Astounding Stories of Super-Science September 1930 Page 6

  CHAPTER III

  _In a Moonlit Garden_

  She drew back from the window like a startled fawn; timorous, yetcurious, too, for she ran only a few steps, then turned and stoodpeering. The moonlight slanted over the western roof of the building andfell on her. A slight, boyish figure in short, tattered trousers and aboy's shirt, open at her slim, rounded throat. The moonlight gleamed onthe white shirt fabric to show it torn and ragged. Her arms wereupraised; her head, with clustering, flying dark curls, was tilted asthough listening for a sound from me. A shy, wild creature. Drawn to mywindow; tapping to awaken me, then frightened at what she had done.

  I opened the garden door. She did not move. I thought she would run, butshe did not. The moonlight was on me as I stood there. I was consciousof its etching me with its silver sheen. And twenty feet from me thisgirl stood and gazed, with startled eyes and parted lips--and whitelimbs trembling like a frightened animal.

  The patio was very silent. The heavy arching fronds stirred slightlywith a vague night breeze; the moonlight threw a lacy dark pattern ofthem on the gray stone path. The fountain bowl gleamed white in themoonlight behind the girl, and in the silence I could hear the lowsplashing of the water.

  A magic moment. Unforgettable. It comes to some of us just once, but toall of us it comes. I stood with its spell upon me. Then I heard myvoice, tense but softly raised.

  "Who are you?"

  It frightened her. She retreated until the fountain was between us. Andas I took a step forward, she retreated further, noiseless, with herbare feet treading the smooth stones the path.

  * * * * *

  I ran and caught her at the doorway of the flowered pergola. She stoodtrembling as I seized her arms. But the timorous smile remained, and hereyes, upraised to mine, glowed with misty starlight.

  "Who are you?"

  This time she answered me. "I am called Jetta."

  It seemed that from her white forearm within my grasp a magic currentswept from her to me and back again. We humans, for all our clamoring,boasting intellectuality, are no more than puppets in Nature's hands.

  "Are you Spawn's daughter?"

  "Yes."

  "I saw you a while ago, when I was having my meal."

  "Yes--I was watching you."

  "I thought you were a boy."

  "Yes. My father told me to keep away. I wanted to meet you, so I came towake you up."

  "He may be watching us now."

  "No. He is sleeping. Listen--you can hear him snore."

  I could, indeed. The silence of the garden was broken now by a distant,choking snore.

  We both laughed. She sat on the little mossy seat in the pergola doorwayAnd on the side away from the snore. (I had the wit to be sure of that.)

  "I wanted to meet you," she repeated. "Was it too bold?"

  * * * * *

  I think that what we said sitting there with the slanting moonlight onus, could not have amounted to much. Yet for us, it was so important!Vital. Building memories which I knew--and I think that she knew, eventhen--we would never forget.

  "I will be here a week, Jetta."

  "I want--I want very much to know you. I want you to tell me about theworld of the Highlands. I have a few books. I can't read very well, butI can look at the pictures."

  "Oh, I see--"

  "A traveler gave them to me. I've got them hidden. But he was an oldman: all men seem to be old--except those in the pictures, and you,Philip."

  I laughed. "Well, that's too bad. I'm mighty glad I'm young."

  Ah, in that moment, with blessed youth surging in my veins, I was gladindeed!

  "Young. I don't remember ever seeing anyone like you. The man I am tomarry is not like you. He is old, like father--"

  I drew back from her, startled.

  "Marry?"

  "Yes. When I am seventeen. The law of Nareda--your Highland law, too,father says--will not let a girl be married until she is that age. In amonth I am seventeen."

  "Oh!" And I stammered, "But why are you going to marry?"

  "Because father tells me to. And then I shall have fine clothes: it ispromised me. And go to live in the Highlands, perhaps. And see things;and be a woman, not a ragged boy forbidden to show myself; and--"

  * * * * *

  I was barely touching her. It seemed as though something--some vision ofhappiness which had been given me--were fading, were being snatchedaway. I was conscious of my hand moving to touch hers.

  "Why do you marry--unless you're in love? Are you?"

  Her gaze like a child came up to meet mine. "I never thought much aboutthat. I have tried not to. It frightened me--until to-night."

  She pushed me gently away. "Don't. Let's not talk of him. I'd rathernot."

  "But why are you dressed as a boy?"

  I gazed at her slim but rounded figure in tattered boy's garb--but thewoman's lines were unmistakable. And her face, with clustering curls.Gentle girlhood. A face of dark, wild beauty.

  "My father hates women. He says they are all bad. It is a sin to wearwoman's finery; or it breeds sin in women. Let's not talk of that.Philip, tell me--oh, if you could only realize all the things I want toknow. In Great New York, there are theatres and music?"

  "Yes," I said. And began telling her about them.

  The witching of this moonlit garden! But the moon had presently sunk,and to the east the stars were fading.

  "Philip! Look! Why, it's dawn already. I've got to leave you."

  I held her just a moment by the hand.

  "May I meet you here to-morrow night?" I asked.

  "Yes," she said simply.

  "Good night--Jetta."

  "Good night. You--you've made me very happy."

  She was gone, into a doorway of the opposite wing. The silent, emptygarden sounded with the distant, reassuring snores of the still sleepingSpawn.

  I went back to my room and lay on my bed. And drifted off on a sea ofmagic memories. The world--my world before this night--now seemed tohave been so drab. Empty. Lifeless. But now there was pulsing, livingmagic in it for me.

  I drifted into sleep, thinking of it.