"One three is three, two threes are six, three threes are nine, four threes are... twelve..." "Five threes are fifteen, six threes are..." "Come on, six threes are eighteen, seven threes are twenty-one... eight threes are twenty-four, nine threes are twenty-seven..." "Ten threes are thirty!" "Ten threes are thirty." "Eleven threes are thirty-three and twelve threes are thirty-six." "Come along, Helen, it's time for bed." "You promised one more!" "Oh, Henry!" "Please, Daddy!" "Oh, all right." "Little Miss Muffet, but this time you do it all by yourself, all right?" "Little Miss Muffet sat on her tuffet eating her curds and whey" "There came a big spider which sat down beside her..." "And frightened Miss Muffet away!" "One more!" "No, it's late." " Please, Mama." " No." "Come on, there's time for another one." "Oh, all right, just the one." "# Ring-a-ring o' roses A pocketful of posies" "# Atishoo!" "Atishoo!" "We all fall down!" "#" "Dad?" "Dad, what's that noise?" "All the clocks have..." "'All irregularities will be handled 'by the forces controlling each dimension." "'Transuranic heavy elements may not be used where there is life." "'Medium atomic weights are available." "'Gold, Lead," "'Copper," "'Jet, Diamond, Radium," "'Sapphire, Silver and Steel." "'Sapphire and Steel have been assigned. '" "Where's Mum and Dad?" "Gone." "It's all right, Helen, I'm here." "So where are they, Mum and Dad?" " Gone." " Gone?" "Gone where?" "Out of the door downstairs?" "Well, where, then?" "Just... just went away." "Here, in the room?" "You mean they disappeared, Helen?" "Yes." "Mummy and Daddy, they just went away." "But not here, not in the room?" "Yes." "Just went away." "It's all right." "Drink your milk, Helen." "Everything's all right." "I ran to the phone at Skarl's Edge, telephoned the policeman's house." "I told him." "He's coming out here." "So everything's all right, then, isn't it?" "That policeman, he'll only have to come across the bay in a boat and he'll be here." "So just drink your milk, everything's gonna be all right." "Stay there." "Who is it?" " Robert Steven Jardine?" " Yes." " You asked for help." " I did, yes." "Then unlock the door." "That was quick..." "I've only just phoned..." "I don't know you!" "Only... the policeman at the Point." "The policeman isn't coming." "I've told him everything here is under control." "But it isn't!" "I know." "That's why we're here and not him." " You'll get used to him." " He's got no right to tell them..." " Your parents have disappeared." " Yes." " And you want them back, safely?" " Yes." "Well, your policeman with his idiot notebook and questions stands no chance of getting them back." "But we do." "Whatever it is that's happened to them, my parents... is it serious?" "Yes." "How old is the house?" "At a rough estimate, 250 years." "It's old land, arable land." "Probably been that way for centuries." "There could have been other buildings here." "Yes." "Genuine antiques?" "I'd say most of them." " Some vibrations." " And the surname, "Jardine. "" "Old French." "The father's name is Henry, the mother is Sarah, and child is Helen." "How do you know?" "Old names, an old house." "Lots of old things." " Lots of old... old echoes." " A pressure point, then?" "Could well be." "Could well be it." " You know so much about us..." " We do, yes." "Then who are you, what are your names?" "My name is Sapphire and my friend's name is Steel." " Sapphire?" " Yes." " That's..." " What?" " That's a beautiful name." " Thank you." "There are lots of clocks in this house." " My father fixes them." " Why don't they work?" "They do work." " They all stopped when..." " Yes?" "Well, just before it happened." "I did search the house after." "When it happened where were you?" " In this room." " And your parents were where?" "In Helen's room at the top, they were reading to her." "Mummy and Daddy just went away." "I think we'd better go up to the top room." "We'll take some clocks with us." "Bring the child." "When the clocks stopped, did you hear anything?" "I heard Helen crying." "Anything else?" "Well, there was this kind of sound." " What kind of sound?" " Well..." " Describe it." " It was like a low rumbling sound." "So where have they gone?" "My parents!" "Look, I want to know!" "Now!" "I mean, you... you come here just like that, this place, where we can hear people or cars approaching from miles away," " but you two arrived just like that." " Yes." "So..." "Well, I want to know at least something before we go in there." " There is a corridor..." " 'It can't be explained to him. '" "'It can in a way, but not by you, perhaps. '" "There is a corridor, and the corridor is time." "It surrounds all things and it passes through all things." "Oh, you can't see it." "Only sometimes, when it's dangerous." "This corridor, can you enter it?" "Not in the way you imagine, you cannot enter into time." "But sometimes, time can try to enter into the present, break in, burst through and take things." "Take people." "The corridor is very strong - it has to be - but sometimes in some places it becomes weakened." "Like fabric, worn fabric." "And when pressure is put upon the fabric..." "Time comes in." "And takes what it wants." "And we think that time has broken into that room, broken through and taken away your parents." "Come on." " Will they work again?" " Yes." "They've simply wound themselves down." "But my father winds them every day." "I expect he does." "Clocks don't do that, it isn't possible." "No." "And yet it happened." "You were here with your parents before you went downstairs?" "And that's the last you saw of them?" "Yes." "Where was the child?" "In bed." " Like that?" " Kneeling." " Kneel." " It's all right, Helen." " Your father was where?" " In that chair." "Sit in it will you, please?" "What?" "Just sit there." "Please don't touch anything." "Your mother was in the rocking chair?" "Yes." " All three like this, then?" " Yes." "I take it your mother was reading to the child?" "Yes." " Reading from this book?" " She did it..." "She does it every night." " My dad sits with them." " Traditional nursery rhymes." "Which rhyme was being read when the clocks began to stop?" " No." " When things began to happen." "No, I was downstairs." "It is important to know the exact rhyme." " Do you know which one it was?" " Helen?" "She's not very talkative with strangers." "Then you try." "Helen, just before Mama went away, you remember?" "What was she reading to you - which nursery rhyme?" "I don't know." " You do know." "Tell us." "Please." " The first one." "Your favourite, Ring-a-ring o' roses?" "Good." "That dates back to the time of the plague." "Yes, another echo, another ingredient." " I've found it." " Wait." "Read the rhyme carefully." "Whenever I raise my hand stop, when I lower it continue." "Right." "If I say "back, back," reverse the order of the words immediately." " I know." " But carefully." "Not one mistake, not even one wrong letter." "No." "All right." "Now... begin." "Ring-a-ring o' roses A pocketful of posies" "Atishoo!" "Atishoo!" "We all fall down" "The king has..." "The king has sent his daughter To fetch a pail of water..." "Go on." "Atishoo!" "Atishoo!" "We all fall down" "The bird upon the steeple..." "Sits high above the people" "Atishoo!" "Atishoo!" "We all fall down" "The cows are in the meadow Lying fast asleep" "Atishoo!" "Atishoo!" "We all get up again" "The cows are in the meadow Lying fast asleep" " Atishoo!" "Atishoo..." " 'Cattle in the meadow" "'Lying fast asleep" " 'Hush, hush... '" " Atishoo!" "Atishoo!" " We all fall down." " 'Get up again... '" "Cattle in the meadow Lying fast asleep" "Hush, hush" "Hush, now we all get up..." " No!" " Back, backwards!" "...in the meadow, lying..." " Ringing are bells wedding the" "Singing are girls and boys the" "Tishoo-a!" "Tishoo-a!" "Down fall all we" "Down fall all we." " Pictures!" "Saw pictures!" " Yes, Helen." " So it's there." " Yes." " We can't seal it?" " Not till we've got the people back." "Tear the rhyme out of the book." "Destroy it." "Has the child somewhere else to sleep?" " My room." " Take her there, then." "Come on." "Becca!" " Is there a key to this door?" " No, it was lost." "No one is to come back into this room, do you understand?" "Not till we've done what we have to." "Take it downstairs... and burn it." "Helen's fast asleep." "Oh, I suppose I've surprised you." "Well, I fancied a change." "Steel said I shouldn't used time as a wardrobe but... he's so serious." "I get bored wearing the same old clothes." " Now, salt and pepper?" " Over there." " Where did you get them?" " What?" " The clothes." " These aren't real." " Not real?" " No, these aren't real ones." "Salt and pepper." "This was my favourite last week - what do you think?" " Well, I think that..." " Yes?" " I just think that you're beautiful." " Thank you." "And the name, Sapphire, like blue, as if you were blue." " And Steel?" " I suppose he's like steel." "Grey." "The corridor, have you ever seen inside it?" "Not properly, I did catch a glimpse once on a ship." " A ship?" " Mm, in the middle of the sea." " It was simple, we fixed it." " And you saw?" "Just a glimpse." "It was like looking through frosted glass, all blurred." " Like the images upstairs?" " Yes." "Sorry." "When you've told him about the nicer aspects tell him about the dangers." " He knows about them." " He knows about them?" "About the dangers in this house?" " The corridor..." " Don't try and imagine it." "It's immense." "Time is immense." "Try and imagine instead, you, Rob, or your lifetime, as approximately one inch in length." "Then compare it to the corridor of time which is... a thousand million miles long." "One inch - you - time and the unknown - a thousand million miles." "Just compare them." "It's very, very big and it's very, very dangerous." "Dangerous?" "There are things, creatures, if you like, from the very beginnings of time and the very end of time." "These creatures have access to the corridor." "They're forever moving along it." "Searching, looking, trying to find a way in." "They're always searching." "Always looking." " For the hole in the fabric?" " Yes." "But they must never be allowed in." "Never ever." "You've seen what can happen, upstairs this evening." "But we stopped them." "Held them." "Took the trigger away from them." "The trigger?" "Yes, the final ingredient." "A certain traditional nursery rhyme spoken in a certain room." "Mama?" "Daddy?" "No pictures." "No pictures, Rebecca." "# Ring-a-ring o' roses" "# A pocketful of posies... #" "That's why we tore it out." " # Ring-a-ring o' roses... #" " That's why we burned it." "# Atishoo!" "Atishoo!" "We all fall down #" "That's why Sapphire and I..." "# The king has sent his daughter To fetch a pail of water" "# Atishoo!" "Atishoo!" "We all fall down" "# The wedding bells are ringing the boys and girls are singing" "# Atishoo!" "Atishoo!" "We all fall down" "# The birds upon the steeple Sit high above the people" "# Atishoo!" "Atishoo!" "We all fall down" " # The cows are in the meadow... #" " Helen!" "# Atishoo... #"