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18 - The House of Arden - E Nesbit · Classic Science Fiction Books

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Chapter fourteen, The finding of the treasure to Richard Arden, shouted the mouldiwarp
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of Arden as it leapt on the hour hand of the Pearl and Ivory clock,
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and then the hands went round far too fast for speed to be possible.
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When the clock stopped, which it did quite suddenly, Edred caught his
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breath and shouted to my Daddy at the top of his voice, and the
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hands began to move again, so quickly that neither of the children had time
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to see where they had stopped. They just saw that they were in a
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room, and that the mouldiwarp seemed suddenly to have grown to the size of
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an enormous polar bear leaned over the edge of the clock and caught at something
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with a paw a foot long. And then some one called out something that
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they couldn't hear, and almost at once the clock stopped, and they saw
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something climb off the clock, and the was in the cave again, and
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there was cousin Richard, in quite different clothes from those he had worn at
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King Henry the Eight's, maying they were the kind of clothes Edred had worn
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in Boney's time. And the cave was just as it had been then,
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with kegs and bales and the stream running through it. You must come with
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us, said the mouldiwarf, slowly resuming its ordinary size. Don't you see
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if these children let their father see them, they'll have to explain the whole
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magic. And when once magic's explained, all the magic's gone, like the
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scent out of scent when you leave the cork out of the bottle. But
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you can see him and help if he wants help without having to explain anything.
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All right, said Richard, and muttered something about the head of the
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house. Only he added, I'd drop my magic here. He stooped to
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the sand and picked up a little stick with silver bells hung round it,
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like the one that Folly carries at a carnival. It's got the arden arms
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and crest on it, he said, pointing, and by the light of
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the pearl and ivory clock, the children could see the shield and the chequers
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and the mouldiwarp about. Now. I'm ready, cousins, I take back
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everything I said. You see, my father's dead, and if I'd only
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had half your chance, that was what I thought. See, so give
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us your hand. The hands were given, But oh, said Elfrida,
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this is different from all the rest that was a game, and this sys
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this is this is real, my sock lamp, said the Mouldiwarp with unusual
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kindness. Now, your cousin Richard will help you. And when you get
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your father back, as I make no doubts but what you will, then
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your cousin Dick, he'll go back to his own time and generation and be
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seen no more. And your father won't never guess that you was there so
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close to him as you will be. I don't believe we shall, said
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Elfrida, nodding stubbornly, and for the first time in this story she did
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not believe. Oh well, said the Mouldiwarf bitterly. Of course, if
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you don't believe you'll find him, you'll not find him. That's plain as
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a current loaf. But I believe we shall find him, said Edred.
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And Elfrida's only a girl. It might be only a dream, of course,
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he added thoughtfully. Don't you think I don't know that. But if
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it's a dream, I'm going to stay in it. I'm not going back
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to Arden without my father. Do you understand, said the Mouldiwarf that if
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I take you into any other time or place in your own century. It's
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the full stop. There isn't any more. It means there's no chance of
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our getting into the past again to look for treasure or anything. Oh chance,
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said the mouldiwar I mean no magic clock'll not ever be made for you
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no more, That's what I mean. And if you find your father,
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you'll not be Lord Arden any more either. I hope it will not shock
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you very much when I tell you. At that thought, a distinct pang
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shot through Edred's breast. He really felt it in his flesh and blood breast,
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like a sharp knife. It was dreadful of him to think of such
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a thing when there was a chance of his getting his daddy in exchange for
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just a title. It was dreadful. But I'm a truthful writer, and
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I must own the truth. In one moment, he felt the most dreadful
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things, that it was all nonsense, and perhaps Daddy wasn't there, and
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it was no good looking for him anyway, and he wanted to go on
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being Lord Arden, and hadn't they better go home? The thoughts came quite
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without his meaning them too, and Edrid pushed them from him with both hands,
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so to speak, hating himself because they had come to him, and
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he will hate himself for those thoughts, though he did not mean or wish
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to have them, as long as he lives, every time he remembers them,
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that is the worst of thoughts. They live forever. I don't want
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to be Lord Arden, was what he instantly said. I want my father,
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And what he said was true in spite of those thoughts that he didn't
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mean to have and can never forget. Shall I come along of you,
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said the mouldiwarp, and every one said yes, very earnestly. A friendly
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mouldiwarp is a very useful thing to have at hand when you're going you don't
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know where. Now, you won't make any mistake, the mole went on.
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This is the wind up and the end all so it is. No
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more chests, is in atticsies, No more fine clothes is out of them
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neither and no more white clocks. All right, said Edred impatiently. We
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understand. Now let's go. You wait a bit, said the mouldiwarp,
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aggravatingly. You've got to settle what you'll be and what way your father better
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come out. I think through the chink of the chalk any way you like,
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said Elfrida, and Mouldiwarp. Dear, shan't we ever see you again?
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Oh, I don't say that. It said, you'll see me at
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dinner every day. At dinner, I'm on all the spoons and fogs anyhow,
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it said, And sneak get more aggravatingly than ever moldye, cried Edrid.
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Suddenly, I got it. You disguise us so that father won't know
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us, and then we sha'n't be out of it all. Whatever it is,
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I think that's a first rate idea, said Richard, and me too.
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Not you, said the mouldiwarp. But it waved a white paw at
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Edred and Elfrida, and at once they found themselves dressed in tight fitting white
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fur dresses. Their hands even wore fat white fur gloves with tiger claws at
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the ends of the fingers. At the same moment, the Mouldiwarp grew big
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again, to the size of a very small polar bear, while cousin Richard
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suddenly assumed the proportions of a giant. Now, said the mouldiwarp, and
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they all leapt on the white clock, which started at once. When it
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stopped and they stepped off it. It was on to a carpet of thin
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moss overhead, through the branches of enormous trees that shone stars of a wonderful
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golden brightness. The air was warm, scented as if with flowers, and
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warm to breathe. Yet they did not feel that their fur coats were a
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bit too warm for the weather. The moss was so soft to their feet
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that Edred and Elfrida wanted to feel it with their hands as well. So
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down they went, on all fours. Then they longed to lie down and
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roll on it. They longed so much that they had to do it.
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It was a delicious sensation rolling in the soft moss. Cousin Richard, still
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very much too big, stood looking down on them and laughing. They were
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too busy rolling to look at each other. This, he said, is
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a first class lark. Now for the cliff in the chalk, Shall I
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carry you? He added, politely, addressing the Molivar, who rather surprisingly
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consented. Come on, he said to the children, and as he went
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they followed him. There was something about the moss, or about the fur
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coats or the fur gloves, that somehow made it seem easier and more natural
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to follow on all fours. And really their hands were quite as useful to
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walk on as their feet. Never had they felt so light, so gay,
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Never had walking been such easy work. They followed Richard through the forest
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till, quite abruptly, like the wall at the end of a shrubbery,
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a great cliff rose in front of them, ending the forest. There was
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a cleft in it. They saw the darkness of it rising about them as
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the moon came out from a cloud and shone full on the cliff's white face.
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And the face of the cliff and the shape of the cliff were very
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like that little cleft in the chalk that the mouldiwarp had made when it had
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pulled up turf on the Sussex Downs at home. And all the this time,
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Edred and Elfrida had never looked at each other. There had been so
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many other things to look at. That's the way, said cousin Richard,
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pointing up the dark left. Though it was so dark, Edred and Elfrida
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could see quite plainly that there were no steps, only ledges that a very
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polite goat might have said were a foothold you couldn't climb up there, Edred
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said to the Great Richard. Yet somehow he never doubted that he and Elfrida
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could. Now, said the Mouldiwarf, leaping from Richard's arms to the ground.
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I must carry him, And it grew to polar bears eyes quite calmly
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before their very eyes. They don't see it even yet, said Richard to
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the mole. See what, Elfrida asked, Why what your disguises? Your
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cats, my dear cousins, white cats. Then Edred and Elfrida did look
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look at each other, and it was quite true they were. I'll tell
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you what my plan is, Richard went on. The people of this country
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have never seen tame cats. They think a person who can tame animals is
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a magician. I found that out when I was here before. So now
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I've got three tame animals, all white too. That is, if you'll
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play, he added to the mouliwarf. You will play, won't you?
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Oh? Yes, I'll play, it said, snarling a little. And
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you cats must only mew and power and do whatever I tell you. You'll
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see how I work it. Don't do anything for any one but me and
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your father. Is father really here? Asked Elfrida, trembling a little.
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He's on the other side of the great cliff, said Richard. The cliff
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no man can climb, but you can come. He got on the moliwarf's
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back and put his arms round its polar bear light neck, and it began
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to climb. That was a climb. Even the cats, which Edrid and
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Elfrida now could not help, seeing that they were, found it as much
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as they could do to keep their footing on those little smooth shelving ledges.
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If it had not been that they had cat's eyes and so could see in
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the dark, they never could have done it. And it was such a
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long, long climb too, it seemed as though it would last forever.
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I've heard of foreign climbs, said Elfrida, but I never thought they would
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be like this. I suppose it is foreign South American, said Richard.
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You can look for it on the map when you get home, but you
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won't find it. Come on. And then when they had climbed to the
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top of the cliff, they had to go down on the other side,
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for the cliff rose like a wall between the forest and a wide plain.
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And by the time they reached that plain, the sun was looking down at
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them over the cliff. The plain was very large and very wonderful, and
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a towering wall of cliff ran all round it. The plain was all laid
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out in roads and avenues, and fields and parks. Towns and palaces were
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dotted about it. A tall aqueduct on hundreds of pillars brought water from an
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arch in the face of the cliff to the middle of the plain, and
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from these canals ran out to the cliff wall that bounded the plain all round,
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even and straight, like the spokes of a wheel, and disappeared under
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low arches of stone. Back under the cliff, there were lakes. There
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were gardens. There were great stone buildings whose roofs shone like gold, where
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the rising sun struck them. In the fields were long horned cattle and strange,
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high shouldered sheep, which Richard said were lam Us. I know,
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he explained from seeing them on the postage stamps. They advanced into the plain
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and sat down under a spreading tree. We must just wait till we were
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found, said Richard. He had assumed entire command of the expedition, and
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Edred and Elfrida, being cats, had to submit. But they did not
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like it. Presently, shepherds, coming early to attend to their flocks,
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found a boy in strange clothes, attended by a great white bear, and
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two white cats sitting under a tree. The shepherds did not seem afraid of
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the bear, only curious and interested. But when the mouldiwarp had stood up
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on its hind legs and bowed gravely, and the cats had stood up and
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lain down, and shaken paws and turned somersaults at the word of command,
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one of the shepherds wrapped his red woolen cloaks round him, with an air
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of determination, and making signs that Richard was to follow, set off with
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all his might for the nearest town. Quite soon they found themselves in the
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central square of one of the most beautiful towns in the world. I wish
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I had time to tell you exactly what it was like, but I have
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not. I can only say that it was at once clean and ground splendid
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and comfortable. There was not a dirty corner nor a sad face from one
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end of the town to the other. The houses were made of great blocks
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of stone, inlaid wonderfully with gold and silver. Clear streams or baby canals
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run by the side of every street, and each street had a double row
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of trees running all along its wide length. There were open grassy spaces and
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flower beds set with flowers, some glowing with their natural and lovely colors,
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and some cunningly fashioned of gold and silver and jewels. There were fountains and
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miniature waterfalls. The faces of the people were dark but kind and unwrinkled.
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There was a market with stalls of pleasant fruits and cakes, and bright colored
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soft clothes. There was a great hall in the middle of the town,
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with a garden on its flat roof, and to this hall the shepherd led
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the party. The big doors of inlaid wood were set wide, and a
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crowd, all dressed in soft stuffs of beautiful colors, filled the long room.
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Inside the room was opened to the sky. A wrinkled awning drawn close
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at one side showed that the people could have a roof when it suited them.
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There was a raised stone platform at one end, and on this three
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chairs. The crowd made way for the shepherd and his following, and as
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they drew near to the raised platform, the two white cats, who were
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Edred and Elfrida, looked up and saw in the middle and biggest chair,
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a splendid, dark faced man in a kind of fringed turban with two long
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feathers in it, and in the two chairs to right and left of him,
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closed in beautiful embroidered stuffs, with shining collars of jewels about their necks.
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Father and Uncle Jim. Not a word, said cousin Dick, just
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in time to restrain the voices of the children who were cats. Their actions
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he could not restrain. Every one in the hall saw two white cats spring
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forward and rub themselves against the legs of the man who sat in the right
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hand chair. Compelled to silence as they were by the danger of their position,
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Edrid and Elfrida rubbed their white cat bodies against their father's legs in a
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rapture which I cannot describe, and purred enthusiastically. It was a wonderful relief
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to be able to purr, since they must not speak. The king,
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who sat on the high seat, stood up, looking down on them with
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wise, kind eyes, and spoke, seeming to ask a question quite as
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wonderfully as any train bare and far more gracefully. The white moldiwarp danced before
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the king of that mysterious hidden kingdom. Then Dick whistled, and Edred and
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Elfrida withdrew themselves from their passionate caresses of the only parts of their father that
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they could get at, and stood upon their white, hinded cat feet.
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The Minuit said, Edred in a rapid whisper, Dick whistled a tune that
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they had never heard. But the tune was right, and now was seen
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the spectacle of two white cats, slowly and solemnly going through the figures of
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that complicated dance to the music of Dick's clear whistling, turning, bowing,
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pacing with all the graces that Aunt Edith had taught them when they were Edred
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and Elfrida and not white cat. When the last bow and courtsey ended the
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dance, the King himself shouted some word that they were sure ment well done.
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All the people shouted the same word, and only Father and Uncle Jim
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shouted bravo. Then the King questioned Dick no answer. He laid his finger
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on his lips. Then the King spoke to Father, and he in turn
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tried questions in English and French, and then in other languages, And still
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Dick kept on laying his finger on his lips, and the white bear shook
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its head quite sadly, and the white cats purred aloud, with their eyes
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on their father. Richard stopped. When your father goes out, follow him,
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he whispered. And so when the king rose from his throne and went
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out, and every one else did the same, the white cats, deserting
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dick, followed close on their father's footsteps. When the king saw this,
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he spoke to the men about him, who were leading Richard in another direction.
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And presently the cats and the bear that was the Moliwark and Richard found
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themselves alone with Uncle Jim and the father of Elfrida, on a beautiful tarrace
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shaded by trees and set all along its edge with wonderful trailing flowers of red
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and white and purple that grew out of vases of solid silver. And now
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there being none of the brown people ne'er. Richard looked full in the eyes
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of the father of Edred and Elfrida and said, in a very low voice,
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I'm English. I've come to rescue you. You're a bold boy,
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said dri In, Elfrida's father. But rescue s impossible. There is not
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much time, said Richard again. They've only let us come here just to
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see if you know us. I expect they are listening. You are Lord
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Arden, now the old lord is dead. I can get you out if
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you do exactly as I say. It's worth trying, said Uncle Jim.
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It's worth trying anyhow, whatever it is. Are you free to go where
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you like? Yes, said Lord Arden, not edred, but Edith's father,
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for Edith was now no longer Lord Arden. You see there's no way
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out but the one, and that's grded by a hundred men with poisoned arrows.
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There is another way, said Richard, the way we came. The
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white bear can carry you one at a time. Shall we risk it,
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said Lord Arden a little doubtfully, Rather, said Uncle Jim. I think
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of Edith and the kids. That's what I am thinking of, said Lord
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Arden. While we are alive. There's a chance if we try this and
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fail, they'll kill us. You won't fail, said Richard. I'll help
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you to get home. But I would like to know how you got into
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this fix. It's only curiosity, but I wish you'd tell me. Perhaps
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I shan't see you again after to day. We stumble on the entrance,
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the only entrance to the Golden Plain, said Lord Arden, prospecting for gold
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among these mountains. They have kept us prisoners ever since because they are determined
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not to let the world know of the existence of the Plain. There are
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always rumors of it, but so far no civilized people have found it.
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Every king, when he comes to the throne, takes an oath that he
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will die sooner than allow the plain to be infected by the wicked cruelties of
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modern civilization. I think so, too, said Dick. This is an
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older civilization than that of the incas said Lord Arden, and it is the
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most beautiful life I have ever dreamt of. If they had trusted me,
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I would never have betrayed them. If I escape, I will never betray
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them. If I let in our horrible system of trusts and syndicates and commercialism
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and crime on this golden life, I should know myself to be as great
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a criminal as though I had thrown a little child to wild beasts. The
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White Cats noticed with wonder and respect that their father addressed Richard exactly as though
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he had been a grown up. We managed to send one line to a
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newspaper to say that we were taken by bandits. Lord Arden went on,
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it was all that they would allow us to do. But except that we
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have not been free. We have had everything, food, clothes, kindness,
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justice, affection. We must escape if we can, because of my
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sister and the children. But it is like going out of Eden into the
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black country. That's so, said Uncle Jim. And if we are not
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to see you again, Lordarden went on, tell me why you have come
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at great risk. It must be to help us. I over depth,
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said Richard in a low voice, to all who bear the name of Arden.
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His voice sank so low that the two cats could only hear the words
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head of the house. And now Richard went on, you see that black
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chink over there? He pointed to the crevice in the cliff. Be there,
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both of you at moonrise, and you shall get away safely to Arden
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Castle. You must come with us, of course, said Ludardan I might
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be of service to you. We have quite a respectable little fortune in a
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bank at Lima, not in our own names, but we can get it
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out. If you can get us out. You've brought us luck, I'm
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certain of it. Won't you go with us and share it? I can't,
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said Richard. I must go back to my own time, my own
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place. I mean, now I'll go. Come on, cats. The
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cats looked imploringly at their father, but they went and stood by Richard.
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I suppose we may go, he asked. Every One is perfectly free here,
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said Lord Arden. The only thing you may not do is to leave
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the Golden Plain. It is very strange. There are hardly any laws.
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We are all free to do as we like, and no one seems to
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like to do anything that hurts anyone else. Only if anyone is caught trying
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to get into the outer world or to let the outer world in, he
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is killed without pain, and not as a vengeance, but as necessity.
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The white cats looked at each other rather ruefully. This was not at all
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the way in which they remembered that Dad is talking to them, But said
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Lord Arden, for the children and my sister, we must risk it.
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I trust you completely, and we will be at the crevice when the moon
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rises. So Richard and his three white animals went out down steps cut in
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the sollidrop, and the townspeople crowded round them with fruits and mace, cakes
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for Richard, and milk in golden platters for the cats, and later,
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Richard made signs of being sleepy, and they let him go away among the
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fields, followed by the three white creatures, and at the appointed hour they
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all met under the bass cliff that was the natural wall and guardian of the
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Golden Plain, and the mouldiwark carried Uncle Jim up to the top and then
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came back for Lord Arden and Richard. But before there was time to do
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more, a shout went up and a thousand torches sprang to life in the
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city they had left, and they knew that their flight had been discovered.
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There's no time. The white bear mouldiwarp, to the utter astonishment of Lord
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Arden, opened its long mouth and spoke, and the white cats also opened
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their mouth and cried, Oh Daddy, how awful. What shall we do?
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Hold your silly tongue, said the mouluwark crossly. He was told not
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to go gossiping. Here scratch a way out with them white paws of yours.
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It set the example, stretching at the enormous cliff with those strong,
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blunt curved front feet of it. And the cat scratched too, with their
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white padded gloves that had tiger claws to them, and the rock jeeled.
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There was a white crack wider wider, and the swaying, swirling torches came
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nearer and nearer across the plain. In with you, cried the Mouliwarf.
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In with you, Jim, said Lord Arden. I'll not go without Jim.
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He's half way there already, said the Mouliwarf, pushing Lord Arden with
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its great white shoulder. Come, I say, come. It pushed them
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all into the crack of the rock, and the cliff closed firm and fast
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behind them. An unanswerable no set up in the face of their pursuers.
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This way out, said the mouldiwork, pointing its dusty claw to where a
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head light showed. Why, said Edred, it's the smuggler's cave, and
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there's the clock next moment there It wasn't, for Richard had leapt on it,
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and he and it had vanished together, the mouldiwark clinging to the hour
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hand. At the last moment, the white cats, which were Edred and
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Elfrida, drew back from the whirl of the hands that was the first step
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towards the banishment. They saw their father and uncle Jim go up the steps
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that led to the rude wooden door whose key was like a church key,
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The door that led to the opening among the first that they had never been
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able to find again. When the vanishing of the clock allowed them to follow
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and they regained the sunny outer air, whether skylark were singing as usual,
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they were just in time to see two figures going towards the castle, and
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very near it. They turned and to look at each other. Why,
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said Edred, You're not a cat any more? No more are you?
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If it comes to that, said Elfrida. Oh, Edrid, they're going
29:10
in at the big gate. Do you really think it's real? Or have
29:14
we just dreamt it? This time? It was much more dreamish than any
29:18
of the other things I feel, said Edred, sitting down abruptly, as
29:23
if I'd been a cat all my life and been swung round by my tail
29:29
every day of my life. I think I'll sit here till I'm quite sure
29:33
whether I'm a white cat or Edred ardun I know which I am, said
29:37
Elfrida, but she too was not sorry to sit down. That's easy.
29:42
You're not either of them, said Edred, when half an hour later they
29:48
slowly went down to the castle, still doubtful whether anything magic had ever really
29:53
happened, or whether all the magic things that had seemed to happen had really
30:00
be only a sort of double or twindering. They were met at the door
30:04
by Aunt Edith, pale as the pearl and ivory of the white clock,
30:10
and with eyes that shone like the jew drops on the wild flowers that Elfrida
30:15
had given to the Queen. Oh, kitties, she cried, Oh,
30:19
dear darling kiddis, And she went down on her knees so that she should
30:26
be near their own height and could embrace them on more equal terms. Something
30:33
loveliest happened, she said, something so beautiful that you won't be able to
30:38
believe it. They kissed her heartily, partly out of affection and partly to
30:45
conceal their want of surprise. Darlings, it's the loveliest thing that could possibly
30:52
happen. What do you think Dad is come home? Said Elfrida, feeling
30:57
dreadfully deceit, Yes, said Aunt dd How clever of you. My pet
31:03
and Uncle Jim, they've been kept prisoners in South America, and an English
31:11
boy with a performing bear helped them to escape. No mention of cats.
31:15
The children felt hurt, and they had the most dreadful time, months and
31:22
months and months coming across the interior no water, and injuns and all sorts
31:29
of adventures. And Daddy had fever and would insist that the bear was the
31:33
MOULDI warp our crest, you know, come to life and talking just like
31:38
you or me, and that there were white cats that had your voices and
31:44
called him daddy. But he's all right now, only very weak. That's
31:49
why I'm telling you all this. You must be very quiet and gentle.
31:55
Oh my DearS, it's too good to be true, too to be true.
32:01
Now was it the father of Edred and Elfrida who had brain fever and
32:06
fancied things? Or did they blameless of fever and not too guilty of brains?
32:13
Imagine it all. Uncle Jim can tell you exactly how it all happened.
32:17
There is no magic in his story. Father, I mean, Lord
32:22
Arden does not talk of what he dreamt when he had brain fever. And
32:28
Edred and Elfrida do not talk of what happened when they hadn't at least they
32:32
do, but only to me. It is all very wonderful and mysterious,
32:37
as all life is apt to be if you go a little below the crust
32:43
and are not content to just read newspapers and go by the tube railway and
32:49
buy your clothes ready, mate, and think nothing can be true unless it
32:52
is uninteresting. I found the most wonderful photographs of pictures of art Carden Castle,
33:00
said Aunt Edith. Later on. We can restore the castle perfectly from
33:05
them. I do wish I knew where the original pictures were. I'm afraid
33:10
we can't restore the castle, said Lord Arden, laughing. Our little fortune's
33:15
enough to keep us going quite comfortably, but it won't reveal Norman masonry.
33:21
I do wish we could have found the buried treasure, said Edred. We've
33:25
got treasure enough, said Aunt Edith, looking at Uncle Jim. As for
33:31
what Elfrida thinks, well, I wish you could have seen her face when
33:37
she went into the parlor that evening, after Aunt Edith had knelt down to
33:40
meet them on equal terms and tell them of the treasure of love and joy
33:46
that had come home to Arden. There was Lord Arden, looking exactly like
33:52
the Lord Arden she had known in the Gunpowder Plot days, and also exactly
33:58
like the daddy she had known all her life. Sitting at ease in the
34:01
big chair, just underneath the secret panel behind which Sir Edward Talbot had hidden
34:08
when he was pretending to be the Chevalier Saint George. His dear face was
34:14
just the same, and the smile on it was her own smile, the
34:19
merry, tender, twinkling smile that was for her and for no one else
34:23
in the world. It was just a moment that she stood at the door,
34:28
But it was one of these moments that are as short as a watch
34:32
tick and as long as a year. She stood there and asked herself,
34:38
have I dreamt it all? Isn't there really any mouldiwarp or any treasure?
34:45
And then a great wave of love and longing court at her, and she
34:51
knew that mouldiwarp or no mouldiwarp, the treasure was hers. And in one
34:58
flash she was across the room and in her father's arms, sobbing and laughing
35:05
and saying again and again, Oh my daddy, Oh my daddy, My
35:14
daddy. The end