"It stings and cuts. It"s like the breath of an ice-creature; it brings hail and sleet and cold rain that beat down wings and blind the eyes.
Like the North Wind, too, it is dreadfully swift and full of little whirlwinds, and may easily carry you into the light of day that would prove your destruction. Avoid it always; no hiding-place is safe from it. This is the rhyme:
"It will teach you the secrets the eagles know Of the tempests" and whirlwinds" birth; And the magical weaving of rain and snow As they fall from the sky to the earth.
But an Easterly wind Is for ever unkind; It will torture and twist you And never a.s.sist you, But will drive you with might To the verge of the night.
So, beware of the Wind of the East, my child, Fly not with the Wind of the East."
"The West Wind is really a very nice and jolly wind in itself," she went on, "but it"s dangerous for a special reason: _it will carry you out to sea_. The Empty House is only a few miles from the coast, and a strong West Wind would take you there almost before you had time to get down to earth again. And there"s no use struggling against a really steady West Wind, for it"s simply tireless. Luckily, it rarely blows at night, but goes down with the sun. Often, too, it blows hard to the coast, and then drops suddenly, leaving you among the fogs and mists of the sea."
"Rather a nice, exciting sort of wind though," remarked Jimbo, waiting for the rhyme.
"So, at last, you shall know from their lightest breath To which heaven each wind belongs; And shall master their meaning for life or death By the shout of their splendid songs.
Yet the Wind of the West Is a wind unblest; It is lifted and kissed By the spirits of mist; It will clasp you and flee To the wastes of the sea.
So, beware of the Wind of the West, my child, Fly not with the Wind of the West!"
"A jolly wind," observed Jimbo again. "But that doesn"t leave much over to fly with," he added sadly. "They all seem dangerous or cruel."
"Yes," she laughed, "and so they are till you can master them--then they"re kind, only one that"s really always safe and kind is the Wind of the South. It"s a sweet, gentle wind, beloved of all that flies, and you can"t possibly mistake it. You can tell it at once by the murmuring way it stirs the gra.s.ses and the tops of the trees. Its taste is soft and sweet in the mouth like wine, and there"s always a faint perfume about it like gardens in summer. It is the joy of this wind that makes all flying things sing. With a South Wind you can go anywhere and no harm can come to you."
"Dear old South Wind," cried Jimbo, rubbing his hands with delight. "I hope it will blow soon."
"Its rhyme is very easy, too, though you will always be able to tell it without that," she added.
"For this is the favourite Wind of all, Beloved of the stars and night; In the rustle of leaves you shall hear it call To the pa.s.sionate joys of flight.
It will carry you forth in its wonderful hair To the far-away courts of the sky, And the breath of its lips is a murmuring prayer For the safety of all who fly.
For the Wind of the South Is like wine in the mouth, With its whispering showers And perfume of flowers, When it falls like a sigh From the heart of the sky."
"Oh!" interrupted Jimbo, rubbing his hands, "that _is_ nice. That"s _my_ wind!"
"It will bear you aloft With a pressure so soft That you hardly shall guess Whose the gentle caress."
"Hooray!" he cried again.
"It"s the kindest of weathers For our red feathers, And blows open the way To the Gardens of Play.
So, fly out with the Wind of the South, my child, With the wonderful Wind of the South."
"Oh, I love the South Wind already," he shouted, clapping his hands again. "I hope it will blow very, _very_ soon."
"It may be rising even now," answered the governess, leading him to the window. But, as they gazed at the summer landscape lying in the fading light of the sunset, all was still and resting. The air was hushed, the leaves motionless. There was no call just then to flight from among the tree-tops, and he went back into the room disappointed.
"But why can"t we escape at once?" he asked again, after he had given his promise to remember all she had told him, and to be extra careful if he ever went out flying alone.
"Jimbo, dear, I"ve told you before, it"s because your body isn"t ready for you yet," she answered patiently. "There"s hardly any circulation in it, and if you forced your way back now the shock might stop your heart beating altogether. Then you"d be really dead, and escape would be impossible."
The boy sat on the edge of the bed staring intently at her while she spoke. Something clutched at his heart. He felt his Older Self, with its greater knowledge, rising up out of the depths within him. The child struggled with the old soul for possession.
"Have _you_ got any circulation?" he asked abruptly at length. "I mean, has _your_ heart stopped beating?"
But the smile called up by his words froze on her lips. She crossed to the window and stood with her back to the fading light, avoiding his eyes.
"My case, Jimbo, is a little different from yours," she said presently.
"The important thing is to make certain about your escape. Never mind about me."
"But escape without you is nothing," he said, the Older Self now wholly in possession. "I simply wouldn"t go. I"d rather stay here--with you."
The governess made no reply, but she turned her back to the room and leaned out of the window. Jimbo fancied he heard a sob. He felt a great big heart swelling up within his little body, and he crossed over beside her. For some minutes they stood there in silence, watching the stars that were already shining faintly in the sky.
"Whatever happens," he said, nestling against her, "I shan"t go from here without you. Remember that!"
He was going to say a lot more, but somehow or other, when she stooped over to kiss his head--he hardly came up to her shoulder--it all ran suddenly out of his mind, and the little child dropped back into possession again. The tide of his thoughts that seemed about to rise, fast and furious, sank away completely, leaving his mind a clean-washed slate without a single image; and presently, without any more words, the governess left him and went through the trap-door into the silence and mystery of the house below.
Several hours later, about the middle of the night, there came over him a most disagreeable sensation of nausea and dizziness. The ground rose and fell beneath his feet, the walls swam about sideways, and the ceiling slid off into the air. It only lasted a few minutes, however, and Jimbo knew from what she had told him that it was the Flying Sickness which always followed the first long flight.
But, about the same time, another little body, lying in a night-nursery bed, was being convulsed with a similar attack; and the sickness of the little prisoner in the Empty House had its parallel, strangely enough, in the half-tenanted body miles away in a different world.
CHAPTER XIII
PLEASURES OF FLIGHT
Since the night when Jimbo had nearly fallen into the yard and risked capture, Fright, the horrible owner of the house, had kept himself well out of the way, and had allowed himself to be neither seen nor heard.
But the boy was not foolish enough to fall into the other trap, and imagine, therefore, that He did not know what was going on. Jimbo felt quite sure that He was only waiting his chance; and the governess"s avoidance of the subject tended to confirm this supposition.
"He"s disappeared somewhere and taken the children with him," she declared when he questioned her. "And now you know almost as much as I do."
"But not quite!" he laughed mischievously.
"Enough, though," she replied. "We want all our energy for escape when it comes. Don"t bother about anything else for the moment."
During the day, when he was alone, his thoughts and fancies often terrified him; but at night, when he was rushing through the heavens, the intense delight of flying drove all minor emotions out of his consciousness, and he even forgot his one great desire--to escape. One night, however, something happened that brought it back more keenly than ever.
He had been out flying alone, but had not gone far when he noticed that an easterly wind had begun to rise and was blowing steadily behind him.
With the recent instructions fresh in his head, he thought it wiser to turn homewards rather than fight his way back later against a really strong wind from this quarter. Flying low along the surface of the fields so as to avoid its full force, he suddenly rose up with a good sweep and settled on the top of the wall enclosing the yard.
The moonlight lay bright over everything. His approach had been very quiet. He was just about to sail across to the window when something caught his eye, and he hesitated a moment, and stared.
Something was moving at the other end of the courtyard.
It seemed to him that the moonlight suddenly grew pale and ghastly; the night air turned chilly; shivers began to run up and down his back.
He folded his wings and watched.
At the end of the yard he saw several figures moving busily to and fro in the shadow of the wall. They were very small; but close beside them all the time stood a much larger figure which seemed to be directing their movements. There was no need to look twice; it was impossible to mistake these terrible little people and their hideous overseer. Horror rushed over the boy, and a wild scream was out in the night before he could possibly prevent it. At the same moment a cloud pa.s.sed over the face of the moon and the yard was shrouded in darkness.
A minute later the cloud pa.s.sed off; but while it was still too dark to see clearly, Jimbo was conscious of a rushing, whispering sound in the air, and something went past him at a tremendous pace into the sky. The wind stirred his hair as it pa.s.sed, and a moment later he heard voices far away in the distance--up in the sky or within the house he could not tell--singing mournfully the song he now knew so well:--