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aND NOW THE WHOLE WORLD was silent Or at least it seemed so, to Matthew&039;s ears In fact, the world was so silent that the sound of his feet creeping on the hallway&039;s floorboards sounded to him like barely muffled cannonades, and the errant squeak of a loose tih-pitched human shriek

He had a lantern in hand He was dressed in his bedclothes, as he had retired to sleep several hours ago In reality, though, he had retired to ponder and wait The time had arrived, and he was on a journey to Bidwell&039;s upstairs study

It was now the Sabbath ht and two o&039;clock The previous day had truly been nightmarish, and this current day proht ate had been opened and closed with a regularity that would have been coic Bidwell had reone in to see him, as had Dr Shields, and once Matthew had heard Bidwell&039;s voice raving and raging with a frightful intensity that ed his bed to pay their ghastly respects Perhaps in Bidwell&039;s torturedthe course of the day Matthew had sat at thethe book on English plays and atte to the Florida country He was also there to guard against the , as it ain into sickness The h certainly able to co positive about his chances of improvement, was yet weak and in need of further rest Dr Shields had administered three h during his visits not tothat could harm his patient&039;s outlook The medicine did what it was meant to do: it sent Woodward to the dreamer&039;s land, where he could not knohat tuistrate had been asleep - or, rather, drugged - when Bidwell had carried out his raging In the evening, as darkness called upon Fount Royal and ht before, Matthew had asked Mrs Nettles for a deck of cards and played a dozen or so gahted at the chance to challenge his sluggish mind as they played, Matthew made mention of Woodward&039;s dream of Oxford, and how Johnstone had also seemed to enjoy the recollections

"Yes, " Woodward had said, studying his cards "Once an Oxford man always so"

"Ho by before he ain "It is a sha so deforht sistrate&039;s mouth "Matthew, Matthew, " he&039;d said "Do you never quiti"

"I&039;m sorry, siri"

"Please I am not so ill and weak-h you What is this now about his kneei"

"Nothing, sir I was justYou did say you saw it, did you noti"

"I did"

"at close quartersi"

"Close enough I could s because of my condition but I recall that Mr Winston was quite repelled by the odor of Mr Johnstone&039;s hogsfat liniment"

"But you did clearly view the deformityi"

"Yes, " Woodward had said "Clearly, and it was a viewing I would not care to repeat Nowafter that, Dr Shields had arrived with the istrate&039;s third dose of the day, and Woodward had been sleeping calmly ever since

Matthew had, in the afternoon, taken the opportunity for a quick look into Bidwell&039;s study, so now in theinside He closed the door behind hiany desk that commanded the room He sat down in the desk&039;s chair and quietly pulled open the topmost drawer He found no map there, so he went on to the next drawer a careful search through papers, wax seals with the scrolled letter B, official-looking documents and the like revealed no map Neither did the third drawer, nor the fourth and final one

Matthew stood up, taking his lantern to the study&039;s bookshelves On the way, the squeal of a loose pinewood floorboard an to methodicallythat perhaps the ht be folded up and stored between two of theht also be folded up inside one of the books, which was going to necessitate a longer search than he&039;d anticipated

He was perhaps near h the bookshelves when he heard the sound of footsteps on the stairs He hesitated, listening more intently The footsteps reached the top of the stairs and also hesitated There was a space of time in which neither Matthew nor the person in the hallwayand he saw lantern light in the space between door and floorboards

Quickly he opened the glass of his own lamp and blew out the flame He retreated to the protection of the desk and crouched down on the floor

The door opened Someone entered, paused for a few seconds, and then the door was closed again Matthew could see the ruddy glow of the person&039;s lantern upon the walls as it moved from side to side and then the voice came, but cast low so as not to leave the room: "Mr Corbett, I know ye just blew out a candle I can smell it If you&039;d show y&039;self, pleasei"

He stood up and Mrs Nettles centered her laht on him "Ye mi&039; care to know that my own quarters are &039;neath this room, " she said "I heard someone walkin&039; and &039;sumed it must be Mr Bidwell, as this is his private study"

"Pardon me, I didn&039;t mean to wake you"

"I&039;m sure you didn&039;t, but I was already waked I was plan-nin&039; on comin&039; up and lookin&039; in on &039;im, since he was in such an awful bad way" She approached hiray nightcap and a nightgown of sireen-tinted skin cream Matthew had to believe that if Bidwell saw Mrs Nettles in this state, he ish phantasm had crawled from its Hellish swamp "Your intrusion in this room, " she said sternly, "canna&039; be excused What&039;re you doin&039; in herei"

There was nothing to be done but tell the truth "I understand from Solomon Stiles that Bidwell has a map of the Florida country, drawn by a French explorer I thought it ht be hidden in this room, either in his desk or on the bookshelves"

Mrs Nettles h hi I&039;ve decided, " Matthew continued "I&039;ain some idea of what the terrain is like"

"It would kill you, " she said "and the lady too Does she knohat you&039;re wantin&039;i"

"No"

"Don&039;t ye think askin&039; her oughta be the first thing, a&039;fore ye start the plannin&039;i"

"I&039;"

"Plannin", lookin&039; whate&039;er Mi&039; be she doesn&039;t care ta perish in the jaws of a wild beast"

"What, theni She&039;d rather perish by burningi I think not!"

"Keep your voice reined, " she warned "Mr Bidwell ht But if I were to continue et you saw me herei This isIt&039;s ht you into this If I&039;d kept ue still, then - "

"Pardon, " Matthew interrupted, "but I , as you put it, simply alerted me to consider that not all was as it seemed in this town Which, whether you realize it or not, was a grand understatement I would have had serious doubts as to Rachel&039;s being a witch even if you had been one of the witnesses against her"

"Well then, if her innocence is all so clear to you, why canna&039; the istrate see iti"

"a coe and life experience both of which, in this case, see Or rather, I should say, liabilities to thinking beyond the straight furrow in a crooked field, which you so elegantly pointed out on our firstNow: Will you allow me to search for the mapi"

"Nae, " she answered "If you&039;re so all-fired to find it, I&039;ll point it out" She picked up the lantern and directed its glow to the wall behind the desk "There it hangs"

Matthew looked Indeed on the wall hung a brown parchment map, stretched by a wooden frame It was about fifteen inches or so across and ten inches deep, and it was positioned between an oil portrait of a sailing ship and a charcoal drawing of what appeared to be the London dockside "Oh, " he said sheepishly "Well my thanks"

"Best make sure it&039;s what you&039;re needin&039; I know it&039;s French, but I&039;ve never paid much mind to it" She offered him the lantern

Matthew found in anotherIt actually appeared to be part of a larger map, and displayed the country from perhaps thirty miles north of Fount Royal to the area identified, in faded quill pen, as Le Terre Florida Between Fount Royal and the Spanish territory the ancient quill had drawn a representation of vast forest, broken here and there by clearings, theof rivers, and a number of lakes It was a fanciful map, however, as one lake displayed a kraken-like creature and was named by the mapmaker Le Lac de Poisson Monstre The swarass and water instead of tree sy the coastline all the way from Fount Royal to the Florida country was titled Marais Perfide and there was an area of swamp in the midst of the forest, some fifty or sixty miles southwest of Fount Royal, that was named Le Terre de Brutalitie

"Is it he&039;pful to yei" Mrs Nettles asked

"More daunting than helpful, " Matthew said "But yes, it does do so in the wilderness ten or twelve ht have been - by the strange and skewed di of several miles lay to the south of the first, and in this one was a lake a third, the largest of the three, was reachable to the southwest They were like the footprints of soht that if indeed those cleared areas - or at least areas where the wilderness was not so perfide - existed, then they constituted the route of least resistance to the Florida country Perhaps this was also the "most direct route" Solomon Stiles hadthan day after day of negotiating unbroken woodland Matthew also noted the ss of Indieni at three widely separate locations, the nearest being twenty miles or so southwest of Fount Royal He assu of either a live Indian, the discovery of an artifact, or even the sound of tribal dru to be easy In fact, it would be woefully hard

Could the Florida country be reachedi Yes, it could By the directions of southwest, south, southwest and the linking together of those less-wooded giant&039;s footprints But, as he had previously considered, he was certainly no leatherstocking and the ht lead hiain, all of it was terre brutalitie, was it noti

It was insane! he thought as the frustration of reality hit hi such a thingi To be lost in those terrible forests would be death a thousand times over!

He handed the lantern back to Mrs Nettles "Thank you, " he said, and he heard the defeated resignation in his voice

"aye, " she said as she took the lamp, "it does seem a beast"

"Mote than a beast It seems impossible"

"You&039;re puttin&039; it out of mind, theni"

He ran a hand across his brow "What am I to do, Mrs Nettlesi Can you possibly tellat him with saddened compassion "I&039;m sorry, but I canna&039;"

"No one can, " he said wearily "No one, exceptmay be that no man is an island but I feel very much like at least a solitary dominion Rachel will be led to the stake within thirty hours I know she is innocent, yet I can do nothing to free her Therefore what am I to do, except devise outlandish scheet her, " Mrs Nettles said "You are ta go on about your own life, and let the dead be dead"

"That is the sensible response But part oftoo The part that believes in justice When that dies, Mrs Nettles, I shall never be worth a daoes on, as they oes on, " he repeated, with a taint of bitter o on With crippled spirits and broken ideals, they do go on and with the passage of years they forget what crippled and broke the and breaking were gifts froe ideals in younger souls are viewed as stupid, and petty and things to be crippled and broken, because everyone does go on" He looked into the woman&039;s eyes "Tellup fori If justice is a hollow shelli If beauty and grace are burnt to ashes, and evil rejoices in the flamesi Shall I weep on that day, and loseand losewalk, but where o on, Mrs Nettles, like everyone elsei"

"I think, " she said grimly, "that you do nae have a choice" He had no response for this, which by its iron truth crushed hihed, her face downcast and her shadow thrown huge by the laht "Go ta bed, sir, " she said "There&039;s nae any more can be done"