Fairies -- Fiction; Fantasy fiction; Imaginary places -- Fiction
The dew, like lunar daisies, lay thickly on the grassy graves. The
marble statues of the departed seemed to flicker into smiles under the
rays of the full moon; and, not far from the sycamore, two men were
digging up a newly-made grave. One of them was a brawny fellow with
the gold rings in his ears worn by sailors, the other was--Endymion
Leer.
Master Nathaniel shot a look of triumph at Master Ambrose, and
whispered, "A cask of flower-in-amber, Brosie!"
For some time the two men dug on in silence, and then they pulled out
three large coffins and laid them on the grass.
"We'd better have a peep, Sebastian," said Endymion Leer, "to see that
the goods have been delivered all right. We're dealing with tricky
customers."
The young man, addressed as Sebastian, grinned, and taking a clasp
knife from his belt, began to prise open one of the coffins.
As he inserted the blade into the lid, our two friends behind the
sycamore could not help shuddering; nor was their horror lessened by
the demeanor of Mother Tibbs, for she half closed her eyes, and drew
the air in sharply through her nostrils, as if in expectation of some
delicious perfume.
But when the lid was finally opened and the contents of the coffin
exposed to view, they proved not to be cere cloths and hideousness,
but--closely packed fairy fruit.
"Toasted Cheese!" muttered Master Ambrose; "Busty Bridget!" muttered
Master Nathaniel.
"Yes, that's the goods all right," said Endymion Leer, "and we'll take
the other two on trust. Shut it up again, and help to hoist it on to my
shoulder, and do you follow with the other two--we'll take them right
away to the tapestry-room. We're having a council there at midnight,
and it's getting on for that now."
Choosing a moment when the backs of the two smugglers were turned,
Mother Tibbs darted out from behind the sycamore, and shot back into
the chapel, evidently afraid of not being found at her post. And she
was shortly followed by Endymion Leer and his companion.
At first, the sensations of Master Nathaniel and Master Ambrose were
too complicated to be expressed in words, and they merely stared at
each other, with round eyes. Then a slow smile broke over Master
Nathaniel's face, "No Moongrass cheese for you this time, Brosie," he
said. "Who was right, you or me?"
"By the Milky Way, it was you, Nat!" cried Master Ambrose, for once, in
a voice of real excitement. "The rascal! The unmitigated rogue! So it's
him, is it, we parents have to thank for what has happened! But he'll
hang for it, he'll hang for it--though we have to change the whole
constitution of Dorimare! The blackguard!"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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