‘That’s it,’ replied the board-comber. ‘Just for us intruders. Now, what are you doing here? You’d better tell me, because I’ll find out sooner or later. It’s to steal watches, isn’t it? You want my treasures. Did the Organist send you? He did, didn’t he?’
Alex decided to be truthful. ‘I – I just want one of your watches.’
‘One is everything, one is all.’
‘You can spare just one. It’s for a good cause. Where are they anyway?’ He looked around. ‘Do you keep them locked up?’
‘Wouldn’t you like to know, little boy?’
‘I’m not a little boy. I’m a bortrekker,’ said Alex, drawing himself up in a dignified manner. ‘Don’t you know a bortrekker when you see one?’
She looked him up and down contemptuously.
‘Dressed like a bortrekker, but all shiny and new.’
Alex was huffy. ‘Got to start somewhere. Bet you had to start somewhere. You can’t learn everything in one day.’ He paused and pleaded with her. ‘See, the reason I want this particular watch is because it would help an old man. He threw it in the attic many years ago, in a temper, but he’s – well, he’s going to die soon – and he wants to make his peace with his memories. You can understand that, can’t you? I’ve got a letter here,’ Alex patted his pocket, ‘which will help, but I really came up to get the watch.’
‘Then you’ll go down again?’
Alex drew a deep breath. ‘No, no, I don’t think so. I want to pass the letter and the watch on to my brother and sister, so they can deal with it. But I want to stay up here.’ He looked around him and waved a hand. ‘I like it here. You do too, or you wouldn’t stay. And all the other board-combers and bortrekkers. The attic’s a great place, isn’t it? You can almost feel it liking you back, once it knows you want to be here …’
She walked around him, looking him up and down, and studied him from every angle.
‘Are you sure you want to stay up?’
‘I – I think so.’
‘Hmmm, think so don’t get it done.’
‘Will you give me the watch?’
She stepped back from him, shuddering. ‘I couldn’t. Those watches are the wheels that run my heart. If I lost just one, my heart would stop beating. They’re my treasures. I need them all. If one went, I’d pine for it, I know I would. The other watches would pine for it. We’d all be terribly upset. I don’t like being upset. Give it up, this quest. Tell the old man you couldn’t find it. Say it’s lost for ever.’
‘I’ll tell you what, let me look at your collection?’
She screwed up her face and seemed about to refuse. Then she must have changed her mind, because she brightened, her face breaking into the most wonderful smile Alex had ever seen, the corners of which almost reached her ears. ‘Oh, I love showing it off. I do. I really do. I love showing my collection to those who haven’t seen it before. It’s a magnificent collection of watches, the best in the attic. Here, let me put this on you.’ She tied a scarf over his eyes, then cried, ‘Come on, come with me.’
‘I can’t see you,’ he said, feeling the air. ‘How can I follow if I can’t see?’
He felt a small, slim, warm hand slip into his own and his blood turned to warm olive oil in his arteries.
The board-comber seemed very excited. Of course, thought Alex, she would be. There’s nothing a collector likes better than showing off his or her collection to an interested stranger. Someone to go ‘oh’ and ‘ah’ at prize possessions and say ‘aren’t you lucky?’ and ‘isn’t that fabulous?’ and ‘where on earth did you find it?’ – things like that. Someone to whom the collector can explain how difficult certain pieces were to come by and, in this case, someone to point out highly prized movements and tiny hairsprings, escapements, and other delights of the internal workings of watches.
He was taken, he knew not where, and the blindfold removed.
There before him was one of the great supporting pillars, but this one was covered in wrist-watches and pocket-watches. Hanging from nails by their straps or chains, they covered the pillar to a depth of three watches and a height of two metres. They were all ticking away madly, creating a terrible din, all showing the correct time, all going backwards. There were silver