Escape to Witch Mountain (14 page)

“They know it,” said Tony, with a glance at Tia. “She says Uncle Bené told us they'd found out that most of our family could vision distant places and see what was happening. I'm not good at it yet—”

“That makes no difference,” the big man interrupted. “They know it, and they'll pay anything to get you back. If Deranian fails, they'll send others.”

“Oh, no!” Tony was shaken.

“I'm afraid they will,” the priest said slowly. “That's the sort of people they are. And it certainly complicates things.”

“What are we going to do?”

“I don't know yet—except to keep you both hidden. A lot will depend on what we find at Stony Creek.”

Tony looked unhappily at the fire. So much depended upon an unknown person named Castaway. Had they remembered him ten years too late?

Suddenly he thought of the witches again.

“I—I keep wondering about Witch Mountain,” he said. “Why couldn't it have something to do with us?”

The priest shook his head. “How could it? As I told those men at the bridge, I've heard of the place—it was Augie Kozak who mentioned it to me. The only thing is, how could there be any possible connection between a group of so-called witches arriving at Witch Mountain—and you and Tia and some others being washed up on a communist coast after a shipwreck? Of course, both incidents seem to have happened at about the same time. But—”

Father O'Day stopped and stared at Tia. “What's the matter, my dear?
Is
there a connection?”

Tia did not answer. She was looking blankly into the fire. Tears glistened on her cheeks.

“Tia!” said Tony. “What's wrong?”

It was long seconds before she was able to answer. Finally she turned to him and told him.

Tony blinked at her. “It—it's all come back to her,” he told the priest. “She says there
is
a connection between the witches and the rest of us who were wrecked. All of us came from the same place.”

“Where in the world was that?”

“She—she says the place no longer exists.”

“Eh? How do you mean?”

Tony swallowed. “It—it's one of the things Uncle Bené told us we must never forget. Tia remembers, and I've been remembering parts of it…You see, our old home was destroyed. We all managed to get away, for there were only a few of us left. Only, our ship burned before we got here, and we had to come the rest of the way in lifeboats. We were headed for Witch Mountain.”

“You were headed for Witch Mountain—in
lifeboats?
”

“Yes, sir. But the lifeboat we were in ran out of fuel, somewhere in middle Europe. Tia says our parents were on board, and our father was pilot. If we hadn't been shot at, we could have landed safely. Instead we crashed.”

Father O'Day gave a slight shake of his head as if he had not heard correctly. “What are you trying to tell me, Tony?”

Tony took a deep breath. What Tia had helped him to remember had been something of a shock, although he had guessed part of it.

“I—I'm trying to explain, sir, why my people called themselves the Castaways. Because that's what we are.” He picked up Tia's star box and pointed to the design on it. “That's the emblem for our former home. We—we came from a planet that had two suns. A double star, really.”

Father O'Day opened his mouth to speak, but could not. Finally he crossed himself, and sat down very slowly.

T
ony glanced through the break in the foliage at the narrow strip of sky. It had paled slightly. Dawn could not be far away.

“Heaven preserve us!” the priest murmured finally. “I should have been able to guess something about you two, but I missed it entirely. My thinking has been so earthbound…There's just one thing—” He looked off into the night, his battered face puckered with bewilderment. “I don't understand about Witch Mountain. Why were the lifeboats going there? On all this planet, what was there about that particular spot that could have attracted your people?”

“Because we were mountain people, and it was a spot we'd chosen years ago,” Tony explained. He listened to Tia a minute, and said, “Do you remember what the man told you at the bridge—that the first witches came to Witch Mountain in his grandfather's day? Well, I don't know how long ago that was, but it was when some of our people first came here.”

“You mean on a sort of scouting trip?”

“Yes, sir. Somebody had to pick out a safe place to live, and go back and tell the others what to expect. They ran into all sorts of problems.”

“I can see some of them. I imagine language…”

“Oh, they ran into a bigger worry than language. Tia says the scouts were amazed at the beauty of the planet, and shocked at the way people here were treating it. The only thing that mattered to them was money. It was their idea of wealth. Everything was based
on producing it, and it was much more important than actually living and doing.”

“Eh?” Father O'Day stared at him. “Living and doing? But, Tony, one has to have money merely to live and do.”

“Sure, in
this
crazy place. But my people didn't know it when they first came here. And the people that were already here were not the kind that would go out of their way to help queer-looking strangers who couldn't talk English. Instead of helping you, they were more likely to shoot at you for trespassing.”

“Ump. I see what you mean. If I'd come here scouting, and run into much of this world's meanness, I think I would have turned around and hunted for another planet—a better one.”

“They wanted to, but they couldn't,” Tony said. “There was no other place near enough that was habitable. So they picked a wild area, built a sort of station on the big mountain in the middle of it, and got busy learning the language and everything else they had to know. The big problem, of course, was land.”

Father O'Day said grimly, “Land—the possession of it—has always been a problem. Half the wars on earth—”

“But we didn't know about that,” Tony put in hastily.

“Didn't you own land where you came from?”

“Oh, no!
No
one owned it. It belonged to the planet. It was
part
of the planet, and everyone loved it and took care of it. Over here it belonged to
people—
and to be able to live on it safely and not be driven off, you had to
buy
it. Now do you see?”

“Oh!” said the priest, in dawning comprehension. “You really did have a problem.” He scowled ferociously at the fire. “Imagine! A small group, advanced far beyond the idea of personal profit, coming to a greedy commercial world… forced to start a new life, knowing they couldn't afford to draw attention to themselves… needing a safe

place to hide, so they could gradually blend in inconspicuously with the life around them…”

“So they had to buy land,” Tony said quietly.

“Only, they had nothing they could use for money—or did they? What happened, Tony?”

“All I know,” said Tony, “is that they stripped the scout ship of everything they figured they could get a few dollars for. Then they left two of the crew here to buy what they could, and hurried home to get the rest of us. That took years, of course—and all the time our old home was drifting closer to one of the suns…”

“Oh, good Lord! And you have no idea how the scouts you left here managed to make out?”

“No, sir. Everybody was studying English—until the ship burned—and we knew only that we were going to Witch Mountain. The name had got started before the scout ship left. When the scouts found out what it meant, they must have decided it would be a good name to keep.”

Father O'Day chuckled. “Couldn't be better, since they wanted people to avoid the place. Now, about this Castaway at Stony Creek. Is he one of the scouts?”

“I—I don't know. Tia says Castaway is the name the whole group took, so I suppose everybody used it. We don't know who Uncle Bené wrote to, that time he got money for us to travel on after he escaped. It must be the same person we're supposed to see.”

“Very likely. My guess, Tony, is that the group planned to use Stony Creek as an address in case of an emergency. If that's right, we ought to find a Post Office box there under the name of Castaway. Only, why did they use Stony Creek? That other place, Misty Valley, seems to be a lot closer to Witch Mountain.”

A cold finger of doubt crept suddenly into Tony's mind. “I—I don't know,” he faltered. “I was wondering the same thing.”

Father O'Day went to the car and brought back a new road map and a flashlight. He spread the map on a blanket and turned the light on it. Tony watched his big finger move from town to town.

“The mountains are not given here,” the priest muttered. “And it must be ten or twelve miles from Stony Creek to Misty Valley. Hmm. Well, there must be some very simple explanation for their choice of an address. We'll know in a few hours.”

He put the map and flashlight back in the car, then moved the coffeepot to one side of the fire and placed a frying pan over the coals.

“Let's have an early breakfast and break camp,” he said. “It will soon be daylight, and I've a feeling we've a very full day ahead of us.”

The first golden shafts of sunlight were stealing through the trees when they were ready to leave.

Father O'Day stood frowning a moment at the muddy car. “I hate to give it a wash now,” he said. “But for safety's sake, maybe we'd better. I 'm sure Deranian knows that I 'm down here. If no one has told him, he's certainly guessed it. And too many people will remember having seen a muddy car around…”

They filled the camp bucket from the stream and washed the car carefully, but left the license plate smudged so it could not be read too easily. Finally they were on their way, with Tony sitting on the floor again facing Tia and Winkie. The tarpaulin was stretched across the gear on the seat, ready to pull over them at a moment's notice.

“Before we get to Stony Creek,” Father O'Day said presently, “we'd better face the fact that our hornless adversary is going to trace us there—if he isn't there already.”

“But—how could he?”

“He can.” The big man gave a rumbling growl that came from deep in his chest. “If I were superstitious, I'd say the fellow
has
got horns—I got a good look at him back at Augie's place and I could almost see the horns then. Anyway, if Uncle Bené told the captain of the Spanish ship where to send you, the destination might be remembered. If not, a fellow as clever as Deranian, horns or no horns—”

Suddenly Tony said, “Did I tell you he has another car full of men—four of them?”

“Ump! That's a detail you neglected to mention, and it doesn't do much for my peace of mind. I think I saw the car when I was crawling out of the orchard. Same make and color as the one he's driving. Both rentals, probably.”

They swung into another road, and the priest said, “Just before I came down here, I phoned a friend of mine—a lawyer—and had him check on the legality of Deranian's claims to you. He
is
your legal guardian now, appointed by the court. If he gets his hands on you, the law's on his side. And I couldn't do a thing. In fact,” he added with a low chuckle, “I could be arrested for kidnapping.”

They reached a paved road finally, and later that morning rolled across the bridge into Stony Creek.

Father O'Day backed the car unobtrusively under some trees in sight of the main group of store buildings, and Tony raised his head cautiously above the seat to study the place.

It looked just as he had visualized it except that it was much more crowded now. His heart began to hammer as his eyes swept the parked cars and the groups of shoppers in front of the stores. This was the spot to which Uncle Bené, long years ago, had told them they must go to locate their people.

Would there be anyone here now named Castaway?

Father O'Day was scowling through the windshield. “Place is full of tourists,” he muttered. “At least, we won't have to worry about witch hunters here. As for Deranian—”

“I don't believe he's here,” said Tony. “Anyway, I don't see a car like the one he was using.” Most of the cars in sight were either expensive machines or sport models.

“Well, you two keep under cover,” the priest ordered, “and I'll go over to the Post Office and see what I can find out.”

“Please,” said Tony, “don't you think it would be better if I went with you? Tia can stay here and keep watch.”

“What if Deranian, or some of his imps—”

“Tia can spot them. If I stay with her, we can't warn you without attracting attention. But if I'm with you, she can call to me and no one else can hear her.”

“Oh. I'd overlooked that curious way the two of you have of communicating. O.K. Keep a sharp watch, Tia. Let's go, Tony!”

Tony slid from his hiding place and followed the big man across the street.

The Post Office occupied the narrow space between a grocery and a gift shop. Inside, a plump woman with gray hair appeared at the stamp window and said pleasantly, “Can I help you?”

“I most earnestly hope so,” replied the priest. “We're trying to locate an old acquaintance by the name of Castaway. Could you tell us if any Castaways live around here?”

The woman's brow puckered, and Tony held his breath. “Castaway,” she repeated. “Castaway.” Slowly she shook her head. “No. If there had ever been anyone of that name around here, I would have remembered it.”