'But I have known him such a long time, and have travelled such a long
way with him!'
'You dreamed it, I tell you. Where are the rose bush and the little key,
hey? But you are not dreaming now. Do you feel that?'
'Oh!' cried Johannes, for Pluizer nipped him.
It was by this time dark, and the bats flew close over their heads and
piped shrilly. The air was black and heavy, not a leaf was stirring in
the wood.
'May I go home?' asked Johannes,--'home to my father?'
'To your father! What to do there?' said Pluizer. 'A warm reception you
will get from him after staying away so long.'
'I want to get home,' said Johannes, and he thought of the snug room
with the bright lamp light where he would sit so often by his father's
side, listening to the scratching of his pen. It was quiet there, and
not lonely.
'Well then, you would have done better not to come away, and stayed so
long for the sake of that senseless jackanapes who has not even any
existence. Now it is too late, but it does not matter in the least; I
will take care of you. And whether I do it or your father, comes to
precisely the same in the end. Such a father--it is a mere matter of
education. Did you choose your own father? Do you suppose that there is
no one so good or so clever as he? I am just as good, and cleverer--much
cleverer.'
Johannes had no heart to answer; he shut his eyes and nodded feebly.
'And it would be of no use to look for anything from Robinetta,' the
little man went on. He laid his hands on Johannes's shoulders and spoke
close into his ear. That child thought you just as much a fool as the
others did. Did you not observe that she sat in the corner and never
spoke a word when they all laughed at you? She is no better than the
rest. She thought you a nice little boy, and was ready to play with
you--as she would have played with a cockchafer. She will not care that
you are gone away. And she knows nothing of that Book. But I do; I know
where it is, and I will help you to find it. I know almost everything.'
And Johannes was beginning to believe him.
'Now will you come with me? Will you seek it with me?'
'I am so tired,' said Johannes, 'let me sleep first.'
'I have no opinion of sleep,' replied Pluizer, 'I am too active for
that. A man must always be wide awake and thinking. But I will grant you
a little time for rest. Till to-morrow morning!' And he put on the
friendliest expression of which he was capable.
Johannes looked hard into his little twinkling eyes till he could see
nothing else. His head was heavy and he lay down on the mossy knoll. The
little eyes seemed to go further and further from him till they were
starry specks in the dark sky; he fancied he heard the sound of distant
voices, as though the earth beneath him were going away and away--and
then he ceased to think at all.
[Footnote 1: The plucker, the spoiler.]
X
Even before he was fairly awake, he was vaguely conscious that something
strange had happened to him while he slept. Still he was not anxious to
know what, or to look about him. He would rather return to the dream
which was slowly fading like a rising mist--Robinetta had come to be
with him again, and had stroked his hair as she used to do--and he had
seen his father once more, and Presto, in the garden with the pool.
'Oh! That hurt! Who did that?' Johannes opened his eyes, and in the grey
morning light, he saw a little man standing at his side who had pulled
his hair. He himself was in bed, and the light was dim and subdued, as
in a room.
But the face which bent over him at once carried him back to all the
misery and distress of the past evening. It was Pluizer's face, less
boguey-like and more human, but as ugly and terrifying as ever.
'Oh, no! Let me dream!' cried Johannes.
But Pluizer shook him. 'Are you crazy, sluggard? Dreaming is folly; you
will never get any further by that. A man must work and think and
search; that is what you are a man for.'
'I do not want to be a man. I want to dream.'
'I cannot help that; you must. You are now in my charge, and you must
work and seek with me. With me alone can you ever find the thing you
want. And I will not give in till we have found it.'
Johannes felt a vague dismay; still, a stronger will coerced and drove
him. He involuntarily submitted.
The sand-hills, trees, and flowers had vanished. He was in a small
dimly-lighted room; outside, as far as he could see, there were houses,
and more houses, dingy and grey, in long dull rows. Smoke rose from
every one of them in thick wreaths, and made a sort of brown fog in the
streets. And along those streets men were hurrying, like great black
ants. A mingled, dull clamour came up from the throng without ceasing.
'Look, Johannes,' said Pluizer. 'Now is not that a fine sight? Those are
men, and all the houses, whichever way you look, and as far as you can
see--even beyond the blue towers there--are full of men--quite full from
top to bottom. Is not that wonderful? That is rather different from a
sand-hill!'
Johannes listened with alarmed curiosity, as though some huge and
hideous monster had risen up before him. He felt as if he stood on the
creature's back, and could see the black blood flowing through its great
arteries, and the murky breath streaming from its hundred nostrils. And
the portentous hum of that terrible voice filled him with fears.
'Look how fast the men walk,' Pluizer went on. 'You can see that they
are in a hurry and are seeking something, cannot you? But the amusing
thing is, that not one of them knows exactly what he is seeking. When
they have been seeking for some little time, some one comes to meet
them--his name is Hein.'
'Who is he?' asked Johannes.
'Oh, a very good friend of mine. I will introduce you to him some day.
Then Hein says to them, "Are you looking for me?" To which most of them
reply, "Oh no. I do not want you!" But then Hein says again, "But there
is nothing to be found but me." So they have to be satisfied with Hein.'
Johannes understood that he meant death.
'And is it always, always so?'
'To be sure, always. And yet, day after day, a new crowd come on, who
begin forthwith to seek they know not what, and they seek and seek till
at last they find Hein. This has been going on for a good while already,
and so it will continue for some time yet.'
'And shall I never find anything, Pluizer--nothing but--?'
'Ay, you will find Hein some day, sure enough! but that does not matter;
seek all the same--for ever be seeking.'
'But the Book, Pluizer, you were to make me find the Book.'
'Well who knows? I have not taken back my word. We must seek it
diligently. At any rate we know where to look for it; Wistik taught us
that. And there are folks who spend all their lives in the search
without even knowing so much as that. Those are the men of science,
Johannes. But then Hein comes and it is all over with their search.'
'That is horrible, Pluizer!'
'Oh no, not at all! Hein is a very kind creature; but he is
misunderstood.'
Some one was heard on the staircase outside the bedroom door. Tramp,
tramp, up the wooden steps--tramp, tramp,--nearer and nearer. Then some
one tapped at the door, and it was as though iron rapped against the
panel.
A tall man came in. He had deep-set eyes and long lean hands. A cold
draught blew into the room.
'Good-day,' said Pluizer, 'so it is you! Sit down. We were just speaking
of you. How are you getting on?'
'Busy, busy!' said the tall man, and he wiped the cold dews from his
bald, bony forehead.
Without moving Johannes looked timidly into the deep-set eyes which were
fixed on his. They were grave and gloomy, but not cruel, not angry.
After a few minutes he breathed more freely and his heart beat less
wildly.
'This is Johannes,' said Pluizer. 'He has heard of a certain book in
which it is written why everything is as it is, and we are now going to
seek it together, are we not?' And Pluizer laughed significantly.
'Ay, indeed? That is well!' said Death kindly, and he nodded to
Johannes.
'He is afraid he will not find it, but I tell him first to seek it
diligently.'
'To be sure,' said Death. 'Seek diligently, that is the best way.'
'He thought, too, that you were very dreadful. But you see, Johannes,
that you were mistaken.'
'Oh yes,' said Death good-humouredly, 'men speak much evil of me. I am
not attractive to look upon, but I mean well, nevertheless.'
He smiled faintly, as one who is occupied with more serious matters than
those he is speaking of. Then he took his dark gaze from Johannes's
face, and looked out thoughtfully over the great city.
For a long time Johannes dared not speak; but at last he said in a low
voice--
'Are you going to take me with you?'
'What do you mean, my child?' said Death, roused from his meditations.
'No, not now. You must grow up and become a good man.'
'I will not grow to be a man like all the rest.'
'Come, come,' said Death, 'there is no help for it.'
And it was easy to hear that this was a frequent phrase with him. He
went on--
'My friend Pluizer can teach you how to become a good man. There are
various ways of being good, but Pluizer can teach you admirably. It is a
very fine and noble thing to be a good man. You must never look down on
a good man, my little fellow.'
'Seek, think, look about you,' said Pluizer.
'To be sure, to be sure,' said Death. And then he inquired of Pluizer:
'To whom will you take him?'
'To Doctor Cypher, my old pupil.'
'Ah yes,--a very good pupil. A very capital example of a man! Almost
perfect in his own way.'
'Shall I see Robinetta again?' asked Johannes, trembling.
'What does the boy mean?' asked Death.
'Oh, he was in love, and fancied that he was an elf. Ha, ha, ha!'
laughed Pluizer spitefully.
'No, no, my little man, that will never do,' said Death. 'You will soon
forget all that when you are with Doctor Cypher. Those who seek what you
seek must give up everything else. All or nothing.'
'I shall make a real man of him. I will let him see some day what being
in love really means, and then he will cast it from him altogether.'
And Pluizer laughed heartily. Death again fixed his black eyes on poor
Johannes, who had some difficulty in refraining from sobbing. But he was
ashamed to cry in the presence of Death.
Death suddenly rose. 'I must be going,' said he. 'I am wasting my time
in talk, and there is much to be done. Good-bye, Johannes!--We shall
meet again. But you must not be afraid of me.'
'I am not afraid of you; I wish you would take me with you.'
But Death gently pushed him away; he was used to such entreaties.
'No, Johannes.--Go now to your work in life; seek and see! Ask me no
more. _I_ will ask you some day, and that will be quite soon enough.'
When he had disappeared Pluizer again began to behave in the wildest
fashion. He leaped over the seats, turned somersaults, climbed up the
cupboard and chimney-shelf, and played break-neck tricks at the open
window.
'Well, that was Hein, my good friend Hein!' said he. 'Did you not like
him greatly? A little unattractive and bony-looking, perhaps. But he can
be very jolly too, when he takes pleasure in his work. Sometimes it
bores him; it is rather monotonous.'
'Pluizer, who tells him where he is to go next?'
Pluizer stared at Johannes with a look of cunning inquiry.
'What makes you ask?--He goes where he pleases--He takes those he can
catch.'
Later, Johannes came to see that it was not so. But as yet he knew no
better, and thought that Pluizer was always right.
They went out and up the street, moving among the swarming throng. The
men in their black clothes bustled about, laughing and talking so gaily
that Johannes could not help wondering. He saw how Pluizer nodded to
several, but no one returned the greeting; they all looked in front of
them as if they did not even see him.
'They go by and laugh now,' said Pluizer, 'as if they none of them knew
me. But that is only make-believe. When I am alone with one of them they
cannot pretend not to know me, and then they are not so light-hearted.'
And as they went on Johannes was presently aware of some one following
them. When he looked round he saw that the tall pale figure was striding
on among the people, with long noiseless steps. He nodded to Johannes.
'Do the people see him too?' asked Johannes of Pluizer.
'Certainly, but they do not choose to know him. Well, I pardon them for
their arrogance!'
The crowd and the turmoil produced a sort of bewilderment which made
Johannes forget his woes. The narrow streets and the high houses, which
cut the blue heavens above into straight strips, the people going up and
down them, the shuffling of feet and the clatter of vehicles, ousted
the visions and dreams of the night, as a storm dissipates the images in
a pool of water. It seemed to him that there was nothing in the world
but walls, and windows, and men. He felt as if he too must do the same,
and rush and push in the seething, breathless whirl.
Presently they came to a quieter neighbourhood, where a large house
stood, with plain grey windows. It looked stern and unkindly. Everything
was silent within, and Johannes smelt a mixture of sour, unfamiliar
odours, with a damp, cellar-like atmosphere for their background. In a
room filled with strange-looking instruments sat a lonely man. He was
surrounded by books, and glass and copper objects, all unknown to
Johannes. A single ray of sunshine fell into the room above his head,
and sparkled on flasks full of bright-coloured liquids. The man was
gazing fixedly through a copper tube and did not look up.