CHILDREN OF THE STONES
It's not all that serious, is it?
You see that man there? The one with the white hair?
- Yes. - That's Tom Browning.
The farmer who invited doctor Lyle and me for supper
the night we were all newcomers, remember?
- I remember. - I know Mr. Browning, he's Jimmo's father.
It's the first time he's taken part in one of these occasions.
- So unlike him? - He was so contemptuous of them.
He said they were an anachronism, a complete waste of time.
He's obviously changed his mind, he's having the time of his life!
Happy day!
- Look... - It's Jimmo!
And then there were six...
Oh, let's leep things in perspective.
It's not as if we were being killed off one by one.
- Isn't it? - Of course it isn't!
What are we so frightened of?
What is this disease that we're so afraid of catching?
"Happy dayitis."
So we say "happy day" to each other instead of "good morning",
what's so terrible about that?
You're talking about the symptom, doctor. The disease goes much deeper.
It's an epidemic. There doesn't appear to be an antidote.
An antidote? To being happy?
Well, if we don't find one soon, it will be too late.
Aren't you being a bit melodramatic?
I mean, if it's as bad as that, why not just pack up and leave?
I need this job. Sandra is at school here...
And you, Brake?
I've got an awful lot of work to get through, I can't just up sticks now.
So you are in fact, trapped?
- Come in. - Ah, thank you, Mrs. Crabtree.
I've made another chocolate cake, master Matthew.
- She gives me the creeps. - Me too.
Me, she gives chocolate cakes.
Now what have we got to go on?
After living in the village for a short while, people change.
How and why?
Well, there's one thing, dad.
Families seem to change together.
I mean, Jimmo and his father, whatever happened,
happened to them at the same time.
Yes... It's almost as if...
- Go on. - No, it's impossible.
- As if it were all planned? - Yes.
Planned? No proof!
Just emotional reaction to specified data.
- Planned by whom? - Or by what?
Ah now that is a can of beans.
Yes, and 'till it's fully open, I suggest we stay close together.
We go around with our eyes open and pool our information.
Happy day-people are hardly likely to tell us why they behave as they do.
If indeed they know.
It seems to me there are two possible sources.
Two other people not affected by this phenomenon.
There's Hendrick, and that poacher friend of yours, Matt.
- Dai? - Yes.
- I know why Dai is immune. - Why?
He lives at the sanctuary, he says that he's safe there.
And Hendrick's house is at the centre of the ley lines grid.
Perhaps they give him the same sort of protection.
- Highfield House. - Yes...
Hendrick asked us to dinner tonight.
Summoned to the presence?
Well, you can do some detective work for us.
No, that's the pity. I had to turn him down.
- Oh? - Yes, don't spread it around,
but I've got to go back and see an old patient of mine.
Doesn't trust her new doctor.
Wants me to go back and give her a checkup.
- It's over 30 miles away. - Now that is a pity.
Ah, I'm only too glad to go.
It's the fact that someone actually needs me.
This village is far too healthy for my liking.
I told you, apart from Matthew's head here,
I've had nothing to exercise me for the past month.
That healed up in no time.
55 patients, and I'm probably more sick than any one of them.
No, it'll do me good to get out of the village.
Haven't stirred since we got here. Kevin...
Coming. Thanks for the cake.
- Bye, Kevin. - Bye.
- Bye bye doctor. - Bye bye.
- Now this way? - Along this way.
It's Hendrick.
I thought you said the church was deconsecrated?
Yes it is. But as lord of the manor, he's responsible for its upkeep.
Let's have a word with him.
- Well, I hope you're impressed. - With what?
Wicke Stain, our little celebration.
As far as I'm concerned, all morris dancers look the same.
I know what you mean. Nevertheless, our villagers really enjoy them.
To tell you a secret, wickerstain is only an excuse.
They dance whenever they feel like it. And any day of the year,
there's always some old festical they can use as a pretext.
Why, I'm afraid morris dancing leaves me cold too.
- I'm sure you'll come to appreciate it. - Everything does.
Like Tom Browning and his son?
Exactly. When he came here first,
old Tom was interested in nothing but sowing and reaping.
And look at him today, enthusiastic as anybody.
What made him chance his mind?
Probably realized what he was missing.
In a small village like this, there's no point in standing aloof.
For complete fulfillment, one should play one's part in the community.
I didn't notice you with bells on your toes.
No, well I have a certain position to maintain.
It sounds pompous, I know,
but the villagers prefer me to be a non-participant.
- If I joined in, they'd feel confused. - Why?
'Cause they need someone to look up to. A figurehead.
So it's not just the position of your house, that makes you a man apart?
You mean that it's supposed to be on sacred ground?
I mean the fact that it's surrounded by leylines.
Sorry, don't quite follow.
Or perhaps the original site was chosen
because the leylines form a sort of protective barrier.
Against what?
The same thing the ring of villagers is supposed to protect it from: Evil.
Interesting theory. You must come to dinner soon and put it to the test.
See if you feel any vibrations.
- I should like that. - Well, see you boht tomorrow.
No, I doubt it, I shall be up to my eyes the next few days,
- I'm way behind schedule. - What does that matter?
- Relax and enjoy yourself, Adam. - You don't know how lucky you are.
- Lucky? - That you answered Milbury's call.
- He's wrong. - Why?
I do know how lucky I am.
Doom serpent...
- What are you up to? - I don't know.
- Are those doctor Lyle's? - Yes, he forgot them, left them behind.
We can drop them back on the way to school in the morning.
Dad? They feel... funny.
- In what way? - Full of static.
- Are they plastic or leather? - Leather.
I know... First principles, leather is a non conductor.
But... it's there.
Let me see.
Nothing?
I think that bang in the head is beginning to get through to you.
It wasn't only once I could feel...
- Hey, Matt, what's the matter? - It's getting stronger.
And I can see...
- I can see... - See what?
- Doctor Lyle. - What's he doing?
Coming out of his surgery. He's...
He's getting into his car.
- With Kevin? - Alone.
- Go on. - He's driving off.
It's the first time he's had a chance to leave the village since he arrived.
- He's pleased. - Pleased?
- Well how do you know? - I'm inside his head.
I can read his mind.
He's driving towards the avenue.
Towards the edge of the circle.
- What's that? - What is it?
Puzzled, very puzzled.
Is there something wrong with the engine, the car perhaps?
Something in front of him, something blocking the way.
- Describe it! - I can't!
The picture's fading.
It's going blank. It's gone.
- He's gone. - Hey, Matt!
But Matt.. Was all that for real?
Did you really see that happen?
- You saw it? - I saw it...
- Psychometry. - What?
The ability to tune in to the vibrations of inanimate objects
to receive feelings, ideas, and images from them.
There's nothing new about it.
No, but it's new to Matt though.
He's never demonstrated this talent before?
To discover it here, in the village...
Perhaps that shock he got when he touched the stone
affected him more than we realize.
Made him start hallucinating.
Do you think that's what his visions were? Hallucinations?
I don't know.
It's possible it was caused by the residual magnetism in the rock?
Rock I can understand, but magnetism in a glove?
No...
Nothing at all.
It does take some explaining.
You've checked with doctor Lyle?
I called on the way here, but there was no-one there.
Suppose it did all happen, just as Matt described...
The design on the clay amulet belonging to Dai.
The children made a tracing of it.
- Have you seen the original? - No.
But after they left, I realized I'd seen one exactly like it.
Remember the poor old barber surgeon?
Crushed to death by the falling sarsen?
These fragments were found by his body.
- Think he'll be there? - You never know.
- It's barricaded up... - Oh yes...
Dai? Dai?
Dai. Dai?
- Dai? - Matthew?
- Is that you, Matthew? - Yes, Dai, it's me.
What did you bring him for?
My mother asked us to find you.
She wanted to see that clay thing with the serpent on it.
Well she can't. It's mine. I found it. It came to me.
- What's he to you? - Don't be silly, Dai, he's one of us.
- Are you, boy? - I don't know what you mean.
- You would have known yesterday. - What's so different about yesterday?
- Tell him! - Give us the amulet Dai, give it to me.
You'd like that, wouldn't you? Like me to go unprotected?
No! Mine, it's mine. I fou...
53 stones remaining,
and 53 ley lines passing through the village.
Invisible power cables.
Don't tell me you're becoming to believe in it all?
I try to keep an open mind.
I thought you scientists needed proof.
As a rule, yes.
I've learned something since coming to Milbury.
What's that?
There are more things in heaven and earth than are philosophised about in my dreams.
Yes, I've learned that too.
53... is there any significance in the number?
I don't know of any.
Like 5 and 3 are supposed to be sacred numbers,
but then of course, so was seven.
53...
Something?
Coincidence?
But before you and Matthew came, the village had 53 inhabitants.
Now there are 55. We appear to have thrown a spanner...
Doctor Lyle?
- Just returning these. - Oh, thank you.
- I was trying to get hold of you. - Not professionally, I hope.
No, just to ask you a few questions.
- You sound like a detective. - Hardly.
- Coffee? - Oh thanks, how kind.
What happened to you last night?
- You know what happened to me last night. - Do I?
Did you go and see your patient, 30 odd miles away?
- Yes. - And nothing happened on the way?
Nothing.
- Nothing went wrong with your car? - Any reason why it should?
No, it's just that Matthew had this absurd idea.
He thought that he could... feel what was happening to you.
- Feel? - Yes.
- How? - Oh, I'm sorry.
- Through these. You left them behind. - Oh, thank you.
I'm sorry, I don't understand.
Psychometry.
Oh, I see. Thank you. Yes, I have heared of that.
So Matt's a budding psychometrist, is he?
No, he is sure that you stopped at the edge of the circle.
- Why? - Something barring your way.
- Something in the road? - Yes, yes.
Well, I'm sorry to disappoint you.
Well, I'm rather relieved, really.
I'm not sure that I could cope with a psychometric son.
Bit awkward, having him know what you were up to every minute of the night and day.
Sorry I couldn't be of any help.
Happy day to you.
What did he say?
There he is!
Come on!
He's not there...
- Mrs. Crabtree? - What are you doing here?
- Why aren't you at school? - Where's my father, Mrs. Crabtree?
I believe he's at the museum, master Matthew.
- He is. I've just come from there. - Did he tell you about the...?
About your experiment in telepathy? He did indeed.
What was it that you saw at the edge of the circle?
- I saw an open road. - You didn't stop at all?
- I'm afraid not. - But you were so clear...
Perhaps I'd better have another look at that cracked head of yours.
No! No thanks.
Come on, Sandra. Hey, wait for me!
No...
It's time you got to school. I'm sure miss Clegg will be...
- ...happy... to see you. - She will.
- Do you think he's been got at? - Dai knew it.
- That's good enough for me. - But how?
- What was the doctor doing at the cottage? - Oh, just talking to Mrs. Crabtree.
Right, that's one thing he wouldn't have done yesterday. Where are you going?
- What's this? - The font in the church.
You remember mom said it had a carving of the serpent on it?
It's exactly the same as the one on the rock.
- Exactly. - Come on, let's go to the church.
No we can't, it's locked. It's been locked for years.
- But why? - Because there's no vicar, no priest.
- There hasn't been one for ages. - That's odd.
Mom says it's up to mr. Hendrick. It's one of those old churches
where the priest is appointed by the lord of the manor.
- And he hasn't even bothered? - No...
- 5 pence... I'm sorry, Matthew. - That's not for sale.
- But it was on the rack. - My mistake. It's not for sale.
- But why not? - Happy day, children.
But there is no stone there.
If it was a sarsen it would show up in this photograph.
Well it's there alright. Is it a recent phoograph?
Wait a moment...
- Would X mark the spot? - Yes...
- It's impossible! - Why?
It's the place where the barber surgeon was found, crashed to death by a sarsen!
That must be the stone we saw then.
- No. - Why not?
Because it was removed years ago,
and re-erected inside the circle. There is nothing there now.
- But we saw it. - Well alright, show me.