Free The Magic Spectacles by James P. Blaylock

would think that he and Danny were lost, and that they wouldn’t get any sleep that night at all. If only he could call them on the telephone and tell them that the two of them were safe and that Ahab was there with them.
    Thinking that way made him grow more and more sleepy and he began to dream about being home again. He and Danny were playing marbles in the backyard with Kimberly – or was it Polly? He dreamed that the back gate scraped open. It was Mr. Deener coming in, as if he lived there, as if it were
his
back yard. Only it wasn’t Mr. Deener all of a sudden; it was a great fat goblin, wearing rats for shoes.

Part two of three

Chapter 15: Upstairs in the Old House
    A noise woke John up. It was a crash, like glass breaking, and then someone saying “Ow!” very loudly. Then it was quiet again.
    “What was that?” Danny asked.
    John sat up in bed and looked around. There was still an orange glow from the fireplace, but the room was dark and full of shadows. “I don’t know,” John whispered. “Maybe it’s Mr. Deener, making his moon ladder.”
    “I think he wants to steal the glasses,” Danny said. “I don’t trust him.”
    “Maybe,” John said. “Let’s be careful with them.” He climbed out of bed, found his jacket, and checked the pocket. There were the spectacles, safe and sound. Danny got up and stepped across to the door. He pushed it open softly. Light shined into the room from the lamp in the hallway.
    “Anybody out there?” John whispered.
    “No,” Danny said, “but I can hear him working downstairs, dragging things around.”
    Danny started pulling his clothes on: Here we go again, John thought. “We better not,” he said. “What if Polly or Aunt Flo wakes up and finds us messing around through the house? What are we going to tell them?”
    “We’re going to ask them how come they’ve got the Sleeper held prisoner upstairs.”
    “Prisoner?”
John said. “He was out fishing earlier. What kind of prisoner is that?”
    But Danny was tying his shoes, getting ready to go out into the hall. “Wait!” John said, “I’m going too.” He wasn’t about to stay behind, even if this meant new trouble, which it probably did. He pulled his shoes on.
    (Chapter 15 continues after illustration)

The house was quiet now. Even Mr. Deener had quit bumping around. The long hallway was empty and full of shadows, lit only by moonlight through the tall windows looking out toward the meadow. From outside came the sound of the wind. Floorboards creaked as they walked slowly toward the stairs that led up into the darkness of the tower. There was no moonlight on the stairs, and it was ghostly dark.
    “I’m not going,” John whispered.
    “Afraid of the dark?” Danny asked, putting a foot on the first stair.
    “No,” John said. “I’m just not stupid, that’s all.”
    Danny shrugged and started up without him. John hesitated for a moment, looked back down the empty hall, and then, holding on tight to the wooden handrail, he followed Danny up into the darkness. He held his breath. This was
really
dumb. A man lay sleeping in the room above, and they were going to walk in on him. What if the Sleeper woke up? What would they say?
    The stairway brightened, and they found themselves at the edge of a large round room. Again there were windows facing the meadow. The full moon hung in the sky like a lantern, shining through the windows and casting their crisscross shadows across the floor. They could see all the way to the woods beyond the meadow. Amid the dark trees there was the yellow glow of a goblin fire.
    John shivered, suddenly cold. He glanced around the room. A bed sat against the far wall, nearly hidden by a wide chair. Someone was lying in the bed – the Sleeper. His face lay in the shadow of the chair, shaded from the moonlight that shone ghostly-white on his nightshirt and sheet. He stirred uneasily in his sleep.
    On another wall sat a tall wardrobe with the door standing half open. It