They kept me at it for two solid hours. Whenever I tried to leave the stool Alex would have none of it. ‘Keep playing,’ he yodelled. Where the stuff came from I simply couldn’t say. It just seemed to well up in the fingers. There was a great mazurka. I couldn’t even remember its number. The notes came unbidden. I began a piece which at first I couldn’t place. Then I realized this was the calm beginning of the tremendous polonaise-fantaisie. For a while I had fears I could never remember the magnificent second half. Then I began to listen intently to the music itself. I became lost in it. Not until my fingers came down on the final crashing chord was I aware of any passage of time. They were both on my shoulder now. For a moment I thought Alex was going to weep. I jumped up and said firmly, ‘Time for food.’
There were eggs in the refrigerator. Within twenty minutes we had a big omelette all piping hot on the table. John and I ate while Alex talked, his mouth full the whole while. Somehow it sounded very witty. Wit, like love, evidently lies in the ear of the listener. We had some fresh fruit. Then I went off to make coffee.
When I came back Alex was nowhere to be seen.
‘He’s gone, apparently.’
That was Alex all over. He had the gift of appearing out of nowhere and of disappearing without the slightest explanation. He was the nearest human embodiment of the Cheshire cat I had ever met.
‘Has he really gone?’ asked John.
‘Oh yes. He never goes in any other way.’
‘What an odd fellow. Well, Dick, how have you been these last few years?’
Perhaps I should explain that I was christened Richard and that my nose, broken in a boyhood accident, somehow dominates my appearance. With this formality out of the way, let me return to my story.
We settled ourselves comfortably as we drank our coffee. The conversation turned naturally on memories and anecdotes of our earlier years. No third person would have been much interested in the talk. By the time we had done it was half past one. I didn’t know where John had been intending to stay the night but it was obvious that he should occupy my spare room. I got out towels and bed linen. Half an hour later I was asleep, blissfully unaware of the strange events that even the near future was to reveal.
Chapter Two: Fugue
We were nearly through breakfast the following morning when John said, ‘How about it?’
‘How about what?’
‘The trip we once planned to the north-west. Liathach, An Teallach, Suilven, and the rest of ’em.’
‘When?’
‘As soon as you’re ready.’
‘I’m ready now. What shall we go in?’
‘I can borrow a car easily enough.’
‘That wasn’t what I was thinking. This time of year the hotels in the Highlands are certain to be full.’
John thought about this for a minute and got up from the table, ‘I’ll see what I can do. Where’s the phone?’
It was half an hour before he reappeared. ‘Well, it’s all fixed.’
‘What?’
‘I’ve got hold of a caravan with a car to pull it.’
It wasn’t a very great achievement, not for a Nobel laureate, but he seemed quite proud of it.
After breakfast John went out, took a taxi, and disappeared. I set about cleaning up. I telephoned a few people to say I would be away for about ten days. Then I searched for my boots and other items of mountain equipment. The boots looked just about serviceable. I hadn’t kept them as carefully as they deserved. Rucksack, a bit of rope, anorak, socks, breeches, I scattered them over the floor. I packed and was ready when John returned. It was nearly one o’clock by the time we headed our outfit through St John’s Wood on to the A1.
The journey to the north became an unmitigated bore. It was dark when we reached Scotch Corner. We turned off the fast highway, taking the smaller cross-country road to Penrith. By the time we reached Brough we had both had enough. So we drove away on the moorland road which leads from Brough to Middleton. It was certain there would be patches of open ground on which we could park the caravan for the night. So it proved, after we had climbed up towards the moors for maybe a couple of miles. We ate a simple but ample meal from provisions we had bought on the way. A mug of tea each, with a big dollop of rum in it, was the last manœuvre before getting down into our bags.
There was a good deal of rain in the night, so we had no great hopes for the weather the following morning. But when I put on the kettle at about six o’clock it didn’t look too bad. Although there was mist on the high ground it seemed as if the rain might hold off. I woke John with a cup of tea and asked him how he would feel about stretching his legs. He said that would be fine, so I cooked about six slices of bacon. Instead of eating it there and then we wrapped it in a piece of aluminium foil. This, a knife, a loaf of bread, and a hunk of cake, went into a rucksack. By a quarter to seven we were away. We took the car along the road until John, who was studying the map, announced that the point of attack had been reached. We laughed at the thought of an attack on Mickle Fell. Yet we knew, gentle as the hill might be so far as height was concerned, there would be plenty of really hard walking before we reached the top. Hard because the ground was broken by big tussocks and by peat hags. The mist wouldn’t make navigating easy.
We made the top of a little ridge. The line ahead didn’t look right to John. It was characteristic of him that he wouldn’t move on until we had fixed the exact point where we were now standing. It was pretty damp. I began to grow cold as we argued. At last we had the contours on the map fitted correctly to the mile or so of country we could see ahead. It was now clear what the trouble was. We hadn’t started at quite the point we intended. We had left the car almost a mile short of the right spot. John grumbled to himself, to the effect that he must be losing his grip. Next we got into an argument about which was the best line to take, not so much from a point of view of arriving at the top, but of avoiding the worst of the broken ground. We decided to move leftward in order to avoid the green soggy depression below us. After about half an hour we came on a wire fence that seemed to lead in the right direction. Looking at the map it occurred to me that it might mark the boundary between Westmorland and Yorkshire. If it did it would lead us to exactly where we wanted to be. The time seemed about right for breakfast. We cut two or three slices of bread, munched up the bacon, and started off again, each with a lump of cake in his hand.
We made good progress along the fence because the ground was somewhat smoother along its line than it was in open country. About eight o’clock the mists lifted. Mickle Fell was dead ahead of us. Now it was only a simple walk to the top. As soon as we were on the limestone, or what seemed to be limestone, there was a delightful change of vegetation. Gone was the acid peat bog. Now we had grass beneath our feet and sheep were grazing on the long back of the fell. We made quick progress to the east down a longish ridge to a mine perched near a lake under the hillside. By eleven o’clock we were on the road again.