /> + +<p class="center"><span class="bigtext"><b>G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS</b></span><br /> +NEW <span style="word-spacing: 3em;">YORK LONDON</span></p> + + + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="biggertext newchapter">The Substance<br /> +of a Dream</p> + +<p>By<br /> +<span class="bigtext">F. W. Bain</span></p> + +<p>"In this new and wholly charming Hindu story a very old world speaks +to us, but one that has not lost its childhood with age and +sophistication. It is a world of innocent voluptuousness where passion +is not contrary to faith but is itself faith.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Bain's people have character, as there are colors in moonlight, a +character with a common beauty in all its diversities; and because of +its utter and inner harmony, this creation of his has a very rare +beauty."</p> +</div> + +<hr class="advert" /> + +<p class="center"><span class="bigtext"><b>G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS</b></span><br /> +NEW <span style="word-spacing: 3em;">YORK LONDON</span></p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p>Transcriber's Note: The following typographical errors present in the +original edition have been corrected.</p> + +<p>In Chapter II, a quotation mark was deleted after "the love of worms +was the root of all evil".</p> + +<p>In Chapter III, a quotation mark was added after "if you could wait a +few minutes . . .".</p> + +<p>In Chapter IV, <i>said Fiona," and you wriggle so."</i> was changed to +<i>said Fiona, "and you wriggle so."</i>, and <i>"Urchin," she shouted; +"Urchin.'</i> was changed to <i>"Urchin," she shouted; "Urchin."</i></p> + +<p>In Chapter V, quotation marks were added after "Go up a hill." and +"the true cave at all."</p> +</div> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Treasure of the Isle of Mist, by W. W. 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W. Tarn + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Treasure of the Isle of Mist + +Author: W. W. Tarn + +Release Date: November 23, 2010 [EBook #34410] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE TREASURE OF THE ISLE OF MIST *** + + + + +Produced by Steven desJardins and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +THE +TREASURE +OF THE +ISLE OF MIST + +BY +W. W. TARN + +[Illustration] + +G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS +NEW YORK AND LONDON +The Knickerbocker Press +1920 + +COPYRIGHT, 1920, BY +W. W. TARN + +[Illustration] + + + + +A FAIRY TALE FOR +MY DAUGHTER + + + + +CONTENTS + + CHAPTER PAGE + I. THE GIFT OF THE SEARCH 1 + II. THE BEGINNING OF TROUBLE 14 + III. THE HAUNTED CAVE 31 + IV. THE URCHIN VANISHES 47 + V. THE OREAD 88 + VI. THE KING OF THE WOODCOCK 111 + VII. FIONA IN THE FAIRY-WORLD 131 + VIII. FIONA FINDS HER TREASURE 181 + + + + +The Treasure of the Isle of Mist + +CHAPTER I + +THE GIFT OF THE SEARCH + + +The Student and Fiona lived in a little gray house on the shores of a +gray sea-loch in the Isle of Mist. The Student was a thin man with a +stoop to his shoulders, which old Anne MacDermott said came of reading +books; but really it was because he had been educated at a place where +this is expected of you. Fiona, when she was doing nothing else, used +to help Anne to keep house, rather jerkily, in the way a learned man +may be supposed to like. She was a long-legged creature of fifteen, +who laughed when her father threatened her with school on the +mainland, and she had a warm heart and a largish size in shoes. +Sometimes they had dinner; sometimes nobody remembered in time, and +they had sunset and salt herrings, with a bowl of glorious yellow +corn-daisies to catch the sunset. + +It was Anne who saw the old hawker crossing the field behind the +house, and burst in on the bookroom to inform the Student that he +wanted buttons. She was met by a patient remonstrance on her ambiguous +use of language: + +"For," said the Student, "if you mean that buttons are lacking to me, +there may be something to be said for you; but if you mean that I +desire buttons, then indeed I do not desire buttons; I desire . . ." + +Whereon Anne fled, and went out to meet the hawker. The frail old man, +bending under his pack, was crossing the meadow behind the house, +brushing his way through the September clover. His white hair was +uncovered save for the huge umbrella which he carried alike in sun +and rain; but youth still lingered in his eyes, which were bright as +the dawn and deep as the sea-caves. Behind him followed a little +rough-haired terrier, black as jet, his inseparable companion. At the +door he unslung his pack, and, leaving Anne to select her buttons, +passed straight through, knocked at the bookroom door, and went in. + +The Student wheeled round in his chair and began to grope about. + +"Have you seen my spectacles?" he said. "I can't see who you are till +I put them on, and I can't put them on till you find them for me, for +I can't see to find them myself unless I have them on. Pardon this +involved sentence." + +The old hawker picked up the missing spectacles and handed them over. + +"You wouldn't remember me, in any case," he said. "I last saw you +twenty-five years ago, when you were trying to dig at Verria. There +was an old man there, do you remember, being beaten by armed +Bashi-Bazouks, and you held them up with an empty revolver, and took +the old man to your camp and nursed him, and you said things to the +Turkish Governor, and . . ." + +"My excavations came to an untimely end," said the Student. "I always +owed that old man a grudge for being beaten before my tent. Why +couldn't he have been beaten somewhere else? I should like to meet him +again and tell him precisely what I thought of his conduct." + +"You have done both now," said the hawker. "And it is his turn." + +"Impossible," said the Student. "He was as old twenty-five years ago +as you are now." + +"At my age," said the old man, "one grows no older. No one who walks +the world as I do need ever grow any older. You can walk thirty miles +on Monday when you are twenty years old; good. If you can do it on +Monday you can do it on Tuesday; and if on Tuesday, then on Wednesday; +therefore, by an easy reckoning, you can do it as well at eighty +years old as at twenty. Thus you never age." + +"There's a flaw in that somewhere," said the Student. "I know; it's +the Heap. How many grains of sand make a heap?" + +"How many buttons do you want?" said the hawker. "You saved my life +once; you shall have all the buttons you want for nothing." + +"I thought you couldn't answer my question," said the Student. "But we +are getting on much too fast; we haven't really begun yet. I suppose +you came here to sell things? Anne seemed to know you, and she said I +wanted buttons. I pointed out to her that her statement was either an +untruth or a truism, and equally objectionable in either sense; and +now you repeat it, just as I was beginning to consider you quite an +intelligent person. By the way, who are you?" + +"I have a different name in most countries which I visit," said the +old man. "But by profession I sell buttons--and other things." + +"What sort of things?" said the Student. + +"I have dreams," said the old man, "dreams and the matter of dreams; +imaginings of the impossible come true; the wonder of the hills at +sunrise; the quest of unearthly treasure among the moon-flowers; the +look in the eyes of a child that trusts you." + +The Student took off his spectacles, rubbed his eyes hard, and settled +his shoulders. + +"I desire something very much," he said. "If you can do all that, you +can give me what I desire." + +The hawker frowned. + +"You are a scholar," he said, "and I can do nothing for scholars. You +need no ideal, for you have one. You need no dreams, for your life is +one. For you, the earth pours out hidden treasure, and the impossible +comes true day by day. What you desire just now is a long definite +inscription to settle a controverted point in your favor. And if I +could give it you, just think how miserable you'd be. Nothing further +to argue about, there; and several quite happy and contentious +professors would be reduced to such straits that I don't know what +crimes you might all commit. You might even take to making money." + +"If I wanted money," said the Student, "I should, being an intelligent +person, at once proceed to make it. Then I should have to live in the +big house again, instead of letting it, and my precious time would be +spent in arguing with my gardener and endeavoring to conceal my +ignorance from my chauffeur. As it is, we live anyhow, and I am +happy." + +"Happiness doesn't score any points in the game," said the hawker. +"What good do you and your inscriptions do, anyway?" + +"That's not my job here," said the Student. "That will come on +afterwards. Besides, I don't want to do good. I am old-fashioned; why +should I take my neighbor by the throat and say, 'Let me do good to +you, or it shall be the worse for you and yours'? Besides, I can't do +good. You can't dot the wilderness with prosperous homesteads when +half the years the oats don't ripen till the year after. Besides, I +do do good; I have let the big house to shooting tenants, and it's +excellent for their health. Besides seventeen other reasons, which I +can enumerate if you are able to bear them. Besides, Fiona is fond of +me." + +"Yes," said the old man softly, "that's your real justification. And +it's a great deal more than I could give you; my hawker's licence +doesn't cover the big things. How many buttons do you want?" + +Fiona came scrambling through the open window, and curled herself up +on the rug with her head on the Student's knee. The Student stroked +her hair. + +"Tell me what it's all about," she said. + +"This gentleman," he said, "once interrupted a very important piece of +work which I was doing, and I was just about to tell him exactly what +I thought of him when you interrupted me." + +The old hawker had risen and bowed courteously to the girl. + +"My dear young lady," he said, "I have been searching my pack for a +present for your father, and found nothing suitable. But perhaps I +could find something for you." + +Fiona jumped up. + +"Have you a hedgehog?" was her question. + +"I do not carry them with me, as a general thing," said the old man. +"No doubt one could be got. But why a hedgehog?" + +"I want one for the Urchin," she said. "You see, it's his namesake." + +"I see," said the old man, quite gravely. "And who is the Urchin?" + +"The Urchin," said the Student, "is a young rascal who is the son of +my shooting tenant. He plunders my daughter of all her possessions, +and she abets him in every form of villainy." + +"I do try to stop him throwing stones at things," said the girl. + +"Here are hedgehogs," said the hawker. "Isn't that lucky, now?" + +Past the window came five hedgehogs in a solemn row, two big and +three little. Behind them, marshalling the procession, walked the +black terrier, with an eye of happy drollery. + +"There's something wrong about those hedgehogs," said the girl. "They +don't do things like that. I don't think I want a hedgehog any more, +thank you. How did you make them do that? Is your dog a conjurer?" + +"I never harm anything," said the old man, "so that many creatures +will come to me when I call. But I have better presents than that." + +"Choose for her, my friend," said the Student. + +The old man began talking to himself in a low voice. + +"Youth she has," he said, "and freedom, and the joy of life. Wonder +also, and dim imaginings of unseen things. And of the things which men +desire, fame and power are not worth giving, and love is not mine to +give. I have it. I give you the Search," he said. "The search for the +treasure of the Isle of Mist. Others have searched for it before; and +some have found; but the treasure never grows less." + +"That's splendid," said the girl. "And when I find the treasure I will +buy my father seven great books which no one else wants to read, and +he will be perfectly happy." + +"But I did not promise treasure," said the old man. "I promised a +search." + +Fiona's face fell. + +"Then am I not to find anything at the end of it?" she asked. + +The old man chuckled quietly. + +"I did not say that either," he said. "There _is_ a treasure, and you +shall search for it; and you will find it if you are able. Many there +are who helped to build it up. Cuchulain and the forgotten heroes who +fought before Cuchulain; Ossian and the forgotten bards who sang +before Ossian; Columba and the forgotten saints who died before +Columba; each has added something to the pile. It is their treasure +which you shall seek for; that is my gift to you." + +"How shall I know where to begin?" asked the girl. "And may I take the +Urchin with me?" + +"Whether you can take the Urchin with you or not depends on his +capacity to go," said the old man. "And as to beginning, I think you +will find that the Search will begin itself, independently of you. It +always does. But I can give you something that will help you," and he +took out of his pocket a red copper bangle, rudely hammered out with +some rough implement, which he slipped over her wrist. "That was made +long ago," he said, "made by men to whom metal was a new toy, men who +perhaps were nearer to the heart of things than we are." + +"You will stay and have some dinner, will you not?" said the Student. +"At least, if this is a dinner night. Fiona, is this a dinner night?" + +"I have my doubts," said the girl. "Oat cake and honeysuckle, I +expect." + +"And what better?" said the old man. "But I fear I could not dine with +you, were it ortolans and Tokay. For I may never eat beneath a roof. +The open moor is my dining hall, and the stars serve me. And the long +white road is calling me even now. But I think that before the +treasure is found you will see me again." + + + + +CHAPTER II + +THE BEGINNING OF TROUBLE + + +"Man," said the Student, "is a weird creature. He dimly remembers that +he began his evolution, not as a pair, but as a horde; and to the +horde he still seeks, forming huge crowds during his working days, and +on his holidays merely transferring the same crowds in their totality +to some other place, accompanied by a great deal of purposeless noise. +Apart from his crowd he apparently feels chilly, and without noise +unhappy. Nothing is more striking to the reflective mind than the +abdication of civilization in the face of meaningless noises." + +"Daddy," said Fiona, "I want your advice on the matter of treasure +hunting. For if two go together, they don't make a crowd, and they +needn't make a noise." + +"Quote correctly," said the Student. "What Homer said was, that if you +and I went to look for a treasure, I, being a mere man, would find it +at once by logical processes of induction and deduction, while you, +being a superior woman, were losing yourself in the quicksands of the +intuitive short cut." + +"Sir," said the girl, "your word is law to me. Therefore deduce." + +"Persiflage," said the Student, "is not to be encouraged in young +children. Remember that if you were to force me to do so I might come +with you, and then I should see exactly how you bungled the thing." + +"But that's what I want you to do, daddy," said Fiona. + +"I don't," said the Student. "Though treasure hunting is quite an +ancient and respectable amusement. For treasure, some have descended +the crater of Popocatapetl; some have dived at Tobermory; some have +dug in Kensington Gardens. Alexander found a treasure at Persepolis, +and Essex lost another in Cadiz harbor. The treasure of the Incas lies +hid in a Peruvian ravine, known but to two Indians at a time; the +plunder which Alaric took from Rome is still beneath the river which +he diverted to guard it. No one has ever found the hoard of Captain +Kidd, or the gold carried in the Venetian galleon which sailed with +the Armada and went on the rocks in this loch. The pursuit of treasure +is, therefore, no doubt, for the young, a legitimate pastime." + +"Daddy," said Fiona, "did one of the Armada ships really go ashore +here?" + +"Yes, my dear," said the Student. "She was a great Venetian, called +after the Madonna of the Holy Cross, and she carried the doubloons +contributed by the Church." + +"That's not the treasure the old man meant," said the girl. + +"It is not," said the Student. "We know all about the Venetian ship. +The crew were mostly knocked on the head, but the captain brought the +doubloons ashore and hid them. He himself was saved by my ancestor for +the time being, to whom he gave a map showing the place in the cave in +which the treasure was hidden. He never came back for it. So far, +everything proceeded on approved lines. Unhappily, my ancestor was a +careless sort of person, and gambled the plan away. We never heard any +more of it. It is, however, a family tradition that there was nothing +on the plan to identify the cave; and as this coast, and the islands +in the loch, are honeycombed with caves, it would be of little use if +we had it. No one knows whereabouts the galleon went ashore. On calm +nights her officers may be seen swimming round the cliffs, keeping +guard still over their holy gold. Angus MacEachan saw one once, and +tried to speak to him; but he turned into a seal, and just looked at +Angus with large patient eyes; and Angus' boat was wrecked the week +after." + +"And did you never search for the gold, daddy?" asked Fiona. + +"Never, my dear," he said. "In the first place, it would mean a minute +examination of some 170 caves. In the second place, half of the caves +are not mine. In the third place, it is not the kind of treasure I +want. In the fourth place, I haven't time. In the fifth place, I am +morally certain it is not there now. In the sixth place, the +Government would claim it as treasure-trove. And in the seventh and +last place, I never thought about it till you asked me." + +"I'm not getting any further with _my_ treasure hunting, daddy," said +Fiona. "Let's go out together and start." + +"My dear," said the Student, "it's your search, not mine. It's no use +my trying to come with you. And I have a fancy that it won't begin +like that." + +"Can you tell me how to begin then, daddy?" she asked. + +"I suppose by taking no notice of it," he said. "It was to begin +itself, wasn't it? And I have an uncomfortable suspicion that you hunt +this kind of treasure by turning round and going the other way. So I +think you'd better run out and find the Urchin, and I'll get back to +my inscriptions." + +The Urchin was Fiona's principal ally; a troublesome ally, owing to +his propensity for throwing stones. She found him now on the shore, +steadily bombarding a shore lark, that would move a little way out of +range and then sit down again, affording a splendid target. Luckily +the enthusiasm of the persecutor in pursuit was well matched by the +inaccuracy of his aim. + +"Urchin," she called out, "if you hurt that bird the Little People +will take you; I thought I'd knocked that into you all right, even if +you _are_ English and slow in the uptake." + +"All right," said the Urchin with a grin. "We conquered you, anyway." + +"As a matter of fact," said the girl, "it was we who annexed you. If +your people were as bad shots as you, Urchin, it must have been quite +easy. You can't hit a bird sitting." + +"Can't I?" said the Urchin. "You watch." Another fling, and horrors! +the shore lark rolled over, twittering helplessly and miserably. + +Fiona was across the rocks like a young goat; and when the Urchin, +contrite but defiant, arrived, she had the wounded bird in her hands +and was holding it to her breast, feeling gently for its hurt. It lay +quite still, panting, and watching her with quick bright eyes. + +"Broken wing," she said. "I believe it will mend. Urchin, you are a +mere beast. You'd better go home; I don't want ever to see you again." + +The Urchin turned scarlet. + +"That's just like a girl," he said. "First you tell me I can't hit the +old bird, which is the same thing as telling me to hit it; and then +when I do hit it you turn round on me and call names; and all the time +you're just as bad as I am." And the Urchin turned and stalked off, +an heroic figure with the mien of a Marcus Curtius about to save his +country by leaping into the gulf. Unhappily there was a real gulf, and +the boy, head in air, rolled neatly into it, and emerged from between +two rocks, dripping and no longer heroic, rubbing a torn stocking and +a scraped shin. + +It was too much for Fiona's gravity. + +"Urchin," she called, "come back here, _quick_." And as the unhappy +Urchin stood in doubt, hither and thither dividing the swift mind, she +slid over the rocks and caught him. "My fault," she said, "and I'm +sorry all the way through. Now I'll mend you first, and then we must +mend the bird." + +"And then what'll we do?" said the boy. "Let's do something harmless +for a bit, hunt for shells or shrimps or . . ." + +"Treasure," suggested Fiona, rather shyly. And by the time they had +reached the house, and she had repaired the Urchin, and disposed the +wounded bird as comfortably as possible, the boy had been put in +possession of the essential facts of the case. + +"Mar-vellous," was the Urchin's comment. "Now, don't you see, Fiona? +you can have your treasure when we find it, and I'll have the Spanish +treasure when we find it, and there we both are. I want lots and lots +and lots of those doubloons." + +"What for?" said Fiona. + +"Gun," said the Urchin. "Donald Ruadh has an old gun which he would +sell me for two pounds. He says one barrel shoots all right sometimes. +And I would use the rest of the doubloons to buy cartridges, and then +I could kill curlews." + +"You little wretch," said the girl. "You won't kill my curlews while +I'm about. And anyhow your old gun would probably blow you up first. +And anyhow you haven't got the doubloons yet. And they're not yours if +you do find them." + +"Whose would they be?" asked the Urchin. + +"I suppose my father's," said Fiona. "But it depends on which cave +they were in." + +"Come on, then," said the boy. "I'm going to ask him for them." + +The Student took the interruption good-humoredly. + +"I am in the second century," he said. "Doubloons have not yet been +coined. As to these doubloons, I am quite sure they are not there, +wherever 'there' may be; but if they are there, I have no objection to +the Urchin fighting the Government for them. Urchin, would you like a +deed?" + +And, to the delight of the Urchin, the Student proceeded to make out a +document, which called on all men to know that the said Student +thereby assigned to the said Urchin all the estate, right, title, and +interest, if any, of the said Student in and to a certain treasure of +doubloons or other coins once carried in the galleon called _Our Lady +of the Holy Cross_ were the same a little more or less ("all good +deeds get that in somewhere," said the Student) to hold to the said +Urchin and his heirs ("but I don't suppose the heirs will see much of +it") to the intent that he might become a wiser and a better Urchin +and not interrupt the said Student any more when he wanted to work. +This being done, the Student signed his name at the end, made a +beautiful blot of hot red sealing wax and put his signet ring on it, +and made Fiona sign her name as witness ("which is probably not +legal," he explained cheerfully); then he handed over the deed to the +rejoicing Urchin, with the remark that it was quite as good as many +lawyers' deeds, and drove the pair of them out of the bookroom. + +"Good," said the Urchin. "Now I've a treasure just the same as you." + +"If we find them," said Fiona. + +"Well, let's go and start hunting for them at any rate," said the boy. + +"Pardon me," said the shore lark, "if I interrupt; but you might be +the better of a few hints." + +Fiona dropped on her knees and took the little bird in her hands +again. + +"So you can talk," she said. "That's jolly. You've a first-rate chance +of returning good for evil, and making us feel worms." + +"Don't talk of worms," said the shore lark, "you have entirely omitted +to provide me with any. Send him to get some, and I'll tell you +something. He can't understand what I'm saying, anyhow." + +"Urchin," said the girl, "he's asking for worms. Go and get him some." + +"One would think you and he could talk to each other," said the boy. +"Silly, I call it, going on like that. I suppose that's what girls +do." + +"Urchin," said Fiona, "when you and I have a row, what happens?" + +"_You_ happen," said the Urchin. "You've three years' pull; 'tisn't +fair; just like a girl, to go and have three years' pull of a chap." + +"Stop grousing," said the girl, "and get me the worms, there's a dear +little boy." + +The Urchin flung the nearest book at her, missed as usual, and, having +thus made his honor white, departed, declaring in simpler language +that the love of worms was the root of all evil. + +"I can't tell you much," said the shore lark, "but one sometimes picks +up things, hopping about, and I heard you say treasure. If you mean +the Venetian ship, don't start without consulting the finner. He is +very old, and I believe that he knows everything that happens in this +loch." + +"I don't really mean that," said Fiona. "That's half a jest. I mean my +own search, the search for the treasure of the Isle of Mist." + +"We have all heard of it," said the shore lark, "and we all know that +you cannot find it by looking for it. All I can tell you is this: the +curlews have a tradition that the last man who found it went up a +hill. That is what they tell each other when they call in the spring; +and I believe they know." + +"They are like the spirits of the hills themselves," said Fiona. +"Tell me why it is I can understand you." + +"I have no idea," said the shore lark. "I am only a little bird, and I +don't know very much. I chanced speaking to you because I wanted +worms." + +The girl slipped across into the bookroom. + +"Daddy," she said, "come back out of the second century, and tell me +why I can understand the shore lark." + +The Student looked up with a patient smile in far-away eyes. + +"It isn't time to come back yet," he said. "And I have not fully +grasped your meaning. You appear to refer to some conversation with +some bird. There are precedents, of course. For instance, the +philosopher Empedocles, having been a bird himself in a former life, +remembered their speech; he ended by leaping into AEtna. Siegfried +also, having bathed in the blood of Fafnir, followed the voice of a +bird of the wood; he ended by losing his love and his life. There was +once a sailor who took the advice of a parrot, and was hanged. Birds +are light-minded, as the poet Aristophanes discovered; and it would +seem that little good comes of talking to them." + +"My shore lark is a darling," said Fiona. "And I don't intend to be +hanged." + +"That," said the Student, "is as Providence pleases. One never knows, +as my poor ancestor said when he fell into a bear-trap and found the +bear there before him." + +"O daddy," said the girl, "did he really? And what happened?" + +"This ancestor of mine," said the Student, "was a very strong man. If +he had not been, someone else would have killed him first, and he +would not have been my ancestor; the other man would have been someone +else's ancestor, so to speak. Being a very strong man, he naturally +killed the bear. He must have, or he would not have lived to be my +ancestor. In those days everyone lived in caves, and he lived in a +cave too; and he always killed the other man, sometimes fairly, +sometimes, I regret to say, otherwise. He courted my ancestress by +knocking her down from behind with the blunt end of a stone ax, a +method which I do not defend; but when her senses returned she told +him he had acted like a man, and they became a most devoted couple. +This was partly due, no doubt, to the fact that he never saw the +meaning of the things she said; she took good care that he shouldn't, +for though slow of wit he was handy with his ax. Their life I think +must have been very happy till one day he found a red stone which he +could heat and shape with his ax, and he hammered out that copper +bracelet you're wearing; and then came the deluge, for metal meant +magic then, as you know. Next day my ancestress found him conversing +with the local vulture; within a week he was giving exhibitions in the +other caves with the vulture's assistance; in a month he had become +the tribal god; and about two years after, owing to the persistent +failure of some of his magic to come off, he was, for a brief moment, +the tribal banquet. Now you know what comes of talking to shore +larks." + +"Daddy," she said, "you can't know if that's true or not, can you?" + +"It may not all be what _you_ call true," said the Student, "but it's +true in quite a lot of ways. It's true psychologically, and +anthropologically, and palaeethnologically; and that does to start +with. And I certainly _had_ ancestors. And there _is_ a bracelet. And +you _were_ talking strange words about a shore lark. And you must +really take care, my dear daughter; for you _ought_ now to become a +tribal priestess, and be hurled from a high place into the sea the +first season that the herring fail." + + + + +CHAPTER III + +THE HAUNTED CAVE + + +A sunlit sheet of sea, violet and azure, clothed in slender cloud +shadows and heaving gently to the long Atlantic ground-swell. Up +through the calm water, to meet the eye of the gazer, came the green +clearness of stone, and blinks of unveined sand showing white between +the brown tangled blades of the great oar-weed; and you might see a +school of little cuddies, heads all one way, playing hide and seek in +the sea forest, and caring no whit for the clumsy armored crab beneath +them, who crawled sideways, a laborious patch of color in the +shimmering transparency. Up out of the deep water the gray rocks rose +clear and fine, a mass of platforms and pinnacles, roughened with +barnacles and tufted with dulse, whose crimson leaves floated and +swung in the white foam of the lisping swell; and above the rocks and +beyond the sea's reach the cliff stood up black, showing all the +strata that had gone to the making of it outlined with little patches +of coarse grass. On one such patch grazed without concern a sheep +which had slipped over, happy in her ignorance of the fact that she +could never be drawn up again alive; the wiser raven overhead was +clanging away with short barks to tell his mate. On a ridge on the +cliff side sat a pair of young scarfs, almost invisible save when they +twisted their long necks about like two snakes, trying to make up +their minds to follow their mother, who had just flopped clumsily into +the water, feet first, and had turned there and then into a miracle of +easy grace, as she used her head to dash the spray over her back. Out +at sea a solan rose steadily in a sweeping spiral, the white and black +of him glittering in the sun; suddenly he checked, reversed engines, +and fell plump like an inverted cross, his long raking wings clapping +to as he struck the water; a moment, and he was up, and there sat, +choking and gobbling over his fish, ere he rose again in his majestic +rings. + +The two children had grounded their boat on a little pebble beach +between the rocks, and were sitting on a big tuft of sea pinks, +munching handfuls of the sweet dulse and watching the solan at his +fishing. They were by way of fishing themselves, but the afternoon was +as yet too early and too clear for them. The Urchin had a pile of +stones beside him, and was apparently trying to see how many times in +twenty he could miss a large and obvious spur of rock. Fiona had a +book of poetry, and was making intermittent efforts to read; but the +world was too full of things to give poetry a fair chance. + +The Urchin threw his last stone away. + +"Silly sitting here," he said; "come and explore." + +So, scrambling and sliding, the two made their way across the rocks, +stopping at every rock pool to raise its fringe of weed with careful +hands and investigate the wonder of the little world below; sea +flowers of every hue, white and green, gray and orange, purple and +white and gray and purple again, some smooth and satisfied, others +with tentacles greedily awash, that could be induced to suck at a +small finger dexterously inserted; sea shells of every contour, some +living and clutching at the rock, some cast off and dead, others again +protruding alien claws, resurrected to a life of artificial movement +by the little hermit crabs whose tails they sheltered; here and there +the spiky pink globe of a sea urchin, waiting for the tide to float +him off. And in one deep little pot, with sides green like a grotto of +ferns, they found a miniature battle. A small green crab, who had cast +his shell, sat humped in a recess of the grotto, a thing soft and +vulnerable, a delight to the enemy; and in front of him, excited and +transparent, were half a dozen shrimps, the horn on each forehead +pointed at him; from time to time some young gallant would dash in to +prod the helpless monster, and at once backwater again into the ranks +of his friends. The crab bore his torment with a patience born of the +knowledge that each minute his new carapace was hardening; the shrimps +had no wit to count the cost, or reckon the odds that the rising tide +might bear them away in safety from the day of vengeance. + +On hands and knees, not daring to breathe on the limpid surface of the +pool, the children watched the little drama. From the cliff top the +heated air rose dancing into the sky. So still were earth and air and +sea that the old finner's rise sounded as though the cliff were +falling. He had worked nearer in to the rocks than seemed possible for +his ninety feet of blubber and muscle, and as his black side rolled +over, the water about him boiled like a pot; but he did not splash, +for he had been well brought up and always knew what his tail was +doing, though it was so far away. + +"Shiver these rocks," he began in a rage, as he flung two fountains +out of his nose. Then he caught sight of Fiona and the gleam of the +red bracelet. + +"Oh my fins and flippers!" he spouted. "I ask pardon, young lady; I +haven't the manners of a grampus. And they told me about you." + +"Who's they?" asked Fiona, ungrammatically. + +"Friends at Court, friends at Court," said the finner. "What a thing +to have. 'No need of the old sailorman,' said I. But they said I must +go. And I've scraped the barnacles off my precious tail. Will it run +to some tobacco?" + +"Will what run?" said the girl. "Your tail? What is it you want?" + +"Hints are wasted, I see," said the whale. "'One question,' said I. +Only one. But magic is magic, you know, even for a tough old +sailorman. Come now, one question. I'm too far inshore for my +liking." + +Fiona understood. + +"Is it about my treasure?" she said. + +"Yours, or that boy's there, whichever you like," said the whale. "But +only one, only one." + +For about two seconds Fiona did some hard mental drill. Then she said: + +"Will you please tell me where the Urchin can find his treasure?" + +"You do have luck," said the finner. "Think of it, then. O you little +fishes, think of it. If you'd asked the other, I didn't know the +answer. Wouldn't have got an answer, and my tail all scraped for +nothing. And this one, my great-great-grandmother saw it all, and +nobody knows here but me and the seals and one man, and he's too fat +to count. West cave, Scargill Island; and bring you luck, my dear. +Will it run to some tobacco?" + +"Thank you so much," said Fiona politely. "And I'm sorry I haven't any +tobacco with me. But if you could wait a few minutes . . ." + +"Shiver it, I'm scraping again," said the whale. "No tobacco and very +few barnacles in this world. O my grandmother's flukes, I might as +well be a bottlenose!" + +Once more the water boiled, and beneath it the huge black body shot +away for the open sea. + +"Fiona," said the boy, "do you really think it's cricket?" + +"What isn't cricket?" she asked. + +"Fiona," he said, "I've been a brother to you. I have done all the +things a brother ought to do. I have taught you to throw like a boy. I +have pinched you for new clothes. I have called you names, to make you +good-tempered. I have made remarks on your personal appearance, to +prevent your being vain. I have even fought with you, solely for your +good. And this is how you repay me. The other day you pretended to be +talking to a shore lark; to-day it was an old whale, who spouted and +banged his tail on the rock. If it's a joke, I don't see it. If it's +not a joke, do go into a lunatic asylum, and let me find a simpler +job." + +Fiona tossed up mentally between hitting him and laughing; it came +down laughing. + +"Urchin," she said, "it's all right. I don't understand it much better +than you do, but it has something to do with this bracelet of mine. I +can really understand them and they can understand me. If you doubt my +word, we will fight a duel with the boat stretchers, and I will bury +you in the sand here afterwards." + +"Oh, I believe you when you talk like that," said the Urchin; "only +it's worse than the Latin grammar. _Psittacus loquitur_, "the parrot +talks"; but this thing seemed to be a whale; it was very like one." + +"It was a whale," said Fiona. "He said his great-great-grandmother had +seen the Spanish captain land his doubloons, and that it was in the +west cave on Scargill Island." + +"That means the big cave at the end facing the sea," said the boy. + +"The cave that no one has ever got to the end of," said Fiona. + +"The cave that's haunted," said the boy. + +"But of course it's haunted; it's the ghosts of the Spaniards. Silly +of us not to have guessed." + +Fiona had a hazy recollection of things her father used to say. + +"I expect the haunting is thousands of years older than the +Spaniards," she said. "Urchin, are you afraid of ghosts?" + +"Not a bit," said the Urchin stoutly. "They would be splendid to throw +stones at. It wouldn't hurt them." + +"Come on then, let's go," said the girl. "There's lots of daylight." + +"None of the people here will go into it, you know," said the Urchin. + +"I know," said Fiona. "All the more reason for going on our own. There +might really be something there, if no one ever goes to take it away." + +So the boat was launched, and the adventure also. Fiona pulled stroke; +the Urchin was a clumsy and unpunctual bow, and the girl had to steer +from the stroke oar, which needs more doing than you may think if you +haven't tried it. But they made the end of Scargill in time, and then +Fiona took both the oars and coasted, while the Urchin got out a +couple of bamboo poles, garnished with white flies, and let the casts +trail, occasionally getting one of the beautiful little scarlet lythe, +that came at the fly with the spring and dash of a sea trout. For even +adventurers need supper. And so they came, past many a smaller cave +mouth in the black side of the island, to the huge bluff that fronts +the full Atlantic, and the great west cave. + +Atlantic was half asleep to-day, and muttered drowsily to the quiet +rocks outside. But the great cave was seldom quiet. In the winter, +when Atlantic turned himself restlessly and spoke aloud, the sound of +his speaking came back from its depths like the roar of a heavy gun; +and even in the stillness the lisp of the swell in it echoed as from +the roots of the island in a low intermittent boom. Outside, on the +calm water, floated the whiskered head of a seal, watching the boat +with gentle, fearless eyes,--"the officer on guard," Fiona +whispered;--and from the black cliff's face, like a hanging fringe +over the mouth of the cave, the water splashed down, trickle by +trickle, in quick, heavy drops. The children rowed in through the +little shower, and Fiona paddled gently up the cave. Its huge +limestone walls stood up stark on either hand, rising into the +darkness above, and sinking below into the green water, as far as eye +could follow them. Near the water-line grew a little seaweed, and some +white whelks clung; but as they went down the waterway these vanished, +and gray cliff and green water alike began to turn black. Looking +back, Fiona could see a bright patch, a patch of sky and +sky-reflecting sea, framed in the narrow slit of the cave's mouth. The +waterway was narrowing now; she shipped her oars and stood up, using +one as a paddle, and instructing the Urchin how to fend off the boat's +stern with his hands. In front, on a ledge in the cave's roof, it was +just possible to make out a row of blue dots in the growing darkness; +as the boat drew nearer, the blue dots fluttered, detached themselves +from the cliff, and a swarm of pigeons came whirring over the boat and +down the cave toward the sunlight;--"Your ghosts, Urchin," said the +girl. Henceforward the cave was void of life, unless some strange, +eyeless fish lurked in its inky depths. Darker and darker grew the +waterway, and the last gleam of light vanished. Fiona was feeling her +way now, aided by the phosphorescent drip from her oar blade; the +Urchin, with unusual sense, splashed his hands in the water to +increase the pale glow, which just revealed the line of the cliff. +Neither dare speak now; possibly, had Fiona not had some idea of what +was coming, she would have turned. But already there was a faint gleam +ahead, faint as a glow worm, but still a gleam; and as the boat slid +forward, and the low boom in the depths of the cave grew closer, the +cave walls very slowly began to grow gray again out of the blackness. +A few minutes more, and the walls were an outline, and before them, a +fringe of white on round wet stones, the end of the waterway. And as +the boat grounded, Fiona pointed up, and the Urchin, looking, saw a +little round hole; a natural shaft ran down into the cave from the +surface of the island, giving light enough for their eyes, now +accustomed to the darkness, to distinguish outlines. + +They drew their boat up on the stones far enough for the swell not to +dislodge it; then the same impulse seized them both and they burst out +laughing, not aloud, for something in the place made it impossible to +laugh or talk aloud, but in a kind of mirthless whisper. + +"We've come without any lights," said Fiona in an undertone. + +"We have," said the Urchin. "But probably the stuff is only a few +yards above high-water mark; they wouldn't go far in." + +"They might have," said Fiona; "they'd have had torches or +something." + +"Let's go as far as we can, anyway, as we are here," said the Urchin. + +So they started scrambling over the stones in the gray half-light. +Presently there rose before them a great mass of rock and earth, half +blocking the cave; it looked like some old landslip. + +"It's easy at this end, Fiona," said the boy; and up they went, to +find that the rock barrier blocked most of what little light remained. +Beyond was darkness. + +"We must go back and get light," said Fiona. "I can't even see the +stones below." A pause; then, "Stop swinging your feet, Urchin; I want +to listen." + +"I'm not," said the Urchin. + +Another pause, and then the Urchin spoke again, in a kind of stage +whisper, "I'm frightened." The words seemed squeezed out of him. + +"We may as well go back, anyhow," said Fiona, in a strained voice. +"Down you go, Urchin." + +The Urchin did go down at a considerable pace, and ran for the boat. +Fiona managed to walk, by repeating to herself all the time under her +breath, "You mustn't run, you mustn't run." But once in the boat she +did not rebuke the Urchin for standing up and taking the other oar; +and the pair paddled out, with many bumpings and scrapings, in a more +speedy and less scientific manner than that in which they had entered. + +Once out in the sunlight they felt better. They started automatically +to fish home, and presently were talking again. But neither of them +referred to the thing that was uppermost in each mind, though each was +wondering if the other knew. For as they had sat on the wall of rock, +each had heard clearly, in the utter darkness of the unvisited cave, +the sound of heavy footsteps. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +THE URCHIN VANISHES + + +To most people there is some corner of the earth which means more than +all others; and there are two or three in the world whose holy place +is the old house on the sea-loch which the Student's humbler neighbors +called the "big house." An old square building of gray stone, that +matches the gray sky and the gray sea, it has small claims to beauty; +it was built in the days of blank windows, and every wind in the +island meets and screams round the battered iron balustrade which +leads up its steps to the door, and strives to tear down the tendrils +of ivy that cling to the east front. To the south front, lashed by the +full Atlantic gales, not even ivy can cling; only a few twisted elders +and stunted planes grow there, and take the first force of the winter +wind; but the old lawn to the north bursts in summer into a cloud of +white marguerites, whose ethereal beauty at sunset is like the ghosts +of the dreams that haunt the place. For to some of us the old house is +full of dreams, that cling to the dark passages and the uneven floors, +and play in and out of the little windows that are still propped open +with wood, as they were a hundred years ago; dreams of the bright +lights and the bright voices that greeted us, coming in out of the +blinding rain; dreams of the dance and the song, songs of old lost +causes from which all bitterness has died away, leaving to-day nothing +but beauty behind them; dreams of faded joys and forgotten sorrows, of +loves that have passed elsewhere and of memories that abide; dreams of +faces that are seen no more. Some day it will change ownership; it +will be sold to someone from whom understanding of these things has +been withheld, and who will see only the darkness of the old +corridors, the shabbiness of the old doorway; and he will build new +doors, and porticoes and a wide verandah, and make it fair within and +without, levelling the floors and trimming the lawns; and he will have +destroyed the old house and the fragrance of it, and it will never +return. But to-day it still stands as it has stood for many a long +year, clothed in the memories that never leave it and rich in all that +the past has built into it; and to some who may never dwell there +again it is yet ever present as the home of their hearts' desire, a +true house of faery. + +The Student had let the old house to the Urchin's father. He was a +tall, thin man with a hooked nose, and he knew more about one +particular family of Coleoptera than anyone living. He had taken the +place, not because he wanted it for its shooting, but because one of +the beetles of his family was reputed to be plentiful in the +neighborhood. He was never there long; he was never anywhere long. For +thirty years he had pursued his beetles over five continents; his +measurements of their wing cases alone filled nine enormous MS. +volumes. His great work on the variation of the length of the wing +case in beetles kept in captivity had become a classic. Scientific men +had nothing but praise for the book; several even read it. The +majority believed that he had re-founded Neo-Mendelism past any +overthrowing; a small but persistent minority argued that, on the +contrary, he had utterly overthrown the Neo-Mendelians. All, however, +agreed that the book was epoch-making, even though they differed +utterly as to the sort of epoch which it made. The author himself was +a shy and modest person, who never lost his temper except when people +sent him unpaid parcels from Timbuctoo or Khamchatka containing +beetles of other families in which he took no interest. On the rare +occasions when he could be induced to go into society, kind-hearted +hostesses, who saw no reason why one crawling thing should not do as +well as another had been known to try to please him by starting a +conversation about ladybirds or earwigs; and it was said to be worth +foregoing one's cigar to hear him explain, with a chuckle, that though +earwigs or ladybirds were no doubt meritorious creatures in their +several spheres, and possibly legitimate objects of study to others, +they were not his subject; his subject was a particular family of +Coleoptera. He and the Student had become great friends, and when he +was in the island he would often drop in to see the Student's bookroom +after dinner and there the two would sit, one on either side of the +fire, each smoking at a tremendous pace and talking hard on his own +subject. Neither ever expected an answer from the other; neither ever +got one. But they had silently established an unwritten law that when +one had talked for three minutes by the clock on the mantelpiece he +was to stop and let the other have a turn; and when at last they said +good night, each felt that they had both had a thoroughly enjoyable +evening. And so they had. + +Unlike to unlike. The Urchin's father had married the daughter of a +stockbroker, who, on her death, had left him two legacies; one was the +Urchin, and the other was an occasional visitation from her brother +Jeconiah. Mr. Jeconiah P. Johnson, the well-known promoter of +companies, was a short, stout man with a red face and a shifty blue +eye, always immaculately dressed in broadcloth with a huge expanse of +white waistcoat, over which sprawled his double watch chain and his +triple chin. There were possibly some good points even about Jeconiah, +if anything so rotund could be said to have points; but there were +certainly not many. He was supposed by some to possess what is called +"a high standard of business morality"; it would be truer to say that +his code was prehistoric. He had so far kept himself right with the +law, because he had mastered the sordid maxim which proclaims that +honesty is the best policy; no other reason was likely to occur to +him. With some effort he had succeeded in formulating a rule of +conduct of which he was rather proud: Do good to yourself and your +friends and evil to those who stand in your way. If anyone had told +him that the philosophy of ethics took its rise, some twenty-two +centuries ago, in a reaction against a similar rule, he would have +remarked jocosely that he never studied back numbers. Of anything more +exalted than "policy," anything not to be reckoned in terms of L.s.d., +he was as ignorant as a hippopotamus. + +He was never very fond of his right hand's knowing what his left hand +did; for while the right hand promoted companies, the left hand, by +means of a manager and a registered alias, carried on a very useful +little money-lender's business. He was never averse to putting the +screw on, if there was anything to be got by it; and sometimes he got +rather funny things. Recently he had had a broken debtor on his hands, +and had taken what he could get; among other things, an old bureau +full of papers. Jeconiah, being a methodical soul, had turned a clerk +on to sort the papers; and the clerk had presently brought him the +long lost map of the Scargill cave, and a sheet of paper containing +somebody's rough explanation of what it was supposed to be. Jeconiah, +who had heard the story, scented possibilities, and, it being a slack +time in the City, promptly invited himself to his brother-in-law's +house to recover from an attack of influenza. That is how Jeconiah +comes into this story. It could not be helped, for he had the map. The +finner had said he was too fat to count; but that is where the finner +was wrong. + +Jeconiah forthwith gave his mind, such as it was, to the subject of +caves. Diffidence was not his failing, and he cross-examined every +person he could find, concealing, of course, his real object. He +collected a splendid amount of rubbish; but he was acute enough where +his pocket was concerned, and out of the rubbish he presently dragged +forth the fact of the haunted cave which no one would enter. Whereon +Jeconiah went over to Scargill to fish, and had a look at the lie of +the island; settled with himself that it seemed a good enough place +for a wreck, and told the keeper to row him into the west cave. But +the keeper, who had no particular liking for Jeconiah, refused +point-blank, and told him he would not find a man in the island who +would do it; and Jeconiah, who had suddenly lost interest in the +fishing, went home in a bad temper. This happened the day after the +two children were in the cave; and the day after that the Urchin's +father received an excited cablegram from Brazil on the subject of his +beloved beetles. He rushed down at once to see the Student. + +"I am going to Brazil, I don't know for how long," he said. "And my +boy can't go back to school for a month or more, as they have scarlet +fever in the village there. And I don't like to leave him with the +housekeeper, and I start in two hours. Will you take him?" + +"Delighted," said the Student. "Fiona will look after him." + +So the Urchin came, and with him came to Fiona a sense of +responsibility for him. She couldn't help it. + +But Jeconiah showed no intention of moving. On the contrary, the +after-effects of influenza were still troubling him sorely, it seemed. +At last the Urchin's father had to tell him to stay a week or two +longer, if he wanted to; the servants would be there anyhow. And +Jeconiah thanked him and settled down to stay, as he had meant to do +all along. But as soon as his brother-in-law was gone he took the car +and went off for the day. The chauffeur said that he went to a lot of +places and talked to a lot of people; and a couple of days later two +strange men in a boat entered the bay and proceeded to camp out on a +part of the shore which was not the Student's property. Jeconiah had, +in fact, hired the boat, and found a couple of ne'er-do-wells from the +mainland who knew nothing of him and were ready to row him anywhere in +pursuit of his business, which was understood to be photographing wild +birds for an illustrated paper. + +Jeconiah had, however, made one great mistake. He was aware that you +must not neglect little things, and he had neglected quite a big +little thing--the Urchin. He had never spoken to him about caves, or +taken the least notice of the boy's movements. And the Urchin on his +side had been hard at work. He had confessed to Fiona on the subject +of the footsteps, and she to him; and they had agreed, under the broad +healthy light of day, that probably they had been mistaken and afraid +of the dark, and that with lanterns it would be all right. They +agreed, however, that it was necessary to have a really good light, +and the difficulty was to find one. It was the Urchin who came forward +as the saviour of society by proposing to win over Jones, the +chauffeur, and get the loan of one of the big acetylene head-lamps +from the car. Jones, a newcomer, had not yet heard about the cave, +and, being English, he had not yet found his feet among his fellows +and was glad of any sort of diversion. The Urchin wound up a +triumphant half hour of diplomacy by making Jones promise to lend him +one of the headlights and show him how to work it. Then the Urchin +fell, as many greater men have fallen; he was lifted up with pride, +and told Jones that Fiona and he were going treasure-hunting. Jones +grinned; but that evening he talked; and in due course Jeconiah heard. + + * * * * * + +Fiona was digging in her garden, or rather in the Urchin's, for she +had assigned him one bit of it, which she had to cultivate for him; +otherwise it would have run waste, for all the work the Urchin put +into it. Her garden was one corner of the old walled garden of the +Student's house, which was not very well kept now. Once it had been +gay with flowers and rich with fruit; but now few flowers grew there +save such as could look after themselves, and the fruit had come down +to two gnarled old apple trees, in which Fiona had made her earliest +experiments in climbing. Most of the ground, so far as it was in use, +was now given over to cabbages and potatoes; but in June the borders +were sweet with double white narcissus, and now in September there was +a revel of unpruned roses, their blooms growing smaller year by year, +and a mass of the dark-red blossoms of the little west coast fuchsia, +which knows how to live through the winter. One deserted corner was +gay with Turk's turban, which still had strength to push up through +the ever-thickening tangle of weeds; and groups of winter crocus were +coming up in the borders, and among them a few Shirley poppies which +Fiona had sown herself. Fiona had had thoughts of taking the garden in +hand, but the space enclosed by the old walls was far too large for +her to manage unaided; and as there was no money to pay a proper +gardener, she had had to content herself with clearing one corner. +Here she had achieved a riot of color. She had made a little rockery +of oak-leaf and beech ferns brought down from the hill, sentinelled by +tall pink foxgloves; the worn-out plum trees against the wall behind +were threaded and festooned with thick trailers of yellow and scarlet +nasturtium; and in front of the rockery, her especial pride, was a +great bed of velvet pansies, rich with every hue of the rainbow. They +were flanked by simple annuals, filmy pink poppies, orange escholtzias +and sweet-scented mignonette; and in a bed by themselves were the gold +and crimson snapdragons which the Urchin had begged for her from the +gardener at the big house. + +She must needs dig up a centipede, one of the small yellow ones. They +were her special dislike. The centipede did not like being dug up +either, and writhed himself into seven different sets of tangles at +once, as is the way of the smaller centipedes. + +"You horrid little yellow beast," she said, forgetting that he could +understand, and made a dab at him with her spade, which, to her +relief, missed him. She felt she had done her duty by hitting at him, +but did not hide from herself that she had really missed him on +purpose. + +"Little's all right," said the centipede, "and yellow's all right; and +though I'm not really a beast, we will let it go at that. But I'm not +a bit horrid." + +"But I don't like you," said Fiona, "and you wriggle so." + +"In the circles in which I move," said the centipede, "my wriggling is +much admired. And the mere fact that you do not like me--which, I may +remind you, is only a subjective impression and has neither objective +validity nor permanent value--does not entitle you to call me names. +You ought to have learnt better, with that bangle of yours. For all +you know, I may be a model of the more unselfish virtues." + +"But you eat the roots of my flowers," said Fiona. + +"That is the first I have heard of it," said the centipede. "But one +lives and learns. It need not be the same one, though, who does both. +So in the present case I propose that I should live and you should +learn." + +"I wasn't going to kill you really," said Fiona. + +The centipede bowed. + +"A little courtesy does oil the creaking machinery of life, doesn't +it?" he said. "Please lift me up, for I have something to tell you, +and your head is so far away. Shouting at you hurts my throat." + +Fiona stooped down and took up the little yellow creature in her hand. + +"Congratulations," said the centipede. "We _are_ getting on. You +wanted badly to shudder, and you didn't. We shall make something of +you yet. My old friend the bookworm--who lives in your father's +library, by the way--has recently supplied me with a new quotation +from the great poet Virgil, who had once, you may remember, quite a +reputation as a magician. It was to the effect that if you couldn't +get what you wanted by beginning at the top, you should start again at +the bottom. I am the bottom. I am not the _very_ bottom, but I am near +enough to it for your purpose. Now you see what you have gained by +not killing me." + +"I don't see anything yet, I'm afraid," said Fiona. + +"One must have patience with weaker vessels," said the centipede. "So +I will explain. My friend the bookworm, who supplies me with my +quotations, has a cousin of the same profession in the library at the +big house. It was through him that I got the story I am going to tell +you about the fat man." + +"Mr. Johnson!" exclaimed Fiona. "He has nothing to do with me." She +disliked Jeconiah heartily, so far as she had given any thought to +him. + +"Oh, yes, he has," said the centipede. "This is where I come in. My +bookworm's cousin, who is a great linguist and understands English +perfectly, was at work in the library the other evening, and the fat +man was having his coffee there. After coffee he lit a cigar and began +to walk up and down, and presently he started talking to himself out +loud, as my informant says he often does when he is excited. And by +piecing his talk together, my informant made out that he had the map +of the Scargill cave, which one of your ancestors once gambled away, +and that somehow or other he had found out that the cave of the map +_was_ the Scargill cave, and that he was only waiting for a smooth day +to go and locate the treasure." + +"Well?" said Fiona. + +"Oh, come now," said the centipede, "it's no use pretending. We all +know that you are treasure-hunting--remember we can all understand +everything _you_ say, whether we are linguists or not--and my advice +to you is, to be quick about it, before the fat man can get his oar +in." + +"Thank you so much," said Fiona. "And I am so sorry I began by being +rude. Tell me, why have you told me all this when I began by being +rude?" + +"Because I am a model of the more unselfish virtues, of course," said +the centipede with a suppressed chuckle. "As a fact, I had an +earth-phone from headquarters. But we are all backing you, you know. +And now will you put me down, please; the upper air is chilly." + +He wriggled into a crack in the ground, and was gone. + +That evening Fiona and the Urchin made their final preparations, in +case the morrow should fall calm. That evening also Jeconiah heard +that he had rivals in the field. His language, as he walked up and +down the library, would have been very bad for the bookworm's morals +had that intelligent insect been able to understand it all; but the +bookworm's English, though good, was literary, and much of the modern +idiom employed by Jeconiah slid off its back. Jeconiah's plan had been +to make sure that the gold was there, and then charter a launch from +Glasgow and take it straight to railway-head; he saw now that he could +not afford the time, and that unless he could deal with the children +in some way he might have to take the gold off in his boat, which +would entail some risk, as well as cost him a heavy sum to buy his two +boatmen. Also he made up his mind that he must go the next morning, +whatever the weather, if it were possible to launch the boat; he knew +that the children, with their little skiff, could only go to sea on +calm days. + +Unfortunately for Jeconiah, the night fell calm, and though he rose +early, he had no notion of starting without a good breakfast. By the +time his boat was launched and he himself aboard, he had the pleasure +of seeing through his glasses the children's boat off the east or +nearer end of Scargill. The wealth of adjectives which he employed in +the circumstances filled his two loafers with awe and admiration. + +Fiona, having the Urchin securely under her roof, had breakfasted +before dawn, and as soon as it was light enough the children launched +their little boat. The Urchin had the precious headlight, ready +charged, tied up in an old sack which would also serve to bring away +the plunder; and round his waist he had twisted a length of cast-off +rope. Its use was not apparent, but he thought it looked +business-like. They saw that Jeconiah's boat was still drawn up +ashore, and in good heart they started on their long pull. They had +reached the island before Jeconiah had his boat out; having no +glasses, they could not see if it was being launched or not. But off +the eastern end of the island, which is low and grassy, they had a +fright, for an empty boat was drawn ashore there. However, when they +rowed close in to look at it, Fiona recognized it. + +"It's Angus MacEachan's boat," she said. "He has come to see after the +sheep he has on the island. There he is, I can see him; he has got a +sheep that has hurt its foot." And indeed they could see Angus tending +a sick sheep. + +"Fiona," said the boy, "we are too silly for anything. Of course the +footsteps we heard in the cave were Angus's. There is another way in +somewhere, and he would be looking for a sheep." + +Fiona said nothing. As they neared the cave, the problem of the +footsteps kept intruding itself more and more vividly upon her; but +the Urchin was happy in his theory, and she did not think it necessary +to remind him that the footsteps could not possibly have been those of +Angus, who walked with a limp. She began to feel a vague sense of +disquiet, which she tried in vain to put aside. + +They entered the cave, and the Urchin, with much pride, lit his great +lamp. The powerful burner threw a wonderful circle of light on to +black water and black walls, making them glow and sparkle with a soft +radiance till they looked like the very gateway of fairyland. Outside +the circle everything became black as pitch. They paddled quietly up +the bright waterway, and grounded on the stones at the end. The Urchin +was hot after his long row, and helping to draw the boat up on the +stones did not make him any cooler; he took off his jacket and pitched +it on to a thwart. + +"Yes, it is hot, and stuffy," said Fiona. She recollected some story +she had read about a coal mine, and sniffed. "I hope there is no gas +here," she said. + +The Urchin grinned. + +"Oh, you girls!" he said. "Who ever heard of gas in a sea cave. What +you are smelling is the lamp." + +Fiona took the lamp up. + +"I'm going to take charge of this myself," she said. "You can carry +the treasure." + +The Urchin picked up the sack and threw it over his shoulder. + +"Go ahead, lady with the lamp," he said, and grinned again. He felt +very adventurous. He would rather have liked to be photographed. + +With considerable caution, necessitated by the heavy lamp, they +climbed the rock barrier and descended into the darkness of the inner +cave. The walking was better here; the rounded slippery boulders had +given place to a floor of pebbles and sand. Quite a short way from the +barrier the wall of the cave curved away in a semicircle on the +right, its smooth surface forming a kind of small recess. Fiona swept +the recess with her lamp, and on the sandy floor something gleamed +back; the Urchin pounced on it and picked it up. It was a gold coin, +not the least like any which the children had ever seen. It was, in +fact, a doubloon. + +"This must be one of them," said the boy exultantly as he pocketed it; +"one that got dropped. Come on, it can't be much farther." + +But Fiona held the lamp steady and stared at the sand. + +"Look at the marks on the sand," she said. "They are like the marks of +heavy boxes. The treasure has been here, Urchin, and it's not here +now. Someone has been here and taken it, and dropped one piece." + +"I don't think so," said the Urchin. "We shall find them a bit farther +on." + +So they went on, but not very far. For the light of the lamp suddenly +fell on a rock wall before them, the end of the cave. And it had +ended, not as the other caves do, by the roof growing lower and lower +till it meets the floor; it had ended in this huge chamber of high +rocky walls. + +"So this is the cave that no one has ever reached the end of," said +Fiona. "Why, it goes no distance at all." + +They retraced their steps to the recess, and then back to the end +again, looking on this side and on that for openings, but it seemed +quite clear that there were none. + +"The boxes must have been carried off by sea," said Fiona. + +But the Urchin had an idea. + +"No one would try to carry great heavy boxes over the rock barrier," +he said. "They'd just take the gold out in sacks." + +"The barrier may be a rock-fall," said Fiona. "The treasure may all +have been cleared out long ago." + +And then there came to the Urchin the realization of the fact that he +had lost his gun. He turned very red. + +"It's a shame," he said angrily, "an awful shame. It was given to me, +and someone has taken it. Can't you think where it could be, Fiona? +I'd go _anywhere_ to find it." + +Whatever Fiona may have been going to say, her words tailed off into +sudden silence. For from beyond the cave wall, as it seemed, sounded +again the footsteps which they had heard before; and this time they +knew that there was no cave there, and that It was walking through +solid rock as if along a road. There was no question this time of any +concealment or pretence; both frankly turned tail and made for the +rock barrier. Halfway there the Urchin tripped and fell heavily on his +head. Fiona put the lamp down and helped him up, dizzy and shaking. + +"Can you go on, Urchin?" she said. "If not, I'll try and carry you." + +The Urchin looked back into the blackness, unrelieved by any ray of +the lamp, which faced the other way. The footsteps were steadily +drawing nearer, neither hasting nor staying. What the Urchin may have +thought he saw Fiona could not guess; he gave one shriek, slid out of +her grasp, and bolted for the rock barrier as fast as his trembling +feet would carry him. + +For one moment Fiona all but followed him. Then it suddenly came to +her that she was responsible for the boy's safety. She never knew +afterwards how she managed to do what she did; but she turned, and +with the courage of utter desperation--the courage which enables the +hen partridge to face the sparrow hawk--stood at bay, swinging up the +heavy lamp to see and face whatever should come. + +And into the circle of lamplight quietly walked the figure of the old +hawker. + +The revulsion of feeling was too much for Fiona. She sprang forward +and caught the old man's hand and clung to it. + +"Oh," she said, "I'm so glad it's you. We heard the footsteps and we +were so frightened." The relief of it all was overwhelming; she was +almost crying, and went on saying anything, hardly knowing what she +said, just for the mere human companionableness of it. "How did you +come here? I suppose you came over with Angus in his boat. Of course +you would. Then there must be another way into the cave after all, and +we couldn't find it." + +"And so I frightened you?" said the old man gently, making no effort +to withdraw his hand. "Yes, there is another way in." He made no +attempt to answer all her questions. + +"Urchin," called Fiona, raising her voice. "Urchin, come back; it's +all right." + +But there was no answer. + +"Urchin," she shouted; "Urchin." + +But there was no answer save the echoing of the empty cave. + +"He was going down to the boat," she said, loyally repressing the fact +that the Urchin had bolted. "We must go after him, for he had hurt his +head, and I am afraid of his falling again." + +They climbed the rock barrier, and made their way to the boat. The +boat lay there as it had been left, half ashore, with the swell +rippling against the stern, and over one thwart the Urchin's jacket, +just as he had thrown it down. And the boat was as empty as the cave. + +Into Fiona's eyes came a sudden fear. + +"He must have fallen again, and be lying somewhere," she said. + +They went back, searching every nook and corner of the cave, turning +the light into every crevice, under every rock, making a minute +examination of the rock barrier; and there was no sign. + +And then Fiona broke down. + +"He is drowned," she said, and just sat and sobbed. + +After a few moments the old man came and sat down beside her. In his +gentle voice he said that the Urchin could not possibly be drowned. +The water was quite shallow at the edge, and he was a good swimmer, +was he not? And even if he had not been, the swell would have rolled +him ashore. He himself had no doubt that all would come right. + +Fiona ceased sobbing and turned on him. + +"Do you know where he is?" she demanded bluntly. + +"How would I know when you do not know?" said the old man. "Could I +see what you could not see?" And then "Listen." + +Down the waterway came voices, and the sound of oars. It was in fact +Jeconiah's boat entering the cave. + +Fiona caught at the straw. + +"He may have swum out to the other boat," she said. + +But there was no one in the other boat but Jeconiah and his two men. +They had powerful lanterns, and the boat was full of sacks. Jeconiah +himself was purple with suppressed rage and impatience. The moment he +could get ashore, he waddled up to Fiona and shook the map of the cave +in her face, exclaiming, "Remember, if you have found anything it +belongs to me and I claim it." + +Fiona had only one thought in her mind at the moment, and the foolish +impertinence of the little fat man was to her merely so much +unnecessary sound. Her answer was "Have you seen the Urchin? We have +lost him. Did he not swim out to your boat?" She was almost sobbing +again. + +"Confound the brat!" said Jeconiah roughly. "I've not come here to +play hide-and-seek with a parcel of children. Tell me at once what +you've found." + +Fiona straightened herself, and looked at Jeconiah as though he were +some noxious reptile. + +"There was nothing here to find," she said. "And this cave belongs to +my father. And anything in it he gave to the Urchin." + +"Well, he's not here," said Jeconiah brutally, "and I am. Who finds, +keeps." + +And calling to his men to bring the lights, he set off, between +stumbling and crawling, for the rock barrier. One of the men had the +decency to stop a moment and tell Fiona that they had seen nothing of +any boy; Jeconiah turned and abused him for a laggard. + +With a good deal of difficulty the two men hoisted and shoved Jeconiah +over the rock barrier. Once over, he took a light himself, told the +men to wait where they were, and after a good look at the map set out +for the recess where the Urchin had found the doubloon. Fiona followed +him; there was some vague idea in her mind of protecting the Urchin's +property; behind that there was still a faint subconscious hope that +in some way or other the Urchin would suddenly reappear, and laugh at +her terrors. + +Jeconiah reached the recess. He saw and understood the marks of the +boxes on the sand. He swung round on Fiona with a snarl like that of a +hungry wolf. + +"You think you're clever, don't you, you and your father," he said. "I +suppose you've had the stuff moved. But I'll have it if I go to the +middle of the earth for it." + +It was the old hawker who shouted. He had stood apart, a silent +spectator of the scene. And at this moment he called out, in a voice +of surprising power for so frail a body: + +"Look out above you. Jump." + +Fiona, who had learned to obey, jumped back just in time. But Jeconiah +had never learnt to obey any orders but his own. He stood, stupidly +staring, as a bit of the roof of the cave bowed downward, gave way, +and came cascading about him in a shower of earth and big stones, that +filled the air with thick dust. When the dust cleared again, they saw +Jeconiah lying on his back in the middle of the cliff fall, +motionless, and to all appearance dead. + +But Fiona was not looking at Jeconiah. She was looking at the place +where the roof of the cave had bowed itself before falling; and into +her mind came crowding dim forgotten legends, legends of fear and +hope. And she was saying over and over again to herself, as though she +might miss its purport, that behind the cliff fall, as if impelling +and directing it, she had seen a small brown elfin hand. + + * * * * * + +It was the old hawker who took charge of the situation. The two men, +who at first had looked as if they would run, became amenable when he +spoke to them. They carried Jeconiah's body to his boat, and laid it +in the stern-sheets. One of the men pointed out that there was no mark +at all on his face or head, and that he did not believe he had been +struck. + +"Died of fright, I expect," he said curtly. + +"Lucky we stood out for wages in advance," said his companion. It +looked as if this might be Jeconiah's fitting epitaph. + +The old man himself went with Fiona in her boat. But he was too feeble +to row far, so he landed on the island and went in search of Angus. In +due course Angus came down and rowed Fiona home, saying that the old +man was going to look after his sheep for him till he returned. It did +not occur to Fiona, until they had gone too far to turn back, that it +looked as though the old man wished to avoid questions. Her mind was +in a helpless whirl in which everything seemed unreal, except the +Urchin and that small brown hand. She could not give her father any +very coherent account of what had happened; but he went out at once to +find a boat and men to search the cave. + +Jeconiah was laid on his bed in the big house, and there was much +commotion there; this one must go for the doctor and that one for the +Student; scared maids stood and whispered in the corridors; the two +loafers, heroes of the hour, feasted happily in the kitchen. Then the +doctor came, and went upstairs with a grave face, as befitted the +occasion; but he did not come down again, and surmise grew. Half an +hour passed before the door opened, and the doctor, smiling and +rubbing his hands together, came into the library, where the Student +had just entered and was talking to the housekeeper. + +"He's not dead at all," said the doctor. "It's catalepsy--suspended +animation, you know. Like the frog in the marble. Had a shock, you +tell me? Just so, just so. How long? Oh, he may be an hour, and he +may be a month; no one can ever say. Never had the good luck to see a +case before. Not _very_ uncommon, no. Mustn't try to rouse him, you +know; might be dangerous. Just wait. Send for me at once if he comes +to. Can get two nurses to watch him, if you like; just as well +perhaps. Sometimes they are odd when they wake; think they are someone +else for a bit, you know, change their habits, and so on. Dual +personality? Oh, yes, several well-attested cases; but I don't mean as +much as that. Might arise this way, of course; but what I mean is more +just queer. But of course he need not be; might wake up as if he'd +been asleep. If it lasts long, take away all the almanacs and things, +in case he gets a shock. Well, good day, good day." + +And the doctor went; and Jeconiah's body lay still on the bed, waiting +till his soul, if he had one, should return to it. + +So the Student went home again; and on his way he met the old hawker, +who stopped and spoke to him; and for a few moments the two walked +together, the old man talking rather quickly. Fiona, watching from the +window of the bookroom, could see that her father first looked puzzled +and then grave and then considerably relieved; in a dim kind of way +she found herself thinking that Angus must have rowed back very fast +to Scargill, if the old hawker were already landed. She was wondering +who he really was and why her father talked to him. + +"Tell Anne to get us something to eat--anything," said the Student. +"The boat will be here directly." + +The Student, by straining what remained of old loyalty as far as he +dared, had found half a dozen volunteers, good men, to face the +haunted cave, provided he went himself. + +"Do you want to come, Fiona?" he said. Of course Fiona meant to come. + +And while they waited, the Student questioned Fiona, and had the whole +story coherently, except the hand. That part Fiona felt she could not +tell; there, in the cheerful bookroom, it seemed so impossible. Once +or twice he nodded, and said, "That would be so"; and at the end he +pointed out that whatever had happened had happened when her back was +turned, as she faced the coming footsteps. She had not thought of +that. What puzzled her, and hurt her a little, was that, though her +father seemed to feel for _her_, he did not appear to be particularly +concerned about the Urchin. "I believe it will come right," was all he +said. + +The boat arrived, rowed by strong hands; the men worked with a will, +and the distance to the cave seemed short. They had brought good +lights, and the Student had a powerful electric torch. High and low +they searched the cave, and found nothing. One man, who was a good +swimmer, dived several times and found nothing there either. Tracking +footsteps was impossible; the sand, where there was any, had been +hopelessly trampled. + +When nothing more could be done, the Student said that he wanted to +look for a thing himself which he had an idea of. He went down to the +end of the cave with his torch and tapped the wall with a geological +hammer. Fiona sat on the rock barrier and watched him; what he was +seeking she had no idea. He came slowly back down the cave, tapping +the wall, till he reached the recess where the Urchin had picked up +the doubloon. He went straight to the back of the recess and tapped +the wall there; and even as he did so a large piece of stone fell from +above, and smashed the electric torch in his hand. He came back to the +rock barrier quite unperturbed, looking as if he had found what he +sought. + +"Not very safe, this cave," he said calmly; and told the men to push +off the boat. "There is nothing more we can do," he said; "the boy is +certainly not here." + +The men's courage was fast ebbing away; they were glad to get out of +the haunted place. + +Fiona sat in silence all the way home. It was dark before they +reached the house. She waited while Anne bustled over supper; she +thought she would never see her father alone. At last supper was over, +and he went into the bookroom and began to light his pipe; she +followed him. Her words came out in a torrent. + +"Daddy," she said, "what does it all mean? and why are you so strange +and unconcerned? What did that old man tell you? If I couldn't see, +_he_ must have seen, for he was facing. What is it you know? And why +have you told me nothing?" + +"Sit down, little daughter," said the Student. He drew her beside his +knee, with her head on his arm. "I will tell you now what I can. The +old man gave me a sort of hint. He did not really see, for the lamp +was the other way; I fancy he guessed. I wanted to test what he said +to me. I have tested it now with my hammer; it all agrees. I am +absolutely certain that no harm has come to the Urchin. But I can do +nothing for him myself. And I must not even tell you what I think; +for if I do it ruins everything. All I may tell you is this, that you +are the only person who can do anything. You will have to do it all +yourself and by yourself, little daughter. I believe you have ways and +means of your own of finding out. Are you going through with it, +Fiona?" + +"Of course I am, daddy," she said. "How can I do anything else? If +only I knew what it is I have to do to find him--how to begin even." + +"I cannot even tell you that," said the Student. But his fingers +played with the copper bangle on her wrist. And out of some dim corner +of subconsciousness she seemed to hear a small voice which said "If +you can't get what you want by beginning at the top you must start +again at the bottom." Her father, with his learning, was the top; the +bottom . . . ? + +Fiona went to bed less miserable than she had expected. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +THE OREAD + + +Fiona was out long before breakfast next morning, digging furiously in +her garden. Not many minutes passed before she was rewarded by a glint +of something yellow in a shovelful of earth, and there was the +centipede. + +"You dear creature," she said, and caught it up quickly before it +could wriggle away. + +"How polite we are this morning," said the centipede, swelling with +conscious pride. "I suppose we want something." + +Fiona's mind was far too completely taken up with her one object to +notice or resent any insinuations. + +"Yes, I do," she said. "You told me that if I could not get what I +wanted by beginning at the top I must start again at the bottom. I +can do nothing from the top this time, so I've come to you." + +"Flattered, to be sure," said the centipede. "How frank we are." + +"Please don't be cross," said Fiona, humbly. "I am only doing what you +told me to do." + +"Bless you, child, I'm not cross," said the centipede. "I'm a +philosopher." + +"Don't philosophers get cross?" asked the girl. + +"Never," said the centipede. "And when they do they call it something +else. What's the matter with me is, that I've sprained my seventh +ankle on bow side, counting from the tail. Don't say you're sorry, for +you're not. Anyone can see you're not." + +"You are horrid to-day," said Fiona. "And the other day you were so +nice." + +"That's what makes me such a charming companion," said the centipede. +"You never know what to expect. So I never pall." + +"I want to know where the Urchin is, and how I am to find him," said +Fiona. + +"Is that all?" said the centipede. "Fancy interrupting my breakfast on +account of that boy. Well, one question at a time. We'll have the last +one first; I'm in that sort of mood to-day." + +"How can I find the Urchin, then, please?" asked Fiona. + +"Well, you've been told _that_ already," said the centipede. "Haven't +you a memory?" + +Fiona thought and thought, but could make nothing of it. + +"My friend the bookworm was there at the time," said the centipede, +"and heard the shore lark tell you that the last man went up a hill. +Very well. Go up a hill." + +"But that was for something quite different," said Fiona. "That was +for my treasure. I am not thinking of any treasure now." + +"Silly of you, then," said the centipede. "I would be. Ever studied +philosophy?" + +"No," said Fiona. + +"That's a pity," said the centipede. "Then you've never heard of Hegel +and the unity of opposites? Black and white are only different +aspects of the same thing, you know. And as soon as you begin to think +about it, you see at once how sensible it is. Well, a treasure-hunt +and a boy-hunt are only different aspects of a hunt, aren't they? +Therefore they are the same thing. Therefore what does for one does +for the other. Therefore you go up a hill. There's logic for you," and +once more he swelled proudly. + +"Thank you very much," said Fiona. "And now will you please tell me +where the Urchin is?" + +"Tell you!" exclaimed the centipede. "Why, it was you told me. You +prophesied the whole thing." + +"I'm sure I don't remember it, then," said Fiona. + +"What's the matter with _you_," said the centipede, "is that you +refuse to exert your intelligence, such as it is. You should take a +lesson by me. You humans are all forgetting nowadays that the spoken +word is an instrument of great power, and that once it is launched it +goes on and on, and can work magic on its own account, quite +independently of you. If you say a thing will happen, it frequently +does happen." + +"But what did I say?" asked Fiona. + +"You told the Urchin that if he hurt the shore lark the Little People +would take him. Well, they've taken him. That's all." + +And the centipede slid down on to the ground, and with something like +a chuckle vanished. He had evidently learned from his philosophy to +bear with resignation the misfortunes of others. + +But Fiona did not set off up a hill at once. After breakfast she went +to the bookroom and spoke to her father. + +"I have found out where the Urchin is, daddy," she said. "He was +carried off by the fairies." + +The Student showed no surprise. + +"You have not been long finding out, Fiona," he said. "I thought you +had ways and means of your own." + +"But, daddy," she said, "I don't _really_ believe it, you know. It +sounds so absurd nowadays. Do you believe it?" + +"I believe it, yes," said the Student. "I knew yesterday. Now that you +know, I may talk to you about it, so far." + +"I don't know that I do really know," she said. "Things like that +don't _really_ happen, do they? Whoever heard of it?" + +"You and I have heard of it," he answered. "And that is enough. The +proposition that people are not carried off by fairies is a mere +working hypothesis, liable to be overthrown by any one case to the +contrary. Well, we've got a case to the contrary, and that's the end +of the hypothesis." + +"I'm arguing against myself, daddy, you know," she said. "I want to +believe that we do know where he is." + +"No difficulty at all," said the Student, "to anyone with a properly +trained mind, like yours and mine. Take it this way. No one has ever +crossed the South Arabian desert or explored the snow ranges of New +Guinea, have they? Well, for all anyone can say to the contrary, +people may be carried off by fairies every day of the week in New +Guinea or South Arabia, mayn't they? It may even be the rule there. It +may be a working hypothesis among the pygmies of New Guinea that such +a thing _always_ happens--at death, for instance. It would be just as +good a working hypothesis as it is that it _never_ happens." + +"But, daddy, it would be so extraordinary, wouldn't it?" + +"Not a bit more extraordinary," he said, "than the inside of a bit of +radium, or the inside of an egg, for that matter. It is probably +simpler for the Urchin to become a fairy than for an egg to become a +bird, or a caterpillar a butterfly. It would not be nearly as strange +as it is that there is a water beast which can shed its gills and +become a land beast, or that Uranus moons go round the wrong way. You +can't knock it out by any reasoning of that kind, Fiona. It's merely a +matter of fact; and if we have found a case we _have_ found a case." + +"Then you knew yesterday, daddy?" she said. + +"I had a very fair idea," he answered. "That is why I was tapping in +the cave with a hammer. Can you guess why?" + +Fiona saw. + +"To find the rest of the cave," she said. "That is where he would be." + +"Just so," said the Student. "These caves cannot end in a wall, as +that one seems to. I thought the wall must ring hollow somewhere, and +the hollow is in the recess where the stone nearly fell on me. The +apparent end of the cave is not in the line of the true cave at all." + +"It is the same place where the stones fell on Mr. Johnson," said +Fiona. + +"That is strange," said the Student. + +And then Fiona told about the hand she had seen. + +"Of course, of course," said the Student. "That explains the whole +thing. They threw the stone down on me too. They did not wish me to +know that the wall was hollow just there. They must use it as a +doorway. They will have carried the boy through at the moment that you +turned your back, of course. I suppose he invited them in some way; +they could have no power otherwise." + +"He said he would go _anywhere_ to find his treasure," said Fiona. + +"That would be quite sufficient for them to act on," said the Student. + +"Then the stories about the cruelty of the Little People are true," +asked Fiona. + +"Only in part," said the Student. "I take it that they are all sorts, +like ourselves. They are, as you know, the vanished debris of all the +peoples that have helped to make this planet what it is. Good people, +many of them. But they cannot altogether love those who have driven +them under the ground." + +"And who is the old hawker, daddy," she asked, "and what has he to do +with it all?" + +"I can't talk about anything except what you already know," said the +Student. "Have you found out yet how to start?" + +"I am to go up a hill," said Fiona. "And I am going up Heleval now. +And I came to see if you would come with me." + +"I wish I could; I wish very much I could," said the Student. "I do +not know what you may find; but I know well that if I went with you, +you would find nothing but grass and rock. I am too old to see the +things you can see, you know. You have to do it alone, little +daughter." + +So Fiona filled her pocket with bread and cheese, and started; and the +Student, after a useless attempt to settle down to his inscriptions, +set up a little three-inch telescope with which he sometimes +entertained Fiona on fine nights, gazing at Jupiter's moons or +Saturn's rings, and followed her across the moor as far as he could. +It was the only way he could go with her. + + * * * * * + +There are many worse things in the world than setting out to climb +Heleval on a beautiful morning on the first of October, when the grass +in unsunned corners is still pearly with the frost of the night, and +the whole earth is touched with the wonderful caress of the cool +autumn sunshine. Fiona's way lay along the shore road, past the bank +of heather and fern which in August had been gay with flowers, napperd +and potentilla, blue milkwort and starry eye-bright, and alive with +butterflies, blues and small heaths and pearl-bordered fritillaries; +but the flowers were faded now, and in their place, in the little burn +where the hazelnuts grew, was a tapestry of purple burrs and scarlet +hips. The shore road ended at a little burn; here an old stone bridge, +grown over with grass, crossed the pool which in times of spate would +hold a fat, white sea-trout, and here Fiona and the Urchin had used +to come in summer to gather globe flowers. From this point a sheep +track led up the valley beside the burn, through great spaces of +yellowing bracken, by little swampy springs where late forget-me-nots +still lingered and an early snipe might rise with a skeep, and across +low-lying wastes of bog-myrtle, perfuming all the air with its dying +leaves; then the ground began to rise, and fern and bog-myrtle gave +place to short, hard grass tufted with bulrushes, and beds of matted +unburnt heather, seamed with rabbit tracks. + +After a time Fiona left the valley and began to climb the hillside, +rising steeply through heather and red grass and heather again, most +of it dying by now, but with patches still in full flower, worked by +the wild bees and making the moorland smell like a honey-pot. Then +more grass, and limestone ridges, and she stood on the crest of the +moor, which billowed away on her right, wave after wave, till it ran +down to the low ground and the sea, and rose up on her left till it +ended in the great mass of Heleval, standing up into the cloudless +sky. The ground before her was scarred with deep peat-hags, their gray +banks touched with the tiny scarlet blossoms of the trumpet-moss, +while from their crumbling sides projected bits of the whitened trunks +of trees long since dead, last vestiges of the forests that had +clothed the island ere ever the Gael first fought his way in. Walking +became impossible, and she jumped from gray bank to gray bank, +occasionally floundering across a little lake of soft peat, where the +wild cotton grass still bloomed, and the mountain hares had left +telltale tracks. Now and again a hare itself would scurry away before +her up one of the peat ditches, rising to the moor level as soon as he +thought he was out of gunshot and sitting up on his haunches to watch; +now and again an old grouse, his head and hackles red as a berry in +the sunlight, would rise, crow, and swing away over the brow of the +moor. And presently from behind Heleval came drifting a gray bird +with a long bill who on hovering wings wheeled three times in the air +above her and gave his full spring call, the most wonderful sound that +the hills ever hear; then he stooped close over her head and with +wings spread sickle-wise shot away for the sea. One may see a curlew +on the moor in October, but he will not give his spring call; and +Fiona felt of good courage, for she knew that the bird had called for +her, to tell her she was in the right way. + +So she came to the foot of Heleval itself, and started to climb the +steep slope of short grass, slippery as polished board, which led up +to the rock pinnacle above; the hillside twinkled with the white scuts +of rabbits racing up before her to their holes, as round the side of +the mountain came their enemy, perhaps the last kite in the island, +glittering in the sun as only a glede can, till the beautiful cowardly +creature caught sight of Fiona and swept away across the valley. She +passed the great cairn where the hill foxes live, and began the last +climb to the pinnacle of rock that fronts the flat crest of the +mountain. And now something white on the rock, which she had noticed +from below without taking account of, began to become insistent. It +could not possibly be a patch of snow yet, she thought. Perhaps the +shepherd had hung a sheepskin there. But no sheepskin was ever so +white. + +Then she came up near the pinnacle, and saw. Standing upright against +it was a girl, not much older than herself. Her long dark hair blew +back over the rock; her white body was half hidden in a trembling veil +of white light, which shimmered and played all about her, waving with +every breath of the wind. Her face was beautiful and cold, like a +frosty moonrise; her eyes shone like the drip of phosphorescent water +under the stars. + +"You have come at last," said the girl. "Every day for many days I +have watched for you." + +"Who are you, you beautiful girl?" asked Fiona. + +"I am an Oread," said the girl. "I am the spirit of Heleval." + +"I have heard," said Fiona, "that long ago people used to believe that +everything had a spirit of its own, mountains and rivers and trees. Is +it true then?" + +"It _was_ true," said the girl. "The world was full of my sisters, +once. There were the Naiads in the streams, and the Hamadryads in the +woods, and we, the Oreads, in the mountains. Men were wiser and +simpler in those days. But now my sisters are nearly all gone. When a +tree has become so many cubic feet of timber, how can it shelter a +Dryad? When a stream is merely so many units of waterpower, how can a +Naiad dwell there? Only the barren mountains, if they contain neither +gold nor iron, have been left unappraised and unexploited; and a few +Oreads still linger here and there. Once in a while a man fancies that +he sees one of us; then he must climb and climb till the day he dies, +hoping to see her indeed; down in your world people call him mountain +mad." + +"How is it then that I have seen you?" asked Fiona. + +The Oread touched her bracelet. + +"Partly because of this," she said. "But chiefly because you are a +child, and can still see. What is it you have come to ask me?" + +"How to find the Urchin," said Fiona. + +"You know of course where he is?" the girl asked; and Fiona said, +"Yes, he is in Fairyland; but I do not know the way to go." + +"That is easily told," said the Oread. "The King of the Woodcock will +let you in, and any of his people can tell you where to find him. But +do you know the danger? If you do arrive, which is very doubtful, the +fairies will make you wish a wish; and if your wish be one that does +not find favor with them, they will keep you there forever, till you +lose your memory and yourself and become even as one of them." + +"I will take the risk," said Fiona, "for I must go and try to bring +him back." + +"Why do you want to bring him back?" asked the Oread. "He is much +better where he is. Will he thank you for bringing him back? Not a +bit. You will have the labor and the danger, and he will take it all +for granted. And then he will become a man, and what use is that? He +may be a financier, and cheat somebody; or a politician, and slander +somebody; or a learned man, and hinder wisdom. He is much better in +Fairyland. Why are you going?" + +"I can't help it," said Fiona. "You can't leave people in the lurch, +you know." + +"Of course you can," said the Oread. "Be sensible and go home; eat, +drink, and be merry." + +"O, don't you understand?" said Fiona. "Don't you see that there are +some things you _can't_ do, whatever anybody says? It's not the reason +of the thing; it's only just because I am I, and he is lost. You are +so beautiful; haven't you any heart?" + +"Neither heart nor soul," said the Oread. "So I ought to be perfectly +happy. You have a heart and a soul, and you are not. Which of us is +the better off?" + +"I wouldn't change, anyhow," said Fiona. + +The Oread laughed. + +"Of course you wouldn't. It is I who would change if I could. But as I +have no soul, and cannot get one, and do not know what it would mean +to get one, it is no use worrying; it is best to be happy as I am. In +any case, I would not care to be like men and women. I would not mind +having a child's heart, like you. I had a heart once, but it is so +long ago that I have almost forgotten what it was like. How old do you +think I am?" + +"You _look_ about seventeen," said Fiona. + +"I am exactly as old as Heleval," said the girl. "And that is more +hundreds of thousands of years than you or I could ever count. I am +older than any of the fishes or birds or beasts; far older than men or +fairies. Look at that," and the Oread swept her arm over the glorious +prospect around her; the two great wings of the Isle of Mist stretched +far out into the sea, the Atlantic throbbing and sparkling under the +blue sky, and across the loch the jagged gray range of the Cuchullins, +peak upon peak. "Isn't it all beautiful? We came into being together. +Heleval was a giant in those days, a king among other kings; and there +was no sea there, and the Cuchullin Hills stood right up into the sky, +and twisted and bubbled while the Earth cooled and cracked, and my +sisters of the Fire came out of the cracks and taught us mountain +spirits the fire dance, and we danced it all night on the great peaks +till the stars reeled to watch us. And then the fiery summits cooled +and sank down, and my sisters of the Fire sank with them, and a mighty +river went foaming out down the valley yonder to a distant sea; and +every evening my sisters the Naiads came floating up in a circle with +garlands of green on their hair, and they taught us mountain spirits +the water dance, and we danced it all night on the moonlit water, +while the Ocean crept nearer and nearer to gaze. And then the sea +came up, and the river carved Heleval out as you see it, and shrank +away, and my sisters the Naiads shrank away with it; and the island +was covered with great forests, and my sisters the Hamadryads came out +of the tree-trunks and taught us mountain spirits the tree dance, and +we danced it all night in the forest glades, till one night men saw; +and men felled the forests to capture my sisters of the trees and +enslave them, but they vanished as the trees vanished. And to-day only +the hills are left, and we, the Oreads, a people few and fading away; +and we no longer dance, for we have lost all our sisters, and we no +longer have hearts." + +The girl's face had filled with color as she spoke, and her eyes had +become soft, and her voice sounded like the music of waters far away. +Fiona looked at her in wonder. + +"Indeed, indeed, you have your heart still," she said. "And you are +far more beautiful even than I thought you were. Come home with me, +and I will love you as you loved your sisters." + +"It is not possible," said the Oread. "It is not free to me to leave +Heleval. I _am_ Heleval. And I shall be here till one day men find +iron or copper in my mountain, and come up with great engines to carve +it and tear its flanks and carry it away; and then I shall go too, as +my sisters have gone." + +"Will you die?" asked Fiona. + +"I do not know what death means," said the girl. "I shall just go +back, like a drop of water when it falls into the sea. But do you know +what you have done to-day? For a few moments, because you are brave +and loyal, you have given me back my heart, which was lost thousands +of years ago. It will all fade away again; but before it fades, will +you kiss me?" + +So Fiona took her in her arms and kissed her, and then turned and went +down the hill. Once she faced round, and saw the Oread standing, +frosty and white, against the pinnacle of rock, holding out her arms; +and she started to go back to her. And even as she moved the whiteness +vanished, and there was nothing there but the rocky pinnacle, shining +in the slanting sunlight. Rather sadly she went home. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +THE KING OF THE WOODCOCK + + +That night Fiona told her father that she believed she had found the +way to go. They also discussed the question of catching a woodcock; +with the result that Fiona was up at dawn and off to the kennels +behind the big house, where the Urchin's father kept his dogs. She +understood that she must take advantage both of the night frost and +the habits of the keeper, who was apt to lie in bed awhile when no one +was about. + +The two setters stood on their hind legs to greet her, and pawed at +the bars, whining and dancing with joy. Artemis was white and brown +and Apollo was white and black. Fiona threw open the door, and they +were out in a moment, tumbling over each other as they made wild +rings round the grass, and dashing back in between to lick her hand. +She had to sit down and wait till the first exuberance was over, and +they came and lay down at her feet with their tongues out. + +"It is good to be out so early," said Apollo. + +"It's so slow in the kennel," said Artemis. "And we can't even talk to +each other, because Apollo was broken in English and doesn't know any +Gaelic, and I was broken by another man in Gaelic and don't know any +English." + +"You'll interpret, won't you?" said Apollo. "Of course we've the +international code, but it doesn't take one much further than the +passwords." + +So for the rest of the morning Fiona had not only to interpret but to +make every remark twice over, once in each language. But it will do if +the reader takes this for granted. + +"What are we going to do?" asked Apollo. + +So Fiona explained to them that she wanted to catch a woodcock and ask +him a question, and she hoped they would help her. + +"Of course we will," said Artemis. "We know all about woodcock. When +we go out with himself, we find them for him and stand still, and then +he makes a noise and they fall down dead." + +"Sometimes," said Apollo. + +"Generally," corrected Artemis, loyally. "Will you make them fall down +dead?" + +Fiona explained that she only wanted to catch one and talk to it. + +"We never saw that done," said Apollo. "But we will find one, and then +you can catch it." + +"It's very early for woodcock," said Artemis. "There won't be any in +the heather on the second of October. But there may be an early pair +in the ferns." + +"The first ones always pitch in the ferns on Glenollisdal," said +Apollo. + +So to Glenollisdal they went, down the shore road and across the +little bridge and then by the shepherd's track along the top of the +black cliffs, over grass and stones all rough and white with the +frost. The cold morning air was like new wine, and Fiona had to shade +her eyes from the low sun. Then the track left the cliffs and began to +climb up a sunless valley, across little burns beautiful with fading +ferns, till between two great moorland crags it reached the pass, more +a watercourse now than a track; and then came the cairn at the summit +of the pass, with its glorious view of sea and mountain, and down at +one's very feet the deep narrow valley that was Glenollisdal, seamed +from crest to foot by its deep burn, which ran half its length through +faded brown heather and then out to sea through a huge bed of dying +bracken, the whole bathed in the bright morning sun. + +"We always come here the first day," said Apollo. "Oh, we are going to +have fun." + +The three followed the track down to where it passed the top of the +fern bed. There was a good deal of grass there, dotted with sheep, and +in one place, looking well out to sea, a curious little hard circle +in the grass, where no sheep ever came. + +"That is the fairy ring," said Artemis. "Where they dance, you know." + +"They dance on All Hallows E'en," said Apollo. "But no one ever sees +them." + +"Because everyone's afraid to go and look," said Artemis. + +"Please, may we start?" said Apollo. + +"All you have to do is to wait till we point," said Artemis, "and then +come to us." + +And the two dogs dashed off into the great fern bed, crossing each +other backwards and forwards like a pair of scissors as they quartered +it. + +They were not long about it. Apollo's gallop became a sort of run, a +yard or two of stealthy crawl, and he stopped dead, tail stiff and +throat distended, like a dog of marble, and looked round for Fiona. +Artemis was just crossing him; she whipped round in her stride as if +shot and became a second marble image where she stood. + +Fiona walked down to Apollo. But the ferns rustled a good deal as she +made her way through, and as she reached the dog's side the cock rose, +five yards away, with a lazy careless flap as if it felt only the +bother of being disturbed. For a moment she had a vivid impression of +the white patches at the end of its fan of tail feathers, and then it +gradually gathered speed and swept away over the side of the valley; +for an instant it showed black as it crossed the sky line, and then it +was gone. + +Apollo turned to Fiona with unhappy eyes and licked her hand. But +Artemis never moved a muscle. + +"Come to me," she said in a low whisper. + +Very quietly Fiona reached her side. + +"The other bird is here," whispered Artemis, "just under my nose. +Stoop down." + +Fiona bent down between the stalks of the bracken. The woodcock was +sitting with its back to her, a little brown bunch of feathers. Very +gently she put her hand out, and even as she did so she became aware +of a wise black eye looking at her, though the bird faced the other +way. Her hand closed on the empty air, and the woodcock, with a +wonderful spring, was well on its way to seek its mate. + +"I believe I could have put a foot on it," said Artemis regretfully. +"But of course we are not allowed to." + +"I don't know how I came to be so foolish," said Fiona. "I ought to +have spoken to it instead of trying to catch it. But I forgot." + +"Better luck next time," said Apollo; "we must try again." + +But though the dogs worked the whole of the ferns carefully, there was +no other bird there. + +They came back and lay down beside Fiona, tongues out and panting. + +"It's no use trying the heather yet, I know," said Artemis. "Birds are +never in it at this time of year." + +"There are some more ferns two miles on," said Apollo doubtfully. "I +saw a bird there once, three years ago." + +"I wish I knew what to do," said Fiona. + +"We can leave it for a day or two and come back," said Artemis. "Those +two birds will be back again to look for each other." + +"But they won't be so confiding again," added Apollo. + +They were all so preoccupied that they never noticed the shepherd till +he was quite close to them. He was striding down the track, a big, +raw-boned man with red hair; a plaid was thrown loosely across his +shoulder; at his heels followed a jet black collie. + +The dogs saw him first. It would seem that they did not like him. +Every hair on their necks bristled; they shrank close to Fiona, making +little moaning noises in their throats, and flattening themselves as +if they were trying to burrow into the ground. Their eyes were full of +terror. + +"Why, Artemis, Apollo, what's the matter?" said Fiona. Then she looked +up and saw the shepherd. "Why, it's only the new shepherd and his +collie. There's nothing to be afraid of." + +"Collie!" said Apollo. "That thing's not a collie. Can't you see?" + +"Shepherd!" echoed Artemis. "That thing's not a shepherd. Oh, can't +you see?" + +The shepherd came up to Fiona, and said that Miss Fiona was out early +and was there anything he could be doing for her. He spoke in the soft +correct English of the Gael. + +"I came out to catch a woodcock to talk to it," said Fiona, "and we +can't catch one." + +It occurred to her, even as she spoke, that the statement sounded a +little out of the ordinary. But the rough shepherd never let the least +sign of this show on his face. He answered in the most matter-of-fact +way, with the gentle courtesy of the west coast, that there would not +be many woodcock in yet, and would he try to catch one for Miss Fiona? + +"Oh, do you think you could?" said Fiona eagerly. "I should be so +grateful." + +Then the shepherd saw the trouble of the dogs. He said something to +them in a language that was neither English nor Gaelic, and waved his +own dog to go. The collie went straight off up the moor, and sat down +on the top of the nearest rock ledge, an odd little blot of black on +the brown and yellow moorland. Apollo and Artemis got up and shook +themselves violently. + +"It was the international password," said Apollo. "Goodness knows +where he got it from. But we have to recognize it." + +"I'm not happy," said Artemis. "I was well brought up. I never +associated with this sort of thing before." + +Fiona, who knew that a new shepherd had been coming, could make +nothing of their trouble, and did her best to smooth them down. The +shepherd led the way up the hill, and on to a little rough plateau +broken with rocks and bits of heather, lying under the main rise of +the hill where it rounds away toward the Glenollisdal burn. "I am +thinking that there should be a woodcock about here," he said. + +"This is one of the earliest places in all the heather," whispered +Artemis to Fiona. "He must know this moor very well." + +"It's too early yet, all the same, even for here," said Apollo. + +It looked as if Apollo were right. For when at the shepherd's request +Fiona threw the dogs off, they quartered the whole plateau and found +nothing. + +But the shepherd stuck to his guns. + +"I am thinking that there should be a bird here," he said. "Will Miss +Fiona give me leave to try my own dog?" + +Fiona nodded and called the setters to heel; the shepherd waved his +hand, and the black collie came racing to him. Some collies will work +a ground like a spaniel, and some will even do a little pointing, but +the black collie troubled himself neither with one nor the other. When +the shepherd spoke to him, he just cantered straight forward to a +small patch of heather on the sunless side of a rock, where the frost +still lingered, and there sat down quite unconcerned, as though the +matter in hand were altogether beneath the scope of his talents. + +"I think he has a bird," said the shepherd. + +"I tried that place," said Apollo. "There's nothing there." + +But the shepherd had gone up to his dog and was peering carefully into +the heather. Then he beckoned Fiona. + +"Does Miss Fiona see the bird?" he asked, pointing. + +Fiona looked long before she saw. The woodcock had squeezed himself +right into the roots of a frost-covered clump of heather, and even +when the heather was parted nothing showed but his little orange tail, +with its white and black points. + +"Shall I catch him for Miss Fiona?" asked the shepherd; and Fiona +said, "Oh yes, please, if you will." + +The shepherd knelt down and brought his two great hands slowly to +either side of the tuft of heather; then he closed them with a snap, +and drew out the largest woodcock Fiona had ever seen. It struggled +and thrashed at his wrists with its powerful wings. + +"Will Miss Fiona take the bird now?" he said. "Just behind the wings, +with her thumbs on its back." + +So Fiona took her bird, and as she did so its back-seeing eye caught +the glint of her copper bangle. It stopped thrashing with its wings +and lay quite still in her hands. + +"Oh, I say," he said, "why didn't you say before, instead of employing +these people and frightening an honest bird out of his senses?" + +"My dogs couldn't find you," said Fiona. "And I think it was so good +of the shepherd to find you for me." + +"Shepherd!" said the woodcock. "That wasn't a shepherd. And it wasn't +a collie either." + +Fiona suddenly recollected that she had not yet thanked the shepherd, +and turned to do so. But the shepherd and collie were gone. They must +have walked very quickly to have turned the corner of the hill +already. + +"Where did he go?" she asked Artemis. Artemis shivered. + +"To his own place, I hope," said Artemis severely. "Well brought up +dogs should not be asked to associate with things like that." + +"But it was only the new shepherd," said Fiona. + +"There's the new shepherd," said Artemis, nodding toward a distant +slope, where a figure with a brown collie could be seen gathering +sheep. + +"What were they, then?" asked Fiona. + +"Two of the Little People, of course," said Apollo. "Oh dear, oh dear, +I'm afraid you'll have trouble." + +"One generally dies," said Artemis, with cheerful consolation. + +"But they were very nice to me indeed," said Fiona. + +"Of course they were," said the woodcock. "You're privileged, you +know. _We_ all know it. And don't you mind the dogs, my dear. They +are good creatures, but they and their forbears have lived so long +with humans that they have forgotten most of the things we know. They +are nearly as blind as humans now, saving your presence, my dear. And +now what is it you want with me?" + +"I want to find the King of the Woodcock," said Fiona. + +"Bless your heart," said the bird, "and who do you suppose We are? You +never saw a woodcock Our size before, did you?" And indeed Fiona never +had; for he was as big as a young grouse. + +"Eighteen and a half ounces, if I'm a pennyweight," said the woodcock. +"I am the heaviest king that we have ever had. Will you please put me +down if you want to talk to me? It is hardly consonant with my royal +dignity to be held. I shan't fly away; _noblesse oblige_, you know." + +So Fiona put him down, and he arranged himself like a bunch of +feathers on the ground, his head well back between his shoulders and +his beady black eyes looking all round him at once. + +"Why didn't Apollo find you?" asked Fiona. + +"No scent," said the woodcock, proudly. "I am not like a common bird. +No dog can find a king woodcock; and no dog ever has. We can be beaten +out of a wood, of course; my great-great-grandfather was shot like +that when the family lived in Norfolk, many years ago. So we came up +here to the open heather, and have been quite safe ever since. And now +what do you want, my dear?" + +"I was told you could let me into Fairyland," said Fiona. + +"I can let you in by the back door," the bird said. "But are you +really going to Fairyland? You'll need some courage, you know, if you +are going the back way." + +"Is there another way?" asked Fiona. + +"There's the front door, of course," said the bird. "But no one can go +that way without an invitation. Have you an invitation?" + +"No," said Fiona. + +"A pity," said the woodcock. "There is no danger that way. But without +an invitation you could not even find the door. As it is, you'll have +to go in by the back way and take your risks." + +"I have to go, whatever they are," said Fiona. + +"_Noblesse oblige_," said the woodcock. "Quite so, quite so. Have you +been told about the wish?" + +"Yes," said Fiona. "I know about that." + +"The other thing," continued the bird, "is that you must stick to the +main path. Remember that. You must not turn out of it for any reason +of any kind. You'll see lots of side paths, and you'll see other +things too; but if you once leave the main path by so much as one step +you'll never get home again. There are no short cuts to Fairyland." + +"Thank you so much," said Fiona. "But how shall I know the main path?" + +With his long bill the woodcock tweaked the point feather out of one +of his wings and gave it to her. + +"This will take you through," he said. "It will point the right way +for you; that's why it is called the point feather. Just follow it. If +you are frightened and want to leave your search and come home, tap on +the ground with it and you will be back in Glenollisdal. But somehow I +don't think you will. And whatever you do, don't lose it. When you +reach the fairy grove, show it to the guardian, and he will let you +in; and mind you don't go in unless he shows you its fellow. Oh, I'm +all right, thank you; I'll have grown others long before they are +needed. There is no great rush to Fairyland on the part of people who +haven't _got_ to go, my dear." + +"It all sounds so much more difficult than I thought," said poor +Fiona. + +"Nothing worth while is ever easy," said the woodcock. "And now I'll +show you where to start. By the bye, you can't take the dogs with +you." + +"This dog wouldn't go," said Artemis, shivering. "That black collie's +there somewhere." + +"Don't bother about us," said Apollo. "We'll be home long before the +keeper is out of bed." + +So Fiona took a warm farewell of the two dogs, who lamented her sad +fate and wished her luck all in one breath, and then set off homeward +with their long swinging gallop. + +"And now, if you want to be in time for the great gathering, which you +humans call Hallow E'en, you'll have to hurry," said the woodcock. + +"But it's nearly a month to Hallow E'en," said Fiona. + +"You'll want every minute of it," said the bird. "Come on." + +And they started off for the fairy ring, the woodcock pattering along +on his little feet at a pace which would have surprised anyone who had +never seen a woodcock do it. + +"How come you to be doorkeeper?" asked Fiona, as they went. + +"Hereditary," said the bird. "We used to go to all the lost lands, you +know, like Lyonesse and Lemuria and Bresil and Atlantis. We still +cross Ireland once a year and pass on into the Atlantic to salute the +site of Plato's island, before we settle in Britain. And Fairyland is +only another of the lost lands. Here we are." + +They had come to the fairy ring. + +"There's nothing more I can do now," said the woodcock. "A straight +step and a stout heart, my dear." + +Fiona took the feather in her hand and stood in the fairy ring. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +FIONA IN THE FAIRY-WORLD + + +It was very, very dark. Fiona could not see her hand if she held it +close before her eyes. It was just blackness. Only one thing broke it; +far away--many miles it might be--was a tiny speck of white, like the +point of a pin. All round her in the dark were little soft sounds; +they brushed against her feet, and passed before her face; little soft +sounds, apparently without bodies. She held the tiny point-feather +firmly in the fingers of her left hand, and touched it from time to +time with her right, as she felt her way, one foot before the +other--she could not walk--towards the point of light. And with her +and about her went the small soft sounds; one would have said that +they whispered and chuckled in the darkness. + +How far and how long she went she could never guess; there was nothing +by which to measure time or distance, and evidently she was not going +to feel hunger or fatigue. + +At last she became conscious of a change. The white speck of light was +growing brighter and larger; and the small soft sounds were becoming +tangible. One brushed past her face, and she felt it; she put out a +hand, and there was a scuffing and chuckling, as if they were playing +blind man's buff with her. Then the light began to take shape; it was +a circular pool lying on the floor and wall of the avenue of blackness +down which she was passing; and it came from something on the other +side. And the little soft sounds crowded round her; they laughed, they +whispered, they clutched at her dress; they were trying to guide her +in a certain direction. She tried to shake them off, and found that, +though they could touch her, she could not touch them. And then she +came into the pool of light. + +The light came down a sort of short passage between rocks, with a +well-trodden floor; and at the end of it, not twenty yards from where +she stood, she could see the fairy grotto. One grand white carbuncle, +as big as an arc lamp, hung from the roof, filling the grotto with +dazzling white light; and the radiance of the carbuncle was flung back +in a million points of new splendor from the walls of the grotto, +shifting and shimmering like the rainbow across a waterfall, ruby and +orange, yellow and emerald, sapphire and violet, changing as each new +facet came into play; for the walls of the grotto were set thick with +cut jewels of every hue and color. A glorious sight it looked; and +Fiona suddenly became aware that the soft things that clutched at her +dress and the soft things that whispered in her ear, were all trying +to draw her toward the beautiful grotto. But she felt her feather, and +it pointed straight on into the dark. So she moved forward; and with +the first step she saw the trap. The floor of the beautiful grotto +yawned wide, showing the horrible abyss beneath it; and the darkness +was full of soft flutterings, and the chuckling of mocking laughter. +But they touched her no more at the time; and suddenly the darkness +fell away on each side like a wall, and she stepped out into daylight. + +She was in the desert. The yellow burning sand stretched all round +her, a mass of glittering particles that made the eyes sore; wave +after wave, it went billowing away to the red burning hills that faced +and flung back the burning sun. Mile after mile she stumbled along in +that aching heat; and then, as she topped a great hillock of sand, she +suddenly saw the fairy city. Very beautiful it looked, rose-pink on a +wooded island in a fair lake of water, whose blue mirror gave back +every trembling cupola and minaret; and toward it, down a broad track +marked by tamarisk bushes, went a goodly company of merchants, with +tinkling bells on their camels' necks and golden ornaments on their +camels' heads, the company of a chief who rode ahead on a white Arab +steed with his long jezail laid across his saddle-bow. Here could no +doubt be; and Fiona all but stepped on to the broad path in the track +of the caravan. But even as she turned she caught sight of the feather +and checked herself just in time; and the beautiful city of mirage +melted away, and there was no caravan there, but only sand marked by +the bones of men, and in place of the tamarisk bushes were gray +vultures feasting in a row. She followed the feather straight on +across the burning desert; and on a sudden she walked out of the sand +into shade. + +She was out in the forest. Huge trees rose like the pillars of a +cathedral nave, branching far above her head and shutting out the +daylight; and up their trunks ran starred creepers of every hue, +fighting their way up to the sun. Down from the branches hung orchids +of all fantastic shapes, in long still streamers, and great moon moths +fluttered round them, taking their joy in the dim light. And the +farther she went the thicker grew the forest, and the more oppressive +the airless heat. Trailing plants ran across her feet and tried to +trip her up; the great trunks closed together till there was barely +room to force a way between; the thorns of the creepers tore at her +flesh, and instead of the beautiful orchids there came on the trees +huge funguses red as blood. And the small soft voices began again; +they had caught her up; the forest was full of the same little sounds +which she had heard before, whispering and chuckling and fingering her +dress. And then, just as it seemed impossible to fight a way farther +through the dense jungle, she came to the open glade. Full of grass +and flowers and sunshine it was, and across it ran a gurgling brook, +crossed by a little plank bridge; a sweet breeze moved the grass, and +beyond the brook two little spotted deer were feeding; far in the +distance were tiny peaks of snow. The soft fingers were all tugging at +Fiona's dress, impelling her down the glade; but she had had ample +warning of those soft fingers, and she saw that the feather pointed +straight on through the tangled forest. And even as she moved she saw +that the little bridge was the back of a great water-python; and the +fingers loosed their hold of her dress, and the air was full of soft +whisperings and laughter. And she walked straight on into the tangled +thicket before her; and the forest parted to right and left, and she +walked out. + +She was in a fair country of green grass and temperate airs, where the +path lay true and straight before her through vineyards and groves of +oranges. Here and there a cherry tree swung its crown of white blossom +above her head, or a cypress stood up tall and straight as a sentinel +on duty. Purple flags bloomed under the rocks, and on a clump of brown +orchises sat two little jewelled butterflies, burnished green as old +copper; up the path of the sunlight came a swallowtail with its +stately glancing flight. Everything spoke to her here of fair peace +and security; and when she heard the air still rustling with little +soft sounds and chuckles, and knew that they had followed her, she +began to wonder how it was that, now that she knew their ways, they +should think it worth while. And they were becoming most active. The +soft sounds brushed all round her; the soft fingers grasped her arms; +tiny weightless bodies behind her seemed to be impelling her forward. + +And then before her she saw the inevitable two paths: the broad flat +path that passed through a fair orchard of lemon trees, where the +sunlight threw chequers on to the grass beneath, starred with scarlet +and purple anemones; and the narrow stony track, terribly steep, which +toiled away up the bare hillside in heat radiated from the rocks. +Never had the soft sounds been so insistent; a myriad gentle hands +were trying to steer her, even to push her by force, toward the lemon +trees. She saw the folly of them so very clearly; and her foot was +actually raised to take the first step up the hill path, when she felt +the feather turn of itself in her hand, and she became ice from head +to foot as she realized that she had all but destroyed herself by +despising her opponents. They had striven this time to force her into +the _true_ path, believing that she would certainly take the opposite +one. + +She saw now the end of the fatal hill path, the sudden crumbling +precipice which flung men on to pointed rocks far below; and the air +behind her became full of woe, voiceless wailings and silent howls of +rage, and she saw what she had fought against; a troop of small +formless black things, like immature bats, with pale fingers, that +fled moaning down the path of the sunlight. She knew now that they +would not vex her again. + +She passed on through the lemon orchard, and out on to a bare +hillside, rough with stones and dotted here and there with great oak +trees; plants of asphodel were thrusting their blossoms up among the +coarse tufts of grass, and far below, in all its laughing splendor, +lay the sea. And as she turned the shoulder of the hill she saw the +temple, a fair Doric temple of gray marble, standing in lonely beauty +among the scattered oak trees. Its metopes were carved with the +figures of gods and heroes of an older day, and round it ran a frieze +of warriors who fought with Amazon women. The singing was just over, +it seemed; and the double choir of white-robed girls, who had been +giving strophe and antistrophe of some festival ode, had broken into +groups, these playing at ball, those reclining in the shade or +strolling about with their arms round each other's waists. In her +chair in the cool portico sat the fair-faced matronly priestess, still +crowned with red roses, and before her two little boys poured wine +into a crystal goblet. And as she saw Fiona she rose from her chair +and greeted her by name, calling her happy that she had now come +safely through the path of danger and that her troubles were ended. + +"Come here to us," she said, "and rest, for it is but a little way now +that you must go, and there is ample time; slake your thirst at this +crystal goblet, and lie awhile in the shade, while these maidens crown +you with flowers." + +But Fiona had learnt her lesson, and she looked at her feather; and +the feather pointed straight along the hillside. So she passed on +without a look or a word; and as she passed came a noise as of the +earth opening; and the pillars of the temple bowed themselves, and the +middle of the building collapsed stone by stone, till only the outer +columns remained among a mass of fallen blocks, and triglyph and +metope and sculptured frieze lay in fragments about them. And among +the ruins a red fox with two cubs sat and snarled, as she watched a +company of toads crawling in the dust; and of that fair scene all that +had not changed was the pallid asphodel, the asphodel whose home is in +those other meadows where walk the pallid dead. + +And as Fiona passed on, the hillside itself dissolved in mist, and +there before her lay the fairy grove. And the guardian of the grove, +with white beard sweeping the ground, and old trembling hands, came +out to meet her. And she showed him her feather, and from his belt he +drew out and held up its fellow; and she knew that the path of danger +was over. + +"No one has come through by the way you have come for more years than +my old memory can follow," he said. "They always fail at the lemon +orchard. How did you escape?" + +And Fiona told him how the feather had turned in her hand of itself. + +The old man bowed almost to the ground. + +"That was the direct grace of the King," he said. "You must be a +person of the greatest consequence." + +And when Fiona said, "I am just an ordinary girl," he again bowed low +and said: "Young lady, I take leave to doubt it." + +Then he gave Fiona her directions for finding the King, and warned her +that she must not loiter in the fairy grove, for the fairies were +already gathering for All Hallows E'en. + +So Fiona walked swiftly through the grove, not seeing one half of its +beauties, though she would have loved to have lingered among the +trees. For in the grove grew every tree and plant famous in legend or +in history, of which not the tenth part can be told here. There was +the Norse ash, whose roots bind together the framework of the earth; +there the Irish hazel, of whose nuts could a man but taste he would +know all knowledge and all wisdom; there the African pomegranate, but +for whose sweetness the Corn-spirit would have disdained to stay +beneath the earth, and the race of men would have perished. There +stood Deborah's terebinth and Diotima's plane, and the Bo-tree beneath +whose branches Gautama Buddha sought and found the path of +Enlightenment. There grew the paper-reeds of Egypt, the repository +through many centuries of a whole world's learning, the paper-reeds +that grow no longer in their old home, even as the prophet Isaiah +foretold; and there the clove, for whose perfumed pistils great +nations had warred together and brave men died under torture. There +stood the English trees, the oak and the white acacia, which had built +the three-deckers for the greatest sea captain the world has seen. +There was that great traveller, the mulberry, which had left its home +on the Yangtse to follow the old Silk Route across Asia; which had +crossed the stony Gobi, where wild camels run and the Djinn light +their lamps at night to decoy travellers; which had seen the Khotan +girls wading knee-deep in the Khotan River, searching for the previous +white jade which should make gods for China, as erstwhile for Nineveh +and Troy; which had skirted the wandering lake of Lop-nor, and had +tarried awhile in old dead cities, now buried under the sands of the +dreaded Taklamakan; which had seen the turquoise mines of Khorassan, +and voyaged on the broad Oxus stream, till from Iran its way lay clear +to the west. There grew the cedars of the Atlas, which had aided their +great mountain to support the sky, and had sailed south with Hanno to +the Guinea Gulf, to bring home those gorilla hides which lay on the +altar of Melcarth at Carthage; and there the most famous of all the +trees of the forest, the proud cedars of Lebanon, which had once +exulted with their voices over the fall of the king of Assyria, which +had built for Solomon his temple and his house for the daughter of +Pharaoh, and which had given to the princes of Tyre the ships in +which, greatly daring, they had ranged the three seas, bringing home +the gold of India and the silver of Spain and the tin of Cornwall, the +wealth of the east and the west, myrrh and frankincense and purple +dye, ivory and apes and peacocks. And last of all was the twisted gray +olive, beloved of gray-eyed Pallas Athene, the symbol of all that +raises man above the savage, the tree in whose train, as it moved out +from its home in Asia, had grown up all the civilizations that ringed +the Mediterranean. + +So Fiona passed through the grove and came out on a broad place of +grass, and right before her stood the fairy ring. But not such a one +as the ring on Glenollisdal which she knew. This ring was of vast +size, and round it grew in a circle huge red toadstools splotched with +white, the red toadstools from which the witches of Lapland had used +to brew philtres of love and death. But vast as it was, it could not +hold all the creatures that swarmed round it. It was a gathering such +as Fiona had never dreamt of. On the outskirts stood an innumerable +host of little strange beings, of every sort and shape, elves and +brownies, gnomes and pixies, trolls and kobolds, goblins and +leprechauns; and the babel of them as they whispered together was like +the noise of a flock of fieldfares. And within them and around the +ring itself stood the fairies. + +All the lost peoples and nations and languages, it seemed, were there +in miniature; everyone that Fiona had ever heard her father speak of, +and many another of which even he knew nothing. There were fairies of +the Old Stone peoples, brave-eyed, clad in pelts of the saber-tooth, +bearing the blade-bones of bisons on which were carved pictures of the +mammoth and the reindeer. Fairies from Egypt, clad in fine white linen +with girdles of topaz and aquamarine, with fillets round their brows +from which the golden uraeus lifted its snake's head, bearing blossoms +of the blue lotus. Fairies from Babylon, glowing in coats of scarlet +or of many colors, their eyes deep with immemorial learning, bearing +clay tablets on which were signs like the footprints of birds. Fairies +from Crete, light of foot in the dance, in flounced skirts adorned +with golden butterflies, crowned with yellow crocuses and bearing +vases on which were painted the creatures of the sea, nautilus and +flying fish and polyp. Fairies of the Iberians, black-haired and +black-eyed, clad in black cloaks, small and shy and dusty, bearing +ingots of tin. Fairies from Cappadocia, in peaked shoes, and pelisses +of lion's skin trimmed with the fur of hares, moving to the clash of +cymbals, bearing grapes and ears of corn. Fairies from Mexico, with +heavy cheek bones, resplendent in mantles woven of the plumage of the +quetzal bird, carrying bricks of gold. Fairies from Ethiopia, black as +the black diamond, clad in leopard skins and plumed with the feathers +of ostriches, carrying tusks of ivory. Fairies from the land of Sheba, +well skilled in riddles, in cloaks of camel's hair buckled with clasps +of onyx, bearing caskets of agate filled with spices. Buddhist fairies +of the Naga race, with the sevenfold cobra's hood springing from their +shoulders and shadowing them, languorous and heavy-eyed, carrying +crimson water lilies. Fairies from Cambodia, in stiff dresses of cloth +of gold, with gilded faces and scarlet eyebrows, bearing pagoda bells +which tinkled. Fairies of the Golden Horde, bandy-legged, with pug +noses and slits of eyes, clad in dyed sheepskins and carrying the +tails of horses. Fairies of the Picts, tattooed to the eyelids, their +plaids dyed with crotal and the root of the yellow iris, wearing +badges of mountain fern or bog-myrtle and bearing jars of heather ale. +Fairies of Britain, in deerskin cloaks fastened with brooches of +enamel, with golden torques circling their throats, bearing sprays of +mistletoe. Fairies of the Tuatha-de, with all the youth of the world +in their eyes, clad in robes of saffron, crowned with rowans and +bearing harps. Fairies from Greece, erect and lissom, beautiful as a +sculptor's dream, crowned with wild olive and bearing each the roll of +a book. Fairies of old England, in Lincoln green, with feathers of the +gray goose in their caps, bearing bows of yew and branches of the may. +Fairies from Baghdad, radiant as visions of the night-time, their +turbans and their crooked scimitars jewelled with rubies of Badakshan, +bearing magic lamps. Fairies from Quinsay, dainty as porcelain, their +silken robes embroidered with blossoms of the almond and the peach +tree, bearing jars of coral lac wrought in the likeness of dragons, +and on their heads the poppy flowers that bring sleep. + +And in the middle of the ring stood a throne carved out of a single +beryl, green as the sea; and on the throne sat the King of the +Fairies, with eyes bright as the dawn and deep as the sea caves, in a +cloak of Tyrian purple with clasps of amethyst. His crown and sceptre +were of white gold, white gold which has long since perished out of +the upper world, and in the end of his sceptre was set a double +pentacle of clear crystal brought from the Island of Desire. And in +the beryl throne, if he looked at it through the crystal, were shown +to him the reflections of all things that he might wish to see. If he +looked directly, he saw all that had happened in the world in the +past; and if he reversed the crystal, he saw all that should happen in +the future; but if he held the pentacle edgewise, then he saw the +present, which no man ever sees, and was the greatest magic of all. +Round the throne stood his guards, black as Moors, in jackets and +trousers of emerald green clasped with orange zircons; half of them +bore trumpets of silver, and half of them carried spears with heads of +green obsidian as sharp as steel. And on either side of the throne, on +a stool, sat a strange creature, a little wizened elf with a large +book on his knee. One wore a white cap, and he bore an inkhorn and a +bundle of long quills; the other wore a black cap, and he bore a +penknife. + +Fiona edged herself as far forward as she could into the ring of +strange beings, and found herself next an old Leprechaun with a face +like a wrinkled apple, who seemed quite inclined to be friendly. + +"A human!" he said. "We do not see as many as we used to. But they say +there are two to be tried to-night. As you see, we have attempted +something out of the ordinary in the way of a welcome." And he waved +his arm proudly round the enormous assembly. "Had far to come?" he +asked. + +Fiona told him how long it had taken her. + +"That's nothing," he said. "There are people here to-night who, as +soon as the dance is over, will start travelling as fast as they can, +and will only just arrive in time for next year's meeting. Good for +the shoemaking trade!" + +"Where do they try the prisoners?" she asked him. + +"Here, in the ring," said the Leprechaun. "The King tries them. +There's the Public Prosecutor," and he pointed to a fairy of pompous +aspect, with a hooked nose and a Roman toga, and a roll under his arm. +"He's a terrible fellow. And there's the King's Remembrancer, those +two with the books." + +"Why are there two?" asked Fiona. + +"One to remember and one to forget, of course, stupid," said the +Leprechaun. "Whereever were you educated? Do you think kings want to +remember _everything_?" + +"It must be very easy forgetting," said Fiona. + +"Hardest job in Fairyland," said the Leprechaun. "I suppose you know +lots of people with perfect memories; but you never knew one with a +perfect forgetfulness, eh? Whitecap there only has to write his book +up; but poor Blackcap--he's the one that forgets--his book is written +up to start with, and he has to get the pages clean again with his +penknife. He never gets them _quite_ clean. They say he has nightmare +every night over the things he can't forget altogether." + +The King had been talking to one of the officers of his guard. He now +rose and held out his sceptre, and there was a great silence round the +Fairy ring. + +"Before we dance to-night," he said, "we have, as you know, to try two +prisoners." He turned to the officer of the guard, and said, "Let them +be produced." + +The officer at once produced the Urchin from nowhere in particular, as +a conjurer produces half-crowns. The boy looked rather large among the +Little People, but otherwise he was much as Fiona had last seen him; +his shirt and knickerbockers were covered with earthstains and he +still had the same length of useless rope coiled round his waist. + +But Jeconiah? Was this the prosperous financier, this wretched apology +for a living being which the officer held out on the palm of his hand? +Not two inches high, its white waistcoat hanging in loose flaps, +speechless, and wide-eyed with terror and abject entreaty, it was like +the ghost of a parody; the officer had to set it on one of the great +toadstools, and mark the place with a stick, lest it should be lost. +The King regarded it with interest. + +"I understood that the elder prisoner was a very stout man," he said. + +"That was so, your Majesty," said the officer. "He was so stout that +we thought it useless to attempt to take him through the doorway as he +was, so we left his body behind and only brought away the essential +part of him. This is all that there really is of him, sire; the rest +was wind. When we began to sift him we were afraid that he had no +real existence at all, and that there would be nothing to bring +before you." + +"Well, well," said the King, "there's enough of him to be tried, +anyhow. Are the prisoners provided with counsel?" + +The Public Prosecutor was understood to say that they were not yet +represented. + +"Counsel had better be assigned them in the usual way," said the King. +"Catch, somebody." + +He took a guinea from his pocket and flung it, apparently without +looking, into the crowd. But thick as the crowd was, the guinea passed +straight through the forest of hands held out for it, and fell into a +tiny brown hand behind them. Fiona knew where she had seen that hand +before. + +The owner of the hand at once stepped forward into the ring. He seemed +to be the most singular being in Fairyland. Fiona's first impression +was that he was just a large bald head, the color of parchment and +wrinkled all over; and this impression remained, even when she +realized that he did possess a small body, with the usual allowance of +arms and legs. Out of his great head looked a pair of quite +incongruous eyes, bright as beads, and full of happy drollery. Behind +him came a couple of stout goblins, each laden with dusty law books. +They piled the books up in a stack on the ground, and the singular +creature with the head proceeded to climb to the top of the stack, +where he sat down, cracking his fingers and laughing hugely at some +jest of his own, evidently on the best of terms both with himself and +his audience. Then he caught Fiona's eye, and deliberately winked at +her; but somehow it carried no offence, for the creature seemed +absolutely free from malice. + +"Privilege honorable profession defend oppressed," he remarked; "duty +clients submit large number points," and he patted the books he sat +on. He had a habit of clipping his words as he spoke which was totally +destructive of the smaller parts of speech, and made his remarks +sound like a series of unedited cablegrams. + +"We will take the younger prisoner first," announced the King; +whereupon the Public Prosecutor proceeded to read, all in one breath, +the indictment against the Urchin, to the effect that he did on or +about the 20th day of September then last past in despite of the peace +of the realm and the safety of the lieges with a stone or some other +missile or thing throw at and break the wing of or otherwise hit, cut, +hurt, maim, destroy and do wrong to one of the said lieges, to wit, a +shore lark, and so forth. When he had finished, instead of evidence +being taken, the King merely glanced into the beryl throne. + +"True in fact," he said. "Any defence?" + +The creature on the bookstack began at once. + +"Please Majesty duty client submit series points. First point no +intention." + +But Fiona did not wait to hear what it had to say. Forcing her way +into the ring, she said: + +"Please, your Majesty, it was my fault. I told him he couldn't." + +The King turned to look at her. + +"So this is the young lady," he said. "Very good of you to come, you +know. We rarely receive visitors now. We shall try to make you welcome +when the trial is over." He turned again to the bookstack, and said: +"I will hear the defence." + +"It was my fault, your Majesty," said Fiona again. + +With grave patience the King started to explain to her. + +"Your part of it was your fault, of course. But we are not trying you, +for you have come here of your own free will, so we can neither try +nor punish. But his part of it was equally his own fault, and unless +there is a good defence he will have to be punished." + +The creature on the bookstack was nodding and signing to Fiona, but +she was too engrossed with a single thought to notice him. + +"Then I claim my wish, your Majesty," she said. + +"Quite in order," said the King. "The trial will be suspended while +the young lady wishes. Officer!" + +And immediately the fairy ring was strewn with a strange collection of +objects, looking rather like the contents of an old curiosity shop +that had gone bankrupt. The officer held them up one by one for Fiona +to see. + +"When we heard you were coming," said the King, "we collected a few +little things for your inspection. It is so long since we had any use +for any of them that many of them seem to have developed serious +defects, which we regret; but they are the best we could find at short +notice. This," he pointed to an old ring, "is a common wishing ring. +It used to do all the usual things. The genie attached to it has +unfortunately become very deaf with age; but if you can make him hear, +we believe he is still in fair working order. This," as a frayed +girdle was held up, "is the famous cestus of Aphrodite, which she +lent to Helen of Troy. Its wearer used to become the most beautiful +and unpopular creature in the world. It will still confer beauty, +though hardly suited to the modern style; the unpopularity we +guarantee. This," pointing to a huge book, "contains the truth of that +which in your world passes as knowledge. It would delight your father. +He might publish selected chapters, and watch the critics cut them to +pieces. This," as a battered trumpet was exhibited, "is Fame. Your +praises would be sung all over the world; and the world would say, +'Never mind what she has _achieved_; tell us about her faults.' This," +and he contemplated an old iron sceptre, "is Power. You would become a +great ruler, and would probably die in exile. And under this," and he +pointed to a sheet of black velvet, thrown loosely over some object, +"under this is the treasure of the Isle of Mist, which I am told that +you have heard of. Do any of these please you? If not, we have +others." + +Fiona never thought about it for a moment, of course. She had not done +all that she had done to hesitate now. She did not look at the King's +face, and she took not the least notice of the creature with the head, +who was dancing about in a perfect agony, trying to attract her +attention. + +"Please your Majesty," she said in breathless haste, "I came here to +find the Urchin and take him home with me. That is my wish." + +She had hardly spoken the words when her instinct told her something +was wrong. A sort of chill seemed to run through the air, and the +color seemed to go out of the fairy world. The creature with the head +stopped dancing about and began to wring its little hands. She looked +up at the King's face, and read there, was it disappointment? was it +regret? She hardly knew. + +"A very natural and proper wish," said the King gravely. "We shall of +course accept it as such, and grant it with great pleasure. The +younger prisoner is discharged. Take the next case." + +And then Fiona saw. She saw the thing which had once been Jeconiah, +with that look of abject terror and entreaty in its eyes; and she +realized that it would have meant nothing to her to have included +Jeconiah in her wish, and that for Jeconiah it would have meant +everything. And she realized also that, worthless and evil as he had +been in life, selfish, mean, a thief and a liar, he was still a human +being, and had a soul and possibilities of which the fairy world could +know nothing. She felt a wave of humiliation pass over her; and she +resolved that, whatever he was, and whatever happened, she would not +go home without Jeconiah. + +The charges against Jeconiah were then read: stealing a treasure, and +being a worthless character. + +"Any defence?" said the King. + +The creature with the head got to work. + +"Please Majesty," he said, "admit second count. Character worthless. +Object pity however not vindictive punishment. Behalf client offer +submit State cure. First count plead not guilty; intention steal +treasure admitted but did not succeed." + +Fiona, in her new-found humility, had been listening to what the +creature with the head was saying. And suddenly it dawned on her that, +all through, both he and the King had been trying to help her, so far +as was consistent with their own rules; and that perhaps the creature +with the head, for all his oddity, knew what he was doing. She asked +the Leprechaun who he was. + +"You might have asked that with advantage before you interrupted him," +said the Leprechaun severely. "He is our Chancellor here. He is the +King's most intimate friend, and far the ablest lawyer in Fairyland." + +"Defence to first count not admitted," the King was saying. "Your +client cannot plead his own bungling of the theft in mitigation of his +wrongdoing. Only the intention counts here." + +The Chancellor looked immensely relieved at the King's words, though +it passed Fiona's wit to see why. + +"Apply formal ruling," he said. "Take down," this to Whitecap. + +"I hold that nothing counts here but the intention," said the King. + +"Majesty pleases," said the Chancellor. "Settles point. Retire defence +this prisoner. Submit excellent point younger client." + +"We will pass sentence here first," said the King. "Jeconiah P. +Johnson, your counsel has very properly thrown up his brief. You are +convicted of stealing a treasure, and it is admitted that you are a +worthless character. On the first count, I sentence you to be handed +over to the executioner to be extended until you become a proper size. +If you survive, you will then undergo, as offered by your counsel, the +State cure at the hands of the State hypnotizer." He turned to the +Chancellor. "Any further submission?" + +Fiona had gone over to the stack of books, and bent down over the +little creature with the head. + +"I have made a most terrible mistake," she said, in a low voice. "I +have spoilt everything. I see that you are kind; can you help us?" + +"Should have come me first," said the creature, quite gently. "Tried +attract attention. Never neglect anyone merely because odd and ugly. +May have good heart. Sad mess now; but think see daylight. Any +influence that boy?" + +"Oh, yes," said Fiona eagerly. + +"Right," said the creature. "Make boy wish. Now follow my argument." +And he turned to the King. + +"Please Majesty submit good point. Majesty just ruled nothing counts +here but intention. Younger prisoner no intention hurt shore lark; +therefore on Majesty's ruling same as if did not hurt it. Therefore +never was guilty. Human prisoner adjudged not guilty is just same as +if came here own free will; so held Majesty's father"; and by some +extraordinary trick he got the top book open and flopped down among +the leaves, from which position he read out bits of an ancient +judgment. "Consequently younger prisoner both entitled and bound +wish." + +The King consulted Whitecap. + +"It seems a sound chain of reasoning," he said. Then he turned to the +Public Prosecutor. "Have you anything to urge against it?" + +"Only that, if he wishes wrong, we can't detain him, because of the +young lady's wish," said that official. + +"Daniel come judgment," cried the Chancellor triumphantly. "Heads win, +tails can't lose. Younger prisoner wish." + +He turned to Fiona and whispered to her, "Mind he wishes right." + +Fiona started to go over to the Urchin; instantly the guard crossed +their spears before her. + +"No interference allowed with anyone who is going to wish," said the +officer. + +Then she tried to call to him, and found that she could not speak. It +was like a nightmare. She looked helplessly at the Chancellor; he +nodded, and spelt on his fingers the word "think." + +Then Fiona understood what he had meant by asking her if she had any +influence over the Urchin. She knew that she had a good deal; and bits +of conversations with her father came back into her mind. She had made +one bad blunder, and she had to correct it as best she could; and +without more ado she concentrated her whole mind on taking possession +of the mind of the Urchin. Could it be done at all? And if so could it +be done in time? + +The King stretched out his sceptre, and there was silence. + +"The younger prisoner is going to wish," said the King. "Officer!" + +And immediately there appeared in the middle of the ring six great +boxes, old sea chests made of Spanish chestnut, battered and stained +and clamped with bands of iron; and on each was the picture, half +obliterated by time and salt water, of the Madonna of the Holy Cross. +The officer flung back the lids, and showed each chest full to the +brim of glittering golden doubloons. + +"That is the treasure from the Venetian galleon which you were +seeking," said the King. "We removed it long ago into our safe +custody, lest it should tempt men; but it would seem that it tempts +them none the less. Now wish." + +The Urchin, his eyes bulging out of his head, stared at the shining +gold. He murmured "gun," but fortunately so low that the King did not +hear him. + +Fiona kept her eyes fixed hard on the boy, and bent every effort of +mind and will to the one thought, that he must wish as she wished. If +only he would turn round. She had already lost sight of the fairies; +she now lost sight of the King; she was conscious only of the abject +wretched creature that was Jeconiah, and of the back of the Urchin's +head. He was still staring at the gold, but he had not yet spoken; +that was to the good, and--no, it was not fancy--his ears were turning +pink, as they always did when he was in a difficulty. Then he began to +shuffle his feet uneasily. Fiona felt that every atom of life and +force in her was being concentrated on that one act of will; she did +not think she could go through with it many seconds longer, or she +would collapse. And then the Urchin turned his head toward her; his +face was scarlet, and his eyes were wavering before the fixed gaze of +her own; he _must_ do as she wished. She flung everything into one +supreme effort--the last reserves which no one thinks they possess +till utter necessity teaches them the contrary; and then the Urchin +spoke, in a strange voice and all in one breath: + +"I want my uncle to go free." + +Fiona's will let go with a snap; she felt so dizzy that she had to +lean against one of the great toadstools or she would have fallen. +Round the assemblage ran a sound like the wind through the tree tops, +the noise of thousands drawing in breath at once; and the Chancellor +started a war dance on his stack of books, and nearly fell off on his +head. The King rose from his throne, but he took no notice of the +Urchin; he turned straight to Fiona and bowed to her. + +"My compliments, young lady," he said; "the prettiest piece of +thought-transference it has ever been our privilege to see. Where did +you learn to do it?" + +"I never learnt," stammered Fiona. "I made a great mistake, as your +Majesty saw, and something had to be done, and your friend suggested +this way." + +"You needn't mind having made a mistake," said the King. "If you don't +make mistakes sometimes you'll never make anything else. And you have +made something else this time with a vengeance. As for you, sirrah +. . ." and he shook his fist at the Chancellor. + +The creature snapped all its fingers in reply. + +"Majesty pleases," it began triumphantly. "Duty younger client submit +new point arising young lady's action. Client entitled wish. Did not +wish himself; young lady wished. Therefore client still entitled wish. +Propose develop point considerable length with authorities." + +The King raised his hand. + +"I think I shall have to intervene," he said. "I believe you would +submit points till cockcrow." + +"Submit points till next year, if Majesty pleases," said the creature, +gleefully. + +"If these proceedings don't end soon," said the King, "there will be +no time to dance; and if we didn't dance no one knows what would +happen to the world above. Even I don't know that. So as we do not +generally have three human beings here at once, and as substantial +justice has been done, I propose now to exercise the royal prerogative +of generosity. Jeconiah P. Johnson, you will, as requested, go free, +so far as we can set you free. We cannot set you free from your own +worthless character. In order, however, to do the best for you that +can be done, before you leave us the State hypnotizer will take you in +hand and instil into you a few decent feelings. He won't hurt you, and +you won't remember. The effect, I fear, will not be permanent, but it +will ease our conscience. And as a sign to the world above that we +have treated you liberally, you will find that you will be unable to +attend to business until you have told your nephew a fairy tale. +Urchin! A doubt exists as to whether you have had your wish or not. +You shall have the benefit of the doubt, so far as is good for you. +You will find that you will get your gun." + +And then the King turned to Fiona. + +"Young lady," he said, "you have given us a display of courage which +we are not likely to forget. You have rescued your friend; you have, +which is much more to the point, rescued your enemy. You have got +_two_ wishes out of us, which no one ever did before; and you have +asked nothing for yourself. And now what are we to do for you?" + +"I think I have everything I want, now, thank your Majesty," said +Fiona. + +"Did we not hear talk of a treasure?" said the King. + +"Yes," said Fiona; "but--I was not thinking about a treasure, your +Majesty." + +"I know," said the King. "But I was; all the time." + +"I must leave it all in your Majesty's hands," said Fiona. + +"It is not here," said the King. "What you saw was only a pretence. +And we cannot send for it to-night. But if you will honor us sometime +by returning to our kingdom, we will see what can be done in memory of +your visit. Any time you like. And by the front door, please. You will +run no risks that way." + +"And now," said the King, stretching out his sceptre over the great +throng, "we will dance." He turned to Fiona and the Urchin. "It will +be a little while before Mr. Johnson is ready to accompany you home," +he said. "Perhaps you will honor us meanwhile by attending the dance +also." + +So the fairies danced before the King; and the fairy ring whirled and +blazed with the color of them, till it was gayer than a gorse-bank in +blossom, and brighter than a swarm of dragon-flies on a June +grass-field, and more vivid than a fall of shooting stars; and the +music that they made was wilder than the wind in the strings of a +harp, and sweeter than the blackbird's song, and dearer than all the +burns on the moor murmuring in unison. And the two children sat at the +King's feet on the steps of the beryl throne and watched the dancers; +and the Chancellor sat between them, and held Fiona's hand, and told +them such stories as they had never heard before, till between +laughter and tears they nearly fell off the steps of the throne, and +the Chancellor laughed and cried with them for sheer joy in his own +story-telling; and if there were three happier people in the world +that night I do not know where they were. And the night itself passed +away as a dream that men dream, and its hours seemed to them but as a +few minutes--and then across the music and the dance cut the shrill +harsh scream of a peacock as he greeted the day. The children saw the +King rise from his throne and stretch his sceptre out over the ring; +and the ring and the dancers were shrouded in a white mist which rose +from the ground and wreathed its arms about them; and the beryl throne +dissolved in mist, and the figure of the King above them, pointing, +grew dim and huge, and spread and grew, a purple shadow that hung over +them, . . . and they were standing alone in the fairy ring on +Glenollisdal, under the purple sky, with the white mist wreathing +itself about their feet, and the pale November dawn coming slowly up +out of the sea. + +Did the Urchin fling himself on the grass at Fiona's feet and thank +her in broken accents for all she had done for him? I regret to state +that the first thing which the Urchin did was to feel in his pocket +and draw out the doubloon which he had found in the cave. + +"I've got this one, anyhow, Fiona," he said. "But I wonder how I'm +going to get that gun." + +Then something seemed to prick him; he began to look uncomfortable and +shuffle his feet, while his ears turned pink; and at last he managed +to blurt out: + +"I say, Fiona, it was jolly decent of you, you know." + +Fiona only smiled, the wise smile of perfect understanding. + + * * * * * + +That morning the doctor was hastily summoned with the news that +Jeconiah was awake. The nurse met him in the passage, wide-eyed and +rather frightened. + +"He's so strange," she said. + +"Tut, tut," said the doctor; "told you he might wake like that. Kind +of change in personality? Just so. Often happens. Seldom permanent +though. What's he done?" + +"Well, doctor, of course we all know Mr. Johnson's reputation," said +the nurse. "He's thanked me three times, and hoped I didn't tire +myself; and he had all the servants up and said he'd see their wages +were raised, and the cook gave notice on the spot because she said she +didn't like practical jokes; and he says he wants to go out and gather +buttercups and daisies, and play with the little frogs; and he's sent +for some old gun that he says he's got to buy for his nephew; and he +hasn't opened any of the telegrams that have been waiting for him; he +says he mayn't attend to business till he has learnt a fairy tale, and +he's had the library ransacked, and he's tearing his hair because +there's no such thing in it." + +"Oh, well," said the doctor, "we must just have patience, nurse. I +expected something of the sort. Just humor him; if you can't find a +fairy tale, try him with a history book; he'll never know the +difference; and I'll send him up a nice soothing mixture. Very +interesting case; ve-ry interesting." + +And the doctor, calling up his best professional smile, bustled into +Jeconiah's room. + + * * * * * + +It was the same afternoon, a still afternoon of Indian summer, that +the old hawker, accompanied again by the black terrier, was going down +the shore road. He must have had business at the cottage on the beach. +But his business was probably not urgent; for he stopped to watch with +interest a group on the shore. It consisted of Jeconiah and the +Urchin, and they sat on the little patch of sand at the mouth of the +burn. The Urchin had across his knees the rusty old gun bought for him +by Jeconiah, who had nevertheless exacted the doubloon from him in +exchange. He fingered the gun lovingly, while he gazed with +undisguised impatience at the proceedings of his uncle. Jeconiah's +coat lay on the grounds beside a sheaf of unopened telegrams, and he +was putting the finishing touches to a noble castle of sand; its +drawbridge was supported by his double watch chain, and its turrets +bore a suspicious resemblance in contour to the inside of his hat. He +patted his work and gazed at it with pride. + +"Fine, isn't it?" he said. + +"You'd better hurry up with that fairy tale," said the boy. "If you've +got to, you've got to, you know; and you won't keep me much once I get +some cartridges." + +Jeconiah began to look alarmed. + +"But I haven't found one yet," he said, and glanced anxiously at the +pile of telegrams. + +"Make one up, then," said the boy. "Anybody can do it." + +Thus adjured, Jeconiah started. + +"Once upon a time there was a very grizzly old bear, and he lived in a +beautiful place called Capel Court, and he used to hunt the wild bulls +and the stags and the poor little guinea pigs that abounded in that +salubrious locality. And there were two young ladies there, called +Cora and Dora. . . ." + +"Are those the princesses?" asked the boy. + +"No, I think not," said Jeconiah. "They were of quite ordinary stock. +Well, the old bear thought they were too high and mighty, and that he +would like to take them down a point or two. . . ." + +"Oh, this won't do," said the Urchin rudely. "This isn't a _real_ +fairy tale at all. You must do something better than that." + +The wretched Jeconiah groaned, and looked again at his telegrams. Then +he started afresh. + +"Once upon a time there was a great dragon with seven heads, and he +ate seven princesses every day for dinner. . . ." + +"That's better," said the boy, encouragingly, as he settled himself to +listen. + +The old hawker resumed his walk. + +"They haven't made a very good job of him, after all," he remarked +aloud, apparently to the terrier. "But I expect that sort is +incurable." + +Was it a flicker of sunlight? Or did the black terrier really wink? + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +FIONA FINDS HER TREASURE + + +And Fiona? + +Fiona sat on the hearthrug in the bookroom, and told her father the +whole story from beginning to end, as it has been told here. And +sometimes he asked a question, and sometimes he said, "Yes, that would +be so," and sometimes he stroked her hair and said nothing. And when +she had ended, he said, "So you never found your own treasure after +all, Fiona?" + +She said, "I suppose I can have it now, if I go back." + +"Do you think you will go back?" he asked. + +She replied with another question. + +"Have you found out what my treasure is, daddy?" + +"I believe I could guess," he answered. "But you have found a good +many things already, apart from treasure, haven't you, little +daughter?" + +She sat silent and looked into the fire. + +"I suppose I have," she said. + +"We won't enumerate them," said the Student. "It spoils things +entirely, sometimes, to put them into words. But I will tell you +something an old writer once said. He was talking of that particular +kind of treasure which men call Truth; and he said that if he were +offered Truth itself on the one hand, and the everlasting search for +it on the other hand, he would choose the search. I expect you can +understand that now; for you have seen what has happened to you over +your own search." + +"I think I can understand," said Fiona. "I must be growing older, +daddy." + +"You'll be too old soon to go back to Fairyland at all, little +daughter," said the Student. "If you are going, you will have to go at +once." + +"What do you think, daddy?" she questioned. + +"I can only tell you that, in my case, I went back," the Student +answered. + +"Why, daddy, have you been in Fairyland too?" cried Fiona. "And you +never told me." + +"Yes," said the Student. "Even a musty old scholar like myself was +young once, you know," and he looked into the fire with eyes which +seemed to see things very, very far away. "It was not quite the same +as the Fairyland you have been in, Fiona; but we called it Fairyland." + +"Can't you come back with me if I go daddy?" asked the girl. + +"I'm too old now, little daughter," he said. "For good or for bad, I +could never find the way again. I can only see it now through your +eyes. I'll come as far as the door with you, and that's all that an +old man can do. I suppose you know where the door is?" + +"I never felt there was any doubt," said Fiona. + +"Then we'll start first thing to-morrow, if it's calm enough," he +said. + +But that evening was the last of the golden autumn; and when Fiona +woke in the morning, the Isle of Mist was justifying its name. The +southwest gale was raging round the house like a live animal, seizing +it and shaking it, and wailing in the chimneys pitifully, like an +unburied ghost; and before the gale the long lead-colored rollers were +racing in from the Atlantic, smashing themselves on the crags and +shooting up heavenward in columns of spray thrice the height of the +cliffs, while the noise of the surf in the Scargill cave came booming +across the water like the roar of a battleship's guns. The hills were +all shrouded in mist, and the mist was fine salt rain that rolled in +from the sea, driving in billows over the moor and across the fields; +the gulls were tossed about in it like little bits of waste paper, and +every green thing on the island opened its heart to the rain and drank +till it could drink no more. Toward evening Fiona and the Student, in +oilskins and sou'-westers, went down to the rocks and out seaward as +far as was possible, and there stood, unable to speak for the noise. +They balanced themselves against the gusts, and felt the tingling +drops of salt spray rattle like hail off their coats, while they +watched the cliff waterfalls, unable to fall for the wind, go straight +up heavenward in clouds of smoke, and the sea foam and tear at the +rocks below; and once for a moment the cloud-mist parted, and the +hills started out, their dark sides all gashed and seamed with white +streaks where every tiny runlet and burn was rushing in spate down +toward the sea. Fiona managed to shout, with her clear young voice, +"No one can really love this island who only knows it in summer;" and +then they went home, out of the dusk and the lashing of the wet wind, +to the quiet bookroom and tea things, and lamps, and books; for man +may love Nature, but he loves still better the contrast between Nature +and the things which he has fashioned for himself. + +For three weeks the wind blew; and though there were days when the +sea-mist lifted, there was no day on which the sea was calm enough for +the launching of their small boat. Then one afternoon came change. The +warm air turned chill, and the warm rain became sleet; that night the +wind backed to the north, and next day was a blizzard of snow. And the +night after the wind fell away, and the snow ceased, and Orion and his +two dogs shone huge in a frosty sky; and Fiona woke to the glories of +a scarlet sunrise on a great field of white. + +"We must hurry, daddy," she said. "It's perfectly calm." + +"It's a pet day," said the Student, sniffing the air. "It won't last; +the wind backed too suddenly. But it's all right till sunset." + +Directly breakfast was over they launched the little boat, and +started. The snow shone white in the sunshine, and the calm sea +against the snow was as blue as a blue lotus; but the shadows on the +snow were a wonder, and the woven complexity of their colorings would +have taxed every hue on an artist's palette. So they pulled down and +into the cave, at whose mouth the great bluff looked barer and blacker +than ever against the world's whiteness; and they grounded their boat +and climbed the rock barrier. There the Student sat down and filled +and lit his pipe. + +"This is as far as I can go," he said. "If I mistake not, you will +find that they have opened the door for you." + +So Fiona went on to the recess where the Urchin had found the +doubloon, and where the torch had been smashed in her father's hand; +and the solid wall of the cliff had opened, and there was an archway +leading into the black vaulting of the long cave behind. Fiona passed +through into the darkness . . . and the darkness parted to right and +left of her, and she stood again in the fairy ring where she had stood +on All Hallows E'en. + +But how changed. Of all the bright throng of fairies that had +clustered round it, not one stood there to-day. The circle of scarlet +toadstools was broken down and shattered, as though by a great storm; +and the ring itself was no longer grass, but was covered deep in snow. +Of all the things she had seen there that evening, only one remained. +The beryl throne still stood lonely in the midst of the bare ring; and +on the throne sat the King of the Fairies. His face rested on his +hand, as though he were deep in thought; his eyes were looking at +something far away. On the steps of the throne sat the Chancellor, the +King's inseparable friend; and he, too, was deep in thought. It was a +view of the fairy world which Fiona had never expected. + +The King must have heard her step, for he rose from his throne and +came down to meet her. + +"Have you come for your treasure, Fiona?" he said. + +And she said, "I have come because you asked me to come back." + +The King held out his sceptre to her; and again the mist came up from +the ground and enwrapped the beryl throne, and the figures of the +King and the Chancellor wavered and became dim before her. _Were_ they +the King and the Chancellor? Was not what she saw, so dim through the +mist, the figures of the shepherd who had helped her on Glenollisdal +and his black collie? But the mist was wavering again about them, and +again all was a blur; and then the mist suddenly cleared, and there +was no one there at all but just the old hawker and the little terrier +which followed him. + +"So you were the King of the Fairies all the time," said Fiona. + +"All the time," said the old man gently. "We go about in the world as +you see us. And some still entertain angels unaware. Have you come for +your treasure, Fiona?" + +And this time Fiona answered, "Yes." + +"You have earned it," said the King. "And you have found much more +than any treasure. Your father has told you that?" + +And again Fiona said, "Yes." + +"I cannot really give you your treasure," said the King, "for you +have it already. I think you have had it all the time; but you did not +know. But now you have learnt." + +"What is it?" asked Fiona. "But I think I can guess now." + +"It is the spirit of the island which you love," said the King, "and +which henceforth loves you. You have spoken face to face with bird and +beast and with the beings who knew and loved the land before your race +was. To-day you have the freedom of the island, and of all living +things in it; they are your friends forever. And to the dead in its +graveyards you are kin. All that is there has passed into your blood, +the old lost loves, the old impossible loyalties, the old forgotten +heroisms and tendernesses; all these are yours; and yours are the +songs that were sung long ago, and the tales which were told by the +fireside; and the deeds of the men and women of old have become part +of you. You can walk now through the crowded city and never know it, +for the wind from the heather will be about you where you go; you can +stand in the tumult of men and never hear them, for round you will be +the silence of your own sea. That is the treasure of the Isle of Mist; +the island has given you of its soul. You have found greater things +already; you will find greater things yet again. But such as it is, it +is the best gift which we of the fairy world have to give." + +"And now," continued the King, "you will not see us again. And I will +take back the bracelet. It would be no further use to you, for you are +no longer a child. You are too old for Fairyland." + +"But my father could see you," said Fiona. + +"He could only see me as I really am through your eyes," said the +King. "It may be that some day you too will see me again through the +eyes of a child. But for the present it is farewell." + +So Fiona stooped down and stroked the little dog, who looked at her +with wistful eyes, and took her farewell of the King; and the King +raised his hand, and the mist rose again and enwrapped the fairy ring +and those in it . . . and Fiona walked out through the archway into +the cave, and there sat the Student on the rock barrier, just as she +had left him, knocking the ashes out of his pipe. And even as she came +to him there was a noise behind her, and when she looked round it was +to see the archway blocked by a great fall of rock. + +"You will not use that way again, little daughter," said the Student. + +"I shall not use any way again now, daddy," she said. "I am too old. +But oh, daddy, it has been worth it." + +Then they launched their boat and paddled slowly out of the cave, out +of the dark into daylight; and before them lay the quiet sea bathed in +the winter sun, and the Isle of Mist dreaming under its mantle of +white. + + +THE END. + + + + +_A Selection from the +Catalogue of_ + +G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS + +[Illustration] + +Complete Catalogues sent +on application + + + + +THE MOON POOL + +BY A. MERRITT + +Romance, real romance, and wonderful adventure,--absolutely +impossible, yet utterly probable! A story one almost regrets having +read, since one can then no longer read it for the first time. Once in +the proverbial blue moon there comes to the fore an author who can +conceive and write such a tale. Here is one! + +Few indeed will forget, who, with the Professor, watch the mystic +approach of the Shining One down the moon path,--who follow with him +and the others the path below the Moon Pool, beyond the Door of the +Seven Lights;--and would there were more characters in fiction like +Lakla the lovely and Larry O'Keefe the lovable. + +Perhaps you readers will know who were those weird and awe-inspiring +Silent Ones. + + +G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS +NEW YORK LONDON + + + + +Visions and Beliefs in +the West of Ireland + +By Lady Gregory + +With Two Essays and Notes by W. B. Yeats +_Two Volumes. 12o_ + + +To those who have felt the haunting charm that inheres in the Celtic +consciousness of an imminent supernaturalism, this collection of Irish +fancy, belief, and folk-lore, gathered from the lips of the people +with patient and reverent care, will have particular value. It has +interest as an exceptionally thorough and representative study of +psychic sensitiveness in Ireland, and the slightness of the barrier +between worlds seen and unseen. + + +G. P. Putnam's Sons +New York London + + + + + +The Substance +of a Dream + +By F. W. Bain + + +"In this new and wholly charming Hindu story a very old world speaks +to us, but one that has not lost its childhood with age and +sophistication. It is a world of innocent voluptuousness where passion +is not contrary to faith but is itself faith. + +"Mr. Bain's people have character, as there are colors in moonlight, a +character with a common beauty in all its diversities; and because of +its utter and inner harmony, this creation of his has a very rare +beauty." + + +G. P. Putnam's Sons +New York London + + + + +Transcriber's Note: The following typographical errors present in the +original edition have been corrected. + +In Chapter II, a quotation mark was deleted after "the love of worms +was the root of all evil". + +In Chapter III, a quotation mark was added after "if you could wait a +few minutes . . .". + +In Chapter IV, _said Fiona," and you wriggle so."_ was changed to +_said Fiona, "and you wriggle so."_, and _"Urchin," she shouted; +"Urchin.'_ was changed to _"Urchin," she shouted; "Urchin."_ + +In Chapter V, quotation marks were added after "Go up a hill." and +"the true cave at all." + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Treasure of the Isle of Mist, by W. W. 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