The Tunnel Behind the Waterfall

by William Corlett

‘We would. Jack and I have already talked about it. We moved here because we wanted peace and isolation. As soon as they start building up there – all that will go.’

  ‘But – you’re going to turn this place into a hotel. Is that so very different?’ Alice asked her.

  As they were speaking, a big moon slowly rose above the forest trees, bathing the garden and the house beyond in silver light. The silence was profound.

  ‘It wasn’t going to be exactly a hotel,’ Phoebe explained. ‘More like . . . a place where people could come and stay; where they could enjoy good food and good company; where they could spend their days out in the countryside and their evenings quietly at home. A rest place; a retreat almost. Yes – that’s it. A rest house – just like this place was originally. A place where people could come and forget, for a while, all the problems of life; where they could recharge their batteries, spiritually as well as physically; a place where they’d have the opportunity to experience all this.’ As she spoke she indicated the moonlit garden and the darkening woods. Then she sighed. ‘But, you know, maybe it was a just a dream on our part. Jack and I aren’t very businesslike! We’d probably have run out of money before we got as far as the official opening. One thing’s certain, we can’t afford to live here without doing something to earn our keep. Perhaps that solicitor was right. We should welcome the development and cash in on it. But we can’t. It’s not what we want to be part of . . . a money-making concern. So . . .’ she shrugged, ‘we’ll just have to sell up and go.’

  ‘Where?’ Alice asked, shocked at the idea.

  ‘I don’t know – we haven’t got as far as thinking that out yet.’

  Later that night Alice related this conversation to William and Mary as they all sat in the girls’ room, whispering quietly.

  ‘You know what’ll happen,’ William said, grimly. ‘The Crawdens will buy the place back. Then they’ll have everything and Morden will have won.’

  ‘And the only way it can be stopped . . . is by us,’ Mary sighed.

  ‘And we don’t know how,’ William added.

  ‘You know last time we were here,’ Alice said thoughtfully, ‘when I lost my temper with the Magician and he said there’d be no more magic? Is it like that now d’you think? Or is it different?’

  ‘How d’you mean?’ William asked, only half listening to her.

  ‘Well – has he taken the magic away? Or is it still there – but now it’s up to us to . . . sort of find it?’

  ‘I keep telling you – I can’t! I’ve tried,’ William protested. ‘I can’t get him to come.’

  ‘No, William. Not that. I don’t mean that,’ Alice insisted. ‘Not trying to get the Magician to come and help us . . .’

  ‘What are you saying, Alice?’ Mary asked her.

  ‘Well – what if things haven’t gone wrong? What if they’re going right?’

  ‘That’s not possible, Al,’ William sighed. ‘I mean it’s obvious – we weren’t meant to lose the pendulum, for instance . . .’

  ‘But that’s just it, William. You go on about losing the pendulum – but we don’t know what it was for – or how it would help us. I bet it isn’t all that important. If we could only work things out.’

  ‘But he kept telling us not to try to work things out!’ William exclaimed.

  ‘I don’t care what he told us – he isn’t here now,’ Alice responded, with a sniff. ‘Go on, Will, do some brain-work! That’s what you’re good at.’

  William took a deep breath and thought for a few moments.

  ‘We know,’ he said, ‘that in the Magician’s time Morden is trying to gain power. We also know that after the Magician’s death Morden will somehow take over this house. There’s no question about any of that being changed, because it’s history. The only hope the Magician has of trying to regain Golden House is to alter events after his death – in his future. So I think he has kept travelling through time in the hope of finding a way of getting Golden House and the valley back into his control. Or into his . . . plan; his scheme . . . whatever you call it.’

  ‘That’s brilliant, William!’ Mary said. ‘Only – if we fail him, like Jonas Lewis obviously failed him, what’s to stop him going further into the future – I mean beyond our time, and trying to find someone else to help him? You know like . . . Steph’s children, say . . . or even later still. Like in the middle of the twenty-first century?’

  ‘He probably would try . . . his only problem is, he’s an old man. Maybe . . . maybe he doesn’t have a lot of time left.’

  ‘Why?’ Alice asked.

  ‘Maybe he’s going to die soon,’ William said.

  ‘Oh, Will! Don’t say that,’ Alice whispered. ‘He isn’t very old.’

  The children were silent for a moment.

  ‘You know at Christmas, when Jack went to see Miss Prewett?’ Mary said after a moment. ‘She gave him a list of all the people who’ve lived here. You remember, Will. You looked at it in the middle of the night – that’s how you first discovered that Stephen Tyler lived here . . . before we met him.’

  ‘I remember, yes,’ William said, almost irritably.

  ‘What was the next name on the list?’

  ‘I can’t remember – I don’t think I even looked. I was so surprised to see “Tyler”. But we know it must be Morden, because we know that Morden comes to live here. Sir Henry told us that.’

  ‘But – if we knew what date Morden became the owner of Golden House,’ Mary continued, ‘then we’d also know when Stephen Tyler died – unless of course Morden just kicked him out.’

  ‘I don’t see what you’re getting at?’ William asked.

  ‘Well – if we only knew how long there is to go before the Magician’s death, then we’d know how long we’d got . . . to change his future.’

  ‘Mmmh,’ William agreed, thoughtfully. ‘Trouble is – we’ve never been told what the date is in the Magician’s time when he travels to our time . . .’

  ‘Oh, stop it, both of you!’ Alice exclaimed impatiently. ‘You’re doing it again.’

  ‘Doing what?’ William asked.

  ‘Thinking about all the wrong things. Confusing everything. Besides, what are you saying? If the Magician still needs to go off and find somebody to help him way ahead in our future – then that must mean that we’ve failed him. Well, have we, William? Is that what you’re saying?’

  A long silence followed this outburst.

  ‘D’you suppose it’s all part of the alchemy?’ William said at last.

  ‘What’s all part of it?’ Mary asked.

  ‘All this confusion,’ William replied.

  ‘You’re doing it again,’ Alice cried. ‘Keep to the point!’

  ‘All right then, Alice,’ William snapped, dangerously close to losing his temper. ‘If you’re so clever, you do the thinking.’

  ‘All we have to do is find a way of stopping the Crawdens from building up at Goldenwater,’ Alice said, speaking slowly. ‘If we don’t, we won’t have completed our task. That’s all we’ve got to do. We don’t even have to know why we have to do it. I expect we’ll understand . . . later. But that’s all he’s told us to do.’

  ‘All!’ William groaned.

  ‘So, how do we do it, Will?’ Alice asked, as if she were challenging him.

  ‘By travelling back in time ourselves,’ William answered spontaneously, almost before he had time to think of the answer, ‘and finding out what the agreement was that Jonas Lewis made with Crawden over the land.’

  Alice nodded and pulled a serious face.

  ‘How do we do that?’

  William thought for a moment.

  ‘Find the laboratory,’ he said.

  ‘Why?’ Mary asked. ‘How will that help?’

  ‘Because in his book Jonas says that he must hide the laboratory from Crawden. That means that the laboratory was somehow very important to him . . . and probably to the Magician. Don’t forget Uncle Jack told us that alchemists were like early chemists . .
. Stephen Tyler, if he was a chemist, would have had a laboratory.’

  ‘Not the room at the top of the chimney?’ Mary asked.

  ‘That was his study,’ William replied. ‘His laboratory must have been somewhere else.’

  ‘Where?’ Alice asked.

  ‘Well, we’ve been all over the house with Uncle Jack,’ William said. ‘I suppose any of the rooms could have been used as one . . . But, he mentions in the book someone coming to put stones down . . . You know that blocked up arch in the main cellar? The one Jack calls the crypt. D’you think that’s anything to do with it?’

  ‘Pretty obvious if it is,’ Mary said.

  ‘Well . . .’ William continued, thoughtfully, ‘either it’s a room that’s been sealed off in some way. Or . . . it could be underground.’

  ‘If we found it,’ Alice said, ‘how would we go back in time?’

  ‘Like I did, I suppose, when I saw Morden. In an animal. You see that’s another thing we keep being told. Morden can’t appear in our time – like the Magician does. He hasn’t managed to do that yet. All he can do is . . . somehow . . . see our world by putting his mind into certain animals and birds.’

  ‘Like the crow,’ Mary said.

  ‘And the rat,’ William agreed.

  ‘You mean the rat at Christmas?’ Alice asked with a shudder. ‘That was the worst.’

  ‘And the rat today,’ William said in a matter-of-fact voice.

  ‘You mean . . . the rat Spot chased was a Morden rat?’ Alice gasped.

  ‘Probably,’ William answered. ‘I think he’s probably got spies everywhere. Like the spider in the secret room that time. The one Jasper ate.’

  ‘That’s something that puzzles me,’ Mary said. ‘When Jasper ate the spider . . . was he eating Morden? When Falco killed the crow at the Battle of Goldenwater – was he killing Morden?’

  ‘No, I don’t think so. It’s more like . . . interference on a television screen. Morden wouldn’t be able to see what was going on – or hear for that matter – when his spy was intercepted.’

  ‘But, when the Magician was in Bawson, at the badger bait, and that dog attacked . . . Well, the dog was attacking a badger – but the Magician has still got a bad arm from the attack.’

  William nodded.

  ‘Maybe when you can actually time travel – I mean really bring your body to the new time – maybe then the rules are different. Maybe then you sort of are occupying the other body. Before that you just know how the other body is feeling and see what the other body is seeing . . .’

  Alice scratched her cheek.

  ‘That’s how it was for me when I went in Spot after he’d been in a fight. I could feel all his cuts and bruises – but, I mean, I hadn’t got cuts and bruises myself.’

  ‘But in that case,’ Mary said, quietly, ‘how d’you explain me?’

  ‘What d’you mean?’ William asked, then his face registered a profound shock. ‘How do we explain you having all the wounds that the magpie suffered when he was being attacked over Goldenwater?’

  ‘Exactly, William,’ Mary said, sounding almost frightened. ‘Why have I got all these scratches and bruises? I haven’t started time travelling. So how do you explain me?’

  ‘How d’you know you haven’t?’ William said after a moment. ‘Maybe you were sort of time travelling and you didn’t know?’

  ‘Oh, William!’ Mary protested. ‘Things like that don’t happen to me. I hardly have any magic. You and Alice have the magic.’

  William stared at her thoughtfully.

  ‘All the same, I don’t know why you’ve got the scratches,’ he said, as if he was agreeing with her.

  ‘Please!’ Alice whined. ‘You’re off the subject again. Where do we go from here?’

  ‘Sleep!’ William said. ‘And in the morning – up to the lake.’

  ‘How will that help?’

  ‘Because it’s up there that I managed to see back into the past – when I saw Morden. And it’s there that Mary flew with the magpie. I think it’s got something to do with that energy line the Magician spoke about. D’you remember? He told us that there are three energy lines up there. The dark path – that’s The Dark and Dreadful Path; the light path – that’s the bridlepath leading down from Four Fields; and then a secret, central line which he didn’t give a name to. D’you remember when I was playing Ducks and Drakes? Those stones that came out of nowhere – and the way mine just disappeared into the air? I’m sure that happened at the crossing of that line. I think Morden was playing Ducks and Drakes in his time and my stones and his stones somehow . . . changed times.’ He shrugged and frowned. ‘It’s a bit complicated and I haven’t really worked it out yet. But I’m sure it was something like that.’

  ‘You are brilliant, William,’ Alice said, stifling a yawn. ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about most of the time.’

  ‘Then, when we went rowing with Stephen Tyler,’ William continued, warming to his subject, ‘d’you remember how he stopped the boat very precisely? We were immediately across the same line then.’

  ‘But – what line? I never saw any line.’ Alice complained.

  ‘Because it isn’t there to see – unless you know what you’re looking for. But we noticed it, Alice. We all did. During the spring holiday, when we first went up to Goldenwater. You must remember. It runs through the middle of this house, through the yew tree, through the standing stone, straight up the middle of the lake and . . .’ he clapped his hands, excitedly, ‘yes, of course, that tunnel behind the waterfall! That’s on it as well. We should explore the tunnel. We’ll take torches. We’ll tell Phoebe we’re going off for the day. She doesn’t seem to mind now . . . I bet you that tunnel has something to do with the secret passage.’

  ‘What secret passage?’ Alice whispered, her eyes wide with excitement.

  ‘We were told that there’s supposed to be a secret passage from the house all the way to the monastery that this house originally belonged to. Yes,’ William cried, excitedly, ‘that’s what we do next. We explore the tunnel behind the waterfall.’

  21

  Return of the Rats

  SO THAT WAS the plan. But when the following morning dawned and Spot still hadn’t returned to the house Alice was so concerned about him that she persuaded the others to call in at Four Fields before they started anything else.

  When they reached Goldenwater, William wanted to spend some time at the standing stone and Mary was still hoping that they could attract Lutra to come to them.

  ‘I mean Lutra must know every inch of the lake,’ she said, ‘I’m sure he could find the pendulum for us if it’s still there.’

  But Alice was adamant.

  ‘Please,’ she implored them. ‘Let’s just go and see Meg first. Spot often goes there because he used to live there. I just have to know that he’s all right, then I’ll do anything you want.’

  ‘Well, you go on your own, Al,’ Mary said, crouching down by the water’s edge and scanning the surface of the lake. But William shook his head and turned his back on the standing stone.

  ‘I think for the time being we should stick together,’ he said grimly.

  ‘Why, Will?’ Mary asked, looking up at him.

  ‘Because of what happened with that crow,’ he replied, looking round. ‘If Morden is really fighting now – his animals could be anywhere.’

  They approached Four Fields through the beech woods, reaching the gate in the hedge without following the main bridlepath. It was the route that they always took when visiting Meg after swimming and every step of the way was familiar to them.

  As they were crossing the first meadow Mary noticed that the two cows and the six sheep were missing.

  ‘I wonder where they are?’ she said.

  Alice was already climbing the second gate. Ahead of them now, in the corner of the next field, Meg’s house, covered in creeper and looking more like an untidy bush than an actual dwelling, came into view. Everywhere was very silent. There was no si
gn of life.

  William looked around, uneasily.

  ‘It is very quiet,’ he whispered.

  Even Alice, who had been so eager to arrive, hung back after climbing over the gate. They walked slowly towards the house in a tight little group.

  ‘I feel as though I’m being watched all the time,’ Mary whispered.

  ‘Maybe we should call Meg?’ Alice said. But she was reluctant to do so herself and hoped one of the others might take up her suggestion.

  They were almost at the door of the house before they discovered Meg’s cows and her sheep. They were penned up on a small area of grass, surrounded by a fence of wire netting. They seemed quite peaceful. The cows were sitting down, chewing rhythmically, and the sheep were grazing around them.

  Mary opened the front door. Two of the cats were fast asleep in the hall and one of Spot’s brothers was stretched out on the floor. He sat up suddenly, as they entered, then wagged his tail and crawled towards them when he saw who had arrived.

  ‘Hello? Meg?’ William called. There was no answer. He pushed open the kitchen door.

  The chaotic, cluttered room looked much as usual but Meg was not there. There was a strong smell that they couldn’t at first recognize.

  ‘Ugh! Paraffin!’ Mary said. ‘That stove Meg uses really stinks.’

  ‘There’s something wrong,’ William said and he hurried back to the front door. ‘Meg? Meg?’ he shouted. And then the girls saw him start to run across the field. ‘Meg?’

  ‘He’s seen something,’ Mary shouted and she also started to run in the same direction.

  They found Meg lying on the ground beside the track that led to the moor road. She was unconscious, but she was breathing. There was a terrible gash on the side of her head and it looked as though she had fallen and stunned herself.

  ‘What can we do?’ Alice said.

  ‘We must go for help,’ Mary said. She looked down the track. ‘It’s miles from here to the town. The nearest farm is the Jenkins’. We’d better go there . . .’

  The dog that had been shut in the house came running towards them, whining. He sniffed at Meg’s face and licked her. Meg stirred and groaned.