Free Elidor (Essential Modern Classics) by Alan Garner Page A

to switch it off.”
    “I can’t, dear. It works from the mains.”
    “Then what’s it doing now?”
    “I don’t know, dear.”
    Mr Watson put the razor on the table. Its vibrations made it turn like the head of a tortoise.
    “It was in its case on top of the medicine cupboard. It’d nearly shaken itself off. I had a job to catch it.”
    “Dead weird, isn’t it?” said Nicholas. “The power must be coming from somewhere, unless there’s a fault.”
    “There’s no fault in the razor,” said David. “It’s going perfectly!”
    “I don’t like it,” said Helen. “It’s almost – alive.”
    “It’s spooky.”
    “David!” said Mrs Watson. “I will not have you putting such thoughts into other people’s heads! You know there must always be a perfectly simple explanation for everything that happens. There’s obviously somethingwrong with the razor, and we’ll take it back to the shop tomorrow and let a qualified electrician see it.”
    “I’ll wrap it in a towel and put it away,” said Mr Watson, “or else it’ll get on our nerves. I must say, I wouldn’t have thought it.”
    “Now we’re all up, let’s have supper,” said Mrs Watson. “Will you bring the trolley through, please, Roland, for the cups and saucers? I’ll go and put the kettle on.”
    “It’s still pretty spooky, whatever Mum says,” David muttered.
    “Now, David,” said his father.
    “Well it is, Dad. You can’t run away from it. Things don’t start by themselves. You must have something to—”
    Mrs Watson’s scream interrupted him. They rushed through into the kitchen, and found her staring at the electric food mixer, which was spinning at top speed.
    “Switch it off!” cried Mrs Watson.
    “It is switched off, Mum,” said Nicholas, and he took the plug out of the socket, to be certain. The mixer did not falter.
    “It – started,” said Mrs Watson. “I was nowhere near it.”
    “Now will you believe me?” said David.
    As if to back him up, the drum of the washing machine slowly began to turn behind its glass door.
    “It’s all right, dear,” said Mr Watson. “There’ll be a faultin the supply. David, go and switch off the mains, and we’ll see.”
    David pressed a lever on the electricity meter and all the lights in the house went out. But the mixer and the washing machine threshed away in the darkness.
    “Very well,” said Mr Watson. “Put the lights on.”
    They ate a poor supper. Mrs Watson was upset, but Mr Watson said that nothing could be done at the moment, and that they should try to have a good night’s sleep. It would all be put right in the morning. It was not a fault at the mains, so there was no danger. Nevertheless, he gave himself away by setting up a camp bed for Helen in his room. Now no one would be alone.
    At first the boys tried to talk when they were in bed, but their father called to them to go to sleep. So they lay awake through that night, listening to the machinery. At two o’clock in the morning the food mixer burned itself out. But the washing machine rumbled on. The children and their parents stared clear-eyed at the dark.

C HAPTER 11
    T HE L AST S PADEFUL
    “W hat was that you were chuntering about last night, Roland, before Dad told you to shut up?” said Nicholas.
    “I know what’s causing all this,” said Roland. “It’s the Treasures.”
    Mrs Watson was in bed suffering from a headache. She had put cotton wool in her ears to keep out the noise of the washing machine. Mr Watson was having trouble over finding an electrician: either the numbers were engaged, or he became involved in long arguments.
    “I don’t know how they’re doing it,” said Roland, “but they are. Malebron said they’d still give light in Elidor even when they’re here, so they must be generating something.”
    “Generators!” said David. “Yes! They could! Roland, you’ve hit it! If Malebron said that, the Treasures must be giving off energy. And if it’s generated over a