diff options
Diffstat (limited to '30974.txt')
| -rw-r--r-- | 30974.txt | 6085 |
1 files changed, 6085 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/30974.txt b/30974.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..fc256b2 --- /dev/null +++ b/30974.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6085 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Jimbo, by Algernon Blackwood + +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: Jimbo + A Fantasy + +Author: Algernon Blackwood + +Release Date: January 15, 2010 [EBook #30974] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JIMBO *** + + + + +Produced by David Clarke, S.D., and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + +JIMBO + + + + + MACMILLAN AND CO., Limited + + LONDON . BOMBAY . CALCUTTA . MADRAS + MELBOURNE + + THE MACMILLAN COMPANY + + NEW YORK . BOSTON . CHICAGO + DALLAS . ATLANTA . SAN FRANCISCO + + THE MACMILLAN COMPANY + OF CANADA, LIMITED + + TORONTO + + + + + JIMBO + + A FANTASY + + _By_ + + ALGERNON + BLACKWOOD + + MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED + ST. MARTIN'S STREET, LONDON + + 1930 + + + COPYRIGHT + + _First Published_ 1909 + _The Caravan Library_ 1930 + + + PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN + + + + +CONTENTS + + + CHAPTER PAGE + + I. "RABBITS" 7 + + II. MISS LAKE COMES--AND GOES 24 + + III. THE SHOCK 40 + + IV. ON THE EDGE OF UNCONSCIOUSNESS 49 + + V. INTO THE EMPTY HOUSE 54 + + VI. HIS COMPANION IN PRISON 69 + + VII. THE SPELL OF THE EMPTY HOUSE 87 + + VIII. THE GALLERY OF ANCIENT MEMORIES 102 + + IX. THE MEANS OF ESCAPE 111 + + X. THE PLUNGE 131 + + XI. THE FIRST FLIGHT 142 + + XII. THE FOUR WINDS 153 + + XIII. PLEASURES OF FLIGHT 165 + + XIV. AN ADVENTURE 177 + + XV. THE CALL OF THE BODY 193 + + XVI. PREPARATION 204 + + XVII. OFF! 219 + + XVIII. HOME 232 + + + + +JIMBO + +CHAPTER I + +"RABBITS" + + +Jimbo's governess ought to have known better--but she didn't. If she +had, Jimbo would never have met with the adventures that subsequently +came to him. Thus, in a roundabout sort of way, the child ought to have +been thankful to the governess; and perhaps, in a roundabout sort of +way, he was. But that comes at the far end of the story, and is doubtful +at best; and in the meanwhile the child had gone through his suffering, +and the governess had in some measure expiated her fault; so that at +this stage it is only necessary to note that the whole business began +because the Empty House happened to be really an Empty House--not the +one Jimbo's family lived in, but another of which more will be known in +due course. + +Jimbo's father was a retired Colonel, who had married late in life, and +now lived all the year round in the country; and Jimbo was the youngest +child but one. The Colonel, lean in body as he was sincere in mind, an +excellent soldier but a poor diplomatist, loved dogs, horses, guns and +riding-whips. He also really understood them. His neighbours, had they +been asked, would have called him hard-headed, and so far as a +soft-hearted man may deserve the title, he probably was. He rode two +horses a day to hounds with the best of them, and the stiffer the +country the better he liked it. Besides his guns, dogs and horses, he +was also very fond of his children. It was his hobby that he understood +them far better than his wife did, or than any one else did, for that +matter. The proper evolution of their differing temperaments had no +difficulties for him. The delicate problems of child-nature, which defy +solution by nine parents out of ten, ceased to exist the moment he +spread out his muscular hand in a favourite omnipotent gesture and +uttered some extraordinarily foolish generality in that thunderous, +good-natured voice of his. The difficulty for himself vanished when he +ended up with the words, "Leave that to me, my dear; believe me, I know +best!" But for all else concerned, and especially for the child under +discussion, this was when the difficulty really began. + +Since, however, the Colonel, after this chapter, mounts his best hunter +and disappears over a high hedge into space so far as our story is +concerned, any further delineation of his wholesome but very ordinary +type is unnecessary. + +One winter's evening, not very long after Christmas, the Colonel made a +discovery. It alarmed him a little; for it suggested to his cocksure +mind that he did not understand _all_ his children as comprehensively as +he imagined. + +Between five o'clock tea and dinner--that magic hour when lessons were +over and the big house was full of shadows and mystery--there came a +timid knock at the study door. + +"Come in," growled the soldier in his deepest voice, and a little girl's +face, wreathed in tumbling brown hair, poked itself hesitatingly through +the opening. + +The Colonel did not like being disturbed at this hour, and everybody in +the house knew it; but the spell of Christmas holidays was still somehow +in the air, and the customary order was not yet fully re-established. +Moreover, when he saw who the intruder was, his growl modified itself +into a sort of common sternness that yet was not cleverly enough +simulated to deceive the really intuitive little person who now stood +inside the room. + +"Well, Nixie, child, what do you want now?" + +"Please, father, will you--we wondered if----" + +A chorus of whispers issued from the other side of the door: + +"Go on, silly!" + +"Out with it!" + +"You promised you would, Nixie." + +"... if you would come and play Rabbits with us?" came the words in a +desperate rush, with laughter not far behind. + +The big man with the fierce white moustaches glared over the top of his +glasses at the intruders as if amazed beyond belief at the audacity of +the request. + +"Rabbits!" he exclaimed, as though the mere word ought to have caused an +instant explosion. "Rabbits!" + +"Oh, _please_ do." + +"Rabbits at this time of night!" he repeated. "I never heard of such a +thing. Why, all good rabbits are asleep in their holes by now. And you +ought to be in yours too by rights, I'm sure." + +"We don't sleep in holes, father," said the owner of the brown hair, who +was acting as leader. + +"And there's still a nour before bedtime, _really_," added a voice in +the rear. + +The big man slowly put his glasses down and looked at his watch. He +looked very savage, but of course it was all pretence, and the children +knew it. "If he was _really_ cross he'd pretend to be nice," they +whispered to each other, with merciless perception. + +"Well--" he began. But he who hesitates, with children, is lost. The +door flung open wide, and the troop poured into the room in a medley of +long black legs, flying hair and outstretched hands. They surrounded the +table, swarmed upon his big knees, shut his stupid old book, tried on +his glasses, kissed him, and fell to discussing the game breathlessly +all at once, as though it had already begun. + +This, of course, ended the battle, and the big man had to play the part +of the Monster Rabbit in a wonderful game of his own invention. But +when, at length, it was all over, and they were gathered panting round +the fire of blazing logs in the hall, the Monster Rabbit--the only one +with any breath at his command--looked up and spoke. + +"Where's Jimbo?" he asked. + +"Upstairs." + +"Why didn't he come and play too?" + +"He didn't want to." + +"Why? What's he doing?" + +Several answers were forthcoming. + +"Nothing in p'tickler." + +"Talking to the furniture when I last saw him." + +"Just thinking, as usual, or staring in the fire." + +None of the answers seemed to satisfy the Monster Rabbit, for when he +kissed them a little later and said good-night, he gave orders, with a +graver face, for Jimbo to be sent down to the study before he went to +bed. Moreover, he called him "James," which was a sure sign of parental +displeasure. + +"James, why didn't you come and play with your brothers and sisters just +now?" asked the Colonel, as a dreamy-eyed boy of about eight, with a mop +of dark hair and a wistful expression, came slowly forward into the +room. + +"I was in the middle of making pictures." + +"Where--what--making pictures?" + +"In the fire." + +"James," said the Colonel in a serious tone, "don't you know that you +are getting too old now for that sort of thing? If you dream so much, +you'll fall asleep altogether some fine day, and never wake up again. +Just think what that means!" + +The child smiled faintly and moved up confidingly between his father's +knees, staring into his eyes without the least sign of fear. But he said +nothing in reply. His thoughts were far away, and it seemed as if the +effort to bring them back into the study and to a consideration of his +father's words was almost beyond his power. + +"You must run about more," pursued the soldier, rubbing his big hands +together briskly, "and join your brothers and sisters in their games. +Lie about in the summer and dream a bit if you like, but now it's +winter, you must be more active, and make your blood circulate +healthily,--er--and all that sort of thing." + +The words were kindly spoken, but the voice and manner rather +deliberate. Jimbo began to look a little troubled, as his father watched +him. + +"Come now, little man," he said more gently, "what's the matter, eh?" +He drew the boy close to him. "Tell me all about it, and what it is +you're always thinking about so much." + +Jimbo brought back his mind with a tremendous effort, and said, "I don't +like the winter. It's so dark and full of horrid things. It's all ice +and shadows, so--so I go away and think of what I like, and other +places----" + +"Nonsense!" interrupted his father briskly; "winter's a capital time for +boys. What in the world d'ye mean, I wonder?" + +He lifted the child on to his knee and stroked his hair, as though he +were patting the flank of a horse. Jimbo took no notice of the +interruption or of the caress, but went on saying what he had to say, +though with eyes a little more clouded. + +"Winter's like going into a long black tunnel, you see. It's downhill to +Christmas, of course, and then uphill all the way to the summer +holidays. But the uphill part's so slow that----" + +"Tut, tut!" laughed the Colonel in spite of himself; "you mustn't have +such thoughts. Those are a baby's notions. They're silly, silly, silly." + +"Do you _really_ think so, father?" continued the boy, as if politeness +demanded some recognition of his father's remarks, but otherwise anxious +only to say what was in his mind. "You wouldn't think them silly if you +really knew. But, of course, there's no one to tell you in the stable, +so you _can't_ know. You've never seen the funny big people rushing past +you and laughing through their long hair when the wind blows so loud. +_I_ know several of them almost to speak to, but you hear only wind. And +the other things with tiny legs that skate up and down the slippery +moonbeams, without ever tumbling off--they aren't silly a bit, only they +don't like dogs and noise. And I've seen the furniture"--he pronounced +it furchinur--"dancing about in the day-nursery when it thought it was +alone, and I've heard it talking at night. I know the big cupboard's +voice quite well. It's just like a drum, only rougher...." + +The Colonel shook his head and frowned severely, staring hard at his +son. But though their eyes met, the boy hardly saw him. Far away at the +other end of the dark Tunnel of the Months he saw the white summer +sunshine lying over gardens full of nodding flowers. Butterflies were +flitting across meadows yellow with buttercups, and he saw the +fascinating rings upon the lawn where the Fairy People held their dances +in the moonlight; he heard the wind call to him as it ran on along by +the hedgerows, and saw the gentle pressure of its swift feet upon the +standing hay; streams were murmuring under shady trees; birds were +singing; and there were echoes of sweeter music still that he could not +understand, but loved all the more perhaps on that account.... + +"Yes," announced the Colonel later that evening to his wife, spreading +his hands out as he spoke. "Yes, my dear, I _have_ made a discovery, and +an alarming one. You know, I'm rarely at fault where the children are +concerned--and I've noted all the symptoms with unusual care. James, my +dear, is an imaginative boy." + +He paused to note the effect of his words, but seeing none, continued: + +"I regret to be obliged to say it, but it's a fact beyond dispute. His +head is simply full of things, and he talked to me this evening about +tunnels and slippery moonlight till I very nearly lost my temper +altogether. Now, the boy will never make a man unless we take him in +hand properly at once. We must get him a governess, or something, +without delay. Just fancy, if he grew up into a poet or one of +these--these----" + +In his distress the soldier could only think of horse-terms, which did +not seem quite the right language. He stuck altogether, and kept +repeating the favourite gesture with his open hand, staring at his wife +over his glasses as he did so. + +But the mother never argued. + +"He's very young still," she observed quietly, "and, as you have always +said, he's not a bit like other boys, remember." + +"Exactly what I say. Now that your eyes are opened to the actual state +of affairs, I'm satisfied." + +"We'll get a sensible nursery-governess at once," added the mother. + +"A practical one?" + +"Yes, dear." + +"Hard-headed?" + +"Yes." + +"And well educated?" + +"Yes." + +"And--er--firm with children. She'll do for the lot, then." + +"If possible." + +"And a young woman who doesn't go in for poetry, and dreaming, and all +that kind of flummery." + +"Of course, dear." + +"Capital. I felt sure you would agree with me," he went on. "It'd be no +end of a pity if Jimbo grew up an ass. At present he hardly knows the +difference between a roadster and a racer. He's going into the army, +too," he added by way of climax, "and you know, my dear, the army would +never stand _that_!" + +"Never," said the mother quietly, and the conversation came to an end. + +Meanwhile, the subject of these remarks was lying wide awake upstairs in +the bed with the yellow iron railing round it. His elder brother was +asleep in the opposite corner of the room, snoring peacefully. He could +just see the brass knobs of the bedstead as the dying firelight quivered +and shone on them. The walls and ceiling were draped in shadows that +altered their shapes from time to time as the coals dropped softly into +the grate. Gradually the fire sank, and the room darkened. A feeling of +delight and awe stole into his heart. + +Jimbo loved these early hours of the night before sleep came. He felt no +fear of the dark; its mystery thrilled his soul; but he liked the +summer dark, with its soft, warm silences better than the chill winter +shadows. Presently the firelight sprang up into a brief flame and then +died away altogether with an odd little gulp. He knew the sound well; he +often watched the fire out, and now, as he lay in bed waiting for he +knew not what, the moonlight filtered in through the baize curtains and +gradually gave to the room a wholly new character. + +Jimbo sat up in bed and listened. The house was very still. He slipped +into his red dressing-gown and crept noiselessly over to the window. For +a moment he paused by his brother's bed to make sure that he really was +asleep; then, evidently satisfied, he drew aside a corner of the curtain +and peered out. + +"Oh!" he said, drawing in his breath with delight, and again "oh!" + +It was difficult to understand why the sea of white moonlight that +covered the lawn should fill him with such joy, and at the same time +bring a lump into his throat. It made him feel as if he were swelling +out into something very much greater than the actual limits of his +little person. And the sensation was one of mingled pain and delight, +too intense for him to feel for very long. The unhappiness passed +gradually away, he always noticed, and the happiness merged after a +while into a sort of dreamy ecstasy in which he neither thought nor +wished much, but was conscious only of one single unmanageable yearning. + +The huge cedars on the lawn reared themselves up like giants in silver +cloaks, and the horse-chestnut--the Umbrella Tree, as the children +called it--loomed with motionless branches that were frosted and +shining. Beyond it, in a blue mist of moonlight and distance, lay the +kitchen-garden; he could just make out the line of the high wall where +the fruit-trees grew. Immediately below him the gravel of the carriage +drive sparkled with frost. + +The bars of the windows were cold to his hands, yet he stood there for a +long time with his nose flattened against the pane and his bare feet on +the cane chair. He felt both happy and sad; his heart longed dreadfully +for something he had not got, something that seemed out of his reach +because he could not name it. No one seemed to believe all the things he +_knew_ in quite the same way as he did. His brothers and sisters played +up to a certain point, and then put the things aside as if they had only +been assumed for the time and were not real. To him they were always +real. His father's words, too, that evening had sorely puzzled him when +he came to think over them afterwards: "They're a baby's notions.... +They're silly, silly, silly." Were these things real or were they not? +And, as he pondered, yearning dumbly, as only these little souls can +yearn, the wistfulness in his heart went out to meet the moonlight in +the air. Together they wove a spell that seemed to summon before him a +fairy of the night, who whispered an answer into his heart: "We are real +so long as you believe in us. It is your imagination that makes us real +and gives us life. Please, never, never stop believing." + +Jimbo was not quite sure that he understood the message, but he liked it +all the same, and felt comforted. So long as they believed in one +another, the rest did not matter very much after all. And when at last, +shivering with cold, he crept back to bed, it was only to find through +the Gates of Sleep a more direct way to the things he had been thinking +about, and to wander for the rest of the night, unwatched and free, +through the wonders of an Enchanted Land. + +Jimbo, as his father had said, was an imaginative child. Most children +are--more or less; and he was "more," at least, "more" than his brothers +and sisters. The Colonel thought he had made a penetrating discovery, +but his wife had known it always. His head, indeed, was "full of +things,"--things that, unless trained into a channel where they could be +controlled and properly schooled, would certainly interfere with his +success in a practical world, and be a source of mingled pain and joy to +him all through life. To have trained these forces, ever bursting out +towards creation, in his little soul,--to have explained, interpreted, +and dealt fairly by them, would perhaps have been the best and wisest +way; to have suppressed them altogether, cleaned them out by the process +of substitution, this might have succeeded too in less measure; but to +turn them into a veritable rout of horror by the common method of +"frightening the nonsense out of the boy," this was surely the very +worst way of dealing with such a case, and the most cruel. Yet, this was +the method adopted by the Colonel in the robust good-nature of his +heart, and the utter ignorance of his soul. + +So it came about that three months later, when May was melting into +June, Miss Ethel Lake arrived upon the scene as a result of the +Colonel's blundering good intentions. She brought with her a kind +disposition, a supreme ignorance of unordinary children, a large store +of self-confidence--and a corded yellow tin box. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +MISS LAKE COMES--AND GOES + + +The conversation took place suddenly one afternoon, and no one knew +anything about it except the two who took part in it: the Colonel asked +the governess to try and knock the nonsense out of Jimbo's head, and the +governess promised eagerly to do her very best. It was her first +"place"; and by "nonsense" they both understood imagination. True +enough, Jimbo's mother had given her rather different instructions as to +the treatment of the boy, but she mistook the soldier's bluster for +authority, and deemed it best to obey him. This was her first mistake. + +In reality she was not devoid of imaginative insight; it was simply that +her anxiety to prove a success permitted her better judgment to be +overborne by the Colonel's boisterous manner. + +The wisdom of the mother was greater than that of her husband. For the +safe development of that tender and imaginative little boy of hers, she +had been at great pains to engage a girl--a clergyman's daughter--who +possessed sufficient sympathy with the poetic and dreamy nature to be of +real help to him; for true help, she knew, can only come from true +understanding. And Miss Lake was a good girl. She was entirely +well-meaning--which is the beginning of well-doing, and her principal +weakness lay in her judgment, which led her to obey the Colonel too +literally. + +"She seems most sensible," he declared to his wife. + +"Yes, dear." + +"And practical." + +"I think so." + +"And firm and--er--wise with children." + +"I hope so." + +"Just the sort for young Jimbo," added the Colonel with decision. + +"I trust so; she's a little young, perhaps." + +"Possibly, but one can't get everything," said her husband, in his +horse-and-dog voice. "A year with her should clean out that fanciful +brain of his, and prepare him for school with other boys. He'll be all +right once he gets to school. My dear," he added, spreading out his +right hand, fingers extended, "you've made a most wise selection. I +congratulate you. I'm delighted." + +"I'm so glad." + +"Capital, I repeat, capital. You're a clever little woman. I knew you'd +find the right party, once I showed you how the land lay." + + * * * * * + +The Empty House, that stood in its neglected garden not far from the +Park gates, was built on a point of land that entered wedgewise into the +Colonel's estate. Though something of an eyesore, therefore, he could do +nothing with it. + +To the children it had always been an object of peculiar, though not +unwholesome, mystery. None of them cared to pass it on a stormy day--the +wind made such odd noises in its empty corridors and rooms--and they +refused point-blank to go within hailing distance of it after dark. But +in Jimbo's imagination it was especially haunted, and if he had ceased +to reveal to the others what he _knew_ went on under its roof, it was +only because they were unable to follow him, and were inclined to greet +his extravagant recitals with "Now, Jimbo, you know _perfectly_ well +you're only making up." + +The House had been empty for many years; but, to the children, it had +been empty since the beginning of the world, since what they called the +"_very_ beginning." They believed--well, each child believed according +to his own mind and powers, but there was at least one belief they all +held in common: for it was generally accepted as an article of faith +that the Indians, encamped among the shrubberies on the back lawn, +secretly buried their dead behind the crumbling walls of its weedy +garden--the "dead" provided by the children's battles, be it understood. +Wakeful ears in the night-nursery had heard strange sounds coming from +that direction when the windows were open on hot summer nights; and the +gardener, supreme authority on all that happened in the night (since +they believed that he sat up to watch the vegetables and fruit-trees +ripen, and never went to bed at all), was evidently of the same +persuasion. + +When appealed to for an explanation of the mournful wind-voices, he knew +what was expected of him, and rose manfully to the occasion. + +"It's either them Redskins aburyin' wot you killed of 'em yesterday," +he declared, pointing towards the Empty House with a bit of broken +flower-pot, "or else it's the ones you killed last week, and who was +always astealin' of my strorbriz." He looked very wise as he said this, +and his wand of office--a dirty trowel--which he held in his hand, gave +him tremendous dignity. + +"That's just what _we_ thought, and of course if you say so too, that +settles it," said Nixie. + +"It's more'n likely, missie, leastways from wot you describes, which it +is a hempty house all the same, though I can't say as I've heard no +sounds, not very distinct that is, myself." + +The gardener may have been anxious to hedge a bit, for fear of a +scolding from headquarters, but his cryptic remarks pleased the children +greatly, because it showed, they thought, that they knew more than the +gardener did. + +Thus the Empty House remained an object of somewhat dreadful delight, +lending a touch of wonderland to that part of the lane where it stood, +and forming the background for many an enchanting story over the nursery +fire in winter-time. It appealed vividly to their imaginations, +especially to Jimbo's. Its dark windows, without blinds, were sometimes +full of faces that retreated the moment they were looked at. That +tangled ivy did not grow over the roof so thickly for nothing; and those +high elms on the western side had not been planted years ago in a +semicircle without a reason. Thus, at least, the children argued, not +knowing exactly what they meant, nor caring much, so long as they proved +to their own satisfaction that the place was properly haunted, and +therefore worthy of their attention. + +It was natural they should lead Miss Lake in that direction on one of +their first walks together, and it was natural, too, that she should at +once discover from their manner that the place was of some importance to +them. + +"What a queer-looking old house," she remarked, when they turned the +corner of the lane and it came into view. "Almost a ruin, isn't it?" + +The children exchanged glances. A "ruin" did not seem the right sort of +word at all; and, besides, was a little disrespectful. Also, they were +not sure whether the new governess ought to be told everything so soon. +She had not really won their confidence yet. After a slight pause--and +a children's pause is the most eloquent imaginable--Nixie, being the +eldest, said in a stiff little voice: "It's the Empty House, Miss Lake. +_We_ know it very well indeed." + +"It looks empty," observed Miss Lake briskly. + +"But it's not a ruin, of course," added the child, with the cold dignity +of chosen spokesman. + +"Oh!" said the governess, quite missing the point. She was talking +lightly on the surface of things, wholly ignorant of the depths beneath +her feet, intuition with her having always been sternly repressed. + +"It's a gamekeeper's cottage, or something like that, I suppose," she +said. + +"Oh, no; it isn't a bit." + +"Doesn't it belong to your father, then?" + +"No. It's somebody else's, you see." + +"Then you can't have it pulled down?" + +"Rather not! Of course not!" exclaimed several indignant voices at once. + +Miss Lake perceived for the first time that it held more than ordinary +importance in their mind. + +"Tell me about it," she said. "What is its history, and who used to live +in it?" + +There came another pause. The children looked into each others' faces. +They gazed at the blue sky overhead; then they stared at the dusty road +at their feet. But no one volunteered an answer. Miss Lake, they felt, +was approaching the subject in an offensive manner. + +"Why are you all so mysterious about it?" she went on. "It's only a +tumble-down old place, and must be very draughty to live in, even for a +gamekeeper." + +Silence. + +"Come, children, don't you hear me? I'm asking you a question." + +A couple of startled birds flew out of the ivy with a great whirring of +wings. This was followed by a faint sound of rumbling, that seemed to +come from the interior of the house. Outside all was still, and the hot +sunshine lay over everything. The sound was repeated. The children +looked at each other with large, expectant eyes. Something in the house +was moving--was coming nearer. + +"Have you _all_ lost your tongues?" asked the governess impatiently. + +"But you see," Nixie said at length, "somebody _does_ live in it now." + +"And who is he?" + +"I didn't say it was a _man_." + +"Whoever it is--tell me about the person," persisted Miss Lake. + +"There's really nothing to tell," replied the child, without looking up. + +"Oh, but there must be something," declared the logical young governess, +"or you wouldn't object so much to its being pulled down." + +Nixie looked puzzled, but Jimbo came to the rescue at once. + +"But _you_ wouldn't understand if we did tell you," he said, in a slow, +respectful voice. His tone held a touch of that indescribable scorn +heard sometimes in a child's tone--the utter contempt for the stupid +grown-up creature. Miss Lake noticed, and felt annoyed. She recognised +that she was not getting on well with the children, and it piqued her. +She remembered the Colonel's words about "knocking the nonsense out" of +James' head, and she saw that her first opportunity, in fact her first +real test, was at hand. + +"And why, pray, should I not understand?" she asked, with some +sharpness. "Is the mystery so _very_ great?" + +For some reason the duty of spokesman now devolved unmistakably upon +Jimbo; and very seriously too, he accepted the task, standing with his +feet firmly planted in the road and his hands in his trousers' pockets. + +"You see, Miss Lake," he began gravely, "we know such a lot of Things in +there, that they might not like us to tell you about them. They don't +know you yet. If they did it might be different. But--but--you see, it +isn't." + +This was rather crushing to the aspiring educator, and the Colonel's +instructions gained additional point in the light of the boy's +explanation. + +"Fiddlesticks!" she laughed, "there's probably nothing at all in there, +except rats and cobwebs. 'Things,' indeed!" + +"I knew you wouldn't understand," said Jimbo coolly, with no sign of +being offended. "How could you?" He glanced at his sisters, gaining so +much support from their enigmatical faces that he added, for their +especial benefit, "How could she?" + +"The gard'ner said so too," chimed in a younger sister, with a vague +notion that their precious Empty House was being robbed of its glory. + +"Yes; but, James, dear, I do understand perfectly," continued Miss Lake +more gently, and wisely ignoring the reference to the authority of the +kitchen-garden. "Only, you see, I cannot really encourage you in such +nonsense----" + +"It isn't nonsense," interrupted Jimbo, with heat. + +"But, believe me, children, it _is_ nonsense. How do you know that +there's anything inside? You've never been there!" + +"You can know perfectly well what's inside a thing without having gone +there," replied Jimbo with scorn. "At least, _we_ can." + +Miss Lake changed her tack a little--fatally, as it appeared afterwards. + +"I know at any rate," she said with decision, "that there's nothing good +in there. Whatever there may be is bad, thoroughly bad, and not fit for +you to play with." + +The other children moved away, but Jimbo stood his ground. They were all +angry, disappointed, sore hurt and offended. But Jimbo suddenly began to +feel something else besides anger and vexation. It was a new point of +view to him that the Empty House might contain bad things as well as +good, or perhaps, only bad things. His imagination seized upon the point +at once and set to work vigorously to develop it. This was his way with +all such things, and he could not prevent it. + +"Bad Things?" he repeated, looking up at the governess. "You mean Things +that could hurt?" + +"Yes, of course," she said, noting the effect of her words and thinking +how pleased the Colonel would be later, when he heard it. "Things that +might run out and catch you some day when you're passing here alone, and +take you back a prisoner. Then you'd be a prisoner in the Empty House +all your life. Think of that!" + +Miss Lake mistook the boy's silence as proof that she was taking the +right line. She enlarged upon this view of the matter, now she was so +successfully launched, and described the _Inmate of the House_ with such +wealth of detail that she felt sure her listener would never have +anything to do with the place again, and that she had "knocked out" this +particular bit of "nonsense" for ever and a day. + +But to Jimbo it was a new and horrible idea that the Empty House, +haunted hitherto only by rather jolly and wonderful Red Indians, +contained a Monster who might take him prisoner, and the thought made +him feel afraid. The mischief had, of course, been done, and the terror +in his eyes was unmistakable, when the foolish governess saw her +mistake. Retreat was impossible: the boy was shaking with fear; and not +all Miss Lake's genuine sympathy, or Nixie's explanations and soothings, +were able to relieve his mind of its new burden. + +Hitherto Jimbo's imagination had loved to dwell upon the pleasant side +of things invisible; but now he had been severely frightened, and his +imagination took a new turn. Not only the Empty House, but all his inner +world, to which it was in some sense the key, underwent a distressing +change. His sense of horror had been vividly aroused. + +The governess would willingly have corrected her mistake, but was, of +course, powerless to do so. Bitterly she regretted her tactlessness and +folly. But she could do nothing, and to add to her distress, she saw +that Jimbo shrank from her in a way that could not long escape the +watchful eye of the mother. But, if the boy shed tears of fear that +night in his bed, it must in justice be told that she, for her part, +cried bitterly in her own room, not that she had endangered her "place," +but that she had done a cruel injury to a child, and that she was +helpless to undo it. For she loved children, though she was quite +unsuited to take care of them. Her just reward, however, came swiftly +upon her. + +A few nights later, when Jimbo and Nixie were allowed to come down to +dessert, the wind was heard to make a queer moaning sound in the ivy +branches that hung over the dining-room windows. Jimbo heard it too. He +held his breath for a minute; then he looked round the table in a +frightened way, and the next minute gave a scream and burst into tears. +He ran round and buried his face in his father's arms. + +After the tears came the truth. It was a bad thing for Miss Ethel Lake, +this little sighing of the wind and the ivy leaves, for the Djin of +terror she had thoughtlessly evoked swept into the room and introduced +himself to the parents without her leave. + +"What new nonsense is this now?" growled the soldier, leaving his +walnuts and lifting the boy on to his knee. "He shouldn't come down till +he's a little older, and knows how to behave." + +"What's the matter, darling child?" asked the mother, drying his eyes +tenderly. + +"I heard the bad Things crying in the Empty House." + +"The Empty House is a mile away from here!" snorted the Colonel. + +"Then it's come nearer," declared the frightened boy. + +"Who told you there were bad things in the Empty House?" asked the +mother. + +"Yes, who told you, indeed, I should like to know!" demanded the +Colonel. + +And then it all came out. The Colonel's wife was very quiet, but very +determined. Miss Lake went back to the clerical family whence she had +come, and the children knew her no more. + +"I'm glad," said Nixie, expressing the verdict of the nursery. "I +thought she was awfully stupid." + +"She wasn't a real lake at all," declared another, "she was only a sort +of puddle." + +Jimbo, however, said little, and the Colonel likewise held his peace. + +But the governess, whether she was a lake or only a puddle, left her +mark behind her. The Empty House was no longer harmless. It had a new +lease of life. It was tenanted by some one who could never have friendly +relations with children. The weeds in the old garden took on fantastic +shapes; figures hid behind the doors and crept about the passages; the +rooks in the high elms became birds of ill-omen; the ivy bristled upon +the walls, and the trivial explanations of the gardener were no longer +satisfactory. + +Even in bright sunshine a Shadow lay crouching upon the broken roof. At +any moment it might leap into life, and with immense striding legs chase +the children down to the very Park gates. + +There was no need to enforce the decree that the Empty House was a +forbidden land. The children of their own accord declared it out of +bounds, and avoided it as carefully as if all the wild animals from the +Zoo were roaming its gardens, hungry and unchained. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +THE SHOCK + + +One immediate result of Miss Lake's indiscretion was that the children +preferred to play on the other side of the garden, the side farthest +from the Empty House. A spiked railing here divided them from a field in +which cows disported themselves, and as bulls also sometimes were +admitted to the cows, the field was strictly out of bounds. + +In this spiked railing, not far from the great shrubberies where the +Indians increased and multiplied, there was a swinging gate. The +children swung on it whenever they could. They called it Express Trains, +and the fact that it was forbidden only added to their pleasure. When +opened at its widest it would swing them with a rush through the air, +past the pillars with a click, out into the field, and then back again +into the garden. It was bad for the hinges, and it was also bad for the +garden, because it was frequently left open after these carnivals, and +the cows got in and trod the flowers down. The children were not afraid +of the cows, but they held the bull in great horror. And these trivial +things have been mentioned here because of the part they played in +Jimbo's subsequent adventures. + +It was only ten days or so after Miss Lake's sudden departure when Jimbo +managed one evening to elude the vigilance of his lawful guardians, and +wandered off unnoticed among the laburnums on the front lawn. From the +laburnums he passed successfully to the first laurel shrubbery, and +thence he executed a clever flank movement and entered the carriage +drive in the rear. The rest was easy, and he soon found himself at the +Lodge gate. + +For some moments he peered through the iron grating, and pondered on the +seductiveness of the dusty road and of the ditch beyond. To his surprise +he found, presently, that the gate was moving outwards; it was yielding +to his weight. One thing leads easily to another sometimes, and the open +gate led easily on to the seductive road. The result was that a minute +later Jimbo was chasing butterflies along the green lane, and throwing +stones into the water of the ditch. + +It was the evening of a hot summer's day, and the butterflies were +still out in force. Jimbo's delight was intense. The joy of finding +himself alone where he had no right to be put everything else out of his +head, and for some time he wandered on, oblivious of all but the +intoxicating sense of freedom and the difficulty of choosing between so +many butterflies and such a magnificently dirty ditch. + +At first he yielded to the seductions of the ditch. He caught a big, +sleepy beetle and put it on a violet leaf, and sent it sailing out to +sea; and when it landed on the farther shore he found a still bigger +leaf, and sent it forth on a voyage in another direction, with a cargo +of daisy petals, and a hairy caterpillar for a bo'sun's mate. But, just +as the vessel was getting under way, a butterfly of amazing brilliance +floated past insolently under his very nose. Leaving the beetle and the +caterpillar to navigate the currents as best they could, he at once gave +chase. Cap in hand, he flew after the butterfly down the lane, and a +dozen times when his cap was just upon it, it sailed away sideways +without the least effort and escaped him. + +Then, suddenly, the lane took a familiar turning; the ditch stopped +abruptly; the hedge on his right fell away altogether; the butterfly +danced out of sight into a field, and Jimbo found himself face to face +with the one thing in the whole world that could, at that time, fill him +with abject terror--the Empty House. + +He came to a full stop in the middle of the road and stared up at the +windows. He realised for the first time that he was alone, and that it +was possible for brilliant sunshine, even on a cloudless day, to become +somehow lustreless and dull. The walls showed a deep red in the sunset +light. The house was still as the grave. His feet were rooted to the +ground, and it seemed as if he could not move a single muscle; and as he +stood there, the blood ebbing quickly from his heart, the words of the +governess a few days before rushed back into his mind, and turned his +fear into a dreadful, all-possessing horror. In another minute the +battered door would slowly open and the horrible Inmate come out to +seize him. Already there was a sound of something moving within, and as +he gazed, fascinated with terror, a shuddering movement ran over the ivy +leaves hanging down from the roof. Then they parted in the middle, and +something--he could not in his agony see what--flew out with a whirring +sound into his face, and then vanished over his shoulder towards the +fields. + +Jimbo did not pause a single second to find out what it was, or to +reflect that any ordinary thrush would have made just the same sound. +The shock it gave to his heart immediately loosened the muscles of his +little legs, and he ran for his very life. But before he actually began +to run he gave one piercing scream for help, and the person he screamed +to was the very person who was unwittingly the cause of his distress. It +was as though he knew instinctively that the person who had created for +him the terror of the Empty House, with its horrible Inmate, was also +the person who could properly banish it, and undo the mischief before it +was too late. He shrieked for help to the governess, Miss Ethel Lake. + +Of course, there was no answer but the noise of the air whistling in his +ears as his feet flew over the road in a cloud of dust; there was no +friendly butcher's cart, no baker's boy, or farmer with his dog and gun; +the road was deserted. There was not even the beetle or the caterpillar; +he was beyond reach of help. + +Jimbo ran for his life, but unfortunately he ran in the wrong +direction. Instead of going the way he had come, where the Lodge gates +were ready to receive him not a quarter of a mile away, he fled in the +opposite direction. + +It so happened that the lane flanked the field where the cows lived; but +cows were nothing compared to a Creature from the Empty House, and even +bulls seemed friendly. The boy was over the five-barred gate in a +twinkling and half-way across the field before he heard a heavy, +thunderous sound behind him. Either the Thing had followed him into the +field, or it was the bull. As he raced, he managed to throw a glance +over his shoulder and saw a huge, dark mass bearing down upon him at +terrific speed. It must be the bull, he reflected--the bull grown to the +size of an elephant. And it appeared to him to have two immense black +wings that flapped at its sides and helped it forward, making a whirring +noise like the arms of a great windmill. + +This sight added to his speed, but he could not last very much longer. +Already his body ached all over, and the frantic effort to get breath +nearly choked him. + +There, before him, not so very far away now, was the swinging gate. If +only he could get there in time to scramble over into the garden, he +would be safe. It seemed almost impossible, and behind him, meanwhile, +the sound of the following creature came closer and closer; the ground +seemed to tremble; he could almost feel the breath on his neck. + +The swinging gate was only twenty yards off; now ten; now only five. Now +he had reached it--at last. He stretched out his hands to seize the top +bar, and in another moment he would have been safe in the garden and +within easy reach of the house. But, before he actually touched the iron +rail, a sharp, stinging pain shot across his back;--he drew one final +breath as he felt himself being lifted, lifted up into the air. The +horns had caught him just behind the shoulders! + +There seemed to be no pain after the first shock. He rose high into the +air, while the bushes and spiked railing he knew so well sank out of +sight beneath him, dwindling curiously in size. At first he thought his +head must bump against the sky, but suddenly he stopped rising, and the +green earth rushed up as if it would strike him in the face. This meant +he was sinking again. The gate and railing flew by underneath him, and +the next second he fell with a crash upon the soft grass of the +lawn--upon the other side. He had been tossed over the gate into the +garden, and the bull could no longer reach him. + +Before he became wholly unconscious, a composite picture, vivid in its +detail, engraved itself deeply, with exceeding swiftness, line by line, +upon the waxen tablets of his mind. In this picture the thrush that had +flown out of the ivy, the Empty House itself, and its horrible, pursuing +Inmate were all somehow curiously mingled together with the black wings +of the bull, and with his own sensation of rushing--flying +headlong--through space, as he rose and fell in a curve from the +creature's horns. + +And behind it he was conscious that the real author of it all was +somewhere in the shadowy background, looking on as though to watch the +result of her unfortunate mistake. Miss Lake, surely, was not very far +away. He associated her with the horror of the Empty House as inevitably +as taste and smell join together in the memory of a certain food; and +the very last thought in his mind, as he sank away into the blackness of +unconsciousness, was a sort of bitter surprise that the governess had +not turned up to save him before it was actually too late. + +Moreover, a certain sense of disappointment mingled with the terror of +the shock; for he was dimly aware that Miss Lake had not acted as +worthily as she might have done, and had not played the game as well as +might have been expected of her. And, somehow, it didn't all seem quite +fair. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +ON THE EDGE OF UNCONSCIOUSNESS + + +Jimbo had fallen on his head. Inside that head lay the mass of highly +sensitive matter called the brain, on which were recorded, of course, +the impressions of everything that had yet come to him in life. A severe +shock, such as he had just sustained, was bound to throw these +impressions into confusion and disorder, jumbling them up into new and +strange combinations, obliterating some, and exaggerating others. Jimbo +himself was helpless in the matter; he could exercise no control over +their antics until the doctors had once again reduced them to order; he +would have to wander, lost and lonely, through the comparative chaos of +disproportioned visions, generally known as the region of delirium, +until the doctor, assisted by mother nature, restored him once more to +normal consciousness. + +For a time everything was a blank, but presently he stirred uneasily in +the grass, and the pictures graven on the tablets of his mind began to +come back to him line by line. + +Yet, with certain changes: the bull, for instance, had so far vanished +into the background of his thoughts that it had practically disappeared +altogether, and he recalled nothing of it but the wings--the huge, +flapping wings. Of the creature to whom the wings belonged he had no +recollection beyond that it was very large, and that it was chasing him +from the Empty House. The pain in his shoulders had also gone; but what +remained with undiminished vividness were the sensations of flight +without escape, the breathless race up into the sky, and the swift, +tumbling drop again through the air on to the lawn. + +This impression of rushing through space--short though the actual +distance had been--was the dominating memory. All else was apparently +oblivion. He forgot where he came from, and he forgot what he had been +doing. The events leading up to the catastrophe, indeed everything +connected with his existence previously as "Master James," had entirely +vanished; and the slate of memory had been wiped so clean that he had +forgotten even his own name! + +Jimbo was lying, so to speak, on the edge of unconsciousness, and for a +time it seemed uncertain whether he would cross the line into the region +of delirium and dreams, or fall back again into his natural world. +Terror, assisted by the horns of the black bull, had tossed him into the +borderland. + +His last scream, however, had reached the ears of the ubiquitous +gardener, and help was near at hand. He heard voices that seemed to come +from beyond the stars, and was aware that shadowy forms were standing +over him and talking in whispers. But it was all very unreal; one minute +the voices sounded up in the sky, and the next in his very ears, while +the figures moved about, sometimes bending over him, sometimes +retreating and melting away like shadows on a shifting screen. + +Suddenly a blaze of light flashed upon him, and his eyes flew open; he +tumbled back for a moment into his normal world. He wasn't on the grass +at all, but was lying upon his own bed in the night nursery. His mother +was bending over him with a very white face, and a tall man dressed in +black stood beside her, holding some kind of shining instrument in his +fingers. A little behind them he saw Nixie, shading a lamp with her +hand. Then the white face came close over the pillow, and a voice full +of tenderness whispered, "My darling boy, don't you know me? It's +mother! No one will hurt you. Speak to me, if you can, dear." + +She stretched out her hands, and Jimbo knew her and made an effort to +answer. But it seemed to him as if his whole body had suddenly become a +solid mass of iron, and he could control no part of it; his lips and his +hands both refused to move. Before he could make a sign that he had +understood and was trying to reply, a fierce flame rushed between them +and blinded him, his eyes closed, and he dropped back again into utter +darkness. The walls flew asunder and the ceiling melted into air, while +the bed sank away beneath him, down, down, down into an abyss of +shadows. The lamp in Nixie's hands dwindled into a star, and his +mother's anxious face became a tiny patch of white in the distance, +blurred out of all semblance of a human countenance. For a time the man +in black seemed to hover over the bed as it sank, as though he were +trying to follow it down; but it, too, presently joined the general +enveloping blackness and lost its outline. The pain had blotted out +everything, and the return to consciousness had been only momentary. + +Not all the doctors in the world could have made things otherwise. Jimbo +was off on his travels at last--travels in which the chief incidents +were directly traceable to the causes and details of his accident: the +terror of the Empty House, the pursuit of its Inmate, the pain of the +bull's horns, and, above all, the flight through the air. + +For everything in his subsequent adventures found its inspiration in the +events described, and a singular parallel ran ever between the Jimbo +upon the bed in the night-nursery and the other emancipated Jimbo +wandering in the regions of unconsciousness and delirium. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +INTO THE EMPTY HOUSE + + +The darkness lasted a long time without a break, and when it lifted all +recollection of the bedroom scene had vanished. + +Jimbo found himself back again on the grass. The swinging gate was just +in front of him, but he did not recognise it; no suggestion of "Express +Trains" came back to him as his eyes rested without remembrance upon the +bars where he had so often swung, in defiance of orders, with his +brothers and sisters. Recollection of his home, family, and previous +life he had absolutely none; or at least, it was buried so deeply in his +inner consciousness that it amounted to the same thing, and he looked +out upon the garden, the gate, and the field beyond as upon an entirely +new piece of the world. + +The stars, he saw, were nearly all gone, and a very faint light was +beginning to spread from the woods beyond the field. The eastern +horizon was slowly brightening, and soon the night would be gone. Jimbo +was glad of this. He began to be conscious of little thrills of +expectation, for with the light surely help would also come. The light +always brought relief, and he already felt that strange excitement that +comes with the first signs of dawn. In the distance cocks were crowing, +horses began to stamp in the barns not far away, and a hundred little +stirrings of life ran over the surface of the earth as the light crept +slowly up the sky and dropped down again upon the world with its message +of coming day. + +Of course, help would come by the time the sun was really up, and it was +partly this certainty, and partly because he was a little too dazed to +realise the seriousness of the situation, that prevented his giving way +to a fit of fear and weeping. Yet a feeling of vague terror lay only a +little way below the surface, and when, a few moments later, he saw that +he was no longer alone, and that an odd-looking figure was creeping +towards him from the shrubberies, he sprang to his feet, prepared to run +unless it at once showed the most friendly intentions. + +This figure seemed to have come from nowhere. Apparently it had risen +out of the earth. It was too large to have been concealed by the low +shrubberies; yet he had not been aware of its approach, and it had +appeared without making any noise. Probably it was friendly, he felt, in +spite of its curious shape and the stealthy way it had come. At least, +he hoped so; and if he could only have told whether it was a man or an +animal he would easily have made up his mind. But the uncertain light, +and the way it crouched half-hidden behind the bushes, prevented this. +So he stood, poised ready to run, and yet waiting, hoping, indeed +expecting every minute a sign of friendliness and help. + +In this way the two faced each other silently for some time, until the +feeling of terror gradually stole deeper into the boy's heart and began +to rob him of full power over his muscles. He wondered if he would be +able to run when the time came, and whether he could run fast enough. +This was how it first showed itself, this suggestion of insidious fear. +Would he be able to keep up the start he had? Would it chase him? Would +it run like a man or like an animal, on four legs or on two? He wished +he could see more clearly what it was. He still stood his ground +pluckily, facing it and waiting, but the fear, once admitted to his +mind, was gaining strength, and he began to feel cold and shivery. Then +suddenly the tension came to an end. In two strides the figure came up +close to his side, and the same second Jimbo was lifted off his feet and +borne swiftly away across the field. + +He felt quite unable to offer the least resistance, and at the same time +he felt a sense of relief that something had happened at last. He was +still not sure that the figure was unkind; only its shape filled him +with a feeling that was certainly the beginning of real horror. It was +the shape of a man, he thought, but of a very large and ill-constructed +man; for it certainly had moved on two legs and had caught him up in a +pair of tremendously strong arms. But there was something else it had +besides arms, for a kind of soft cloak hung all round it and wrapped the +boy from head to foot, preventing him seeing his captor properly, and at +the same time filling his body with a kind of warm drowsiness that +mitigated his active fear and made him rather like the sensation of +being carried along so easily and so fast. + +But was he being carried? The pace they were going was amazing, and he +moved as easily as a sailing boat, and with the same swinging motion. +Could it be some animal like a horse after all? Jimbo tried to see more, +but found it impossible to free himself from the folds of the enveloping +substance, and meanwhile they were swinging forward at what seemed a +tremendous pace over fields and ditches, through hedges, and down long +lanes. + +The odours of earth, and dew-drenched grass, and opening flowers came to +him. He heard the birds singing, and felt the cool morning air sting his +cheeks as they raced along. There was no jolting or jarring, and the +figure seemed to cover the ground as lightly as though it hardly touched +the earth. It was certainly not a dream, he was sure of that; but the +longer they went on the drowsier he became, and the less he wondered +whether the figure was going to help him or to do something dreadful to +him. He was now thoroughly afraid, and yet, strange contradiction, he +didn't care a bit. Let the figure do what it liked; it was only a sort +of nightmare person after all, and might vanish as suddenly as it had +arrived. + +For a long time they raced forward at this great speed, and then with a +bump and a crash they stopped suddenly short, and Jimbo felt himself let +down upon the solid earth. He tried to free himself at once from the +folds of the clinging substance that enveloped him, but, before he could +do so and see what his captor was really like, he heard a door slam and +felt himself pushed along what seemed to be the hallways of a house. His +eyes were clear now and he could see, but the darkness had come down +again so thickly that all he could discover was that the figure was +urging him along the floor of a large empty hall, and that they were in +a dark and empty building. + +Jimbo tried hard to see his captor, but the figure, dim enough in the +uncertain light, always managed to hide its face and keep itself bunched +up in such a way that he could never see more than a great, dark mass of +a body, from which long legs and arms shot out like telescopes, draped +in a sort of clinging cloak. Now that the rapid motion through the air +had ceased, the boy's drowsiness passed a little, and he began to shiver +with fear and to feel that the tears could not be kept back much longer. + +Probably in another minute he would have started to run for his life, +when a new sound caught his ears and made him listen intently, while a +feeling of wonder and delight caught his heart, and made him momentarily +forget the figure pushing him forward from behind. + +Was it the wind he heard? Or was it the voices of children all singing +together very low? It was a gentle, sighing sound that rose and fell +with mournful modulations and seemed to come from the very centre of the +building; it held, too, a strange, far-away murmur, like the surge of a +faint breeze moving in the tree-tops. It might be the wind playing round +the walls of the building, or it might be children singing in hushed +voices. One minute he thought it was outside the house, and the next he +was certain it came from somewhere in the upper part of the building. He +glanced up, and fancied for one moment that he saw in the darkness a +crowd of little faces peering down at him over the banisters, and that +as they disappeared he heard the sound of many little feet moving, and +then a door hurriedly closing. But a push from the figure behind that +nearly sent him sprawling at the foot of the stairs, prevented his +hearing very clearly, and the light was far too dim to let him feel +sure of what he had seen. + +They passed quickly along deserted corridors and through winding +passages. No one seemed about. The interior of the house was chilly, and +the keen air nipped. After going up several flights of stairs they +stopped at last in front of a door, and before Jimbo had a moment to +turn and dash downstairs again past the figure, as he had meant to do, +he was pushed violently forward into a room. + +The door slammed after him, and he heard the heavy tread of the figure +as it went down the staircase again into the bottom of the house. Then +he saw that the room was full of light and of small moving beings. + +Curiosity and astonishment now for a moment took the place of fear, and +Jimbo, with a thumping heart and clenched fists, stood and stared at the +scene before him. He stiffened his little legs and leaned against the +wall for support, but he felt full of fight in case anything happened, +and with wide-open eyes he tried to take in the whole scene at once and +be ready for whatever might come. + +But there seemed no immediate cause for alarm, and when he realised that +the beings in the room were apparently children, and only children, his +rather mixed sensations of astonishment and fear gave place to an +emotion of overpowering shyness. He became exceedingly embarrassed, for +he was surrounded by children of all ages and sizes, staring at him just +as hard as he was staring at them. + +The children, he began to take in, were all dressed in black; they +looked frightened and unhappy; their bodies were thin and their faces +very white. There was something else about them he could not quite name, +but it inspired him with the same sense of horror that he had felt in +the arms of the Figure who had trapped him. For he now realised +definitely that he had been trapped; and he also began to realise for +the first time that, though he still had the body of a little boy, his +way of thinking and judging was sometimes more like that of a grown-up +person. The two alternated, and the result was an odd confusion; for +sometimes he felt like a child and thought like a man, while at others +he felt like a man and thought like a child. Something had gone wrong, +very much wrong; and, as he watched this group of silent children facing +him, he knew suddenly that what was just beginning to happen to him _had +happened to them long, long ago_. + +For they looked as if they had been a long, long time in the world, yet +their bodies had not kept pace with their minds. Something had happened +to stop the growth of the body, while allowing the mind to go on +developing. The bodies were not stunted or deformed; they were +well-formed, nice little children's bodies, but the minds within them +were grown-up, and the incongruity was distressing. All this he suddenly +realised in a flash, intuitively, just as though it had been most +elaborately explained to him; yet he could not have put the least part +of it into words or have explained what he saw and felt to another. + +He saw that they had the hands and figures of children, the heads of +children, the unlined faces and smooth foreheads of children, but their +gestures, and something in their movements, belonged to grown-up people, +and the expression of their eyes in meaning and intelligence was the +expression of old people and not of children. And the expression in the +eyes of every one of them he saw was the expression of terror and of +pain. The effect was so singular that he seemed face to face with an +entirely new order of creatures: a child's features with a man's eyes; a +child's figure with a woman's movements; full-grown souls cramped and +cribbed in absurdly inadequate bodies and little, puny frames; the old +trying uncouthly to express itself in the young. + +The grown-up, old portion of him had been uppermost as he stared and +received these impressions, but now suddenly it passed away, and he felt +as a little boy again. He glanced quickly down at his own little body in +the alpaca knickerbockers and sailor blouse, and then, with a sigh of +relief, looked up again at the strange group facing him. So far, at any +rate, he had not changed, and there was nothing yet to suggest that he +was becoming like them in appearance at least. + +With his back against the door he faced the roomful of children who +stood there motionless and staring; and as he looked, wild feelings +rushed over him and made him tremble. Who was he? Where had he come +from? Where in the world had he spent the other years of his life, the +forgotten years? There seemed to be no one to whom he could go for +comfort, no one to answer questions; and there was such a lot he wanted +to ask. He seemed to be so much older, and to know so much more than he +ought to have known, and yet to have forgotten so much that he ought +not to have forgotten. + +His loss of memory, however, was of course only partial. He had +forgotten his own identity, and all the people with whom he had so far +in life had to do; yet at the same time he was dimly conscious that he +had just left all these people, and that some day he would find them +again. It was only the surface-layers of memory that had vanished, and +these had not vanished for ever, but only sunk down a little below the +horizon. + +Then, presently, the children began to range themselves in rows between +him and the opposite wall, without once taking their horrible, +intelligent eyes off him as they moved. He watched them with growing +dread, but at last his curiosity became so strong that it overcame +everything else, and in a voice that he meant to be very brave, but that +sounded hardly above a whisper, he said: + +"Who are you? And what's been done to you?" + +The answer came at once in a whisper as low as his own, though he could +not distinguish who spoke: + +"Listen and you shall know. You, too, are now one of us." + +Immediately the children began a slow, impish sort of dance before him, +moving almost with silent feet over the boards, yet with a sedateness +and formality that had none of the unconscious grace of children. And, +as they danced, they sang, but in voices so low, that it was more like +the mournful sighing of wind among branches than human voices. It was +the sound he had already heard outside the building. + + "We are the children of the whispering night, + Who live eternally in dreadful fright + Of stories told us in the grey twilight + By--_nurserymaids_! + + We are the children of a winter's day; + Under our breath we chant this mournful lay; + We dance with phantoms and with shadows play, + And have no rest. + + We have no joy in any children's game, + For happiness to us is but a name, + Since Terror kissed us with his lips of flame + In wicked jest. + + We hear the little voices in the wind + Singing of freedom we may never find, + Victims of fate so cruelly unkind, + We are unblest. + + We hear the little footsteps in the rain + Running to help us, though they run in vain, + Tapping in hundreds on the window-pane + In vain behest. + + We are the children of the whispering night, + Who dwell unrescued in eternal fright + Of stories told us in the dim twilight + By--_nurserymaids_!" + +The plaintive song and the dance ceased together, and before Jimbo could +find any words to clothe even one of the thoughts that crowded through +his mind, he saw them moving towards a door he had not hitherto noticed +on the other side of the room. A moment later they had opened it and +passed out, sedate, mournful, unhurried; and the boy found that in some +way he could not understand the light had gone with them, and he was +standing with his back against the wall in almost total darkness. + +Once out of the room, no sound followed them, and he crossed over and +tried the handle of the door. It was locked. Then he went back and tried +the other door; that, too, was locked. He was shut in. There was no +longer any doubt as to the Figure's intentions; he was a prisoner, +trapped like an animal in a cage. + +The only thought in his mind just then was an intense desire for +freedom. Whatever happened he must escape. He crossed the floor to the +only window in the room; it was without blinds, and he looked out. But +instantly he recoiled with a fresh and overpowering sense of +helplessness, for it was three storeys from the ground, and down below +in the shadows he saw a paved courtyard that rendered jumping utterly +out of the question. + +He stood for a long time, fighting down the tears, and staring as if his +heart would break at the field and trees beyond. A high wall enclosed +the yard, but beyond that was freedom and open space. Feelings of +loneliness and helplessness, terror and dismay overwhelmed him. His eyes +burned and smarted, yet, strange to say, the tears now refused to come +and bring him relief. He could only stand there with his elbows on the +window-sill, and watch the outline of the trees and hedges grow clearer +and clearer as the light drew across the sky, and the moment of sunrise +came close. + +But when at last he turned back into the room, he saw that he was no +longer alone. Crouching against the opposite wall there was a hooded +figure steadily watching him. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +HIS COMPANION IN PRISON + + +Shocks of terror, as they increase in number, apparently lessen in +effect; the repeated calls made upon Jimbo's soul by the emotions of +fear and astonishment had numbed it; otherwise the knowledge that he was +locked in the room with this mysterious creature beyond all possibility +of escape must have frightened him, as the saying is, out of his skin. + +As it was, however, he kept his head in a wonderful manner, and simply +stared at the silent intruder as hard as ever he could stare. How in the +world it got in was the principal thought in his mind, and after that: +what in the world was it? + +The dawn must have come very swiftly, or else he had been staring longer +than he knew, for just then the sun topped the edge of the world and the +window-sill simultaneously, and sent a welcome ray of sunshine into the +dingy room. It turned the grey light to silver, and fell full upon the +huddled figure crouching against the opposite wall. Jimbo caught his +breath, and stared harder than ever. + +It was a human figure, the figure, apparently, of a man, sitting +crumpled up in a very uncomfortable sort of position on his haunches. It +sat perfectly still. A black cloak, with loose sleeves, and a cowl or +hood that completely concealed the face, covered it from head to foot. +The material of the cloak could not have been very thick, for inside the +hood he caught the gleam of eyes as they roamed about the room and +followed his movements. But for this glitter of the moving eyes it might +have been a figure carved in wood. Was it going to sit there for ever +watching him? At first he was afraid it was going to speak; then he was +afraid it wasn't. It might rise suddenly and come towards him; yet the +thought that it would not move at all was worse still. + +In this way the two faced each other for several minutes until, just as +the position was becoming simply unbearable, a low whisper ran round the +room: "At last! Oh! I've found him at last!" Jimbo was not quite sure of +the words, though it was certainly a human voice that had spoken; but, +the suspense once broken, the boy could not stand it any longer, and +with a rush of desperate courage he found his voice--a very husky +one--and moved a step forward. + +"Who are you, please, and how _did_ you get in?" he ventured with a +great effort. + +Then he fell back against the wall, amazed at his own daring, and waited +with tightly-clenched fists for an answer. But he had not to wait very +long, for almost immediately the figure rose awkwardly to its feet, and +came over to where he stood. Its manner of moving may best be described +as shuffling; and it stretched in front of it a long cloaked arm, on +which the sleeve hung, he thought, like clothes on a washing line. + +He breathed hard, and waited. Like many other people with strong wills +and sensitive nerves, Jimbo was both brave and a coward: he hoped +nothing horrid was going to happen, but he was quite ready if it should. +Yet, now that the actual moment had come, he had no particular fear, and +when he felt the touch of the hand on his shoulder, the words sprang +naturally to his lips with a little trembling laugh, more of wonder +perhaps than anything else. + +"You do look a horrid ... _brute_," he was going to say, but at the +last moment he changed it to "_thing_," for, with the true intuition of +a child, he recognised that the creature inside the cloak was a kind +creature and well disposed towards him. "But how did you get in?" he +added, looking up bravely into the black visage, "because the doors are +both locked on the outside, and I couldn't get out?" + +By way of reply the figure shuffled to one side, and, taking the hand +from his shoulder, pointed silently to a trap-door in the floor behind +him. As he looked, he saw it was being shut down stealthily by some one +beneath. + +"Hush!" whispered the figure, almost inaudibly. "He's watching!" + +"Who's watching?" he cried, curiosity taking the place of every other +emotion. "I want to see." He ran forward to the spot where the trap-door +now lay flush with the floor, but, before he had gone two steps, the +black arms shot out and caught him. He turned, struggling, and in the +scuffle that followed the cloak shrouding the figure became disarranged; +the hood dropped from the face, and he found himself looking straight +into the eyes, not of a man, but of a woman! + +"It's you!" he cried, "YOU--!" + +A shock ran right through his body from his head to his feet, like a +current of electricity, and he caught his breath as though he had been +struck. For one brief instant the sinister face of some one who had +terrified him in the past came back vividly to his mind, and he shrank +away in terror. But it was only for an instant, the twentieth part of an +instant. Immediately, before he could even remember the name, +recognition passed into darkness and his memory shut down with a snap. +He was staring into the face of an utter stranger, about whom he knew +nothing and had no feelings particularly one way or another. + +"I thought I knew you," he gasped, "but I've forgotten you again--and I +thought you were going to be a man, too." + +"Jimbo!" cried the other, and in her voice was such unmistakable +tenderness and yearning that the boy knew at once beyond doubt that she +was his friend, "Jimbo!" + +She knelt down on the floor beside him, so that her face was on a level +with his, and then opened both her arms to him. But though Jimbo was +glad to have found a friend who was going to help him, he felt no +particular desire to be embraced, and he stood obstinately where he was +with his back to the window. + +The morning sunshine fell upon her features and touched the thick coils +of her hair with glory. It was not, strictly speaking, a pretty face, +but the look of real human tenderness there was very welcome and +comforting, and in the kind brown eyes there shone a strange light that +was not merely the reflection of the sunlight. The boy felt his heart +warm to her as he looked, but her expression puzzled him, and he would +not accept the invitation of her arms. + +"Won't you come to me?" she said, her arms still outstretched. + +"I want to know who you are, and what I'm doing here," he said. "I feel +so funny--so old and so young--and all mixed up. I can't make out who I +am a bit. What's that funny name you call me?" + +"Jimbo is your name," she said softly. + +"Then what's _your_ name?" he asked quickly. + +"My name," she repeated slowly after a pause, "is not--as nice as yours. +Besides, you need not know my name--you might dislike it." + +"But I must have something to call you," he persisted. + +"But if I told you, and you disliked the name, you might dislike _me_ +too," she said, still hesitating. + +Jimbo saw the expression of sadness in her eyes, and it won his +confidence though he hardly knew why. He came up closer to her and put +his puzzled little face next to hers. + +"I like you very much already," he whispered, "and if your name is a +horrid one I'll change it for you at once. Please tell me what it is." + +She drew the boy to her and gave him a little hug, and he did not +resist. For a long time she did not answer. He felt vaguely that +something of dreadful importance hung about this revelation of her name. +He repeated his question, and at length she replied, speaking in a very +low voice, and with her eyes fixed intently upon his face. + +"My name," she said, "is Ethel Lake." + +"Ethel Lake," he repeated after her. The words sounded somehow familiar +to him; surely he had heard that name before. Were not the words +associated with something in his past that had been unpleasant? A +curious sinking sensation came over him as he heard them. + +His companion watched him intently while he repeated the words over to +himself several times, as if to make sure he had got them right. There +was a moment's hesitation as he slowly went over them once again. Then +he turned to her, laughing. + +"I like your name, Ethel Lake," he said. "It's a nice +name--Miss--Miss----" Again he hesitated, while a little warning tremor +ran through his mind, and he wondered for an instant why he said "Miss." +But it passed as suddenly as it had come, and he finished the +sentence--"Miss Lake, I shall call you." He stared into her eyes as he +said it. + +"Then you don't remember me at all?" she cried, with a sigh of intense +relief. "You've quite forgotten?" + +"I never saw you before, did I? How can I remember you? I don't remember +any of the things I've forgotten. Are you one of them?" + +For reply she caught him to her breast and kissed him. "You precious +little boy!" she said. "I'm so glad, oh, so glad!" + +"But do you remember _me_?" he asked, sorely puzzled. "Who am I? Haven't +I been born yet, or something funny like that?" + +"If you don't remember _me_," said the other, her face happy with smiles +that had evidently come only just in time to prevent tears, "there's +not much good telling you who _you_ are. But your name, if you really +want to know, is----" She hesitated a moment. + +"Be quick, Eth--Miss Lake, or you'll forget it again." + +She laughed rather bitterly. "Oh, I never forget. I can't!" she said. "I +wish I could. Your name is James Stone, and Jimbo is 'short' for James. +Now you know." + +She might just as well have said Bill Sykes for all the boy knew or +remembered. + +"What a silly name!" he laughed. "But it can't be my real name, or I +should know it. I never heard it before." After a moment he added, "Am I +an old man? I feel just like one. I suppose I'm grown up--grown up so +fast that I've forgotten what came before----" + +"You're not grown up, dear, at least, not exactly----" She glanced down +at his alpaca knickerbockers and brown stockings; and as he followed her +eyes and saw the dirty buttoned-boots there came into his mind some dim +memory of where he had last put them on, and of some one who had helped +him. But it all passed like a swift meteor across the dark night of his +forgetfulness and was lost in mist. + +"You mustn't judge by these silly clothes," he laughed. "I shall change +them as soon as I get--as soon as I can find----" He stopped short. No +words came. A feeling of utter loneliness and despair swept suddenly +over him, drenching him from head to foot. He felt lost and friendless, +naked, homeless, cold. He was ever on the brink of regaining a whole lot +of knowledge and experience that he had known once long ago, ever so +long ago, but it always kept just out of his reach. He glanced at Miss +Lake, feeling that she was his only possible comfort in a terrible +situation. She met his look and drew him tenderly towards her. + +"Now, listen to me," she said gently, "I've something to tell you--about +myself." + +He was all attention in a minute. + +"I am a discharged governess," she began, holding her breath when once +the words were out. + +"Discharged!" he repeated vaguely. "What's that? What for?" + +"For frightening a child. I told a little boy awful stories that weren't +true. They terrified him so much that I was sent away. That's why I'm +here now. It's my punishment. I am a prisoner here until I can find +him--and help him to escape----" + +"Oh, I say!" he exclaimed quickly, as though remembering something. But +it passed, and he looked up at her half-bored, half-politely. "Escape +from what?" he asked. + +"From here. This is the Empty House I told the stories about; _and you +are the little boy I frightened_. Now, at last, I've found you, and am +going to save you." She paused, watching him with eyes that never left +his face for an instant. + +Jimbo was delighted to hear he was going to be rescued, but he felt no +interest at all in her story of having frightened a little boy, who was +himself. He thought it was very nice of her to take so much trouble, and +he told her so, and when he went up and kissed her and thanked her, he +saw to his surprise that she was crying. For the life of him he could +not understand why a discharged governess whom he met, apparently, for +the first time in the Empty House, should weep over him and show him so +much affection. But he could think of nothing to say, so he just waited +till she had finished. + +"You see, if I can save you," she said between her sobs, "it will be all +right again, and I shall be forgiven, and shall be able to escape with +you. I want you to escape, so that you can get back to life again." + +"Oh, then I'm dead, am I?" + +"Not exactly dead," she said, drying her eyes with the corner of her +black hood. "You've had a funny accident, you know. If your body gets +all right, so that you can go back and live in it again, then you're not +dead. But if it's so badly injured that you can't work in it any more, +then you are dead, and will have to stay dead. You're still joined to +the body in a fashion, you see." + +He stared and listened, not understanding much. It all bored him. She +talked without explaining, he thought. An immense sponge had passed over +the slate of the past and wiped it clean beyond recall. He was utterly +perplexed. + +"How funny you are!" he said vaguely, thinking more of her tears than +her explanations. + +"Water won't stay in a cracked bottle," she went on, "and you can't stay +in a broken body. But they're trying to mend it now, and if we can +escape in time you can be an ordinary, happy little boy in the world +again." + +"Then are you dead, too?" he asked, "or nearly dead?" + +"I am out of my body, like you," she answered evasively, after a +moment's pause. + +He was still looking at her in a dazed sort of way, when she suddenly +sprang to her feet and let the hood drop back over her face. + +"Hush!" she whispered, "he's listening again." + +At the same moment a sound came from beneath the floor on the other side +of the room, and Jimbo saw the trap-door being slowly raised above the +level of the floor. + +"Your number is 102," said a voice that sounded like the rushing of a +river. + +Instantly the trap-door dropped again, and he heard heavy steps rumbling +away into the interior of the house. He looked at his companion and saw +her terrified face as she lifted her hood. + +"He always blunders along like that," she whispered, bending her head on +one side to listen. "He can't see properly in the daylight. He hates +sunshine, and usually only goes out after dark." She was white and +trembling. + +"Is that the person who brought me in here this morning at such a +frightful pace?" he asked, bewildered. + +She nodded. "He wanted to get in before it was light, so that you +couldn't see his face." + +"Is he such a fright?" asked the boy, beginning to share her evident +feeling of horror. + +"He _is_ Fright!" she said in an awed whisper. "But never talk about +him again unless you can't help it; he always knows when he's being +talked about, and he likes it, because it gives him more power." + +Jimbo only stared at her without comprehending. Then his mind jumped to +something else he wanted badly to have explained, and he asked her about +his number, and why he was called No. 102. + +"Oh, that's easier," she said, "102 is your number among the Frightened +Children; there are 101 of them, and you are the last arrival. Haven't +you seen them yet? It is also the temperature of your broken little body +lying on the bed in the night nursery at home," she added, though he +hardly caught her words, so low were they spoken. + +Jimbo then described how the children had sung and danced to him, and +went on to ask a hundred questions about them. But Miss Lake would give +him very little information, and said he would not have very much to do +with them. Most of them had been in the House for years and years--so +long that they could probably never escape at all. + +"They are all frightened children," she said. "Little ones scared out of +their wits by silly people who meant to amuse them with stories, or to +frighten them into being well behaved--nursery-maids, elder sisters, and +even governesses!" + +"And they can never escape?" + +"Not unless the people who frightened them come to their rescue and _run +the risk of being caught themselves_." + +As she spoke there rose from the depths of the house the sound of +muffled voices, children's voices singing faintly together; it rose and +fell exactly like the wind, and with as little tune; it was weird and +magical, but so utterly mournful that the boy felt the tears start to +his eyes. It drifted away, too, just as the wind does over the tops of +the trees, dying into the distance; and all became still again. + +"It's just like the wind," he said, "and I do love the wind. It makes me +feel so sad and so happy. Why is it?" + +The governess did not answer. + +"How old am I _really_?" he went on. "How can I be so old and so +ignorant? I've forgotten such an awful lot of knowledge." + +"The fact is--well, perhaps, you won't quite understand--but you're +really two ages at once. Sometimes you feel as old as your body, and +sometimes as old as your soul. You're still connected with your body; +so you get the sensations of both mixed up." + +"Then is the body younger than the soul?" + +"The soul--that is yourself," she answered, "is, oh, so old, awfully +old, as old as the stars, and older. But the body is no older than +itself--of course, how could it be?" + +"Of course," repeated the boy, who was not listening to a word she said. +"How could it be?" + +"But it doesn't matter how old you are or how young you feel, as long as +you don't hate me for having frightened you," she said after a pause. +"That's the chief thing." + +He was very, very puzzled. He could not help feeling it had been rather +unkind of her to frighten him so badly that he had literally been +frightened out of his skin; but he couldn't remember anything about it, +and she was taking so much trouble to save him now that he quite forgave +her. He nestled up against her, and said of course he liked her, and she +stroked his curly head and mumbled a lot of things to herself that he +couldn't understand a bit. + +But in spite of his new-found friend the feeling of over-mastering +loneliness would suddenly rush over him. She might be a protector, but +she was not a _real_ companion; and he knew that somewhere or other he +had left a lot of other _real_ companions whom he now missed dreadfully. +He longed more than he could say for freedom; he wanted to be able to +come and go as he pleased; to play about in a garden somewhere as of +old; to wander over soft green lawns among laburnums and sweet-smelling +lilac trees, and to be up to all his old tricks and mischief--though he +could not remember in detail what they were. + +In a word, he wanted to escape; his whole being yearned to escape and be +free again; yet here he was a wretched prisoner in a room like a +prison-cell, with a sort of monster for a keeper, and a troop of +horrible frightened children somewhere else in the house to keep him +company. And outside there was only a hard, narrow, paved courtyard with +a high wall round it. Oh, it was too terrible to think of, and his heart +sank down within him till he felt as if he could do nothing else but +cry. + +"I shall save you in time," whispered the governess, as though she read +his thoughts. "You must be patient, and do what I tell you, and I +promise to get you out. Only be brave, and don't ask too many questions. +We shall win in the end and escape." + +Suddenly he looked up, with quite a new expression in his face. "But I +say, Miss Cake, I'm frightfully hungry. I've had nothing to eat since--I +can't remember when, but ever so long ago." + +"You needn't call me Miss Cake, though," she laughed. + +"I suppose it's because I'm so hungry." + +"Then you'll call me Miss Lake when you're thirsty, perhaps," she said. +"But, anyhow, I'll see what I can get you. Only, you must eat as little +as possible. I want you to get very thin. What you feel is not really +hunger--it's only a memory of hunger, and you'll soon get used to it." + +He stared at her with a very distressful little face as she crossed the +room making this new announcement; and just as she disappeared through +the trap-door, only her head being visible, she added with great +emphasis, "The thinner you get the better; because the thinner you are +the lighter you are, and the lighter you are the easier it will be to +escape. Remember, the thinner the better--the lighter the better--and +don't ask a lot of questions about it." + +With that the trap-door closed over her, and Jimbo was left alone with +her last strange words ringing in his ears. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +THE SPELL OF THE EMPTY HOUSE + + +It was not long before Jimbo realised that the House, and everything +connected with it, spelt for him one message, and one only--a message of +fear. From the first day of his imprisonment the forces of his whole +being shaped themselves without further ado into one intense, single, +concentrated desire to _escape_. + +Freedom, escape into the world beyond that terrible high wall, was his +only object, and Miss Lake, the governess, as its symbol, was his only +hope. He asked a lot of questions and listened to a lot of answers, but +all he really cared about was how he was going to escape, and when. All +her other explanations were tedious, and he only half-listened to them. +His faith in her was absolute, his patience unbounded; she had come to +save him, and he knew that before long she would accomplish her end. He +felt a blind and perfect confidence. But, meanwhile, his fear of the +House, and his horror for the secret Being who meant to keep him +prisoner till at length he became one of the troop of Frightened +Children, increased by leaps and bounds. + +Presently the trap-door creaked again, and the governess reappeared; in +her hand was a small white jug and a soup plate. + +"Thin gruel and skim milk," she explained, pouring out a substance like +paste into the soup plate, and handing him a big wooden spoon. + +But Jimbo's hunger had somehow vanished. + +"It wasn't real hunger," she told him, "but only a sort of memory of +being hungry. They're trying to feed your broken body now in the +night-nursery, and so you feel a sort of ghostly hunger here even though +you're out of the body." + +"It's easily satisfied, at any rate," he said, looking at the paste in +the soup plate. + +"No one actually eats or drinks here----" + +"But I'm solid," he said, "am I not?" + +"People always think they're solid everywhere," she laughed. "It's only +a question of degree; solidity _here_ means a different thing to +solidity _there_." + +"I can get thinner though, can't I?" he asked, thinking of her remark +about escape being easier the lighter he grew. + +She assured him there would be no difficulty about that, and after +replying evasively to a lot more questions, she gathered up the dishes +and once more disappeared through the trap-door. + +Jimbo watched her going down the ladder into the black gulf below, and +wondered greatly where she went to and what she did down there; but on +these points the governess had refused to satisfy his curiosity, and +every time she appeared or disappeared the atmosphere of mystery came +and went with her. + +As he stared, wondering, a sound suddenly made itself heard behind him, +and on turning quickly round he saw to his great surprise that the door +into the passage was open. This was more than he could resist, and in +another minute, with mingled feelings of dread and delight, he was out +in the passage. + +When he was first brought to the house, two hours before, it had been +too dark to see properly, but now the sun was high in the heavens, and +the light still increasing. He crept cautiously to the head of the +stairs and peered over into the well of the house. It was still too +dark to make things out clearly; but, as he looked, he thought something +moved among the shadows below, and for a moment his heart stood still +with fear. A large grey face seemed to be staring up at him out of the +gloom. He clutched the banisters and felt as if he hardly had strength +enough in his legs to get back to the room he had just left; but almost +immediately the terror passed, for he saw that the face resolved itself +into the mingling of light and shadow, and the features, after all, were +of his own creation. He went on slowly and stealthily down the +staircase. + +It was certainly an empty house. There were no carpets; the passages +were cold and draughty; the paper curled from the damp walls, leaving +ugly discoloured patches about; cobwebs hung in many places from the +ceiling, the windows were more or less broken, and all were coated so +thickly with dirt that the rain had traced little furrows from top to +bottom. Shadows hung about everywhere, and Jimbo thought every minute he +saw moving figures; but the figures always resolved themselves into +nothing when he looked closely. + +He began to wonder how far it was safe to go, and why the governess had +arranged for the door to be opened--for he felt sure it was she who had +done this, and that it was all right for him to come out. Fright, she +had said, was never about in the daylight. But, at the same time, +something warned him to be ready at a moment's notice to turn and dash +up the stairs again to the room where he was at least comparatively +safe. + +So he moved along very quietly and very cautiously. He passed many rooms +with the doors open--all empty and silent; some of them had tables and +chairs, but no sign of occupation; the grates were black and empty, the +walls blank, the windows unshuttered. Everywhere was only silence and +shadows; there was no sign of the frightened children, or of where they +lived; no trace of another staircase leading to the region where the +governess went when she disappeared down the ladder through the +trap-door--only hushed, listening, cold silence, and shadows that seemed +for ever shifting from place to place as he moved past them. This +illusion of people peering at him from corners, and behind doors just +ajar, was very strong; yet whenever he turned his head to face them, lo, +they were gone, and the shadows rushed in to fill their places. + +The spell of the Empty House was weaving itself slowly and surely about +his heart. + +Yet he went on pluckily, full of a dreadful curiosity, continuing his +search, and at length, after passing through another gloomy passage, he +was in the act of crossing the threshold of an open door leading out +into the courtyard, when he stopped short and clutched the door-posts +with both hands. + +Some one had laughed! + +He turned, trying to look in every direction at once, but there was no +sign of any living being. Yet the sound was close beside him; he could +still hear it ringing in his ears--a mocking sort of laugh, in a harsh, +guttural voice. The blood froze in his veins, and he hardly knew which +way to turn, when another voice sounded, and his terror disappeared as +if by magic. + +It was Miss Lake's voice calling to him over the banisters at the top of +the house, and its tone was so cheerful that all his courage came back +in a twinkling. + +"Go out into the yard," she called, "and play in the sunshine. But don't +stay too long." + +Jimbo answered "All right" in a rather feeble little voice, and went on +down the passage and out into the yard. + +The June sunshine lay hot and still over the paved court, and he looked +up into the blue sky overhead. As he looked at the high wall that closed +it in on three sides, he realised more than ever that he was caught in a +monstrous trap from which there could be no ordinary means of escape. He +could never climb over such a wall even with a ladder. He walked out a +little way and noticed the rank weeds growing in patches in the corners; +decay and neglect left everywhere their dismal signs; the yard, in spite +of the sunlight, seemed as gloomy and cheerless as the house itself. + +In one corner stood several little white upright stones, each about +three feet high; there seemed to be some writing on them, and he was in +the act of going nearer to inspect, when a window opened and he heard +some one calling to him in a loud, excited whisper: + +"Hst! Come in, Jimbo, at once. Quick! Run for your life!" + +He glanced up, quaking with fear, and saw the governess leaning out of +the open window. At another window, a little beyond her, he thought a +number of white little faces pressed against the glass, but he had no +time to look more closely, for something in Miss Lake's voice made him +turn and run into the house and up the stairs as though Fright himself +were close at his heels. He flew up the three flights, and found the +governess coming out on the top landing to meet him. She caught him in +her arms and dashed back into the room, as if there was not a moment to +be lost, slamming the door behind her. + +"How in the world did you get out?" she gasped, breathless as himself +almost, and pale with alarm. "Another second and He'd have had you----!" + +"I found the door open----" + +"He opened it on purpose," she whispered, looking quickly round the +room. "He meant you to go out." + +"But you called to me to play in the yard," he said. "I heard you. So of +course I thought it was safe." + +"No," she declared, "I never called to you. That wasn't my voice. That +was one of his tricks. I only this minute found the door open and you +gone. Oh, Jimbo, that was a narrow escape; you must never go out of this +room till--till I tell you. And never believe any of these voices you +hear--you'll hear lots of them, saying all sorts of things--but unless +you _see_ me, don't believe it's my voice." + +Jimbo promised. He was very frightened; but she would not tell him any +more, saying it would only make it more difficult to escape if he knew +too much in advance. He told her about the laugh, and the gravestones, +and the faces at the other window, but she would not tell him what he +wanted to know, and at last he gave up asking. A very deep impression +had been made on his mind, however, and he began to realise, more than +he had hitherto done, the horror of his prison and the power of his +dreadful keeper. + +But when he began to look about him again, he noticed that there was a +new thing in the room. The governess had left him, and was bending over +it. She was doing something very busily indeed. He asked her what it +was. + +"I'm making your bed," she said. + +It was, indeed, a bed, and he felt as he looked at it that there was +something very familiar and friendly about the yellow framework and the +little brass knobs. + +"I brought it up just now," she explained. "But it's not for sleeping +in. It's only for you to lie down on, and also partly to deceive Him." + +"Why not for sleeping?" + +"There's no sleeping at all here," she went on calmly. + +"Why not?" + +"You can't sleep out of your body," she laughed. + +"Why not?" he asked again. + +"Your body goes to sleep, but _you_ don't," she explained. + +"Oh, I see." His head was whirling. "And my body--my real body----" + +"Is lying asleep--unconscious they call it--in the night-nursery at +home. It's sound asleep. That's why you're here. It can't wake up till +you go back to it, and you can't go back to it till you escape--even if +it's ready for you before then. The bed is only for you to rest on, for +you can _rest_ though you can't _sleep_." + +Jimbo stared blankly at the governess for some minutes. He was debating +something in his mind, something very important, and just then it was +his Older Self, and not the child, that was uppermost. Apparently it was +soon decided, for he walked sedately up to her and said very gravely, +with her serious eyes fixed on his face, "Miss Lake, are you _really_ +Miss Lake?" + +"Of course I am." + +"You're not a trick of His, like the voices, I mean?" + +"No, Jimbo, I am really Miss Lake, the discharged governess who +frightened you." There was profound anxiety in every word. + +Jimbo waited a minute, still looking steadily into her eyes. Then he put +out his hand cautiously and touched her. He rose a little on tiptoe to +be on a level with her face, taking a fold of her cloak in each hand. +The soul-knowledge was in his eyes just then, not the mere curiosity of +the child. + +"And are you--_dead_?" he asked, sinking his voice to a whisper. + +For a moment the woman's eyes wavered. She turned white and tried to +move away; but the boy seized her hand and peered more closely into her +face. + +"I mean, if we escape and I get back into my body," he whispered, "will +you get back into yours too?" + +The governess made no reply, and shifted uneasily on her feet. But the +boy would not let her go. + +"Please answer," he urged, still in a whisper. + +"Jimbo, what funny questions you ask!" she said at last, in a husky +voice, but trying to smile. + +"But I want to know," he said. "I must know. I believe you are giving up +everything just to save me--_everything_; and I don't want to be saved +unless you come too. Tell me!" + +The colour came back to her cheeks a little, and her eyes grew moist. +Again she tried to slip past him, but he prevented her. + +"You must tell me," he urged; "I would rather stay here with you than +escape back into my body and leave you behind." + +Jimbo knew it was his Older Self speaking--the freed spirit rather than +the broken body--but he felt the strain was very great; he could not +keep it up much longer; any minute he might slip back into the child +again, and lose interest, and be unequal to the task he now saw so +clearly before him. + +"Quick!" he cried in a louder voice. "Tell me! You are giving up +everything to save me, aren't you? And if I escape you will be left +alone----quick, answer me! Oh, be quick, I'm slipping back----" + +Already he felt his thoughts becoming confused again, as the spirit +merged back into the child; in another minute the boy would usurp the +older self. + +"You see," began the governess at length, speaking very gently and +sadly, "I am bound to make amends whatever happens. I must atone----" + +But already he found it hard to follow. + +"Atone," he asked, "what does '_atone_' mean?" He moved back a step, and +glanced about the room. The moment of concentration had passed without +bearing fruit; his thoughts began to wander again like a child's. +"Anyhow, we shall escape together when the chance comes, shan't we?" he +said. + +"Yes, darling, we shall," she said in a broken voice. "And if you do +what I tell you, it will come very soon, I hope." She drew him towards +her and kissed him, and though he didn't respond very heartily, he felt +he liked it, and was sure that she was good, and meant to do the best +possible for him. + +Jimbo asked nothing more for some time; he turned to the bed where he +found a mattress and a blanket, but no sheets, and sat down on the edge +and waited. The governess was standing by the window looking out; her +back was turned to him. He heard an occasional deep sigh come from her, +but he was too busy now with his own sensations to trouble much about +her. Looking past her he saw the sea of green leaves dancing lazily in +the sunshine. Something seemed to beckon him from beyond the high wall, +and he longed to go out and play in the shade of the elms and hawthorns; +for the horror of the Empty House was closing in upon him steadily but +surely, and he longed for escape into a bright, unhaunted atmosphere, +more than anything else in the whole world. + +His thoughts ran on and on in this vein, till presently he noticed that +the governess was moving about the room. She crossed over and tried +first one door and then the other; both were fastened. Next she lifted +the trap-door and peered down into the black hole below. That, too, +apparently was satisfactory. Then she came over to the bedside on +tiptoe. + +"Jimbo, I've got something very important to ask you," she began. + +"All right," he said, full of curiosity. + +"You must answer me very exactly. Everything depends on it." + +"I will." + +She took another long look round the room, and then, in a still lower +whisper, bent over him, and asked: + +"Have you any pain?" + +"Where?" he asked, remembering to be exact. + +"Anywhere." + +He thought a moment. + +"None, thank you." + +"None at all--anywhere?" she insisted. + +"None at all--anywhere," he said with decision. + +She seemed disappointed. + +"Never mind; it's a little soon yet, perhaps," she said. "We must have +patience. It will come in time." + +"But I don't want any pain," he said, rather ruefully. + +"You can't escape till it comes." + +"I don't understand a bit what you mean." He began to feel alarmed at +the notion of escape and pain going together. + +"You'll understand later, though," she said soothingly, "and it won't +hurt _very_ much. The sooner the pain comes, the sooner we can try to +escape. Nowhere can there be escape without it." + +And with that she left him, disappearing without another word into the +hole below the trap, and leaving him, disconsolate yet excited, alone in +the room. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +THE GALLERY OF ANCIENT MEMORIES + + +With every one, of course, the measurement of time depends largely upon +the state of the emotions, but in Jimbo's case it was curiously +exaggerated. This may have been because he had no standard of memory by +which to test the succession of minutes; but, whatever it was, the hours +passed very quickly, and the evening shadows were already darkening the +room when at length he got up from the mattress and went over to the +window. + +Outside the high elms were growing dim; soon the stars would be out in +the sky. The afternoon had passed away like magic, and the governess +still left him alone; he could not quite understand why she went away +for such long periods. + +The darkness came down very swiftly, and it was night almost before he +knew it. Yet he felt no drowsiness, no desire to yawn and get under +sheets and blankets; sleep was evidently out of the question, and the +hours slipped away so rapidly that it made little difference whether he +sat up all night or whether he slept. + +It was his first night in the Empty House, and he wondered how many more +he would spend there before escape came. He stood at the window, peering +out into the growing darkness and thinking long, long thoughts. Below +him yawned the black gulf of the yard, and the outline of the enclosing +wall was only just visible, but beyond the elms rose far into the sky, +and he could hear the wind singing softly in their branches. The sound +was very sweet; it suggested freedom, and the flight of birds, and all +that was wild and unrestrained. The wind could never really be a +prisoner; its voice sang of open spaces and unbounded distances, of +flying clouds and mountains, of mighty woods and dancing waves; above +all, of wings--free, swift, and unconquerable wings. + +But this rushing song of wind among the leaves made him feel too sad to +listen long, and he lay down upon the bed again, still thinking, +thinking. + +The house was utterly still. Not a thing stirred within its walls. He +felt lonely, and began to long for the companionship of the governess; +he would have called aloud for her to come only he was afraid to break +the appalling silence. He wondered where she was all this time and how +she spent the long, dark hours of the sleepless nights. Were all these +things really true that she told him? Was he actually out of his body, +and was his name really Jimbo? His thoughts kept groping backwards, ever +seeking the other companions he had lost; but, like a piece of stretched +elastic too short to reach its object, they always came back with a snap +just when he seemed on the point of finding them. He wanted these +companions very badly indeed, but the struggling of his memory was +painful, and he could not keep the effort up for very long at one time. + +The effort once relaxed, however, his thoughts wandered freely where +they would; and there rose before his mind's eye dim suggestions of +memories far more distant--ghostly scenes and faces that passed before +him in endless succession, but always faded away before he could +properly seize and name them. + +This memory, so stubborn as regards quite recent events, began to play +strange tricks with him. It carried him away into a Past so remote that +he could not connect it with himself at all, and it was like dreaming of +scenes and events that had happened to some one else; yet, all the time, +he knew quite well those things had happened to him, and to none else. +It was the memory of the soul asserting itself now that the clamour of +the body was low. It was an underground river coming to the surface, for +odd minutes, here and there, showing its waters to the stars just long +enough to catch their ghostly reflections before it rolled away +underground again. + +Yet, swift and transitory as they were, these glimpses brought in their +train sensations that were too powerful ever to have troubled his +child-mind in its present body. They stirred in him the strong emotions, +the ecstasies, the terrors, the yearnings of a much more distant past; +whispering to him, could he but have understood, of an infinitely deeper +layer of memories and experiences which, now released from the burden of +the immediate years, strove to awaken into life again. The soul in that +little body covered with alpaca knickerbockers and a sailor blouse +seemed suddenly to have access to a storehouse of knowledge that must +have taken centuries, rather than a few short years, to acquire. + +It was all very queer. The feeling of tremendous age grew mysteriously +over him. He realised that he had been wandering for ages. He had been +to the stars and also to the deeps; he had roamed over strange mountains +far away from cities or inhabited places of the earth, and had lived by +streams whose waves were silvered by moonlight dropping softly through +whispering palm branches.... + +Some of these ghostly memories brought him sensations of keenest +happiness--icy, silver, radiant; others swept through his heart like a +cold wave, leaving behind a feeling of unutterable woe, and a sense of +loneliness that almost made him cry aloud. And there came Voices +too--Voices that had slept so long in the inner kingdoms of silence that +they failed to rouse in him the very slightest emotion of +recognition.... + +Worn out at length with the surging of these strange hosts through him, +he got up and went to the open window again. The night was very dark and +warm, but the stars had disappeared, and there was the hush and the +faint odour of coming rain in the air. He smelt leaves and the earth and +the moist things of the ground, the wonderful perfume of the life of the +soil. + +The wind had dropped; all was silent as the grave; the leaves of the +elm trees were motionless; no bird or insect raised its voice; +everything slept; he alone was watchful, awake. Leaning over the +window-sill, his thoughts searched for the governess, and he wondered +anew where she was spending the dark hours. She, too, he felt sure, was +wakeful somewhere, watching with him, plotting their escape together, +and always mindful of his safety.... + +His reverie was suddenly interrupted by the flight of an immense +night-bird dropping through the air just above his head. He sprang back +into the room with a startled cry, as it rushed past in the darkness +with a great swishing of wings. The size of the creature filled him with +awe; it was so close that the wind it made lifted the hair on his +forehead, and he could almost feel the feathers brush his cheeks. He +strained his eyes to try and follow it, but the shadows were too deep +and he could see nothing; only in the distance, growing every moment +fainter, he could hear the noise of big wings threshing the air. He +waited a little, wondering if another bird would follow it, or if it +would presently return to its perch on the roof; and then his thoughts +passed on to uncertain memories of other big birds--hawks, owls, +eagles--that he had seen somewhere in places now beyond the reach of +distinct recollections.... + +Soon the light began to dawn in the east, and he made out the shape of +the elm trees and the dreadful prison wall; and with the first real +touch of morning light he heard a familiar creaking sound in the room +behind him, and saw the black hood of the governess rising through the +trap-door in the floor. + +"But you've left me alone all night!" he said at once reproachfully, as +she kissed him. + +"On purpose," she answered. "He'd get suspicious if I stayed too much +with you. It's different in the daytime, when he can't see properly." + +"Where's he been all night, then?" asked the boy. + +"Last night he was out most of the time--hunting----" + +"Hunting!" he repeated, with excitement. "Hunting what?" + +"Children--frightened children," she replied, lowering her voice. +"That's how he found you." + +It was a horrible thought--Fright hunting for victims to bring to his +dreadful prison--and Jimbo shivered as he heard it. + +"And how did you get on all this time?" she asked, hurriedly changing +the subject. + +"I've been remembering, that is half-remembering, an awful lot of +things, and feeling, oh, so old. I never want to remember anything +again," he said wearily. + +"You'll forget quick enough when you get back into your body, and have +only the body-memories," she said, with a sigh that he did not +understand. "But, now tell me," she added, in a more serious voice, +"have you had any pain yet?" + +He shook his head. She stepped up beside him. + +"None _there_?" she asked, touching him lightly just behind the shoulder +blades. + +Jimbo jumped as if he had been shot, and uttered a piercing yell. + +"That hurts!" he screamed. + +"I'm so glad," cried the governess. "That's the pains coming at last." +Her face was beaming. + +"Coming!" he echoed, "I think they've _come_. But if they hurt as much +as that, I think I'd rather not escape," he added ruefully. + +"The pain won't last more than a minute," she said calmly. "You must be +brave and stand it. There's no escape without pain--from anything." + +"If there's no other way," he said pluckily, "I'll try,--but----" + +"You see," she went on, rather absently, "at this very moment the doctor +is probing the wounds in your back where the horns went in----" + +But he was not listening. Her explanations always made him want either +to cry or to laugh. This time he laughed, and the governess joined him, +while they sat on the edge of the bed together talking of many things. +He did not understand all her explanations, but it comforted him to hear +them. So long as somebody understood, no matter who, he felt it was all +right. + +In this way several days and nights passed quickly away. The pains were +apparently no nearer, but as Miss Lake showed no particular anxiety +about their non-arrival, he waited patiently too, dreading the moment, +yet also looking forward to it exceedingly. + +During the day the governess spent most of the time in the room with +him; but at night, when he was alone, the darkness became enchanted, the +room haunted, and he passed into the long, long Gallery of Ancient +Memories. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +THE MEANS OF ESCAPE + + +A week passed, and Jimbo began to wonder if the pains he so much +dreaded, yet so eagerly longed for, were ever coming at all. The +imprisonment was telling upon him, and he grew very thin, and +consequently very light. + +The nights, though he spent them alone, were easily borne, for he was +then intensely occupied, and the time passed swiftly; the moment it was +dark he stepped into the Gallery of Memories, and in a little while +passed into a new world of wonder and delight. But the daytime seemed +always long. He stood for hours by the window watching the trees and the +sky, and what he saw always set painful currents running through his +blood--unsatisfied longings, yearnings, and immense desires he never +could understand. + +The white clouds on their swift journeys took with them something from +his heart every time he looked upon them; they melted into air and blue +sky, and lo! that "something" came back to him charged with all the wild +freedom and magic of open spaces, distance, and rushing winds. + +But the change was close at hand. + +One night, as he was standing by the open window listening to the drip +of the rain, he felt a deadly weakness steal over him; the strength went +out of his legs. First he turned hot, and then he turned cold; clammy +perspiration broke out all over him, and it was all he could do to crawl +across the room and throw himself on to the bed. But no sooner was he +stretched out on the mattress than the feelings passed entirely, and +left behind them an intoxicating sense of strength and lightness. His +muscles became like steel springs; his bones were strong as iron and +light as cork; a wonderful vigour had suddenly come into him, and he +felt as if he had just stepped from a dungeon into fresh air. He was +ready to face anything in the world. + +But, before he had time to realise the full enjoyment of these new +sensations, a stinging, blinding pain shot suddenly through his right +shoulder as if a red-hot iron had pierced to the very bone. He screamed +out in agony; though, even while he screamed, the pain passed. Then the +same thing happened in his other shoulder. It shot through his back with +equal swiftness, and was gone, leaving him lying on the bed trembling +with pain. But the instant it was gone the delightful sensations of +strength and lightness returned, and he felt as if his whole body were +charged with some new and potent force. + +The pains had come at last! Jimbo had no notion how they could possibly +be connected with escape, but Miss Lake--his kind and faithful friend, +Miss Lake--had said that no escape was possible without them; and had +promised that they should be brief. And this was true, for the entire +episode had not taken a minute of time. + +"ESCAPE, ESCAPE!"--the words rushed through him like a flame of fire. +Out of this dreadful Empty House, into the open spaces; beyond the +prison wall; out where the wind and the rain could touch him; where he +could feel the grass beneath his feet, and could see the whole sky at +once, instead of this narrow strip through the window. His thoughts flew +to the stars and the clouds.... + +But a strange humming of voices interrupted his flight of imagination, +and he saw that the room was suddenly full of moving figures. They were +passing before him with silent footsteps, across the window from door to +door. How they had come in, or how they went out, he never knew; but his +heart stood still for an instant as he recognised the mournful figures +of the Frightened Children filing before him in a slow procession. They +were singing--though it sounded more like a chorus of whispering than +actual singing--and as they moved past with the measured steps of their +sorrowful dance, he caught the words of the song he had heard them sing +when he first came into the house:-- + + "We hear the little voices in the wind + Singing of freedom we may never find." + +Jimbo put his fingers into his ears, but still the sound came through. +He heard the words almost as if they were inside himself--his own +thoughts singing:-- + + "We hear the little footsteps in the rain + Running to help us, though they run in vain, + Tapping in hundreds on the window-pane." + +The horrible procession filed past and melted away near the door. They +were gone as mysteriously as they had come, and almost before he +realised it. + +He sprang from the bed and tried the doors; both were locked. How in +the world had the children got in and out? The whispering voices rose +again on the night air, and this time he was sure they came from +outside. He ran to the open window and thrust his head out cautiously. +Sure enough, the procession was moving slowly, still with the steps of +that impish dance across the courtyard stones. He could just make out +the slow waving arms, the thin bodies, and the white little faces as +they passed on silent feet through the darkness, and again a fragment of +the song rose to his ears as he watched, and filled him with an +overpowering sadness:-- + + "We have no joy in any children's game, + For happiness to us is but a name, + Since Terror kissed us with his lips of flame." + +Then he noticed that the group was growing smaller. Already the numbers +were less. Somewhere, over there in the dark corner of the yard, the +children disappeared, though it was too dark to see precisely how or +where. + +"We dance with phantoms, and with shadows play," rose to his ears. + +Suddenly he remembered the little white upright stones he had seen in +that corner of the yard, and understood. One by one they vanished just +behind those stones. + +Jimbo shivered, and drew his head in. He did not like those upright +stones; they made him uncomfortable and afraid. Now, however, the last +child had disappeared and the song had ceased. He realised what his fate +would be if the escape were not successful; he would become one of this +band of Frightened Children; dwelling somewhere behind the upright +stones; a terrified shadow, waiting in vain to be rescued, waiting +perhaps for ever and ever. The thought brought the tears to his eyes, +but he somehow managed to choke them down. He knew it was the young +portion of him only that felt afraid--the body; the older self could not +feel fear, and had nothing to do with tears. + +He lay down again upon the hard mattress and waited; and soon afterwards +the first crimson streaks of sunrise appeared behind the high elms, and +rooks began to caw and shake their wings in the upper branches. A little +later the governess came in. + +Before he could move out of the way--for he disliked being embraced--she +had her arms round his neck, and was covering him with kisses. He saw +tears in her eyes. + +"You darling Jimbo!" she cried, "they've come at last." + +"How do you know?" he asked, surprised at her knowledge and puzzled by +her display of emotion. + +"I heard you scream to begin with. Besides, I've been watching." + +"Watching?" + +"Yes, and listening too, every night, every single night. You've hardly +been a minute out of my sight," she added. + +"I think it's awfully good of you," he said doubtfully, "but----" + +A flood of questions followed--about the upright stones, the shadowy +children, where she spent the night "watching him," and a hundred other +things besides. But he got little satisfaction out of her. He never did +when it was Jimbo, the child, that asked; and he remained Jimbo, the +child, all that day. She only told him that all was going well. The +pains had come; he had grown nice and thin, and light; the children had +come into his room as a hint that he belonged to their band, and other +things had happened about which she would tell him later. The crisis was +close at hand. That was all he could get out of her. + +"It won't be long now," she said excitedly. "They'll come to-night, I +expect." + +"What will come to-night?" he asked, with querulous wonder. + +"Wait and see!" was all the answer he got. "Wait and see!" + +She told him to lie quietly on the bed and to have patience. + +With asking questions, and thinking, and wondering, the day passed very +quickly. With the lengthening shadows his excitement began to grow. +Presently Miss Lake took her departure and went off to her unknown and +mysterious abode; he watched her disappear through the floor with +mingled feelings, wondering what would have happened before he saw her +again. She gave him a long, last look as she sank away below the boards, +but it was a look that brought him fresh courage, and her eyes were +happy and smiling. + +Tingling already with expectancy he got into the bed and lay down, his +brain alive with one word--ESCAPE. + +From where he lay he saw the stars in the narrow strip of sky; he heard +the wind whispering in the branches; he even smelt the perfume of the +fields and hedges--grass, flowers, dew, and the sweet earth--the odours +of freedom. + +The governess had, for some reason she refused to explain, taken his +blouse away with her. For a long time he puzzled over this, seeking +reasons and finding none. But, while in the act of stroking his bare +arms, the pains of the night before suddenly returned to both shoulders +at once. Fire seemed to run down his back, splitting his bones apart, +and then passed even more quickly than before, leaving him with the same +wonderful sensations of lightness and strength. He felt inclined to +shout and run and jump, and it was only the memory of the governess's +earnest caution to "lie quietly" that prevented his new emotions passing +into acts. + +With very great effort he lay still all night long; and it was only when +the room at last began to get light again that he turned on his side, +preparatory to getting up. + +But there was something new--something different! He rested on his +elbow, waiting. Something had happened to him. Cautiously he sat on the +edge of the bed, and stretched out one foot and touched the floor. +Excitement ran through him like a wave. There was a great change, a +tremendous change; for as he stepped out gingerly on to the floor +_something followed him from the bed_. It clung to his back; it touched +both shoulders at once; it stroked his ribs, and tickled the skin of his +arms. + +Half frightened, he brought the other leg over, and stood boldly upright +on both feet. But the weight still clung to his back. He looked over his +shoulder. Yes! it was trailing after him from the bed; it was +fan-shaped, and brilliant in colour. He put out a hand and touched it; +it was soft and glossy; then he took it deliberately between his +fingers; it was smooth as velvet, and had numerous tiny ribs running +along it. + +Seizing it at last with all his courage, he pulled it forward in front +of him for a better view, only to discover that it would not come out +beyond a certain distance, and seemed to have got caught somehow between +his shoulders--just where the pains had been. A second pull, more +vigorous than the first, showed that it was not caught, but _fastened_ +to his skin; it divided itself, moreover, into two portions, one half +coming from each shoulder. + +"I do believe they're feathers!" he exclaimed, his eyes almost popping +out of his head. + +Then, with a sudden flash of comprehension, he saw it all, and +understood. They were, indeed, feathers; but they were something more +than feathers merely. _They were wings!_ + +Jimbo caught his breath and stared in silence. He felt dazed. Then bit +by bit the fragments of the weird mosaic fell into their proper places, +and he began to understand. Escape was to be by flight. It filled him +with such a whirlwind of delight and excitement that he could scarcely +keep from screaming aloud. + +Lost in wonder, he took a step forward, and watched with bulging eyes +how the wings followed him, their tips trailing along the floor. They +were a beautiful deep red, and hung down close and warm beside his body; +glossy, sleek, magical. And when, later, the sun burst into the room and +turned their colour into living flame, he could not resist the +temptation to kiss them. He seized them, and rubbed their soft surfaces +over his face. Such colours he had never seen before, and he wanted to +be sure that they really belonged to him and were intended for actual +use. + +Slowly, without using his hands, he raised them into the air. The effort +was a perfectly easy muscular effort from the shoulders that came +naturally, though he did not quite understand how he accomplished it. +The wings rose in a fine, graceful sweep, curving over his head till the +tips of the feathers met, touching the walls as they rose, and almost +reaching to the ceiling. + +He gave a howl of delight, for this sight was more than he could manage +without some outlet for his pent-up emotion; and at the same moment the +trap-door shot open, and the governess came into the room with such a +bang and a clatter that Jimbo knew at once her excitement was as great +as his own. In her hands she carried the blouse she had taken away the +night before. She held it out to him without a word. Her eyes were +shining like electric lamps. In less than a second he had slipped his +wings through the neatly-made slits, but before he could practise them +again, Miss Lake rushed over to him, her face radiant with happiness. + +"Jimbo! My darling Jimbo!" she cried--and then stopped short, apparently +unable to express her emotion. + +The next instant he was enveloped, wings and all, in a warm confusion of +kisses, congratulations and folds of hood. + +When they became disentangled again the governess went down on her +knees and made a careful examination; she pulled the wings out to their +full extent and found that they stretched about four feet and a half +from tip to tip. + +"They _are_ beauties!" she exclaimed enthusiastically, "and full grown +and strong. I'm not surprised they took so long coming." + +"Long!" he echoed, "I thought they came awfully quickly." + +"Not half so quickly as they'll go," she interrupted; adding, when she +saw his expression of dismay, "I mean, you'll fly like the wind with +them." + +Jimbo was simply breathless with excitement. He wanted to jump out of +the window and escape at once. The blue sky and the sunshine and the +white flying clouds sent him an irresistible invitation. He could not +wait a minute longer. + +"Quick," he cried, "I can't wait! They may go again. Show me how to use +them. Oh! do show me." + +"I'll show you everything in time," she answered. There was something in +her voice that made him pause in his excitement. He looked at her in +silence for some minutes. + +"But how are _you_ going to escape?" he asked at length. "You haven't +got"----he stopped short. + +The governess stepped back a few paces from him. She threw back the hood +from her face. Then she lifted the long black cloak that hung like a +cassock almost to her ankles and had always enveloped her hitherto. + +Jimbo stared. Falling from her shoulders, and folding over her hips, he +saw long red feathers clinging to her; and when he dashed forward to +touch them with his hands, he found they were just as sleek and smooth +and glossy as his own. + +"And you never told me all this time?" he gasped. + +"It was safer not," she said. "You'd have been stroking and feeling your +shoulders the whole time, and the wings might never have come at all." + +She spread out her wings as she spoke to their full extent; they were +nearly six feet across, and the deep crimson on the under side was so +exquisite, gleaming in the sunlight, that Jimbo ran in and nestled +beneath the feathers, tickling his cheeks with the fluffy surface and +running his fingers with childish delight along the slender red quills. + +"You precious child," she said, tenderly folding her wings round him +and kissing the top of his head. "Always remember that I really love +you; no matter what happens, remember that, and I'll save you." + +"And we shall escape together?" he asked, submitting for once to the +caresses with a good grace. + +"We shall escape from the Empty House together," she replied evasively. +"How far we can go after that depends--on you." + +"On me?" + +"If you love me enough--as I love you, Jimbo--we can never separate +again, because love ties us together for ever. Only," she added, "it +must be mutual." + +"I love you very much," he said, puzzled a little. "Of course I do." + +"If you've really forgiven me for being the cause of your coming here," +she said, "we can always be together, but----" + +"I don't remember, but I've forgiven you--that _other you_--long ago," +he said simply. "If you hadn't brought me here, I should never have met +you." + +"That's not real forgiveness--quite," she sighed, half to herself. + +But Jimbo could not follow this sort of conversation for long; he was +too anxious to try his wings for one thing. + +"Is it _very_ difficult to use them?" he asked. + +"Try," she said. + +He stood in the centre of the floor and raised them again and again. +They swept up easily, meeting over his head, and the air whistled +musically through them. Evidently, they had their proper muscles, for it +was no great effort, and when he folded them again by his side they fell +into natural curves over his arms as if they had been there all his +life. The sound of the feathers threshing the air filled him with +delight and made him think of the big night-bird that had flown past the +window during the night. He told the governess about it, and she burst +out laughing. + +"I was that big bird!" she said. + +"You!" + +"I perched on the roof every night to watch over you. I flew down that +time because I was afraid you were trying to climb out of the window." + +This was indeed a proof of devotion, and Jimbo felt that he could never +doubt her again; and when she went on to tell him about his wings and +how to use them he listened with his very best attention and tried hard +to learn and understand. + +"The great difficulty is that you can't practise properly," she +explained. "There's no room in here, and yet you can't get out till you +_fly_ out. It's the first swoop that decides all. You have to drop +straight out of this window, and if you use the wings properly they will +carry you in a single swoop over the wall and right up into the sky." + +"But if I miss----?" + +"You can't miss," she said with decision, "but, if you did, you would be +a prisoner here for ever. HE would catch you in the yard and tear your +wings off. It is just as well that you should know this at once." + +Jimbo shuddered as he heard her. + +"When can we try?" he asked anxiously. + +"Very soon now. The muscles must harden first, and that takes a little +time. You must practise flapping your wings until you can do it easily +four hundred times a minute. When you can do that it will be time for +the first start. You must keep your head steady and not get giddy; the +novelty of the motion--the ground rushing up into your face and the +whistling of the wind--are apt to confuse at first, but it soon passes, +and you must have confidence. I can only help you up to a certain +point; the rest depends on you." + +"And the first jump?" + +"You'll have to make that by yourself," she said; "but you'll do it all +right. You're very light, and won't go too near the ground. You see, +we're like bats, and cannot rise from the earth. We can only fly by +dropping from a height, and that's what makes the first plunge rather +trying. But you won't fall," she added, "and remember, I shall always be +within reach." + +"You're awfully kind to me," said Jimbo, feeling his little soul more +than ever invaded by the force of her unselfish care. "I promise you +I'll do my best." He climbed on to her knee and stared into her anxious +face. + +"Then you are beginning to love me a little, aren't you?" she asked +softly, putting her arms round him. + +"Yes," he said decidedly. "I love you very much already." + +Four hundred times a minute sounded a very great deal of wing-flapping; +but Jimbo practised eagerly, and though at first he could only manage +about twice a second, or one hundred and twenty times a minute, he found +this increased very soon to a great deal more, and before long he was +able to do the full four hundred, though only for a few minutes at a +time. + +He stuck to it pluckily, getting stronger every day. The governess +encouraged him as much as possible, but there was very little room for +her while he was at work, and he found the best way to practise was at +night when she was out of the way. She told him that a large bird moved +its wings about four times a second, two up-strokes and two +down-strokes; but a small bird like a partridge moved its wings so +rapidly it was impossible for the eye to distinguish or count the +strokes. A middle course of four hundred suited his own case best, and +he bent all his energies to acquire it. + +He also learned that the convex outside curve of wings allowed the wind +to escape over them, while the under side, being concave, held every +breath. Thus the upward stroke did not simply counterbalance the +downward and keep him stationary. Moreover, she showed him how the +feathers underlapped each other so that the downward stroke pressed them +closely together to hold the wind, whereas in the upward stroke they +opened and separated, letting the air slip easily through them, thus +offering less resistance to the atmosphere. + +By the end of a week Jimbo had practised so hard that he could keep +himself off the floor in mid-air for half an hour at a time, and even +then without feeling any great fatigue. His excitement became intense; +and, meanwhile, in his body on the nursery bed, though he did not know +it, the fever was reaching its crisis. He could think of nothing else +but the joys of flying, and what the first, awful plunge would be like, +and when Miss Lake came up to him one afternoon and whispered something +in his ear, he was so wildly happy that he hugged her for several +minutes without the slightest coaxing. + +"It's bright and clear," she explained, "and Fright will not come after +us, for he fears the light, and can only fly on dark and gloomy nights." + +"So we can start----?" he stammered joyfully. + +"To-night," she answered, "for our first practice-flight." + + + + +CHAPTER X + +THE PLUNGE + + +To enter the world of wings is to enter a new state of existence. The +apparent loss of weight; the ability to attain full speed in a few +seconds, and to stop suddenly in a headlong rush without fear of +collapse; the power to steer instantly in any direction by merely +changing the angle of the body; the altered and enormous view of the +green world below--looking down upon forests, seas and clouds; the easy +voluptuous rhythm of rising and falling in long, swinging undulations; +and a hundred other things that simply defy description and can be +appreciated only by actual experience, these are some of the delights of +the new world of wings and flying. And the fearful joy of very high +speed, especially when the exhilaration of escape is added to it, means +a condition little short of real ecstasy. + +Yet Jimbo's first flight, the governess had been careful to tell him, +could not be the flight of final escape; for, even if the wings proved +equal to a prolonged effort, escape was impossible until there was +somewhere safe to escape to. So it was understood that the practice +flights might be long, or might be short; the important thing, +meanwhile, was to learn to fly as well as possible. For skilled flying +is very different to mere headlong rushing, and both courage and +perseverance are necessary to acquire it. + +With rare common sense Miss Lake had said very little about the +possibility of failure. Having warned him about the importance of not +falling, she had then stopped, and the power of suggestion had been +allowed to work only in the right direction of certain success. While +the boy knew that the first plunge from the window would be a moment +fraught with the highest danger, his mind only recognised the mere +off-chance of falling and being caught. He felt confidence in himself, +and by so much, therefore, were the chances of disaster lessened. + +For the rest of the afternoon Jimbo saw nothing of his faithful +companion; he spent the time practising and resting, and when weary of +everything else, he went to the window and indulged in thrilling +calculations about the exact height from the ground. A drop of three +storeys into a paved courtyard with a monster waiting to catch him, and +a high wall too close to allow a proper swing, was an alarming matter +from any point of view. Fortunately, his mind dwelt more on the delight +of prospective flight and freedom than on the chances of being caught. + +The yard lay hot and naked in the afternoon glare and the enclosing wall +had never looked more formidable; but from his lofty perch Jimbo could +see beyond into soft hayfields and smiling meadows, yellow with cowslips +and buttercups. Everything that flew he watched with absorbing interest: +swift blackbirds, whistling as they went, and crows, their wings purple +in the sunshine. The song of the larks, invisible in the sea of blue air +sent a thrill of happiness through him--he, too, might soon know +something of that glad music--and even the stately flight of the +butterflies, which occasionally ventured over into the yard, stirred +anticipations in him of joys to come. + +The day waned slowly. The butterflies vanished; the rooks sailed +homewards through the sunset; the wind dropped away, and the shadows of +the high elms lengthened gradually and fell across the window. + +The mysterious hour of the dusk, when the standard of reality changes +and other worlds come close and listen, began to work its subtle spell +upon his soul. Imperceptibly the shadows deepened as the veil of night +drew silently across the sky. A gentle breathing filled the air; trees +and fields were composing themselves to sleep; stars were peeping; wings +were being folded. + +But the boy's wings, trembling with life to the very tips of their long +feathers, these were not being folded. Charged with excitement, like +himself, they were gathering all their forces for the supreme effort of +their first journey out into the open spaces where they might touch the +secret sources of their own magical life. + +For a long, long time he waited; but at last the trap-door lifted and +Miss Lake appeared above the floor. The moment she stood in the room he +noticed that her wings came through two little slits in her gown and +folded down close to the body. They almost touched the ground. + +"Hush!" she whispered, holding up a warning finger. + +She came over on tiptoe and they began to talk in low whispers. + +"He's on the watch; we must speak very quietly. We couldn't have a +better night for it. The wind's in the south and the moon won't be up +till we're well on our way." + +Now that the actual moment was so near the boy felt something of fear +steal over him. The night seemed so vast and terrible all of a +sudden--like an immense black ocean with no friendly islands where they +could fold their wings and rest. + +"Don't waste your strength thinking," whispered the governess. "When the +time comes, act quickly, that's all!" + +She went over to the window and peered out cautiously, after a while +beckoning the child to join her. + +"He is there," she murmured in his ear. Jimbo could only make out an +indistinct shadowy object crouching under the wall, and he was not even +positive of that. + +"Does he know we're going?" he asked in an awed whisper. + +"He's there on the chance," she muttered, drawing back into the room. +"When there's a possibility of any one getting frightened he's bound to +be lurking about somewhere near. That's Fright all over. But he can't +hurt you," she added, "because you're not going to get frightened. +Besides, he can only fly when it's dark; and to-night we shall have the +moon." + +"I'm not afraid," declared the boy in spite of a rather fluttering +heart. + +"Are you ready?" was all she said. + +At last, then, the moment had come. It was actually beside him, waiting, +full of mystery and wonder, with alarm not far behind. The sun was +buried below the horizon of the world, and the dusk had deepened into +night. Stars were shining overhead; the leaves were motionless; not a +breath stirred; the earth was silent and waiting. + +"Yes, I'm ready," he whispered, almost inaudibly. + +"Then listen," she said, "and I'll tell you exactly what to do: Jump +upwards from the window ledge as high as you can, and the moment you +begin to drop, open your wings and strike with all your might. You'll +rise at once. The thing to remember is to _rise as quickly as possible_, +because the wall prevents a long, easy, sweeping rise; and, whatever +happens, you must clear that wall!" + +"I shan't touch the ground then?" asked a faint little voice. + +"Of course not! You'll get near it, but the moment you use your wings +you'll stop sinking, and rise up, up, up, ever so quickly." + +"And where to?" + +"To me. You'll see me waiting for you above the trees. Steering will +come naturally; it's quite easy." + +Jimbo was already shaking with excitement. He could not help it. And he +knew, in spite of all Miss Lake's care, that Fright was waiting in the +yard to catch him if he fell, or sank too near the ground. + +"I'll go first," added the governess, "and the moment you see that I've +cleared the wall you must jump after me. Only do not keep me waiting!" + +The girl stood for a minute in silence, arranging her wings. Her fingers +were trembling a little. Suddenly she drew the boy to her and kissed him +passionately. + +"Be brave!" she whispered, looking searchingly into his eyes, "and +strike hard--you can't possibly fail." + +In another minute she was climbing out of the window. For one second he +saw her standing on the narrow ledge with black space at her feet; the +next, without even a cry, she sprang out into the darkness, and was +gone. + +Jimbo caught his breath and ran up to see. She dropped like a stone, +turning over sideways in the air, and then at once her wings opened on +both sides and she righted. The darkness swallowed her up for a moment +so that he could not see clearly, and only heard the threshing of the +huge feathers; but it was easy to tell from the sound that she was +rising. + +Then suddenly a black form cleared the wall and rose swiftly in a +magnificent sweep into the sky, and he saw her outlined darkly against +the stars above the high elm tree. She was safe. Now it was his turn. + +"Act quickly! Don't think!" rang in his ears. If only he could do it all +as quickly as she had done it. But insidious fear had been working all +the time below the surface, and his refusal to recognise it could not +prevent it weakening his muscles and checking his power of decision. +Fortunately something of his Older Self came to the rescue. The emotions +of fear, excitement, and intense anticipation combined to call up the +powers of his deeper being: the boy trembled horribly, but the old, +experienced part of him sang with joy. + +Cautiously he began to climb out on to the window-sill; first one foot +and then the other hung over the edge. He sat there, staring down into +black space beneath. + +For a minute he hesitated; despair rushed over him in a wave; he could +never take that awful jump into emptiness and darkness. It was +impossible. Better be a prisoner for ever than risk so fearful a plunge. +He felt cold, weak, frightened, and made a half-movement back into the +room. The wings caught somehow between his legs and nearly flung him +headlong into the yard. + +"Jimbo! I'm waiting for you!" came at that moment in a faint cry from +the stars, and the sound gave him just the impetus he needed before it +was too late. He could not disappoint her--his faithful friend. Such a +thing was impossible. + +He stood upright on the ledge, his hands clutching the window-sash +behind, balancing as best he could. He clenched his fists, drew a deep, +long breath, and jumped upwards and forwards into the air. + +Up rushed the darkness with a shriek; the air whistled in his ears; he +dropped at fearful speed into nothingness. + +At first everything was forgotten--wings, instructions, warnings, and +all. He even forgot to open his wings at all, and in another second he +would have been dashed upon the hard paving-stones of the courtyard +where his great enemy lay waiting to seize him. + +But just in the nick of time he remembered, and the long hours of +practice bore fruit. Out flew the great red wings in a tremendous sweep +on both sides of him, and he began to strike with every atom of strength +he possessed. He had dropped to within six feet of the ground; but at +once the strokes began to tell, and oh, magical sensation! he felt +himself rising easily, lightly, swiftly. + +A very slight effort of those big wings would have been sufficient to +lift him out of danger, but in his terror and excitement he quite +miscalculated their power, and in a single moment he was far out of +reach of the dangerous yard and anything it contained. But the mad rush +of it all made his head swim; he felt dizzy and confused, and, instead +of clearing the wall, he landed on the top of it and clung to the +crumbling coping with hands and feet, panting and breathless. + +The dizziness was only momentary, however. In less than a minute he was +on his feet and in the act of taking his second leap into space. This +time it came more easily. He dropped, and the field swung up to meet +him. Soon the powerful strokes of his wings drove him at great speed +upwards, and he bounded ever higher towards the stars. + +Overhead, the governess hovered like an immense bird, and as he rose up +he caught the sound of her wings beating the air, while far beneath him, +he heard with a shudder a voice like the rushing of a great river. It +made him increase his pace, and in another minute he found himself among +the little whirlwinds that raced about from the beating of Miss Lake's +great wings. + +"Well done!" cried the delighted governess. "Safe at last! Now we can +fly to our heart's content!" + +Jimbo flew up alongside, and together they dashed forward into the +night. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +THE FIRST FLIGHT + + +There was not much talking at first. The stress of conflicting emotions +was so fierce that the words choked themselves in his throat, and the +desire for utterance found its only vent in hard breathing. + +The intoxication of rapid motion carried him away headlong in more +senses than one. At first he felt as if he never would be able to keep +up; then it seemed as if he never would get down again. For with wings +it is almost easier to rise than to fall, and a first flight is, before +anything else, a series of vivid and audacious surprises. + +For a long time Jimbo was so dizzy with excitement and the novelty of +the sensation that he forgot his deliverer altogether. + +And what a flight it was! Instead of the steady race of the carrier +pigeon, or of the rooks homeward bound at evening, it was the see-saw +motion of the wren's swinging journey across the lawn; only heavier, +faster, and with more terrific impetus. Up and down, each time with a +rise and fall of twenty feet, he careered, whistling through the summer +night; at the drop of each curve, so low that the scents of dewy grass +rose into his face; at the crest of it, so high that the trees and +hedges often became mere blots upon the dark surface of the earth. + +The fields rushed by beneath him; the white roads flashed past like +streaks of snow. Sometimes he shot across sheets of water and felt the +cooler air strike his cheeks; sometimes over sheltered meadows, where +the sunshine had slept all day and the air was still soft and warm; on +and on, as easily as rain dropping from the sky, or wind rushing +earthwards from between the clouds. Everything flew past him at an +astonishing rate--everything but the bright stars that gazed calmly down +overhead; and when he looked up and saw their steadfastness it helped to +keep within bounds the fine alarm of this first excursion into the great +vault of the sky. + +"Gently, child!" gasped Miss Lake behind him. "We shall never keep it up +at this rate." + +"Oh! but it's so wonderful," he cried, drawing in the air loudly +between his teeth, and shaking his wings rapidly like a hawk before it +drops. + +The pace slackened a little and the girl drew up alongside. For some +time they flew forward together in silence. + +They had been skirting the edge of a wood, when suddenly the trees fell +away and Jimbo gave a scream and rose fifty feet into the air with a +single bound. Straight in front of him loomed an immense, glaring disc +that seemed to swim suddenly up into the sky above the trees. It hung +there before his eyes and dazzled him. + +"It's only the moon," cried Miss Lake from below. + +Jimbo dropped through the air to her side again with a gasp. + +"I thought it was a big hole in the sky with fire rushing through," he +explained breathlessly. + +The boy stared, full of wonder and delight, at the huge flaming circle +that seemed to fill half the heavens in front of him. + +"Look out!" cried the governess, seizing his hand. + +Whish! whew! whirr! A large bird whipped past them like some winged imp +of darkness, vanishing among the trees far below. There would certainly +have been a collision but for the girl's energetic interference. + +"You must be on the look-out for these night-birds," she said. "They fly +so unexpectedly, and, of course, they don't see us properly. Telegraph +wires and church steeples are bad too, but then we shan't fly over +cities much. Keep a good height, it's safer." + +They altered their course a little, flying at a different angle, so that +the moon no longer dazzled them. Steering came quite easily by turning +the body, and Jimbo still led the way, the governess following heavily +and with a mighty business of wings and flapping. + +It was something to remember, the glory of that first journey through +the air. Sixty miles an hour, and scarcely an effort! Skimming the long +ridges of the hills and rushing through the pure air of mountain tops; +threading the star-beams; bathing themselves from head to foot in an +ocean of cool, clean wind; swimming on the waves of viewless +currents--currents warmed only by the magic of the stars, and kissed by +the burning lips of flying meteors. + +Far below them the moonlight touched the fields with silver and the +murmur of the world rose faintly to their ears, trembling, as it were, +with the inarticulate dreams of millions. Everywhere about them thrilled +and sang the unspeakable power of the night. The mystery of its great +heart seemed laid bare before them. + +It was like a wonder-journey in some Eastern fairy tale. Sometimes they +passed through zones of sweeter air, perfumed with the scents of hay and +wild flowers; at others, the fresh, damp odour of ploughed fields rose +up to them; or, again, they went spinning over leagues of forest where +the tree-tops stretched beneath them like the surface of a wide, green +sea, sleeping in the moonlight. And, when they crossed open water, the +stars shone reflected in their faces; and all the while the wings, +whirring and purring softly through the darkness, made pleasant music in +their ears. + +"I'm tired," declared Jimbo presently. + +"Then we'll go down and rest," said his breathless companion with +obvious relief. + +She showed him how to spread his wings, sloping them towards the ground +at an angle that enabled him to shoot rapidly downwards, at the same +time regulating his speed by the least upward tilt. It was a glorious +motion, without effort or difficulty, though the pace made it hard to +keep the eyes open, and breathing became almost impossible. They dropped +to within ten feet of the ground and then shot forward again. + +But, while the boy was watching his companion's movements, and paying +too little attention to his own, there rose suddenly before him out of +the ground a huge, bulky form of something--and crash--he flew headlong +into it. + +Fortunately it was only a haystack; but the speed at which he was going +lodged his head several inches under the thatch, whence he projected +horizontally into space, feet, arms, and wings gyrating furiously. The +governess, however, soon released him with much laughter, and they +dropped down into the fallen hay upon the ground with no worse result +than a shaking. + +"Oh, what a lark!" he cried, shaking the hay out of his feathers, and +rubbing his head rather ruefully. + +"Except that larks are hardly night-birds," she laughed, helping him. + +They settled with folded wings in the shadow of the haystack; and the +big moon, peeping over the edge at them, must have surely wondered to +see such a funny couple, in such a place, and at such an hour. + +"Mushrooms!" suddenly cried the governess, springing to her feet. "There +must be lots in this field. I'll go and pick some while you rest a bit." + +Off she went, trapesing over the field in the moonlight, her wings +folded behind her, her body bent a little forward as she searched, and +in ten minutes she came back with her hands full. That was undoubtedly +the time to enjoy mushrooms at their best, with the dew still on their +tight little jackets, and the sweet odour of the earth caught under +their umbrellas. + +Soon they were all eaten, and Jimbo was lying back on a pile of hay, his +shoulders against the wall of the stack, and his wings gathered round +him like a warm cloak of feathers. He felt cosy and dozy, full of +mushrooms inside and covered with hay and feathers outside. The +governess had once told him that a sort of open-air sleep sometimes came +after a long flight. It was, of course, not a real sleep, but a state in +which everything about oneself is forgotten; no dreams, no movement, no +falling asleep and waking up in the ordinary sense, but a condition of +deep repose in which recuperation is very great. + +Jimbo would have been greatly interested, no doubt, to know that his +real body on the bed had also just been receiving nourishment, and was +now passing into a quieter and less feverish condition. The parallel +always held true between himself and his body in the nursery, but he +could not know anything about this, and only supposed that it was this +open-air sleep that he felt gently stealing over him. + +It brought at first strange thoughts that carried him far away to other +woods and other fields. While Miss Lake sat beside him eating her +mushrooms, his mind was drawn off to some other little folk. But it was +always stopped just short of them. He never could quite see their faces. +Yet his thoughts continued their search, groping in the darkness; he +felt sure he ought to be sharing his adventures with these other little +persons, whoever they were; they ought to have been sitting beside him +at that very moment, eating mushrooms, combing their wings, comparing +the length of their feathers, and snuggling with him into the warm hay. + +But they obstinately hovered just outside his memory, and refused to +come in and surrender themselves. He could not remember who they were, +and his yearnings went unsatisfied up to the stars, as yearnings +generally do, while his thoughts returned weary from their search and he +yielded to the seductions of the soothing open-air sleep. + +The moon, meanwhile, rose higher and higher, drawing a silver veil over +the stars. Upon the field the dews of midnight fell silently. A faint +mist rose from the ground and covered the flowers in their dim seclusion +under the hedgerows. The hours slipped away swiftly. + +"Come on, Jimbo, boy!" cried the governess at length. "The moon's below +the hills, and we must be off!" + +The boy turned and stared sleepily at her from his nest in the hay. + +"We've got miles to go. Remember the speed we came at!" she explained, +getting up and arranging her wings. + +Jimbo got up slowly and shook himself. + +"I've been miles away," he said dreamily, "miles and miles. But I'm +ready to start at once." + +They looked about for a raised place to jump from. A ladder stood +against the other side of the haystack. The governess climbed up it and +Jimbo followed her drowsily. Hand in hand they sprang into the air from +the edge of the thatched roof, and their wings spread out like sails to +catch the wind. It smote their faces pleasantly as they plunged +downwards and forwards, and the exhilarating rush of cool air banished +from the boy's head the last vestige of the open-air sleep. + +"We must keep up a good pace," cried the governess, taking a stream and +the hedge beyond in a single sweep. "There's a light in the east +already." + +As she spoke a dog howled in a farmyard beneath them, and she shot +upwards as though lifted by a sudden gust of wind. + +"We're too low," she shouted from above. "That dog felt us near. Come up +higher. It's easier flying, and we've got a long way to go." + +Jimbo followed her up till they were several hundred feet above the +earth and the keen air stung their cheeks. Then she led him still +higher, till the meadows looked like the squares on a chess-board and +the trees were like little toy shrubs. Here they rushed along at a +tremendous speed, too fast to speak, their wings churning the air into +little whirlwinds and eddies as they passed, whizzing, whistling, +tearing through space. + +The fields, however, were still dim in the shadows that precede the +dawn, and the stars only just beginning to fade, when they saw the dark +outline of the Empty House below them, and began carefully to descend. +Soon they topped the high elms, startling the rooks into noisy cawing, +and then, skimming the wall, sailed stealthily on outspread wings across +the yard. + +Cautiously dropping down to the level of the window, they crawled over +the sill into the dark little room, and folded their wings. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +THE FOUR WINDS + + +The governess left the boy to his own reflections almost immediately. He +spent the hours thinking and resting; going over again in his mind every +incident of the great flight and wondering when the real, final escape +would come, and what it would be like. Thus, between the two states of +excitement he forgot for a while that he was still a prisoner, and the +spell of horror was lifted temporarily from his heart. + +The day passed quickly, and when Miss Lake appeared in the evening, she +announced that there could be no flying again that night, and that she +wished instead to give him important instruction for the future. There +were rules, and signs, and times which he must learn carefully. The time +might come when he would have to fly alone, and he must be prepared for +everything. + +"And the first thing I have to tell you," she said, exactly as though +it was a schoolroom, "is: _Never fly over the sea._ Our kind of wings +quickly absorb the finer particles of water and get clogged and heavy +over the sea. You finally cannot resist the drawing power of the water, +and you will be dragged down and drowned. So be very careful! When you +are flying high it is often difficult to know where the land ends and +the sea begins, especially on moonless nights. But you can always be +certain of one thing: if there are no sounds below you--hoofs, voices, +wheels, wind in trees--you are over the sea." + +"Yes," said the child, listening with great attention. "And what else?" + +"The next thing is: _Don't fly too high._ Though we fly like birds, +remember we are not birds, and we can fly where they can't. We can fly +in the ether----" + +"Where's that?" he interrupted, half afraid of the sound. + +She stooped and kissed him, laughing at his fear. + +"There is nothing to be frightened about," she explained. "The air gets +lighter and lighter as you go higher, till at last it stops altogether. +Then there's only ether left. Birds can't fly in ether because it's too +thin. We can, because----" + +"Is that why it was good for me to get lighter and thinner?" he +interrupted again in a puzzled voice. + +"Partly, yes." + +"And what happens in the ether, please?" It still frightened him a +little. + +"Nothing--except that if you fly too high you reach a point where the +earth ceases to hold you, and you dash off into space. Weight leaves you +then, and the wings move without effort. Faster and faster you rush +upwards, till you lose all control of your movements, and then----" + +Miss Lake hesitated a moment. + +"And then----?" asked the fascinated child. + +"You may never come down again," she said slowly. "You may be sucked +into anything that happens to come your way--a comet, or a shooting +star, or the moon." + +"I should like a shooting star best," observed the boy, deeply +interested. "The moon frightens me, I think. It looks so dreadfully +clean." + +"You won't like any of them when the time comes," she laughed. "No one +ever gets out again who once gets in. But you'll never be caught that +way after what I've told you," she added, with decision. + +"I shall never want to fly as high as that, I'm sure," said Jimbo. "And +now, please, what comes next?" + +The next thing, she went on to explain, was the _weather_, which, to all +flying creatures, was of the utmost importance. Before starting for a +flight he must always carefully consider the state of the sky, and the +direction in which he wished to go. For this purpose he must master the +meaning and character of the Four Winds and be able to recognise them in +a moment. + +"Once you know these," she said, "you cannot possibly go wrong. To make +it easier, I've put each Wind into a little simple rhyme, for you." + +"I'm listening," he said eagerly. + +"The North Wind is one of the worst and most dangerous, because it blows +so much faster than you think. It's taken you ten miles before you think +you've gone two. In starting with a North Wind, always fly _against_ it; +then it will bring you home easily. If you fly _with_ it, you may be +swept so far that the day will catch you before you can get home; and +then you're as good as lost. Even birds fly warily when this wind is +about. It has no lulls or resting-places in it; it blows steadily on and +on, and conquers everything it comes against--everything except the +mountains." + +"And its rhyme?" asked Jimbo, all ears. + + "It will show you the joy of the birds, my child, + You shall know their terrible bliss; + It will teach you to hide, when the night is wild, + From the storm's too passionate kiss. + For the Wind of the North + Is a volleying forth + That will lift you with springs + In the heart of your wings, + And may sweep you away + To the edge of the day. + So, beware of the Wind of the North, my child, + Fly not with the Wind of the North!" + +"I think I like him all the same," said Jimbo. "But I'll remember always +to fly against him." + +"The East Wind is worse still, for it hurts," continued the governess. +"It stings and cuts. It's like the breath of an ice-creature; it brings +hail and sleet and cold rain that beat down wings and blind the eyes. +Like the North Wind, too, it is dreadfully swift and full of little +whirlwinds, and may easily carry you into the light of day that would +prove your destruction. Avoid it always; no hiding-place is safe from +it. This is the rhyme: + + "It will teach you the secrets the eagles know + Of the tempests' and whirlwinds' birth; + And the magical weaving of rain and snow + As they fall from the sky to the earth. + But an Easterly wind + Is for ever unkind; + It will torture and twist you + And never assist you, + But will drive you with might + To the verge of the night. + So, beware of the Wind of the East, my child, + Fly not with the Wind of the East." + +"The West Wind is really a very nice and jolly wind in itself," she went +on, "but it's dangerous for a special reason: _it will carry you out to +sea_. The Empty House is only a few miles from the coast, and a strong +West Wind would take you there almost before you had time to get down to +earth again. And there's no use struggling against a really steady West +Wind, for it's simply tireless. Luckily, it rarely blows at night, but +goes down with the sun. Often, too, it blows hard to the coast, and then +drops suddenly, leaving you among the fogs and mists of the sea." + +"Rather a nice, exciting sort of wind though," remarked Jimbo, waiting +for the rhyme. + + "So, at last, you shall know from their lightest breath + To which heaven each wind belongs; + And shall master their meaning for life or death + By the shout of their splendid songs. + Yet the Wind of the West + Is a wind unblest; + It is lifted and kissed + By the spirits of mist; + It will clasp you and flee + To the wastes of the sea. + So, beware of the Wind of the West, my child, + Fly not with the Wind of the West!" + +"A jolly wind," observed Jimbo again. "But that doesn't leave much over +to fly with," he added sadly. "They all seem dangerous or cruel." + +"Yes," she laughed, "and so they are till you can master them--then +they're kind, only one that's really always safe and kind is the Wind of +the South. It's a sweet, gentle wind, beloved of all that flies, and you +can't possibly mistake it. You can tell it at once by the murmuring way +it stirs the grasses and the tops of the trees. Its taste is soft and +sweet in the mouth like wine, and there's always a faint perfume about +it like gardens in summer. It is the joy of this wind that makes all +flying things sing. With a South Wind you can go anywhere and no harm +can come to you." + +"Dear old South Wind," cried Jimbo, rubbing his hands with delight. "I +hope it will blow soon." + +"Its rhyme is very easy, too, though you will always be able to tell it +without that," she added. + + "For this is the favourite Wind of all, + Beloved of the stars and night; + In the rustle of leaves you shall hear it call + To the passionate joys of flight. + It will carry you forth in its wonderful hair + To the far-away courts of the sky, + And the breath of its lips is a murmuring prayer + For the safety of all who fly. + For the Wind of the South + Is like wine in the mouth, + With its whispering showers + And perfume of flowers, + When it falls like a sigh + From the heart of the sky." + +"Oh!" interrupted Jimbo, rubbing his hands, "that _is_ nice. That's _my_ +wind!" + + "It will bear you aloft + With a pressure so soft + That you hardly shall guess + Whose the gentle caress." + +"Hooray!" he cried again. + + "It's the kindest of weathers + For our red feathers, + And blows open the way + To the Gardens of Play. + So, fly out with the Wind of the South, my child, + With the wonderful Wind of the South." + +"Oh, I love the South Wind already," he shouted, clapping his hands +again. "I hope it will blow very, _very_ soon." + +"It may be rising even now," answered the governess, leading him to the +window. But, as they gazed at the summer landscape lying in the fading +light of the sunset, all was still and resting. The air was hushed, the +leaves motionless. There was no call just then to flight from among the +tree-tops, and he went back into the room disappointed. + +"But why can't we escape at once?" he asked again, after he had given +his promise to remember all she had told him, and to be extra careful if +he ever went out flying alone. + +"Jimbo, dear, I've told you before, it's because your body isn't ready +for you yet," she answered patiently. "There's hardly any circulation +in it, and if you forced your way back now the shock might stop your +heart beating altogether. Then you'd be really dead, and escape would be +impossible." + +The boy sat on the edge of the bed staring intently at her while she +spoke. Something clutched at his heart. He felt his Older Self, with its +greater knowledge, rising up out of the depths within him. The child +struggled with the old soul for possession. + +"Have _you_ got any circulation?" he asked abruptly at length. "I mean, +has _your_ heart stopped beating?" + +But the smile called up by his words froze on her lips. She crossed to +the window and stood with her back to the fading light, avoiding his +eyes. + +"My case, Jimbo, is a little different from yours," she said presently. +"The important thing is to make certain about your escape. Never mind +about me." + +"But escape without you is nothing," he said, the Older Self now wholly +in possession. "I simply wouldn't go. I'd rather stay here--with you." + +The governess made no reply, but she turned her back to the room and +leaned out of the window. Jimbo fancied he heard a sob. He felt a great +big heart swelling up within his little body, and he crossed over beside +her. For some minutes they stood there in silence, watching the stars +that were already shining faintly in the sky. + +"Whatever happens," he said, nestling against her, "I shan't go from +here without you. Remember that!" + +He was going to say a lot more, but somehow or other, when she stooped +over to kiss his head--he hardly came up to her shoulder--it all ran +suddenly out of his mind, and the little child dropped back into +possession again. The tide of his thoughts that seemed about to rise, +fast and furious, sank away completely, leaving his mind a clean-washed +slate without a single image; and presently, without any more words, the +governess left him and went through the trap-door into the silence and +mystery of the house below. + +Several hours later, about the middle of the night, there came over him +a most disagreeable sensation of nausea and dizziness. The ground rose +and fell beneath his feet, the walls swam about sideways, and the +ceiling slid off into the air. It only lasted a few minutes, however, +and Jimbo knew from what she had told him that it was the Flying +Sickness which always followed the first long flight. + +But, about the same time, another little body, lying in a night-nursery +bed, was being convulsed with a similar attack; and the sickness of the +little prisoner in the Empty House had its parallel, strangely enough, +in the half-tenanted body miles away in a different world. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +PLEASURES OF FLIGHT + + +Since the night when Jimbo had nearly fallen into the yard and risked +capture, Fright, the horrible owner of the house, had kept himself well +out of the way, and had allowed himself to be neither seen nor heard. + +But the boy was not foolish enough to fall into the other trap, and +imagine, therefore, that He did not know what was going on. Jimbo felt +quite sure that He was only waiting his chance; and the governess's +avoidance of the subject tended to confirm this supposition. + +"He's disappeared somewhere and taken the children with him," she +declared when he questioned her. "And now you know almost as much as I +do." + +"But not quite!" he laughed mischievously. + +"Enough, though," she replied. "We want all our energy for escape when +it comes. Don't bother about anything else for the moment." + +During the day, when he was alone, his thoughts and fancies often +terrified him; but at night, when he was rushing through the heavens, +the intense delight of flying drove all minor emotions out of his +consciousness, and he even forgot his one great desire--to escape. One +night, however, something happened that brought it back more keenly than +ever. + +He had been out flying alone, but had not gone far when he noticed that +an easterly wind had begun to rise and was blowing steadily behind him. +With the recent instructions fresh in his head, he thought it wiser to +turn homewards rather than fight his way back later against a really +strong wind from this quarter. Flying low along the surface of the +fields so as to avoid its full force, he suddenly rose up with a good +sweep and settled on the top of the wall enclosing the yard. + +The moonlight lay bright over everything. His approach had been very +quiet. He was just about to sail across to the window when something +caught his eye, and he hesitated a moment, and stared. + +Something was moving at the other end of the courtyard. + +It seemed to him that the moonlight suddenly grew pale and ghastly; the +night air turned chilly; shivers began to run up and down his back. + +He folded his wings and watched. + +At the end of the yard he saw several figures moving busily to and fro +in the shadow of the wall. They were very small; but close beside them +all the time stood a much larger figure which seemed to be directing +their movements. There was no need to look twice; it was impossible to +mistake these terrible little people and their hideous overseer. Horror +rushed over the boy, and a wild scream was out in the night before he +could possibly prevent it. At the same moment a cloud passed over the +face of the moon and the yard was shrouded in darkness. + +A minute later the cloud passed off; but while it was still too dark to +see clearly, Jimbo was conscious of a rushing, whispering sound in the +air, and something went past him at a tremendous pace into the sky. The +wind stirred his hair as it passed, and a moment later he heard voices +far away in the distance--up in the sky or within the house he could +not tell--singing mournfully the song he now knew so well:-- + + We dance with phantoms and with shadows play. + +But when he looked down at the yard he saw that it was deserted, and the +corner by the little upright stones lay in the clear moonlight, empty of +figures, large or small. + +Shivering with fright, he flew across to the window ledge, and almost +tumbled into the arms of the governess who was standing close inside. + +"What's the matter, child?" she asked in a voice that trembled a little. + +And, still shuddering, he told her how he thought he had seen the +children working by the gravestones. All her efforts to calm him at +first failed, but after a bit she drew his thoughts to pleasanter +things, and he was not so certain after all that he had not been +deceived by the cunning of the moonlight and the shadows. + +A long interval passed, and no further sign was given by the owner of +the house or his band of frightened children. Jimbo soon lost himself +again in the delights of flying and the joy of his increasing powers. + +Most of all he enjoyed the quiet, starlit nights before the moon was +up; for the moon dazzled the eyes in the rarefied air where they flew, +whereas the stars gave just enough light to steer by without making it +uncomfortable. + +Moreover, the moon often filled him with a kind of faint terror, as of +death; he could never gaze at her white face for long without feeling +that something entered his heart with those silver rays--something that +boded him no good. He never spoke of this to the governess; indeed, he +only recognised it himself when the moon was near the full; but it lay +always in the depths of his being, and he felt dimly that it would have +to be reckoned with before he could really escape for good. He took no +liberties when the moon was at the full. + +He loved to hover--for he had learned by this time that most difficult +of all flying feats; to hold the body vertical and whirr the wings +without rising or advancing--he loved to hover on windless nights over +ponds and rivers and see the stars reflected in their still pools. +Indeed, sometimes he hovered till he dropped, and only saved himself +from a wetting by sweeping up in a tremendous curve along the surface of +the water, and thus up into the branches of the trees where the +governess sat waiting for him. And then, after a little rest, they +would launch forth again and fly over fields and woods, sometimes even +as far as the hills that ran down the coast of the sea itself. + +They usually flew at a height of about a thousand feet, and the earth +passed beneath them like a great streaked shadow. But as soon as the +moon was up the whole country turned into a fairyland of wonder. Her +light touched the woods with a softened magic, and the fields and hedges +became frosted most delicately. Beneath a thin transparency of mist the +water shone with a silvery brilliance that always enabled them to +distinguish it from the land at any height; while the farms and country +houses were swathed in tender grey shadows through which the trees and +chimneys pierced in slender lines of black. It was wonderful to watch +the shadows everywhere spinning their blue veil of distance that lent +even to the commonest objects something of enchantment and mystery. + +Those were wonderful journeys they made together into the pathways of +the silent night, along the unknown courses, into that hushed centre +where they could almost hear the beatings of her great heart--like +winged thoughts searching the huge vault, till the boy ached with the +sensations of speed and distance, and the old yellow moon seemed to +stagger across the sky. + +Sometimes they rose very high into freezing air, so high that the earth +became a dull shadow specked with light. They saw the trains running in +all directions with thin threads of smoke shining in the glare of the +open fire-boxes. But they seemed very tiny trains indeed, and stirred in +him no recollections of the semi-annual visits to London town when he +went to the dentist, and lunched with the dreaded grandmother or the +stiff and fashionable aunts. + +And when they came down again from these perilous heights, the scents of +the earth rose to meet them, the perfume of woods and fields, and the +smells of the open country. + +There was, too, the delight, the curious delight of windy nights, when +the wind smote and buffeted them, knocking them suddenly sideways, +whistling through their feathers as if it wanted to tear them from their +sockets; rushing furiously up underneath their wings with repeated +blows; turning them round, and backwards and forwards, washing them from +head to foot in a tempestuous sea of rapid and unexpected motion. + +It was, of course, far easier to fly with a wind than without one. The +difficulty with a violent wind was to get down--not to keep up. The +gusts drove up against the under-surfaces of their wings and kept them +afloat, so that by merely spreading them like sails they could sweep and +circle without a single stroke. Jimbo soon learned to manoeuvre so that +he could turn the strength of a great wind to his own purposes, and +revel in its boisterous waves and currents like a strong swimmer in a +rough sea. + +And to listen to the wind as it swept backwards and forwards over the +surface of the earth below was another pleasure; for everything it +touched gave out a definite note. He soon got to know the long sad cry +from the willows, and the little whispering in the tops of the poplar +trees; the crisp, silvery rattle of the birches, and the deep roar from +oaks and beech woods. The sound of a forest was like the shouting of the +sea. + +But far more lovely, when they descended a little, and the wind was more +gentle, were the low pipings among the reeds and the little wayward +murmurs under the hedgerows. + +The pine trees, however, drew them most, with their weird voices, now +far away, now near, rising upwards with a wind of sighs. + +There was a grove of these trees that trooped down to the waters of a +little lake in the hills, and to this spot they often flew when the wind +was low and the music likely, therefore, to be to their taste. For, even +when there was no perceptible wind, these trees seemed always full of +mysterious, mournful whisperings; their branches held soft music that +never quite died away, even when all other trees were silent and +motionless. + +Besides these special expeditions, they flew everywhere and anywhere. +They visited the birds in their nests in lofty trees, and exchanged the +time of night with wise-eyed owls staring out upon them from the ivy. +They hovered up the face of great cliffs, and passed the hawks asleep on +perilous ledges; skimmed over lonely marshes, frightening the +water-birds paddling in and out among the reeds. They followed the +windings of streams, singing among the meadows, and flew along the wet +sands as they watched the moon rise out of the sea. + +These flights were unadulterated pleasure, and Jimbo thought he could +never have enough of them. + +He soon began to notice, too, that the trees emanated something that +affected his own condition. When he sat in their branches this was very +noticeable. Currents of force passed from them into himself. And even +when he flew over their crests he was aware that some woods exhaled +vigorous, life-giving forces, while others tired and depleted him. +Nothing was visible actually, but fine waves seemed to beat up against +his eyes and thoughts, making him stronger or weaker, happy or +melancholy, full of hope and courage, or listless and indifferent. + +These emanations of the trees--this giving-forth of their own personal +forces--were, of course, very varied in strength and character. Oaks and +pines were the best combination, he found, before the stress of a long +flight, the former giving him steadiness, and the latter steely +endurance and the power to steer in sinuous, swift curves, without +taking thought or trouble. + +Other trees gave other powers. All gave something. It was impossible to +sit among their branches without absorbing some of the subtle and +exhilarating tree-life. He soon learned how to gather it all into +himself, and turn it to account in his own being. + +"Sit quietly," the governess said. "Let the forces creep in and stir +about. Do nothing yourself. Give them time to become part of yourself +and mix properly with your own currents. Effort on your part prevents +this, and you weaken them without gaining anything yourself." + +Jimbo made all sorts of experiments with trees and rocks and water and +fields, learning gradually the different qualities of force they gave +forth, and how to use them for himself. Nothing, he found, was really +dead. And sometimes he got himself into strange difficulties in the +beginning of his attempts to master and absorb these nature-forces. + +"Remember," the governess warned him more than once, when he was +inclined to play tricks, "they are in quite a different world to ours. +You cannot take liberties with them. Even a sympathetic soul like +yourself only touches the fringe of their world. You exchange +surface-messages with them, nothing more. Some trees have terrible +forces just below the surface. They could extinguish you +altogether--absorb you into themselves. Others are naturally hostile. +Some are mere tricksters. Others are shifty and treacherous, like the +hollies, that move about too much. The oak and the pine and the elm are +friendly, and you can always trust them absolutely. But there are +others----!" + +She held up a warning finger, and Jimbo's eyes nearly dropped out of his +head. + +"No," she added, in reply to his questions, "you can't learn all this at +once. Perhaps----" She hesitated a little. "Perhaps, if you don't +escape, we should have time for all manner of adventures among the trees +and other things--but then, we _are_ going to escape, so there's no good +wasting time over _that_!" + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +AN ADVENTURE + + +But Miss Lake did not always accompany him on these excursions into the +night; sometimes he took long flights by himself, and she rather +encouraged him in this, saying it would give him confidence in case he +ever lost her and was obliged to find his way about alone. + +"But I couldn't get really lost," he said once to her. "I know the winds +perfectly now and the country round for miles, and I never go out in +fog----" + +"But these are only practice flights," she replied. "The flight of +escape is a very different matter. I want you to learn all you possibly +can so as to be prepared for anything." + +Jimbo felt vaguely uncomfortable when she talked like this. + +"But you'll be with me in the Escape Flight--the final one of all," he +said; "and nothing ever goes wrong when you're with me." + +"I should like to be always with you," she answered tenderly, "but it's +well to be prepared for anything, just the same." + +And more than this the boy could never get out of her. + +On one of these lonely flights, however, he made the unpleasant +discovery that he was being followed. + +At first he only imagined there was somebody after him because of the +curious vibrations of the very rarefied air in which he flew. Every time +his flight slackened and the noise of his own wings grew less, there +reached him from some other corner of the sky a sound like the +vibrations of large wings beating the air. It seemed behind, and +generally below him, but the swishing of his own feathers made it +difficult to hear with distinctness, or to be certain of the direction. + +Evidently it was a long way off; but now and again, when he took a spurt +and then sailed silently for several minutes on outstretched wings, the +beating of distant, following feathers seemed unmistakably clear, and he +raced on again at full speed more than terrified. Other times, however, +when he tried to listen, there was no trace of this other flyer, and +then his fear would disappear, and he would persuade himself that it had +been imagination. So much on these flights he knew to be +imagination--the sentences, voices, and laughter, for instance, that +filled the air and sounded so real, yet were actually caused by the wind +rushing past his ears, the rhythm of the wing-beats, and the tips of the +feathers occasionally rubbing against the sides of his body. + +But at last one night the suspicion that he was followed became a +certainty. + +He was flying far up in the sky, passing over some big city, when the +sound rose to his ears, and he paused, sailing on stretched wings, to +listen. Looking down into the immense space below, he saw, plainly +outlined against the luminous patch above the city, the form of a large +flying creature moving by with rapid strokes. The pulsations of its +great wings made the air tremble so that he both heard and felt them. It +may have been that the vapours of the city distorted the thing, just as +the earth's atmosphere magnifies the rising or setting of the moon; but, +even so, it was easy to see that it was something a good deal larger +than himself, and with a much more powerful flight. + +Fortunately, it did not seem this time to be actually on his trail, for +it swept by at a great pace, and was soon lost in the darkness far +ahead. Perhaps it was only searching for him, and his great height had +proved his safety. But in any case he was exceedingly terrified, and at +once turned round, pointed his head for the earth, and shot downwards in +the direction of the Empty House as fast as ever he could. + +But when he spoke to the governess she made light of it, and told him +there was nothing to be afraid of. It might have been a flock of +hurrying night-birds, she said, or an owl distorted by the city's light, +or even his own reflection magnified in water. Anyhow, she felt sure it +was not chasing him, and he need pay no attention to it. + +Jimbo felt reassured, but not quite satisfied. He knew a flying monster +when he saw one; and it was only when he had been for many more flights +alone, without its reappearance, that his confidence was fully restored, +and he began to forget about it. + +Certainly these lonely flights were very much to his taste. His Older +Self, with its dim hauntings of a great memory somewhere behind him, +took possession then, and he was able to commune with nature in a way +that the presence of the governess made impossible. With her his Older +Self rarely showed itself above the surface for long; he was always the +child. But, when alone, Nature became alive; he drew force from the +trees and flowers, and felt that they all shared a common life together. +Had he been imprisoned by some wizard of old in a tree-form, knowing of +the sunset and the dawn only by the sweet messages that rustled in his +branches, the wind could hardly have spoken to him with a more intimate +meaning; or the life of the fields, eternally patient, have touched him +more nearly with their joys and sorrows. It seemed almost as if, from +his leafy cell, he had gazed before this into the shining pools with +which the summer rains jewelled the meadows, sending his soul in a +stream of unsatisfied yearning up to the stars. It all came back dimly +when he heard the wind among the leaves, and carried him off to the +woods and fields of an existence far antedating this one---- + +And on gentle nights, when the wind itself was half asleep and dreaming, +the pine trees drew him most of all, for theirs was the song he loved +above all others. He would fly round and round the little grove by the +mountain lake, listening for hours together to their sighing voices. But +the governess was never told of this, whatever she may have guessed; for +it seemed to him a joy too deep for words, the pains and sweetness being +mingled too mysteriously for him ever to express in awkward sentences. +Moreover, it all passed away and was forgotten the moment the child took +possession and usurped the older memory. + +One night, when the moon was high and the air was cool and fragrant +after the heat of the day, Jimbo felt a strong desire to get off by +himself for a long flight. He was full of energy, and the space-craving +cried to be satisfied. For several days he had been content with slow, +stupid expeditions with the governess. + +"I'm off alone to-night," he cried, balancing on the window ledge, "but +I'll be back before dawn. Good-bye!" + +She kissed him, as she always did now, and with her good-bye ringing in +his ears, he dropped from the window and rose rapidly over the elms and +away from earth. + +This night, for some reason, the stars and the moon seemed to draw him, +and with tireless wings he mounted up, up, up, to a height he had never +reached before. The intoxication of the strong night air rose into his +brain and he dashed forward ever faster, with a mad delight, into the +endless space before him. + +Mile upon mile lay behind him as he rushed onwards, always pointing a +little on the upward slope, drunk with speed. The earth faded away to a +dark expanse of shadow beneath him, and he no longer was conscious of +the deep murmur that usually flowed steadily upwards from its surface. +He had often before risen out of reach of the earth noises, but never so +far that this dull reverberating sound, combined of all the voices of +the world merged together, failed to make itself heard. To-night, +however, he heard nothing. The stars above his head changed from yellow +to diamond white, and the cold air stung his cheeks and brought the +water to his eyes. + +But at length the governess's warning, as he explored these forbidden +regions, came back to him, and in a series of gigantic bounds that took +his breath away completely, he dropped nearer to the earth again and +kept on at a much lower level. + +The hours passed and the position of the moon began to alter +noticeably. Some of the constellations that were overhead when he +started were now dipping below the horizon. Never before had he ventured +so far from home, and he began to realise that he had been flying much +longer than he knew or intended. The speed had been terrific. + +The change came imperceptibly. With the discovery that his wings were +not moving quite so easily as before, he became suddenly aware that this +had really been the case for some little time. He was flying with +greater effort, and for a long time this effort had been increasing +gradually before he actually recognised the fact. + +Although no longer pointing towards the earth he seemed to be sinking. +It became increasingly difficult to fly upwards. His wings did not seem +to fail or weaken, nor was he conscious of feeling tired; but something +was ever persuading him to fly lower, almost as if a million tiny +threads were coaxing him downwards, drawing him gradually nearer to the +world again. Whatever it was, the earth had come much closer to him in +the last hour, and its familiar voices were pleasant to hear after the +boundless heights he had just left. + +But for some reason his speed grew insensibly less and less. His wings +moved apparently as fast as before, but it was harder to keep up. In +spite of himself he kept sinking. The sensation was quite new, and he +could not understand it. It almost seemed as though he were being +_pulled_ downwards. + +Jimbo began to feel uneasy. He had not lost his bearings, but he was a +very long way from home, and quite beyond reach of the help he was so +accustomed to. With a great effort he mounted several hundred feet into +the air, and tried hard to stay there. For a short time he succeeded, +but he soon felt himself sinking gradually downwards again. The force +drawing him was a constant force without rise or fall; and with a deadly +feeling of fear the boy began to realise that he would soon have to +yield to it altogether. His heart beat faster and his thoughts turned to +the friend who was then far away, but who alone could save him. + +She, at least, could have explained it and told him what best to do. But +the governess was beyond his reach. This problem he must face alone. + +Something, however, had to be done quickly, and Jimbo, acting more as +the man than as the boy, turned and flew hurriedly forward in another +direction. He hoped this might somehow counteract the force that still +drew him downwards; and for a time it apparently did so, and he flew +level. But the strain increased every minute, and he looked down with +something of a shudder as he realised that before very long he would be +obliged to yield to this deadly force--and drop! + +It was then for the first time he noticed a change had come over the +surface of the earth below. Instead of the patchwork of field and wood +and road, he saw a vast cloud stretching out, white and smooth in the +moonlight. The world was hidden beneath a snowy fog, dense and +impenetrable. It was no longer even possible to tell in what direction +he was flying, for there was nothing to steer by. This was a new and +unexpected complication, and the boy could not understand how the change +had come about so quickly; the last time he had glanced down for +indications to steer by, everything had been clear and easily visible. + +It was very beautiful, this carpet of white mist with the silver moon +shining upon it, but it thrilled him now with an unpleasant sense of +dread. And, still more unpleasant, was a new sound which suddenly broke +in upon the stillness and turned his blood into ice. He was certain that +he heard wings behind him. He was being followed, and this meant that it +was impossible to turn and fly back. + +There was nothing now to do but fly forwards and hope to distance the +huge wings; but if he was being followed by the powerful flyer he had +seen a few nights before, the boy knew that he stood little chance of +success, and he only did it because it seemed the one thing possible. + +The cloud was dense and chill as he entered it; its moisture clung to +his wings and made them heavy; his muscles seemed to stiffen, and motion +became more and more difficult. The wings behind him meanwhile came +closer. + +He was flying along the surface of the mist now, his body and wings +hidden, and his head just above the level. He could see along its white, +even top. If he sank a few more inches it would be impossible to see at +all, or even to judge where he was going. Soon it rose level with his +lips, and at the same time he noticed a new smell in the air, faint at +first, but growing every moment stronger. It was a fresh, sweet odour, +yet it somehow added to his alarm, and stirred in him new centres of +uneasiness. He tried vainly to increase his speed and distance the wings +which continued to gain so steadily upon him from behind. + +The cloud, apparently, was not everywhere of the same density, for here +and there he saw the tops of green hills below him as he flew. But he +could not understand why each green hill seemed to have a little lake on +its summit--a little lake in which the reflected moon stared straight up +into his face. Nor could he quite make out what the sounds were which +rose to his ears through the muffling of the cloud--sounds of tumultuous +rushing, hissing, and tumbling. They were continuous, these sounds, and +once or twice he thought he heard with them a deep, thunderous roar that +almost made his heart stop beating as he listened. + +Was he, perhaps, over a range of high mountains, and was this the sound +of the tumbling torrents? + +Then, suddenly, it came to him with a shock that the ordinary sounds of +the earth had wholly ceased. + +Jimbo felt his head beginning to whirl. He grew weaker every minute; +less able to offer resistance to the remorseless forces that were +sucking him down. Now the mist had closed over his head, and he could no +longer see the moonlight. He turned again, shaking with terror, and +drove forward headlong through the clinging vapour. A sensation of +choking rose in his throat; he was tired out, ready to drop with +exhaustion. The wings of the following creature were now so close that +he thought every minute he would be seized from behind and plunged into +the abyss to his death. + +It was just then that he made the awful discovery that the world below +him was not stationary: the _green hills were moving_. They were +sweeping past with a rushing, thundering sound in regular procession; +and their huge sides were streaked with white. The reflection of the +moon leaped up into his face as each hill rolled hissing and gurgling +by, and he knew at last with a shock of unutterable horror that it was +THE SEA! + +He was flying over the sea, and the waters were drawing him down. The +immense, green waves that rolled along through the sea fog, carrying the +moon's face on their crests, foaming and gurgling as they went, were +already leaping up to seize him by the feet and drag him into their +depths. + +He dropped several feet deeper into the mist, and towards the sea, +terror-stricken and blinded. Then, turning frantically, not knowing what +else to do, he struck out, with his last strength, for the upper surface +and the moonlight. But as he did so, turning his face towards the sky he +saw a dark form hovering just above him, covering his retreat with huge +outstretched wings. It was too late; he was hemmed in on all sides. + +At that moment a huge, rolling wave, bigger than all the rest, swept +past and wet him to the knees. His heart failed him. The next wave would +cover him. Already it was rushing towards him with foaming crest. He was +in its shadow; he heard its thunder. Darkness rushed over him--he saw +the vast sides streaked with grey and white--when suddenly, the owner of +the wings plucked him in the back, mid-way between the shoulders, and +lifted him bodily out of the fog, so that the wave swept by without even +wetting his feet. + +The next minute he saw a dim, white sheet of silvery mist at his feet, +and found himself far above it in the sweet, clean moonlight; and when +he turned, almost dead with terror, to look upon his captor, he found +himself looking straight into the eyes of--the governess. + +The sense of relief was so great that Jimbo simply closed his wings, and +hung, a dead weight, in the air. + +"Use your wings!" cried the governess sharply; and, still holding him, +while he began to flap feebly, she turned and flew in the direction of +the land. + +"You!" he gasped at last. "It was you following me!" + +"Of course it was me! I never let you out of my sight. I've always +followed you--every time you've been out alone." + +Jimbo was still conscious of the drawing power of the sea, but he felt +that his companion was too strong for it. After fifteen minutes of +fierce flight he heard the sounds of earth again, and knew that they +were safe. + +Then the governess loosened her hold, and they flew along side by side +in the direction of home. + +"I won't scold you, Jimbo," she said presently, "for you've suffered +enough already." She was the first to break the silence, and her voice +trembled a little. "But remember, the sea draws you down, just as +surely as the moon draws you up. Nothing would please Him better than to +see you destroyed by one or the other." + +Jimbo said nothing. But, when once they were safe inside the room again, +he went up and cried his eyes out on her arm, while she folded him in to +her heart as if he were the only thing in the whole world she had to +love. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +THE CALL OF THE BODY + + +One night, towards the end of the practice flights, a strange thing +happened, which showed that the time for the final flight of escape was +drawing near. + +They had been out for several hours flying through a rainstorm, the +thousand little drops of which stung their faces like tiny gun-shot. +About two in the morning the wind shifted and drove the clouds away as +by magic; the stars came out, at first like the eyes of children still +dim with crying, but later with a clear brilliance that filled Jimbo and +the governess with keen pleasure. The air was washed and perfumed; the +night luminous, alive, singing. All its tenderness and passion entered +their hearts and filled them with the wonder of its glory. + +"Come down, Jimbo," said the governess, "and we'll lie in the trees and +smell the air after the rain." + +"Yes," added the boy, whose Older Self had been whispering mysterious +things to him, "and watch the stars and hear them singing." + +He led the way to some beech trees that lined a secluded lane, and +settled himself comfortably in the top branches of the largest, while +the governess soon found a resting-place beside him. It was a deserted +spot, far from human habitation. Here and there through the foliage they +could see little pools of rain-water reflecting the sky. The group of +trees swung in the wind, dreaming great woodland dreams, and overhead +the stars looked like a thousand orchards in the sky, filling the air +with the radiance of their blossoms. + +"How brilliant they are to-night," said the governess, after watching +the boy attentively for some minutes as they lay side by side in the +great forked branch. "I never saw the constellations so clear." + +"But they have so little shape," he answered dreamily; "if we wore +lights when we flew about we should make much better constellations than +they do." + +"The Big and Little Child instead of the Big and Little Bear," she +laughed, still watching him. + +"I'm slipping away----" he began, and then stopped suddenly. He saw the +expression of his companion's eyes, which were looking him through and +through with the most poignant love and yearning mingled in their gaze, +and something clutched at his heart that he could not understand. + +"----not slipping out of the tree," he went on vaguely, "but slipping +into some new place or condition. I don't understand it. Am I--going off +somewhere--where you can't follow? I thought suddenly--I was losing +you." + +The governess smiled at him sadly and said nothing. She stroked his +wings and then raised them to her lips and kissed them. Jimbo watched +her, and folded his other wing across into her hands; he felt unhappy, +and his heart began to swell within him; but he didn't know what to say, +and the Older Self began slowly to fade away again. + +"But the stars," he went on, "have they got things they send out +too--forces, I mean, like the trees? Do they send out something that +makes us feel sad, or happy, or strong, or weak?" + +She did not answer for some time; she lay watching his face and fondling +his smooth red wings; and, presently, when she did begin to explain, +Jimbo found that the child in him was then paramount again, and he +could not quite follow what she said. + +He tried to answer properly and seem interested, but her words were very +long and hard to understand, and after a time he thought she was talking +to herself more than to him, and he gave up all serious effort to +follow. Then he became aware that her voice had changed. The words +seemed to drop down upon him from a great height. He imagined she was +standing on one of those far stars he had been asking about, and was +shouting at him through an immense tube of sky and darkness. The words +pricked his ears like needle-points, only he no longer heard them as +words, but as tiny explosions of sound, meaningless and distant. Swift +flashes of light began to dance before his eyes, and suddenly from +underneath the tree, a wind rose up and rushed, laughing, across his +face. Darkness in a mass dropped over his eyes, and he sank backwards +somewhere into another corner of space altogether. + +The governess, meanwhile, lay quite still, watching the limp form in the +branches beside her and still holding the tips of his red wings. +Presently tears stole into her eyes, and began to run down her cheeks. +One deep sigh after another escaped from her lips; but the little boy, +or the old soul, who was the cause of all her emotion, apparently was +far away and knew nothing of it. For a long time she lay in silence, and +then leaned a little nearer to him, so as to see his full face. The eyes +were wide open and staring, but they were looking at nothing she could +see, for the consciousness cannot be in two places at the same time, and +Jimbo just then was off on a little journey of his own, a journey that +was but preliminary to the great final one of all. + +"Jimbo," whispered the girl between her tears and sighs, "Jimbo! Where +have you gone to? Tell me, are they getting ready for you at last, and +am I to lose you after all? Is this the only way I can save you--by +losing you?" + +There was no answer, no sign of movement; and the governess hid her face +in her hands and cried quietly to herself, while her tears dropped down +through the branches of the tree and fell into the rain-pools beneath. + +For Jimbo's state of oblivion in the tree was in reality a momentary +return to consciousness in his body on the bed, and the repaired +mechanism of the brain and muscles had summoned him back on a sort of +trial visit. He remembered nothing of it afterwards, any more than one +remembers the experiences of deep sleep; but the fact was that, with the +descent of the darkness upon him in the branches, he had opened his eyes +once again on the scene in the night-nursery bedroom where his body lay. + +He saw figures standing round the bed and about the room; his mother +with the same white face as before, was still bending over the bed +asking him if he knew her; a tall man in a long black coat moved +noiselessly to and fro; and he saw a shaded lamp on a table a little to +the right of the bed. Nothing seemed to have changed very much, though +there had probably been time enough since he last opened his eyes for +the black-coated doctor to have gone and come again for a second visit. +He held an instrument in his hands that shone brightly in the lamplight. +Jimbo saw this plainly and wondered what it was. He felt as if he were +just waking out of a nice, deep sleep--dreamless and undisturbed. The +Empty House, the Governess, Fright and the Children had all vanished +from his memory, and he knew no more about wings and feathers than he +did about the science of meteorology. + +But the bedroom scene was a mere glimpse after all; his eyes were +already beginning to close again. First they shut out the figure of the +doctor; then the bed-curtains; and then the nurse moved her arm, making +the whole scene quiver for an instant, like some huge jelly-shape, +before it dipped into profound darkness and disappeared altogether. His +mother's voice ran off into a thin trickle of sound, miles and miles +away, and the light from the lamp followed him with its glare for less +than half a second. All had vanished. + +"Jimbo, dear, where have you been? Can you remember anything?" asked the +soft voice beside him, as he looked first at the stars overhead, and +then from the tracery of branches and leaves beneath him to the great +sea of tree-tops and open country all round. + +But he could tell her nothing; he seemed dreamy and absent-minded, lying +and staring at her as if he hardly knew who she was or what she was +saying. His mind was still hovering near the border-line of the two +states of consciousness, like the region between sleeping and waking, +where both worlds seem unreal and wholly wonderful. + +He could not answer her questions, but he evidently caught some reflex +of her emotions, for he leaned towards her across the branches, and +said he was happy and never wanted to leave her. Then he crawled to the +end of the big bough and sprang out into the air with a shout of +delight. He was the child again--the flying child, wild with the +excitement of tearing through the night air at fifty miles an hour. + +The governess soon followed him and they flew home together, taking a +long turn by the sea and past the great chalk cliffs, where the sea sang +loud beneath them. + +These lapses became with time more frequent, as well as of longer +duration; and with them the boy noticed that the longing to escape +became once again intense. He wanted _to get home_, wherever home was; +he experienced a sort of nostalgia for the body, though he could not +remember where that body lay. But when he asked the governess what this +feeling meant, she only mystified him by her answers, saying that every +one, in the body or out of it, felt a deep longing for their final +_home_, though they might not have the least idea where it lay, or even +to be able to recognise, much less to label, their longing. + +His normal feelings, too, were slowly returning to him. The Older Self +became more and more submerged. As he approached the state of ordinary, +superficial consciousness, the characteristics of that state reflected +themselves more and more in his thoughts and feelings. His memory still +remained a complete blank; but he somehow felt that the things, places, +and people he wanted to remember, had moved much nearer to him than +before. Every day brought them more within his reach. + +"All these forgotten things will come back to me soon, I know," he said +one day to the governess, "and then I'll tell you all about them." + +"Perhaps you'll remember me too then," she answered, a shadow passing +across her face. + +Jimbo clapped his hands with delight. + +"Oh," he cried, "I should like to remember you, because that would make +you a sort of two-people governess, and I should love you twice as +much." + +But with the gradual return to former conditions the feelings of age and +experience grew dim and indefinite, his knowledge lessened, becoming +obscure and confused, showing itself only in vague impressions and +impulses, until at last it became quite the exception for the +child-consciousness to be broken through by flashes of intuition and +inspiration from the more deeply hidden memories. + +For one thing, the deep horror of the Empty House and its owner now +returned to him with full force. Fear settled down again over the room, +and lurked in the shadows over the yard. A vivid dread seized him of the +_other door_ in the room--the door through which the Frightened Children +had disappeared, but which had never opened since. It gradually became +for him a personality in the room, a staring, silent, listening thing, +always watching, always waiting. One day it would open and he would be +caught! In a dozen ways like this the horror of the house entered his +heart and made him long for escape with all the force of his being. + +But the governess, too, seemed changing; she was becoming more vague and +more mysterious. Her face was always sad now, and her eyes wistful; her +manner became restless and uneasy, and in many little ways the child +could not fail to notice that her mind was intent upon other things. He +begged her to name the day for the final flight, but she always seemed +to have some good excuse for putting it off. + +"I feel frightened when you don't tell me what's going on," he said to +her. + +"It's the preparations for the last flight," she answered, "the flight +of escape. He'll try to prevent us going together so that you should get +lost. But it's better you shouldn't know too much," she added. "Trust me +and have patience." + +"Oh, that's what you're so afraid of," he said, "_separation_!" He was +very proud indeed of the long word, and said it over several times to +himself. + +And the governess, looking out of the window at the fading sunlight, +repeated to herself more than to him the word he was so proud of. + +"Yes, that's what I'm so afraid of--separation; but if it means your +salvation----" and her sentence remained unfinished as her eyes wandered +far above the tops of the trees into the shadows of the sky. + +And Jimbo, drawn by the sadness of her voice, turned towards the window +and noticed to his utter amazement that he could _see right through +her_. He could see the branches of the trees _beyond_ her body. + +But the next instant she turned and was no longer transparent, and +before the boy could say a word, she crossed the floor and disappeared +from the room. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +PREPARATION + + +Now that he was preparing to leave it, Jimbo began to realise more fully +how things in this world of delirium--so the governess sometimes called +it--were all terribly out of order and confused. So long as he was +wholly in it and of it, everything had seemed all right; but, as he +approached his normal condition again, the disorder became more and more +apparent. + +And the next few hours brought it home with startling clearness, and +increased to fever heat the desire for final escape. + +It was not so much a nonsense-world--it was too alarming for that--as a +world of nightmare, wherein everything was distorted. Events in it were +all out of proportion; effects no longer sprang from adequate causes; +things happened in a dislocated sort of way, and there was no sequence +in the order of their happening. Tiny occurrences filled him with +disproportionate, inconceivable horror; and great events, on the other +hand, passed him scathless. The spirit of disorder--monstrous, uncouth, +terrifying--reigned supreme; and Jimbo's whole desire, though +inarticulate, was to escape back into order and harmony again. + +In contrast to all this dreadful uncertainty, the conduct of the +governess stood out alone as the one thing he could count upon: she was +sure and unfailing; he felt absolute confidence in her plans for his +safety, and when he thought of her his mind was at rest. Come what +might, she would always be there in time to help. The adventure over the +sea had proved that; but, childlike, he thought chiefly of his own +safety, and had ceased to care very much whether she escaped with him or +not. It was the older Jimbo that preferred captivity to escape without +her, whereas every minute now he was sinking deeper into the normal +child state in which the intuitive flashes from the buried soul became +more and more rare. + +Meanwhile, there was preparation going on, secret and mysterious. He +could feel it. Some one else besides the governess was making plans, and +the boy began to dread the moment of escape almost as much as he +desired it. The alternative appalled him--to live for ever in the horror +of this house, bounded by the narrow yard, watched by Fright listening +ever at his elbow, and visited by the horrible Frightened Children. Even +the governess herself began to inspire him with something akin to fear, +as her personality grew more and more mysterious. He thought of her as +she stood by the window, with the branches of the tree visible through +her body, and the thought filled him with a dreadful and haunting +distress. + +But this was only when she was absent; the moment she came into the +room, and he looked into her kind eyes, the old feeling of security +returned, and he felt safe and happy. + +Once, during the day, she came up to see him, and this time with final +instructions. Jimbo listened with rapt attention. + +"To-night, or to-morrow night we start," she said in a quiet voice. "You +must wait till you hear me calling----" + +"But sha'n't we start together?" he interrupted. + +"Not exactly," she replied. "I'm doing everything possible to put him +off the scent, but it's not easy, for once Fright knows you he's always +on the watch. Even if he can't prevent your escape, he'll try to send +you home to your body with such a shock that you'll be only 'half there' +for the rest of your life." + +Jimbo did not quite understand what she meant by this, and returned at +once to the main point. + +"Then the moment you call I'm to start?" + +"Yes. I shall be outside somewhere. It depends on the wind and weather a +little, but probably I shall be hovering above the trees. You must dash +out of the window and join me the moment you hear me call. Clear the +wall without sinking into the yard, and mind he doesn't tear your wings +off as you fly by." + +"What will happen, though, if I don't find you?" he asked. + +"You might get lost. If he succeeds in getting me out of the way first, +you're sure to get lost----" + +"But I've had long flights without getting lost," he objected. + +"Nothing to this one," she replied. "It will be tremendous. You see, +Jimbo, it's not only distance; it's change of condition as well." + +"I don't mind what it is so long as we escape together," he said, +puzzled by her words. + +He kept his eyes fixed on her face. It seemed to him she was changing +even as he looked at her. A sort of veil lifted from her features. He +fancied he could see the shape of the door through her body. + +"Oh, please, Miss Lake----" he began in a frightened voice, taking a +step towards her. "What is the matter? You look so different!" + +"Nothing, dearest boy, is the matter," she replied faintly. "I feel sad +at the thought of your--of our going, that's all. But that's nothing," +she added more briskly, "and remember, I've told you exactly what to do; +so you can't make any mistake. Now good-bye for the present." + +There was a smile on her face that he had never seen there before, and +an expression of tenderness and love that he could not fail to +understand. But even as he looked she seemed to fade away into a +delicate, thin shadow as she moved slowly towards the trap-door. Jimbo +stretched out his arms to touch her, for the moment of dread had passed, +and he wanted to kiss her. + +"No!" she cried sharply. "Don't touch me, child; don't touch me!" + +But he was already close beside her, and in another second would have +had his arms round her, when his foot stumbled over something, and he +fell forward into her with his full weight. Instead of saving himself +against her body, however, he fell _clean through her_! Nothing stopped +him; there was no resistance; he met nothing more solid than air, and +fell full length upon the floor. Before he could recover from his +surprise and pick himself up, something touched him on the lips, and he +heard a voice that was faint as a whisper saying, "Good-bye, darling +child, and bless you." The next moment he was on his feet again and the +room was empty. The governess had gone through the trap-door, and he was +alone. + +It was all very strange and confusing, and he could not understand what +was happening to her. He never for a moment realised that the change was +in himself, and that as the tie between himself and his body became +closer, the things of this other world he had been living in for so long +must fade gradually away into shadows and emptiness. + +But Jimbo was a brave boy; there was nothing of the coward in him, +though his sensitive temperament made him sometimes hesitate where an +ordinary child with less imagination would have acted promptly. The +desire to cry he thrust down and repressed, fighting his depression by +the thought that within a few hours the voice might sound that should +call him to the excitement of the last flight--and freedom. + +The rest of the daylight slipped away very quickly, and the room was +full of shadows almost before he knew it. Then came the darkness. +Outside, the wind rose and fell fitfully, booming in the chimney with +hollow music, and sighing round the walls of the house. A few stars +peeped between the branches of the elms, but masses of cloud hid most of +the sky, and the air felt heavy with coming rain. + +He lay down on the bed and waited. At the least sound he started, +thinking it might be the call from the governess. But the few sounds he +did hear always resolved themselves into the moaning of the wind, and no +voice came. With his eyes on the open window, trying to pierce the gloom +and find the stars, he lay motionless for hours, while the night wore on +and the shadows deepened. + +And during those long hours of darkness and silence he was conscious +that a change was going on within him. Name it he could not, but +somehow it made him feel that living people like himself were standing +near, trying to speak, beckoning, anxious to bring him back into their +own particular world. The darkness was so great that he could see only +the square outline of the open window, but he felt sure that any sudden +flash of light would have revealed a group of persons round his bed with +arms outstretched, trying to reach him. The emotion they roused in him +was not fear, for he felt sure they were kind, and eager only to help +him; and the more he realised their presence, the less he thought about +the governess who had been doing so much to make his escape possible. + +Then, too, voices began to sound somewhere in the air, but he could not +tell whether they were actually in the room, or outside in the night, or +only within himself--in his own head:--strange, faint voices, +whispering, laughing, shouting, crying; fragments of stories, rhymes, +riddles, odd names of people and places jostled one another with varying +degrees of clearness, now loud, now soft, till he wondered what it all +meant, and longed for the light to come. + +But besides all this, something else, too, was abroad that +night--something he could not name or even think about without shaking +with terror down at the very roots of his being. And when he thought of +this, his heart called loudly for the governess, and the people hidden +in the shadows of the room seemed quite useless and unable to help. + +Thus he hovered between the two worlds and the two memories, phantoms +and realities shifting and changing places every few minutes. + +A little light would have saved him much suffering. If only the moon +were up! Moonlight would have made all the difference. Even a moon half +hidden and misty would have put the shadows farther away from him. + +"Dear old misty moon!" he cried half aloud to himself upon the bed, "why +aren't you here to-night? My last night!" + +Misty Moon, Misty Moon! The words kept ringing in his head. Misty Moon, +Misty Moon! They swam round in his blood in an odd, tumultuous rhythm. +Every time the current of blood passed through his brain in the course +of its circulation it brought the words with it, altered a little, and +singing like a voice. + +Like a voice! Suddenly he made the discovery that it actually _was_ a +voice--and not his own. It was no longer the blood singing in his +veins, it was some one singing outside the window. The sound began +faintly and far away, up above the trees; then it came gradually nearer, +only to die away again almost to a whisper. + +If it was not the voice of the governess, he could only say it was a +very good imitation of it. + +The words forming out of the empty air rose and fell with the wind, and, +taking his thoughts, flung them in a stream through the dark sky towards +the hidden, misty moon: + + "O misty moon, + Dear, misty moon, + The nights are long without thee; + The shadows creep + Across my sleep, + And fold their wings about me!" + +And another silvery voice, that might have been the voice of a star, +took it up faintly, evidently from a much greater distance: + + "O misty moon, + Sweet, misty moon, + The stars are dim behind thee; + And, lo, thy beams + Spin through my dreams + And weave a veil to blind me!" + +The sound of this beautiful voice so delighted Jimbo that he sprang +from his bed and rushed to the window, hoping that he might be able to +hear it more clearly. But, before he got half-way across the room, he +stopped short, trembling with terror. Underneath his very feet, in the +depths of the house, he heard the awful voice he dreaded more than +anything else. It roared out the lines with a sound like the rushing of +a great river: + + "O misty moon, + Pale misty moon, + Thy songs are nightly driven, + Eternally, + From sky to sky, + O'er the old, grey Hills of Heaven!" + +And after the verse Jimbo heard a great peal of laughter that seemed to +shake the walls of the house, and rooted his feet to the floor. It +rolled away with thundering echoes into the very bowels of the earth. He +just managed to crawl back to his mattress and lie down, when another +voice took up the song, but this time in accents so tender, that the +child felt something within him melt into tears of joy, and he was on +the verge of recognising, for the first time since his accident, the +voice of his mother: + + "O misty moon, + Shy, misty moon, + Whence comes the blush that trembles + In sweet disgrace + O'er half thy face + When Night her stars assembles?" + +But his memory, of course, failed him just as he seemed about to grasp +it, and he was left wondering why the sound of that one voice had +brought him a moment of radiant happiness in the midst of so much horror +and pain. Meanwhile the answering voices went on, each time different, +and in new directions. + +But the next verse somehow brought back to him all the terror he had +felt in his flight over the sea, when the sound of the hissing waters +had reached his ears through the carpet of fog: + + "O misty moon, + Persuasive moon, + Earth's tides are ever rising; + By the awful grace + Of thy weird white face + Leap the seas to thy enticing!" + +Then followed the voice that had started the horrid song. This time he +was sure it was not Miss Lake's voice, but only a very clever imitation +of it. Moreover, it again ended in a shriek of laughter that froze his +blood: + + "O misty moon, + Deceiving moon, + Thy silvery glance brings sadness; + Who flies to thee, + From land or sea, + Shall end--his--days--in--MADNESS!" + +Other voices began to laugh and sing, but Jimbo stopped his ears, for he +simply could not bear any more. He felt certain, too, that these strange +words to the moon had all been part of a trap--a device to draw him to +the window. He shuddered to think how nearly he had fallen into it, and +determined to lie on the bed and wait till he heard his companion +calling, and knew beyond all doubt that it was she. + +But the night passed away and the dawn came, and no voice had called him +forth to the last flight. + +Hitherto, in all his experiences, there had been only one absolute +certainty: the appearance of the governess with the morning light. But +this time sunrise came and the clouds cleared away, and the sweet smells +of field and air stole into the little room, yet without any sign of the +governess. The hours passed, and she did not come, till finally he +realised that she was not coming at all, and he would have to spend the +whole day alone. Something had happened to prevent her, or else it was +all part of her mysterious "plan." He did not know, and all he could do +was to wait, and wonder, and hope. + +All day long he lay and waited, and all day long he was alone. The +trap-door never once moved; the courtyard remained empty and deserted; +there was no sound on the landing or on the stairs; no wind stirred the +leaves outside, and the hot sun poured down out of a cloudless sky. He +stood by the open window for hours watching the motionless branches. +Everything seemed dead; not even a bird crossed his field of vision. The +loneliness, the awful silence, and above all, the dread of the +approaching night, were sometimes more than he seemed able to bear; and +he wanted to put his head out of the window and scream, or lie down on +the bed and cry his heart out. But he yielded to neither impulse; he +kept a brave heart, knowing that this would be his last night in prison, +and that in a few hours' time he would hear his name called out of the +sky, and would dash through the window to liberty and the last wild +flight. This thought gave him courage, and he kept all his energy for +the great effort. + +Gradually, once more, the sunlight faded, and the darkness began to +creep over the land. Never before had the shadows under the elms looked +so fantastic, nor the bushes in the field beyond assumed such sinister +shapes. The Empty House was being gradually invested; the enemy was +masquerading already under cover of these very shadows. + +Very soon, he felt, the attack would begin, and he must be ready to act. + +The night came down at last with a strange suddenness, and with it the +warning of the governess came back to him; he thought quakingly of the +stricken children who had been caught and deprived of their wings; and +then he pulled out his long red feathers and tried their strength, and +gained thus fresh confidence in their power to save him when the time +came. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +OFF! + + +With the full darkness a whole army of horrors crept nearer. He felt +sure of this, though he could actually see nothing. The house was +surrounded, the courtyard crowded. Outside, on the stairs, in the other +rooms, even on the roof itself, waited dreadful things ready to catch +him, to tear off his wings, to make him prisoner for ever and ever. + +The possibility that something had happened to the governess now became +a probability. Imperceptibly the change was wrought; he could not say +how or when exactly; but he now felt almost certain that the effort to +keep her out of the way had succeeded. If this were true, the boy's only +hope lay in his wings, and he pulled them out to their full length and +kissed them passionately, speaking to the strong red feathers as if they +were living little persons. + +"You must save me! You will save me, won't you?" he cried in his +anguish. And every time he did this and looked at them he gained fresh +hope and courage. + +The problem _where he was to fly to_ had not yet insisted on a solution, +though it lay always at the back of his mind; for the final flight of +escape without a guide had never been even a possibility before. + +Lying there alone in the darkness, waiting for the sound of the voice so +longed-for, he found his thoughts turning again to the moon, and the +strange words of the song that had puzzled him the night before. What in +the world did it all mean? Why all this about the moon? Why was it a +cruel moon, and why should it attract and persuade and entice him? He +felt sure, the more he thought of it, that this had all been a device to +draw him to the window--and perhaps even farther. + +The darkness began to terrify him; he dreaded more and more the waiting, +listening things that it concealed. Oh, when would the governess call to +him? When would he be able to dash through the open window and join her +in the sky? + +He thought of the sunlight that had flooded the yard all day--so bright +it seemed to have come from a sun fresh made and shining for the first +time. He thought of the exquisite flowers that grew in the fields just +beyond the high wall, and the night smells of the earth reached him +through the window, wafted in upon a wind heavy with secrets of woods +and fields. They all came from a Land of Magic that after to-night might +be for ever beyond his reach, and they went straight to his heart and +immediately turned something solid there into tears. But the tears did +not find their natural expression, and Jimbo lay there fighting with his +pain, keeping all his strength for the one great effort, and waiting for +the voice that at any minute now might sound above the tree-tops. + +But the hours passed and the voice did not come. + +How he loathed the room and everything in it. The ceiling stretched like +a white, staring countenance above him; the walls watched and listened; +and even the mantelpiece grew into the semblance of a creature with +drawn-up shoulders bending over him. The whole room, indeed, seemed to +his frightened soul to run into the shape of a monstrous person whose +arms were outstretched in all directions to prevent his escape. + +His hands never left his wings now. He stroked and fondled them, +arranging the feathers smoothly and speaking to them under his breath +just as though they were living things. To him they were indeed alive, +and he knew when the time came they would not fail him. The fierce +passion for the open spaces took possession of his soul, and his whole +being began to cry out for freedom, rushing wind, the stars, and a +pathless sky. + +Slowly the power of the great, open Night entered his heart, bringing +with it a courage that enabled him to keep the terrors of the House at a +distance. + +So far, the boy's strength had been equal to the task, but a moment was +approaching when the tension would be too great to bear, and the long +pent-up force would rush forth into an act. Jimbo realised this quite +clearly; though he could not exactly express it in words, he felt that +his real hope of escape lay in the success of that act. Meanwhile, with +more than a child's wisdom, he stored up every particle of strength he +had for the great moment when it should come. + +A light wind had risen soon after sunset, but as the night wore on it +began to fail, dropping away into little silences that grew each time +longer. In the heart of one of these spells of silence Jimbo presently +noticed a new sound--a sound that he recognised. + +Far away at first, but growing in distinctness with every dropping of +the wind, this new sound rose from the interior of the house below and +came gradually upon him. It was voices faintly singing, and the tread of +stealthy footsteps. + +Nearer and nearer came the sound, till at length they reached the door, +and there passed into the room a wave of fine, gentle sound that woke no +echo and scarcely seemed to stir the air into vibration at all. The door +had opened, and a number of voices were singing softly under their +breath. + +And after the sounds, creeping slowly like some timid animal, there came +into the room a small black figure just visible in the faint starlight. +It peered round the edge of the door, hesitated a moment, and then +advanced with an odd rhythmical sort of motion. And after the first +figure came a second, and after the second a third; and then several +entered together, till a whole group of them stood on the floor between +Jimbo and the open window. + +Then he recognised the Frightened Children and his heart sank. Even +they, he saw, were arrayed against him, and took it for granted that he +already belonged to them. + +Oh, why did not the governess come for him? Why was there no voice in +the sky? He glanced with longing towards the heavens, and as the +children moved past, he was almost certain that he saw the stars +_through_ their bodies too. + +Slowly they shuffled across the floor till they formed a semicircle +round the bed; and then they began a silent, impish dance that made the +flesh creep. Their thin forms were dressed in black gowns like shrouds, +and as they moved through the steps of the bizarre measure he saw that +their legs were little more than mere skin and bone. Their faces--what +he could see of them when he dared to open his eyes--were pale as ashes, +and their beady little eyes shone like the facets of cut stones, +flashing in all directions. And while they danced in and out amongst +each other, never breaking the semicircle round the bed, they sang a +low, mournful song that sounded like the wind whispering through a +leafless wood. + +And the words stirred in him that vague yet terrible fear known to all +children who have been frightened and made to feel afraid of the dark. +Evidently his sensations were being merged very rapidly now into those +of the little boy in the night-nursery bed. + + "There is Someone in the Nursery + Whom we never saw before; + --Why hangs the moon so red?-- + And he came not by the passage, + Or the window, or the door; + --Why hangs the moon so red?-- + And he stands there in the darkness, + In the centre of the floor. + --See, where the moon hangs red!-- + + Someone's hiding in the passage + Where the door begins to swing; + --Why drive the clouds so fast?-- + In the corner by the staircase + There's a dreadful waiting thing: + --Why drive the clouds so fast?-- + Past the curtain creeps a monster + With a black and fluttering wing; + --See, where the clouds drive fast!-- + + In the chilly dusk of evening; + In the hush before the dawn; + --Why drips the rain so cold?-- + In the twilight of the garden, + In the mist upon the lawn, + --Why drips the rain so cold?-- + Faces stare, and mouth upon us, + Faces white and weird and drawn; + --See, how the rain drips cold!-- + + Close beside us in the night-time, + Waiting for us in the gloom, + --O! Why sings the wind so shrill?-- + In the shadows by the cupboard, + In the corners of the room, + --O! Why sings the wind so shrill?-- + From the corridors and landings + Voices call us to our doom. + --O! how the wind sings shrill!"-- + +By this time the dreadful dancers had come much closer to him, shifting +stealthily nearer to the bed under cover of their dancing, and always +_between him and the window_. + +Suddenly their intention flashed upon him; they meant to prevent his +escape! + +With a tremendous effort he sprang from the bed. As he did so a dozen +pairs of thin, shadowy arms shot out towards him as though to seize his +wings; but with an agility born of fright he dodged them, and ran +swiftly into the corner by the mantelpiece. Standing with his back +against the wall he faced the children, and strove to call out for help +to the governess; but this time there was an entirely new difficulty in +the way, for he found to his utter dismay that his voice refused to make +itself heard. His mouth was dry and his tongue would hardly stir. + +Not a sound issued from his lips, but the children instantly moved +forwards and hemmed him in between them and the wall; and to reach the +window he would have to break through this semicircle of whispering, +shadowy forms. Above their heads he could see the stars shining, and any +moment he might hear Miss Lake's voice calling to him to come out. His +heart rose with passionate longing within him, and he gathered his wings +tightly about him ready for the final dash. It would take more than the +Frightened Children to hold him prisoner when once he heard that voice, +or even without it! + +Whether they were astonished at his boldness, or merely waiting their +opportunity later, he could not tell; but anyhow they kept their +distance for a time and made no further attempt to seize his feathers. +Whispering together under their breath, sometimes singing their +mournful, sighing songs, sometimes sinking their voices to a confused +murmur, they moved in and out amongst each other with soundless feet +like the shadows of branches swaying in the wind. + +Then, suddenly, they moved closer and stretched out their arms towards +him, their bodies swaying rhythmically together, while their combined +voices, raised just above a whisper, sang to him-- + + "Dare you fly out to-night, + When the Moon is so strong? + Though the stars are so bright, + There is death in their song; + You're a hostage to Fright, + And to us you belong! + + Dare you fly out alone + Through the shadows that wave, + When the course is unknown + And there's no one to save? + You are bone of our bone, + And for ever His slave!" + +And, following these words, came from somewhere in the air that voice +like the thunder of a river. Jimbo knew only too well to whom it +belonged as he listened to the rhyme of the West Wind-- + + "For the Wind of the West + Is a wind unblest, + And its dangerous breath + Will entice you to death! + Fly not with the Wind of the West, O child, + With the terrible Wind of the West!" + +But the boy knew perfectly well that these efforts to stop him were all +part of a trap. They were lying to him. It was not the Wind of the West +at all; _it was the South Wind_! That at least he knew by the odours +that were wafted in through the window. Again he tried to call to the +governess, but his tongue lay stiff in his mouth and no sound came. + +Meanwhile the children began to draw closer, hemming him in. They moved +almost imperceptibly, but he saw plainly that the circle was growing +smaller and smaller. His legs began to tremble, and he felt that soon he +would collapse and drop at their feet, for his strength was failing and +the power to act and move was slowly leaving him. + +The little shadowy figures were almost touching him, when suddenly a new +sound broke the stillness and set every nerve tingling in his body. + +Something was shuffling along the landing. He heard it outside, pushing +against the door. The handle turned with a rattle, and a moment later +the door slowly opened. + +For a second Jimbo's breath failed him, and he nearly fell in a heap +upon the floor. Round the edge of the door he saw a dim huge figure come +crawling into the room--creeping along the floor--and trailing behind it +a pair of immense black wings that stretched along the boards. For one +brief second he stared, horror-stricken, and wondering what it was. But +before the whole length of the creature was in, he knew. It was Fright +himself! _And he was making steadily for the window!_ + +The shock instantly galvanised the boy into a state of activity again. +He recovered the use of all his muscles and all his faculties. His +voice, released by terror, rang out in a wild shriek for help to the +governess, and he dashed forward across the room in a mad rush for the +window. Unless he could reach it before the other, he would be a +prisoner for the rest of his life. It was now or never. + +The instant he moved, the children came straight at him with hands +outstretched to stop him; but he passed through them as if they were +smoke, and with almost a single bound sprang upon the narrow +window-sill. To do this he had to clear the head and shoulders of the +creature on the floor, and though he accomplished it successfully, he +felt himself clutched from behind. For a second he balanced doubtfully +on the window ledge. He felt himself being pulled back into the room, +and he combined all his forces into one tremendous effort to rush +forward. + +There was a ripping, tearing sound as he sprang into the air with a yell +of mingled terror and exultation. His prompt action and the fierce +impetus had saved him. He was free. But in the awful hand that seized +him he had left behind the end feathers of his right wing. A few inches +more and it would have been not merely the feathers, but the entire wing +itself. + +He dropped to within three feet of the stones in the yard, and then, +borne aloft by the kind, rushing Wind of the South, he rose in a +tremendous sweep far over the tops of the high elms and out into the +heart of the night. + +Only there was no governess's voice to guide him; and behind him, a +little lower down, a black pursuing figure with huge wings flapped +heavily as it followed with laborious flight through the darkness. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +HOME + + +But it was the sound of something crashing heavily through the top +branches of the elms that made the boy realise he was actually being +followed; and all his efforts became concentrated into the desire to put +as much distance as possible between himself and the horror of the Empty +House. + +He heard the noise of big wings far beneath him, and his one idea was to +out-distance his pursuer and then come down again to earth and rest his +wings in the branches of a tree till he could devise some plan how to +find the governess. So at first he raced at full speed through the air, +taking no thought of direction. + +When he looked down, all he could see was that something vague and +shadowy, shaking out a pair of enormous wings between him and the earth, +move along with him. Its path was parallel with his own, but apparently +it made no effort to rise up to his higher level. It thundered along far +beneath him, and instinctively he raised his head and steered more and +more upwards and away from the world. + +The gap at the end of his right wing where the feathers had been torn +out seemed to make no difference in his power of flight or steering, and +he went tearing through the night at a pace he had never dared to try +before, and at a height he had never yet reached in any of the practice +flights. He soared higher even than he knew; and perhaps this was +fortunate, for the friction of the lower atmosphere might have heated +him to the point of igniting, and some watcher at one of earth's windows +might have suddenly seen a brilliant little meteor flash through the +night and vanish into dust. + +At first the joy of escape was the only idea his mind seemed able to +grasp; he revelled in a passionate sense of freedom, and all his +energies poured themselves into one concentrated effort to fly faster, +faster, faster. But after a time, when the pursuer had been apparently +outflown, and he realised that escape was an accomplished fact, he began +to search for the governess, calling to her, rising and falling, +darting in all directions, and then hovering on outstretched wings to +try and catch some sound of a friendly voice. + +But no answer came, either from the stars that crowded the vault above, +or from the dark surface of the world below; only silence answered his +cries, and his voice was swallowed up and lost in the immensity of space +almost the moment it left his lips. + +Presently he began to realise to what an appalling distance he had risen +above the world, and with anxious eyes he tried to pierce the gaping +emptiness beneath him and on all sides. But this vast sea of air had +nothing to reveal. The stars shone like pinholes of gold pricked in a +deep black curtain; and the moon, now rising slowly, spread a veil of +silver between him and the upper regions. There was not a cloud anywhere +and the winds were all asleep. He was alone in space. Yet, as the +swishing of his feathers slackened and the roar in his ears died away, +he heard in the short pause the ominous beating of great wings somewhere +in the depths beneath him, and knew that the great pursuer was still on +his track. + +The glare of the moon now made it impossible to distinguish anything +properly, and in these huge spaces, with nothing to guide the eye, it +was difficult to know exactly from what direction the sound came. He was +only sure of one thing--that it was far below him, and that for the +present it did not seem to come much nearer. The cry for help that kept +rising to his lips he suppressed, for it would only have served to guide +his pursuer; and, moreover, a cry--a little thin, despairing cry--was +instantly lost in these great heavens. It was less than a drop in an +ocean. + +On and on he flew, always pointing away from the earth, and trying hard +to think where he would find safety. Would this awful creature hunt him +all night long into the daylight, or would he be forced back into the +Empty House in sheer exhaustion? The thought gave him new impetus, and +with powerful strokes he dashed onwards and upwards through the +wilderness of space in which the only pathways were the little golden +tracks of the starbeams. The governess would turn up somewhere; he was +positive of that. She had never failed him yet. + +So, alone and breathless, he pursued his flight, and the higher he went +the more the tremendous vault opened up into inconceivable and untold +distances. His speed kept increasing; he thought he had never found +flying so easy before; and the thunder of the following wings that held +persistently on his track made it dangerous for him to slacken up for +more than a minute here and there. The earth became a dark blot beneath +him, while the moon, rising higher and higher, grew weirdly bright and +close. How black the sky was; how piercing the points of starlight; how +stimulating the strong, new odours of these lofty regions! He realised +with a thrill of genuine awe that he had flown over the very edge of the +world, and the moment the thought entered his mind it was flung back at +him by a voice that seemed close to his ear one moment, and the next was +miles away in the space overhead. Light thoughts, born of the stars and +the moon and of his great speed, danced before his mind in fanciful +array. Once he laughed aloud at them, but once only. The sound of his +voice in these echoless spaces made him afraid. + +The speed, too, affected his vision, for at one moment thin clouds +stretched across his face, and the next he was whirling through +perfectly clear air again with no vestige of a cloud in sight. The same +reason doubtless explained the sudden presence of sheets of light in +the air that reflected the moonlight like particles of glittering ice, +and then suddenly disappeared again. The terrific speed would explain a +good many things, but certainly it was curious how creatures formed out +of the hollow darkness, like foam before a steamer's bows, and moved +noiselessly away on either side to join the army of dim life that +crowded everywhere and watched his passage. For, in front and on both +sides, there gathered a vast assembly of silent forms more than shadows, +less than bodily shapes, that opened up a pathway as he rushed through +them, and then immediately closed up their ranks again when he had +passed. The air seemed packed with living creatures. Space was filled +with them. They surrounded him on all sides. Yet his passage through +them was like the passage of a hand through smoke; it was easy to make a +pathway, but the pathway left no traces behind it. More smoke rushed in +and filled the void. + +He could never see these things properly, face to face; they always kept +just out of the line of vision, like shadows that follow a lonely walker +in a wood and vanish the moment he turns to look at them over his +shoulder. But ever by his side, with a steady, effortless motion, he +knew they kept up with him--strange inhabitants of the airless heights, +immense and misty-winged, with veiled, flaming eyes and silent feathers. +He was not afraid of them; for they were neither friendly nor hostile; +they were simply the beings of another world, alien and unknown. + +But what puzzled him more was that the light and the darkness seemed +separate things, each distinctly visible. After each stroke of his wings +he _saw the darkness_ sift downwards past him through the air like dust. +It floated all round him in thinnest diaphanous texture--visible, not +because the moonlight made it so, but because in its inmost soul it was +itself luminous. It rose and fell in eddies, swirling wreaths, and +undulations; inwoven with starbeams, as with golden thread, it clothed +him about in circles of some magical primordial substance. + +Even the stars, looking down upon him from terrifying heights, seemed +now draped, now undraped, as if by the sweeping of enormous wings that +stirred these sheets of visible darkness into a vast system of +circulation through the heavens. Everything in these oceans of upper +space apparently made use of wings, or the idea of wings. Perhaps even +the great earth itself, rolling from star to star, was moved by the +power of gigantic, invisible wings!... + +Jimbo realised he had entered a forbidden region. He began to feel +afraid. + +But the only possible expression of his fear, and its only possible +relief, lay in his own wings--and he used them with redoubled energy. He +dashed forward so fast that his face begun to burn, and he kept turning +his head in every direction for a sign of the governess, or for some +indication of where he could _escape to_. In the pauses of the wild +flight he heard the thunder of the following wings below. They were +still on his trail, and it seemed that they were gaining on him. + +He took a new angle, realising that his only chance was to fly high; and +the new course took him perpendicularly away from the earth and straight +towards the moon. Later, when he had out-distanced the other creature, +he would drop down again to safer levels. + +Yet the hours passed and it never overtook him. A measured distance was +steadily kept up between them as though with calculated purpose. + +Curious distant voices shouted from time to time all manner of sentences +and rhymes in his ears, but he could neither understand nor remember +them. More and more the awful stillness of the vast regions that lie +between the world and the moon appalled him. + +Then, suddenly, a new sound reached him that at first he could not in +the least understand. It reached him, however, not through the ears, but +by a steady trembling of the whole surface of his body. It set him in +vibration all over, and for some time he had no idea what it meant. The +trembling ran deeper and deeper into his body, till at last a single, +powerful, regular vibration took complete possession of his whole being, +and he felt as though he was being wrapped round and absorbed by this +vast and gigantic sound. He had always thought that the voice of Fright, +like the roar of a river, was the loudest and deepest sound he had ever +heard. Even that set his soul a-trembling. But this new, tremendous, +rolling-ocean of a voice came not that way, and could not be compared to +it. The voice of the other was a mere tickling of the ear compared to +this awful crashing of seas and mountains and falling worlds. It must +break him to pieces, he felt. + +Suddenly he knew what it was,--and for a second his wings failed +him:--he had reached such a height that he could hear the roar of the +world as it thundered along its journey through space! That was the +meaning of this voice of majesty that set him all a-trembling. And +before long he would probably hear, too, the voices of the planets, and +the singing of the great moon. The governess had warned him about this. +At the first sound of these awful voices she told him to turn instantly +and drop back to the earth as fast as ever he could drop. + +Jimbo turned instinctively and began to fall. But, before he had dropped +half a mile, he met once again the ascending sound of the wings that had +followed him from the Empty House. + +It was no good flying straight into destruction. He summoned all his +courage and turned once more towards the stars. Anything was better than +being caught and held for ever by Fright, and with a wild cry for help +that fell dead in the empty spaces, he renewed his unending flight +towards the stars. + +But, meanwhile, the pursuer had distinctly gained. Appalled by the +mighty thunder of the stars' voices above, and by the prospect of +immediate capture if he turned back, Jimbo flew blindly on towards the +moon, regardless of consequences. And below him the Pursuer came closer +and closer. The strokes of its wings were no longer mere distant thuds +that he heard when he paused in his own flight to listen; they were the +audible swishing of feathers. It was near enough for that. + +Jimbo could never properly see what was following him. A shadow between +him and the earth was all he could distinguish, but in the centre of +that shadow there seemed to burn two glowing eyes. Two brilliant lights +flashed whenever he looked down, like the lamps of a revolving +lighthouse. But other things he saw, too, when he looked down, and once +the earth rose close to his face so that he could have touched it with +his hands. The same instant it dropped away again with a rush of +whirlwinds, and became a distant shadow miles and miles below him. But +before it went, he had time to see the Empty House standing within its +gloomy yard, and the horror of it gave him fresh impetus. + +Another time when the world raced up close to his eyes he saw a scene of +a different kind that stirred a passionately deep yearning within him--a +house overgrown with ivy and standing among trees and gardens, with +laburnums and lilacs flowering on smooth green lawns, and a clean +gravel drive leading down to a big pair of iron gates. Oh, it all seemed +so familiar! Perhaps in another minute the well-known figures would have +appeared and spoken to him. Already he heard their voices behind the +bushes. But, just before they appeared, the earth dropped back with a +roar of a thousand winds, and Jimbo saw instead the shadow of the +Pursuer mounting, mounting, mounting towards him. Up he shot again with +terror in his heart, and all trembling with the thunder of the great +star-voices above. He felt like a leaf in a hurricane, "lost, dizzy, +shelterless." + +Voices, too, now began to be heard more frequently. They dropped upon +him out of the reaches of this endless void; and with them sometimes +came forms that shot past him with amazing swiftness, racing into the +empty Beyond as though sucked into a vast vacuum. The very stars seemed +to move. He became part of some much larger movement in which he was +engulfed and merged. He could no longer think of himself as Jimbo. When +he uttered his own name he saw merely a mass of wind and colour through +which the great pulses of space and the planets beat tumultuously, +lapping him round with the currents of a terrific motion that seemed to +swallow up his own little personality entirely, while giving him +something infinitely greater.... + +But surely these small voices, shrill and trumpet-like, did not come +from the stars! these deep whispers that ran round the immense vault +overhead and sounded almost familiarly in his ears-- + +"Give it him the moment he wakes." + +"Bring the ice-bag ... quick!" + +"Put the hot bottle to his feet IMMEDIATELY!" + +The voices shrieked all round him, turning suddenly into soft whispers +that died away somewhere among his feathers. The soles of his feet began +to glow, and he felt a gigantic hand laid upon his throat and head. +Almost it seemed as if he were lying somewhere on his back, and people +were bending over him, shouting and whispering. + +"Why hangs the moon so red?" cried a voice that was instantly drowned in +a chorus of unintelligible whispering. + +"The black cow must be killed," whispered some one deep within the sky. + +"Why drips the rain so cold?" yelled one of the hideous children close +behind him. And a third called with a distant laughter from behind a +star-- + +"Why sings the wind so shrill?" + +"QUIET!" roared an appalling voice below, as if all the rivers of the +world had suddenly turned loose into the sky. "QUIET!" + +Instantly a star, that had been hovering for some time on the edge of a +fantastic dance, dropped down close in front of his face. It had a +glaring disc, with mouth and eyes. An icy hand seemed laid on his head, +and the star rushed back into its place in the sky, leaving a trail of +red flame behind it. A little voice seemed to go with it, growing +fainter and fainter in the distance-- + +"We dance with phantoms and with shadows play." + +But, regardless of everything, Jimbo flew onwards and upwards, terrified +and helpless though he was. His thoughts turned without ceasing to the +governess, and he felt sure that she would yet turn up in time to save +him from being caught by the Fright that pursued, or lost among the +fearful spaces that lay beyond the stars. + +For a long time, however, his wings had been growing more and more +tired, and the prospect of being destroyed from sheer exhaustion now +presented itself to the boy vaguely as a possible alternative--vaguely +only, because he was no longer able to think, properly speaking, and +things came to him more by way of dull feeling than anything else. + +It was all the more with something of a positive shock, therefore, that +he realised the change. For a change had come. He was now sudden by +conscious of an influx of new power--greater than anything he had ever +known before in any of his flights. His wings now suddenly worked as if +by magic. Never had the motion been so easy, and it became every minute +easier and easier. He simply flashed along without apparent effort. An +immense driving power had entered into him. He realised that he could +fly for ever without getting tired. His pace increased tenfold-- +increased alarmingly. The possibility of exhaustion vanished utterly. +Jimbo knew now that something was wrong. This new driving power was +something wholly outside himself. His wings were working far too easily. +Then, suddenly, he understood: _His wings were not working at all!_ + +He was not being driven forward from behind; he was being drawn forward +from in front. + +He saw it all in a flash: Miss Lake's warning long ago about the danger +of flying too high; the last song of the Frightened Children, "Dare you +fly out alone through the shadows that wave, when the course is unknown +and there's no one to save?" the strange words sung to him about the +"relentless misty moon," and the object of the dreadful Pursuer in +steadily forcing him upwards and away from the earth. It all flashed +across his poor little dazed mind. He understood at last. + +He had soared too high and had entered the sphere of the moon's +attraction. + +"The moon is too strong, and there's death in the stars!" a voice +bellowed below him like the roar of a falling mountain, shaking the sky. + +The child flew screaming on. There was nothing else he could do. But +hardly had the roar died away when another voice was heard, a tender +voice, a whispering, sympathetic voice, though from what part of the sky +it came he could not tell-- + +"Arrange the pillows for his little head." + +But below him the wings of the Pursuer were mounting closer and closer. +He could almost feel the mighty wind from their feathers, and hear the +rush of the great body between them. It was impossible to slacken his +speed even had he wished; no strength on earth could have resisted that +terrible power drawing upwards towards the moon. Instinctively, however, +he realised that he would rather have gone forwards than backwards. He +never could have faced capture by that dreadful creature behind. All the +efforts of the past weeks to escape from Fright, the owner of the Empty +House, now acted upon him with a cumulative effect, and added to the +suction of the moon-life. He shot forward at a pace that increased with +every second. + +At the back of his mind, too, lay some kind of faint perception that the +governess would, after all, be there to help him. She had always turned +up before when he was in danger, and she would not fail him now. But +this was a mere ghost of a thought that brought little comfort, and +merely added its quota of force to the speed that whipped him on, ever +faster, into the huge white moon-world in front. + +For this, then, he had escaped from the horror of the Empty House! To be +sucked up into the moon, the "relentless, misty moon"--to be drawn into +its cruel, silver web, and destroyed. The Song to the Misty Moon +outside the window came back in snatches and added to his terror; only +it seemed now weeks ago since he had heard it. Something of its real +meaning, too, filtered down into his heart, and he trembled anew to +think that the moon could be a great, vast, moving Being, alive and with +a purpose.... + +But why, oh, why did they keep shouting these horrid snatches of the +song through the sky? Trapped! Trapped! The word haunted him through the +night: + + Thy songs are nightly driven, + From sky to sky, + Eternally, + O'er the old, grey hills of heaven! + +_Caught!_ Caught at last! The moon's prisoner, a captive in her airless +caves; alone on her dead white plains; searching for ever in vain for +the governess; wandering alone and terrified. + + By the awful grace + Of thy weird white face. + +The thought crazed him, and he struggled like a bird caught in a net. +But he might as well have struggled to push the worlds out of their +courses. The power against him was the power of the universe in which he +was nothing but a little, lost, whirling atom. It was all of no avail, +and the moon did not even smile at his feeble efforts. He was too light +to revolve round her, too impalpable to create his own orbit; he had not +even the consistency of a comet; he had reached the point of stagnation, +as it were--the dead level--the neutral zone where the attractions of +the earth and moon meet and counterbalance one another--where bodies +have no weight and existence no meaning. + +Now the moon was close upon him; he could see nothing else. There lay +the vast, shining sea of light in front of him. Behind, the roar of the +following creature grew fainter and fainter, as he outdistanced it in +the awful swiftness of the huge drop down upon the moon mountains. + +Already he was close enough to its surface to hear nothing of its great +singing but a deep, confused murmur. And, as the distance increased, he +realised that the change in his own condition increased. He felt as if +he were flying off into a million tiny particles--breaking up under the +effects of the deadly speed and the action of the new moon-forces. +Immense, invisible arms, half-silver and half-shadow, grew out of the +white disc and drew him downwards upon her surface. He was being merged +into the life of the moon. + +There was a pause. For a moment his wings stopped dead. Their vain +fluttering was all but over.... + +Hark! Was that a voice borne on the wings of some lost wind? Why should +his heart beat so tumultuously all at once? + +He turned and stared into the ocean of black air overhead till it turned +him dizzy. A violent trembling ran through his tired being from head to +foot. He had heard a voice--a voice that he knew and loved--a voice of +help and deliverance. It rang in shrill syllables up the empty spaces, +and it reached new centres of force within him that touched his last +store of courage and strength. + +"Jimbo, hold on!" it cried, like a faint, thin, pricking current of +sound almost unable to reach him through the seas of distance. "I'm +coming; hold on a little longer!" + +It was the governess. She was true to the end. Jimbo felt his heart +swell within him. She was mounting, mounting behind him with incredible +swiftness. The sound of his own name in these terrible regions recalled +to him some degree of concentration, and he strove hard to fight +against the drawing power that was seeking his destruction. + +He struggled frantically with his wings. But between him and the +governess there was still the power of Fright to be overcome--the very +Power she had long ago invoked. It was following him still, preventing +his turning back, and driving him ever forward to his death. + +Again the voice sounded in the night; and this time it was closer. He +could not quite distinguish the words. They buzzed oddly in his ears ... +other voices mingled with them ... the hideous children began to shriek +somewhere underneath him ... wings with eyes among their burning +feathers flashed past him. + +His own wings folded close over his little body, drooping like dead +things. His eyes closed, and he turned on his side. A huge face that was +one-half the governess and the other half the head gardener at home, +thrust itself close against his own, and blew upon his eyelids till he +opened them. Already he was falling, sinking, tumbling headlong through +a space that offered no resistance. + +"Jimbo!" shrieked a voice that instantly died away into a wail behind +him. + +He opened his eyes once more--for it was that loved voice again--but +the glare from the moon so dazzled him that he could only fancy he saw +the figure of the governess, not a hundred feet away, struggling and +floundering in the clutch of a black creature that beat the air with +enormous wings all round her. He saw her hair streaming out into the +night, and one wing seemed to hang broken and useless at her side. + +He was turning over and over, like a piece of wood in the waves of the +sea, and the governess, caught by Fright, the monster of her own +creation, drifted away from his consciousness as a dream melts away in +the light of the morning.... From the gleaming mountains and treeless +plains below Jimbo thought there rose a hollow roar like the mocking +laughter of an immense multitude of people, shaking with mirth. The Moon +had got him at last, and her laughter ran through the heavens like a +wave. Revolving upon his own little axis so swiftly that he neither saw +nor heard anything more, he dropped straight down upon the great +satellite. + +The light of the moon flamed up into his eyes and dazzled him. + +But what in the world was this? + +How could the moon dwindle so suddenly to the size of a mere lamp +flame? + +How could the whole expanse of the heavens shrink in an instant to the +limits of a little, cramped room? + +In a single second, before he had time to realise that he felt surprise, +the entire memory of his recent experiences vanished from his mind. The +past became an utter blank. Like a wreath of smoke everything melted +away as if it had never been at all. The functions of the brain resumed +their normal course. The delirium of the past few hours was over. + +Jimbo was lying at home on his bed in the night-nursery, and his mother +was bending over him. At the foot of the bed stood the doctor in black. +The nurse held a lamp, only half shaded by her hand, as she approached +the bedside. + +This lamp was the moon of his delirium--only he had quite forgotten now +that there had ever been any moon at all. + +The little thermometer, thrust into his teeth among the stars, was still +in his mouth. A hot-water bottle made his feet glow and burn. And from +the walls of the sick-room came as it were the echoes of +recently-uttered sentences: "Take his temperature! Give him the +medicine the moment he wakes! Put the hot bottle to his feet.... Fetch +the ice-bag.... Quick!" + +"Where am I, mother?" he asked in a whisper. + +"You're in bed, darling, and must keep quite quiet. You'll soon be all +right again. It was the old black cow that tossed you. The gardener +found you by the swinging gate and carried you in.... You've been +unconscious!" + +"How long have I been uncon----?" Jimbo could not manage the whole word. + +"About three hours, darling." + +Then he fell into a deep, dreamless sleep, and when he woke long after +it was early morning, and there was no one in the room but the old +family nurse, who sat watching beside the bed. Something--some dim +memory--that had stirred his brain in sleep, immediately rushed to his +lips in the form of an inconsequent question. But before he could even +frame the sentence, the thought that prompted it had slipped back into +the deeper consciousness he had just left behind with the trance of deep +sleep. + +But the old nurse, watching every movement, waiting upon the child's +very breath, had caught the question, and she answered soothingly in a +whisper-- + +"Oh, Miss Lake died a few days after she left here," she said in a very +low voice. "But don't think about her any more, dearie! She'll never +frighten children again with her silly stories." + +"_DIED!_" + +Jimbo sat up in bed and stared into the shadows behind her, as though +his eyes saw something she could not see. But his voice seemed almost to +belong to some one else. + +"She was really dead all the time, then," he said below his breath. + +Then the child fell back without another word, and dropped off into the +sleep which was the first step to final recovery. + + +THE END + + +PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN BY + +WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED, LONDON AND BECCLES. + + + + +[Transcriber's Note: + + +The following corrections were made: + +p. 52: removed paragraph break after comma (whispered, "My darling boy,) + +p. 87: acccomplish to accomplish (she would accomplish) + +p. 96: removed paragraph break after comma (and said very gravely, with +her serious eyes fixed on his face, "Miss Lake,) + +p. 123: achoed to echoed ("Long!" he echoed,) + +p. 181: existance to existence (an existence far antedating) + +p. 197: conciousness to consciousness (the consciousness cannot) + +p. 204: so to no (no sequence in the order) + +Minor punctuation errors and missing spaces between words have been +corrected without note. An oe-ligature in the word manoeuvre has been +replaced with "oe" in the plain text versions. + +Inconsistencies in hyphenation have not been corrected.] + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Jimbo, by Algernon Blackwood + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JIMBO *** + +***** This file should be named 30974.txt or 30974.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/0/9/7/30974/ + +Produced by David Clarke, S.D., and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +http://gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +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 + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need, are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at +http://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at http://pglaf.org + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit http://pglaf.org + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. +To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + http://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. |