Two ma.s.sive legs like tree trunks supported this brawny torso, and it moved into the dancing torchlight with a deliberate, heavy tread.
But above the shoulders it was a bloodthirsty animal. A bull"s square-browed head, with two red eyes, and wickedly-curving horns which sprang from a tangle of dense, matted hair... It eyed the two strangers balefully, and snorted, taking in a deep, rattling breath before opening its jaws and bellowing again.
The sound was deafening, and Zoe instinctively put her hands over her ears.
The Minotaur lowered its evil head, and although its lower limbs seemed human enough it made a disturbingly animal movement, pawing the sandy floor of the cave with one naked foot.
"It"s coming closer " Zoe exclaimed, and her voice sounded thin and faint against the sheer volume of blaring sound. "It"s going to attack us!"
The Doctor tried to sound confident as he reminded her: "It"s only another trick, Zoe... Remember the Minotaur is a legend, another mythical beast, like the unicorn."
She interrupted him desperately: "It"s there there I see it. I see it. I"m frightened! I"m frightened! " "
And the Doctor realised that with her hands over her ears, she could not hear what he said. All she could do was stare in horror as the nightmarish beast lumbered towards them and she was convinced that she was about to be killed.
The Doctor grabbed her wrists and forced her hands down, shouting urgently: "Listen to me, Zoe! The Minotaur is a mythical beast it does not exist "
"No... " She shook her head, whimpering with fear. "I don"t believe you... "
He pulled her roughly towards him, shielding her with his own body as the monster moved in for the kill.
"You will obey me!" the Doctor commanded her harshly.
"Repeat after me: the Minotaur is a mythical beast it does not exist!"
Zoe gazed into the Doctor"s eyes, and under his almost mesmeric influence, she found herself repeating in a whisper: " The Minotaur is a mythical beast it does not exist... The Minotaur is a mythical beast it does not exist... " "
The silence came so abruptly, that it was like a physical blow. The roaring ceased instantly, and the black shadow that had been looming over them disappeared. Fearfully, Zoe turned her head and found that the chamber was empty. The light from the torch on the wall continued to flicker and leap, but it illuminated no horrid spectacle.
The nightmare was over.
"It"s really gone for good?" She felt weak with relief.
The Doctor gave a small, tentative smile: "I"m afraid that when the poor brute realised that we would not accept his existence we made it impossible for him to stay... Now, I suggest we should make our way back along the tunnel to find Jamie."
"Yes oh, yes... I can"t wait to get out of this hateful place," Zoe agreed, and they set off together, back along the tunnel.
It wasn"t that far, after all. The Doctor recognised certain shapes in the rock formation and when they reached a point where the tunnel split off in three different directions, he stopped.
"I"m almost sure this is the spot where " Then he hesitated.
"Yes, I"m certain you"re right," said Zoe. "I remember that big stone it looks a bit like a giant snailsh.e.l.l I noticed it before."
"Possibly a form of fossil an oversized ammonite," the Doctor agreed. "But I"m afraid Jamie"s not here."
Zoe frowned: "Surely he wouldn"t go off on his own without... " She saw the expression on the Doctor"s face.
"What"s the matter?"
By way of reply, he stopped, and picked up the rough tweed jacket which he had noticed, thrown aside in a dark corner.
"He was here... But he seems to have left in rather a hurry."
They looked at each other uneasily, and the Doctor added, with as much confidence as he could muster: "We"d better look for him I"m sure he can"t be far away."
"Jamie?" Zoe called. "Can you hear me?"
Her voice echoed eerily along the miles of subterranean pa.s.sages: and a moment later, as if in reply, they heard footsteps approaching.
"Thank goodness here he comes now!" she exclaimed joyfully. "Jamie we thought we"d lost you... "
But her words tailed off as the newcomer appeared around the side of the giant, fossilised sh.e.l.l. It was the eighteenth-century traveller in the three-cornered hat.
"Oh... " she said, unable to hide her disappointment. "It"s you."
However, the traveller hailed them cheerfully, and the Doctor seemed pleased to see him, saying: "My dear fellow you have a knack of turning up at the most unexpected moments!"
Zoe didn"t bother with social courtesies she swept these greetings aside and got down to bra.s.s tacks: "Have you seen Jamie?"
The stranger shook his head, saying: "I walked alone, and saw no sign of any inhabitants."
"Are you absolutely positive?"
He seemed a little affronted: "I would not impose any falsities upon you I adhere strictly to truth."
The Doctor interposed hastily: "I"m sure Zoe didn"t mean to imply any um er let"s change the subject, shall we? Tell me, this person you described to us the one who controls everything hereabouts I believe you referred to him as -"
"The Master yes?"
"Have you ever met him personally?"
The stranger smiled, a shade uneasily: "Upon occasion, he has been pleased to grant me an audience."
"Ah... And where might I find him?"
"The Master"s palace is no regular edifice, but a citadel like a walled town, at the top of a hill or cliff which is reckoned the highest in the Kingdom."
The Doctor seemed to be delighted with this answer; Zoe could not understand why he chuckled to himself, as if enjoying a private joke. "Quite so, quite so my dear sir, I think I begin to understand you," he smiled. "And might I ask where you come from? Would it perhaps be from Nottingham?"
The man pushed back his three-cornered hat in amazement, and conceded that this shot in the dark had struck the bullseye indeed.
"My father had a small estate in Nottinghamshire: I was the third of five sons. He sent me to Emmanuel College in Cambridge at fourteen years old, where I applied myself close to my studies learning navigation and other parts of the mathematics, useful "
The Doctor chimed in eagerly: "Useful to those who intend to travel?"
And the two men concluded in chorus, repeating the words together:. "... As I always believed it would be, some time or other, my fortune to do!"
The Doctor slapped his new-found friend on the back, exclaiming heartily: "Now I know you, sir! Your name, I believe is, Gulliver... Mr Lemuel Gulliver?"
"Your servant, sir!" cried Mr Gulliver joyfully, and they shook hands on it.
" Gulliver? Gulliver? But that"s not " Zoe tried to cut in, but the Doctor silenced her with a warning look and a finger to his lips. But that"s not " Zoe tried to cut in, but the Doctor silenced her with a warning look and a finger to his lips.
"Ssh! My dear chap I look forward to having a long talk with you, one of these days."
Gulliver was delighted. "I should like it above all things... But it would not be proper, at this juncture, to trouble you with the particulars of my adventures."
"No, you"re quite right we mustn"t detain you."
"Having been condemned by Nature and Fortune to an active and restless life, I must take my leave of you.
Farewell!"
He bowed once more to them both, then turned and walked off along the pa.s.sage, the way he had come.
Zoe felt her head whirling after such a torrent of words: "I"m sure he means well but why does he talk in such an extraordinary way?"
The Doctor still had a half-smile on his lips as he gazed along the tunnel and replied: "Because, my dear girl, he can only speak the words that Dean Swift gave him to-say.
Whatever sentences he utters, I"m quite sure you"ll find them somewhere in the pages of Gulliver"s Travels Gulliver"s Travels. Without that book, he would be speechless."
"That"s ridiculous!" Zoe was beginning to feel quite indignant. "How can he be Gulliver? There never was any such person as Gulliver he"s a made-up character in a novel "
"Of course he is. I keep trying to explain to you this world we"ve tumbled into is a world of fiction... Unicorns Minotaurs Lemuel Gulliver they"re all alive and well and living upon this strange planet."
"But what are they doing here? And what are we doing here? What do they want with us?"
"That"s something I don"t know yet... But I"m determined to find out. Just as I"m determined to solve another little problem."
"What problem?"
"The whereabouts of Jamie... Come along let"s be on our way. The sooner we find him, the better!"
And throwing Jamie"s tweed jacket over his shoulder, the Doctor led the way along yet another underground pa.s.sage.
The Doctor and Zoe were not to know, of course, that Jamie was no longer underground.
When he first tried to escape from the toy soldier, he had run as fast as his legs could carry him along the tunnels, not caring which way he went, concentrating only on getting away.
The rocky pa.s.sages got smaller and steeper, and soon he found himself in almost total darkness, brought up short time and again by sharp projections of stone or low, overhanging boulders. He bruised his arms and legs painfully, and more than once hit his head on a sudden slope in the roof above him.
The pursuing toy soldier had none of these disadvantages Jamie could hear its relentless marching feet coming closer and closer, and a metallic clang every time it struck against the stone walls. And of course the soldier had another great advantage over Jamie: the round reflector on its helmet threw out a permanent beam of light so that it could always see the way ahead clearly illuminated, as if in the head-lamps of a car.
In consequence, the soldier never slackened pace for an instant while Jamie sore, stumbling and out of breath found himself getting slower and slower.
But just as it seemed capture was inevitable, he had a stroke of luck. He collided with the rock yet again, cursing under his breath, and sucking his grazed knuckles then dodged back against the wall, as the rock, which he had dislodged, came hurtling down, bringing a minor avalanche of stones, pebbles and gravel after it.
For a terrible moment, he thought that the whole tunnel was going to cave in, for the fall of stones went on and on: he was protected by an overhanging ledge, but feared he might be walled up alive.
Then at last the downfall stopped: and wonder of wonders! he saw a ray of sunlight, with dust-motes dancing in it. He pressed forward, scrambling over the mound of rubble which he had accidentally created, ducked under a jagged edge of stone, and found himself out in the fresh air again.
The underground pa.s.sages had led him out among a wilderness of boulders, at the foot of an enormous cliff.
Somewhere behind him, inside the rocky pa.s.sage, he could hear the noise of the toy soldier still doggedly coming after him: though a little slowed down by having to pick its way over the fallen debris.
Jamie realised with a sudden surge of hope that although the toy soldiers could march rapidly over level terrain, they wouldn"t be much good at climbing!
He glanced up at the towering cliff above him, and remembered the summer days of his boyhood, when he and his brothers used to go rock-climbing in the Scottish Highlands. If he could do it then, he could do it now. He set off as nimbly as a young mountain goat, and began to scale the cliff.
Below him, the toy soldier emerged from the cave mouth that had newly opened up and began to follow him... But as Jamie had guessed, the soldier"s flat feet were not made for scrambling over boulders, and after two or three attempts the wretched clockwork toy slipped backwards and landed on its back with a reverberating, tinny crash.
The giant key in its back stopped revolving: the spring had finally run down.
A moment later, the light-beam that shone from its helmet reflector was switched off. (The Master pressed a b.u.t.ton, seated at his Control Panel, and muttered irritably: "Out of service... Send for replacements.") For the time being, it seemed that Jamie was free from danger.
He was halfway up the cliff face by now, and after one brief glance back, over his shoulder, he had remembered that you must never, never look down when you"re rock-climbing. Besides he couldn"t go back. The only way open to him now was onward and upward... But how?
The problem was: he"d have to be a human fly to ascend the upper half of the cliff face. It was a sheer vertical slab, with no visible projection or handhold to help him.
Jamie stayed where he was on an uncomfortably narrow ledge and tried to think what he should do next.
"I can"t climb that and I daren"t go back down... Of course what I really need now is a "
He was about to say "a rope", but as he spoke he found that his wish had been granted even before the words left his mouth.
Looking up, he saw a thick, hairy rope snaking down the cliff face towards him. He grinned happily: "Who says wishes don"t come true?"
And he grabbed the rope with both hands, and hung on tightly. It seemed firm enough, so he decided to risk it.
Somebody, somewhere, wanted him to get to the top of the cliff very well, he wouldn"t disappoint them.
Bracing his feet against the wall of rock, he began to make his way up the rope, hand over hand.
It was a long climb, and his arm muscles were soon aching, but he knew he couldn"t give up. Slowly he made the ascent, like an insect crawling up a window pane. The sweat stood out on his forehead, but he gritted his teeth and struggled on, very conscious. of the sheer drop that lay below.
He would not look back and he preferred not to look up either, but stared fixedly at the unfriendly surface of smooth rock as it slid by, inch by inch. Consequently, he was not prepared for the surprise that awaited him at the top.
The rock turned to slabs of stone, carefully built into a solid wall and the wall in turn was set back to include an old-fashioned mullioned window, deep in the thickness of the stonework.
Now at last Jamie glanced up and realised that the rocky heights of the cliff were surmounted by a vast medieval castle, with towers and turrets and battlements...