“I am in fact.”
Newman smiled.
“And how is it that you’ve come here, my boy? Have you truly been so lucky as to have eluded capture thus far?”
Newman nodded again. “I came hither to meet you. But I fear that it won’t be long before I am taken. The man who fell upon the deadly snake did so because I smote him in the head with a paperweight.”
The elderly Mr. Rugg could not help grinning. There were wrinkles upon his face that disappeared altogether and new ones that were formed in the upsweep of his amused lips.
“Caldwell, no doubt. I hear that he and his men have been looking for you.”
“People tell you things?”
“I have ears. I have played the doddering fool for quite some time now but I am a very perceptive listener. Now boy, I do not wish to alarm you but there has not been for a great many years even a single immigrant from Dingley Dell — besides myself, of course — who has survived outside our beloved valley for more than a few days. You see, they have got very good — these Tiadaghton people — very good at tracking you all down and disposing of you in the most clean and efficient manner possible. But what you have accomplished, my boy — most exceptional! A capital thing! Yet you’re right in assuming that it only increases the likelihood of your capture now. They are a cold-hearted bunch, the Enforcers. Why, the Chlamydoraurus kingii over there has warmer blood running through its veins than do the members of that league of determined assassins.”
Newman sat himself down upon an empty folding chair situated next to the old man. “Why haven’t you returned?” he asked his frail companion. “You are only a short journey away.”
The old man took his horny and knotted hand and laid it gently upon Newman’s head.“There is too much here in the Outland that appeals to me, that enchains my intellectual interest. It has quite spoilt me, I am ashamed to admit. I have the best of both worlds, you know — living amongst the Beyonders but comforted in the knowledge that my homeland lies nestled so very close by. I think that I should like to go home to die when my time is come. Which might come soon. But not this moment.”
“There is someone who keeps one foot here and the other in Dingley Dell. Do you know her? She’s a nurse.”
“Ruth Wolf. Ah, yes. There is a secret society she has formed — the ‘Rescuers’ they are informally called — she and a few others. They return to Dingley Dell those who have escaped before any harm can be done to them by the likes of Caldwell and his band of gorilla Enforcers. It is quite the meritorious cause they have taken up, and I commend their efforts, but they have, to my knowledge, succeeded only six or seven times since their mission began.”
“But alas, Mr. Rugg, all who have returned to Dingley Dell have been taken with that disease which puts them away in Bedlam. I believe that it is called the ‘Terror Tremens.’”
“What disease is this? I know of no such disease. Do you see me shrinking with unremitted terror?”
Newman shook his head.
“It must be a means by which to secure their silence. Pray, do not let them diagnose you as such when you return home!”
“I shan’t let them!” said a very determined Newman Trimmers with a violent shake of the head.
“If I were you, my boy, I would go with Nurse Wolf. I would let her take me home. You will die if you remain on the outside, especially after what you did to the venomous Mr. Caldwell. Now I know that the lovely Rescuer Miss Carpenter who sits behind the cash register in the north building of this place — I know that she is secretly aligned with the rescuing Miss Wolf. And I have no doubt that she has already telephoned Miss Wolf to tell her of your newly discovered whereabouts and what it is that you have done — such a brave young lad you are! — and I suspect that Miss Wolf is already making her way to the Reptilarium. The question is what to do with you betweenwhiles. I take it that I have convinced you to rendezvous with this woman?”
“Yes. I wish most earnestly to go home and be reunited with my family.”
“Smart lad. Now let me think. Soon there will be a number of men— both representatives of the local constabulary and those thugs who do the dirty business of the Tiadaghton Project — who will be combing every inch of this place looking for you. The trick will be to put you in touch with Miss Wolf and only Miss Wolf.”
As the man sat and thought and gently stroked the white stubble upon his infrequently shorn chin, Newman took a breath to ask, “What is the Tiadaghton Project?”
“It is the very reason for there being a Dingley Dell. I haven’t time to tell it all to you and there is much that I do not know or scarcely care to know. But I do know that they have evolved into a ruthless, diabolical bunch and you are right to go with Miss Wolf to escape their murderous clutches. I will say this much, as welclass="underline" they are in control of all that goes on in the Dell of Dingley. Tiadaghton is the name of the manipulating machine that pulls the marionette’s strings. Now, where to put you, where to put you? Ah!”
Mr. Rugg’s eyes grew large within their sockets and his face broke into a wide grin, which attenuated his thin white lips. “Bubbles is feeling much better now and is due to be returned to her permanent habitat by tomorrow. But for to-day, she should be a most suitable companion for you.”
“Bubbles?”
“The most docile Boa constrictor you will ever meet. And one of the world’s largest: over fourteen feet in length. She’s in that very cage over there.” Mr. Rugg pointed to a large cage across the room. “Bubbles likes to curl herself in the front and would block any view of you were you to place yourself in the back of her temporary domicile.”
“You mean that I am to climb into her cage?”
“Aye.”
Newman said nothing else. He knew not at that moment just how it should feel to be sharing so small a space with so very large a snake, no matter how docile she should be.
“It is the perfect place to put you, Newman. And I will go and tell Miss Wolf where you are so that she can come and get you when the coast is clear.”
Newman thought about this and then said in a small and reedy voice— not at all the sort of voice befitting a bluff and manly explorer of the Outland: “What if I were to remain a bit longer here in the Terra Incognita?”
“But did I not hear you to say that you wished to go home to your family?”
“Yes, but what if for a little while longer I were to stay on the Outside, and could do so by taking myself far from this place to some other place where there are not people who are looking for me so that they should kill me?”
“My, but are you not the conflicted little man! Not unlike my own adventurous younger self. My boy, I regret to inform you that there are agents of the T-Project throughout the world. You cannot escape their reach no matter how hard you try. I warrant that you will spend your final days skirting shadows and jumping at noises that are made behind you until that last one, which will auger the end of you. It is no way to live. I should know, for I lived in the very same way until such time as it was decided that I was merely a raving fool who could do no one harm. Besides, they were much more lenient with escaped Dinglians in those early days. At worst, they placed us into the state mental institution where I myself have been interned more than once. There is an additional advantage to my case, in that most of these Beyonders think that I do not come from Dingley Dell at all, but have merely created that history for myself from the bits I have heard about it over the years, to give myself a colourful ‘character.’ You are young and have many, many good years ahead of you, and I would not wish to see you forfeit them in such a foolhardy way. Therefore, do as I advise: go with Miss Wolf when the time comes. But first, let us get you into Bubbles’ cage. We have chatted far too long and I am growing concerned that we won’t be alone for much longer. Bubbles will like you, and she will be especially fond of you if you come bearing a dead rabbit or two to reward her rejuvenated appetite.”