‘Quickly, the thief’s getting away,’ cried Scarlet as they all ran down the road as if they were being chased by a wild animal.
‘You do know who that was, don’t you?’ Alfie said trying not to smile.
‘No?’ Scarlet replied half walking and half running as they tried to catch up with the thief.
‘Harry Houdini,’ Alfie said with a broad smile on his face.
‘You’re kidding me, I thought I recognised that face!’ Billy exclaimed, a little ashamed he hadn’t recognised him as he had once been to see him at the theatre. Having said that he was at the back of the theatre in the cheap seats at the time.
‘You mean I was tricked by the great Harry Houdini? Wow, that’s quite a story to tell,’ Billy grinned.
‘You mean along with the story about you travelling through time and meeting Merlin?’ Scarlet added not being able to help herself.
‘You know the funny thing is, my fob watch always ran slow. My grandfather gave it to me. I only keep it for sentimental reasons, and now look, it’s working perfectly. He’s obviously got the magic touch,’ grinned Billy, for a few seconds returning to his childhood, his seventh birthday to be precise, when a party magician had entertained him and his friends. The truth is the party magician set them all off to sleep at the time. His parents said the magician was worth his weight in gold!
‘Father says if a mechanical object doesn’t work properly bang it with something heavy and that will sort it out!’ laughed Alfie.
‘True, but he didn’t bang it with anything, he used sleight of hand. He obviously replaced Billy’s watch with a broken watch and then swapped them back. I know Harry Houdini is great, it says so on all the posters for his shows, but he’s no Merlin the Magician,’ quipped Scarlet playing with words.
‘Come on, we’ve no time for living in the past, it’s the present and the future we need to worry about, not only ours but Mr Merlin’s – and that’s the clockmaker and not the magician!’ Scarlet said as she hurried along the pavement.
No time for living in the past? That was funny as they were living in the past, Billy thought, but kept the thought to himself. ‘Hold on a minute,’ Billy said running the film back in his mind and stopping it.
‘We haven’t time to hold on and if we did wait a minute which minute in particular did you want to hold on to?!’ Scarlet exclaimed tugging at Billy’s arm who had stopped frozen to the spot like a statue, a Greek statue, or so Scarlet thought as she blushed a little. As far as Scarlet was concerned Billy was a hero in her book. It seemed a series of fantastical events, life experiences, had made her grow up fast like nine-foot-tall Alice, the giant girl from Wonderland.
‘Hold on a second then. Harry Houdini? Harry Houdini hasn’t even been born yet, that couldn’t have been Harry Houdini. We’re not living in Edwardian England, we’re living in Georgian England. How’s that possible?!’ Billy exclaimed.
‘You’re right of course, you’re right, my mind’s so foggy I don’t know which time I’m living in. It must have been Houdini’s doppelganger. They say everybody has one. Anyway didn’t Harry Houdini base some of his act on the great Robert Houdin? Even changed his name so it sounded like his hero, or so I recall my father telling me once upon a time,’ Scarlet replied thinking things through logically.
‘Yes, that’s true, but that still doesn’t fit their timelines unless, unless—’ Billy hesitated.
‘Spit it out!’ Alfie spat impatiently.
‘Unless he’s a time traveller like us,’ Billy blurted out raising his eyebrows to the zenith point of his furrowed brow.
‘What are the odds? Do you think time travellers pop up everywhere? This isn’t a storybook, even H.G. Wells only had one time traveller!’ Scarlet scoffed.
‘Hear me out. Harry Houdini flew aeroplanes, he was even the first man to fly over Australia and crash too if I recall correctly, so wouldn’t he be able to fly a time machine?’ Billy replied getting far too carried away, even for his friends.
‘And who designed this fantastical heavier-than-air time machine, pray?’ Scarlet asked shaking her head theatrically.
‘I don’t know, perhaps Leonardo da Vinci with the help of the Victorian engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel?’ Billy replied his face as straight as a setsquare.
‘You left Sir Isaac Newton out of your little time equation!’ Scarlet laughed.
‘Maybe he’s got a timepiece made of moonstone. Perhaps the original watchmaker made more than two time compasses,’ Billy gabbled thinking outside even Pandora’s giant box of tricks.
‘Ever thought of writing for the comics?’ Scarlet replied raising an eyebrow.
‘After this experience, yes I have!’ chortled Billy finally managing a smile. ‘Okay, perhaps you’re right, perhaps it was Houdini’s doppelganger or an automaton street magician!’
‘You’re worse than Alfie!’ Scarlet said gently scolding Billy.
‘Thanks, sis, I think!’ grunted Alfie looking puzzled.
‘It’s no good, we’ll never catch him now, we’ll just have to go straight to Mr Merlin’s house and hope that’s where he’s heading. Although I’m sure if Mr Merlin had a crystal ball he would not agree with me,’ said Scarlet determined to get the story back on track… tick tock, tick tock, tick…
44
A Circle of Magic
An hour later they were at the home of John Joseph Merlin.
‘The door’s wide open!’ Billy exclaimed looking concerned as he walked towards the door.
‘Be careful, the thief might still be in there!’ Scarlet whispered trying not to alert the thief.
‘If he’s harmed Mr Merlin I’ll swing for him, I swear I will,’ growled Billy who already appeared to be playing the part of his loyal apprentice even before he’d got the job.
‘Merlin will be fine, he’s surrounded by a circle of magic,’ Alfie replied making up an unbelievable story of his own.
‘Mrs Merlin!’ Scarlet cried as she saw the woman collapsed upon the floor.
‘It’s, it’s nothing,’ Mrs Merlin replied getting shakily to her feet with the help of Alfie and Scarlet. ‘Don’t worry about me, I heard raised voices in my husband’s workshop, bangs and crashes, then the man ran out of the house as if being chased by the very devil himself.’
‘Mr Merlin, are you alright?’ Billy cried upon finding John Joseph Merlin laid out upon the floor with blood running down the side of his face.
‘Yes, yes, I think so, lucky I’ve got a head as hard as one of my automatons,’ Merlin smiled as Billy helped him to his feet.
Twenty minutes later, with Scarlet playing the part of Florence Nightingale with great aplomb, they were all sitting in the drawing room trying to figure out what on earth had happened. Of course to some extent the time travellers knew the answer to that question, or at least some of the answers. The rest, like the mists of time, was somewhat of a fog like the famous pea soupers London was famed for.
‘You were right about there being a thief in the area, we should have taken more precautions. I blame myself,’ Merlin said holding the side of his head and wincing.
‘Just because you see an event occur in your crystal ball does not mean to say you can change that event. Even Sir Isaac Newton thought everything was written, preordained,’ Mrs Merlin said taking everyone by surprise.
‘I didn’t think you listened to a word I said, or at least not the scientific ones which are most of the words that come out of my mouth,’ Merlin grunted trying to smile but only managing a grimace.
‘I do occasionally take interest in the world around me and, after all, you are my world and your world is quite fascinating at times. Other times of course it bores me rigid,’ Mrs Merlin said smiling sweetly as she sipped her cup of sweet tea.
‘Ah yes, tea, the great English elixir of life and, after all, sweet tea does raise the blood sugar level so there i
s some science in there somewhere, as long as you take the tea leaves out of the equation,’ Merlin replied shaking his head.
‘What did he want, this thief?’ Scarlet enquired trying to interrogate the Merlins as gently as she could.
‘He showed me a timepiece and wanted to know if I had made it.’
‘And what did you tell him?’ Scarlet asked sitting on the edge of her chair as if she were listening to Hans Christian Andersen tell one of his magical tales, and not a simple watchmaker. Of course Merlin was not a simple watchmaker, he was a most extraordinary watchmaker and inventor.
‘Well, I told him half a fairytale and half a truth,’ said Merlin, not sure if he should be telling these young people the full story, for he didn’t even know that himself.
‘What I tell you here today I have never told anyone before, not even my wife,’ Merlin said looking over at his wife and sighing.
‘The truth is, I’m not sure you’ll believe the truth anyway, which is probably why I did not tell anyone the story before and why it has remained a secret. You tell the truth and people either laugh, call you a liar or worse, send you to the mad house.’
By this time everybody was on the edge of their seat hanging on every word that came out of Merlin’s mouth, as if he really was Merlin the Magician holding court at the Magic Circle in London.
Time seemed to stop in the confines of the drawing room, even the sound of the grandfather clock could no longer be heard. It was as if the clocks in the room were all listening to this wonder tale.
Then time restarted… tick tock, tick tock, tick…
‘And that’s the story, I don’t think I’ve left anything out!’ Mr Merlin said blowing out his cheeks.
Everybody in the room was left with their mouth hanging on its hinges, their eyes as wide as the Milky Way, even the clocks it appeared were talking amongst themselves as the ticks and the tocks got muddled up with one another. Some of the hands of the timepieces appeared to be going backwards!
‘So let me get this straight, you, John Joseph Merlin, were Mr Horace H. Humdinger’s apprentice and he was the man who made the two original moonstone timepieces. And before you, Isaac Newton was his apprentice when he was a boy, who later became a knight and an alchemist. And Mr Humdinger lived in a giant cuckoo clock house in the clouds which could only be reached by climbing a giant rickety ladder.’ The words were coming out of Scarlet’s mouth in automatic fashion but she was finding it hard to believe what she was saying, half expecting Jack and his magic beans to appear in this tall tale anytime soon.
Scarlet had been forced to believe some fantastical things in recent months – little people living inside a clock, time travel – the sort of things that normally only happen in books. Mind you, you would have thought she would be used to the fantastical and the unbelievable by now, take it as commonplace! ‘Oh, I’m only going for a brief jaunt to Constantine for a few weeks in the fifteenth century, such a common place, quite a bore in fact. I’m going to see the Great, Great Cloud Carpet Race of Constantinople don’t you know. Oh well, I suppose it will pass the time!’ Scarlet snorted haughtily to Queen Victoria as they played croquet at Hampton Court, or so she was imagining. Once upon a time Queen Victoria had accused her daughter Alice of being a teller of untruths. As if a girl with a name like Alice would tell an untruth, it’s unthinkable, quite unthinkable!
‘Yes, that’s correct,’ Merlin said matter-of-factly nodding his head as if he too were an automaton!
‘That’s cuckoo!’ Alfie blurted out, not being able to help himself.
‘I told you it was but that’s the truth, I swear on the Clockmakers’ Bible,’ Merlin replied earnestly.
‘So you think that’s where the Time Thief has gone?’ Billy said not thinking.
‘Time Thief, that’s a bit theatrical, isn’t it?’ Merlin said trying not to laugh.
‘You’ve been honest with us and told us your story so we must be honest with you and tell you our story, although I don’t imagine for one minute you’ll believe our story either!’ Scarlet said breathlessly, sitting back taking a deep breath before telling Mr and Mrs Merlin everything they knew.
This time passed even quicker than before – clearly an illusion, a trick performed by the Great Time Illusionist Father Time himself!
‘Unbelievable, so the moonstone timepieces I helped work on are in effect time compasses and they do appear to keep good time too,’ Merlin said proudly.
‘Yes!’ Scarlet exclaimed thinking there was no more to be said. It felt like she had been in a storytelling duel between Hans Christian Andersen and Lewis Carroll, the result of the duel a tie, or so she imagined! Lewis Carroll would have taken this result with good grace. Hans Christian Andersen on the other hand would have not. As far as he was concerned there was no better storyteller anywhere in the world or anywhere in time for that matter, than the great Hans Christian Andersen, the grandfather of the fairytale.
‘Where is the cuckoo clock house, is it still there?’ Scarlet asked wishing the answer was yes. She was half imagining the house was on Clock Street, a street hidden in the clouds.
‘I would imagine so, it comes and goes, appears and disappears a lot, like magic,’ John Joseph Merlin replied, his face as straight as the cane of a magician.
‘Then you must take us there,’ said Scarlet in a forthright manner seemingly forgetting the state she had found the Merlins in not a few hours earlier.
‘Of course but tomorrow. For now Mrs Merlin and I need to recuperate,’ Merlin replied getting shakily to his feet.
‘Of, of course, I’m sorry,’ Scarlet stammered looking at her shoes as if they needed a good polish. ‘We will come back tomorrow at midday and if you are feeling up to it we will all go and see this house in the clouds. I don’t suppose you have invented a pair of wings, Mr Merlin, in case any of us get that old falling feeling?’
‘Wings? Alas not, I leave the flying to the birds and the angels!’ Merlin said raising a smile.
Of course Scarlet hadn’t quite told the whole story and she had a feeling neither had Mr Merlin, but her part of the story would involve opening up a snuffbox and showing off a person of no more than two centimetres high and they would need a magnifying glass to see him. Scarlet did not think Mr and Mrs Merlin were in any fit state for any more shocks today. Perhaps on the morrow they would be. Anyway all storytellers knew you had to save the best story for last, keep one tale up your sleeve. It was the same for magicians. In their case it was the magic trunk with the false bottom and the trick they kept hidden up their long sleeve.
The Time Team bid the Merlins good day, although clearly it hadn’t been a good day for them, but nobody could deny it had been quite an amazing and unforgettable day, a day that would live long in the memory. Unless that is, time travel, like sleepwalking, erased the memory?
Tick tock, tick tock, tick… once again the clock was ticking as the sand ran through the giant hourglass of time.
45
The Art of Tasseography
Scarlet, Alfie and Billy went back to the small boarding house on the edge of town where once again the landlady Mrs Piddgley made them feel more than welcome. It turned out the landlady did not have any children of her own, so was happy to put her motherly instincts to good use. Scarlet had put her art of storytelling to good use by spinning Mrs Piddgley a yarn, saying they were all orphans. Well, it was true, as Billy was an orphan and Scarlet and Alfie’s parents hadn’t even been born yet!
The very next day they revisited the Merlins’ house.
‘Good morning, how are we this bright winter morning?’ Mrs Merlin said full of the joys of spring. Scarlet wasn’t expecting Mrs Merlin to be so cheerful, but then again a good night’s sleep was the cure for most ailments, perhaps even travel sickness – time travel sickness!
‘Yes, how are we?’ Merlin said cheerfully as he poked his head around the door. Billy
imagined the Merlins to be on a town clock, the sort where automatons appear out of the clock house on the hour, meet in the middle, kiss then return to their own houses. And if they have had an argument, kiss and make up the next time the hour chimes. ‘Get out of my way!’ ‘Not you again, same old face, same old story!’
‘Fine, we’re all fine!’ came back three replies. There was a fourth reply, that of Wilbur Wigglesworth, but the voice was inaudible.
‘Well, let the adventure begin or continue or end, which, if everything is already written, has already been decided,’ Merlin chuckled as he went to get his coat.
‘There is just one more thing we left out of the story. We thought it best in the circumstances after the thief broke in and all,’ Scarlet said as she carefully took the silver musical snuffbox out of her pocket. ‘You may want to sit down for this one!’
‘Is this a musical snuffbox perchance? All the artisans in town are making them,’ Merlin enquired gazing at the snuffbox with his keen watchmaker’s eye.
‘Y-e-s and n-o,’ replied Scarlet nervously.
‘Well, perhaps you had better brew a pot of tea, dear. I’ve a feeling by the looks upon our guests’ faces we may need it and after we have finished Mrs Merlin will read the old tea leaves at the bottom of your cups,’ Merlin said looking at his wife trying not to smile.
‘Of course, dear,’ Mrs Merlin replied and dutifully did as she was asked, well, if you leave the art of tasseography out the equation. This was the name given to the art of reading tea leaves. To Scarlet’s mind it appeared that most women in the timeframe (making it sound like they were trapped in a time capsule made of glass) didn’t have a mind of their own or if they did they were not allowed to use it. Perhaps Mrs Merlin was an automaton. Scarlet wouldn’t have been surprised if the Merlins had an automaton servant. It seemed the fairies were back and ready to carry Scarlet away to Fairyland again!
The Clock People Page 27