The Bone Forest Read Free Page A

that the Oxford man had suggested experimenting on Steven and Christian, and whilst the idea tantalized Huxley, he felt a strong, moral repellence at the notion. "No. It wouldn't be fair."
    "With their consent?"
    "We may be damaging ourselves, Edward. I couldn't inflict that risk on my boys. Besides, Jennifer would have something to say about it. She'd forbid it outright."
    "But with the
boys'
consent? Steven especially. You said he was a dreamer. You said he could call the wood."
    "He doesn't know he's doing it. He dreams, yes. Neither boy knows what we know. They just know we go exploring, not that time runs differently, not that we encounter dangers. They don't even know about the mythagos. They think they see 'gypsies.' Tramps."
    But Wynne-Jones wrestled with the idea of enhancing Steven's perception of the wood. "One experiment. One low voltage, high color stimulation. It surely would do no harm…"
    Huxley shook his head, staring hard at the other man. "It would be wrong. It's wrong to even think about it. Fascinating though the results would be, Edward… I
must
say no. Please don't insist anymore. Set the equipment up for ourselves. We'll enter the wood the first moment after dawn."
    "Very well."
    "One other thing," Huxley added, as the scientist busied himself. "In case anything should ever happen to me—and I'm disturbed by being shot at by the Merry Man, the Hood figure—in case something unfortunate should occur, I keep a second journal. It's in a wall safe behind these books. You are the only other person who knows about it, and I shall trust you to secure it, should it become necessary, and to use it without revealing it. I don't want Jennifer to know what it contains."
    "And what
does
it contain?"
    "Things I can't account for. Dreams, feelings, experiences that seem less related to me than they do to…" he searched for appropriate words. "To the animal realm."
    Huxley knew that he was frowning hard, and that his mood had become dark. Wynne-Jones sat quietly, watching his friend, clearly not comprehending the depth of despair and fear that Huxley was trying to impart without detail. He said only, "In the wood… in parts of the wood… I have been very disturbed… As if a more primordial aspect of my behavior had been let out, dusted off, and set loose."
    "Good God, man, you sound like that character of Stevenson's."
    "Mr. Hyde and Mr. Jekyll?" Huxley laughed.
    "
Dr
. Jekyll, I believe."
    "Whatever. I remember reading that whimsy at school. It hadn't occurred to me to see any connection, but yes, my dreams certainly reflect a more violent and instinctual creature than I'm accustomed to greeting every morning in the shaving mirror."
    "And these observations and records are in the second journal?"
    "Yes. And accounts, too, of what the boys are experiencing. I really don't want them to know that I've been watching them. But if our ideas about the mythago-genesis of heroes in the wood are right, then all of us in this house, even you, Edward, are having an effect upon the process. At any one time, the phenomena we witness might be the product of one of five minds. And then there are the farm hands, and the people at the Manor. Our moods, our personalities, shape the manifestations—"
    "You've begun to agree with me, then. I made this point a year ago."
    "I
do
agree with you. That Hood form… it was strange. It echoed a mind different to my own. Yes. I do agree with you. And this is an area we should study more assiduously, and more vigorously. So let's prepare."
    "I shall say nothing about the second journal."
    "I trust you."
    "I still think we should talk about Steven, and enhancing his perception."
    "If we talk about it, let's talk about it after this excursion."
    "I agree."
    Relieved, Huxley reached into his desk drawer for his watch, a small, brass-encased mechanism that showed date as well as time of day. "Let's get ourselves ready," he said, and Wynne-Jones grunted his agreement.

THREE
    "Your son is