Doctor Who_ The Mind Robber Part 8

The Doctor braced himself against a tree trunk so that Jamie could use his clasped hands and shoulder as footholds and the boy scrambled up the rest of the way.

Finally he called down triumphantly: 'I've done it I've got to the top ' And then his voice altered and he sounded quite awestruck. 'Doctor... You're never going to believe this.

'Just at present, I think I'd believe almost anything,'

responded the Doctor. 'Why what is it? Can you see something?'

'Och, I can see all right... Do you know what this tree really is?'

'No what?'

'It's a letter "B" stretched out, twenty feet tall, with one flat side and two round ones... And the next tree is an "S" and then there's an "O", hollow all the way down and a "W"... All the trees are letters: we've been walking through a forest of words!'

The Doctor shut his eyes. 'Of course... This is a world of words I should have realised it.'

Zoe called up: 'What do the words say?'

From his vantage point on the treetop, Jamie spelled them out with difficulty: 'Slow... but... sure... In... for... a...

penny '

'In for a pound yes, all old sayings proverbs.' The Doctor was no longer going to be surprised by anything.

'Look before you leap... ' Jamie continued, then: 'And they go on and on like that but too far away I can't read any more. Look out; I'm coming down.'

He slithered down the treetrunk again, landing lightly upon his feet.

'The important question is did you see a way out?' Zoe asked.

'Not really except it looked as if the trees thin out a bit, in this direction ' He pointed to one side: and stopped short with a gasp. For, out of nowhere, they had been joined by a stranger the gentleman in the three-cornered hat whom the Doctor had already met, earlier in the day.

Zoe gave a little cry of dismay, and the Doctor was quick to rea.s.sure her. 'Don't be alarmed, Zoe this gentleman and I are old friends: he is a traveller too, just like ourselves.'

The stranger doffed his hat and made a low bow to Zoe, then acknowledged Jamie with a courteous salute. 'Your servant, ma'am... sir!'

The Doctor welcomed him warmly: 'So we meet again, my dear chap. Allow me to introduce my two companions Zoe and Jamie. I've found them at last, you see.'

They all muttered greetings and shook hands, as the Doctor continued: 'You find us still hopelessly lost, however. We were just trying to find our way out of this forest.'

The traveller shook his head dubiously: 'This resolution, perhaps, may appear very bold and dangerous.'

Zoe broke in: 'But we've got to get away from here!'

'Haven't you ever tried to find a way of escaping from this place?' asked the Doctor.

'No,' said the man simply. 'I looked upon myself to be fully settled for life.'

Jamie persisted: 'But all these tests the tricks and the riddles don't they get on your nerves? What's the point of them?'

The stranger regarded him solemnly for a moment, then replied: 'In choosing persons for all employments, they have regard to great abilities. A course of study is required, to qualify any man for the service of his country.'

Zoe and Jamie exchanged glances: the stranger appeared to be friendly and forthcoming, yet his replies never seemed to answer their questions completely. Zoe tried again: 'But who's in charge here? Who's been setting all these traps?'

The man glanced over his shoulder and lowered his voice as he answered: 'The Master... '

'So you told me,' said the Doctor. 'And that clockwork army serves the Master as well, I take it?'

'Army?' The man repeated the word, puzzled. 'As to their military affairs I know not what they meant.'

'But surely you must have seen them a whole troop of mechanical soldiers '

The stranger only shook his head and repeated: 'I know not what they meant.'

And at that instant, they heard the sound of marching feet coming towards them. The Doctor reacted promptly: 'There they are. That's the noise they make I've seen them before they're coming this way!'

Zoe looked around fearfully: 'What do we do?'

'We hide that's what! Quickly you can both squeeze into the letter "C" there's room for two. I'll make myself a sentry-box of the letter "J"... But hurry they mustn't find us!'

No sooner said than done: they all took refuge in the giant letters only the eighteenth-century traveller stayed where he was, quite unperturbed, as the Doctor asked: 'And you, sir? Aren't you going to take cover?'

He smiled, and replied confidently: 'The best expedient I could think on, was to keep guard.'

The Doctor accepted this: 'Splendid... If you are in no danger yourself, that sounds like an excellent scheme...

Keep out of sight, Zoe!'

She stuck her head out of the encircling column of the letter 'C' long enough to say to their new-found ally: 'Don't give us away whatever you do!'

And then they all three withdrew into their hiding places.

For a long time, nothing happened except that the sound of marching feet grew steadily louder. The stranger hummed a little tune under his breath, and waited.

Then, at last, the army of' tin soldiers came into sight: row upon row of' mechanical figures advancing in formation. As they approached, Zoe, hidden within the hollow letter-tree, held her breath.

The man in the tricorne hat gazed out into the distance, past the columns of soldiers, without a sign of recognition.

The troops stamped to attention, forming up around him, but he gave them neither a word nor a glance. Instead, he stretched his arms, flexing his muscles and yawned.

Then he turned to the three others in their hiding places, and said easily: 'I could not forbear smiling. What you have told me is mistaken... There was no Army here.'

This was all the indication the enemy troops needed.

They moved in on the hollow trees, and caught the fugitives in the brilliant rays of their compound lenses.

Far away in the Citadel, the Master leant forward, on the edge of his seat, watching the monitor screens that carried pictures of the trapped victims. Now they shuffled out of their hiding-places, half dazzled by the glaring lights that beat upon them from all sides... It was hopeless to try and escape now; they were totally encircled and outnumbered.

'At last!' breathed the Master, exulting in his moment of triumph. 'Now round them up, and march them away...

You have your orders you know what must be done.'

The soldiers moved in, closer still, and the three prisoners were forced to move forward and fall in line resistance was impossible.

As they pa.s.sed the eighteenth-century traveller, who still gazed into s.p.a.ce, apparently lost in his own thoughts, Jamie could not help saying sarcastically: 'Well, thank you very much you were a big help!'

The man stared at Jamie, not entirely understanding him, and Zoe added reproachfully: 'We trusted you! Why did you give us away to the soldiers?'

The stranger shook his head, completely baffled: 'The soldiers?... But as I said there was no Army here.'

And he wandered off among the mechanical soldiers, avoiding them by inches, without looking to left or right.

Jamie was about to shout some rude retort after him, but the Doctor intervened: 'Save your breath, lad... There's no point in arguing don't you understand yet? As far as he is concerned, they don't exist. They don't live in his his world world so he can't see them.'

The stranger turned, and raised his hat politely once again, saying: 'And now, sir I must forbear troubling you any further. Having answered the only objection you raise against me, I here take a final leave of you all.'

He bowed, and strode away among the trees, still whistling his little tune. Zoe clenched her fists: 'Oh, he makes me so angry how can anyone be so detached detached?

Who does he think he is?'

The Doctor gave a faint, sympathetic smile: 'He knows who he is... And, so, I fancy, do I.' Then, as his two young companions were about to shower him with questions, he cut in: 'But we'll discuss these fascinating matters some other time. I think we have more immediate problems on hand the soldiery seem to want us to go in the opposite direction.'

Sure enough, the mechanical army were on the move again, urging the prisoners onward with relentless steps.

Zoe found herself being herded forward, and suddenly exclaimed: 'Doctor... Just look at these soldiers am I mad, or do they seem to be well toy toy soldiers?' soldiers?'

She pointed to the guards who surrounded them: and indeed, each soldier had a large wind-up key sticking out from the middle of his shoulderblades. They marched on automatically left, right, left, right their faces blank and expressionless, each with a round dab of crimson paint on his cheekbones, and a black moustache outlined under his nose... A victorious army of toy soldiers.

'Toys... Yes, my dear,' agreed the Doctor. 'Just like everything else in this world of imagination tricks and riddles, toys and games... '

'Is that all they are? Just games?' Jamie repeated in amazement. 'Well, then, we've got nothing to be scared of-'

'I wouldn't be too sure about that,' the Doctor warned him, as the nursery troops hustled them away. 'They may not be real, but they're not exactly harmless... The games they play are dangerous games.'

At his Control Centre, the Master heard these words, and rubbed his hands in happy antic.i.p.ation. 'Well done well done,' he whispered. 'Now the real battle of wits can begin... This is one game that must be played to the finish!'

The three prisoners were marched on relentlessly for what seemed to be a long time. They left the forest of words at last and emerged on to a vast, barren plain which stretched away on all sides as far as the horizon. A shining black floor mirrored a shining black sky: apart from that, there was nothing to be seen. Then with one accord, the troops suddenly halted, and began to shift into new formation, wheeling left and right until they formed a hollow square.

Zoe, Jamie and the Doctor found themselves surrounded, and Zoe turned to the Doctor fearfully: 'What's happening? What are they going to do with us?'

She caught her breath for the answer came, not from the Doctor, but from a disembodied voice high above them: ' You have to face the firing squad unless you give the You have to face the firing squad unless you give the correct pa.s.sword. correct pa.s.sword. ' '

She looked in all directions whitefaced. 'Who was that? Who said that?'

The Doctor tried to speak calmly: 'The Master, I presume. But don't let it upset you it's only another of his little games.'

' A dangerous game I think you said, my dear Doctor? A dangerous game I think you said, my dear Doctor? ' The Voice echoed from side to side of the vast empty plain. ' ' The Voice echoed from side to side of the vast empty plain. ' Yes Yes dangerous indeed... Unless you can provide the pa.s.sword. ' '

Even as the Voice spoke, the front rank of troops took up their firing position. Each soldier dropped on to one knee, and levelled a musket.

'The pa.s.sword? What's he blethering about?' demanded Jamie, trying to sound more nonchalant than he really felt.

' Two across and two down Begin at the Beginning, Two across and two down Begin at the Beginning, ' said the Master's voice, mockingly. ' ' said the Master's voice, mockingly. ' Four, four, one and four. Four, four, one and four. ' '

'He's off his head!' said Jamie, under his breath.

'There's no sense in any of this... He's talking in riddles again.'

'Riddles? No, not this time... Puzzles,' said the Doctor.

'Of course they were invented since your time, Jamie you couldn't be expected to recognise a crossword puzzle clue.'

'A what?'

'A crossword puzzle.' The Doctor pointed to their feet.

'All we have to do is fill in the square.'

There, on the ground, was an empty grid of black and white squares: two up and two down... Four, four, one and four.

'I don't know what you're on about what do we put on the squares?' Jamie asked.

'The letters that make up a four-word answer... And the clue is "Begin at the Beginning"... Four words that begin something,' the Doctor tried to explain.

Zoe looked up, and shivered: 'It's getting cold... This weather never stays the same for two minutes together... If we're not getting fog or thunder and lightning, we're going to be frozen to death. Look it's starting to snow.'

As she spoke, the first flakes began to fall: huge white snowflakes but very regular in shape and each one had a letter of the alphabet marked upon it.

'Quick catch them!' exclaimed the Doctor. 'Catch a falling letter scoop up as many as you can we may need them all!'

The snowstorm of letters came down thick and fast, and they did their best to grab them as they fluttered through the air. It was impossible to catch them all, and the ones that slipped through their fingers melted and vanished like real snowflakes as they met the floor.

But by the time the little wintry flurry was over, they had several handfuls of letters between them, and the Doctor read them out... Two 'O's, two 'N's, two 'F's and a selection of single letters: C, U, P, A, T, I and M...

Thirteen letters in all.

'Enough to make up three words of four letters and a one-letter word,' the Doctor concluded. 'It's an anagram rearrange the letters, and you get let me see what does it spell?... "Once Upon A Time"...