[72] Polly was not so frightened yet; but she soon was. For the very first thing Uncle Andrew did was to walk across to the door of the room, shut it, and turn the key in the lock. Then he turned round, fixed the children with his bright eyes, and smiled, showing all his teeth.
[73] “There!” he said. “Now my fool of a sister can’t get at you!”
[74] It was dreadfully unlike anything a grown-up would be expected to do. Polly’s heart came into her mouth, and she and Digory started backing towards the little door they had come in by. Uncle Andrew was too quick for them. He got behind them and shut that door too and stood in front of it. Then he rubbed his hands and made his knuckles crack. He had very long, beautifully white, fingers.
[75] “I am delighted to see you,” he said. “Two children are just what I wanted.”
[76] “Please, Mr Ketterley,” said Polly. “It’s nearly my dinner time and I’ve got to go home. Will you let us out, please?”
[77] “Not just yet,” said Uncle Andrew. “This is too good an opportunity to miss. I wanted two children. You see, I’m in the middle of a great experiment. I’ve tried it on a guinea-pig and it seemed to work. But then a guinea-pig can’t tell you anything. And you can’t explain to it how to come back.”
[78] “Look here, Uncle Andrew,” said Digory, “it really is dinner time and they’ll be looking for us in a moment. You must let us out.”
[79] “Must?” said Uncle Andrew.
[80] Digory and Polly glanced at one another. They dared not say anything, but the glances meant “Isn’t this dreadful?” and “We must humour him.”
[81] “If you let us go for our dinner now,” said Polly, “we could come back after dinner.”
[82] “Ah, but how do I know that you would?” said Uncle Andrew with a cunning smile. Then he seemed to change his mind.
[83] “Well, well,” he said, “if you really must go, I suppose you must. I can’t expect two youngsters like you to find it much fun talking to an old buffer like me.” He sighed and went on. “You’ve no idea how lonely I sometimes am. But no matter. Go to your dinner. But I must give you a present before you go. It’s not every day that I see a little girl in my dingy old study; especially, if I may say so, such a very attractive young lady as yourself.”
[84] Polly began to think he might not really be mad after all.
[85] “Wouldn’t you like a ring, my dear?” said Uncle Andrew to Polly.
[86] “Do you mean one of those yellow or green ones?” said Polly. “How lovely!”
[87] “Not a green one,” said Uncle Andrew. “I’m afraid I can’t give the green ones away. But I’d be delighted to give you any of the yellow ones: with my love. Come and try one on.”
[88] Polly had now quite got over her fright and felt sure that the old gentleman was not mad; and there was certainly something strangely attractive about those bright rings. She moved over to the tray.
[89] “Why! I declare,” she said. “That humming noise gets louder here. It’s almost as if the rings were making it.”
[90] “What a funny fancy, my dear,” said Uncle Andrew with a laugh. It sounded a very natural laugh, but Digory had seen an eager, almost a greedy, look on his face.
[91] “Polly! Don’t be a fool!” he shouted. “Don’t touch them.”
[92] It was too late. Exactly as he spoke, Polly’s hand went out to touch one of the rings. And immediately, without a flash or a noise or a warning of any sort, there was no Polly. Digory and his Uncle were alone in the room.
[93] CHAPTER TWO.
DIGORY AND HIS UNCLE
[94] IT was so sudden, and so horribly unlike anything that had ever happened to Digory even in a nightmare, that he let out a scream. Instantly Uncle Andrew’s hand was over his mouth. “None of that!” he hissed in Digory’s ear. “If you start making a noise your Mother’ll hear it. And you know what a fright might do to her.”
[95] As Digory said afterwards, the horrible meanness of getting at a chap in that way, almost made him sick. But of course he didn’t scream again.
[96] “That’s better,” said Uncle Andrew. “Perhaps you couldn’t help it. It is a shock when you first see someone vanish. Why, it gave even me a turn when the guinea-pig did it the other night.”
[97] “Was that when you yelled?” asked Digory.
[98] “Oh, you heard that, did you? I hope you haven’t been spying on me?”
[99] “No, I haven’t,” said Digory indignantly. “But what’s happened to Polly?”
[100] “Congratulate me, my dear boy,” said Uncle Andrew, rubbing his hands. “My experiment has succeeded. The little girl’s gone—vanished—right out of the world.”
[101] “What have you done to her?”
[102] “Sent her to—well—to another place.”
[103] “What do you mean?” asked Digory.
[104] Uncle Andrew sat down and said, “Well, I’ll tell you all about it. Have you ever heard of old Mrs Lefay?”
[105] “Wasn’t she a great-aunt or something?” said Digory.
[106] “Not exactly,” said Uncle Andrew. “She was my godmother. That’s her, there, on the wall.”
[107] Digory looked and saw a faded photograph: it showed the face of an old woman in a bonnet. And he could now remember that he had once seen a photo of the same face in an old drawer, at home, in the country. He had asked his Mother who it was and Mother had not seemed to want to talk about the subject much. It was not at all a nice face, Digory thought, though of course with those early photographs one could never really tell.
[108] “Was there—wasn’t there—something wrong about her, Uncle Andrew?” he asked.
[109] “Well,” said Uncle Andrew with a chuckle, “it depends what you call wrong. People are so narrow-minded. She certainly got very queer in later life. Did very unwise things. That was why they shut her up.”
[110] “In an asylum, do you mean?”
[111] “Oh no, no, no,” said Uncle Andrew in a shocked voice. “Nothing of that sort. Only in prison.”
[112] “I say!” said Digory. “What had she done?”
[113] “Ah, poor woman,” said Uncle Andrew. “She had been very unwise. There were a good many different things. We needn’t go into all that. She was always very kind to me.”
[114] “But look here, what has all this got to do with Polly? I do wish you’d—”
[115] “All in good time, my boy,” said Uncle Andrew. “They let old Mrs Lefay out before she died and I was one of the very few people whom she would allow to see her in her last illness. She had got to dislike ordinary, ignorant people, you understand. I do myself. But she and I were interested in the same sort of things.
[116] It was only a few days before her death that she told me to go to an old bureau in her house and open a secret drawer and bring her a little box that I would find there. The moment I picked up that box I could tell by the pricking in my fingers that I held some great secret in my hands. She gave it me and made me promise that as soon as she was dead I would burn it, unopened, with certain ceremonies. That promise I did not keep.”
72
Полли испугалась меньше, но и ей стало не по себе, когда дядя Эндрью молча прошел к дверям и запер их на ключ. После этого он повернулся к детям и оскалил свои острые зубы в улыбке.
74
Полли никогда не думала, что от взрослых можно ожидать такого, и душа у нее ушла в пятки. Они с Дигори попятились было к дверце, через которую попали в комнату,но дядя обогнал их – сначала запер дверь, а потом стал перед нею, и потер руки так, что его длинные белые пальцы затрещали.
75
– Очень рад вас видеть, – сказал он. – Двое детишек! Это как раз то, чего мне не хватало!
76
– Мистер Кеттерли, – сказала Полли, – мне пора обедать, меня дома ждут. Отпустите нас, пожалуйста.
77
– Со временем, – сказал дядя Эндрью. – Нельзя упускать такого случая. Мне не хватало именно двух детей. Видите ли, я ставлю уникальный опыт. С морской свинкой, видимо, получилось. Но что может рассказать свинка? И ей вдобавок не объяснишь, как вернуться.
78
– Дядя, – сказал Дигори, – нам правда обедать пора, нас искать станут. Вы должны нас отпустить.
83
– Отлично, – проговорил он, – надо так надо. На что нужен таким детям какой-то скучный старикашка. – Он вздохнул. – Если бы вы знали, как мне бывает одиноко. Да что там… Ладно, ступайте обедать. Только сначала я вам кое-что подарю. Не каждый день у меня бывают маленькие посетительницы, особенно такие симпатичные.
87
– Нет, зеленое нельзя, – сказал дядя, очень жаль, но зеленого я тебе подарить не могу. А вот желтое – всегда пожалуйста. Носи на здоровье. Ну, бери!
88
Полли перестала бояться, к тому же кольца и впрямь как-то завораживали, притягивали к себе. Она двинулась к ним.
90
– Что за странная мысль! – засмеялся дядя. Смех его звучал вполне естественно, а вот выражение дядиных глазок Дигори не понравилось.
92
Но было поздно. Не успел он договорить, как Полли коснулась одного колечка и сразу же, без единого звука, исчезла. Дигори остался наедине с дядей.
94
Случилось это так неожиданно, и так походило на страшный сон, что Дигори вскрикнул. Дядя Эндрью, зажимая ему рот рукой, прошипел: «Не смей!», и прибавил помягче: «Твоя мама услышит. Ей волноваться опасно».
95
Дигори потом говорил, что его просто затошнило от такой подлой уловки. Но кричать он, конечно, больше не стал.
96
– То-то же! – сказал дядя. – Ничего не поделаешь, всякий бы поразился. Я и сам удивлялся вчера, когда исчезла морская свинка.
100
– Поздравь меня, мой мальчик, – дядя Эндрью снова потер руки,
– опыт удался. Девочка исчезла. Сгинула. В этом мире ее больше нет.
104
– Что ж, я тебе объясню. – Дядя Эндрью опустился в кресло. Ты когда-нибудь слышал о миссис Лефэй?
107
На выцветшей фотографии Дигори увидел престарелую даму в чепчике. Такой же портрет, вспомнил он, лежал в комоде у него дома, и мама замялась, когда он спросил ее, кто на нем изображен. Лицо было не слишком приятное, но, может, виновата старая фотокарточка…
109
– Ну, – хихикнул дядя Эндрью, – все зависит от того, что считать хорошим. Люди очень узки, мой друг. Допустим, у нее были странности, были чудачества. Иначе ее не посадили бы.
113
– Бедняжка! – вздохнул дядя. – Ей чуть-чуть не хватало благоразумия. Но не будем вдаваться в подробности. Ко мне она всегда была добра.
115
– Всему свое время, мой друг, – сказал дядя. – После того, как миссис Лефэй выпустили, она почти никого не хотела видеть. Я был среди тех немногих, кого она продолжала принимать. Понимаешь, во время последней болезни ее стали раздражать ординарные, скучные люди. Собственно, они раздражают и меня. Кроме того, у нас были с ней общие интересы.
116
За несколько дней до смерти она велела мне открыть тайничок в ее шкафу и принести ей маленькую шкатулку. Стоило мне взять ее в руки, и я прямо затрясся, почувствовав тайну. Крестная приказала не открывать ее, а сжечь, с известными церемониями. Разумеется, я ее не послушался.