notwithstanding his fantastical babble to macandrew, gerald was a shrewd young man. he prosecuted his search for the unknown sender of the message, less to find a wife than to see the end of the adventure. at the enjoyable age of thirty, he was not particularly keen on getting married, although his friends persistently advised him to do so. but, as haskins pertinently observed, it was absurd to marry merely for marrying's sake. "when i meet the woman," said gerald wisely, "i shall ask her to be my wife. otherwise----" and a shrug would complete the unfinished sentence.
tod was quite ready to leave the conclusion of the fishing adventure to his friend. being in love with a particular girl, he thought of her only, and had no wish to search for another girl, even though she were an illiterate princess, who fluted like a nightingale. what with earning his living, and fighting lady euphemia, and wooing charity bird, and tricking mrs. pelham odin, who was strongly opposed to that wooing, macandrew's hands were quite full. within two days he betook himself to london, keen upon seeing the moon fay ballet, in which charity was dancing. but before his departure he unwittingly did gerald a service by learning something about the pixy's house, and that same something was less romantic than unpleasant.
according to tod the thing came about by accident; but haskins, who believed that everything was designed, even to the winking of an eye, insisted that macandrew had been purposely lured into conversation with the laborer, who had mentioned leegarth, and the pixy's house. at a nine o'clock breakfast, on the very day of his departure, tod mentioned to his friend that he had been taking a morning walk. "i had a beastly wakeful night last night," grumbled tod, while geary brought in a dish of trout and some hot rolls, "it made me sick tumbling and tossing, so i dressed and strolled out at six o'clock."
"why didn't you waken me?" asked haskins. "i would have come also."
"not you. i'd have been cursed for an hour. every one knows what an infernal sleepy-head you are, jerry. however, i walked up the hill on to the moors, and had a glorious view of the surrounding country. i saw the stream where we fished, in the hollow two miles away--trees, and occasional glimpses of the water, you know. and ever so far away, there was a square-towered church with a cluster of red-roofed houses."
"quite poetical, my toddy," murmured gerald, helping himself to eggs and ham, and rather bored by this geographical description.
"the morning made me poetical!" said macandrew simply, "it was uncommonly ripping, you know. there was a laboring johnny coming along, and i asked him the name of the church. he said it was leegarth church, and leegarth village."
"h'm! that's where rebb's wealthy relative lives?"
todd nodded. "as it was early i had a mind to walk over and look about, but i first asked the man if there was anything of interest to see. he grinned, and told me that i might call at the pixy's house."
gerald looked up and was about to speak eagerly when geary appeared again with a fresh supply of rolls. "oh, the pixy's house," said haskins carelessly, "what's that?"
"why, you know----" began tod foolishly, when he caught sight of a warning scowl on haskins' face, and a look of interest on that of geary's, "you know," went on tod artfully, "that i can't talk if you interrupt."
"but it's all so dull," objected haskins, with a shrug.
"not what i am about to tell. this laborer said that a lunatic lived in the pixy's house, looked after by another lunatic."
"the blind leading the blind. go on."
"the first lunatic is a girl, and the second an old woman. the girl never comes out, and no one has ever seen her, but the old woman does shopping and all the rest of it. that's all."
"what infernal rubbish!" said haskins crossly. he did not like his unknown princess to dwindle to a commonplace lunatic. and yet, when he remembered the spoken message, it did seem a trifle mad. "well, and did you call at the pixy's house?"
"not me. i walked in another direction, and came back to breakfast. i have no use for crazy people."
"wid all respect, jemplem," remarked mr. geary unexpectedly, "de story ob dat man is all twisty-turney."
"oh!" said haskins, apparently careless, but really with anxiety, "so you know of this queer business, geary?"
"berry lil'--oh, berry lil', sah. dat pixy house ver' ole, an' ver' tumbledown in heaps. only one mad pusson dere, jemplem."
"which one--the old woman or the young one?" asked tod abruptly.
"oh, dey boff dere, jemplem, but de young lady is de mad pusson. she bin dere afore i come--years an' years an' years--oh, ebber so long 'go. dis pou' lady, she want to kill peoples wid knives, and de ole womans, she watch her dat she no get out to kill. de ole woman's not a mad pusson, jemplem; oh no, dat all wrong. she watch de odder. you no go near dat pixy house, jemplem," ended the landlord earnestly, "or dat young lady, she kill you boff, dead as coffin-lids."
haskins felt disgusted. he desired to find fairyland, and it seemed as though his search would end in discovering a lunatic asylum. "what is the lunatic's name?" he asked.
"mavis durham, i tink, an' de ole womans, she called bellaria!"
"funny names," mused tod, "and rather pretty. mavis means a thrush, i fancy. but bellaria?"
gerald recalled a charming book of italian folklore, which he had read some months before. "bellaria was the etruscan dawn goddess, or the goddess of flowers, i forget which," he remarked; "strange that any one in a secluded devonshire village should be called so. h'm! is this old woman an italian, geary?"
"i do not know, sah," replied the man promptly. "i no go to dat leegarth, no, never, never. and you no go too, jemplem. dat mavis lady hab de knife in you if you go dere."
"homicidal mania," said tod learnedly and cheerfully.
haskins shuddered; it seemed terrible to think that the owner of that silvery voice, who had sent so delightfully quaint a message, should be a dangerous lunatic not responsible for her actions. when the landlord took his departure he made an observation, rather to himself than to his friend. "the message was sane enough," he said, thereby contradicting his first impression, when geary spoke of the lunacy.
"well, i don't know," answered macandrew doubtfully, "all that fairy business and talk of not being able to read or write seems queer. i suppose you'll chuck the adventure, now that you know this?"
"probably!" said haskins evasively, so that tod should not worry him. but in his heart he had a longing to probe the matter deeper.
later in the day gerald escorted tod to selbury, and saw him off to london. macandrew left with the impression that gerald would carry out his prearranged programme and travel to st. ives on the ensuing day. but when haskins walked back to denleigh he was far from having made up his mind to such a course. it seemed incredible that the sender of the message should have homicidal tendencies. all the same, if she had not, the law would certainly have prevented her incarceration in the old leegarth mansion known as the pixy's house. that she could not read or write was quite possible, since she had used the phonograph, and yet, in this age of education, it appeared improbable that anyone could be so ignorant. the wording of the message was that of an imaginative, but not of a weak, brain; and the spirit of poetry it breathed appealed to the young man, himself a poet of no mean order. "on the whole," decided gerald, "i shall go to exeter to-morrow and get that canoe."
on that same evening, when geary went for his usual walk, haskins again slipped the record into the machine, and again drank in the music of that perfect voice. then, for the sake of hiding his secret, since the landlord unexpectedly returned, he set the phonograph to grind out the godly hymns which were geary's delight. these were dismal enough in words and tunes, but all through them sounded in gerald's charmed ears the silvery lilt of the fairy princess' tones. the owner of such a voice could not possibly be crazy.
haskins rather regretted that he had not asked major rebb about the pixy's house and its occupant. rebb doubtless knew the village of leegarth excellently well, since he came down occasionally to see his elderly relative. for the moment haskins was tempted to write and ask questions, but on second thoughts he made up his mind to explore for himself. he was even glad that tod had departed, for now the secret was entirely his own, and he wished to share it with no one. he therefore abstained from talking to geary on the subject, for he had learned all that was possible from that source. and what he had learned was so decidedly unpleasant that he did not wish to hear more. as it afterward turned out his reticence was wise.
the next day haskins informed geary of his intention to remain in denleigh for another week, and the negro expressed his delight at the decision. adonis was a cheerful soul, who had traveled widely, in the humble capacity of a steward on board various liners. he therefore approached more intellectual society than he could obtain in lethargic denleigh. haskins, with an eye to copy, after the fashion of the literary man, found geary's experiences both entertaining and useful. as for the landlady, she was a nonentity, who worked like a horse, and was as dumb as one. she seemed to be somewhat afraid of her ever-smiling husband, and gerald thought that there might be some cause for such dread. with all his suave manners, geary's one eye hinted at sinister doings. but, as yet, haskins, knowing him only on the surface, had no fault to find with his personality.
there was some difficulty in finding a precisely suitable canoe in exeter, but having made up his mind--a singularly obstinate one--gerald never rested until he had attained his object. in a couple of days he returned to the devon maid with a light birchwood affair, which he had purchased from a returned canadian emigrant. this the young man temporarily bestowed in an outside shed, and informed his landlord, casually, that he intended to explore the waters of the ruddle, as the stream was called. the name evidently came from the streaky red banks between which it flowed. geary advised his guest to travel downstream toward silbury, as the canoe would there be impeded by fewer stones. needless to say, as leegarth was in precisely the opposite direction, haskins had no intention of taking this well-meant advice. and, indeed, because of the very difficulty in navigating the upper reaches of the ruddle, he had purchased the canoe, for he could carry so light a craft along the banks when stones and weeds blocked up the waterway.
when gerald took his indian coracle down to the river, next afternoon, he saw how wise he had been in not buying a heavier boat. as the little stream wound its devious way through the dense woods it grew yet more narrow, and, on the whole, somewhat shallow. here and there deep pools were to be found, inshore, but as a rule the current flowed lightly over a shingly bed, foaming round gigantic stones or bubbling over the trunks of fallen trees. the distance to leegarth, as the crow flies, could not have been more than three miles; but the stream twisted so oddly, and the difficulties of navigation were so great, that gerald sometimes doubted if he would reach his journey's end. several times he was forced to climb the steep banks and drag his canoe through thickly growing saplings: but, on the whole, the tiny shallop behaved with the dexterity of an eel in slipping through dangerous places. nevertheless his traveling was more like the exploration of unknown lands than like a civilized river trip in mapped-out england.
late in the day--about six o'clock--and when the western sky was beginning to glow with the hues of a soapbubble, the adventurer found himself in a less toilsome position. after the choked stream, where the trees met overhead, it was a relief to float into an immense pool, fenced in by precipitous red cliffs draped with vividly green vegetation. gerald emerged into this haven with a feeling of thankfulness, and laid down his paddle, both to rest his weary muscles and to examine his romantic surroundings. the pool was nearly circular, and, as the narrow ruddle flowed in at one end, and out at the other, the whole resembled a bead on a string. on the placid waters, brimming like those of a mill-dam, the canoe floated idly until it touched the left bank. haskins therefore saw, on the right hand, a tall cliff of ruddy earth, overgrown with bushes, and surmounted by a fringe of trees. between these, he espied a ruinous gray stone wall, clothed thickly with ivy. as there were two or three small windows in this wall, gerald guessed that it formed the side of a dwelling-place--and guessed moreover that from one of those same windows the sealed message had been thrown into the pool. it was, of, course, merely a surmise that the pixy's house was built on the top of this inland cliff, but, bearing in mind the cylinder with its attached bladder, haskins felt certain that he was correct. the imprisoned mavis durham could only have launched her message from the cliff top.
gerald had now practically arrived at his journey's end, as he had discovered the palace of the sleeping beauty, shut in by enchanted woods. he therefore paddled swiftly under the cliff itself, to see how he could storm the castle. tod would have called it a lunatic asylum, in his coarse way, but gerald the poet preferred the more romantic appellation. also, after hearing that wonderful voice, he made up his rash mind that he would not believe in the alleged insanity of mavis durham until he had seen her, and had spoken with her. if she were really a homicidal maniac he could return with some regrets to the workaday world; but if she was all that he hoped she would be,--well! gerald drew a long breath as he thought thus. if she were as beautiful as her voice, as poetic as her message, he did not know what would happen. yet, as a young man, dizzy with the wine of life, he should have known. but such things, for good or for evil, were yet on the knees of the most high gods.
at the upper end of the pool the adventurer found a stone landing stage, with an iron ring, to which he fastened the canoe. he leaped lightly on to the rugged platform, and climbed up a rude stair, to find himself facing an arched opening hewn in the face of the cliff. it was masked, more or less, by neglected bushes, and evidently had not been made use of many years. still, it undoubtedly led upward to the battlements of the enchanted castle. so haskins pushed his way through the trees, and clambered up a ruinous and twisting stair, in complete darkness. here, indeed, was an adventure not often to be met with in this unromantic age, and the young man's body thrilled as he experienced hitherto unknown emotions. he was sir galahad searching for the grail; columbus staring at a newly discovered world; a calender from the arabian nights stumbling upon the magical beauty of the world, a jinn's daughter, lovely and unapproachable.
up and up went the stair, twisting and turning like an eel, until haskins, losing count of time, thought that he was mounting to the north star. finally the steps ceased to wind, and the explorer clambered up a straight flight which terminated in a small opening, out of which he emerged on to the top of the cliff, and immediately below the ivy-draped wall. the house stood about twenty yards from the verge of the cliff, and the space between was filled with long grass, with stunted bushes, and with tolerably tall trees, all in full summer foliage. on looking up gerald saw pointed roofs of weatherworn red tiles, twisted stacks of chimneys, and gray stone turrets, the whole so overgrown with greenery that it looked as though the mansion were a portion of the earth itself. there was no door in the wall visible. if there had been one (as was probable to reach the landing stage) it had been blocked up, or was hidden by the darkly green ivy.
"faint heart never won fair lady," thought gerald unoriginally, and began to swarm up the natural ladder afforded by the tough roots of the creeper. out of breath he gained the top of the wall, and, flinging his leg over, sat astride to view this jack-and-the-beanstalk country. then he beheld--charity bird!
