David and the Phoenix

by Dr Edward Ormondroyd

  Even its whiskers turned pink.

  “Well—uh—glad to help—uh—nothing to it, really,” it mumbled. Then it turned abruptly, galloped down to the sea, plunged into the surf, and was gone.

  7: In Which the Phoenix’s Plan Is Carried Out, and There Are More Alarums and Excursions in the Night

  “Now, my boy,” said the Phoenix, when they got back to the ledge that afternoon, “are the shops still open?”

  “I think they’re open till six,” said David, shaking the sand out of his shoes. “Are we going to buy something?”

  “Precisely, my boy. A hardware store should have what we need. Now, you will take our gold and purchase the following.” And the Phoenix listed the things it wanted, and told David which to bring to the ledge and which to leave below.

  “... and a hatchet,” the Phoenix concluded.

  “We have one at home already,” said David. “Now, listen, Phoenix, can’t you tell me what all this is for? What are we going to do with it?”

  “My boy, the feline’s existence was terminated as a direct result of its inquisitiveness.”

  “What did you say?”

  “Curiosity killed the cat,” explained the Phoenix.

  “Oh. But–”

  “Now, run along, my boy. A very important Thought has just come to me. I must Meditate a while.” The Phoenix glanced at the thicket and hid a yawn behind one wing.

  “Oh, all right,” said David. “I’ll see you in the morning, then.”

  It wasn’t until he got home that he thought of something. He couldn’t spend pirate gold pieces, or even show them to anyone, without being asked a lot of embarrassing questions. What to do? Ask Dad or Mother or Aunt Amy to lend him some money? More embarrassing questions.... Well, he would have to rob his bank. But wait—why hadn’t he remembered? Just before they had moved, Uncle Charles had given him a ten-dollar bill as a farewell present. He had been saving it for a model airplane, but the excitement of the last few days had driven it completely out of his mind. Of course the Phoenix’s Plan was more important than any model plane could be.

  So he kept the gold pieces tied up in his handkerchief and took his ten dollars to a hardware store, where he bought what the Phoenix wanted—a coil of rope, an electric door bell, a pushbutton, and one hundred feet of insulated wire. Then he brought the package home, hid it behind the woodpile in the garage, and sat down to think. Wire—bell—pushbutton. What could the Phoenix possibly want with them? And what was the rope for? And the hatchet? The more he puzzled over it the more confused he became, and finally he just gave up. There was only one thing he was sure about: whatever the Plan was, they would have to carry it out as soon as possible. Two days had passed since the Scientist had shown up. The new gun he had ordered might arrive at any time now. Perhaps even today, when they had been digging up the pirate treasure, the Scientist had got his new rifle and had started to hunt through the mountains.

  The thought gave David a creepy feeling on the back of his neck. They certainly would have to hurry.

  Early next morning David climbed up to the ledge, bringing with him the coil of rope and the hatchet. As an afterthought he had added a paper bag full of cookies.

  “Here’s the stuff, Phoenix,” he called out as he stepped onto the ledge. “Where are you?”

  There was a crash from the thicket as though someone had jumped up in it suddenly, and the Phoenix stumbled out, rubbing its eyes.

  “Ah, splendid, my boy! Yes. I was just—ah—Thinking.”

  “Phoenix,” said David, “I’m not going to ask you again what your Plan is, because I know you’ll tell me when it’s time. But whatever it is, we’d better do it right now. The Scientist may show up any minute.”

  “Precisely, my boy. Never put off until tomorrow what can be done today. One of my favorite proverbs. We shall begin immediately–” Here the Phoenix caught sight of the bag in David’s hand and added hastily: “But, of course, we must not forget that first things come first.”

  “You might have brought more,” said the Phoenix, fifteen minutes later.

  “There weren’t any more in the jar,” David said. “Phoenix, please tell me what we’re going to do. I don’t care if curiosity did kill the cat. I’ve been thinking about the rope and wire and bell all night, and I can’t make heads or tails out of it.”

  The Phoenix gave a pleased laugh. “Of course you cannot, my boy. The Plan is far too profound for you to guess what it is. But set your mind at rest. I shall now explain the rope and hatchet.”

  David leaned forward eagerly.

  “Now, scientists, you know, have fixed habits. If you know those habits, you can predict just what they will do at any time. Our particular Scientist is a daytime creature—that is to say, he comes at dawn and goes at dusk. His invariable habit, my boy!”

  “Well?”

  “There you are, my boy!” said the Phoenix triumphantly. “We shall sleep during the day and continue your education at night!”

  “Oh,” said David. He thought about this a while, then asked, “But suppose the Scientist comes up on the ledge during the day and catches you asleep?”

  “Aha! That is where the rope and hatchet come in. Never fear, my boy—I thought of that also. We are going to construct a snare at each end of the ledge.”

  “How?”

  “Hand me that twig, my boy.” The Phoenix took the twig, found a bare spot of earth, and sketched a picture. “First we find a sapling and clear the branches from it with the hatchet—like this. Next we get a stake, cut a notch in it, and drive it into the ground—so. The sapling is bent down to it and fitted into the notch, which holds it down. You see, my boy? Now we make a noose—so—from a piece of rope, tie it to the end of the sapling, and spread the loop out on the path—this way. The whole snare is hidden under grass and leaves.” The Phoenix beamed and flung out its wings in a dramatic gesture. “Just picture it, my dear chap! The Scientist, smiling evilly as he skulks along the path! The unwary footstep! The sapling, jarred out of the notch, springing upward! The tightened noose! And our archenemy dangling by the foot in mid-air, completely at our mercy! Magnificent!”

  “Golly, Phoenix,” said David, “that’s pretty clever.”

  “Clever, my boy? Better to say ‘a stroke of genius.’ Only I, Phoenix, could have thought of it. And consider the poetic justice of it! This is exactly the sort of trap that the Scientist once set for me! Well, shall we begin?”

  The Phoenix had made the snares sound delightfully simple, but they soon discovered that the job was harder than it sounded. First they had to find the right kind of sapling, springy and strong. The sapling had to be in the right place—one by the goat trail, the other at the far end of the ledge. When they had been chosen, David had to shinny up them to lop off their branches. That was a very awkward business; the saplings swayed and trembled under his weight, and he could only use one hand for the hatchet. Then he had to make two stakes from stout, hard wood, cut a notch at one end, and drive them into

  the ground with the flat of the hatchet. But the hardest part was trying to bend the sapling down to the stake and fitting it into the notch. It took the weight of both of them to bring the sapling to the ground. If they got the slightest bit off balance, it would spring up again. Once David fell off; the sapling went swish! back into the air, flinging the astonished Phoenix thirty feet up the mountainside.

  It was not until afternoon, when the sun had turned ruddy and shadows were beginning to stretch dark fingers across the land, that they finished the job. But at last the saplings were set in the notches, the nooses were formed and fastened on. Grass and leaves were strewn over the snares; chips, hewn branches, and other evidences of their work were removed. They sat down and looked proudly at each other.

  “My boy,” said the Phoenix, “I have had a wide, and sometimes painful, experience with traps; so you may believe me when I say that these are among the best I have seen. We have done well.”

  “They’re sure stron
g enough,” David agreed, flexing his fingers to take the stiffness out of them. “But what are we going to do if the Scientist does get caught in one?”

  “We shall burn that bridge when we reach it, my boy. Now, do you have the pliers, wire-cutters, and screw driver below?”

  “Yes, they’re down in the cellar. What are we going to do with them, Phoenix?”

  “Patience, patience! You will be told when the time comes. I shall meet you tonight after dark, as soon as it is safe for me to come down. I trust you will have everything ready?”

  “Are you coming down?”

  “Precisely, my boy. A risk, I admit, but a necessary one. There is a hedge at the back of your house, is there not? Splendid. You may await me there.”

  David, sitting in the shadow of the hedge, jumped when he heard the Phoenix’s quiet “Good evening, my boy.”

  “Phoenix,” he whispered, “how did you do it? Golly, I didn’t see you at all, and it isn’t even dark yet.”

  “I have been hunted long enough, my boy, to have learned a few tricks. It is merely a matter of gliding close to the ground, selecting the best shadows, and keeping a sharp lookout. Well, let us get on with the Plan. Have you the tools here?”

  “Yes, here they are.”

  “Splendid! Now, my boy, since we must continue your education during the night, it is necessary that we have some way of getting in touch with each other. If you climb the mountainside in the dark, you may unwittingly fall into our own snare. It is far easier for me to come down than it is for you to go up, and under cover of darkness I can do it quite safely. The question now is, how will you know when I have arrived? That, my boy, is the nub, or crux, of the situation. A difficult problem, you will admit. But I have worked out the solution.”

  The Phoenix lowered its voice impressively.

  “My boy, we are going to install this bell in your room, and the pushbutton on the base of that telephone pole. When I arrive here at night, I shall press the button to let you know that I am ready to go. A magnificent idea, isn’t it?”

  It did not seem very practical to David. “Well, Phoenix, that’s a good idea,” he said carefully. “But how are we going to hide the wires? And what about the noise of the bell?”

  “Nothing to it, my boy! The wires? There are wires between your house and the telephone pole already—one more would not be noticed. The noise? You have a pillow on your bed, under which the bell can be muffled.”

  “Yes, that’s true.” It still sounded impractical.

  “Just imagine it!” the Phoenix continued enthusiastically. “Perhaps later we can install another bell at this end. Then we could learn Morse code and send messages to each other. Exactly like a private telephone line!”

  Put in this way, the idea had a certain appeal, and David found himself warming to it. But there was another thing to consider.

  “How about electricity, Phoenix?”

  “Look above you, my boy! The telephone pole is simply loaded down with power lines waiting to be tapped.”

  The Phoenix was evidently set on carrying out the Plan, and David did not want to wear out the bird’s patience with more objections. And—well, why not? There should be no harm in trying it out, anyway.

  They gathered up the tools and walked along the hedge to the telephone pole, which was in one corner of the yard. The Phoenix began to uncoil the wire, while David gazed up doubtfully at the shadowy maze of lines and insulators on the cross-arms.

  “Electricity,” said the Phoenix thoughtfully, “is a complicated and profound subject. There are amperes, and there are volts, and there are kilowatt hours. I might also mention positive and negative and—ah—all that sort of thing. Most profound. Perhaps I had better investigate up there. Screw driver, please.”

  The Phoenix took the screw driver in one claw and flew up to the top of the pole. David could hear the creak of the lines under the Phoenix’s weight and the rattling of the screw driver against the porcelain insulators. For some minutes the Phoenix investigated, clicking and scraping about, and muttering “Quite so” and “There we are.” Then it fluttered down again and rubbed its wings together.

  “The whole situation up there is a lot simpler than I thought it would be, my boy. The power lines merely come up to the pole on one side, pass through the insulators, and go away from the pole on the other side. Child’s play! The covering on the lines is rather tough, however. We shall have to use the wire-cutters.”

  The Phoenix returned to the top of the pole with the cutters, and worked on the wires for five more minutes. Bits of debris began to shower down on the hedge. One of the wires vibrated on a low note like a slack guitar string.

  “We must not forget the difference between alternating and direct current, my boy,” said the Phoenix as it flew down again. “An important problem, that. Where is our wire? Ah, there we are. The pliers, please.”

  “Do you need any help up there?” David asked.

  “No, everything is coming along beautifully, thank you. I shall have everything finished in a flash.”

  Trailing one end of the wire in its beak, the Phoenix flew up into the darkness once more. The tinkering sounds began again, and a spurt of falling debris rattled in the leaves of the hedge.

  Suddenly it happened. There was a terrific burst of blue light, a sharp squawk from the Phoenix, and a shower of sparks. Another blue flash blazed up. The lights in the house, and down the whole street, flickered and went out. In the blackness which followed, each stage of the Phoenix’s descent could be heard as clearly as cannon shots: the twanging and snapping as it tumbled through the wires, a drawn-out squawk and the flop of wings in the air below, the crash into the hedge, the jarring thud against the ground. Broken wires began to sputter ominously and fire out sparks. A smell of singed feathers and burning rubber filled the air.

  By the light of the sparks David saw the Phoenix staggering to its feet. He jumped to the bird’s side, but the Phoenix waved him away with its wing.

  “Quick, my boy,” it gasped. “We must make a strategic retreat! Meet me on the ledge in the morning. Ouch!” The Phoenix beat at the smoldering sparks in its tail and flew off, leaving a trail of acrid smoke hanging in the air.

  David had the presence of mind to gather up all the tools, the wire, bell, and pushbutton, and one of the Phoenix’s feathers, which had been torn out during the fall. He slipped through a cellar window, hid the equipment under a stack of old boxes, and ran noisily up the stairs into the kitchen.

  “Hey!” he shouted. “The lights are out!”

  “Is that you, dear?” came Mother’s anxious voice from the dining room.

  “The telephone’s dead!” Dad shouted from the hall.

  Aunt Amy came bumping down the stairs with a candle. “It’s that burglar!” she cried. “Turning out all the lights so he can murder us in our beds!”

  “Look!” David shouted, “the line’s broken in our back yard!”

  They could hear the wailing of sirens now. Fire trucks, repair trucks, and police cars pulled up in front of the house. Everyone in the block turned out to see what had happened. It took the repair men an hour to untangle the wires and fix them. And all the time policemen were going through the crowd, asking questions and writing things down in their notebooks. They were looking rather haggard, David thought.

  8: In Which David and the Phoenix Visit a Banshee, and a Surprise Is Planted in the Enemy’s Camp

  Next day Mother asked David to help her straighten out the garden, which had been trampled by the repair men; so he could not go to see the Phoenix until after lunch. But when that was finished, he rushed up the mountainside as fast as he could, wondering all the way what he and the Phoenix were going to do now.

  The ledge was empty when he got there. He shouted, “Phoenix!” and listened.

  “Hel-l-lp!” came a faint answering cry from the other end of the ledge.

  David jumped through the thicket. A pitiful sight met his eyes. There was the Phoenix, dangling by
one foot from the snare, its wings feebly struggling and its free foot clawing the air. The feathers of its wings and tail were singed. Great beads of sweat rolled from its forehead into a puddle on the ground below. The snared foot was blue and swollen.

  “Get me down,” gasped the Phoenix weakly.

  David took a running leap at the sapling, which broke under the sudden increase of weight, and the two of them crashed to the ground. He unfastened the noose and dragged the Phoenix to the shadiest, softest spot on the ledge.

  “Hoist with my own petard,” said the Phoenix bitterly. “Rub my foot, will you? Oh dear oh dear oh dear! Hurts.”

  “What happened?” David asked as he rubbed the swollen foot. “How long have you been caught?”

  “Missed my way in the dark,” said the Phoenix, wiping its brow. “Thought I was on the other side of the ledge, and landed right on that fool trap. Hung there all night and all morning. Thought you would never come, my boy. Oh dear, oh dear, what a horrible experience! My tail was still on fire when I landed, too. I fully expected to be burned to a crisp.” A large tear rolled down the Phoenix’s beak.

  David murmured soothing words and continued to chafe the Phoenix’s foot. “Does it feel any better now?”

  “The feeling is coming back, my boy,” said the Phoenix, gritting its beak. “Ouch! All pins and needles.” It flexed its toes gingerly. “Rub a bit more, please. Gently.”

  The swelling began to go down. With a handful of damp grass David soothed the marks left by the noose.

  “That stupid Electric Company!” the Phoenix suddenly burst out. “Putting everyone in danger with a short-circuited power line! Let this be a lesson to you, my boy. Anything worth doing is worth doing well. They will hear from us, believe me! We shall write them a stiff complaint!”