The Magic City | Page 8

narrow ledges made hold for feet and hands. Philip remembered Jack
and the Beanstalk, and looked up longingly; but the ladder was a very
very long one. On the other hand, it was the only thing that seemed to
lead anywhere, and he had had enough of standing lonely in the grassy
prairie, where he seemed to have been for a very long time indeed. So
he put his hands and feet to the ladder and began to go up. It was a very
long climb. There were three hundred and eight steps, for he counted
them. And the steps were only on one side of the ladder, so he had to be
extremely careful. On he went, up and on, on and up, till his feet ached
and his hands felt as though they would drop off for tiredness. He could
not look up far, and he dared not look down at all. There was nothing
for it but to climb and climb and climb, and at last he saw the ground
on which the ladder rested--a terrace hewn in regular lines, and, as it
seemed, hewn from the solid rock. His head was level with the ground,
now his hands, now his feet. He leaped sideways from the ladder and
threw himself face down on the ground, which was cold and smooth
like marble. There he lay, drawing deep breaths of weariness and relief.
There was a great silence all about, which rested and soothed, and
presently he rose and looked around him. He was close to an archway
with very thick pillars, and he went towards it and peeped cautiously in.
It seemed to be a great gate leading to an open space, and beyond it he
could see dim piles that looked like churches and houses. But all was

deserted; the moonlight and he had the place, whatever it was, to
themselves.
'I suppose every one's in bed,' said Philip, and stood there trembling a
little, but very curious and interested, in the black shadow of the
strange arch.
CHAPTER II
DELIVERER OR DESTROYER
Philip stood in the shadow of the dark arch and looked out. He saw
before him a great square surrounded by tall irregular buildings. In the
middle was a fountain whose waters, silver in the moonlight, rose and
fell with gentle plashing sound. A tall tree, close to the archway, cast
the shadow of its trunk across the path--a broad black bar. He listened,
listened, listened, but there was nothing to listen to, except the deep
night silence and the changing soft sound the fountain made.
His eyes, growing accustomed to the dimness, showed him that he was
under a heavy domed roof supported on large square pillars--to the
right and left stood dark doors, shut fast.
'I will explore these doors by daylight,' he said. He did not feel exactly
frightened. But he did not feel exactly brave either. But he wished and
intended to be brave, so he said, 'I will explore these doors. At least I
think I will,' he added, for one must not only be brave but truthful.
And then suddenly he felt very sleepy. He leaned against the wall, and
presently it seemed that sitting down would be less trouble, and then
that lying down would be more truly comfortable. A bell from very
very far away sounded the hour, twelve. Philip counted up to nine, but
he missed the tenth bell-beat, and the eleventh and the twelfth as well,
because he was fast asleep cuddled up warmly in the thick quilted
dressing-gown that Helen had made him last winter. He dreamed that
everything was as it used to be before That Man came and changed
everything and took Helen away. He was in his own little bed in his
own little room in their own little house, and Helen had come to call

him. He could see the sunlight through his closed eyelids--he was
keeping them closed just for the fun of hearing her try to wake him, and
presently he would tell her he had been awake all the time, and they
would laugh together about it. And then he awoke, and he was not in
his soft bed at home but on the hard floor of a big, strange gate-house,
and it was not Helen who was shaking him and saying, 'Here--I say,
wake up, can't you,' but a tall man in a red coat; and the light that
dazzled his eyes was not from the sun at all, but from a horn lantern
which the man was holding close to his face.
'What's the matter?' said Philip sleepily.
'That's the question,' said the man in red. 'Come along to the
guard-room and give an account of yourself, you young shaver.'
He took Philip's ear