The Magic Spectacles by James P. Blaylock Read Free Book Online Page A

chips of glass. And as was true of the goblins, all of the little men looked very nearly alike. They were all plump and had funny sprouts of hair and worried looks on their faces. They followed each other in a curvy trail across the meadow, rising and falling on the breeze, flying away in the direction of the cottage on the far-off hill. Finally they were just specks in the distance.
    “Did you see what they were carrying?” Danny asked. His eyes were wide, as if he couldn’t quite believe any of it. John nodded.
    “Do you think it was pieces of our spectacles?”
    “Maybe,” John said. “How do I know?” He was still mad because of what Danny had said about him breaking the spectacles. A curtain of fog had fallen over the woods, and the trees were nothing but black shadows now. Just then a drum began beating, very low like a heartbeat, or like someone pounding on an iron kettle with a big wooden spoon. A light blinked on, back in the woods. The light leaped and died and then leaped again, like a bonfire flaring up. It made a streaky orange light through the fog.
    Ahab walked back and forth restlessly, then stopped and barked, then ran off in the direction the leaf men had taken, up toward the house on the hill. He stopped, barked, looked back at John and Danny, and then ran a little farther.
    John looked one last time for the window. He stood beneath where it was supposed to be and felt the air. Maybe it was there and they just couldn’t see it….
    The bonfire blinked out and the woods were dark. Then, just as suddenly, the fire blinked on again, burning right at the
edge
of the meadow now. A great, black cauldron hung over the fire, and fog billowed out of it, pouring over the edges of the cauldron and onto the ground like sea foam. The shadow-shapes of goblins danced around the fire, and the dark fog whirled out in a steamy rush, as if the night-time itself were leaking out of the cauldron.
    John and Danny took off running, following Ahab, across the meadow toward the house on the hill. They didn’t slow down until they struck a narrow, dirt road where the going got steeper and the meadow fell away behind them. When they looked back, the bonfire had vanished. There was no sign of goblins, no sound of laughter or drumming or flute music. The meadow was empty again, and night had fallen.
    Ahead of them, the light of the full moon shone on the road. There were thick trees along either side. The house atop the hill was nearly invisible behind the trees now, and they could just see one of its windows, aglow with lamp light.
    “Did you bring any candy?” Danny asked suddenly.
    ‘Yeah,” John said, opening up his belt pack. “All kinds. Danny held out his hand. “Licorice,” he said. “Anything licorice.”
    “I didn’t bring any licorice,” John said. He unclipped the pack and held it open in the moonlight. There were peppermint and butterscotch candies wrapped in plastic and two or three purple bubblegums. Most of it was the kind of candy sold by the pound, out of bins at the grocery store.
    “Let me see.” Danny took the pack from him. He pulled out the two chocolate bars. Both of them had been smashed flat. “They’re dead,” Danny said. Chocolate oozed out of the ends of the wrappers, and there was lint and sand stuck to it. “They smell like fish, too.” He dropped the candy back into the open pack.
    “I don’t think it’s the candy that smells like fish,” John whispered. All was silent. Except for moonlight, the night was dark, and there was no sound but the wind rustling the trees. Then they heard a twig snap and the sound of dry leaves crackling underfoot. Then there was silence again, and the night was deadly still.
    Ahab growled and took a step forward, cocking his head to the side. Danny reached down and grabbed his collar. Moonlit fog drifted out of the dark trees, and right then, in the blink of an eye, the bonfire sprang up again, glowing through the trees, and there was a rustling