CHAPTER 13. THE SHIPWRECK ON THE TIN ISLANDS
'Blue and red,' said Jane softly, 'make purple.'
'Not always they don't,' said Cyril, 'it has to be crimson lakeand Prussian blue. If you mix Vermilion and Indigo you get the mostloathsome slate colour.'
'Sepia's the nastiest colour in the box, I think,' said Jane, suckingher brush.
They were all painting. Nurse in the flush of grateful emotion, excitedby Robert's border of poppies, had presented each of the four with ashilling paint-box, and had supplemented the gift with a pile of oldcopies of the Illustrated London News.
'Sepia,' said Cyril instructively, 'is made out of beastly cuttlefish.'
'Purple's made out of a fish, as well as out of red and blue,' saidRobert. 'Tyrian purple was, I know.'
'Out of lobsters?' said Jane dreamily. 'They're red when they're boiled,and blue when they aren't. If you mixed live and dead lobsters you'd getTyrian purple.'
'_I_ shouldn't like to mix anything with a live lobster,' said Anthea,shuddering.
'Well, there aren't any other red and blue fish,' said Jane; 'you'd haveto.'
'I'd rather not have the purple,' said Anthea.
'The Tyrian purple wasn't that colour when it came out of the fish, noryet afterwards, it wasn't,' said Robert; 'it was scarlet really, andRoman Emperors wore it. And it wasn't any nice colour while the fish hadit. It was a yellowish-white liquid of a creamy consistency.'
'How do you know?' asked Cyril.
'I read it,' said Robert, with the meek pride of superior knowledge.
'Where?' asked Cyril.
'In print,' said Robert, still more proudly meek.
'You think everything's true if it's printed,' said Cyril, naturallyannoyed, 'but it isn't. Father said so. Quite a lot of lies get printed,especially in newspapers.'
'You see, as it happens,' said Robert, in what was really a ratherannoying tone, 'it wasn't a newspaper, it was in a book.'
'How sweet Chinese white is!' said Jane, dreamily sucking her brushagain.
'I don't believe it,' said Cyril to Robert.
'Have a suck yourself,' suggested Robert.
'I don't mean about the Chinese white. I mean about the cream fishturning purple and--'
'Oh!' cried Anthea, jumping up very quickly, 'I'm tired of painting.Let's go somewhere by Amulet. I say let's let IT choose.'
Cyril and Robert agreed that this was an idea. Jane consented to stoppainting because, as she said, Chinese white, though certainly sweet,gives you a queer feeling in the back of the throat if you paint with ittoo long.
The Amulet was held up. 'Take us somewhere,' said Jane, 'anywhere youlike in the Past--but somewhere where you are.' Then she said the word.
Next moment everyone felt a queer rocking and swaying--something likewhat you feel when you go out in a fishing boat. And that was notwonderful, when you come to think of it, for it was in a boat that theyfound themselves. A queer boat, with high bulwarks pierced with holesfor oars to go through. There was a high seat for the steersman, andthe prow was shaped like the head of some great animal with big, staringeyes. The boat rode at anchor in a bay, and the bay was very smooth.The crew were dark, wiry fellows with black beards and hair. They had noclothes except a tunic from waist to knee, and round caps with knobson the top. They were very busy, and what they were doing was sointeresting to the children that at first they did not even wonder wherethe Amulet had brought them. And the crew seemed too busy to notice thechildren. They were fastening rush baskets to a long rope with a greatpiece of cork at the end, and in each basket they put mussels or littlefrogs. Then they cast out the rope, the baskets sank, but the corkfloated. And all about on the blue water were other boats and all thecrews of all the boats were busy with ropes and baskets and frogs andmussels.
'Whatever are you doing?' Jane suddenly asked a man who had rather moreclothes than the others, and seemed to be a sort of captain or overseer.He started and stared at her, but he had seen too many strange lands tobe very much surprised at these queerly-dressed stowaways.
'Setting lines for the dye shell-fish,' he said shortly. 'How did youget here?'
'A sort of magic,' said Robert carelessly. The Captain fingered anAmulet that hung round his neck.
'What is this place?' asked Cyril.
'Tyre, of course,' said the man. Then he drew back and spoke in a lowvoice to one of the sailors.
'Now we shall know about your precious cream-jug fish,' said Cyril.
'But we never SAID come to Tyre,' said Jane.
'The Amulet heard us talking, I expect. I think it's MOST obliging ofit,' said Anthea.
'And the Amulet's here too,' said Robert. 'We ought to be able to findit in a little ship like this. I wonder which of them's got it.'
'Oh--look, look!' cried Anthea suddenly. On the bare breast of one ofthe sailors gleamed something red. It was the exact counterpart of theirprecious half-Amulet.
A silence, full of emotion, was broken by Jane.
'Then we've found it!' she said. 'Oh do let's take it and go home!'
'Easy to say "take it",' said Cyril; 'he looks very strong.'
He did--yet not so strong as the other sailors.
'It's odd,' said Anthea musingly, 'I do believe I've seen that mansomewhere before.'
'He's rather like our learned gentleman,' said Robert, 'but I'll tellyou who he's much more like--' At that moment that sailor looked up. Hiseyes met Robert's--and Robert and the others had no longer any doubt asto where they had seen him before. It was Rekh-mara, the priest whohad led them to the palace of Pharaoh--and whom Jane had looked back atthrough the arch, when he was counselling Pharaoh's guard to take thejewels and fly for his life.
Nobody was quite pleased, and nobody quite knew why.
Jane voiced the feelings of all when she said, fingering THEIR Amuletthrough the folds of her frock, 'We can go back in a minute if anythingnasty happens.'
For the moment nothing worse happened than an offer of food--figs andcucumbers it was, and very pleasant.
'I see,' said the Captain, 'that you are from a far country. Sinceyou have honoured my boat by appearing on it, you must stay heretill morning. Then I will lead you to one of our great ones. He lovesstrangers from far lands.'
'Let's go home,' Jane whispered, 'all the frogs are drowning NOW. Ithink the people here are cruel.'
But the boys wanted to stay and see the lines taken up in the morning.
'It's just like eel-pots and lobster-pots,' said Cyril, 'the basketsonly open from outside--I vote we stay.'
So they stayed.
'That's Tyre over there,' said the Captain, who was evidently trying tobe civil. He pointed to a great island rock, that rose steeply from thesea, crowned with huge walls and towers. There was another city on themainland.
'That's part of Tyre, too,' said the Captain; 'it's where the greatmerchants have their pleasure-houses and gardens and farms.'
'Look, look!' Cyril cried suddenly; 'what a lovely little ship!'
A ship in full sail was passing swiftly through the fishing fleet. TheCaptain's face changed. He frowned, and his eyes blazed with fury.
'Insolent young barbarian!' he cried. 'Do you call the ships of TyreLITTLE? None greater sail the seas. That ship has been on a three years'voyage. She is known in all the great trading ports from here to theTin Islands. She comes back rich and glorious. Her very anchor is ofsilver.'
'I'm sure we beg your pardon,' said Anthea hastily. 'In our country wesay "little" for a pet name. Your wife might call you her dear littlehusband, you know.'
'I should like to catch her at it,' growled the Captain, but he stoppedscowling.
'It's a rich trade,' he went on. 'For cloth ONCE dipped, second-bestglass, and the rough images our young artists carve for practice, thebarbarian King in Tessos lets us work the silver mines. We get so muchsilver there that we leave them our iron anchors and come back withsilver ones.'
'How splendid!' said Robert. 'Do go on. What's cloth once dipp
ed?'
'You MUST be barbarians from the outer darkness,' said the Captainscornfully. 'All wealthy nations know that our finest stuffs are twicedyed--dibaptha. They're only for the robes of kings and priests andprinces.'
'What do the rich merchants wear,' asked Jane, with interest, 'in thepleasure-houses?'
'They wear the dibaptha. OUR merchants ARE princes,' scowled theskipper.
'Oh, don't be cross, we do so like hearing about things. We want to knowALL about the dyeing,' said Anthea cordially.
'Oh, you do, do you?' growled the man. 'So that's what you're here for?Well, you won't get the secrets of the dye trade out of ME.'
He went away, and everyone felt snubbed and uncomfortable. And all thetime the long, narrow eyes of the Egyptian were watching, watching. Theyfelt as though he was watching them through the darkness, when they laydown to sleep on a pile of cloaks.
Next morning the baskets were drawn up full of what looked like whelkshells.
The children were rather in the way, but they made themselves as smallas they could. While the skipper was at the other end of the boat theydid ask one question of a sailor, whose face was a little less unkindthan the others.
'Yes,' he answered, 'this is the dye-fish. It's a sort of murex--andthere's another kind that they catch at Sidon and then, of course,there's the kind that's used for the dibaptha. But that's quitedifferent. It's--'
'Hold your tongue!' shouted the skipper. And the man held it.
The laden boat was rowed slowly round the end of the island, and wasmade fast in one of the two great harbours that lay inside a longbreakwater. The harbour was full of all sorts of ships, so thatCyril and Robert enjoyed themselves much more than their sisters. Thebreakwater and the quays were heaped with bales and baskets, and crowdedwith slaves and sailors. Farther along some men were practising diving.
'That's jolly good,' said Robert, as a naked brown body cleft the water.
'I should think so,' said the skipper. 'The pearl-divers of Persia arenot more skilful. Why, we've got a fresh-water spring that comes out atthe bottom of the sea. Our divers dive down and bring up the fresh waterin skin bottles! Can your barbarian divers do as much?'
'I suppose not,' said Robert, and put away a wild desire to explainto the Captain the English system of waterworks, pipes, taps, and theintricacies of the plumbers' trade.
As they neared the quay the skipper made a hasty toilet. He did hishair, combed his beard, put on a garment like a jersey with shortsleeves, an embroidered belt, a necklace of beads, and a big signetring.
'Now,' said he, 'I'm fit to be seen. Come along?'
'Where to?' said Jane cautiously.
'To Pheles, the great sea-captain, said the skipper, 'the man I told youof, who loves barbarians.'
Then Rekh-mara came forward, and, for the first time, spoke.
'I have known these children in another land,' he said. 'You know mypowers of magic. It was my magic that brought these barbarians to yourboat. And you know how they will profit you. I read your thoughts. Letme come with you and see the end of them, and then I will work the spellI promised you in return for the little experience you have so kindlygiven me on your boat.'
The skipper looked at the Egyptian with some disfavour.
'So it was YOUR doing,' he said. 'I might have guessed it. Well, comeon.'
So he came, and the girls wished he hadn't. But Robert whispered--
'Nonsense--as long as he's with us we've got some chance of the Amulet.We can always fly if anything goes wrong.'
The morning was so fresh and bright; their breakfast had been so goodand so unusual; they had actually seen the Amulet round the Egyptian'sneck. One or two, or all these things, suddenly raised the children'sspirits. They went off quite cheerfully through the city gate--it wasnot arched, but roofed over with a great flat stone--and so through thestreet, which smelt horribly of fish and garlic and a thousand otherthings even less agreeable. But far worse than the street scents was thescent of the factory, where the skipper called in to sell his night'scatch. I wish I could tell you all about that factory, but I haven'ttime, and perhaps after all you aren't interested in dyeing works. Iwill only mention that Robert was triumphantly proved to be right. Thedye WAS a yellowish-white liquid of a creamy consistency, and it smeltmore strongly of garlic than garlic itself does.
While the skipper was bargaining with the master of the dye works theEgyptian came close to the children, and said, suddenly and softly--
'Trust me.'
'I wish we could,' said Anthea.
'You feel,' said the Egyptian, 'that I want your Amulet. That makes youdistrust me.'
'Yes,' said Cyril bluntly.
'But you also, you want my Amulet, and I am trusting you.'
'There's something in that,' said Robert.
'We have the two halves of the Amulet,' said the Priest, 'but not yetthe pin that joined them. Our only chance of getting that is to remaintogether. Once part these two halves and they may never be found in thesame time and place. Be wise. Our interests are the same.'
Before anyone could say more the skipper came back, and with him thedye-master. His hair and beard were curled like the men's in Babylon,and he was dressed like the skipper, but with added grandeur of goldand embroidery. He had necklaces of beads and silver, and a glass amuletwith a man's face, very like his own, set between two bull's heads, aswell as gold and silver bracelets and armlets. He looked keenly at thechildren. Then he said--
'My brother Pheles has just come back from Tarshish. He's at his gardenhouse--unless he's hunting wild boar in the marshes. He gets frightfullybored on shore.'
'Ah,' said the skipper, 'he's a true-born Phoenician. "Tyre, Tyre forever! Oh, Tyre rules the waves!" as the old song says. I'll go at once,and show him my young barbarians.'
'I should,' said the dye-master. 'They are very rum, aren't they? Whatfrightful clothes, and what a lot of them! Observe the covering of theirfeet. Hideous indeed.'
Robert could not help thinking how easy, and at the same time pleasant,it would be to catch hold of the dye-master's feet and tip him backwardinto the great sunken vat just near him. But if he had, flight wouldhave had to be the next move, so he restrained his impulse.
There was something about this Tyrian adventure that was different fromall the others. It was, somehow, calmer. And there was the undoubtedfact that the charm was there on the neck of the Egyptian.
So they enjoyed everything to the full, the row from the Island City tothe shore, the ride on the donkeys that the skipper hired at the gate ofthe mainland city, and the pleasant country--palms and figs and cedarsall about. It was like a garden--clematis, honeysuckle, and jasmineclung about the olive and mulberry trees, and there were tulips andgladiolus, and clumps of mandrake, which has bell-flowers that look asthough they were cut out of dark blue jewels. In the distance were themountains of Lebanon. The house they came to at last was rather likea bungalow--long and low, with pillars all along the front. Cedars andsycamores grew near it and sheltered it pleasantly.
Everyone dismounted, and the donkeys were led away.
'Why is this like Rosherville?' whispered Robert, and instantly suppliedthe answer.
'Because it's the place to spend a happy day.'
'It's jolly decent of the skipper to have brought us to such a rippingplace,' said Cyril.
'Do you know,' said Anthea, 'this feels more real than anything elsewe've seen? It's like a holiday in the country at home.'
The children were left alone in a large hall. The floor was mosaic, donewith wonderful pictures of ships and sea-beasts and fishes. Through anopen doorway they could see a pleasant courtyard with flowers.
'I should like to spend a week here,' said Jane, 'and donkey ride everyday.'
Everyone was feeling very jolly. Even the Egyptian looked pleasanterthan usual. And then, quite suddenly, the skipper came back with ajoyous smile. With him came the master of the house. He looked steadilyat the children and nodded twice.
'Yes
,' he said, 'my steward will pay you the price. But I shall not payat that high rate for the Egyptian dog.'
The two passed on.
'This,' said the Egyptian, 'is a pretty kettle of fish.'
'What is?' asked all the children at once.
'Our present position,' said Rekh-mara. 'Our seafaring friend,' headded, 'has sold us all for slaves!'
A hasty council succeeded the shock of this announcement. The Priest wasallowed to take part in it. His advice was 'stay', because they were inno danger, and the Amulet in its completeness must be somewhere near,or, of course, they could not have come to that place at all. And aftersome discussion they agreed to this.
The children were treated more as guests than as slaves, but theEgyptian was sent to the kitchen and made to work.
Pheles, the master of the house, went off that very evening, by theKing's orders, to start on another voyage. And when he was gone his wifefound the children amusing company, and kept them talking and singingand dancing till quite late. 'To distract my mind from my sorrows,' shesaid.
'I do like being a slave,' remarked Jane cheerfully, as they curled upon the big, soft cushions that were to be their beds.
It was black night when they were awakened, each by a hand passed softlyover its face, and a low voice that whispered--
'Be quiet, or all is lost.'
So they were quiet.
'It's me, Rekh-mara, the Priest of Amen,' said the whisperer. 'The manwho brought us has gone to sea again, and he has taken my Amulet from meby force, and I know no magic to get it back. Is there magic for that inthe Amulet you bear?'
Everyone was instantly awake by now.
'We can go after him,' said Cyril, leaping up; 'but he might take OURSas well; or he might be angry with us for following him.'
'I'll see to THAT,' said the Egyptian in the dark. 'Hide your Amuletwell.'
There in the deep blackness of that room in the Tyrian country house theAmulet was once more held up and the word spoken.
All passed through on to a ship that tossed and tumbled on a wind-blownsea. They crouched together there till morning, and Jane and Cyril werenot at all well. When the dawn showed, dove-coloured, across the steelywaves, they stood up as well as they could for the tumbling of the ship.Pheles, that hardy sailor and adventurer, turned quite pale when heturned round suddenly and saw them.
'Well!' he said, 'well, I never did!'
'Master,' said the Egyptian, bowing low, and that was even moredifficult than standing up, 'we are here by the magic of the sacredAmulet that hangs round your neck.'
'I never did!' repeated Pheles. 'Well, well!'
'What port is the ship bound for?' asked Robert, with a nautical air.
But Pheles said, 'Are you a navigator?' Robert had to own that he wasnot.
'Then,' said Pheles, 'I don't mind telling you that we're bound for theTin Isles. Tyre alone knows where the Tin Isles are. It is a splendidsecret we keep from all the world. It is as great a thing to us as yourmagic to you.'
He spoke in quite a new voice, and seemed to respect both the childrenand the Amulet a good deal more than he had done before.
'The King sent you, didn't he?' said Jane.
'Yes,' answered Pheles, 'he bade me set sail with half a score bravegentlemen and this crew. You shall go with us, and see many wonders.' Hebowed and left them.
'What are we going to do now?' said Robert, when Pheles had caused themto be left along with a breakfast of dried fruits and a sort of hardbiscuit.
'Wait till he lands in the Tin Isles,' said Rekh-mara, 'then we canget the barbarians to help us. We will attack him by night and tear thesacred Amulet from his accursed heathen neck,' he added, grinding histeeth.
'When shall we get to the Tin Isles?' asked Jane.
'Oh--six months, perhaps, or a year,' said the Egyptian cheerfully.
'A year of THIS?' cried Jane, and Cyril, who was still feeling far toounwell to care about breakfast, hugged himself miserably and shuddered.It was Robert who said--
'Look here, we can shorten that year. Jane, out with the Amulet! Wishthat we were where the Amulet will be when the ship is twenty miles fromthe Tin Island. That'll give us time to mature our plans.'
It was done--the work of a moment--and there they were on the same ship,between grey northern sky and grey northern sea. The sun was settingin a pale yellow line. It was the same ship, but it was changed, andso were the crew. Weather-worn and dirty were the sailors, and theirclothes torn and ragged. And the children saw that, of course, thoughthey had skipped the nine months, the ship had had to live through them.Pheles looked thinner, and his face was rugged and anxious.
'Ha!' he cried, 'the charm has brought you back! I have prayed to itdaily these nine months--and now you are here? Have you no magic thatcan help?'
'What is your need?' asked the Egyptian quietly.
'I need a great wave that shall whelm away the foreign ship that followsus. A month ago it lay in wait for us, by the pillars of the gods, andit follows, follows, to find out the secret of Tyre--the place of theTin Islands. If I could steer by night I could escape them yet, buttonight there will be no stars.'
'My magic will not serve you here,' said the Egyptian.
But Robert said, 'My magic will not bring up great waves, but I can showyou how to steer without stars.'
He took out the shilling compass, still, fortunately, in working order,that he had bought off another boy at school for fivepence, a piece ofindiarubber, a strip of whalebone, and half a stick of red sealing-wax.
And he showed Pheles how it worked. And Pheles wondered at the compass'smagic truth.
'I will give it to you,' Robert said, 'in return for that charm aboutyour neck.'
Pheles made no answer. He first laughed, snatched the compass fromRobert's hand, and turned away still laughing.
'Be comforted,' the Priest whispered, 'our time will come.'
The dusk deepened, and Pheles, crouched beside a dim lantern, steered bythe shilling compass from the Crystal Palace.
No one ever knew how the other ship sailed, but suddenly, in the deepnight, the look-out man at the stern cried out in a terrible voice--
'She is close upon us!'
'And we,' said Pheles, 'are close to the harbour.' He was silent amoment, then suddenly he altered the ship's course, and then he stood upand spoke.
'Good friends and gentlemen,' he said, 'who are bound with me in thisbrave venture by our King's command, the false, foreign ship is closeon our heels. If we land, they land, and only the gods know whether theymight not beat us in fight, and themselves survive to carry back thetale of Tyre's secret island to enrich their own miserable land. Shallthis be?'
'Never!' cried the half-dozen men near him. The slaves were rowing hardbelow and could not hear his words.
The Egyptian leaped upon him; suddenly, fiercely, as a wild beast leaps.'Give me back my Amulet,' he cried, and caught at the charm. The chainthat held it snapped, and it lay in the Priest's hand.
Pheles laughed, standing balanced to the leap of the ship that answeredthe oarstroke.
'This is no time for charms and mummeries,' he said. 'We've lived likemen, and we'll die like gentlemen for the honour and glory of Tyre, oursplendid city. "Tyre, Tyre for ever! It's Tyre that rules the waves." Isteer her straight for the Dragon rocks, and we go down for our city,as brave men should. The creeping cowards who follow shall go down asslaves--and slaves they shall be to us--when we live again. Tyre, Tyrefor ever!'
A great shout went up, and the slaves below joined in it.
'Quick, the Amulet,' cried Anthea, and held it up. Rekh-mara held up theone he had snatched from Pheles. The word was spoken, and the two greatarches grew on the plunging ship in the shrieking wind under the darksky. From each Amulet a great and beautiful green light streamed andshone far out over the waves. It illuminated, too, the black faces andjagged teeth of the great rocks that lay not two ships' lengths from theboat's peaked nose.
'Tyre, Tyre for ever! It'
s Tyre that rules the waves!' the voices of thedoomed rose in a triumphant shout. The children scrambled through thearch, and stood trembling and blinking in the Fitzroy Street parlour,and in their ears still sounded the whistle of the wind, and the rattleof the oars, the crash of the ships bow on the rocks, and the last shoutof the brave gentlemen-adventurers who went to their deaths singing, forthe sake of the city they loved.
'And so we've lost the other half of the Amulet again,' said Anthea,when they had told the Psammead all about it.
'Nonsense, pooh!' said the Psammead. 'That wasn't the other half. It wasthe same half that you've got--the one that wasn't crushed and lost.'
'But how could it be the same?' said Anthea gently.
'Well, not exactly, of course. The one you've got is a good many yearsolder, but at any rate it's not the other one. What did you say when youwished?'
'I forget,' said Jane.
'I don't,' said the Psammead. 'You said, "Take us where YOU are"--and itdid, so you see it was the same half.'
'I see,' said Anthea.
'But you mark my words,' the Psammead went on, 'you'll have trouble withthat Priest yet.'
'Why, he was quite friendly,' said Anthea.
'All the same you'd better beware of the Reverend Rekh-mara.'
'Oh, I'm sick of the Amulet,' said Cyril, 'we shall never get it.'
'Oh yes we shall,' said Robert. 'Don't you remember December 3rd?'
'Jinks!' said Cyril, 'I'd forgotten that.'
'I don't believe it,' said Jane, 'and I don't feel at all well.'
'If I were you,' said the Psammead, 'I should not go out into the Pastagain till that date. You'll find it safer not to go where you're likelyto meet that Egyptian any more just at present.'
'Of course we'll do as you say,' said Anthea soothingly, 'though there'ssomething about his face that I really do like.'
'Still, you don't want to run after him, I suppose,' snapped thePsammead. 'You wait till the 3rd, and then see what happens.'
Cyril and Jane were feeling far from well, Anthea was always obliging,so Robert was overruled. And they promised. And none of them, not eventhe Psammead, at all foresaw, as you no doubt do quite plainly, exactlywhat it was that WOULD happen on that memorable date.
CHAPTER 14. THE HEART'S DESIRE
If I only had time I could tell you lots of things. For instance, how,in spite of the advice of the Psammead, the four children did, one verywet day, go through their Amulet Arch into the golden desert, and therefind the great Temple of Baalbec and meet with the Phoenix whom theynever thought to see again. And how the Phoenix did not remember them atall until it went into a sort of prophetic trance--if that can be calledremembering. But, alas! I HAVEN'T time, so I must leave all that outthough it was a wonderfully thrilling adventure. I must leave out, too,all about the visit of the children to the Hippodrome with the Psammeadin its travelling bag, and about how the wishes of the people roundabout them were granted so suddenly and surprisingly that at last thePsammead had to be taken hurriedly home by Anthea, who consequentlymissed half the performance. Then there was the time when, Nurse havinggone to tea with a friend out Ivalunk way, they were playing 'devil inthe dark'--and in the midst of that most creepy pastime the postman'sknock frightened Jane nearly out of her life. She took in the letters,however, and put them in the back of the hat-stand drawer, so that theyshould be safe. And safe they were, for she never thought of them againfor weeks and weeks.
One really good thing happened when they took the Psammead to amagic-lantern show and lecture at the boys' school at Camden Town. Thelecture was all about our soldiers in South Africa. And the lecturerended up by saying, 'And I hope every boy in this room has in his heartthe seeds of courage and heroism and self-sacrifice, and I wish thatevery one of you may grow up to be noble and brave and unselfish, worthycitizens of this great Empire for whom our soldiers have freely giventheir lives.'
And, of course, this came true--which was a distinct score for CamdenTown.
As Anthea said, it was unlucky that the lecturer said boys, because nowshe and Jane would have to be noble and unselfish, if at all, withoutany outside help. But Jane said, 'I daresay we are already because ofour beautiful natures. It's only boys that have to be made brave bymagic'--which nearly led to a first-class row.
And I daresay you would like to know all about the affair of the fishingrod, and the fish-hooks, and the cook next door--which was amusing fromsome points of view, though not perhaps the cook's--but there really isno time even for that.
The only thing that there's time to tell about is the Adventure ofMaskelyne and Cooke's, and the Unexpected Apparition--which is also thebeginning of the end.
It was Nurse who broke into the gloomy music of the autumn rain on thewindow panes by suggesting a visit to the Egyptian Hall, England's Homeof Mystery. Though they had good, but private reasons to know that theirown particular personal mystery was of a very different brand, thefour all brightened at the idea. All children, as well as a good manygrown-ups, love conjuring.
'It's in Piccadilly,' said old Nurse, carefully counting out the propernumber of shillings into Cyril's hand, 'not so very far down on the leftfrom the Circus. There's big pillars outside, something like Carter'sseed place in Holborn, as used to be Day and Martin's blacking when Iwas a gell. And something like Euston Station, only not so big.'
'Yes, I know,' said everybody.
So they started.
But though they walked along the left-hand side of Piccadilly they sawno pillared building that was at all like Carter's seed warehouse orEuston Station or England's Home of Mystery as they remembered it.
At last they stopped a hurried lady, and asked her the way to Maskelyneand Cooke's.
'I don't know, I'm sure,' she said, pushing past them. 'I always shopat the Stores.' Which just shows, as Jane said, how ignorant grown-uppeople are.
It was a policeman who at last explained to them that England'sMysteries are now appropriately enough enacted at St George's Hall.
So they tramped to Langham Place, and missed the first two items inthe programme. But they were in time for the most wonderful magicappearances and disappearances, which they could hardly believe--evenwith all their knowledge of a larger magic--was not really magic afterall.
'If only the Babylonians could have seen THIS conjuring,' whisperedCyril. 'It takes the shine out of their old conjurer, doesn't it?'
'Hush!' said Anthea and several other members of the audience.
Now there was a vacant seat next to Robert. And it was when all eyeswere fixed on the stage where Mr Devant was pouring out glasses of allsorts of different things to drink, out of one kettle with one spout,and the audience were delightedly tasting them, that Robert felt someonein that vacant seat. He did not feel someone sit down in it. It was justthat one moment there was no one sitting there, and the next moment,suddenly, there was someone.
Robert turned. The someone who had suddenly filled that empty place wasRekh-mara, the Priest of Amen!
Though the eyes of the audience were fixed on Mr David Devant, Mr DavidDevant's eyes were fixed on the audience. And it happened that his eyeswere more particularly fixed on that empty chair. So that he saw quiteplainly the sudden appearance, from nowhere, of the Egyptian Priest.
'A jolly good trick,' he said to himself, 'and worked under my own eyes,in my own hall. I'll find out how that's done.' He had never seen atrick that he could not do himself if he tried.
By this time a good many eyes in the audience had turned on theclean-shaven, curiously-dressed figure of the Egyptian Priest.
'Ladies and gentlemen,' said Mr Devant, rising to the occasion, 'thisis a trick I have never before performed. The empty seat, third fromthe end, second row, gallery--you will now find occupied by an AncientEgyptian, warranted genuine.'
He little knew how true his words were.
And now all eyes were turned on the Priest and the children, and thewhole audience, after a moment's breathless surprise, shouted applause.Only
the lady on the other side of Rekh-mara drew back a little. SheKNEW no one had passed her, and, as she said later, over tea and coldtongue, 'it was that sudden it made her flesh creep.'
Rekh-mara seemed very much annoyed at the notice he was exciting.
'Come out of this crowd,' he whispered to Robert. 'I must talk with youapart.'
'Oh, no,' Jane whispered. 'I did so want to see the Mascot Moth, and theVentriloquist.'
'How did you get here?' was Robert's return whisper.
'How did you get to Egypt and to Tyre?' retorted Rekh-mara. 'Come, letus leave this crowd.'
'There's no help for it, I suppose,' Robert shrugged angrily. But theyall got up.
'Confederates!' said a man in the row behind. 'Now they go round to theback and take part in the next scene.'
'I wish we did,' said Robert.
'Confederate yourself!' said Cyril. And so they got away, the audienceapplauding to the last.
In the vestibule of St George's Hall they disguised Rekh-mara as well asthey could, but even with Robert's hat and Cyril's Inverness cape he wastoo striking a figure for foot-exercise in the London streets. It had tobe a cab, and it took the last, least money of all of them. They stoppedthe cab a few doors from home, and then the girls went in and engagedold Nurse's attention by an account of the conjuring and a fervententreaty for dripping-toast with their tea, leaving the front door openso that while Nurse was talking to them the boys could creep quietlyin with Rekh-mara and smuggle him, unseen, up the stairs into theirbedroom.
When the girls came up they found the Egyptian Priest sitting on theside of Cyril's bed, his hands on his knees, looking like a statue of aking.
'Come on,' said Cyril impatiently. 'He won't begin till we're all here.And shut the door, can't you?'
When the door was shut the Egyptian said--
'My interests and yours are one.'
'Very interesting,' said Cyril, 'and it'll be a jolly sight moreinteresting if you keep following us about in a decent country with nomore clothes on than THAT!'
'Peace,' said the Priest. 'What is this country? and what is this time?'
'The country's England,' said Anthea, 'and the time's about 6,000 yearslater than YOUR time.'
'The Amulet, then,' said the Priest, deeply thoughtful, 'gives the powerto move to and fro in time as well as in space?'
'That's about it,' said Cyril gruffly. 'Look here, it'll be tea-timedirectly. What are we to do with you?'
'You have one-half of the Amulet, I the other,' said Rekh-mara. 'Allthat is now needed is the pin to join them.'
'Don't you think it,' said Robert. 'The half you've got is the same halfas the one we've got.'
'But the same thing cannot be in the same place and the same time, andyet be not one, but twain,' said the Priest. 'See, here is my half.' Helaid it on the Marcella counterpane. 'Where is yours?'
Jane watching the eyes of the others, unfastened the string of theAmulet and laid it on the bed, but too far off for the Priest to seizeit, even if he had been so dishonourable. Cyril and Robert stood besidehim, ready to spring on him if one of his hands had moved but ever solittle towards the magic treasure that was theirs. But his hands did notmove, only his eyes opened very wide, and so did everyone else's forthe Amulet the Priest had now quivered and shook; and then, as steel isdrawn to the magnet, it was drawn across the white counterpane, nearerand nearer to the Amulet, warm from the neck of Jane. And then, as onedrop of water mingles with another on a rain-wrinkled window-pane, asone bead of quick-silver is drawn into another bead, Rekh-mara's Amuletslipped into the other one, and, behold! there was no more but the oneAmulet!
'Black magic!' cried Rekh-mara, and sprang forward to snatch the Amuletthat had swallowed his. But Anthea caught it up, and at the same momentthe Priest was jerked back by a rope thrown over his head. It drew,tightened with the pull of his forward leap, and bound his elbows to hissides. Before he had time to use his strength to free himself, Roberthad knotted the cord behind him and tied it to the bedpost. Then thefour children, overcoming the priest's wrigglings and kickings, tied hislegs with more rope.
'I thought,' said Robert, breathing hard, and drawing the last knottight, 'he'd have a try for OURS, so I got the ropes out of thebox-room, so as to be ready.'
The girls, with rather white faces, applauded his foresight.
'Loosen these bonds!' cried Rekh-mara in fury, 'before I blast you withthe seven secret curses of Amen-Ra!'
'We shouldn't be likely to loose them AFTER,' Robert retorted.
'Oh, don't quarrel!' said Anthea desperately. 'Look here, he has just asmuch right to the thing as we have. This,' she took up the Amulet thathad swallowed the other one, 'this has got his in it as well as beingours. Let's go shares.'
'Let me go!' cried the Priest, writhing.
'Now, look here,' said Robert, 'if you make a row we can just open thatwindow and call the police--the guards, you know--and tell them you'vebeen trying to rob us. NOW will you shut up and listen to reason?'
'I suppose so,' said Rekh-mara sulkily.
But reason could not be spoken to him till a whispered counsel had beenheld in the far corner by the washhand-stand and the towel-horse, acounsel rather long and very earnest.
At last Anthea detached herself from the group, and went back to thePriest.
'Look here,' she said in her kind little voice, 'we want to be friends.We want to help you. Let's make a treaty. Let's join together to get theAmulet--the whole one, I mean. And then it shall belong to you as muchas to us, and we shall all get our hearts' desire.'
'Fair words,' said the Priest, 'grow no onions.'
'WE say, "Butter no parsnips",' Jane put in. 'But don't you see we WANTto be fair? Only we want to bind you in the chains of honour and uprightdealing.'
'Will you deal fairly by us?' said Robert.
'I will,' said the Priest. 'By the sacred, secret name that is writtenunder the Altar of Amen-Ra, I will deal fairly by you. Will you, too,take the oath of honourable partnership?'
'No,' said Anthea, on the instant, and added rather rashly. 'We don'tswear in England, except in police courts, where the guards are,you know, and you don't want to go there. But when we SAY we'll do athing--it's the same as an oath to us--we do it. You trust us, and we'lltrust you.' She began to unbind his legs, and the boys hastened to untiehis arms.
When he was free he stood up, stretched his arms, and laughed.
'Now,' he said, 'I am stronger than you and my oath is void. I havesworn by nothing, and my oath is nothing likewise. For there IS nosecret, sacred name under the altar of Amen-Ra.'
'Oh, yes there is!' said a voice from under the bed. Everyonestarted--Rekh-mara most of all.
Cyril stooped and pulled out the bath of sand where the Psammead slept.'You don't know everything, though you ARE a Divine Father of the Templeof Amen,' said the Psammead shaking itself till the sand fell tinklingon the bath edge. 'There IS a secret, sacred name beneath the altar ofAmen-Ra. Shall I call on that name?'
'No, no!' cried the Priest in terror.
'No,' said Jane, too. 'Don't let's have any calling names.'
'Besides,' said Rekh-mara, who had turned very white indeed under hisnatural brownness, 'I was only going to say that though there isn't anyname under--'
'There IS,' said the Psammead threateningly.
'Well, even if there WASN'T, I will be bound by the wordless oathof your strangely upright land, and having said that I will be yourfriend--I will be it.'
'Then that's all right,' said the Psammead; 'and there's the tea-bell.What are you going to do with your distinguished partner? He can't godown to tea like that, you know.'
'You see we can't do anything till the 3rd of December,' said Anthea,'that's when we are to find the whole charm. What can we do withRekh-mara till then?'
'Box-room,' said Cyril briefly, 'and smuggle up his meals. It will berather fun.'
'Like a fleeing Cavalier concealed from exasperated Roundheads,' saidRobert. 'Yes.'
&nb
sp; So Rekh-mara was taken up to the box-room and made as comfortable aspossible in a snug nook between an old nursery fender and the wreck ofa big four-poster. They gave him a big rag-bag to sit on, and an old,moth-eaten fur coat off the nail on the door to keep him warm. And whenthey had had their own tea they took him some. He did not like the teaat all, but he liked the bread and butter, and cake that went with it.They took it in turns to sit with him during the evening, and left himfairly happy and quite settled for the night.
But when they went up in the morning with a kipper, a quarter of whicheach of them had gone without at breakfast, Rekh-mara was gone! Therewas the cosy corner with the rag-bag, and the moth-eaten fur coat--butthe cosy corner was empty.
'Good riddance!' was naturally the first delightful thought in eachmind. The second was less pleasing, because everyone at once rememberedthat since his Amulet had been swallowed up by theirs--which hungonce more round the neck of Jane--he could have no possible means ofreturning to his Egyptian past. Therefore he must be still in England,and probably somewhere quite near them, plotting mischief.
The attic was searched, to prevent mistakes, but quite vainly.
'The best thing we can do,' said Cyril, 'is to go through the halfAmulet straight away, get the whole Amulet, and come back.'
'I don't know,' Anthea hesitated. 'Would that be quite fair? Perhaps heisn't really a base deceiver. Perhaps something's happened to him.'
'Happened?' said Cyril, 'not it! Besides, what COULD happen?'
'I don't know,' said Anthea. 'Perhaps burglars came in the night, andaccidentally killed him, and took away the--all that was mortal of him,you know--to avoid discovery.'
'Or perhaps,' said Cyril, 'they hid the--all that was mortal, in one ofthose big trunks in the box-room. SHALL WE GO BACK AND LOOK?' he addedgrimly.
'No, no!' Jane shuddered. 'Let's go and tell the Psammead and see whatit says.'
'No,' said Anthea, 'let's ask the learned gentleman. If anything hashappened to Rekh-mara a gentleman's advice would be more useful than aPsammead's. And the learned gentleman'll only think it's a dream, likehe always does.'
They tapped at the door, and on the 'Come in' entered. The learnedgentleman was sitting in front of his untasted breakfast.
Opposite him, in the easy chair, sat Rekh-mara!
'Hush!' said the learned gentleman very earnestly, 'please, hush! or thedream will go. I am learning... Oh, what have I not learned in the lasthour!'
'In the grey dawn,' said the Priest, 'I left my hiding-place, andfinding myself among these treasures from my own country, I remained. Ifeel more at home here somehow.'
'Of course I know it's a dream,' said the learned gentleman feverishly,'but, oh, ye gods! what a dream! By jove!...'
'Call not upon the gods,' said the Priest, 'lest ye raise greater onesthan ye can control. Already,' he explained to the children, 'he and Iare as brothers, and his welfare is dear to me as my own.'
'He has told me,' the learned gentleman began, but Robert interrupted.This was no moment for manners.
'Have you told him,' he asked the Priest, 'all about the Amulet?'
'No,' said Rekh-mara.
'Then tell him now. He is very learned. Perhaps he can tell us what todo.'
Rekh-mara hesitated, then told--and, oddly enough, none of the childrenever could remember afterwards what it was that he did tell. Perhaps heused some magic to prevent their remembering.
When he had done the learned gentleman was silent, leaning his elbow onthe table and his head on his hand.
'Dear Jimmy,' said Anthea gently, 'don't worry about it. We are sure tofind it today, somehow.'
'Yes,' said Rekh-mara, 'and perhaps, with it, Death.'
'It's to bring us our hearts' desire,' said Robert.
'Who knows,' said the Priest, 'what things undreamed-of and infinitelydesirable lie beyond the dark gates?'
'Oh, DON'T,' said Jane, almost whimpering.
The learned gentleman raised his head suddenly.
'Why not,' he suggested, 'go back into the Past? At a moment when theAmulet is unwatched. Wish to be with it, and that it shall be under yourhand.'
It was the simplest thing in the world! And yet none of them had everthought of it.
'Come,' cried Rekh-mara, leaping up. 'Come NOW!'
'May--may I come?' the learned gentleman timidly asked. 'It's only adream, you know.'
'Come, and welcome, oh brother,' Rekh-mara was beginning, but Cyril andRobert with one voice cried, 'NO.'
'You weren't with us in Atlantis,' Robert added, 'or you'd know betterthan to let him come.'
'Dear Jimmy,' said Anthea, 'please don't ask to come. We'll go and beback again before you have time to know that we're gone.'
'And he, too?'
'We must keep together,' said Rekh-mara, 'since there is but one perfectAmulet to which I and these children have equal claims.'
Jane held up the Amulet--Rekh-mara went first--and they all passedthrough the great arch into which the Amulet grew at the Name of Power.
The learned gentleman saw through the arch a darkness lighted by smokygleams. He rubbed his eyes. And he only rubbed them for ten seconds.
The children and the Priest were in a small, dark chamber. A squaredoorway of massive stone let in gleams of shifting light, and the soundof many voices chanting a slow, strange hymn. They stood listening. Nowand then the chant quickened and the light grew brighter, as though fuelhad been thrown on a fire.
'Where are we?' whispered Anthea.
'And when?' whispered Robert.
'This is some shrine near the beginnings of belief,' said the Egyptianshivering. 'Take the Amulet and come away. It is cold here in themorning of the world.'
And then Jane felt that her hand was on a slab or table of stone, and,under her hand, something that felt like the charm that had so long hunground her neck, only it was thicker. Twice as thick.
'It's HERE!' she said, 'I've got it!' And she hardly knew the sound ofher own voice.
'Come away,' repeated Rekh-mara.
'I wish we could see more of this Temple,' said Robert resistingly.
'Come away,' the Priest urged, 'there is death all about, and strongmagic. Listen.'
The chanting voices seemed to have grown louder and fiercer, and lightstronger.
'They are coming!' cried Rekh-mara. 'Quick, quick, the Amulet!'
Jane held it up.
'What a long time you've been rubbing your eyes!' said Anthea; 'don'tyou see we've got back?' The learned gentleman merely stared at her.
'Miss Anthea--Miss Jane!' It was Nurse's voice, very much higher andsqueaky and more exalted than usual.
'Oh, bother!' said everyone. Cyril adding, 'You just go on with thedream for a sec, Mr Jimmy, we'll be back directly. Nurse'll come up ifwe don't. SHE wouldn't think Rekh-mara was a dream.'
Then they went down. Nurse was in the hall, an orange envelope in onehand, and a pink paper in the other.
'Your Pa and Ma's come home. "Reach London 11.15. Prepare rooms asdirected in letter", and signed in their two names.'
'Oh, hooray! hooray! hooray!' shouted the boys and Jane. But Antheacould not shout, she was nearer crying.
'Oh,' she said almost in a whisper, 'then it WAS true. And we HAVE gotour hearts' desire.'
'But I don't understand about the letter,' Nurse was saying. 'I haven'tHAD no letter.'
'OH!' said Jane in a queer voice, 'I wonder whether it was one ofthose... they came that night--you know, when we were playing "devilin the dark"--and I put them in the hat-stand drawer, behind theclothes-brushes and'--she pulled out the drawer as she spoke--'and herethey are!'
There was a letter for Nurse and one for the children. The letters toldhow Father had done being a war-correspondent and was coming home; andhow Mother and The Lamb were going to meet him in Italy and all comehome together; and how The Lamb and Mother were quite well; and howa telegram would be sent to tell the day and the hour of theirhome-coming.
'Mercy me!' said old N
urse. 'I declare if it's not too bad of You, MissJane. I shall have a nice to-do getting things straight for your Pa andMa.'
'Oh, never mind, Nurse,' said Jane, hugging her; 'isn't it just toolovely for anything!'
'We'll come and help you,' said Cyril. 'There's just something upstairswe've got to settle up, and then we'll all come and help you.'
'Get along with you,' said old Nurse, but she laughed jollily. 'Nicehelp YOU'D be. I know you. And it's ten o'clock now.'
There was, in fact, something upstairs that they had to settle. Quite aconsiderable something, too. And it took much longer than they expected.
A hasty rush into the boys' room secured the Psammead, very sandy andvery cross.
'It doesn't matter how cross and sandy it is though,' said Anthea, 'itought to be there at the final council.'
'It'll give the learned gentleman fits, I expect,' said Robert, 'when hesees it.'
But it didn't.
'The dream is growing more and more wonderful,' he exclaimed, when thePsammead had been explained to him by Rekh-mara. 'I have dreamed thisbeast before.'
'Now,' said Robert, 'Jane has got the half Amulet and I've got thewhole. Show up, Jane.'
Jane untied the string and laid her half Amulet on the table, litteredwith dusty papers, and the clay cylinders marked all over with littlemarks like the little prints of birds' little feet. Robert laid down thewhole Amulet, and Anthea gently restrained the eager hand of the learnedgentleman as it reached out yearningly towards the 'perfect specimen'.
And then, just as before on the Marcella quilt, so now on the dustylitter of papers and curiosities, the half Amulet quivered and shook,and then, as steel is drawn to a magnet, it was drawn across the dustymanuscripts, nearer and nearer to the perfect Amulet, warm from thepocket of Robert. And then, as one drop of water mingles with anotherwhen the panes of the window are wrinkled with rain, as one bead ofmercury is drawn into another bead, the half Amulet, that was thechildren's and was also Rekh-mara's,--slipped into the whole Amulet,and, behold! there was only one--the perfect and ultimate Charm.
'And THAT'S all right,' said the Psammead, breaking a breathlesssilence.
'Yes,' said Anthea, 'and we've got our hearts' desire. Father and Motherand The Lamb are coming home today.'
'But what about me?' said Rekh-mara.
'What IS your heart's desire?' Anthea asked.
'Great and deep learning,' said the Priest, without a moment'shesitation. 'A learning greater and deeper than that of any man of myland and my time. But learning too great is useless. If I go back to myown land and my own age, who will believe my tales of what I have seenin the future? Let me stay here, be the great knower of all that hasbeen, in that our time, so living to me, so old to you, about which yourlearned men speculate unceasingly, and often, HE tells me, vainly.'
'If I were you,' said the Psammead, 'I should ask the Amulet about that.It's a dangerous thing, trying to live in a time that's not your own.You can't breathe an air that's thousands of centuries ahead of yourlungs without feeling the effects of it, sooner or later. Prepare themystic circle and consult the Amulet.'
'Oh, WHAT a dream!' cried the learned gentleman. 'Dear children, ifyou love me--and I think you do, in dreams and out of them--prepare themystic circle and consult the Amulet!'
They did. As once before, when the sun had shone in August splendour,they crouched in a circle on the floor. Now the air outside was thickand yellow with the fog that by some strange decree always attends theCattle Show week. And in the street costers were shouting. 'Ur HekauSetcheh,' Jane said the Name of Power. And instantly the light wentout, and all the sounds went out too, so that there was a silence anda darkness, both deeper than any darkness or silence that you have evereven dreamed of imagining. It was like being deaf or blind, only darkerand quieter even than that.
Then out of that vast darkness and silence came a light and a voice. Thelight was too faint to see anything by, and the voice was too smallfor you to hear what it said. But the light and the voice grew. And thelight was the light that no man may look on and live, and the voice wasthe sweetest and most terrible voice in the world. The children castdown their eyes. And so did everyone.
'I speak,' said the voice. 'What is it that you would hear?'
There was a pause. Everyone was afraid to speak.
'What are we to do about Rekh-mara?' said Robert suddenly and abruptly.'Shall he go back through the Amulet to his own time, or--'
'No one can pass through the Amulet now,' said the beautiful, terriblevoice, 'to any land or any time. Only when it was imperfect could suchthings be. But men may pass through the perfect charm to the perfectunion, which is not of time or space.'
'Would you be so very kind,' said Anthea tremulously, 'as to speak sothat we can understand you? The Psammead said something about Rekh-maranot being able to live here, and if he can't get back--' She stopped,her heart was beating desperately in her throat, as it seemed.
'Nobody can continue to live in a land and in a time not appointed,'said the voice of glorious sweetness. 'But a soul may live, if in thatother time and land there be found a soul so akin to it as to offer itrefuge, in the body of that land and time, that thus they two may be onesoul in one body.'
The children exchanged discouraged glances. But the eyes of Rekh-maraand the learned gentleman met, and were kind to each other, and promisedeach other many things, secret and sacred and very beautiful.
Anthea saw the look. 'Oh, but,' she said, without at all meaning to sayit, 'dear Jimmy's soul isn't at all like Rekh-mara's. I'm certain itisn't. I don't want to be rude, but it ISN'T, you know. Dear Jimmy'ssoul is as good as gold, and--'
'Nothing that is not good can pass beneath the double arch of my perfectAmulet,' said the voice. 'If both are willing, say the word of Power,and let the two souls become one for ever and ever more.'
'Shall I?' asked Jane.
'Yes.'
'Yes.'
The voices were those of the Egyptian Priest and the learned gentleman,and the voices were eager, alive, thrilled with hope and the desire ofgreat things.
So Jane took the Amulet from Robert and held it up between the two men,and said, for the last time, the word of Power.
'Ur Hekau Setcheh.'
The perfect Amulet grew into a double arch; the two arches leaned toeach other making a great A.
'A stands for Amen,' whispered Jane; 'what he was a priest of.'
'Hush!' breathed Anthea.
The great double arch glowed in and through the green light that hadbeen there since the Name of Power had first been spoken--it glowedwith a light more bright yet more soft than the other light--a glory andsplendour and sweetness unspeakable. 'Come!' cried Rekh-mara, holdingout his hands.
'Come!' cried the learned gentleman, and he also held out his hands.
Each moved forward under the glowing, glorious arch of the perfectAmulet.
Then Rekh-mara quavered and shook, and as steel is drawn to a magnethe was drawn, under the arch of magic, nearer and nearer to the learnedgentleman. And, as one drop of water mingles with another, when thewindow-glass is rain-wrinkled, as one quick-silver bead is drawn toanother quick-silver bead, Rekh-mara, Divine Father of the Temple ofAmen-Ra, was drawn into, slipped into, disappeared into, and was onewith Jimmy, the good, the beloved, the learned gentleman.
And suddenly it was good daylight and the December sun shone. The foghas passed away like a dream.
The Amulet was there--little and complete in jane's hand, and therewere the other children and the Psammead, and the learned gentleman. ButRekh-mara--or the body of Rekh-mara--was not there any more. As for hissoul...
'Oh, the horrid thing!' cried Robert, and put his foot on a centipedeas long as your finger, that crawled and wriggled and squirmed at thelearned gentleman's feet.
'THAT,' said the Psammead, 'WAS the evil in the soul of Rekh-mara.'
There was a deep silence.
'Then Rekh-mara's HIM now?' said Jane at last.
&nb
sp; 'All that was good in Rekh-mara,' said the Psammead.
'HE ought to have his heart's desire, too,' said Anthea, in a sort ofstubborn gentleness.
'HIS heart's desire,' said the Psammead, 'is the perfect Amulet you holdin your hand. Yes--and has been ever since he first saw the broken halfof it.'
'We've got ours,' said Anthea softly.
'Yes,' said the Psammead--its voice was crosser than they had ever heardit--'your parents are coming home. And what's to become of ME? I shallbe found out, and made a show of, and degraded in every possible way. IKNOW they'll make me go into Parliament--hateful place--all mud and nosand. That beautiful Baalbec temple in the desert! Plenty of good sandthere, and no politics! I wish I were there, safe in the Past--that Ido.'
'I wish you were,' said the learned gentleman absently, yet polite asever.
The Psammead swelled itself up, turned its long snail's eyes in onelast lingering look at Anthea--a loving look, she always said, andthought--and--vanished.
'Well,' said Anthea, after a silence, 'I suppose it's happy. The onlything it ever did really care for was SAND.'
'My dear children,' said the learned gentleman, 'I must have fallenasleep. I've had the most extraordinary dream.'
'I hope it was a nice one,' said Cyril with courtesy.
'Yes.... I feel a new man after it. Absolutely a new man.'
There was a ring at the front-door bell. The opening of a door. Voices.
'It's THEM!' cried Robert, and a thrill ran through four hearts.
'Here!' cried Anthea, snatching the Amulet from Jane and pressing itinto the hand of the learned gentleman. 'Here--it's yours--your veryown--a present from us, because you're Rekh-mara as well as... I mean,because you're such a dear.'
She hugged him briefly but fervently, and the four swept down the stairsto the hall, where a cabman was bringing in boxes, and where,heavily disguised in travelling cloaks and wraps, was their hearts'desire--three-fold--Mother, Father, and The Lamb.
'Bless me!' said the learned gentleman, left alone, 'bless me! What atreasure! The dear children! It must be their affection that has givenme these luminous apercus. I seem to see so many things now--things Inever saw before! The dear children! The dear, dear children!'
Thank you for reading books on BookFrom.Net Share this book with friends