 Section 14 of the House of Arden This is a LibriVox recording, or LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org, reading by Lars Rolander. The House of Arden by Edith Nespit, Chapter 11, Developments, Part 1. Come on, said Edrid. You measure out the hypo and put the four pie dishes ready, I'll get the water. He got it with Mrs. Honisette's help, two brimming pails full. You mustn't come in for anything, will you, Mrs. Honisette? He earnestly urged. You see, if the doors open ever so little, all the photographs will be done for. Low love adduct, said Mrs. Honisette, holding her fat waist with her fat hands. I shan't come in, I ain't got nothing to come in for. We'll bolt the door all the same, said Edrid, when she was gone, in case she was to think of something. He shot the great wooden bolt. Now it'll be quite dark, he said. And of course it wasn't. You know, the aggravating way rooms have a pretending to be quite dark, until you want them to be dark. And then, by no means. This room didn't even pretend to be dark to begin with. Its shutters had two heart-shaped holes high up, through which the light showed quite dazzingly. Edrid had to climb up onto the window-seat and stuff up the holes very tight with crossed newspaper, to get which he had to unbolt the door. There, he said as he pulled and patted the newspaper, till it really and darkly filled the heart-shaped holes. Now it will be quite dark. And again it wasn't. Long, dusty rays of light came through the cracks where the hinges of the shutters were. Newspapers were no good for them. The door had to be unbolted, and Mrs. Honissette found. She was sitting in a little low chair at the back door, plucking a white chicken. The sight of the little white feathers floating, fluffing about, brought wonderful memories to Edrid. But he only said, I say, you haven't any old curtains, have you? Thick ones, or thin, if they were red? Mrs. Honissette laid the chickens down among his white feathers, and went to chest of drawers that stood in the kitchen. Here you are, she said, handing out two old red velvet curtains, with which she disappeared. But he was back again quite quickly. You haven't got a hammer, I suppose, said he. The dresser drawer gilded a hammer, and Edrid took it away to return almost at once with, I suppose there aren't any tags? I suppose, said Mrs. Honissette, laughing, there ain't much sense locking that still room door on the inside, when it ain't me that keeps all the popping in, but you that keeps all the popping out. However she gave him the tags, rusty ones, in a damp screw or paper. When he had hammered his fingers a good deal, and the tags a little, the tags consented to hold up the curtain, or the curtain descended to be held up by the tags. And now, said Edrid, shutting the door, it really is dark he meant, but of course it wasn't. There was a gap under the door so wide, as Ilfrida said, that you could have almost crawled through it. That meant another appeal to Mrs. Honissette for another curtain. And this time Mrs. Honissette told him to go along with him for a little worried, and threw a handful of downy soft white feathers at him, but she laughed too, and gave him the curtain. And at last it really was dark, and then they had to unbolt the door again, because Ilfrida had forgotten where she had put the matches. You will readily understand that, after all this preparation, the children were at the last point of impatience, and everything seemed to go slowly. The lamp with the red shade burned up presently, and then the four pie dishes were filled with water that looked pink in that strange light. One good thing, said Edrid, the hypo has had time to melt, and now there was careful snipping and long ribbons of black paper, curled unheeded round the legs of the operators. I wish we were born photographers like the man who took Aunt Edid and you on the beach with the donkey, said Edrid nervously, as he began to pass the film in and out of the water, in pie dish number one. Oh, be sure there are no air bubbles, said Ilfrida. You might let me do some of it. You shall do the next one, said Edrid, almost holding his breath. Dear reader, do you recall the agitating moment when you passed the film through the hypo, and hold it up to the light, and nothing happens? Do you remember the painful wonder whether you may have forgotten to set the shutter, or whether you have got hold of an unexposed film by mistake? Your breath comes with difficulty, your fingers feel awkward, and the film is unnaturally slippery. You dip it into the hypo bath again, and draw it through and through with a calmness of despair. I don't believe it's coming out at all, you say. And then comes the glorious moment when you hold it up again to the red light and murmur rapturously. Ah, it is beginning to show. If you will kindly remember all the emotions of those exciting moments on an occasion, let us say, when you had not had your camera very long, then multiply by seven million, add X an unknown quantity of an emotion quite different from anything you have ever felt, and you will have some idea what Edrid and Alfreda felt when the first faint grey formless patches began to appear on the film. But you might multiply till you had used up the multiplication table, and add X's as long as you could afford them, and yet never imagine the rapture with which the two children saw the perfect development of the six little perfect pictures. For they were perfect. They were perfect pictures of Arden Castle at a time when it too was perfect. No broken arches, no crumbling wall, but every part neat and clear-cut, as they had seen it when they went into the past, that was three hundred years ago. They were equally fortunate with the second film. It too had its six faultless pictures of Arden Castle three hundred years ago. Only just before the moment which was the right moment for taking the film out of the hyperbath and beginning to wash it, a tiny white feather fell out of Edrid's hair into the dish. It was so tiny that in that dim light he did not notice it, and it did not stick to the film or do any of those things which you might have feared if you had seen the little white thing fluttered down. It may have been the feathers doing. I don't know. I just tell you the thing as it happened. Of course, you know that films have to be pinned up to dry. Well, the first film was pinned on the right-hand panel of the door, and the second film was pinned on the left-hand panel of the door. And when it came to the third, the one that had had the little white feather dropped near it, there was nothing wooden left to pin it to, for the walls were of stone, nothing wooden except the shutters, and it was pinned across these. It doesn't matter, said Edrid, because we needn't open the shutter till it's dry, and with that he stuck in four pins at his four corners and turned to blow out the lamp and unbolt the door. He meant to do this, but the door, as a matter of fact, wasn't bolted at all, because Edrid had forgotten to do it when he came back with the dusters, so he couldn't have unbolted it anyway, and he could blow out the red-sided lamp, and he did. And then the wonderful thing happened. Of course, the room ought to have been quite dark, I'm sure enough trouble had been taken to make it so, but it wasn't. The window, the window where the shutters were, the shutters that the film was pinned on, the film on which the little white feather had fallen, the little white feather that has settled on Edrid's hair, as Honeyset was plucking that chicken at the back door. That window now showed as a broad oblong of light, and in that broad oblong was a sort of shining, a faint sparkling movement like the movement of the light on the sheet of a cinematograph before the pictures begin to show. Oh! said Ilfrida, catching at Edrid's hand. What she did catch was his hair. She felt her way down his arm, and so caught what she had meant to catch, and held it fast. It's more magic, said Edrid ungratefully. I do wish. Oh! hush! said Ilfrida. Look! Oh! look! The light broad oblong suddenly changed from mere light to figures, to movement. It was a living picture, rather like a cinematograph, but much more like something else, the something else that it was more like was life. It seemed as though the window had been opened, as though they could see through it into the world of light and sunshine and blue sky, the world where things happen. There was the castle, and there were people going across the drawbridge, men with sacks on their backs, and a man with a silver chain round his neck, and a tall stick in his hand was standing under the great gateway, telling them where to take the sacks, and a cart drove up with casks, and they were rolled across the drawbridge and under the tall arch of the gate tower. The men were dressed, and then something blinked, and the scene changed. It was indoors now, a long room with many pictures on one side of it, and many windows on the other. A lady in a large white collar and beautiful long curls, very like Aunt Edith, was laying fine dresses in a chest. A gentleman also with long hair and with a good deal of lace about his collar and cuffs was putting jugs and plates of gold and silver into another chest, and servants kept bringing more golden grand things and more and more. Edrit and Elfrida did not say a word. They couldn't. What they were looking at was far too thrilling, but in each heart the same words were uttered. That's the treasure. And each mind held the same thought. If it only goes on till the treasure's hidden, we shall see where they put it, and then we can go and find it. I think myself that the white moldy warp was anxious to help a little. I believe it had arranged the whole of this exhibition so that the children might get an idea of the whereabouts of the treasure, and so cease to call on it at all hours of the day and night, with a sort of poetry which even a mole must see not to be so very good. However this may be, it was a wonderful show. One seemed to see things better somehow like that, through the window that looked into the past. Then one did, who was really in the past, taking an active part in what was going on. There appeared at any rate to be no doubt that this really was the treasure, and still less that it was a treasure both plentiful and picturesque. Quickly and more quickly the beautiful rich things were being packed into the chests. More and more pay looked the lady, more and more anxious the gentleman. The lady was taking from her waiting-woman little boxes and bundles, with which the woman's apron was filled, and the chest before which she was kneeling was nearly full, when the door at the end of the gallery opened southerly, and Elfride and Idrid in the dark in the still room were confronted with a spectacle of themselves coming down the long picture gallery towards that group of chests and treasure, and horrid human people. They saw themselves in blue silk and lace and black velvet, and they saw on their own faces fear and love, and they wonder what was to happen next. They saw themselves embraced by the grown-ups who were quite plainly father and mother. They saw themselves speak, and the grown-ups reply, I'd give all my pocket money for a year to hear what they're saying, Idrid told himself. The daddy's just like my daddy, Elfride was telling herself, and just like the daddy in the tower that was so like my own daddy. Then the children in the picture kneel down, and the daddy in the picture laid his hands on their heads, and the children out of the picture bent their own heads there in the dark still room, for they knew what was happening in the picture. Elfride even half held out her arms, but it was no good. Again the scene changed. A chest was being carried by four men who strained and staggered under its weight. They were carrying it along a vaulted passage by ropes that passed under the chest and over their shoulders. Every now and then they set it down and stretched and wiped their faces, and the picture kept on changing so that the children seemed to be going with the men down a flight of stairs into a spacious hall full of men, all talking and very busy with armor and big boots, and then across the courtyard full of more men, very busy too, polishing axes and things that looked like spares, leaning muskets and fitting new flints to pistols, and sharpening swords on a big grindstone. Edred would have loved to stay and watch them do these things, but they and their work were gone on quite quickly, and the chest and the men who carried it were going under an archway. Here one of the men wanted to rest again, but the others said it was not worthwhile. They were almost there. It was quite plain that they said this, though no sound could be heard. Now we shall really know, said Edred to himself. Elfrida squeezed his hand. That was just what she was thinking too. The men stopped at a door, knocked, knocked again, and yet once more, and curiously enough the children in the still room could hear the sound of the knocking quite plainly, though they heard nothing else. The men looked at each other across the chest that they had sat down. Then one man set his shoulder to the door. There was a scrunching sound, and the picture disappeared, went out, and there were the shutters where the film pinned across them, and behind them the door opened and Mrs. Honey said telling them that dinner, which was roast rabbit and a boiled hand of pork, would be cold if they didn't make haste and come along. Oh Mrs. Honey said, said Elfrida with deep feeling, you are too bad, you really are. I hope I've not spoiled the photos, said Mrs. Honey said, but I did knock three times and you was that quiet. I was afraid something had happened to you. Poison yourself without thinking or something of that. It's too bad, said Edred Bitterly. It's much too bad. I don't want any dinner. I don't want anything. Everything's spoiled. Perhaps, said Mrs. Honey said patiently, I might have gone on knocking longer. Only I thought the door was bolted. You did so keep on a bolting of it at the beginning, didn't you? So I just got hold of the handle to try it, and it came open in my hand. Come along, Lovie, don't bear malice now. I didn't go for to do it, and I'll get you some more or whatever it is that's spoiled and you can take some more photos tomorrow. You might have known we were all right, said Edred, still furious, but both thought it only fair to say it wasn't the photographs that were spoiled and they said it at the same moment. Then what was it, said Mrs. Honey said, and do come along, for goodness sake, and eat your dinner while it's hot. It was a different sort of picture, said Elfrida with a gulp, and it was a pity. Never mind, love, said Mrs. Honey said, who was as kind as a grandmother, and I can't say more than that. There's a lovely surprise coming by and by for good little girls and boys, and the rabbit'll be stone cold if you don't make haste. Least ways it would have been if I hadn't thought to pop it in the oven when I came to call you, knowing full well what your hands would be like after all that messing about with poison in dishes, and if I was your aunt I'd forbid it downright. And now come along and wash your hands and don't let's have any more nonsense about it. Do you hear? I dare say you noticed that Mrs. Honey said was quite cross at the end of this speech and quite coaxing and kind at the beginning. She had just talked herself into being cross. It's quite easy. I dare say you have often done it. It was a silent dinner, the first silent meal since the children had come to Arden Castle. You can judge of Edred's feelings when I tell you that he felt as though the rabbit would choke him and refused a second helping of gooseberry pie with heartfelt sincerity. Elfrida did not eat so much as usual either. It really was a bitter disappointment to have been so near seeing where the treasure was and then, just because they hadn't happened to bolt the door that last time, all was in vain. Mrs. Honey said thought they were sulking about a silly trifle and nearly said so when Edred refused the pie. It was at the end of the dinner that Elfrida, as she got down from her chair, saw Mrs. Honey's face and saw how different it looked from the kind face that she usually wore. She went over to her very slowly and very quickly through her arms round her and kissed her. I'm sorry we've been so piggy, she said. It's not your fault that you're not clever enough to know about pictures and things, is it? If Mrs. Honey said hadn't been a perfect deer, this apology would have been worse than none, but she was a perfect deer. So she laughed and hugged Elfrida and somehow Edred got caught into the hug and the love. And the three were friends again. The sky was blue and the sun began to shine. End of Section 14, Read by Lars Rolander Section 15 of the House of Arden. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org Reading by Lars Rolander The House of Arden by Edith Nespit Chapter 11, Developments, Part 2 And then the two children went down to Old Beale's. There were roses in his garden now and white English flags and lupines and tall fox gloves bordering the little brick path. Old Beale was sitting on a brown Windsor chair, as Edred said, in the sun by his front door. Over his head was a jack-door in a wicker cage and Elfrida did not approve of this till she saw the cage door was open and that the jack-door was sitting in the cage because he liked it and not because he must. She had been in prison in the tower, you remember, and people who had been in prison never liked to see live things in cages. There was a tabby and white cat of squarish shape sitting on the wooden threshold. Why are cats who live in country cottages almost always tabby and white and squarish? The feathery tail of a brown spaniel flogged the flags lazily in the patch of shade made by the water-butt. It was a picture of rural peace and Old Beale was asleep in the middle of it. I am glad to tell you that Lord Arden and his sister were polite enough to wait till he awoke of his own accord instead of shouting high or rattling the smooth brown iron latch of the gate, as some children would have done. They just sat down on the dry grassy bank opposite his gate and looked at the blue and white butterflies and the flowers and the green potato tops and the green-gray garden palings. And while they sat there, Elfride had an idea so sudden and so good that it made her jump, but she said nothing and Edred said, Finch the place hard and if it is still there you'll kill it perhaps, for he thought she had jumped because she had been bitten by an ant. When they finished looking at the butterflies and the red roses and the green-growing things they looked long and steadily at Old Beale and, of course, he awoke, as people always do if you look at them long enough and hard enough, and he got up, rather shaking, and put his hand to his forehead and said, My Lord! How are you, said Elfride? We haven't found the treasure yet. But ye will, ye will, said Old Beale. Come into the house now or will ye come round along to the arbor and have a drink of milk? We'd as soon stay here, said Edred. They had come through the gate now, and Edred was patting the brown spaniel while Elfride us drove the squarish cat. Mrs. Honnyset said you knew all the stories. Ah, said Old Beale. A fine girl, Mrs. Honnyset. Her father had Selinge Farm where the fairies churned the butter for the bride so long as there is no cross words. They don't ever get too much to do them fairies, he chuckled, sighed and said, I know a power of tales, and I know, always I do, which it is that people want. What you're after is the story of the East House. Isn't it now? Is the old man a failing of his wits, or isn't he? We want to know, said Edred, companionably, sharing the flagstone with the feather-tailed spaniel. The story about why that part of the house in the castle is shut up and all cub webby and dusty and rusty and musty, and whether there is any reason why it shouldn't be all cleaned up and made nice again if we find the treasure so that we've got enough money to pay for new curtains and carpets and things. It's a sad tale that, said Old Beale. A tale for old folks or middle-aged folks, let's say not for children. You'd never understand it if I was to tell it to you, likeless not. We like grown-up stories, said Elfrida with dignity. And Edred added, we can understand anything that grown-ups understand if it is told us properly. I understand all about the laws of gravitation and why the sun doesn't go round the earth, but does the opposite. I understood that directly. Aunt Edred explained it and about fixed stars and the spectroscope and microbes and the equator not being real and heaps of things. Ah, said Old Beale admiringly. You'll be abusting with book-learning before you come to your twenty-one eye-lay. I only hope the half of it's true and they are not deceiving of you, a trusting innocent. I never did hold myself with that about the sun not moving. Why, you can see it at doing of it with your own naked eyes any day of the week. You wouldn't deceive anyone, said Elfrida gently. Do tell us the story. So Old Beale began, and he began like this. It was a long time ago, before my time even it was, but not so long before, because I can recommend my father talking about it. He was coachman at the castle when it all happened, so of course he knew everything there was to know. My mother having been the housekeeper and gone through it all with the family. There was a Miss Elfrida then, same as there is now. Only she was older than what you are, Missy, and the gentlemen lads from far and near they come courting her, for she was a fine girl, a real beauty, with hair as black as a coal and eyes like the sea when it's speeding up for a storm before the white horses comes along. So I've heard my father say, not that I ever see her myself, and she kept her pretty head in the air and wouldn't turn it this way or that for ever a one of them all. And the old Lord he loved her too dear to press her against her wish and will, and her so young, so she stayed single and watched the sea. What did she do that for, Idrid asked, to see if her sweetheart's ship wasn't a coming home for she'd got a sweetheart right enough she had, unbeknown to all. It was her cousin Dick and never do well if ever there was one, and it turned out afterwards she'd broken the sixpence with him and swore to be ever true, and he'd gone overseas to find a fortune and so she watched the sea every day regular and every day regular he didn't come but every day another young chap used to come riding a fine young gentleman and well to do but he was the same kidney as Master Dick only he'd got a fine fortune so his wild oats never got a chance to grow strong like Dick's. Poor Dick, said Elfridun. Not so fast, Missy, said the old man. Well, her father and mother they said have him that's here and loves you dear as the saying is a ruin he was and his christened name Arnold and she says no but they keeps on saying yes and he keeps on saying do so they wears her down telling her Dick was drowned dead for sure and I don't know what all and at last she says very well then I'll marry you if you can stand to marry a girl that's got all her heart in the sea along of a dead young chap as she was promised to and the wedding was set for Christmas Miss Elfridun, she slept in the room in the east house that looks out towards Arnold and there's servants in the attics and the old people in the other part of the house and that night when all was asleep I think she heard a tap tap at her window and at first she'd think it was the ivy but no so presently she'd take hard to go to the window and there was a face outside that had climbed up by the ivy and it was her own true love that they told her was drowned how splendid said Edred how dreadful for Mr. Freeman said Elfridun that's what she thought Miss and she couldn't face it so she puts on her riding coat and gets out a window and down the ivy with him and off to London and in the morning when the bells began to ring for her wedding and the bridegroom came there wasn't no bride for him she left a letter to say she was very sorry but it had to be so then they shut up the east house so that's the story said Elfridun half of it Miss said old Beale and he took out a black clay pipe and a screw-up tobacco and very slowly and carefully filled the pipe and lighted it before he went on they shut up the east house where she'd been used to sleep but it was kept sweep and dusted and the old forks was broken hearted for never a word came from Miss Elfridun and if I know anything of the feelings of a parent they kept on saying to each other she might have trusted us she might have known we'd never have denied her nothing and then one night there was a knock at the door and there was Miss Elfridun that was Mrs. Dick now with her baby in her arms Mr. Dick was dead sudden in an accident and she'd come home to her father and mother they couldn't make enough of the poor young thing and her baby she had her old rooms and there she lived and she was getting a bit happier and worshipping of her baby and the old people worshipping it and her too and then one night someone comes up the ivy same as Mr. Dick did and takes away not her but the baby how dreadful breath Elfridun did they get it back never and never a word was ever found out about who took it or why or where they took it to only a week or two after Mr. Frevin was killed in the hunting field and as they picked him up he said Elfridun tell Elfridun and he was trying to say what they was to tell her when he died some folks hold as to as him stole the baby to be even with her for jelting of him or else to pretend to find it and get her to marry him out of gratitude but no one will ever know and the baby's mother she wore away bit by bit to a shadow and then she died and after that the east house was shut up for good and all to fall into rot and ruin like it's now don't you cry Missy I know you wouldn't like the story but you would have it but don't you cry it's all long ago and she and her baby and her young husbands all been happy together in heaven this long time now I'll lay I do like the story said Elfridun Galping but it is sad isn't it thank you for telling it Idrid said but I don't think it's any good really being unhappy about things that are so long ago and all over and done with I wish we could go back into the past and find the baby for her Elfridun whispered and Idrid whispered back it's the treasure we've got to find excuse our whispering Mr. Biel thank you for the story oh and I wanted to ask you who owns the land now all the land about here I mean that used to belong to us ardents that Jackson chapped said old Biel him that made a fortune in the soap boiling the tallow king they call him but he's got too rich for the house he's got he's bought a bigger place in Yorkshire that used to belong to the Duke of Sandersteen and the ardent lands are to be sold next year so I'm told oh said Idrid clasping his hands if we could only find the treasure and buy back the land we haven't forgotten what we said the first time if we found the treasure we'd make all the cottages comfortable a new thatch everywhere that's a good lad said old Biel you make haste and find the treasure and if you don't find it never fret there's ways of helping other folks without finding a treasure so there is you come and see old Biel again my lord and I shouldn't wonder but what I'd have a white rabbit for you next time you come along this way he is an old deer said Elfride as they went home and I do think the films will be dry by the time we get back but perhaps we'd better not print them till tomorrow morning there's plenty of light today said Idrid and Elfride said I say well did you notice the kind of clothes we wore in those pictures where they were stowing away the treasure oh grown Idrid recalled to sense of his wrongs if only Mrs. Honey said hadn't opened the door just when she did we should know exactly where the treasure was it was the west tower they took it to wasn't it I'm not sure said Elfride but and if it had gone on we should have been sure we should have seen them come away again yes said Elfride and again she remarked I say Idrid again said well well suppose we looked in the chests we should be sure to find clothes like those and then we should be back there living in those times and we could see the treasure put away and then we really should know a one first class ripping was Idrid's enthusiastic rejoinder come on I'll raise you to the gate and he did raise her and won by about 30 white moldy warps lengths there had been no quarrel now for quite a long time if you count as time the days spent in the gunpowder plot adventure so the attic was easily found and once more the children stood among the chests with the dusty roof and the dusty sunbeams and the glittering pigeon feet and the soft pigeon noises overhead come on, tried Elfride joyously I shall know the dress directly I see it mine was blue silk with sloping shoulders and yours was black velvet and a fundite collar together they flung back the lid of a chest they had not yet opened it held clothes far richer than any they had seen yet the doublets and cloaks and bodices were stiff with gold embroidery and jewels but there was no blue silk dress with sloping shoulders and no black velvet suit and fundite collar oh, never mind, said Edred bundling the splendid clothes back by double armfuls help me to smooth these down so that the lid will shut properly and will try the next chest but the lid would not shut at all till Elfride had taken all the things out and folded them properly and then it shut quite easily then they went on to the next chest I have a magic inside feeling that they are in this one said Elfride gaily and so they may have been the children never knew for the next chest was locked and the outmost efforts of four small arms failed to move the lid a hair spread oh, bother, said Edred will try the next but the next was locked too and the next and the one after that and the one beyond and well, the fact is they were all locked the children looked at each other and saw something quite like despair I feel, said the boy like a baffled burglar I feel, said the girl as if I was just going to understand something oh, wait a minute it's coming I think she added very slowly I think it means if we go anywhere we've got to go wherever it was they wore those glorious stiff gold clothes that's what the chests open for that's what the others are locked for, see then let's put them on and go said Edred I don't think I want any more Tower of London said Elfride doubtfully I don't mind what it is said Edred I found out one thing we always come safe out of it whatever it is and besides he added remembering many talks with his good friend Sir Walter Rowley an English gentleman must be afraid of nothing save God and his conscience all right said Elfride laying hands on the chest lid that hid the golden splendor you might help, she said but Edred couldn't he laid hands on the chest, of course and he pulled and Elfride puddled but the chest lid was as fast now as any of the others done in the eye said Edred it was a very vulgar expression and I can't think where he picked it up he that will not when he may he shall not when he would a said Elfride and I do know where she learned that it was from an old song Mrs. Honissette used to sing when she black-leaded the stoves I suppose we must chuck it for today said Edred when he had quite hurt his fingers by trying all the chests once more and had found that every single one was struck tight as wax come on, we'll print the photographs but the films were not dry enough they never are when you just expect them to be so they locked the still room door on the outside and hung the key on a nail high up in the kitchen chimney Mrs. Honissette was not in the kitchen at that moment but she came hurrying in the next here you are my lambs she said cheerily and just in time for the surprise oh I'd forgotten the surprise that makes two of it doesn't it said Elfride do tell us what it is we need a nice surprise to make up for everything if you only knew ah said Mrs. Honissette do you mean because of me opening that their door well there is two surprises once roast chicken for supper she added impressively then I know the other said Edred Aunt Edith's coming and she was indeed at that very moment as they looked through the window they saw her blue dress coming over the hill and joyously tore out to meet her it was after the roast chicken when it was nearly dark and almost bedtime that Aunt Edith said suddenly children there is something I wanted to tell you I've hesitated about it a good deal but I think we oughtn't to have any secrets from each other Edred and Elfride exchanged guilty glances not real secrets of course said Edred hastily but you don't mind our having magic secrets do you of course not said Aunt Edith smiling and what I'm going to tell you is rather like magic if it is true I don't know yet whether it's true or not here Aunt Edith put an arm round each of the children as they sat on the broad window seat and swallowed something in her throat and sniffed oh it's not bad news is it Elfride cried oh darling auntie don't be miserable and don't say that they found out that Arden isn't ours or that Edred isn't really Lord Arden or something would you mind so very much said Aunt Edith gently if you weren't Lord Arden Edred because end of section 15 read by Lars Rolander section 16 of the House of Arden this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org reading by Lars Rolander the House of Arden by Edith Nesbit chapter 12 films and clouds the films were quite dry by bedtime when after a delightful evening with no magic in it at all but the magic of undisturbed jolliness Edred slipped away, unpinned them and hid them in Elfride's corner drawer which he rightly judged to be a cleaner resting place for them than his own was likely to be so there the precious films lay between Elfride's best-laced collar and the handkerchief case with three fat butter cups embroidered on it that Aunt Edith had given her at Christmas and Edred went back to the parlour for one last game of Proverbs before bed as he took up his cards he thought how strange it was that he who had been imprisoned in the tower and had talked with Sir Walter Roley should be sitting there quietly playing Proverbs with his aunt and his sister just like any other little boy aha said Edred to himself I am living a double life that's what I'm doing he had seen the expression in a book and the idea charmed him how pleased Edred looks with himself said Aunt Edith I'm sure he's got a whole proverb or nearly in his hand already you'll be looking pleased presently he said you always win and win she did for Edred's thoughts were wandering off after the idea how pleased Aunt Edith would look when he and Elfride should come to her take her by the hand and lead her to the hiding place of the treasure and then say behold the treasure of our home now we can rebuild the castle and mend the broken thatch on the cottages and I can go to Ethan and Oxford and you can have a diamond tiara and Elfride can have a pony to ride and so can I Elfride's thoughts were not unlike his so Aunt Edith won the game of Proverbs you have been very good children Mrs. Honey said tells me said Aunt Edith putting the cards together not so extra said Edred I mean it's easy to be good when everything's so jolly we have quarrelled once or twice you know said Elfride virtually yes we have said Edred firmly they needn't they felt have confessed this and that made them feel they were good now if never before well don't quarrel anymore I shall be coming over for good quite soon then we'll have glorious times perhaps we'll find the treasure you've heard about the treasure I should jolly well think we had Edred couldn't help saying and Elfride added and looked for it too but we haven't found it did you ever look for it no said Aunt Edith but I always wanted to my grandfather used to look for it when he was a little boy was your grandfather Lord Arden Edred asked no he was the grandson of the Lord Arden who fought for King James III as they called him a pretender you know when he was quite a boy and they let him off because of his being so young and then he mortaged all the Arden lands to keep the young pretender Prince Charlie you know in the ballads he got money to send to him and of course Prince Charles was going to pay it back when he was king only he never was king she sighed and is that why the tallow king got all the Arden land next year that's why English people prefer tallow kings to steward kings and old Lord Arden mortaged everything that means he borrowed money and if he didn't pay back the money by a certain time he agreed to let them take the land instead and he couldn't pay so they took the land all except a bit in the village and Arden knoll that was fixed so that he couldn't part from it when we get the treasure we'll back back the land again said Idred the tallow king's going to sell it he's got so tallowy that Arden land isn't good enough for him old Bill told us and I say auntie we'll rebuild the castle too won't we? and mend the holes in the thatch where the rain comes in in people's cottages I mean have you been much into people's cottages? auntied it arst anxiously a strange fear of infection which seems a part of grown up's nature everyone in the village I think said Ilfrida chairfully old Bill told us we ought to in case we found the treasure so as to know what to do the people are such tears I believe they like us because we are Arden's or is it because Idred's a lord we must find the treasure said Idred looking as he always did when he was very much in earnest so like his father that aunt Idred could hardly bear it so as to be able to look after our people properly and to kick out the tallow king said Ilfrida but you won't be discontented if you don't find it said aunt Idred it's only a sort of game really no one I ever knew ever found the treasure but we found already Arden castle instead of Seaview terrors and the lodgers good night chicks she was gone before they were up in the morning and the morning's first business was the printing of the photographs they printed them in the kitchen because Mrs. Honissette was turning out the parlor and besides the kitchen window was wide and sunny and the old table scored again and again the grain of the wood stood up in bridges was a nice big clear place to stand turning dishes on they printed on matte paper because it seemed somehow less common and more like a picture than the shiny kind the printing took the whole morning and they had only one frame and when they had done there were 18 brown prints of the castle from all sorts of points of the compass north and south and but I explained all this to you before when the prints were dried which as you know is best done by sticking them up on the window it became necessary to find a place to put them in one could not gloat over them forever though for quite a long time it seemed better to look at them again and again and to say that's how it ought to be that's the way we'll have it then to do anything else Frida and Edred took the prints into the parlor which was now neat as a new pin and smelt almost too much of beeswax and turpentine spread them on the polished oval dining table and gloated over them you can see every little bit exactly right said Elfrida they are a little tiny bit mussy I expect our distance wasn't right or something but that only makes them look more like real pictures and us having printed them on paper that's too big makes it more picturey too and anyone who knew how buildings are built would know how to set it up it would be like putting brick back into the box from the pattern inside the lid here Mrs. Honissette called from the kitchen you done with all this litter and both children shouted yes and went on looking at the pictures it was well that the shout was from both if only one had done it there might have been what Mrs. Honissette called words about the matter later for the next moment both said the films and rushed to the kitchen just in time to see the kitchen fire and livened by that peculiar crackling flare which fire and films alone can produce Mrs. Honissette had thrown the films on the fire with the other litter and it was no one's fault but the children's as Mrs. Honissette pointed out I ask you if you done with it all and you says yes only yourselves to thank she repeated again and again amid their lamentations and they had to own that she was right we must take extra special care of the prince that's all said Edrin and the history of the gardens was chosen as a hiding place for both safe and appropriate it doesn't matter so much about the films said Elfrida because we could never have shown them to anyone if we find the treasure we'll arrange for auntie to find these prints leave the history about or something and she'll think they're photographs of painted pictures so that'll be all right as they arranged the prints between the leaves of the history Elfrida's eye was caught by this moat and water supply and she read on and turned the page don't stop to read said Edred but she weighed him away I say listen she said turning back and she read in ancient times Arden Castle was surrounded by a moat the original architects of the venerable pile with that ingenuity whose fruits the thinking world shares in the lasting monuments of their labours diverted from its subterranean course a stream which rose through the chalk in the hills of the vicinity and is said to be debauched into the sea about 50 yards below a high water mark the engineering works necessary for this triumph of mind of a matter endured till 1647 when the castle was besieged by the troops of that monster to form Oliver Cromwell to facilitate his attack on the castle the officer in command gave orders that the stream should be diverted once more into its original channel this order was accordingly executed by his murmidons and the moat was left dry this assisting materially the treacherous designs of the testable regicides it is rumoured that the stream despite the lapse of centuries still maintains its subterranean course but the present author on visiting during the autumn of 1821 the residence of the present Earl of Arden and by his permission most cautiously granted exploring the site thoroughly was unable to find any trace of its existence the rural denizens of the district denied any knowledge of such a stream but they are sunk in ignorance and superstition and have no admiration for the works of philosophy or the ape-inspiring beauties of nature what a dull chap he said he did but I say when was it printed 1822 I believe I know why the rural what's his names wouldn't let on about the stream don't you see it's the stream that runs through the smugglers cave and they were smuggling then they were worth that's clever of you said Elfrida well I bet we find traces of its existence when we found the treasure come on let's try the chests again we'll put on the first things we find and chance it this time there's nothing to stop us we haven't quarrelled or anything they had not quarrelled but there was something to stop them all the same the fact that they could not find the door it simply was not there and we haven't quarrelled or anything said Elfrida despairing when they had searched the east house again and again and found no door that would consent to lead them to the wonderful attic where the chests stood in their two wonderful rows she sat down on the top step of the attic stairs the dust that lay there thick it's all up I can see that said Idred we've muffed it somehow I wonder whether we oughtn't to have taken those photographs do you think perhaps could we have dreamt it all no said Idred there are the prints at least I suppose they're there we'll go down and see miserably doubting they went down and saw that the photographs were where they had put them in between the pages of the history of Arden I don't see what we can do do you? said Idred for lonely it was a miserable ending to the happenings that had succeeded each other in such a lively procession ever since they had been at Arden it seemed as though a door had been shut in their faces and not any more written in very plain letters across the chapter of their adventures I wish we could find the witch again said Elfrida but she said she couldn't come into these times more than once I wonder why said Idred kicking his boots miserably against the leg of the table on which he sat that dicky chap must have been here pretty often to have an address at New Cross I say suppose we've wrote to him it would be something to do so they wrote at least Elfrida did and they both signed it this was the letter dear cousin Richard do you remember meeting us at the gunpowder plot if you are at these modern times again we should like to know you and to know how you get into the future perhaps we could get into the past the same way because the way we used to get we can't anymore perhaps you could come here next time instead of New Cross your affectionate friends at a distance Miss Elfrida Arden Lord Idred Arden PS I don't know how lord sign letters because I have not been it long but you'll know who it is PSS remember old parrot knows they walked down to the post with this and as they went they remembered how they had gone to the George with old lady Arden's letter in bonus time and Idred remarked listlessly that it would be rather fun to find the smugglers cave so when they had bought a stamp and licked it and put it on the letter they went up on the cliff and looked among the first bushes for the entrance to the smugglers cave but they did not find it nothing makes you hotter than looking for things that you can't find and there is no hotter place to look for things than a first forest on the downs on a sunny summer afternoon the children were glad to sit down on a clean smooth grassy space and look out at the faint blue line of the sea they had not really enjoyed looking for the smugglers cave then regrets were busy in each breast Idred gave voice to them when he said if only we had put those gold clothes on we had the chance and Elfride echoed the useless heartfelt wail with oh if we only had and then they sat in silence and looked at the sea for quite a long time now if you sit perfectly silent for a long time and look at the sea or the sky or the running water of a river something happens to you a sort of magic or the violent magic that makes the kind of adventure that I have been telling you about but a kind of gentle but very strong inside magic that makes things clear and shows you what things are important and what are not you try it next time you are in a very bad temper or when you think someone has been very unjust to you or when you are very disappointed or hurt about anything the magic worked in Idred and Elfride and Idred said after all we got the castle and Elfride said and we have had some ripping times and then they looked at the sea in more silence during which hope came and whispered to Elfride who instantly said the mouldy warp perhaps it's not all over it told us to find the door perhaps it would tell us something new if we call it now and if it came and if it came said Idred don't talk make poetry said Elfride but that was one of the things that Idred never could do trying to make poetry was to him like trying to remember a name you have never heard or to multiply a number that you forgotten by another number that you don't recollect but Elfride that youthful poet round and bit her lip and twisted her hands and reached out in her mind to words that she just couldn't quite think of till the words grew tame and flew within reach and she caught them and caged them behind the bars of rhyme this was her poem Dear mouldy warp do come if you can and tell us if there is any plan that you can tell us for us too to get into the past like we used to do Dear mouldy warp we don't want to worry you but we are in a frightful hurry shall you be always said the white mouldy warp suddenly appearing between them on the jelloic dry grass well well use the season for silliness now I be terrible tired of all this I wish I'd only got to give you the treasure and go my ways you don't give a poor mouldy warp a minute's rest you do terrify me same's flies you do is there any other way said Elfride to get back into the past we can't find the door now course you can't said the mould and gone forever he that will not when he may he shall not when he would a well tell me where you want to go and I'll make you a back ways working white clock anywhere you like said Edred incorsiously said the mould rubbing its nose with vexation there's another chance gone and gone forever you be terrible spending with your chances you be so sharp as weasels nose be there anyone in the past you'd like to see if you don't know then you don't go and that's poetry as good as yours any day of the week cousin Richard said Elfride and Edred together this was the only name they could think of said the mouldy warp and I'll make you a white road right to where he is but still all but their tongues is he in the past said Elfride because if he is it wasn't much good our writing to him you hold your little tongues said the mouldy warp and keep your little mouth shut and your little eyes open and wish well to the white magic there never was a magic yet the mould went on that was the worst for being well wished may I say something Elfride without it stopping the magic put your white handkerchief over your face and talk through it and then you may by most fortunate and unusual chance Elfride's handkerchief was white it was in fact still folded in the 16 blameless squares into which the laundress had ironed it she threw it over her face as she lay back on the turf and spoke through it I'd like to see the nurse again she said instead of cousin Richard no as well as that's right said the magic mould you shouldn't change your wishes but there's no rule against enlarging them on the contrary now look Elfride whisked away the handkerchief and look have you ever noticed the way the bath water runs away when you pull up the bath tap have you ever seen bottles filled through a funnel the white molywarp reached up its hands its front feet I would perhaps to say to watch the deep blue sky where white clouds herded it together like giant sheep and it spoke at least it did not speak but it sang yet I don't know that you could call it singing either it was more like the first notes that of violent jeals to the bow wielded by the hand of a masked musician and the white cloud stooped to answer it round and round in the blue sky they circled drawing together and swirling down as the bath water draws and swirls when you pull out the knob labelled waste round and round till they showed like a vast white funnel whose neck hung a great ring above the group on the dry grass of the downs it stooped and stooped and fitted down over them they were in a white tower narrow at its base where that base touched the grass but widening to the blue sky overhead take hands cried the molywarp always hold hands when there is magic about the children clasped hands both hands said the molywarp and each child reached out a hand that was caught and held round and round incredibly swifter and swifter went the cloud funnel and the voice of the mole at their feet sounded faint and far away ah! it cried ah! shall the very clouds dance for your delight and you alone refrain and tread not a measure the children leaped up and through the cloud came something that was certainly music though it was so vague and far away that the sharpest music master you ever had could not have made out the tune but the rhythm of it was there an insistent beat beat beat and a beat that made your feet long to keep time to it and through the rhythm presently the tune pierced as the sound of the pipes pierces the sound of the drums when you see the church brigade boys go by when you are on your holiday by the sea near the white-tended happy camps and that time the children's feet could not resist they danced steps that they had not known they knew and they knew for the first time the delight of real dancing none of your waltzes or even minuets but the dancing that means youth and gaiety and being out for a holiday and determined to enjoy everything to the last breath and as they danced the white cloud funnel came down and closed about them so that they danced as it were in a wrapping a white cotton wool too soft for them even to feel it and there was a sweet scent in the air they did not know in that cloudy soft whiteness what flower bore that scent but they knew that it smelt of the spring and of fields and hedges from the ugliness of towns the cloud thinned as the scent thickened and green light showed through it the green lights grew the cloud funnel lifted and Idrid and Elfrida still dancing found themselves but two in a ring of some thirty children dancing on a carpet of green turf between walls of green branches and every child wore a wreath made blossoms on its head and that was the magic scene that had come to them through the white cloud or the white moldy warps magic what is it why are we dancing Idrid unconsciously asked of the little girl whose hand and not Elfrida he found that his left hand was holding the child laughed just laughed she did not answer it was Elfrida who had his right hand and her own right hand was clasped in that of a boy dressed in green oh she said with a note of glad recognition it's you I'm so glad what is it why are we dancing it's May Day said Cousin Richard and the king is coming to look on at the rebels what king she asked who but King Harry he said King Harry and his new queen it was the lady Anne Boleyn I say Dick said Idrid across his sister I'm jolly glad to see you again we not now said Dick earnestly not a word now it is not safe and besides here comes the king End of section 16 read by Lars Rolander section 17 of the House of Arden this is a LibriVox recording for LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org reading by Lars Rolander the House of Arden by Edith Nespid chapter 13 May Blossom and Pearls the king came slowly on a great black horse riding between the green trees and the white and green like the May bushes and so did the gracious lady who rode beside him on a white horse whose long tail almost swept the ground and whose long mane fluttered in the breeze like a tattered banner the lady had a fine face proud and smiling and as her brave eyes met the kings even the children could see that for the time at least she and the king were all to each other they saw that in the brief moment when in the whirl of the ring dance their eyes were turned away by which the king came with his queen I wish I didn't know so much history gasped Elfrida through the quick music it's dreadful to know that her head she broke off in obedience to an imperative twitch of Richard's hand on hers don't he said I have not to think and I've heard that histories all lies perhaps they'll always be happy like they are now the only way to enjoy the past is not to think of the future the past's future I mean and I've got something else to say to you presently he added rather sternly the ring broke up into an elaborate figure the children found themselves fingering the colored ribbons that hung from the maypole that was the center of their dance whining, intertwining handing on the streamers to other small competent fingers in and out in and out a most complicated dance it was pleasant to find that once feet knew it though once brain could not have foreseen any more than it could have remembered how the figures went there were two rings around the maypole the inner ring were Idred and Elfrida were of noble children in very fine clothes and the outer ring of village children in clothes less fine but quite as pretty music from a band of musicians on a raised platform decked with maybows and swinging cow slip balls inspired the dancers their horses and watched the play well pleased and suddenly the dance ended and the children formed into line were saluting the royal onlookers a fair dance and footed right feetly said the king in a great jolly voice now get your win my merry men all and give us a song for the honor of the mayqueen and of my dear lady here there was whispering and discussion then Richard Arden stepped out in front of the group of green-clad noble children with a willing heart my leech he said but first a song of the king's good majesty and with that all the children began to sing the hunt is up the hunt is up and it's well night day and Harry our king is gonna hunting to bring his dear to bay it is a rousing tune and it was only afterwards that Edred and Elfrida were surprised to find that they knew it quite well but even while they were singing Elfrida was turning over in her mind the old question could anything they did have any effect on the past it seemed impossible that it should not be so if one could get a word alone with that happy stately lady on the white horse if one could warn her could help somehow the thought of the bear scaffold and the black block came to Elfrida so strongly that she almost thought she saw them darkling among the swayed sun-doubled leaves of the greenwood somebody was pulling at her green skirt an old woman in a cap that fitted tightly and hid all her hair an old woman was saying go to her go and pushing her forward someone else put a big bunch of wild flowers into her hand and this person also pushed her forward and forward she had to go quite alone the nose-gay in her hand across the open space of green sword under the eyes of several hundreds of people all in their best clothes and all watching her she went on till she came to the spot where the king and queen were and then she paused and dropped two curtsies one to each of them then quite without meaning to do it she found herself saying may day, may day this is the happy play day all the woods with flowers are gay lords and ladies come and play lords and ladies rich and poor come to the wild woods open door hints and human king come to honour to the spring and join us in our merry making and when she had said that she made two more nice little curtsies and handed up the flowers to the queen if we had known your majesty's purpose said a tall narrow-faced man in a long gown your majesty had had another than this rustic welcome our purpose said the king was to surprise you the Earl of Arden you say is hence his son and daughter are here to do homage to your highness said the gown man and then Elfrida saw that Idrid was beside her hey there lad said the king and reaching down a hand caught Idrid's your foot on mine said his majesty so and he swung Idrid up onto the saddle in front of him Elfrida drew nearer to the white horse as the queen beckoned at her and the queen stooped low over her saddle to ask her name now was the moment that Elfrida had wished for now was the chance if ever to warn the queen Elfrida Arden's my name she said your majesty may I say something say on said the queen raising fine eyebrows but smiling too I should like to come quite close to her said Elfrida Stoutly that a bold lass said the queen but she stooped still lower I want to warn you said Elfrida quickly whispering and don't not pay attention because I'm only little girl I know you may think I don't know but I do I want to warn you already once this morning I have been warned said the queen what croaking voices for mayday who warned you your majesty an old hag who came to my chamber in spite of my maids said she had made charm to keep my looks and my lord's love what was the charm Elfrida asked eagerly forgetting to say majesty can it was quite simple said the queen it was to keep my looks and my love so long as I never drop the kerchief but if I drop the kerchief I should lose more than my looks and my hair I should lose my head the queen laughed low within certain days from the dropping of that kerchief this head you see here she laughed again don't oh don't said Elfrida 19 days that's the warning I do hope it'll do some good I do like you dear queen you are so strong and splendid I would like to be like you when I grow up please heaven thou'llt be better than I she said stooping lower still from her horse Elfrida standing on tiptoe she kissed her oh do be careful said Elfrida your darling head and the queen kissed her again then a noise rather like bagpipes rose shrill and sudden all drew back making room for the rustic maids and swains to tread other instruments joined in and suddenly the king cried a merry tune that calls to the feet come my sweeting shall we tread in measure with the rest so down they came from their horses king and queen and led the country dance laughing and gay as any country lad and lass Elfrida could have cried it seemed such a pity that everybody should not always be good and happy as everybody look today the king had sprung from his horse with Edred in his arms and now he and his sister drew back towards cousin Richard oh pretty did always said Edred I should like to stay here forever if I were you said Richard very disagreeably indeed I would not stay here an hour why is it dangerous will they cut our heads off not that I know of said cousin Richard still thoroughly disagreeable I wasn't thinking about your heads there are more important things than your heads in the world I should think not so very much more said Elfrida meekly to us I mean and what are you so cross about I should have thought Richard was beginning when the old woman who told Elfrida to go forward with a no-scare of ceremony sidled up to them into the woods my children she whispered quickly into the woods in a moment the queen will burst into tears and the king will have scant kindness for those whose warnings have set his queen to weeping they backed into the bushes and the green leaves closed behind the four quick said the witch this way they followed her through the wood under oaks and new trees pressing through hazels and chestnuts to a pile run she said and herself led the way nimbly enough for one of her great age their run brought them to a thinning of the wood then out of it on to the downs whence they could see Ardencastle and its moat and the sea now the old woman said mark well the spot where the moat stream rises it is there that the smugglers came was when Betty Lovell foretold the running of the French why said Edred and Edfrida you're the witch again you're Betty Lovell oh else said the old woman now call on the moly warp and hasten back to your own time for the king will race the country against the child whose maid is sweetened to shed tears and she will tell him she keeps nothing from him and yet she won't tell him she will and when she drops it on that other mayday at Greenwich he will remember come call your moly warp and haste away but we've only just come said Edred and what's Elfrida been up to oh bother said Elfrida I want to know what Richard meant about our heads not being important your heads will be most important if you wait here much longer said the witch sharply come shall I call the moly warp or will you you do said Elfrida I say Dickie what did you mean do tell us there's a deer Betty Lovell was tearing up the short turf in patches and pulling the lumps of chalk from under it help me she cried or I shan't be in time so they all help couldn't Dick go with us if we have to go said Elfrida suddenly Richard I'm not going to so there Elfrida gas-tugging at a great piece of chalk because I shan't then tell us what you meant before the moly warp comes you can't said a little voice because it's come now everyone sat back on its heels and watched were out of the earth the wild moly warp was squeezing itself between two blocks of chalk into the sunlight I hadn't said any poetry said Elfrida I hadn't made the triangle and the arch said old Betty Lovell well if I ever did I've been here said the mo looking round with something astonishingly like a smile of triumph all the time why shouldn't I go where I do please now send again why should I alas wait on your bidding eh it asked a little pettishly no reason at all said Elfrida kindly and now dear dear moly warp please take us away a confused sound of shouting mixed with a barking of dogs hurried her words a little the hunt is up said the old witch nurse I don't hold with hunting said the moly warp hastily nor yet with dogs I never could abide dogs drat the nasty noisy toothy things here come inside inside where said Edred inside my house said the mole and then whether they all got smaller or whether the crack in the chalk got bigger they never quite knew but they found themselves walking that crack one by one only Elfrida got hold of Richard's hand and held it fast though he wriggled and twisted to get it free I'm not going back to your own times with you he said I'll go my own way where to said Elfrida to wherever I choose said Richard savagely and regained possession of his own hand it was too late the chalk had closed over them all as the chalk had closed so thoroughly that not a gleam of daylight could be seen you might have expected the air they had to breathe to be close not a bit of it coming into the moldy warp's house out of the May sunshine was like coming out of a human house into the freshness of a May night but it was darker than any night that ever was Elfrida got hold of Edred's hand and then of Richard's she always tried to remember what she was told and the moldy warp had said always hold hands when there's magic about Richard let his hand be taken but he said quite sternly you understand I meant what I say I won't go back to their times with them you were much nicer in James the first time said Elfrida then a sound like thunder shook the earth overhead an almost deafening noise that made them thrilled and hold each other very tight it's only the king's horses and the king's men hunting after you said the moldy warp cheerfully now I'll go and make a white clock for you to go home on you set where you be and don't touch nothing till I become back again left alone in the fresh deep darkness Elfrida persisted in her questions why don't you want to come with us to our times I hate your times they are ugly they are cruel said Richard they don't cut your head off for nothing anyhow in our times said Edred and shot you up in the tower they do worse things Richard said I know they make people work 14 hours a day for nine shillings a week so that they never have enough to eat or wear and no time to sleep or to be happy they won't give people food or clothes or let them work to get them and then they put the people in prison enough to keep them alive they let people get horrid diseases till their jaws drop off so as to have a particular kind of china women have to go out to work instead of looking after their babies and the little girl that's left in charge drops the baby and it's crippled for life oh I know I won't go back with you you might keep me there forever he shuddered he didn't and I can't help about people working and not enough money in that said Edred if I were Lord Arden said Richard through the darkness I'd make a wow and I'd keep it to never to have a day's holiday or do a single thing I like till all those things were stopped but in your time nobody cares it's not true nobody cares when we know all about it only we can't do anything I am Lord Arden said Edred and when I grow up I'll do what you say I shall be in the house of lords I think and of course the house of lords would have to pay attention to me when I said things I'll remember everything you say and tell them about it you not grown up yet Lord Arden not you father's dead you know said Elfride in a hushed voice how do you know asked Richard there was a letter do you think I'd trust a letter Richard asked indignantly if I hadn't seen my daddy lying dead do you think I'd believe it not till I'd gone back and seen how he died and where and had vengeance on the man who'd killed him how do you know you've been hunting for the beastly treasure and never even try to go back to the time when he was alive such a little time ago and find out what really did happen to him I didn't know we could said Elfride are choking and even if we could it wouldn't be right would it? Aunt Edred said he was in heaven we couldn't go there you know it isn't like history it's all different well then said Richard I shall have to tell you you know I'd rather took a fancy to you two kids that gunpowder plot time and after you'd gone back to your own times ask Betty Lovell who you were and she said you were Lord Arden so the next time I wanted to get away from where I was I gave orders to be taken to Lord Arden and it come along do dear said the sudden voice of the molywarp the clock's all ready a soft light was pressing against their eyes growing, growing they saw now that they were in a great chalk cave the smugglers cave Edred had hardly a doubt and in the middle of its floor of smooth sand was a great clock face figures and hands and all made of softly gleaming pearls set in ivory light seemed to flow from this to be reflected back on it by the white chalk walls it was the most beautiful piece of jewelers work that the children or I imagine anyone else had ever seen sit on the minute hand said the molywarp and home you go but I can't go said Edred grimly till I've heard what Richard was saying you'll be caught then by the king and his soldiers said the witch that said Edred quite quietly I will not go near the white clock till Richard has told me what he means I'll give him one minute said the molywarp crossly not no more than that I'm sick to death of it so I am oh don't be cross said Elfrida I paint said the molywarp not under my fur it's this chop and change I will and I won't it's so worrytable tell me what did you mean about my father Edred said again I tried to find you I asked for Lord Arden what I found wasn't you it was your father and the time was your time July 1908 what cried Edred and Elfrida together your father he's alive don't you understand and you've been bothering about finding treasure instead of finding him alive Elfrida clung to her brother oh it's not right mixing him up with magic and things oh you're cruel I hate you I know well enough I shall never see my dad again you will if you aren't little cowards as well as little duffers said Richard scornfully you go and find him that's what you've got to do so long and with that before the molywarp or the nurse could interfere he had leapt on to the long pearl and ivory minute hand of the clock and said home just as duchesses and other people do to their coachmen or footmen and before anything could be done the hands of the clock began to go round slowly at first then faster and faster till at last they went so fast that they became quite invisible the ivory and pearl figures of the clock could still be seen on the sand of the cave Idrid and Elfrida still clinging together turned appealing eyes to the molywarp they expected it to be very angry indeed instead of which it seemed to be smiling did you ever see a white mole smile no but then perhaps you have never seen a white mole and you cannot see a smile without seeing the smile except of course in the case of Cheshire cuts he's a bold boy a brave boy said the witch ah said the molywarp he'd be somewhat like an ardent here being Idrid attached himself from Elfrida and stiffened with a resolve to show the molywarp that he too was not so unlike an ardent as it had too hastily supposed can't we get home Elfrida asked timidly can't you make us another white clock or something waste not want not said the mole always wear out your old clocks so for you buy new ones soon he gets off the hand the clock will stop then you can get on it and go save home but suppose the king finds us said Elfrida he shan't said Betty Lovell you're up in the chalky door mold in my love and I'll keep the king quiet till the young people gone home they'll duck you for a witch said the molywarp and he did not seem to mind the familiar way in which Betty spoke to it well it's a warm day said Betty by the time they get me to the pond you'll be safe away and the water'll be nice and cool oh no said Idrid and Elfrida together you'll be drowned and Idrid added I couldn't allow that bless your silly little hearts said the molywarp she won't drown she'll just get home by the back door that's all there's a door at the bottom of every pond if you can only find it so Betty Lovell went out through the chalk to meet the anger of the king with two kisses on her cheeks and suddenly there was the pearl and ivory clock again all complete minute hand and hour hand and second hand Idrid and Elfrida sat down on the minute hand and before the molywarp could open its long narrow mouth to say a word Idrid called out in a firm voice take us to where daddy's but he had learnt from Richard that white clocks can be ordered about and the minute hand of pearl and ivory began to move faster and faster and faster till if there had been anyone to look at it it would have been invisible but there wasn't anyone to look at it for the molywarp had leapt onto the hour hand at the last moment and was hanging on there by all its claws End of section 17 read by Lars Rolander