Indeed, for most people it was simply not worth the trouble of entering at all. Apparently no one ever bothered about it.
Yet, precisely for these very reasons, it was real. Tim described it afterwards as a "naked" wood. It had no fence to hold it together, it was not dressed up by human beings, it just grew naturally. To this very openness and want of concealment it owed its deep security, its safety was due entirely to the air of innocence it wore. But in reality it was disguised. It was a forest--without a middle, without a heart.
"This is our wood," announced Tim in a low voice, as they stood and mopped their faces. His tone suggested that they would enter at their peril.
"And is it a big wood?" the other asked with caution, as though he had not noticed it before.
"Much bigger than it looks," the boy replied. "You can easily get lost." Then added, with the first touch of awe about him, "It has no centre."
"That"s the worst kind," said his companion shivering slightly. "Like a pond that has no bottom."
Tim nodded. His face had grown a trifle paler. He showed no immediate anxiety to make the first advance, reserving that privilege for his comrade. A breath of wind stole out and set the dry leaves rustling.
"We must look out," he said at length. "There"ll be a sign."
Uncle Felix listened attentively to every word. The boy had moved up closer to him. "And if anything happens one of us must climb a tree and signal. _You"ve_ got the clean handkerchief. You see, it"s at the centre that it gets rather nasty--because anybody who gets there simply disappears and is never heard of again. That"s why there"s no centre at all _really_. It"s a terrible rescue we"ve got to do."
The adventure fulfilled the desire of his heart, for, since there was no centre, the search would last for ever.
"Keep a sharp look-out for the sign," replied the man, feeling a small hand steal into his own. "We"d better go in before it gets any darker."
"Oh, that"s nothing," was the whispered comment. "The great thing is not to lose our way. Just follow me!"
They then went into this wood without a centre, without a middle, without a heart. Into this heartless wood they moved stealthily, Uncle Felix singing under his breath to keep his courage up:
"A wood is a mysterious place, It never looks you in the face, But stares _behind_ you all the time.
Your safest plan is just to--climb!
For, otherwise you lose your way, The week, the month, the time of day; It turns you round, it makes you blind, And in the end you lose your mind!
Avoid the centre, If you enter!
"It grows upon you--grows immense, Its peace is _not_ indifference, It sees you--and it takes offence, It knows you"re interfering.
Its sleepliness is all pretence, With trunks and twigs and foliage dense It"s watching you, alert, intense, It"s furious; it"s peering.
"Upon the darkening paths below, Whichever way you try to go You"ll meet with strange resistance.
So climb a tree and wave your hand, The birds will see and understand, And _may_ bring you a.s.sistance.
Avoid the centre, If you enter, For once you"re there You--disappear!
Smothered by depth and distance!"
Tim listened without a sign of interest. Every one has his peculiarity, he supposed, and, provided his companion did not dance as well as sing, it was all right. The noise was unnecessary, perhaps, still--the sound of a human voice was not without its charm. The house was a very long way off; the gardeners never came this way. A wood _was_ a mysterious place! "Is that all?" he asked--but whether glad or sorry, no man could possibly have told.
"For the present," came the reply, and the sound of both their voices fell a little dead, m.u.f.fled by the density of the undergrowth. "Are we going right?"
"There"ll be a sign," Tim explained again. And the way he said it, the air of positive belief in tone and manner, stung the man"s consciousness with a thrill of genuine adventure. It began to creep over him. He kept near to the comforting presence of the boy, aware in quite a novel way of the Presence of the Wood. This very ordinary wood, without claim to particular notice, much less to a notice-board, changed his normal feelings by arresting their customary flow. An unusual sensation replaced what he meant to feel, expected to feel. He was aware of strangeness. He felt included in the purpose of a crowd of growing trees. "But it"s just a common little wood," he a.s.sured himself, realising as he said it that both adjectives were wrong. For nothing left to itself is ever common, and as for "little"--well, it had suddenly become enormous.
Outside, in what was called the big world, things were going on with frantic hurry and change, but in here the leisured calm was huge, gigantic, so much so that the other dwindled into a kind of lost remoteness. "Smothered by depth and distance," he could almost forget it altogether. Out there nations were at war, republics fighting, empires tottering to ruin; great-hearted ladies were burning furniture and stabbing lovely pictures (not their own) to prove themselves intelligent enough to vote; and gallant gentlemen were flying across the Alps and hunting for the top and bottom of the earth instead of hurrying to help them. All manner of tremendous things were happening at a frightful pace--while this unnoticed wood just stood and grew, watching the sun and stars and listening to the brushing winds. Its unadvertised foliage concealed a busy universe of mult.i.tudinous, secret life.
How still the trees were--far more imposing than in a storm! Still, quiet things are much more impressive than things that draw attention to themselves by making a noise. They are more articulate. The strength of all these trees emerged in their silence. Their steadiness might easily wear one down.
And now, into its quiet presence, a man and a boy from that distressful outer world had entered. They moved with effort and difficulty into its untrodden depths. Uninvited and unasked, they sought its hidden and invisible centre, the mysterious heart of it which the younger of the adventurers could only describe by saying that "It isn"t there, because when you get there, you disappear!" Two ways of expressing the same thing, of course! Moreover, entering involved getting out again. Escape and Rescue--the Wood always in opposition--took possession of the man"s slow mind....
It was already thick about them, and the trees stood very still. The branches drooped, motionless in the warm evening air. The twigs pointed. Each leaf had an eye, but a hidden, lidless eye. The saplings saw them, but the heavier trunks _observed_ them. It was known in what direction they were going, the direction, however, being chosen and insisted on by the Wood. Their very steps were counted. The whole business of the trees was suspended while they pa.s.sed. They were being watched. And the stillness was so deep that it forced them, too, to make as little noise as possible. They moved with the utmost caution, pretending that a snapping twig might betray their presence, yet knowing quite well that each detail of their blundering advance was marked down with the accuracy of an instantaneous photograph. Tim, usually in advance, looked round from time to time, with a finger on his lips; and though he himself made far more noise than his companion, he stared with reproach when the latter snapped a stick or let a leafy branch swish through the air too loudly.
"Oh, hush!" he whispered. "Please do hush!" and the same moment caught his own foot in a root, placed cunningly across the path, and sprawled forward with the noise of an explosion. But he made no reference to the matter. His own noises did no harm apparently. He was perfectly honest about it, not merely putting the blame elsewhere to draw attention from himself. His uncle"s size and visibility were co-related in his mind.
Being convinced that he moved as stealthily and soundlessly as a Redskin, it followed obviously that his companion _didn"t_.
The dusk had noticeably deepened when at length they reached a little clearing and stood upright, perspiring freely, and both a little fl.u.s.tered. The silence was really extraordinary. It seemed they had entered a private place, a secret chamber where they had no right, and were intruders. The clearing formed a circle, and from the open sky overhead a grey, mysterious light fell softly on the leafy walls. They paused and peered about them.
"Hark! What"s that?" asked Tim in a whisper.
"Nothing," replied the other.
"But I heard it," the boy insisted; "something rushing."
"I"m rather out of breath, perhaps."
The boy looked at him reproachfully. His expression suggested "Why _are_ you so noisy and enormous? It"s hopeless, really!" But aloud he merely said, "It"s got awfully dark all of a sudden."
"It"s the wood does that," replied Uncle Felix. "Outside it"s only twilight. I think we"d better be getting on."
"We"re getting there," observed the boy.
"But we shan"t be able to see the sign if this darkness gets worse,"
said the other apprehensively.
The answer gave him quite a turn. "It"s been--ages and ages ago!"
The idea of rescue meanwhile had merged insensibly into escape, but neither remarked upon the change. It was only that the original emotion had spread a bit. Tim and Uncle Felix stood close together in this solemn clearing, waiting, peering about them, listening intently. But Tim had seen the sign; he knew what he was doing all the time; he was in more intimate relations with the Being of the Wood than his great floundering Uncle possibly could be.
"Which way, do _you_ think?" asked the latter anxiously.
There seemed no possible exit from the clearing, no break anywhere in the leafy walls; even the entrance was covered up and hidden. The Wood blocked further advance deliberately.
"We"re lost," said Tim bluntly, turning round and round. His eyes opened to their widest. "You"ve simply taken a wrong turning somewhere."
And before Uncle Felix could expostulate or say a word in self-defence, the inevitable reward of his mistake was upon him.
"_You"ve_ got the handkerchief!"
Already the boy was looking about him for a suitable tree.
"But _you_ saw the sign, Tim," he began excuses; "and it"s _your_ wood; I"ve never been here before--"
"That one looks the easiest," suggested Tim, pointing to a beech. It had one low branch, but the trunk was smooth and slippery as ice. He pushed aside the foliage with his hands to make an opening towards it.
"I"ll help you up." Tim spoke as though there was no time to lose.
But help came just then unexpectedly from another quarter--there was a sudden battering sound. Something went past them through the branches with a crashing noise. It was terrific, the way it smashed and clattered overhead, making a clapping rattle that died away into the distance with strange swiftness. They jumped; their hearts stood still a moment. It was so horribly close. But the stillness that followed the uproar was far worse than the noise. It felt as though the Wood had stretched a hand and aimed a crafty blow at them from behind the shield of foliage. A quiver of visible silence ran across the leafy walls.
They stood stock still, staring blankly into each other"s eyes.
"A wood-pigeon!" whispered Uncle Felix, recovering himself first.