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us."
"And when is that?" Gerald asked, again polite, in a pause.
"At the festival of the harvest," said Phoebes. "On that night as the moon rises it strikes one beam of
perfect light on to the altar in certain temples. One of these temples is in Hellas, buried under the fall of a
mountain which Zeus, being angry, hurled down upon it. One is in this land; it is in this great garden."
"Then," said Gerald, much interested, "if we were to come up to that temple on that night, we could
see you, even without being statues or having the ring?"
"Even so," said Phoebus. "More, any question asked by a mortal we are on that night bound to
answer."
"And the night is when?"
"Ah!" said Phoebus, and laughed. "Wouldn't you like to know!"
Then the great marble King of the Gods yawned, stroked his long beard, and said: "Enough of
stories, Phoebus. Tune your lyre."
"But the ring," said Mabel in a whisper, as the Sun-god tuned the white strings of a sort of marble
harp that lay at his feet "about how you know all about the ring?"
"Presently," the Sun-god whispered back. "Zeus must be obeyed; but ask me again before dawn,
and I will tell you all I know of it." Mabel drew back, and leaned against the comfortable knees of one
Demeter Kathleen and Psyche sat holding hands. Gerald and Jimmy lay at full length, chins on elbows,
gazing at the Sun-god; and even as he held the lyre, before ever his fingers began to sweep the strings,
the spirit of music hung in the air, enchanting, enslaving, silencing all thought but the thought of itself, all
desire but the desire to listen to it.
Then Phoebus struck the strings and softly plucked melody from them, and all the beautiful dreams of
all the world came fluttering close with wings like doves wings; and all the lovely thoughts that sometimes
hover near, but not so near that you can catch them, now came home as to their nests in the hearts of
those who listened. And those who listened forgot time and space, and how to be sad, and how to be
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naughty, and it seemed that the whole world lay like a magic apple in the hand of each listener, and that
the whole world was good and beautiful.
And then, suddenly, the spell was shattered. Phoebus struck a broken chord, followed by an instant
of silence; then he sprang up, crying, "The dawn! the dawn! To your pedestals, O gods!"
In an instant the whole crowd of beautiful marble people had leaped to its feet, had rushed through
the belt of wood that cracked and rustled as they went, and the children heard them splash, in the water
beyond. They heard, too, the gurgling breathing of a great beast, and knew that the dinosaurus, too, was
returning to his own place.
Only Hermes had time, since one flies more swiftly than one swims, to hover above them for one
moment, and to whisper with a mischievous laugh:
"In fourteen days from now, at the Temple of Strange Stones."
"What's the secret of the ring?" gasped Mabel.
"The ring is the heart of the magic," said Hermes. "Ask at the moonrise on the fourteenth day, and
you shall know all."
With that he waved the snowy caduceus and rose in the air supported by his winged feet. And as he
went the seven reflected moons died out and a chill wind began to blow, a grey light grew and grew, the
birds stirred and twittered, and the marble slipped away from the children like a skin that shrivels in fire,
and they were statues no more, but flesh and blood children as they used to be, standing knee-deep in
brambles and long coarse grass. There was no smooth lawn, no marble steps, no seven-mooned
fish-pond. The dew lay thick on the grass and the brambles, and it was very cold.
"We ought to have gone with them," said Mabel with chattering teeth. "We can't swim now we re not
marble. And I suppose this is the island?"
It was and they couldn't swim.
They knew it. One always knows those sort of things somehow without trying. For instance, you
know perfectly that you can't fly. There are some things that there is no mistake about.
The dawn grew brighter and the outlook more black every moment.
"There isn't a boat, I suppose?" Jimmy asked.
"No," said Mabel, "not on this side of the lake; there's one in the boat-house, of course if you could
swim there."
"You know I can't," said Jimmy.
"Can't anyone think of anything?" Gerald asked, shivering.
"When they find we've disappeared they'll drag all the water for miles round, said Jimmy hopefully, [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]