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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The School by the Sea + +Author: Angela Brazil + +Release Date: October 20, 2010 [EBook #33909] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SCHOOL BY THE SEA *** + + + + +Produced by Suzanne Shell and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<hr /> + +<h1>The School by the Sea</h1> + +<hr class="hr3" /> + +<div id="box5"> +<div class="figleft" style="width: 134px;"> +<img src="images/spine.jpg" width="134" height="583" alt="Spine" title="" /> +</div> + +<div class="figright" style="width: 400px;"> +<img src="images/cover.jpg" width="400" height="583" alt="Cover" title="" /> +</div> +</div> + +<p class="center">BLACKIE & SON LIMITED<br /> + +50 Old Bailey, <span class="smcap">London</span><br /> +17 Stanhope Street, <span class="smcap">Glasgow</span><br /> +<br /> +BLACKIE & SON (INDIA) LIMITED<br /> +Warwick House, Fort Street, <span class="smcap">Bombay</span><br /> +<br /> +BLACKIE & SON (CANADA) LIMITED<br /> +<span class="smcap">Toronto</span><br /> +</p> + +<hr class="white" /> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"> +<a name="frontis" id="frontis"></a> +<img src="images/gs01.jpg" width="400" height="624" alt="Frontispiece" title="" /> +<span class="caption">"THERE IS SOMEBODY OR SOMETHING INSIDE THE BARRED ROOM!" +SHE GASPED<br /> +<i>Page <span class="ws"><a href="#front">149</a> Frontispiece</span></i></span> +</div> + +<hr class="white" /> + + +<p class="center"><span class="title">The<br /> +School by the Sea</span><br /> +<br /><br /> +BY<br /> +<span class="author">ANGELA BRAZIL</span><br /> + +<small>Author of "Joan's Best Chum"<br /> +"The School in the South"<br /> +"The Youngest Girl in the Fifth"<br /> +&c. &c.</small><br /> +<br /><br /> + +<i>Illustrated</i><br /> +<br /><br /> + +<span class="author">BLACKIE & SON LIMITED</span><br /> +LONDON AND GLASGOW</p> + + +<hr class="white" /> + +<div id="box"> +<p class="center">By Angela Brazil</p> + +<p class="noi">At School with Rachel.<br /> +Ruth of St. Ronan's.<br /> +Joan's Best Chum.<br /> +Captain Peggie.<br /> +Schoolgirl Kitty.<br /> +The School in the South.<br /> +Monitress Merle.<br /> +Loyal to the School.<br /> +A Fortunate Term.<br /> +A Popular Schoolgirl.<br /> +The Princess of the School.<br /> +A Harum-Scarum Schoolgirl.<br /> +The Head Girl at the Gables.<br /> +A Patriotic Schoolgirl.<br /> +For the School Colours.<br /> +The Madcap of the School.<br /> +The Luckiest Girl in the School.<br /> +The Jolliest Term on Record.<br /> +The Girls of St. Cyprian's.<br /> +The Youngest Girl in the Fifth.<br /> +The New Girl at St. Chad's.<br /> +For the Sake of the School.<br /> +The School by the Sea.<br /> +The Leader of the Lower School.<br /> +A Pair of Schoolgirls.<br /> +A Fourth Form Friendship.<br /> +The Manor House School.<br /> +The Nicest Girl in the School.<br /> +The Third Form at Miss Kaye's.<br /> +The Fortunes of Philippa.</p> +</div> + +<hr class="white" /> + +<p class="center"><small><i>Printed in Great Britain by Blackie & Son Ltd. Glasgow</i></small></p> + + + +<hr class="white" /> + +<h2><a name="contents" id="contents"></a>Contents</h2> + +<hr class="hr3" /> + +<table summary="Contents" class="width30"> +<tr> +<th class="thr1"><span class="smcap">Chap.</span></th> +<th class="thr2" colspan="3">Page</th> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdr">I.</td> +<td class="tdl"> <span class="smcap">The Interloper</span></td> +<td class="tdr2"><a href="#i">9</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdr">II.</td> +<td class="tdl"> <span class="smcap">A Kingdom by the Sea</span></td> +<td class="tdr2"><a href="#ii">20</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdr">III.</td> +<td class="tdl"> <span class="smcap">A Mysterious Schoolfellow</span></td> +<td class="tdr2"><a href="#iii">30</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdr">IV.</td> +<td class="tdl"> "<span class="smcap">The King of the Castle</span>"</td> +<td class="tdr2"><a href="#iv">42</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdr">V.</td> +<td class="tdl"> <span class="smcap">Practical Geography</span></td> +<td class="tdr2"><a href="#v">51</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdr">VI.</td> +<td class="tdl"> <span class="smcap">Ragtime</span></td> +<td class="tdr2"><a href="#vi">65</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdr">VII.</td> +<td class="tdl"> <span class="smcap">An Invitation</span></td> +<td class="tdr2"><a href="#vii">76</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdr">VIII.</td> +<td class="tdl"> <span class="smcap">A Meeting on the Shore</span></td> +<td class="tdr2"><a href="#viii">89</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdr">IX.</td> +<td class="tdl"> <span class="smcap">A Message</span></td> +<td class="tdr2"><a href="#ix">99</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdr">X.</td> +<td class="tdl"> <span class="smcap">Marooned</span></td> +<td class="tdr2"><a href="#x"> 114</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdr">XI.</td> +<td class="tdl"> "<span class="smcap">Coriolanus</span>"</td> +<td class="tdr2"><a href="#xi">127</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdr">XII.</td> +<td class="tdl"> <span class="smcap">In Quarantine</span></td> +<td class="tdr2"><a href="#xii">140</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdr">XIII.</td> +<td class="tdl"> <span class="smcap">The Life-boat Anniversary</span></td> +<td class="tdr2"><a href="#xiii">153</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdr">XIV.</td> +<td class="tdl"> <span class="smcap">The Beacon Fire</span></td> +<td class="tdr2"><a href="#xiv">166</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdr">XV.</td> +<td class="tdl"> <span class="smcap">The Old Windlass</span></td> +<td class="tdr2"><a href="#xv">179</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdr">XVI.</td> +<td class="tdl"> <span class="smcap">Hare and Hounds</span></td> +<td class="tdr2"><a href="#xvi">192</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdr">XVII.</td> +<td class="tdl"> <span class="smcap">A Discovery</span></td> +<td class="tdr2"><a href="#xvii">205</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdr">XVIII.</td> +<td class="tdl"> <span class="smcap">An Alarm</span></td> +<td class="tdr2"><a href="#xviii">224</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdr">XIX.</td> +<td class="tdl"> <span class="smcap">A Torn Letter</span></td> +<td class="tdr2"><a href="#xix">235</a></td> +</tr> +</table> + +<hr class="white" /> + +<h2><a name="illustrations" id="illustrations"></a>Illustrations</h2> + +<hr class="hr3" /> + +<table summary="Illustrations" class="width30"> +<tr> +<th class="thr1" colspan="2">Facing<br /> + Page</th> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">"There is somebody or something inside the +barred room!" she gasped</span> <span class="ws"> <a href="#frontis"><i>Frontispiece</i></a></span></td> +<td> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">A small boy was waving his cap in frantic welcome</span></td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#small">48</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">The man appeared to have many directions to give</span></td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#man">96</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Gerda darted upon the bathful of old letters</span></td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#darted">200</a></td> +</tr> +</table> + + + + +<hr /> + +<h2><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[9]</a></span> +<a name="i" id="i"></a>THE SCHOOL BY THE SEA</h2> + +<hr class="hr3" /> + +<h2>CHAPTER I<br /> +<br /> +<big>The Interloper</big></h2> + + +<p><span class="smcap">Girls!</span> Girls everywhere! Girls in the passages, girls in the hall, +racing upstairs and scurrying downstairs, diving into dormitories and +running into classrooms, overflowing on to the landing and hustling +along the corridor—everywhere, girls! There were tall and short, and +fat and thin, and all degrees from pretty to plain; girls with fair hair +and girls with dark hair, blue-eyed, brown-eyed, and grey-eyed girls; +demure girls, romping girls, clever girls, stupid girls—but never a +silent girl. No! Buzz-hum-buzz! The talk and chatter surged in a full, +steady flow round the house till the noise invaded even that sanctuary +of sanctuaries, the private study, where Miss Birks, the Principal, sat +addressing post cards to inform respective parents of the safe arrival +of the various individual members of the frolicsome crew which had just +reassembled after the Christmas vacation. In ordinary<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[10]</a></span> circumstances +such an indiscretion as squealing on the stairs or dancing in the +passages would have brought Miss Birks from her den, dealing out stern +rebukes, if not visiting dire justice on the offenders; but for this one +brief evening—the first night of the term—the old house was Liberty +Hall. Each damsel did what seemed good in her own eyes, and talked, +laughed, and joked to her heart's content.</p> + +<p>"Let them fizz, poor dears!" said Miss Birks, smiling to herself as a +special outburst of mirth was wafted up from below. "It does them good +to work off steam when they arrive. They'll have to be quiet enough +to-morrow. Really, the twenty make noise enough for a hundred! They're +all on double-voice power to-night! Shades of the Franciscans, what a +noise! It seems almost sacrilege in an old convent."</p> + +<p>If indeed the gentle, grey-robed nuns who long, long ago had stolen +silently along those very same stairs could have come back to survey the +scene of their former activities, I fear on this particular occasion +they would have wrung their slim, transparent hands in horror over the +stalwart modern maidens who had succeeded them in possession of the +ancient, rambling house. No pale-faced novices these, with downcast eyes +and cheeks sunken with fasting; no timid glances, no soft ethereal +footfalls or gliding garments—the old order had changed indeed, and +yielded place to a rosy, racy, healthy, hearty, well-grown set of +twentieth-century schoolgirls, overflowing with vigorous young life and +abounding spirits, mentally and physically fit, and about as different<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[11]</a></span> +from their mediaeval forerunners as a hockey stick is from a spindle.</p> + +<p>Among the jolly, careless company that on this January evening held +carnival in the vaulted passages, and woke the echoes of the +time-hallowed walls, no two had abandoned themselves to the fun of the +moment more thoroughly than Deirdre Sullivan and Dulcie Wilcox. They had +attempted to dance five varieties of fancy steps on an upper landing, +had performed a species of Highland fling down the stairs, and had +finished with an irregular jog-trot along the lower corridor, subsiding +finally, scarlet with their exertions, and wellnigh voiceless, on to the +bottom step of the back staircase.</p> + +<p>"Oh!—let's—sit here—and talk," heaved Deirdre, her power of speech +returning in jerks. "I'm—tired—of ragging round—and—I've not seen +you—for ages!—and oh!—there's such heaps and heaps—to tell. +Look!—she's over there!"</p> + +<p>"Who?" queried Dulcie laconically. She was stouter than Deirdre, and, +like Hamlet, "scant of breath".</p> + +<p>"Why, she, of course!"</p> + +<p>"Don't be a lunatic! Which she? And what she? And why she of all shes?" +gasped Dulcie, still rather convulsively and painfully.</p> + +<p>"What 'she' could I possibly mean except the new girl?"</p> + +<p>"You don't mean to tell me there's a new girl?"</p> + +<p>"You don't surely mean to tell me you've never noticed her! You blind +bat! Why, there she is as large as life! Can't you see her, stupid? The +atrocious<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[12]</a></span> part of it is, she's been stuck into our bedroom!"</p> + +<p>Dulcie sprang up, with hands outstretched in utter tragedy.</p> + +<p>"No!" she wailed, "oh, no! no! Surely Miss Birks hasn't been heartless +enough to fill up that spare bed! Oh, I'll never forgive her, never! Our +ducky, chummy little room to be invaded by a third—and a stranger! It's +sheer barbarous cruelty! Oh, I thought better of her! What have we done +to be treated like this? It's pure and simple brutality!"</p> + +<p>"Who's the lunatic now? Stop ranting, you goose! That bed was bound to +be filled some day, though it's hard luck on us. We did pretty well to +keep the place to ourselves the whole of last term. 'All good things +come to an end.' I'm trying to be philosophical, and quote proverbs; all +the same, 'Two's company and three's trumpery'. That's a proverb too! +You haven't told me yet what you think of our number three. She's +talking to Mademoiselle over there."</p> + +<p>"So she is! Why, if she isn't talking German, too, as pat as a native! +What a tremendous rate their tongues are going at it! I can't catch a +single word. Is she a foreigner? She doesn't somehow quite suggest +English by the look of her, does she?"</p> + +<p>The new girl in question, the interloper who was to form the unwelcome +third, and spoil the delightful <i>scène à deux</i> hitherto so keenly +enjoyed by the chums, certainly had a rather un-British aspect when +viewed even by impartial eyes. Her pink-and-white colouring,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[13]</a></span> blue eyes, +and her very fair flaxen hair were distinctly Teutonic; the cut of her +dress, the shape of her shoes, the tiny satchel slung by a strap round +her shoulder and under one arm—so unmistakably German in type—the +enamelled locket bearing the Prussian Eagle on a blue ground, all showed +a slightly appreciable difference from her companions, and stamped her +emphatically with the seal and signet of the "Vaterland". On the whole +she might be considered a decidedly pretty girl; her features were small +and clear cut, her complexion beyond reproach, her teeth even, her fair +hair glossy, and she was moderately tall for her fifteen years.</p> + +<p>Dulcie took in all these points with a long, long comprehensive stare, +then subsided on to the top of the boot rack, shaking her head gloomily.</p> + +<p>"You may call it British prejudice, but I can't stand foreigners," she +remarked with a gusty sigh. "As for having one in one's bedroom—why, +it's wicked! Miss Birks oughtn't to expect it!"</p> + +<p>"Foreigners? Who's talking about foreigners?" asked Marcia Richards, one +of the Sixth Form, who happened to be passing at the moment, and +overheard Dulcie's complaints. "If you mean Gerda Thorwaldson, she is as +English as you or I."</p> + +<p>"English! Listen to her! Pattering German thirteen to the dozen!" +snorted Dulcie.</p> + +<p>"You young John Bull! Don't be insular and ridiculous! Gerda has lived +in Germany, so of course she can speak German. It will be very good +practice for you to talk it with her in your bedroom."</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[14]</a></span> +"If you think we're going to break our jaws with those abominable +gutturals!"—broke out Deirdre.</p> + +<p>"Miss Germany'll have to compass English, or hold her tongue," added +Dulcie.</p> + +<p>"Don't be nasty! You're wasting your opportunities. If I had your +chance, I'd soon improve my German."</p> + +<p>"Why didn't Miss Birks put her with you instead?" chimed the injured +pair in chorus. "You're welcome to our share of her."</p> + +<p>"Come along, you slackers!" interrupted Evie Bennett and Annie Pridwell, +emerging from the dining-hall. "You're wasting time here. Betty Scott's +playing for all she's worth, and everybody's got to come and dance. Pass +the word on if anyone's upstairs. Are you ready? Hurry up, then!"</p> + +<p>"Oh, I say! I'm tired!" yawned Dulcie.</p> + +<p>"We've had enough of the light fantastic toe!" protested Deirdre.</p> + +<p>"Little birds that can hop and won't hop must be made to hop!" chirped +Evie firmly.</p> + +<p>"How'll you make us?"</p> + +<p>"The 'Great Mogul' has decreed that any girl who refuses to dance shall +be forcibly placed upon the table and obliged to sing a solo, or forfeit +all the sweets she may have brought back with her."</p> + +<p>"'Tis Kismet!" murmured Deirdre, hauling up Dulcie from the boot rack.</p> + +<p>"No use fighting against one's fate!" sighed Dulcie, linking arms with +her chum as she walked along the passage.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[15]</a></span> +After all, it was only the younger members who were assembled in the +dining-hall—the Sixth, far too superior to join in the general romping, +were having a select cocoa party in the head girl's bedroom, and telling +each other that the noise below was disgraceful, and they wondered Miss +Birks didn't put a stop to it. (At seventeen one's judgment is apt to be +severe, especially on those only a few years younger!) Miss Birks, +however, who was forty-five, and wise in her generation, did not +interfere, and the fun downstairs continued to effervesce. Betty Scott, +seated at the piano, played with skill and zeal, and the others were +soon tripping their steps with more or less effect, according to their +individual grace and agility—all but two. Hilda Marriott had strained +her ankle during the holidays, and could only sit on the table and sigh +with envy; while Gerda Thorwaldson, the new girl, stood by the door, +watching the performance. Everybody was so taken up by the joys of the +moment that nobody realized her presence, even when whirling skirts +whisked against her in passing. Not a single one noticed her forlorn +aloofness, or that the blue eyes were almost brimming over with tears. +Mademoiselle, the only person who had so far befriended her, had beaten +a retreat, and was finishing unpacking, while the fourteen fellow pupils +in the room were still entire strangers to her. As nobody made the +slightest overture towards an introduction, and she seemed rather in the +way of the dancers, Gerda opened the door, and was about to follow +Mademoiselle's example, and make her escape upstairs.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[16]</a></span> Her action, +however, attracted the attention that had before been denied her.</p> + +<p>"Hallo, the new girl's sneaking off!" cried Annie Pridwell, pausing so +suddenly that she almost upset her partner.</p> + +<p>"Here! Stop!"</p> + +<p>"Where are you going?"</p> + +<p>"You've got to stay."</p> + +<p>"Come here and report yourself!"</p> + +<p>The dancing had come to a brief and sudden end. Betty Scott, concluding +in the middle of a bar, turned round on the music stool, and holding up +a commanding finger, beckoned the stranger forward.</p> + +<p>"Let's have a look at you," she remarked patronizingly. "I hadn't time +to take you in before. Are you really German? Tell us about yourself."</p> + +<p>"Yes, go on! Where do you come from, and all the rest of it?" urged Evie +Bennett.</p> + +<p>"Are you dumb?" asked Rhoda Wilkins.</p> + +<p>"Perhaps she can't speak English!" sniggered Dulcie Wilcox.</p> + +<p>Gerda Thorwaldson, now the target of every eye, had turned crimson to +the very roots of her flaxen hair. She stood in the centre of a ring of +new schoolfellows, so overwhelmed with shyness that she did not +volunteer a single response to the volley of remarks suddenly fired at +her. This did not at all content her inquisitors, who, once their +attention was drawn to her, felt their curiosity aroused.</p> + +<p>"I say, why can't you speak?" said Barbara Marshall,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[17]</a></span> nudging her elbow. +"You needn't look so scared. We're not going to eat you!"</p> + +<p>"No cannibals here!" piped Romola Harvey.</p> + +<p>"Lost, stolen, or strayed—a tongue! The property of the new girl. +Finder will be handsomely rewarded," remarked Mary Beckett facetiously.</p> + +<p>"You've got to answer some questions, Gerda Thorwaldson—I suppose +that's your name?—so don't be silly!" urged Irene Jordan.</p> + +<p>"Speak up! We shan't stand any nonsense!" added Elyned Hughes.</p> + +<p>"What do you want me to say?" murmured Gerda, gulping down her +embarrassment with something suspiciously like a sob, and blinking her +blue eyes rapidly.</p> + +<p>"Oh, you can talk English! Well, to begin with, are you German or not?"</p> + +<p>"No."</p> + +<p>"But you come from Germany?"</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>"Have you ever been in Cornwall before?"</p> + +<p>"Never."</p> + +<p>"I suppose you can dance?"</p> + +<p>"No."</p> + +<p>At this last negative a united howl went up from the assembled circle.</p> + +<p>"Can't dance? Where have you lived? Make her try! She's got to learn! +Take her arm and teach her some steps! She won't? She'll have to! No +one's to be let off to-night!"</p> + +<p>"Gerda Thorwaldson," said Evie Bennett impressively,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[18]</a></span> "we give you your +choice. You either try to dance this very instant, or you stand on that +table and sing a song—in English, mind, not German!"</p> + +<p>"Which will you choose?" clamoured three or four urgent voices.</p> + +<p>"Oh, I say! It's too bad to rag her so, just at first!" protested Doris +Patterson, a shade more sympathetic than the rest.</p> + +<p>"Not a bit of it! If she's really English, she must show it—and if she +won't, she's nothing but a foreigner!" blustered Dulcie Wilcox.</p> + +<p>"This is easy enough," volunteered Annie Pridwell, performing a few +steps by way of encouragement. "Now, come along and do as I do."</p> + +<p>"Fly, little birdie, fly!" mocked Betty Scott.</p> + +<p>"She's too stupid!"</p> + +<p>"She's going to blub!"</p> + +<p>"Leave her alone!"</p> + +<p>"No, make her dance!"</p> + +<p>"Don't let her sneak out of it!"</p> + +<p>"I say, what's going on here?" said a fresh voice, as Marcia Richards +entered the room, and, after pausing a moment to take in the situation, +strode indignantly to the rescue of poor Gerda, who, still shy and +half-bewildered with so many questions, stood almost weeping in the +midst of the circle.</p> + +<p>"Is this the way you treat a new girl? You ought to be ashamed of +yourselves! No, she shan't learn to dance if she doesn't want to! Not +to-night, at any rate. Come along with me, Gerda, and have some cocoa +upstairs. Don't trouble your head about this<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[19]</a></span> noisy set. If they've no +better manners, I'm sorry for them!"</p> + +<p>With which parting shot, she seized her protégée by the arm and bore her +out of the room.</p> + +<p>Most of the girls laughed. They did not take the affair seriously. A fit +of bashfulness and blushing might be very agonizing to the new-comer, +but it was distinctly diverting to outsiders. New girls must expect a +little wholesome catechizing before they were admitted into the bosom of +their Form. It was merely a species of initiation, nothing more. No +doubt Gerda would find her tongue to-morrow, and give a better account +of herself. So Betty sat down again to the piano, and the others, +finding their partners, began once more to tread the fascinating steps +of the latest popular dance.</p> + +<p>"We did rag her, rather," said Deirdre half-apologetically.</p> + +<p>"Serve her jolly well right for talking German!" snapped Dulcie.</p> + + + +<hr /> + +<h2><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[20]</a></span> +<a name="ii" id="ii"></a>CHAPTER II<br /> +<br /> +<big>A Kingdom by the Sea</big></h2> + + +<p><span class="smcap">Please</span> do not think because Miss Birks's pupils, on the first night of a +new term, ran helter-skelter up and down the passages, and insisted on +compulsory dancing or solo singing, that this was their normal course of +procedure. It was but their one evening of liberty before they settled +down to ordinary school routine, and for the rest of the eighty-eight +days before Easter their behaviour would be quite exemplary.</p> + +<p>They were a very happy little community at the Dower House. They admired +and respected their headmistress, and her well-framed rules were rarely +transgressed. Certainly the girls would have been hard to please if they +had not been satisfied with Miss Birks, for allied to her undoubted +brain power she had those far rarer gifts of perfect tact and absolute +sympathy. She thoroughly understood that oft-time riddle, the mind of a +schoolgirl, and, while still keeping her authority and maintaining the +dignity of her position, could win her pupils' entire confidence almost +as if she had been one of themselves.</p> + +<p>"Miss Birks never seems to have quite grown up!<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[21]</a></span> She enjoys things just +the same as we do," was the general verdict of the school.</p> + +<p>Perhaps a strain of Irish in her genealogy had given the Principal the +pleasant twinkle in her eye, the racy humour of speech, and the sunny +optimistic view of life so dearly valued by all who knew her. Anyhow, +whatever ancestry might claim to be the source of her cheery attributes, +she had a very winning personality, and ruled her small kingdom with a +hand so light that few realized its firmness. And a kingdom it was, in +the girls' opinion—a veritable "kingdom by the sea". No place in all +the length and breadth of the British Isles, so they considered, could +in any way compare with it. Together with the old castle, for which it +formed the Dower House, it stood on the neck of a long narrow peninsula +that stretched for about two miles seaward. All the land on this little +domain was the private property of Mrs. Trevellyan, the owner of +Pontperran Tower, from whom Miss Birks rented the school, and who had +granted full and entire leave for the pupils to wander where they +wished. The result of this generous concession was to give the girls a +much larger amount of freedom than would have been possible in any other +situation. The isolated position of the peninsula, only accessible +through the Castle gateway, made it as safe and secluded a spot as a +convent garden, and afforded a range of scenery that might well be a +source of congratulation to those who enjoyed it.</p> + +<p>There are few schools that possess a whole headland for a playground, +and especially such a headland, that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[22]</a></span> seemed so completely equipped for +the purpose. It held the most delightful of narrow coves, with gently +shelving, sandy beaches—ideal bathing places in summer-time—and +mysterious caverns that might occasionally be explored with a candle, +and interesting pools among the rocks, where at low tide could be found +seaweeds and anemones, and crabs and limpets, or a bestranded starfish. +On the steep cliffs that rose sheer and jagged from the green water the +seabirds built in the spring; and at the summit, on the very verge of +the precipice, bloomed in their season many choice and rare wild +flowers—the lovely vernal squill, with its blossoms like deep-blue +stars; the handsome crimson crane's-bill; the yellow masses of the +"Lady's fingers"; the pink tufts of the rosy thrift; or the fleshy +leaves of the curious samphire. The whole extent of the headland was +occupied by a tract of rough, heathery ground, generally called "the +warren". A few sheep were turned out here to crop the fine grass that +grew between the gorse bushes, and a pair of goats were often tethered +within easy reach of the coachman's cottage; but otherwise it was the +reserve of the rabbits that scuttled away in every direction should a +human footstep invade the sanctuary of their dominion.</p> + +<p>On these delightful breezy uplands, where the pleasant west wind blew +fresh and warm from the Gulf Stream, Miss Birks's pupils might wander at +will during play hours, only observing a few sensible restrictions. +Dangerous climbs on the edge of the cliffs or over slippery rocks were +forbidden, and not less<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[23]</a></span> than three girls must always be together. This +last rule was a very necessary one in the circumstances, for in case of +any accident to a member of the trio, it allowed one to stay with the +sufferer and render any first aid possible, while the other went at +topmost speed to lodge information at head-quarters.</p> + +<p>The old dwelling itself was a suitable and appropriate building for a +school. Erected originally in the fourteenth century as a small nunnery, +it had in the days of Edward VI fallen into the hands of the then lord +of the Castle, who had turned it into a dower house. Successive +generations of owners had in their time added to it or altered it, but +had not spoilt its general atmosphere of mediaevalism. Little pieces of +Perpendicular window tracery, or remains of archways were frequent in +the old walls, and a ruined turreted gateway bore witness to the beauty +of the ancient architecture. Nobody quite knew what vaults and cellars +there might be under the house. Remains of blocked-up staircases had +certainly been found, and many of the floors resounded with a +suggestively hollow ring; but all tradition of these had been lost, and +not even a legend lingered to gratify the curious.</p> + +<p>There was one element of mystery, however, which formed a perennial +interest and a never-ending topic of conversation among the girls. In +the centre of the first landing, right in the midst of the principal +bedrooms, stood a perpetually-closed room. The heavy oak door was +locked, and as an extra protection thick iron bars had been placed +across and secured firmly to the jambs. Even the keyhole was stopped up, +so that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[24]</a></span> the most inquisitive eye could obtain no satisfaction. All that +anybody knew was the fact that Mrs. Trevellyan, who had a well-deserved +reputation for eccentricity, had caused a special clause to be made in +the lease which she had granted to Miss Birks, stipulating for no +interference with the barred room under pain of forfeiture of the entire +agreement.</p> + +<p>"That means if we bored a hole through the door and peeped in the whole +school would be turned out of the house," said Evie Bennett once when +the subject was under discussion.</p> + +<p>"Even Miss Birks doesn't know what's inside," said Elyned Hughes with an +awed shudder.</p> + +<p>"Mrs. Trevellyan wouldn't let the place on any other conditions. She +said she'd rather have it empty first," added Annie Pridwell.</p> + +<p>"What can she have there?"</p> + +<p>"I'd give ten thousand pounds to find out!"</p> + +<p>But though speculation might run rife in the school and a hundred +different theories be advanced, there was not the slightest means of +verifying a single one of them. Ghosts, smugglers, or a family skeleton +were among the favourite suggestions, and the girls often amused +themselves with even wilder fancies. From the outside the secluded room +presented as insuperable a barrier as from within; heavy shutters +secured the window and guarded the secret closely and jealously from all +prying and peeping. That uncanny noises should apparently issue from +this abode of mystery goes without saying. There were mice in plenty, +and even an occasional rat or two in the old house, and their<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[25]</a></span> gnawings, +scamperings, and squeakings might easily be construed into thumps, +bumps, and blood-curdling groans. The girls would often get up scares +among themselves and be absolutely convinced that a tragedy, either real +or supernatural, was being enacted behind the oak door.</p> + +<p>Miss Birks, sensible and matter-of-fact as became a headmistress, +laughed at her pupils' notions, and declared that her chief objection to +the peculiar clause in her lease was the waste of a good bedroom which +would have been invaluable as an extra dormitory. She hung a thick plush +curtain over the doorway, and utterly tabooed the subject of the +mystery. She could not, however, prevent the girls talking about it +among themselves, and to them the barred room became a veritable +Bluebeard's chamber. At night they scuttled past it with averted gaze +and fingers stuffed in their ears, having an uneasy apprehension lest a +skeleton hand should suddenly draw aside the curtain and a face—be it +ghost or grinning goblin—peer at them out of the darkness. They would +dare each other to stand and listen, or to pass the door alone, and +among the younger ones a character for heroism stood or fell on the +capacity of venturing nearest to the so-called "bogey hole".</p> + +<p>Though Miss Birks might well regret such a disability in her lease of +the Dower House, she was proud of the old-world aspect of the place, and +treasured up any traditions of the past that she could gather together. +She had carefully written down all surviving details of the Franciscan +convent, having<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[26]</a></span> after endless trouble secured some account of it from +rare books and manuscripts in the possession of some of the country +gentry in the neighbourhood. Beyond the dates of its founding and +dissolution, and the names of its abbesses, there was little to be +learnt, though a few old records of business transactions gave an idea +of its extent and importance.</p> + +<p>Dearly as she valued the fourteenth-century origin of her establishment, +Miss Birks did not sacrifice comfort to any love of the antique. Inside +the ancient walls everything was strictly modern and hygienic, with the +latest patterns of desks, the most sanitary wall-papers, and each +up-to-date appliance that educational authorities might suggest or +devise. Could the Grey Nuns have but returned and taken a peep into the +well-equipped little chemical laboratory, they would probably have +fancied themselves in the chamber of a wizard in league with the fiends +of darkness, and have crossed themselves in pious fear at the sight of +the bottles and retorts; the nicely-fitted gymnasium would have puzzled +them sorely; and a hockey match have aroused their sincerest horror. +<i>Tempora mutantur, nos et mutamur in illis</i>—"the times are changed, and +we are changed with them!" Though we have lost something of the +picturesqueness of mediaeval life, the childlike faith of a childlike +age, the simplicity of a nation only groping to feel its strength, we +have surely gained in the long years of growth, in the gradual awakening +to the thousand things undreamt of by our forefathers, and can justly +deem that our lasses have<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[27]</a></span> inherited a golden harvest of thought and +experience from those who have trod before them the thorny and difficult +pathway that leads to knowledge.</p> + +<p>Such were the picturesque and highly-appreciated surroundings at the +Dower House, and now a word on that much more important subject, the +girls themselves.</p> + +<p>Miss Birks only received twenty pupils, all over fourteen years of age, +therefore there was no division into upper and lower school. Five elder +girls constituted the Sixth, and the rest were placed according to their +capabilities in two sections of the Fifth Form. Of these <span class="smcap">Vb</span> was +considerably the larger, and containing, as it did, the younger, cruder, +and more-boisterous spirits, was, in the opinion of the mistresses, the +portion which required the finer tact and the greater amount of careful +management. It was not that its members gave any special trouble, but +they were somewhat in the position of novices, not yet thoroughly versed +in the traditions of the little community, and needing skill and +patience during the process of their initiation. Almost insensibly the +nine seemed to split up into separate parties. Romola Harvey, Barbara +Marshall, and Elyned Hughes lived in the same town, and knew each other +at home; a sufficient bond of union to knit them in a close friendship +which they were unwilling to share with anybody else. The news from +Springfield, their native place, formed their chief subject of interest, +and those who could not understand or discuss it must necessarily be in +the position of outsiders.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[28]</a></span> Evie Bennett, Annie Pridwell, and Betty +Scott were lively, high-spirited girls, so full of irrepressible fun +that they were apt to drop the deeper element out of life altogether. It +was difficult ever to find them in a serious mood, their jokes were +incessant, and they certainly well earned the nickname of "the three +gigglers" which was generally bestowed upon them.</p> + +<p>Until Christmas, Deirdre Sullivan and Dulcie Wilcox had rejoiced in the +possession of a bedroom to themselves, a circumstance which had allowed +them the opportunity of cultivating their friendship till they had +become the most exclusive chums in the whole of the school. Deirdre, the +elder by six months, was a picturesque, rather interesting-looking girl, +with beautiful, expressive grey eyes, a delicate colour, and a neat, +slim little figure. Dulcie, on the contrary, much to her mortification, +was inclined to stoutness. She resembled a painting by Rubens, for her +plump cheeks were pink as carnations, and her ruddy hair was of that +warm shade of Venetian red so beloved by the old masters. It was a sore +point with poor Dulcie that, however badly her head ached, or however +limp or indisposed she might feel, her high colour never faded, and no +pathetic hollows ever appeared in her cheeks.</p> + +<p>"I get no sympathy when I'm ill," she confided to Deirdre. "On that day +when I turned faint in the algebra class, Miss Harding had said only an +hour before: 'You do look well, child!' I wish I were as pale and thin +as Elyned Hughes, then I might get<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[29]</a></span> petted and excused lessons. As it +is, no one believes me when I complain."</p> + +<p>Dulcie, who possessed an intense admiration for her chum, struggled +perpetually to mould herself on Deirdre's model, sometimes with rather +comical results. Deirdre's romantic tendencies caused her to affect the +particular style of the heroine of nearly every fresh book she read, and +she changed continually from an air of reserved and stately dignity to +one of sparkling vivacity, according to her latest favourite in fiction. +With Deirdre it was an easy matter enough to assume a manner; but +Dulcie, who merely copied her friend slavishly, often aroused mirth in +the schoolroom by her extraordinary poses.</p> + +<p>"Who is it now, Dulcie?" the girls would ask. "Rebecca of York, or the +Scarlet Pimpernel? You might drop us a hint, so that we could tell, and +treat you accordingly."</p> + +<p>And Dulcie, being an unimaginative and really rather obtuse little +person, though she knew she was being laughed at, could never quite +fathom the reason why, and continued to lisp or drawl, or to attempt to +look dignified, or to sparkle, with a praiseworthy perseverance worthy +of a better object.</p> + + + +<hr /> + + +<h2><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[30]</a></span> +<a name="iii" id="iii"></a>CHAPTER III<br /> +<br /> +<big>A Mysterious Schoolfellow</big></h2> + + +<p><span class="smcap">It</span> is all very well for a girl to be shy on her first night at school. A +certain amount of embarrassment is indeed considered almost "good form" +in a new-comer, indicative of her realization of the privileges which +she is about to enjoy, and the comparative unworthiness of any previous +establishment she may have attended. But when her uncommunicative +attitude is unduly prolonged, what was at first labelled mere becoming +bashfulness is termed stupidity, closeness, stuck-up conceit, or +intentional rudeness by her companions, who highly resent any repulse of +their offers of friendship. Gerda Thorwaldson, after nearly a fortnight +at the Dower House, seemed as much a stranger as on the evening when she +arrived. She was neither uncivil nor disobliging, but no efforts on the +part of her schoolmates were able to penetrate the thick barrier of her +reserve. She appeared most unwilling to enter into any particulars of +her former life, and beyond the fact that she had been educated chiefly +in Germany no information could be dragged from her.</p> + +<p>"You've only to hint at her home, and she shuts up<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[31]</a></span> like an oyster," +said Annie Pridwell aggrievedly. Annie had a natural love of biography. +She delighted in hearing her comrades' experiences, and was so well up +in everybody's private affairs that she could have written a "Who's Who" +of the school.</p> + +<p>"You ought to know, Deirdre," she continued. "Doesn't she tell you +anything at all in your bedroom?"</p> + +<p>"Hardly opens her mouth," replied Deirdre. "You wouldn't believe how +difficult it is to talk to her. She just says 'Yes' or 'No', and +occasionally asks a question, but she certainly tells us nothing about +herself."</p> + +<p>"Never met with anyone so mum in my life," added Dulcie.</p> + +<p>The question of Gerda's nationality still weighed upon Dulcie's spirits. +In her opinion a girl who could speak a foreign language with such +absolute fluency did not deserve to be called English, and she was +further disturbed by a hint which got abroad that the new girl had been +requisitioned to the school for the particular purpose of talking +German.</p> + +<p>"If that's so, why has she been poked upon us?" she demanded +indignantly. "Why wasn't she put in a dormitory with somebody who'd +appreciate her better?—Marcia Richards, for instance, who says she +'envies our advantages'."</p> + +<p>"Ask Miss Birks!"</p> + +<p>"Oh, I dare say! But I don't like people who listen to everything and +say nothing. It gives one the idea they mean to sneak some day."</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[32]</a></span> +Though Gerda's attitude regarding her own affairs was uncommunicative, +she nevertheless appeared to take a profound interest in her present +surroundings. As Dulcie had noticed, she listened to everything, and no +detail, however small, seemed to escape her. She was anxious to learn +all she could concerning the old house, the neighbourhood, and the +families who resided near, and would ask an occasional question on the +subject, often blushing scarlet as she put her queries.</p> + +<p>"Why, I should think you could draw a plan of the house!" said Dulcie +one day. "What does it matter whether the larder is underneath our +dormitory or not? You can't dive through the floor and purloin tarts!"</p> + +<p>"No, of course not. I was only wondering," replied Gerda, shrinking into +her shell again.</p> + +<p>Nevertheless, later on in the afternoon, Dulcie suddenly came across her +measuring the landing with a yard tape.</p> + +<p>"What in the name of all that's wonderful are you doing?" exclaimed the +much-surprised damsel.</p> + +<p>"Oh, nothing, nothing!" said Gerda, hastily rolling up her tape measure, +and slipping it into her pocket. "Only just an idea that came into my +head. I wanted to know the length of the passage, that was all!"</p> + +<p>"What a most extraordinary thing to want to know! Really, Gerda, you're +the queerest girl I ever met. Is it having lived in Germany that makes +you so odd?"</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[33]</a></span> +"I suppose it must be," murmured Gerda, escaping as rapidly as possible +into the schoolroom.</p> + +<p>I have said before that owing to the unique situation of the Dower House +the girls were allowed an amount of liberty in their play-hours which +could not so easily have been granted to them at other schools. They +wandered freely about the headland without a mistress, and so far had +never abused their privileges, either by getting into danger or staying +out beyond the specified time.</p> + +<p>Though as a rule they rambled in trios, on the first of February the +whole of Form <span class="smcap">Vb</span> might have been seen walking together over the warren. +They had a motive for their excursion, for it was St. Perran's Day, and +St. Perran was the patron saint of the district. At the end of the +promontory there was a small spring dedicated to his memory, and +according to ancient legends, anybody who on his anniversary dropped a +pin into this well might learn her luck for the coming year. Formerly +all the lads and lasses from the villages of Pontperran, Porthmorvan, +and Perranwrack used to come to deck the well and try their fortunes, +but their annual visitation having degenerated into a rather riotous and +undesirable ceremony, Mrs. Trevellyan had put up extra trespass notices, +and given strict orders to her gamekeeper to exclude the public from the +headland.</p> + +<p>Knowing of the ancient custom which had been practised from time +immemorial, it was of course only in schoolgirl nature to want to test +the powers of divination attributed to the old well. The Sixth<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[34]</a></span> Form, +who considered themselves almost grown up, treated the affair with +ridicule, and the members of <span class="smcap">Va</span>, who copied their seniors slavishly, +likewise affected a supreme contempt for so childish a proceeding; but +<span class="smcap">Vb</span>, being still at an age when superstition holds an immense attraction, +trotted off <i>en bloc</i> to pay their respects to St. Perran. Each, in +deference to the long-established tradition of the neighbourhood, bore a +garland of ferns and other greeneries, and each came armed with the +necessary pin that was to work the spell.</p> + +<p>"Jessie Macpherson says we're a set of sillies," volunteered Betty +Scott. "But I don't care—I wouldn't miss St. Perran's Day for +anything."</p> + +<p>"My wish came true last year," put in Barbara Marshall.</p> + +<p>"Oh, I do hope I shall have some luck!" shivered Elyned Hughes.</p> + +<p>The well in question lay in a slight hollow, a kind of narrow gully, +where in wet weather a small stream ambled between the rocks and ran +down to the sea. In the mild Cornish climate ferns were growing here +fresh and green, ignoring the presence of winter; and dog's-mercury, +strawberry-leaved cinquefoil, and other early plants were pushing up +strong leaves in preparation for the springtime. The famous well was +nothing but a shallow basin of rock, into which the little stream flowed +leisurely, and, having partially filled it, trickled away through a gap, +and became for a yard or two merged in a patch of swampy herbage. +Overhung with long fronds of lady-fern and tufts of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[35]</a></span> hawkweed, it had a +picturesque aspect, and the water seemed to gurgle slowly and +mysteriously, as if it were trying in some unknown language to reveal a +secret.</p> + +<p>The girls clustered round, and began in orthodox fashion to hang their +garlands on the leafless branches of a stunted tree that stretched +itself over the spring. They were in various moods, some giggling, some +half-awed, some silent, and some chattering.</p> + +<p>"It isn't as high as it was last year, so I don't believe it will work +so well," said Evie Bennett. "St. Perran must be in a bad temper, and +hasn't looked after it properly. Tiresome old man, why can't he remember +his own day?"</p> + +<p>"He's got to do double duty, poor old chap!" laughed Betty Scott. "You +forget he's the patron saint of the sailors as well, and is supposed to +be out at sea attracting the fish. Perhaps he just hadn't time this +morning, and thought the well would do."</p> + +<p>"Let well alone, in fact," giggled Evie.</p> + +<p>"Oh, shut her up for her bad pun! Dip her head in the water! Make her +try her luck first!"</p> + +<p>"Pleased to accommodate you, I'm sure. Here's my pin," returned Evie. +"Now, if you're ready, I'll begin and consult the oracle."</p> + +<p>St. Perran's ceremony had to be performed in due order, or it was +supposed to be of no effect. First of all, Evie solemnly dropped her pin +in the well, as a species of votive offering, while silently she +murmured a wish. Then placing a small piece of stick on the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[36]</a></span> surface of +the water in the exact centre of the basin, she repeated the +time-honoured formula:</p> + +<div class="block22"> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="io">"Perran, Perran of the well,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">What I've wished I may not tell,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">'Tis but known to me and you,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Help me then to bring it true".<br /></span> +</div></div></div> + +<p>All eyes were fixed eagerly on the piece of stick, which was already +commencing to circle round in the water. If it found its way +successfully through the gap, and was washed down by the stream, it was +a sign that St. Perran had it safely and would attend to the matter; but +if it were stranded on the edge of the basin, the wish would remain +unfulfilled. Round and round went the tiny twig, bobbing and dancing in +the eddies; but, alas! the water was low this February, and instead of +sweeping the twig triumphantly through the aperture, it only washed it +to one side, and left it clinging to some overhanging fronds of fern +that dipped into the spring. Evie heaved a tragic sigh of +disappointment.</p> + +<p>"I'm done for at any rate!" she groaned. "St. Perran won't have anything +to say to me this year. Oh, and it was such a lovely wish! I'll tell you +what it was, now it's not going to come off. I wished some aviator would +ask me to have a seat in his aeroplane, and take me right over to +America in it!"</p> + +<p>The girls tittered.</p> + +<p>"What a particularly likely wish to be fulfilled! No, my hearty, you +can't expect St. Perran to have anything to do with aeroplanes," said +Betty Scott.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[37]</a></span> "The good old saint probably abhors all modern inventions. +I'm going to wish for something easy and probable."</p> + +<p>"What?"</p> + +<p>"Ah! wouldn't you like to know? I shan't tell you, even if I fail. Shall +I try next?"</p> + +<p>Whatever Betty's easy and probable desire may have been, the result was +bad, and her stick, after several thrilling gyrations, tagged itself on +to Evie's under the cluster of fern. She bore her ill luck like a stoic.</p> + +<p>"One can't have everything in this world," she philosophized. "Perhaps +I'll get it next year instead. Deirdre Sullivan, you deserve to lose +your own for sniggering! This trial ought to be taken solemnly. We'll +get St. Perran's temper up if we make fun of it."</p> + +<p>"I thought he was out at sea, attracting the fishes!" said Deirdre.</p> + +<p>"I'm not sure that Cornish saints can't be in two places at once, just +to show their superiority over Devonshire ones. Well, go on! Laugh if +you like! But don't expect St. Perran to take any interest in you!"</p> + +<p>It certainly seemed as though the patron of the well had for once +forsaken his favourite haunt. Girl after girl wished her wish and +repeated her spell, but invariably to meet with the same ill fortune, +till a melancholy little clump of eight sticks testified to the general +failure.</p> + +<p>"Have we all lost? No, Gerda Thorwaldson hasn't<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[38]</a></span> tried! Where's Gerda? +She's got to do the same as anybody else! Gerda Thorwaldson, where are +you?"</p> + +<p>Gerda for the moment had been missing, but at the sound of her name she +scrambled down from the rocks above the well, looking rather red and +conscious.</p> + +<p>"What were you doing up there?" asked Dulcie sharply. "It's your turn to +try the omen. Go along, quick; we shall have to be jogging back in half +a jiff."</p> + +<p>Gerda paused for a moment, and with face full towards the sea muttered +her wish with moving lips; then turning to the tree, she carefully +counted the third bough from the bottom, and the third twig on the +bough. Breaking off her due portion, she twisted it round three times, +and holding it between the third fingers of either hand, dropped it into +the water, while she rapidly repeated the magic formula:</p> + +<div class="block22"> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="io">"Perran, Perran of the well,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">What I've wished I may not tell,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">'Tis but known to me and you,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Help me then to bring it true".<br /></span> +</div></div></div> + +<p>The girls watched rather half-heartedly. They were growing a little +tired of the performance. They fully expected the ninth stick to drift +the same way as its predecessors, but to everybody's astonishment it +made one rapid circle of the basin, and bobbed successfully through the +gap.</p> + +<p>"It's gone! it's gone!" cried Betty Scott in wild excitement. "St. +Perran's working after all. Oh, why didn't he do it for me?"</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[39]</a></span> +"How funny it should be the only one!" said Elyned Hughes.</p> + +<p>"I believe the water's running faster than it did before," commented +Romola Harvey. "Has the old saint turned on the tap?"</p> + +<p>"Shall I get my wish?" said Gerda, who stood by with shining eyes.</p> + +<p>"Of course you'll get it—certain sure. And jolly fortunate you are too. +You've won the luck of the whole Form. Don't I wish I were you, just!"</p> + +<p>"You're evidently St. Perran's favourite!" laughed Annie Pridwell.</p> + +<p>"Come along, it's nearly time for call-over. We'll be late if we don't +sprint," said Barbara Marshall, consulting her watch, and starting at a +run on the path that led back to the Dower House.</p> + +<p>"It was a funny thing that our sticks should all 'stick', and Gerda's +just sail off as easily as you like," said Deirdre that evening, as, +with Dulcie, she gave an account of the occurrence to Phyllis Rowland, a +member of the Sixth. As one of the elect of the school, Phyllis would +not have condescended to consult the famous oracle, but she nevertheless +took a sneaking interest in the annual ceremony, and was anxious to know +how St. Perran's votaries had fared.</p> + +<p>"Did you do it really properly?" she enquired. "An old woman at +Perranwrack once told me it wasn't any use at all if you forgot the +least thing."</p> + +<p>"Why, we hung up our garlands and then wished, and said the rhyme, and +threw in our sticks."</p> + +<p>"Oh, that isn't half enough. Where were you looking<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[40]</a></span> when you wished? +Facing the sea? Your stick should be chosen from the third twig on the +third branch, and it ought to be turned round three times, and held +between your third fingers. Did you do all that?"</p> + +<p>The faces of Deirdre and Dulcie were a study.</p> + +<p>"No, we didn't. But Gerda Thorwaldson did it—every bit. And the water +came down ever so much faster for her turn, too."</p> + +<p>"Probably she went behind the well, and cleared the channel of the +stream. That's a well-known dodge to make the water flow quicker, and +help the saint to work."</p> + +<p>"I certainly saw her climbing down the rocks," gasped Dulcie.</p> + +<p>"Then she's a cleverer girl than I took her for, and deserves her luck," +laughed Phyllis. "Look here, I can't stay wasting time any longer. I've +got my prep to do. Ta, ta! Don't let St. Perran blight your young lives. +Try him again next year."</p> + +<p>Left alone, Deirdre and Dulcie subsided simultaneously on to a bench.</p> + +<p>"It beats me altogether," said Dulcie, shaking her head. "How did she +manage to do it? How did she know? Who told her?"</p> + +<p>"That's the puzzler," returned Deirdre. "Certainly not Phyllis, and I +don't believe anybody else ever heard of those extra dodges. Gerda's +only been a fortnight at the school, and says she's never been in +Cornwall in her life before, so how could she know? Yet she did it all +so pat."</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[41]</a></span> +"It's queer, to say the least of it."</p> + +<p>"Do you know, Dulcie, I think there's something mysterious about Gerda. +I've noticed it ever since she came. She seems all the time to be trying +to hide something. She won't tell us a scrap about herself, and yet +she's always asking questions."</p> + +<p>"What's she up to then?"</p> + +<p>"That's what I want to find out. It's evidently something she doesn't +want people to know. She ought to be watched. I vote we keep an eye on +her."</p> + +<p>"I really believe we ought to."</p> + +<p>"But mind, you mustn't let her suspect we notice anything. That would +give the show away at once. Lie low's our motto."</p> + +<p>"Right you are!" agreed Dulcie. "Mum's the word!"</p> + + + +<hr /> + + +<h2><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[42]</a></span> +<a name="iv" id="iv"></a>CHAPTER IV<br /> +<br /> +<big>"The King of the Castle"</big></h2> + + +<p><span class="smcap">The</span> members of <span class="smcap">Vb</span> often congratulated themselves that their special +classroom was decidedly larger than that of the Sixth or of <span class="smcap">Va</span>. They +were apt to boast of their superior accommodation, and would never admit +the return argument that being so much larger a form, their room really +allowed less space per girl, and was therefore actually inferior to its +rivals. On one February evening the whole nine were sitting round the +fire, luxuriating in half an hour's delicious idleness before the bell +rang for "second prep.". Those who had been first in the field had +secured the basket-chairs, but the majority squatted on the hearth-rug, +making as close a ring as they could, for the night was cold, and there +was a nip of frost in the air.</p> + +<p>"Now, don't anybody begin to talk sense, please!" pleaded Betty Scott, +leaning a golden-brown head mock-sentimentally on Annie Pridwell's +shoulder. "My poor little brains are just about pumped out with maths., +and what's left of them will be wanted for French prep. later on. This +is the silly season, so I hope no one will endeavour to improve my +mind."</p> + +<p>"They'd have a Herculean task before them if they<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[43]</a></span> did!" sniggered +Annie. "Betty, your head may be empty, but it's jolly heavy, all the +same. I wish you'd kindly remove it from my shoulder."</p> + +<p>"You mass of ingratitude! It was a mark of supreme affection—a kind of +'They grew in beauty side by side', don't you know!"</p> + +<p>"I don't want to know. Not if it involves nursing your weight. Oh, yes! +go to Barbara, by all means, if she'll have you. I'm not in the least +offended."</p> + +<p>"That big basket-chair oughtn't to be monopolized by one," asserted Evie +Bennett. "It's quite big enough for two. Here, Deirdre, make room for +me. Don't be stingy, you must give me another inch. That's better. It's +rather a squash, but we can just manage."</p> + +<p>"You're cuckooing me out!" protested Deirdre.</p> + +<p>"No, no, I'm not. There's space for two in this nest. We're a pair of +doves:</p> + +<div class="block22"> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="io">"'Coo,' said the turtle dove,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">'Coo,' said she".<br /></span> +</div></div></div> + +<p>"I'll say something more to the point, if you don't take care. What a +lot of sillies you are!"</p> + +<p>"Then please deign to enlarge our intellects. We're hanging upon your +words. Betty can stop her ears, if she thinks it will be too great a +strain on her slender brains. What is it to be? A recitation from +Milton, or a dissertation on the evils of levity? Miss Sullivan, your +audience awaits you. Mr. Chairman, will you please introduce the +lecturer?"</p> + +<p>"Ladies and gentlemen, I hasten to explain that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[44]</a></span> owing to severe +indisposition I am unable to be present to-night," returned Deirdre +promptly.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Irish of the Irish!" laughed the girls. "Did you say it on purpose, +or did it come unconsciously?"</p> + +<p>"I wish I were Irish. Somehow I never say funny things, not even if I +try," lamented Dulcie.</p> + +<p>"Because you couldn't. You're a dear fat dumpling, and dumplings never +are funny, you know—it's against nature."</p> + +<p>"It's not my fault if I'm fat," said Dulcie plaintively. "People say +'Laugh and grow fat', so why shouldn't a plump person be funny?"</p> + +<p>"They are funny—very funny—though not quite in the way you mean."</p> + +<p>"Oh, look here! Don't be horrid!"</p> + +<p>"You began it yourself."</p> + +<p>"Children, don't barge!" interrupted Romola Harvey. "You really are +rather a set of lunatics to-night. Can't anyone tell a story?"</p> + +<p>"I was taught to call fibbing a sin in the days of my youth," retorted +Betty Scott, assuming a serious countenance.</p> + +<p>"You—you ragtimer! I mean a real story—a tale—a legend—a romance—or +whatever you choose to call it."</p> + +<p>"Don't know any."</p> + +<p>"We've used them all up," said Evie Bennett, yawning lustily. "We all +know the legend of the Abbess Gertrude—it's Miss Birks's favourite +chestnut—and what she said to the Commissioner who came to confiscate +the convent: and we've had the one about<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[45]</a></span> Monmouth's rebellion till it's +as stale as stale can be. I defy anybody to have the hardihood to repeat +it."</p> + +<p>"Aren't there any other tales about the neighbourhood?" asked Gerda +Thorwaldson. It was the first remark that she had made.</p> + +<p>"Oh, I don't think so. The old castle's very sparse in legends. I +suppose there ought to be a few, but they're mostly forgotten."</p> + +<p>"Who used to live there?"</p> + +<p>"Trevellyans. There always have been Trevellyans—hosts of them—though +now there's nobody left but Mrs. Trevellyan and Ronnie."</p> + +<p>"Who's Ronnie?"</p> + +<p>More than half a dozen answers came instantly.</p> + +<p>"Ronnie? Why, he's just Ronnie."</p> + +<p>"Mrs. Trevellyan's great-nephew."</p> + +<p>"The dearest darling!"</p> + +<p>"You never saw anyone so sweet."</p> + +<p>"We all of us adore him."</p> + +<p>"We call him 'The King of the Castle'."</p> + +<p>"They've been away, staying in London."</p> + +<p>"But they're coming back this week."</p> + +<p>"Is he grown up?" enquired Gerda casually.</p> + +<p>"Grown up!" exploded the girls. "He's not quite six!"</p> + +<p>"He lives with Mrs. Trevellyan," explained Betty, "because he hasn't got +any father or mother of his own."</p> + +<p>"Oh, Betty, he has!" burst out Barbara.</p> + +<p>"Well, that's the first I ever heard of them, then. I thought he was an +orphan."</p> + +<p>"He's as good as an orphan, poor little chap."</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[46]</a></span> +"Why?"</p> + +<p>"Nobody ever mentions his father."</p> + +<p>"Why on earth not?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, I don't know! There's something mysterious. Mrs. Trevellyan doesn't +like it talked about. Nobody dare even drop a hint to her."</p> + +<p>"What's wrong with Ronnie's father?"</p> + +<p>"I tell you I don't know, except that I believe he did something he +shouldn't have."</p> + +<p>"Rough on Ronnie."</p> + +<p>"Ronnie doesn't know, of course, and nobody would be cruel enough to +tell him. You must promise you'll none of you mention what I've said. +Not to anybody."</p> + +<p>"Rather not! You can trust us!" replied all.</p> + +<p>It was perhaps only natural that the affairs of the Castle should seem +important to the dwellers at the Dower House. The two buildings lay so +near together, yet were so isolated in their position as regarded other +habitations, that they united in many ways for their mutual convenience. +If Miss Birks's gardener was going to the town he would execute +commissions for the Castle, as well as for his own mistress; and, on the +other hand, the Castle chauffeur would call at the Dower House for +letters to be sent by the late post. Mrs. Trevellyan was a widow with no +family of her own. She had adopted her great-nephew Ronald while he was +still quite a baby, and he could remember no other home than hers. The +little fellow was the one delight and solace of her advancing years. Her +life centred round Ronnie; she<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[47]</a></span> thought continually of his interests, +and made many plans for his future. He was her constant companion, and +his pretty, affectionate ways and merry chatter did much to help her to +forget old griefs. He was a most winning, engaging child, a favourite +with everybody, and reigned undoubtedly as monarch in the hearts of all +who had the care of him. It was partly on Ronnie's account, and partly +because she really loved young people, that Mrs. Trevellyan took so much +notice of the pupils at the Dower House. On her nephew's behalf she +would have preferred a boys' preparatory school for neighbour, but even +girls over fourteen were better than nobody; they made an element of +youth that was good for Ronnie, and prevented the Castle from seeming +too dull. The knowledge that he might perhaps meet his friends on the +headland gave an object to the little boy's daily walk, and the jokes +and banter with which they generally greeted him provided him with a +subject for conversation afterwards.</p> + +<p>The girls on their part showed the liveliest interest in anything +connected with the Castle. They would watch the motor passing in and out +of the great gates, would peep from their top windows to look at the +gardeners mowing the lawns, and would even count the rooks' nests that +were built in the grove of elm trees. Occasionally Mrs. Trevellyan would +ask the whole school to tea, and that was regarded as so immense a treat +that the girls always looked forward to the delightful chance that some +fortunate morning an invitation might be forthcoming.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[48]</a></span> +Mrs. Trevellyan had been staying in London at the beginning of the term, +but early in February she returned home again. On the day after her +arrival the girls were walking back from a hockey practice on the +warren, swinging their way along the narrow tracks between last year's +bracken and heather, or having an impromptu long-jump contest where a +small stream crossed the path.</p> + +<p>"It's so jolly to see the flag up again at the Castle," said Evie +Bennett, looking at the turret where the Union Jack was flying bravely +in the breeze. "I always feel as if it's a kind of national defence. Any +ships sailing by would know it was England they were passing."</p> + +<p>"I like it because it means Mrs. Trevellyan's at home," said Deirdre +Sullivan. "A place seems so forlorn when the family's away. Did Ronnie +come back too, last night?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, Hilda Marriott saw him from the window this morning. He was going +down the road with his new governess. Why, there he is—actually +watching for us, the darling!"</p> + +<p>The girls had to pass close to a turnstile that led from the Castle +grounds into the warren, and here, perched astride the top rail of the +gate, evidently on the look-out for them, <a name="small" id="small"></a>a small boy was waving his cap +in frantic welcome. He was a pretty little fellow, with the bluest of +eyes and the fairest of skins, and the lightest of flaxen hair, and he +seemed dimpling all over his merry face with delight at the meeting. The +girls simply made a rush for him, and he was handed about from one to +another, struggling in laughing protest, till at last he wriggled +himself free, and retiring behind the turnstile, held the gate as a +barrier.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"> +<img src="images/gs02.jpg" width="400" height="640" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption">A SMALL BOY WAS WAVING HIS CAP IN FRANTIC WELCOME<br /> +<a href="#small"><i>Page 48</i></a></span> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[49]</a></span> +"I knew you'd be coming past, so I got leave to play here. Thank you all +for your Christmas cards," he said gaily. "Yes—I like my new governess. +Her name's Miss Herbert, and she's ripping. Auntie's going to ask you to +tea. I want to show you my engine I got at Christmas. It goes round the +floor and it really puffs. You'll come?"</p> + +<p>"Oh! we'll come all right," chuckled the girls. "We've got something at +the Dower House to show you, too. No, we shan't tell you what it +is—it's to be a surprise. Oh, goody! There's the bell! Ta-ta! We must +be off! If we don't fly, we shall all be late for call-over. No, you're +not to come through the gate to say good-bye! Go back, you rascal! You +know you're not allowed on the warren!"</p> + +<p>As the big bell at the Dower House was clang-clanging its loudest, the +girls set off at a run. There was not a minute to be lost if they meant +to be in their places to answer "Present" to their names; and missing +the roll-call meant awkward explanations with Miss Birks. One only, +oblivious of the urgency of the occasion, lingered behind. Gerda +Thorwaldson had stood apart while the others greeted Ronnie, merely +looking on as if the meeting were of no interest to her. Nobody had +taken the slightest notice of her, or had indeed remembered her +existence at the moment. She counted for so little with her +schoolfellows that it never struck them to introduce her to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[50]</a></span> their +favourite; in fact they had been totally occupied among themselves in +fighting for possession of him. She remained now, until the very last +school sports' cap was round the corner and out of sight. Then she +dashed through the turnstile, and overtaking Ronnie, thrust a packet of +chocolates, rather awkwardly, into his hand.</p> + +<p>The bell had long ceased clanging, and Miss Birks had closed the +call-over book when Gerda entered the schoolroom. As she would offer no +explanation of her lateness, she was given a page of French poetry to +learn, to teach her next time to regard punctuality as a cardinal +virtue. She took her punishment with absolute stolidity.</p> + +<p>"What a queer girl she is! She never seems to care what happens," said +Dulcie. "I should mind if Miss Birks glared at me in that way, to say +nothing of a whole page of <i>Athalie</i>."</p> + +<p>"She looked as if she'd been crying when she came in," remarked Deirdre.</p> + +<p>"She's not crying now, at any rate. She simply looks unapproachable. +What made her so late? She was with us on the warren."</p> + +<p>"How should I know? If she won't tell, she won't. You might as well try +to make a mule gallop uphill as attempt to get even the slightest, most +ordinary, everyday scrap of information out of such a sphinx as Gerda +Thorwaldson."</p> + + + +<hr /> + + +<h2><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[51]</a></span> +<a name="v" id="v"></a>CHAPTER V<br /> +<br /> +<big>Practical Geography</big></h2> + + +<p><span class="smcap">Miss Birks</span> often congratulated herself on the fact that the smallness of +her school allowed her to give a proportionately large amount of +individual attention to her pupils. There was no possibility at the +Dower House for even the laziest girl to shirk lessons and shield her +ignorance behind the general bulk of information possessed by the Form. +Backward girls, dull girls, delicate girls—all had their special claims +considered and their fair chances accorded. There was no question of +"passing in a crowd". Each pupil stood or fell on the merits of her own +work, and every item of her progress was noted with as much care as if +she were the sole charge of the establishment. Miss Birks had many +theories of education, some gleaned from national conferences of +teachers, and others of her own evolving, all on the latest of modern +lines. One of her pet theories was the practical application, whenever +possible, of every lesson learnt. According to the season the girls +botanized, geologized, collected caterpillars and chrysalides, or hunted +for marine specimens on the shore, vying with each other in a friendly +rivalry as to which could secure the best contributions for the school +museum.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[52]</a></span> +There was no subject, however, in Miss Birks's estimation which led +itself more readily to practical illustration than geography. Every +variety of physical feature was examined in the original situation, so +that watersheds, tributaries, table-lands, currents, and comparative +elevations became solid facts instead of mere book statements, and each +girl was taught to make her own map of the district.</p> + +<p>"I believe we've examined everything except an iceberg and a volcano," +declared Betty Scott one day, "and I verily believe Miss Birks is on the +look-out for both—hoped an iceberg might be washed ashore during those +few cold days we had in January, and you know she told us Beacon Hill +was the remains of an extinct volcano. I expect she wished it might +burst out suddenly again, like Vesuvius, just to show us how it did it!"</p> + +<p>"Wouldn't we squeal and run if we heard rumblings and saw jets of steam +coming up?" commented Evie Bennett. "I don't think many of us would stay +to do scientific work, and take specimens of the lava."</p> + +<p>"Where are we going this afternoon?" asked Elyned Hughes.</p> + +<p>"Mapping, Miss Birks said. We're to make for the old windmill, and then +draw a radius of six miles, from Kergoff to Avonporth. Hurry up, you +others! It's after two, and Miss Harding's waiting on the terrace. What +a set of slow-coaches you are!"</p> + +<p>It was the turn of <span class="smcap">Vb</span> to have a practical geography demonstration, and +they started, therefore, under the guidance of the second mistress, to +survey<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[53]</a></span> the physical features of a certain portion of the neighbourhood, +and record them in a map. Each girl was furnished by Miss Birks with a +paper of questions, intended to be a guide to her observations:</p> + +<blockquote> +<p>1.—Using the windmill as a centre, what direction do the roads +take?</p> + +<p>2.—What villages or farms must be noted?</p> + +<p>3.—What rivers or streams, and their courses?</p> + +<p>4.—What lakes or ponds?</p> + +<p>5.—The general outline of the coast?</p> + +<p>6.—Are there hills or mountains?</p> + +<p>7.—What historical monuments should be marked with a cross?</p> +</blockquote> + +<p>Armed with their instructions, pocket compasses, and note-books, the +girls set off in cheerful spirits. They dearly loved these country +rambles, and heartily approved of this particular method of education. +It was a beautiful bright afternoon towards the middle of February, one +of those glorious days that seem to anticipate the spring, and to make +one forget that winter exists at all. The sky was cloudless and blue, +not with the serene blue of summer, but with that fainter, almost +greenish shade so noticeable in the early months of the year, and +growing pearly-white where it touched the horizon. There was a joyous +feeling of returning life in the air; a thrush, perhaps remembering that +it was St. Valentine's Eve, carolled with full rich voice in the bare +thorn tree, small birds chased each other among the bushes, and great +flocks of rooks were feeding up and down the ploughed fields. In +sheltered corners an early wild flower or two had<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[54]</a></span> forestalled the +season, and the girls picked an occasional celandine star or primrose +bud, and even a few cherished violets. The catkins on the hazels were +shaking down showers of golden pollen, and the sallows were covered with +silky, silvery tufts of palm; the low sycamores in the hedge showed rosy +buds almost ready to burst, and shoots of bramble or sprays of +newly-opened honeysuckle leaves formed green patches here and there on +the old walls.</p> + +<p>The girls walked at a brisk, swinging pace, in no particular order, so +long as they kept together, and with licence to stop to examine +specimens within reasonable limits of time. Miss Harding, who was +herself a fairly good naturalist, might be consulted at any moment, and +all unknown or doubtful objects, if portable, were popped in a basket +and taken back to be identified by the supreme authority, Miss Birks.</p> + +<p>Though they fully appreciated the warren as a playground, it was +delightful to have a wider field for their activities, and the +opportunity of making some fresh find or some interesting discovery to +report at head-quarters. Miss Birks kept a Nature Diary hung on the wall +of the big schoolroom, and there was keen competition as to which should +be the first to supply the various items that made up its weekly +chronicle. It was even on record that Rhoda Wilkins once ran a whole +mile at top speed in order to steal a march on Emily Northwood, and +claim for <span class="smcap">Va</span> the proud honour of announcing the first bird's nest of the +year.</p> + +<p>The special point for which the girls were bound<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[55]</a></span> this afternoon was a +ruined windmill that stood on a small eminence, and formed rather a +landmark in the district. From here an excellent view might be obtained +of both the outline of the coast and the course of the little river that +ambled down from the hills and poured itself into the sea by the tiny +village of Kergoff. No fitter spot could have been chosen for a general +survey, and as the girls reached the platform on which the building +stood, and ranged themselves under its picturesque ragged sails, they +pulled out their note-books and got to business.</p> + +<p>It was a glorious panorama that lay below them—brown heathery common +and rugged cliff, steep crags against which the growing tide was softly +lapping, a babbling little river that wound a noisy course between +boulders and over rounded, age-worn stones, tumbling in leaps from the +hills, dancing through the meadows, and flowing with a strong, steady +swirl through the whitewashed hamlet ere it widened out to join the +harbour. And beyond all there was the sea—the shimmering, glittering +sea—rolling quietly in with slow, heavy swell, and dashing with a dull +boom against the lighthouse rocks, bearing far off on its bosom a chance +vessel southward bound, and floating one by one the little craft that +had been beached in the anchorage, till they strained at their cables, +and bobbed gaily on the rising water. Only one or two of the girls +perhaps realized the intense beauty and poetry of the scene; most were +busy noting the natural features, and calculating possible distances, +marking here a farm or there a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[56]</a></span> hill crest, and trying to reproduce in +some creditable fashion the eccentric windings of the river.</p> + +<p>"That little crag below us just blocks the view of the road," said +Deirdre. "I can't get the bend in at all. Do you mind, Miss Harding, if +some of us go to the bottom of the hill and trace it out?"</p> + +<p>"Certainly, if you like," replied the mistress. "I'm tired, so I shall +wait for you here. It won't take you longer than ten minutes."</p> + +<p>"Oh, dear, no! We'll race down. I say, who'll come?"</p> + +<p>Dulcie, Betty, Annie, Barbara, and Gerda were among the energetically +disposed, but Evie, Romola, and Elyned preferred to wait with Miss +Harding.</p> + +<p>"We'll copy yours when you come back," they announced shamelessly.</p> + +<p>"Oh, we'll see about that! Ta-ta!" cried the others, as they started at +a fair pace down the hill.</p> + +<p>The road was certainly the most winding of any they had attempted to +trace that afternoon. It twisted like a cork-screw between high banks, +then hiding beneath a steep crag plunged suddenly through a small fir +wood, and crossed the river by a stone bridge. The girls had descended +at a jog trot, trying to take their bearings as they went. Owing to the +great height of the banks it was impossible to see what was below, +therefore it was only when they had passed the wood that they noticed +for the first time an old grey house on the farther side of the bridge. +It was built so close to the stream that its long veranda actually +overhung the water, which<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[57]</a></span> swept swirling against the lower wall of the +building. Many years must have passed since it last held a tenant, for +creepers stretched long tendrils over the broken windows, and grass grew +green in the gutters. The dilapidated gate, the weed-grown garden, the +weather-worn, paintless woodwork, the damp-stained walls, the damaged +roof, all gave it an air of almost indescribable melancholy, so utterly +abandoned, deserted, and entirely neglected did it appear.</p> + +<p>"Hallo! Why, this must be 'Forster's Folly'!" exclaimed Barbara. "I'd no +idea we were so close to it. We couldn't see even the chimneys from the +windmill."</p> + +<p>"What an extraordinary name for an even more extraordinary house!" said +Deirdre. "Who in the name of all that's weird was 'Forster'? And why is +this rat's-hall-looking place called his folly?"</p> + +<p>"He was a lawyer in the neighbourhood, I believe, and, like some +lawyers, just a little bit too sharp. It was when the railway was going +to be made. He heard it was coming this way, and he calculated it would +just have to cut across this piece of land, so he bought the field and +built this house on it in a tremendous hurry, because he thought he +could claim big compensation from the railway company; and then after +all they took the line round by Avonporth instead, five miles away, and +didn't want to buy his precious house, so he'd had all the trouble and +expense for nothing."</p> + +<p>"Served him right!" grunted the girls.</p> + +<p>"They say he was furious," continued Barbara.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[58]</a></span> "He was so disgusted that +he never even painted the woodwork or laid out the garden properly. He +tried to let it, but nobody wanted it; so he was obliged to come and +live in it himself for economy's sake. He was an old bachelor, and he +and a sour old housekeeper were here for a year or two, and then he died +very suddenly, and rather mysteriously. His relations came and took away +the furniture, but they haven't been able to sell the house, it's in +such a queer, out-of-the-way place. Then everybody in the neighbourhood +said it was haunted, and not a soul would go near it for love or money."</p> + +<p>"It looks haunted," said Dulcie with a shiver. "Just the kind of +lonely-moated-grange place where you'd expect to see a 'woman in white' +at the window."</p> + +<p>"Never saw anything so spooky in my life before," agreed Deirdre.</p> + +<p>"Did you say it used to belong to Mr. Forster, the lawyer?" asked Gerda. +"The one who had business at St. Gonstan?"</p> + +<p>"I don't know where he had business, but it was certainly Mr. Forster, +the lawyer. I don't suppose there'd be more than one."</p> + +<p>"When did he die?"</p> + +<p>"About five years ago, I fancy. Why do you want to know?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, nothing! It doesn't matter in the least," returned Gerda, shrinking +into her shell again.</p> + +<p>"It's the weirdest, queerest place I've ever seen," said Deirdre. "Do +let's go a little nearer. Ugh!<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[59]</a></span> What would you take to spend a night +here alone?"</p> + +<p>"Nothing in the wide world you could offer me," protested Betty.</p> + +<p>"I'd go stark, staring mad!" affirmed Annie.</p> + +<p>"Hallo!" squealed Dulcie suddenly. "What's become of Gerda? She's +sneaked off!"</p> + +<p>"Why, there she is, peeping through one of the broken windows!"</p> + +<p>"Oh, I say! I must have a squint too, to see if there's really a ghost!" +fluttered Annie.</p> + +<p>"You goose! You wouldn't see ghosts by daylight!"</p> + +<p>"Well, I don't care anyhow. I'm going to peep. Cuckoo, Gerda! What can +you see inside?"</p> + +<p>When Annie Pridwell led the way, it followed of necessity that the +others went after her, so they scurried to catch her up, and all ran in +a body over the bridge and into the nettle-grown garden. Gerda was still +perched on the window-sill of one of the lower rooms, and she turned to +her schoolfellows with a strange light in her eyes and a look of +unwonted excitement on her face.</p> + +<p>"I put my hand through the broken pane and pulled back the catch," she +volunteered. "We've only to push the window up and we could go inside."</p> + +<p>"Oh! Dare we?"</p> + +<p>"Suppose the ghost caught us?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, I say! Do let us go!"</p> + +<p>"It would be such gorgeous sport!"</p> + +<p>"I'm game, if you all are."</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[60]</a></span> +As usual it was Annie Pridwell who led the adventure. Pushing up the +window, she climbed over the sill and dropped inside, then turning round +offered a hand to Gerda, who sprang eagerly after her. It was imperative +for Deirdre, Dulcie, Betty, and Barbara to follow; they were not going +to be outdone in courage, and they felt that at any rate there was +safety in numbers. There was nothing very terrible about the +dining-room, in which they found themselves, it only looked miserable +and forlorn, with the damp paper hanging in strips from the walls, and +heaps of straw left by the remover's men strewn about the floor.</p> + +<p>"We'll go and explore the rest of the house," said Annie, with a +half-nervous chuckle. "Come along, anybody who's game!"</p> + +<p>Nobody wished to remain behind alone, so they went all together, holding +each other's arms, squealing, or gasping, or giggling, as occasion +prompted. They peeped into the empty drawing-room and the silent +kitchen, where the grate was red with rust; hurried past a dark hall +cupboard, and found themselves at the foot of the staircase.</p> + +<p>"Oh, I daren't go up; I simply daren't!" bleated Barbara piteously.</p> + +<p>"Suppose the ghost lives up there?" suggested Betty.</p> + +<p>"My good girl, no self-respecting spook likes to make an exhibition of +itself," returned Annie. "The sight of six of us would scare it away. I +don't mean to say I'd go alone, but now we're all here it's different."</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[61]</a></span> +"We've been more than Miss Harding's ten minutes," vacillated Deirdre.</p> + +<p>"Oh, bother! One doesn't often get the chance to explore. Come along, +you sillies, what are you frightened at?"</p> + +<p>So together they mounted the stairs and took a hasty survey of the upper +story. Here the remover's men had evidently done their work even more +carelessly than down below, for though the furniture had been taken +away, enough rubbish had been left to provide a rummage sale. All kinds +of old articles not worth removing were lying where they had been thrown +down on the bedroom floor—old curtains, old shoes, scraps of mouldy +carpet, the laths of venetian blinds, broken lamp shades, empty bottles, +torn magazines, cracked pottery, worn-out brushes, and decrepit straw +palliasses.</p> + +<p>"Did you ever see such an extraordinary conglomeration of queer things?" +said Annie. "I wonder they didn't tidy the house up before they went. No +wonder nobody would take it! And look, girls! They've actually left a +whole bathful of old letters! Somebody has begun to tear them up, and +not finished. They ought to have burnt them. Just look at this piece! It +has a lovely crest on it."</p> + +<p>"Oh, has it? Give it to me; I'm collecting crests," cried Deirdre, +commandeering the scrap of paper. "It's a jolly one, too. I say, are +there any more? Move out, Annie, and let me see!"</p> + +<p>"Look here," remonstrated Barbara; "I don't think we ought to go +rummaging amongst old letters. It<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[62]</a></span> doesn't seem quite—quite honourable, +does it? They are not ours, Annie. I wish you'd stop! No, Gerda, don't +look at them, please! Oh, I say, I wish you'd all come away! Let's go. +Miss Harding will think we're drowned in the river, or something; and at +any rate she'll scold us no end for being so long. Do you know the +time?"</p> + +<p>There was certainly force in Barbara's remarks. Their ten minutes' leave +had exceeded half an hour, and Miss Harding would undoubtedly require a +substantial reason for their delay.</p> + +<p>"Oh, goody! It's four o'clock!" chirruped Betty. "I'd no idea it was so +late! We don't want to get into a row with Miss Birks. I believe I hear +Romola shouting in the road. They've come to look for us!"</p> + +<p>"We'd best scoot, then," said Annie, and flinging back the letters into +the bath, she turned with the rest and clattered downstairs.</p> + +<p>Miss Harding, grave, annoyed, and justly indignant, was waiting for them +on the bridge. She received them with the scolding they merited.</p> + +<p>"Where have you been, you naughty, naughty girls? You're not to be +trusted a minute out of my sight! I gave you permission to go straight +to the bottom of the hill and back, and here you've been away more than +half an hour! What were you doing in that garden? You had no right +there! Come along this instant and walk before me, two and two. Miss +Birks will have to hear about this. A nice report to take back of your +afternoon's work at map drawing!"</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[63]</a></span> +Map drawing! They had forgotten all about the maps. The girls looked at +one another, conscience-stricken; and Deirdre, with an awful pang, +realized that she had left her note-book on the mantelpiece of the +dining-room. She had been disposed to titter before, but she felt now +that the affair was no joking matter.</p> + +<p>"Miss Harding mustn't know we've been inside the house," she whispered +to Gerda, with whom in the hurry of the moment she had paired off.</p> + +<p>"No one's likely to tell her, and she couldn't see us come out of the +window from where she was standing," returned Gerda.</p> + +<p>"We shall get into trouble enough as it is. I didn't think Miss Harding +would have cut up so rough about it. I say, just think of leaving those +old letters all lying about! I got one—at least it's a scrap of +one—with a lovely crest, a boar's head and a lot of stars—all in +gold."</p> + +<p>"What!" gasped Gerda. "Did you say you found that on a letter?"</p> + +<p>"Well, it's a piece of a letter, anyway."</p> + +<p>"Oh, do let me see it!"</p> + +<p>"Is Miss Harding looking? Well, here it is. Be careful! She's got her +eye on us! Oh, give it me back, quick!"</p> + +<p>Gerda had turned the scrap of paper over and was glancing at the writing +on the other side. She reddened with annoyance as Deirdre snatched back +her treasure.</p> + +<p>"Let me see it again!" she pleaded.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[64]</a></span> +"No, no; it's safe in my pocket! Better not run any risks."</p> + +<p>"You might give it to me. I'm collecting crests."</p> + +<p>"A likely idea! Do you think, if I wanted to part with it, I'd present +it to you? No, I mean to keep it myself, thanks."</p> + +<p>"I'd buy it, if you like."</p> + +<p>"I don't sell my things."</p> + +<p>"Not if I offered something nice?"</p> + +<p>"Not for anything you'd offer me," returned Deirdre, whose temper was in +a touchy condition, and her spirit of opposition thoroughly aroused. "We +don't haggle over our things at the Dower House, whatever you may do in +Germany."</p> + +<p>Gerda said no more at the time, but at night in their bedroom she +returned once more to the subject.</p> + +<p>"You won't get it if you bother me to the end of the term," declared +Deirdre, locking up the bone of contention in her jewel-case and putting +the key in her pocket.</p> + +<p>"What do you want it for so particularly, Gerda?" asked Dulcie sharply.</p> + +<p>"Oh, nothing! Only a fancy of my own," replied Gerda, reddening with one +of her sudden fits of blushing, as she turned to the dressing-table and +began to comb her flaxen hair.</p> + + + +<hr /> + + +<h2><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[65]</a></span> +<a name="vi" id="vi"></a>CHAPTER VI<br /> +<br /> +<big>Ragtime</big></h2> + + +<p><span class="smcap">If</span> there was one thing more than another that the girls of the Dower +House considered a particular and pressing grievance it was a wet +Saturday afternoon. They were all of them outdoor enthusiasts, and to be +obliged to stop in the house instead of tramping the moors or roaming on +the sea-shore was regarded as a supreme penance. On the Saturday +following the mapping expedition there was no mistake about the rain—it +seemed to come down in a solid sheet from a murky sky, which offered +absolutely no prospect of clearing.</p> + +<p>The overflowing gutter-pipes emptied veritable rivulets into a temporary +pond on the front drive; the lawn appeared fast turning into a morass; +and even indoors the atmosphere was so soaked with damp that a dewy film +covered banisters, furniture, and woodwork, and the wall-paper on the +stairs distinctly changed its hue. In <span class="smcap">Vb</span> classroom the girls hung about +disconsolately. There was to have been a special fossil foray that +afternoon under the leadership of a lady from Perranwrack, who took an +interest in the school, and who had thrown out hints of a fire of +driftwood and a picnic tea among the rocks.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[66]</a></span> +"It's so particularly aggravating, because Miss Hall has to go up to +London on Monday and won't be back for weeks, so probably she won't be +able to arrange to take us again this term," grumbled Romola.</p> + +<p>"It's too—too <i>triste</i>!" murmured Deirdre in a die-away voice, +arranging a cushion behind her head with elaborate show of indolence.</p> + +<p>"Weally wetched!" echoed Dulcie lackadaisically, sinking into the +basket-chair with an even more used-up air than her chum.</p> + +<p>"Good old second best!" laughed Betty. "Whom are you both copying now? +Have you been gobbling a surreptitious penny novelette? I can generally +tell your course of reading from your poses. These present airs and +graces suggest some such title as 'Lady Rosamond's Mystery' or 'The +Earl's Secret'. Confess, now, you're imagining yourselves members of the +aristocracy."</p> + +<p>"I believe the penny novelettes are invariably written in top garrets by +people who've never even had a nodding acquaintance with dukes and +duchesses," said Barbara. "The real article's very different from the +'belted earl' of fiction. The Clara-Vere-de-Vere type is extinct now. If +you were a genuine countess, Deirdre, you'd probably be addressing +hundreds of envelopes in aid of a philanthropic society, instead of +lounging there looking like a dying duck in a thunderstorm. Don't glare! +I speak the solemn words of truth."</p> + +<p>"You make my he—head ache," protested Deirdre with half-closed eyelids, +but her complaint met with<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[67]</a></span> no sympathy. Instead, several strong and +insistent hands pulled her forcibly out of her chair and flung away the +cushion.</p> + +<p>"I tell you we're sick of 'Lady Isobel' or whoever she may be. For +goodness' sake be somebody more cheerful if you won't be yourself. Can't +you get up an Irish mood for a change? A bit of the brogue would hearten +up this clammy afternoon."</p> + +<p>"Oh, isn't it piggy and nasty!" exclaimed Annie, stretching out her arms +in the agony of an elephantine yawn. "I want my tea! I want my tea! I +want my tea! And I shan't get it for a whole long weary hour!"</p> + +<p>"Poor martyr! Here, squattez-ici on the hearth-rug and I'll make you a +triscuit."</p> + +<p>"What on earth is a triscuit?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, you're not bright or you'd guess. It's a biscuit toasted nicely +brown and eaten hot. Don't you twig? A biscuit means 'twice cooked'; +therefore if it's cooked again it must be a triscuit. That stands to +reason."</p> + +<p>"Is it to be a barmecide feast? I don't see your precious biscuits."</p> + +<p>"'"I've got 'un here," sez she, quite quiet-like,'" returned Betty, who +was a Mrs. Ewing enthusiast, and quoted Dame Datchet with relish. "Half +a pound of cream crackers, and I mean to be generous and share 'em +round. Don't you all bless me? Now the question is, how we're going to +'triscuit' them."</p> + +<p>The girls crowded round with suggestions. Toasting biscuits was +certainly more entertaining than doing nothing. Deirdre forgot for the +time that she<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[68]</a></span> was a heroine of fiction, and plumped down by the fender +with a lack of high-born dignity that would have scandalized "Lady +Isobel".</p> + +<p>"You'll smash them up if you try sticking your penknife through them," +she observed. "It'll burn your fingers too to hold them so close to the +fire. Try the tongs."</p> + +<p>"Some of them might be tilted up in the fender," volunteered Gerda, +whose rare remarks were generally to the point. "They'd be getting hot, +and we could finish them off afterwards."</p> + +<p>"Right you are! Stick them up in a row. Now if I take this one with the +tongs and hold it just over that red piece in the fire——"</p> + +<p>"Be careful!"</p> + +<p>"Remember it's fragile."</p> + +<p>"There, I knew you'd smash it! Oh, pick the other half out, quick! It's +burning!"</p> + +<p>"What a Johnnie-fingers you are! It's done for."</p> + +<p>In the end—and it was Gerda's quiet suggestion—the tongs were placed +over the fire like a gridiron and the biscuits successfully popped on +the top and turned when one side was done. Everybody appreciated them +down to the last crumb, and awarded Betty a vote of thanks for her +brilliant idea.</p> + +<p>"The worst of it is, they're finished too soon," sighed Evie, "and we've +nothing else to fill up the gap till tea-time. I want to do something +outrageous—break a window or smash an ornament, or damage the +furniture! What a nuisance conscience is! Why does the 'inward monitor' +restrain me?"</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[69]</a></span> +"Probably the wholesome dread of consequences my dear. You might cut +your hand in a wild orgy of window smashing and there'd be bills to pay +afterwards for reglazing and medical attendance."</p> + +<p>"But can't we do anything interesting?"</p> + +<p>"Let's play a trick on <span class="smcap">Va</span>," suggested Annie. "It would do them good and +shake them up. My conscience gives me full leave."</p> + +<p>"It's celebrated for its well-known elasticity!" chuckled Evie.</p> + +<p>"But what could we do?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, just rag them a little somehow. It would be rather sport."</p> + +<p>"Plans for sport in ragtime wanted! All offers carefully considered. +Now, then, bring on your suggestions."</p> + +<p>Everybody stared hopefully at everybody else, but no one rose to the +occasion.</p> + +<p>"Going—going—going—a first-rate opportunity for mirth-provoking——"</p> + +<p>"Could we get them into the passage and one of us hide behind the +curtain of the barred room and act ghost?" proposed Romola desperately.</p> + +<p>Her suggestion, however, was received with utter scorn.</p> + +<p>"Can't you think of anything more original than that?"</p> + +<p>"We're fed up with that ghost trick. Nobody even calls it funny now."</p> + +<p>"Besides, Miss Birks said she'd punish anyone who did it again. She was +awfully angry last time."</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[70]</a></span> +Duly squashed, Romola subsided, and the silence which followed resembled +that of a Quakers' meeting.</p> + +<p>"I've got it!" shouted Betty at last, clapping her hands ecstatically. +"The very thing! Oh, the supremest joke!"</p> + +<p>"Good biz! But please condescend to explain," commented Evie.</p> + +<p>"Oh, we'll try thing-um-bob—what d'you call it? Mesmerism—that's the +word I want. With dinner plates, you know."</p> + +<p>Apparently nobody knew, for all looked interested and intelligent, but +unenlightened.</p> + +<p>"Do you mean to say you've never heard of it? Oh, goody! What luck!"</p> + +<p>"Look here," interposed Annie, "you're not going to rag us as well. It's +to be for the benefit of <span class="smcap">Va</span> if there's any sell about it."</p> + +<p>"All right! They'll really be enough, and you shall act audience. Only +with fourteen of you it would have been so——"</p> + +<p>"Betty Scott, give us your word this instant that you won't play tricks +on your own Form."</p> + +<p>"I won't—I won't—honest, I won't!"</p> + +<p>"And tell us what you're going to do."</p> + +<p>"No, that would spoil it all. You must wait and see. Barbara, go to the +kitchen door and cajole Cook into lending us seven dinner plates. Say +you'll pledge your honour not to break them. And purloin a candle from +the lamp cupboard. Be as quick as you can! Time wanes."</p> + +<p>Barbara executed her errand with speed and success.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[71]</a></span> She soon returned +with the plates and set them down on the table. Betty lighted the +candle, laid one plate aside, then held each of the others in turn over +the flame till the bottoms inside the rims were well coloured with +smoke. The girls watched her curiously.</p> + +<p>"Now, I'm ready!" she announced, "but I want a messenger. Elyned, you go +and tap at <span class="smcap">Va</span> door and say we shall be very pleased if they care to come +and try a most interesting experiment. Mind you put it politely, and for +your life don't snigger."</p> + +<p>Now <span class="smcap">Va</span> had been spending an even duller and more wearisome afternoon +than <span class="smcap">Vb</span>, for they had not had the diversion of toasting biscuits. They +were yawning in the last stages of boredom when Elyned arrived and +delivered her message. Usually they considered themselves far too select +to have much to do with the lower division, but to-day anything to break +the monotony was welcome. They accepted the invitation with alacrity, +and came trooping in to the rival classroom with pleased anticipation in +their faces.</p> + +<p>"It's a most curious experiment," began Betty. "I learnt it from a +cousin who's been out East. He saw it practised by some Chinese priests +at a josshouse. I believe it's one of the first steps of initiation in +Esoteric Buddhism. My cousin's not exactly a Theosophist, but he's +interested in comparative theologies, and he went about with a lama, and +found out ever so many of their secrets. He wrote down the formulary of +this for me."</p> + +<p>"What's it about?" asked the elder girls, looking considerably +impressed.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[72]</a></span> +"It's a species of mesmerism—or animal magnetism, as some people prefer +to call it. You make certain passes, and repeat certain words after me, +and then you all get into the hypnotic state. Of course it depends how +psychic you are, but anybody with even undeveloped mediumistic powers +will sometimes give replies to questions they couldn't possibly answer +in the normal state."</p> + +<p>"I suppose it won't hurt us?" asked Agnes Gillard rather gravely.</p> + +<p>"Oh, not at all! It's wonderful sometimes to find how people who've +never even suspected they possessed psychic gifts bring out absolutely +unaccountable pieces of information. It really would be quite uncanny, +except for the latest theory that it's merely utilizing a natural power +once cultivated by man, but long forgotten except by a few priests in +the Tibetan monasteries. The Theosophical Society, of course, is trying +to revive it."</p> + +<p>"I'm afraid I don't know anything about Theosophy," murmured Hilda +Marriott.</p> + +<p>"It's akin to the Eleusinian mysteries and the cult of Isis," continued +Betty unblushingly. "You have to understand 'Karma' (that's +reincarnation) and 'Yoga' (that's flitting about in your astral body +while you're asleep), and—and—" But here both memory and invention +failed her, so she hurriedly changed her point. "Oh! it would take me +years to explain, and you couldn't understand unless you'd been +initiated. Let's get to the experiment. Will you all stand in a row?"</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[73]</a></span> +"Aren't any of you going to try?" asked Irene Jordan, addressing the +members of <span class="smcap">Vb</span>, who, solemn as judges, stood slightly in the background.</p> + +<p>"We can only do it with seven, the mystic number—and there are eight of +them, and they can't agree who's to be left out," said Betty hurriedly. +"It's always done with six neophytes and one initiated. If you're ready, +we'd best begin, and not waste any more time."</p> + +<p>She arranged her neophytes in a line, and gave to each a plate, telling +her to hold it firmly in the left hand. Then, taking her stand facing +them, she raised her own plate to the level of her chest.</p> + +<p>"Now you must do exactly as I do!" she commanded. "All fix your eyes on +me, and don't take them off me for a single instant. The concentration +of the seven visual currents is of vital importance. Put the middle +finger of the right hand beneath the plate exactly in the centre, then +describe a circle with it on the under side of the plate. Be sure the +circle follows the same course as the sun, or we may break the mesmeric +current. Watch what I'm doing. Now describe a circle on your face in the +same manner, beginning with the left cheek. Copy me carefully. And now +we must repeat the cabalistic formulary (the oldest in the +world—Solomon got it from El Zenobi, the chief of the Genii): 'Om mani +padme hum'. Let us say it slowly all together seven times, performing +the orthodox circles at each."</p> + +<p>The neophytes played their parts admirably. They never removed their +gaze from the face of their instructress;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[74]</a></span> they copied her every +movement, and repeated the mystic words to the very best of their +ability. "Om mani padme hum" rolled from their lips seven times, and +seemed to suggest the dreamy atmosphere of the occult.</p> + +<p>"The mesmeric current is forming! I can feel it working!" declared +Betty. "It only requires further visualization for the hypnotic state to +follow. To complete the magnetic circle, will you all kindly turn and +face each other?"</p> + +<p>Still holding the plates, the obedient six swung round, stared at one +another, then gasped and shrieked. And well they might, for, one and +all, their countenances were besmirched with black in a series of +concentric rings which caused them to resemble Zulu chiefs or +American-Indian warriors on the warpath.</p> + +<p>"Oh! oh! oh!" came from the members of <span class="smcap">Vb</span>, who, having been stationed +behind the neophytes, had been in equal ignorance of the trick that was +being played on them. Then everybody exploded.</p> + +<p>"Oh, you look so funny!"</p> + +<p>"Is the magnetic current working?"</p> + +<p>"Is it the cult of Isis?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, my heart! Oh! ho! ho!" gurgled Betty. "You didn't twig your plates +were smoked and mine wasn't! Oh, I've done you! Done you brown, +literally!"</p> + +<p>"You p-p-p-pig!" spluttered the victims.</p> + +<p>"Don't break the plates! Here, put them on the table! Oh, don't look so +indignant, or you'll kill me! I've got a stitch in my side with +laughing. Here,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[75]</a></span> don't stalk off like offended zebras! I'll apologize! +I'll go down on my bended knees! It was a brutal rag—yes—yes—I own up +frankly! I'll grovel! <i>Peccavi! Peccavi! Miserere mei!</i>"</p> + +<p>"I've got some chocolates here," murmured Annie Pridwell. "I was keeping +them for Sunday, but do have them," handing the packet round among the +outraged upper division.</p> + +<p>The occasion certainly seemed to warrant some form of compensation. Evie +hastily followed Annie's example, and sacrificed a private store of +toffee on the altar of hospitality. Blissfully sucking, the six seniors +allowed themselves to be mollified. As connoisseurs of jokes, they were +ready to acknowledge the superior excellence of the trick played upon +them; moreover, they found one another's appearance highly diverting.</p> + +<p>"Betty Scott, you'll be the death of me some day," remarked Rhoda +Wilkins. "Oh, Agnes! If you could only see yourself in the glass!"</p> + +<p>"It's the pot calling the kettle! Look at your own face!"</p> + +<p>"Do you think we could possibly work it on the Sixth?"</p> + +<p>"No, they'd smell a rat."</p> + +<p>"I want my tea," said Annie. "Oh, cock-a-doodle-doo! There's the first +bell! Hip-hip-hooray! I say, you six, if you don't want to give Miss +Birks a first-class fit, you'd best be toddling to the bath-room, and +applying the soap-and-water treatment to your interesting +countenances."</p> + + + +<hr /> + + +<h2><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[76]</a></span> +<a name="vii" id="vii"></a>CHAPTER VII<br /> +<br /> +<big>An Invitation</big></h2> + +<div class="block26"> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="io">"Zickery, dickery, lumby tum,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Tip me the wink, and out I'll come,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Leave my pagoda so glum, glum, glum,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To drink green tea with my own Yum-Yum!"<br /></span> +</div></div></div> + +<p class="noi"><span class="smcap">So</span> chanted Evie Bennett on the following Monday, bursting into <span class="smcap">Vb</span> room +with a face betokening news, and a manner suggestive of Bedlam.</p> + +<p>"What's the matter, you lunatic? Look here, if you go on like a dancing +dervish we shall have to provide you with a padded room! Mind the +inkpot! Oh, I say, you'll have the black-board over! Hasn't anybody got +a strait-waistcoat? Evie's gone sheer, stark, raving mad!"</p> + +<p>"I've got news, my hearty! News! news! news!</p> + +<div class="block22"> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="io">'What will you take for my news?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I know it will make you enthuse!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">There isn't a girl who'll refuse,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or offer to make an excuse.'<br /></span> +</div></div></div> + +<p class="noi">Ahem! A poor thing, but mine own. I'm waxing so poetical, I think I must +be inspired."</p> + +<p>"Or possessed! Sit down, you mad creature, and talk sense. What's your +precious news?"</p> + +<p>"Mrs. Trevellyan requests the pleasure of the company<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[77]</a></span> of the young +ladies of Miss Birks's seminary to drink tea with her on the occasion of +the natal day of her nephew, Master Ronald Trevellyan," announced Evie, +changing suddenly to a ceremonious eighteenth-century manner, and +dropping a stiff curtsy.</p> + +<p>"Ronnie's birthday!"</p> + +<p>"Oh, what sport!"</p> + +<p>"It's on Wednesday."</p> + +<p>"Has she asked only us?"</p> + +<p>"No, the whole school is to go, mistresses and all," returned Evie. +"Mrs. Trevellyan wants to introduce Ronnie's new governess to us."</p> + +<p>"There are sure to be games, and perhaps a competition with prizes," +rejoiced Annie Pridwell; "and we always have delicious teas at the +Castle. Gerda Thorwaldson, why don't you look pleased? You take it as +quietly as if it were a parochial meeting. What a mum mouse you are!"</p> + +<p>"Is it anything to get so excited over?" replied Gerda calmly.</p> + +<p>"Of course it is! The Castle's the Castle, and Mrs. Trevellyan is—well, +just Mrs. Trevellyan. There are the loveliest things there—foreign +curiosities, and old pictures, and illuminated books, and we're allowed +to look at them; and there's special preserved ginger from China, and +boxes of real Eastern Turkish Delight. Oh, it's a fairy palace! You may +thank your stars you're going!"</p> + +<p>In spite of Annie's transports, Gerda did not look particularly +delighted. She only smiled in a rather sickly fashion, and said nothing. +The others, however,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[78]</a></span> were much too occupied with their own pleasurable +expectations to take any notice of her lack of enthusiasm. They had +accepted her quiet ways as part of herself, and had set her down as a +not very interesting addition to the Form, and thought her opinions—if +indeed she possessed any—were of scant importance.</p> + +<p>Gerda had made very little headway with her companions; her intense +reserve seemed to set a barrier between them and herself, and after one +or two efforts at being friendly the girls had given her up, and took no +more trouble over her. "Gerda the Silent," "The Recluse," "The Oyster," +were some of the names by which she was known, and she certainly +justified every item of her reputation for reticence. If she did not +talk much, she was, however, a good listener. Nothing in the merry chat +of the schoolroom escaped her, and anybody who had been curious enough +to watch her carefully might have noticed that often, when seemingly +buried in a book, her eyes did not move over the page, and all her +attention was given to the conversation that was going on in her +vicinity.</p> + +<p>Having received an invitation to Ronnie's birthday party, of course the +burning subject of discussion was what to give him as a present. Miss +Birks vetoed the idea of each girl making a separate offering, and +suggested a general subscription list to buy one handsome article.</p> + +<p>"It will be quite sufficient, and I am sure Mrs. Trevellyan would far +rather have it so," she decreed.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[79]</a></span> +"It's too bad, for I'd made up my mind to give him a box of soldiers," +complained Annie, in private.</p> + +<p>"And I'd a book in my eye," said Elyned.</p> + +<p>"Perhaps Miss Birks is right," said Romola, "because, you see, some of +us might give nicer presents than the others, and perhaps there'd be a +little jealousy; and at any rate, comparisons are odious."</p> + +<p>"Miss Birks has limited the subscriptions to a shilling each," commented +Deirdre.</p> + +<p>"Then let's take our list now. I'll write down our names, and you can +tell me the amounts."</p> + +<p>For such an object everyone was disposed to be liberal—everyone, that +is to say, except Gerda Thorwaldson. When she was applied to, she flatly +refused.</p> + +<p>"Don't you want to join in the present to Ronnie?" gasped Romola, in +utter amazement.</p> + +<p>"Why should I?"</p> + +<p>"Why, because we're going to tea at the Castle; and Ronnie is Ronnie, +and Mrs. Trevellyan will be pleased too!"</p> + +<p>"I don't know Mrs. Trevellyan."</p> + +<p>"Well, you soon will. You'll be introduced to her on Wednesday. She +always says something nice to new girls—asks them where their homes +are, and if they've brothers and sisters, and how old they are—and if +she finds out she knows their parents or their friends she's so +interested. And she has such a good memory for faces! She actually +recognized Irene Jordan, although she'd never seen her in her life +before, because Irene is so like an aunt, a Miss Jordan who is a friend +of Mrs. Trevellyan's."</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[80]</a></span> +Gerda had turned a dull crimson at these remarks. She kept her eyes +fixed on the floor, and made no reply. What her inward thoughts might +be, no one could fathom.</p> + +<p>"Isn't your name to go down at all, then, on the list?" asked Romola, +with considerable impatience.</p> + +<p>"No, thanks!" replied Gerda briefly, turning awkwardly away.</p> + +<p>Wednesday arrived, and perhaps even Ronnie hardly welcomed his birthday +more than did his friends at the Dower House. His present—a toy +circus—had arrived, and had been on exhibition in Miss Birks's study, +and everybody had agreed that it was the very thing to please him. At +three o'clock the girls went to change their school dresses for more +festive attire, and were more than ordinarily particular in their choice +of preparations.</p> + +<p>"How slow you are, Gerda Thorwaldson!" said Deirdre, whose own +immaculate toilet was complete. "You haven't put on your dress yet. Why +don't you hurry?"</p> + +<p>"You needn't think we'll wait for you," added Dulcie.</p> + +<p>Instead of replying, Gerda calmly donned her dressing-gown, and, +volunteering no explanation, went out of the room and shut the door +behind her.</p> + +<p>She walked downstairs to Miss Birks's study, and, tapping at the door, +reported herself.</p> + +<p>"May I, please, stay at home this afternoon?" she begged. "I'm afraid I +don't feel up to going out to tea to-day."</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[81]</a></span> +"Not go to the Castle? My dear child, I hope you're not ill? Certainly +stay at home, and lie down on your bed if your head aches. Nettie shall +bring your tea upstairs. I'm sorry you'll miss so great a treat as a +visit to Mrs. Trevellyan's."</p> + +<p>Gerda made no comment; but as she was habitually sparing of speech, her +silence did not strike Miss Birks as anything unusual. It was time to +start, and the Principal had her nineteen other pupils to think about, +so she dismissed the pseudo-invalid with a final injunction to rest.</p> + +<p>Gerda did not return to her bedroom till she was perfectly sure that +Deirdre and Dulcie had left it. She had no wish to run the gauntlet of +their inevitable criticisms, or to be questioned too closely on the +nature of her sudden indisposition. She loitered about the upper landing +until from the end window she saw the whole school—girls, mistresses, +and Principal—file down the drive and out through the gate in the +direction of the Castle. Then, going to her dormitory, she rang the +bell, and lay down on her bed.</p> + +<p>"Would you mind bringing my cup of tea now, Nettie, please?" she asked, +when the housemaid appeared. "And then I should like to be left +perfectly quiet until the others come back."</p> + +<p>"Of course I'll bring it, miss," said the sympathetic Nettie. "Nothing +like a cup of tea for a headache. The kettle's on the boil, so you can +have it at once. I won't be more than a minute or two fetching it"</p> + +<p>Nettie was as prompt as her word. She returned<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[82]</a></span> almost directly with the +tea, and arranged it temptingly on a little table by the bedside.</p> + +<p>"Shut your eyes and try and go to sleep when you've drunk it," she +recommended. "You'll perhaps wake up quite fresh. It is a pity you +couldn't go with the other young ladies to the Castle. They were all so +full of it—and Master Ronnie's birthday, too! I know how disappointed +you must feel."</p> + +<p>Gerda finished her tea far more rapidly than is usual for invalids with +sick-headaches; then, instead of taking Nettie's advice and closing her +eyes, she rose and put on her school dress, her coat, and her cap. She +opened the door and listened—not a sound was to be heard. The servants +must surely be having their own tea in the kitchen, and no one else was +in the house. With extreme caution she crept along the passage and down +the stairs. The side door was open, and as quietly as a shadow she +passed out and dodged round the corner of the house. A few minutes later +she was running, running at the very top of her speed across the warren +in the direction of a certain rocky creek not far from St. Perran's +well.</p> + +<hr class="hr3" /> + +<p>When the girls returned at half-past six, full of their afternoon's +experiences, they found Gerda lying on her bed, with the blind drawn +down. There was an almost feverish colour in her cheeks.</p> + +<p>"We'd a ripping time!" Dulcie assured her. "A splendid 'Natural Objects' +competition. I nearly got a prize, but I put 'snake-skin' down for one, +and it was really a piece of the skin of a finnan-haddock.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[83]</a></span> Emily +Northwood won the first, with sixteen objects right out of twenty, and +Hilda Marriott was second with fourteen. I might have known that +specimen was fish scales.</p> + +<p>"Ronnie was delighted with his circus," added Dulcie. "He gave us each a +kiss all round. And Mrs. Trevellyan was so nice! She was sorry you +couldn't come, and hoped she'd see you some other time. By the by, how's +your headache?"</p> + +<p>"Rather better. I think I'll get up now," murmured Gerda. "I haven't +touched my Latin to-day."</p> + +<p>"Plucky of you to come and do prep. If I had a headache, wouldn't I just +make it an excuse to knock off Virgil!"</p> + +<p>It was getting near to the end of February. The days were lengthening +visibly, and the sun, which only a month ago had appeared every morning +like a red ball over the hill behind the Castle, now rose, bright and +shining, a long way to eastward. In spite of occasional spring storms, +the weather was on the whole mild, and every day fresh flowers were +pushing up in the school garden. The warren, attractive even in winter, +was doubly delightful now primrose tufts were venturing to show among +the last year's bracken, and the gorse was beginning to gleam golden in +sheltered stretches. The girls were out every available moment of their +spare time, rambling over the headland or haunting the sea-shore. For +most of them the latter provided the greater entertainment.</p> + +<p>They had discovered a new occupation, that of salvaging<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[84]</a></span> the driftwood, +and found it so enthralling that for the present it overtopped all other +amusements. The high spring-tides and occasional storms washed up +quantities of pieces of timber, and to rescue these from the edge of the +waves, and carry them into a place of safety, became as keen a sport as +fishing. Quite a little wood-stack was accumulating under the cliff, and +the girls had designs of carrying it piece by piece to a point on the +top of the headland, and there building a beacon of noble proportions to +be fired on Empire Day amid suitable rejoicings.</p> + +<p>It was exciting work to skip about at the water's edge, grasping at bits +of old spars or shattered boards. The sea seemed to enjoy the fun, and +would bob them near and snatch them away in tantalizing fashion, +sometimes adding a wetting as a point to the joke. To secure a fine +piece of wood without getting into the water was the triumph of skill, +attended with considerable risk, not to life or limb, but to length of +recreation, for Miss Birks had laid down an inviolable rule that anybody +who got her feet wet at this occupation must immediately return to +school, change shoes and stockings, and desist from further attempts on +that day. One or two of the girls were lucky enough to possess +india-rubber wading boots, with which they could venture to defy Father +Ocean and rob him of some of the choicest of his spoils, but they were +the highly-favoured few; the rank and file had to content themselves +with the ordinary method of swift snatching with the aid of a hockey +stick.</p> + +<p>Two days after Ronnie's birthday party a strong<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[85]</a></span> wind and squall during +the night had furnished material for more than usually good sport, and +the whole school betook itself to the beach to try to reap a harvest. +Laughing, joking, squealing, the girls pursued their quarry, enjoying +the fun all the more for the accidents of the moment. Evie Bennett +dropped her hockey stick, and nearly lost it altogether. Romola Harvey +slipped and fell flat into a pool of water; and many other minor mishaps +occurred to keep up the excitement until the catch of the year was +secured, a large piece of timber which it took the united efforts of all +arms to drag successfully up the beach. Deirdre and Dulcie at last, +grown reckless ventured a risky experiment on their own account, with +the result that a wave caught them neatly, and gave them the full +benefit of sea-water treatment.</p> + +<p>"Oh, you're done for. Go back at once!" commanded Jessie Macpherson, the +head girl, whose office it was to see that the rule about changing shoes +was duly observed.</p> + +<p>"Sea-water doesn't hurt," protested the chums.</p> + +<p>"Your feet are wet through, so back you trot this instant. Do you want +me to report you?"</p> + +<p>Very loath to leave the shore, Deirdre and Dulcie were nevertheless +bound to obey, so they toiled regretfully up the steep path from the +cove, casting a lingering eye on their companions, who were still hard +at work.</p> + +<p>"Where's Gerda?" asked Dulcie. "She's not down there, and now I think of +it, I haven't seen her for the last half-hour or more. Did she get +wet?"</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[86]</a></span> +"I really didn't notice. I suppose she must have, and been sent back. We +shall probably find her in the garden."</p> + +<p>The two stepped briskly over the warren, their shoes drying on their +feet with a rapidity which made them disparage Miss Birks's excellent +rule about changing.</p> + +<p>"It's just her fuss—we should have taken no harm," said Deirdre. "I +say, surely that's Ronnie's laugh. I'd know it anywhere. Where is the +child?"</p> + +<p>The girls were passing close to the high wall which separated the Castle +grounds from the warren, and as it seemed more than probable that Ronnie +was inside, playing in the garden, they managed with considerable +effort, and the aid of some strong ivy, to climb to the top and peep +over. Here a most unexpected sight met their gaze.</p> + +<p>On the grass, under a tamarisk bush, sat Gerda with Ronnie on her knee. +She had evidently made friends with the little fellow to a great extent, +for he seemed very much at home with her, and the two were laughing and +joking together in the most intimate fashion. It was such an absolutely +new aspect of Gerda that Deirdre and Dulcie were dumb with amazement. +When, at the Dower House, had she laughed so gaily, or talked in so +animated and sprightly a fashion? No shy, reserved, taciturn recluse +this; her eyes were shining, and her whole face was full of a bright +expression, such as the others had never seen there before.</p> + +<p>"Hallo, Gerda! What are you doing here?" called Deirdre, finding speech +at last.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[87]</a></span> +Gerda dropped Ronnie, and sprang to her feet with a sharp exclamation. +No one could have looked more utterly and egregiously caught. She stood +staring at the two faces on the top of the wall, and offered no +explanation whatever. Ronnie, however, waved his hand merrily.</p> + +<p>"We've been playing Zoo," he volunteered. "Gerda's been a lion, and +gobbled me up, and she's been an elephant and given me rides, and we +were both polar bears, and growled at each other. Listen how I can growl +now—Ur-ur-ugh! Oh, and look what she's given me for my birthday! It +comes from Germany," producing from his pocket a little compass. "Now if +ever I get lost, I can always find my way home. See, I can show you +which is north, and south, and east, and west."</p> + +<p>"You'd better be going back, Gerda," remarked Dulcie grimly. "You know +we're not allowed in the Castle grounds without a special invitation."</p> + +<p>"I'll come through the side gate," replied Gerda, turning from Ronnie +without even a good-bye. Deirdre and Dulcie dropped from the wall, and +met their room-mate at the identical moment when she passed through the +turnstile.</p> + +<p>"Well, of all mean people you're the meanest!" observed Deirdre. "I call +it sneaky to take such an advantage, and go to play with Ronnie by +yourself. We'd do it if it were allowed, but it isn't."</p> + +<p>"I wonder his governess wasn't with him," said Dulcie. "He's generally +so very much looked after."</p> + +<p>"And as for going inside the Castle garden, it was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[88]</a></span> most fearful cheek," +continued Deirdre. "We, who know Mrs. Trevellyan quite well, never think +of doing such a thing."</p> + +<p>"What I call meanest," put in Dulcie, "was to try and curry favour with +Ronnie by giving him a birthday present on your own account. Miss Birks +said there were to be no separate presents: we were all to join, so that +there'd be no jealousy—and you wouldn't subscribe. Oh, you are a nasty, +hole-and-corner, underhand sneak! Have you anything to say for +yourself?"</p> + +<p>But Gerda stumped resolutely along with her hands in her coat pockets, +and answered never a word.</p> + + + +<hr /> + + +<h2><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[89]</a></span> +<a name="viii" id="viii"></a>CHAPTER VIII<br /> +<br /> +<big>A Meeting on the Shore</big></h2> + + +<p>"<span class="smcap">D'you</span> know, Dulcie," remarked Deirdre, when the chums were alone, "the +more I think about it, the more convinced I am there's something queer +about Gerda Thorwaldson."</p> + +<p>"So am I," returned Dulcie emphatically. "Something very queer indeed. I +never liked her from the first: she always gives me the impression that +she's listening and taking mental notes."</p> + +<p>"For what?"</p> + +<p>"Ah, that's the question! What?"</p> + +<p>"I certainly think we ought to be on our guard, and to watch her +carefully, only we mustn't on any account let her know what we're +doing."</p> + +<p>"Rather not!"</p> + +<p>"She's no business to sneak away by herself when we're all salvaging on +the beach. She knows perfectly well it's against rules."</p> + +<p>"She doesn't seem to mind rules."</p> + +<p>"Well, look here, we must keep an eye on her, and next time we see her +decamping we'll just follow her, and watch where she goes. I don't like +people with underhand ways."</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[90]</a></span> +"It doesn't suit us at the Dower House," agreed Dulcie.</p> + +<p>Though the chums kept Gerda's movements under strict surveillance for +several days, they could discover nothing at which to take exception. +She did not attempt to absent herself, or in any way break rules; she +asked no questions, and exhibited no curiosity on any subject. If +possible, she was even more silent and self-contained than before. +Rather baffled, the girls nevertheless did not relax their vigilance.</p> + +<p>"She's foxing. We must wait and see what happens. Don't on any account +let her humbug us," said Deirdre.</p> + +<p>One afternoon a strong west wind blowing straight from the sea seemed to +promise such a good haul at their engrossing occupation that the girls, +who for a day or two had forsaken salvaging in favour of hockey +practice, turned their steps one and all towards the beach. As they +walked along across the warren they had a tolerably clear and +uninterrupted view of the whole of the little peninsula, and were +themselves very conspicuous objects to anyone who chanced to be walking +on the shore. Deirdre's eyes were wandering from sea to sky, from +distant rock to near primrose clumps, when, happening to glance in the +direction of the cliff that overtopped St. Perran's well, she was +perfectly sure that she saw a white handkerchief waved in the breeze. It +was gone in an instant, and there was no sign of a human figure to +account for the circumstance, but Deirdre was certain it was no +illusion. She called Dulcie's attention to it, but<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[91]</a></span> Dulcie had been +looking the other way, and had seen nothing.</p> + +<p>"Probably it was only a piece of paper blowing down the cliff," she +objected. "How could it be anyone waving? Nobody's allowed on the +warren."</p> + +<p>"It might be Ronnie and Miss Herbert."</p> + +<p>"Oh no! We could see them quite plainly if it were."</p> + +<p>"Gerda, did you notice something white?"</p> + +<p>"I don't see anything there," replied Gerda, surveying the distance with +her usual inscrutable expression. "I think you must have been mistaken."</p> + +<p>It seemed quite a small and trivial matter, and though Deirdre, for the +mere sake of argument, stuck to her point all the way down to the beach, +the others only laughed at her.</p> + +<p>"You'll be saying it's a ghost next," declared Betty. "I think you're +blessed with a very powerful imagination, Deirdre."</p> + +<p>Arrived on the shore, the girls found their expectations fully +justified. Several most interesting-looking pieces of driftwood were +bobbing about just at the edge of the waves, and with a little clever +management could probably be secured, and would make a valuable addition +to the stack which was to furnish their beacon fire. Jessie Macpherson, +who possessed a pair of wading boots, was soon in command, directing the +others how to act so that none of the flotsam should be lost, and +marshalling her band of eager volunteers with the skill of a +coastguardsman.</p> + +<p>"Wait for the next big wave! Have your hockey<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[92]</a></span> sticks ready! Doris and +Francie and I will wade in and try to catch it, then, when the wave's +going back, you must all make a rush and try to hold it. Not this wave! +Wait for that huge one that's coming. Are you ready? Now! Now!"</p> + +<p>The owners of the wading boots did their duty nobly. They caught at the +floating piece of timber and held on to it grimly, while a line of girls +followed the retreating wave, and, making a dash, seized the trophy, and +rolled it into safety.</p> + +<p>"Oh, it's a gorgeous big one—the largest we have!"</p> + +<p>"That was neatly done!"</p> + +<p>"We've robbed old Father Neptune this time!"</p> + +<p>"It's a piece of luck!"</p> + +<p>"Of flotsam, you mean!"</p> + +<p>"Three cheers for the beacon!"</p> + +<p>"Hip, hip, hip, hooray!"</p> + +<p>"Hooray! Hooray!" echoed Dulcie, then she looked round, and suddenly +touched Deirdre on the arm.</p> + +<p>In the midst of the general excitement Gerda had vanished. Where had she +gone? That was the question which the chums at once asked each other. It +was impossible that in so short a space of time she could have scaled +the steep path from the cove on to the top of the cliff. She must surely +have run along the shore instead. To the east the great mass of crags +formed an impassable barrier, but it was just practicable to round the +headland to the west. Without a moment's delay they dashed off in that +direction. They tore in hot haste over the wet sand, scrambled anyhow +amongst the seaweed-covered rocks at the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[93]</a></span> point, regardless of injury to +clothing, and, valiantly leaping a narrow channel, turned the corner, +and found themselves in a second cove, similar to the former, but larger +and more inaccessible from the cliffs. They were rewarded for their +promptitude, as the first sight that caught their eyes was Gerda, +speeding along several hundred yards in front of them, as if she had +some definite object in view.</p> + +<p>"Shall I shout after her?" gasped Dulcie.</p> + +<p>"Not for the world," returned Deirdre. "We mustn't let her know she's +being followed."</p> + +<p>"If she looks back, she'll see us."</p> + +<p>"We'll hide behind this rock."</p> + +<p>"She'll be round the next corner in a minute."</p> + +<p>"So she will. Then, look here, we must wait till she's gone, and then +climb up the cliff, and run along and peep over from the top."</p> + +<p>"Whew! It'll be a climb."</p> + +<p>"Never mind, we'll manage it. Let us take off our coats and carry them. +I'm so hot."</p> + +<p>Deirdre's precautions proved to be most necessary. Gerda turned at the +far headland, and took a survey of the bay before she scrambled round +the point. She did not see the two heads peeping at her from behind the +big rock, and, apparently, was satisfied that she had eluded pursuit. No +sooner had she disappeared than Deirdre and Dulcie hurried forth, and, +choosing what looked like a sheep track as the best substitute for a +path, began their steep and toilsome climb. Excitement and determination +spurred them on, and they persevered in spite of grazed knees and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[94]</a></span> +scratched fingers. Over jagged pieces of rock, between brambles that +seemed set with more than their due share of thorns, catching on to +tufts of grass or projecting roots for support, up they scrambled +somehow, till they gained the level of the warren above.</p> + +<p>The course that followed was a neat little bit of scouting. Making a +bee-line for the next cove, they then dropped on their hands and knees, +and, crawling under cover of the gorse bushes to the verge of the cliff, +peeped cautiously over. Gerda was just below them, standing at the edge +of the waves and looking out to sea. This creek was a much smaller and +narrower one than the others, and the rocks were too precipitous to +offer foothold even to the most venturesome climber.</p> + +<p>Well concealed beneath a thick bush that overhung the brow of the crag, +Deirdre and Dulcie had an excellent view of their schoolmate's movements +without fear of betraying their presence. Gerda stood for a moment or +two gazing at the water, then she gave a long and peculiar whistle, not +unlike the cry of the curlew. It was at once answered by a similar one +from a distance, and in the course of a few minutes a small white dinghy +shot round the point from the west. It was rowed by a big, fine-looking, +fair-haired man, who wore a brown knitted jersey and no hat.</p> + +<p>With powerful strokes he pulled himself along, till, reaching the +shallows, he shipped his oars, jumped overboard, and ran his little +craft upon the beach. He had scarcely stepped out of the water before +Gerda was at his side, and the two walked together<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[95]</a></span> along the beach, he +apparently asking eager questions, to which she gave swift replies. Up +and down, up and down for fully ten minutes they paced, too absorbed in +their conversation to look up at the cliff above, though had they done +so they would scarcely have spied the two spectators who cowered close +under the shelter of the overhanging hazel bush, squeezing each others' +hands in the excitement of the scene they were witnessing.</p> + +<p>The man <a name="man" id="man"></a>appeared to have many directions to give, for he talked long and +earnestly, and Gerda nodded her head frequently, as if to show her +thorough comprehension of what he was saying. At last she glanced at her +watch, and they both hurried back to where they had left the boat. He +launched his little dinghy, sprang in, seized the oars, and rowed away +as rapidly as he had arrived. Gerda stood on the beach looking after him +till he had rounded the point and disappeared from her view, then, +crying bitterly, she began to walk back in the direction from which she +had come. Deirdre and Dulcie waited until she was safely past the corner +and out of sight, then they sprang up and stretched their cramped limbs, +for the discomfort of their position had grown wellnigh intolerable.</p> + +<p>"Ugh! I don't believe I could have kept still one second longer," +exploded Dulcie.</p> + +<p>"My feet are full of pins and needles," said Deirdre, stamping her +hardest, "and my elbow is so sore where I have been leaning on it, I +can't tell you how it hurts."</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[96]</a></span> +"It can't be worse than mine."</p> + +<p>"I say, though, we've seen something queer!"</p> + +<p>"Rather!"</p> + +<p>"Who can that man be?"</p> + +<p>"That's just what I want to know."</p> + +<p>"It looks very suspicious."</p> + +<p>"Suspicious isn't the name for it. Do you think we ought to tell Miss +Birks?"</p> + +<p>"No, no, no! That would never do. We must say nothing at all, but go on +keeping our eyes open, and see if we can find out anything more. Don't +let Gerda get the least hint that we're on her track."</p> + +<p>"Suppose Jessie asks us why we left the cove? What are we to say?"</p> + +<p>"Why, that we missed Gerda, and as she's our room-mate, we went over the +warren to see if we could find her and make a threesome. It was our +plain duty."</p> + +<p>Dulcie chuckled.</p> + +<p>"Oh, our duty, of course! And naturally, of course, we didn't find her +on the warren. She wasn't there."</p> + +<p>"She'll have to make her own explanations if Jessie asks her where she +was."</p> + +<p>"Trust her for that!"</p> + +<p>"I wonder what excuse she'll give?"</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"> +<img src="images/gs03.jpg" width="400" height="637" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption">THE MAN APPEARED TO HAVE MANY DIRECTIONS TO GIVE<br /> +<a href="#man"><i>Page 95</i></a></span> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[97]</a></span> +As it happened, everything turned out most simply. Deirdre and Dulcie +overtook Gerda farther on along the warren, and concluded that she had +probably climbed up from the second cove by the same path as themselves. +They discreetly ignored her red eyes and made some casual remarks upon +the weather. The three were walking together when the rest of the school +came up from salvaging. The head girl looked at them, but seeing that +they formed an orthodox "threesome" made no comment, and passed on. She +probably thought they had been taking a stroll on the warren. Gerda +looked almost gratefully at her companions. She had evidently felt +afraid lest they should mention the fact that she had not been with them +the whole time. She made quite an effort to speak on indifferent +subjects as they walked back, and was more conversational than they ever +remembered her. At tea-time, however, she relapsed into silence, and +during the evening nobody could draw a word from her. Dulcie woke once +during the night, and heard her crying quietly.</p> + +<p>The two chums puzzled their heads continually over the meaning of the +strange scene they had witnessed. Many were the theories they advanced +and cast aside. One only appeared to Deirdre to be a really possible +explanation.</p> + +<p>"I'll tell you what I believe," she said, "I think that man in the brown +jersey is a German spy. You know, although Gerda sticks to it that she +is English, we've always had our doubts. She looks German, and she +speaks better German than Mademoiselle, though Mademoiselle's Swiss, and +has talked two languages from babyhood. Gerda isn't an English name. She +says it was taken from Gerda in 'The Snow Queen', but can one believe +her? I'm called 'Deirdre' because my family's Irish, and it's an old +Celtic name, but 'Gerda' is distinctly Teutonic. Then she spells<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[98]</a></span> +Thorwaldson 'son' but in one of her books I found it written +Thorwaldsen, which is most suggestive. No, mark my words, she's a +German, and she's come here as a spy."</p> + +<p>"What has she to spy on?" asked Dulcie, deeply impressed.</p> + +<p>"Why, don't you see? A knowledge of this part of the coast would be +simply invaluable to the Germans, if they wanted to invade us. All these +narrow creeks and coves would be places to bring vessels to and land +troops, and the Castle could be taken and held as a fort, and perhaps +the Dower House too."</p> + +<p>"Is that why she was measuring the passage?"</p> + +<p>"It might very easily be! She'd give them a plan of the school."</p> + +<p>"Oh! Would they come and turn us out and kill us?"</p> + +<p>"One never knows what an enemy might do. This bit of shore is not at all +well protected; we're a long way from a coastguard station on either +side. It's just the sort of spot where a whole army could be quietly +landed in a few hours, before anyone had an inkling of what was going +on. There's no doubt that we ought to watch Gerda most carefully. It may +mean saving our country from a terrible catastrophe."</p> + + + +<hr /> + + +<h2><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[99]</a></span> +<a name="ix" id="ix"></a>CHAPTER IX<br /> +<br /> +<big>A Message</big></h2> + + +<p><span class="smcap">Now</span> that they had decided on an explanation of their schoolfellow's +mysterious conduct, the chums felt that every circumstance seemed to +point in its favour. They wondered they had never thought of it before. +The importance of keeping a strict watch was realized by both. There was +a certain satisfaction in doing so. They felt as if they were rendering +their country a service, almost indeed as if they were members of a +secret diplomatic corps, and had been told off for special duty. Who +knew what England might have to thank them for some day? Possibly at no +very far-off date the whole country might be ringing with their names, +and the newspapers publishing portraits of the two schoolgirls who had +averted a national disaster. Just to be prepared for emergencies, they +took snapshots of each other with Dulcie's Brownie camera, and added a +series of photographs of the school, all of which they thought would be +very suitable to give to the enthusiastic reporter who would demand an +illustrated interview. They were rather disappointed with the results of +the portraits, which in their estimation scarcely did them justice.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[100]</a></span> +"I look more like forty than fourteen!" said Deirdre, regarding ruefully +the dark shadows on her cheeks and the lines under her eyes. "It doesn't +show my hair properly, either. No one could tell it was curly."</p> + +<p>"And I look as fat as a prize pig, with no eyes to speak of, and an +imbecile grin."</p> + +<p>"I wonder how real photographers manage to touch things up, and make +them look so nice?"</p> + +<p>In spite of their best efforts it had proved impossible to do their +developing and printing without their handiwork being seen by their +companions. The photographs of the school were so good that the girls +begged them shamelessly to send home. Gerda was particularly +importunate, and even offered to buy copies when they were refused as a +gift.</p> + +<p>"We don't sell our things," said Dulcie bluntly. "You may go on asking +till Doomsday, and you won't get a single print, so there!"</p> + +<p>To the chums, Gerda's request was full of significance.</p> + +<p>"It shows pretty plainly we're on the right track," said Deirdre. "Of +course she wants them to send to her foreign government. They'd pay her +handsomely."</p> + +<p>"Don't she wish she may get them!" snorted Dulcie.</p> + +<p>The affair made an added coolness in their dormitory. Gerda appeared to +think them unkind, while they stood more than ever on the alert. They +watched her unceasingly. For some days, however, they could find nothing +of an incriminating nature<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[101]</a></span> in her conduct. Possibly she was aware of +their vigilance, and was on her guard against them.</p> + +<p>"I believe we're overdoing it," said Deirdre anxiously. "Best slack off +a little, and seem as if we're taking no notice of her. Don't follow her +about so continually. It's getting too marked altogether. We must be +diplomatic."</p> + +<p>Just at present Gerda's behaviour was perfectly orthodox. If she went on +the warren, it was invariably as one of a "threesome", and the chums +could detect her in no more solitary and clandestine excursions. She +seemed to have assumed a sudden interest in salvaging, and particularly +in the beacon which the girls were beginning to build upon the headland. +No one was ready to work harder in carrying up the pieces of driftwood +from the beach, and piling them on to the great stack which every day +grew a little higher and higher, till it really began to be a +conspicuous object, and could be seen from both the villages of +Pontperran and Porthmorvan, and from the sea. It was at Gerda's +suggestion that a Union Jack, fastened to a pole, was kept flying from +the top—a little piece of patriotism which appealed to the school at +large, though it roused suspicion in the minds of the chums.</p> + +<p>"It's a signal, of course," said Dulcie.</p> + +<p>"Some fine day she'll pull it down, and substitute the German flag," +agreed Deirdre. "She's only waiting her opportunity."</p> + +<p>"Unless we circumvent her. There are two Britishers here who mean to +look after their country!"</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[102]</a></span> +It was curious how many little things, really quite trivial in +themselves, seemed to point in the direction of the chums' fears. Miss +Birks greatly encouraged a debating society among her girls, and on her +list of subjects for discussion had placed that of "National Truth +versus Diplomatic Evasions". Gerda had certainly been chosen to speak +for the opposition, and was therefore pledged to the side of diplomacy; +but Deirdre and Dulcie thought she made far too good a case of it, and +pleaded much too warmly the cause of the ambassador who on behalf of his +country's honour is obliged to meet guile with guile, and outwit the +enemy by means of stratagems and deeply-laid schemes.</p> + +<p>"Any expedient is allowable for the sake of your fatherland," she had +contended, and Dulcie quoted the words with a grave shake of her head as +she talked the matter over with Deirdre.</p> + +<p>"Notice particularly that she said fatherland! Now the Vaterland is +always Germany. She didn't mean Britain, you may depend upon it. +No—she's planning and scheming for another war!"</p> + +<p>"Then we'll plan and scheme for King George! We'll accept her +principles, and 'make use of any stratagem to outwit the enemy'."</p> + +<p>So they waited and watched, and watched and waited, in what they +flattered themselves was true Machiavellian style, till they were almost +growing tired of so fruitless an occupation.</p> + +<p>Then one day, quite unexpectedly, something happened. It was a wild, +windy March morning, and the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[103]</a></span> girls were taking a hasty run on the +warren between morning school and dinner, to "blow away cobwebs" and +give them an appetite. There was not time to go far, but they dispersed +in all directions, trying which could make the biggest distance record +available. Gerda had started with Annie Pridwell and Betty Scott, but +under pretence of beating their speed she had got considerably ahead and +left them panting in the rear.</p> + +<p>"Where's Gerda?" asked Deirdre, who, with Dulcie and Evie Bennett, had +followed the first "threesome".</p> + +<p>"We simply can't keep up with her! She walked as if she had +seven-leagued boots. She's gone over the hill there. I'm going to wait +till she comes back."</p> + +<p>"There's no sense in flying like the wandering Jew!" protested Betty. "I +hope she won't be long, because I don't want to walk back as fast as I +came."</p> + +<p>"Dulcie and I'll go after her," said Deirdre promptly. "We don't mind +running. You two can be toddling along with Evie as leisurely as you +like."</p> + +<p>It only meant a change of "threesomes", so the girls agreed readily and +departed at once, leaving the chums to act escort to the truant.</p> + +<p>"She's done it on purpose," gasped Dulcie as soon as they were alone.</p> + +<p>"Of course. It's a perfectly transparent dodge. Now we must do Secret +Service work again and not let her see she's being followed."</p> + +<p>The chums really congratulated themselves that they were getting on in +the matter of scouting, they availed themselves so cleverly of the cover +of rocks<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[104]</a></span> and bushes and proceeded with such admirable caution and care. +Their efforts were successful, for after a few minutes of skilful +stalking they caught sight of their quarry.</p> + +<p>Gerda was climbing down the cliff side, fully a hundred feet below them, +and had nearly reached the level of the beach. She descended quickly, +almost recklessly, scrambling anyhow over rocks and through brambles, +and splashing through a boggy piece where a trickle of water had formed +a pool. Arrived on the shingle, she went straight to a hole among the +rocks, searched in the seaweed, and produced a bottle. Taking a piece of +paper from her pocket, she folded it into a long narrow slip and put it +inside, replacing the cork tightly. Then she ran towards the crag at the +mouth of the cove, and climbing up higher than was compatible with +safety she hurled the bottle as far as she could throw it into the sea. +She stood looking for a moment or two as it bobbed about on the surface +of the water, then, turning round, began to scramble back with more +haste than care.</p> + +<p>"We've seen enough! Come quick before she spies us!" whispered Deirdre, +dragging Dulcie away. "We mustn't let her know we were anywhere near. +Let us run and be a long way off before she gets to the top of the cliff +and sees us."</p> + +<p>The clanging of the first dinner bell, which could plainly be heard in +the distance, certainly offered a reasonable excuse for hurry. The chums +fled like hares, and even with their best efforts only took their places +at table when grace was said and the beef<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[105]</a></span> carved. Gerda was later still +and scurried in, hot and breathless, after the potatoes had been handed. +She drank her whole glassful of water at a gulp. Deirdre and Dulcie +avoided looking at her, but they nudged each other secretly. It was a +satisfaction to know what she had been doing, though they could not +openly proclaim their rejoicing. The penalty for lateness at meals was a +fine, but they put their pennies in the charity box with the feeling of +philanthropists. They considered them as contributions to a most +excellent cause.</p> + +<p>It was Wednesday, and a half-holiday. At three o'clock the whole school +was to start for a walk to Avonporth, and in the meantime the girls were +expected to busy themselves with minor occupations. A certain number +were due at the pianos for practising or music lessons, and from the +rest stocking-darning, mending, and the tidying of drawers would be +required. Gerda marched off with a volume of Beethoven, and was soon +hard at work on the Moonlight Sonata under Mademoiselle's tuition. She +played well, for she had been carefully taught in Germany, and had a +good execution and sympathetic touch.</p> + +<p>Deirdre and Dulcie stood outside the door for a moment or two listening +to her crisp chords.</p> + +<p>"She's boxed up there safe for an hour," commented Deirdre.</p> + +<p>"Yes, Mademoiselle won't let her off," agreed Dulcie.</p> + +<p>"I could do my darning after tea, and my drawers are as tidy as tidy."</p> + +<p>"So are mine!"</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[106]</a></span> +"Should we? Do you think we dare?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, yes. I'm game if you are."</p> + +<p>Then the pair did a scandalous deed, such as they had never even +contemplated in all their schooldays before. They took French leave and +went out on to the warren. They knew the consequences would be +disastrous if they were caught, for they were breaking three rules all +at once, absenting themselves without permission, going two together +instead of in a "threesome", and being on the headland at a forbidden +hour. Perhaps the very riskiness of the undertaking added to its +enjoyment.</p> + +<p>"We must try and get that bottle, and here's our opportunity," said +Deirdre.</p> + +<p>"We can't explain to Miss Birks now, but we can tell her some day that +we went out of sheer necessity," argued Dulcie.</p> + +<p>"Of course; it's only our duty. Even the best of rules have to be broken +sometimes when it's a matter of expediency. Miss Birks will quite +appreciate that."</p> + +<p>"Yes—when she knows the whole."</p> + +<p>Meantime Miss Birks did not know, and the sense that their disinterested +motives might be liable to misinterpretation caused the chums to proceed +warily and avoid exposing themselves to any observer from the upper +windows. They tacked along bypaths and went rather a roundabout route to +reach their destination. Their hope was that the rising water might have +washed the bottle back on to the beach, for Gerda's arm had not been +strong enough to throw it sufficiently<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[107]</a></span> far to carry it into the open +sea, and when they last saw it it had been whirling round and round at +the mouth of the creek. They climbed down the cliff side by the same +track that she had followed, and ran eagerly to the edge of the waves.</p> + +<p>The tide was much higher than it had been before dinner, and was rolling +up its usual toll of sticks, seaweed, and miscellaneous debris. What was +that dark-green object that kept appearing and disappearing, half-hidden +by a mass of floating brown bladderwrack? One moment it had vanished, +and the next it bobbed up persistently. Deirdre and Dulcie did not wait +to ask. With one accord they whisked off shoes and stockings (a +proceeding utterly and entirely forbidden except in the months of June +and July) and plunged into the water. They were both adepts in the art +of salvaging, but no piece of driftwood ever gave them more trouble than +that elusive bottle, which dipped and dived and evaded them with the +skill of an eel. The beach was shingly, not sandy, which made their +fishing not only a slippery but a most agonizing performance. They were +obliged to grip each other's hands to keep their foothold at all. At +last a larger wave than usual proved helpful, and indeed did its office +so thoroughly that it dashed the bottle against Dulcie's shins. With a +squeal of pain she caught it, nearly upsetting herself and Deirdre in +the process, and the pair hobbled back to where they had left their +shoes and stockings.</p> + +<p>"Ugh! I'm absolutely lame! I didn't know stones could cut so," +complained Deirdre.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[108]</a></span> +"Look at my leg! It will be black and blue, I know," groaned Dulcie.</p> + +<p>The possession of the bottle, however, was ample compensation for any +scars they might have won in the struggle for its acquisition. They +tried with impatient fingers to pull out the cork, but as that proved +obdurate they cut the Gordian knot by breaking the neck on a stone. The +thin piece of foreign note-paper was quite untouched by wet. Together +they unfolded it, knocking their heads in their eagerness to read it +both at once. At last, surely, they were within reach of Gerda's secret. +But the letter was written in German, and alas! the chums were still in +the elementary stages of the language, so that except for a chance word +here and there they could not decipher a line of it. Their +disappointment was keen.</p> + +<p>"What does she mean by writing in her wretched old Deutsch?" demanded +Dulcie indignantly.</p> + +<p>"Oh, bother her! I wish I could read it!" moaned Deirdre.</p> + +<p>Never had the advantages of education appealed to the girls more +strongly. They began to think quite seriously of the necessity for +studying foreign languages.</p> + +<p>"Why didn't I have a Fräulein in my babyhood instead of an ordinary +English nursery governess?" lamented Deirdre.</p> + +<p>"We may be able to do something with a dictionary," said Dulcie more +hopefully.</p> + +<p>The idea was consoling enough to prompt them to put on their shoes and +stockings, pocket the document,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[109]</a></span> and climb the cliff. After all, if they +could make little out of it themselves, they had at least prevented the +message from falling into the hands of the person for whom it was +destined, and so had frustrated Gerda's intention. That was sufficient +reward for their trouble, even without the chance of learning its +contents.</p> + +<p>"We can keep asking separate words or even sentences until we can piece +it all together," said Dulcie sagely.</p> + +<p>"Right you are! and now we'd best rush back as fast as we can."</p> + +<p>Time waits for nobody, and during their excursion to the beach it had +seemed to roll on above the speed limit. Unless they meant to be late +for the walk, they must hurry. They were obliged to skirt the cliffs, +for they did not dare to show themselves on the open tract of the +warren. It was not particularly easy to make haste along a narrow path +beset with briers and riddled with rabbit holes. Deirdre went first, +because she always naturally took the lead, and Dulcie, whose physical +endurance was less, panted after her a bad second. Suddenly Deirdre +stopped, and, shading her eyes with her hand, looked intently over the +sea at a small object in the far distance.</p> + +<p>"What's that?" she asked sharply.</p> + +<p>For a moment or two it had the semblance of a huge bird, then a strange +whirring noise was heard, and as it drew rapidly nearer and nearer they +could see it was an aeroplane flying at no great height over the water. +Apparently it was aiming for the exact spot where they were standing, +and, quite scared, the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[110]</a></span> girls crouched down beside a gorse bush. With a +loud whirr it passed over their heads, and, steering as easily as a +hawk, alighted gently on the moorland only about a hundred yards farther +on.</p> + +<p>Here was a pretty state of things! Had the vanguard of the German army +arrived already? And did the enemy mean to swoop down on the school? +They peeped timorously from behind the bush and saw two airmen in full +oilskins dismount hastily and make an examination of the machine. +Whether they were Germans it was impossible to tell; they spoke in tones +too low for their words to carry, and certainly their garments gave no +hint of their nationality. They looked round searchingly, as if +verifying their whereabouts, glanced in the direction of the girls who +cowered under their gorse bush, devoutly hoping they were not visible, +and consulted a map; then, after an earnest conference, entered their +machine again and started off in a northerly direction, flying over the +warren towards Avonporth. The chums, almost spellbound, watched the +aeroplane till it waned into a mere speck in the sky; then fear lent +them wings and they scuttled back to school at a pace they had never +attained even at the annual sports. Fortune favoured them, and they +managed to dodge unnoticed into the garden, run round to the front, and +just in the nick of time take their places among the file of girls +assembled on the drive.</p> + +<p>Nobody mentioned the aeroplane, so evidently nobody but themselves could +have seen it. Whence it came and where it was going remained a mystery,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[111]</a></span> +though Deirdre and Dulcie had a settled conviction that Gerda could have +enlightened them on that point. She was quite unconscious of the trick +they had played her, and as they walked just behind her they chuckled +inwardly at the knowledge that her cherished letter lay in Deirdre's +pocket. Outward and visible triumph they dared not venture on: it was +too dangerous an indulgence for those who wished to keep a secret. As it +was, they found it difficult to evade the enquiries of their friends.</p> + +<p>"What became of you two just now?" asked Evie Bennett. "Miss Harding was +inspecting drawers, and she sent me to fetch you. I'd such a hunt all +over the place and couldn't find you anywhere."</p> + +<p>"You're a notoriously bad looker, you know, Evie," returned Deirdre, +laughing the matter off.</p> + +<p>"So Miss Harding said; but it isn't fair to expect one to find people +who aren't there."</p> + +<p>"Perhaps Betty had mesmerized us into the hypnotic state and rendered us +invisible to mortal eyes such as yours!"</p> + +<p>"Now, don't rag me! Oh, wasn't that joke spiffing! I shall never forget +<span class="smcap">Va</span> with their faces all streaked with black! I laughed till I nearly +died. They haven't forgiven us, and I believe they're plotting something +to pay us back in our own coin."</p> + +<p>"Let them try, if they like. We're not easily taken in."</p> + +<p>"By the by, I was hunting for you two just now," Annie Pridwell broke +in. "I wanted to borrow some darning wool, and as I couldn't find you I +helped<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[112]</a></span> myself off your dressing-table. I don't know whose basket it was +I rifled. I took the last skein."</p> + +<p>"Mine, but you're welcome," said Dulcie. "My stockings are darned for +this week, and shown to Miss Harding and put away. I'll get some more +wool on Saturday, if we go to the village."</p> + +<p>"But I couldn't find you when I looked for you," persisted Annie.</p> + +<p>"Yes, where were you?" asked Evie again.</p> + +<p>But to such an inconvenient question the chums prudently turned deaf +ears.</p> + +<p>Deirdre and Dulcie were determined to leave no stone unturned until they +had obtained a translation of the letter which they had purloined from +the bottle. They did not care to show the manuscript itself to any of +the elder girls, as to do so might be to betray their secret, but by +dint of asking odd sentences and words they made it out to run thus: +"Very little to report. No progress at all just at present. Extreme +caution necessary. Better keep clear of headland for a while, and let +all plans stand over." There was neither beginning nor signature, and no +date or address.</p> + +<p>To the chums the communication had only one meaning. It must refer to a +German attack upon the coast. The aeroplane had probably been +prospecting for a suitable place to land troops. It was Gerda who was to +supply the information needed by the foreign government as to a +favourable time for executing a master-stroke.</p> + +<p>Evidently she did not consider the hour was yet<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[113]</a></span> ripe. For the present +England was safe, but who knew for how long?</p> + +<p>"It's that man in the brown jersey who's engineering the mischief," said +Deirdre. "When we see him sneaking about in his boat we may know there's +something on foot."</p> + +<p>"What ought we to do?" asked Dulcie doubtfully.</p> + +<p>"Nothing can be done just now, if they're on their guard and lying low. +We must be vigilant and keep a general eye over things. If anything +unexpected crops up we can warn the police. But, of course, we should +have to have very good grounds to go upon in that case, a perfectly +circumstantial story to tell."</p> + +<p>"We've nothing but suspicions at present."</p> + +<p>"That's the worst of it. We want more direct evidence. They might only +laugh at us for our pains, and we should get into trouble with Miss +Birks for interfering in concerns that aren't ours. No; we'll keep the +police as the very last resource, and only tell them what we know in the +face of a great emergency."</p> + + + +<hr /> + + +<h2><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[114]</a></span> +<a name="x" id="x"></a>CHAPTER X<br /> +<br /> +<big>Marooned</big></h2> + + +<p><span class="smcap">Miss Birks's</span> birthday fell on the 1st April, and so did Betty Scott's. +It was not a particularly happy date for an anniversary, but they both +declared they liked it. To Betty it was certainly a chequered event, for +the girls treated her to the jokes they dared not play on the +head-mistress, and she had to endure a double dose of chaffing. But, on +the other hand, a birthday shared with Miss Birks was luck above the +common. There was invariably a whole holiday, and some special treat to +celebrate the occasion. The nature of the festival depended so entirely +upon the day that it was not generally decided till the last minute, +which added an element of surprise, and on the whole enhanced the +enjoyment. Whether this year's jollification would be outdoors or +indoors was naturally a subject of much speculation, but the morning +itself settled the question. Such a clear blue sky, such brilliant +sunshine, and so calm a sea pointed emphatically to an excursion by +water, and Miss Birks at once decided to hire boats, and take the school +for a picnic to a little group of islets due west of the headland.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[115]</a></span> +The girls loved being on the sea, and did not often get an opportunity +of gratifying their nautical tendencies, for they were, of course, never +allowed to hire boats on their own account. Miss Birks was too afraid of +accidents to permit lessons in rowing, though many of her pupils +thirsted to try their skill with the oars, and had often vainly begged +leave to learn in the harbour. To-day three small yachts, with steady +and experienced boatmen, were waiting by the quay at Pontperran, and +even Mademoiselle—the champion of timorous fears—stepped inside +without any nervous dread of going to the bottom of the ocean. It was +delightful skimming out over the dancing, shining water, so smooth that +the worst sailor could not experience a qualm, yet lapping gently +against the bows as if it were trying to leap up and investigate the +cargo of fair maidens carried on its bosom. With one accord the girls +struck up some boat songs, and the strains of "Row, brothers, row!" or</p> + +<div class="block26"> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Speed, bonny boat, like a bird on the wing,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Over the sea to Skye,"<br /></span> +</div></div></div> + +<p class="noi">rang clear and sweet in the fresh spring air.</p> + +<p>Everybody agreed that the passage was too short, and they were almost +sorry when they arrived at their destination. The islands were nothing +more than a group of five rocks, too small for cultivation, and +inhabited only by sea-birds. Some rough grass and bushes grew on the +largest, where there was also a shelving sandy strip of beach that +formed a safe landing-place. Here all disembarked, and the provision<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[116]</a></span> +hampers were carried ashore, together with the big iron trivet and +cauldron used for picnics. There was something very fascinating in thus +taking possession of a desert island, if only for a few hours. For the +present the school felt themselves a band of girl Crusoes, and set to +work at once in pioneer fashion to make preparations for lunch. There +was an ample supply of drift-wood lying above high-water mark to serve +as fuel under their trivet, so while some got the fire going, others +took garden spades which they had brought with them and dug sand seats +sufficient to accommodate the company. The chairs destined for the +mistresses were quite superior erections, provided with backs, and that +of Miss Birks was adorned with shells, specially collected from the +rocks by a committee of decoration told off for the purpose. In shape +and elaboration of ornament it resembled a throne, and as a finishing +touch the motto "A Happy Birthday" was placed in yellow periwinkles at +the foot.</p> + +<p>By the time these extensive preparations were finished, the cauldron was +boiling, for the fire had been well kept up, and replenished with wood. +Miss Harding dropped in the muslin bag containing the tea, Jessie +Macpherson assumed command of the milk can, and a willing army carried +cups and laid out provisions. The boatmen were provided each with a +steaming pint mug of tea, and a basket of comestibles amongst them, and +retired to one of the yachts with grins of satisfaction on their +countenances. That hospitality having been settled, the cauldron—which<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[117]</a></span> +combined the function of urn as well—flowed busily, filling cup after +cup till the whole school collected on the sand seats to do justice to +the provisions. There were rival birthday cakes: Miss Birks's, a +nobly-iced erection decorated with candied violets, was perhaps the +larger of the two, but Betty's—sent from home—had the glory of fifteen +coloured candles.</p> + +<p>"Yours ought to have had candles too, Miss Birks," she said, as she +carefully struck a match.</p> + +<p>"I'm afraid they'd be too thick on the ground!" laughed Miss Birks. "I +used to have them when I was a child, but I barred the exhibition of my +years after I was twenty-one."</p> + +<p>"I once knew a gentleman who had a huge birthday cake with seventy +candles on, and all his grandchildren came to his party," volunteered +Hilda Marriott.</p> + +<p>"That must have been a truly patriarchal cake, and something to +remember. I'm afraid I can only offer you candied violets. Betty, shall +we each cut our first slice at the same moment? Here's to everybody's +health and prosperity and good luck for the rest of the year!"</p> + +<p>It was the first real picnic since last autumn, so, added to the double +birthday, it seemed a more than ordinary festivity, and everybody waxed +particularly jolly. Miss Birks told humorous Irish stories, and made +endless jokes; even Miss Harding, usually the pink of propriety, was +guilty of an intentional pun. The merry meal was over at last, and when +the baskets had been repacked, all dispersed to wander<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[118]</a></span> round the tiny +island. It did not differ particularly from the mainland, but the girls +found it amusing to investigate new coves, and ramble about on the +grassy expanse at the top of the cliffs. A few sought out Miss Birks and +begged to be allowed to explore the next largest islet of the group, so +after a little discussion half a dozen were sent off under charge of +Miss Harding in one of the boats. As there only remained about forty +minutes before it would be necessary to go back, it was arranged that +this boat should not waste time by returning to the bigger island, but +should start on its own account, independently of the other two, as soon +as its party had made a brief survey of the islet.</p> + +<p>Deirdre and Dulcie, who were venturesome climbers, took advantage of the +extra liberty allowed them on this special day to escape by themselves +without the tiresome addition of the usual third, and scaled the very +highest point of the rocky centre. Here they found they had an excellent +view of the whole of the small group, and could command a prospect of +cove and inlet quite unattainable from the shore. Dulcie had brought a +pair of field-glasses, and with their aid distant objects drew near, and +what seemed mere specks to the ordinary vision proved to be sea-birds, +preening their wings, or resting upon the rocks. They watched with great +interest the progress of the boat to the other island.</p> + +<p>"Didn't know Miss Birks was going to let anyone go, or we'd have gone +ourselves," lamented Deirdre. "Who's in her? Can you see?"</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[119]</a></span> +"Perfectly. Miss Harding and Jessie Macpherson, Phyllis Rowland, Doris +Patterson, Rhoda Wilkins, Irene Jordan, and Gerda Thorwaldson. David +Essery is rowing them."</p> + +<p>"Oh, I wish we'd gone!" repeated Deirdre enviously. "Give me the +glasses, and let me take a look."</p> + +<p>It was a very long look, that swept all round the islands and took in +every detail of cliff and rock. Deirdre repeated it twice, then gave a +sudden exclamation.</p> + +<p>"Dulcie, you see that big black cliff over there—rather like a +seal—count three points farther on, and tell me if you don't think +there's a boat in that tiny inlet."</p> + +<p>Dulcie seized the glasses, and proceeded to verify the statement.</p> + +<p>"It is! Oh, it certainly is! It's moving out now from behind the rock. +Somebody's in it, rowing—Deirdre! I do believe——"</p> + +<p>"Not him!" shrieked Deirdre ungrammatically, snatching the glasses from +her friend. "Oh, it is! I'm perfectly persuaded it is! It's just his +figure, and he rows in the same way exactly—the man in the brown +jersey!"</p> + +<p>"Then Gerda's engineered that expedition to go and meet him. It's as +plain as plain!"</p> + +<p>Their excitement was intense. It did indeed seem an important discovery, +and an added link in their chain of circumstances. Should they stay +where they were, and watch the meeting through the field-glasses, or +would it be possible to follow the matter up more<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[120]</a></span> nearly? They resolved +to make a try for the latter. Climbing down as rapidly as they could +from their point of vantage, they found Miss Birks, and entreated to be +allowed to join the party on the other island.</p> + +<p>"John Pengelly would row us over, and we'd catch them up immediately," +they pleaded. "Oh, do please let us go!"</p> + +<p>Miss Birks was in a birthday frame of mind, and prepared to listen to +any fairly-reasonable request.</p> + +<p>"There would be quite room for you to go home in David Essery's boat," +she acquiesced. "Yes, you may go if you wish. John Pengelly can take you +at once. Tell Miss Harding I sent you, and you're to return with her +party."</p> + +<p>The boatman was good-natured, and apparently did not mind making the +extra journey. He grinned at the girls as he pushed off.</p> + +<p>"Can't have too much of the sea, missies?" he ventured. "I'll soon pull +you over there."</p> + +<p>He landed them carefully on the second island, then rowed back to the +first landing-place to join his fellow boatman and smoke a pipe till it +was time to start. Deirdre and Dulcie knew exactly which way Miss +Harding and the girls had gone, and their plain duty was to follow them +as rapidly as possible, and report themselves as additions to the party. +They did nothing of the sort, however. Instead, they took exactly the +opposite direction, and made for the western side of the islet, where +they had seen the mysterious boat.</p> + +<p>"You may depend upon it we shall find Gerda<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[121]</a></span> there," said Deirdre. "It's +better not to let her know we're here. We're far more likely to catch +her."</p> + +<p>With a little scrambling they reached an inlet, which—so they +calculated—must be the one they had marked through the field-glasses. +They could see no boat, however, and no Gerda. They waited for a while, +then rambled farther along the shore, but finding nothing, came back to +their former point. They had so entirely counted upon Gerda being there +that they felt decidedly disappointed.</p> + +<p>"Perhaps she couldn't sneak off," suggested Dulcie. "Miss Harding's very +tiresome and particular sometimes."</p> + +<p>"I wonder if the boat's waiting about for her?" said Deirdre. "I should +very much like to know."</p> + +<p>Obeying a sudden impulse, she advanced to the edge of the waves and +reproduced, as nearly as she could remember it, the long peculiar curlew +cry which Gerda had given as a signal on the former occasion. The effect +was instantaneous. There was an answering whistle, and from behind a +rock not very far away a small craft shot out into the creek. It was +undoubtedly the same white dinghy which they had seen before, and +contained the same tall, fair man who had spoken with their school-mate. +He rowed forward with a few rapid strokes, then seeing Deirdre and +Dulcie he paused, took a searching glance round the shore, turned his +boat, and rowed away from the island, passing as quickly as possible +behind the shelter of the next of the group. Deirdre stood watching him +through the field-glasses as he<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[122]</a></span> +<a name="disappeared" id="disappeared"></a><ins title="Original has disappeard">disappeared</ins>. She was not +altogether sure whether she had not made a false move. It was perhaps +hardly wise to have thus put him on his guard, and let him become aware +that they knew of the curlew signal. She already regretted her hasty, +thoughtless act. She was conscious that it would defeat her own ends. It +seemed no use staying any longer in the creek, for he would certainly +not be likely to return after such an alarm.</p> + +<p>"We'd better go and find Miss Harding," suggested Dulcie.</p> + +<p>It was undoubtedly high time they reported themselves, so, putting the +field-glasses back in their case, they set off for the other side of the +island. Arrived at the opposite cove, they looked eagerly for their +school-mates, but nobody was to be seen.</p> + +<p>"I expect they're a little farther on," suggested Deirdre, hiding the +fear she dared not own.</p> + +<p>But they were not farther on, and though the girls climbed the cliff, so +as to have a thorough view of the shore, and shouted and cooeed till +they were hoarse, there was not a sign of a human being anywhere. Far on +the horizon were three tiny specks.</p> + +<p>Dulcie took out the all-useful glasses, and adjusted the focus +anxiously. One glance confirmed her worst apprehensions—the boats had +gone, and left them behind! It was perfectly easy to see how it had +happened. Miss Birks, having sent them specially across the sound, +believed them to be with Miss Harding's party, and Miss Harding did not +even know that they had left the larger island. It was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[123]</a></span> their own fault +entirely for not reporting themselves. While they had been watching the +mysterious boatman on the wrong side of the island, the others must have +been starting, utterly unconscious that two of their number were +missing.</p> + +<p>"We're marooned! That's what it amounts to." Deirdre's voice shook a +little as she made the unwelcome admission.</p> + +<p>"Well, of all idiots we're the biggest! We have got ourselves into a +jolly fix!" exploded Dulcie.</p> + +<p>It was highly probable that they would not be missed until the arrival +at the harbour. Then, no doubt, someone would come back for them, but +the tide was rising rapidly, and perhaps by the time a boat could return +it would not be possible to land and take them off. The prospect of a +night spent on a desert island was not enlivening. Then, too, came +another fear. The mysterious stranger was in the near neighbourhood. +Hidden behind rocks and creeks he might have accomplices, who might take +it into their heads to reconnoitre. The idea was horrible. They felt an +intense dread of the unknown man in the brown jersey. He must be very +angry that they had discovered his signal. Suppose he were to find them, +and wreak his vengeance upon them? They bitterly rued their folly, +though that did not mend matters in the least.</p> + +<p>"We won't go over to that side of the island again, in case he might see +us," quavered Dulcie. "Let us sit down here, in this sheltered corner. +How cold it's getting!"</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[124]</a></span> +"I'm hungry, too," sighed Deirdre. "There's nothing to eat on the place +except raw periwinkles!"</p> + +<p>The sun had set behind a bank of grey clouds, and even in the last ten +minutes the daylight had faded noticeably. A chilly wind had sprung up, +and the girls shivered as they buttoned their coats closely.</p> + +<p>"Do you hear something?" said Dulcie presently.</p> + +<p>It was a sound of oars, and both pricked up their ears, half-nervously, +half-hopefully. They did not venture to show themselves till they could +ascertain whether it were friend or enemy. Hidden under the shadow of +the rock, they watched the darkening water, then gripped each other's +hands in terror—it was the white boat that appeared round the corner. +Its brown-jerseyed occupant was rowing slowly and leisurely, with a +careful eye on the shore as he went. Would he see them? They were only +partially concealed, and a keen observer might easily detect their +presence. To Deirdre those few minutes equalled years of agony—her +lively imagination summoned up every possible horror. He paused at last +on his oars, and gave the long shrill curlew call. A hundred seagulls +screamed in reply. Twice, thrice he repeated it, then apparently judging +it a failure, he rowed away in the direction of the mainland.</p> + +<p>Dulcie was crying with fright and cold. She let the tears trickle +unwiped down her plump cheeks. She was not cut out by nature for a +heroine, and would gladly just then have given up all chance of seeing +her portrait in the newspapers if she could have found herself safely +back in the schoolroom at the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[125]</a></span> Dower House. Adventures might be all very +well in their way, but this one had gone decidedly too far.</p> + +<p>"I wish you'd never suggested our coming," she said fretfully. "It was +your fault, Deirdre."</p> + +<p>"Don't be mean, and try and throw the blame on me! You were just as keen +as I was!"</p> + +<p>"I'm not keen now! I wish to goodness we'd never bothered our heads +about Gerda. You won't catch me on such a wild-goose chase again!"</p> + +<p>"I'm utterly disgusted with you, Dulcie Wilcox!" returned Deirdre +witheringly; and Dulcie wept yet harder, to have added to her physical +troubles a quarrel with her chum.</p> + +<p>It was almost dark before a search party, consisting of Miss Birks and +three boatmen, arrived to fetch them, and the tide had risen so high +that it was impossible to land as before, so that John Pengelly had to +wade through the water and carry each of them in turn on his back to the +boat. Miss Birks said little, but they knew it was the ominous silence +before a storm, and that she would have much to say on the morrow. They +were intensely thankful when they at last saw the lights of Pontperran, +and felt they were within measurable distance of food and fire.</p> + +<p>"You provided a nice birthday treat for Miss Birks, I must say," +commented Jessie Macpherson sarcastically. "What possessed you to go off +on your own in that silly way? There was nothing in the least +interesting on that side of the island, and you knew where we were, and +that we should be starting almost<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[126]</a></span> directly. I simply can't understand +such foolishness! Why did you do it?"</p> + +<p>But an explanation of the motives that had influenced their conduct was +the very last thing in the world that Deirdre and Dulcie felt disposed +to offer, even to mitigate the scorn of the head girl.</p> + + + +<hr /> + + +<h2><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[127]</a></span> +<a name="xi" id="xi"></a>CHAPTER XI<br /> +<br /> +<big>"Coriolanus"</big></h2> + + +<p><span class="smcap">It</span> was an old-established custom at the Dower House that at the end of +every term the girls must make a special effort to distinguish +themselves. They would get up a play, or a concert, or a Shakespeare +reading, sometimes a show of paintings, carving, and needlework, or a +well-rehearsed exhibition of physical exercises and drill. It was quite +an informal affair, only intended for themselves and the mistresses, +though occasionally Miss Birks invited a few friends to help to swell +the audience. Now April was here, the Easter holidays seemed fast +approaching, and preparations were accordingly made for the usual +function. As a rule, the girls organized the affair themselves, under +the direction of the Sixth Form, but this term Miss Harding stepped in +and assumed the management. She decreed that all the members of the +Latin classes should give a Latin play, and selected a version of +<i>Coriolanus</i> for their performance. About half the school took Latin, +just enough to make up the cast required, so both senior and junior +students were set to work to learn speeches and get up orations. At<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[128]</a></span> +first they were entirely dismayed at the prospect of so arduous an +undertaking.</p> + +<p>"I hardly thought Miss Harding was serious when she proposed it," said +Annie Pridwell, who with Deirdre, Dulcie, and Gerda made up the four +representatives of <span class="smcap">Vb</span>.</p> + +<p>"Serious enough in all conscience," groaned Dulcie, turning over the +leaves of the small volume with an air of special tragedy. +"Volumnia—Volumnia—yes, here she comes again—Volumnia—oh! why am I +chosen for Volumnia? I'll never get all this stuff into my head!"</p> + +<p>"You'll look the character nicely," said Annie consolingly. "You've +really rather a classic sort of nose, and you'll have a big distaff and +spindle, and be spinning as you talk."</p> + +<p>"That won't help me to remember my part, unless I can write it on a +scrap of paper and hide it among the flax. I declare, it's not fair! +Volumnia has far more to say than Tullus Attius or Sicinius. You ought +to have something extra tagged on to your parts."</p> + +<p>"We've quite enough, thanks!" declared Deirdre and Annie hastily.</p> + +<p>"As for Gerda," continued Dulcie, "she's being let off too easily +altogether. Her Senator's speech is only eight lines."</p> + +<p>"Well, it's my first term at Latin, remember," said Gerda.</p> + +<p>"Jessie Macpherson will have to swot like anything to get up 'Caius +Marcus Coriolanus'. I'm glad I'm not picked for the show part, anyhow."</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[129]</a></span> +"Jessie won't mind swotting if she has a chance to shine. There'd have +been trouble if she'd had to play second fiddle."</p> + +<p>"No one would be rash enough to suggest that. She's not head of the +school for nothing."</p> + +<p>"Look here! Is this play to be part of the Latin lesson or an extra? +Shall we be excused our ordinary prep.?"</p> + +<p>"Not a line."</p> + +<p>"Oh, what a shame! Then it's giving us double lessons. I wish Miss +Harding had left us to get up a concert by ourselves."</p> + +<p>Although the girls might grumble and make rather a fuss over learning +their parts, they soon committed the little play to memory, and thanks +to Miss Harding's efforts rehearsals went briskly. Jessie Macpherson, +whose cleverness certainly justified her assumption of general +superiority, rose to the occasion nobly, and tripped off her long +speeches as if Latin were her mother tongue, to the envy and admiration +of those who still halted and stumbled.</p> + +<p>"Jessie had got through her grammar before she came to the Dower House, +though," said Irene Jordan, herself a beginner. "It gives her an +enormous pull to have started early."</p> + +<p>"Boys' schools get up ever such grand Latin plays," remarked Rhoda +Wilkins. "At Orton College, where my brothers go, they did the <i>Phormio</i> +of Terence. We went to see it, and it was splendid. It took fully two +hours. Ours won't take one."</p> + +<p>"Well, one expects boys to be better at Latin."</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[130]</a></span> +"Some girls' schools run them hard," said Phyllis Rowland. "I know girls +who can beat their brothers."</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes, at the big High Schools, where you choose classics or modern +languages, and stick to one side. At the Dower House we dabble in +everything all round, maths., and science, and accomplishments thrown in +as well. Well, it gives you the chance to see which you like best."</p> + +<p>The most serious question in connection with the performance was the +arrangement of the costumes. Miss Harding and the elder girls pored over +illustrated Roman histories and classical dictionaries, trying to get +the exact style of the period.</p> + +<p>"It's difficult to reproduce with twentieth-century materials," said the +mistress. "One feels all the linens ought to be homespun, and woven in a +loom like Penelope's; and as for the scenery—well, we shall just have +to do the best we can."</p> + +<p>"As long as we avoid anachronisms we shall be all right," said Jessie +Macpherson. "We shall have to leave something to the imagination of the +audience."</p> + +<p>The whole school was requisitioned to help, and large working parties +were held in the dining-room. The girls found it an amusement to hem +togas or construct shields out of cardboard and brown paper, and +stitched quite elaborate borders on the robes of Veturia, Volumnia, and +Valeria. One of the difficulties that presented itself was the question +of footgear. Roman matrons did not wear serviceable school shoes with +heels, or elegant French ones either. It would certainly be necessary to +contrive sandals.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[131]</a></span> +"We can't cut our best shoes down for the occasion!" said Marcia +Richards.</p> + +<p>"I'd leave the school first!" returned Phyllis Rowland.</p> + +<p>Hiring "Roman" sandals was too great an expense, and an ambitious +attempt of Jessie Macpherson's to make them out of paper turned out a +ghastly failure.</p> + +<p>In the end Miss Harding cut some from strips of cloth, and this effect +proved classical enough to serve the purpose.</p> + +<p>"That will be the best we can manage," she said.</p> + +<p>"I'm thankful I haven't to do a dance in mine. It would be a queer sort +of shuffle!" confided Dulcie to her chum.</p> + +<p>In honour of the very special effort which was being made, Miss Birks +decided to send a number of invitations and ask quite a considerable +gathering to an afternoon performance.</p> + +<p>"It's going to be really a swell thing for once," said Deirdre. "I hear +Miss Birks is getting new curtains—those old ones are quite worn +out—and the joiner is to come and fix a rod. And there's to be tea +after the entertainment. Such heaps of people are coming!"</p> + +<p>"Who?" asked Gerda.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Major and Mrs. Hargreaves and their little boys, and Canon Hall and +Miss Hall, and Dr. and Mrs. Dawes, and all the four Miss Hirsts, and the +Rector of Kergoff, and Mr. Lawson, and of course Mrs. Trevellyan."</p> + +<p>"And Ronnie?"</p> + +<p>"Rather! We wouldn't leave Ronnie out of it!<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[132]</a></span> Miss Herbert is to come +too, if she hasn't gone home for the holidays."</p> + +<p>"You've never seen Mrs. Trevellyan yet, Gerda?" put in Dulcie.</p> + +<p>"Only in church."</p> + +<p>"Well, but I mean to speak to. You didn't go to Ronnie's birthday party, +and the day she came here you were as shy as a baby, and scooted out of +the way."</p> + +<p>"I can't help being shy," returned Gerda, blushing up to the very tips +of her ears.</p> + +<p>"Why, there you are, turning as red as a boiled lobster! Miss Birks says +shyness is mostly morbid self-consciousness, and isn't anything to be +proud of. Why don't you try to get out of it? It looks right-down silly +to colour up like that over simply nothing at all. I'd be ashamed of +it!" said Dulcie, who could be severe on other people's faults, though +she demanded charity for her own.</p> + +<p>"Gerda's copying eighteenth-century heroines!" mocked Deirdre. "They +always tried to outvie the rose. Didn't Herrick write a sonnet to his +Julia's blushes? And I'm sure I remember reading somewhere:</p> + +<div class="block26"> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i4">'O, sweet and fair,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Beyond compare,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Are Daphne's cheeks.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And Daphne's blushing cheeks, I swear!'<br /></span> +</div></div></div> + +<p class="noi">Go it, Gerda! Can you possibly get a little redder if you try? If you +outvie the rose, there's still the peony left!"</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[133]</a></span> +Gerda took her room-mates' teasing, as she took everything else at the +Dower House, with little or no remonstrance. It would have pleased the +girls much better if they could have raised a spark out of her. Her +queer, self-contained reserve was not at all to their taste, and they +awarded the palm of popularity to Betty Scott, whose high spirits, +perpetual jokes, and amusing tongue made her the public entertainer of +the Form.</p> + +<p>"I wish Betty were acting," sighed Dulcie. "She's always the life and +soul of a play. It was very stupid of her mother not to want her to +learn Latin."</p> + +<p>"I'm afraid Gerda'll be a perfect stick as Ancus Vinitius," whispered +Deirdre.</p> + +<p>"An absolute dummy," agreed her chum.</p> + +<p>But they underestimated Gerda's talents. Her part was a small one, yet +she rendered it excellently. She walked, acted, and spoke with a calm +dignity well in keeping with the character she represented. Everybody +agreed that she made a most reverend and stately senator.</p> + +<p>"I ought to look old, though," she maintained. "It's absurd for us all +to look so youthful."</p> + +<p>"Powder your hair," suggested Irene.</p> + +<p>"Not enough. I think I can do better than that."</p> + +<p>Rather to the girls' amusement, Gerda seemed more than ordinarily +anxious about her costume.</p> + +<p>"She couldn't make more fuss if she was taking Coriolanus himself!" +laughed Dulcie. "The Senator might be the chief part."</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[134]</a></span> +Gerda had notions of her own, which she proceeded to carry out. She went +to Jessie Macpherson and borrowed the white wig, and with the help of +some more sheep's wool contrived a beard to match. On the afternoon of +the performance she not only donned these, but blackened her eyebrows +and painted her face with a series of wrinkles and crows'-feet.</p> + +<p>"Why, it's splendid!" exclaimed the girls. "You look seventy at the very +least. Just the sort of venerable old city father you're meant for."</p> + +<p>"You'd hardly know me, would you?" enquired Gerda casually.</p> + +<p>"Nobody would know you. I don't believe even Miss Birks will recognize +you. It's the best make-up of anybody's. Jessie'll be proud to see her +wig used after all. She'll almost wish she'd worn it herself."</p> + +<p>The performers found the dressing nearly the greatest part of the fun. +They arranged Volumnia's classical garments and ornaments, adjusted her +gold fillet; draped the folds of Veturia's flowing robe, and persuaded +Brutus to abandon spectacles for the occasion.</p> + +<p>"You forget we're supposed to be in <i>circum</i> 490 <span class="smcap">B.C.</span>," remarked Jessie +Macpherson.</p> + +<p>"I shall be blind without them!" objected Brutus.</p> + +<p>"Never mind! You must catch hold of Sicinius's toga if you get into +difficulties."</p> + +<p>"The Chinese used spectacles ages ago. Couldn't a pair of them have got +imported into Rome?"</p> + +<p>"Certainly not. Those goggles of yours would<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[135]</a></span> spoil the whole classical +spirit of the play, and I shan't allow them."</p> + +<p>"Well, I suppose I'll worry through somehow; but if I upset the rostrum +don't blame me!"</p> + +<p>"You've just got to go through your part without upsetting anything, +spectacles or no spectacles, or you'll have to settle with me +afterwards!" observed Jessie grimly.</p> + +<p>By half-past three all the invited guests had arrived and taken their +places in the dining-hall, where a temporary platform had been put up. +From behind the curtains the performers could take surreptitious peeps +and watch the arrival of the audience. Dulcie, with her eye at a tiny +opening, reported progress to the others.</p> + +<p>"There's the Vicar! There's Mrs. Hargreaves with all the boys! There's +Canon Hall! Oh, here's Mrs. Trevellyan, and Miss Herbert and Ronnie +behind her!"</p> + +<p>"Where are they sitting?" asked Gerda.</p> + +<p>"Right in the middle of the front row. Do you want to peep?"</p> + +<p>"Thanks—just for a second. Tell me, is my beard all right? Miss Birks, +or—anyone else—wouldn't know me?"</p> + +<p>"Not from Adam! What a fuss you make about your costume!" said Dulcie +impatiently. "Nobody'll notice it all that much. There are ten others +acting as well as yourself."</p> + +<p>"I'm glad you snubbed her," said Deirdre, as Gerda having taken her peep +between the curtains, retired to the back of the stage.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[136]</a></span> +"She really needs it sometimes. It isn't good for people to let them get +swollen head."</p> + +<p>"Are you all ready?" asked Miss Harding anxiously. "Then ring the bell, +Marcia. Now, Rhoda, don't forget your cue, 'Satis verborum,' and +remember to speak up. And, Doris, do put the right accent on 'Dulce et +decorum est pro patria mori'. I shall be so ashamed if you get it +wrong."</p> + +<p>The audience clapped vigorously as the curtains parted and disclosed an +atrium with Veturia and Volumnia seated spinning and chatting as Roman +matrons may very possibly have chatted in the year 490 B.C. The scene +was really pretty, and became impressive when Caius Marcius arrived with +his proud news. Jessie Macpherson had an excellent idea of acting, and, +as her features were classical, she made an ideal personation of the +future Coriolanus, putting just the right amount of aristocratic +haughtiness into her demeanour and calm command into her tone of voice. +Miss Harding had been nervous about many points, but as the play went +on, and scene succeeded scene, she breathed more freely. Every girl was +on her mettle to do her best, and things that had dragged even at the +dress rehearsal now went briskly. Nobody needed prompting, and nobody +forgot her cue; all spoke up audibly, and even the lictor, who had been +the most difficult to train, did not turn his back on the audience. +Though many of the guests certainly could not understand the dialogue, +the plot of the play was so palpable that all could easily follow the +story from its interesting opening to the end. Coriolanus died<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[137]</a></span> nobly, +and fell to the ground with a really heroic disregard of possible +bruises; and Veturia commanded the sympathy of the entire room as she +shared his fate. The performers received quite an ovation as they stood +in a line making their bows.</p> + +<p>"Really, Miss Birks, your girls are too clever for anything," remarked +Canon Hall. "Their Latin was most excellent."</p> + +<p>"The soft pronunciation makes it sound just like Italian," said Mrs. +Trevellyan. "They deserve many congratulations."</p> + +<p>"Yes, they caught the classical spirit of the thing so well," agreed Mr. +Poynter, the vicar.</p> + +<p>"Considering that many of them are beginners, I think it is fairly well +to their credit, and certainly to Miss Harding's," said Miss Birks. +"This is the first Latin play they have attempted. Another time they +will do better."</p> + +<p>The next part of the function was tea in the drawing-room, to which +guests and pupils were alike invited.</p> + +<p>"Be quick and change your costumes!" commanded Coriolanus behind the +scenes. "Here! somebody please unfasten me at the back! Where are my +shoes gone to?"</p> + +<p>"Why need we change?" interposed Gerda quickly. "It will take so long, +tea'll be over before we're ready. Why can't we go in as we are?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes, let us keep on our costumes!" agreed Dulcie, who liked being a +Roman lady. "Miss Harding, mayn't we have tea in character?"</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[138]</a></span> +"Why, I dare say it will amuse the visitors. Yes, run in as you are if +you wish. Gerda, wouldn't you like to take off that beard and wash your +face? Come here and I'll help you."</p> + +<p>"No, thanks! I'd rather keep it on, really."</p> + +<p>"I don't know how you'll negotiate any tea!"</p> + +<p>"I don't mind."</p> + +<p>The eleven performers made quite a sensation as they filed into the +drawing-room. All the children among the guests wanted to examine their +garments and handle their mock daggers. Ronnie in particular persisted +in calling his aunt's attention to every detail.</p> + +<p>"I like Jessie and Rhoda and Hilda the best," he declared frankly. "I +didn't know Marcia at first. And who do you think that old man is? It's +Gerda—Gerda Thorwaldson! Gerda, do let Auntie look at you! Yes, you +must come! I'll drag you! Here she is, Auntie!"</p> + +<p>"How do you do, my dear? Your make-up seems excellent," said Mrs. +Trevellyan kindly, smiling as the senator blushed furiously under his +painted wrinkles. "Ronnie, you mustn't be naughty! Don't hold her if she +wants to go. What a little tyrant you are!"</p> + +<p>"Gerda is such a very shy girl," said Miss Birks, as Ronnie loosed his +hold and Ancus Vinitius made his escape. "I always have the greatest +difficulty in persuading her to speak to strangers. It amounts to a +fault."</p> + +<p>"A pardonable failing at her age," returned Mrs.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[139]</a></span> Trevellyan. "She'll +outgrow it presently, no doubt. At any rate, it's pleasanter than too +great self-assurance, which is generally the reproach cast at young +people of the period. It's quite refreshing nowadays to meet a girl who +is shy."</p> + + + +<hr /> + + +<h2><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[140]</a></span> +<a name="xii" id="xii"></a>CHAPTER XII<br /> +<br /> +<big>In Quarantine</big></h2> + + +<p><span class="smcap">However</span> excellent the arrangements of a school, and however happy the +girls may be there, the word "holidays" nevertheless holds a magic +attraction. Miss Birks's pupils thoroughly appreciated the Dower House, +but they would not have been human if they had not rejoiced openly in +the immediate prospect of breaking-up day. Already preparations were +being made for the general exodus; the gardener was carrying down trunks +from the box-room, Miss Harding was checking the linen lists, and the +girls were sorting the contents of their drawers and deciding what must +be left and what taken home.</p> + +<p>"These are going to be extra-special holidays," triumphed Deirdre. "You +know, my sister's at school at Madame Mesurier's, near Versailles? Well, +Mother and I are to have ten days in Paris, so that we can see Eileen +and take her about. Won't it be absolutely ripping? I've never been +abroad before, and I'm just living for it. We're to go and see all the +sights. Eileen's looking forward to it as much as I am."</p> + +<p>"I'm going to stay with my cousins in Hampshire," said Dulcie. "They're +mad on horses, so I shall get<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[141]</a></span> some riding. They always give me 'Vicky', +the sweetest little chestnut cob. She goes like a bird, and yet she's so +gentle. When we're not riding we play golf. Their links are gorgeous."</p> + +<p>"Where are you going, Gerda?" asked Deirdre.</p> + +<p>"To London, to meet Mother," replied Gerda, with a light in her eyes +such as the chums had not seen since she arrived. She offered no details +of further plans, but evidently the prospect satisfied her. All three +girls were counting the hours till their departure. There is a dour old +proverb, however, which states that "there's many a slip 'twixt cup and +lip", and for once its pessimistic philosophy was justified.</p> + +<p>On the very morning of the breaking-up day Deirdre, who had passed a +funny, feverish night, woke up to find her face covered with a rash. +Dulcie went for Miss Birks, who, after inspecting the invalid and +finding on enquiry that both Dulcie and Gerda had slight sore throats, +forbade the three to leave their bedroom until they had been seen by a +medical man. Very much disconcerted, they took breakfast in bed.</p> + +<p>"It may be only nettle-rash," said Deirdre. "I had it once before when +I'd eaten something that disagreed with me."</p> + +<p>"And I expect Gerda and I caught cold on the warren yesterday. No doubt +it's nothing," said Dulcie, trying to thrust away the horrible +apprehensions that oppressed her.</p> + +<p>When Dr. Jones arrived, however, and examined his patients he sounded +the death-knell of their hopes.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[142]</a></span> He pronounced Deirdre to be suffering +from a slight attack of German measles, and from Dulcie's and Gerda's +symptoms diagnosed that they were sickening for the same complaint.</p> + +<p>"The rash will probably be out to-morrow," he announced. "With care in +the initial stages it should prove nothing serious, but for the present +they are as well in bed."</p> + +<p>The three victims could hardly believe the calamity that had overtaken +them. To stop in bed with measles when their boxes were packed and the +last things ready to go into their hand-bags, and their trains arranged +and their relations notified of the time of their arrival!</p> + +<p>"It's—it's rotten!" exclaimed Deirdre, turning her flushed face to the +wall.</p> + +<p>"If it's German measles I believe it's your fault, Gerda!" declared +Dulcie, weeping openly.</p> + +<p>"I didn't start them!" objected poor Gerda.</p> + +<p>"You've had them packed in your box, then!" snapped Dulcie, who was +thoroughly cross and unreasonable. "Oh, won't it make a pretty +hullaballoo in the school?"</p> + +<p>The sympathies of the moment might well be with Miss Birks. She had +caused each of her remaining seventeen pupils to be examined by the +doctor, and as all appeared free from symptoms was sending off seventeen +telegrams to inform parents of the circumstances and ask if they wished +their daughters to return home or to remain in quarantine. Without +exception the replies were in favour of travelling, so the usual cabs +and luggage carts drove up, and the girls, rejoicing<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[143]</a></span> greatly, were +packed off under Miss Harding's escort by the midday train to Sidcombe +Junction, where they would change for their various destinations.</p> + +<p>In spite of strict injunctions to keep warm, Deirdre got out of bed and +watched the departure from the window.</p> + +<p>"To think that I ought to have been sitting inside that bus, and my box +ought to have been on that cart!" she lamented. "Oh, I could howl! +Mother will have got our tickets for Paris. I wonder if she'll go +without me? Oh, why didn't I powder my face and say nothing about it?"</p> + +<p>"You couldn't have hidden that rash! Besides, it's horribly dangerous to +catch cold on the top of measles. Get back into bed, you silly! I'll +tell Miss Birks if you don't! Do you want what the doctor called +'complications'? I think you're the biggest lunatic I know, standing in +your night-dress by an open window!" Dulcie's remarks were sage if not +complimentary, so Deirdre tore herself away from the tantalizing +spectacle of the start below and dutifully returned to her pillow just +in time to save herself from being found out of bed by Miss Birks, who, +having said good-bye to the travellers, came upstairs to condole with +the three invalids.</p> + +<p>"I can't think how we caught it!" sighed Dulcie.</p> + +<p>"At our performance of <i>Coriolanus</i>, I'm afraid," said Miss Birks. "Dr. +Jones tells me that all the little Hargreaves are down with it. He was +called in to attend them yesterday. Probably they were sickening for it +and gave you the infection."</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[144]</a></span> +"I hope Ronnie won't have caught it!" gasped Gerda.</p> + +<p>"I trust not, indeed. I shan't feel easy till I have sent to the Castle +to enquire about him. It certainly is the most unfortunate happening. +But Deirdre may be glad she had not started for Paris. There is nothing +so miserable or so disastrously expensive as to be laid up in a foreign +hotel. The proprietor would have demanded large compensation for +measles, even if he had allowed her to remain in the house. Probably she +would have been removed to a fever hospital."</p> + +<p>"Not a pleasant way of seeing Paris!" said Deirdre, summoning up a +smile.</p> + +<p>"You'll have a holiday there another time, I'm sure. And now you must +all be brave girls and try to make the best of things. Fortunately, none +of you seem likely to be really ill. We'll do what we can to amuse +ourselves."</p> + +<p>Miss Birks spoke brightly, and her cheery manner hid her own +disappointment, though she might justly have indulged in a grumble, for +she had been obliged to cancel all her arrangements for a motor tour and +stay to attend to her young patients. The responsibility of looking +after them and the subsequent disinfecting which must be done would +completely spoil her holiday. She was not a woman to think of herself, +however, and she put her aspect of the case so entirely aside that the +girls never even suspected that her regrets were equal, if not superior +to their own.</p> + +<p>As the doctor had prophesied, both Dulcie and Gerda developed the rash +on the following day. Fortunately,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[145]</a></span> all three girls had the complaint +very slightly, and beyond a touch of sore throat and sneezing were not +troubled with any very disagreeable symptoms.</p> + +<p>"The microbes have only fought a half-hearted battle, and they are +retiring worsted," declared Miss Birks; "they're not as savage as +scarlet-fever germs."</p> + +<p>"Quite tame ones," laughed Dulcie.</p> + +<p>"Germs 'made in Germany' aren't likely to be A1," said Deirdre, with a +quip at Gerda.</p> + +<p>After a day or two in bed, Dr. Jones pronounced his patients +convalescent, gave them permission to go downstairs, and held out the +promise of a walk on the warren if they continued to improve. Their +period of isolation was a fortnight, after which they were to be allowed +to go home for the remaining week of the holidays. If it had not been +for the thought of what they were missing, they might have congratulated +themselves on having an extremely good time. Miss Birks was kindness +itself, and allowed every indulgence possible. They were kept well +supplied with books, in cheap editions which could be burnt afterwards, +and had licence to pursue any hobby which admitted of disinfection. Dr. +Jones brought good reports of the Hargreaves children, who were now +convalescent. Ronnie had most fortunately not caught any germs, and was +away with Mrs. Trevellyan in Herefordshire. Of the seventeen girls who +had returned home, Irene Jordan only had developed a slight rash, so +that on the whole the school had escaped better than might have been +expected.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[146]</a></span> +After the constant society of their class-mates, the three invalids felt +the Dower House to be very large and empty and lonely. It was +astonishing how different it seemed now the rooms were untenanted. The +whole place wore a changed aspect. In ordinary circumstances they hardly +ever gave a thought to the ancient associations of the house, but now +they constantly remembered that it had been occupied as a convent, and +that hundreds of years ago gentle grey-robed figures had flitted up and +down those identical stairs and paced those very same passages. It was +the code of the school to laugh at superstition, and none of the girls +would confess to a dislike to go upstairs alone, but it was remarkable +what excuses they found for keeping each other company.</p> + +<p>Gerda was the worst off in this respect, for Deirdre and Dulcie, though +ready to accommodate each other, did not show her too much +consideration, and would often ruthlessly disregard her palpable hints. +They kept very much together, and though not openly rude, made her feel +most decidedly that she was <i>de trop</i>. She never complained, nor offered +the least reproach; her manner throughout was exactly the same as it had +been since her first arrival, gentle, reserved, and uncommunicative. +Sometimes the chums, out of sheer naughtiness, tried to pick a quarrel +with her, but she never lost her self-control, and either kept entire +silence, or replied so quietly to their gibes that they were rather +ashamed of themselves. To Miss Birks Gerda did not open her heart any +more than<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[147]</a></span> to her room-mates. She appeared grateful for kindness, but +the Principal's best efforts could not make her talk, and on the topic +of her home and her relations she was dumb. To any questions she would +return the most brief and unwilling answers, and seemed reluctant to +have the subject mentioned at all. After several vain attempts to win +her confidence, Miss Birks gave up trying, and allowed her to go on in +her usual self-contained silent fashion—a negative policy not wholly +satisfactory.</p> + +<p>All three girls made excellent progress, and Dr. Jones very soon gave +permission first for a gentle walk round the garden at midday, then for +a longer time out-of-doors.</p> + +<p>"We've been making invalids of them, though they're not invalids at +all," he said jokingly. "They're nothing but three humbugs! Look at +their rosy cheeks! And I hear reports of such excessive consumption of +chicken broth, and jelly, and other delicacies, I shall have to diet +them on porridge and potatoes. I think Miss Birks is too good to you, +young ladies. When I was at school I wasn't pampered like this, I assure +you, whatever infectious complaints I managed to catch. They used to +dose us with Turkey rhubarb, no matter what our ailment; it was a kind +of specific against all diseases, and nasty enough to frighten any +microbe away."</p> + +<p>"May we go home next week?" pleaded Deirdre.</p> + +<p>"Girls who catch German measles don't deserve to go home. But I know +Miss Birks wants to get rid of you, so I won't be too severe. Yes, I +think I may<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[148]</a></span> consider you cured, and give you your order of release for +next Wednesday."</p> + +<p>That evening three very jubilant girls sat in the small schoolroom +scribbling their good news.</p> + +<p>"This day week we shall be at home," rejoiced Deidre.</p> + +<p>"Oh, goody! I am so glad! I can hardly write sense. I hope Mother'll +understand it. She's accustomed to my ragtime letters, though."</p> + +<p>"Miss Birks is sending post cards about the trains," volunteered Gerda.</p> + +<p>"A good thing, too, for I never remember to put the time. Shall I read +you what I've said, Deirdre?</p> + +<blockquote> +<p>"<span class="smcap">Darling Mummie</span>,</p> + +<p class="indent2">"I'm coming home—oh! isn't it spiffing? Do let us have trifle +and sausages for supper, and let Baba stop up for it. I've made +her a present, and it's not infectious, because Miss Birks has +had it stoved. And it will be ripping to see you all again. I'm +so glad I shan't miss Douglas. I hope Jinks is well, but don't +let them bring him to the station to meet me, in case he gets on +the line. Oh, high cockalorum for next week!</p> + +<p class="nb right2">"Heaps and heaps of love from</p> +<p class="smcap nt right">Dulcie."</p> +</blockquote> + +<p>"It's a good thing Miss Birks is sending a post card, you silly child," +remarked Deirdre crushingly. "You've never told your mother which day +you're coming, to say nothing of mentioning a time."</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[149]</a></span> +"Oh, haven't I? No more I have. I'll put it in a P.S. I hope Mother +won't forget I said trifle and sausages. She always lets me choose my +own supper on the day I go home, and we have it all set out in the +breakfast-room. Generally we only get biscuits and milk before we go to +bed. I think they might let Baba sit up this time. She's nearly six. Oh, +bother! My stamps are upstairs. Do come with me, and I'll fetch them. I +simply hate going alone."</p> + +<p>"You're as big a baby as Baba," returned Deirdre. "No, I can't and won't +and shan't go with you. You must pluck up your courage for once. Dear me +there's nothing to be afraid of, you scared mouse."</p> + +<p>Thus duly squashed by her own chum, Dulcie made no further plea; she +only banged the door in reply, and they could hear her footsteps +stumping slowly and heavily upstairs. In a few moments, however, she +descended with a much swifter motion, and, looking pale and frightened, +burst into the schoolroom.</p> + +<p><a name="front" id="front"></a>"There's somebody or something inside the barred room," she gasped. +"It—whatever it is—it's tapping on the door. I daren't go past."</p> + +<p>Both Deirdre and Gerda rose to the rescue, and—three strong—the girls +ventured to investigate. With a few pardonable tremors they drew aside +the curtains that concealed the door of the mysterious room. There was +nothing to be seen or heard, however. The iron bars had not been +tampered with, and all was dead silence within.</p> + +<p>"Your nerves are jumpy at present, and you'd imagine anything," decided +Deirdre.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[150]</a></span> +"I didn't imagine it. I really heard it. I tell you I did. Oh, I say! +There it is again!"</p> + +<p>Instinctively the girls clung together, for from inside the door +certainly came the sound of rapping, not very loud, but quite +unmistakable.</p> + +<p>"Who's there?" quavered Deirdre valiantly. But there was no reply. "If +you want help, speak," she continued.</p> + +<p>The three held their breath and listened. Dead silence—that was all, +nor was the rapping repeated.</p> + +<p>"I've heard it before," whispered Gerda.</p> + +<p>"When?"</p> + +<p>"Several times. Once just after I came, and again in the middle of the +term, and about three weeks ago. It's always the same. A few taps, and +then it stops."</p> + +<p>"Did any of the other girls hear it?"</p> + +<p>"I didn't ask them."</p> + +<p>"It's spooky to a degree. What can it be?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, do you think there's anybody inside?" whimpered Dulcie.</p> + +<p>"Why didn't he answer, if there was?"</p> + +<p>"He might be deaf and dumb. Oh, perhaps that's the secret of the room. +Is some poor creature shut up there? Oh, it's too horrible!"</p> + +<p>"Don't get hysterical!" said Deirdre. "Mrs. Trevellyan wouldn't go +shutting up deaf and dumb people! It is very mysterious, though."</p> + +<p>"Shall we tell Miss Birks?" suggested Dulcie.</p> + +<p>"No, certainly not. She's always fearfully down on us if we get up any +scares about the barred room.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[151]</a></span> Don't you remember how cross she was with +Annie Pridwell and Betty Scott last term?"</p> + +<p>"Do you ever hear any other noises?" asked Gerda.</p> + +<p>"No, only what might reasonably be rats or mice."</p> + +<p>"Has anyone any notion what's inside?"</p> + +<p>"Not the very slightest. I don't believe even Miss Birks knows."</p> + +<p>"Well, look here," said Dulcie. "I shall never dare to go down this +passage alone again. One of you will simply have to come with me."</p> + +<p>"I don't think we'll very much care to go alone ourselves," returned +Deirdre.</p> + +<p>"You called me a scared mouse!" Dulcie's tone was injured, as if the +epithet still rankled.</p> + +<p>"Well, we're three scared mice, and it's a case of 'see how they run!'" +laughed Deirdre, getting back her self-possession. "We'll go up and down +in threesomes for the future."</p> + +<p>"You promise? You'll never make me pass here by myself again?"</p> + +<p>"Faithfully, on my honour! We'll act police, and protect you against a +dozen possible spooks. Do stop squeezing my arm, you've made it quite +sore!"</p> + +<p>"I don't know how it is, Deirdre, you never take things seriously. I +can't see anything to laugh about myself. The whole thing's queer, and +uncanny, and mysterious, and I hate mysteries. Why can't Mrs. Trevellyan +have the bars taken down and let us look into the room?"</p> + +<p>"Ah! Ask me a harder."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[152]</a></span></p> + +<div class="block38"> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"'While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As of someone gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door,'"<br /></span> +</div></div></div> + +<p class="noi">quoted Gerda, who was learning "The Raven".</p> + +<p>"You're both determined to make fun of it, and it isn't a laughing +matter," complained Dulcie. "I haven't got my stamps yet. Come along!"</p> + + + +<hr /> + + +<h2><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[153]</a></span> +<a name="xiii" id="xiii"></a>CHAPTER XIII<br /> +<br /> +<big>The Life-boat Anniversary</big></h2> + + +<p><span class="smcap">On</span> the following Wednesday three much-disinfected girls took their +places in the train, and started off for the short remainder of their +holiday.</p> + +<p>"I wish we didn't smell so horribly of carbolic!" protested Dulcie. "I'm +sure everybody'll think we're coming from a fever hospital, and give us +a wide berth."</p> + +<p>"All the better if we can keep the carriage to ourselves," chuckled +Deirdre. "Those three old ladies were just going to come in, when they +turned suspicious and sheered off in a hurry. I feel rather inclined to +label myself 'Recovering from Measles'."</p> + +<p>"Then you'd come under the Infectious Diseases Act, and be fined for +travelling in a public conveyance. Perhaps they'd turn you out, and put +you in the guard's van."</p> + +<p>"To give him measles? How kind! But I'd travel in a cattle-truck to get +home. Only one week of the holidays left! I mean to get the most amazing +amount into the time, I assure you."</p> + +<p>Deirdre and Dulcie were travelling together to Wexminster, where their +ways parted, and Gerda was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[154]</a></span> to go on to Hunstan Junction, where she +would be met by a relative. If she was pleased at the prospect, she did +not betray much excitement, nor did she vouchsafe any details of what +was in store for her. The chums were too busy with their own plans to +concern themselves with hers, and jumped out of the train at Wexminster +in such a hurry that they almost forgot to bid her good-bye. Rather +conscience-stricken, Dulcie remembered just in time, and turned back to +the carriage window.</p> + +<p>"Good-bye! I hope you'll have as jolly holidays as mine," she called.</p> + +<p>"Thank you!" said Gerda, waving her hand, with a wan little smile, as +the train began to move. And for the first time since they had known one +another, it struck Dulcie that there was something infinitely sad and +pathetic about her mysterious school-fellow.</p> + +<p>Could she really be a spy? The chums had discussed the question again +and again. Her German associations, her intense reserve, and, above all, +her incriminating meetings on the shore, seemed highly suspicious. What +was the secret that she so persistently concealed? And what the +explanation of the letter she had placed in the bottle? For the present +the riddle must remain unanswered. Both they and she had turned their +backs on Pontperran for one brief week, and during that time neither +suspicions nor speculations must disturb the full bliss of their belated +holiday.</p> + +<p>Deirdre and Dulcie made up for the shortness of the vacation by the +thorough enjoyment of each<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[155]</a></span> precious day, and when they returned to the +Dower House had enough material for conversation to last them a month or +more. Even Gerda appeared cheered by the change. Though she did not +offer any details of her doings, she admitted she had enjoyed herself in +London. She looked brighter, and was more ready than formerly to join in +the life of the school and take some part in all that was going on. The +chums watched her closely, but found her conduct perfectly regular and +orthodox. She indulged in no more surreptitious expeditions to the +shore, and did not attempt, when on the warren, to separate herself from +the others. Since the day they had been marooned on the island, Deirdre +and Dulcie had not seen the brown-jerseyed stranger again. They +concluded that he must have left the neighbourhood, and have suspended +his evil designs till a more favourable season.</p> + +<p>Though they could not in any degree trust her, they certainly found +Gerda a more genial companion than she had been last term. Her reserve +about her own affairs remained unshaken, but she began to show an +interest in school doings. She took keenly to tennis, and improved so +rapidly that she was soon one of the best players, and even vanquished +Jessie Macpherson in singles—a great triumph for <span class="smcap">Vb</span>.</p> + +<p>"She's 'Gerda the Sphinx' still, but she's not quite so bad as she was +before," said Dulcie.</p> + +<p>The bedroom shared by the three girls had been well disinfected and +repapered before their return after the measles. They themselves were +regarded rather in the light of heroines by the others.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[156]</a></span> +"You weren't quite clever enough, though," said Betty Scott. "If you'd +managed to catch it in term time it would have been a real excitement, +and perhaps it would have spread, and we should have had one of the +dormitories turned into a nice little hospital."</p> + +<p>Betty spoke regretfully, as if she had lost an opportunity which might +not occur again. Evidently measles at school was an experience she +craved for. Not a solitary germ, however, had survived the stoving and +whitewashing, and the health record at the Dower House maintained its +former standard of excellence.</p> + +<p>The summer term was always of more than usual interest. The school lived +largely out-of-doors, many classes were held in the garden, and meals, +when weather permitted, were often taken on the lawn. The girls would +particularly petition for breakfast in the open air. It was delightful +to sit in the warmth of the early morning sunshine, with birds singing +in chorus in the trees and shrubs around, and the scent of lilac and +hawthorn wafted by the gentle little breeze that was blowing white caps +to the waves on the gleaming sea below the cliffs. The whole +neighbourhood of Pontperran changed annually after Easter. During the +winter it was as sleepy and quiet a spot as could be imagined, with no +excitements beyond an occasional temperance meeting or village concert. +In the summer it woke up. Every farm or cottage that had a room to spare +let it to visitors. The place had a reputation amongst both artists and +anglers, and throughout the season easels might be seen pitched at every +picturesque corner, and the one<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[157]</a></span> hotel blossomed out into the +head-quarters of the "Izaak Walton Club". So long as the visitors did +not attempt to trespass on the headland, the girls rather enjoyed their +advent. It was interesting to try to catch a glimpse of an artist's +picture as they passed his easel, and the added gaiety in the village +found its way to the school. Miss Birks took her pupils to an occasional +concert or entertainment, and never omitted to let them attend such +important functions as Hospital Saturday Parade and the Life-boat +celebrations.</p> + +<p>It had been decided by the local authorities this year to keep the +Life-boat anniversary on Whit Monday. On that day large numbers of +visitors often came to Pontperran from other seaside places, a +circumstance which would largely enhance the possibility of a good +collection. The girls at the Dower House, having had a long Easter +holiday, were not going home for Whitsuntide, so, with Miss Birks's +permission, they were pressed into the service, and requisitioned to +sell flowers and take donations. As it was the first time they had been +allowed to play such a public part, they were much delighted and +excited.</p> + +<p>"It's as good as a bazaar, only more fun, because it will be in the +streets," said Evie Bennett.</p> + +<p>"We'll just make people buy," announced Annie Pridwell. "I'm not going +to take a single flower back with me, I've made up my mind about that!"</p> + +<p>"I hope people will feel generous," said Elyned Hughes.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[158]</a></span> +It was arranged that the girls should be dressed in white, and should +wear their school hats, and a badge consisting of a scarlet sash tied +over the shoulder and under one arm. The flowers—imitation +corn-flowers—were supplied at the public hall; they were made into tiny +buttonholes, which were to be sold for the sum of twopence, or anything +more that the charitable felt disposed to give for them. The collectors +were to go two and two together, one to sell the flowers, and the other +to hold the miniature life-boat into which the pennies were to be +dropped. Dulcie begged hard to be allowed to collect with Deirdre, but +this Miss Birks would not permit, apportioning an elder girl to each +younger one, so that Dulcie, instead of having her chum for a partner, +found herself, rather to her chagrin, placed with Jessie Macpherson, the +head of the school.</p> + +<p>"It isn't going to be fun at all!" she lamented. "I'd almost as soon go +about with Miss Harding. I thought we should have had a ripping time. +I'll undertake Jessie will want to sell all the flowers herself, and +make me rattle the box."</p> + +<p>Jessie decidedly had views on the due subordination of younger girls, +and would probably have fulfilled Dulcie's gloomy prophecy, had not Miss +Birks intervened with the injunction that the seniors were to commence +the sale of the flowers, then when half the stock was disposed of, the +remainder was to be handed over to the juniors, so that each might have +a fair part in the proceedings.</p> + +<p>"Jessie looked rather sulky about it," chuckled<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[159]</a></span> Dulcie. "I shall see +that those flowers are divided equally and she doesn't take more than +her legitimate share of them. Twenty buttonholes apiece is the portion. +I've a good mind to label mine."</p> + +<p>This particular anniversary was to be one of more than ordinary +interest, for a new life-boat had been presented to the station, and was +to be launched amid general rejoicings. A large influx of visitors was +expected, so there seemed every reasonable hope of a speedy sale of the +pretty little bouquets.</p> + +<p>"I only wish they'd been real flowers," said Deirdre, who, with Irene +Jordan, had been apportioned a beat in the main street near the +principal shops.</p> + +<p>"The real ones fade so horribly quickly," replied Irene. "They would +have been drooping by the time we got them down to the town, and they'd +only last about an hour in people's buttonholes. These are really very +pretty, and can be kept as mementoes. I shan't part with mine till next +year. Now, are you ready? I'm going to tackle that old gentleman over +there; he looks charitably disposed."</p> + +<p>At first the girls were rather shy in pressing their wares, but people +responded so kindly and readily that they took courage, and offered them +even in unlikely quarters. It was amazing how many and what varied +customers they found. A ragged, roguish-looking urchin, who generally +begged from them when he could snatch the opportunity, came up now, and +invested his twopence in the biggest posy he could select, standing with +quite the air of a dandy as Irene pinned the treasure on to his faded +little jersey. He<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[160]</a></span> dropped the coppers into the life-boat with keen +enjoyment, and retired beaming, satisfied that he had contributed his +small share to the general fund. Day trippers proved a harvest, some +putting threepenny bits or sixpences in place of pennies, and buying +more than one bouquet. A waggish young fellow decorated his sailor hat +with enough bunches to form a wreath, quite finishing Irene's stock, and +encroaching on Deirdre's half of the tray. Several ladies tied bouquets +on to the collars of their pet dogs, and a sweet little girl insisted +upon making a purchase on behalf of her doll. A small, very spoilt boy +wanted to carry off the miniature life-boat, and howled lustily when he +realized that it was not for sale; but was consoled when Irene allowed +him to hold it for a few minutes, and rattle it suggestively at +passers-by. So delighted was he with the novel occupation that his nurse +could scarcely tear him away, and it was only by the bribe of a bun that +she cajoled him into restoring the box to its lawful owner.</p> + +<p>"It's getting almost too full to shake!" laughed Irene. "If everyone +else has done as well as ourselves, this ought to be a record day. Oh, +look! There's Miss Herbert with Ronnie! They're coming this way!"</p> + +<p>"Ronnie must have one of my bunches, if I buy it myself and give it +him!" declared Deirdre.</p> + +<p>But Ronnie had come with his small pockets well lined with pennies which +he was burning to spend. He gallantly chose a buttonhole for his +governess first then one for himself, and would have added a third<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[161]</a></span> for +his aunt had not Miss Herbert reminded him that he would meet other +friends with trays of flowers if they walked farther down the street.</p> + +<p>"I want to buy some from Jessie," he sighed, "and from Gerda. I do like +Gerda—the best of anybody!"</p> + +<p>"He's taken quite a fancy to Gerda," laughed Miss Herbert. "He often +talks about her. And really she's very kind. She gives him so many +picture post cards—the sort he loves, with photographs of animals on +them. I think she must get them from Germany. I've never seen any like +them in England."</p> + +<p>"Gerda's ripping!" remarked Ronnie as he trotted away.</p> + +<p>Deirdre looked after him in much astonishment. She remembered how on the +occasion of Ronnie's birthday Gerda had paid him a surreptitious visit, +and given him a present on her own account, but she had no idea that the +friendship had been continued. Gerda must surely have seen him on other +occasions, and won his favour. Ronnie was so entirely the "King of the +Castle" to the school at the Dower House that Deirdre felt hugely +indignant at the notion of her room-mate stealing a march on his +affections. It was an extraordinary thing, she reflected, that Ronnie +should care for anybody so silent and uninteresting. Then a mental +vision returned to her of Gerda's eager, animated face, as she had seen +it when she had peeped unobserved over the wall. No, Gerda had not +looked silent and uninterested when she was alone with Ronnie.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[162]</a></span> +"The girl's a riddle. I can make nothing of her," decided Deirdre.</p> + +<p>By half-past eleven the enthusiastic flower vendors had the extreme +satisfaction of finding their trays cleared, and their miniature +life-boats grown extremely heavy. They carried the latter to the public +hall, and delivered them safely to the secretary of the fund; then, +being off duty, they wended their way to the quay to await that +most-important function, the launching of the new life-boat. Quite a +crowd was assembled, of both visitors and townspeople, and the place for +once seemed full almost to overflowing. A long jetty stretched out from +the harbour, and here, during the summer months, large numbers of lasses +were busy every day packing fish into barrels and boxes. They were a +bonny, picturesque crew, most of them wearing gay-coloured handkerchiefs +tied over their heads, and short sleeves which showed their well-shaped +arms to advantage. They were brought to Cornwall for the summer from +Scotland, in a special vessel chartered for the purpose, and performed +their task of fish packing with a skill and dispatch in which nobody +could rival them.</p> + +<p>For the moment they had ceased work, and, wiping the scales from their +hands, stood watching the preparations with as keen interest as anybody.</p> + +<p>"They're talking Gaelic to each other!" exclaimed Ronnie, running up to +Deirdre in great excitement. "Oh, it sounds so funny! Miss Herbert says +it's rather like Welsh. I asked one of them to say something, and she +just gabbled gibberish, and said it meant I<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[163]</a></span> was a sweet, nice little +boy. She let me stand on a barrel, and I could see so well, but Miss +Herbert made me get down, because she said it was too fishy."</p> + +<p>"Come and stand here with me," suggested Deirdre persuasively.</p> + +<p>"No, I'm going to Gerda—she's over there and smiling at me. Good-bye!" +and Ronnie rushed away tumultuously to join his latest favourite, +placing himself so extremely near to the edge of the quay as to have +involved imminent danger, had not Gerda held one of his small hands, and +Miss Herbert the other.</p> + +<p>As everybody seemed to be collected, and the appointed hour of noon was +already past, a flag was waved as a signal for the proceedings to begin. +First a blank charge was fired, which rang over the water with a +tremendous report, scaring those who were not quite prepared for it, and +making some people clap their hands over their ears. Then the great +doors of the National station swung open, and the beautiful new +life-boat came gliding gently out on her path to the sea. All her crew +were in new jerseys and scarlet caps, and as the bow of their vessel +first touched the water, they broke into a mighty ringing cheer. It was +taken up by the crowd, and from every side came hurrahs and shouts of +congratulation. Ronnie was flourishing his hat frantically (with Miss +Herbert and Gerda both clutching him in the rear) and hurrahing with all +the power of his young lungs; the fish packers were clapping and waving +handkerchiefs; and even the sea-birds, frightened probably by the gun, +screamed as if adding their quota to the general disturbance.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[164]</a></span> +"I do like anything that makes a noise!" declared Ronnie, when the +excitement had calmed down a little, and everyone was tired of shouting. +"I'm going to ask Auntie to let me fire the two old cannon on the +terrace at home when I go back."</p> + +<p>"I'm quite sure she won't!" laughed Miss Herbert.</p> + +<p>The life-boat made a short trial trip round the harbour, then, returning +to the quay, the coxswain announced that they would be pleased to take +visitors on board in relays, and gave a special first invitation to the +young ladies who had so kindly sold flowers in the interest of the +institution. With Miss Birks's permission the delighted girls descended +the stone steps, and were jumped by sturdy sailors into the boat. Ronnie +begged so hard to be of the party that his pretty wistful little face +gained the day, and the coxswain himself took him in his arms, and +handed him safely on board. Very proud he was of his trip, and very +loath to go back to dry land when the vessel, after a partial tour of +the harbour, returned to take a fresh cargo of young people.</p> + +<p>When those of the juveniles among the crowd who cared to venture had had +their turn, the crew provided a fresh sensation by giving an exhibition +of life-saving. One of their number jumped into the water, and, throwing +up his hands, shouted as if in the utmost jeopardy of his life. +Immediately the boat was turned, a rope flung, and in record time he was +rescued, hauled on board, and revived. The rocket apparatus was next +fixed, and the crowd watched with deepest interest as a rope was fired<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[165]</a></span> +over the vessel, and skilfully caught and attached by the crew, who then +drew up the "cradle", a rough canvas bag, in which the passage from the +life-boat to the shore must be made. Without wasting a moment one of the +men was popped in, then those on shore hauled him as rapidly as possible +to land. He kept dipping in the water as he came, so the girls decided +that in a real storm it must be an extremely perilous passage, and he +would be likely to arrive half-drowned.</p> + +<p>"I don't think I'd ever dare to be saved in a dreadful thing like that!" +shuddered Dulcie. "I'd rather stay on board and take my chance."</p> + +<p>"I wish they'd let me go in it!" said Ronnie. "Are they going to take +visitors as passengers? I'm going to run down the steps, and ask them to +have me first!"</p> + +<p>"No, you're not!" laughed Miss Herbert. "You're getting too +obstreperous, young man, and I must take you home. Say good-bye to the +girls."</p> + +<p>"Good-bye! Oh, hasn't it been glorious! I have so enjoyed myself! When +will the next fun be?"</p> + +<p>"Not till Empire Day. Then we'll have the beacon fire on the headland."</p> + +<p>"Oh, lovely! I wish it was to-morrow! What, Gerda?" as his friend bent +over him and murmured something. "Really? Oh, how spiffing! Rather!"</p> + +<p>"What was Gerda whispering to you?" asked Deirdre jealously.</p> + +<p>"Shan't tell you! It's a secret between her and me," chirruped Ronnie as +he danced away.</p> + + + +<hr /> + + +<h2><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[166]</a></span> +<a name="xiv" id="xiv"></a>CHAPTER XIV<br /> +<br /> +<big>The Beacon Fire</big></h2> + + +<p><span class="smcap">The</span> girls at the Dower House were extremely keen upon celebrating, with +due ceremony, every festival that was marked in the calendar. They +bobbed for apples on All-Hallows Eve, made toffee and let off fireworks +on 5th November, tried to revive St. Valentine's fete on 14th February, +practised the usual jokes on 1st April, and plaited garlands of flowers +on May Day. They had thoroughly enjoyed Life-boat Monday, and now turned +their attention to providing adequate rejoicings on Empire Day. All +through the winter they had been collecting drift-wood on the beach, and +carrying it to the headland to form the huge bonfire which they intended +should be a beacon for the neighbourhood. They had built up their pile +with skill and science, and, thanks to their heroic exertions, it had +reached quite large and important proportions. A kindly wind had dried +the wood, so that there was every prospect of its burning well, and Mrs. +Trevellyan had promised a large can of paraffin, to be poured on at the +last moment before lighting, so as to ensure a blaze. The only flaw in +the arrangement was the fact that the sun did not<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[167]</a></span> set until past eight +o'clock, and that owing to the long twilight it would probably not be +really dark until ten, so that the effect of their beacon would be +slightly marred.</p> + +<p>"If we could have had it at midnight!" sighed Annie Pridwell.</p> + +<p>"Yes, that would have been scrumptious, if we could have got people to +come. Ronnie wouldn't have been allowed."</p> + +<p>"No; Mrs. Trevellyan's making a great concession as it is to let him +stop up till nine. It's a pity she's laid up with sciatica, and can't +come herself."</p> + +<p>"She'll watch it from a window, and Miss Herbert will bring Ronnie."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Trevellyan had been extremely kind in the matter of the bonfire; +she had given Miss Birks carte blanche in respect to it, and told her to +regard the headland as her private property for the evening, and ask any +guests whom she wished to join in the celebration. Quite a number of +invitations had been sent out to various friends in the neighbourhood, +and a merry gathering was expected. Some were to arrive at the school +and walk over the warren, and others had decided to come by boat to the +little cove directly under the headland, an easier means of getting from +Porthmorvan or St. Gonstan's than going round by road.</p> + +<p>Naturally, the girls were all at the very tiptop of expectation: even +the dignified Sixth betrayed signs of excitement, and <span class="smcap">Vb</span> was in a state +verging on the riotous. To their credit they all accomplished<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[168]</a></span> their +shortened evening preparation with exemplary quiet and diligence, but +once released, and speeding over the warren to the headland, they +allowed their overwrought spirits to find relief. They danced ragtimes, +sang, halloed, and cooeed, and generally worked off steam, so that by +the time they reached the beacon they had calmed down sufficiently to +satisfy Miss Birks's standard of holiday behaviour, and not make an +exhibition of themselves before visitors.</p> + +<p>Already people were beginning to arrive both by land and sea. Miss Birks +brought a select party who had motored from Kergoff, and at least half a +dozen boats were beached upon the little cove. Ronnie was already on the +scene in charge of Miss Herbert, immensely proud of being allowed to sit +up beyond his usual bedtime, and running here, there, and everywhere in +the exuberance of his supreme satisfaction.</p> + +<p>The girls had fixed a stake into the rocks close by, from which a Union +Jack floated to give the key-note of the proceedings, and had prepared +buttonholes of daisies, the Empire flower, to present to all the guests. +They had twisted daisy-chains round their own hats, and even decorated +their flagstaff with a long garland, so they felt that they had done +everything possible to manifest their loyalty to King George. Mrs. +Trevellyan's head gardener had brought the large can of paraffin, and +filling a greenhouse syringe from it, began carefully to spray the wood, +especially in the places where it was most important for the fire to +catch. The company then<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[169]</a></span> drew back, and formed a circle at a safe and +respectful distance. A thin train of gunpowder was laid down, and under +the gardener's careful superintendence Ronnie was allowed the immense +privilege of applying a taper to the end. The light flared up, and wound +like a fiery snake to the beacon, where, catching a piece of gorse +soaked with paraffin, it started the whole pile into a glorious blaze. +Up and up soared the flames, roaring and crackling, and making as much +ado as if the Spanish armada had been sighted again and it were warning +the neighbourhood to arms. The girls could not help starting three +cheers, the guests joined lustily, and Ronnie, almost beside himself +with excitement, pranced about like a small high-priest officiating at +some heathen ceremonial rite.</p> + +<p>Miss Birks had added a delightful feature to the celebration by +providing a picnic supper. It was of course impossible to hang kettles +on the beacon, but the large cauldron had been brought, and was soon at +work boiling water to make coffee and cocoa. The girls helped to unpack +hampers of cups and saucers, and to arrange baskets of cakes, and when +the bonfire had formed a sufficient deposit of hot ashes, rows of +potatoes were placed round it to cook, and to be eaten later. It was a +very merry supper, as they sat on the short grass of the headland, with +the beacon blazing on one hand, and on the other the western sky all +glorious with the copper afterglow of sunset. The new moon, like a good +omen, shone over the sea, and from far, far away came the distant chime +of bells,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[170]</a></span> stealing almost like elfin music over the water. From the +beach below came the long-drawn, monotonous cry of a curlew.</p> + +<p>"The fairies are calling!" whispered Gerda to Ronnie. "Listen! This is +just the time for their dancing—the new moon and the sunset. They'll be +whirling round and round and round in the creek over there."</p> + +<p>"Really? Oh, Gerda! could we truly, truly see them?"</p> + +<p>The little fellow's blue eyes were wide with eagerness. He sprang on his +friend's knee, and clutched her tightly round the neck.</p> + +<p>"You promised you'd take me!" he breathed in her ear.</p> + +<p>"Yes, if you're very quiet, and don't tell. Not a living soul must know +but you and me. If anyone else sees us the fairies will all just vanish +away. They can't bear mortals to know their secrets."</p> + +<p>"But they'll let you and me?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, you shall see the Queen of the Fairies, and she'll give you a +kiss."</p> + +<p>"Oh, do let us go, quick!"</p> + +<p>"In a moment. Remember, nobody must notice. Let us walk over there, and +pretend we're looking at the flag. Now, come gently round this rock. +Hush! We must steal away if we're to find fairies! I believe we're out +of sight now. Not a soul can see us. Give me your hand, darling, and +we'll run."</p> + +<p>It was perhaps a few minutes after this that Miss Herbert, who had been +engaged in a pleasant conversation<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[171]</a></span> with the curate from Kergoff, missed +her small charge.</p> + +<p>"Where's Ronnie?" she asked anxiously.</p> + +<p>"I saw him just now," said Miss Harding. "He was with the girls as +usual. Gerda Thorwaldson had him in tow."</p> + +<p>"If he's with Gerda he's all right," returned Miss Herbert, evidently +relieved. "She's always so very careful. No doubt they'll turn up +directly."</p> + +<p>"I expect they're only fetching more potatoes from the hamper," said the +curate. "We'll soon hunt them up if they don't put in an appearance."</p> + +<p>Deirdre, who was standing near, chanced to overhear these remarks, and, +jealous of Gerda's hold over Ronnie, turned in search of the missing +pair. They were not by the bonfire, it was certain, nor were they among +any of the groups of girls and guests who still sat finishing cups of +coffee, and laughing and chatting, Deirdre walked to where the hamper of +potatoes had been left, but her quest was still unrewarded. She returned +hastily, and calling her chum, drew her aside.</p> + +<p>"Gerda and Ronnie have disappeared," she explained briefly. "I don't +like the look of it. Gerda has no right to monopolize him as she does. I +vote we go straight and find them, and bring them back."</p> + +<p>The two girls set out at once, and as luck would have it, turned their +steps exactly in the direction where the truants had gone. They ran down +the steep hillside behind the flagstaff, till they reached a broad +terrace on the verge of the cliff overhanging the cove<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[172]</a></span> where the boats +were moored. Ronnie was so fond of boats that they thought he had +perhaps persuaded Gerda to take him to the beach to look at them.</p> + +<p>Advancing as near to the edge as they dared, they peeped over on to the +sands. There was nobody to be seen, only the row of small craft lying on +the shingle, just as they had seen them an hour ago. The tide had risen +higher, and had begun to lap softly against them, but was not yet +sufficiently full to float them; moreover they were all secured with +stout cables. Stop! There was something different. Surely there had only +been six boats before, and now there was a seventh added to the +number—a seventh in whose shadow lurked the dark figure of a man. +Suddenly from the beach below rang out Ronnie's clear, rippling laugh, +followed by an instant warning "Sh! sh!" and immediately he and Gerda +stepped from the shadow of the cliff on to the shingle. They ran hand in +hand towards the seventh boat, and the boatman, without waiting a +moment, jumped them in, one after the other, pushed off, sprang into his +seat, and began to row rapidly away across the creek.</p> + +<p>"Look! Look!" gasped Deirdre in an agony of horror. "It's the man in the +brown jersey!"</p> + +<p>Of his identity they were certain. Even in the failing light they could +not be mistaken. And he was kidnapping Ronnie under the very eyes of his +friends—Ronnie, the "King of the Castle", the idol of the school, and +the one treasure of Mrs. Trevellyan's old age! Where were they taking +him? Was he to be held for ransom? Or kept in prison somewhere as<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[173]</a></span> a +hostage? Gerda, with her smooth, insinuating ways, had betrayed him, and +led him away to his fate.</p> + +<p>"We must save him!" gasped Deirdre. "Save him before it is too late! +Quick, quick! Let us run down to the shore. We mustn't let them get out +of our sight."</p> + +<p>The two girls tore frantically down the path which led to the sea in +such haste that they had not time to realize their own risk of slipping. +That Ronnie was being kidnapped was the one idea of paramount +importance. As they reached the belt of shingle the dinghy had already +crossed the creek, and was heading round the corner of the cliffs to the +west.</p> + +<p>"What can we do?" moaned Dulcie, wringing her hands in an agony of +despair. "Shall we go and call Miss Birks, and get somebody to follow +them with a boat?"</p> + +<p>"By the time we'd fetched anybody they'd be hopelessly out of sight, and +gone—goodness knows where. No! If Ronnie's to be saved, we must act at +once, and follow them ourselves. You can row, can't you?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, I learnt last holidays at home on the river."</p> + +<p>"So can I. Then come, let's choose the lightest boat we can find. We +mustn't waste a minute. We're both strong, and ought to be able to +manage."</p> + +<p>After a hasty review they selected a small skiff as looking the most +likely to respond to amateur seamanship, and loosing the cable, which +had been secured round a rock, coiled it and placed it inside. The tide +had risen so fast that it did not require any very great effort to push +off the boat.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[174]</a></span> +"Are you ready?" said Deirdre. "Don't mind getting your feet wet; it +can't be helped. Now, then! Heave, oh! She's off!"</p> + +<p>With a simultaneous splash the two girls scrambled on board in the very +nick of time, and, taking their places, gingerly unshipped the oars. +They were neither of them skilled for their task, and both realized that +it was rather a wild and risky proceeding. For Ronnie's sake, however, +they would have ventured far more, so they mutually hid their feelings, +and pretended it was quite an everyday, easy kind of performance. If +they had not much experience, their zeal and their strong young arms +made the light little skiff fly like a sea-swallow, and they had soon +gained the headland round which the other boat had disappeared. Very +cautiously they proceeded, for fear of currents, but they managed +successfully to pilot their craft past a group of half-sunken rocks and +take her round the corner into the next bay. In front through the +gathering darkness they could just distinguish the object of their +pursuit making a landing upon the opposite shore. They could hear the +grating of the keel on the shingle and an excited exclamation from +Ronnie. They strained their eyes to watch what was happening. The man in +the jersey helped Gerda to land, then taking Ronnie on his back strode +rapidly away with him, Gerda walking close by his side. In another +moment they had disappeared behind a group of rocks.</p> + +<p>If the girls rowed fast before, they now redoubled their efforts. Both +were flushed and panting, but they<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[175]</a></span> struggled valiantly on, and +succeeded in beaching their skiff within a few yards of the white +dinghy. They did not wait to cable her, but, anxious not to lose a +moment of valuable time, made off in quest of the fugitives. At the +other side of the group of rocks it was lighter, for they faced the +west, and caught the last departing glories of the sunset. On the sands, +bathed in the golden dying gleam of the afterglow, a lady was kneeling +and clasping little Ronnie tightly in her arms. Even from the distance +where they stood the chums could see how very fair and pretty she was. +Her hat had fallen on the beach, and her flaxen head was pressed closely +against the child's short curls.</p> + +<p>"Why, she's actually kissing him!" exclaimed Dulcie.</p> + +<p>The scene was so utterly unanticipated, and so entirely different from +what they had expected to find, that the two girls stood for a moment +almost at a loss. At that instant Gerda spied them, and turning to her +companions made some remark in a low tone. The lady immediately loosed +Ronnie and rose to her feet. Seeing their presence was discovered, the +chums judged it best to walk boldly forward. They had come to rescue +Ronnie, and it seemed high time to interfere.</p> + +<p>"Miss Herbert's looking for you! You must go back with us at once," said +Dulcie, laying an appropriating hand on the child's shoulder and glaring +defiance at his kidnappers.</p> + +<p>Gerda had blushed crimson. She looked egregiously caught. She glanced at +the faces of her fellow conspirators<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[176]</a></span> as if seeking advice. The man in +the brown jersey nodded.</p> + +<p>"Yes—we'll go back at once," she stammered. "I—I was only trying to +give Ronnie some fun."</p> + +<p>"Miss Herbert doesn't think it fun," said Dulcie grimly. "You'd no +business to take him away!"</p> + +<p>The chums each seized the little boy by a hand and began to hurry him +along towards the boats.</p> + +<p>"But where are the fairies? Gerda promised I should see the fairies!" he +objected.</p> + +<p>"The fairies can't dance now, dear," replied Gerda sadly. "You remember +I said they could only come if nobody was watching."</p> + +<p>In silence the whole party returned to the shingle bank. Deirdre and +Dulcie were too indignant for words, and Gerda seemed overwhelmed with +embarrassment. The fair-haired lady was crying quietly. Still, keeping a +tight hold on Ronnie, the chums approached their skiff. Then for the +first time the man in the brown jersey spoke.</p> + +<p>"You'd better all come into my boat," he remarked briefly. "I'll fasten +yours on to the stern and tow her along."</p> + +<p>The chums started with surprise. Instead of the local dialect of a +fisherman or, as they expected, the foreign accent of a German, he had +the cultured, refined tone of an English gentleman. For a moment they +hesitated. Did he mean to kidnap them as well as Ronnie? Perhaps he saw +the doubt in their eyes.</p> + +<p>"You needn't be afraid. I'll take you straight back," he urged.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[177]</a></span> +Glad to escape the risky task of rowing round the point and steering +clear of dangerous currents, the girls consented, though rather under +protest, and wondering at the novelty of the situation which had made +them, the pursuers, return in charge of the stranger whom they still +distrusted. They sat in the stern, with Ronnie between them, guarding +him like two faithful bulldogs. The lady stood upon the shore watching +them as the boat pushed off. There was a sad, wistful look in her eyes. +She did not attempt to say good-bye.</p> + +<p>The chums felt considerably relieved when at last they arrived at the +cove again in safety. The man in the brown jersey helped them all to +land without a word; then he unloosed the skiff, beached her on the +shingle whence she had been taken, and rowed out alone into the bay. +Ronnie was growing sleepy; it took all Deirdre's and Dulcie's efforts to +help him up the steep cliffside. Gerda followed a short way behind. Miss +Herbert, who had really been uneasy about her charge, hailed their +arrival with relief.</p> + +<p>"Here you are at last! Where have you been, Ronnie? To see fairies! +Gerda mustn't tell you such nonsense. Wake up! We must be going home at +once. It's after nine o'clock."</p> + +<p>The bonfire had burnt low, and the girls were packing the cups into +baskets, ready to be carried to the Dower House.</p> + +<p>"We ought to tell Miss Birks about this," whispered Dulcie, and Deirdre +agreed with her.</p> + +<p>Late as it was when they got in, the two girls sought<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[178]</a></span> the Principal in +her study and poured out the whole of the story—their alarm on Ronnie's +behalf, their dread of the man in the brown jersey, and their suspicion +that Gerda was a German spy plotting against the country. Miss Birks +listened most attentively, putting in a question here and there.</p> + +<p>"I don't think either England or Ronnie is in any immediate danger," she +said. "You may make your minds easy on that respect. I shall have a word +with Gerda presently. You have done right to tell me; but now you may +leave the whole matter safely in my hands, and need not worry yourselves +any more over it. On no account talk about it to anybody in the school, +and unless Gerda refers to it herself, do not mention the subject to +her."</p> + +<p>"Trust Gerda not to speak of it," said Dulcie as they went upstairs. +"The Sphinx isn't likely to offer to unravel the mystery."</p> + +<p>"It's a jig-saw puzzle I can't fit together," replied Deirdre. "It's all +in odd pieces. Why was that lady crying? And what have she and the man +in the brown jersey got to do with Ronnie?"</p> + + + +<hr /> + + +<h2><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[179]</a></span> +<a name="xv" id="xv"></a>CHAPTER XV<br /> +<br /> +<big>The Old Windlass</big></h2> + + +<p><span class="smcap">By</span> this time the reader will probably have gathered that Master Ronald +Trevellyan, though possessed of a very charming and winsome personality, +had a decidedly strong will of his own. On the whole he was fairly good, +but the lack of companions of his own age, and the fact that he was the +one darling of the household, made it almost an impossibility to prevent +him from becoming in some slight degree spoilt. Mrs. Trevellyan did her +best to enforce obedience, but though her word was law, Ronnie was not +always so ready to accept the authority of others, and occasionally +exhibited a burst of independence. This was particularly noticeable with +his governess. Miss Herbert was inclined to be easy-going and was not +sufficiently firm with him, and the young scamp, finding he could get +his own way, took advantage of her failing and sometimes defied her with +impunity. The little fellow's simple lessons were over in the morning, +and in the afternoon he either played in the garden or was taken for a +walk. To him it was a great occasion if he chanced to meet the pupils +from the Dower House. He counted them all as friends, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[180]</a></span> though he had +his particular favourites among them, he was quite ready to be the +general pet of the school. On the day but one after the bonfire, when on +his way to the beach escorted by Miss Herbert, he encountered the twenty +girls walking with Miss Harding towards the headland.</p> + +<p>"Hallo, Ronnie boy! Where are you off to? We're all going to drill on +the green and do ambulance practice. Won't Miss Herbert let you come and +watch us?"</p> + +<p>"Not to-day, thanks, I'm busy. I've got to go fishing," returned the +"King of the Castle", proudly displaying a small shrimping net. +"Auntie's going to have what I catch fried for breakfast to-morrow."</p> + +<p>"Hope she won't starve!"</p> + +<p>"Hadn't you better run after a rabbit and catch it for her?"</p> + +<p>"Or shoot a cock sparrow?"</p> + +<p>"Come with us to drill and we'll make you a colonel of the regiment."</p> + +<p>"Or we'll practise ambulance work, and bind up your leg and carry you +home on a coat."</p> + +<p>"You've no idea what fun it would be."</p> + +<p>But Ronnie stuck to his guns. He had come out with the intention of +fishing, and not even the attractions of drill and ambulance could tempt +him from trying his new shrimping net.</p> + +<p>"We shall expect a pilchard apiece," declared his friends, as they gave +up trying to cajole him and went on their way.</p> + +<p>"You won't get any; they're all for Auntie!" he<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[181]</a></span> shouted. "Yes, they +are, even if I catch shoals, and shoals, and shoals!"</p> + +<p>The girls laughed, talked about him for a moment or two, and then +dismissed him from their minds. They were full of their practice for the +afternoon. It was only this term that drill and ambulance had been taken +up at the school, so they were still in the first heat of their +enthusiasm. On this occasion, too, Miss Barlow, a lady staying in the +neighbourhood, who had been largely connected with the Girl Guide +movement in Australia, had promised to come and inspect them and give +them some of the results of her Colonial experience. A strip of green +sward not far from the scene of the beacon fire made an excellent parade +ground, and here they drew up in line to await the arrival of their +honorary colonel, who was following with Miss Birks. Miss Barlow proved +to be, like an old-fashioned children's book, "a combination of +amusement and instruction". She had extremely jolly, pleasant manners +and a fund of lively remarks, making everybody laugh heartily as she +went her round of inspection.</p> + +<p>"I'm glad you know the difference between left and right," she said. +"I'm told that country recruits for the army find such a difficulty in +distinguishing between the two that their sergeant is sometimes obliged +to make them tie a band of hay round one leg and a band of straw round +the other. Then instead of calling out 'left—right—left—right' he +says 'hay—straw—hay—straw' until they have grown accustomed to +march."</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[182]</a></span> +"Do you find Colonial girls much quicker than English?" asked Jessie +Macpherson.</p> + +<p>"They are more resourceful, and very bright in suggesting fresh ideas, +but they are not so willing to submit to discipline. They are more ready +to copy a corps of roughriders than a Roman cohort. No doubt it is owing +to the way they are brought up. Very few of them spend their early life +in the charge of nurses and governesses. From babyhood they are taught +to take care of themselves, to be prepared for emergencies, and to throw +up whatever they may have in hand and go to the assistance of a +neighbour who needs them. It is a training that makes them helpful and +energetic, but perhaps a little too independent to accord entirely with +the standards we keep at home. Our girls are more sheltered and guarded, +and it is only natural that they should have a different style from +those who must hold their own. I wish I could have introduced you to +some of my bright young Australian friends. I think you would find the +same charm about them that I do."</p> + +<p>Miss Barlow had many hints to give them on the subject of camp cookery. +She showed the girls the quickest and most practical way to build a +fire, and the right situation to choose for it as regards shelter.</p> + +<p>"I wish we could have stayed here for a whole day and prepared our own +dinner," she said. "It is wonderful how much can be done with a +three-legged iron pot and some gorse to burn under it. We would have +made a most delicious stew. I should<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[183]</a></span> have liked to teach you to build a +camp oven, but we should need a spade for that. One has to dig a hole +nearly a yard deep and wide, line it with stones, light a fire in it, +then pop one's iron pot on to the mass of hot ashes, and cover the whole +with a roof of sticks and sods. I have often baked bread this way out in +the bush. Then you ought to know how to wrap up your food in cases of +green leaves and wet clay, to be cooked in the ashes round an ordinary +camp fire; and how to mix flour and water cakes when there is no yeast +to be had for bread."</p> + +<p>"If only we could come and camp out with you here for a week!" sighed +the girls. "It would be ripping fun!"</p> + +<p>"Yes, if the weather were fine; but our English weather is apt to play +unkind tricks. My brother is a doctor, and medical officer to a Boys' +Brigade. At Whitsuntide he went with them to camp. It was delightful for +the first three days, then in the night a perfect blizzard arose and the +rain fell in torrents. The wind got under his tent and tore up some of +the pegs, then half the canvas came flapping down, a wet mass, over his +bed. A tightly-stretched tent will keep out the weather, but if it gets +loose and rests against anything inside, the rain will soak through, and +you can imagine the miserable condition. In preparing breakfast, &c., +all the boys got wretchedly wet, and to try to prevent their taking cold +my brother dosed them all with camphor. As there were eighty in camp, +you can understand it took a long time to measure out the orthodox ten +drops on to each separate<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[184]</a></span> lump of sugar. I am afraid the last patient +had full opportunity of catching the cold before he took the cure."</p> + +<p>"I expect the ancient Britons did camp cookery when they lived here," +suggested Irene Jordan.</p> + +<p>"No doubt they did. There are traces that a most early and primitive +people, far older than the Celts whom Julius Cæsar wrote about, must +have lived on this headland. We are sitting on the very remains of their +little circular huts. Look! you can trace the outlines of the ancient +stone walls. Here a small community must have lived, and hunted and +fished, and fetched limpets and +<a name="periwinkles" id="periwinkles"></a><ins title="Original has perwinkles">periwinkles</ins> from the +beach to eat as dessert. Probably the reindeer or the Irish elk still +came to feed on the mossy grass, and there would be a grand pursuit with +bows and flint-tipped arrows. It must have been a great event to kill an +elk. The whole primitive village would feast for days afterwards, +toasting the flesh on little spits of wood. Then the women would prepare +the skin and stitch it with bone needles into warm garments, and the +horns would be used as picks or other implements, so that nothing was +wasted. Their camp cookery would have to be even more simple than ours, +for they had not yet discovered the use of metals, so could not have a +three-legged cauldron. They boiled their water in a very curious manner, +by dropping red-hot stones into it. It must have taken a long time and +given rather a funny flavour to the joints, but no doubt they tasted +delicious to Neolithic appetites."</p> + +<p>"I'd like to restore a few of the huts, and come and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[185]</a></span> live in them for a +few days, and pretend we were primitive folk," said Deirdre.</p> + +<p>"Mrs. Trevellyan has often talked of excavating them," remarked Miss +Birks. "I hope she will do so. It is quite possible that some very +interesting relics of the Stone Age might be turned up. It would +probably fix the period when they were inhabited."</p> + +<p>"How long ago would that be?" asked one of the girls.</p> + +<p>"Most likely about two thousand years or more."</p> + +<p>The conversation at this point was interrupted, for in the distance +appeared Miss Herbert, running, beckoning and calling to them all at +once. In considerable alarm they went to meet her.</p> + +<p>"Where's Ronnie?" she gasped. "I've lost him! Oh, has anybody seen him? +Is he here with you?"</p> + +<p>"He's certainly not here," said Miss Birks. "We've not seen him since we +met you an hour or more ago. When did you miss him, and where?"</p> + +<p>"On the beach," sobbed Miss Herbert hysterically. "He was playing with +his little shrimping net. I sat down to read my book, and I kept looking +to see that he was all right, and then suddenly he had disappeared. I +thought he must have trotted back round the point, so I followed, but I +couldn't find him. I hoped he'd come up here to you. It's very naughty +of him to run away."</p> + +<p>"We must find him at once," said Miss Birks gravely. "Girls, you had +better go in parties of three, each in a different direction. Miss +Barlow and I will go with Miss Herbert. We won't give up the search +until he is found."</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[186]</a></span> +"Did he go round the other corner of the cove?" asked Gerda.</p> + +<p>"He couldn't. The waves were dashing quite high against the rocks. I'm +sure he would never venture," declared the distracted governess.</p> + +<p>"He's such a plucky little chap, he would venture anything."</p> + +<p>"Oh, surely not! He couldn't! He couldn't have gone there! He may have +run home!"</p> + +<p>"Better not waste any more time, but go and see what's become of him," +suggested Miss Birks rather dryly. She had always thought Miss Herbert +too easy-going where Ronnie was concerned.</p> + +<p>The bands of searchers set off in eight different directions, shouting, +hallooing, cuckooing, and making every kind of call likely to attract +the child's attention. Some took the beach and some the cliffs, while +others ran to the Castle to see if he had returned to the garden. There +had never been such a hue and cry on the headland. That Ronnie should be +lost was an unparalleled disaster, and considering the many accidents +which might possibly have happened to him, each of his friends searched +with a deadly fear in her heart. Gerda, her once rosy face white as +chalk, had flown along the cliffs with Deirdre and Dulcie, shouting his +name again and again.</p> + +<p>"He may have gone round the west corner, though Miss Herbert says he +couldn't," she panted. "Let us get on to the cliff above, where we can +look down. Oh, Ronnie! Ronnie! Cuckoo! Where are you? Cooee!"</p> + +<p>As Gerda gave the last long-drawn-out call she<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[187]</a></span> stopped suddenly and +motioned the others to silence. From the shore below there came a faint +but quite unmistakable response. Creeping to the verge of the +overhanging precipice Gerda peeped down. There, at a distance of forty +feet beneath, stood Ronnie, a pathetic little figure, turning up a small +frightened face and quavering a shrill "Cooee!" His position was one of +imminent danger. The point round which he had scrambled half an hour +before was now covered with great dashing waves that hurled their spray +high into the air, and the narrow strip of shingle upon which he stood +was rapidly growing smaller and smaller as the tide advanced. On either +hand escape was impossible; behind him roared the sea, and in front +towered the steep unscalable face of the cliff.</p> + +<p>"Gerda! Gerda!" he wailed piteously.</p> + +<p>Gerda turned to her companions almost like an animal at bay. Her lips +were white as her cheeks, her eyes blazed. "We must save him!" she +choked.</p> + +<p>"The life-boat! Let us fetch the life-boat!" cried Deirdre. "You stay +here and I'll run to Pontperran. Some of the others will go with me; +Annie Pridwell is a fast runner. Cooee! Cooee! Ronnie is found!"</p> + +<p>Deirdre was very swift of foot and darted off like a hare, shouting her +message to the nearest band of searchers. In an incredibly short space +of time the news had spread, and all were hurrying towards the cliff. +The ill tidings reached Mrs. Trevellyan at the Castle, and, sick with +anxiety, she hastened to the spot, first sending one of her men to urge +speed in launching the life-boat. The tide was sweeping in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[188]</a></span> fast, and +nearer and nearer crept the cruel, hungry waves, as if thirsting to +snatch the little figure huddled at the foot of the cliff. Ronnie was +too worn out and too frightened to call now; he lay watching the +advancing water with terror-stricken blue eyes, still grasping the +shrimping net that had led him to this disaster.</p> + +<p>Could the life-boat possibly arrive in time? That was the question which +each spectator asked dumbly, not daring to voice it in words. Nearer and +ever nearer swept the waves. Where there had been yards of shingle there +were only feet; soon it was a matter of inches. There was not a sign of +any boat to be seen. A sea-crow below flapped its wings like an omen of +death.</p> + +<p>"Tom and Smith have gone to fetch ropes," breathed Miss Birks, and her +voice broke the strain of almost intolerable silence.</p> + +<p>"There's not time to wait for them."</p> + +<p>"Can we do nothing?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, is there no way to save him?"</p> + +<p>Then Gerda stood up, with a sudden light shining in her clear eyes.</p> + +<p>"Yes, yes!" she cried. "There's the old windlass! I'm going down to him +by that!"</p> + +<p>Years ago there had been a small find of china clay on the headland. It +had been lowered in buckets over the side of the cliff to be taken away +by boat, and the remains of the apparatus, a derelict, rickety affair, +stood within a few yards of the place where the watchers were gathered. +A rusty bucket was still<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[189]</a></span> attached to the frayed, weather-worn rope +twisted round the roller. To descend by so frail a support was indeed a +risk so great that only the most desperate necessity could justify it. A +general murmur of horror arose from those assembled.</p> + +<p>"It's the one chance—I'm going to try it," repeated Gerda. "You can +lower me gently by the handle. I'm going to save him—or die with him."</p> + +<p>She began rapidly to unwind the windlass so as to allow the bucket to +reach the edge of the cliff. Realizing that she was in grim earnest, the +others offered no further objection, and came eagerly to her assistance. +She had seized the rope and was about to step into the bucket when a +strong hand put her aside. The stranger in the brown jersey had silently +joined himself to the group.</p> + +<p>"This is my place," he said firmly. "I am going down the cliff. Hold +hard, there! Pay out the rope gently and don't let me go with a run or +I'm done for. Easy! Easy! Give me more rope when I call."</p> + +<p>So quickly did he substitute himself for Gerda that he was over the edge +of the cliff almost before anyone had realized what was taking place. +The onlookers held their breath as they watched the perilous descent. +The bucket swayed from side to side and bumped against the rock, but +holding on to the rope with one hand the man managed with the other to +keep himself from injury. Down—down—down he swung, till, clear of the +cliff, he dangled, as it seemed, in mid-air.</p> + +<p>"Now, rope! More rope!" he called. "Quicker!"</p> + +<p>The windlass creaked on the rusty axle, there was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[190]</a></span> a rush, a drop, then +a shout of triumph. The next moment he had snatched Ronnie in his arms. +Ringing cheers reached him from above, but the battle was only half won +after all. There was still no sign of the life-boat; a wave swept +already over his feet. The only road to safety lay up the cliffside. +Would the old weather-worn rope stand the double strain? There was no +time for questioning. Telling Ronnie to hold on tightly round his neck +he once more entered the bucket and gave the signal for the ascent. To +the anxious hearts of the watchers the next few minutes seemed an +eternity. Those at the windlass turned the handle slowly and steadily in +response to the shouts from below. If there had been danger before, the +peril now was trebled. With a child clinging round his neck it was far +more difficult for the stranger to keep clear of the rock. The old +worn-out machine creaked and groaned like one in mortal agony. Life or +death hung on the strength of a rusted piece of chain and a half-rotten +hempen rope. Up! Up! Up! Would the suspense never end? Only a few yards +now and the watchers were waiting to help. Once more the rickety axle +creaked and shivered, then the stranger's head and shoulders appeared +over the edge of the cliff, and eager hands grasped him and pulled him +gently forward on to firm ground. He had lost his hat in the descent, +and now the sunlight fell full on his clear-cut features and his fair, +closely-cropped hair.</p> + +<p>"You—L'Estrange! You! You!" shrieked Mrs. Trevellyan wildly.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[191]</a></span> +But for answer he placed Ronnie in her arms, and pushing his way through +the excited group ran off over the warren and was out of sight before +the lookers-on had recovered from their amazement. By the time the +life-boat had made its way round the coast from Pontperran harbour great +breakers were crashing against the face of the rock with a dull booming +and showers of foam, as if angry to have been cheated of their prey.</p> + +<p>"No one could live for a moment in this cruel sea!" exclaimed Deirdre, +shuddering with horror as she thought how the fierce water would have +dashed and tossed and crushed the little helpless figure left to the +mercy of the waves.</p> + +<p>"Ronnie will be doubly dear to us now," said Miss Birks, marshalling her +girls together and turning to leave the cliff.</p> + + + +<hr /> + + +<h2><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[192]</a></span> +<a name="xvi" id="xvi"></a>CHAPTER XVI<br /> +<br /> +<big>Hare and Hounds</big></h2> + + +<p><span class="smcap">After</span> the intense excitement of Ronnie's peril and subsequent rescue, +his friends at the Dower House found it a little difficult to settle +down into ordinary school routine. They could discuss no other topic, +and many were their speculations concerning the brown-jerseyed stranger +who had appeared in the very nick of time, and vanished afterwards +without waiting to be thanked. His identity had not been disclosed, and +when the girls spoke of him, Miss Birks, rather to their surprise, +dismissed the subject hurriedly.</p> + +<p>"If he does not wish his brave deed to be acknowledged, we must respect +his silence," she said. "It is useless and futile to go further into the +matter."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Trevellyan was for a few days prostrated from the effects of that +half-hour of suspense, but she had sufficiently recovered to attend +church on Sunday, and holding Ronnie's little hand tightly in hers, +knelt in the old Castle pew, with bent head and tears raining down her +cheeks, as the clergyman announced that a member of the congregation +desired to return<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[193]</a></span> special thanks for a very great mercy vouchsafed to +her during the past week. Others besides Mrs. Trevellyan joined with +heart-felt gratitude in that addition to the general thanksgiving, and +when afterwards the lines of the grand old hymn rang out—</p> + +<div class="block22"> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="io">"O God, our help in ages past,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Our hope for years to come",<br /></span> +</div></div></div> + +<p class="noi">there was not a girl in the Dower House pews who did not sing it with +real meaning in the words.</p> + +<p>On the Monday, Mrs. Trevellyan, hoping to recover from her nervous +attack more easily if she were out of sight of the sea, went away for a +short visit to an inland watering-place, taking Ronnie and poor contrite +Miss Herbert, who could not forgive herself for having allowed her young +charge to run into danger. Appreciating the wisdom of the step, and +realizing that her own girls had been in a state of high tension, and +were suffering from the consequent reaction, Miss Birks granted the +school a whole holiday, and took votes on how the day should be spent. +Opinions seemed divided, so it was finally decided that Forms VI and <span class="smcap">Va</span> +should go by train to Linsgarth, look over the ruins of the abbey, and +walk home by road; while <span class="smcap">Vb</span>, containing the younger and more wildly +energetic spirits, should enjoy the pleasures of a game at hare and +hounds.</p> + +<p>It was years since a paper chase had been held at the school, and while +the elder girls affected to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[194]</a></span> despise it, the younger ones had plumped +for it in a body. They felt they required something more stirring than +admiring ruins and marching along a high road.</p> + +<p>"It may be very cultured, and good taste, and intellectual, and all the +rest of it, to poke round with Miss Birks among Norman arches and broken +choir-stalls, but it doesn't work off steam," confessed Evie Bennett. +"I'm longing for a good sporting run, and that's the fact!"</p> + +<p>"Let the Sixth talk architectural jargon if they like; hard exercise for +me!" agreed Betty Scott.</p> + +<p>It was arranged that all should start out at ten o'clock; Miss Birks +conducting the expedition to Linsgarth, and Miss Harding assuming +command of the paper chase, while Mademoiselle, who was a bad walker and +disliked country excursions, promised herself a delightful day of rest +and leisure in the garden. Miss Birks insisted that there must be three +"hares", all solemnly pledged to keep well together, and the remaining +six, who were to be "hounds", had orders not to outstrip Miss Harding to +the extent of getting hopelessly out of eyeshot and earshot. Fortunately +Miss Harding was energetic and enthusiastic, and promised not to be a +drag on the proceedings. She donned her shortest skirt and her coolest +jumper, and discarding a hat, appeared fully ready to play as hearty a +part in the game as any of her pupils.</p> + +<p>Everybody, naturally, was anxious to act "hare",<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[195]</a></span> so it was decided that +the fairest plan was to draw lots for the coveted posts. The three +fortunate papers with the crosses fell to Deirdre, Gerda, and Annie +Pridwell.</p> + +<p>"I'm not jealous, but I do envy you dreadfully," confessed Evie Bennett. +"Oh, I'm not grumbling! I'm ready to take my sporting luck, and someone +must draw the blanks. You'll make capital hares, because you're all good +runners and don't lose your breath quickly. But, I beseech you, don't go +too fast! Remember, the hounds are tied to Miss Harding's apron-string. +It's no fun if we can't catch a glimpse of you the whole run. And, +please, do a little backwards-and-forwards work, cross a brook, or +double round a wood—anything to make it more difficult to find the +scent. We don't want to be home in a couple of hours."</p> + +<p>"Trust us to be as cunning as foxes," declared Annie Pridwell. "I'm an +old hand at the game. We play it in the holidays at home."</p> + +<p>"I haven't Annie's experience, but I can run," said Deirdre.</p> + +<p>"So you can, best of anyone in the school, and Gerda's no slacker, so I +think you'll do."</p> + +<p>Each girl had a packet of sandwiches and a small folding drinking-cup, +so that they could take some refreshment when they felt hungry. Miss +Birks had arranged that a cold lunch should be laid in the dining-hall +at the Dower House at one o'clock, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[196]</a></span> left on the table indefinitely, +so as to be ready for the girls when they came in, whether early or +late, and those who returned first were to help themselves without +waiting for the others.</p> + +<p>"We shall all feel far more at liberty with this plan," she said. "It +spoils everyone's pleasure to have to hurry home by a certain time. It +is much more enjoyable to think we have the day free to do as we like. +We can have tea together in the evening, and compare our experiences."</p> + +<p>"We shall have seen something worth seeing," declared the senior girls.</p> + +<p>"Ah, but you won't have had the ripping, glorious time that we mean to +have!" retorted the members of <span class="smcap">Vb</span>.</p> + +<p>Punctually at ten o'clock the three hares were ready, each with a +satchel round her shoulder containing the scraps of torn paper that were +to provide the scent. They were to have ten minutes' start, after which +the hounds would follow in full cry. They had decided among themselves +what route to take, and, determined to give the hunt a run, they +selected the direction of Kergoff, and set off towards the old windmill, +where in the early spring they had surveyed the country to draw maps, as +a lesson in practical geography. There was a definite reason for their +choice, as the windmill could be approached by no less than three +separate paths, and by dodging from one to another of these they hoped +very successfully to puzzle their pursuers.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[197]</a></span> +"We'll leave some scent by the gate of Perkins's farm," said the +experienced Annie; "then, of course, they'll think we've chosen the road +past the quarry. But we'll only go a little way up the lane, then climb +the wall, cross the fields, and get into the upper road, leave a scent +there, then track through the wood, and go past the old yew tree by the +path over the tor."</p> + +<p>"There'll be a scent on each separate path," chuckled Deirdre. "They'll +be a good long time in finding out which to follow. We must be careful +not to let ourselves be seen when we're crossing the tor."</p> + +<p>There was a delightful interest in baffling the hounds; it seemed to +hold almost the thrill of earlier and more romantic times.</p> + +<p>"Can you imagine the moss-troopers are after you?" asked Deirdre; "or +that you've slain the Red King, or robbed an abbot in the greenwood, and +are fleeing for your life to take sanctuary in the nearest church?"</p> + +<p>"No, I'm a smuggler," said Annie, "trying to outwit the coast-guardsmen, +and arrange to leave my kegs of brandy and packets of tea and yards of +French lace in some cunning hiding-place. What are you, Gerda?"</p> + +<p>"An escaped prisoner from Dartmoor, running from his warders?" queried +Deirdre. "That would be sport!"</p> + +<p>"There's a warrant out for your arrest, and you're dodging the officers +of the law," laughed Annie lightly.</p> + +<p>But Gerda did not appear to accept the suggestions<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[198]</a></span> kindly, or in the +spirit of fun in which they were intended. To the girls' surprise she +blushed, just as she used to do when first she came to school, and +looked so clearly annoyed instead of amused that the joke fell flat. She +was never at any time talkative, but now, taking seeming offence at +these very innocent remarks, she drew into her innermost shell, and +refused to converse at all. Knowing her of old in this uncommunicative +mood, the others did not trouble further, but left her to her own +devices until she chose to come out of it. They had found by experience +that it was useless either to question her, laugh at her, or rally her +upon her silence; the more they pressed the subject the more obstinate +she would grow. It was no great hardship to miss her out of their talk; +they much preferred each other's company without an unwelcome third.</p> + +<p>"Those that sulk for nothing may sulk, so far as I'm concerned," +remarked Deirdre pointedly.</p> + +<p>"I hate people not to be able to take the least scrap of a joke," said +Annie. "Why, Betty and Evie and I are teasing each other the whole time +in our bedroom."</p> + +<p>"You three certainly know how to rag."</p> + +<p>"Rather! We'd die of dullness if we didn't."</p> + +<p>All the time they went the "hares" were carefully carrying out their +policy of puzzling those who followed. Backwards and forwards, across +small brooks, through woods and thickets, over field, farm-yard, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[199]</a></span> +common they laid the most bewildering of scents, more than enough to +satisfy the demands of Evie Bennett, and sufficient indeed to make her +declare it almost an impossibility to decide on the right track. All +this artful dodging, however, had necessitated scattering a large number +of the precious handfuls of paper, and by the time they arrived at the +old windmill they found to their consternation that the contents of the +three satchels were almost exhausted.</p> + +<p>"What are we to do?" asked Annie tragically. "We can't go on and leave +no scents! Are we to sit here on the windmill steps, and let ourselves +be run to earth when we've only done half the round?"</p> + +<p>It was a crisis indeed, and Deirdre could not see any way out of the +difficulty. She stood ruefully contemplating her empty bag, and looking +utterly baffled. It was Gerda, after all, who came to the rescue with a +valuable suggestion.</p> + +<p>"We're close to that queer old house," she said. "Don't you remember how +we climbed in through the window, and found all those letters lying +about upstairs? They can't be wanted, or somebody would have taken them +away. Let's go and see if they're still there, and commandeer what we +like."</p> + +<p>"Gerda, you're a genius!" shrieked Annie. "We'll go this second. Why, +it's the very thing we want!"</p> + +<p>It was no great distance to the old house. Down the corkscrew road they +ran, through the small fir wood, and over the river by the stone +bridge.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[200]</a></span> "Forster's Folly" looked if possible even more tumbledown and +dilapidated than when they had visited it in February. The spring gales +had blown down many more slates and made a gap in the roof; the creepers +in their summer luxuriance almost hid the broken windows; large patches +of stucco had fallen from the walls; a chimney-pot lay smashed on the +front walk; one of the props of the long veranda had been swept away by +the whirling stream, leaving the flooring in a dangerous condition; and +the crop of nettles and brambles in the garden had outgrown all bounds +and, smothering the original privet hedge, overflowed into the road.</p> + +<p>"It's more spooky and Rat's Hall-y and Moated Grange-y than ever!" +declared Annie. "I could imagine there'd been a witches' carnival since +we were last here, or a dance of ghouls. Ugh! I'm all in a shiver at +having to go inside! Suppose we find the ghost after all?"</p> + +<p>"I'll chance ghosts," said Deirdre. "I'd be a great deal more frightened +to find a tramp there!"</p> + +<p>"Oh, surely even a tramp wouldn't spend a night in such a haunted den! +Still, it's so deserted, it might be a place for smugglers or coiners or +burglars. Oh, I don't think I dare go in after all! No, I daren't!"</p> + +<p>Annie was half-serious, and looking inclined to turn tail.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"> +<img src="images/gs04.jpg" width="400" height="623" alt="" title="" /> +<span class="caption">GERDA DARTED UPON THE BATHFUL OF OLD LETTERS<br /> +<a href="#darted"><i>Page 201</i></a></span> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[201]</a></span> +"Don't show the white feather now," said Gerda reproachfully. "Where are +we to get our paper from?"</p> + +<p>"Come along, Annie, and don't be an idiot!" was Deirdre's +uncomplimentary rejoinder. "Why, you were the first to go in before!"</p> + +<p>"My nerves were stronger last February," protested Annie. "I'll let one +of you take the lead this time."</p> + +<p>It was quite a pilgrimage through the nettle-grown garden to reach the +window where they had made their entrance into the house. It was open, +just as they had left it, but long trails of clematis swept across, and +there was an empty bird's nest on the corner of the sill. It did not +appear as if anyone had disturbed its quiet for months. This time Gerda +led the way, with a confidence and assurance that rather surprised the +other two. Through the dilapidated dining-room, along the dim mouldy +hall and up the creaking stairs they tramped, trying by the noise they +made to dispel the ghostly feeling that clung to the deserted old place. +If coiners, smugglers, or burglars had visited the house, they had left +no trace of their presence. Everything on the story above was untouched, +though perhaps a trifle more dust-covered and cobwebby than before. +<a name="darted" id="darted"></a>Gerda darted upon the bathful of old letters, and with eager fingers +anxiously began turning them hurriedly over.</p> + +<p>"Haven't time to sort them out," declared Annie, snatching up a handful +and putting them into her<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[202]</a></span> bag. "I vote we take what we want, and tear +them up outside. Why are you looking at them so particularly, Gerda?"</p> + +<p>"I thought some might have crests. Do let me see what you've taken!" +said Gerda beseechingly. "No, I don't want these!"</p> + +<p>"Why, you've never looked inside the envelopes! How can you tell whether +they've crests?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, never mind! It doesn't matter!" Gerda was on the floor, searching +among some opened and torn sheets that lay on the mouldering straw.</p> + +<p>"Look here! We can't stay all day while you read old Forster's +correspondence! We've got enough! Come along!"</p> + +<p>"One minute! Oh, do wait for me a second! I'll come! Yes, I'll come in +half a jiffy!"</p> + +<p>"We'll go without you, then you'll soon trot after us," said Deirdre, +who had filled her satchel. She and Annie clattered downstairs again, +looked into the empty kitchen, and dared each other to peep into the +dark hall cupboard. They had hardly waited more than a minute in the +dining-room when Gerda joined them.</p> + +<p>"Well, have you found the orthodox long-lost will?" mocked Annie.</p> + +<p>"I've got enough scent to take us back to Pontperran, and that's what I +wanted," retorted Gerda, with a light in her eyes that seemed almost +more than the occasion justified.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[203]</a></span> +No more time must be lost if they did not want to be run to earth by the +hounds, so returning to the windmill steps they tore up their fresh +supply of paper, taking bites of their sandwiches while they did so. A +loud "Cuckoo!" in the distance caused all three to start to their feet +in alarm, and leaving a trail behind the broken sail, they scrambled +over a fence, and dived down through a coppice which led to the stream. +They followed the bank for some distance before they judged it safe once +more to take to a foot-path, then doubling round the hill on which the +windmill stood, they tacked off in the direction of Kergoff.</p> + +<p>The hounds reached the Dower House at five o'clock, exactly half an hour +after the hares, and over a combined luncheon-tea discussed the run, and +universally agreed that the day had been "ripping".</p> + +<p>The Sixth and <span class="smcap">Va</span>, rather puffed up with their archæological researches, +tried to be superior and instructive, and to give their juniors a digest +of what they had learnt at the abbey. But at this <span class="smcap">Vb</span> rebelled.</p> + +<p>"You've had your fun, and we've had ours," said Annie. "Don't try and +cram architecture down our throats. I tell you frankly, I can't tell the +difference between a Norman arch and any other kind of one, and I don't +want to!"</p> + +<p>"You utter ignoramus!"</p> + +<p>"I'm a good hare, if I'm nothing else!" chuckled<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[204]</a></span> Annie. "We must have +led them a run of about fourteen miles!"</p> + +<hr class="hr3" /> + +<p>"Deirdre, I want to ask you something," said Gerda that evening. "You +remember that crest you took before from Forster's Folly? Will you swop +it with me for some chocolates?"</p> + +<p>"Why, I'll give it to you if you like," returned Deirdre, who was in an +amiable, after-tea frame of mind, and disposed towards generosity. "I'm +tired of crest collecting, and I've taken up stamps. Here it is! It's +been in my jewel-box since the day I got it. Are you going in for +crests?"</p> + +<p>"They're my latest and absolutely dearest hobby," declared Gerda +emphatically.</p> + + + +<hr /> + + +<h2><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[205]</a></span> +<a name="xvii" id="xvii"></a>CHAPTER XVII<br /> +<br /> +<big>A Discovery</big></h2> + + +<p><span class="smcap">After</span> the delightful dissipation of a whole day's holiday, Miss Birks +demanded a period of solid work from her pupils, and deeming that she +had sufficiently satisfied their craving for excitement, took no notice +of either hints or headaches, but enforced preparation and practising +with, as Dulcie expressed it, "a total lack of all consideration". +Dulcie, never a remarkably hard worker at any season, was more than +usually prone to "slack" in summer, and it needed the combined energies +of Miss Birks, Miss Harding, and Mademoiselle to keep her up to the +mark. It was more than ever necessary to maintain the standard at +present, for examination week was drawing near, and this year several +extra prizes were offered for competition. Mrs. Trevellyan had promised +a beautiful edition of Tennyson's poems for the best paper on English +literature, the Vicar added a handsome volume of <i>Pictures from +Palestine</i> for the most correct answers to Scripture History, and +Mademoiselle herself proffered a copy of <i>Lettres de mon Moulin</i> for the +most spirited declamation of any piece of French<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[206]</a></span> poetry not less than +two hundred lines in length, the quality of the accent to be +particularly taken into account. These were in addition to the usual +annual rewards for mathematics, languages, English history, music, +drawing, and needlecraft, so that among so many various subjects each +girl might feel that she had at least some chance of winning success. At +the eleventh hour the Principal announced that a prize would be given +for general improvement.</p> + +<p>"That's to make slackers like you buck up, Dulcie!" declared Annie +Pridwell.</p> + +<p>"Really, I wish Miss Birks would offer a prize for pure English," said +Jessie Macpherson, who happened to overhear. "The slang you <span class="smcap">Vb</span> talk is +outrageous. Your whole conversation seems made up of 'ripping' and +'scrumptious' and 'spiffing' and other silly words that don't mean +anything. I tell you, slang's going out of fashion, even at public +schools, and you're behind the times."</p> + +<p>"Don't be a prig, Jessie. What else can I call Dulcie except a slacker? +Am I to say she shows a languorous disinclination for close application, +and advise her to exert her mental activities? It would sound like a +'Catechism' from a Young Ladies' Seminary of a hundred years ago!"</p> + +<p>"There is one comfort in having worked badly," admitted Dulcie. "If I +make a spurt now, I shall show more 'marked improvement' than if I'd +been jogging along steadily all the time."</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[207]</a></span> +"Ah, but the tortoise won the race while the hare slept!" retorted +Jessie.</p> + +<p>In view of the forthcoming music examination, practising was performed +with double diligence, and from 6 a.m. to 8.30 p.m. the strains of +Schumann's "Arabesque", Tschaikowsky's "Chanson Triste", or +Rachmaninoff's "Prelude", the three test pieces, echoed pretty +constantly through the house, in varying degrees of proficiency.</p> + +<p>"It's a good thing nobody belonging to the school has to do the +judging," said Emily Northwood, as she stood in the hall listening to +the conflicting sounds of three pianos. "Even Miss Birks must be so sick +of these particular pieces that she could hardly express a fair opinion +on them. Dr. Harvey James will come fresh to the fray."</p> + +<p>The organist and choirmaster of the collegiate church at Wexminster, +being a doctor of music, was regarded as a very suitable examiner for +the occasion, and even if his standard proved high, all at least would +have the same chance, for he had not visited the school before, and +therefore could regard nobody with special favour. He was a new resident +in the district, and Miss Birks hoped next term to arrange for him to +come over weekly and give lessons to her more advanced pupils, who would +be likely to appreciate his musical knowledge and profit by his +teaching.</p> + +<p>The thought of having to play before their prospective<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[208]</a></span> music master +spurred on most of the girls even more than the chance of the prize; +they dashed valiantly at difficult passages, counted diligently, and +loosened their muscles with five-finger exercises, each anxious to be +placed in the rank of those sufficiently advanced to be transferred to +his tuition. The drawing students also, though they could not practise +specially for their own prize, were busy finishing copies and sketches +for a small exhibition of work done during the school year, which was to +be held in one of the classrooms during examination week, and criticized +by Mr. Leonard Pearce, an artist who had consented to set and judge the +competition. Miss Harding was urging increased attention to mathematics, +Miss Birks was giving extra coaching in history and English literature, +Mademoiselle was hacking away at languages till her pupils almost wished +that French and German were as dead as ancient Egyptian and Assyrian, so +it was a very busy little world at the Dower House, so busy that really +nobody had time to think of anything else. The Principal, anxious to +keep her flock in good health, insisted upon the recreation hours being +devoted to definite exercise, and either games or organized walks under +the supervision of a mistress were compulsory.</p> + +<p>For the present there was no strolling about the warren in "threesomes", +there were no visits to the headland, or rambles on the beach. The girls +grumbled a little at this lack of their accustomed freedom, complained<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[209]</a></span> +that set walks reminded them of a penitentiary, and declared that to be +obliged to play cricket took all the fun out of it. They thrived on the +system, however, and were able to manage the increased brain work +demanded from them without incurring the penalty of headaches, +backaches, or loss of appetite. A few certainly pleaded minor ailments +as an excuse for shirking, but Miss Birks's long experience had taught +her to distinguish readily between real illness and shamming, and she +dismissed the would-be invalids each with a dose of such a nauseous +compound as entirely to discourage them from seeking further sympathy. +Her bottle, a harmless mixture of Turkey rhubarb and carbonate of +magnesia, might have been a magic elixir for the relief of all diseases, +for with the same marvellous rapidity it cured Francie's palpitations, +Irene's +<a name="dyspepsia" id="dyspepsia"></a><ins title="Original has dyspepia">dyspepsia</ins>, and Elyned's attacks of faintness.</p> + +<p>"Nasty, filthy stuff!" declared the indignant sufferers, who, with a +remembrance of Miss Birks's treatment of the measles patients, had +fondly expected to be coddled and cosseted, regaled on soda-water and +lemonade, and forbidden to overexert themselves.</p> + +<p>"Serve you right!" chuckled their friends. "It's your own faults, for +you couldn't expect Miss Birks to believe in your whines when you look +in such absolutely rude health, and compass your meals so creditably. +Why didn't you refuse all solid food?"</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[210]</a></span> +"Oh no, thank you!"</p> + +<p>"And declare cocoa made you shudder?"</p> + +<p>"That's beyond a joke."</p> + +<p>"If anybody looks ill in this house," continued Annie, "it's +Mademoiselle. She's pale and thin, if you like, and eats next to +nothing, but she doesn't make any fuss about it."</p> + +<p>Noticeably Mademoiselle's increased work and anxiety on behalf of her +pupils' success had a bad effect on her health. She looked worn and +overdone, and there were dark circles round her tired eyes. Though she +did not complain, she confessed to being troubled with sleeplessness. +Night after night she lay awake till daybreak, and was sometimes only +dropping into a doze when the getting-up bell clanged in the passage. +"<i>Nuits blanches</i> may be all very well in music, but they are not +pleasant when one experiences them," she confided to Miss Harding. "When +I stay waiting for sleep, I hear many curious sounds. Yes—such as one +does not hear during the daylight."</p> + +<p>"A house is always full of creaks and groans if one stays awake at +night," returned Miss Harding. "You mustn't mind them."</p> + +<p>"During the day I smile at them," continued Mademoiselle, "but if I keep +vigil I am nervous. Yes, to-night I shall be very nervous, for Miss +Birks will be away. I like not that she be away."</p> + +<p>It was very seldom that the Principal gave herself<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[211]</a></span> a holiday during the +term, but for once she was going to London to attend an important +educational meeting, and would spend the night in town. She started by +an early train, leaving her small kingdom in perfect order, and +confident that for so short a space of time nothing could possibly go +wrong. Certainly nothing ought to have gone wrong; her arrangements were +excellent, and Miss Harding was thoroughly capable of acting deputy +during her absence. Yet there is an old proverb that "while the cat's +away the mice will play", and the mere fact that she was not on the spot +made a difference in the school. The girls did not give any trouble, but +there was a feeling of relaxed discipline in the air.</p> + +<p>At four o'clock, instead of going straight from their classroom to their +practising, Deirdre and Dulcie decided to indulge in the luxury of a run +round the grounds first. They walked briskly through the shrubbery, down +the steps, and along the terrace, till they came to the kitchen-garden. +Now this kitchen-garden was absolutely forbidden territory to the girls, +and they had never been inside it. To-day the gate, which was generally +locked, stood temptingly open. It seemed an opportunity too good to be +resisted. With one accord they threw rules to the winds, and decided to +explore.</p> + +<p>A thick and high holly hedge effectually screened this corner of the +grounds from wind, and guarded it from intruders. It was a warm, +productive plot of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[212]</a></span> land, and entirely provided the school with fruit +and vegetables. Deirdre and Dulcie did not trouble about the currants +and gooseberries, but kept straight down the path. They wished +particularly to investigate the far end. Here the garden abutted on the +cliffs, which sloped downward in a series of zigzag ridges.</p> + +<p>The girls made their way gingerly over a freshly-prepared bed of young +cabbages to the borderland where rhubarb and horse-radish merged into +wormwood and ragwort. It was perfectly easy to slip over the edge and +begin to go down the first long shelving slab of rock. There was a drop +of about four feet on to the second shelf, which again sloped downwards +at a gentle level to a third. Here the cliff ended in a precipice, so +steep that even the most experienced climber could not descend without a +rope. Rather baffled, the two girls crept cautiously along the edge, +then Deirdre suddenly gave a whoop of delight, for she had spied a rough +flight of steps cut in the surface of the rock, and evidently leading to +the beach below. It was rather a cat's staircase to venture upon, but +they were possessed with a thirst for exploration, and were not easily +to be daunted. Deirdre went first, and shouted encouragement to her +chum, and Dulcie picked up heart to follow, so that in the course of a +few minutes they found themselves safely on the sands at the bottom.</p> + +<p>"Whew! It's like climbing down the ladder of a lighthouse," exclaimed +Dulcie, subsiding on to a convenient<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[213]</a></span> stone. Her legs were shaking in a +most unaccountable fashion, and her breath coming and going far more +rapidly than was comfortable.</p> + +<p>"It might have been worse," affirmed Deirdre, trying not to show that +her nerve had in any degree failed her, and surveying the scene with the +eye of a prospector.</p> + +<p>They were in a small and very narrow cove, so hidden between cliffs +which jutted out overhead that it was practically invisible from above, +and certainly could not be seen from anywhere in the school grounds. It +was a pretty little creek, with a silvery slip of beach, and green +clumps of ferns growing high up in the interstices of the rocks; quite a +romantic spot, so beautiful and secluded that it might almost be the +haunt of a mermaiden or a water nixie. The ferns, which were flourishing +in unusual luxuriance, caught Deirdre's attention.</p> + +<p>"I believe it's the sea-spleenwort," she remarked. "Don't you remember +we found some at Kergoff, and Miss Birks was so excited about it? I'm +sure she doesn't know all this is growing at the very bottom of her own +garden. I'll try and get a root."</p> + +<p>To obtain a root was more easily said than done, however. Most of the +clumps of fern were in very inaccessible situations, and too deeply +embedded in the rock to be removed. Deirdre climbed from one to another +in vain, then noticing a particularly fine group of fronds on a +projecting shelf far above her<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[214]</a></span> head, commenced to scale the cliff. She +reached the shelf fairly easily, but instead of setting to work to try +to uproot the fern, she gave a long whistle of surprise.</p> + +<p>"What's the matter?" asked Dulcie from below.</p> + +<p>"Matter! Come up yourself and see! Oh, goody!"</p> + +<p>Dulcie was still a little shaky, but spurred on by curiosity she got up +the cliff somehow, and added a "Hallo!" of amazement to her chum's +exclamations. Facing them was the entrance to a cave. At one time it had +evidently been carefully blocked up, but now the wooden boarding that +guarded it had been wrenched asunder, leaving a small opening just +sufficient to enter by. The girls peeped cautiously in, but beyond the +first few yards all was dark. This was indeed a discovery. The mouth of +the cave was so effectually hidden by the crags which surrounded it that +nobody would have suspected its existence who had not come across it by +accident. What secrets lay in its mysterious depths, who could say? +Thrilled with excitement, the girls turned to one another.</p> + +<p>"If we could only explore it!" breathed Dulcie.</p> + +<p>"We're going to!" returned Deirdre firmly. "I shall run back this +instant to the house for a candle. You wait here."</p> + +<p>Deirdre's impatience made short work of the cat's staircase. She +scrambled up the rocks like a squirrel, and was soon racing up the +kitchen-garden. To<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[215]</a></span> secure her bedroom candle and a box of matches was +the work of a few minutes. As she pelted impetuously downstairs again, +she nearly fell over Gerda, who had been doing preparation in the +schoolroom, and scattered the pile of books she was carrying.</p> + +<p>"Do be careful," said the latter in remonstrance. "Where are you going +in such a hurry? And what do you want with your candle?"</p> + +<p>"Never you mind! It's no business of yours!" retorted Deirdre, running +away without even an apology.</p> + +<p>Gerda picked up her books and carried them upstairs, but instead of +continuing her preparation she went to the window. She was just in time +to catch a glimpse of Deirdre vanishing down the kitchen-garden. The +sight seemed to afford her food for thought. She stood for a moment or +two lost in indecision, then, evidently making up her mind, she set off +in pursuit of her school-fellow. Deirdre, meanwhile, returned to the +cove with speed and agility, and found Dulcie waiting where she had left +her.</p> + +<p>"I had a horrible feeling that a monster might come out while you were +away!" she declared. "Do you think we dare go in?"</p> + +<p>"Dare? Of course we dare! I'm not going to have fetched this candle for +nothing. Dulcie Wilcox, where's your pluck? Come along this minute, or +I'll not be chums with you again. Here, you may hold the matches."</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[216]</a></span> +Having lighted the candle, the two girls stepped through the breach in +the wooden barricade, and commenced their exploration. The passage, high +at first, soon lowered till it was little above their heads, and +narrowed to a width of barely three feet. The walls, which for the first +ten yards were worn as if by the action of the sea, became more jagged, +and had plainly been hewn out with the aid of a pick, the natural cavern +having been greatly extended. Here and there the floor was wet, and the +roof showed an oozy deposit as if some surface spring were forcing +itself through the strata of the rock. On and on the girls went for two +hundred yards or more, Deirdre going first and holding the candle well +in front of her, so as to see the way. It was delightfully exciting, yet +there was a thrill of horror about it, for who could tell what might be +lurking round the next corner? Dulcie's nerves were strung to such a +pitch that she was ready to scream at the least alarm. Not a sound, +however, broke the dead silence. The passage in its lonely calm might +have been the entrance to an Egyptian tomb.</p> + +<p>"Does it lead anywhere?" whispered Dulcie. "Oh! hadn't we better turn +back? We've gone far enough."</p> + +<p>"I'm going to the end, if it's in Australia!" replied Deirdre, and +having possession of the candle, she was in a position to dictate.</p> + +<p>A few extra yards, however, concluded their journey, the passage being +once again blocked by a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[217]</a></span> wooden barrier. This was more carefully +constructed than the one at the entrance, being made of well-planed +timber, and fitted with a door, which stood half-way open, and led into +a rough kind of chamber, rather resembling the crypt of a church. At the +far side of this there was a small closed door.</p> + +<p>"Well, we've got into a queer place!" exclaimed Deirdre. "Must have been +a smuggler's cellar, I should say. No doubt they used to keep kegs and +kegs of brandy down here in the good old days. Look, the roof is vaulted +over there! Where does that door lead to?"</p> + +<p>The little door in question had apparently been opened by force, to +judge from the broken lock and the marks of some sharp instrument on the +jambs. At present it was closed, but not fastened. What lay beyond? With +a feeling that they had arrived at the crowning-point of their +adventure, Deirdre opened it and peeped in. She found herself looking +down from an eminence of about four feet into a bedroom. The room was in +complete darkness, for the window was barred with heavy wooden shutters, +but by the aid of her candle she could see it was unoccupied. Giving the +light to Dulcie to hold, she cautiously descended, then aided her chum +to follow. The door through which they had stepped formed part of the +panelling over the mantelpiece, and when closed with its original spring +would no doubt have been indistinguishable from the rest of the +woodwork. The<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[218]</a></span> room, though neglected and in great disorder, +nevertheless bore traces of recent habitation. The bed, with its tumbled +blankets, had certainly been slept in. On the dressing-table, spread out +on a newspaper, were the remains of a meal. A small oil cooking-stove +held a kettle, and one or two little packets, probably containing tea +and sugar, lay about. On the floor, torn into small pieces, were the +shreds of a letter written in German. Dusty and untended as it was now, +the room must once have been pretty, and bore strong evidence of the +ownership of a little girl. On the walls hung framed colour prints of +Millais's "Cherry Ripe", "Little Mrs. Gamp", "Little Red Riding Hood", +and "Miss Muffet". In the corner stood a doll's house, a doll's cradle, +and a miniature chest of drawers. A chiffonier seemed to be a repository +for numerous treasures—a set of tiny alabaster cups and saucers, a +glass globe which when shaken reproduced a snowstorm inside, a +writing-desk, a walnut work-box, a small Japanese cabinet, and a whole +row of juvenile books. Deirdre took up some of the latter, blew the dust +off and examined them. They were volumes of <i>Little Folks</i> and +<i>Chatterbox</i> of many years ago. On the title-page of each was written: +"To darling Lillie from Father and Mother".</p> + +<p>In greatest amazement the girls wandered round the room, looking first +at one thing, then at another. How old the dust was that mostly covered +them!<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[219]</a></span> Here and there it had been hastily swept away, to make a +clearance for cup and saucer or provisions, but in general the little +possessions were untouched. Even some New Year cards stood on the chest +of drawers, bearing greetings and good wishes for the coming season.</p> + +<p>"I want to see better," said Deirdre. "This wretched candle only gives +half a light. I've never been in such a fascinating place. Help me, +Dulcie, and we'll try and unfasten the shutters."</p> + +<p>The heavy iron bar was old and rusty. It must have been in its place for +many a long year. For some time the girls pushed and tugged in vain, +then with a mighty effort they dislodged it from its socket, and let it +clatter down. Deirdre slowly swung aside the shutter. After the faint +light of their one candle, the flood of sunshine which burst in +completely dazzled them. As soon as they could see, they peeped out +through the dingy panes of glass. To their immense surprise they found +they were looking into the Dower House garden. Then Deirdre suddenly +realized the truth.</p> + +<p>"Dulcie! Dulcie!" she cried, "I verily believe we're in the barred +room!"</p> + +<p>There seemed little doubt about the matter, when they came to consider +it. The position of the window corresponded exactly with the closed-up +one which had always faced them from the tennis-courts, and whose secret +they had so often discussed. The<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[220]</a></span> mystery, instead of becoming clearer, +seemed only to deepen. Why was one of the bedrooms in the Dower House +filled with a child's possessions and sealed with iron bars, yet +accessible from a cave on the beach, and evidently in present +occupation?</p> + +<p>The daylight revealed its extraordinary condition with great clearness; +the dust, dirt, and cobwebs looked forlorn in the extreme. On a hook on +the door, which presumably led into the Dower House landing, hung a net +filled with hard wooden balls, and as the draught blew in from the +opening over the fireplace, these swayed about and knocked with a gentle +rapping against the panel.</p> + +<p>"There's your ghost, Dulcie," said Deirdre. "That was the tap-tapping +you heard in the passage. It wasn't a spook after all, you see."</p> + +<p>"You were just as scared as I was," protested Dulcie. "I think I'm +rather scared now. Let's go! Suppose whoever's been here making tea were +to come back? I believe I'd have hysterics."</p> + +<p>There was something in Dulcie's suggestion. It had not before occurred +to Deirdre that it would be unpleasant if the owner of the kettle were +to return and demand an explanation of their presence.</p> + +<p>"We must put the shutters back," she decreed.</p> + +<p>This was easier said than done, but after considerable trouble they +managed to restore the room once more to its former state of darkness. +Their candle was burning rather low, but they hoped it would be<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[221]</a></span> +sufficient to light them to the mouth of the cave. With the aid of a +chair they climbed on to the mantelpiece, passed through the door in the +panelling to the vaulted chamber, and on into the subterranean passage. +They scurried along as fast as they could without stumbling, partly from +fear that the candle would go out, and partly in dread lest somebody +should be coming from the entrance, and meet them on the way. It was +with a feeling of intense relief that, bearing the last guttering scrap +of candle, they at length emerged into the daylight.</p> + +<p>"Here we are, safe and sound, and met no bogy, thank goodness!" rejoiced +Dulcie.</p> + +<p>"There's our bogy, waiting!" said Deirdre, pointing to a school hat +which suddenly made its appearance from below.</p> + +<p>"Gerda, by all that's wonderful!" gasped Dulcie.</p> + +<p>Yes, it was Gerda who had followed them, and who now watched them as +they came out of the cave. She was paler than usual, and there was a +queer set look about her mouth.</p> + +<p>"So that was what you wanted the candle for. You might have told me," +she remarked.</p> + +<p>The two girls began an animated account of their strange adventure. They +were so full of it that at the moment it would have been impossible to +avoid talking about it. Gerda listened calmly, though she asked one or +two questions. She spoke with<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[222]</a></span> the constrained manner of one who is +putting a strong control on herself.</p> + +<p>"So you found nothing to explain the mystery?" she queried.</p> + +<p>"Nothing at all. Is it Lillie who's living there and doing her own +cooking?"</p> + +<p>"And is she a girl or a spook?" added Dulcie.</p> + +<p>"Spooks don't drink tea. She must be alive," said Deirdre. "I wonder if +Miss Birks knows about her?"</p> + +<p>"I guess we'd better not divulge the secret!" chuckled Dulcie. "What +would Miss Birks say to us for trespassing in the +kitchen-garden?—particularly when she's away."</p> + +<p>"We should get into a jolly row!" agreed Deirdre.</p> + +<p>"We shall all three get into one as it is if we don't go back quickly," +observed Gerda.</p> + +<p>Rather conscience-stricken, the chums obeyed her suggestion. They were +fortunate enough to slip from the kitchen-garden without being observed, +and hoped their escapade would not be discovered. After tea they hurried +to make up arrears of practising, but Gerda, evading the vigilance of +Mademoiselle, gave an excuse to Miss Harding and absented herself from +preparation. Stealing very cautiously from the house she dived through +the shrubbery and ran out on to the warren. Casting many a hasty glance +behind her to see if she were observed, she hurried along till she +reached the little point above St.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[223]</a></span> Perran's well where a rough pile of +stones made a natural beacon, easily visible from the sea or from the +beach below. Taking her handkerchief from her pocket she tied it to a +stick, which she planted at the summit of the pile. Waving in the breeze +it was a conspicuous object. She watched it for a moment or two, then +walked back along the cliff with the drooping air of one who is almost +ready to collapse after meeting a great emergency.</p> + +<p>"It was a near thing—a near thing!" she muttered to herself. "Suppose +they'd met? Oh, it's too horrible! It was too risky an experiment, +really! I hope my danger signal's plain enough. I must get up early +to-morrow and take it down before anyone from the school sees it. It'll +be difficult with those two in the room—but I'll manage it somehow. +Fortunately they're both sound sleepers!"</p> + + + +<hr /> + + +<h2><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[224]</a></span> +<a name="xviii" id="xviii"></a>CHAPTER XVIII<br /> +<br /> +<big>An Alarm</big></h2> + +<p><span class="smcap">That</span> same evening an extraordinary thing happened. It was the custom for +glasses of milk, dishes of stewed fruit, and plates of bread and butter +to be placed on the table in the dining-hall about eight o'clock. This +was done as usual, but when the girls arrived for supper they found a +large proportion of the bread and butter had vanished. At first the +suspicion fell on Spot, the fox-terrier, but the cook pleaded an alibi +on his behalf, proving that he had been in the kitchen the whole time; +also, the rifled plates were in the middle of the table, so no dog could +have purloined their contents without knocking over glasses, or +disturbing spoons and forks.</p> + +<p>"I'm afraid it's a two-legged dog," said Miss Harding gravely. "The +French window was open, and it would be easy for anyone to walk in and +help himself. I'm glad nothing more valuable was taken. I wish Miss +Birks were here! It's most unfortunate it should happen on the very +evening she's away."</p> + +<p>The incident gave cause for serious apprehension.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[225]</a></span> Miss Harding made a +most careful round of the house before bedtime, to see that all bolts +and shutters were well secured. Though she would not betray her alarm to +the girls, she was afraid that a burglary might be committed during the +night. Both she and Mademoiselle kept awake till dawn, listening for +suspicious footsteps on the gravel outside. All was as usual, however, +in the morning; there were no evidences of attempts to force locks or +windows, and no trace of the mysterious thief who had taken the bread +and butter. Mademoiselle reported indeed that she had again heard the +curious sounds which for some nights past had disturbed her. She had +risen and patrolled the house, and had come to the unmistakable +conclusion that they issued from the barred room. The closed chamber was +as much a riddle to teachers as to girls, so Miss Harding merely shook +her head, and recommended Mademoiselle to tell her experiences to Miss +Birks as soon as the Principal returned.</p> + +<p>At five o'clock that afternoon Elyned Hughes came running downstairs +with a white, scared face. She solemnly averred that, when passing the +door of the mysterious room, she had heard extraordinary noises within.</p> + +<p>"It was exactly like somebody moving about and frying sausages. I +smelled them too!" she declared.</p> + +<p>The report was in part confirmed by several other<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[226]</a></span> girls, who pledged +their word that they heard stealthy movements when they listened at the +barred door.</p> + +<p>"Are you absolutely certain, or is it only mice?" queried Gerda. "We've +so often fancied things."</p> + +<p>"Mice don't clink cans, and strike matches, and clear their throats!" +retorted Rhoda.</p> + +<p>"But you may have thought it sounded like that."</p> + +<p>"I couldn't be mistaken."</p> + +<p>"Somebody's there, beyond a doubt," said Agnes.</p> + +<p>"Perhaps it's a ghost?" queried Elyned.</p> + +<p>"It's nothing supernatural this time, I'll undertake to say—whatever +may have made the noises before."</p> + +<p>"It ought to be enquired into," declared Doris. "Miss Birks ought to +insist on having the bars taken down, and seeing what's going on."</p> + +<p>"Oh, no, no! It's best to leave things as they are."</p> + +<p>Gerda was looking white and upset and spoke almost hysterically.</p> + +<p>"Do you expect the ghost to bolt in amongst us the moment the door is +unlocked?" mocked Rhoda.</p> + +<p>"No, of course, I'm not so silly! But it's often better to let well +alone."</p> + +<p>"Mrs. Trevellyan is still away, so Miss Birks couldn't ask her to have +the bars taken down now," volunteered Betty Scott.</p> + +<p>"So she is," exclaimed Gerda, with an air of relief.</p> + +<p>"Ah! You're afraid of the ghost," repeated Rhoda. "I'm more inclined +towards the burglar theory. In the circumstances, I think Miss Birks +would be quite<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[227]</a></span> justified in making an investigation, even without Mrs. +Trevellyan's permission."</p> + +<p>"I shouldn't wonder myself if Miss Birks called in the police," said +Betty Scott.</p> + +<p>The girls were in a ferment of excitement over the affair. Deirdre and +Dulcie felt that in view of yesterday's discovery they had a strong clue +to the mystery. They hesitated as to whether they ought at once to tell +Miss Harding, but, as Miss Birks was expected home within an hour or +two, they decided it was better to wait till they could deliver their +news at head-quarters.</p> + +<p>Gerda, during the whole day, had been very abstracted and peculiar in +her manner. She was nervous, starting at every sound, and seemed so +preoccupied with her own thoughts that she often took no notice when +spoken to.</p> + +<p>"What's wrong with the Sphinx?" commented Deirdre. "She's absolutely +obsessed."</p> + +<p>"Yes, I can't make her out. She's disturbed in her mind. That's easy +enough to see. There's something queer going on in this school. I hope +she's not mixed up in it."</p> + +<p>"We'd decidedly better watch her. After all that's happened before, one +can't trust her in the least. Until Miss Birks is safely back in the +house I feel we oughtn't to let Gerda out of our sight. Who knows what +she may be going to do, or whom she's in league with?"</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[228]</a></span> +Coupled with the mysterious happenings of last night and to-day, Gerda's +palpable uneasiness gave strong grounds for suspicion. The chums watched +her like a couple of detectives. They were determined to warn Miss Birks +directly on her return. Meanwhile nothing their room-mate did must +escape their notice. They were to perform a duet at the musical +examination, therefore they had the extreme felicity of doing their +practising together. For the same half-hour Gerda was due at the +instrument in the next room. They waited to begin until they heard the +first bars of her "Arabesque". At the same moment came from the hall the +sounds of the bustle occasioned by Miss Birks's arrival home. Deirdre +and Dulcie looked at one another in much relief.</p> + +<p>"She'll just be downstairs again by the time we've finished practising, +and then we'll go straight and tell her," they agreed.</p> + +<p>I am afraid neither in the least gave her mind to the piano. +Mademoiselle, had she been near, would have been highly irate at the +wrong notes and other faults that marred the beauty of their mazurka. +Both girls were playing with an ear for the "Arabesque" on the other +side of the wall.</p> + +<p>"She's stopped!" exclaimed Dulcie, pausing in the middle of a bar. "Now, +what's that for, I should like to know? I don't trust you, Miss Gerda +Thorwaldson."</p> + +<p>But Deirdre was already at the window.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[229]</a></span> +"Look! look!" she gasped. "Gerda's off somewhere!"</p> + +<p>The window of the adjacent room was a French one, and the girls could +see their schoolfellow open it gently and steal cautiously out on to the +lawn. She glanced round to see if she were observed, then ran off in the +direction of the kitchen-garden. In a moment the chums had thrown up the +sash of their window and followed her. All their old suspicions of her +had revived in full force; they were certain she was in league with +somebody, and for no good purpose, and they were determined that at last +they would unmask her and expose her duplicity. They had spared her +before, but this time they intended to act, and act promptly too.</p> + +<p>Gerda opened the gate of the kitchen-garden as confidently as if she +were not transgressing a rule, and rushed away between the strawberry +beds. Pilfering was evidently not her object, for she never even looked +at the fruit, but kept straight on towards the end where the +horse-radish grew. Keeping her well within sight, the chums went swiftly +but cautiously after. She stood for a moment on the piece of waste +ground that bounded the cliff, looked carefully round—her pursuers were +hidden behind a tree—then plunged down the side of the rock and out of +sight. Deirdre and Dulcie each drew a long breath. The conclusion was +certain. Without doubt she must be going to pay a visit to the cave +which communicated<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[230]</a></span> with the mysterious chamber. Whom did she expect to +find there?</p> + +<p>"To me there's only one course open," declared Deirdre solemnly. "We +must go straight to Miss Birks and tell her this very instant."</p> + +<p>The Principal, disturbed in the midst of changing her travelling +costume, listened with amazement to her insistent pupils' excited +account.</p> + +<p>"This must be investigated immediately," she declared. "Dulcie, fetch a +candle and matches, and you must both accompany me to this cave. You say +Gerda has gone on there alone?"</p> + +<p>Miss Birks took the affair gravely. She appeared very much concerned, +even alarmed. She hurried off at once with the girls to the +kitchen-garden.</p> + +<p>They led the way down the narrow staircase cut in the cliff, and across +the beach and over the rocks. At the entrance to the cave they both +uttered a sharp exclamation, for Gerda stood there in an attitude of +hesitation, as if unable to make up her mind whether to enter or no. She +turned red, and white, and then red again to the tips of her ears when +she saw that she was discovered, but she offered no explanation of her +presence there. She did not even speak.</p> + +<p>"Girls," said Miss Birks, "I think it is highly desirable and necessary +that we should follow this passage into the room which I am told is +beyond. Deirdre, you go first, with this candle, then Dulcie—Gerda,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[231]</a></span> +give me your candle, and walk just in front of me."</p> + +<p>Policing the three in the rear, the Principal gave nobody an opportunity +to escape. She had her own reasons for her conduct, which at present she +did not choose to explain. With a hand on Gerda's shoulder, she forced +that unwilling explorer along, and she urged an occasional caution on +Deirdre. They had reached the cavern, and now, opening the small inner +door, flashed their candles into the room. The result was startling.</p> + +<p>On the bed reclined a figure, which, at sight of the light, sprang up +with the cry of a hare in a trap—a man, unkempt, ragged, and dirty, +bearing the impress of tramp written plainly upon his haggard, unshaven +countenance. He darted wildly forward, gazed up at the strangers +regarding him, then threw himself on a chair, and buried his face in his +hands.</p> + +<p>Gerda gave a long sigh of supreme relief. It was evidently not at all +what she had expected to see.</p> + +<p>"I'm done!" whimpered the tramp. "Send for the bobbies if you like. I'll +go quiet."</p> + +<p>"You must first tell me what you are doing here," said Miss Birks, +stepping down into the room. "Then I can decide whether or no it is +necessary to call in the police. Who are you? And where do you come +from?"</p> + +<p>"I knowed this passage when I was a boy," was the whining reply. "We +used to dare each other to go up<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[232]</a></span> it, but the door at the end was firm +shut. Then when I come back, down on my luck, and without a penny in my +pocket to pay for a lodging, I thought I'd at least spend a night there +under cover. I'd a bit of candle and a few matches, so I found my way +along easy, and there! if the door at the end wasn't broke open, and the +place waitin' all ready for me—bed, kettle, cooking-stove, frying-pan, +cup and saucer, and all the rest of it, just as if someone 'ad put 'em +there a purpose. I wasn't long in takin' possession, and I've lived here +five days, and done nobody no harm. I didn't take nothing from the house +either, except a bit of bread and butter last night when I felt +starving. T'other days I'd found a job on the quay, and was able to buy +myself victuals."</p> + +<p>"Did you cook sausages?" quavered Dulcie, with intense interest.</p> + +<p>"Aye, I'd earned a bit this morning to buy 'em with. Don't know who set +up a stove here, but it come in handy for me, all filled ready with oil, +too."</p> + +<p>"But you know you've no right here," said Miss Birks severely.</p> + +<p>"No, mum," reverting to his original whine. "I know that, but I'm a poor +man, and I've been unfortunate. I came back to my native place looking +for a bit of work. I've bin half over the world since I left it."</p> + +<p>"If you're a Pontperran man, somebody ought to be able to vouch for you. +What's your name?"</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[233]</a></span> +"Abel Galsworthy."</p> + +<p>Then Gerda sprang forward with intense, irrepressible excitement on her +face.</p> + +<p>"Not Abel Galsworthy who was at one time under-gardener at the Castle?" +she queried eagerly.</p> + +<p>"The same—at your service, miss."</p> + +<p>"And you were dismissed for—for——"</p> + +<p>"For borrowing a matter of a few pears, that made a little disagreement +betwixt me and the head gardener. I swore I'd try another line of life, +and I shipped as a fireman on board a steamer bound for America, and +worked my way over the continent to California. I didn't get on with the +Yankees, so I took a turn to Australia, but that didn't suit me no +better, and after I'd knocked about till I was tired of it, I come +home."</p> + +<p>"Do you remember that when you were at the Castle you witnessed a paper +that the old Squire signed?"</p> + +<p>"Aye, I remember it as if it was yesterday. Me and Jim Robinson, the +under-groom, was the witnesses, but Jim's been gone this many a year."</p> + +<p>"Should you know your own handwriting again? Could you swear to it?"</p> + +<p>"I'd take my Bible oath afore a judge and jury, if need be."</p> + +<p>"Then—oh! thank Heaven I have pieced the broken link of my chain!" +cried Gerda. "Oh! can I really clear my father's name at last, and wipe +the stain from the honour of the Trevellyans?"</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[234]</a></span> +"What does she mean?" asked Dulcie. "I don't understand!"</p> + +<p>"It's all a jig-saw puzzle to me!" said Deirdre. "What does Gerda know +about the Castle, and the old Squire, and a paper? And what has she to +do with the honour of the Trevellyans?"</p> + +<p>"I guessed the riddle long ago," smiled Miss Birks, laying a friendly +hand on Gerda's arm. "The likeness to Ronnie was enough to tell me that +she was his sister."</p> + + + +<hr /> + + +<h2><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[235]</a></span> +<a name="xix" id="xix"></a>CHAPTER XIX<br /> +<br /> +<big>A Torn Letter</big></h2> + + +<p><span class="smcap">In</span> order to understand the events which were happening at the Dower +House we must go back for a period of some years in the history of the +family at the Castle. The late owner, Squire Trevellyan, having lost his +only child, had practically adopted his nephew L'Estrange Trevellyan as +his heir. He had indeed other nephews and nieces, but they were the +children of his sisters, and it seemed to him fitting that L'Estrange, +the only one who bore the family name of Trevellyan, should inherit his +Cornish estate. The young fellow was an immense favourite with his uncle +and aunt, they regarded him in the light of a son, the Castle was +considered his home, and they had even decided upon an alliance for him +with the daughter of a neighbouring baronet. But in this matter +L'Estrange had defied the wishes of the autocratic old squire, and, +making his own choice, had wedded a lady of less aristocratic birth. His +marriage caused a great coolness between himself and his uncle and aunt; +his bride was not asked to the Castle nor openly recognized, and he was +given to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[236]</a></span> understand that he had seriously injured his chances of +succession to the estate. His cousins, who had long been jealous of his +prospects, were not slow to avail themselves of this opportunity, and +did all they could to make mischief and to widen the breach.</p> + +<p>Matters went on thus for about ten years, during which time, though +Squire and Mrs. Trevellyan occasionally asked L'Estrange to the Castle, +they still refused to have anything to do with his wife, and did not see +either of his children. At the Squire's death there was great anxiety +among the relatives to know how he had disposed of his property. When +the will was read it was found that he had left the Castle and entire +estate to his wife, with power to bequeath it as she wished, and equal +money legacies to all his nephews and nieces; but at the end came a +codicil revoking the former part of the will, leaving only small +legacies to the other nephews and nieces, but a large sum to L'Estrange, +and bequeathing the Castle and property to him after Mrs. Trevellyan's +death. The relations, furiously angry to be thus cut out, disputed the +validity of the codicil. There were many points in its disfavour. The +lawyer who had drawn it up was dead, and of the two witnesses who had +signed their names to it one was missing and the other dead. There was +therefore not a solitary person left to vouch for it. The family decided +to go to law, and in the case which followed the handwriting experts +decided that the signature to the codicil was not genuine, giving it as<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[237]</a></span> +their opinion that it had been forged by L'Estrange Trevellyan.</p> + +<p>The case against L'Estrange looked extremely black, for he had been +staying at the Castle at the time of his uncle's illness and death. In +view of the decision in the case a criminal charge of forgery was laid +against him, and a warrant issued for his arrest. Before it was out, +however, he had disappeared—no one knew whither.</p> + +<p>To Mrs. Trevellyan the evidence seemed overwhelming, and in spite of her +great affection for her nephew, she believed him guilty. It had always +been her great wish that the Castle and estate should pass to one who +bore the name of Trevellyan, and at this dreadful crisis she offered to +adopt L'Estrange's little son, and to bring him up as heir to the +property. Her one condition was that she must have the child absolutely, +and that his father and mother should not attempt in any way to obtain +access to him. In his desperate circumstances L'Estrange had consented; +the boy was handed over to his great-aunt, and had been brought up at +the Castle without any remembrance of his own home and parents.</p> + +<p>The affair had, of course, made a great stir in the neighbourhood, but +as L'Estrange had not remained in the country to face a prosecution, and +therefore no trial of the case had followed, opinions were divided as to +his guilt. In the course of five years the excitement had died down, and +though the story was well<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[238]</a></span> known at Pontperran it was regarded as the +Trevellyan family skeleton, and best buried in oblivion. Miss Birks had +tried to keep the matter from her pupils; they had a vague knowledge +that Ronnie's father was unsatisfactory, but they had been able to glean +no further details. In view, however, of the strange chain of events +which had just transpired, Miss Birks gave Deirdre and Dulcie, in +private, a hasty outline of the circumstances, telling them that Gerda +was in reality the daughter of Mr. L'Estrange Trevellyan, and that from +certain evidence which she had been able to collect she was confident of +disproving the charge which had been brought against her father.</p> + +<p>Though the chums were thus briefly in possession of their school-mate's +secret, they felt there were many pieces in the puzzle which they could +not yet fit together. When they went to bed that night they begged Gerda +to give them a full and complete explanation. To their surprise she +immediately consented; indeed, instead of keeping her old habit of +reserve she seemed anxious to take them into her confidence and to pour +her whole story into their listening ears.</p> + +<p>"If you're Ronnie's sister you can't be Gerda Thorwaldson," said Dulcie. +"I didn't know Ronnie had a sister. I thought he was an only child."</p> + +<p>"There are just the two of us," replied Gerda. "I am nine years older +than he is, so I've always felt almost like a mother to him. Shall I +tell you everything?<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[239]</a></span> Quite from the beginning? Miss Harding will excuse +us for talking to-night. When our terrible trouble came upon us Ronnie +was only fifteen months old—such a darling! He could just walk and say +little words. I have his photo inside my work-box. You can imagine the +grief it was to part with him, our baby, who'd never been a day from us. +Mother was very brave—she realized that she had to decide between +Father and her boy, and of course she chose Father. We knew it was +entirely for Ronnie's good. Mrs. Trevellyan would bring him up in the +old family home as an English boy should be, and would make him her +heir; and we could only take him from one foreign place to another, and +give him nothing but poverty and a tarnished name. You know, of course, +that my father was accused of having forged a codicil to his uncle, +Squire Trevellyan's will. By a round of misfortune everything seemed to +combine in his disfavour. One witness to the codicil was dead, the other +was missing, and though advertisements were put in the papers offering a +reward for news of his whereabouts he could not be found. Mr. Forster, +the lawyer who had drawn up both the will and the codicil, was dead, so +there was no evidence on Father's side, and the case went heavily +against him.</p> + +<p>"The codicil having been disproved, the public prosecutor stepped in and +issued a warrant to arrest my father on a charge of forgery. In the +circumstances, with no witnesses obtainable, it was not considered<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[240]</a></span> wise +for him to stand the doubtful chance of a trial, and acting on the +advice of his best friends, though very much against his own wishes, he +quietly left the country. For nearly five years he, Mother, and I have +lived together in various continental towns, constantly moving on, as we +feared the foreign police might recognize the description circulated at +the time of his escape and arrest him under an extradition warrant. For +safety we changed our name at almost every place. I cannot express the +wretched uncertainty and the misery of this hunted life, especially when +we knew the charge to be so utterly false. There would have been only +one worse evil—to see him wrongfully sentenced and sent to a convict +prison. The dread of that possible horror we endured from day to day. +Meantime Mother, though she would not confess it, fretted terribly at +Ronnie's loss. As year after year went by, and she pictured him growing +older, it became harder and harder for her to exist without hearing the +least word about him.</p> + +<p>"'If I had even one poor little snapshot photo it would comfort me,' she +said once. 'It would show me my darling is well and happy and cared for +in his new home.'</p> + +<p>"Then an idea came to me. Though I had never been at Pontperran in my +life I had often heard my father speak of the Dower House, and I knew it +was close to the Castle. I begged to be sent to school there, for I +thought I should find some opportunity of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[241]</a></span> seeing Ronnie, and not only +taking a photo of him, but sending first-hand news about him to Mother. +I hoped also—but it seemed such a forlorn hope!—that if I were on the +spot I might pick up some information that might throw a light on the +case and help to clear my father's honour. There seemed little risk of +my being detected, for Mrs. Trevellyan had never seen me—Aunt Edith, I +ought to call her—and I meant to keep carefully out of her way.</p> + +<p>"Mother jumped at my suggestion. I could see that the mere chance of +news of Ronnie put fresh life into her, and after some persuasion Father +agreed to let me go. I took the name of Gerda Thorwaldson, and the +letters to Miss Birks, arranging for me to be received as a pupil, were +written from Donnerfest, a little town in Germany. Mother brought me to +London, and put me safely into the train for Cornwall. Then she used the +opportunity of being in England to pay quiet visits to some of her own +relations whom she had not seen for many years.</p> + +<p>"My father had a friend, a man who believed in his innocence, and did +his best to help him. This Mr. Carr took him a cruise on his yacht, and +came to Cornish waters, tacking about the coast from Avonporth to +Kergoff. By borrowing the yacht's dinghy, Father was able sometimes to +land near Portperran and meet me for a few minutes. Of course it was a +terribly risky thing to do, for he was liable to be arrested any moment +that he set his foot on English<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[242]</a></span> soil; but he longed so much to see me, +and, above all, to hear what I could tell of Ronnie. He was so anxious +to catch a glimpse of the little fellow for himself that he insisted +upon venturing farther on shore. He knew the secret of the barred room, +so, bringing with him an oil cooking-stove, a kettle, and a few other +things from the yacht, he took up his quarters there for a while.</p> + +<p>"I was in an agony lest he should be discovered. I cannot tell you what +I suffered on this account. He did not stay the whole time at the cave; +indeed he lived mostly on the yacht, but kept spending occasional nights +in the secret room. I never knew whether he was there or not, and the +uncertainty made me wretched.</p> + +<p>"During the last five years we had seemed continually to be standing on +the brink of a volcano, and I was always prepared to face the worst.</p> + +<p>"I can scarcely express how deeply I realized the difference between +myself and all the other girls at school. I know you thought me reserved +and uncommunicative and stand-off and everything that is disagreeable, +but I simply dared not talk, for fear I might reveal something that +would betray my father. You with your happy homes, and nothing to +conceal, how can you understand what it is perpetually to guard a +dreadful secret? I could tell you nothing about my home, for we had no +home, we had only moved on from one lodging to another, and left no<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[243]</a></span> +address behind. I could see that you misjudged me, and were full of +suspicions, but I could not explain.</p> + +<p>"You were annoyed with me for winning favour with Ronnie. You would not +have grudged me his affection if you had known how I had craved for him +all these years, and how hard, how very hard it was to be obliged to +treat him as if I were an entire stranger, instead of his own sister. +Then I was terribly afraid of meeting Mrs. Trevellyan, lest she should +recognize my likeness to my father and guess our secret. I avoided her +on every possible occasion, and on the whole I managed very successfully +to keep out of her way.</p> + +<p>"But Mother was pining and yearning to see Ronnie. The little photos I +had sent, and my descriptions of him, added to the fact of her being in +England, so near to him, only made her long for him more bitterly than +before. It seemed so cruel that she—his own mother—must be so utterly +parted from him. I was determined that she should have at least the poor +satisfaction of seeing him, and I plotted and schemed to contrive a +meeting. I decided that on the night of the beacon fire I might manage +to carry Ronnie away for a few minutes, so as to give the opportunity we +wanted. I cajoled him with promises of fairies, and persuaded him quite +easily to go with me to find them. Father, who was as anxious and +excited as Mother, was waiting with a boat, but you know the rest, for +you followed us. Perhaps Mrs.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[244]</a></span> Trevellyan suspected something—she must +have known shortly afterwards, for she recognized Father when he rescued +Ronnie on the cliff. I heard her call him by his name. Father used to be +her favourite nephew, indeed he was almost like a son to her, but she +had believed him guilty, and had told him never to show his face to her +again. Even before Squire Trevellyan's death there had already been an +estrangement between them because of his marriage. My mother was not +their choice, and on this account Mrs. Trevellyan objected to her, and +only once consented to meet her. Though Father sometimes went to the +Castle to visit his uncle and aunt, my mother and I were never invited +there, and Mrs. Trevellyan had not seen Ronnie until she adopted him.</p> + +<p>"After the beacon fire I felt I had accomplished one part at least of my +mission at school. Mother had seen and kissed her boy, and she seemed a +little comforted and cheered in consequence. But the greater task which +I had set myself, that of clearing my father's name, was still +untouched. One possible clue there was which I thought I might follow +up. Do you remember how in February we went to Forster's Folly? I knew +that Mr. Forster had been the lawyer who drew up Squire Trevellyan's +will and the famous codicil. That was the reason why I was so anxious to +go into the house, and so excited when we found those letters lying +about upstairs. I would have stayed to look at them if I had dared. You<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[245]</a></span> +Deirdre, tore off a scrap of a letter with a crest on it, to take for +your collection. Now that crest was the boar's head of the Trevellyans, +which I knew very well, for it used to be on our own note-paper before +our trouble came. You had torn the piece from the rest of the letter, +but I could read—</p> + +<blockquote> +<p class="noi nb">"'<span class="smcap">Dear Forst</span> ..</p> + +<p class="nt indent2">"'Kindly c.....'</p> +</blockquote> + +<p class="noi">And on turning the scrap over I found on the other side—</p> + +<blockquote> +<p class="indent3 nb">"'wish to ...</p> +<p class="indent4 nt">"'extra codi......'</p> +</blockquote> + +<p>"Could it be possible, I speculated, that this was a portion of an +original letter sent by Squire Trevellyan to Mr. Forster, asking him to +come to the house, as he wished to make an extra codicil to his will? If +that were really so, it would make a most important piece of evidence. I +begged you to give me the crest, but you would not part with it then, +and locked it up. I was most anxious to go to Forster's Folly again and +try to find the rest of the letter, but I never found an opportunity +until last week. It was too far to venture in our recreation time, and I +dare not be absent from school for hours without leave. I would have +told Mother and asked her to go, but there were two reasons against +this. We feared she might be known to the police, and that they would +watch her so as to obtain some clue to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[246]</a></span> my father's whereabouts, so she +did not wish to venture into Cornwall while he was near the coast. When +she came to see Ronnie she went over first to France, and our friend +fetched her from there in the yacht, and took her back to St. Malo, so +that she need not be seen on the South-Western Railway.</p> + +<p>"My second reason was that until I could be sure that the other part of +the letter really contained what I expected, it seemed cruel to raise +false hopes. If you had seen, as I have, the bitter, bitter tragedy of +my parents' lives, you would understand how I wanted to spare them a +disappointment. So I waited and waited, and at last my opportunity came. +Circumstances were kind, and when we had our whole day's holiday, I was +chosen as a hare. Oh, how rejoiced I was when you decided to go past the +windmill to Kergoff! I was determined to put in a visit somehow to the +old house, but it came so naturally when we needed more paper. To my +intense delight I found the other portion of the letter that I wanted, +and then you were kind and gave me the scrap with the crest. The two fit +exactly together. Look, I will show you! This is what they make when +joined—</p> + +<blockquote> +<p class="smcap right nb">"'The Castle,</p> +<p class="nt right3">"'<i>Thursday.</i></p> + +<p class="noi">"'<span class="smcap">Dear Forster</span>,</p> + +<p class="nb indent3">"'Kindly come to-morrow morning about eleven, if you can make +that convenient, as I want to consult you on a matter of some +importance.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[247]</a></span> Those Victoria Mine shares have gone up beyond my +wildest dreams, and I'm thinking of selling out now, and +clearing what I can. They'll make a difference to my estate, and +to meet this I wish to add an extra codicil to my will. +L'Estrange is here, so you will see him. I have not been well—a +touch of the old heart trouble, I am afraid. I must ask Jones to +arrange for me to consult a London specialist. If you cannot +come to-morrow morning, please arrange Saturday.</p> + +<p class="nt nb right2">"'Sincerely yours,</p> +<p class="nt right3 smcap">"'Richard Trevellyan.'</p> +</blockquote> + +<p class="noi">This is very strong evidence that Squire Trevellyan intended making the +codicil to his will. I am longing to show it to Father and Mother, but +they are both away cruising in the yacht. I don't know where they are +now; they promised to send me word when it was safe for me to write to +them.</p> + +<p>"When we began to hear those strange noises in the barred room, and +yesterday you discovered the secret of its entrance, I was dreadfully +alarmed. I thought my father must have come back again in spite of my +warnings that the cave was unsafe. I felt so nervous and uneasy that at +last I decided to go and see for myself, and beg him not to stay.</p> + +<p>"When I reached the entrance, however, I did not dare to go in alone, in +case it should be somebody else instead of my father who was there. I +reproached<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[248]</a></span> myself for my cowardice, but I was only just screwing my +courage to the point when you two arrived with Miss Birks. I need not +tell you how relieved I was when we did not find my father. You saw my +frantic excitement when it turned out that the tramp whom we discovered +was no other than Abel Galsworthy, the missing witness to the will? With +his oath and this precious, precious letter the evidence ought to be +complete. Oh, the rapture of the day when Father's name is cleared and +his honour restored, and he can live anywhere he likes, openly and +without fear. Now I have told you my whole story. I'm sure you'll see +why I was so queer and secretive, and so different from other girls."</p> + +<p>"We understand and sympathize now," said Deirdre, "but you puzzled us +very much at the time."</p> + +<p>"We thought you were a German spy," chuckled Dulcie. "We were going to +get great credit by finding out your wicked plot against England, and +informing the Government!"</p> + +<p>"Had you anything to do with that man in the aeroplane? Why, I'd almost +forgotten him!" exclaimed Deirdre.</p> + +<p>"I never even knew there was an aeroplane here," protested Gerda.</p> + +<p>"You haven't told us your real name yet," urged Dulcie.</p> + +<p>"Mary Gerda Trevellyan. Father and Mother have always called me Mamie, +but I like Gerda best, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[249]</a></span> when I came to school I begged to be 'Gerda +Thorwaldson', so that part at least of my name was genuine."</p> + +<p>"Weren't you afraid that Mrs. Trevellyan might discover you through +that?"</p> + +<p>"She had always heard me alluded to as Mamie. We thought she had +probably quite forgotten the 'Gerda'."</p> + +<p>"There's one thing I still can't understand," said Dulcie. "We found out +the entrance to the barred room, but why was it ever barred? It seems so +extraordinary—right in the middle of a school."</p> + +<p>"I can explain that too," returned Gerda. "Father has often told me the +story. Years and years ago Squire and Mrs. Trevellyan had one only +child, a little girl named Lillie. Father was very fond of this cousin, +and they were almost like brother and sister together. Then, when she +was ten years old, she died. At that time they were living at the Dower +House, because alterations were being made at the Castle. Her death was +very sudden—she was only ill a few hours. One day she was laughing and +playing about, and on the next she was dead. Her poor father and mother +were simply heart-broken. They took her toys, and all her little +treasures, and put them in her bedroom, which they left just as if she +were going to occupy it still. Then they locked up the door and barred +it, and declared that during their lifetime nobody should ever enter. It +was to be sacred to Lillie,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[250]</a></span> and no one else must use it. My father, of +course, knew about it, and he also knew of the secret passage—an old +smuggler's way—that led into it from the cave. The door of this passage +had been carefully nailed up before Lillie used the room, but he had +heard that it opened over the fireplace. In his desperate need of a safe +shelter he remembered this place, came up the passage, then forced the +door and found his way into the room. He said it was surely no crime, +for 'little Cousin Lillie' had been fond of him, and always ready to +screen him in his boyish days, so he thought, if she could know, she +would be glad for him to use what had once been hers."</p> + +<p>"I haven't asked half all yet," persisted Dulcie. "Do you remember when +first you came to school, we all tried our luck at St. Perran's well, +and you were the only one who did the right things, and whose stick +floated away? How did you manage it?"</p> + +<p>Gerda smiled.</p> + +<p>"Father had often told me about the well, and the exact way to perform +St. Perran's ceremony. He used to try it with Lillie when he was a +little boy. He said half the secret was to unstop the channel above the +spring. My wish was that I might clear his name, so you see it came +true, though at the time it seemed as unlikely as flying in an aeroplane +to America."</p> + +<p>"You put a message in a bottle and threw it into<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[251]</a></span> the sea for your +father," said Deirdre. "You didn't know Dulcie and I fished it out?"</p> + +<p>"Oh! Did you?" said Gerda reproachfully. "Then that was the letter he +never received?"</p> + +<p>Gerda's discovery in Abel Galsworthy of the missing witness for whom +such long search had been made was certainly a very fortunate +circumstance for that worthy. Instead of being handed over to the +police, and prosecuted for trespassing and pilfering, he found himself +provided with new clothes, comfortably lodged in the village, and given +a promise of work when his important part in the law proceedings should +be over. At present he was the hero of the hour, for on his word alone +hung Mr. Trevellyan's honour. As the other witness and the lawyer were +both dead, his oath to his signature would be sufficient to prove the +genuineness of the codicil. There were, of course, elaborate legal +proceedings to be taken. Mr. Trevellyan appealed for a reversal of the +judgment in the former trial, and the case would have to wait its turn +before it could come before the court. As the warrant for his arrest was +still technically in force, he was obliged to continue living on the +yacht until his innocence had been officially recognized—a state of +affairs that greatly roused Gerda's indignation, though Miss Birks +preached patience.</p> + +<p>"I wanted Father and Mother to come to the prize-giving," she lamented.</p> + +<p>"These legal difficulties cannot be rolled away in a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[252]</a></span> few days," said +Miss Birks. "Let us be thankful that we can count upon success later +on."</p> + +<p>Now that Gerda no longer needed to hide a tragic secret, her whole +behaviour at the Dower House had altered, and her schoolfellows hardly +recognized in the merry, genial, sociable companion, which she now +proved, the silent recluse who had given her confidence to nobody. In +this fresh attitude she was highly popular; the romance of her story +appealed to the girls, and they were anxious to make up to her for +having misjudged her. Also they greatly appreciated her newly-discovered +capacity for fun and humour.</p> + +<p>"Gerda never made one solitary joke before, and now she keeps us +laughing all day," said Betty Scott.</p> + +<p>"How could she laugh when she was carrying that terrible burden all the +time?" commented Jessie Macpherson. "Poor child! No wonder she's +different now the shadow's removed from her life."</p> + +<p>"We'll have ripping fun with her next term," anticipated Annie Pridwell.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile very little of the old term was left. The dreaded examination +week arrived, bringing Dr. Harvey James to test those who were to +undergo the piano ordeal, and Mr. Leonard Pearce to criticize the +artistic efforts. In the other subjects there were written papers, which +were corrected and judged by the donors of the prizes. In spite of much +apprehension on the part of the girls, Dr. Harvey James made<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[253]</a></span> a good +impression, and did not turn out to be the strict martinet they +expected; indeed he commented so kindly and so helpfully on their +playing that they began to look forward to their lessons with him during +the forthcoming autumn.</p> + +<p>The art class spent a delightful though anxious afternoon, sketching a +group of picturesque Eastern pots artistically grouped by Mr. Leonard +Pearce, who was kind and charitable in his criticisms of their little +exhibition of paintings hung in the big classroom. To their delight he +finished his visit by himself making a study of the pots, while they +stood round and watched his clever brush dabbing on the colour with +swift and skilful strokes.</p> + +<p>"Miss Birks is going to have his sketch framed," said Deirdre +appreciatively, when he had gone.</p> + +<p>"I wish he could teach us every week," declared the art enthusiasts.</p> + +<p>"Ah! you see, he lives in London, and only comes to Cornwall sometimes +for a holiday. But Miss Birks has promised to get an artist next summer +to give us sketching lessons."</p> + +<p>One advantage of the smallness of the school was that it was not a +lengthy matter to correct the examination papers of only twenty pupils. +That work was soon over, and the girls had not long to remain in +suspense before the lists were ready. The annual prize-giving was always +the occasion of a social gathering. Some of the girls' parents came<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[254]</a></span> +down for it, and friends in the neighbourhood were invited. If the +weather were favourable, it was generally held in the garden, and this +time, the sky being cloudless, all arrangements had been made on the +lawn, where the gardener had erected a temporary platform. It seemed a +great day to Gerda, as she came downstairs in her white dress, and +watched the company that was already beginning to arrive. If only her +father and mother could have been numbered among the guests her bliss +would have been complete. Ronnie, however, was running in and out like a +sunbeam, and her aunt had spoken to her, and had been kindness itself.</p> + +<p>"We must all let bygones be bygones now, my dear, and rejoice together +at this happy ending of our troubles," said Mrs. Trevellyan. "I hope you +will soon come to know the Castle as well as Ronnie does, and feel +equally at home there."</p> + +<p>Most of the prizes fell exactly as had been expected. Jessie Macpherson +won the lion's share in the Sixth, Hilda Marriott scored the record for +<span class="smcap">Va</span>, and Barbara Marshall and Romola Harvey divided the honours of <span class="smcap">Vb</span>. +Deirdre got "highly commended" for both music and drawing, but Dulcie, +despite her valorous spurt at the finish, had no luck. She was only too +delighted, however, to find that the prize for which she had tried—that +for general improvement—had been awarded to Gerda.</p> + +<p>"She deserves it if anyone does," she whispered<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[255]</a></span> to Deirdre. "I say, +dare we start three cheers for her?"</p> + +<p>"We'll risk it," returned Deirdre, augmenting the applause by a vigorous +"Hip-hip-hip hooray!" which was at once taken up by the entire school. +Gerda, red as a rose, walked back from the platform, blushing now with +real bashfulness, instead of her old nervous apprehension. Ronnie was +waving his little hat and shouting the shrillest of cheers, and Mrs. +Trevellyan was clapping her best.</p> + +<p>"Ave! Ave! winner of General Improvement!" exclaimed the members of <span class="smcap">Vb</span>, +as they welcomed her back to their particular bench. "Miss Birks +couldn't have given it better!"</p> + +<p>Gerda's eyes filled with tears.</p> + +<p>"I'm glad if you do find me improved," she said. "It's ever so nice of +you to be kind to me now. I was horrid before—and I knew it—but I +couldn't help it."</p> + +<p>"We understand exactly," sympathized the girls.</p> + +<hr class="hr3" /> + +<p>There is very little more of our story left to be told. Mr. Trevellyan +won his case, and successfully proved his innocence to the whole world. +Restored to good name and fortune, he has taken "Overdale", a pretty +house in the neighbourhood of Pontperran, which happened to be to let. +Gerda continues a pupil at the Dower House, though she is often able to +visit her own home. Ronnie, while he will see his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[256]</a></span> aunt every day, is to +live with his parents, a fitting and also a very salutary arrangement, +for he is no longer a baby, and was growing too much for Mrs. +Trevellyan's and Miss Herbert's powers of management. The self-willed +little fellow respects his father's authority, and will run far less +risk of getting spoilt than when he was "King of the Castle".</p> + +<p>"In a year or two the young rascal will be old enough for school," said +Mr. Trevellyan, "and in the meantime he must get to know his mother and +me."</p> + +<p>Gerda is immensely delighted with her new home, and very proud to take +school friends there on half-holidays. Deirdre and Dulcie are frequent +visitors. Abel Galsworthy, a reformed character after his wanderings, is +gardener at Overdale, and likely to prove a most devoted servant; and as +for the torn letter, it is framed and glazed, and occupies the place of +honour on the wall over the chimney-piece in Gerda's bedroom.</p> + + +<hr class="white" /> + +<div id="box2"> +<p class="center">Transcriber's Note:</p> + +<p class="noi">Punctuation has been standardised. Hyphenation and spelling have been +retained as they appear in the original publication except as follows:</p> + +<p class="noi">Page 121<br /> +through the field-glasses as he disappeard <i>changed to</i><br /> +through the field-glasses as he <a href="#disappeared">disappeared</a></p> + +<p class="noi">Page 184<br /> +and fetched limpets and perwinkles <i>changed to</i><br /> +and fetched limpets and <a href="#periwinkles">periwinkles</a></p> + +<p class="noi">Page209<br /> +Irene's dyspepia, and Elyned's attacks of faintness <i>changed to</i><br /> +Irene's <a href="#dyspepsia">dyspepsia</a>, and Elyned's attacks of faintness</p> +</div> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The School by the Sea, by Angela Brazil + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SCHOOL BY THE SEA *** + +***** This file should be named 33909-h.htm or 33909-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/3/9/0/33909/ + +Produced by Suzanne Shell and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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