Read Online The Night of the Triffids by Simon Clark - Free Book Online

avidity.'
        'She's very well, thank you. Although her writing is now confined to lab reports and the… Wow! I hadn't expected that.'
        'The "Wow," I take it, indicates that the floodlights have been switched on?'
        The first thing I saw in the wash of light blazing from electric lamps set on posts along the driveway was the Mother's smiling face. The next, as we rounded a dense barrier of bushes, was the grand three-storeyed mansion and children playing on a quadrangle to one side, which was illuminated by a series of more humble electric lamps.
        'Well, now you can actually see again perhaps you would help me get these children indoors.' She clapped her hands. 'Timothy, Lucy. Out of that tree at once.' How the devil she could identify individual children playing in the tree mystified me. Then she reached something like a telegraph post set in the ground beside the driveway. Attached to that was a rope. I couldn't see the top of the post as it was lost to the dark. But the moment she tugged on the rope I heard the sound of the bell ringing across the rolling lawns and away into the nightlands beyond the walls.
        The children responded to the bell obediently enough. They ran past me, calling in those high, excited voices, thrilled rather than frightened that the sun hadn't risen. As far as I could tell they were streaming into one of the wings of the house where lights shone through the windows.
        The Mother still pulled hard on the cord; the bell continued to ring out. It told the children to return to their classrooms. Yet it also sent out a clear signal to the triffids roaming the fields. For them it could have been the peal of the dinner bell. I knew it wouldn't be long before they'd cluster about the gate, pressing against it, testing its strength.
        A sighted Mother about twenty years old walked lightly along the drive toward us. 'All the children are indoors now, Mother Susan.'
        'Thank you, Mother Angela. Best that you go indoors yourself now. And please ask all the Mothers and auxiliaries to gather in the refectory, I need to speak to you all.'
        'Yes, Mother.' After an appraising up-and-down glance at me she returned quickly to the house.
        There was nothing else to do now but wait.
        Every gate into the grounds had been locked. They'd withstand the triffid assault for an hour or so at the very least, which would give the anti-triffid squads ample time to arrive. Besides, the doors of the house itself were stout enough should any of the plants break through into the grounds.
        With nothing else to occupy me I mooched around the ancient building for a while. In the library I noticed above a Jacobean fireplace a stone tablet that had been set into the wall by the builders of the house. There, deeply chiselled, were the words Sol lucet omnibus. Helpfully for me the translation had been inscribed below: The sun shines for everyone.
        Well, no… not any more, it didn't.
        The world outside was as black as Hades. And who knew how long it would stay like that?
        After the library I retraced my steps along the corridor. From one schoolroom I heard the class singing an old hymn:
        
         All things bright and beautiful,
         All creatures great and small,
         All things wise and wonderful,
         The Lord God made them all…
        
        The sound of the children's voices at that moment sent an icy prickle across my skin. They sang, feeling safe and secure in their familiar world. But beyond the walls, out there in the darkness, triffids would hear the rising and falling of the melody. In my mind's eye I saw them. Those grotesque plants, their stems swaying with all the menace of cobras moving to the sounds of a pipe. Only these vicious monstrosities would be far from charmed by the music. Given half a chance they would lash their ten-foot stings into the infants' faces.
        The mental