Collected Works of Algernon Blackwood

by Algernon Blackwood

  ‘Thank you,’ squeaked the lizard, wagging her tiny head with pleasure, for evidently she liked being called ‘ Mrs.” But the point just now is — your fat little sister. She’ll be rather a risk. She might roll off a wall, or slip into a hole, where we’d never get her out again, or—’

  ‘I’ll look after her,’ interrupted Sambo proudly. ‘ Like I always do.’ Snitch ran up his sleeve and settled on his elbow. ‘ Now, that’s right,’ she piped. ‘ I like you for sticking up for her. Do you mean that you don’t want to come unless she comes too?’

  Snitch waited for his answer several minutes. The temptation was very severe. Sambo longed to go out on the adventure with all his might. At the same time he felt he would be really a little pig to leave Topsy behind. And, oh! she would enjoy coming so much! Yet, if he insisted on her coming, Snitch would probably refuse to go at all. ‘ Thank you very much, Mrs. Snitch,’ he said at last in a rather faint voice,’ but I don’t want to come — unless — Topsy — comes too.’

  For a few moments there was silence in the room, broken only by the snoring of Topsy in the corner. Then Snitch popped up suddenly on to Sambo’s shoulder, raised her mouth, gave him a tiny nip in the neck with her wee teeth, and whispered into his ear:

  ‘I hoped you would say that, Sambo. Now I know I can trust you. You’re true to Topsy, so you’ll be true to me. I’ll take her. We’ll go together, all three!’

  At this, Sambo felt so happy that he picked up the lizard in his fingers and gave it a kiss.

  ‘Thank you,’ piped Snitch, when he put it down on the bed, ‘ but you needn’t waste time doing that. We’ve a lot to do before we’re ready to start. I’ve got to make you both small first. We must all be the same size or we shan’t be able to get into the same places. Besides, you can’t see in the dark as well as I can, and you’d soon lose me. Have you got my tail? ‘ she asked in a whisper.

  ‘Rather! ‘ Sambo hopped out of bed so quickly to get the box that his foot caught in the sheet and he fell full length on the floor.

  ‘There! You might have squashed me! ‘ squeaked the lizard. ‘ Lucky I’m so quick, isn’t it! Now you understand why we’ve got to be the same size!’

  ‘I hope Nannie didn’t hear,’ the boy gasped, as he picked himself up and ran to get the box.

  ‘Oh, she’s having her supper in the kitchen,’ explained the lizard. ‘ But it’s lucky you didn’t wake your sister. She’s got to be made small after you. And in the dark too. We must put the night-light out first.’ And with a sudden whisk of her whole body, Snitch darted up the saucer, raced across the burning little wick and squashed it down into the soft wax before the flame had time to burn her. The room was now in complete darkness.

  ‘There! ‘ she squeaked, running almost the same instant along Sambo’s arm, till she reached his hand that held the box. ‘ Now, open it and I’ll take the tail out. I can’t make you smaller without the bit of my tail, only I must do it in the dark, because it’s a secret, and you mustn’t see how I do it.’

  Trembling with excitement, Sambo had now opened the box. He felt the lizard run past his fingers. The same instant he felt it run out again.

  ‘Thank you, Mithter! ‘ he heard.

  Snitch already had the bit of broken tail in her mouth.

  CHAPTER VIII

  FOR several minutes nothing happened. Oh, how still it was! The blackness of night covered all. Nothing stirred. The deep silence was broken only by the knocking of Sambo’s heart against his ribs. He tried to hold his breath. Bang! Bang! went his beating heart.

  Suddenly he became aware that the kettle had stopped boiling. Topsy, that is, no longer snored. She was waking up. Probably she’d make an awful fuss, he thought — bubble and squeak with excitement and ask a hundred questions. As a matter of fact, when the time came, she did nothing of the sort. She took the whole affair as calmly as though it happened every day. And this, Sambo decided next day, when he thought it all over, was very queer.

  At the moment, anyhow, he heard the little bubbling grunt she always made in the morning when she opened her eyes. But he heard something else as well that was not his fat, round sister. A tiny voice was speaking — singing rather. He listened intently. He recognised the voice. Mrs. Snitch, the broken tail still in her mouth evidently, was chanting the spell in the darkness that was to make their bodies small. It went to the tune of ‘Now we go round the Mulberry Bush’:

  ‘Make me the thmall

  That I can crawl

  Along a wall

  Without a fall.

  Make me the neat

  That hands and feet

  May flash along like lightning!’

  The words floated through the darkness like the faint buzzing of a bee.

  ‘Thay it after me,’ came the order in a whisper close beside his ear. ‘ And touch my tail — the broken bit — at the thame time. Ith in my mouth, ath you can hear.’ And Snitch darted up the boy’s finger so that he could feel in the darkness where its mouth was.

  Sambo obeyed. His finger ran along the cold scaly back till he felt the pointed head and muzzle. Very gently, using his little finger, he found the broken bit and touched it. At the same time he sang the words:

  ‘Make me so small

  That I may crawl

  Along a wall

  And never fall,’ etc.

  And as he sang, repeating the verse over and over again, this strange thing happened. He felt himself shrinking, shrinking, shrinking. It was too dark to see anything, of course, but he knew he was shrinking because he presently felt the long hair of the bear-skin rug beside the bed tickling his cheeks. The queer bitter smell he noticed too. He had smelt it before, of course, when playing bears with his father, the rug all over his face, but the smell had never been so strong as this. He was, evidently, close to the ground, the long coarse hair about him like a forest.

  While all this was happening in the pitch black room, Snitch was attending to his sister. The lizard had long ago left his hand and darted across to Topsy. She was fully awake now. Sambo already heard her gurgling voice, very low but quite distinct, singing the words with him. She, too, was being made small. It was a powerful spell. It worked quickly. The next minute he felt something touch him in the darkness. It was a hand. Topsy was feeling for him. He put out his own. They found each other’s fingers. They shook hands.

  ‘Now, all together,’ came the voice of Snitch, close beside them on the ground. ‘ Only, instead of “ make “ the word is changed to “keep “.’

  Sambo noticed that Snitch pronounced the’ s.’ The tail had been dropped. ‘ Take my paws,’ added Snitch, ‘ my front paws, and beat time by swinging your hands up and down while we sing.’

  There, in the darkness, the three of them holding hands, they sang together, keeping their voices very low, the wonderful spell that was to keep them small:

  ‘Keep me so small

  That I may crawl

  Along a wall

  Without a fall.

  Keep me so neat

  That hands and feet

  May flash along like lightning!’

  Their hands — and paws — swung up and down to keep time. They sang the little song three times.

  ‘That’s enough,’ interrupted Snitch, just as they were beginning it again.

  ‘Each time means an hour. You’re small for three hours now. Hooray!’

  ‘I’m as small as a ball,’ announced Topsy, speaking for the first time.

  ‘But I can’t see anything. How small are you, Sambo?’

  She felt no surprise, apparently; it was all natural enough. And Sambo felt the same. He saw no reason why he shouldn’t be small like his companions. Everything in the world was either small or big compared with something else. He was big compared to an ant anyhow, occurred to him.

  ‘Oh, I’m all right,’ he replied.’ Bigger than a beetle anyhow. I feel all darty. I could flash away like lightning — if only I could see.’

  ‘I only hope I shan’t rol
l,’ said Topsy. ‘ I’m awfully round — rather hedge-hoggy—’

  A shrill noise stopped her. It was Snitch screaming.

  ‘Hush! ‘ cried the lizard. ‘ You mustn’t use that word. Hedgehogs and snakes eat us, — sometimes. We never mention them. It’s bad language. Like swearing with you.’

  ‘Sorry,’ said Topsy quickly. ‘ I didn’t mean to be rude.’ Then, as the lizard’s front left paw stroked her hand to show forgiveness, she added ‘ Thank you.’

  ‘Forgiven and forgotten,’ squeaked the lizard briskly. ‘ And now listen to me, please. Listen carefully. I’ll give you the programme for to-night. We’ve got just three hours for our Adventure, and I think it would be more fun to go out than to stay indoors. Don’t you?’

  ‘Rather! ‘ exclaimed both children in the same breath, while Topsy added: ‘ If you’re sure nothing can catch us and eat us! ‘ Her hand stole into her brother’s and held it tightly.

  ‘And if we can see our way,’ put in Sambo, gripping his sister’s fingers to comfort her.’ It’s frightfully dark.’

  Snitch burst out laughing. ‘ You’re much too fast for anything to catch you,’ she explained,’ for you can dart away now as quick as I can. You’ll be safe under any stone. I’ve arranged about light too. Wait here a moment while I run and see. I’ll be back in a second. Don’t move, remember.’

  And she was gone. They heard her rapid feet across the carpet, but they made more noise than usual. Their ears picked up all sorts of sounds — sounds they never could have heard three feet up in the air.

  They lay among the thick hair of the bear-skin rug, waiting in the darkness for the lizard’s return. They could see nothing.

  ‘Sambo,’ whispered Topsy, ‘ I’m awfully excited. Aren’t you?’

  ‘Oh, yes,’ replied the boy, as though adventures like this were no new thing to him. ‘ I thought you’d like to come too. Mind you don’t say anything to hurt her feelings. You won’t, will you? ‘ he repeated.

  ‘But what ought I to say to a lizard? ‘ Topsy asked, greatly impressed.

  ‘What sort of things?’

  Sambo, of course, didn’t really know. Only he mustn’t let her see that he didn’t know. ‘ Oh, just be polite,’ he whispered back; ‘ very polite is best.’

  ‘Say I’m sorry, you mean? ‘ she enquired.

  Her brother hesitated. ‘I beg your pardon would be better, I expect,’ he told her. ‘ It’s what Mummy says. And you might add R.S.V.P.’

  A sound interrupted their whispered conversation, and Topsy snuggled in closer to her brother’s side. But it was only Snitch coming back. They heard the hair on the rug swishing and rustling like leaves of a tree as the creature came darting through it to their side. Snitch felt them over with her front paws to see where they were.

  ‘I wasn’t long, was I? ‘ she said, a little breathlessly. ‘Well, everything’s ready. I’ve got the Lights. They’re coming. And we’ll go by the window instead of the stairs and hall.’

  ‘Window! ‘ gasped Topsy.

  ‘The window and the wall, yes,’ replied Snitch. ‘ It’s safer. The window’s open at the top, and it’s a good wall with lots of cracks and niches. We’ll slip down it. The Lights will follow us. Are you ready? Come along then!’

  Sambo was bursting with questions, but he had no time to ask them. He felt Snitch pulling him along through the thick hair of the rug, across the carpet, whose roughness tickled his tummy, then up the leg of the table, which he knew stood close by the window, and next, with a flying leap through the air, on to the window-sill itself.

  It was all so swift, so breathless, so extraordinarily light and easy that he simply hadn’t time to think. He had shot and darted along like lightning. Yet all the time he held on to Topsy’s hand. He never for a moment let her go. She came after him like a ball from a ping-pong racquet, rolling, bouncing, tumbling along, her feet twinkling like a fly’s wings, while she grunted, panted, gurgled and puffed. Whew! What a flying race it was! The way they flashed up the table leg, then shot through the air from the table to the window-sill was marvellous. How their feet had clung to the polished surface of the table leg he couldn’t understand. He only knew that there was no difficulty about it. Why, he could have run up a smooth wall, he felt.

  ‘We’ll rest a second now,’ he heard Snitch saying. ‘Then we go up the window, out through the crack at the top, down the wall, and into the garden. The Lights will be here in a moment.’

  Sambo and Topsy stood panting and breathless beside their guide. They hadn’t enough breath to speak at first.

  ‘I’d better prepare you,’ Snitch went on, ‘ for what you’ll see when the Lights come. You’ll see me, for instance. It needn’t frighten you. I shall look rather — er — big, perhaps.’

  But already Sambo had become aware of something beside him with enormous bulk. He just made out this huge shadowy mass, for here on the window-sill the starlight gave a faint glimmer, and the outlines of things were clearer than when he was on the floor. It was as big as himself, as big as — as a crocodile. Yet Snitch’s voice came out of this immense dim outline. It moved then. Good heavens! It was Snitch, but Snitch as big as a — crocodile!

  ‘Don’t be frightened,’ the lizard said quickly. ‘ Of course I’m big now. I seem big like this because you’ve grown small. You’ve come down to my size, you see. I’m just the same as I was before, really, only you’ve got smaller. I haven’t changed at all.’

  Sambo gasped. He wasn’t frightened, but he was too amazed to speak at first. So this crocodile beside him was Snitch! His own head stood level with its huge scaly back. Its eyes were as big as his own. Its tail ran away into space. Its paws were tremendous. He looked down at himself then. Well, he couldn’t tell how big he was, or whether he was big or small. He only knew that he and Snitch were about the same size. Next he looked at Topsy. She was the same size as himself. She was lying on her back resting after their fierce rush to the window. She looked like an egg with two short legs poking out below and two short arms above. The starlight was too dim to show more than her oval outline. Then, suddenly, she began to grow clearer. Something was happening. The light grew stronger.

  ‘Sit up,’ Sambo called to her. ‘ Sit up and look. It’s all right. Nothing to be frightened about.’ He stretched his hand out to help her. She took it and began to roll over and over, till finally she found her feet and stood up.

  She stared about her in the growing light. Then she gasped too.

  But what made Topsy gasp with amazement was not, as with Sambo, the great size of the lizard. This didn’t seem to strike her so much as the size the room had grown to. The furniture, the window, the table and chairs, the height of the ceiling — this was what struck her more than anything else. She realized the changes differently from the way Sambo realized them. She realized, for instance, that she and her brother had become very small, rather than that Snitch had become very large.

  She opened her mouth to ask a hundred questions, when Snitch stopped her quickly.

  ‘Don’t ask questions,’ the lizard said. ‘ Everything will explain itself as we go along. Besides, here are the glow-worms. We can go ahead now, if you’re rested. We’ll go fast this time,’ she added, as though the pace before had been nothing.

  Glow-worms! So that explained the increasing light!

  Outside the window gathered a flock of moving lights, faint and beautiful. There were about twenty of them, and they gave out a dim, gentle glow. They danced and hovered in the air outside the glass.

  ‘The glow-worms,’ explained Snitch. ‘ They’ll come with us — ten in front and ten behind — to light the way. And when there’s danger, they go out.’

  ‘What sort of danger? ‘ whispered Topsy, snuggling closer to her brother and feeling for his hand.

  ‘Oh, the night creatures,’ replied the lizard: ‘ owls, night-jars, perhaps a cat that hasn’t gone to sleep, or a wandering rat — anything like that on the look out for food. But there’s nothing to be
afraid of. At the least hint of danger I give the sign, and the glow-worms put their lights out. In the darkness, of course, we can’t be seen. We’re safe, provided you keep still. Now, watch,’ added the lizard. ‘ I’ll give the sign to show you.’

  ‘What is the sign?’ asked Topsy.

  ‘A sneeze,’ was the reply. And the lizard, raising itself on its front paws, which seemed gigantic now, suddenly sneezed.

  ‘Snitch! ‘ it went. And instantly all the Lights went out. It was so dark that the children couldn’t see each other. Topsy and Sambo held hands very tightly, waiting. Then the lizard repeated the sneeze, doing it twice this time, very rapidly: ‘ Snitch! Snitch! ‘ it went. And instantly the Lights came on again.

  ‘There!’ said their guide, ‘ now you see! Only remember that when the Lights go out you must keep still — absolutely still. You mustn’t move a muscle till they come on again. If you do that you’ll be perfectly safe. Understand?’

  ‘Yes,’ whispered the children. ‘ We understand.’

  ‘Good,’ said Snitch. ‘ Then we can start. Come along!’

  It was up the side of the window like a flash, and Sambo, seizing his sister’s hand, was after it. They raced up, darted along the top of the open sash, perched on the dizzy edge a second, then scuttled head-first down the framework between the panes and landed safely on the stone ledge outside. It was a breathless business. Topsy fairly bounced along. She was very surefooted for a ball!

  ‘Now,’ said Snitch in a low voice,’ the quicker the better — in case we’ve been seen. Something may be watching us; you never know. The Rule is, When Lights are on, move fast; when Lights are out, keep still. Got it? Better say it after me to make sure.’