Tooth And Claw——3、Gabriel Ernest

Gunningham had spent an agreeable week in the country with his friend Van Cheele.Now Van Cheele was driving his guest back to the station.Cunningham was unusually quiet on the journey,but Van Cheele talked all the time,so he did not notice his friend's silence.
Suddenly Cunningham spoke.'There is a wild animal in your woods,'he said.'
'A wild animal?A few rabbits,perhaps.Nothing very terrible,surely,'said Van Cheele.Cunningham said nothing.
'What did you mean about a wild animal?'asked Van Cheele later,at the stataion.'
'Nothing.It was my imagination.Here is the train,'said Cunningham.
That afternoon Van cheele went for a walk through his woods.He knew a little about plants and animals,and he enjoyed walking through the woods around his house and looking at the birds and flowers there.He also enjoyed telling everyone about them afterwards.Of course,he never saw anything very surprising--until that afternoon.
During his walk Van Cheele came to a deep pool under some tall trees.He knew it well:after all,it was his pool.But today,he saw a boy of about sixteen lying on a large rock beside the pool.They boy was drying his wet,naked brown body in the sun.His hair was wet too,and he had long,golden,wolfish eyes.He turned those eyes towards Van Cheele with a look of lazy watchfulness.
Van Cheele was surprised to see the boy.Where does this wild-looking boy come from?he thought.Can he be the miller's son?He disappeared two months ago.People say he fell into the river.It's a fast-running river,and nobody ever found his body.I wonder?But the miller's boy was only a young child...
'What are you doing here?'asked Van Cheele.
'Enjoying the sunshine,of course,'said the boy.
'Where do you live?'
'Here,in these woods.'
'You can't live in these woods,'said Van Cheele.
'They are very nice woods,'said the boy politely.
'But where do you sleep at night?'
'I don't sleep at night.That's my busiest time.'
Van Cheele began to feel cross.What did the boy mean?
'What do you eat?'he asked.
'Meat,'said the boy.He opened his mouth,showing very little teeth.
'Meat?What kind of meat?
'Well,if you must know,I eat rabbits,wild birds,chickens from the farm and young sheep from the hills.I like children when I can find them.But they're usually too well locked in at night.It's too months since I tasted child meat.'
The boy is joking about the children,thought Van Cheele.But perhaps he really is stealing animals from teh woods and farms.I must find out more about this.
Aloud he said,'You catch rabbits?You must be joking.Our rabbits are much too fast for you.'
'At night I hunt on four feet,'was the boy's surprising replp.
'You mean that you hunt with a dog?'guessed Van Cheele.
The boy sat up suddenly and laughed a strange,low laugh.To Van Cheele that laugh sounded horribly like a growl.
'I don't think any dog would like to hurt with me,'the boy said.'Not at night...'
There is something horrible about this boy,thought Van Cheele.I don't like the way he looks and I don't like the way he talks.
'I can't let you stay in my woods,'he said aloud.
'Very well then-shall I come and live in your house?'replied the boy.
Van Cheele thought about his quiet,tidy house.No,he didn't want this strange,wild boy at all.Of course,the boy was joking,but Van Cheele was not amused.
'If you don't go away,'he said.'I shall have to call the police.'
At once the boy turne and jumped head-first into the pool.A moment later,his shining,wet body landed half-way up the grassy bank where Van Cheele was standing.Van Cheele stepped backwards.His food slipped on the wet grass and he fell.He found himself lying on the grass with those wolfish yellow eyes uncomfortably near to his.He felt a moment of horrible fear.The boy laughed again,a laugh that was like the growl of a wild animal,then disappeared among the bushes.
'What an extraordinarily wild animal!'said Van Cheele as he picked himself up.And then he remembered Cunningham's words about a wild animal in his woods.
As he walked slowly home,Van Cheele thought about several things with had happened in and around the village recently.Perhaps this boy knows something about them,he thought...Something had been killing rabbits and birds in the woods lately.Something had been stealing the farmer's chickens and carrying off the young sheep from the hills.Is it possible that this boy is hunting at night with a fast,intelligent dog?The boy talked of hunting on four feet at night...But he also said that dogs did not like to hunt with him at night...Very strange indeed.
As Van Cheele walked along,he turned the questions over and over in his head.Suddenly he stopped.The miller's son!he said to himself.The child disappeared two months ago.Everyone thought that he had falled into the river and been carried away.But the child's mother did not believe this.She said she had heard a scream--and the scream came from the hill,a long way away from the water.
It's impossible,of course,said Van Cheele to himself.But the child disappeared two months ago,and the boy talked about child meat.He was joking,of course...but what a horrible joke!
Van Cheele usually talked to his aunt about the birds,plants and animals he saw on his walks.But today he said nothing.He was an important man in his village.If there was a thief living in his woods,he did not want anyone to know.If people hear about the boy,he thought,perhaps they will want me to pay for their lost chickens and their disappeared sheep.
He was unusually quiet at dinner.'What's the matter with you?'joked his aunt.'Did you see a wolf on your walk?'
At breakfast the next morning Van Cheele realized that he still fell uncomfortable about yesterday's adventure.I know what I will do,he said to himself.I'll take the train to London and I'll go and see Cunningham.I'll ask him if he was joking when he said there was a wild animal in my woods.
After he had decided this,Van Cheele felt better.He sang a happy little song as he walked to the sitting-room for his morning cigarette.His fat old dog walked beside him.
As Van Cheele entered the sitting-room,the song died on his lips and his dog ran away with his tail between his legs.There on the day-bed,with his hands comfortable behind his head,lay the boy from the woods.He was drier than yesterday,but he was still naked.
'What are you doing here?'asked Van Cheele angrily.
'You told me I couldn't stay in the woods,'said the boy calmly.
'But I didn't tell you to come here.What if my aunt sees you?What will be think?'
Van Cheele hurriedly covered his unwanted guest's nakedness with a newspaper.At that moment his aunt entered the room.
'This is a poor boy,'explained Van Cheele quickly.'He has lost his way-and lost his memory too.He doesn't know who he is,or where he comes from.'
Miss Van Cheele was very surprised.'Perhaps his name is on his underclothes.'she said.
'He had lost his underclothes too,'said Van Cheele.The newspaper was slipping off the boy's naked body.Van Cheele hurried to replace it.
Miss Van Cheele was a kind old lady.She felt sorry for this naked,helpless child.
'We must help him,'she said.'She sent the housekeeper to a neighbour's house to borrow some clothes.
Soon the boy was clean and tidy,and dressed in shirt,trousers and shoes.Van Cheels thought he looked just s strange and wolfish as before.But Miss Van Cheele thought he was sweet.
'We must give him a name until we know who he really is,'she said.'Garbiel Ernest,I think.Those are nice,suitable names.'
Van Cheele agreed.But he was not sure that the boy was nice,suitable boy.Van Cheele old dog,when he saw the boy,had run away in fear and would not come back into the house.Van Cheele decided to go and see Cunningham at once.
As he got ready to go to London,his aunt was busily arranging a children's tea party in the church hall.
'Gabriel Ernest will help me with the little ones,'she said happily.
When Van Cheele got to London,Cunningham did not want to talk at first.You'll think I am crazy,'he said.
'But what did you see?'asked Van Cheele.
'I saw something-something unbelievable.On the last evening of my visit to you I was standing half-hidden in the bushes,watching the sun go down.Suddenly I noticed a naked boy.He has been swimming in a pool somewhere,I said to myself.He was standing on the hillside and he too was watching the sun go down.Then the sun disappeared behind the hill and its light was gone.At the same moment a very surprising thing happened-the boy disappeared too.'
'What?He disappeared just like that?'said Van Cheele excitedly.
'No.It was much more horrible than that.On the open hillside where the boy had been,I saw a large,blackish-grey wolf with long white teeth and yellow eyes.You'll think I'm crazy-'
But Van Cheele did not wait.He was running towards the station as fast as he could.He did not know what he could do.I cant send my aunt a message,he thought.What can I say?Gabriel Ernest is a wolf?My aunt will think I'm joking.I must get home before sundown.
He caught his train.With painful slowness it carried him to the station a few miles from his home.He took a taxi to his village.
'Take me to the church hall-and hurry!'he ordered.The taxi drove along the quiet country roads,and the sky turned pink and purple as the sun got lower and lower in the west.
His aunt was putting away some uneaten cakes and sandwiches when he arrived.
'Where is the Gabriel Ernest?'screamed Van Cheele.
'He's talking little Jack Toop home,'said his aunt calmly.'It was getting so late.I didn't want to send the dear little boy home alone.Isn't the sky beautiful this evening?'
But Van Cheele had no time to talk about the beautiful sky.He ran like the wind down the narrow road that went to the Toops' house.On one side was the fast-running river,on the other was the dark hillside.In a minute I'll catch up with them,Van Cheele thought.
Then the sun went down behind the hill and the whole world became grey and cold.Van Cheele heard a short scream of fear,and he knew he was too late.
Nobody ever saw little Jack Toop or Gabrid Ernest again.Gabriel Ernest's clothes were found lying in the road.
'Poor little Jack fell into the river,'said Miss Van Cheele.'And dear Gabriel Ernest took off his clothes and jumped into the river to try to save him.'
Mrs Toop had eleven other children and did not cry too long for her lost son.But Miss Van Cheele was terribly sad about Gabriel Ernest.
'He must have a memeorial in the church,'she said.She chose the words herself:
GABRIEL ERNEST,AN UNKNOWN BOY
WHO BRAVELY GAVE HIS LIFE
FOR ANOTHER
Van Cheele usually did what his aunt wanted.But he refused to give any money at all for Gabriel Ernest's memorial.