Free Tales Before Tolkien by Douglas A. Anderson Page A

key.
    â€œAh!” said the Old Man, “that accounts for your knowing me. And I know the way you have to go.”
    â€œI want to find the country whence the shadows fall,” said Mossy.
    â€œI dare say you do. So do I. But meantime, one thing is certain.—What is that key for, do you think?”
    â€œFor a keyhole somewhere. But I don’t know why I keep it. I never could find the keyhole. And I have lived a good while, I believe,” said Mossy, sadly. “I’m not sure that I’m not old. I know my feet ache.”
    â€œDo they?” said the Old Man, as if he really meant to ask the question; and Mossy, who was still lying in the bath, watched his feet for a moment before he replied.
    â€œNo, they do not,” he answered. “Perhaps I am not old either.”
    â€œGet up and look at yourself in the water.”
    He rose and looked at himself in the water, and there was not a gray hair on his head or a wrinkle on his skin.
    â€œYou have tasted of death now,” said the Old Man. “Is it good?”
    â€œIt is good,” said Mossy. “It is better than life.”
    â€œNo,” said the Old Man: “it is only more life.—Your feet will make no holes in the water now.”
    â€œWhat do you mean?”
    â€œI will show you that presently.”
    They returned to the outer cave, and sat and talked together for a long time. At length the Old Man of the Sea, arose and said to Mossy,—
    â€œFollow me.”
    He led him up the stair again, and opened another door. They stood on the level of the raging sea, looking towards the east. Across the waste of waters, against the bosom of a fierce black cloud, stood the foot of a rainbow, glowing in the dark.
    â€œThis indeed is my way,” said Mossy, as soon as he saw the rainbow, and stepped out upon the sea. His feet made no holes in the water. He fought the wind, and clomb the waves, and went on towards the rainbow.
    The storm died away. A lovely day and a lovelier night followed. A cool wind blew over the wide plain of the quiet ocean. And still Mossy journeyed eastward. But the rainbow had vanished with the storm.
    Day after day he held on, and he thought he had no guide. He did not see how a shining fish under the waters directed his steps. He crossed the sea, and came to a great precipice of rock, up which he could discover but one path. Nor did this lead him farther than half-way up the rock, where it ended on a platform. Here he stood and pondered.—It could not be that the way stopped here, else what was the path for? It was a rough path, not very plain, yet certainly a path.—He examined the face of the rock. It was smooth as glass. But as his eyes kept roving hopelessly over it, something glittered, and he caught sight of a row of small sapphires. They bordered a little hole in the rock.
    â€œThe keyhole!” he cried.
    He tried the key. It fitted. It turned. A great clang and clash, as of iron bolts on huge brazen caldrons, echoed thunderously within. He drew out the key. The rock in front of him began to fall. He retreated from it as far as the breadth of the platform would allow. A great slab fell at his feet. In front was still the solid rock, with this one slab fallen forward out of it. But the moment he stepped upon it, a second fell, just short of the edge of the first, making the next step of a stair, which thus kept dropping itself before him as he ascended into the heart of the precipice. It led him into a hall fit for such an approach—irregular and rude in formation, but floor, sides, pillars, and vaulted roof, all one mass of shining stones of every colour that light can show. In the centre stood seven columns, ranged from red to violet. And on the pedestal of one of them sat a woman, motionless, with her face bowed upon her knees. Seven years had she sat there waiting. She lifted her head as Mossy drew near. It was Tangle. Her hair had grown to her feet, and was