"What have you done to her?”
"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. 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.”
"Silence, sir!" said Uncle Andrew, bringing his hand down on the table. "I will not be talked to like that by a little, dirty, schoolboy. You dont understand. I am the great scholar, the magician, the adept, who is doing the experiment. Of course I need subjects to do it on. Bless my soul, youll be telling me next that I ought to have asked the guinea-pigs permission before I used them! No great wisdom can be reached without sacrifice.
"How you do harp on that!" said Uncle Andrew. "As if that was what mattered! My first task was of course to study the box itself. It was very ancient. And I knew enough even then to know that it wasnt Greek, or Old Egyptian, or Babylonian, or Hittite, or Chinese.
"Ah, poor woman," said Uncle Andrew. "She had been very unwise. There were a good many different things. We neednt go into all that. She was always very kind to me.”
"What do you mean?" asked Digory.
"She can get back," said Uncle Andrew, "if someone else will go after her, wearing a yellow ring himself and taking two green rings, one to bring himself back and one to bring her back.”
"Rotten?" said Uncle Andrew with a puzzled look.
"I was going to tell you, when you so rudely interrupted me," said Uncle Andrew, "that I did at last find out a way of doing the return journey. The green rings draw you back.”
Although there was not really the least chance of anyone overhearing them, he leaned forward and almost whispered as he said: "The Atlantean box contained something that had been brought from another world when our world was only just beginning.”
"It was a jolly cruel thing to do," said Digory who had once had a guinea- pig of his own.
But I got better. And at last I actually knew.”
"Oh, I see. Youmean that little boys ought to keep their promises. Very true: most right and proper, Im sure, and Im very glad you have been taught to do it. But of course you must understand that rules of that sort, however excellent they may be for little boys - and servants - and women - and even people in general, cant possibly be expected to apply to profound students and great thinkers and sages. No, Digory. Men like me, who possess hidden wisdom, are freed from common rules just as we are cut off from common pleasures. Ours, my boy, is a high and lonely destiny.”
"Congratulate me, my dear boy," said Uncle Andrew, rubbing his hands. "My experiment has succeeded. The little girls gone - vanished - right out of the world.”
"Oh shut up!" said Digory. "If you had any honour and all that, youd be going yourself.
"I say!" said Digory. "What had she done?”
"No, I havent," said Digory indignantly. "But whats happened to Polly?”
"The sooner you go, the sooner youll be back," said Uncle Andrew cheerfully.
"Very well. Ill go. But theres one thing I jolly well mean to say first. I didnt believe in Magic till today. I see now its real. Well if it is, I suppose all the old fairy tales are more or less true. And youre simply a wicked, cruel magician like the ones in the stories. Well, Ive never read a story in which people of that sort werent paid out in the end, and I bet you will be. And serve you right.”
"Wasnt she a great-aunt or something?" said Digory.
"And what about them?" said Digory. "A nice mess theyd be in if they couldnt get back!”
"Thats better," said Uncle Andrew. "Perhaps you couldnt 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.”
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 itwas 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.
"But you dont really know whether I can get back.”
"Meanwhile," continued Uncle Andrew, "I was learning a good deal in other ways (it wouldnt be proper to explain them to a child) about Magic in general. That meant that I came to have a fair idea what sort of things might be in the box. By various tests I narrowed down the possibilities. I had to get to know some - well, some devilish queer people, and go through some very disagreeable experiences. That was what turned my head grey. One doesnt become a magician for nothing. My health broke down in the end.
"You really must learn to control that temper of yours, my boy," said Uncle Andrew coolly. "Otherwise youll grow up like your Aunt Letty. Now. Attend to me.”
"Look here," he said. "What about Mother? Supposing she asks where I am?”
"Well why didnt you go yourself then?”
"By gum," said Digory, "dont I just wish I was big enough to punch your head!”
"Well, then, it was jolly rotten of you," said Digory.
He paused for a moment as if he expected Digory to say something. But Digory was disliking his Uncle more every minute, so he said nothing.
It was older than any of those nations. Ah - that was a great day when I at last found out the truth. The box was Atlantean; it came from the lost island of Atlantis. That meant it was centuries older than any of the stone-age things they dig up in Europe. And it wasnt a rough, crude thing like them either. For in the very dawn of time Atlantis was already a great city with palaces and temples and learned men.”
"I hope," said Uncle Andrew presently in a very high and mighty voice, just as if he were a perfect Uncle who had given one a handsome tip and some good advice, "I hope, Digory, you are not given to showing the white feather. I should be very sorry to think that anyone of our family had not enough honour and chivalry to go to the aid of - er - a lady in distress.”
Digory had hardly ever seen anyone so surprised and offended as his Uncle did at this simple question. "Me? Me?" he exclaimed. "The boy must be mad! A man at my time of life, and in my state of health, to risk the shock and the dangers of being flung suddenly into a different universe? I never heard anything so preposterous in my life! Do you realize what youre saying? Think what Another World means - you might meet anything anything.”
"In an asylum, do you mean?”
Uncle Andrew sat down and said, "Well, Ill tell you all about it. Have you ever heard of old Mrs Lefay?”
"A lot you care," said Digory fiercely. "But Im sick of this jaw. What have I got to do?”
As Digory said afterwards, the horrible meanness of getting at a chap in that way, almost made him sick. But of course he didnt scream again.
"No " said Uncle Andrew with a cruel smile.
Then he buttoned up his coat, took a deep breath, and picked up the ring. And he thought then, as he always thought afterwards too, that he could not decently have done anything else.
"But Polly hasnt got a green ring.”
"Oh, do stop jawing," said Digory. "Are you going to bring Polly back?”
really had a fairy godmother. There! Thatll be something for you to remember when you are an old man yourself.”
"Only dust," said Uncle Andrew. "Fine, dry dust. Nothing much to look at. Not much to show for a lifetime of toil, you might say. Ah, but when I looked at that dust (I took jolly good care not to touch it) and thought that every grain had once been in another world - I dont mean another planet, you know; theyre part of our world and you could get to them if you went far enough - but a really Other World - another Nature another universe - somewhere you would never reach even if you travelled through the space of this universe for ever and ever - a world that could be reached only by Magic - well!" Here Uncle Andrew rubbed his hands till his knuckles cracked like fireworks.
Uncle Andrew shrugged his shoulders, walked across to the door, unlocked it, threw it open, and said: "Oh very well then. Just as you please. Go down and have your dinner. Leave the little girl to be eaten by wild animals or drowned or starved in Otherworld or lost there for good, if thats what you prefer. Its all one to me. Perhaps before tea time youd better drop in on Mrs Plummer and explain that shell never see her daughter again; because you were afraid to put on a ring.”
"I bet she was a bad fairy," thought Digory; and added out loud. "But what about Polly?”
"Oh, you heard that, did you? I hope you havent been spying on me?”
But the idea of my going myself is ridiculous. Its like asking a general to fight as a common soldier. Supposing I got killed, what would become of my lifes work?”
"Then she cant get back," shouted Digory. "And its exactly the same as if youd murdered her.
"And I suppose youve sent Polly into it then," said Digory. His cheeks were flaming with anger now. "And all I can say," he added, "even if you are my Uncle - is that youve behaved like a coward, sending a girl to a place youre afraid to go to yourself.”
Digory had almost picked up the yellow ring when he suddenly checked himself.
"Not exactly," said Uncle Andrew. "She was my godmother. Thats her, there, on the wall.”
"Was that when you yelled?" asked Digory.
Of all the things Digory had said this was the first that really went home. Uncle Andrew started and there came over his face a look of such horror that, beast though he was, you could almost feel sorry for him. But a second later he smoothed it all away and said with a rather forced laugh, "Well, well, I suppose that is a natural thing for a child to think - brought up among women, as you have been. Old wives tales, eh? I dont think you need worry about my danger, Digory. Wouldnt it be better to worry about the danger of your little friend? Shes been gone some time. If there are any dangers Over There - well, it would be a pity to arrive a moment too late.”
"Of course," said Uncle Andrew, "I didnt dare to open the box for a long time, for I knew it might contain something highly dangerous. For my godmother was a very remarkable woman. The truth is, she was one of the last mortals in this country who had fairy blood in her. (She said there had been two others in her time. One was a duchess and the other was a charwoman.) In fact, Digory, you are now talking to the last man (possibly) who
DIGORY AND HIS UNCLE 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 Andrews hand was over his mouth. "None of that!" he hissed in Digorys ear. "If you start making a noise your Motherll hear it. And you know what a fright might do to her.”
"What?" asked Digory, who was now interested in spite of himself.
"They only work," he said, "if theyre actually touching your skin. Wearing gloves, I can pick them up - like this - and nothing happens. If you carried one in your pocket nothing would happen: but of course youd have to be careful not to put your hand in your pocket and touch it by accident. The moment you touch a yellow ring, you vanish out of this world. When you are in the Other Place I expect - of course this hasnt been tested yet, but I expect - that the moment you touch a green ring you vanish out of that world and - I expect - reappear in this. Now. I take these two greens and drop them into your right-hand pocket. Remember very carefully which pocket the greens are in. G for green and R for right. G.R. you see: which are the first two letters of green. One for you and one for the little girl. And now you pick up a yellow one for yourself. I should put it on on your finger - if I were you. Therell be less chance of dropping it.”
But I know you wont. Alright. I see Ive got to go. But you are a beast. I suppose you planned the whole thing, so that shed go without knowing it and then Id have to go after her.”
"Oh no, no, no," said Uncle Andrew in a shocked voice. "Nothing of that sort. Only in prison.”
He got up, put on a pair of gloves, and walked over to the tray that contained the rings.
"Was there - wasnt there - something wrong about her, Uncle Andrew?" he asked.
And now of course Digory saw the trap in which he was caught: and he stared at Uncle Andrew, saying nothing, with his mouth wide open. His cheeks had gone very pale.
"Sent her to - well - to another place.”
"How you do keep getting off the point!" said Uncle Andrew. "Thats what the creatures were for. Id bought them myself. Let me see - where was I? Ah yes. At last I succeeded in making the rings: the yellow rings. But now a new difficulty arose. I was pretty sure, now, that a yellow ring would send any creature that touched it into the Other Pace. But what would be the good of that if I couldnt get them back to tell me what they had found there?”
"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.”
"I knew," he went on, "that if only you could get it into the right form, that dust would draw you back to the place it had come from. But the difficulty was to get it into the right form. My earlier experiments were all failures. I tried them on guinea- pigs. Some of them only died. Some exploded like little bombs -”
"You will keep on looking at everything from the wrong point of view," said Uncle Andrew with a look of impatience. "Cant you understand that the thing is a great experiment? The whole point of sending anyone into the Other Place is that I want to find out what its like.”
"Of course," said Uncle Andrew with his hateful smile.
"But look here, what has all this got to do with Polly? I do wish youd -”
As he said this he sighed and looked so grave and noble and mysterious that for a second Digory really thought he was saying something rather fine. But then he remembered the ugly look he had seen on his Uncles facethe moment before Polly had vanished: and all at once he saw through Uncle Andrews grand words. "All it means," he said to himself, "Is that he thinks he can do anything he likes to get anything he wants.”
