See them he did, in a blue-gray mist in which he could feel nothing
solid, not even the ground under his feet or the touch of his clenched
fingers against his palms.
They were very white, the Mouldiwarps, outlined distinctly against the
gray blueness, and the Mouldiwarp he had seen in that wonderful
adventure in the far country smiled, as well as a mole can, and said--
"Thou'rt a fair sprig of de old tree, Muster Dickie, so 'e be," in the
thick speech of the peasant people round about Talbot house where Dickie
had once been a little burglar.
"He is indeed a worthy scion of the great house we serve," said the
other Mouldiwarp with precise and gentle utterance. "As Mouldierwarp to
the Ardens I can but own that I am proud of him."
The Mouldierwarp had, as well as a gentle voice, a finer nose than the
Mouldiwarp, his fur was more even and his claws sharper.
"Eh, you be a gentleman, you be," said the Mouldiwarp, "so's 'e--so
there's two of ye sure enough."
It was very odd to see and hear these white moles talking like real
people and looking like figures on a magic-lantern screen. But Dickie
did not enjoy it as much as perhaps you or I would have done. It was not
his pet kind of magic. He liked the good, straightforward, old-fashioned
kind of magic that he was accustomed to--the kind that just took you out
of one life into another life, and made both lives as real one as the
other. Still one must always be polite. So he said--
"I am very glad to see you both."
"There's purty manners," the Mouldiwarp said.
"The pleasure is ours," said the Mouldierwarp instantly. Dickie could
not help seeing that both these old creatures were extremely pleased
with him.
"When shall I see the other Mouldiwarp?" he asked, to keep up the
conversation--"the one on our shield of arms?"
"You mean the Mouldiestwarp?" said the Mouldier, as I will now call him
for short; "you will not see him till the end of the magic. He is very
great. I work the magic of space, my brother here works the magic of
time, and the Great Mouldiestwarp controls us, and many things beside.
You must only call on him when you wish to end our magics and to work a
magic greater than ours."
"What could be greater?" Dickie asked, and both the creatures looked
very pleased.
"He is a worthier Arden than those little black and white chits of
thine," the Mouldier said to the Mouldy (which is what, to save time, we
will now call the Mouldiwarp).
"An' so should be--an' so should be," said the Mouldy shortly. "All's
for the best, and the end's to come. Where'd ye want to go, my lord?"
"I'm not 'my lord'; I'm only Richard Arden," said Dickie, "and I want
to go back to Mr. Beale and stay with him for seven months, and then to
find my cousins."
"Back thou goes then," said the Mouldy; "that part's easy."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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