"GET UP!!" the Phoenix bellowed.
The Gryffen struggled into a sitting position and yawned a tremendous and noisy yawn. Then it squinted blearily at David and murmured, "What day is it?"
[Ill.u.s.tration]
"Wednesday," David said. "Could you please tell us--"
"Oh, Wednesday," said the Gryffen. It thought about this for a while, mumbling "Wednesday ... Wednesday ..." to itself. It lifted one leg as if to scratch the fly bites, changed its mind in mid-gesture, and dropped the leg again. "Oh, _Wednesday_," it said at last. "So it isn"t Sat.u.r.day?"
"No," said David. "What we want to know is--"
"Not Sat.u.r.day," said the Gryffen, sinking down to the ground with a huge sigh of relief. "Ah! Come back on Sat.u.r.day. Sat.u.r.day afternoon. I generally get up on Sat.u.r.day ... in the ... afternoon...." The words faded into a snore.
"There you are, my dear fellow," said the Phoenix. "Just as I said.
Oaf! Boor!"
"A _very_ annoying animal," said David angrily.
"I agree, my boy. But the Gryffins are different, I a.s.sure you. Now, let me see. Where should we look--"
"There they come!" David cried suddenly. "Look!" And indeed, a number of winged creatures were loping down a hillside toward them.
"Good heavens!" the Phoenix shouted. "Those are the ones we do _not_ want to meet! On my back, _quick_!"
"What are they?" David gasped as he threw himself on the bird"s back.
"Gryffons!"
The Phoenix rushed along the ground a few feet and sprang into the air. But it was too late. The foremost Gryffons, with powerful strokes of their wings, shot up to meet them. The Phoenix swerved sharply.
They missed the snapping beak of the first Gryffon by half an inch and dodged the second--only to smash into a third. David was stunned by the blow and the fall. When he regained consciousness, he found himself in the tight grip of two Gryffons. The Phoenix was struggling feebly with another, and still more were crowding around them, screaming like hawks.
They looked like the sleeping Gryffen, but were as large as ponies.
Their eyes were yellow and unblinking, and their tails twitched like an angry cat"s. Their smell, like the lion house in the zoo, made David feel faint.
"Well, Phoenix," said the largest Gryffon coldly, "you know the Rule, I believe?"
The Phoenix smiled weakly and cleared its throat. "Ah, there, Gryffon," it said unsteadily. "Fancy meeting you here. Ah--ah--rule?
What rule?"
"Rule 26," said the Gryffon. ""No human being shall be allowed to enter the--""
"Oh, that rule," said the Phoenix, with a careless laugh. "I thought everyone knew that the Council of 1935 had changed it. Can it be that you have not yet heard?"
"That won"t do, Phoenix. You have also heard, of course, of the penalty for breaking the Rule, which you must suffer along with this human boy?"
"Now, one moment, my dear Gryffon! I--ah--"
"Death!"
The Phoenix quailed, and David"s legs went limp under him. But they had no chance to plead with the Gryffons. Their captors formed two lines, one on each side of them, and at a scream of command from the leader, all began to march. The Gryffon that had been holding the Phoenix winked horribly at David and made a throat-cutting gesture with its wing.
"Courage, my boy," the Phoenix whispered. "It is always darkest before dawn."
Presently they reached a hillside. David and the Phoenix were marched up to a cave and thrown in. Two of the Gryffons sat down at the entrance to guard them while the others went off to consider the best method of carrying out the penalty.
David was terribly frightened now, but he did not want to let the Phoenix know it. In a voice which trembled a little he asked, "What are we going to do?"
The Phoenix frowned. "Do not be downcast, my boy. My brain is equal to any occasion. I shall Think. Silence, please."
And the Phoenix, covering its eyes with one wing, Thought.
To keep himself occupied, David explored the cave. But there was nothing to see. The cave was small and bare. He tested the walls thoroughly to see if there were any places where they might dig their way out. There were none. His feet raised a cloud of fine dust, which got into his eyes and nose and made him sneeze violently. Discouraged, he went back to the Phoenix and sat down. There was a long silence.
Gradually an idea came to David. It started as a small, faint thought at the back of his mind, wavered, began to grow and expand and fill out--became bigger and clearer and better and--
"Phoenix!" cried David, jumping to his feet.
"My boy, my very dear boy," said the Phoenix, its voice breaking with emotion, "I have Thought, I have Pondered, I have--well, to be brief, it is no use. Stiff upper lip, my boy! We are Doomed."
"Phoenix, I--"
"Let this be a lesson to you, my boy, even though it be your last one.
Fools rush in where angels fear to tread. Ah! who could have said, in the golden days of my youth, that I should come to such an end! Oh, miserable bird! Oh, unhappy boy!"
"Phoenix--"
"But we can show them how to die, my boy! We still have that--the last magnificent gesture. Let those who have lived wisely and well show that they can die in the same way! I hope I am to go first, so that you may have an example to follow."
"_Phoenix!_"
"My boy?"
"Listen, please!" And David whispered in the Phoenix"s ear.
The plan had seemed like a good one while it was still in his mind, but put into words it sounded a little too simple. As he whispered, David began to feel more and more foolish, so that finally he stopped altogether.
"I--I guess it"s really kind of silly," he stammered.
But the Phoenix was looking at him with hope and admiration in its eyes. "My very dear chap," it said solemnly, "I salute you. I humbly await your signal."
"Do you really think it will work?"
"My boy, it must--it can--it shall. Proceed."
Poor as the plan now seemed to David, he prepared to carry it out.
Holding his breath so as not to sneeze again, he scooped up as much dust as he could hold in two hands. Then he took his position on one side of the cave, nodded the Phoenix toward the other, and glanced out to see if the guardian Gryffons were looking. They were not.
"Now," he whispered.