Catweazle

didn’t last long,
did they?’
    Carrot
was delighted. He left his father still wondering what all the fuss was about
and ran back to the barn.
    ‘You
did it! You did it!’ he told Catweazle gleefully. ‘What on earth did you put in
that stuff?’
    ‘Bug-bane,
barren-wort, penny-cress and blood-root, catchfly, toad-flax, nap-weed and
wormwood,’ said Catweazle.
    ‘Crumbs!’
said Carrot picking up the ladder. ‘No wonder it worked!’
    The
loft door was high up on the end wall of the barn and almost directly over a
large water butt. Carrot climbed the ladder and opened the loft door. Behind
him
    Catweazle
heaved up his sackful of belongings, and then over-balanced and toppled into
the water butt. A second later, Sam drove past in the farm truck and Carrot
pulled the loft door shut and prayed that he wouldn’t spot Catweazle
floundering in the water.
    As the
magician surfaced, a strange thing happened. The farm truck melted away before
his astonished eyes. The farm buildings shimmered and became transparent,
finally disappearing altogether. All around him lay the waters of the lake and
beyond stood the giant trees of his forest. Slowly the vision faded and he
found himself back in the water butt.
    ‘Did
Sam see you?’ asked Carrot, opening the loft door.
    ‘Oh!
Oh! Oh!’ groaned Catweazle, terrified out of his wits.
    ‘Come
on!’ said Carrot, ‘before he comes back.’ Catweazle staggered up the ladder and
collapsed in a sodden heap. ‘Water,’ he gasped. ‘All was water!’ Carrot wrapped
some sacks round him. ‘Try and keep warm,’ he said. ‘You’re O.K. now.’
    ‘I was
alone,’ said Catweazle, his teeth chattering uncontrollably. ‘The earth
melted.’
    ‘Yes,’
said Carrot. ‘Well don’t worry about it. Everything’s fine. We’ve got rid of
the Skinners.’ He opened the loft door. ‘I’ll be back,’ he said.
    Left
alone, Catweazle sat and thought long and hard about the vision he had had in
the water butt.
    ‘A fish
out of water!’ he repeated. ‘Out of water!’
    And
then suddenly everything became clear to him. Thou fool, Catweazle,’ he said to
himself, ‘Water is thy magic. Water is thy fate.’ He took
Touchwood from his pocket. ‘Minion,’ he smiled, holding the toad against his
thin cheek, ‘I have found the way back!’

14
     

THE FINAL MAGIC
     
    Several days later, as dawn broke over Kingfisher lake, Catweazle
threw a stone into the water and watched the circles spreading wider and wider;
he knew that, for him, they were magic circles. Only by entering the lake could
he return to his own time, and he felt that the pond at the farm just wasn’t
deep enough. It had taken some time for him to screw up his courage because he
was afraid the Normans would be waiting for him. He went back to the loft and
began to pack.
    It was
Mr Bennet’s birthday, and rather a gloomy one. Unfortunately he had stuck a
fork through his foot a few days before and had been ordered to bed by the
doctor. His sister had left her comfortable London flat to look after him but
he was a bad patient, and lay restlessly in bed, worrying about the break in
the farm routine. Also, he was dreading the ritual birthday tea that his sister
was bound to prepare for him.
    ‘I want
to get up,’ he said, as she bustled in with his lunch.
    ‘Oh
dear,’ she said, fussing round him. ‘You were just like this when you had
chicken pox.’
    ‘Now,
Flo,’ said Mr Bennet, ‘you can’t possibly remember that!’
    ‘Of
course I can,’ she said. ‘Mother let me stay up and read you Treasure
Island. It was when I first saw the Hexwood ghost, remember?’
    Mr
Bennet smiled. His sister had been seeing the Hex-wood ghost most of her life.
    In the
garage, Carrot was watching Sam put the finishing touches to a beautiful metal
pipe-rack he had made.
    ‘D’you
think he’ll like it?’ said Sam anxiously.
    ‘I
think it’s great,’ said Carrot.
    ‘What
are you giving him?’ said Sam.
    Carrot
proudly took a large car-lamp from a cardboard box. ‘This red thing flashes on
and off, and it’s got a terrific beam,’ he explained.
    ‘Smashin,’
said Sam, ‘he’ll like that. By the way Carrot, you ain’t had my welding mask
have you?’
    ‘No,’
said Carrot.
    ‘It’s
been missin’ a couple of days. An’ my bicycle pump an’ all.’
    ‘I
haven’t seen them,’ said Carrot, thinking immediately of Catweazle. ‘I’ll have
a look round.’
    Still
with his present under his arm, he went