CHAPTER XII
_The Goblin's Heath_
The Goblin's Heath, with its little crouching bushes and heather-cladhillocks, looked very beautiful in the moonlight. Here and there a treerising up from the low bushes around it stood out clearly against thenight sky. Toward the nearest big tree Jack and Molly made their way.It was a giant of a tree, with great gnarled trunk, and plenty of roomamong its lower branches for a little girl and boy to curl up and restcomfortably and safely, screened by its thick curtain of leaves.
Once they were safely hidden in the tree, Jack and Molly had time totalk matters over. They decided to stay where they were until daylight,when they could continue their search. They talked and planned forsome time, and then, as their excitement wore off a little, they beganto get very sleepy. Everything seemed quiet and still around them,but they would take no more risks that night, so decided to sleepin turns--one keeping watch, and waking the other up at certainintervals, or if anything happened in the meantime. They had no ideawhat the time was, so they arranged their intervals by the moon. Whenthe moon reached a certain place, Jack, who undertook the first watch(protesting that he wasn't tired), was to wake Molly up. So Molly wentto sleep, after making Jack promise that he would wake her up if sheshowed any signs of falling out of the tree. Jack had a hard struggleto keep awake at first, but he managed it somehow, and after Molly hadwoken up and taken a turn at watching, and he had had a short, soundsleep, he felt much refreshed.
The time wore on and Jack was just starting his second watch, and Mollyhad fallen asleep again, when he heard a long rustle in one of thebushes down below. He leant forward, peering down through the branches;there was evidently something stirring inside the bush; the leavesrustled and shook, and then were thrust aside, and a queer littlefigure stepped out and stood on the broad footpath in the moonlight.It was a very small, quaint man, dressed in brown, with a pointed capon his head; he gazed along the pathway for a moment, then turned andscanned the Heath in the opposite direction.
Jack gave a start as something moved in the tree beside him. But it wasonly Molly, awake, and wide-eyed, staring down at the little brown manwith absorbed attention.
A squeal of laughter came from among the bushes a short distance away,and the next second another little man came running over the grass tothe waiting figure and started talking rapidly. Their voices were verytiny, and although the sounds floated clearly up to the listeners inthe tree, the words were undistinguishable. While they watched a thirdlittle man appeared, accompanied by two quaint little women, dressedin brown skirts and shawls and brown bonnets. All at once it dawnedon Jack and Molly who these little people were, with the tiny, thin,dancing legs, and the elfish faces. They were goblins. And, of course,the Heath was named after them. The children had not expected to seeany goblins on the heath; they had certainly thought it a picturesquename to call this part of the country, but they had not expected anyreason for the name. But behold! here before their eyes were reallive goblins, the first goblins they had ever seen, and they watchedthem, surprised and curious. More goblins now began to appear on thescene; one after another they came, darting from behind bushes, slidingdown the trunks of trees or dropping from the branches, racing alongthe footpath, skipping over the grass, until by and by it seemed asif there were tiny brown figures scurrying to and fro on every side,appearing and disappearing, here, there, in and out; the whole Heathseemed to be alive with goblins. Such a squeaking of tiny voices, achinking of goblin laughter, and a pattering of feet; and the goblinsseemed to be all so busy and important and in a feverish haste aboutnothing at all.
Presently the children noticed that one of the goblins had made his wayto the foot of their tree and was very busy dragging and pushing asidea big stone. He moved it away at length and disclosed a small hole inthe tree trunk, close to the ground. He bent down and crawled into thehole. A scrambling and scratching began inside the tree, that sounded,as the scrambling noise became louder and nearer, as if the goblin wereclimbing up to the top of the trunk.
"Oh, Jack, I believe he lives in this tree," whispered Molly. "Whatshall we do if he finds us up here?" You see, they were not quite surewhether the goblins were friends or enemies, or how they would bedisposed to regard them.
However, they were soon to know, for a few seconds later, thescratching and scrambling having continued until it sounded closeunderneath where the children were crouching, the goblin popped itshead up through a hole just beside Jack's right foot. The Goblinstudied the sole of Jacks shoe attentively for a moment, then his gazetravelled to Jack, whom he eyed with mild astonishment. Then he caughtsight of Molly, and transferred his attention to her. The childrenremained silent, not knowing what to say. They could tell nothing ofthe Goblin's attitude toward them from his surprised face. Then hespoke. His voice sounded very small and far away, but the children wereglad to find that they could understand what he said.
"Are you real?" asked the Goblin.
"Of course we are," said Jack.
"What are you?" was the next question.
Molly started to explain, but she soon noticed that the Goblin wasshaking his head, so she stopped.
"No ... there isn't really a place called the Impossible World, whichyou can reach through a tree in a forest," he said, as if confidingto them a sad truth. "It's only a story--a make-believe place--likeDreamland."
Molly was taken aback.
"Oh, but there _is_ such a place," she affirmed. "We know thereis--because we have come from there."
"I like to hear you say that--but I don't believe you," said theGoblin, candidly. "I wish I could. And I wish you _were_ real, indeed Ido."
"We _are_ real," said Jack, warmly. "We're as real as anything. Why,it's you that is only--that people say are not--I mean----"
"What do you think we are, then, if you don't believe we are realpeople?" asked Molly, quickly, giving Jack a warning glance.
"Well, you may be only an optical illusion--I may think I see you, butyou may not really be there," suggested the Goblin blandly, wagging hisquaint little head from side to side. His head and two little handsclutching the edge of the hole were still the only parts visible ofhim.
The children gazed down at him. An optical illusion! This was indeeda horrible thought, and made Molly pinch herself to make sure she wasreally there. Then she laughed.
"We are as real as you are," she said. Then she had an inspiration. "Asreal as Old Nancy," she added, watching the Goblin closely.
His expression changed immediately, and a look of glad surprise crossedhis face. "Why, do you know her?" he asked quickly.
"Rather," said Jack. "She's a friend of ours."
"Then I am a friend of yours," said the Goblin, climbing outof the hole and standing beside the children. "Whether you arereal--or--or--whatever you are."
Their recent lesson in trusting people had made the children morecautious, and although they could see that they had no choice in theirbehaviour toward this little Goblin, as they were powerless to escapefrom the Heath with its swarms of goblins, yet they felt friendlydisposed toward him for his own sake. He seemed quite genuine inhis regard for Old Nancy, and very soon he was sitting in the treebeside them, chatting away and asking them all about themselves, andanswering questions by the score.
They found that he knew that the Pumpkin had returned, one of hisbrother-goblins had brought the news. And they discovered also that thegoblins were the Pumpkin's bitter enemies. Then they told him all abouttheir search for the Black Leaf, and how they were to search the Heathwhen daylight came.
"You won't see any of us in the daytime," said the Goblin. "We'll beall asleep down our little holes ... but I don't think the Black Leafis anywhere on the Heath, or one of us would have seen it, and the newswould have soon spread amongst us."
"Still, I suppose we shall have to search it all the same ... as wepromised," said Molly.
"Yes, you're quite right," agreed the Goblin, "Besides, we _might_ nothave seen it. I'm afraid you'll find the Heath v
ery big--but I daresayyou could search it in a day if you start at dawn.... I wish I couldhelp you, but--ah! one thing I can do--I can send word to you if thePumpkin appears anywhere in this neighbourhood while you are searchingthe Heath...."
"That is very kind of you," said Molly. "It will help us a lot."
"And when you come to the village beyond--if you want to know of someone you can trust--go to Miss Marigold. Don't forget the name," saidthe Goblin.
"Miss Marigold," repeated Jack. "I'll remember. Thanks, very much."
"Do you know," smiled the Goblin, "when I heard that Old Nancy had sentthe Pumpkin to the Impossible World, I thought it was a place likeDreamland--or a make-believe place, but now--if you say that you reallyare--I suppose you can't come down from the tree and let the othergoblins see you?"
The children were about to reply, when a great hubbub and excitementarose among the goblins below, as a new goblin dashed in among themwith some exciting news.
"Wait here," said the Goblin, "and I'll go and find what it's allabout."
He soon climbed down and appeared among the crowd of eager, chatteringgoblins. Presently he slipped away again and scrambled up the tree tothe children.
"I'm glad you didn't come down," he said. "They are searching foryou--the Pumpkin's spies are; an old woman and a young girl. Some ofthe goblins saw them about half an hour ago, on the main road over theHeath."
Jack and Molly began to shiver a little.
"It's all right," said the Goblin. "I haven't told the goblins whereyou are. I thought they'd be sure to want to see you, and this, ofcourse, would attract attention. But I _have_ told them to go andhave some sport and to lead the old hag and the girl a real dance.I told them they were the Pumpkin's spies--they _will_ lead them adance too--making crackly noises in the bushes to lead them off thetrack--and running--and squealing--a regular goblins' dance we'lllead them. I'll go too and tell you what happens. I'll be back beforedawn--this is my home, you know--this tree. Good-bye for the present,"and he dashed away.
The children saw him swoop into a group of excited goblins and urgethem to follow him--which they did. And presently there was scarcelya goblin in sight. They had all gone trooping away to the place onthe Heath where the old woman and the girl were searching for Jack andMolly.
It seemed to the children that they waited in the tree for hours andhours, waiting, listening. Occasional sounds floated to them from thedistance. They could hear squeaking and crackling, and once they hearda shrill scream. But they saw nothing, until the dawn broke.
Almost immediately afterward the Goblin returned, darting from outof the bushes opposite, popping into the hole in the tree trunk andscrambling up to them. In the pale glimmer of the morning light he toldthem what had happened, and how they had twice prevented the old womanfrom turning down the path that led past the children's hiding-place.
"They are gone from the Heath now," he said. "We drove them home, inthe end, by darting out and pinching their legs and throwing pricklyleaves at them. There were thousands of us goblins.... I wish you couldhave seen us.... When they found we were really in earnest and meant toget rid of them, and were not just teasing--they soon went. The old hagtried to tread on some of us--she was so angry; but we snatched hershoe off and threw it into a pond."
"It's very kind of you to have helped us so," said Molly.
"We enjoyed it," said the Goblin. "It was great fun. And they reallydeserved it, you know."
And now that it was daybreak the Goblin bade good-bye to the children."Remember," he said, "I will find some means of warning you throughoutthe day, if the Pumpkin is near." He popped down his hole; they heardhim scramble a little way inside the tree--then all was quiet.
Jack and Molly looking out from the tree saw that all the other goblinshad vanished. They waited a while until the day came, then they climbeddown from their hiding-place, stretched themselves, and at once setabout their search.
It was a difficult task, and a long one, for there seemed countlessthick bushes, trees, hillocks, and winding paths on the Goblin's Heath.But they plodded on, searching eagerly and carefully. For a coupleof hours they worked, then as the morning advanced they rememberedthat they had had nothing to eat since yesterday. So they climbed upanother tree, so as not to be taken by surprise, and finished upthe remains of Glan's 'snack,' while they discussed their plans forthe day--studying their map so as not to leave any part of the Heathunsearched.
"There's one bit I'm afraid we must go back and do," said Molly,"though I don't like the idea of going near there again. You remember,Jack--we did not search the little bit of lane just beyond that--thathouse yesterday; that bit and the very beginning of the Heath."
They did not like the idea of going back to the Third Green Lane atall. But they went. When they came within sight of the lane they wereamazed to find that the house had gone. It had vanished completely.Jack and Molly could scarcely believe their eyes at first, but on thewhole they were distinctly relieved that it wasn't there; nevertheless,they searched the end of the lane and the edge of the Heath quickly,with constant, watchful eyes on the place where the house had been.Having satisfied themselves that the leaf was nowhere about there, theyproceeded to the spot where they had left off searching, and continuedpeering among the bushes and trees and heather of the Goblin's Heath.
Hour after hour passed by, and the day wore on. Still they plodded awayat their task, keeping together and listening always, in case a messagecame from the Goblin. When they got hungry again, they ate some of OldNancy's little brown sweets, and found them very refreshing.
In the daylight they could hardly imagine it was the same Heath thatthey had seen by moonlight; there was not the slightest trace ofgoblins, or spies. That is, not the slightest trace until they cameacross a pond and saw, half out of the water, and stuck in the softmud, a shoe: a curiously shaped shoe, which they remembered, vaguely,seeing before--on the foot of the old woman with the horrible eyes.This was evidently the shoe that the goblins had thrown into the pond.The sight of it made all their recent adventures return vividly totheir minds, and made them very unwilling to be still on the Heath whennight came. So they hastened on their way.
Evening was already approaching when they finally came to the end oftheir day's search, and no sign of the Black Leaf had they found. As nowarning had come from the Goblin and they had not been disturbed in anyway, they felt, on the whole, all the better for their open-air day onthe sunny, wind-swept Heath; though they were tired now, and not at allsorry to turn their footsteps toward the little village, which appearedclose at hand, at the edge of the Heath.