Free Goose of Hermogenes by Allen Saddler Peter Owen Ithell Colquhoun Patrick Guinness Page B

from some hidden source and darkened where a turn of wall or jutting rock threw a shadow. One such submerged projection hid the mouth of the cave, making it invisible from the surface of the ground.
    ‘I noticed that the water was not tideless, for it began to sink with gurgling sounds, and in its retreat left the cave without light. The rhythm of this tide was very rapid, for scarcely had the cavern been emptied, when the water came lapping back, bringing the light with it. I tasted the water and found it salt; and being unable to explore the cave further because of its swift return, I began to climb back towards the earth’s surface. The going was still more difficult than before, as I now discovered fish like flowers growing directly from the stone without leaves. I could hardly get foot-hold or hand-hold without crushing or gripping these cold petals, which spread their cherry and blue-grey all about the ascent, a salty deposit covering them with a dusty grape-like bloom.
    Experiment II.
    ‘It is not generally known, and certainly I never before this realised, that scattered about even the most cancerously-urban districts of great cities, there exist patches and stretches of wild marshy land or heath. I do not mean the parks – they are as urban as the buildings. These spaces are different because you cannot find them by looking for them – at least it seems to be so, as far as our present knowledge takes us.
    ‘The other day when I was with a companion I found such a patch – a rough tussocky piece of land, quite extensive, where flowers of a unique and curious species were growing. The petals were large and looked as if they were made of paper – more like sepals, rather stiff and pointed; the colour was pale orange-pink at the edges, deepening further in and finally becoming a dusky reddish-brown at the centre.
    ‘They grew in swampy places and we had to get wet in order to come close to them; we had to climb over rocks, too, and I was annoyed by my companion’s lack of adventure in these matters – the way he jumped over the rock-pools you would think a drop of water would kill him. But I did not care; I made my way over the stones and streams to one of the biggest flowers.
    ‘I found that inside and below the petals was a kind of bowl made of the same stuff; but it must have been stronger, because when I lifted the petals I saw that it was full to the brim with dark water. In this water were strange living creatures, like sea-anemones but larger and harder and without tentacles – more like scarabs perhaps. They were of various jewel-colours, ruby, sapphire, emerald, some of them spotted with white. They crawled and clung to the sides of the pool; I put my hand in and touched them, but my companion seemed afraid to. Then we turned northwards across the moor.
    Experiment III.
    ‘Another day I was looking for somewhere to live and went in a north-westerly direction. From some dingy agent in the vicinity I got the key of a house to let. Wandering along the streets I came to a row of peeling stucco houses with cat-walks in front, and mouldering urns, which could hold nothing, surmounting their plastered gate-posts.
    ‘My key fitted the front door of one of these houses; I went in and up the stairs to the first floor. I entered a large room with three windows looking out upon the road; folding doors connected it with the room behind. These I pushed open and found myself in another room exactly like the first; I went over to the central one of its three windows and looked out. Instead of the characterless gardens and hinder façade of a parallel block, I saw a sloping strip of ground overgrown with brambles, then a pebbly shore, and beyond, the crash and smother of Atlantic waves, breaking ceaselessly and without tide. This ocean stretched away to the horizon where it met a misty sky, but did not merge with it – the heaving water set up a melancholy distinction out there; and here within, a briney exultant