There were cross-currents, though. The main, broad, shining stream poured downwards in front of them towards the opening of the Cave, a mile or two beyond, where the forests dipped down among the precipices of the Areuse; but from behind—from some house in the slumbering village—came a golden tributary too, that had a peculiar and astonishing brightness of its own. It came, so far as they could make out, from the humped outline of La Citadelle, and from a particular room there, as though some one in that building had a special source of supply. Moreover, it scattered itself over the village in separate swift rivulets that dived and dipped towards particular houses here and there. There seemed a constant coming and going, one stream driving straight into the Cave, and another pouring out again, yet neither mingling. One stream brought supplies, while the other directed their distribution. Some one, asleep or awake—they could not tell—was thinking golden thoughts of love and sympathy for the world.
'It's Mlle. Lemaire,' said Jimbo. 'She's been in bed for thirty years—-' His voice was very soft.
'The Spine, you know,' exclaimed Monkey, a little in the rear.
'——and even in the daytime she looks white and shiny,' added the boy. 'I often go and talk with her and tell her things.' He said it proudly. 'She understands everything—better even than Mother.' Jimbo had told most. It was all right. His leadership was maintained and justified. They entered the main stream and plunged downwards with it towards the earth—three flitting figures dipped in this store of golden brilliance.
A delicious and wonderful thing then happened. All three remembered.
'This was where we met you first,' they told him, settling down among the trees together side by side. 'We saw your teeth of gold. You came in that train——'
'I was thinking about it—in England,' he exclaimed, 'and about coming out to find you here.'
'The Starlight Express,' put in Jimbo.
'——and you were just coming up to speak to us when we woke, or you woke, or somebody woke—and it all went,' said Monkey.
'That was when I stopped thinking about it,' he explained.