The Apple Tree Read Online Free PDF Page A

unintelligibly, pointed towards the summit of Monte Verità. Then from the shadows of the small room came an elderly man, leaning on two sticks, who motioned aside the terrified children and moved past them to the door. He, at least, spoke a language that was not entirely patois.
    "Who is that woman?" he asked. "What does she want with us?"
    Victor explained that Anna was his wife, that they had come from the valley to climb the mountain, that they were tourists on holiday, and they would be glad of shelter for the night. He said the old man stared away from him to Anna.
    "She is your wife? " he said. " She is not from Monte Verità?"
    "She is my wife," repeated Victor. "We come from England. We are in this country on holiday. We have never been here before."
    The old man turned to the younger and they muttered together for a few moments. Then the younger man went back inside the house, and there was further talk from the interior. A woman appeared, even more frightened than the younger man. She was literally trembling, Victor said, as she looked out of the doorway towards Anna. It was Anna who disturbed them.
    "She is my wife," said Victor again, "we come from the valley."
    Finally the old man made a gesture of consent, of understanding.
    "I believe you," he said. "You are welcome to come inside. If you are from the valley, that is all right. We have to be careful."
    Victor beckoned to Anna, and slowly she came up the track and stood beside Victor, on the threshold of the house. Even now the woman looked at her with timidity, and she and the children backed away.
    The old man motioned his visitors inside. The living-room was bare but clean, and there was a fire burning.
    "We have food," said Victor, unshouldering his pack, "and mattresses too. We don't want to be a nuisance. But if we could eat here, and sleep on the floor, it will do very well indeed."
    The old man nodded. "I am satisfied," he said, "I believe you."
    Then he withdrew with his family.
    Victor said he and Anna were both puzzled at their reception, and could not understand why the fact of their being married, and coming from the valley, should have gained them admittance, after that first odd show of terror. They ate, and unrolled their packs, and then the old man appeared again with milk for them, and cheese. The woman remained behind, but the younger man, out of curiosity, accompanied the elder.
    Victor thanked the old fellow for his hospitality, and said that now they would sleep, and in the morning, soon after sunrise, they would climb to the summit of the mountain.
    "Is the way easy?" he asked.
    "It is not difficult," came the reply. "I would offer to send someone with you, but no one cares to go."
    His manner was diffident, and Victor said he glanced again at Anna.
    "Your wife will be all right in the house here," he said. "We will take care of her."
    "My wife will climb with me," said Victor. "She won't want to stay behind."
    A look of anxiety came into the old man's face.
    "It is better that your wife does not go up Monte Verità," he said. "It will be dangerous."
    "Why is it dangerous for me to go up Monte Verità?" asked Anna.
    The old man looked at her, his anxiety deepening. "For girls," he said, "for women, it is dangerous."
    "But how?" asked Anna. "Why? You told my husband the path is easy."
    "It is not the path that is dangerous," he answered; "my son can set you on the path. It is because of the..." and Victor said he used a word that neither he nor Anna understood, but that it sounded like 'sacerdotessa', or 'sacerdozio'."
    "That's priestess, or priesthood," said Victor. "It can't be that. I wonder what on earth he means?"
    The old man, anxious and distressed, looked from one to the other of them.
    "It is safe for you to climb Monte Verità, and to descend again," he repeated to Victor, "but not for your wife. They have great power, the 'sacerdotesse'. Here in the village we are always in fear for our young girls, for our women."
    Victor said