Fairies -- Fiction; Fantasy fiction; Imaginary places -- Fiction
Master Nathaniel felt a lump in his throat. But Master Ambrose was
inexorable: "Yes, of course I would!" he blustered; "I'd cut the
strings of every fiddle in Lud. And I will, too, unless you tell us
what we want to know. Come, Mother Tibbs, speak out--I'm a man of my
word."
She gazed at him beseechingly, and then a look of innocent cunning
crept into her candid eyes and she placed a finger on her lips, then
nodded her head several times and said in a mysterious whisper,
"If you'll promise not to cut the fiddle strings I'll show you the
prettiest sight in the world--the sturdy dead lads in the Fields of
Grammary hoisting their own coffins on their shoulders, and tripping
it over the daisies. Come!" and she darted to the side of the wall,
drew aside the tapestry and revealed to them another secret door. She
pressed some spring, it flew open disclosing another dark tunnel.
"Follow me, pretty masters," she cried.
"There's nothing to be done," whispered Master Nathaniel, "but to
humour her. She may have something of real value to show us."
Master Ambrose muttered something about a couple of lunatics and
not having left his fireside to waste the night in indulging their
fantasies; but all the same he followed Master Nathaniel, and the
second secret door shut behind them with a sharp click.
"Phew!" said Master Nathaniel: "Phew!" puffed Master Ambrose, as they
pounded laboriously along the passage behind their light-footed guide.
Then they began to ascend a flight of stairs, which seemed
interminable, and finally fell forward with a lurch on to their knees,
and again there was a click of something shutting behind them.
They groaned and cursed and rubbed their knees and demanded angrily to
what unholy place she had been pleased to lead them.
But she clapped her hands gleefully, "Don't you know, pretty masters?
Why, you're where the dead cocks roost! You've come back to your own
snug cottage, Master Josiah Chanticleer. Take your lanthorn and look
round you."
This Master Nathaniel proceeded to do, and slowly it dawned on him
where they were.
"By the Golden Apples of the West, Ambrose!" he exclaimed, "if we're
not in my own chapel!"
And, sure enough, the rays of the lanthorn revealed the shelves lined
with porphyry coffins, the richly wrought marble ceiling, and the
mosaic floor of the home of the dead Chanticleers.
"Toasted Cheese!" muttered Master Ambrose in amazement.
"It must have two doors, though I never knew it," said Master
Nathaniel. "A secret door opening on to that hidden flight of steps.
There are evidently people who know more about my chapel than I do
myself," and suddenly he remembered how the other day he had found its
door ajar.
Mother Tibbs laughed gleefully at their surprise, and then, placing one
finger on her lips, she beckoned them to follow her; and they tip-toed
after her out into the moonlit Fields of Grammary, where she signed to
them to hide themselves from view behind the big trunk of a sycamore.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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