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13 - The House of Arden - E Nesbit · Science Fiction Books

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  Speaker 1: Chapter ten, White Wings and a Brownie. Perhaps I had
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: better begin this chapter by telling you exactly how Edward
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: got even with Old Parrot Knows, as he put it.
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: You will remember that Master Parodiss was the Arden's tutor
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: in the time of King James the First, and that
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  Speaker 1: it was for his eavesdropping and tail bearing that Edred
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  Speaker 1: and Elfrida were imprisoned in the Tower of London. There
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  Speaker 1: was very little time in which to get even with
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  Speaker 1: any one, and of course getting even with people is
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  Speaker 1: not really at all a proper thing to do. Yet
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  Speaker 1: Edward did it. Edred had got Elfrida out of the tower,
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  Speaker 1: just as Lady Nestill got her lord out, and now
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  Speaker 1: he and she and cousin Richard were at arden House
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  Speaker 1: in Soho, and the old Nurse, who was also astonishingly
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  Speaker 1: the old Witch, had said that there was no time
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  Speaker 1: to be lost. But I must be even with Old
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  Speaker 1: parrot Knows, said Edred. He was feeling awfully brave and
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  Speaker 1: splendid inside because of the way he had planned and
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  Speaker 1: carried out the Nestale rescue of Elfrida, and also he
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  Speaker 1: felt that he could not bear to go back to
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  Speaker 1: his own times without somehow marking his feelings about mister
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  Speaker 1: Parridos as to how it was to be done. Cousin
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  Speaker 1: Richard was not to have anything to do with it,
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  Speaker 1: because why they would be whisked away by some white
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  Speaker 1: road that the Moudiwarp would find for them when they
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  Speaker 1: called it to the help by spoken poetry. He would
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  Speaker 1: be left behind to bear the blame of everything this
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  Speaker 1: Edred and Elfrida decided in a quick whispered conference, But
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  Speaker 1: cousin Dick wanted to know what they were talking about
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  Speaker 1: and why he wasn't to help in what he had
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  Speaker 1: wanted to do these four years. If we tell you,
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  Speaker 1: said Elfrida, you won't believe us. You might at least
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  Speaker 1: make the trial, said cousin Richard. So they told him,
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  Speaker 1: and though they were as quick as possible, the story
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  Speaker 1: took some time to tell. Richard Arden listened intently. When
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  Speaker 1: the day was told. He said nothing. You don't believe it,
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  Speaker 1: said Edred. I knew you wouldn't. Well, it doesn't matter.
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  Speaker 1: What can we do to pay out old parrot notes.
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  Speaker 1: I don't like it, said Richard. Suddenly, it's never been
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  Speaker 1: like this before. It makes it seem not real. It's
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  Speaker 1: only a dream. Really, I suppose, and I always believed
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  Speaker 1: so that it wasn't. I don't understand a word you're saying,
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  Speaker 1: said Edred. But what we've been saying is true anyhow.
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  Speaker 1: Look here, he darted to the dark corner of the parlor,
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  Speaker 1: where he had hidden the camera behind a curtain. Look here,
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  Speaker 1: I bet you haven't got anything like this. It comes
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  Speaker 1: from our times ever so far on in history, out
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  Speaker 1: of the times where we come from, the times that
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  Speaker 1: haven't happened yet, at least now we're here, they haven't
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  Speaker 1: happened yet. You don't know what it is. It's a
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  Speaker 1: machine for the sun to make pictures with. Oh stow, that,
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  Speaker 1: said Richard rarely. I know now it's all a silly dream,
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  Speaker 1: But it's not worse about trying to dream that. I
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  Speaker 1: don't know a Kodak when I see it. That's a brownie.
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  Speaker 1: There was a horse full of speechless amazement. Then if
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  Speaker 1: you've dreamed about our times, said Elfrida, you might believe
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  Speaker 1: in us dreaming about yours. Did you dream of anything
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  Speaker 1: except brownies? Did you ever dream of fine carriages? Fine boats?
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  Speaker 1: And don't talk as if I were a baby, Richard interrupted,
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  Speaker 1: I know all about railways and steamboats, and the hippodrome
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  Speaker 1: and the Crystal Palace. I know Kent made six fifteen
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  Speaker 1: against Derbyshire last Thursday. Now then, but I say, do
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  Speaker 1: tell us. I shan't tell you anything more, but I
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  Speaker 1: help you to get even with Parrot nos. I don't
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  Speaker 1: care if I am left here after you go, said Richard.
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  Speaker 1: Let's shovel all the snow off the roof and to
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  Speaker 1: his room and take our chance. Edid and Elfrida would
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  Speaker 1: have lied something more subtle, but there was no time
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  Speaker 1: to think of anything. I know where they are shoveled,
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  Speaker 1: said Richard. If they've not got mixed up in the dream,
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  Speaker 1: I say, said Edred slowly. I'd like to write that
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  Speaker 1: down about Kent and see if it's right. Afterwards, there
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  Speaker 1: was a quilt sticking out of the pewter inkstand on
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  Speaker 1: the table where they were used to do their lessons.
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  Speaker 1: But no paper here. Hurry up, said cousin Richard, and
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  Speaker 1: pulled a paper out of the front of his stablet.
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  Speaker 1: I'll write it, shall I, he wrote, and gave the
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  Speaker 1: thing screwed up to Edward, who put it in the
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  Speaker 1: front of his stablet. Then the three went up on
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  Speaker 1: to the roof, groped among the snow till they found
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  Speaker 1: the edge of the skylight that was the tutor's window
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  Speaker 1: for learning was lodged in the attic at Arden House.
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  Speaker 1: They broke the thick glass with the edges of their
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  Speaker 1: spades and shoveled in the thick white snow, shoveled all
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  Speaker 1: the harder for the shouts and angry word that presently
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  Speaker 1: sounded below them. Then, when mister Powders came angrily up
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  Speaker 1: on to the roof, shivering and stumbling among the snow,
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  Speaker 1: they slipped behind the chimney stack, and so got back
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  Speaker 1: to the trap door before he did, and shut it
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  Speaker 1: and bolted it, and said ah underneath it, and went away,
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  Speaker 1: locking his room door as they passed, and leaving him
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  Speaker 1: to stand there on the roof and shout for help
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  Speaker 1: from the street below, or else to drop through his
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  Speaker 1: broken skylight into the heaped snow in his room. He
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  Speaker 1: was quite free and could do whichever he chose. They
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  Speaker 1: never knew which he did choose, and you will never
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  Speaker 1: know either. And then Richard was sent to bed by
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  Speaker 1: the old Witcheners and went and the mouldiwarp was summoned
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  Speaker 1: and insisted that the only way back to their own
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  Speaker 1: times was jumping off the roof, and of course mister
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  Speaker 1: Powders was on the roof, which made all the difference.
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  Speaker 1: And the soldiers of the art were knocking at the
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  Speaker 1: front door with the butts of their pistols. But we
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  Speaker 1: can't go on to the roof, said Edward, and explained
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  Speaker 1: about mister Powders. Humph, said the mouldiwarp. That's chabler, unfortunate.
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  Speaker 1: That is well, the top landing window will have to do.
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  Speaker 1: That's all. Where's the other child gone to bed? Said
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  Speaker 1: the rich nurse. Shortly ti y checkered the moudiwarp. Some
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  Speaker 1: peoples too clever by half, think of you not having
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  Speaker 1: found that out, and you a witch too, ti he in.
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  Speaker 1: All the time the soldiers were hammering away like mad
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  Speaker 1: at the front door. Ifrida caught the mouldiwarp, and the
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  Speaker 1: nurse caught Edward's hand, and the four raised up the
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  Speaker 1: stairs to the waytop landing, where there was a little
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  Speaker 1: window at the very end. The air was keen and cold.
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  Speaker 1: The window opened difficultly, and when it was opened the
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  Speaker 1: air was much colder than before. Now, then out with
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  Speaker 1: you ladies first, cried the moudiwarp. You don't really mean,
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  Speaker 1: said Efrida. You can't mean that we are to jump
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  Speaker 1: out into into nothing. I mean y're to jump out,
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  Speaker 1: right enough, said the moodiwarp. What you're to jump into
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  Speaker 1: is any pair of shoes, and it's my lookout anyway.
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  Speaker 1: It's ours a little too, isn't it, said Elfrida timidly,
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  Speaker 1: and her teeth were chattering. She always said afterwards that
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  Speaker 1: it was with cold. Then get along home your way,
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  Speaker 1: said the moudiwarp, beginning to vanish. Oh don't, don't go,
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  Speaker 1: Efrida cried, and the pounding on the door downstairs got
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  Speaker 1: louder and louder. If I don't, then you must, said
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  Speaker 1: the moudiwarp testily, But it stopped vanishing. Put me down,
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  Speaker 1: it said, put me down, and jump for goodness sake.
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  Speaker 1: She put it down. Suddenly, the nurse caught Elfrida in
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  Speaker 1: her arms and kissed her many times. Farewell, my honey, love,
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  Speaker 1: she said, all party, I'm not forever else I could scarce.
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  Speaker 1: Let thee go. Now climb up, set thy foot here
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  Speaker 1: on the beam. Now they knee and the sill, So jump,
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  Speaker 1: Efrida crouched on the window ledge, where the snow lay
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  Speaker 1: thick and crisp. It was very very cold. Have ye
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  Speaker 1: ever had to jump out of a top floor window
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  Speaker 1: into the dark when it was snowing heavily? If so,
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  Speaker 1: you will remember how much courage it needed. Efrida set
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  Speaker 1: her teeth, looking down into black nothing dotted with snowflakes.
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  Speaker 1: Then she looked back into a black passage lighted only
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  Speaker 1: by the rushlight. The nurse carried Edward. It'll be all right,
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  Speaker 1: she asked. You're sure he'll jump? All right? Of course
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  Speaker 1: I shall, said Edred in his new voice. Here let
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  Speaker 1: me go first, to show you I'm not a coward.
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  Speaker 1: Of course, Elfrida instantly jumped, and next moment Edrad jumped too.
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  Speaker 1: It was a horrible moment, because, however much you try,
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  Speaker 1: that the moudiwarb you could not in an instant forget
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  Speaker 1: what you had been taught all your life that if
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  Speaker 1: you jumped out of top floor windows you would certainly
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  Speaker 1: be smashed to pieces on the stones below. To remember this,
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  Speaker 1: and remembering it to jump clear is a very brave deed,
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  Speaker 1: and brave deeds sooner or later have their reward. The
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  Speaker 1: brave deed of Edred and Elfrida received its reward sooner
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  Speaker 1: as Ifrida jumped, she saw the snowflakes gather and thicken
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  Speaker 1: into a cloud beneath her. The cloud was not the
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  Speaker 1: sword that lets you through either. It was solid and
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  Speaker 1: soft as pied either down feathers. She knew this as
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  Speaker 1: it rose up and caught her, or as she fell
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  Speaker 1: on it. She never knew which. Next moment, Edred was
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  Speaker 1: beside her, and the white, downy softness was shaping itself
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  Speaker 1: round and under them into the form of a seat,
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  Speaker 1: a back, arms, and place for the feet to rest.
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  Speaker 1: It's what's that in your hand, Elfrida asked Rains, said
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  Speaker 1: Edred with certainty, White rains, it's a carriage. It was
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  Speaker 1: a carriage made of white snowflakes. The snow flakes that
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  Speaker 1: were warm and soft as flathers. There were wide, soft
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  Speaker 1: carriage rugs that curled round and tucked themselves in entirely
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  Speaker 1: of their own accord. The rains were of snowflakes, joined
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  Speaker 1: together by some magic weaving, and warm and soft as
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  Speaker 1: white velvet. And the horses there aren't any horses. They
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  Speaker 1: are swans. White swans, cried Elfrida, and the voice of
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  Speaker 1: the mouldiwarp behind and above cried softly, All white things
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  Speaker 1: obey me. Edred knew how to drive, and now he
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  Speaker 1: could not resist the temptation to drive the six white
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  Speaker 1: swans round to the front of the house and to
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  Speaker 1: swoop down, passing just over the heads of the soldiers
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  Speaker 1: of the Guard, who were still earnestly pounding at the
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  Speaker 1: door of unn house, and yelled to them, ha ha
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: sewed again, which seemed to startle them very much. Then
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  Speaker 1: he wheeled the swans round and drove quickly through the
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  Speaker 1: air along the way which he knew quite well without
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  Speaker 1: being told to be the right way. And as the
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  Speaker 1: snow carriage wheeled, both Edward and Elfrida had a strange,
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  Speaker 1: sudden vision of another smaller snow carriage, drawn by two
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  Speaker 1: swans only, that circled above theirs and vanished in the
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  Speaker 1: deep dark of the sky, giving them an art tantalizing
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  Speaker 1: glimpse of a face they knew and yet couldn't remember
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  Speaker 1: distinctly enough to give a name to the owner of it.
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  Speaker 1: Then the swans spread their wide, mighty wings to the
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  Speaker 1: air and strained with their long, strong necks against their collars,
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  Speaker 1: and the snow equipage streamed out of London like a
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  Speaker 1: slender white scarf driven along in the wind, and London
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  Speaker 1: was left behind and the snowstorm, and soon the dark
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  Speaker 1: blue of the sky was over them Juel with the
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  Speaker 1: quiet silver of watchful stars, and the deeper dark of
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  Speaker 1: the Kentish County lay below Jeue it with the quiet
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  Speaker 1: gold from the windows of farms already half asleep. And
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  Speaker 1: the air that rushed past their faces as they went
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  Speaker 1: was no longer cold, but soft as June are is,
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  Speaker 1: And Elfrida always declared afterwards that she could smell white
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  Speaker 1: lilies all the way. So across the darkened counties they went,
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  Speaker 1: and the ride was more wonderful than any ride they
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  Speaker 1: had ever had before or would ever have again. All
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  Speaker 1: too soon the swans hung poised on long level wings
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  Speaker 1: outside the window of a tower in ann Castle, a
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  Speaker 1: tower they did not know. But though they did not
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  Speaker 1: know the tower, it was quite plain that they were
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  Speaker 1: meant to get in at the window of it. Dear Swan,
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: said Elfrida, who had been thinking as she sat clutching
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  Speaker 1: her brownie. Can't we stay in your carriage in its light?
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  Speaker 1: We do so want to take a photograph of the castle.
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  Speaker 1: The swans shook their white, flat snake like heads just
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  Speaker 1: as though they understood, and there was the open window,
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  Speaker 1: evidently waiting to welcome the children. So they got out,
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  Speaker 1: very much against their wills. And there they were in
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  Speaker 1: the dark room of the tower, and it was very cold.
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  Speaker 1: But before they had time to begin to understand how
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  Speaker 1: cold it was and how comfortable they were likely to
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  Speaker 1: be for the rest of the night, six swans heads
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  Speaker 1: appeared at the window and said something. Oh, said Elfrida,
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  Speaker 1: I do wish we'd learn Swanish instead of friend at school,
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  Speaker 1: But it did not matter. The next moment the swans
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  Speaker 1: had stucked and reappeared, holding in their beaks the soft, fluffy,
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  Speaker 1: white rugs that had kept the children so warm, and
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  Speaker 1: the snow carriage. The swans pushed the rugs through the
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  Speaker 1: window with their strong white wings and made some more
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  Speaker 1: remarks and swamp language. Oh thank you, said the children,
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  Speaker 1: good bye, good bye. Then there was the rush of
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  Speaker 1: white going wings, and the children tired out culed on
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  Speaker 1: the floor, wrapped in the soft rugs. The happiest kind
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  Speaker 1: of dreams were tucked up in that coverlet and it
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: seemed hardly any time at all before the children woke
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  Speaker 1: to find the winter sunshine looking in at them through
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  Speaker 1: the narrow windows of the towel. Elfrida jumped up and
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  Speaker 1: threw off the silver, white, downy soft coverlet. It instantly
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  Speaker 1: tore itself into five pieces of different shapes and sizes,
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: And these screwed themselves up and drew themselves in and
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  Speaker 1: blew themselves out, and turned before her bavery eyes into
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: a silver basin of warm water, a piece of lily
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: scented soap, a towel, a silver comb, and an ivory toothbrush.
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: Well said Elfrida, when she had finished a simple toilet.
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  Speaker 1: The basin, soap, towel, toothbrush, and coat ran together like
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: globules of quicksilver, made a curious tussled lump of themselves,
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: and straightened out into the fluffy coverlet. Again, well said
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: Elfrida Again. Then she woke Edward, and his coverlet played
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: the same clever and pretty trick for him. And when
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: the children started to go down with the brownie and
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  Speaker 1: take the photographs of the castle, the shining coverlet jumped
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: up into two white furry coats, such as the very
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  Speaker 1: affluent might wear when they went a motoring if the
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: very affluand ever thought of anything so pretty in one
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: of the coats came politely to the side of each child,
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: holding out its arms as if it were saying, do
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: please oblige me by putting me on, which, of course
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  Speaker 1: both the children did. They crept down the corkscrew stairs
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: and threw a heavy door that opened under the arch
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: of the great gateway. The great gate was open, and
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: on the step of the door opposite to the one
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: by which they had come out, the soldier said. He
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: held his helmet between his knees and was cowering it
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: with sand and whistling as he scowled. He touched his
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: forehead with his sandy hand, but did not get up.
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  Speaker 1: You're earlier field, he said, and went on rubbing the
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: sand on the helmet. It's such a pretty day, said Elfrida.
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: Maybe go out and welcome, said the man simply, But
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: go not beyond the twelve acre, for fear of rough
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: fog and Egyptians, and go not far, but breakfast will
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: have a strong voice to call you back. They went out,
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: and instead of stepping straight on to the turf of
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  Speaker 1: the downs, their stout shoes struck, echoing notes from the
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: wooden planks of a bridge. It's the drawbridge, said Edred
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: in tones of awe. And there's the moat, look and
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: his cupboard with cat eyes at the edges there was,
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: and it was. And at the moat's far edge their
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: feet fast in the cat eyes were reeds and satch,
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: brown and yellow and dried that rustled and whispered as
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: the white jug flew out of them. How lovely, said Elfrida.
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: I do wish Arden had moat. Now if we find
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: out where the water comes from, said Edred, practically we
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: might get the moat back when we'd found the treasure.
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: So when they crossed the moat and felt the frozen
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: dew crackle under their feet as they trod the grass,
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: they set out, before photographing the castle, to find out
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: where the moat water came from. The moat, they found
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: was fed by a stream that came across the field
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: from Arden Knowle and entered the moat at the northeast corner,
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: leaving it at the corner that was in the southwest.
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: They followed the stream, and it was not till they
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: had got quite into the middle of the field and
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: well away from the castle that they saw how very
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: beautiful the castle really was. It was quite perfect, no
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: crumbled arches, no broken pillars, no shatter better at once, oh,
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: said Edred, how beautiful it is. How glad I am
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: that we've got a castle like this. Our castle isn't
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: like this, said Elfrida. No, but it shall be when
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: we find the treasure. You've got the two film words,
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: all right, yes, said Elfrida, who had got them in
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: a great unreedy pocket that was hanging and banging against
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: their legs under the full skirt. Oh look, where's the river?
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: It stops short, It certainly seemed to. They were walking
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: beside it, and it ran swiftly, looking like a steel
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: gray ribbon on the green closs of the field. And
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: half way across the field it did stop short. There
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: wasn't any more of it, as though the ribbon had
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: been snipped off by a giant pair of scissors, and
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: the rest of it rode up and put by safely
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: somewhere out of the way. My hat, said Edred. It
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: does stop short in no mistake. Curiosity brigged him and
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: he started running. They both ran. They ran to the
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: spot where the giant scissors seemed to have slipped off
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: the stream, and when they got there they found that
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: the stream seemed to have got tired of running above ground,
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: and without any warning at all any sloping of its
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: bed or any deepening of its banks, plunged straight down
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: into the earth through a hole not eight feet across.
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: They stood fascinated watching the water as it shot over
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: the edge of the hole like a steel bend on
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: a driving wheel, smooth and shining, and moving so swiftly
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: that it hardly seemed to move it all. It was
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: Edred who roused himself to say, I could watch it forever,
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: but we'll have it back. We'll have it back. Come along,
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: let's go and see where it comes from. Let's photograph
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: this place first, said Elfrida, so as to know you know,
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: And the brownie clicked twice. Then they retraced their steps
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: beside the stream dream and round two sides of the moat,
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: and across the field to Arden Knoll. And there, oh,
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: wonderful to see. The stream came straight out of the
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: knoll at the part which joined on to the rest
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: of the world, come out under a rough, low arch
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: of stone that lay close against the bay lip of
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: the water. So that's where it came from, and that's
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: where it goes to, said Elfrida. I wonder what became
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: of it and why it isn't at arden. Now we'll
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: bring it back, said Verret firmly, when we find the treasure.
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: And again the browney clicked, and we'll make the castle
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: like it is now, said Elfrida. Come on, let's photograph it.
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: So they went back and they photographed the castle. They
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: photographed from the north and the south, and the east,
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: and the west, and the northeast and the southeast and
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: the north northwest and all the rest of the points
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: of the compass that I could easily tell you for light,
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: but why be wearisome and instructive. And they went back
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: across the hollow echoing drawbridge and passed the soldier who
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: had now polished his helmd to his complete satisfaction, and
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: was wearing it. There was a brief and ron conference
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: on the drawerbridge, the subject of at breakfast Edred wanted
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: to stay. He was curious to see what sort of
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: breakfast people had in the country, and James the firstest
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: time Elfrida wanted to get back to nineteen o eight
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: and the certainty of eggs and bacon. If we stay here,
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: we shall only be dragged into some new adventure, she urged.
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: I know we shall. I never in my life knew
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: such a place as history for adventures to happen in,
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: and am tired. Besides, Oh, Edward, do come along? I
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: believe it stacks, said Edred, and he sniffed questioningly. It
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: smells like onion stuffing Stephen. Nonsense, said Elfrida. That's for dinner.
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: Most likely, I expect breakfast for us would be bread
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: and water. You'd find we'd done something wrong as lightly
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: as not. Oh, come along, do before we get punished
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: for it. Besides, don't you want to know whether what
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: cousin Richard said about the cricket was right? Well? Yes,
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: said Edred. And we can always come back here, can't we?
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: Of course we can, Efrida said eagerly. Oh, come on.
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: So they climbed up to the twisty, twiny corkscrew staircase
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: and found the door of the room where they had
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: slept under the wonderful white coverlets that now were coats.
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: Then they stood still and looked at each other with
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: a sudden shock. How are we to get back, was
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: the unspoken question that trembled on each lip. The magic
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: white coats cut it close round their necks. There was
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: somehow comfort and confidence in the soft, frontly touch of
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: that magic fur. When you are wearing that sort of coat,
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: it is quite impossible to feel that everything will not
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: come perfectly right the moment you really earnestly and thoroughly
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: wished that it should come right. Our clothes, said Elfrida.
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: Oh yes, of course, said Edred. I was forgetting. You
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: may as well go on forgetting, said his sister, because
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: the clothes aren't here. They are the other side of
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: the twisty, twiny, inside out, upside down shakiness that turned
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: the attic into the tower. I suppose the tower would
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: turn back into the attic if you could only start
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: the shaky upside downness going wrong way before you know.
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: I suppose it would, said Edred, stopping short with his
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: fingers between the buttons of his doublet. Hallo, what's this?
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: He pulled out a folded paper. It's the thing about
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: cricket that cousin Richard gave you. Don't bother about that. Now,
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: I want to get back. I suppose we ought to
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: make some poetry. But Edred pulled out the paper and
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: folded it. It might vanish, you know, he said, or
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: get stuck here, and when we got home we should
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: find it gone when we came to look for it.
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: Let us see what he says, Kin did make. He
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: straightened out the paper, looked at it, looked again, and
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: held it out with a sudden armsling's gesture. Look at that,
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: he said, If that's true, which had has streamed our times?
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: And no mistake, And what's more, he's bought things back
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: here out of our times. Efida took the paper and
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: looked at it, and her mouth dropped open. If it's true,
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: said she, But it must be true. The paper almost
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: fell from her hand, for it was a bill from
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: damages for three ships, guns, a compass and a half
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: dozen flags. And the bill was made out to mister R.
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: D Arden, one hundred seventeen Lowrie Grove, New Cross, London,
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: s E. On the other side was the penciled record
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: of the runs made by Cant the previous Thursday, I say,
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: said Elfrida, and was going on to say, I don't
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: know what clever and interesting things, when she felt the
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: fur coat creep and wriggle oswar its soft lengths and
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: the long and soft wits, and no wriggle that ever
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: was wriggled expressed so completely danger, danger, danger. You'd better
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: get off while you can, while you can. A quite
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: violent ruffling of the fur round the neck of her
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: coat said, as plain as they could speak, don't stop
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: to jar go now now. Now, when you say a
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: lady is a true daughter of Eve, you mean that
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: she is inquisitive. Elfrida was enough Eve's daughter to scurry
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: to the window and look out. A thrill ran right
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: down her backbone and ended in an empty feeling at
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: the ends of her fingers and feet. Soldiers, she cried,
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: and they after us. I know they are. The fur
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: coat knew it too, if knowledge can be expressed by wriggling. Oh,
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: and they're pulling up the drawbridge, what for, said Edred,
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: who had come to the window too. And I say,
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: doesn't the portcullis look yet teenish when it comes down
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: like that? Through the window, one looked straight down on
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: to the drawerbridge, and as the tower stuck out beyond
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: the gate, its side window gave an excellent view of
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: the slowly descending pot colors, I say, said Elfrida. My
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: fluffy coat says, go doesn't yours? It would if i'd
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: listened to it, said Edred carelessly. The soldiers were quite
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: near now, so near that Elfrida could see how fierce
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: they looked, and she knew that they were the same
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: soldiers who had hammered so loud and so hard at
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: the door of arden House, and sorrow they must have
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: ridden all night. So she screwed her mind up to
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: make poetry, just as you screw your muscles up to
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: jump a gate or run a hundred yards. And almost
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: before she knew that she was screwing it up at all,
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: the screw had acted, and she had screwed out a
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: piece of mouldiwarp poetry, and was saying it aloud, dear Moudiwarp,
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: since cousin Dick buys his beautiful flags from damages, Take
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: us away, and take us quick before the soldiers do
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: us any damages. And the moment she had said it,
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: the white mashic coats grew up and go down and
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: wrapped the children up as tight and as soft as
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: ever a silk worm wrapped itself when it was tired
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: of being a silk worm and entered into its cocoon
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: as the first step towards being a person with wings.
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: Can you imagine what it would be like to have
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: lovely liquid sleep emptied on you by the warm tupful
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: That is what it felt like inside the white, wonderful cocoons.
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: The children knew that the tower was turning wrong way
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: up and then set out, But it didn't matter a bit.
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: Sleeve was raining down on them in magic showers. No,
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: it was closing on them closer and closer, nearer and nearer,
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: soft delicious layers of warm delight. A soft humming sound
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: was in their ears, like the sound of bees when
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: he pushed through a bed of Canterbury bells. And the
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: next thing that happened was that they came out of
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: the past into the present with a sort of snap
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: of light and a twist of sound. It was like
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: coming out of a railway channel into daylight. The magic
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: coverlet cold cocoons had even saved them the trouble of
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: changing into their own clothes, for they found that the stiff,
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: heavy clothes had gone, and they were dressed in the
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: little ordinary things that they had always been used to
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: And now said Elfrida, let's have another look at that
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: Gammager's paper if it hasn't disappeared. I expect it has, though,
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: but it hadn't. I should like to meet Dick again,
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: said Edred as they went downstairs. He was much the
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: jolliest boy I ever met. Perhaps he shall, Elfrida said, hopefully.
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: You see he does come into our times. I expect
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: that new Cross time he stayed quite a long while,
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: like we did when we went to Gunpowder Plot times.
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: Or we might go back there a little later when
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: the Gunpowder Plot has all died away and been forgotten.
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: It isn't forgotten yet, said Edred, And it's three hundred
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: years ago. Now let's develop our films. I'm not at
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: all sure about those films. You see. We took the
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: films with us, and of course we've brought them back.
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: But the picture that's on the films, we didn't take
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: that with us. I shouldn't be a bit surprised if
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: the films are all blank. It's very very clever of
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: you to think of it, said Effida, respectfully. But I
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: do hope it's a perfectly silly idea of yours. Let's
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: ask missus, honey, said, if you may use the old room,
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: she said, used to be the stew room to develop
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: them in. It'll be a ripping dark room when the
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: shutters are up. Course you may, said missus Honey said yes,
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: and I care you. You in a couple of paces
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: of water the flo of stone, so it won't matter
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: if you do slop a bit. You pump, my lord,
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: and I'll hold the pails. Why was that part of
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: the house let to go all dirty and copwabby, asked Elfrida,
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: when the hoarse voice of the pump had ceased to
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: be heard. It's always been so, said missus sonnystt. I
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: couldn't take upon me to clear up without miss Edith's order,
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: not by what my fingers itch to be at it
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: with a broom and a swabbing brush. But why, ELFREDA persisted.
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: Oh it's one of them old ancient tales, said Missus
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: Sonney said, Old Beale could tell you if any one
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: could we go down to Old Beale's, said Edred decidedly,
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: as soon as we've developed our pictures of the castle,
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: if there are any pictures, he added, You never can
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: tell with some footy machines, can you, said Missus Honeysett sympathetically.
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: My husband's cousin's wife was took with all our family
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: by her own back door. And when they come to
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: wash out the picture, it turned out that they took
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: the next door people's water bite by mistake, owing to
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: their billygoat jugging the young man's elbow that had got
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: the camera. And it wasn't a bit like any of them.
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: End of section thirteen.