The June sunshine lay hot and still over the paved court, and he looked up into the blue sky overhead. As he looked at the high wall that closed it in on three sides, he realised more than ever that he was caught in a monstrous trap from which there could be no ordinary means of escape. He could never climb over such a wall even with a ladder. He walked out a little way and noticed the rank weeds growing in patches in the corners; decay and neglect left everywhere their dismal signs; the yard, in spite of the sunlight, seemed as gloomy and cheerless as the house itself.
In one corner stood several little white upright stones, each about three feet high; there seemed to be some writing on them, and he was in the act of going nearer to inspect, when a window opened and he heard some one calling to him in a loud, excited whisper:
"Hst! Come in, Jimbo, at once. Quick! Run for your life!"
He glanced up, quaking with fear, and saw the governess leaning out of the open window. At another window, a little beyond her, he thought a number of white little faces pressed against the gla.s.s, but he had no time to look more closely, for something in Miss Lake"s voice made him turn and run into the house and up the stairs as though Fright himself were close at his heels. He flew up the three flights, and found the governess coming out on the top landing to meet him. She caught him in her arms and dashed back into the room, as if there was not a moment to be lost, slamming the door behind her.
"How in the world did you get out?" she gasped, breathless as himself almost, and pale with alarm. "Another second and He"d have had you----!"
"I found the door open----"
"He opened it on purpose," she whispered, looking quickly round the room. "He meant you to go out."
"But you called to me to play in the yard," he said. "I heard you. So of course I thought it was safe."
"No," she declared, "I never called to you. That wasn"t my voice. That was one of his tricks. I only this minute found the door open and you gone. Oh, Jimbo, that was a narrow escape; you must never go out of this room till--till I tell you. And never believe any of these voices you hear--you"ll hear lots of them, saying all sorts of things--but unless you _see_ me, don"t believe it"s my voice."
Jimbo promised. He was very frightened; but she would not tell him any more, saying it would only make it more difficult to escape if he knew too much in advance. He told her about the laugh, and the gravestones, and the faces at the other window, but she would not tell him what he wanted to know, and at last he gave up asking. A very deep impression had been made on his mind, however, and he began to realise, more than he had hitherto done, the horror of his prison and the power of his dreadful keeper.
But when he began to look about him again, he noticed that there was a new thing in the room. The governess had left him, and was bending over it. She was doing something very busily indeed. He asked her what it was.
"I"m making your bed," she said.
It was, indeed, a bed, and he felt as he looked at it that there was something very familiar and friendly about the yellow framework and the little bra.s.s k.n.o.bs.
"I brought it up just now," she explained. "But it"s not for sleeping in. It"s only for you to lie down on, and also partly to deceive Him."
"Why not for sleeping?"
"There"s no sleeping at all here," she went on calmly.
"Why not?"
"You can"t sleep out of your body," she laughed.
"Why not?" he asked again.
"Your body goes to sleep, but _you_ don"t," she explained.
"Oh, I see." His head was whirling. "And my body--my real body----"
"Is lying asleep--unconscious they call it--in the night-nursery at home. It"s sound asleep. That"s why you"re here. It can"t wake up till you go back to it, and you can"t go back to it till you escape--even if it"s ready for you before then. The bed is only for you to rest on, for you can _rest_ though you can"t _sleep_."
Jimbo stared blankly at the governess for some minutes. He was debating something in his mind, something very important, and just then it was his Older Self, and not the child, that was uppermost. Apparently it was soon decided, for he walked sedately up to her and said very gravely, with her serious eyes fixed on his face, "Miss Lake, are you _really_ Miss Lake?"
"Of course I am."
"You"re not a trick of His, like the voices, I mean?"
"No, Jimbo, I am really Miss Lake, the discharged governess who frightened you." There was profound anxiety in every word.
Jimbo waited a minute, still looking steadily into her eyes. Then he put out his hand cautiously and touched her. He rose a little on tiptoe to be on a level with her face, taking a fold of her cloak in each hand.
The soul-knowledge was in his eyes just then, not the mere curiosity of the child.
"And are you--_dead_?" he asked, sinking his voice to a whisper.
For a moment the woman"s eyes wavered. She turned white and tried to move away; but the boy seized her hand and peered more closely into her face.
"I mean, if we escape and I get back into my body," he whispered, "will you get back into yours too?"
The governess made no reply, and shifted uneasily on her feet. But the boy would not let her go.
"Please answer," he urged, still in a whisper.
"Jimbo, what funny questions you ask!" she said at last, in a husky voice, but trying to smile.
"But I want to know," he said. "I must know. I believe you are giving up everything just to save me--_everything_; and I don"t want to be saved unless you come too. Tell me!"
The colour came back to her cheeks a little, and her eyes grew moist.
Again she tried to slip past him, but he prevented her.
"You must tell me," he urged; "I would rather stay here with you than escape back into my body and leave you behind."
Jimbo knew it was his Older Self speaking--the freed spirit rather than the broken body--but he felt the strain was very great; he could not keep it up much longer; any minute he might slip back into the child again, and lose interest, and be unequal to the task he now saw so clearly before him.
"Quick!" he cried in a louder voice. "Tell me! You are giving up everything to save me, aren"t you? And if I escape you will be left alone----quick, answer me! Oh, be quick, I"m slipping back----"
Already he felt his thoughts becoming confused again, as the spirit merged back into the child; in another minute the boy would usurp the older self.
"You see," began the governess at length, speaking very gently and sadly, "I am bound to make amends whatever happens. I must atone----"
But already he found it hard to follow.
"Atone," he asked, "what does "_atone_" mean?" He moved back a step, and glanced about the room. The moment of concentration had pa.s.sed without bearing fruit; his thoughts began to wander again like a child"s.
"Anyhow, we shall escape together when the chance comes, shan"t we?" he said.
"Yes, darling, we shall," she said in a broken voice. "And if you do what I tell you, it will come very soon, I hope." She drew him towards her and kissed him, and though he didn"t respond very heartily, he felt he liked it, and was sure that she was good, and meant to do the best possible for him.
Jimbo asked nothing more for some time; he turned to the bed where he found a mattress and a blanket, but no sheets, and sat down on the edge and waited. The governess was standing by the window looking out; her back was turned to him. He heard an occasional deep sigh come from her, but he was too busy now with his own sensations to trouble much about her. Looking past her he saw the sea of green leaves dancing lazily in the sunshine. Something seemed to beckon him from beyond the high wall, and he longed to go out and play in the shade of the elms and hawthorns; for the horror of the Empty House was closing in upon him steadily but surely, and he longed for escape into a bright, unhaunted atmosphere, more than anything else in the whole world.
His thoughts ran on and on in this vein, till presently he noticed that the governess was moving about the room. She crossed over and tried first one door and then the other; both were fastened. Next she lifted the trap-door and peered down into the black hole below. That, too, apparently was satisfactory. Then she came over to the bedside on tiptoe.
"Jimbo, I"ve got something very important to ask you," she began.
"All right," he said, full of curiosity.
"You must answer me very exactly. Everything depends on it."