The Aeronauts or The Fateful Stone
"Aunt Mary, how old is Time?" asked Mollie.
She was resting on her sofa in the garden, after her first attempt at a
short walk. She had been wondering how her young grandpapa had got on
with his sprained ankle, and longed to ask questions about him, but
dared not venture even on the simplest. It was so easy to forget and
ask too much. The day was rather hot, and the couch had been drawn into
the shade of a great copper-beech. Mollie lay on her back, gazing up
through the silky red foliage at the blue sky. Somewhere a thrush was
singing, practising his flute-like phrases with conscientious care.
"I think he must be trying for a scholarship," said Mollie. "How old is
Time?" she repeated, bringing her gaze down from the tree-tops to Aunt
Mary's hands, busy as usual with needlework.
"How old is Time?" Aunt Mary echoed. "What do you mean exactly by Time?"
"I mean, how long is it since days began--morning and afternoon and
evening?"
"Untold millions of years," her aunt answered. "I don't suppose that
anyone could say exactly how many, and in any case when we speak of
Time we mean Time on our own earth; what an astronomer would say I
don't know."
"How do you know that it is millions of years old?" Mollie asked. "In
the Bible it says that the evening and the morning were the first day
in the year 4004 B.C. That is only five thousand, nine hundred and
twenty-four years ago."
"You are asking terribly big questions," Aunt Mary said, with a smile.
"It would take a long time to explain how men learnt to know the age of
the world, and I am afraid I am hardly equal to the task. It is only
about seventy years since geologists began to suspect that our earth
was far older than they had supposed, I have some simple books which I
think you could understand if you tried; and if you learn to take an
interest in geology you need never be dull again as long as you live.
You will find 'tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, sermons
in stones, and good in everything'."
"That would be very nice," Mollie said politely but not
enthusiastically; "but just now I only want to know how old Time is.
Millions and millions of years," she repeated to herself rather
dreamily. "If you took forty from millions and millions it wouldn't
make any difference worth mentioning. It makes even Adam seem almost as
near as last week. And this morning I said I hadn't time to darn a hole
in my stocking. I wonder if Eve said she had no time. Were there any
people before Adam, Aunt Mary?"
Aunt Mary shook her head. "Ask the wise thrush," she said; "his
ancestors are older than mine."
"Are they really!" Mollie exclaimed. "Did that thrush's
ever-so-great-grandfather sing in the Garden of Eden?"
Aunt Mary only answered with a smile, and Mollie listened again to the
thrush, her thoughts wandering back to the times of forty years ago.
Quite a little time, she mused. No wonder they were so little
different, considering all things, from our own. She had thought that
the children of those days must be frightfully dull, and terribly
strictly kept; but on the whole they were, in some ways, less dull--or
more exciting--and certainly had more liberty, than the children of
to-day. Perhaps, however, that was Australia, where there was so much
more room than there was in England. She wondered how Dick and Jerry
were getting on to-day, and wished for the hundredth time that she
could see them and talk things over. They had each other to talk to,
but she had no one.
"Have you any diamonds, Aunt Mary?" she asked presently. "I should like
to see some diamonds; and rubies and emeralds and topazes and opals and
pearls and amethysts and sapphires, and all the precious stones you've
got."
"Bless my soul, Mollie! Do you think I am the Queen of Sheba!" Aunt
Mary exclaimed. "Grannie has some old-fashioned jewellery locked away
in a drawer, but the family diamonds are nothing to go to law about.
The only diamond I possess," she went on, "is a green diamond in a ring
that someone gave me long, long ago. Long ago," she repeated with a
sigh, letting her work drop into her lap and gazing at something that
Mollie could not see, for it was the distant past.
Mollie gave a violent start. A green diamond! In a ring! Long, long
ago. How very extraordinary! She dared not ask any questions, but she
examined her aunt with new and critical interest, from the shining
coils of smooth brown hair to the slim ankles and neat buckled shoes.
No, she decided, that hair could never have been red and ringletty;
besides, Grizzel's eyes were blue and round like a kitten's, while Aunt
Mary's were dark brown and long-shaped. Very pretty eyes, Mollie
suddenly discovered. Also, Aunt Mary was too young. Forty years ago
Grizzel was eight or nine years old, which would make her nearly fifty
now. Mollie paused for a moment to picture to herself a fifty-year-old
Grizzel, but, failing utterly in the attempt, she continued her
meditations on her aunt. Aunt Mary was certainly a considerable
distance from that venerable age. Mollie wondered again why she had
never married, and who had given her that ring. She sighed impatiently.
She wished that she was not bound down by that promise; but she was,
hard and fast. It would be better not to think about the green diamond
just now. When she got back to forty years ago she would keep her eyes
open; it was not at all unlikely, considering all things, that Aunt
Mary had had an Australian lover, and it might be possible to do a kind
act somehow or other. What the effect would be if 1920 meddled about
with the affairs of 1880 Mollie had ceased worrying over. It was
altogether too puzzling.
Aunt Mary remained a little absent-minded all the morning, and when the
time came for Mollie to go to sleep that afternoon she could hear a new
tone in Aunt Mary's voice when she began to sing:
"O bay of Dublin! my heart you're troublin',
Your beauty haunts me like a fevered dream,
Like frozen fountains that the sun sets bubblin
My heart's blood warms when I but hear your name;
And never till this life pulse ceases,
My earliest thought you'll cease to be;
Oh! there's no one here knows how fair that place is,
And no one cares how dear it is to me!"
"If Aunt Mary goes on like this, Prue will certainly find me howling my
eyes out," Mollie said to herself. "Talk of might-have-beens and
never-will-bes! Grandpapa should hear his own daughter singing! Why did
I go and mention green diamonds to her!" She shut her eyes tight to
keep the tears from falling. The plaintive tune went on, and when a
small soft hand crept into her own her cheeks were wet. She kept her
eyes closed and held tight to the little hand!
* * * * *
She was standing in a wide, brick-floored veranda with a steeply
sloping roof. The open sides were wreathed with morning-glories, their
deep-blue petals wide-spreading to the early sun. Painted tubs, full of
scarlet and purple fuchsias, stood in a row beside the railing;
coco-nut matting, rough and brown, lay in strips across the red brick
floor, and at either end of the veranda stood a deal table. One was
covered with books, toys, and work-baskets. At the other sat Bridget,
shelling peas. She was singing:
"How often when at work I'm sittin',
An' musin' sadly on the days of yore,
I think I see my Katey knittin',
An' the children playin' by the cabin door;
I think I see the neighbours' faces
All gathered round, their long-lost friend to see,
Oh! though no one here knows how fair that place is,
Heaven knows how dear my poor home was to me."
As she sang the last word she lifted the corner of her apron to dry her
eyes, and saw Mollie.
"Is it yourself, Miss Mollie, or is it your ghost? May the Lord look
sideways on me ould plaid shawl! You gave me a start then, for 'twas
only this minute I looked to see an' there was no one there at all."
"It's me," said Mollie, swallowing down a few last tears and wondering
if she was speaking the truth--perhaps it _was_ her ghost! "Where's
everybody?"
"They're all dressin' themselves for the balloonin', an' may the Lord
preserve Master Hugh an' keep his bones from breakin'. 'Tis a temptin'
o' Providence an' his mother sailin' on the salt seas, poor soul. The
way the death-watch has been tickin' on me this wake past is something
cruel."
"What's the ballooning?" Mollie began, but before Bridget could answer
Prudence appeared at the house door, dressed in festive pink muslin and
a white hat wreathed with rosebuds.
"Come along, Mollie," she said, "and don't listen to Bridget croaking.
If I died every time she hears my death-watch tick, or sees my shroud
in a candle, there would be a whole cemetery full of my graves by this
time. There's a yellow muslin frock for you."
They had reached the girls' bedroom, which Mollie recognized as the
first of the rooms she had slept in. They were back in the house with
Hugh's tree and the yellow-carpeted garden. She looked admiringly at
the pretty muslin frock on the bed. It was white, powdered over with
tiny dots of pale yellow, and made with filmy flounces reaching to the
waist; a frilled fichu, or "cross-over" as Prue called it, came over
the front of the little bodice, falling slightly below the waist and
tied behind with pale-yellow ribbons. A wide white hat was wreathed
with primroses and green leaves. It was indeed a charming frock, and so
modern that Mollie thought she might have worn it at home without
anyone being surprised at anything except her unusual smartness.
Prudence and Grizzel wore dresses fashioned in precisely the same way,
but Prue's muslin was sprigged with pink rosebuds, while Grizzel's dots
were green.
"Come along, my rainbow," said Papa. "If we are late we won't get a
good place."
They walked down the cypress-bordered path of Mollie's first visit, and
joined the stream of people going along the road, like themselves, to
see the balloon ascent. Mollie felt very gay and festive; everybody
feminine wore light frocks, the sun was bright but not too hot, the
grass was green, and the whole countryside was frothed with
almond-blossom, white and pink. Birds flew briskly about, indifferent
to balloons, and horses with shining chestnut coats trotted along the
well-kept road, lifting their slim ankles and polished heels in an
elegant way very different from the gait of London cab-horses.
A balloon ascent was always a thrilling sight, Prudence explained, but
the particular thrill about this one was that Hugh was going up. The
aeronaut was a friend of Papa's, and, Mamma being on her way home to
England, it had not been difficult to persuade easygoing Papa to give
his consent. Indeed, there was nothing that he would have liked better
than to go up himself, but Mr. Ferguson had shaken his head over
fifteen stone of useless passenger.
"If we could throw you out a pound at a time you would be most
welcome," he had said; "but you must wait a bit, Professor; the day
will come when we shall not have to count every pound."
When they reached the field they found a deeply interested crowd
already collected, and Papa had some difficulty in getting his rainbow
into a good position. The huge balloon towered up far above them, its
striped smoke-coloured sides gleaming under the netted mesh as it
swayed with every breath of wind. The wicker car looked very small and
frail.
"It's not so small as it looks," Prue said to Mollie. "We were in it
yesterday. It is nearly as big as my bedroom, and the sides reach up to
Hugh's shoulder; he couldn't fall out unless he did it on purpose.
There are dear little cubby-holes and all sorts of cute fixings. Its
name is the _Kangaroo_. I do wish I could go up too, but Papa and Mr.
Ferguson simply wouldn't hear of it. Girls are never allowed to do
anything."
"Aren't you nervous?" Mollie asked. "Suppose it suddenly burst when it
was ever so high. How high does it go?"
"Mr. Ferguson has been up five miles, but he is only going up one
to-day. They won't be very long away."
"You would be just as badly smashed if you fell one mile as if you fell
five, I should think," said Mollie, with a shudder.
"It isn't falling that they think about," Prue explained, "When you get
very high you can't breathe, and you have all sorts of horrid feelings.
Once Mr. Ferguson fainted, and if the man with him hadn't pulled the
stopper thing out with his teeth they'd both have been killed."
"Why teeth?" asked Mollie.
"Because his hands were frozen, and he couldn't use them," answered
Prue. "They'll be starting soon; they are going on board--look, there's
Hugh!"
Mollie saw a small grey-clad figure climbing into the car. He was
followed by two men, one tall and the other rather short. As they
climbed over the rails the great balloon swayed and trembled--it looked
far more dangerous than a nice substantial aeroplane, Mollie thought;
and there was no control, they simply flew up and were blown hither and
thither according to the will of the winds. Suppose they were blown
against something and got a great rip in the side!
"I don't know how you _can_," she said to Prue. "If it were Dick--where
are Dick and Jerry? Haven't they come?"
"Here we are, old bean, at your elbow. My word, wouldn't I like to be
going up too!"
"Same here. Some chaps have all the luck!" groaned Jerry.
Prudence shook her head. "Mr. Ferguson would never take more than one
boy. Two might begin larking, and you simply must not lark in a
balloon."
Dick thought of a joke about larks and balloons, but decided that it
was not a really first-class joke and merely shook an accusatory head
at boys and their reprehensible ways.
[Illustration: THEY STOOD AND WATCHED THE _KANGAROO_ FOR SOME TIME]
The ring of men who held down the balloon were preparing to let go the
ropes; the band began to play, the men in the balloon took off their
caps and waved farewell, people cheered--and the _Kangaroo_ was off.
She rose swiftly and buoyantly, remaining almost perpendicular until
she was caught by a southwest current of air and sailed away towards
the hills. As she rose the children could see Hugh at the edge of the
car, waving his handkerchief.
It was very exciting. They stood and watched the _Kangaroo_ for some
time, but her progress was slow, and Papa remarked that they could see
her just as well from the street as from the field, now that she was
near the clouds. He looked at his watch:
"There is just time to go and have some lunch before your dinner. What
would you say to cocoa and cream-cakes at Bauermann's?"
This suggestion cheered away the left-behindish feeling that they all
experienced as they watched that distant pear-shaped object floating in
the sky. As they walked along the road it was impossible to keep their
eyes and thoughts from following the balloon, so that conversation was
desultory, until Mollie thought she saw a bad wobble and gave a little
scream.
"You really need not be so nervous," Prue said, catching her by the
arm. "Mr. Ferguson has been up hundreds of times, he won't let Hugh
down. Bridget read Hugh's fortune in his tea-cup last night and says he
is going to die when he is eighty-three-and-a-half; I can't think why
she has begun to hear his death-watch tick already. And besides--don't
you believe in Fate? If it is your fate to fall from a balloon and be
killed, you'll be killed that way; there's no use trying not to be."
"You couldn't be if you never went up in a balloon," said Mollie.
"Then it wouldn't be your fate," Prudence answered.
Mollie could not think of a suitable reply at the moment and was silent.
"That's not all," Grizzel added. "Hugh has got my green diamond with
him for luck. Bridget says that my diamond is the Luck of the
Campbells, and will always bring good luck to the person that wears it,
like a four-leaved shamrock. So I made Hugh take it."
This remark reminded the others of the diamond-mine, and Dick, Jerry,
and Mollie became eager for news of that adventure. It had turned out
fairly well; they had not as yet made a fortune, but on the strength of
their prospects Mr. Fraser had encouraged Papa to send Mamma and Baby
for a trip home, and to add several comforts to the household, one of
which was the broad veranda at the back of the house, in which Mollie
had found herself that morning.
"We live in it by day, and some of us sleep in it by night," Prue said.
"You shall sleep in a hammock to-night, Mollie."
After a feast of cocoa and cream-cakes at Bauermann's they got home
just in time for a dinner of twice-laid and Uncle Tom's pudding, to
which even Dick and Jerry could not do justice.
"It's my favourite dinner, too," sighed Prudence. "It's a strange thing
that one day you get too much and another day too little. To-morrow
there will be no Bauermann's and most likely dinner will be boiled
mutton and tapioca pudding."
The afternoon passed rather slowly. Hugh might be back about five
o'clock, and they were too anxious to hear how he had got on to be able
to settle down to any occupation. They played croquet until all their
tempers were hopelessly lost, even Prudence accusing Mollie of
cheating. As if a Guide ever cheated under any circumstances
whatsoever! After each girl in turn had thrown down her mallet and
declared that she wouldn't play, Dick swiftly defeated Jerry, the party
recovered its tempers, and they were sitting down to play "I met a
One-horned Lady always Genteel" when the garden-gate clicked and Hugh
appeared.
Now Dick and Jerry, each in his own mind, had suspected that Hugh would
come back from his trip full of "swank", and each had decided that
gently and politely, but very firmly, he would squash the swanker. But
there was no sign of the conquering hero about Hugh. He came slowly up
the garden path towards them, gloom and depression showing in every
step that he took, and still more upon his face as he drew near.
They looked at him expectantly, but he stood silently beside them, his
shoulders stooping as though a load of care sat upon them, his usually
clear eyes heavy and clouded, and the corners of his mouth turned down
as if he had made up his mind never to smile again.
"What's up?" asked Jerry at last. "Did the balloon bust, and you the
sole survivor?"
"Didn't my diamond bring you luck after all?" Grizzel questioned
anxiously.
"Sick, old bean?" inquired Dick sympathetically.
"I think you'd better have tea right away," Prudence said, laying a
motherly little hand on her brother's arm.
"If he's got something bad to tell he'd better tell it," said Mollie.
"Nothing cures care like giving it air."
Hugh threw himself on the grass, hugged his legs with his arms, and,
resting his chin on his knees, stared before him in stony silence.
"Spit it out, old bus," Dick adjured him, "If you are in a scrape we
are with you to a man--aren't we?" he asked the others.
A chorus of agreement brought a flicker of light into the gloom of
Hugh's face.
"I have been the biggest ass in the world," he said. "If there is a
bigger it would comfort me to meet him."
Two brown hands were promptly outstretched, but Hugh shook his head:
"Wait till you hear." He paused for a moment, looked nervously from
side to side and then behind him:
"I'm a murderer. Probably I shall be hanged. Unless I poison myself
first."
"Hugh!" Prudence exclaimed sharply, "don't make these horrible jokes.
You know how Mamma hates them."
"It isn't a joke, worse luck," Hugh groaned; "it's beastly true. Thank
goodness Mamma is out of the way. Perhaps it can be hushed up so that
she will never know the truth about the way I died."
A look of consternation settled upon every face; whatever Hugh had
done, it was plain that he was exceedingly unhappy.
"Tell us," Jerry commanded briefly.
Hugh sat up. "I may as well," he agreed dejectedly. "You'd better hear
it from me than from some old policeman. I suppose one will be stalking
up the path soon." He was silent again for a minute, and then started
once more:
"It was this way. When we went up first it was perfectly glorious--you
never can imagine how lovely Adelaide looks from the air, with the
hills round and the sea in the distance and almond-blossom all over the
place. Oh--if only this thing hadn't happened I could tell you all
sorts of things, but now I can't think of anything. It was near the
end. I was awfully keen on trying an experiment--two experiments in
fact. I wanted to see how near I could hit a given spot if I aimed at
it with a stone, and I wanted to see how much the stone would deflect
in falling. Perhaps it's only one experiment really, but it struck me
as being two at the time. You see, if Australia ever goes to war we
might want to shoot from balloons, or one might drop a ball of
explosives with a fuse attached or something. I thought about it when
that Russian scare was on, but I never thought I'd get the chance to
try. So I got a good, smooth, round stone, nine-and-a-half ounces, and
wrapped it up in a handkerchief and took it up. I knew a good place to
aim at--the tree in Mr. Macgregor's Burnt Oak field. I knew the field
was empty; it is being ploughed up for some experiment that Mr.
Macgregor wants to try--blow all experiments! And to-day he gave his
men a holiday to come and see the balloon. We were about fifteen
hundred feet up and going slowly. I could see the oak and its shadow
quite plainly. So I let the stone drop."
Hugh paused again and groaned.
"Go on," said somebody.
"No one noticed what I had done, but something or other made Mr.
Ferguson start talking about how dangerous it was to chuck things over
carelessly, though it seems to me that in Jules Verne they spend half
their time chucking sandbags about. I asked him how about a stone
weighing half a pound, and he said it would fall half a mile in twelve
and a half seconds, and if it hit anyone on the head that person would
be as dead as if he had got a bullet through him. I felt a bit sick,
but I was glad that field had been empty. We came down soon after that,
and I cut off to Burnt Oak field to look for my stone." Hugh stopped
short.
"Go on," said the others.
"It wasn't there, nor anywhere round; and I _knew_ it must have dropped
on that field."
"But," said Jerry, "if it hit the earth at that speed it would bury
itself ever so deep. You could not possibly see it."
"I thought of that," said Hugh, "so I looked for the hole, and I found
it. About thirty feet from the tree, which was a good hit considering.
I could soon learn to aim well--that is, if I'm not hanged or sent to
prison for life. Oh--Well, I found the hole, and beside it I found--"
No one dared to ask a question. Hugh remained silent till it was almost
more than they could bear.
"Blood!" he whispered at last.
"Jiminy! Is that all!" exclaimed Dick. "I thought you were going to say
a dead body. If the body got up and walked away it couldn't have been
so very dead. How much blood? Were there any footmarks about?"
"That part of the field hadn't been ploughed, and the ground was rather
hard, covered with grass the cattle had been cropping. There were some
stones in a little pile, but my stone wasn't among them. I looked at
those stones--by George, I looked at them! They were splashed with
blood--Then I got sick, and then had to skedaddle because someone was
calling me."
"I am _sure_ it will turn out all right; you had the lucky diamond,"
Grizzel said consolingly.
"That makes it worse," said Hugh, groaning again. "I tied the diamond
up with the stone and forgot to take it out."
"Oh, _Hugh_!" exclaimed Prudence, more perturbed by this disaster than
by the hypothetical murder, "how _could_ you be so careless?"
"It doesn't matter," Grizzel persisted, with cheerful calm, "that
diamond brings luck. It has had one miracle, and I expect it will have
another. It will come back. Very likely the dead man will bring it back
himself."
"It will come back all right," said Hugh, "because the ring has
Grizzel's name inside it, and, seeing that mine is the same on the
handkerchief, the police will have a jolly good clue to start on. If
the person was _not_ hit and steals the diamond he'll take good care
not to show himself. Then the diamond will be gone, but I'll give
Grizzel mine. I'll spend my bank money on getting a ring made. Oh--if I
only knew! If I only knew what was going to happen I shouldn't mind so
much. It's waiting for that bobby to turn up that gives me the
horrors." He looked over his shoulder as he spoke, with a shiver of
anticipation.
"It sounds to me a bit fishy, you know," said Jerry, with a thoughtful
frown. "How do you know that the hole you saw was made by your stone?
It might have been there already."
"Because it was fresh, and the earth round was freshly thrown up; and
some of my handkerchief was lying beside it."
The boys looked grave. This did sound rather serious.
"But," said Mollie, "the stone could not have buried itself in a hole
and hit a person so that the person was killed at the same time. If it
went down into a hole it did not hit anyone."
"I never thought of that," said Hugh, cheering up for the first time.
"Neither it could; but there was the blood," he added despondently,
"pints of it. I never thought anything could bleed so much. Well--I
shall know before very long one way or the other, for either some news
will turn up or the diamond will stay away."
"The best thing you can do now is to have some tea," said Prudence,
"then you will feel better and we can plan what to do."
Things certainly looked less black after tea. Hugh, beginning to hope
for Grizzel's miracle, decided to develop some photographs of the
ballooners which he had taken on the previous day. "I promised Mr.
Ferguson to have some prints ready for him to-morrow," he said, "so I
may as well begin. If the bobby comes you can call me."
But everyone wanted to watch the developing process. Hugh's dark-room
was a roomy lean-to shed, built by himself and well equipped with
shelves, sink, and taps. It would hold six people at a pinch.
"No, I can't have you all," Hugh said, "you wouldn't all see at once,
and it is too much of a crowd. I'll take two at a time. Dick and Prue
to begin with."
The remaining three settled themselves within sight of the garden gate,
and discussed the various features of Hugh's adventure.
"I don't believe it is half so bad as he thinks," Jerry said, "because
it stands to reason that a dead man could not get up and walk away,
especially not across a ploughed field. I doubt if even a man who had
lost several pints of blood could walk very far. And if he had been
_carried_ off, there would have been a fuss, and the ballooners would
have been tackled at once--in fact, I can't think why they weren't. I
think it looks rather bad for Grizzel's diamond; worse for the diamond
than for the man. I wonder how fast the balloon was going. How fast
does a balloon fly?"
"Somewhere from eight to thirty-six miles an hour, according to the
wind, Jules Verne says," Grizzel answered.
"Eight miles an hour! My hat! Fancy crawling through the air at eight--"
There was a sound at the garden gate and the three jumped to their
feet. A young man walked up the broad path between the cypress trees,
striking across the grass when he saw the children. He was not a
policeman, having indeed a very kind and cheerful expression, which he
was trying, not very successfully, to hide under a severe frown.
"Does anyone named Grizzel Campbell live in this house?" he asked.
"Yes, me," Grizzel answered, turning a little pale.
"You!" exclaimed the young man, looking with some astonishment at the
small figure before him, with its tumbled red curls. "I don't suppose
_you_ are the owner of a--" he broke off uncertainly.
"She is the owner of a green diamond in a ring, if that is what you
wish to know," Jerry spoke up.
"What on earth is a kid like you doing with a magnificent diamond
ring?" the young man asked, forgetting to frown and letting everyone
see quite plainly what a nice face he really had.
"Oh--have you got my ring? Has there been a miracle?" Grizzel cried,
clutching at the young man's arm.
"I have got the ring, and there has been a miracle sure enough," he
answered rather grimly. "I suppose that Mr. Hugh Campbell is your
brother. Where is he?"
"He's here all right," Jerry answered, "but would you mind telling us
what happened before I call him? Whatever he did he's jolly cut up
about it, and if it was anything very bad I'd like to--to prepare him a
bit, you know. He went to look for his stone and got the fright of his
life when he found his hank and the blood."
"Blood!" the young man ejaculated, with a puzzled frown. "What blood?"
"He said the ground was soaked in blood. All the stones were red. He
thinks that the person he hit must have lost pints of blood."
The young man threw back his head and laughed--a big, reassuring laugh
which brought some colour into the three pale and anxious faces turned
up to his. "Blood! I see! No, it was not so bad as all that, it only
_might_ have been. It was not blood, it was only--but I'd better begin
at the beginning and tell you what happened. I was sitting in
Macgregor's Burnt Oak field, working at--well, a little experiment I am
interested in, when I saw the balloon had come right over. Of course I
had been watching it, but for a bit I was absorbed in my experiment and
had not looked up. I looked up then and was staring hard, when
suddenly, before I could say Jack Robinson, a whacking stone came
hurtling down and cleared my head by less than a foot. If it had hit
me--by Jove! I'd have tried the last and biggest experiment before
this!"
"A foot is a pretty good miss," said Jerry, a look of immense relief
spreading over his face. "I know a chap who had a parting cut in his
hair with a bullet; that's what _I_ call a narrow shave. That's what he
calls it too," Jerry added, with a grin.
"No doubt he does. My shave was narrow enough for me, thank you. It all
but knocked my precious experiment into the middle of next week. But
what I want to know is why Hugh Campbell throws diamond rings about the
country. If the stone hadn't plopped into the middle of my--my little
game--which was almost another miracle when you consider the size of
the field--the ring would have been lost for ever."
"It's a miraculous ring," Grizzel explained, "and it brings luck. I
expect you'll be ever so lucky now. But how did you know where to look
for Hugh?" she added rather anxiously. Mr. Ferguson would not be
pleased, to put it mildly, if he knew how nearly Hugh had involved him
in a tragedy.
"I know your father," the young man replied, "he once did me a good
turn. So I knew where to look for the owner of the handkerchief without
troubling Mr. Ferguson."
"But what was that mush if it wasn't blood?" asked Jerry.
"That? Oh--that was merely my little experiment; that is my secret for
the present, and I trust you not to mention it. But no one has told me
why your brother chucked a diamond ring out of the balloon."
"It was a mistake; he was trying experiments too," Grizzel explained.
"But, please, may I go and tell him that he isn't a murderer? He is
expecting to be hanged every minute, and it makes him feel perfectly
miserable. But I was sure that my ring would bring him luck."
Grizzel sped off on her mission. She knocked at the dark-room door.
"Please put an ear at the keyhole--I have important news."
An ear was promptly at her disposal. She did not ask whose, but went on:
"The murdered man has come, and he isn't in the least dead. And his
blood wasn't blood, only his experiment, and he's got my ring. He is a
nice man, and he is forgiving Hugh as hard as he can, and there were
two miracles, and I told you so!"
There was a momentary silence within, and then a glad shout. Dick began
to sing "God save the King", which seemed less appropriate when he
remembered that the sovereign of the moment was a queen; but no one
noticed, and the main point was that someone was saved. A few minutes
later the dark-room party emerged, Hugh very pale and shaky as he went
to meet his supposed victim. Indeed, for a moment he was incapable of
speech, and Jerry, who knew only too well what it felt like to have a
lump sticking in his throat just when he wanted to be most manly and
soldier-like, filled up what would have been an awkward pause by saying
anything that came into his head until Hugh had recovered himself.
"I've had a lesson," he began, as he shook hands with the young man,
whose name they now learnt was Desmond O'Rourke. "I am awfully sorry--"
"That's all right," Mr. O'Rourke interrupted, "we all have to learn
lessons now and then--I've learnt some myself--at least I hope I have.
How are the photographs turning out?"
"Very well, thank you. Would you like to come and see them? Mr.
Ferguson's is the best portrait I have done yet." Hugh recovered from
his emotion as he spoke, but he was still very pale.
Mr. O'Rourke accepted the invitation with alacrity. "We can exchange
experiences," he said. "I am curious to know what the experiment was
that so nearly bowled me out. But first I must return the diamond to
its owner." He drew the ring out of an inner pocket and held it out to
Grizzel. As the diamond met the golden glow of the fading day its green
rays gleamed and sparkled. "One might believe it was alive!" Mr.
O'Rourke exclaimed. "I never saw anything like it. You kids ought not
to have a jewel like that to play pitch-and-toss with; someone should
keep it for you."
"I wear it round my neck," said Grizzel, unfastening the neckband of
her overall and showing a slender chain of finely wrought gold. She
took it off and slung the ring on.
"I have one almost as good," Hugh observed, as they watched Grizzel,
"but mine is not set yet; perhaps I'll have it made into a ring some
day. Mamma says I should keep it till I want an engagement ring--"
"O bay o' Dublin, my heart you're troublin',"
Mollie gave a violent start--but it was only Bridget singing in the
kitchen.
Mr. O'Rourke turned his head and listened. "Who comes from Dublin?" he
asked.
"It's Bridget, our nurse when Baby is here and our cook just now,"
Prudence answered. "She's feeling homesick. She does sometimes."
"So do I," said Mr. O'Rourke. "It's a long time since I've seen the bay
o' Dublin. I must shake hands with Bridget."
Mollie gazed earnestly at Mr. O'Rourke. Was _he_ Aunt Mary's long-ago
lover? No--he was too old. He must be twenty-two at least. But she felt
almost sure that _somehow_ he had something to do with that romance.
As they stood at the white gate later on, saying good-bye, their new
friend pulled a round white stone out of one of his many pockets.
"Shall I keep this or shall I give it to you?" he asked Hugh.
There was a curious silence as the children gathered round to gaze at
the innocent-looking missile in Mr. O'Rourke's hand. It was little the
worse of its adventure--slightly chipped and scratched, and on one side
an ominous red stain which made Hugh shiver and turn pale again, as it
reminded him how nearly his thoughtlessness had cost a life.
"Give it to me," he said at last. "I will write the date on it, and if
it doesn't remind me to think twice, nothing will, and I will _deserve_
to be hanged."
"Very well," agreed Mr. O'Rourke, "only remember that the red stain is
only what I told you it was."
"I'll remember," said Hugh, holding the stone in his hand and looking
gravely down at it, "but I won't forget that it _might_ have been what
I thought it was."
Grizzel's solemn round eyes went from one to the other during this
transaction. "Is that what it means in books when it says, 'marked with
a white stone'?" she asked Hugh.
"It _is_ a sort of milestone," Hugh answered thoughtfully, "and it will
mark a new start for me. It ought to have your name on as well as
mine," he added, looking up at Mr. O'Rourke. "Perhaps it means a new
mile for you too. You can't tell."
The young man laughed: "You make me feel as if it were my tombstone;
you are all so solemn. Let me see a smile before I go."
A nice white smile flashed round the company, but Hugh's eyes remained
thoughtful as he watched the young Irishman walk away down the leafy
road.
After all the emotions of that exciting day Hugh was tired, so next
morning found the children sitting quietly in the broad veranda.
Prudence busied herself with sewing; Grizzel sat at the table happily
absorbed in painting a spray of wattle to send to Mamma. She had placed
it in a tall, slender vase of Venetian glass, pale yellow flecked with
gold. Hugh lay on the floor, his chin in the hollow of his hands, and
his feet alternately tapping the red bricks and waving in the air, as
he contemplated a small steam-engine which he had been putting through
its paces. Mollie, Dick, and Jerry sat on the veranda steps, the boys
printing photographs, while Mollie idly played with the trailing
garlands of morning-glory and traveller's joy which hung around her.
Between the blossoming almond trees she could see golden splashes of
wattle in the field beyond. At her feet a mass of big Russian violets
boldly lifted their heads above their leaves, and an acacia, which
overshadowed the veranda, was dropping milky petals on the path. Mollie
knew all the sweet scents by name now. It was queer, she thought, how
the seasons came slipping round, each bringing its own fruit and
flowers--here in Australia in Prue's Time, and there in Chauncery in
her own Time. She turned her head and stared at the shabby old
grandfather clock which stood in a corner of the veranda. For forty
years, she thought, its pendulum would slowly swing, till it said "How
d'ye do" to the ticking clock in Grannie's morning-room. Forty years
was a long time to look forward to.
"Jolly nice smells here," Dick remarked. "How ripping the almond
blossom looks in the sunshine. We've got an almond tree in our
backyard, and once there was an almond on it."
"There are thousands of almonds here," Prue said, pausing in her work
for a moment and gazing dreamily at the delicate outline of almond
branches against the sky. "They are nicest when they are green, but I
must say they do give you dreadful pains. I wonder why so many nice
things leave a pain. Music does too--and even one's best friends
sometimes."
"Do you eat your best friends boiled up with green almonds to the tune
of 'Good-bye for ever--good-bye, good-bye'?" Dick inquired.
They laughed. "There's an old gentleman come to live next door,"
Prudence continued, taking up her sewing again, "who watches us through
a telescope sometimes, and when he sees us in the green-almond trees he
writes to Papa. He says it is for our good, old telltale. Once, though,
he took us into his library and showed us some beautiful fossils. He
said they were as old as Moses, and one of them might be a million
years old. It was a fan-shell, quite whole and pretty. Fancy a million
years! I wonder what the world will be like in another million years."
"Bust," said Dick briefly.
They laughed again and then were silent. Mollie looked round at the
little group and thought how easy it was to be good when one had nice
things to do and plenty of time and room to do them in. "Where is Miss
Hilton?" she asked, "and where is Laddie? And why aren't you at school
this time? How do you ever learn enough to pass your exams?"
"Miss Hilton is housekeeper while Mamma is away," Prudence answered,
"and she hasn't much time for lessons. Laddie is dead. He was poisoned.
We couldn't bear to have another dog. Papa doesn't like exams. He likes
us to be out all the time and not to stoop over books. He says we can
'find tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, sermons in stones,
and good in everything'."
Mollie gave a little jump. The very words Aunt Mary had quoted that
morning! There was certainly _something_ queer somewhere!
"What a jolly kind of father to have," Dick exclaimed. "I wish my good
parent held these views. His are quite otherwise. He believes in any
amount of stooping over books, though I am always pointing out to him
that it isn't the chaps who swot over books that turn into Generals and
things in the end."
"When Mamma comes home Grizzel and I are going to school." Prudence
said regretfully. "I know we shall hate it, but I suppose we must learn
grammar and geography some time." She sighed at the distressing
prospect before her.
Mollie smiled as she wondered what school would make of Grizzel. She
looked at Hugh, absorbed in some great new idea. What would he be like
in forty years. In Chauncery Time he must now be fifty-four. Were there
then _two_ Hughs? And if two, why not twenty? Or hundreds, for that
matter, like the films of a cinematograph. Perhaps everyone had a sort
of film-picture running off all the time, and some day, before those
million years had passed, a way would be found to develop them. It
would not be much more wonderful than wireless and flying and all those
things that looked impossible to people in this Time. Mollie began to
think of London, and of home in North Kensington, and then felt a
sudden longing for her mother and Jean and the little ones--for all the
familiar ways of home and school. This place was lovely, and the
children were perfect dears, but it would be nice to feel a
hockey-stick in her hand again--and she _should_ like to see her own
comfortable mother. In fact, she felt homesick!
"A balloon is all very well," Hugh said, "so far as it goes." He rolled
round on to his back, clasping his hands under his head and staring up
at the white clouds over which he had flown yesterday. "But it doesn't
go far _enough_. It will never be much use until we learn to steer. You
have to go whichever way the wind chooses, which may be exactly the way
you don't want to go. I can't see myself how one could ever steer
without machinery, and to carry that weight you'd have to have a
balloon the size of a mountain."
"There's wings," said Prudence, "like Hiram Brown."
"What's the good of wings that let you drop the moment you try to fly
with them. Hiram Brown is as dead as a door nail with his wings. No,
wings fastened on _that_ way will never work. Our internal machinery
isn't made like birds'." As he spoke a parrot flew overhead, its
brilliant wings flashing in the sunlight and then becoming apparently
motionless as it swooped down towards the house. Hugh's eyes followed
it intently, and presently he rolled over again and resumed his study
of the steam-engine.
"Wings," he murmured, "after all wings are the right things to fly
with. Why not make the whole thing, body and all." He frowned hard as
he concentrated his whole attention upon the toy before him.
"Wings--and steam--a boiler--"
The boys and Mollie watched him curiously. This was the Thought that
came before the Thing, Mollie thought, remembering her conversation
with Aunt Mary. It was rather like a game of hide-and-seek. Hugh was
getting warm--how near would he get? They tried to catch the disjointed
words that fell from his lips at intervals. "Wings," he muttered again,
"and a place for the flier--why not a car--a--a--a box like an
engine-driver's, with handles for controlling--"
In the minds of the English children, now listening breathlessly, there
arose a vividly distinct image of an aeroplane, darkly silhouetted
against a pale English sky. How many they had seen!
Hugh's mutterings ceased. It seemed to Mollie that the world had grown
very still. She fancied that she could almost hear the blossoms
dropping on the grass; there was a faint stir of leaves as a stray
breeze came wandering by, and another sound mingled with that stir--a
far-away hum--hum--growing louder every moment!
The English children looked at each other. Was this one of Grizzel's
miracles? Their eyes turned to the sky--yes, there it came! It winged
its way like a mighty bird, singing its strange rough song. Prue
dropped her work and stood up, Grizzel let fall her pencil and clung to
Prue, Hugh leapt to his feet and ran down the steps, his face upturned
to the clouds.
"Oh, what is it?" he cried. "What is it? Who are you?"
The aeroplane swooped down as the bird had done, till it was straight
overhead, then, with a lovely curve, it skimmed away, the great wings
outstretched as the bird's had been, away into the distant blue!
Hugh held out his arms. "Don't go--oh, don't go!" he cried. "Come back,
come back!"
But it had gone.
The English children looked at each other again, and from each other to
Hugh.
"_We_ brought it," whispered Jerry, "it was a Time-traveller."
Mollie turned to the Australians. The sunlight fell on Hugh's pale
face, on Grizzel's ruddy curls; there was a faint smile on Prue's lips.
"Oh, we have brought our Time too near," she exclaimed. "It is
good-bye! No, no, Prue! Oh--_this_ time it is good-bye!"
* * * * *
"No, no--I don't want to wake up yet! It is too soon! I haven't said
good-bye. Not yet, Aunt Mary!"
"It's not 'good-bye', my Mollie, it's 'how d'ye do?' you've got to say!
You have been dreaming too hard, child."
Mollie sat up and rubbed her eyes in bewilderment, for it was not Aunt
Mary at all, but Mother, standing there and smiling.
"No, it's not my ghost," she laughed, when Mollie had released her
stranglehold. "I came down partly to see how my daughterling was
getting along, and partly to ask Grannie and Aunt Mary if they would
like two more troublesome, non-paying guests. Would it bore you
unutterably to have to entertain your twin and Jerry Outram for a
fortnight?"
"Oh, Mother! Not really! How perfectly lovely! Why?"
"Measles at school; so they are closing a month early, and it would be
_such_ a boon to Mrs. Outram and me if the boys could be quarantined
away from home. Aunt Mary says she would _like_ to have them, strange
woman, and Grannie is already planning a course of Manners--the
beautiful capital-M Manners of her young days."
Mollie laughed as she gave her mother a comfortable unmannerly hug.
"You are all frauds," she said. "Don't talk to me of your young days. I
guess they weren't one pin better than ours. I hope Dick and Jerry are
coming soon."
"To-morrow. Now, I'll have some tea, and then a little talk, and then I
must be off again. I stole Father's car, as he has gone down to
Bournemouth. So there's no time to waste. What beautiful strawberries!"
"They are ready just in time for the boys," said Grannie benignly.