19 Tales of Terror
Page 3
him, loping.
So he came into Afia, capital of S--, with the griffin at
his side. He was dressed as for a session of the UN. He wore his
favorite suit, tailored in London of a fine Scottish tweed, a
white shirt, a dark red silk tie, and he carried a black Romberg
and gray suede gloves. He took rooms in a first-rate hotel.
Entering the park around which were grouped the government buildings, he mounted the flagpole base and pleaded with refugees, messengers passing to and fro, and clerks eating their
lunches, to recognize his companion. In the evening he let himself be enveloped by the crowds pouring into the operas and symphonies and cinemas. Jostled and stepped upon, he began
to recount his experiences, and some persons, with mail order
tickets and in no hurry, tarried around him. At midnight, when
the streets were being deserted, he returned to his hotel, and the
griffin spent the night in the vicinity.
By the second day word had circulated that this man in the
streets was actually Gunar Vries, come to tell of the existen�;e
of a fabulous beast or bird. The citizens jammed the streets,
the fire-escapes, the roofs for blocks around the House of Commerce, and Gunar made his speech on the steps facing the park.
Overjoyed as he was with the size of his audience, he spoke
with such passion that the griffin, already unnerved by the
crowd, its flesh creeping with the em;ssary's harping upon its
existence, suddenly rose straight up into the air, screaming.
"Can't you see it?'' Gunar Vries cried, pointing to the griffin
beating the air, its beak open and its tongue flickering, its eyes
Return of the Griffins • II
fierier than ever, absorbing the three o'clock sun. After hovering thirty feet above Gunar's head, it continued up and settled on a cornice three stories above him.
The people gazed upward, but lowered their eyes with no
change in them. They did not ridicule the speaker, however.
They were solemn and attentive, remembering the man he
once was. While about them, more griffins, curious as to the
throngs, flew in and clme to rest on the roofs of distant buildings, their dark forms like statues of themselves against the sky.
Gunar Vries descended the steps, and the people made way
for him. He was not disheartened. There was time for other
cities and other assemblages. He wanted especially to draw a
great crowd in New York, city of the Conference. The griffin
flew down and followed at his heels; he heard its wings flapping
in descent and then the click of its claws on the stone. A guttural warble was in its throat, a sign of uneasiness.
Two members of the police force stepped through the crowd
to Gunar Vries. The force had been reluctant to take action
against him for disturbing the peace, considering his prestige,
but during the course of his speech they had received instructions from Ernest Gorgas himself: "Quietly, with respect for his person as a private citizen and as a former diplomat, arrest
and transport him to quarters in the Hall of Justice. Detain him
there until further instructions."
"Gunar Vries," said one, "it's the president's wish."
"If I resist?" he asked.
The other officer touched his elbow, and Gunar told himself,
"AU their force will be unavailing and will seem afterward like
a touch at my elbow." He reached behind him, laid his hand on
the griffin, and brought it forward.
"If I mount you," he asked, "can you rise with my weight?"
The griffin nodded, but was perturbed and glazed its eyes.
"When you asked me to accompany you, did you also ask that
I convey you? It's seldom we convey a mortal."
''That's what it comes to," said Gunar.
The griffin rose reluctantly in the stance of a lion rampant,
but the emissary, stepping forward to place his arms around the
eagle's neck and seat himself upon the lion's rump, was detained by the officers, who came in under the wing, each taking an elbow and an armpit, and prevailing against him.
Gunar Vries was deposited in the cell reserved for politicians,
bankers, celebrated attorneys, actresses, professors. Here were
ash trays, a water-cooler and dispenser. The furniture, though
old and sagging, was still substantial, with faintly yellowed crocheted stars on the chairbacks. Waiting for him were his attorney and a psychiatrist, a jovial, plump young man.
12
Nineteen Tales of Terror
•
"If they want bail," said Gunar to his attorney, "then give it
to them. I'll be out of the country by morning."
"They're afraid of that," his attorney replied, a man competent as he was handsome. "How would it look, Gunar," he chided, "for a man of your status to misrepresent the country?
The other nations will say, 'What choice was this?' They'll have
respect for no emissary from S---."
The doctor, with whom he had shaken hands and who had
been listening, kindly, alertly, smoking a cigarette, now spoke
up. "Mr. Vries, contrary to the expressed wishes of Mr. Ernest
Gorgas, I am not going to ask your participation in any analysis. I want a few answers from yourself to clarify, not my point of view as a doctor, but your own, as a man of responsibility.
You claim to see griffins, beasts of ancient mythology. Is that
true?"
"True," replied Gunar, "both that I claim to and that I see
them." He took a cigarette from the silver case the doctor
proffered him.
"And why griffins?" asked the doctor.
"Why not?" replied Gunar. "Because that's what they are.
They're not snakes, they're not elephants. I'm sorry. I cannot
make it as simple as that."
"No, no!" laughed the doctor, lighting Gunar's cigarette. His
hand shook, and his small eyes, small mouth, and small mustache all laughed in his round face. "Why have they returned, I mean. Are they, to you, explanatory of our time?''
Well, here was a man after Gunar's own heart, and he would
forget, in his appreciation, any ulterior motive the man might
have of undermining that which he so eagerly explained.
And so he told of the creature's history and the meaning of
its name, and the doctor was absorbed and nodded his head.
"Tell me of a time," said Gunar, "when the world faced a
greater enigma. We'll either make the earth fruitful as it has
never been or we'll exterminate ourselves. We'll either wipe out
everything we've built upon, all past epochs, or we'll go on to a
greater time than man has ever known. If you look at the situation with your eyes open you'll find that it's quite a creature, a thing with eagle wings and the body of a lion and with eyes of
fire."
Gunar ceased. having heard the flapping of wings outside the
window as the griffin ascended to the roof. It had followed him,
as he had expected.
"Well, it's a pity," sighed the doctor, "that only one man
sees them."
The attorney bent forward impatiently. "The president is
aware that as a private citizen you may speak as you wish.
Nevertheless, he would like your promise as the promise of a
Return of the GriHins • 18
dear friend, that you will make no further speeches in public
or in private assembly calling upon the people to recognize the
existence of these creatures."
"You tell Ernest," replied Gunar, "that they're bigger than
be is."
"Will you commit him?" the attorney asked the doctor.
The doctor had risen, as if he had no more to ask. He shook
his head, pressed out· his cigarette in the tray. "I prefer," be
said, "to commit those persons who cannot see them."
The two men left him to consult by telephone with the president. When they returned they brought with them the guard, obliging to authority in release of the emissary as in confinement of him.
Gunar Vries picked up his hat and gloves. "There is one on
the roof now," he said to the doctor, "if you care to see it."
This was an old prison, rigged up now with electricity and
hot water. They went up the circular stone staircase, and the
guard unlocked the gate. The griffin was lying on the parapet,
drooping over the edge to watch the traffic three stories below,
and at times lifting its head to look at the pigeons cooing and
bobbing, circling and fluttering. It was large and dark against
the pale yellow haze of the setting sun, and its feathers were
delicately ruffled.
"Doctor," said Gunar, "do not let me lose faith in you."
"I see it," the doctor assured him.
The attorney coughed in vicarious embarassment.
Gunar stepped to the parapet, the doctor and attorney following. "Can we try our flight again?" he asked the griffin. The doctor turned pale, and Guoar, watching for just this- response,
continued, "Its back is broad enough and its neck the right size
for my arms. I'll hamper it a bit, perhaps, but we'll manage.
You think now that it's not here at all for me to climb upon,
but an idea came to me while I was trying to mount it in the
park: If I am afraid, then I am not certain of the griffin myself.
In this way, by trusting myself to it, I prove its existence."
The doctor was plunged into rell}prse and self-doubt. He
stood stock-stili, his arms hanging numbly at his sides.
Suddenly the attorney was cognizant of Gunar Vries' kindliness, of depths to the man he had not considered. He placed his hand on Gunar's arms. "Gunar," he implored him, "we shall
provide you with first-class accommodation by whatever means
you care to travel. I shall see to it myself. I shall speak to the
president and to the Chamber of Representatives. You will be
authorized to go--indeed, dispatched."
But Gunar Vries had hold of the griffin's rear leg and drew
himself onto the parapet. The guard, having taken the respite
to smoke a cigarette, was leaning against the gate, watching the
14
Nineteen Tales of Terror
•
men, believing that anything was sanctioned. And Gunar Vries,
knowing that in a moment the three men would toss off their
stupefaction and converge upon him, threw himself upon the
griffin.
THEY flew in a westerly direction, passing over the city. The
night moved up from behind and overtook them. With the
earth so far below them, Gunar was not sure whether they
were still over Europe or had reached the Atlantic Ocean.
"Can you drop a bit closer to earth?" Gunar called forward,
and his voice was not as he expected it to be, bounced or pummeled by the wind, but went out into cabn air, the atmosphere into which an oracle speaks.
"What for?'' the griffin asked.
"But can you see any lights?,.
The griffin glanced sideways in derision, enabling Gunar to
see its eye, which was a blue distilled from the night, like a pure
blue flame, and in it were reflected, nebulously, the lights of a
city he believed to be New York.
JOHN STEI NBECK
THE WH ITE Q UA I L
TilE WALL opposite the fireplace in the living·
room was a big dormer window stretching from the cushioned
window seats almost to the ceiling-small diamond panes set
in lead. From the window, preferably if you were sitting on the
window seat, you could look across the garden and up the hill.
There was a stretch of shady lawn under the garden oaksaround each oak there was a circle of carefully tended earth in which grew cinerarias, big ones with loads of flowers so heavy
they bent the stems over, and ranging in color from scarlet to
ultramarine. At the edge of the lawn, a line of fuchsias grew
like little symbolic trees. In front of the fuchsias lay a shallow
garde� pool, the coping flush with the lawn for a very good
reason.
Right at the edge of the garden, the hill started up, wild with
cascara bushes and poison oak, with dry grass and live oak,
very wild. If you didn't go around to the front of the house you
couldn't tell it was on the very edge of the town.
Mary Teller, Mrs. Harry E. Teller, that is, knew the window
and the garden were Right and she had a very good reason for
knowing. Hadn't she picked out the place years ago where the
house and garden would be? Hadn't she seen the house and the
garden a thousand times while the place was still a dry flat
against the shoulder of a hill? For that matter, hadn't she, during five years, looked at every attentive man and wondered whether he and that garden would go together? She didn't
tqink so much, "Would this man like such a garden?" but,
"Would the garden like such a man?" For the garden was herself, and after all she had to marry some one she liked.
When she met Harry Teller, the garden seemed to like him.
It may have surprised him a little when, after he had proposed
and was waiting sulkily for his answer, as men do, Mary broke
1 5
18
Nineteen Tales ol Terror
•
into a description of a big donner window and a garden with a
lawn and oak trees and cinerarias and then a wild hill.
He said, "Of course," rather perfunctorily.
Mary asked, "Do you think it's silly?"
He was waiting a little sullenly. "Of course not."
And then she remembered that he had proposed to her, and
she accepted him, and let him kiss her. She said, "There will be
a li_ttle cement pool flush with the lawn. Do you know why?
Well, there are more birds on that hill than you'd ever think,
yellowhammers and wild canaries and red-wing blackbirds, and
of course sparrows and linnets, and lots of quail. Of course
they'll be coming down to drink there, won't tlley?"
She was very pretty. He wanted to kiss her over and over,
and she let him. "And fuchsias," she said. "Don't forget
fuchsias. They're like little tropical Christmas trees. We'll have
to have the lawn raked every day to keep the oak leaves clear."
He laughed at her. "You're a funny little bug. The lot isn't
bought, and the house isn't built, and the garden isn't planted;
and already you're worrying about oak leaves on the lawn.
You're so pretty. You make me kind of-hungry."
That startled her a little. A little expression of annoyance
crossed her face. But nevertheless she let him kiss her again,
and then sent him home and went to her room, where she had
a little blue writing desk and on it a copy-book to write things
in. She took up a pen, of which the handle was a peacock
feather, an
d she wrote, "Mary Teller" over and over again.
Once or twice she wrote, "Mrs. Harry E. Teller."
II
The lot was bought and the house was built, and they were
married. Mary drew a careful plan of the garden, and when
the workmen were putting it in she didn't leave them alone for
a moment. She knew to an inch where everything should be.
And she drew the shape of the shallow pool for the cement
workers, a kind of heart-shaped pool with no point at the bottom, with gradually sloping edges so the birds could drink easily.
Harry watched her with admiration. "Who could tell that
such a pretty girl could have so much efficiency," he said.
That pleased her, too; and she was very happy, so that she
said, "You can plant some of the things you like in the gardt:n,
if you want."
"No, Mary, I like too much to see your own mind coming
out in the garden. You do it all your own way."
She loved him for that; but after all, it was her garden. She
had invented it, and willed it, and she had worked out the colors
The Willie Quail • 11
too, so carefully. It really wouldn't have been nice if, for instance, Harry had wanted some flowers that didn't go with the garden.
At last the green lawn was up, and the cinerarias around the
oak trees bloomed in sunken pots. The little fuchsia trees had
been moved in so carefully that not a leaf wilted.
The window seats behind the dormer windows were piled
with cushions covered with bright, fadeless fabrics, for the sun
shone in that window a good part of the day. ·
Mary waited until it was all done, all finished exactly as her
mind had seen it; and then one evening when Harry came home
from the office, she led him to the window seat. "You see," she
said softly. "There it is, just the way I wanted it."
"It's beautiful," said Harry, "very beautiful."
"In a way I'� sad that it's done," she said. "But mostly I'm
glad. We won't ever change it, will we, Harry? If a bush dies,
we'll put another one just like it in the same place."
"Curious little bug," he said.
"Well, you see I've thought about it so long that it's part of
me. If anything should be changed it would be like part of me
being tom out."
He put out his hand to touch her, and then withdrew it. "I