i
it will be always difficult to understand what drove jeremy into this adventure. that on the very last night but one of his christmas holidays, when he had every good reason for placating the powers and when he did, of his own nature, desire that he should leave everything behind him in the odour of sanctity, that at such a time he should take so wild and unnecessary a risk will always and for ever be a deep mystery.
the end of these holidays he especially desired to clothe in tranquillity because of the painful manner in which they had begun. he really did wish to live at peace with his fellow men, and especially with his mother and father. his mother was easy, but his father!
how were they ever to see the same way about anything? and yet he detected in himself a strange pathetic desire to be liked by his father and himself to like in return; had he only known it, his father felt precisely the same towards himself—but the gulf of two generations was between them.
indeed, on that very morning mr. cole had had a conversation with his brother-in-law samuel about his son jeremy. mr. cole was never at ease with his brother-in-law. he distrusted artists in general—his idea was that they were wasting the time that god had given them—and he distrusted his brother-in-law in particular because he thought that he often laughed at him, which indeed he often did.
“i’m unhappy about jeremy,” he said, looking at samuel’s blue smock with dissatisfaction. he did wish that samuel wouldn’t wear his painting clothes at breakfast-time.
“why?” asked samuel.
“i don’t think the boy’s improving. school seems to be doing him no good.”
“take him away, then,” said samuel.
“really,” said mr. cole, “i wish you wouldn’t joke about these things. he must go to school.”
“send him to another school if this one isn’t satisfactory.”
“no. thompson’s is a good school. i’m afraid it’s in the boy, not the school, that the fault lies.”
samuel trefusis said nothing.
“well, don’t you see what i mean about the boy?” mr. cole asked irritably.
“no, i don’t. i think the boy perfectly delightful. i don’t as a rule like boys. in fact, i detest them. i’ve come slowly to jeremy, but now i’m quite conquered by him. he’s a baby in many ways still, of course, but he has extraordinary perceptions, is brave, honest, amusing and delightful to look at.”
“honest,” said mr. cole gloomily, “that’s just what i’m not sure about. that affair of the money at the beginning of the holidays.”
“really, herbert,” samuel broke in indignantly, “if you’ll allow me to say so—and even if you won’t—you were wrong in that affair from first to last. you never gave the boy a chance. you concluded he was guilty from the first moment. the boy thought he had a right to the money. you bullied and scolded him until he was terrified, and then wanted him to apologize. twenty years from now parents will have learnt something about their children—the children are going to teach them. your one idea of bringing up jeremy is to forbid him to do everything that his natural instincts urge him to do.
“he is a perfectly healthy, affectionate, decent boy. he’ll do you credit, but it won’t be your merit if he does. it will be in spite of what you’ve done—not because of it.”
mr. cole was deeply shocked.
“really, samuel, this is going too far. as you’ve challenged me, i may say that i’ve noticed, and amy also has noticed, that you’re doing the boy no good by petting him as you are. it’s largely because you are always inviting the boy into that studio of yours and encouraging him in the strangest ideas that he has grown as independent as he has. i don’t think you’re a wholesome influence for the boy. i don’t indeed.”
samuel’s face closed like a box. he was very angry. he would have liked, as he would have liked on many other occasions, to say, “very well, then, i leave your house in the next five minutes,” but he was lazy, had very little money, and adored the town, so he simply shrugged his shoulders.
“you can forbid him to speak to me if you like,” he said.
mr. cole was afraid of his brother-in-law, so all he said was: “i shall write to thompson about him.”
ii
meanwhile this awful adventure had suddenly leaped up in front of jeremy like a jack-in-the-box. like many of the most daring adventures, its origin was simple. four days earlier there had been a children’s afternoon party at the dean’s. the dean’s children’s parties were always dreary affairs because of mrs. dean’s neuralgia and because the dean thought that his share of the affair was over when he had poked his head into the room where they were having tea, patted one or two innocents on the head (they became instantly white with self-consciousness), and then said in a loud, generous voice: “well, my friends, enjoying yourselves? that’s right”—after which he returned to his study. the result of this was that his guests were as sheep without a shepherd. the dean’s children were too young to do much, and the girls’ governess too deeply agitated by her fancy that children’s parents were staring at her arrogantly to pull herself together and be amiable. it was during one of those catch-as-catch-can intervals, when children were desultorily wandering, boys sticking pins into stout feminine calves, girls sniggering in secret conclave together, infants howling to be taken home, that jeremy overheard bill bartlett say to the dean’s ernest: “i dare you!”
jeremy pricked up his ears at once. anything in which the dean’s ernest (his foe of foes) was concerned incited him to rivalry. he was terribly bored by the party; not only was it a bad, dull party, but ever since his first real evening ball children’s afternoon parties had seemed to him stupid and without reason.
“i don’t care,” said the dean’s ernest.
“i dare you,” repeated bill bartlett.
“i’m not frightened,” said ernest.
“then do it,” said bill.
“you’ve got to come too.”
“pooh!” said bill, “that’s nothing. i’ve done lots more than that.”
ernest quite plainly disliked the prospect of his daring, and, catching sight of jeremy, he shifted his ground.
“young cole wouldn’t dare,” he said.
“yes, he would,” said bartlett; “he dares more than you dare.”
“no, he doesn’t,” said the dean’s ernest indignantly.
“yes, he does.”
“you dare more than sampson dares, don’t you, cole?” said bill.
“of course i do,” said jeremy, without a moment’s hesitation.
“well, do it then,” said the dean’s ernest swiftly.
it appeared on further examination that bartlett had dared young sampson to walk round the cathedral twice just as the clocks were striking midnight. it was obvious at once that this involved quite terrifying dangers. apart altogether from the ghostly prospect of walking round the cathedral at midnight, there was the escape from the house, the danger of the police and the return to the house. jeremy saw at once all that was involved, but because the dean’s ernest was there and staring at him from under his pale eyebrows with arrogant contempt, he said at once:
“i dare.”
tommy winchester, who was complaining bitterly about the food provided, was soon drawn into the challenge, and although his stout cheeks quivered at the prospect (major winchester, his father, was the sternest of disciplinarians) he had to say: “i dare.”
details were then settled. it was to be three nights from that day; they were to meet just outside the west door as the clock struck twelve, to walk or run twice round the cathedral, and then find their way home again.
“i bet young cole doesn’t come,” jeremy heard ernest say loudly to bill as they parted.
of course after that he would go, but when he reached home and considered it he was miserable. to end the holidays with such a risk truly appalled him. from every point of view it was madness. even though he escaped through the pantry window (he knew that he could push up the catch and then drop into the garden without difficulty), there was all the danger of his absence being discovered while he was away. then there was the peril of a policeman finding them and reporting them; then there was the return, with the climb back into the pantry and the noisy crawl (you never knew when a board was going to creak) back into his room again. he had no illusion at all as to what would happen if his father caught him: that would simply sign and seal his disgrace once and for ever. but worse—far worse to him—was what uncle samuel would feel. uncle samuel had simply been wonderful to him during these holidays. he adored uncle samuel. uncle samuel had, as it were, “banked” on his honour and integrity, when all the rest of the world doubted it. uncle samuel loved him and believed in him. he had a momentary passionate impulse to go to uncle samuel and tell him everything. but he knew what the consequence of that must be; uncle samuel would persuade him not to go, would, indeed, make him give his word that he would not go; then for ever would he be disgraced in the eyes of bill bartlett, tommy winchester and the others, and the dean’s ernest would certainly never allow him to hear the last of it. it was possible that the others would fail at the final moment and would not be there, but he must be there. yes, he must, he must—even though death and torture awaited him as the consequence of his going.
had he not trusted bartlett he might have thought the whole thing a plot on the part of the dean’s ernest to put him into a dangerous position, but bartlett was a friend of his and the challenge was genuine.
as the dreadful hour approached he became more and more miserable. everyone noticed his depression, and thought it was because he was going back to school. aunt amy was quite touched.
“never mind, jeremy dear,” she said; “it will soon be over. the weeks will pass, and then you will be home with us again. it won’t seem so bad when you’re there.”
he said, “no, aunt amy,” quite mildly. one of the worst things was deceiving his mother. she had not played so great a part in his life since his going to school, but she was always there, quiet and sensible and kind, helping him about his clothes, soothing him when he was angry, understanding him when he was sad, laughing with him when he was happy, comfortable and consoling always; like uncle samuel, believing in him. he remembered still with the utmost vividness the terror that he had been in two years ago, when she had nearly died just after barbara’s arrival. because she was so safely there he did not think much about her, but when a crisis came, when things were difficult at school, she was always the first person who came to his mind.
the evening arrived, and as he went up to bed his teeth positively chattered. it seemed a fine night, but very dark, he thought, as he looked out through the landing window. hamlet gaily followed him upstairs. he was only now recovering from the terrific fight that he had had a week or so ago with the poodle, and one of his ears was still badly torn and he limped a little on one foot. nevertheless, he was in high spirits and gambolled all the way up the stairs, suddenly stopping to bark under the landing window, as he always did when he was in high spirits, chasing an imaginary piece of paper all the way up the last flight of stairs, and pausing outside jeremy’s bedroom door, panting and heaving, his tongue hanging out and a wicked look of pleasure in his sparkling eyes.
here indeed was a new problem. hamlet! what would happen if he suddenly awoke, discovered his master’s absence, and began to bark? or suppose that he awoke when jeremy was leaving his room, and determined to follow him? jeremy, at these thoughts, felt his spirits sink even lower than they had been before. how could he in this thing escape disaster? he was like a man doomed. he hated the dean’s ernest at that moment with a passion that had very little of the child in it.
he took off his coat and trousers and climbed into bed. hamlet jumped up, moved round and round for some moments, scratching and sniffing as he always did until he had found a place to his mind; then, with a little contented sigh, curled up and went to sleep. jeremy lay there with beating heart. he heard half-past nine strike from st. john’s, then ten, then half-past. for a little while he slept, then awoke with a start to hear it strike eleven. no sound in the house save hamlet’s regular snores. a new figure leapt in front of him. the policeman! a terrible giant of a man, with a great stick and a huge lantern.
“what are you doing here, little boy?” he cried. “come with me to the police station!”
jeremy shivered beneath the bedclothes. perspiration beaded his forehead, and his legs gave curious little jerks from the knees downwards as though they had a life of their own with which he had nothing to do.
half-past eleven struck. very carefully he got out of bed, watching hamlet out of the corner of his eye, put on his coat, his trousers and his boots, stole to the door and paused. hamlet was still snoring peacefully. he crept out, then remembered that to do this properly one must take off one’s boots and carry them in one’s hand. too late now for that. downstairs he went; at every creak he paused; the house was like a closed box around him. from some room far away came loud, impatient snores. once he stumbled and nearly fell; he stayed there, his hands on the banisters, a dead man save for the beating of his heart.
his hand was on the pantry window, he had pushed back the catch, climbed through, and in another moment was in the garden.
iii
it was a very dark night. the garden gate creaked behind him as though accusing him of his wicked act; the darkness was so thick that you had to push against it as though it were a wall.
at first he ran, then the whole world seemed to run after him, trees, houses and all, so he stopped and walked slowly. the world seemed gigantic; he was not as yet conscious of fear, but only suspicious of the presence of that gigantic policeman taking step with him, inch by inch, flicking his dark lantern, now here, now there, rising like a jack-in-the-box suddenly above the trees and peering down upon him.
then, when for the moment he left the houses behind him and began to walk up green lane towards the cathedral, his heart failed him. how horrible the trees were! all shapes and sizes; towers of castles, masts of ships, animals, pigs and hens and lions blowing a little in the night breezes, becking and bowing above him, holding out horrible, long, skinny fingers towards him, sometimes closing in upon him, then moving, fan-wise, out again. in fact, he was now completely miserable. with the dreadful finality of childhood he saw himself as condemned for life. by this time hamlet, having discovered his absence, had barked the house awake. already, perhaps, with lanterns they had started to search for him. the awful moment of discovery would come. even uncle samuel would abandon him; nobody would ever be kind to him again.
at this point it was all that he could do to keep back the tears. his teeth were chattering, he had a crick in his back, he was very cold, the heel of one shoe rubbed his foot. and he was frightened! bet your life but he was frightened! he hadn’t known that it would be like this, so silent and yet so full of sound, so dark and yet so light and alive with strange quivering lights, so cold and yet so warm with an odd, pressing heat! there were no lamps lit in the town below him (all lights out at ten o’clock in the polchester of thirty years ago), and the cathedral loomed up before him a heavy black mass, threatening to fall upon him like the mountain in the bible. now the trees were coming to an end—here was a house and there another. a light in one window, but, for the rest, the houses quite dead like coffins. he came into bodger street, past the funny old-fashioned turnstile that led into canon’s yard over the cobble-stones of that ancient square, through the turnstile at the other end and into the precincts. he was there! shivering and frightened, but there! he had kept his word.
as he crossed the grass a figure moved forward from the shadow of the cathedral and came to meet him. it was tommy winchester. it immensely cheered jeremy to see him; it also cheered him to see that if he was frightened tommy was a great deal more so. tommy’s teeth were chattering so that he could scarcely speak, but he managed to say that it was beastly cold, and that he had upset a jug of water getting out of his bedroom, and that a dog had barked at him all the way along the precincts, and that he was sure his father would beat him. they were joined a moment later by another shivering mortal, bartlett. a more unhappy trio never met together in the world’s history. they were too miserable for conversation, but simply stood huddled together under the great buttress by the west door and waited for the clock to strike.
the only thing that bartlett said was: “i bet sampson doesn’t come!” at that jeremy’s heart gave a triumphant leap. how splendid it would be if the dean’s ernest funked it! of course he would funk it, and would have some long story about his door being closed or having a headache, some lie or other!
nevertheless, they strained their eyes across the dark wavering lake of the precincts watching for him.
“i’m so cold,” tommy said through his chattering teeth. then suddenly, as though struck by a gun: “i’m going to sneeze!”
and he did sneeze, an awful shattering, devastating sound with which the cathedral, and indeed the whole town, seemed to shake. that was an awful moment. the boys stood, holding their breath, waiting for all the black houses to open their doors and all the townsmen to turn out in their nightshirts with lanterns (just as they do in the meistersinger, although that, of course, the boys did not know) crying: “who’s that who sneezed? where did the sneeze come from? what was that sneeze?”
nothing happened save that, the silence was more awful than before. then there was a kind of whirring noise above their heads, a moment’s pause, and the great cathedral clock began to strike midnight.
“now,” said bartlett, “we’ve got to walk or run round the cathedral twice.”
he was off, and tommy and jeremy after him.
jeremy was a good runner, but this was like no race that he had ever engaged in before. as he ran the notes boomed out above his head and the high shadow of the great building seemed to catch his feet and hold him. he could not see, and, as before, when he ran the rest of the world seemed to run with him, so that he was always pausing to hear whether anyone were moving with him or no.
then quite suddenly he was alone, and frightened as he had never in his life been before; no, not when the horrible sea captain had woken him in the middle of the night, not when he thought that god had killed hamlet, not when he had first been tossed in a blanket at thompson’s, not when he had first played second-half in a real game and had to lie down and let ten boys kick the ball from under him!
his body was turned to water. he could not move. the shadows were so vast around him, the ground wavered beneath his feet, the trees on the slopes below the cathedral all nodded as though they knew that terrible things would soon happen to him—and there was no sound anywhere. what he wanted was to creep close to the cathedral, clutch the stone walls, and stay there. that was what he nearly did, and if he had done it he would have been there, i believe, until this very day. then he remembered the dean’s ernest who had been too frightened to come, he remembered that he had been “dared” to run round the cathedral twice, and that he had only as yet run half round it once. his stockings were down over his ankles, both his boots now hurt him, he had lost his cap; he summoned all the pluck that there was in his soul and body combined and ran on.
when he had finished his first round and was back by the west door again, there was no sign of the other two boys. he paused desperately for breath; then, as though pursued by all the evil spirits of the night, started again. this time it did not seem so long. he shut his ears to all possible sound, refused to think, and the physical pain of the stitch in his side and his two rubbed heels kept him from grosser fear. then, just as he completed the second round, the most awful thing happened. a figure, an enormous figure it seemed to poor jeremy, rose out of the ground, a figure with flapping wings; a great light was flashed in the air; a strange, high voice screamed aloud. the figure moved towards him. that was enough for his courage. as though death itself were behind him, he took to his heels, tore across the grass, plunged through the stile into parson’s yard.
the little shadow had been like a curve of wind on the grass. high in the air rose the cry:
“a windy night and all clear! a windy night and all clear!” and the night-watchman, his thoughts upon the toasted cheese that would in another half-hour be his reward, pressed round the corner of the cathedral.
iv
and jeremy ran on! how he ran! he stumbled, nearly fell, recovered himself, felt no pain in his legs or side, only fear, fear, fear! as he ran he was saying:
“i must get back! oh, i must get back! i must be home. . . . i must get back!” and did not know that he was saying anything at all.
then suddenly in the middle of grass lane he recovered himself and stood. how still and quiet everything was! a few stars were breaking through the clouds. the rustling of the trees now was friendly and reassuring, and there was a soft undertone in the air as though a thousand streams were running beneath his feet.
he stood, panting, loving to feel the stroke of the little wind against his hot cheek. what was that that had frightened him? whom could it have been?
but gradually the centre of interest was shifting. the past was the past. he had done what he had said he would do. now for the future. he shivered as it came to him in its full force, then squared his shoulders and marched on. he would meet whatever it might be, and anyway he was going to school the day after to-morrow. . . .
time moved quickly then. he was soon passing the high school, the world completely dead now on every side of him; then there was his old friend the monument; then the row of houses in which his own home stood. he closed the garden gate very carefully behind him, stole up the path, found the ledge stone below the pantry window, then felt for the ledge.
his heart ceased to beat: the catch was fastened. someone, then, had discovered his absence! the house seemed to be dark and silent enough, but they were lying in wait for him inside!
well, he was going on with it now. all that he wanted was the quiet and comfort of his room and to be warm and cosy again in bed. he was suddenly quite horribly tired. he pushed with his fingers between the ledges and found then that the catch was not securely fastened after all. the upper part of the window suddenly jerked upwards, moving awkwardly and with a creaking noise that he had not known before. he pulled himself on to the window-ledge, then very carefully let himself down on the other side. the first thing that he knew was that his feet touched a chair, and there had been no chair there before; then, that his fingers were rubbing against the corner of a table!
he was not in their own pantry, he was not in their own house! he had climbed in through the wrong window! and even as he realized this and moved in an agony of alarm back to climb out of the window again, his arm brushed the table again, he pushed something, and with the noise of the niagara falls a thousand times emphasized echoing in his ears, the china of all the pantries of heaven fell clattering to the ground.
v
after that things happened quickly. a light instantly cleaved the darkness, and he saw an open door, a candle held aloft, and the strangest figure holding it. at the same time a deep voice said:
“stand just where you are! move another step and i fire!”
“don’t fire, please,” said jeremy. “it’s only me!”
the figure confronting him was a woman’s. it was, in fact, quite easily to be recognized as that of miss lisbeth mackenzie, who had lived next door to the coles for years and years and years—ever since, in fact, jeremy could remember—and waged, like betsy trotwood, incessant warfare on boys, butchers and others who walked across her lawn, whose only merit had been that she hated aunt amy, and told her so. she was an eccentric old woman, eccentric in manners, in habits and appearance, but surely never in her life had she looked so eccentric as she did now. with her white hair piled untidily on her head, her old face of a crow pallid behind her hooked and piercing nose, over her nightdress she had hurriedly gathered her bed-quilt—a coat, like joseph’s, of many and varied colours—and on her feet were white woollen stockings.
in the hand that did not hold the candle she flourished a pistol that, even to jeremy’s unaccustomed and childish eyes, was undoubtedly a very old and dusty one.
they must have been a queer couple to behold had there been any third person there to behold them: the small boy, dishevelled, hatless, his collar burst, his stockings down over his ankles, and the old woman in her patchwork quilt. miss mackenzie, having expected to behold a hirsute and ferocious burglar, was considerably surprised. she held the candle closer, then exclaimed:
“why, you’re a little cole from next door.”
“yes,” said jeremy. “i thought this was our pantry and it was yours. wait a minute. i’m going to sneeze.” this he did, and then hurried on breathlessly: “please let me go now and i’ll come in to-morrow and explain everything and pay for the cups and saucers. but i don’t want them to know that i’ve been out.”
“here, pick the bits up at once,” she said, “or somebody will be cutting themselves. it’s just like that maid, having it out on the table. that settles it. she shall leave to-morrow.”
she put down the candle and pistol on the table, and then watched him while he picked up the pieces. they were not very many.
“and now please may i go?” said jeremy again. “i didn’t mean to come into your house. i didn’t really. i’ll explain everything to-morrow.”
“no, you won’t,” said miss mackenzie grimly. “you’ll explain here and now. that’s a pretty thing to come breaking into somebody’s house after midnight, and then thinking you can go out just as easily as you came in. . . . you can sit down,” she said as a kind of afterthought, pointing to a chair.
“it isn’t anything really,” said jeremy very quickly. “i mean that it isn’t anything you need mind. they dared me to run round the cathedral twice when the clock struck twelve, and i did it, and ran home and climbed into your house by mistake.”
“who’s they?” asked miss mackenzie, gathering her quilt more closely about her.
“bill bartlett and ernest sampson,” he said, as though that must tell her everything. “the dean’s son, you know; and i don’t like him, so when he dares me to anything i must do it, you see.”
“i don’t see at all,” said miss mackenzie. “it was a very wicked and silly thing to do. there are plenty of people i don’t like, but i don’t run round the cathedral just to please them.”
“oh, i didn’t run round it to please him!” jeremy said indignantly. “i don’t want to please him, of course. but he said that i wouldn’t do it and he would, whereas, as a matter of fact, i did and he didn’t.”
“as a matter of fact,” picked up from the drawing-room, was just then a very favourite phrase of his.
“well, you’ll get it hot from your father,” said miss mackenzie, “when he knows about it.”
“oh, but perhaps he won’t know,” said jeremy eagerly. “the house looks all dark, and perhaps hamlet didn’t wake up.”
“hamlet?” repeated miss mackenzie.
“yes; that’s my dog.”
“oh, that hateful dog that sometimes looks through the railings into my garden as though he would like to come in and tear up all my flowers. he’d better try, that’s all.”
“he isn’t hateful,” said jeremy. “he’s a splendid dog. he had a fight a little while ago, and was nearly killed, but he didn’t care. he just grinned.”
“he won’t grin if i get hold of him,” said miss mackenzie. “now what are you going to do about it when your father knows you’ve been out like this?”
“oh, he mustn’t know!” said jeremy. “you’re not going to tell him, are you?”
“of course i am,” said miss mackenzie. “i can’t have little boys climbing into my house after midnight and then do nothing about it!”
“oh, please, please!” said jeremy. “don’t do anything this time. i promise never to do it again. it would be dreadful if father knew. it’s so important that the holidays should end well. they began so badly. you won’t tell him, will you?”
“of course i will,” said miss mackenzie. “first thing in the morning. i shall ask him to whip you and to allow me to be present during the ceremony. there’s nothing that i love like seeing little boys whipped—especially naughty little boys.”
for a moment jeremy thought that she meant it. then he caught sight of her twinkling eye.
“no, you won’t,” he said confidently. “you’re just trying to frighten me. but i’m not frightened. i go back to school day after to-morrow, so they can’t do much anyway.”
“if i let you off,” she said, “you’ve got to promise me something. you’ve got to promise me that you’ll come and read to me twice every day during next holidays!”
“oh, lord!”
jeremy couldn’t be quite sure whether she meant it or not. how awful if she did mean it! still, a bargain was a bargain. he looked at her carefully. she seemed very old. she might die before next holidays.
“all right,” he said; “i promise. i don’t read very well, you know.”
“all the better practice for you,” she answered. her eye mysteriously twinkled above the bed-quilt.
she let him go then, even assisting him from behind out of the pantry window. he had a look and a smile at her before he dropped on the other side. she looked so queer, with her crabbed face and untidy hair, under the jumping candle. she nodded to him grimly.
soon he was at his own window and through it. not a sound in the house. he crept up the stairs. the same wild snore met him, rumbling like the sleeping soul of the house. everything the same. to him all those terrors and alarms, and they had slept as though it had been one moment of time.
he opened his own door. hamlet’s even, whining breathing met him. not much of a watchdog. never mind. how tired he was! how tired! he flung off his clothes, stood for a moment to feel the cold air on his naked body, then his nightshirt was over his head.
the bed was lovely, lovely, lovely. only as he sank down a silver slope into a sea of red and purple leaves a thought went sliding with him. the dean’s ernest had funked it! the dean’s ernest had funked it! let us never forget! let us . . . plunk!
