Malvina of BrittanyJerome, Jerome K. (Jerome Klapka)
Science
Malvina of Brittany
Jerome, Jerome K. (Jerome Klapka)
Brittany (France) -- Fiction; Short stories, English
It was on an evening towards the end of June, 1914, that Flight
Commander Raffleton, temporarily attached to the French Squadron then
harboured at Brest, received instructions by wireless to return at once
to the British Air Service Headquarters at Farnborough, in Hampshire.
The night, thanks to a glorious full moon, would afford all the light
he required, and young Raffleton determined to set out at once. He
appears to have left the flying ground just outside the arsenal at
Brest about nine o'clock. A little beyond Huelgoat he began to
experience trouble with the carburettor. His idea at first was to push
on to Lannion, where he would be able to secure expert assistance; but
matters only getting worse, and noticing beneath him a convenient
stretch of level ground, he decided to descend and attend to it
himself. He alighted without difficulty and proceeded to investigate.
The job took him, unaided, longer than he had anticipated. It was a
warm, close night, with hardly a breath of wind, and when he had
finished he was feeling hot and tired. He had drawn on his helmet and
was on the point of stepping into his seat, when the beauty of the
night suggested to him that it would be pleasant, before starting off
again, to stretch his legs and cool himself a little. He lit a cigar
and looked round about him.
The plateau on which he had alighted was a table-land standing high
above the surrounding country. It stretched around him, treeless,
houseless. There was nothing to break the lines of the horizon but a
group of gaunt grey stones, the remains, so he told himself, of some
ancient menhir, common enough to the lonely desert lands of Brittany.
In general the stones lie overthrown and scattered, but this particular
specimen had by some strange chance remained undisturbed through all
the centuries. Mildly interested, Flight Commander Raffleton strolled
leisurely towards it. The moon was at its zenith. How still the quiet
night must have been was impressed upon him by the fact that he
distinctly heard, and counted, the strokes of a church clock which must
have been at least six miles away. He remembers looking at his watch
and noting that there was a slight difference between his own and the
church time. He made it eight minutes past twelve. With the dying
away of the last vibrations of the distant bell the silence and the
solitude of the place seemed to return and settle down upon it with
increased insistence. While he was working it had not troubled him,
but beside the black shadows thrown by those hoary stones it had the
effect almost of a presence. It was with a sense of relief that he
contemplated returning to his machine and starting up his engine. It
would whir and buzz and give back to him a comfortable feeling of life
and security. He would walk round the stones just once and then be
off. It was wonderful how they had defied old Time. As they had been
placed there, quite possibly ten thousand years ago, so they still
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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