'You know about the Star Cavern, I suppose—?' he began. It was the sudden idea that had shot into him, he knew not whence.
'No.'
'Never heard of it.'
'Where is it, please?'
'Don't interrupt. That wasn't a real question. Stories always begin like that.' It was Jane Anne who thus finally commanded order.
'It's not a story exactly, but a sort of adventure,' he continued, hesitating yet undaunted. 'Star Caverns are places where the unused starlight gathers. There are numbers of them about the world, and one I know of is up here in our mountains,' he pointed through the north wall towards the pine-clad Jura, 'not far from the slopes of Boudry where the forests dip towards the precipices of the Areuse—' The phrase ran oddly through him like an inspiration, or the beginning of a song he once had heard somewhere.
'Ah, beyond le Vallon Vert? I know,' whispered Jimbo, his blue eyes big already with wonder.
'Towards the precipices on the farther side,' came the explanation, 'where there are those little open spaces among the trees.'
'Tell us more exactly, please.'
'Star-rays, you see,' he evaded them, 'are visible in the sky on their way to us, but once they touch the earth they disappear and go out like a candle. Unless a chance puddle, or a pair of eyes happens to be about to catch them, you can't tell where they've gone to. They go really into these Star Caverns.'