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diff --git a/6901-0.txt b/6901-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9fa238f --- /dev/null +++ b/6901-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7614 @@ +Project Gutenberg's The Happy Adventurers, by Lydia Miller Middleton + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most +other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions +whatsoever. 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. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have +to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. + +Title: The Happy Adventurers + +Author: Lydia Miller Middleton + +Posting Date: October 31, 2014 [EBook #6901] +Release Date: November, 2004 +First Posted: February 9, 2003 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE HAPPY ADVENTURERS *** + + + + +Produced by Tiffany Vergon, Charles Franks, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team. + + + + + + + + + + +THE HAPPY ADVENTURERS + +[Illustration: YOU CALLED ME, SO I CAME] + +The Happy Adventurers + +BY + +LYDIA MILLER MIDDLETON + + + +To Alastair and Margaret + +"I tell this tale, which is strictly true, Just by way of convincing +you How very little, since things were made, Things have altered in the +building trade."--Kipling. + + + +CONTENTS + +CHAPTER + +I. HOW IT BEGAN II. THE BUILDERS, OR THE LITTLE HOUSE III. THE +FORTUNE-MAKERS, OR THE CHERRY-GARDEN IV. THE TREASURE-HUNTERS, OR THE +DUKE'S NOSE V. THE GOLD-DIGGERS, OR THE MIRACLE VI. THE +GRAPE-GATHERERS, OR WHO WAS MR. SMITH? VII. THE AERONAUTS, OR THE +FATEFUL STONE VIII. HOW IT ENDED + +ILLUSTRATIONS + +"YOU CALLED ME, SO I CAME" + +"I WISH I COULD MAKE SOMETHING THAT WOULD REACH FROM HERE TO MY BROTHER" + +GRIZZEL THREW IN A SMALL HANDFUL OF TEA + +DICK STARTED VIOLENTLY + +THEY STOOD AND WATCHED THE "KANGAROO" FOR SOME TIME + +THERE THEY WERE-OH, HOW MOLLY LONGED TO KEEP THEM! + + + +THE HAPPY ADVENTURERS + +CHAPTER I + +How it Began + + +"Dear, dear!" said Grannie, "woes cluster, as my mother used to say." + +"Let us hope that this is the last woe, and that now the luck will +turn," said Aunt Mary. + +Mollie did not say anything. She had smiled the Guides' smile valiantly +through the worst of her misfortunes, but now she was so tired that she +felt nothing short of a hammer and two tacks could fasten that smile on +to her face any longer. So she closed her eyes and lay back on the +cushions, feeling that Fate had done its worst and that no more blows +were possible in the immediate future. + +Grannie fetched an eiderdown and tucked it cosily round the patient, +who looked pale and chilly even on this fine warm day in June, while +Aunt Mary tidied away the remains of lotions and bandages left by the +doctor. + +"The best thing now will be a little sleep," said Grannie, looking down +with kind old eyes at her granddaughter, "a little quiet sleep and then +a nice tea, with the first strawberries from the garden. I saw quite a +number of red ones this morning, and Susan shall give us some cream." + +Mollie opened her eyes again and tried to look pleased, but even the +thought of strawberries and cream could not make her feel really happy +in her heart; for one thing, she still felt rather sick. + +"That will be lovely," she said, as gratefully as she could, "and now I +think I _will_ try to go to sleep, and perhaps forget things for a +little while--" and, in spite of all her efforts, a few tears insisted +upon rolling down her cheeks as she thought of home, and Mother's +disappointment, and the dull time that lay before her. + +Mollie Gordon's home was in London, in the somewhat dull district of +North Kensington, where her father, Dr. Gordon, had a large but not +particularly lucrative practice, and her mother cheerfully made the +best of things from Monday morning till Sunday night. There were five +children: Mollie and her twin brother Dick; Jean, Billy, and Bob. They +lived in a large, ugly house, one of a long row of ugly houses in a +dull gardenless street, where the sidewalks were paved, and the plane +trees which bordered the road were stunted and dusty. In the near +neighbourhood ran a railway line, a car line, and four bus routes, so +that noise and dust were familiar elements in the Gordons' lives--so +familiar, indeed, that they passed unnoticed. + +A month ago Mollie had been in the full swing of mid-term. Every moment +of her life had been taken up with lessons, games, and Guiding; the +days had been too short for all she wanted to get into them, and, if +she had been allowed, she would certainly have followed the poet's +advice to "steal a few hours from the night", but, fortunately for +herself, she had a sensible mother whose views did not coincide with +the poet's. + +And then in the midst of all her busyness, just when she thought +herself quite indispensable to the school play, the hockey team, and +her Patrol, she fell ill with measles. She was not very ill, so far as +measles went, but her eyes remained obstinately weak, and so it was +decided that she should be sent down to the country to stay with +Grannie, do no lessons at all, and spend as much time as possible in +the open air. Luckily, or unluckily, according to the point of view, +none of the other children had caught the disease, so that Mollie went +alone to Chauncery, as Grannie's house in Sussex was called. + +Chauncery was an old-fashioned house standing in a beautiful garden +surrounded by fields and woods. If Mollie could have had a companion of +her own age, she would have been perfectly happy there, in spite of +frustrated ambitions and the trial of not being allowed to read; but +the very word "measles" frightened away the neighbours, so that no one +came to keep her company, and she sometimes felt very lonely. +Nevertheless, she had accommodated herself to circumstances, and, +between playing golf with Aunt Mary, driving the fat pony, and learning +to milk the pretty Guernsey cows, she managed to "put in a very decent +time", as she expressed it. Till this third misfortune befell her. + +"First measles, then eyes, and now a sprained ankle," she sighed to +Aunt Mary on the morning after her accident; "what _can_ I do to pass +the time? It's all very well for Baden-Powell to talk, but I can't sing +and laugh all day for a week; it would drive you crazy if I did. I have +smiled till my mouth aches. What shall I do next?" + +"You poor chicken!" Aunt Mary exclaimed, with the most comforting +sympathy. "You have had a run of bad luck and no mistake! We must +invent something. You can't read and you can't sew--how about knitting? +Suppose we knit a scarf in school colours for Dick, or a jumper for +yourself to wear when you are better? I could get wool in the village. +That would do to begin with, till I think of something better." + +Mollie agreed that it certainly would be better than doing nothing, +though hardly an exciting occupation for an active girl of thirteen. So +the scarf was set agoing, whilst Grannie read aloud, and the first half +of the first day was got through pretty well. But after lunch the day +darkened and rain began to fall in heavy slate-coloured streaks, +pouring down the window-panes and streaming across the greenhouse roof, +changing the bright daylight into a dismal twilight, and blotting out +all view of the garden. It was depressing weather even for people who +were quite well, and poor Mollie might be forgiven for finding it hard +to keep up her spirits. She was tired of knitting, tired of being read +aloud to, and tired of writing letters to her family. + +"How would you like to see some photographs of your father when he was +little?" suggested Grannie at last. "He was the most beautiful infant I +ever saw." She opened a cupboard door as she spoke, and presently came +back to Mollie's side with an arm-load of photograph-albums, the kind +of albums to be found in country houses, filled with carte-de-visite +photographs of old-fashioned people, all standing, apparently, in the +same studio, and each resting one hand on the same marble pillar. The +ladies wore spreading crinoline skirts, and had hair brushed in smooth +bands on either side of their high foreheads; the men wore baggy +trousers and beards; family groups were large, and those boys and girls +taken separately looked altogether too good for this world. + +Mollie smiled at the picture of her father, a fat, solemn baby in his +mother's arms. She thought, but did not say, that he was a remarkably +plain child, and congratulated herself that she took after her mother +in appearance; though, of course, Father, as she knew him, was not in +the least like that infant. At the rest of the photographs she looked +politely, but it was hard work to keep from yawning, and at last her +mouth suddenly opened of itself and gave a great gape. + +"That's right," said Grannie, "now I'll tuck you up and lower the +blinds, and you'll have a nice little nap till tea-time." + +Mollie closed her eyes and tried to sleep, but sleep would not come. +She missed her morning walk and the fresh air of out-of-doors, so she +gave it up, opened her eyes again, and lay wakefully thinking of home +and Mother, Dick and Jean, and school. The big clock on the mantelpiece +seemed to go very, very slowly, its tick loud and deliberate, as though +it would say: "Don't think you are going to get off one single +minute--sixty minutes to the hour you have to live through, and there +are still two hours till tea-time." The rain splashed against the +window, the wind moaned through the tree-tops, and the room got +steadily darker. + +"Oh dear!" Mollie whispered to herself, "what _can_ I do to make the +time pass?" + +She sat up and looked round, and her eyes fell upon the last of the +photograph-albums--the one she had yawned over. She picked it up, +propped it on her knees, and, lying back against the cushions, turned +the pages over. These were all children, prim children with tidy hair +and solemn faces. Mollie stopped at the picture of a girl dressed in a +wide-skirted, sprigged-muslin frock. Her hair fell in plump curls from +beneath a broad-brimmed hat with long ribbons floating over one +shoulder. Her legs were very conspicuous in white stockings and funny +boots with tassels dangling on their fronts. + +"I expect this is how Ellen Montgomery looked in _The Wide, Wide +World_," Mollie said to herself. "She would be rather pretty if she +were properly dressed; she looks about my age. I wonder what sort of +time she had--horribly dull, probably. No hockey, no Guiding, no +fox-trots--I expect she danced the polka, and recited 'Lives of great +men all remind us', and got pi-jawed ten times a day. I can't imagine +how children endured life in those days. Thank goodness I wasn't born +till 1907! She does look rather nice, though--and oh! I wish you could +talk, my dear! I _am_ dull." + +Just then Aunt Mary began to play the piano in the next room. She +played soft, old-fashioned tunes, so that her niece might be soothed to +sleep. Mollie did not recognize the tunes but she liked them; they +seemed to sympathize with her as she continued to look at the prim +little girl in the photograph. + +"Perhaps she played those very tunes; she looks as if she practised for +one hour a day _regularly_." + +As Mollie lay there, the sweet old music sounding in her ears and her +eyes steadily fixed on the face of that other child of long ago, it +seemed to her that the child smiled at her. + +"I am getting sleepy," she said to herself, and shut her eyes. But she +did not feel sleepy and soon opened them again. This time there was no +mistake about it--the child in the photograph _was_ smiling, first with +her solemn eyes, and then with her prim little mouth. Mollie was so +startled that she let the album slip from her lap, and it fell down +between the sofa and the wall. She turned round, and, after groping in +the narrow space for a minute, she succeeded in getting hold of the +album again and pulled it up. As she raised her head and sat up, she +saw, standing beside her sofa, as large as life, the prim little +girl--wide skirts, white stockings, tasselled boots, and all. + +As Mollie stared "with all her eyes" as people say, the little girl +smiled at her again, and she noticed that, although the child's dress +was so very old-fashioned, her smile was quite a To-day smile, so to +speak. + +"Good gracious!" exclaimed Mollie, "who are you?" + +"I am a Time-traveller," the child answered, speaking in a peculiarly +soft voice. "You called me, so I came." + +"What on earth is a Time-traveller?" asked Mollie, rather surprised to +find that she did not feel in the least alarmed at this sudden +apparition. + +"A person who travels in Time," the child replied. "I am one, and you +are one, but everybody isn't one. I can't explain, so you'd better not +waste time asking questions if you want to travel. I can't wait here +long." + +"But--" said Mollie, looking bewildered, as well she might. "Travel +where? Of course I'd love to come, but how can I with a crocked-up +ankle; and what would Grannie say?" + +"Those things don't matter to Time-travellers," said the other child. +"We travel about in Time. You haven't got to think about what is +happening here and now--that will be all right. But you have to make a +vow before you begin Time-travelling. Do you know what a vow is?" + +"Of course I do," Mollie replied; "I'm a Girl Guide." + +"I don't know what a Girl Guide is," said the other girl, wrinkling up +her pretty forehead, "but a Time-traveller has to vow on her faith and +honour never to say one single word about her adventures to any +grown-up, either here or there. You must not ask them questions that +will make them wonder things, however much you want to, because they +don't understand, and would be almost sure to interfere. Will you vow?" + +"Yes, I will, but you must give me one moment to think. Where shall I +travel to and how long shall I stay?" + +"You come along with me to my Time; I don't know how long you will +stay. A year of our Time might be a minute of yours, or a minute of +ours might be a year of yours, but you will be all right. Have you ever +seen a dissolving view?" + +"That's a magic lantern, isn't it? Yes, Dick once had one. I think they +are rather dull." + +"Oh no, not if they are properly done. Hugh--" she stopped and then +began again. "You will step into a dissolving view of our Time. It just +begins and ends anyhow, and you go out of it again." + +"But it's so _queer_," Mollie said doubtfully. "I never _heard_ of such +a thing. I must be dreaming." + +The other child shook her head. "No, you're not," she said patiently. +She looked around the room as though in search of inspiration, and her +eyes fell upon a volume of Shakespeare which Aunt Mary had been +reading: "Do you learn Shakespeare at your school?" she asked. + +"Rather," Mollie answered, in a slightly superior voice; "I have acted +in six plays." + +"Ah--then you remember what Hamlet says: 'There are more things in +Heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy'." + +"We haven't done _Hamlet_ yet," Mollie answered, in a less superior +tone, "I don't think I quite understand what that means." + +"Neither do I," said the child. "That's it, you see. Papa says--" she +stopped short again, and then went on. "It's nearly time for me to +go--and I can never come back if you don't come this time," moving away +a few steps as she spoke. + +"Oh, don't go--don't go," Mollie cried. "I do want to come; it won't do +anyone any harm, will it?" + +The child smiled very sweetly: "Not the least in the world. But +remember the vow. On your faith and honour." + +"I vow, I vow--on my word of honour as a Guide. I can't say more than +that." + +"Give me your hand, then. Listen to the music, and shut your eyes till +I tell you to open them." + +Mollie closed her eyes. She had a queer swimmy feeling, as if she were +in a high swing and were just swooping down to the lowest point. All +the time Aunt Mary's tunes went on, but they seemed to go farther and +farther away. + +"Open," said a soft voice. + + * * * * * + +The darkened room had vanished, and the ticking clock; Aunt Mary's +tunes and the rain splashing on the window-panes; the sofa too, and the +prim child. And Mollie herself! + + * * * * * + +She was standing in a sunny road, with one foot on a white painted +wooden gate, upon which she had evidently been swinging. The gate +opened into a large garden, and before her lay a broad path planted on +either side with tall, pointed cypress trees, their thin shadows lying +across the walk like black bars. Between the trees ran narrow +flower-beds, and beyond these stretched a wide, open space, so solidly +spread with yellow dandelions that it looked as though the golden floor +of heaven had come to rest upon earth. The path, with its sentinel +trees, led straight as a rod to a distant house, long and low, +surrounded by a vine-covered veranda. There were strange, sweet smells +in the air, which felt soft and warm. The sky was brilliantly blue, and +on the fence across the road a gorgeous parrot sat preening its +feathers in the sunshine. + +Mollie looked about her with curious eyes, wondering where she was. Not +in England, of that she was sure--there was a different feel in the +air, colours were brighter, scents were stronger, and that radiant +parrot would never perch itself so tranquilly upon an English fence. + +Then she saw, coming down the path, a girl of about her own age, +dressed in a brown-holland overall trimmed with red braid, high to the +throat, and belted round the waist. She wore no hat, and her hair fell +over her shoulders in plump brown curls. By her side paced a large dog, +a rough-haired black-and-white collie with sagacious brown eyes. He +leapt forward with a short bark, but the girl laid a restraining hand +on his back: + +"Down, Laddie, down," she said, "don't you know a friend when you see +one? Come in, Mollie." + +And suddenly Mollie knew where she was. This was Adelaide, in +Australia; that was the child in the photograph, whose name, she knew, +was Prudence Campbell; and they were living in the year 1878. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +The Builders or The Little House + + +Mollie left the white gate, which swung behind her with a sharp click, +and walked up the path towards Prudence. Laddie circled round with a +few inquiring sniffs, decided that the newcomer was harmless, and stood +blinking his eyes in the sunlight, his bushy tail waving slowly from +side to side. Prudence slid an arm through Mollie's. + +"I'm so glad you've come," she said. "Hugh's little house is all but +finished, and he promised to let us up to-day. Let's go and sit beside +Grizzel till he calls." + +Mollie's eyes followed the turn of Prue's head, and she saw a younger +child seated upon the golden floor beyond the flower-beds. This child +wore an overall of bright blue cotton, shaped like Prue's, and her head +was covered with short red curls, which shone in the sun like burnished +copper. Prudence frowned a little as she looked at her sister: + +"How Grizzel can sit in the middle of that yellow, dressed in that +blue, with that red hair, I can't think," she said. "She calls herself +an artist, but it simply puts my teeth on edge. Did you ever see +anything so ugly?" + +"Ugly!" Mollie repeated in surprise. "I think it is beautiful, just +like a picture in _Colour_. What is she doing?" + +The child looked up at that moment and smiled at them. "Hullo, Mollie," +she said in a friendly tone, as if she were quite well acquainted with +the new arrival, "come and see my dandelion-chain; it's nearly done." + +Prudence jumped the flower-bed, followed by Mollie and the dog, and all +three made their way through the thickly growing dandelions, and seated +themselves beside Grizzel. She had filled her lap with dandelions, and +was busily occupied in linking them together as English children link a +daisy-chain. + +"What are you doing?" Mollie asked again, as her eyes followed +Grizzel's chain, and she observed that it stretched far away out of +sight among the trees and bushes. + +"I am laying a chain right round the garden," Grizzel replied. "When it +is finished it will be the longest dandelion-chain in the world." + +"What are you going to do with it?" asked Mollie. + +"Nothing," answered Grizzel. + +"Then what's the good of making it?" asked Mollie. + +"It isn't meant to be any good," answered Grizzel, "it's only meant to +be the longest dandelion-chain in the world." + +"But there's nothing beautiful about longness," persisted Mollie. "You +wouldn't like to have the longest nose in the world." + +"It would be rather nice," said Grizzel, working as steadily as the +Princess in Hans Andersen's tale of the "White Swans", "then I could +smell all the delicious smells there are. Mamma says a primrose-patch +in an English wood is delicious." + +"Don't waste your breath trying to make Grizzel change her mind," +Prudence interposed. "Papa says you might as well explain to a pigling +which way you want it to go. Let's help with her chain and get it +finished. I'm tired of it." She threw a handful of yellow bloom into +Mollie's lap as she spoke, and began herself to link some stalks +together in a somewhat dreamy and lazy fashion. Mollie followed her +example more briskly. + +"It's a pity, you know," she said to Grizzel, "to leave the poor little +flowers withering all round the garden when they might have gone on +growing for days. They will soon be faded and forgotten." + +"I'd rather fade in the longest chain in the world than be one of a +million dandelions growing on their roots," Grizzel said, pulling a +fresh handful and shifting her chain to make room for them. + +Mollie shook her head but did not argue any more. She dropped her chain +and looked round the garden. Although the sun was so warm and bright +the flowers were those which grow in springtime in England. Daffodils, +narcissus, freesias, and violets grew thickly in the borders and under +the trees, which seemed to be mostly fruit-trees, though Mollie did not +recognize them all. Peach and apricot were in bloom; fig trees and +mulberry trees spread out their broad leaves; and an immense vividly +scarlet geranium dazzled even Mollie's modern eyes. It was a funny +mixture of seasons, she thought. + +Suddenly Prudence jumped to her feet, letting all her dandelions drop +unheeded. "There's Hugh!" she exclaimed; "he is calling us. The house +must be finished. Come on, Grizzel, leave your old chain--come on, +Mollie." + +Grizzel shook her head and set all the red curls bobbing; "I must +finish my chain first. You go. I won't be long." + +Prudence and Mollie jumped the flower-beds again, Laddie, who had +fallen comfortably asleep among the dandelions, deciding after a few +lazy blinks to stay where he was. A slender boy in grey was waiting for +them in the veranda. He was like Prue, but fairer, and his eyes were +peculiarly clear and thoughtful. + +"Come on," he said, "I'm ready for the furnishings now. What I want is: +first, a carpet; second, curtains; and third--third--a tin-opener; but +there is no great hurry for that. Where can I get a carpet?" + +"Schoolroom hearthrug," Prudence suggested promptly. "No one will +notice, and it's pretty shabby since I dropped the red-hot poker and +you spilt the treacle-toffee." + +"And the curtains?" + +"You can have the striped blanket off my bed," said Prue, after a +moment's consideration, "we can cut it in halves." + +"Good gracious!" exclaimed Mollie. "Cut a blanket in halves! What will +your mother say to that?" + +"Mamma won't know," Prudence replied calmly. "She never looks at my +bed, and, if she did, she would forget it had ever had a striped +blanket on it. Come on, Mollie, we'll get the things and smuggle them +across while no one is looking." + +Mollie felt shocked for a minute. Doing things behind backs was all +against Guide Law, and at home she would almost as soon think of +chopping up her own feet as of cutting up Mother's blankets to play +with. But, she reflected, different times have different ways; there +was no Guide Law in 1878, and perhaps Prue's mother was very extra +strict, in which case "all's fair in love and war", so she followed +Prue into the house. It was, to her eyes, an unusual sort of house, all +built on the ground floor, so that there was no staircase. The front +door opened into a square hall with doors on all sides. Prue pushed one +open and they passed through into a bedroom, very plainly furnished +with two little beds, two chests of drawers, a wash-stand, and a chair. +They pulled the white cover off one bed and hauled away a blanket, +cheerfully striped in scarlet, purple, yellow, and green, with a few +black and white lines thrown in here and there. Mollie thought it would +be rather a difficult blanket to forget about. Prue replaced the white +cover, spreading it smoothly and neatly, rolled up the blanket, and +made for the door again. + +Hugh had disappeared. They walked down the veranda, passing several +open French windows through which Mollie caught a glimpse of +sitting-rooms, and crossed a paved courtyard, at the farther side of +which was a red brick house with a wooden porch in front of it. + +"The schoolroom is here," Prudence explained, "because Mamma doesn't +like noise. It's a very good plan for us; we can do lots of things we +couldn't do if we were in the house. Miss Wilton is our governess; she +has gone home to-day to nurse a sister with bronchitis. I'm sorry for +the sister, but it's a treat for us, especially as Hugh has got a +half-holiday. Mamma is out, Bridget has taken Baby for a walk, and Mary +is talking to her sweetheart across the fence, so we'll get the +hearthrug without any questions." + +As she talked, Prudence led the way into the schoolroom. It was plainly +furnished and not very tidy, but it had a homely look--in fact it +reminded Mollie of the nursery in North Kensington, so that, for one +very brief moment, she almost felt homesick. But Prudence gave her +little time to indulge in this luxurious sensation (because having a +home nice enough to be sick for is a luxury in its way), and Mollie had +merely taken in a general impression of books, toys, and shabbiness, +when Prudence called her to help with the hearthrug. It certainly was +shabby and by no means added to the beauty of the room. They rolled it +up with the blanket inside, and, carrying it between them, they left +the schoolroom, crossed the courtyard again, scrambled over a low stone +wall, and arrived at the foot of a tall tree. + +It was a very large tree. Its trunk, grey, smooth, and absolutely +straight, rose from the ground for fourteen feet without a branch or +foothold of any description. At that height its thick boughs spread out +in a broad and even circumference, and across two of these boughs was +built a hut, perhaps five by seven feet in area, and high enough for a +child of ten to stand upright in. It had a floor, four walls, and a +roof, an opening for a door, and three smaller openings for windows. At +the door sat Hugh, waiting for the girls and their bundle. When they +came to a standstill below him he let down a rope. + +"Tie the things on and I'll haul them up," he ordered; "and then you +two climb up and give me a hand. Better send Mollie up first, as the +ladder is a bit shaky till you know it, and Prue can hang on to it +below." + +Mollie noticed then that a narrow green ladder leant up against the +smooth trunk; it looked as if an unwary step would send it flying, and +she put a reluctant foot on the lowest rung. The ground below was hard +and stony, most uninviting for a fall. + +"You are quite safe so long as you push and don't pull," Prudence +assured her. "I am holding on here, and the ladder is firmer than it +looks." + +Mollie mounted with gingerly tread, but reached the top safely and +crawled into the hut through the little door. She was quickly followed +by Prudence, and the two girls examined the interior with interest. +There was not very much room; two could sit down with comfort, three +would be slightly crowded, and four would be a tight fit but not +impossible. + +"You won't be able to lay the carpet with all of us inside," said +Mollie, as she felt the big roll at her back. + +"One of you had better stay out," said Hugh. "There are seats all over +the tree." + +Mollie put her head out at the door and looked up into the branches. +They were very much forked, and upon every difficult branch Hugh had +nailed steps and made a railing. In some of the forks he had inserted +wooden seats, others he had left to nature. The topmost seat was almost +at the summit of the tree, and behind it was firmly lashed a flagpole, +with a Union Jack hanging limply in the still air, and a lantern with +green and red glass on two of its sides. Near the door of the little +house there hung from a stout branch a curious-looking canvas bag, +broadly tubular in shape, and with a small brass tap at the lower end. +The tree was thickly foliaged, but the leaves were delicate and lacy, +and, though they formed an admirable screen for the climbers, a good +view of the surrounding country was to be obtained between them, and +even through them in some places. Mollie decided to climb to the top +and look about. + +"That's our look-out," Hugh explained. "We can see the enemy from there +a long time before the enemy can see us." + +"'O Pip', is what _we_ call it," said Mollie. "Who is the enemy?" + +"It all depends," Hugh replied evasively. "Now, Prue, look alive." + +Mollie was a level-headed climber when she had something reasonably +solid beneath her feet; no one unfamiliar with the vagaries of the +green ladder could be expected to climb it with enthusiasm. She crawled +out of the house by the little door again, found her road to the +nearest staircase, and climbed this way and that among the leafy +branches till she reached the Look-out. There she settled herself +comfortably and examined her surroundings near and far, whilst the +other two laid the carpet and tacked up the blanket, now cut into three +strips by Prudence. + +"She looks as if she were hemming sheets for missionaries," Mollie said +to herself, as she watched Prudence doing execution on the blanket with +a large pair of scissors. "It would be almost impossible for any girl +to be as good as Prue looks; it's her eyelashes, and the way she does +her hair." + +After admiring the well-planned architecture of the tree Mollie turned +her attention to the scenery. At her feet lay the garden with the long, +vine-wreathed house and the red schoolroom at one side. It was a large +garden, stretching far behind the house, and, as Mollie surveyed the +rows of almond trees which outlined its boundaries, she felt some +respect for Grizzel's perseverance. "If she has laid a chain right +round that she knows how to stick to a thing," she thought, as she +caught sight of the little blue figure still sitting amongst the golden +dandelions. "It's a pity she doesn't do something more worth while. She +would make a good Guide." Looking beyond the garden, Mollie could see +the town of Adelaide. It was a white town among green trees, with many +slender spires and pointed steeples piercing the blue sky, many gardens +and meadows, and a silvery streak of river winding across it like a +twisted thread. A semicircle of softly swelling hills enclosed the town +upon two sides, some of them striped with vineyards, some wooded, and +some brilliantly yellow, for the dandelions seemed to be spread over +the country like a carpet. Mollie shook a wise head at such waste of +good land, for of what use are dandelions! In the far distance she +could see a straight white road leading from the town into the hills. +She thought she would like to follow that road and see what happened to +it in the end. "I had not the least idea," she murmured to herself, +"that Adelaide and Australia were like this; not the very least. There +must be a great deal of world outside England, when you come to think +of it. When I am grown-up--" + +"Come down, Mollie," called Prue. "The house is beautiful now; come and +see it." + +It certainly looked very snug, with the carpet, whose shabbiness was +not noticeable in the dim light, and the gaily striped curtains, which +had been tacked up and fastened back from the windows. They had added a +set of shelves made out of a box covered with American leather and +brass-headed nails. A few books lay upon one shelf, and on another +stood a collection of cups, saucers, and plates, cracked, perhaps, and +not all matching, but suggestive of convivial parties and good cheer. +In one corner lay a cushion embroidered in woolwork with magenta roses, +pea-green leaves, and orange-coloured daisies, all upon a background of +ultramarine blue. Mollie thought it gave an effective touch to the +somewhat scanty furnishing--in fact, it was the only furniture there +was, except the shelves. + +"How perfectly _ripping_!" Mollie exclaimed enthusiastically. "If I had +this house I would live in it all the time. It is _much_ nicer than a +common house in a road. I do think Hugh is the cleverest boy I ever +met." + +"This is nothing much," Hugh said modestly, "you should see my +raft--that _is_ worth seeing. I have invented a way of arranging corks +so that it will float in the severest storm. It could not sink if it +tried, unless, of course, it became waterlogged. But I can only work at +that when we are down at Brighton." + +"I wish my brother Dick could be a Time-traveller and come here," +sighed Mollie. "He would adore this tree, and the raft too." + +"How old is Dick?" Hugh asked with interest. + +"He is my twin; we are thirteen and a half," answered Mollie, quite +forgetting that in the year 1878 Dick was still minus twenty-nine. "We +do everything together in the holidays except football, and just now +there isn't any football, so Dick is rather bored at school. In +term-time we hardly see each other at all, we are both so horribly +busy. How do you find time to do all these things?" + +"I don't find it, I steal it," Hugh answered. "If I waited to _find_ +time I should never have enough to be useful. To-day is a half-holiday, +and I am supposed to be learning Roman history and writing out five +hundred lines. But I'm not," he added unnecessarily. + +"Building is much more important than Roman history," said Mollie +decidedly, "and lines are absolutely rotten. I wonder why--" + +"Hullo!" came a voice from below. "It's me. I have finished my chain at +last, and now I want to come up. Please come and hold the ladder, Prue." + +Prudence crept out, tripped lightly down the ladder, and stood beside +her sister. + +"Hold tight, Grizzel, and do remember to push and not pull; if you pull +I can't hold the ladder up." + +"I wish Hugh would cut steps in the tree-trunk like the blacks," +Grizzel complained, as she proceeded rather nervously to climb the +ladder. "I do hate this old tobbely old green old thing." + +"I am going to make a rope-ladder and pull it up after me," Hugh said, +watching her from the door of his castle in the air. "I don't want +steps that everybody could climb. Look out, Griz, you are pulling--" he +stretched out a hand as he spoke, and held the top of the ladder, while +Prudence steadied it at the bottom, until Grizzel had safely negotiated +"the green passage", as Hugh called it, and crawled in at his little +front door. + +"It is very, very, very, very nice," she said approvingly, "and it will +make a lovely place to come and hate in when everybody is horrid. You +can draw the curtains and shut the door, and light your lantern and sit +here hating as long as you like, for no one can get up when you have +your rope-ladder." + +"It would be rather stuffy," Mollie said, looking at the thick blanket +curtains. "If he went on hating very long he would be suffocated. I'd +sooner have a tea-party myself, and pull all the tea up in baskets. The +water would be the hard part." + +"The water is in that canvas bag," Hugh pointed out; "Papa gave it to +me; it's the boiling that bothers me, because I don't much like using a +spirit-lamp in here." + +"Get an old biscuit-tin and fasten it up in the tree and put your +spirit-lamp in that," suggested Mollie the Guide. "Cut out the front; +then you will have a nice little cave all safe and sheltered." + +"That's a jolly good idea," said Hugh; "I'll do it to-morrow and we'll +have a party." + +A bell in the distance warned the children that it was time to go in +and tidy up for tea. Grizzel, however, was far too much enthralled by +the little house to want to come down so soon. "I don't want any +bread-and-butter tea," she announced; "bring me three oranges and +eleven biscuits, and the _Swiss Family Robinson_, and let me stay up +here." + +Tea was laid in the dining-room, where they found Baby already seated +in her high chair. She was a very pretty baby, with large dark eyes, +silky golden hair, and a dear little mouth parting over two rows of +tiny pearly teeth. She gurgled melodiously to her family in the +intervals of dropping bits of jammy bread into her mug of milk, and +watching them bob about with absorbed interest. + +"Good old Mary! She's made potato scones _and_ almond gingerbread." +Hugh remarked approvingly. "If you've never tasted real Irish potato +scones baked on a girdle, Mollie, you'd better chalk it up, as Bridget +says. You split them in two, pop in a lump of butter, shut them up, and +eat them. Too soon they are but a sweet dream of the past." + +"They'll soon be a horrid dream of the future if you gobble them like +that," Prudence said warningly, "and you've forgotten Grizzel's +oranges; go and pull three fresh ones, and we'd better send her ginger +cake." + +The gingerbread was baked in thin oblong squares frosted with white +sugar, each child's name being written on its own cake in pink letters. +They were most fascinating, and Mollie was charmed to see one with her +own name on it. The delightful part about this most unexpected visit, +she thought, was the way everyone had apparently expected her. She +could not help wondering how the invitation had been sent, but decided +that it was better not to ask too many questions. + +Hugh departed with Grizzel's oranges, biscuits, and gingerbread, +elegantly arranged in a green-rush basket, the _Swiss Family Robinson_ +forming the basis of the repast. He returned with a smile upon his face +which disclosed two most engaging dimples. + +"I've sneaked the ladder," he said. "Won't Frizzy Grizzy be pleased +when she finds out! Ha ha! More scones, please." + +"She won't mind," Prudence answered placidly, "she knows someone will +have to let her down before Mamma comes in. You've had enough jam, Baby +darling; let Prudence take off your bib now and wash your handy-pandys. +You can have half my gingerbread if you like, Hugh--hullo, there's +Papa!" + +There was a sharp double knock at the front door, followed by the sound +of someone entering. Prudence set Baby on her feet and bolted +helter-skelter across the square hall, flinging herself into the arms +of a stout man with a brown beard, who returned her embrace so warmly +that Mollie wondered if he had been away from home for some time. He +removed his tall silk hat, showing a head as thickly covered with curls +as Grizzel's, but the hair was dark and slightly touched with grey. + +"Well, my chick-a-biddies," he said, in a delightfully genial voice, +beaming upon them all with the kindest blue eyes Mollie had ever seen, +"and what has everybody been doing? And where is Grizzel?" + +As he spoke he lifted Baby into his arms, ignoring the jammy little +fingers, laid a hand on Mollie's head, and looked round inquiringly for +his missing daughter. + +"She's in my Nest," Hugh replied, "it's finished. Come and see it. You +can't climb into it yet, but it looks very nice from the outside. I +think I'll arrange a box to pull you and Mamma up in. The zinc-lined +box the piano came in would do." + +"Thank you, my son," said Papa kindly, "thank you, thank you. At the +moment I am rather pressed for time. I have to meet Mamma at Mrs. +Taylor's at half-past five, and we are going to the town-hall to hear +this wonderful new telephone, as they call it. They say that someone +speaking from the post office at Glenelg will be perfectly audible in +the town-hall here, a distance of six and a half miles. It sounds +almost incredible. What will they discover next! Truly this is an +amazing age, and you children may live to see men flying yet." + +Hugh had left his gingerbread, which lay forgotten on his plate, and +stood before his father flushed with excitement: + +"Take me with you, _do_, Papa," he cried. "I'll learn reams of Latin +and get up at four o'clock and--" + +"Well, get your hat and be quick then," Papa interrupted indulgently. +"Prue, my pet, look in my bag and you will find five parcels, one for +each young robber. Be fair and amiable, my children. Come, Hugh. Good +night, Papa's little angel." He kissed Baby, handed her over to +Prudence, put on his hat again, and was off down the wide path between +the cypress trees with Hugh hanging on his arm, in less than no time. + +"Let's watch from the gate," said Prudence. "Bridget will take Baby. +Hurry up, Mollie." + +They reached the foot of the garden just in time to see Papa's tall hat +disappear round the corner of the road. It was a lovely evening, and +the girls lingered by the gate; the scent of violets and freesias rose +from the flowerbed at their feet, and every now and again came a whiff +of something else--something exquisitely fragrant and delicate. + +"What's that?" asked Mollie, with an unladylike sniff; "that lovely +smell?" + +"It's wattle," Prudence answered. "It's in the fields over there. You +can smell it for miles sometimes, in the country; it's a nice smell. +Let's go and look at Papa's parcels. He went to see Mrs. Macfarline at +her toyshop to-day, and when he goes there he always brings something +home. It's a beautiful shop. Once I stayed with Lucy Macfarline from +Saturday till Monday, and her mamma allowed us to play in the shop on +Sunday; it was so funny, all dark and dim, and the dolls looking like +little ghosts. We played with the toys on the shelves and had a lovely +time. I love shops--oh, Mollie, we have forgotten Grizzel! She is up in +the tree all this time! We must run and get her down. I hope Hugh +hasn't hidden the ladder--I wish he wouldn't tease so." + +"All brothers do," Mollie said philosophically. "Dick is simply the +limit sometimes, but I do wish we could get him over here, Prudence. Do +you think we could?" + +"I'll think. But first we must find that ladder." + +As they neared the tree Prudence called to her sister that they were +coming, but got no answer. They jumped the low wall and stood +underneath the tree, nearly dislocating their necks in their efforts to +see some sign of life in the little house. But Grizzel neither answered +nor showed herself, in spite of Prue's eloquent description of Papa's +parcels and denunciations of their brother. + +"Perhaps she is having her evening hate," suggested Mollie. + +"She does take awful fits of the sulks sometimes," Prudence allowed, +"but I don't think she would be sulky with _me_ just now; it wasn't me +that stole the ladder--oh _bother_ that Hugh! We had better go and look +for it as fast as we can. I wonder where he has hidden it?" + +"It can't be far away, because he was only gone for a few minutes at +tea-time," Mollie remarked sensibly. "Very likely it is simply lying on +the ground behind the wall." + +That was precisely where it was, and without much trouble the girls got +it into place again, and Prudence mounted quickly. She disappeared +through the little door, but in one moment appeared again with a +frightened face. + +"She's not here, Mollie. She's gone." + +"Gone!" Mollie exclaimed incredulously. "She can't be gone! How could +she get down without the ladder? She must be up in the tree." + +"No, she isn't. I can see every branch from here; there is not a single +place where she could hide." + +"But she _must_ be up there somewhere," Mollie persisted. "If she had +fallen out she would be lying round somewhere. There is no way she +_could_ get down without the ladder. She is so nervous. I'll come up +too and look." + +"You may come, but you won't see anything," Prudence said, steadying +her end of the ladder while Mollie climbed. + +The Nest was certainly empty. The little blue bird must have found +wings and flown, Mollie thought. She looked up and down and round +about, but not a vestige of Grizzel was there to be seen. Then she +called her Scouting lore to her aid, and set her wits to work. + +"The basket has gone too, and there is no orange peel anywhere, but the +_Swiss Family Robinson_ is there on the book-shelf. So she did not go +in a great hurry, because she tidied up first. Let us go to the +Look-out and see if we can catch sight of her blue frock. She may be +hiding quite near and laughing at us all the time." + +They climbed to the Look-out and anxiously scanned all the visible +parts of the garden, but nowhere was there a morsel of blue pinafore or +red curls to be seen. + +"We had better get down," Prudence said, "and search the garden +properly; I'll ask Bridget to come and help us. What I can't understand +is how she got down at all, and, if she _was_ down, why she didn't come +to meet Papa. She always meets him; always, always. Whoever doesn't +meet him Grizzel always does." + +Bridget laughed at their fears, but under her laugh Mollie could detect +a tone of anxiety, and when house and garden had been searched in vain, +Bridget and Prudence faced each other in silence. Then Prue spoke out +the fear which Mollie had not understood: + +"The blacks have come to town; I saw their wurlies yesterday when we +left the Gardens." + +"Away wid ye, Miss Prudence," Bridget scoffed. "An' what for wud the +blacks be touchin' Grizzel? Isn't yur Pa the kindest gintleman in the +whole wurrld to thim, dirrty things they be!" + +"Old Sammy was angry because Mamma would not give him a new blanket +last time he came," Prudence answered, her face pale with anxiety and +tears not far away. "He just goes and sells them, that's what he does, +and buys whisky. He followed me all down the road one day when I was +alone, and jabbered away till his wife came and hauled him off." + +There was a troubled silence while Bridget and Prue considered the next +step to take. Mollie felt that this problem was beyond her powers of +solving. Then a sudden thought struck her: + +"Where's Laddie? We haven't seen him either." + +"Praise be!" exclaimed Bridget. "The dog'll be wid Grizzel, an' that's +sure. Blessin's on ye for the thought, Miss Mollie, for it's scared I +was an' there's no use denyin'." + +"Thank goodness! If the blacks had come Laddie would have barked," +Prudence said, taking a long breath of relief. "How on earth did I not +miss him myself!" + +"Your mind was so full of Grizzel you had no room for another thought, +but now--where is she, and how did she get down?" + +"We _must_ find her before Mamma comes home. Mollie, you are clever; +think some more." + +Mollie thought her hardest, but, as she explained, it was difficult to +make suggestions when she knew neither Grizzel nor the surroundings +very well. "She had no hat on; let us go and see if she has taken a +hat. Would she be likely to go out without one?" + +No, they said, going out without a hat was unheard of. So a search was +instituted in the girl's room, and to their relief Grizzel's garden hat +was missing--somehow, even to Mollie, it seemed less alarming to be +missing with a hat than without one. In fact, if it had not been for +the mystery of the tree--which certainly _was_ very +inexplicable--Mollie would not have disturbed herself. Grizzel had gone +out, wearing her hat, carrying her basket, and accompanied by the large +and capable Laddie. Most likely she would come back presently with some +simple explanation to account for everything. + +"I think she has gone for a walk. She got down somehow and ran off to +give Hugh a fright. Let's go and look for her along the road," was +Mollie's next proposal. + +"If she has gone for a walk she will most likely come home by the lane, +unless she went over to the parklands--oh, I wish she would come back! +She never goes out alone in town, because she is frightened of meeting +Things. She says there are all sorts of Things in town. Once she got +lost in a big crowd, and I think it made her rather nervous. Besides, +Mamma will be angry if she is not home when they come in, and we'll get +such scoldings." Prudence sighed and looked longingly towards the white +gate, but there was no sign of the wanderer's return. + +"Suppose we go to the Look-out and reconnoitre, and if we see her we +can go and meet her," said Mollie. + +This seemed a good idea, so they climbed the ladder once more, and, one +behind the other, scrambled to the top of the tree. But twilight was +already creeping over the land--the brief Australian twilight which +turns to darkness so quickly. It was impossible to see any distance, +and the girls were turning their backs on the flagpole when Prudence +stopped with an exclamation: + +"I think I will light the lantern. Grizzel will see it from a long way +off. Look in the house for matches, Mollie, while I turn the red +glasses both ways." + +"But red means danger," Mollie objected, "and we aren't dangerous." + +"Mamma is when we break rules," Prudence replied, "and it will remind +Grizzel to hurry up." + +"Good gracious!" Mollie ejaculated, as she climbed down on her errand, +"I am glad we don't hang a red lantern out of the nursery window when +we see Mother coming along. How she would laugh if we did!" + +"It won't burn long," Prue said, as she shut the lantern door, "but it +will do. Now we'll go down the lane; I am almost sure Grizzel will come +that way." + +They crossed the garden and slipped into the lane through a narrow back +gate. It seemed to Mollie that the darkness fell like a curtain, so +quickly did it come dropping down. High up above the trees they could +see the red lantern shining in the dusk like a glowing ruby; the air +was growing chilly, and all the warm bright colours were fading into a +dull uniform grey, when suddenly out of the shadowy dimness there leapt +a dark form--a form with a bushy tail and a friendly bark. + +"Laddie!" exclaimed Prudence, and a moment after Grizzel appeared, +running along and swinging her basket. + +"Am I late?" she asked breathlessly. "I didn't mean to be so long; I +stopped to look at the shop windows." + +"Oh, Grizzel, where _have_ you been?" Prue said, catching her sister by +the arm. "I have been so frightened. Come on quickly now, or we won't +be ready, and _then_ there will be a hullabuloo and goodness knows what +tomorrow." + +They hurried back to the house, and were met by an anxious Bridget with +Baby in her arms. Bridget scolded, and Baby laughed, and they were all +so busy "getting ready" that it was not till three white muslin frocks +were spread primly over three green damask Victorian chairs that +Prudence found time to ask: + +"How on earth did you get down from the tree?" + +"I just got down," Grizzel answered, looking mysterious, "I invented a +secret way of getting down." + +"Nonsense," Prudence said rather crossly; "there can't be a secret way +down." + +"Well, find out for yourself," Grizzel retorted, her face taking on an +obstinate expression. + +"But how _did_ you?" Mollie asked, with an ingratiating smile. + +Grizzel shook her rebellious little red curls. "It's my secret," she +repeated; "I won't tell." + +"When did you find out that the ladder was gone?" Prue asked, in a more +amiable voice. + +"I just knew. It's part of the secret." + +"You'll have to tell Hugh," Prudence said firmly; "you can't have +secret ways into other people's houses." + +"I won't tell anyone. It's my mysterious secret and I shall keep it." + +Prudence frowned and opened her mouth to speak again, but Mollie signed +to her to be silent. Mollie was not a Patrol Leader for nothing; she +had learned to be diplomatic, and now she turned the conversation: + +"Where are those parcels?" she asked. + +"The parcels! Goodness me, I forgot them! How _could_ I do such a +thing!" Prudence exclaimed, jumping up from the green chair and rushing +into the hall, followed by Mollie; Grizzel sat on in sulky dignity, +trying to look uninterested. + +"Suppose Papa had come home and found we had not opened them, his +feelings would have been dreadfully hurt," Prudence said with +compunction. "It would have been murder outing. He always says murder +will out." Grizzel's dignity could not survive the sight of the +brown-paper packages, and the parcels were quickly undone and the +wrappings and string tidied away--"the evidences of our folly", Prue +said, as she bundled them out of sight. The contents were so charming +that everybody forgot their little difference of opinion. There was a +fine large kaleidoscope, the first she had ever seen, for Mollie; a +charming musical box, with a long list of tunes printed inside the lid +and a little gilt key to wind it up with, for Prudence; a Winsor and +Newton paint-box for Grizzel; _Five Weeks in a Balloon_, by Jules +Verne, for Hugh; and a Punchinello doll on a stick for Baby. + +"I must say," Mollie remarked appreciatively, "your father _is_ a +peach. I have often wanted to see a proper kaleidoscope, but they seem +to have gone out of fashion." + +The others were too busy admiring their own things to observe Mollie's +remarks. Grizzel was speechless with joy as she found all the paints +she had been longing for--the crimson lake, Prussian blue, Vandyke +brown, and the rest; Prue had wound up her box, and as Mollie turned +her kaleidoscope towards the light, and delighted herself with the +wonderful colours and designs it produced, she heard the delicate, +sweet tinkle of a faintly familiar tune--an old-fashioned sort of +tune.... + +While they were thus pleasantly occupied Professor and Mrs. Campbell +and Hugh returned, and Mollie was introduced to "Mamma" who after all +did not look in the least alarming. She was a fair, pretty woman, with +large clear eyes like Hugh's and a beautifully modulated voice. She +kissed Mollie and looked at her with rather a sad expression in her +eyes: + +"You must tell me all about home this evening," she said in her musical +voice. "How nicely your hair is cut; I wonder if Prue's would look nice +like that." + +"No, no," said Papa, laying his hand on Prue's curls, "I can't spare +one hair off my Prue's head. I must have my brown ringlets to play with +sometimes." + +Hugh could talk of nothing but the wonderful telephone. "I believe I +could make one," he said later on. "I understood a good deal of what +the man said. I shall require a new magnet and some other things. I'll +begin tomorrow." He had forgotten all about such trifles as hidden +ladders and treed sisters, and the girls did not remind him. + +But when Mollie found herself alone with Grizzel she began to talk +about the little house and described a beautiful plan she had concocted +for a house-warming, finishing up with the remark that it was a pity +that Grizzel could not come. + +"Why can't I come?" demanded Grizzel. "Of course I'll come. I adore the +little house." + +"It's Hugh's house, and I don't think he will let you come if you have +a mysterious secret way of getting up and down. He won't like it." + +Grizzel was silent. "It's nothing very wonderful," she said at last. "I +was only paying Prudence out for forgetting me. She might have +remembered to let me down when Papa came home--" and Grizzel's eyes +filled with tears. Mollie's heart softened: + +"He was in such a hurry that there was no time to get you, and it was +my fault afterwards just as much as Prue's." + +"I'll tell you now if you like," Grizzel went on; "only you must +promise not to tell Prudence and Hugh." + +"No," said Mollie, "I can't do that. Prudence was awfully frightened; +she got quite pale. We were frightened together and looked for you +together; it wouldn't be fair for you to tell me and not to tell her. I +hate things that are not fair." + +Grizzel was silent again and then sighed. "Oh well, I suppose I'd +better tell. I'd have liked to keep one secret, but I can't bear not to +go to Hugh's party. It was very easy--I only--" + +"Wait," said Mollie, "I'll call Prue." + +[Illustration: I WISH I COULD MAKE SOMETHING THAT WOULD REACH FROM HERE +TO MY BROTHER] + +"I saw Hugh take the ladder," Grizzel went on, after Prue joined them; +"of course I heard it scraping along; Hugh is a silly. So I watched him +hide it, and when the milkman came I called him, and he put it up and +helped me down and we hid it back again. That's all." + +The others looked at each other, and then Mollie began to laugh, and +went on laughing till Prue and Grizzel laughed at her laughing. "Well, +I must say!" she exclaimed at last, "I _am_ a Sherlock Holmes and no +mistake! I was so busy being clever that I never even thought of a +milkman, which would have been Baden-Powell's first idea. Of all the +silly things! Why on earth didn't we think of it, Prue?" + +Hugh, most reluctantly, went to school next morning, and Mamma kept the +girls busy with Italian, music, and needlework till lunch-time. After +that Grizzel departed with her paint-box, Bridget took Baby for a walk, +and Mollie and Prue settled themselves in the little house, with a +cushion apiece at their backs, a basket of freshly pulled oranges +between them, and a couple of books in case conversation should flag. + +"Now, Prudence, tell me more about Time-travellers," Mollie said; +"somehow I can't seem to remember that I am one; in fact--" she paused. + +"You can't believe it," Prudence finished for her. "I know. But it's +meant to be like that. If you didn't forget you would remember too +much, and then you would stop being a Time-traveller, because your mind +can't be in two places at once. So it is better _not_ to talk; or you +may have to go." + +"I won't again, but just tell me two things. Can we travel forwards as +well as backwards?" + +"A few people can, not everyone; but it is better not, Mollie. It is +far better not." + +"But you came into my Time to fetch me." + +"I didn't exactly come, you brought me; and I can only stay a moment." + +"Well," Mollie said, after a short silence, "the other thing is: Can I +bring Dick? He would love this place and this Time--somehow you seem to +have more room than we have, and you are not so frightfully busy. We +never have _enough_ time; I think your hours must be longer than ours," +she went on, with a sigh. "I simply cannot get all the things squeezed +in that I want to do. I often wish the days were thirty hours long." + +"You weren't wishing that when I came," Prudence said, with a little +laugh. "I don't know about Dick; you can't bring him unless he wants to +come--of his own accord, I mean." + +Mollie pondered a little, and then sighed again: "It will be rather +hard. He doesn't want anything frightfully except football, and there +isn't any just now. Perhaps we could make him want to come; couldn't +Hugh invent some way? It was only one chance in a hundred--in a +thousand, perhaps, that made me talk to your photograph. Let us ask +Hugh." + +"We can ask," Prudence agreed, "but his head is going to be packed full +of telephone now, and he won't think or speak of anything else for +days. That's the way he is; we get rather tired of it sometimes, +especially when we have to help. Grizzel collected four hundred corks +for his raft. She grubbed in the ashpit, and among the empty +beer-bottles--" Prudence sighed in her turn. + +The two girls met Hugh at the white gate on his return from school, and +Mollie seized the first opportunity to make her request. + +"I don't know," Hugh answered thoughtfully; "there ought to be a way. I +believe there is a way _somewhere_ to do everything, if you can only +find it. It's mostly a question of looking long enough. And a thing is +always in the last place you look for it--naturally. I am going to make +a telephone; if I could make one long enough--" he paused. + +They were strolling up the wide, cypress-bordered path as they talked, +and Mollie's wandering gaze fell upon a low mound at the foot of one of +the cypress trees. + +"What's that?" she asked, coming to a standstill. "It looks like a +cat's grave." + +It was a grave sure enough, and crowned with a bunch of pansies. A +small headstone had been made from the lid of an old soapbox, on which +was printed the following inscription: + + HERE LITH + THE + LONGEST + DANDY LION CHANE + IN + THE WURLD + +"It's Grizzel," said Prudence; "why on earth has she gone and buried +her beautiful chain?" + +Grizzel joined the group and answered for herself: + +"Mollie said the poor flowers would be forgotten. I should hate to be +forgotten, so I lifted them all up and buried them. I bought a yard of +lovely yellow muslin when I was out yesterday and made a beautiful +shroud. That cypress tree is rather big for such a little grave, but +it's the littlest in the garden." + +No one smiled. "It was a wonderful chain," Mollie said, remembering her +view from the Look-out, "I wish I could make something that would reach +from here to my brother Dick. I wish we had wireless. I wonder if +'willing' would be any good. Have you ever played willing? We join +hands and will with all our might that Dick would come here." + +"It sounds easy," said Hugh, always ready for a new experiment, "much +easier than making a telephone; we might as well try." + +So they joined hands and wished. As they loosened hands again a shrill +cry above their heads made them all look up--it was a parrot flying low +across the garden, its brilliant plumage shining in the evening +sunlight like jewels. "It's my parrot!" Mollie exclaimed, "it met me by +the gate yesterday." + +Mollie sat up. The rain was still splashing on the window-panes, but +Aunt Mary was drawing the curtains, and a cheerful little fire had been +lighted. There was a pleasant tinkle of china as tea-cups were settled +on the tray. + +"Have I been asleep?" she asked incredulously. (It surely was not all a +_dream_!) + +"A beautiful sleep," Aunt Mary answered; "and now tea, and after +tea--you shall see what you shall see." + + + + +CHAPTER III + +The Fortune-makers or The Cherry-garden + + +Mollie was rather silent at tea-time. She could not help thinking of +those other children in that long-ago far-away garden. Were they real? +Or had it all been a dream? It _must_ have been a dream, she +thought--such things do not happen in real life--it was impossible that +it should have been true. And yet, never before had she dreamt anything +so clearly, so "going-on" as she expressed it to herself. She longed to +tell Aunt Mary all about it, but the memory of her vow restrained her. +If nothing further happened, in course of time she would feel free to +tell of her wonderful experience, but in the meantime she must have +patience. She racked her brains to think of some roundabout way of +introducing the subject of Australia and the year 1878, but could not +get past her vow--it seemed to block the way in every direction. + +So she ate her little triangles of toast--made in a particularly +fascinating way peculiar to Grannie's housekeeping--without enjoying +the scrunch, scrunch between her teeth so much as usual. Even the early +strawberries and cream found her somewhat absent-minded. + +But after tea was cleared away and the room tidied up, Aunt Mary +disappeared for a short time and returned with her hands behind her +back. She stood before Mollie, and in a solemn voice chanted the +following words: + + "Neevie neevie nick nack, + Which hand will ye tak? + Tak the right or tak the wrong, + I'll beguile ye if I can." + +This was too interesting to be ignored. Mollie sat up and became her +ordinary self again. She looked critically at Aunt Mary's arms, +shoulders, and eyes, but got no information from any of these. Then she +laughed: + +"I _won't_ have the wrong, please, I'll have the right." + +Aunt Mary laughed too. "You are too clever, Miss Mollie. That is not +the way _I_ did neevie-neevie when I was young." She brought her right +hand round as she spoke, and in it was a charming box, large, +varnished, and clamped at the corners with brass. She laid it on +Mollie's lap, and watched the sliding lid being pulled out by a pair of +impatient hands. It was a beautiful jig-saw puzzle. + +"Oh, where _did_ you get it?" Mollie cried joyfully. "I _adore_ jig-saw +puzzles. You are a lovely, lovely aunt!" and she held out her arms for +a hug and a kiss. + +"Well," said Aunt Mary, smiling with pleasure at the success of her +surprise, "I remembered how fond you are of jig-saws, so yesterday, as +soon as you had fallen asleep, I wired to Hamley's. I was not sure if +it would arrive to-day, so I did not tell you. Now, let us see what it +is--a map! Oh, dear me, I hope you won't find a map dull!" + +Grannie, who loved jig-saws almost as much as Mollie did, had drawn up +a substantial table to the sofa and seated herself beside it. "Dull!" +she said reprovingly, "I hope not indeed. Maps are the most interesting +puzzles one can have. What is it a map of?" + +"We'll soon find that out," said Mollie, laying a very jagged section +upon the table and studying it with interest. "What funny names--Weeah! +Where's that? It sounds like China." + +Grannie had also possessed herself of a section, and was scrutinizing +it through her spectacles. "I'll need my reading-glass, Mary, my dear," +she said; "my old eyes cannot see this tiny print." + +A silver-handled reading-glass was brought, and Grannie considered her +section again: "The Yarra," she read out, "I wonder if you can tell me +where the Yarra is, Mollie?" + +"Never heard of it," said Mollie, shaking her head. "Yankalilla. +Where's that? Goomooroo, Wanrearah, Koolywurtie. _What_ names! I am +glad I am not a railway guard in this place, wherever it may be." + +"Aha, Miss Mollie, I am cleverer than you are with all your Oxford and +Cambridge examinations!" Grannie exclaimed triumphantly, "for I can +tell you where the Yarra is--it is the river upon which Melbourne is +built, and Melbourne is the capital of Victoria, and Victoria is a +colony in Australia." + +"Australia!" Mollie exclaimed, a little startled. "How funny--I mean +how interesting!" It was certainly rather odd, she thought, that her +difficulty should be solved so promptly, for now, of course, she might +ask as many questions as she pleased and no one would wonder at her +sudden interest in our distant colonies. In the meantime Grannie and +Aunt Mary were both too much engrossed in the puzzle to notice the +rather peculiar expression on Mollie's face, and soon she too became +absorbed in the puzzle under her eyes, and forgot for the moment the +stranger puzzle in her mind. + +When Mollie's breakfast-tray came up next morning, the first thing she +saw on it was a letter from Dick. She seized it and tore it open. + + +"DEAR MOLL, + +"I've had the rummest experience you ever. Young Outram says it was +-pyh- -psy- -pysh---ghosts, you know. He says I must tell you _exactly_ +what happened and not leave out anything, because quite small things +might turn out to be most important. Young Outram is great on ghosts +and Spirits, he says it is because he was born in the East. It happened +like this. Y.O. and me were sitting together at our desk, which is at +the back beside the window. It is a very good desk. Old Nosey was +talking about _Macbeth_--or perhaps it was _Paradise Lost,_ I am not +sure of this point, because sometimes he does one and sometimes the +other, according to the mood he is in. But it was one of them. Y.O. and +I were making a list of Probable Players in next term's 1st XV, and we +both said 'Jenkyns will have left', at the same time, so we hooked +little fingers and said Kipling, and were wishing a wish when all of a +sudden, _without the slightest warning_ there appeared, sitting on _our +desk,_ the most absolutely top-hole parrot I ever saw in my life. We +sat staring, because, you see, we never saw the beast fly in, and if it +flew through the window we _must_ have seen it, because of my arm being +on the window-sill. While we were still staring I _distinctly_ heard +your voice say, 'Do come here, Dick.' Just those words and then no +more. Then the parrot vanished absolutely, tail and everything, though +it was the finest parrot's tail I ever saw in my life. I can tell you, +Moll, it made me sit up hearing you like that. Y.O. said my freckles +came out like a rash because I got almost pale under them. I wish I'd +seen myself. Then we made the astonishing discovery that none of the +other chaps had seen the parrot, in fact they say it is a cock-and-bull +story, but we are sitting tight because of the phyc-thingummy. Young O. +says that whatever it is he has to be in it too, because most probably +it was owing to his peculiar Indian ghostiness that we saw it at all. I +don't quite agree, but anyhow that's what he says, and he'd better be +in. Please write by return of post if you can explain this phenomenon. +We hope you aren't dead. + +"Yours affec., + +"DICK." + + +Mollie read this letter through twice, then laid it down and ate her +egg and toast without thinking much of what she was doing. She felt +rather startled again; things were certainly queerish. Either her vivid +dream had penetrated to Dick's brain--and such experiences were not +altogether unknown between the twins--or else--or else Prudence really +_had_ come yesterday, and there was something in that story of the +Time-travellers. So the experiment had worked too. She remembered the +brilliant parrot. + +She could not make up her mind how much of her story she might tell to +Dick. Her vow had only applied to grown-ups, and since the Campbells +had helped her to wish Dick over, presumably they would allow her to +take him into her confidence. But would he believe such an unlikely +story--and what about Young Outram? They had not bargained for two +boys. She decided to wait and see if Prudence came again, and, in the +meantime, to write and tell Dick that she was alive and well, and that +some explanation of his most extraordinary vision would certainly be +forthcoming sooner or later. + +The morning passed much more quickly than the previous morning had +done. Mollie and Grannie worked hard at the jig-saw puzzle, and, +without breaking her word by the smallest fraction, Mollie contrived to +get a considerable amount of information about Australia from Grannie. +Not, of course, that she was totally ignorant on the subject of our +Australian colonies, but her knowledge was vague, and her interest +before this time had been so faint that it was hardly worth mentioning. +Grannie, on the other hand, had had a brother and many friends in +Australia, and had, at one time or another, corresponded with a number +of people there. She was able to tell Mollie several thrilling tales of +bush fires, of the gold-fields, and of Ned Kelly, the great bushranger. +But in none of her stories did the name of the Campbells appear. + +After lunch Mollie was again tucked up on her sofa and told to take a +little nap. Grannie was somewhat amused to be asked for the +photograph-album again. "Bairns have queer fancies," she thought to +herself, as she laid it on Mollie's lap. "Don't look too long, my +lamb," she said aloud. "Try and go to sleep. You were all the better +yesterday. There is Aunt Mary playing the piano--dear me, it is long +since I heard that tune!" + +When Mollie was left alone she opened the album, lay back on her +cushions, and stared hard at the picture of prim little Prudence. + +"_Now_ we shall see! Was it a dream, or will she come again? That is +the question." + +But nothing happened. Prudence stared solemnly and stolidly back, +looking almost too good for human nature's daily food. + +"But she wasn't, I feel sure she wasn't, even if it _was_ all a dream. +Oh--_how_ disappointing! I did hope that parrot of Dick's meant +something, and I do so want to see those children again and know what +happened next. Besides, it would be thrilling to be a +Time-traveller--one could see all sorts of things." + +As she meditated over her disappointment Mollie turned the pages of the +album, looking rather listlessly at the other children, and deciding +that none was so attractive as Prudence, till she came to a group of +three girls and a boy. She looked closer, then stretched out her hand +for the reading-glass and looked again: "I do believe it is--yes, it +_is_--Hugh and Prudence and Grizzel and Baby! How I _wish_ they would +come alive!" + +Even as she said the last word she saw a smile dawn upon Prue's face. +She did not drop the album this time but held tightly on to it, closed +her eyes, and counted twenty. When she opened them there stood Prue, +looking as good and sweet as ever. + +"Oh, I _am_ glad to see you!" Mollie exclaimed, sitting up and holding +out her hands. "I thought it was all a dream, and that you were not +coming. You will take me with you again, won't you? I did love +yesterday." + +Prudence smiled and took Mollie's hands in her own. "We need not waste +time talking to-day," she said. "Listen to the music." + +Mollie shut her eyes and listened to Aunt Mary, who just then began to +sing--Mollie could hear the words quite plainly: + + "Oft in the stilly night, + Ere slumber's chain hath bound me, + Fond memory brings the light + Of other days around me." + +They were standing on a rough deeply rutted cart-track high up on a +hill-side. Behind them the hill rose steeply, so thickly wooded that +Mollie could not see plainly to the top. Before her it fell in a gentle +slope to a narrow valley, through which ran a shallow creek with green +banks on either side. Straight before her, half-way up the opposite +hill, she saw a white cottage covered with a scarlet flowering creeper. +It had casement windows all wide open, and a trellised porch. The +garden of the cottage reached to the foot of the hill, and for +three-quarters of its length was filled with rows of vines, looking +like green lines ruled on a brown slate. + +On one side of the little vineyard Mollie could see a path winding up +the hill, twisting in and out between vines and overhanging trees till +it lost itself in a flower-garden, which made such a splash of rosy +pink and flaming scarlet that Mollie thought it might have been spilt +out of a sunset. + +By the roadside at her feet sat Grizzel, red curls still bobbing round +her head, and apparently the very same blue overall still clothing her +slim little body. She was moulding a lump of wet clay, shaping it into +a bowl, pinching here, smoothing there, patting and pressing with both +little grubby hands. On a strip of grass before her stood a long row of +golden balls, glittering in the sunshine as if they had newly left a +jeweller's shop. + +Prudence stood beside Mollie, rolling a clay ball round and round in +her hands; and Mollie discovered presently that she herself was also +rolling a lump of sticky stiff mud into some sort of shape, she was not +sure what, but it seemed very important that it should be exactly right. + +As she watched the other two children, she saw Grizzel rise to her feet +and run a few steps along the road to where, on the upper slope, a +wedge had been sliced out of the hill, leaving a three-cornered open +space which glittered curiously. This apparently was where the golden +balls came from, for Grizzel stooped down, and lifting a handful of +shining sand let it filter evenly through her fingers over her bowl. +She then set the bowl on the ground, and lightly rubbed the gold sand +into its surface. She repeated this process three times, then +straightened herself, rubbed her gritty hands on her overall, shook the +curls out of her eyes, and said: + +"It's quite a nice bowl. If _only_ we could make them hold water, Prue, +it would do beautifully for Mamma's Russian violets." + +As Grizzel spoke Mollie suddenly realized that she knew where she was. +They were in "the hills", across the way was their summer cottage, and +those blue-green trees were gum trees. She remembered the long road she +had seen from the Look-out, and how she had longed to follow it and see +what lay behind those hills. + +She carried her ball along to the wedge in the hill-side and rolled it +in the golden sand, rubbing it and sprinkling it as she had seen +Grizzel do, and soon it took on a splendid yellow shine. + +"It looks very nice, Mollie," said Grizzel. "I like the way you've +shaped it like an orange. I wonder if I could make a bunch of +cherries--I think I will try to-morrow. Put it here beside mine; it is +the hottest place." + +Mollie stopped and put her ball--which she now saw she _had_ shaped +like an orange--beside Grizzel's on the sunny patch of grass. Then she +stood up and looked round her again. + +"Where is Hugh?" she asked, "and Baby, and your father and mother?" + +"I think that is Hugh prowling among the roses over the way," Prudence +answered, shading her eyes with one hand, and looking across the valley +at the garden. "What is he doing, I wonder--he seems to have lost +something! Baby is with Bridget. Papa and Mamma haven't come up yet. +Miss Hilton is supposed to be taking care of us, but she is rather a +goose." + +"All the better for us," said Grizzel. "If she were strict and fussy we +wouldn't have nearly such a nice time as we do. You have only to say +snake to Miss Hilton and she is ready to faint; it is useful sometimes." + +"Why should you say snake?" asked Mollie, feeling rather relieved to +hear that the elders of the family were away. + +"Because there are snakes about, and she is terrified of them," +Prudence explained. + +"Oh dear--so am I, horribly frightened!" Mollie exclaimed. "I never saw +a snake in my life except in the Zoo." "Then how do you know you are +frightened of them?" Grizzel asked. "You only have to be a little firm +with them and they won't do you any harm. I have lived in Australia for +years and years and have never once been bitten." + +"I hope I will never meet one when I am alone," Mollie said, shaking an +unconvinced head. + +While the other children counted their balls, dried their hands, and +tied on their sunbonnets, Mollie stood still and gazed about her. The +country she saw looked strange and unfamiliar to her eyes. So far as +she could see there seemed to be few trees but gum trees, with their +monotonous foliage and gaunt grey trunks, so different from the mossy +trunks at home in English woods. Here and there one had fallen, and lay +like a giant skeleton on the ground. On all sides were hills, not very +high, but rolling one behind the other like waves, some wooded and some +bare of trees and covered only with short grass and rough boulders. +Over everything was the same beautiful clear sunlight that had +impressed Mollie so much on her first visit, and the air was warm and +soft. She thought of the dull street at home in North Kensington, with +brick houses all crowded up together and dingy little back-yards, and +she wished that her family could come and live in this wide and sunny +country. + +As she stood, a cry came across the valley. + +"Coo-eee! Cooo-eeeee!" + +"There's Bridget calling for tea," said Prudence. "Come on quick; I'm +as hungry as a hunter, and Biddy said she would make some damper, +because we are rather short of bread." + +"What is damper?" asked Mollie, as she followed the other two down the +hill. "Is it wet bread?" + +"Don't you know what _damper_ is?" Grizzel asked, with round eyes. "It +is unleavened bread--you know, like the Children of Israel ate. +Sometimes we find manna too, lying underneath the trees, but I don't +like it much. I am glad I am not a Child of Israel," she added; "I +don't like that old Moses. Do you?" + +"I haven't thought about him very much," Mollie confessed; "I suppose +he was all right in his own way." + +"He was so fond of Thou shalt not," Grizzel objected, "and I can't +_bear_ thou shalt nots. If _I_ had made the commandments I should have +said 'Thou oughtest not to commit murder, but if thou doest thou shalt +be hung'. Don't you think that would be more interesting?" + +"No, I don't," Mollie answered decidedly, "I like things to be short +and plain like Thou shalt not steal. Then you know where you are." + +Prudence looked disapprovingly at her sister. "You should not talk like +that, Grizzel; it is flippant, and you know what Papa says about +flippancy." + +Grizzel made a face but did not answer, and they went on in silence +till they reached the foot of the hill. They crossed the little creek +by stepping-stones, and walked slowly up the winding path, the vines +with their ripening grapes on the one side, and on the other great +cherry trees, laden with the largest and reddest cherries that Mollie +had ever seen in her life. They hung down temptingly among the green +leaves, dangling their little bunches in the most inviting way +imaginable, some scarlet, some black, and some almost white, but all +ripe and luscious. The children stretched up their hands and pulled +some, which tasted as good as they looked. + +"I'm going to make cherry jam to-morrow," Grizzel said, dropping her +stones on the ground and carefully pushing them into the soil with the +heel of her boot. "I'm going to make the first beginnings of my +fortune." + +"What fortune?" asked Mollie, throwing her stones away in the careless +fashion of people who are accustomed to buying their fruit in shops. + +"My jam fortune," Grizzel answered. "Every year Mamma sends a case of +jam home to Grandmamma, and this year I am going to put in twelve tins +of my very own jam, and Grandmamma will sell it and put the money in +the bank for me. She promised she would if I was a good girl, and I've +been as good as it is possible for a human being to be." + +"But can _you_ make really-truly jam?" Mollie asked +incredulously--Grizzel looked so small and young to be a maker of real +jam in shoppy tins. + +"Grizzel is a _beautiful_ cook," said Prudence, with an air of great +pride. "You wait till you taste her herring-shape, and her parsnip +sauce. Mamma says that cooks are born, not made, and that Grizzel is +born and I'm not made." + +Mollie felt an immense respect for Grizzel. Cooking was not her own +strong point, as her Guide captain had informed her in plain language +more than once, and in any case food at home was too precious for +children to experiment with except under supervision--there could be no +playing about with fruit and sugar for instance. She began to think +that if there were some things she could teach these forty-years-ago +children, there were also some things she could learn from them--a +thought which would have given her mother much pleasure could she have +seen into her daughter's mind at that moment. + +"Hullo, girls!" said Hugh, coming out of the garden as they drew near +the cottage, "I've got an idea." + +[Illustration: GRIZZEL THREW IN A SMALL HANDFUL OF TEA] + +Mollie turned to look at Hugh. He had grown a little taller, she +thought, but was as clear-eyed and meditative as ever. And behind Hugh +was the flower-garden, full of roses--thousands and thousands of roses, +mostly pale pink. They were loose-petalled and exquisitely sweet. The +children paused for a moment before going into the house, and all four +sniffed up the delicate fragrance appreciatively. + +"That's my idea," said Hugh, with an extra loud sniff. "Scent! Let's +make attar of roses. It costs a guinea a drop to buy, and we could make +bottles full. I've been examining the rose-bushes--they are simply +packed full of buds behind the flowers. I have been reading about it. +It's quite easy to do; you merely have to extract the essential oil +from the petals and there you are. I'll show you after tea." + +They passed through the porch into the house. There was no hall; they +walked straight into the sitting-room, where a table was spread with +tea, and Miss Hilton, a rather faded-looking lady of middling age, was +already seated behind the tea-pot. + +"Go and wash your hands, children," she said, in a voice that matched +her looks, "and smooth your hair. I am _surprised_ at you coming into +the room like this. I don't know what your visitor will think, I am +sure. Children have _very_ different manners in England." + +Mollie glanced round at the other three. She herself stood behind Miss +Hilton and was therefore not within that lady's line of vision. She +winked largely with her left eye, and a smile of relief travelled round +the room. + +Tea was a silent meal in spite of the festive damper, which was so good +that Mollie thought it must have alleviated the unfortunate lot of the +Children of Israel considerably. Hugh was thinking out his plan for +making attar of roses; Prue was day-dreaming about nothing in +particular, as she was too fond of doing; Grizzel's mind was wandering +away to golden bowls, golden cherries, and other possible and some +quite impossible golden achievements; while Mollie listened to Baby, +who carried on a long and intimate conversation with a family of +bread-and-butter--otherwise the beddy-buts--which had found a temporary +home upon her plate. Miss Hilton poured out tea absent-mindedly, and +seldom spoke except to rebuke someone for putting elbows on the table. + +As soon as the meal was over the children went into the garden again, +and, once outside, their tongues began to move. + +"I shall nab Baby's bronchitis-kettle," Hugh announced, "and make a +distiller, and we can begin to-morrow. You girls will have to help me, +for I must watch the distilling all the time, and someone must keep me +supplied with fresh rose-petals." + +"I can't do much, because I'm going to make jam," said Grizzel, "and I +want Prue and Mollie to help me to gather cherries. I've got one or two +new ideas"--Mollie thought the family seemed great on ideas--"but, if +you'll solder up my jam tins, I'll help with your attar." + +"I'll tell you what," said Prue, "we'll have a secret breakfast." + +"What's a secret breakfast?" asked Mollie. + +"You'll see in a minute," Prue answered. "It's a lovely thing. Then +we'll get up and pull the cherries and cut them open, and we can pick +the roses afterwards, when they are warm and dry." + +"Then we had better get the things ready now," said Grizzel. + +So while Hugh went off to a little old hut, which served them for a +playroom, to build up his distillery, the three girls set out to +inspect the cherry trees, and engaged in the pleasing task of tasting a +few cherries off each tree to decide which had the finest flavour. + +"I think they are all absolutely topping," said Mollie. "I don't know +how you can tell which is best." + +"What funny words you use," said Grizzel. "Topping!" + +"Well--top-hole then, or ripping, or great, or first-class, or jolly +good." + +Both hearers laughed. "You had better not let Miss Hilton hear you," +said Prue, "or she will tell Mamma, and then you will have to write out +'topping' a hundred times." + +Grizzel led the way to the flower-garden, which was laid out on the +terrace immediately below the cottage. A sanded path ran along by the +rose-bed, which was banked up for two feet or so to keep the soil from +washing down in the rainy season. Prudence and Grizzel stopped at a +corner where, in a sheltered angle, lay a low pile of bricks built up +four-square with a hollow centre. + +"This is our fire-place," Prue explained to Mollie. "When we get up +very early we make a fire here and boil tea and have a secret +breakfast, because proper breakfast isn't till nine o'clock when Miss +Hilton is mistress, and we get so hungry--besides, it is a lark." + +"Write out 'lark' one hundred times, my dear Prudence," said Grizzel, +in a voice so exactly like Miss Hilton's that Mollie looked round with +a start, and the other two laughed. + +They gathered sticks, which they carried into the kitchen to be dried, +Bridget being a good-natured conspirator, and they collected sugar, +tea, and damper for their feast. Darkness falls early in Australia, and +the children decided to go to bed in good time, so that they should +waken fresh in the morning. Mollie thought that their bedroom was a +delightful place, quite different from a London bedroom. It had a door +to itself, with a flight of wooden steps leading down to the garden, so +that the children could slip out without disturbing the household. +Mollie thought this very romantic. + +"You won't think it very romantic if some old bushranger gets in +through the night and shoots you dead," Grizzel cheerfully suggested. + +"Be quiet, Grizzel," Prudence said reprovingly. "What is the use of +frightening Mollie like that? You never saw a bushranger in your life." + +But a London girl, who has been through a dozen air-raids without +losing any nerve, is not likely to disturb herself over a possible but +improbable bushranger, and indeed Mollie was blissfully ignorant on the +subject in spite of Grannie's tales; so she went to bed quite +peacefully in the little camp-bed, and lay for a time watching the +brilliant stars shine through the wide-open window. The lovely night +scents floated in with the soft breeze, and Mollie could hear strange +birds calling to their mates at an hour when most English birds are in +bed and fast asleep. + +The first rosy streaks of dawn saw the three girls making their morning +toilet at the pump, where the water was cold even to the touch of +English Mollie, but it was freshening, and they emerged from their +splashes with pink cheeks and ravenous appetites. The "inventor" loved +his bed and did not join in the morning revels. (So boys _were_ lazy +lie-a-beds in Father's young days, thought Mollie.) + +Prudence and Mollie went straight to the cherry trees with their +baskets, while Grizzel lighted the fire and prepared the secret +breakfast. She called them before the first baskets were quite full. +The fire was burning cheerfully, sending long streamers of wood smoke +into the morning air. On the bricks sat a billy-can full of water just +on the boil, and, as it bubbled up, Grizzel threw in a small handful of +tea, giving it a stir round with a cherry twig. She let it bubble again +while she counted ten, then lifted the can to one side and put the lid +on. She had begged a cup of warm, frothy milk from the milk-boy's pail +as he came up the hill. The damper was sitting on the hot bricks, and +Grizzel had gathered a plateful of strawberries from the berry-bed at +the foot of the hill. + +They sat down on the sandy path, holding their mugs of steaming tea in +one hand and their damper in the other, large juicy strawberries taking +the place of jam. Mollie thought it was the most exquisitely delightful +breakfast she had ever tasted in her life. The sun had risen and was +sending his beautiful rays along the valley; they fell upon the roses +and heliotrope in the garden and on the misty blue-green of the gum +trees on the hill opposite. As the children munched in silent +enjoyment, their eyes wandering here and there, one long shaft of light +fell straight upon the patch of golden sand, so that it glittered as +though it were the door to Aladdin's cave. Prue reached out her hand +and pulled down a branch of sweet-scented geranium, crushing a leaf and +holding it to Mollie's nose. + +"Isn't it nice here, Mollie?" she said. + +"It's perfectly heavenly," Mollie answered, with a sigh. "Why can't all +the world be as nice as this, and why do people _ever_ live in streets?" + +They tidied up the remains of their breakfast, and were soon back at +work in the cherry trees. By nine o'clock they had filled four baskets +and had stoned more than half, and laid them in a shallow pan with +sugar over them "to draw", as Grizzel explained. They cracked the +kernels and took out the tiny white nuts, and last of all Grizzel added +a good handful of gooseberries. + +"That's my idea," she said, "it will help the cherries to jell. I think +I will pop in some red currants too." + +"You _are_ clever," Mollie said admiringly. "I never in all my life saw +a girl as young as you make jam." + +"When I am grown up," Grizzel said, sucking her sugary fingers as she +spoke, "I am going to have a fruit-farm and make immense quantities of +jam to send home. Grandmamma says our jam is the nicest she has tasted, +especially our peach and apricot. I am going to try grape jam too, and +I shall preserve mandarin oranges whole, and pineapples, and figs." + +Mollie suddenly remembered big tins of jam which used to arrive from +Australia now and then, at a time when jam was very scarce and precious +in London. She smiled to herself as she wondered if they had been +Grizzel's jams--they might have been. At any rate they must have come +from beautiful gardens like this. + +"If you do," she said to Grizzel, "put a picture of yourself and a +cherry tree on the tin. It will look much prettier than 'Campbell's +Jams'!" + +This made the children laugh, and they went in to their second +breakfast feeling very cheerful and what Mollie called "pleased with +life". The lazy inventor made his appearance halfway through the meal, +looking still rather sleepy. "Come and see my distillery," he said, +when breakfast was over, "I fixed it up last night." + +Hugh had set the bronchitis-kettle--always carried about with Baby, who +was subject to croup--on the fire-place, and had fixed a long narrow +jam-tin on to the end of the spout. + +"I put the roses and water into the kettle," he explained, "and they +boil, and the steam comes out and drops into this cold tin and +condenses. Then, when we have enough, we boil that up and condense +again. Then we skim the oil that rises to the top, and that is attar of +roses. It is perfectly simple." + +"It _sounds_ simple," said Mollie, "but--" + +"But what?" asked Hugh, with a frown. + +"Oh, I don't know--just but," said Mollie, in a hurry. "I don't know a +thing about distilling; how many boilings will it take to collect a +bottle of attar?" + +"A good many, but you must not forget that a bottle holds a great many +drops, and each drop is worth a guinea, so that a lavender-water bottle +will hold about three hundred guineas' worth." + +Mollie was greatly impressed. How easy it was to make fortunes in +Australia! And how much pleasanter a way than Father's way, which meant +living in a street and sighing over bills, and not making much of a +fortune after all. + +The girls returned to the garden, and soon gathered enough petals for +the first boiling. Hugh, in the meantime, lit the fire and fetched +water from the rain-water tank. "It says water from a spring, in the +book," he said, "but there's nothing like rain-water really for this +kind of work." + +Soon Grizzel said she must go to her jam-making. Prudence stayed to +help Hugh, and Mollie decided to hover between both fortune-building +schemes, as she was too deeply interested in the results to wish to +miss either. For an hour they worked hard, Mollie and Prudence bringing +in fresh supplies of roses, rain-water, and logs of wood, for the fire +had to be kept well stocked. The room got very hot, for Hugh would not +allow any windows to be opened, and a good part of the steam managed to +escape in spite of all his care. Indeed it seemed to Mollie that more +steam got into the room than into the tin. After the third instalment +of roses and water she asked if she could be spared to go and see how +the jam was getting on. + +"You might bring back some bread and skimmings," said Prudence. +"Working like this makes you so hungry." + +The day was warm, but it was refreshing to get out of doors after the +steamy atmosphere of the playroom. Mollie sauntered along, keeping in +the shade of the trees, a little tired after her early rising. She +could see Bridget and Baby at the bottom of the garden gathering +gooseberries for a pudding. Baby's pink sun-bonnet bobbed about like a +rose going for a walk in the berry-bed. Before she reached the kitchen +door she began to smell something uncommonly like burning sugar. + +"I expect it has spilt on the stove," she thought; "that pot is pretty +heavy for Grizzel to lift." + +The smell got stronger and stronger, and when Mollie reached the +kitchen there was not only a smell but smoke. There was no sign of +Grizzel, nor of anyone else; the house was silent and empty but for the +sizzling and smoking of the boiled-over jam. Mollie ran to the stove--a +funny flat arrangement, different from the stoves of her acquaintance. +The jam had evidently been boiling over for some time, for not only the +saucepan, the stove, and the fender, but even the floor was covered +with a dark-brown sticky syrup. She trod carefully to the fire-place +and lifted the pan to one side, the smoke and steam making her eyes +water. + +"Making fortunes is pretty hot work in Australia," she muttered to +herself. "If I made many there wouldn't be much of me left to enjoy +them with. Where on earth is Grizzel?" + +She found her in their bedroom, arranging some vine leaves and green +grapes in her golden bowl, quite oblivious of a world which contained +jam. + +"I think your jam is burning, Grizzel--I am afraid it is rather badly +burnt." + +"My jam!" said Grizzel, coming back to the world of every day. +"Goodness me! I forgot all about the jam." She hastily dumped her bowl +down on the window-sill, and flew to the kitchen, followed by Mollie. + +"Oh dear, dear, dear!" she cried, when her eyes fell upon the scene of +devastation. "Oh, my jam! my jam! Oh, why am I _both_ a cook and an +artist? One half of me is _always_ getting into the way of the other +half! Oh, Mollie--my lovely, beautiful jam!" + +"Let's taste it and see; _perhaps_ it isn't burnt," Mollie suggested. +But one sip was enough. "Ab-so-lute wash-out!" was her verdict. Grizzel +seized the pot by the handle and made for the door. + +"What are you going to do?" asked Mollie, following her. + +"Bury it," said Grizzel, laying down the pot and seizing a spade. She +rapidly dug a shallow hole, poured the sticky black mixture into it and +tossed back the earth. + +"And they were so pretty a few hours ago," she wailed. "Why on earth +did I go and spoil them like that! Oh, Mollie, I am a cruel girl!" + +"It isn't _really_ any more cruel than eating them," said Mollie +consolingly. "I'd just as soon be burnt as eaten myself--only perhaps +one might be cooked first and eaten afterwards. I must say it is rather +hard lines on mutton when you come to think of it." + +Grizzel took the blackened pot to the pump, filled it with water, and +carried it back to the kitchen. The fire was nearly out, and logs had +to be piled on and blown up with the bellows before the pot could be +set on again. Grizzel looked round for a towel to clear up the horrible +mess with, but Bridget had washed her towels that morning and they were +all hanging out to dry on the line. + +"Get a newspaper and crumple it up," suggested Mollie; "wet it in the +pot-water." + +When Bridget and Baby appeared at the door, two very hot and sticky +children were surrounded by a litter of crumpled, wet, black +newspapers, and the stove was as far as you can possibly imagine from +being clean. + +"Holy saints!" said Bridget. + +Nothing could have looked less like holy saints than Mollie and Grizzel +did at that moment. They stood up in the midst of the ruins, and Mollie +waited for the skies to fall. But Biddy was a good-natured soul. + +"An' me stove new cleaned this very mornin'--you an' yir jam! Be off +wid ye!" flapping the children out of the way with her apron as she +spoke. + +"Come and wash," said Grizzel, catching up a tin basin from the porch +as they went out. + +When they were moderately clean again they went back to the playroom to +see how the scent-makers were faring. They found Hugh and Prudence as +red as lobsters; the big kettle had been moved and a tiny one put in +its place. + +"I thought I'd better try how the experiment was getting on," Hugh +explained to Mollie and Grizzel. "There's no use doing all the roses +till we see if it's all right; so I'm boiling up the distilled water +now." + +He peered into a doll's milk-jug, which was fastened on to the end of +the little spout. "There is a little. We'll just try for oil," he said, +lifting the jug off and carrying it to the window. There was about half +a teaspoonful of water in the bottom. + +"It looks oily; I guess there will be one drop." He sniffed anxiously +as he spoke. "And it does smell of roses too, by jiminy!" + +They all sniffed in turn, and agreed that there really was an +undeniable smell of roses. "And it _might_ have only smelt of wet tin," +Hugh said. "Look here, Prue, don't empty that little kettle. We'll boil +it up again and collect another drop. Put some more logs on the fire." + +Prudence looked at Hugh with a slightly exasperated expression; she was +very hot and rather tired: "Hugh Campbell, you know as well as I do +that there is nothing but tinny water left in that kettle. If you think +anyone is going to pay a guinea a drop for scent called Wet Tin you are +a goose. I wouldn't buy it if it was the only scent in the world." + +Hugh was not discouraged. "My _idea_ is right," he said. "I shall make +a larger distiller and try again. There's plenty more roses. Next time +we are by the sea I shall look for ambergris. It is found floating on +the shores of warm countries, and all scent should have ambergris in +it, properly speaking." + +"I shall try again too," said Grizzel. "There's plenty more cherries, +and a new barrel of sugar came yesterday. After all, everybody has ups +and downs when they are making fortunes. I'll take good care never to +burn my jam again." + +"I'm not really sure if attar of roses is worth while," Hugh said +thoughtfully, his eyes on the tiny milk-jug in his hand; "only rich +people could afford to buy it. If you want to make a fortune it is +better to make something that everyone wants, rich and poor. Soap might +do." + +"Jam," said Grizzel. + +"_I'm_ not sure if it is right to make fortunes at all," said Mollie +slowly. + +"Why not?" asked the other three all at once. + +"Because it doesn't seem fair, somehow. Some people are so frightfully +rich, and some people haven't even enough to eat. My mother goes to the +children's hospital every week, and sometimes she takes me. You can't +_think_ what some of the poor babies are like--and then you go outside +and see rich, _rich_ women in splendid motor-cars--I mean carriages," +she corrected herself, "and it does make you feel things aren't fair, +and I do like fairness." + +The Australian children were silent for a minute or two. + +"But if no one was rich no one could give," Grizzel said at last. "We +know very rich people here, and they do lovely kind things. Mrs. Basil +Hill sends us a packing-case of _exquisite_ oranges every summer, and +when she comes to see Mamma she almost always brings us a surprise +packet--last time it was five pounds of the most beautiful sweets in +Rundle Street, and the time before it was all Miss Alcott's books." + +"But if everybody was the same, people wouldn't have to give you +things," said Mollie. "You'd have them yourself." + +"Then we would never get a surprise," said Grizzel, "and that would be +horribly dull. Don't you think it would be dull if everybody was +exactly the same?" + +"I suppose it would," Mollie admitted, with a sigh, feeling that she +had not presented her case attractively; "but I think they might be +samer than they are." + +"There's no use talking," Hugh said decisively. "Australia is full of +fortunes waiting to be made. I heard Papa say so. And the early bird +gets the worm, and the better the bird the better it is for everyone +all round." + +"Except the worm," said Grizzel. + +They all laughed. "I wish I had a brother instead of three sisters," +Hugh remarked, emptying the contents of the tiny milk-jug over a +handkerchief which had once been clean. "A brother would be some use. +Where's yours?" he asked Mollie. "Did he get our message?" + +This reminded Mollie of Dick's letter, which impressed the Australians +as much as it had impressed Mollie. + +"So the next thing--the next thing----" she repeated, looking round at +the other three children. "What _is_ the next thing to do?" + +"We can't tell you," Prudence said, with a funny little smile, "you'll +have to fix it yourself in the end." + +"Cooo-eeeee!" sounded from the cottage. + + * * * * * + +"Cherry jam for tea to-day, fresh from the preserving-pan," Aunt Mary +was saying. "That will be a treat for you, Mollie, my dear." + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +The Treasure-hunters or The Duke's Nose + + +"Cherry jam is certainly very _runny_," said Aunt Mary at tea-time. + +"Do you put a handful of gooseberries into it?" Mollie asked rather +dreamily, as she tried in vain to spread her scone tidily. + +"Gooseberries! Why, no; I never thought of it. It might be quite a good +idea." + +"Or red currants?" Mollie went on. + +"Red currants! Bless the child! I didn't know you were a cook, Mollie." + +"Neither I am," said Mollie, rousing herself up to the fact that she +was back in Chauncery, and must set a watch upon her tongue. Why was +it, she wondered, that she forgot Chauncery so much more when she was +with those other children than she forgot the children when she was at +Chauncery? "I once heard a person say they put gooseberries and red +currants into cherry jam, and I suddenly remembered," she told Aunt +Mary. + +"Well, it is too late for cherries, but I will try it for the +strawberries to-morrow. It will be quite an interesting experiment." + +Mollie resolutely pushed her thoughts about the cherry garden and its +occupants into the background, and gave her whole mind to a game of +patience with Grannie, who was getting a little tired of jig-saw. But +when that was over, and Grannie was absorbed in casting on a +stocking-top with an intricate pattern, while Aunt Mary wrote letters, +she began again to think and wonder about her curious journey, which +for some reason seemed less strange to-day than it had done yesterday. +She pondered over ways and means to get Dick across, or over, or +through, "or whatever you call it when you travel in Time", she +thought; "back might be the best word. I do _wish_ I could tell Aunt +Mary." + +She looked thoughtfully at her aunt, whose head was bent over her +writing, the smooth bands of her silky, brown hair shining brightly in +the lamp-light. No doubt some, perhaps most, grown-ups would scoff at +her tale if she told it, Mollie thought. Grown-up people as a rule love +best to jog along on well-trodden, safe, commonplace paths, and avoid +adventurous by-ways, but Aunt Mary, Mollie felt sure, was an +anti-jogger, so to speak, and would always choose adventures if she had +a choice. "It's funny to think," Mollie reflected, "that she can't be +so very much younger than Mrs. Campbell is--was--is--was then. I +suppose she is about thirty-five, and Mrs. Campbell forty or so--she +looks--looked old enough to be Aunt Mary's mother. Being good at games +keeps her young; she can beat me to a frazzle at golf and tennis; and +she is frightfully keen on aeroplanes; I'm sure she would fly if it +weren't for Grannie. I wonder why she never got married?" + +Mollie had not yet come to the age of sentiment, but now and then she +reached forward a little and surveyed its possibilities, and now she +paused awhile to muse upon the subject of her aunt's spinsterhood. Not +for long, however; she decided that Aunt Mary must have had excellent +reasons of her own for remaining single, and returned to the more +pressing problem of how to get Dick into the Campbells' garden. Finally +she thought of a plan worth trying. + +"Grannie, may I have the loan of one of your photographs?" she asked. +"Dick has a way of copying them with a thing he has that makes them +look like drawings, and the old-fashioned ones are the prettiest." + +"By all means, if he will be careful," Grannie answered, nine-tenths of +her mind being fixed on her new pattern and only one-tenth upon her +grandchild's peculiar fancy for Victorian photographs. So Mollie wrote +a short letter to her brother, enclosing the group which had worked the +magic charm for herself that afternoon. She put it into the evening +post-bag with a sigh. "If that doesn't do it I _can't_ think of +anything else," she said to herself. + +It is remarkable how quickly one becomes used to a new routine. Already +Mollie was making more use of her hands and head because she could not +use her feet. She was fond of writing, and decided next morning to +begin an account of her strange adventure while it was still fresh in +her mind. In the intervals of other plans for her future career she had +dreams of becoming a writer of books, but her difficulty hitherto had +been that the usual sort of book is so ordinary, and she had never been +able to think of anything remarkably unusual to write about. The +autobiography of a person who could live in various periods of the +Christian Era might turn out to be quite interesting, she thought, if +only people would believe that it was true. The trouble was that most +likely they would think she was inventing it, "and anyone can _invent_ +any old thing. And this is only the beginning of my adventures. When I +have thoroughly learnt how to Time-travel I will go back much +further--perhaps to the French Revolution, and watch people being +guillotined." + +She scribbled diligently in the thick exercise-book, which Aunt Mary +produced without once asking what it was wanted for. "It just shows--" +Mollie murmured gratefully; "some people would have teased me to death." + +And so time passed, and half-past two came round again in the usual +inevitable way, and Mollie lay expecting Prudence as calmly as though +she were coming from next door. She had the album on her lap, and was +turning the pages in search of a new photograph, when in the twinkling +of an eye Prue was there. + +"We don't need that now," she said, "but we must have Aunt Mary's +tunes. Where is she?" + +"Oh dear, dear, I forgot!" Mollie cried in dismay. "I do believe Aunt +Mary is making strawberry jam, and I went and told her about putting in +gooseberries and red currants, and her head will be full of them and +she will forget me!" + +But the lullaby had not been forgotten. At that very moment the piano +began--a tune Mollie knew well this time, for she had often heard the +American soldiers sing it in London: + + "Oh, darkies, how my heart grows weary, + Far from the old folks at home". + +"Give me your hand--quick," said Prue in a whisper. + + * * * * * + +Mollie found herself standing on a wide beach in the curve of a +beautiful bay. Before her lay the sea, dark blue in the distance, a +clear emerald green by the shore. To the right of her the beach +stretched as far as she could see, firm yellow sand on the lower half, +fine white silvery sand higher up. On the left it only ran for a couple +of miles or so and then ended in rocks, over which the sea threw a cool +white spray. Behind her, Mollie saw, when she turned, the line of the +beach was followed by sandhills, some covered with low-growing scrub +and some quite bare and treeless, shining like snow in the hot sunlight. + +The children were all there. At a little distance from where she stood +Mollie could see Hugh and Prudence, Hugh lightly clad in a +swimming-suit, and Prue with her skirts rolled up and her feet bare. A +wide sun-hat covered her head, and her brown curls were fastened back +with a clasp, which made her look older, Mollie thought. + +The two children were hauling a large, square, flat object down to the +sea, Hugh pulling in front with ropes, and Prudence pushing behind. + +"I do believe it's the raft," thought Mollie. "This must be Brighton, +and I suppose the summer holidays have come round again. It is a little +difficult to keep up with Time here. I do _wish_ Dick could come!" + +Grizzel was sitting on the beach close beside her, and seemed to be +gathering shells from a little pale-rose patch on the sand at her feet. +She was very absorbed in her task, but she looked up at Mollie with a +smile, apparently not at all surprised to see her there. She was +dressed, like Prue, in a turned-up overall and wore a wide hat, which +hid the red curls from view and gave her an unfamiliar look. Bridget +was sitting not far from Grizzel, busily doing crochet-work and singing +a song about a wild Irish boy, while her eyes wandered after Baby, who +was singing a little song of her own invention about a poor lonely +whale who had a loving heart. Higher up the beach, at the foot of the +sandhills, Mollie could see Professor and Mrs. Campbell, one reading +aloud and the other sewing. + +"Where shall I go first?" Mollie asked herself, "I think I'll go and +see what Hugh and Prudence are doing." + +She found, when she began to walk, that she was bare-legged and bunchy +about the skirts like the other girls, and that her head was covered +with a sun-hat like theirs, a tanned Panama straw, light as a feather, +and shading her eyes from the glare of sea and sand. The sun was very +hot and the sand was warm under her feet. + +"Hullo! Here's Mollie the Jolly!" exclaimed Hugh, as she drew near. +"Come along and lend a hand--we are just about to launch the good ship +_Nancy Lee_ on her trial trip." + +Mollie examined the raft with deep interest. It was really very neatly +made, the planks straight and smooth, and firmly held together by +cross-bars underneath. There was a mast in the exact centre, with a +sail at present close-reefed, and there was a pair of old oars which, +Hugh explained, had been purchased from a boatman of his acquaintance. +All round the raft were bunches of corks, several hundreds at least. + +"Did Prue and Grizzel find all those?" Mollie asked. + +"We all collected 'em," Hugh replied; "lots of people gave us +corks--jolly old winebibbers they must be," he added ungratefully. "Now +then--with a long, long pull and a strong, strong pull!" + +They got to the edge of the water, and the two girls waded in as far as +they could go without getting their clothes wet, before the raft +finally took to her natural element and rocked up and down on the +smoothly rippling wavelets. A gentle breeze was blowing off the sea, +but the tide was running out, which, Hugh remarked, was a good plan, as +the raft would go out to sea with the tide and come back with the wind +in her sail. He thought, however, that he would not carry any +passengers on the first trip--in fact, to begin with, he would harness +himself to his craft and pull her both out and in, "just till I see how +she goes; she's got to find her sea-legs." + +The girls watched the raft and its owner depart into deep water; they +saw Hugh climb on board, and decided that the passengers who sailed +aboard the _Nancy Lee_ would be most suitably attired in +bathing-dresses, as she appeared to slide along as much below the ocean +as above it. After standing for some minutes they wandered along +towards Grizzel, who was still sitting by the pale rosy patch on the +sand. When they sat down beside her Mollie saw that the shells she was +gathering were so tiny that they were hardly larger than a pin's head, +and yet they were perfect in form and colour; she thought she had never +seen anything more exquisite. + +"We thread them and make necklaces," Prudence explained; "they are so +thin that you can stick a needle through them quite easily; they come +in beds like this all along the beach. There are lots of lovely shells +here, and sea-eggs too. We collect them sometimes, but our collections +have such a way of getting lost somehow, they are always beginning over +again and ending too soon." + +"Can you say 'She sells sea-shells' twenty times running, as fast as +lightning?" asked Grizzel. + +"Not running as fast as lightning," Mollie answered, "but I could say +it if I were walking rather slowly." + +"I couldn't," said Grizzel, taking no notice of Mollie's flippancy, "if +I were to crawl at the rate of half an inch a year I should be saying +'She shells sea-shells' the whole time." + +"You are talking nonsense," said Prudence. "Come up and see Papa and +Mamma." + +Mollie was greeted kindly by the older people. She had forgotten to ask +if she was supposed to be a visitor or only spending the day with the +Campbells, but gathered from Mamma's conversation that she was paying a +visit and had arrived that morning. She wondered again how they heard +about her coming; the children appeared to take her for granted, but, +of course, _they_ knew she was a Time-traveller! + +As the girls sat by their elders, idly playing with the silvery sand +and chatting to each other, a large steamship came in view, coming from +the north and heading south-west. They all stopped working and talking +as they watched her steaming along, a trail of smoke blowing behind +her, smudging the blue sky with clouds, black at first and gradually +fading to grey. + +"That's the English mail," Papa said at last; "she was due to leave the +Semaphore at three o'clock to-day." + +They were silent again; the great ship drew nearer--now she was almost +opposite. + +"Oh--John--_Home!"_ Mamma said. There was a tremble in her voice that +made Prudence and Mollie look up--there were tears in her eyes. + +"I know, little wife, I know," Papa answered softly, putting a hand +over the white hands which had dropped the busy needle. + +The girls rose to their feet and left Papa and Mamma. They went down to +the edge of the shore, and stood watching the ship as she began to slip +over the horizon. + +"Now she has begun to go down the Big Hill," said Prue. "She will sail +for miles and miles and thousands of miles, and for days and nights and +weeks across all that sea. I wonder if some children on the other side +will be playing on that beach, and will watch her funnel climb over the +top of the hill again and say: 'Here comes the Australian mail!'" + +Mollie did not answer. She could not remember ever taking much interest +in the Australian mail. But in future she determined she would always +watch when she had the chance, and wave a friendly hand to the incoming +ships. + +Soon there was nothing to be seen of the big steamer but a trail of +smoke, which lingered long in the sky. + +Prudence had fallen into a day-dream; and Mollie's eyes were roaming +over the blue sea, when suddenly she caught sight of the raft bobbing +about on the little waves, sometimes above and sometimes below. In the +water in front of the raft she could see Hugh's head, like a round +black ball--and--yes, she was not mistaken, there were two other round +black balls which must also be heads. That was rather odd, she thought; +she had not noticed any other boys about. + +"Look, Prue!" she exclaimed, catching Prue by the arm, "look--there is +Hugh, and he has got someone with him--oh, _do_ you think he has +rescued some drowning sailors?" + +Prue came out of her day-dream with a jerk, and brought her thoughts +and her eyes back to earth, or rather to sea. + +"Yes, he _has_ someone with him," she said. "How funny!" + +As they gazed, the three swimmers turned round and, with a good deal of +ducking and slipping, climbed aboard the raft, which triumphantly +survived and remained afloat, though decidedly wet about the deck. They +proceeded to unfurl the sail, which one boy held while the other two +took to the oars, and, after some hard work, the _Nancy Lee_ was safely +beached. Grizzel joined Mollie and Prudence, and the three girls +watched the three boys, not offering to go and help with the raft +because they felt a little shy of the strangers. + +Presently one of them turned round--and Mollie gave a jump. The boy's +hair hung over his forehead in wet, black streaks, and he was dressed, +or rather undressed, in a swimming-suit, the rest of him being wet, +white skin; but in spite of this unusual appearance Mollie was almost +sure--in fact she was quite sure--that it was Young Outram. And the +other boy--who kept his back turned in a provoking way as he examined +the raft--why, _that_ boy--yes, it surely was Dick! Mollie squealed and +caught Prue by the arm: + +"It's Dick and Jerry Outram!" she exclaimed, jumping up and down with +excitement. "Oh, Prue--have they swum all the way from London without +any clothes?" + +Prudence laughed. "Mollie, you _are_ a goose! _Do_ you think they could +swim fourteen thousand miles?" + +"Well how--? Oh, I forgot! It is so hard to remember about +Time-travelling here! Oh, Prue, _how_ exciting it is!" + +At that moment Dick looked round and saw his sister. Both boys came +racing along the sand towards the girls, kicking up their heels like +young colts. + +"Cheerio!" cried Dick, as he pranced up. "What price school! How's this +for a rag? Jolly old beano, I call it!" + +"What does he say?" asked Grizzel. + +"He says that school isn't much of a place, and that this is a great +lark, and that he enjoys being here immensely," translated Mollie. +"_Some_ psychical phenomena!" exclaimed Young Outram, prancing up in +his turn. + +"I'm afraid we haven't got any," said Prudence politely. + +"And you forgot to say 'Please' if we had," said Grizzel, with a frown. + +"_What_ do they say?" asked Young Outram, looking puzzled. + +"Prudence thought you were asking for some what's-its-name-how-much," +Mollie explained again. + +"What _does_ he mean then?" Grizzel asked. + +"He means that this is the loveliest magic that he ever heard of," said +Mollie. "You shouldn't use such long words, Jerry, and they aren't true +either, for this is _not_ thingummy phenomena, it is simply common +everyday magic." + +"There is no such thing as common magic," said Jerry. + +"There is," said Mollie. + +"There isn't," said Jerry. + +"What do you call it when your mother gives you a dirty little brown +onion to put in the ground and you bring it back to her turned into a +parrot-tulip?" asked Mollie. + +"Oh--if you--" + +"Stow it, Young Outram, you blighter," Dick interrupted. "Don't be such +a silly old Juggins, making them ratty first go-off like that. Keep +your hair on, Mollie, and don't get the hump over nothing. If you +_must_ jaw about parrots, jaw about the dossy chap we spotted in +school; you are simply talking hot air, both of you." + +"_What_ does he say?" asked Hugh, who had come up by this time. + +"I wish to goodness you boys would speak plain English," Mollie said +impatiently. "I don't want to spend all my time explaining you to the +others." + +"Irry yourry tawrry lierry tharry weerry wirry tawrry lierry thirry, +arry therry yourry woerry urrystarry wurry wurry tharry weerry sayrry," +said Grizzel, rather angrily and very rapidly. + +"_What_ does she say?" asked both boys at once. + +"It's only our private language," said Prudence; "she says that if you +talk that way we'll talk our way, and then you won't understand us. +_That_ wouldn't do any good. I think we'd better have a Circle. Give me +your hand, Mollie, and you take Hugh's. And Hugh Dick's, and Dick +Grizzel's, and Grizzel Young Outram's, and Young Outram my other hand. +Now all stand quite still and shut your eyes; listen to the waves, and +try and think of three nice things about the people next you." + +The six children stood in a circle, silent and still, as Prudence had +ordered, their eyes tightly closed. They felt the hot beams of the sun +pouring over them, and the cool salt wind blew on their faces and +through their hair; their toes curled and wriggled in the warm, wet +sand, and in their ears was the plash-plash of the little waves beating +backwards and forwards on the beach. It was very pleasant. It seemed +quite easy to think of those three nice things. And presently each +child felt a warm and friendly glow steal up its left arm, through its +heart, down its right arm--and so on to its neighbour. When this +pleasing and cheerful sensation had gone round the Circle three times, +Prudence said: "Now, open your eyes and let go." + +They stood there smiling at each other, and feeling almost ready to +burst with goodness and loving kindness towards all the world. + +"Now we'll understand each other," said Prue. "Words don't matter much +if you understand people. Now what shall we do?" + +"Don't let's stand about any more," said Mollie; "the time does go so +quickly, and there are lovely things to do. What would you like to do, +Young Outram?" + +"Call me Jerry all the time," he answered first. "I want to forget +about school while I can--there are a good many of us at school," he +explained to Prudence, "and we are called Old Outram, and Outram Two, +and Young Outram; and there are three Outram Kids at the prep, and +another kid at home." + +"_All_ boys!" exclaimed Prudence. + +Jerry nodded. There had been nine Outram boys before the war! "Let's go +out on the raft again--please," he added, with a wink at Grizzel, who +smiled back. "You come too; we could easily push you along." + +"We'll have to change into our bathing things first," said Prudence; +"the raft looks a little wet. We won't be long." + +The girls ran up into the sandhills to change, but before Prue +disappeared she returned to the boys with a basket made of rushes in +her hand, which she had begged from Bridget. + +"Here are some buns and grapes," she said a little shyly, "I thought +you might be feeling hungry, and it is a long time yet till tea-time." + +Jerry decided on the spot that if he ever _did_ go in for the peculiar +entertainment of falling in love, he would choose a shy girl with brown +curls who did not talk slang and went about distributing buns to hungry +boys. "Her for mine," he expressed it to himself. + +The girls were soon back, all in navy-blue bathing-suits, knickers +below, and a belted tunic reaching to their knees above--too much +clothed for Mollie's taste; she liked to be skimpy when she went +swimming. But no one grumbles after they have been in a Circle--at +least, not for the next twenty-four hours--so Mollie endured her +substantial garments philosophically and soon forgot all about them. + +The girls waded out to the raft, which the boys had launched. They +climbed on board and were soon in fairly deep water. Mollie and +Prudence slipped off and left lazy Grizzel alone on deck, sitting +cross-legged like a little tailor, one arm flung round the mast. The +raft rocked gently up and down on the calm sea, while the children +swam, ducked, and played about in the clear, sun-warmed water like a +school of young porpoises. As Grizzel sat idly watching the rest, her +eyes fell upon an object which floated at a little distance from the +raft. It was a bottle--a common beer-bottle--its cork rammed well in +and sealed with red wax. + +"What's that?" she called to Hugh, pointing to the bottle as it danced +about, twirling round and round, tossing from side to side in the wide +ripples sent out by the children and the drifting raft. + +They all made for it. "It's a message from the deep," cried Jerry; +"probably from a ship-wrecked sailor." + +Hugh, being the nearest, caught it by its red neck, and the whole party +collected on and about the raft to see what would happen next. But Hugh +refused to break the bottle until they went ashore again. + +"The sea might get in and spoil the paper, and the broken glass would +get on deck and cut us; we'll pull her in now and read the message on +the beach," he decided. + +They got under way and, practice making perfect, were soon high and dry +on the beach, and the _Nancy Lee_ dragged up and comfortably moored. +The children seated themselves in a ring, and Hugh cautiously knocked +off the neck of the bottle with a stone. He drew out a paper, which had +been carefully rolled round a thin bamboo stick and tied with a red +ribbon. There was no date on the paper, nor was there any sign to show +where the bottle had been thrown in, but written in large, clear +round-hand was the following message: + + IF THE FINDER OF THIS BOTTLE + WILL SEARCH THE CAVE UNDER + _THE DUKE'S NOSE_ HE WILL FIND + SOMETHING TO HIS ADVANTAGE. + +"Hidden treasure," said three boys all at once. "Where is The Duke's +Nose?" asked Dick. + +"Never heard of it," answered Hugh, looking hard at Jerry, whose nose +was distinctly aquiline and promised to be more so in the future. "You +aren't a duke by any chance, I suppose?" he asked. + +"No, old sport, I'm not," Jerry answered, with a grin, "and if I were, +the only treasure you would find in the cave under my nose would be +some jolly sharp teeth, and they wouldn't be at all to your advantage +either." + +"It's probably among those rocks over there," Mollie suggested; "I +expect if we went there and walked round we would see something that +looked like a duke's nose." + +"But there aren't any big enough to have a cave under them," said +Prudence; "they are all quite little rocks." + +"It will be a bit of the cliff, most likely," said Dick, "in fact it is +almost bound to be if there is a cave." + +The others agreed that this was probable. "What do you think the hidden +treasure will be?" asked Grizzel. "A sack of diamonds and rubies?" + +"I hope not," said Jerry, "for, if it is anything of that sort, we will +have to give it up. If we were caught trying to sell diamonds we'd be +copped at once, and the bobbies would think the bottle story was all +made up. I expect we'd all be put in jail, and it would be jolly +awkward for Dick and me when we got back to school. I think I see the +Old Man's face when we explained that we couldn't come because we were +in an Australian prison in the year 1879 for stealing diamonds. I don't +think!" + +"Schoolmasters and mistresses are extraordinarily stupid sometimes," +said Mollie reflectively. "They are so hard to convince, even about +quite simple things, if they don't want to be convinced. But I +shouldn't care for diamonds myself. I'd like a swanky tennis-racket." + +"I'd like a revolver, latest pattern," said Jerry. + +"I should like a first-class camera," said Hugh. + +"I'd like a pure-bred bull-dog," said Dick. + +"I'd like a nice little model sewing-machine," said Prue. + +"I'd like six pairs of stilts," said Grizzel, "and then we could all +walk home on them." + +Everyone looked a little ashamed; Grizzel was the only one who had +thought of the five others. A murmur went round that of course they had +_meant_ six of everything. Then Mollie began to laugh: "How funny we +will look if we each get all the things," she giggled. "We will walk +home on the stilts, with a revolver and a sewing-machine tied on to +each stilt, and a tennis-racket and a camera on our backs, and six +bull-dogs trotting after us." + +This flight of fancy made everyone laugh consumedly: "We must go home +now, anyway," Prudence said, as she dried a tear, "because it is +getting on for tea-time and we have got to get dressed. Perhaps there +will be time to go to the rocks after tea and just _look_ for a nose, +and if we find it we'll take some spades in the morning and dig." + +The Campbell's seaside cottage stood behind the sandhills. It had been +built by a retired sea-captain, who had planned it to look as like a +ship inside as a house could be made to look. The walls were panelled +in wood, painted bird's-egg blue, and decorated with pictures of ships. +The windows were round like portholes; the table stood across one end +of the room and was screwed to the floor, as were also the benches on +either side. In the children's rooms were bunks, in rows one above the +other, and the washing-stands were fixtures. It was altogether very +charming and romantic. + +Tea was of the kind called high, and the hungry children disposed of +cold ham, an extraordinary number of boiled eggs, several loaves of +smoking hot new bread, and at least a pound of butter and two or three +pounds of jam. + +"May we go for a walk to the rocks?" asked Prudence, when tea was over. +"We will go very quietly along the beach and not get wet, and be home +before dark." + +Papa said he would walk that way a little later on and meet them; so +Mamma gave permission, and soon a party of six were wandering by the +shore towards the rocks, carrying their boots and stockings slung round +their necks. It did not take them long to cover the two miles which lay +between their beach and the rocks. Mollie found it hard to pass by all +the lovely shells with which the beach was strewn, but the rest were +impatient. The sun was dropping down the sky and they had not too much +time for their search. + +It did not promise to be a very successful search, for nowhere was +there anything even remotely like a duke's nose to be seen--nor indeed +any sort of nose. The rocks were low and for the most part jagged, with +pools of water in the hollows between them for unwary or careless +people to slip into. Many of them were covered with periwinkles, which +Grizzel could not resist gathering. She filled her boots with them. + +"Papa likes them," she said, when Prudence and Mollie remonstrated with +her for lingering; "he says they taste like a sea-breeze, and if we +aren't going to take back a duke's nose I may as well take a +periwinkle's nose; it will be better than nothing." + +The cliffs were high and precipitous, but they were no particular +shape, being, as Hugh said, merely the edge of Australia. The children +scrambled along till they reached the turn of the coast-line, beyond +which were more rocks and cliffs, much the same as those about them. + +"Perhaps it isn't here at all," Prudence said, as they seated +themselves in a row on the edge of a big boulder; "the message didn't +say it was. It might be anywhere. Perhaps that bottle came hundreds of +miles, and the Duke's Nose is at the South Pole." + +"More likely Kangaroo Island or Yorke's Peninsula," Hugh said. "We +might sail the raft across--it's only about fifty miles to the +Peninsula." + +"How'd you get her to go?" asked Jerry. "We couldn't swim fifty miles; +half a mile is my limit at a stretch; Dick can do three-quarters." + +"We'd have to use the sail and tack a bit, and we'd have the oars." + +"What about food?" asked Prudence. + +"We'd sling it in a can on the mast. Water's the trouble; we'd have to +distil sea-water, and that takes coal and might be a bit difficult; +there isn't a place for coal on board yet." + +Mollie remembered the attar of roses and decided not to embark upon +that voyage. "We would be pretty thirsty before there was enough water +distilled for us all to drink," she thought to herself. + +"Well, we'll have to be getting home now," said Prudence, with a sigh. +"It will be dark before so very long." + +A somewhat silent and subdued party set out on the homeward scramble, +the boys in front, Mollie and Prue together, and Grizzel in the rear, +being hampered by her bootfuls of periwinkles, which would keep falling +out. She stopped at last, and, sitting down, she laced her boots +tightly up and tied the tops round with the lace ends. When she looked +up from this task she stopped again to admire the gorgeous sunset. The +whole sky was ablaze, and the sea had changed from blue to crimson and +gold; the wet beach was gleaming like an opal, pale-rose and lavender, +with fiery amber lights shimmering on the rippled sand. The brilliant +glow of the western sky was reflected in the east, and the cliffs stood +out sharply against the light, themselves flushed with pink. Grizzel's +keen young gaze ran along the outline, black where it cut the sky. + +"There's nothing there," she said to herself, "only that flagstaff hut, +and it's as square as square." + +As she watched, a door opened in the side of the hut and a man came +out, swinging a billy-can in his hand. Suddenly Grizzel caught her +breath. Where had she heard someone say that that hut was a tiny +refreshment-bar, where a man could go in and get boiling water for his +tea--that everlasting tea which the Australian drinks at any and every +hour of the day? It was Papa, and he had said they called the hut 'The +Nose'--short, Grizzel felt sure, for The Duke's Nose. Her eyes ran +quickly down the cliff underneath--yes, she could see the cave quite +plainly when she looked hard, though to the casual glance it looked +like a deep crevice in the cliff. + +She looked after the others. They had scrambled on ahead while she was +tying up her periwinkles, and were now too far away to hear anything +but a shout. She put her two hands up to her mouth and gave the long +shrill "Cooo-eeeee!" of the Australian-born child, which caused five +heads to be turned in her direction instantaneously. Prudence started +running back, fearing that her sister had fallen and hurt herself. +Grizzel's gesticulations made things no plainer to the others--when she +pointed to the hut they thought she meant them to get help, so that +Hugh and Dick set off towards the cliff, while Jerry came on with +Mollie and Prudence in case there should be a broken limb. + +Even when they got within hailing distance they did not understand, for +what between keeping a foothold on the slippery rocks, hanging on to +her periwinkles, and her excitement over her discovery, Grizzel was +getting breathless and incoherent, and all she did was to point a small +forefinger at the hut and say: +"Duke's-nose-you-know-duke's-nose-you-know-your-nose-dukes-know." + +"She is delirious with pain," said Mollie, "and she is mixing the +Duke's Nose up with 'She sells sea-shells'." + +However, it was not very long before they reached her side, and she was +able to explain the situation. A few more excited coo-ees brought the +boys back, and the question became: What to do next? The sun was +getting perilously near the horizon, and once it dropped behind the +sea, darkness would fall rapidly and the rocks be really unsafe, +especially as the tide was now coming in. + +"We must get up frightfully early in the morning," said Dick at last, +"and come along before breakfast. Nobody is likely to find that +treasure in the next ten hours or so." + +With many backward looks they resumed their homeward trek. It was hard +luck to have to leave the treasure when, perhaps, they had almost found +it, but Mamma's word was law, and if they broke their promise about +getting home, or at least meeting Papa, it was quite possible that +to-morrow would be spent by the girls in doing French verbs and making +buttonholes. + +The children slept soundly all night in their funny little bunks. Early +in the morning a small figure slipped into the boys' room and shook +first one boy and then another by the shoulders. Dick and Jerry woke up +after a few grunts; Hugh as usual was a sleepy-head. + +"Leave him to us," Dick said confidently, "_we'll_ get him up--you'll +see." + +"Tell him to come by Gobbler's Hollow," ordered Grizzel; "you'll find +us there. Don't stop to wash." + +When the boys were half-way across the sandhills, they saw a thin +column of blue smoke rising from somewhere among the low scrubby trees, +and a minute after a delicious smell greeted their unducal noses--a +smell of wood-smoke and toast combined. + +"It's the girls making grub," Hugh explained to the other two; "they're +great on grub." He might have added that he was great on it himself, so +far as eating it was concerned. Certainly Dick and Jerry were very +pleased to know that they had not to wait until half-past eight for +breakfast, for the fresh sea air had given them ravenous appetites. +They found the girls in Gobbler's Hollow--appropriately so named by +Hugh--bending over a gipsy fire. The inevitable billy-can hung from a +tripod, and the steam from it mingled with the smoke of the fire. +Mollie was toasting bread, which Prudence buttered with a lavish hand, +and Grizzel was shelling hard-boiled eggs. + +"I call this top-hole," Dick announced, as he squatted down on the sand +and took his tin mug from Mollie, who had begged to be allowed to make +the tea as she had seen Grizzel make it before. "It will buck us up no +end and make us as sharp as needles." + +They were in a hurry to get on; so when breakfast was done they pushed +the mugs and knives into the hollow of a bush, which Grizzel explained +was their storeroom. Later in the day the girls would come back and +tidy up; for the present the great thing was to get to the cave as +quickly as possible. They had two clear hours before them in which to +make their search. + +The tide was at its lowest, and there was a broad stretch of wet sand +between the sandhills and the sea. Wide shallow pools of water had been +left behind by the receding waves, while here and there lay long heavy +drifts of seaweed, shining darkly in the early rays of the morning +sunlight. The children splashed their way along, their eyes fixed on +the flagstaff hut. As they drew nearer they left the sea and steered +for the cave, the entrance to which was plain enough now that they knew +where to look for it. + +"It's such a conspicuous sort of cave," Hugh said, "I don't see how +anyone could miss finding treasure unless it is buried very deep." + +Caves have always a certain amount of mystery about them, but this one +was undoubtedly as ordinary looking a cave as one could find. It did +not burrow very far back into the cliff side, and what there was of it +was open to the daylight and contained no lurking dark corners. The +walls were rough and rocky but not high; the roof was, as Jerry said, +nothing particular, and the floor was of shingle and rather wet, as if +the sea, now so far away, had paid it a visit not so very long ago. +But, as the rocks and stones before the entrance were dry, it was +obviously not the tide which had washed the floor. + +"It must be a spring or something," Hugh said; "let's taste and see--" +he stooped as he spoke and scooped up a handful of water, which he put +to his lips. + +"Thought so; it's quite fresh and sweet--that's rather a find--jolly +useful for picnics, it will save us carting water about--by jinks!" he +exclaimed, looking round at the others with an expression of blank +dismay; "do you suppose _that's_ what we were to find to our advantage?" + +They all stared hard at the shining wet stones, through which the +trickle of water was now plainly discernable. Then they stared round +the cave again. There did not seem to be a place where treasure _could_ +be hidden. Moreover, there were traces of a not very remote picnic--the +dead ashes of a gipsy fire, one or two crumpled-up balls of paper, some +broken bottles! + +"That's it," said Jerry at last. "It was probably the people who had +that picnic--those broken bottles are the same as the one we found. +They played cock-shy with them, and then thought it would be a lark to +chuck one into the sea. What a jolly old sell!" + +"We've had a nice morning anyhow," said Prudence, "and the spring +certainly _will_ be an advantage when we've got used to it not being a +sewing-machine and bull-dogs and things." + +"I somehow don't believe it is the spring," said Mollie thoughtfully, +still staring about her. "There is something about the way that paper +is written; it doesn't look like the writing of the sort of person who +plays that kind of joke--and of course it would be meant for a joke. +Let's all stand quite still in a circle back to back, and each stare +hard all over the bit of cave that comes in front of us, and see if +there isn't a sign of some sort." + +They agreed that there would be no harm in trying this plan, though the +boys' hopes were small. Dick and Jerry were uneasily conscious that +they were "the sort of person" who would have thought that bottled +message an excellent joke--to play on someone else! + +So they stared. They even circled slowly round so that each part of the +cave was examined with meticulous care by six pairs of eyes in turn. +But it was all in vain; the cave only seemed to become more and more +ordinary the longer they looked at it. + +"There's not a place where you could hide a thimble," Prue said sadly, +"let alone a treasure." + +"What's that?" Grizzel called out suddenly, pointing to the broken +bottles in the corner. + +After all there _had_ been a dark spot, and with the brightening +daylight that dark spot had all at once lighted up, and there lay a +bottle, the very twin of the one they had found in the sea, red +sealing-wax and all. The boys made a dive for it, but Dick stopped +abruptly and held back the others: "Grizzel saw it first, let her open +it too," he said. + +Grizzel advanced, and picking up the bottle held it to the light--yes, +there was a message plainly to be seen. + +"I think one of you had better break it open," she said; "I'd probably +cut my fingers." + +Hugh solemnly knocked off its head and drew out the paper. It was +written in the same round, clear handwriting: + + IF THE PERSON WHO FINDS THIS + BOTTLE WILL ASK FOR MR. BROWN + AT THE DUKE'S NOSE, HE WILL + HEAR OF SOMETHING TO HIS ADVANTAGE. + +"Why the dickens couldn't they have said that first shot?" Jerry +exclaimed. + +"I expect Mr. Brown will tell us to go to the Duchess's Toes and hear +of something to our _dis_-advantage," said Hugh sarcastically. + +"If we are going to look for Mr. Brown we will have to hurry," said +Prudence, who had gone to the entrance of the cave and was scrutinizing +the beach; "by the look of the shadows I should say it was a good bit +after seven. In not much more than an hour we must be sitting down at +breakfast tidy and brushed." + +They found when they came out that there was a footpath up to the +Duke's Nose--a very steep and boulder-strewn path, but quite a possible +one for them all; so they went for it manfully and womanfully and were +soon at top. But alas! the door of the hut was closed and locked; no +one answered their repeated knocks, and they came to the unwilling +conclusion that the place was empty. + +"Blow!" said Dick at last. "Why couldn't the old treasure-hider put his +old treasure in an easier place?" + +"If he had, someone else would have found it," Mollie remarked +sensibly, "and anyhow it is a lark searching for it." + +At that moment a man's figure could be seen coming towards the hut; he +was swinging a billy-can by the handle. + +"That's the man I saw last night," exclaimed Grizzel; "I expect he is +Mr. Brown." + +The man was rather surprised to see six children congregated before his +hut door at that hour of the morning. Prudence was pushed forward as +spokeswoman. "Please, are you Mr. Brown?" she asked, in her most polite +voice. + +"I am, miss. Anything I can do for you?" + +"We found this piece of paper," she said, showing the latest message to +him, "and we brought it to you like it says." + +The man grinned broadly--he had a nice grin, the children +thought--"You've found it, have you? Well, that beats me! That's darned +clever of you. Our little Missie will be no end bucked to hear that bit +o' news; she was mighty taken up with her messages, she was. You'll +have to wait a bit, though. I can't leave this place before twelve +noon. You be on the beach above where that big hump o' seaweed is at +twelve-thirty to-day, an' you'll see--" the man broke off and grinned +again. + +"What?" asked several excited people at once. + +"That's tellin'," said Mr. Brown; "just you wait an' you'll see +somethin' to your advantage, same as it says here." + +It was terribly hard to have to leave the treasure at this thrilling +stage, but there was nothing else to be done, especially as it was +getting late, and they would have to hasten their steps as it was, if +they were to reach home in time for a proper tidy-up before breakfast. +Mamma was very particular about many things, but she was particularly +particular about coming to table with clean hands and freshly brushed +hair. + + * * * * * + +They were at the trysting-place long before half-past twelve. Nobody +had a watch, but the Australian children had a device of their own for +telling the time. + +"You stand on one foot," Hugh explained, "and twirl round with your +other big toe in the sand--like this. That makes a circle to fit your +own shadow. Then you stand in the middle and see where the shadow hits +the circle. And then you guess the time near enough for all practical +purposes. It's quite simple." + +"Did you invent that sort of clock yourself?" Mollie asked +deferentially. + +"There wasn't much to invent," Hugh replied modestly; "it's on the same +principle as a sundial. I only applied my legs." + +"God invented Hugh's legs and the sun," Grizzel said; "Hugh only put in +the squiggly toe." + +"But that's just it," Jerry argued; "like Newton and the apple. The +simple things are there all the time, and no one sees them till the +right person comes along. I think that's a jolly ingenious idea. You'd +have to know exactly where due north was, of course, and you'd have to +have the sun. That's the trouble in London; the sun just slops about +the sky, and half the time you can't see him at all." + +The children now twirled round and round like dervishes, making +shadow-clocks till there were hardly any shadows left, as the sun rose +higher and higher in the heavens. It also became warmer and warmer; so +they decided to sit in a row with their backs to the sea and their eyes +firmly fixed upon the hut, determined not to miss the sight of the +treasure for a single moment. + +"Let's play 'I went to market with a green umbrella'," Prue suggested, +"and we can think of all the things the treasure might be." The green +umbrella had been to market about twenty times when a voice behind them +made them all start. + +"Well, now--to be sure!" + +And there was Mr. Brown, with nothing in his hands--no sack upon his +back. + +"How _did_ you come, Mr. Brown?" Mollie asked. "We looked and looked." + +"Grand sentries you'd make--all lookin' one way," said Mr. Brown. +"Suppose you look at the sea for a change." + +Six pairs of eyes turned to gaze at the sea--and six pairs of feet +instantly began to run, for there, drawn up on the beach, was a boat! + +"How's that for a tidy craft?" asked Mr. Brown. "Is she pretty shaped? +How do you like her paint? Look at her nice little oars. Eight, she +holds--nice-sized party eight is, sort o' cosy an' cheerful." + +The children looked from the boat to Mr. Brown and back again. Nobody +thought any more of stilts or sewing-machines, or even of bull-dogs; +the only thing on earth worth having at that moment was the wonderful +boat around which they were standing. Her outer dress was of bright, +dark green, with a scarlet line round the rim; inside she was pure +white. A little railing of delicate iron scroll-work ran round her +stern, and across it curved a board, with the boat's name in scarlet +and gold: _The Belle of Canada._ + +"Do you mean--" Hugh began, but he was too overpowered to finish, +because it was all very well to talk about cameras and things in the +abstract, but that such a thing as a real, life-sized boat--and such a +beautiful boat too--should fall into their hands in this casual way was +too wildly improbable to be true. + +But it was true, nevertheless. That lovely little boat was really +theirs! + +The way it happened was this, Mr. Brown explained: the year +before--while the Campbells were in the hills--a little Canadian girl, +visiting her Australian relations, had come with them to stay in the +very cottage the Campbells were in now. She was very ill when she +arrived. The doctors feared consumption, and said that open air all day +long was the best medicine she could have. So the boat was bought--"and +a fine price they paid for her too," Mr. Brown remarked--and the little +girl was half her time on the sea, and got so sun-burnt and sturdy that +before she left she was rowing the boat herself--"an' you'd never know +she'd had a mite the matter with her," Mr. Brown said. When the time +came for her to leave she took a fancy to give her boat to some other +children, so that they might have as happy a summer with it as she had +had. But it wasn't enough to give it in the usual way of giving--she +made up the plan of the message in the bottle, which she left with Mr. +Brown. + +"But I wasn't in no hurry," he said. "I kep' my eye on the cottage +children. The last lot were a rampagin' set o' young ruffians, smashin' +everything they set hands on. I soon saw that this chap was a different +sort altogether, hammerin' an' tinkerin' away at his raft, and careful +of her as if she was a lady--he's the sort for little Missie an' me, I +said to myself, so in the bottle went, only an hour or two before you +found it." + +"And suppose no one had found it, or the other bottle?" Dick suggested. + +"Not much danger o' that, with six pair o' sharp eyes an' inquisitive +headpieces around," Mr. Brown answered, with a laugh. "The only bit I +wasn't sure about was the Duke's Nose, for not many knows it by that +name; but little Missie would have it--said it was more romantic like, +though what's romantic about a duke's nose it beats me to see--just +like any other nose, I don't mind bettin'." + +"Hugh says Jerry's nose is like a duke's," Grizzel said, so that all +eyes were immediately fixed upon poor Jerry's nose. + +"Jolly romantic, especially when I have a cold in the head!" he +exclaimed. + +"Well now, jump in, the lot o' you, an' I'll row you along to your Pa," +said Mr. Brown. + +"Do you know Papa?" asked Grizzel, whose round blue eyes had never left +Mr. Brown's face since he began his story. + +"Yes, I know your Pa. There ain't many round here that don't. Now +then----" + +As Mr. Brown talked he had pushed the boat out, with some help from the +boys, and had lifted the girls in. Now he took the oars, and, with a +few powerful strokes, he sent the boat skimming over the sparkling blue +sea. + +All the children could row, more or less, but Mr. Brown gave them some +useful hints. "An' you mustn't ever go far out to sea by yourselves," +he said, "nor yet too near the rocks except it be a calm day like +to-day. Remember that a good sailor won't ever run his ship into danger +unless he can't help himself, no more than he would his wife. If you +want to go a regular excursion to the Port or such, you can always get +one of us to go with you, unless, of course, your Pa can take you. But +you'll get plenty of fun, an' learn a lot too, playin' round +here--you'll learn the feel o' the sea, which is something quite +different from rowin' on a river. An' don't you be givin' the raft the +go-by," he added, addressing himself to Hugh; "there's a lot goes to a +raft an' you never know when your knowledge o' handlin' one may come in +useful. That's a tidy one you've made, but it wants a bit o' tar. I'll +bring some along one o' these days an' show you how to use it--there's +your Pa wavin' to you." + +An excited party of children landed on the beach and told their story +to Papa, whose consent had to be won before the lovely boat was really +theirs. He was as delighted as they were themselves, and an expedition +was planned for that very evening, to include Mamma and her guitar. + +"If you will give me the little girl's address I will write and tell +her all about how we found the bottle," Prudence said to Mr. Brown, +"and we will all write and say 'Thank you' for her _beautiful_ idea." + +"She's back in Canada now," Mr. Brown answered. "She'd be mighty +pleased to hear from you." + +It was difficult to sit down soberly to boiled mutton and batter +pudding after these exhilarating adventures, but it had to be done, and +after dinner the girls had to "sit quietly with their needles" for an +hour; but at last tea-time came, and evening followed, and the whole +family except Baby embarked upon the first voyage in _The Belle of +Canada_. It was delightful to float about on the moonlit water and +listen to Mamma's lovely voice. She sang a Canadian boat-song, in +honour of the little hostess in far-away Canada: + + "From the lone sheiling of the misty island + Mountains divide us, and the waste of seas-- + Yet still the blood is strong, the heart is Highland, + And we in dreams behold the Hebrides. + + "Fair these broad meads--these hoary woods are grand; + But we are exiles from our father's land." + +Silence fell upon them all after that. Mamma's white hands dropped from +the guitar and slipped under Papa's arm; Prudence thought in her dreamy +way of the little Canadian; Mollie remembered the American soldiers and +their song; Hugh's mind was full to the brim of boats and rafts and +ships. + +"Look here!" cried Jerry suddenly; "we're a good slice of our jolly old +Empire to-night--Great Britain, Australia, India, sailing in a Canadian +boat--there's another song we ought to sing----" he jumped to his feet +as he spoke, making the boat rock in the silvery water. "Come on!" he +sang: + + "Rule, Britannia! Britannia rule the waves!" + + * * * * * + +"Oh, Jerry! _Why_ did you go and do that?" Mollie called out, as she +sat up and rubbed her eyes. "It isn't nearly time to wake up yet!" + +"Indeed it is, you little lazy bones," Aunt Mary said, with a laugh. +"Goodness, child! You are beginning to look quite rosy and sunburnt! +Spraining your ankle seems to suit you. I think I'll sprain mine and +see if I can raise a complexion like that. It's as good as a visit to +the seaside." + +"Ah!" said Mollie. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +The Gold-diggers or The Miracle + + +"DEAR MOLL, + +"This is exactly what happened yesterday. Young Outram says that it is +very important for us to keep notes, in case the Thingummy Society +should want to know all about it one of these days. + +"To begin with I was late for breakfast, so I grabbed your letter and +stuck it in my pocket, along with a roll, and bolted. Everything as +usual till about 2.30. Bibs was trying to knock some maths into our +heads, which I call pretty hard luck on a chap who has crawled to the +top of his left wing while shots were dropping round like hail. He +looked fairly fed-up. It was tremendously hot and my head ached, and +Young Outram had a rag-nail on his first finger which he said was +causing him frightful agony, when I suddenly remembered the roll and +found your letter. So we ate the roll and read it, I mean we read your +letter and ate it--anyway, we were looking at that photograph and +thinking that the boy looked a pretty decent sort, and wishing we were +him instead of ourselves when suddenly he appeared! He really did, I'm +not making this up. At the window just where the parrot was yesterday. +And the funny thing is that we don't usually sit at that desk for +maths, but the other room was having something done to it, so we did +yesterday. The chap stared at us, and Y. O. said, 'Hullo!' and he said, +'Hullo!' And Y. O. said, 'Who are you?' And he said, 'I'm a +Time-traveller!' And we said, 'What the dickens is a Time-traveller?' +And he said 'Like to come and see?' And we said, 'You bet your hat!' +And he said, 'Hold my fist and shut your eyes!' So we did, and next +thing we knew we were floating on our backs in the sea as calm and cool +as cucumbers, and the raft was bobbing about, and you know the rest. At +least, we suppose you do. That's what we want to know. Hugh told us the +Time-traveller yarn. It sounds a fairly tall tale, but we've heard +taller from chaps who were at the front. The point is, how can we go +back? London is a rotten hole in this weather. + +"Your affec. bro., + +"DICK." + + +Mollie read this letter as she ate her morning oatcake. So her spell +had worked! The question was, would it work again? For obviously she +could not continue sending away photographs without causing remarks to +be made and questions asked. She did not see how she could do anything +more herself; they must just trust to luck, at any rate till she saw +Prudence again. + +It was rather odd, when she came to think of it, that she had not +questioned Dick yesterday about how they had got over. But the fact was +that, after the first surprise of seeing them, she had forgotten. "I +forget about Now and only remember Then," she said to herself. "There +is so much to do the time simply flies and comes to an end far too +soon." + +When she arrived downstairs that morning she found that her sofa had +been carried out of doors. It was a lovely day. Here in the country the +leaves still retained their early freshness, and from where she lay she +could see the downs, mistily green against the pale morning blue of the +sky. The rose-garden, with its smoothly mown grass paths, its pergolas +and arches, its standards and dwarfs, was coming into bloom so fast +under the June sunshine that Mollie thought she might almost see a bud +swell into a full-blown rose if she watched steadily enough. Caroline +Testout had already dropped some of her pink blossoms, which lay +scattered about the path in rosy patches, reminding Mollie of Grizzel +and her shells. She smiled to herself and then sighed, as her eyes +wandered from the rose-garden to the long red brick wall beyond, where +the sweet cherries grew. The fruit was turning scarlet under an orderly +net, which had been put up to protect it from the greedy little birds. +Everything was so tidy, she thought. No one would dare to pull off +those rose petals for scent-making purposes, nor to gather those +cherries merely to play at making jam with. Chauncery was lovely and +spacious compared to the house in North Kensington, and the well-kept +gardens were a pleasure to look at, but---- + +"I don't think England is big enough to hold children," she said to +Aunt Mary, who sat near, reading the _Aeroplane_, with some neglected +needlework lying in her lap. + +Aunt Mary looked up with a surprised expression: "I am sorry you are +feeling so crowded up," she said. "Would you like me to move a little +farther away?" + +"No, thank you," Mollie answered, with a laugh, "I have room to breathe +even with you there. What I mean is----" she paused for a moment, +wrinkling her brow, and then went on: "London isn't like this; it's +full of poky holes. Ours is bad enough, but from the train you can see +much, much worse places than ours. Sometimes I wonder how people can +live in them, and yet Mother says they are not the worst. There is +simply no room for children to play, so they play on the streets and +sometimes get killed. The Girl Guides are going to help, but it takes a +long time "--Mollie shook her head thoughtfully--"and there is so +little time too; at home I never have any time to do anything except +work or Guiding. I have no time to think in, except after I am in bed, +and I go to sleep so horribly soon." She shook her head again and +sighed deeply. + +"Well, that's one good thing to be thankful for," Aunt Mary said +cheerfully, dropping her paper and taking up her sewing, "and there are +the holidays for thinking in. I wouldn't think too much, if I were you. +You'll get plenty of that when you are old," and Aunt Mary sighed too, +as if she did not find her own thoughts very gay affairs always. + +"But I want to think of things now that will be useful long before I am +old," Mollie persisted. "There is such a _tremendous_ lot of things to +be done, Aunt Mary. And things have to be thoughts long before they are +things. I expect the person who invented aeroplanes thought about them +for ages and ages before he began to make one." + +"I haven't the slightest doubt of it," Aunt Mary agreed, "but you are +wandering from your subject, which was the smallness of Great Britain." + +"No, I'm not--at least not exactly, I want to make Great Britain +greater, and I can't think of a way. I should like to have plenty of +room and plenty of time." + +"That won't be an easy problem for you to solve, my lambkin," Aunt Mary +said. "As a matter of fact there is room enough, in the country, but +people prefer to live in towns. You will have to hire a pied piper and +pipe all the babies into the fields." + +Mollie shook her head, her eyes resting again upon the distant downs. +"I don't know," she said seriously, "but something will have to be done +some day, Aunt Mary, besides play-centres. They are good, but they +aren't enough. Too many children die. Mother goes to a children's home +once a week, and she took me once. You should just see those babies. +And they could be such dear little things too. Why--" Mollie hesitated +for a moment and then went on, "Why don't more people go to live in +Australia and Canada? The maps are full of empty spaces." + +"Ah, Mollie my dear, that's not so easy as it sounds," Aunt Mary said, +folding up her work and rising to her feet. "There are all sorts of +complications when it comes to shifting camp from the Old World to the +New. But perhaps--perhaps if everyone in this old country could be +persuaded to think of the children first--! In the meantime I must go +and get lunch for my particular child." + +Probably Aunt Mary's mind was running on those sick babies of the poor +as she played to Mollie that afternoon, for her fingers wandered off +into the tune of a song she had not heard sung since her childhood: + + "'T is the song, the sigh of the weary: + Hard times, hard times, come again no more! + Many days you have lingered around our cottage door-- + Oh, hard times, come again no more!" + +Mollie lay listening, the unopened album in her lap. She was drowsy +after her morning in the garden, and thought she would rest her eyes by +closing them for five minutes. "A little darkness will do them good +after all that sunshine," she murmured to herself. + +It was very pleasant lying in the quiet room, on that broad sofa, +listening to Aunt Mary's soft music. Mingling with the sound of the +piano was the droning hum of a foolish bee, who had got on the wrong +side of the window and was now making vain efforts to fly home again +through the glass. A delicious scent came from somewhere--perhaps from +the syringa bushes growing just outside the open window. Mollie's lazy +eyelids fell over her eyes--"Just five minutes--" + +"Five minutes," said the clock. "Ten minutes. Fifteen minutes. Twenty--" + +"How soundly the child sleeps," Aunt Mary whispered, peeping in a +little later to look at her niece. "These afternoon naps are the best +thing in the world for her overworked little brain. I wish I could fill +Chauncery with children, and let them run wild in the garden." She +felt, not for the first time, how duty seemed to pull two ways at once, +for there were many things she would fain have done had her duty to her +mother not stood in the way. + +Someone else came and looked at Mollie. + +"Asleep!" Prudence exclaimed, with a smile. "Never mind, I can manage. +It is getting very easy." + + * * * * * + +Mollie did not open her eyes the moment she woke up; she lay still, +enjoying the warmth, the sweet scents, and the balmy air, so different +from the cold winds of early spring. Presently she yawned, stretched +herself like a sleepy kitten, and finally sat up and opened the lazy +eyes. + +"Good gracious!" she exclaimed, "Prue must have come and found me +asleep. I wonder where she is." + +She rose to her feet and looked about her as usual. She was in a place +quite different from any she had seen hitherto. At her back stretched +an orange-grove--there was no mistaking it, for the trees, planted +evenly in rows, were laden with thousands of oranges, ripe and unripe, +while the waxy white blossom with its golden heart still grew in +clusters among the glossy dark leaves, sending its perfume out with the +warm wind far and near. Before her, divided from the grove by a narrow, +roughly fenced road, Mollie saw a wide, undulating plain, its surface +covered somewhat scantily with coarse grass and occasional clumps of +bracken. There were gum trees, large and small, their thin blue-green +leaves hanging limply from the grey boughs, and throwing but little +shade on the ground beneath. Some distance away a creek wound between +wide banks of shingly sand and low boulders. At the nearer end a gum +tree had fallen across the stream and had been left to form a crossing. +Mollie thought it did not look a very inviting bridge to cross on a +dark night. + +It looked hot out there in the open. Mollie turned back to the +orange-grove, cool and inviting, and had almost decided to explore in +that direction, when the sound of voices fell upon her ear, and, +turning again, she saw a group of children crossing the scrub land in +front. In spite of wide hats and sunbonnets they were easily +recognizable. The boys were walking in front and carried spades and +pickaxes over their shoulders; the two girls were loitering along +behind, and carried between them a large round article which might be a +tub, a cradle, or a sieve. They were heading for the creek, and, as +Mollie watched, Hugh lifted his hand and pointed towards the fallen log. + +"Dick and Jerry are first to-day, and they have got over without any +help from me," Mollie said to herself, with a tinge of jealousy, which, +however, she quickly got rid of--jealousy not being part of a Girl +Guide's equipment. She put her hands up to her mouth in the way she had +seen the Australians do, and shouted "Cooo-eeeeeee!", with a creditably +sustained shrill note at the end. Her call brought the children to a +standstill, and they waited for her to join them. + +"What are you going to do?" she asked. + +"We are going to dig for gold," Prudence answered, as they started +again. "Hugh says there is gold in the river-bed. The boys dig, and we +sift the diggings in this cradle, which rocks in the water so that all +the dirt runs out and the gold stays in--at least, it would if there +were any to stay. Last year we dug for ever so long, but never got any +gold at all. We found some pretty crystals, though." + +"I found a purple one just like an amethyst," Grizzel joined in; "but +Mr. Fraser said it wasn't. Then I found a white one like a diamond, and +a green one. I polished them with all my might, but I lost them except +the green one. I hid it in a tree like the person who shot an arrow +into the air, only my tree is a gum instead of an oak. I expect it is +there still unbroke if it hasn't been stolen by a magpie or a blackie." + +When they reached the creek the boys laid down their tools, and Hugh +studied the lie of the land with an intent expression. + +"We'll begin about here," he decided presently. "Last year we dug +higher up, but I shouldn't wonder if gold silts downwards and collects +in a hollow. This is about the hollowest place I have found yet. The +soil in these old alluvial beds is often auriferous," he went on; "Mr. +Fraser says this was once quite a respectable river, but years of dry +seasons shrank it up. It will never go quite dry, because there is a +good spring up there, and that is why he chose this place for his +oranges. Irrigation is absolutely necessary for an orange-grove." + +"Are we allowed to eat the oranges?" Dick asked anxiously, as a breath +of scented wind blew across him. + +"Oh yes--as many as we like. But we must dig first," Hugh replied +firmly, lifting his spade as he spoke and planting it upright in the +sandy soil. "First we must peg out our claims. There's a good deal of +luck about gold-digging, of course, but you'd better look round and +choose your own spot." + +After some consideration the children decided to throw in their lot +with Hugh, who was the only one among them who knew what gold looked +like in its raw state. + +"You can keep half and the rest of us will go shares in the other +half," Dick suggested, quite forgetting in his interest that +Time-travellers cannot carry profits with them on their travels. The +plan sounded fair, however, so they agreed to it. + +"It is possible that we may not find _gold_," Hugh said, as he marked +out a square within which to begin operations; "but we are pretty sure +to find something. Australian soil is extraordinarily rich in products. +I should think it must be about the richest soil in the world." + +"I hope it won't be ants," Prudence said nervously. "I do hate ants." + +"Aunts!" exclaimed Jerry, not understanding Prue's Scottish-Australian +pronunciation. "Why the dickens should we find aunts in a river-bed? Do +they all drown themselves out here? Aunts can be jolly nice too--or +jolly nasty, according to circs." + +"They're _always_ nasty here," Grizzel said emphatically, "I never met +a nice ant in my life. They bite like red-hot nippers." + +"Bite! Oh, I see," said Jerry, "you mean black aunts," vague memories +of _Uncle Tom's Cabin_ and Aunt Chloe floating in the back of his +brain. "I thought you meant white aunts. I didn't know that aborigines +were as fierce as all that." + +"I have never seen any white ants here," said Prudence, who called the +native Australians blacks when she spoke of them and a-borry-jines when +she read about them. "Uncle Jim says there are a great many in India, +and they eat his books." + +Jerry looked bewildered. "Of course there's lots of 'em in India," he +said, "but I never heard of them eating books." + +"I expect your uncle means that they devour novels," suggested Mollie. + +"No, he doesn't. He says they eat a tunnel through all his books from +one end to the other. And they stuff up the keyholes." + +"Your uncle's aunts must be quaint old birds then," Jerry said +unbelievingly. + +"But they aren't birds at all, they're _ants_," cried Grizzel. + +A loud cackle from Hugh, whose grin had been growing wider and wider, +now interrupted the discussion: "Ho, ho, ho! One of you is talking +about aunts--your Aunt Maria--and the other is talking about ants--the +beasts that go to the sluggard," he exploded. "You _are_ a pair of +muffs! He, he, he!" + +"'Go to the ant, thou sluggard'," Mollie quoted slowly. "Oh--_Jerry_--" + +It took them some time to recover from this little misunderstanding. +"Next time I see Aunt Mary--bites like red-hot nippers--oh dear!" + +"Well, come on and dig now," Hugh ordered at last, twisting a cord +neatly round his last peg as he spoke. "If you go on laughing like that +you'll soon begin to cry, and this mine will never get started." + +Thus adjured they rolled up their sleeves and set to work. Pickaxes +were of no use in that sandy soil. The boys used their spades, and the +girls carried the turned-up sand to the creek, washing it with the +utmost care in the cinder-sifter. But their efforts met with no +success. Neither gold nor anything else, except pebbles, rewarded their +toil. + +"It's always like that," Hugh said at last, sitting down on the edge of +the hole they had dug. "Gold is the most gambly stuff imaginable. We +know a lady who was as poor as a washerwoman one day, and then at +breakfast one morning she got a letter to say her goldmine shares had +struck a reef, and she got so rich she simply didn't know what to do +with her money. She came to see Papa about it. She was an old maid, so +naturally there wasn't much she wanted. You never know who is going to +be rich and who poor, with a goldmine. Some of these pebbles are quite +valuable," he continued, running a handful of shingle through his +fingers, "there are amethysts and opals and topazes in some river beds. +I have never found one myself, but I've picked up some pretty good +crystals." + +"I think I'll go and look for mine," said Grizzel. "I hid it in a tree +near here. I am tired of gold-digging, and my feet are hot. I shall +dabble them in the creek and eat an orange." + +She got up as she spoke and went off towards a particularly +gaunt-looking tree. Its trunk had split open, showing a hollow large +enough to hold several people; for some distance around its roots +protruded through the ground like old bones. Grizzel disappeared into +the hollow trunk, whence she presently emerged with an air of triumph. +"I've got it safe and sound. Now I'm going to get an orange." + +Jerry eyed the orange-grove lovingly. Digging is thirsty work. + +"Let's all go," said Hugh. "Orange juice is one of the most restorative +things in the world; if we eat enough we will be ready to make a fresh +start in half an hour or so. Very likely we shall have better luck next +time." + +It was hot, and the change from the glaring sunshine into the cool +dampness of the orange-grove was very pleasant. The beautiful fruit +hung invitingly from the branches with a colour and fragrance unknown +to London shops. There were many varieties, and the Australian children +wandered critically from tree to tree. + +"I'm not sure whether I like navels or bloods best," Hugh remarked, +"but perhaps on the whole, for pure refreshment, navels." + +He stopped, as he spoke, before a tree on which grew oranges larger +than the London children had ever seen in their lives--immense, smooth, +opulent-looking globes of rich golden yellow. For a time silence +reigned, while six people covered themselves with juice, "Like the +ointment that ran down Aaron's beard," Grizzel said, and the ground in +the neighbourhood assumed an auriferous hue that made the inventor sigh. + +"I wish we could find a place where nuggets lay about like that," he +said rather pensively; "it would be awfully jolly." + +"It would be," agreed the others, "most awfully jolly." + +"I think I'd as soon have oranges as gold," Grizzel said reflectively, +looking down at the peel-strewn earth. "Think how nice it would be if +you were in the very middle of a scorching desert, and dying of thirst +like the men in _Five Weeks in a Balloon_, to find a lovely orange tree +covered with juicy oranges. It would be nicer than finding gold." + +"You do talk silly slithers," Hugh said derisively. "Who ever found a +beautiful orange tree in the middle of a desert? You _might_ find gold +and bribe an Arab to give you water." + +"You _might_ find an orange tree in an oasis," Grizzel said huffily. "I +am going to bathe my feet in the creek. Go and look for your old gold. +You won't find it." + +"All right, Carroty-cross-patch. You won't get any if we do," Hugh +replied politely. + +"Don't want it, Goggle-eyed-guinea-pig." Grizzel got up and walked off, +her sun-bonnet dangling down her back and her red curls waving over her +head. No one took any notice of these little amenities. No one +remembered that the ointment which ran down Aaron's beard was like +brethren dwelling together in unity--a good and pleasant thing. They +were all brothers or sisters and accustomed to such mellifluous modes +of address. + +"We'd better go back and dig in a new place," said Hugh; "the light +will begin to fade before very long." + +They gathered up their orange peel and buried it tidily, and then +stepped out of the cool grove into the hot sunshine with some +reluctance. But gold-digging is not mere play, as Hugh reminded them. +If you want to find a large nugget you begin by looking for small ones, +and the search undoubtedly entails some hard work. + +The new diggings were no more productive than the old. The boys worked +industriously, digging widely rather than deeply. It was decidedly +monotonous work, and Dick began to think that for pure excitement +gold-digging showed up poorly beside football. Their backs ached, their +hands were blistered, and the shingly pebbles got into their shoes. +They were hot and thirsty, and into the minds of four of them crept a +suspicion that Grizzel had chosen the better way of spending the time. +They could see her sitting on a boulder, her feet in the water and her +hands occupied with her crystal, which she was rubbing in a leisurely +way on a stone, as one sharpens slate-pencils. The afternoon wore on; +the sun seemed to gain in speed as he slanted down the sky, and tree +shadows lay about the ground like long thin skeletons. A herd of cows, +on their way to the milking-shed, trailed lazily past the weary +diggers, reminding them of tea-time with its refreshing drinks and +soothing cream and butter. + +Jerry stood up, dropping his spade and stretching his arms above his +head. + +"I'm tired," he announced. "Let's hang our spades on a gummy tree and +sit beside Carrots for a bit. I'd like to dabble my little feet too, +before walking home." + +Hugh assented somewhat reluctantly; he would have preferred to continue +digging while daylight lasted. "We've done _something_," he said, as +they took off their shoes and stockings; "we've found where gold isn't, +and that's rather important." + +"I know lots of places where it isn't," said Dick, putting his hands in +his pockets, "I could have told you that without digging for a whole +afternoon, if I'd known it was important." + +"Of course I mean when it isn't where it might be," Hugh amended, +taking no notice of Dick's gibe. "It's what Papa calls the process of +elimination. You've got to do it with almost everything worth having +really. You've only got to look at this river bed to see there's pretty +sure to be something worth having there--in fact I know there is. It +may not be gold, but it's something." + +"How do you know it?" Mollie asked curiously. "I don't see anything +particular about the river bed. It doesn't look half so likely as the +gold patch in the road beside your cherry garden." + +"I can't tell you how, but I do. Just you wait and see. To-morrow I +think I'll try the old place again. I shall go on trying till I find +something, either gold or precious stones. There might even be +diamonds; there are in some river beds." + +"Look," said Grizzel, holding out her hand with the stone in it, "I +have rubbed a bit off one side at last. If I rub long enough it will +come bright all over." + +A small, roughly eight-sided crystal lay in the palm of her hand. Six +sides were dull and colourless, the remaining two sides were clear and +transparent. + +"I rubbed my bit off exactly opposite the bit that was clean already," +she went on, "so that I could look through it at the sun." She turned +the crystal over and held it up as she spoke. A dazzling flash of +pale-green light darted out, as though an unearthly finger were +pointing at the sun. It was gone in a moment, and the stone looked dull +and rough as before. + +"What was that?" Grizzel asked, in a startled voice. "Is it going to go +off like fireworks?" + +"Give it to me," said Hugh, taking it from Grizzel's unresisting +fingers. He held it up as she had done, and again the pale-green light +flashed out. He moved it slightly from side to side, and with his +movements the green light took on the shining hues of a rainbow. + +"It's like a diamond," said Prudence in an awed voice. + +"It _is_ a diamond," cried Hugh. "I knew it! I knew it! I said so! +Grizzel found it in the place we dug last year. Grizzel found it, but +it was me that looked for it, because I knew! Where this one was there +will be more. _We have found a diamond bed!_" + +"If Grizzel hadn't rubbed it so hard you would never have known," +Prudence reminded him. "She rubbed that bit for _weeks_ last year." + +Hugh turned the crystal over and over, examining it on every side. +"Diamonds are terrifically hard," he explained more calmly. "It takes +months to cut and polish a diamond properly. Grizzel's pretty good at +sticking to a thing; I'll say that for her. I'm glad the first diamond +was found by her." + +"Well--it will take me some time to polish it all over," Grizzel said, +with a sigh. "If I did nothing else all day long but rub it on a stone +it would be clean in about six months." + +"Who does this land belong to?" Jerry asked. "Is it your father's?" + +"Oh, no--it's Mr. Eraser's. For miles around the land is his. That's +the man we are staying with." + +"Then the diamond is Mr. Fraser's, not yours or Grizzel's," Jerry +pronounced. + +There was a short silence. "Mr. Fraser said I might have all the gold I +found," Hugh said, in a doubtful tone. + +"I expect he guessed that you wouldn't find any," Jerry responded. "But +a diamond like that is a different thing. If it really is a diamond it +is probably pretty valuable--perhaps it is worth a hundred pounds. You +can't walk off with a hundred pounds without telling." + +"Well, we'll show it to him. Of course we'll tell him we have found a +diamond bed," Hugh answered. + +"It's my diamond," Grizzel declared. "I found it and I rubbed it and it +slept under my pillow, and I hid it and I love it and it's mine. I +don't care what anybody says." + +"Mr. Fraser will most likely give you lots of money for it," Mollie +suggested soothingly, "and then you can go and buy something nicer than +a diamond." + +"I don't want lots of money. I want my own dear little stone that I +rubbed myself," Grizzel repeated, tears starting to her eyes. "Why +should Mr. Fraser take my stone and chop it all up with horrible sharp +grinding knives? It's mine. I found it." + +"You'll have to show it to him first," Hugh said decisively, "whether +you found it or not. If you keep it you will be a thief, and perhaps +you will be sent to prison." + +"Then I'd rather let it go back to its home in the river bed," Grizzel +cried passionately. As she spoke she snatched the crystal from Hugh's +hand; there was a flash of green light--a splash--and it was gone. + +She turned and ran, sobbing and crying. Prudence followed, bent upon +comforting her. Mollie looked scared, Jerry laughed, Hugh shrugged his +shoulders: + +"Just like a girl!" he said. "It doesn't matter; we'll find more. But +that was a good diamond; I'd have liked to show it to Mr. Fraser. We'd +better collect our things and go home." + +Three of them turned away, but Dick lingered behind. His quick eyes, +trained to watching the flight of balls of all sizes from footballs to +golf-balls, had taken accurate note of the spot where that little +splash had been. There were still circles widening round it. The creek +looked shallow just there. + +"If I scooped up the sand carefully _now_, as likely as not I'd +retrieve that stone," he said to himself. "Grizzel is a decent little +kid; she'll be sorry by and by, and, besides, the old chap ought to +have his diamond if it really is a diamond. Diamonds aren't so jolly +easy to come by as Hugh seems to think. That white stone is almost in +the middle of the circle--I'll make for that." + +"Don't wait for me," he shouted after the others, "I'm coming in a +jiff." He waited till he saw them turn their somewhat dejected and +preoccupied backs upon the scene of the late disaster, and then +transferred his attention to the creek. At the point where he stood the +water was comparatively deep; it had evidently formed a channel for +itself, helped, probably, by a slender waterfall which dropped over a +large boulder on the higher ground some distance beyond the fallen tree. + +"I can crawl over that and drop off at the shallow part," he thought, +"I'll have to look sharp or the circles will be gone." + +He rolled up his already short flannels and started. The tree was by no +means steady--it rolled and shook under his weight; but, as the worst +that could happen would be a good soaking, he did not worry overmuch, +and soon slid off into the shallow stream. As he had predicted, the +water there barely reached to his knees. He scrutinized the +ever-widening circle, now faint and irregular, and, calculating the +distance from its edge to its centre, he fixed his eyes intently upon +the white stone and cautiously waded towards it, his movements in the +water breaking up the last traces of the circle. When he reached the +white stone he halted. + +"It was here, almost to a T, or my name is not Richard Gordon," he +muttered, and, stooping carefully, he scooped up a double handful of +shingly sand from the river bottom. He stood up, letting the water run +away through his tightly closed fingers. As he bent his head to examine +the pebbles left in his hand, a sunbeam darted over his shoulder--there +was a flash of pale green. + +"Got it, by jinks!" he chuckled exultantly. "First go-off! Good for +you, Richard, my boy--your eye is pretty well in and no mistake. Come +out of that, my young diamond, and let's have a look at you--you'd do +A1 for heliographing with." + +Dick soon scrambled to shore, and stood for a moment looking after the +others, now far ahead. "I'll put him back in the hollow trunk where +Grizzel hid him," he decided, with a twinkle in his eyes. "It might be +rather a lark--" + +A sharp sprint brought him up with the other two boys, who were +awaiting his arrival seated on the top of a slip-rail, Mollie having +gone in search of Prudence and Grizzel. + +"What on earth have you been doing?" Hugh demanded. "Have you been +swimming?" + +"I was only having a look round," Dick answered, with a wink at Jerry; +"I thought I'd do a little prospecting on my own." + +"Why didn't you tell me, you beast?" Jerry asked, linking his arm into +Dick's affectionately. + +Dick answered by a friendly punch on the head. "Who is Mr. Fraser?" he +asked Hugh, settling himself in his place on the rail. + +"He is a man we know," Hugh replied rather vaguely. "He owns all this +part and is as rich as a nabob, but he isn't married, so he lives up +here all alone, with two or three Chinese servants in the house. He +once lived in China. He's awfully fond of gardening, and pictures, and +that sort of thing, like my mater. He's a merchant and he owns ships. +He's a great friend of the pater's, and he comes in about once a week +to hear the mater sing, and they yarn away about home and spout poetry. +But he is quite a jolly sort of chap when you get him alone. His house +is called Drink Between, which wouldn't be a bad name for a book if you +wanted to write one." + +"Jolly good name for a pub, if you wanted to keep one," Jerry remarked. +"I shouldn't wonder if he got it from some old coaching inn of the +olden times--though, of course, we are in the olden times already, if +it comes to that--fairly old, at any rate." + +"No, he got it from a place at home where Prince Charlie once had a +drink. When the girls are here he gets in a couple of women to look +after them. Other times he only has his heathen Chinee lot, and jolly +good they are! That is, of course, if you like stewed puppy and bird's +nest," Hugh added solemnly; "I love 'em myself." + +"Adore 'em," Jerry said, smacking his lips. "Never lose a chance of +having puppy-tail hash when we can get it, do we, old son?" + +"Rather not," Dick replied. "Remember those bird's-nest tarts our old +woman at the tuck-shop used to make before butter got so scarce? +Scrumptious!" + +The appearance of the girls interrupted these flights of masculine +fancy. Grizzel still looked subdued, but the tears were dried, and she +was listening politely to Mollie's tuneful advice to "Pack your +troubles in your own kit-bag, and smile, smile, smile". Hugh shouted to +them to hurry up or they would be late for tea, and soon the little +party was under way again, as cheerful as if diamonds had never been +heard of. They were now in sight of Drink Between; a square, solidly +built house, with a wide veranda and balcony on three sides of it, +completely hidden at present under a pale-purple drapery of wistaria. + +"It looks like an amethyst," Mollie said admiringly, as they drew near. +"I never saw such a purple house as that before." + +The inside of Drink Between was entirely different from any of the +other Australian houses which Mollie had been in. They entered by a +side door which opened straight on to a narrow stairway. The girls +climbed up to their bedroom, a large airy apartment opening on to the +balcony. + +"Where are your father and mother and Baby?" Mollie asked, as they +washed away the remains of oranges and gold-digging. + +"Papa and Mamma have to go and meet an immigrant ship to-morrow, so +they aren't coming up till afterwards. And Baby and Bridget are with +them." + +"What's an immigrant ship?" asked Mollie. + +"A ship full of immigrants," Prudence replied, brushing out her curls +with conscientious care. "Immigrants are people who get their passage +out for nothing, or for very little, and then they go to work here. +Mamma is getting a new cook because ours is going to be married. And +Papa likes to meet the Scotch immigrants and say welcome to Australia +to them. Bridget was an immigrant, but she says she will soon be +Australian." + +"I see," said Mollie thoughtfully. "Are they ever married? I mean--do +children come with their parents?" + +"Yes, lots of them. Are you ready, Mollie? The boys are getting +impatient. I can hear them growling." + +Feeling very fresh and clean in white muslin frocks with pale-blue +sashes, the girls descended by a different and much wider staircase +than the one they had gone up by. They stepped off the stairs straight +into a large hall, or living-room, which apparently occupied half the +floor of the house, for on two sides it opened on to the veranda, and +on the third side into a large bamboo house; the fourth wall was +unbroken but for one door. The room was painted white, and the floor +covered with fine white Chinese matting, over which lay a few Eastern +rugs, their once rich and glowing colours now dimmed by time and the +tread of generations of feet. Through the wide-open French windows +could be seen the long, graceful streamers of wistaria, hanging from +the arched boughs round the veranda like a lace veil. Against this +background grew masses of pale-pink and blue hydrangeas, with their +flat fragile flowers and broad leaves. The bamboo house was given +wholly to ferns, over which a fountain was playing, and under the fine +spray the green fronds glistened as freshly as though they grew in the +heart of an English wood. + +The sun was now setting, and its crimson glow shone through the mauve +wistaria, filling the room with an opal-coloured light which made +Mollie think of fairyland. It fell with a peculiarly pleasant effect +upon a round tea-table spread for tea. She had never seen such fine and +snowy damask, such shining silver, or such delicately transparent china +cups and saucers. Even Grannie's well-kept table paled before the +exquisite freshness of this one. As for the food part--there was a +crystal bowl of yellow clotted cream, a plate of gossamer balls which +were probably intended to pass for scones, a twist of gold which was +most likely meant for bread, and dishes of preserves unknown to the +English children--tiny green oranges in syrup, scarlet rose-berries, +and jellies like amber and topaz, looking as though some of Hugh's +precious stones had been cooked for his tea. + +They were about half-way through this beautiful meal when there was a +sound of footsteps on the matting, and a Chinese servant appeared, +bearing a large iced birthday cake set on a silver tray. + +"Hullo, Ah Kew! What you gottee there?" called Hugh, under the +impression that he was speaking pidgin-English to perfection. + +"Master talkee to-day b'long he burfday," Ah Kew replied. "He talkee +my, wanchee cook makee one piecee burfday-cake." He set the cake down +in front of Prudence as he spoke. + +"Welly good, Ah Kew, Master b'long quitey righty," said Hugh +approvingly. "Cook makee jolly-good cakee, me eat jolly-good cakee. +Cook pleased, me pleased, cakee pleased, all jolly-welly pleased." + +Ah Kew smiled a slow and mysterious smile, his black eyes closing up +under his slanting eyebrows, and his blue-capped head nodding. He +glanced over the tea-table. + +"Tea b'long all plopper?" he asked anxiously. "S'pose you wanchee more +can have plenty more." + +"No, thank you, Ah Kew, me eatee more me bustee," Hugh replied +politely. Ah Kew nodded his head again and departed, his pigtail +flapping against the long skirts of his blue cotton coat. + +Prudence cut the beautiful cake and distributed large slices all round. +No grown-up person was present to make sensible remarks about not +eating too much, which was a good or a bad thing "according to circs" +as Jerry would say. + +The children were all tired after their hard work and excitement; Mr. +Fraser was not coming home till late, and had left a message to say +that he expected to find everyone fast asleep in bed when he got back; +so, after a tour of exploration round the house and its immediate +neighbourhood, they went off to their rooms, and soon most of them were +asleep. + +Not all of them, however. Whether it was the cake, or the change of +air, or the strange bed, or still stranger circumstances, or all +combined, it would be hard to say, but it seemed to Dick that the +longer he lay in bed the more wakeful he became. The thought of the +diamond began to worry him, and soon assumed gigantic proportions in +his mind. Suppose it got lost. Perhaps it was worth a hundred pounds, +as Jerry had suggested. Suppose a magpie flew off with it. It might be +worth more than a hundred; perhaps two hundred pounds. What if a +blackfellow stole it, or the tree fell down in the night, or got burnt +up. It is true that none of these things had happened during the months +in which it had lain there before, but _then_ no one had known that it +was valuable. It would be just like luck, or rather unluck, if +something happened this particular night. Dick's knowledge of diamonds +was so small that it could be hardly said to exist, and he now began to +have nightmarish visions of huge sums of money--thousands of pounds +perhaps, lost through his folly. To be sure, no one knew that he had +put the diamond back in the tree. But he knew himself, which was the +main thing. He tossed from side to side restlessly. A new thought +perplexed him. How could anything he did or left undone matter now, +seeing that he wasn't going to be born for another thirty years? He +belonged to the future, and the future could not influence the +present--at least, he supposed not, but funny things did happen. +Anyhow, this was _his_ present for the moment, and he had his usual +irritating conscience. + +He got out of bed at last and went to the window. There was such a +flood of moonlight that out-of-doors was almost as light as day. Why +not slip into his clothes and scoot down to the bottom of the +scrub-land, and collect that diamond? It would be better than tossing +about in bed, and afterwards he would go calmly to sleep. The +difficulty would be to get out of the house. Probably Ah Kew was on the +watch for his master, and, if he saw Dick, would remark "no can do", or +words to that effect. + +Dick went to the edge of the balcony and looked over; it was not very +far from the ground, but it was too far to jump. How about the wistaria +boughs? They looked pretty tough--he decided to try, and if he +fell--well, he had smashed himself up before this more than once, and +no doubt would do so again. A few tumbles more or less wouldn't make +much difference to him, especially, he reflected, as he was bound to +get back to 1920 somehow or other. He could hardly kill himself now if +he tried. + +He reached the ground with nothing worse than a few scratches to his +credit, and set off along the path by which they had come in the +afternoon, keeping well in the shadow of the hedge in case Ah Kew's +beady eyes should be on the outlook. So long as he was within the +grounds of the house he felt confident and cheerful, but when he +reached the slip-rail and looked over into the land beyond he felt some +of his courage oozing away. + +It looked eerie, that strange, unfamiliar country, in this white light. +There were dead trees standing here and there, and their pale trunks +took unpleasant shapes--they might conceivably be something else than +trees--not ghosts, of course; there were no such things as ghosts. All +the tales he had ever read about Australia suddenly started up in his +mind--tales of deadly snakes, of bushrangers, of blackfellows, who had +methods of their own of doing you in. One might go through a good deal +without being actually _killed_. Now that he came to think of it, +Australia in the 'seventies was a wildish sort of place--in some parts +at any rate. He wished that he was surer where he was--how far away +from civilization. He supposed that Ned Kelly and his gang were still +at large. + +But, of course, he could not go back. He stepped cautiously from tree +to tree, keeping to the black shadows as much as possible. He could +hear the sound of that little waterfall quite distinctly, and see the +moonlight on the rippling shallows of the creek--now he could see the +gum tree he was making for--he had taken particular notice of a crooked +bough--what on earth was that? + +A wild piercing shriek from somewhere beyond the creek brought him +suddenly to a standstill, his heart in his mouth. Undoubtedly a woman +was being murdered or tortured. Blackfellows, probably, as Ned Kelly +made a point of not hurting women--at least so it said in _Robbery +Under Arms_. Dick wondered what exactly the blackfellows had done to +the woman--and there was the blood-curdling shriek again! + +He stood still. After all, why not leave the diamond till daylight? He +had been a silly ass to imagine all that rubbish about it, and a much +sillier ass to leave his safe bedroom and come out to this wild and +desolate spot all alone. If he had brought Jerry-- + +Ah, Jerry! There had been that affair of Jerry's eldest brother and the +guns. Ten wounds. Both legs shot off. "Stick it out, you chaps." The +very last words he spoke in this world, sweeter in Jerry's ear, Dick +knew, than the finest poetry ever written. He gathered himself together +and went on. It would never do to begin a habit of _not_ sticking it +out. For, wherever he was, he was always Dick Gordon to himself--a +person for whom he wished to have a considerable amount of respect. + +He wished that the orange grove, so cool and lovely by day, did not +look so dark and mysterious by night. + +At last! Here was the old tree. Now for it. He stepped round, prepared +to enter the empty hollow regardless of possible snakes or blacks, when +he heard a sound that made the hair rise on his head and the back of +his neck feel queer, for it was unmistakably a child crying inside the +tree. The child of the murdered woman, he thought. So the blacks _were_ +near--perhaps inside the tree at this very moment. The idea flitted +across his mind that there was an extraordinary difference between +reading about a thing and experiencing it. As the child's sobs +continued he shrunk together--he would rather meet an enemy in the open +and be shot at twenty times than face these savage and mysterious +blacks--and then he suddenly decided that, if there were a child there, +he must go and look for it and do his best, blacks or no blacks. + +But at that very instant the crying stopped and turned to speaking: + +"Please, God, let there be a miracle. Just this once, God. I'm sorry, +God; I'll be good if you'll make a miracle. Only this once. I am very, +very sorry." The crying began again. + +"Grizzel!" exclaimed Dick, his fears all vanishing like darkness before +light. "How on earth did she get there? She'll be frightened into fits +if she sees me." He moved back a little distance and stopped to think. +The best plan would be to call her softly, he decided. + +"Grizzel! Where are you, Grizzel? Are you there, kiddy? It's Dick +calling. Are you in your tree? I'm coming--look out!" + +[Illustration: DICK STARTED VIOLENTLY] + +He came up to the hollow opening and looked in. It was Grizzel sure +enough, in her little dressing-gown, her face blotched with tears and +her curls crushed and tumbled. Dick put an arm round her: "Don't cry, +kiddy; the diamond is all right." + +"Oh, Dick, I did hope there might be a miracle," she sobbed, burying +her head on his shoulder. "I'm so sorry. My poor little diamond, all +those years and years shut up in the ground! It had just one look at +the sun and then I threw it back. Oh, Dick, if God would only make a +miracle this _once_ and put my diamond back!" + +Dick felt a choky sensation in his throat as the thin little arm +tightened round his neck. + +"It's all right, Grizzel," he whispered, "we'll find the diamond--let +my arm loose a moment." He groped round, and in another minute the +stone was in his hand. He turned it over, and a pale-green ray darted +out, more unearthly than ever in the moonlight. + +Grizzel gave a cry as he laid it on her palm. "My diamond! The miracle! +I _thought_ it would happen! I just _thought_ God hadn't forgotten the +way! Oh, Dick, I am so glad! I am so glad! My own dear little diamond!" + +Dick had not the heart to explain at the moment that there had been no +miracle, and Grizzel was far too preoccupied with her own joy and +relief to wonder what had brought Dick to her tree just then; and +besides, he thought vaguely, one never knows. + +"We must be going in," he said; "it's ever so late and we'll be +cotched. How on earth did you get out?" + +"Down the back stairs. The others were asleep, but I could not sleep, +thinking of my little diamond in the cold river--" at that moment a +wild shriek rang out again, and Dick started violently. + +"It's only a curlew calling to his friend," Grizzel said, creeping out +of the hollow. "They scream exactly like people being killed, but it's +only their way; they mean to be kind." + +Dick drew a long breath. A wild bird and a crying child! Suppose he had +gone back! Thank goodness he hadn't, but it was a near shave. + +The boy and girl walked happily along, hand in hand. They had reached +the slip-rail and were climbing over, when a tall man appeared from the +garden of Drink Between. + +"_Grizzel!_ What in the wide creation are you doing here at this hour +of night, or rather morning? Do you know it is nearly one o'clock? And +what are you doing, young man?" + +"Oh, Mr. Fraser--it's Mr. Fraser," she explained, turning to Dick, and +such a confused tale followed, in which crystals, gold-mines, diamonds, +wickedness, and miracles were all jumbled together, that Mr. Fraser +decided that a glass of milk, a biscuit, and bed, had better pave the +way to a fuller explanation next day. + +Ah Kew let them in with a wise smile and several nods of his head, and +soon both Dick and Grizzel were sleeping as soundly as the other four +Time-travellers. + +"It is a green diamond," Mr. Fraser pronounced next morning, "but what +its value is we cannot tell until it is cut and polished. Then it will +belong to Grizzel, to have and to hold till death do them part. If you +really have found a diamond-mine, youngsters, something will have to be +done about shares. Who finds keeps, you know. We'll have the place +properly surveyed and see what happens. But don't begin counting your +chickens too soon--these Australian diamond-mines are tricksy things; +you never know how they are going to pan out. Wait a bit before you +plan what to do with your fortune." + +Mollie, Dick, and Jerry suddenly felt very sad as they remembered that +they were out of this stroke of luck. Whatever happened, Fortune was +not preparing to smile on _them_, at least not in a way that would be +of any immediate practical use to them when they got back to London. +And a fortune apiece would have come in so very handy just now--just +forty years hence, that is. The boys made up their minds to investigate +this matter of fortunes in the colonies directly they got home. + +Hugh tossed up his hat and caught it again: "We'll be jolly rich," he +cried. "The Mater will get her trip home, and the Pater needn't worry +about bills and subscription lists any more, and I'll get that +camera--oh, 'hard times, hard times, come again no more!'" + + * * * * * + +Mollie sat up. The clock was still ticking minutes into hours, hours +into days, days into weeks and months and years. + +"Oh dear," she said, "I do wonder--" + +"Wonder what, my Molliekins?" asked Aunt Mary, preceding Hester with +the tea-tray. + +"I wonder," Mollie repeated, and then began to laugh. "I don't suppose +you ever bit like red-hot nippers, did you, Aunt Mary?" + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +The Grape-Gatherers or Who was Mr. Smith? + + +Aunt Mary had gone up to London to do some shopping, and when Mollie +came downstairs next morning she found Grannie installed in the +drawing-room, instead of in the morning-room as usual, with another old +lady who had come to spend the day. + +"Mrs. Pell and I were at school together," she explained, as she +introduced her grandchild, "and that was not yesterday," she added, as +she settled Mollie in an easy-chair with the lame foot up on a +cushioned frame. "My dear husband used this when he had gout," she +continued, tucking a warm shawl round Mollie's bandages and large +bedroom slipper. "It was made in the village under his own directions, +and is most ingeniously constructed. Poor, dear Richard was such an +active man; he could not endure to lie on a sofa, and I had the +greatest difficulty in keeping him to his bed even when his attacks +were severe." + +Mrs. Pell shook her head as she looked admiringly at the foot-rest. +"James was the same, he hated a sofa and would always sit in a chair. +Not that he was so active, but he was stout, and stout people are more +comfortable sitting up than lying on their backs." + +Mollie coughed. She had either to cough or to laugh, which, of course, +would never have done. + +"My dear, I trust you have not caught cold," Grannie said anxiously. +"Perhaps we should close the window. Your Aunt Mary has a perfect craze +for open windows, and I sometimes think there is a draught in this +room." + +"No, no, Grannie," Mollie protested; "I have not got the least bit of +cold, and I love the open window; it is so warm to-day. It was only a +tickle; I get them sometimes--tell me about when you and Mrs. Pell were +at school, please." + +The two old ladies smiled at each other over their spectacles. + +"That was not yesterday," Grannie repeated. "You would think very +poorly of our school. We had no games, no gym-dress, no examinations +such as you have; but we learnt the use of the globes very thoroughly, +and we spoke French, so that we were not at a loss when we went to +Paris later on. Our dancing was much more graceful than the foolish +gambols with their ridiculous titles which you young people call +dancing nowadays. Fox-trot, indeed! And bunny-hug. And rag-time. I +never heard such names in my life! _We_ danced the Highland +schottische, and the quadrille, and Sir Roger de Coverley. And do you +remember your famous curtsy, Esther? And how Madame made you show off +on parents' day?" + +"Indeed I do!" Mrs. Pell answered briskly. "I believe I could do it +now, this moment. I have been wonderfully free of rheumatism this year." + +"Do, do," Mollie begged, overlooking the insult to her beloved fox-trot +in her anxiety to see a real old-fashioned curtsy. + +Mrs. Pell laid her knitting on one side, rose from her chair, and +walked to the middle of the room. She shook her somewhat ample black +silk skirt into place, tilted her chin to an angle that gave her a +decidedly haughty expression, and stood facing Grannie and Mollie. + +"You must imagine yourselves to be our beloved Queen Victoria and our +beautiful and gracious Alexandra, Princess of Wales," she said, looking +so elegant and distinguished that Mollie suddenly felt rather small and +shy, while Grannie, on the other hand, drew herself up into what was +presumably the attitude of Her late Majesty. + +Mrs. Pell lifted her skirts with an easy turn of her pretty hands and +wrists, pointed a charming foot, so small that it made Mollie gasp, and +began to sink slowly down. Down, down, down she swept, her skirt +billowing out around her, her shoulders square, her head erect--down +till she all but touched the floor, and how she kept her balance was a +perfect miracle; then slowly up, with an indescribably graceful curve +of neck and elbows, till once more she stood erect, pleased and +triumphant, a pretty pink flush on her cheeks. + +Grannie clapped her hands. "There, Miss Mollie! That was how _we_ were +taught to curtsy! There's nothing resembling a fox about _that_!" she +exclaimed, as Mrs. Pell took her seat again and resumed her knitting. + +"It was perfectly lovely," Mollie agreed warmly, "but it does require +the right kind of skirt, Grannie. Did anyone ever topple over at the +critical moment?" + +"Not that I can remember," Mrs. Pell answered; "but, of course, it +required a great deal of practice, and we did many exercises before we +got the length of our court curtsy. Do you remember Ellen Bathurst, +Daisy?" (How funny it sounded to hear Grannie called Daisy.) "And the +time all the brandy-balls fell out of her pocket? _How_ angry Madame +was!" + +Of course Mollie had to hear about the adventure of the brandy-balls, +and from that the talk drifted to memories of old friends long since +dead and gone, whose names Mollie had never heard. It was a little +depressing, and her thoughts wandered away to the Campbells. She +wondered where she would find herself that afternoon, and then +remembered with dismay that Aunt Mary was away and there would be no +tunes. + +But after lunch Grannie insisted upon the sofa as usual. "You shall +have your lullaby," she said. "Mrs. Pell and I are going to play duets. +We used to play a great deal together when we were young, and no doubt +our music is just the thing for sending you to sleep; it has a base and +a treble and some perfectly distinct tunes." + +"Don't be sarcastic, Grannie," Mollie laughed, as Grannie bent to kiss +her. "I am sure it is beautiful music, and I like tunes myself. Jean is +the musical one of our family. She jiggles up and down the piano in no +particular key and calls it 'The Scent of Lilac on a June Day'." + +"Well, well," said Grannie. "Times change. We are going to play +selections from _Faust_, with variations. Sleep quietly till tea-time, +my dear." + +Mollie smiled as she listened to the selections. "--two-three, +_one_-two-three, _one_--" she could hear the treble counting. "I like +it," she murmured to herself rather sleepily--the morning's +conversation had not been exciting on her side. "I am glad I am not +James, for this is an awfully comfortable sofa--hullo, Prue! You _are_ +in a hurry to-day! I was just thinking of a nap--" + +Prudence did not answer; she was listening to the piano. + +"Mamma sings that," she said. "It's _Faust_. I adore _Faust_. Don't +you? The waltz simply makes my feet go wild." + +"I don't know it," Mollie confessed. "There are so many things I don't +know. Hurry up, Prue. I have had such an aged morning; now I want a +young afternoon." + +"--two-three, _one_-two-three, _one_--" said Prue, taking Mollie's hand +in her own. + + * * * * * + +It was very hot. So hot that Mollie could not be bothered to move. She +was half-sitting, half-lying on a bed of bracken, and around her she +could see the supine forms of four other children--Prudence and +Grizzel, Dick and Jerry--all lying in various attitudes of exhaustion +and apparently all asleep. Mollie was too lazy to turn her head, but +she could see that they were in a wood. The trees were the eternal gum +trees, with their monotonous grey trunks and perpetual blue-green +foliage. They were not growing in the neighbourly manner of trees in an +English wood, nor did they throw the cool green shade of elms and +beeches, but still in their own way they formed a wood. Mollie lay with +her back propped up against one of the grey trunks, her arms behind her +head, and her eyes blinking sleepily. She wondered where Hugh was. + +"You _are_ a lazy lot," said a voice behind her. "I have been helping +in the vineyards all morning, and I've discovered a new kind of grape. +Mr. von Greusen thinks it might turn out to be a good champagne grape. +The carts are coming down; don't you want to see them?" + +As he spoke Hugh came round and stood at Mollie's side. He wore a coat +of tussore silk, and his shirt was open at the neck; a wide pith helmet +was on his head, draped with a striped pugaree with broad ends hanging +down his back, and further decorated with vine leaves, which looked +rather droopy in the heat. He held out a hand to Mollie and pulled her +up, looking scornfully at the recumbent figures of Jerry and Dick. + +"What a way to spend the time!" he exclaimed. "Their eyes tight shut +and their legs spread out like dried fruit. _They'll_ never discover a +new grape and have the most famous champagne in the world called after +them. Come on!" + +Mollie had been listening for a little while to a distant rumble. It +now resolved itself into the uneven racketty grind of heavy cart-wheels +on a rough track. She went forward with Hugh, and, shading her eyes +from the glare of the sun, looked up the road which wound between the +trees of the wood they were in. As she watched, the carts came into +view round a bend of the track, and soon they were passing before her. +A team of six oxen drew each heavy load--such a load as Mollie had +never seen in her life. Grapes! Grapes piled up like turnips! They had +been thrown in by careless hands accustomed to working with rich +harvests, and here and there they hung over the sides, or dropped to +the ground, to be trodden under foot by indifferent beasts and weary +men. + +The noise of trampling feet and creaking wheels disturbed the sleepers, +who, one by one, got up and came beside Mollie and Hugh. There was a +smell of hot grapes in the air, mingled with the smell of sweating +oxen, dry grass, and pungent eucalyptus, and the spilled juice of +grapes mixing with the hot dust of the track added a peculiar aroma of +its own to the general nosegay, as Dick described it. Mollie thought +that she could never remember smelling anything so thirst-inducing in +all her days. When the last cart had disappeared down the winding road, +and the noisy rattle had died away to a distant rumble again, Hugh sat +down on the trunk of a fallen tree and stretched his arms. + +"Where are they going?" asked Dick, now wideawake and curious. "What +happens next?" + +"They're going to Mr. von Greusen's place to be made into wine," Hugh +answered, "and it's a funny thing that however nice grapes are raw they +are all equally nasty when turned into wine. Some go sour and black and +you call it claret, and some go sharp and yellow and you call it +Frontignac or any other silly yellow name. What _I_ should like to +invent would be a kind of drink that tasted of grapes, fresh sweet +grapes. I'd add a dash of peach, and a slice or two of melon, and a +bottle of soda-water. And just enough powdered sugar. And ice." + +"Let's go and get the things now and make it this very minute," said +Grizzel, tying on her sun-bonnet and making ready to start. "I'm _so_ +thirsty." + +"It's too late to-day, and besides I'm tired. There was a man up there +who wanted to know all sorts of things about the vineyards. Mr. von +Greusen was too busy to go round with him, so he sent me. He was +pleased with me for discovering that grape. The man's name is John +Smith. I think he is French." + +Mollie laughed. + +"What are you laughing at?" asked Hugh, looking all ready to be +offended. + +"Oh--nothing--I'm not laughing," Mollie declared; "it's only a sort of +tickle; I get it sometimes." + +"John Smith isn't exactly a French name," said Jerry. "Why do you think +he is French?" + +"Because he called Mr. von Greusen a 'vigneron' and talked about +'hectares' instead of acres, and 'hectolitres' instead of gallons, and +he told me how vines were trained in Champagne and Burgundy and +Languedoc--all very Frenchy. Mr. von Greusen never talks like that. He +was interested in my new grape, but he's afraid it won't go on being +like it is now. He says it has about one chance in a hundred. I don't +mind betting you sixpence it _will_ be a champagne grape." + +"I don't mind betting you sixpence he isn't French if his name is John +Smith," said Jerry. "You might as well call yourself a Scotsman named +Chung Li Chang." + +"Oh--names! Names are nothing out here," Hugh said loftily. "We can +call ourselves what we please. This is the Land of Liberty. Besides, +Papa knows a Scotsman called Devereux, so there you are." + +"Faugh!" said Jerry scornfully. "That's nothing! Everyone knows that +Scotland is full of French names." + +"I suppose you are trying to say 'sfaw'," said Hugh coldly. "There is +nothing to sfaw about. Lots of Chinese people come to Australia and +call themselves John Smith if they choose." + +"Faugh!" Jerry repeated. + +"Sfaw!" said Hugh. + +"Faugh--" Jerry began, but Dick interrupted. + +"If you two asses are trying to say pshaw you are both wrong. I +happened to see it in the dictionary a few days ago and it is +pronounced shaw; it's a silly sort of word anyhow. No one uses it in +real life. Shut your jaws and stop your shaws and let's go and get a +drink." + +"You can go," said Hugh, whose feelings were injured by the lack of +interest in his new grape. "I'm going to stay here for the present." + +"Leave him alone and he'll come home and bring his grape behind him," +sang Grizzel, as they set off down the hill. Hugh pretended not to hear. + +"I wish I was a Red Indian," he muttered to himself, as he watched the +little party straggling down the road. "I'd invent some first-rate +tortures for Grizzel." + +The children trudged along the track between the trees. The air was +full of dust stirred up by the carts, the sun seemed to grow hotter and +hotter every moment, "putting on a sprint before the finish", Dick +groaned, and the children grew thirstier and thirstier, till Mollie +felt she could hardly bear it for one minute more. Her lips and tongue +were dry and parched, and, although she kept her mouth shut, the dust +blew up her nose and down her dry throat. She felt as if the sun were +hitting her on the back between her shoulders, and her feet kept +stumbling over the deep ruts in the road. "A Guide's motto is never say +die till you are dead," she thought to herself. "There _are_ times when +I wish I were not a Guide, and this is one of them. 'Be Loyal.' +Oh--_bother_ Baden-Powell!" She held up three fingers to remind herself +of the Guide Law, and tried her best to smile. "How do the others get +on without it?" she wondered, watching Prue and Grizzel as they +loitered along just before her, Grizzel dragging weary little feet in +the dust. "I suppose they are used to it. Life in Australia isn't _all_ +beer and skittles. I wonder what skittles are? If they are something +nice to drink I wish we had some here. Even beer would be better than +nothing. I _am_ a beautiful Patrol Leader! Walking behind and grousing +for all I am worth." She hurried her steps a little and made up to the +boys. + +"Let's make a queen's chair and carry Grizzel," she suggested. "She +looks about done. We can do it in turns, Dick and me, then Prue and +Jerry." + +"Righto!" said both boys at once. + +"But you girls needn't do it," Dick added. "Jerry and I have carried +heavier loads than that, haven't we, old son-of-a-gun?" + +"Faugh!" said Jerry, with a wink. + +Fortunately for the boys, and for Mollie, whose pride as a Patrol +Leader was now up in arms, and perhaps most fortunately for Grizzel, +whose weight was by no means fairy-like, they were overtaken at that +moment by an empty cart, the driver of which pulled up and invited them +all to jump in. It was a relief to sit down, though the floor of the +cart was far from clean, and they were rattled and bumped like dried +peas in a basket. Mollie thought the road would never end, and began to +wonder at what stage of thirst delirium came on. But the longest lane +has a turning, and at last they came in sight of a white house standing +in the middle of an untidy sort of garden. The usual balcony ran round +it, but this time it was approached by a wide flight of steps leading +up from the drive in front. The cart stopped before a wooden gate, and +without a word Prue led the way to the back veranda, where a row of +canvas bags hung swinging from the roof. There were taps in the bags, +but Prue ignored them. She climbed on to the veranda railing, dipped a +tumbler into a bag, and handed it down to Mollie. + +Oh, the exquisite joy of that drink! The water was deliciously cold; it +trickled over Mollie's parched tongue, irrigated her dried-up throat, +washed away the dust she had been inhaling, and in half a minute made +her feel like a newly-made-over girl. + +"It is worth while being thirsty," she said, as she watched the others +revive under the same treatment. "I never knew before what a delicious +thing water is. I'd like some more, please." + +"I wish we were all giraffes," Grizzel said, with a sigh. "I'd like to +have a throat a yard long and just sit here for ever letting cold water +bubble down its hotness." + +"What about Hugh?" asked Jerry, his conscience smiting him now that the +irritating effect of heat and thirst had departed, and he reflected +that his slighting remarks were probably the cause of Hugh's absence +from this refreshing entertainment. "I expect he is the thirstiest of +the lot, seeing he is the only one who did any work." + +"He had his billy-can of cold tea with him this morning," Prue +answered, "and if he _is_ thirsty it is his own fault for being so +huffy. Anyhow, he likes to practise enduring things; he says it is a +useful habit. The worst of it is he thinks everyone else should endure +too. I don't see the slightest use in making disagreeable things happen +ten times just in case they should have to happen once." + +Hugh seemed to have forgotten his grievance when he got home. He +arrived along with Mr. von Greusen, who came to supper and talked to +Papa about vintages and vines, the prospects of the wine industry, the +possibilities of olive culture, and other subjects interesting to +Australians but a trifle dull for the English listeners. Presently, +however, the name of John Smith was introduced, and the boys pricked up +their ears. + +"He asks many questions," said Mr. von Greusen, "but I do not think +that his heart is in the vineyard, as the heart of a man must be if he +wishes to make his wine world-famous. In your work, that is where your +heart must be, my children," he added, looking solemnly at the boys. + +"And where do you think that the heart of Mr. John Smith is?" Papa +asked, with a twinkle in his blue eyes. + +"Ah!" said Mr. von Greusen, shaking his head, "that know I not. The +heart of a young man who brings himself to Australia and whose feet +tread the vineyard while his eyes look far away, so that he repeatedly +trips over obstacles--where is it?" He shook his head again and hummed +in a melodious baritone: + + "Mdchen mit dem rothen Mndchen + Mit den uglein sss und klar." + +"Aha!" laughed the professor, "I have seen more than one young man come +to Australia to cure _that_ disease. But I don't recommend the +vineyard." + +"I also not. Mr. John Smith should squat," said Mr. von Greusen. + +Mollie laughed so suddenly that she choked, and brought a look of +disapproval upon herself from her hostess. + +"You may go, children. Mr. von Greusen wishes to hear you play, +Prudence. Wait in the drawing-room till we come." + +"Why did you go and laugh?" Hugh asked Mollie, as they trooped off to +the drawing-room and thence to the balcony to enjoy the cool breeze +which had sprung up. "I wanted to hear more about Mr. John Smith. I +don't understand German. Do you? Why did Papa laugh?" + +"I don't know much German, but I think _Mdchen_ means girl," Mollie +answered. "I couldn't help laughing. Squatting sounds such a funny cure +for being in love." She giggled again. + +"_Girl_!" Hugh exclaimed."_Girl_! I didn't think he was _that_ sort of +an idiot! He talked quite all right to me. No wonder Papa laughed. It's +much funnier than squatting, I can tell you. There's nothing to laugh +at in being a squatter. They're as rich as What's-his-name. Some of +them are millionaires. I wish Papa was a squatter--but he would be no +use on a sheep-run; you've got to be in the saddle all day, and keep +your eyes skinned for blackfellows half the night. John Smith looked +the very chap for it. _Girl_!" + +"You needn't go on saying _girl_ in that voice," said Grizzel. "It +isn't the girl who is tumbling about with loverishness; it's Mr. Smith." + +"What happened to the diamond-mine?" Mollie interrupted, feeling that +another squabble was in the air. "Did you make a fortune, and is this +house it?" + +"Oh no--this house belongs to the Bertram Fitzherberts; they are +fruit-farmers. They have gone home for a trip, and they told Papa to +come here for the holidays, if he liked. Mr. von Greusen looks after +the farm for them. His vineyard begins a little farther up the hill. +The diamond-mine hasn't begun to pay yet, but it soon will." + +"Do you like--is Mr. von Greusen a nice man?" Mollie asked +hesitatingly; it felt a little queer to be such friends with the late +(or the future, Mollie was a trifle mixed) enemy. + +"Nice! Of course he is. Jolly nice, and jolly clever too. Why do you +ask?" + +"Oh--I don't know--he is a foreigner, and sometimes foreigners +are--they're different." + +"I don't know what you mean by different. Everybody is different from +everybody else. Anyhow, he isn't a foreigner here; he is an Australian." + +"What happens if you go to war?" asked Dick. + +"We don't go to war. We are too far away to fight against other +countries, and we will never fight each other, like America, and +France, and the Wars of the Roses. There's nothing to fight about and +there never will be. Of course--if we _wanted_ to we _could_. We'd be +first-class fighters if we weren't so peaceful. In fact," Hugh +continued, in a somewhat dreamy tone, "I have invented, or at least +thought about, several rather good things for fighting with--but they +will never be wanted in Australia. Papa says that if ever there was a +sweet and blessed country on earth it is Australia; it is full of peace +and goodwill towards all men." + +The English children were silent. It was a good thing, they thought, +that people could not see into the future. Time-travelling was +certainly best done backwards. And yet--who would want to wipe out the +record of the Anzacs? Life was a fairly puzzling job, when you saw too +far ahead. + +"Papa says," Grizzel repeated, "that Australian people ought to be the +goodest people in the world, because there is a beautiful Cross always +shining in the sky to remind us of the Beloved Son, like the rainbow, +so that we should never forget. But I do. Nothing in the world seems to +keep me from forgetting to be good just when I most want to remember." +Grizzel heaved a sigh from the very bottom of her sinful little heart. + +Everyone's eyes turned towards the Southern Cross, conspicuous even +amongst the myriad stars shining and throbbing with tropical brilliance +in the velvety blackness of the sky. Mollie remembered that it +decorated the Australian flag, and she wondered if the sight of it had +made the soldiers homesick sometimes. They were _real_ Australians, she +thought to herself, born and bred in this sunny land. She could +remember a day when she had been walking with her mother in the Pimlico +Road--a dark, foggy, raw day in late autumn. They had come upon a group +of Australian soldiers standing round the door of a little +green-grocer's shop, and chaffing the good-natured shop-woman about the +quality of her fruit. Mother had stopped to speak to them. Mollie could +not remember exactly what had passed, but the men had been friendly and +communicative, and if they had groused about the English climate they +had some cause, she thought, considering the climate they had come +from; and they were cheerful about the war--she could remember that, +for their voices had followed them through the fog singing "Australia +will be there!" to what she had thought was a very lively and pleasant +tune--and yet Mother had tears in her eyes. It was a good idea, she +reflected, having that device on the flag, for it really was a bit of +home--for them. Poor men! Suddenly a new thought came into her mind. + +"Look!" she whispered, laying a hand on Jerry's arm and pointing to the +Cross, "look! how brightly it shines! _Their name liveth for evermore!_" + +Prue had slipped indoors and was playing a grave prelude and fugue of +Bach's. The three older people joined the children in the balcony, and +sat quietly listening till she had finished. + +"That was very good, my child," said Mr. von Greusen, patting her +approvingly on the shoulder, "very good indeed. Next winter we shall +study together some piano and violin duets. And now perhaps your +_verehrte Frau Mutter_ will make some of her beautiful music for us. +Some Schubert songs, yes?" + +So Mamma went in, and she and Mr. von Greusen both made beautiful +music, separately and together, which the audience in the balcony +enjoyed without troubling to understand, Prue being the only one among +them who loved music with her head as well as with her heart. + +A sound of footsteps on the path below attracted the children's +attention. Someone was walking slowly backwards and forwards, obviously +listening to the music. As he passed through the long beam of light +sent out by the lamp into the darkness, he turned up his face for a +moment. + +"It is Mr. John Smith," Hugh said in a low voice. "Shall I ask him to +come up, Papa? He looks lonely out there all by himself." + +"By all means ask him to come up," Papa whispered cordially; "but go +quietly, my son, or Mamma will be out to know who is there, and our +concert will be over." + +Hugh departed on his errand, returning in a few moments with a tall +figure in his wake, which he led to one of the long cane chairs +scattered about, and left to its own meditations. + +The children looked curiously at Mr. John Smith, He appeared to be a +dark-haired young man, with a considerable amount of nose and chin and +a good many inches of leg. He sat very still, his eyes fixed on the +starry sky before him. There was, in his general outline in the +semi-darkness of the balcony, something vaguely familiar to Mollie--one +of those tantalizing impressions that come and go and refuse to be laid +hold of. + +"But I _can't_ have seen him before," she said to herself; "it is quite +impossible." She looked away and tried to get to where she had been +before Mr. Smith came up--to that fairyland which the musician summons +up with a wave of his magic wand, especially perhaps for those who love +music mostly with their hearts, but the teasing little impression +disturbed her like an imp. Until the notes of Schubert's "Adieu" came +floating out into the night and carried them all on its wings up to the +very gates of Heaven. + +The sound of the piano closing brought them back to earth. The +musicians stepped out on to the balcony. + +"_Ende vom Lied,_" Mr. von Greusen said, as he left the lighted room +behind him, "and the end of the evening too, for me. I must be getting +home--hullo, Smith! Where did you come from? Am I to have the pleasure +of introducing you to Professor and Mrs. Campbell, or has someone +stolen a march upon me?" + +"I brought him up," Hugh answered. "He heard Mamma singing and was +fascinated like flies and moths and things." + +They laughed as Mr. Smith made his apologies while he joined in the +laughter. "You must come again," Mamma said, "and we will have a +concert properly prepared for you. And you will give me all the news +from home," she added, with the wistful note that was so often in her +voice, "unless you will come in now, and try our Australian wine?" + +But the young man could not stay, and, after a few more words of thanks +and a grateful promise to come again at the earliest possible +opportunity, he went off with Mr. von Greusen. + +"Who _is_ Mr. Smith?" Mollie asked, as they moved bedwards. "Doesn't +anybody know who he is?" + +"He is a young man newly out from home, and that is enough for Papa and +Mamma," Hugh answered, with a yawn. "What does it matter who he is so +long as he is a nice chap." + +"But suppose he was a bushranger in disguise and--" + +"Suppose he is Nebuchadnezzar, King of the Jews," Hugh interrupted, +with another yawn. "I'm going to bed. We shall sleep tonight, with that +cool wind. Thank goodness." + +Next morning found them again on the winding road which led up to the +vineyards. For three-quarters of the way it ran through the woods of +yesterday; then they left the woods behind and emerged on to a bare and +shadeless track on the hill-side, and ten minutes later they turned in +through the gate of the vineyard Mr. von Greusen had given them +permission to "browse" in, as he had expressed it. The English children +had never seen a vineyard in their lives, and their expectations were +inclined to be romantic and artistic. Large bunches of thin-skinned, +bloomy purple grapes, hanging gracefully down from something like a +pergola, was the picture they had formed in their minds. Mollie, it is +true, had seen grapes growing in the cherry garden, but they had been +so surrounded by cherry trees and other exciting objects that they had +not left any great impression. + +They found the reality somewhat disappointing. Here were acres of +straight green lines hardly higher than gooseberry-bushes, and without +a single tree to break the monotony or to cast a welcome shade. The +bunches of grapes looked inviting enough, hanging among their +decorative leaves and tendrils, but they had not been thinned and +consequently were smaller than English hothouse grapes, while exposure +to wind and dust had removed most of their bloom; but, in spite of +their comparatively homely appearance, the children soon found that the +fruit tasted sweet and luscious as only freshly gathered, sun-ripened +fruit can do. + +"This is Mr. von Greusen's experimental field," Hugh explained. "He +mostly grows different lots for different wines, but here he has all +sorts. We like these Ladies' Fingers; they go off in your mouth with +such a nice squelch." + +"What happens if you eat his favourite experiment?" asked Jerry, +squelching his way diligently through a bunch of long, slender grapes +of a translucent pale-green colour. + +"He says, '_Donnerwetter_! What see I?'" Hugh answered; "but he ties a +red worsted round his first-class experiments and then we know. He has +tied _all_ my new grapes up except the bunch he took home." + +Now that the children were in the vineyard, and heard Hugh talking +learnedly of Black Portugals, Verdeilho, Shirez, and other +strange-sounding names, they were more reverential towards his new +grape, which _might_ be called Hughenne, or even, he generously +suggested, either Gordello or Campdonne. + +"It has to have a winey sound, you see," he said, "or it wouldn't sell. +I think 'Gordello' sounds rather well myself." + +It did not take very long to satisfy their appetite for grapes. The sun +got hotter, their eyes ached with the glare, and they decided to return +to the coolness of the woods and gardens lower down. The boys wanted to +go exploring; the girls were to be left to collect peaches and melons +for the new drink--which might bear the honoured name of Gordello until +the famous champagne was put on the market--which would then be ready +and cooling in the spring of the Fairy Dell by the time that the +explorers were weary of exploring. Thus planned the boys. + +"Boys propose, girls dispose," paraphrased Mollie, as the three pith +helmets disappeared, after their owners had condescended to gather a +share of the Gordello-destined grapes and carry them part of the way +towards the Dell. "If Dick and Jerry want drinks they can jolly well +come and make them. _I_ am going to have a rest." + +Prue looked a little shocked, but Grizzel heartily agreed with Mollie. +"I shall pull six peaches and one water-melon _exactly_," she said. "I +am tired and my legs ache, and I can't be bothered with Hugh and his +old Gordello." + +A short walk down the road between the gum trees brought them to the +fruit gardens, where Mollie saw peaches that made up by their +magnificence for any hothouse elegance lacking in the grapes. Large as +apples, soft and downy as velvet, glowing with crimson and gold, they +were a perfect revelation of what peaches could be when they tried, and +Mollie could hardly bear to wait till they reached the Fairy Dell +before devouring one. But Prudence was firm. + +"No, Mollie; not after all those grapes while you are hot and tired. +Come and get your water-melon, and we'll go straight to the Dell and +rest and eat peaches there. If you ate them now you might die all of a +sudden, and that would be _so_ awkward for Grizzel and me." + +Mollie thought it would be more awkward for her, but did not argue. She +followed Prue obediently, finding her basket of grapes, plus six +peaches and a large water-melon, quite enough to absorb all her +energies. If only Gordello were an accomplished fact, she thought, it +would be very delightful. If someone else had made it and _she_ could +find it "cooling in the spring", as the boys expected to do, it would +be extraordinarily delicious, and the more she thought of it the more +delicious it became in her fancy. Poor boys! She was sorry for the +disappointment awaiting them. Australians seemed to be a strenuous lot +of people; no wonder the Australian soldiers were so brown and chinny. + +Her meditations on chinny Australians lasted till they reached the +Fairy Dell, the sight of which chased every other thought from her +head. Surrounded by she-oaks and native cherry trees a smoothly curved +hollow lay at the foot of a rocky declivity, its sides clothed with +ferns almost startlingly green amidst the dried-up grass which covered +most of the country around. A silvery cascade of water fell down the +rock at the far side, its fine spray blown by the wind over the little +hollow, looking in the sunlight like the veil of a fairy bride. Mollie +recognized the delicate fronds of maidenhair growing in clumps here and +there, and the edge of the pool at the bottom of the hollow was fringed +with wild forget-me-nots. + +The children scrambled down and seated themselves in a shady spot, +untying their sun-bonnets and holding their hot and dusty faces towards +the filmy veil of foam. + +"It is heavenly," Mollie said, with a long sigh, as she sniffed up the +cool scent of the damp ferns. "I don't wonder you call it the Fairy +Dell." + +"It is Mamma's favourite spot, and we often have picnics here," said +Prue, hanging her sun-bonnet on a branch of she-oak that spread above +them. "There's the water all ready, you see, and there's a place up +there where we can light our fire. Mamma sketches, and we bring our +books or we hunt for wild flowers; it is always a nice place to be in. +Now we can eat our fruit." She produced a knife from her basket and cut +a melon in halves. Its delicate pink flesh and black seeds called forth +more enthusiastic admiration from Mollie. + +"Let us arrange all the things among the ferns," she suggested, "and +gather some forget-me-nots to put beside that pink melon; then the +purple grapes; then the peaches--isn't it _pretty_, Prue?" + +Prue nodded her head; she was speechless with melon, and soon the other +two were following her example; and melon was followed by peaches. + +Then Grizzel jumped to her feet. "There is a cache here," she said. +"Papa often pops something in for a surprise when he passes this way. +I'm going to look; there might be a pencil there, and I want to draw +that fruit." + +She soon returned, carrying in her hand a small basket, which yielded +up two books, a small sketching-block, and a box of chocolates. "You +can have the books," she announced, "one is _From Six to Sixteen_, by +Mrs. Ewing, and the other is _Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea_, +by Jules Verne." + +Mollie, being the guest, got first choice and took Jules Verne, turning +the pictures over with much interest as she compared the _Nautilus_ +with the submarine of 1920. + +"I do think," she said emphatically, helping herself to a large +chocolate-cream with entire disregard of both past and future, "I do +think that your father is a perfect _peach_." + +Grizzel glanced up from her drawing to the still-life study before her. +"He is more the shape of a water-melon," she remarked. + +Mollie laughed. + +"Be quiet, Grizzel," Prue said angrily. "How can you speak so +disrespectfully of Papa? You should be ashamed of yourself." + +"I'm _not_ disrespectful," Grizzel answered indignantly. "I think it is +a beautiful shape." + +Mollie laughed again. + +"You _are_ disrespectful," Prue repeated, turning very red. "Papa does +the dearest, sweetest things, and all your thanks is to make Mollie +laugh at him. It is horrible of you, and I don't call it very nice of +Mollie." + +"I'm not laughing at your father," Mollie said; "I wouldn't dream of +doing such a thing. I'm laughing at Grizzel. She is so funny." + +"I'm _not_ funny," said Grizzel, turning as red as Prudence, "and if +you laugh at Papa for being partly the shape of a water-melon, I'll +laugh at _your_ father. Your father is an unripe olive and your mother +is a bitter almond," she added vindictively. + +But if she expected Mollie to be insulted she was disappointed, for +that young person went off into fits of cackling giggles which she +vainly tried to suppress. At last she rose to her feet. + +"I've got the giggles badly," she spluttered out. "I get them +sometimes. I think I had better go away for a little till I am better. +I _really_ am not laughing at your father. I think he is a perfectly +lovely father." + +"Then you shouldn't call names," said Prue, still very red. "How would +you like me to call your father an apricot?" + +"I shouldn't mind in the least," answered Mollie, giggling worse than +ever. "You don't understand. I'll go away, and I'll explain when I am +better." + +She seized her sunbonnet, tucked her book under her arm, climbed up the +side of the ferny dell, crossed the track, and ran into the wood on the +farther side, leaving Prue and Grizzel to finish the squabble between +themselves. + +"We have eaten too much, that's what's the matter," she said to +herself, as she slowed down to a walk and the giggle became less +severe. "This hot sun all the time makes one feel crossish." + +She came to a halt at the foot of a hollow gum tree, and stooping a +little she peered within. It looked shady and cool, its floor powdered +with decayed bark mixed with dead leaves--quite clean enough, she +decided, to sit upon and rest until her giggles had finally subsided. +She crept in, snuggled down comfortably, opened her book, and soon was +deep in the adventures of Professor Arrownax, Ned Land, Captain Nemo, +and the rest. + +The shadows swung slowly round, the sun climbed higher and higher, and +the day grew hotter and hotter, but Mollie, skimming along the bottom +of the sea in the _Nautilus_ was oblivious of heat. She was walking in +the submarine forest of the Island of Crespo, treading on sand "sown +with the impalpable dust of shells", when the sudden cracking of a +sun-dried branch near at hand startled her and reminded her that time +was passing. She closed her book, crept out of her tree, and set off +towards the Dell. + +"I wish," she said impatiently to herself, "that Time would find +something new to do. His one idea seems to be to pass. He may fly or he +may crawl, but he is _incessantly_ passing." + +She stood still as she spoke and looked before her. Surely the trees +were growing more closely together than they had seemed to do; their +tall grey-white trunks repeated themselves in a most bewildering way, +and right in her path lay a fallen giant which she was perfectly +certain she had not passed before. + +"Bother! I have come the wrong way," she said, turning round and +retracing her steps. "I remember now, there were some trees with rings +cut round their trunks--there they are." + +She reached the ringed trees, turned her back upon them, and walked +straight on. But she came to a dried-up creek which she had not seen +before. She could not have missed seeing it, for it was too wide to +jump. And there were more ringed trees. + +"I can't be far from the Dell, that's one thing certain. I'll coo-ee." + +She coo-eed her best and shrillest, but no answer came. There was no +sound but the occasional scamper of some small furry animal or the +unhomely call of an Australian parrot or magpie. All around her the +monotonous grey trunks stood, as much alike as the pillars of a +town-hall, and overhead the blue-green leaves stirred languidly in the +warm wind. Mollie was standing, though she did not know it, on primeval +forest land. + +What she did begin to realize was that she was lost. + +"I _can't_ be far away," she repeated to herself. "I wasn't running for +five minutes. The point is, how am I to find the way back. Everything +is so difficult in this upside-down place; I haven't the least idea +which is north and which is south; nor which way the wind blows, nor +how the shadows fall, nor _anything_; and if I go the wrong way I will +only get farther and farther from the Dell. The best plan really is to +sit down and wait till someone comes. Someone is sure to look for me +sooner or later; Dick and Jerry will, anyhow." She looked about her +again in search of inspiration. Sitting down and waiting was not a +cheerful prospect. Dick and Jerry might whisk away home and leave her +behind. Or she might merely wake up suddenly and find herself in the +Chauncery morning-room, safe but dull, or--just supposing she didn't! +Supposing that she couldn't get back without Prue, and that she turned +into an interesting case for the What's-its-name Society, to be read +about in learned books! + +"I might try climbing a tree," she thought, gazing round in search of +something climbable. But the tall, smooth trunks were discouraging; +there were few with boughs within her reach, and the few there were +were too low to be of any use as observation posts. She sat down and +resolutely opened her book. "Never say die till you are dead," she +repeated, firmly fastening the Guide's smile on to her face. "I'll +read, and coo-ee every third page." + +But she no longer walked in the submarine forest; she only sat in a +wood and read about other people doing it, lifting her eyes from the +page every now and then, and turning her head uneasily from side to +side, feeling very lonely in that great, still place! + +What was that? A magpie or a human whistle? "--two-three, +_one_-two-three, _one_--". Someone was whistling the air from _Faust_. +Mollie sprang to her feet and coo-eed with all her might and main. The +whistling stopped short, and there was an answering shout in a man's +voice. Mollie coo-eed again. + +"Hi! You'll have to come to me," the man shouted; "I can't come to you. +Tied here by the leg." + +It is not an easy thing to locate a sound in the open air, and though +Mollie had had some practice in the course of her Guide work, it was +only after several shouts on the man's part and experiments on hers +that she at last found herself standing beside Mr. John Smith, who was +sitting on the ground with one bootless leg stretched out before him. + +"I am glad to see you," he said to Mollie. "I have sprained my ankle +rather badly, and was just wondering what to do next. There seemed to +be nothing for it but to crawl all the way home, and the prospect was +not pleasing." + +"I am glad to see you too," said Mollie. "I am lost." + +"Lost!" exclaimed the young man. "Oh no, you aren't. I have a compass, +and it is not more than a couple of miles or so to Silver Fields, von +Greusen's place. I'll show you how to use a compass, and you will be my +good angel and go to Silver Fields and ask them to send a horse along, +and I will be grateful to you for ever." + +"I know how to use a compass, thank you," said Mollie, feeling greatly +relieved, "and I will go to Mr. von Greusen's place if you tell me +where it is; but first I will bandage up your foot and make it feel +easier. I have learnt First Aid. May I take that thing off your hat for +a bandage?"--as she noticed the pith helmet and pugaree lying on the +ground. + +"My pugaree? Good idea! I don't know what First Aid is precisely, but +it sounds appropriate. Do you mean you can fix a bandage?" + +"Rather," said Mollie, comfortably conscious that she was a First-class +Guide and a bright and shining light in this particular line. "How did +you sprain your ankle? I suppose you--" she stopped short. She had +almost said that she supposed he had tripped over an obstacle in a fit +of loverishness. "I suppose your foot just went. That's what mine did." + +"I caught it in a rabbit-hole," he answered, "the floor of Australia +seems to be perforated with them. Why didn't you coo-ee sooner?" + +"I did," Mollie answered, as she unwound the pugaree and took off her +patient's sock, "I coo-eed ever so often--oh, dear me! that _is_ a bad +foot! I'm afraid you'll be laid up for ever so long. Why didn't _you_ +coo-ee?" + +"I did," answered Mr. Smith, eyeing the badly swollen and discoloured +ankle ruefully. "I coo-eed ever so often too. I suppose we mistook each +other for magpies. Next time I'll try a good English shout. Now, what's +to happen? D'ye mean to say that I'm to be stuck up in Silver Fields +for goodness knows how long with only my own thoughts for company and +nothing to do? Oh, ye gods and little fishes!" he groaned +disconsolately. + +"I'm afraid so," Mollie replied sympathetically. "I sprained my +ankle--" she was going to say "the other day" but remembered in +time--"once in the holidays, and I had to lie on a sofa all day. It +wasn't nearly so dull as I expected though," she ended with a little +laugh. As they talked she had been skilfully bandaging the swollen +ankle in her best style, which was a style not to be despised by +anybody. "Now," she said, as she tucked in the end and fastened it +firmly with her Tenderfoot brooch, "now you will be more comfortable. +But you must keep quite still. I do wish you were not so far from home; +you should not ride. If you do anything foolish now you may be lame all +your life; that's what the doctor told me; he was most frightfully firm +about it. Your wrist is bleeding--you have cut it." + +The young man turned back his shirt sleeve. "It is nothing. A +handkerchief twisted round will do. You have done the bandage +beautifully." + +Mollie arranged the handkerchief. As she did so her eyes fell upon a +tattoo-mark, an anchor inside a true-lover's knot. It was an ordinary +enough tattoo-mark, but the sight of it struck at Mollie for _she had +seen it before_. The odd impression of last night, which she had +forgotten in the various exigences of the situation, came rushing back +into her mind. Who _did_ he remind her of? How could she possibly have +seen that little mark before? + +"My name is John Smith," he said, looking up and finding her eyes fixed +questioningly upon him. "I don't think we have met before?" + +"I saw you last night at the Campbell's," Mollie replied aloud (while +to herself she added, "And where I saw you before that is what I should +like to know more than anything else at this present moment"). "I am +staying there. It was dark on the balcony and there were a lot of us +children; you wouldn't notice me. My name is Mollie--oh, you simply +must _not_ twist your leg about like that! Your ankle _may_ be broken; +you don't know." + +He smiled; his eyes crinkled up and there was a something in the tilt +of his mouth. Why was that smile so familiar? Was it the Prince of +Wales? No, it was someone she knew much better than she knew the Prince +of Wales. (Which wasn't saying very much after all.) + +"You are very cheery! So you were there, were you? I never heard such +heavenly singing in my life. Von Greusen says that Mrs. Campbell has +one of the most beautiful voices in South Australia, and I should say +that he has the other. But it isn't only their voices, it's the way +they sing, making you think of all the might-have-beens and +ought-to-have-beens and never-will-bes--" he stopped, and sighed in a +melancholy way, leaning his back against the tree behind him. "I think +you had better be starting, Miss Polly. Neither of us will be the worse +of getting home." + +"Mollie, not Polly. I wish you had not to be left alone. I will be as +quick as I can. How shall I describe this place? I think I had better +come back with the men." + +"No need for that. Tell them I'm by the creek on the way to the olive +plantation. They'll know. I have a sister called Polly. I was thinking +of her at that moment," he added, with another sigh. "I had a letter +from her yesterday and she wants me to go back. The point is, shall I +go or shall I not?" + +"I don't know, but I think I had better hurry," Mollie said. It had +occurred to her that if _she_ "went back" with her usual abruptness, +before she delivered her message, Mr. John Smith might be left in an +awkward predicament. + +He handed over the compass with careful directions. She nodded her +head, waved her hand at her distractingly perplexing new acquaintance, +and set off. Soon her entire attention was absorbed in finding her way, +for, although she had used a compass often enough when Guiding, an +Australian forest was something quite new, and to her it seemed as +trackless as the ocean, every part of it looked so precisely the same +as every other part. Eventually, however, she found herself safely back +on the cart-track, though nowhere within sight of the Fairy Dell. She +decided to go straight home to the Campbell's house and ask there for +help for Mr. John Smith. Mr. von Greusen would probably be out at this +hour, and she felt shy of the big bearded men working about the place. + +Mamma was in, and heard her story with concern. + +"Of course he must come here," she exclaimed, with true Australian +hospitality, unquestioning and ungrudging. "He must be properly nursed +and fed." Mollie thought that Mamma looked rather pleased than +otherwise at the prospect of nursing and feeding a good-looking young +man newly out from home. Bridget was called, and between them all a +room was got ready and made to look as homelike as possible. "Flowers +and books," said Mrs. Campbell, "always make a room look pleasant. I +wish I had some photographs. I wonder who his people are. We'll put up +a picture of St. Paul's Cathedral, and this little water-colour of a +Sussex village; they are not quite the same thing as his mother or +sweetheart, but they will be better than nothing." She sighed as she +looked at the water-colour. They were great people for sighing, Mollie +thought. It must be rather miserable to be homesick so very, very far +away from home! + +When Prudence and Grizzel, accompanied by the boys, all not a little +anxious about Mollie, arrived at home for dinner they found not only +the missing Mollie but also Mr. John Smith on the balcony. Mollie ran +down the steps to meet them, and gave a highly coloured account of her +adventures. Past differences were forgiven and forgotten, and after +dinner they all assembled on the balcony again with the benevolent +intention of devoting themselves to the entertainment of the +interesting invalid. + +But Mrs. Campbell did not approve of this plan. "We are too many," she +said in her decided way. "Prudence and Mollie may stay; the rest of you +must run away for the present. Grizzel can go for a walk with Bridget +and Baby; I want a few things from the Store, and they can be brought +up in the perambulator. The boys had better go up to Mr. von Greusen's +and see about getting Mr. Smith's belongings brought here." + +"You might call at the Fairy Dell and get the Gordello," Prudence +suggested--for after all she and Grizzel had made the new drink in a +fit of remorse--"Mr. Smith will perhaps like to taste it." + +The family melted away, and Mamma with the two girls settled down to +needlework. Mamma's kindly interest invited confidence under these +pleasant circumstances, and it was not long before the young man was +pouring his story into her sympathetic ears. Prudence listened +spellbound. It was not often that one had romance brought to one's very +door--by a hero with a sprained ankle too! Such a romantic affliction! +But Mollie was too much preoccupied by that haunting likeness to listen +properly to what the hero was saying, once she had ascertained the fact +that Mr. Smith belonged to the Campbell's Time, and that therefore she +could not possibly have met himself before; it must have been somebody +extraordinarily like him. And yet--the number of her friends was not so +very great that one could be totally forgotten. She tried not to think +about it, but it stuck in the back of her brain in an irritating sort +of way and refused to be forgotten. + +His story was not at all an uncommon one: a love-affair, a selection of +angry parents, lack of money, eternal vows, and a young man in search +of a fortune. He had been told that fortunes lay about loose in +Australia. + +"Not that I mind working," he said. "I like work all right, but it's so +slow, and we are getting older all the time. I rather fancied a +vineyard; our parents are great on their cellars and might come round +to a vineyard and wine. I spent some time in France before coming here, +but it was hopeless. They won't look at a foreigner in their wine +concerns. As a matter of fact I have some hopes of my own governor +relenting. I am his only son, and he is getting tired of keeping me at +arm's length. There's nothing really in the way; only he had another +wife in view for me, and Margaret's father had another husband. _He_ is +rather a cantankerous old party. Too much port wine is what is the +matter with them both, that's my opinion; they're turning gouty." + +As Mr. John Smith talked he pulled his watch out of his pocket and +sprung it open. In the back lay a tiny photograph. + +"That's Margaret," he said. + +The others bent over the faintly tinted portrait of a young girl, +pretty and smiling, her wavy hair rippling on either side of a smooth +brow. Mollie glanced at it absent-mindedly; the back of her brain, she +felt, was moving to the front; in another moment it would be there. + +Mr. Smith looked affectionately at the pretty face. "That is my little +girl," he repeated, "and I--I ought to tell you--you are so kind--my +name is not really John Smith. I dropped my real name because I wanted +to dodge my governor--teach him a lesson, you know, not to play fast +and loose with his only son--poor old governor! I have written to him +since I came to Silver Fields. My real name is--" + +Suddenly Mollie began to laugh. It had come in a flash--the long chair, +the bandaged foot on a foot-rest, the watch with its back open, the +tattooed anchor and rope on a lean wrist, and above all a pair of dark +eyes (so like Dick's) crinkled up in a kindly smile: "You don't blow +hard enough, little Polly," someone was saying, "try again." The hair +above the dark eyes was white, but Mollie knew. + +"It's so _funny_," she cried, as they all looked at her, Prudence +anxiously inquiring if she had "got it again". "I'm all right, Prue, +but it's so funny. _I_ know who you are," she laughed again, turning to +Mr. Smith. "Your name isn't John Smith at all. You are poor dear +Richard. Who was so active. With the gout. And you are--you are my--" + +"Hush, Mollie!" said Prue. + + * * * * * + +Mollie sat up. She was still laughing. Aunt Mary stood beside her in +hat and coat, her hands full of cardboard boxes from Buszard's. Grannie +sat at the tea-table, and opposite her was old Mrs. Pell, who had put +on her bonnet because it would soon be time for her to go. They all +looked at Mollie, who continued to laugh. + +"It's nothing," she said. "It is only a fit of giggles. I have them +sometimes." + +"Give the dear child her tea, Mary," said Grannie. "Her nerves are a +little highly strung; her grandfather used to laugh just like +that--poor dear Richard!" + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +The Aeronauts or The Fateful Stone + + +"Aunt Mary, how old is Time?" asked Mollie. + +She was resting on her sofa in the garden, after her first attempt at a +short walk. She had been wondering how her young grandpapa had got on +with his sprained ankle, and longed to ask questions about him, but +dared not venture even on the simplest. It was so easy to forget and +ask too much. The day was rather hot, and the couch had been drawn into +the shade of a great copper-beech. Mollie lay on her back, gazing up +through the silky red foliage at the blue sky. Somewhere a thrush was +singing, practising his flute-like phrases with conscientious care. + +"I think he must be trying for a scholarship," said Mollie. "How old is +Time?" she repeated, bringing her gaze down from the tree-tops to Aunt +Mary's hands, busy as usual with needlework. + +"How old is Time?" Aunt Mary echoed. "What do you mean exactly by Time?" + +"I mean, how long is it since days began--morning and afternoon and +evening?" + +"Untold millions of years," her aunt answered. "I don't suppose that +anyone could say exactly how many, and in any case when we speak of +Time we mean Time on our own earth; what an astronomer would say I +don't know." + +"How do you know that it is millions of years old?" Mollie asked. "In +the Bible it says that the evening and the morning were the first day +in the year 4004 B.C. That is only five thousand, nine hundred and +twenty-four years ago." + +"You are asking terribly big questions," Aunt Mary said, with a smile. +"It would take a long time to explain how men learnt to know the age of +the world, and I am afraid I am hardly equal to the task. It is only +about seventy years since geologists began to suspect that our earth +was far older than they had supposed, I have some simple books which I +think you could understand if you tried; and if you learn to take an +interest in geology you need never be dull again as long as you live. +You will find 'tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, sermons +in stones, and good in everything'." + +"That would be very nice," Mollie said politely but not +enthusiastically; "but just now I only want to know how old Time is. +Millions and millions of years," she repeated to herself rather +dreamily. "If you took forty from millions and millions it wouldn't +make any difference worth mentioning. It makes even Adam seem almost as +near as last week. And this morning I said I hadn't time to darn a hole +in my stocking. I wonder if Eve said she had no time. Were there any +people before Adam, Aunt Mary?" + +Aunt Mary shook her head. "Ask the wise thrush," she said; "his +ancestors are older than mine." + +"Are they really!" Mollie exclaimed. "Did that thrush's +ever-so-great-grandfather sing in the Garden of Eden?" + +Aunt Mary only answered with a smile, and Mollie listened again to the +thrush, her thoughts wandering back to the times of forty years ago. +Quite a little time, she mused. No wonder they were so little +different, considering all things, from our own. She had thought that +the children of those days must be frightfully dull, and terribly +strictly kept; but on the whole they were, in some ways, less dull--or +more exciting--and certainly had more liberty, than the children of +to-day. Perhaps, however, that was Australia, where there was so much +more room than there was in England. She wondered how Dick and Jerry +were getting on to-day, and wished for the hundredth time that she +could see them and talk things over. They had each other to talk to, +but she had no one. + +"Have you any diamonds, Aunt Mary?" she asked presently. "I should like +to see some diamonds; and rubies and emeralds and topazes and opals and +pearls and amethysts and sapphires, and all the precious stones you've +got." + +"Bless my soul, Mollie! Do you think I am the Queen of Sheba!" Aunt +Mary exclaimed. "Grannie has some old-fashioned jewellery locked away +in a drawer, but the family diamonds are nothing to go to law about. +The only diamond I possess," she went on, "is a green diamond in a ring +that someone gave me long, long ago. Long ago," she repeated with a +sigh, letting her work drop into her lap and gazing at something that +Mollie could not see, for it was the distant past. + +Mollie gave a violent start. A green diamond! In a ring! Long, long +ago. How very extraordinary! She dared not ask any questions, but she +examined her aunt with new and critical interest, from the shining +coils of smooth brown hair to the slim ankles and neat buckled shoes. +No, she decided, that hair could never have been red and ringletty; +besides, Grizzel's eyes were blue and round like a kitten's, while Aunt +Mary's were dark brown and long-shaped. Very pretty eyes, Mollie +suddenly discovered. Also, Aunt Mary was too young. Forty years ago +Grizzel was eight or nine years old, which would make her nearly fifty +now. Mollie paused for a moment to picture to herself a fifty-year-old +Grizzel, but, failing utterly in the attempt, she continued her +meditations on her aunt. Aunt Mary was certainly a considerable +distance from that venerable age. Mollie wondered again why she had +never married, and who had given her that ring. She sighed impatiently. +She wished that she was not bound down by that promise; but she was, +hard and fast. It would be better not to think about the green diamond +just now. When she got back to forty years ago she would keep her eyes +open; it was not at all unlikely, considering all things, that Aunt +Mary had had an Australian lover, and it might be possible to do a kind +act somehow or other. What the effect would be if 1920 meddled about +with the affairs of 1880 Mollie had ceased worrying over. It was +altogether too puzzling. + +Aunt Mary remained a little absent-minded all the morning, and when the +time came for Mollie to go to sleep that afternoon she could hear a new +tone in Aunt Mary's voice when she began to sing: + + "O bay of Dublin! my heart you're troublin', + Your beauty haunts me like a fevered dream, + Like frozen fountains that the sun sets bubblin + My heart's blood warms when I but hear your name; + And never till this life pulse ceases, + My earliest thought you'll cease to be; + Oh! there's no one here knows how fair that place is, + And no one cares how dear it is to me!" + +"If Aunt Mary goes on like this, Prue will certainly find me howling my +eyes out," Mollie said to herself. "Talk of might-have-beens and +never-will-bes! Grandpapa should hear his own daughter singing! Why did +I go and mention green diamonds to her!" She shut her eyes tight to +keep the tears from falling. The plaintive tune went on, and when a +small soft hand crept into her own her cheeks were wet. She kept her +eyes closed and held tight to the little hand! + + * * * * * + +She was standing in a wide, brick-floored veranda with a steeply +sloping roof. The open sides were wreathed with morning-glories, their +deep-blue petals wide-spreading to the early sun. Painted tubs, full of +scarlet and purple fuchsias, stood in a row beside the railing; +coco-nut matting, rough and brown, lay in strips across the red brick +floor, and at either end of the veranda stood a deal table. One was +covered with books, toys, and work-baskets. At the other sat Bridget, +shelling peas. She was singing: + + "How often when at work I'm sittin', + An' musin' sadly on the days of yore, + I think I see my Katey knittin', + An' the children playin' by the cabin door; + I think I see the neighbours' faces + All gathered round, their long-lost friend to see, + Oh! though no one here knows how fair that place is, + Heaven knows how dear my poor home was to me." + +As she sang the last word she lifted the corner of her apron to dry her +eyes, and saw Mollie. + +"Is it yourself, Miss Mollie, or is it your ghost? May the Lord look +sideways on me ould plaid shawl! You gave me a start then, for 'twas +only this minute I looked to see an' there was no one there at all." + +"It's me," said Mollie, swallowing down a few last tears and wondering +if she was speaking the truth--perhaps it _was_ her ghost! "Where's +everybody?" + +"They're all dressin' themselves for the balloonin', an' may the Lord +preserve Master Hugh an' keep his bones from breakin'. 'Tis a temptin' +o' Providence an' his mother sailin' on the salt seas, poor soul. The +way the death-watch has been tickin' on me this wake past is something +cruel." + +"What's the ballooning?" Mollie began, but before Bridget could answer +Prudence appeared at the house door, dressed in festive pink muslin and +a white hat wreathed with rosebuds. + +"Come along, Mollie," she said, "and don't listen to Bridget croaking. +If I died every time she hears my death-watch tick, or sees my shroud +in a candle, there would be a whole cemetery full of my graves by this +time. There's a yellow muslin frock for you." + +They had reached the girls' bedroom, which Mollie recognized as the +first of the rooms she had slept in. They were back in the house with +Hugh's tree and the yellow-carpeted garden. She looked admiringly at +the pretty muslin frock on the bed. It was white, powdered over with +tiny dots of pale yellow, and made with filmy flounces reaching to the +waist; a frilled fichu, or "cross-over" as Prue called it, came over +the front of the little bodice, falling slightly below the waist and +tied behind with pale-yellow ribbons. A wide white hat was wreathed +with primroses and green leaves. It was indeed a charming frock, and so +modern that Mollie thought she might have worn it at home without +anyone being surprised at anything except her unusual smartness. +Prudence and Grizzel wore dresses fashioned in precisely the same way, +but Prue's muslin was sprigged with pink rosebuds, while Grizzel's dots +were green. + +"Come along, my rainbow," said Papa. "If we are late we won't get a +good place." + +They walked down the cypress-bordered path of Mollie's first visit, and +joined the stream of people going along the road, like themselves, to +see the balloon ascent. Mollie felt very gay and festive; everybody +feminine wore light frocks, the sun was bright but not too hot, the +grass was green, and the whole countryside was frothed with +almond-blossom, white and pink. Birds flew briskly about, indifferent +to balloons, and horses with shining chestnut coats trotted along the +well-kept road, lifting their slim ankles and polished heels in an +elegant way very different from the gait of London cab-horses. + +A balloon ascent was always a thrilling sight, Prudence explained, but +the particular thrill about this one was that Hugh was going up. The +aeronaut was a friend of Papa's, and, Mamma being on her way home to +England, it had not been difficult to persuade easygoing Papa to give +his consent. Indeed, there was nothing that he would have liked better +than to go up himself, but Mr. Ferguson had shaken his head over +fifteen stone of useless passenger. + +"If we could throw you out a pound at a time you would be most +welcome," he had said; "but you must wait a bit, Professor; the day +will come when we shall not have to count every pound." + +When they reached the field they found a deeply interested crowd +already collected, and Papa had some difficulty in getting his rainbow +into a good position. The huge balloon towered up far above them, its +striped smoke-coloured sides gleaming under the netted mesh as it +swayed with every breath of wind. The wicker car looked very small and +frail. + +"It's not so small as it looks," Prue said to Mollie. "We were in it +yesterday. It is nearly as big as my bedroom, and the sides reach up to +Hugh's shoulder; he couldn't fall out unless he did it on purpose. +There are dear little cubby-holes and all sorts of cute fixings. Its +name is the _Kangaroo_. I do wish I could go up too, but Papa and Mr. +Ferguson simply wouldn't hear of it. Girls are never allowed to do +anything." + +"Aren't you nervous?" Mollie asked. "Suppose it suddenly burst when it +was ever so high. How high does it go?" + +"Mr. Ferguson has been up five miles, but he is only going up one +to-day. They won't be very long away." + +"You would be just as badly smashed if you fell one mile as if you fell +five, I should think," said Mollie, with a shudder. + +"It isn't falling that they think about," Prue explained, "When you get +very high you can't breathe, and you have all sorts of horrid feelings. +Once Mr. Ferguson fainted, and if the man with him hadn't pulled the +stopper thing out with his teeth they'd both have been killed." + +"Why teeth?" asked Mollie. + +"Because his hands were frozen, and he couldn't use them," answered +Prue. "They'll be starting soon; they are going on board--look, there's +Hugh!" + +Mollie saw a small grey-clad figure climbing into the car. He was +followed by two men, one tall and the other rather short. As they +climbed over the rails the great balloon swayed and trembled--it looked +far more dangerous than a nice substantial aeroplane, Mollie thought; +and there was no control, they simply flew up and were blown hither and +thither according to the will of the winds. Suppose they were blown +against something and got a great rip in the side! + +"I don't know how you _can_," she said to Prue. "If it were Dick--where +are Dick and Jerry? Haven't they come?" + +"Here we are, old bean, at your elbow. My word, wouldn't I like to be +going up too!" + +"Same here. Some chaps have all the luck!" groaned Jerry. + +Prudence shook her head. "Mr. Ferguson would never take more than one +boy. Two might begin larking, and you simply must not lark in a +balloon." + +Dick thought of a joke about larks and balloons, but decided that it +was not a really first-class joke and merely shook an accusatory head +at boys and their reprehensible ways. + +[Illustration: THEY STOOD AND WATCHED THE _KANGAROO_ FOR SOME TIME] + +The ring of men who held down the balloon were preparing to let go the +ropes; the band began to play, the men in the balloon took off their +caps and waved farewell, people cheered--and the _Kangaroo_ was off. +She rose swiftly and buoyantly, remaining almost perpendicular until +she was caught by a southwest current of air and sailed away towards +the hills. As she rose the children could see Hugh at the edge of the +car, waving his handkerchief. + +It was very exciting. They stood and watched the _Kangaroo_ for some +time, but her progress was slow, and Papa remarked that they could see +her just as well from the street as from the field, now that she was +near the clouds. He looked at his watch: + +"There is just time to go and have some lunch before your dinner. What +would you say to cocoa and cream-cakes at Bauermann's?" + +This suggestion cheered away the left-behindish feeling that they all +experienced as they watched that distant pear-shaped object floating in +the sky. As they walked along the road it was impossible to keep their +eyes and thoughts from following the balloon, so that conversation was +desultory, until Mollie thought she saw a bad wobble and gave a little +scream. + +"You really need not be so nervous," Prue said, catching her by the +arm. "Mr. Ferguson has been up hundreds of times, he won't let Hugh +down. Bridget read Hugh's fortune in his tea-cup last night and says he +is going to die when he is eighty-three-and-a-half; I can't think why +she has begun to hear his death-watch tick already. And besides--don't +you believe in Fate? If it is your fate to fall from a balloon and be +killed, you'll be killed that way; there's no use trying not to be." + +"You couldn't be if you never went up in a balloon," said Mollie. + +"Then it wouldn't be your fate," Prudence answered. + +Mollie could not think of a suitable reply at the moment and was silent. + +"That's not all," Grizzel added. "Hugh has got my green diamond with +him for luck. Bridget says that my diamond is the Luck of the +Campbells, and will always bring good luck to the person that wears it, +like a four-leaved shamrock. So I made Hugh take it." + +This remark reminded the others of the diamond-mine, and Dick, Jerry, +and Mollie became eager for news of that adventure. It had turned out +fairly well; they had not as yet made a fortune, but on the strength of +their prospects Mr. Fraser had encouraged Papa to send Mamma and Baby +for a trip home, and to add several comforts to the household, one of +which was the broad veranda at the back of the house, in which Mollie +had found herself that morning. + +"We live in it by day, and some of us sleep in it by night," Prue said. +"You shall sleep in a hammock to-night, Mollie." + +After a feast of cocoa and cream-cakes at Bauermann's they got home +just in time for a dinner of twice-laid and Uncle Tom's pudding, to +which even Dick and Jerry could not do justice. + +"It's my favourite dinner, too," sighed Prudence. "It's a strange thing +that one day you get too much and another day too little. To-morrow +there will be no Bauermann's and most likely dinner will be boiled +mutton and tapioca pudding." + +The afternoon passed rather slowly. Hugh might be back about five +o'clock, and they were too anxious to hear how he had got on to be able +to settle down to any occupation. They played croquet until all their +tempers were hopelessly lost, even Prudence accusing Mollie of +cheating. As if a Guide ever cheated under any circumstances +whatsoever! After each girl in turn had thrown down her mallet and +declared that she wouldn't play, Dick swiftly defeated Jerry, the party +recovered its tempers, and they were sitting down to play "I met a +One-horned Lady always Genteel" when the garden-gate clicked and Hugh +appeared. + +Now Dick and Jerry, each in his own mind, had suspected that Hugh would +come back from his trip full of "swank", and each had decided that +gently and politely, but very firmly, he would squash the swanker. But +there was no sign of the conquering hero about Hugh. He came slowly up +the garden path towards them, gloom and depression showing in every +step that he took, and still more upon his face as he drew near. + +They looked at him expectantly, but he stood silently beside them, his +shoulders stooping as though a load of care sat upon them, his usually +clear eyes heavy and clouded, and the corners of his mouth turned down +as if he had made up his mind never to smile again. + +"What's up?" asked Jerry at last. "Did the balloon bust, and you the +sole survivor?" + +"Didn't my diamond bring you luck after all?" Grizzel questioned +anxiously. + +"Sick, old bean?" inquired Dick sympathetically. + +"I think you'd better have tea right away," Prudence said, laying a +motherly little hand on her brother's arm. + +"If he's got something bad to tell he'd better tell it," said Mollie. +"Nothing cures care like giving it air." + +Hugh threw himself on the grass, hugged his legs with his arms, and, +resting his chin on his knees, stared before him in stony silence. + +"Spit it out, old bus," Dick adjured him, "If you are in a scrape we +are with you to a man--aren't we?" he asked the others. + +A chorus of agreement brought a flicker of light into the gloom of +Hugh's face. + +"I have been the biggest ass in the world," he said. "If there is a +bigger it would comfort me to meet him." + +Two brown hands were promptly outstretched, but Hugh shook his head: +"Wait till you hear." He paused for a moment, looked nervously from +side to side and then behind him: + +"I'm a murderer. Probably I shall be hanged. Unless I poison myself +first." + +"Hugh!" Prudence exclaimed sharply, "don't make these horrible jokes. +You know how Mamma hates them." + +"It isn't a joke, worse luck," Hugh groaned; "it's beastly true. Thank +goodness Mamma is out of the way. Perhaps it can be hushed up so that +she will never know the truth about the way I died." + +A look of consternation settled upon every face; whatever Hugh had +done, it was plain that he was exceedingly unhappy. + +"Tell us," Jerry commanded briefly. + +Hugh sat up. "I may as well," he agreed dejectedly. "You'd better hear +it from me than from some old policeman. I suppose one will be stalking +up the path soon." He was silent again for a minute, and then started +once more: + +"It was this way. When we went up first it was perfectly glorious--you +never can imagine how lovely Adelaide looks from the air, with the +hills round and the sea in the distance and almond-blossom all over the +place. Oh--if only this thing hadn't happened I could tell you all +sorts of things, but now I can't think of anything. It was near the +end. I was awfully keen on trying an experiment--two experiments in +fact. I wanted to see how near I could hit a given spot if I aimed at +it with a stone, and I wanted to see how much the stone would deflect +in falling. Perhaps it's only one experiment really, but it struck me +as being two at the time. You see, if Australia ever goes to war we +might want to shoot from balloons, or one might drop a ball of +explosives with a fuse attached or something. I thought about it when +that Russian scare was on, but I never thought I'd get the chance to +try. So I got a good, smooth, round stone, nine-and-a-half ounces, and +wrapped it up in a handkerchief and took it up. I knew a good place to +aim at--the tree in Mr. Macgregor's Burnt Oak field. I knew the field +was empty; it is being ploughed up for some experiment that Mr. +Macgregor wants to try--blow all experiments! And to-day he gave his +men a holiday to come and see the balloon. We were about fifteen +hundred feet up and going slowly. I could see the oak and its shadow +quite plainly. So I let the stone drop." + +Hugh paused again and groaned. + +"Go on," said somebody. + +"No one noticed what I had done, but something or other made Mr. +Ferguson start talking about how dangerous it was to chuck things over +carelessly, though it seems to me that in Jules Verne they spend half +their time chucking sandbags about. I asked him how about a stone +weighing half a pound, and he said it would fall half a mile in twelve +and a half seconds, and if it hit anyone on the head that person would +be as dead as if he had got a bullet through him. I felt a bit sick, +but I was glad that field had been empty. We came down soon after that, +and I cut off to Burnt Oak field to look for my stone." Hugh stopped +short. + +"Go on," said the others. + +"It wasn't there, nor anywhere round; and I _knew_ it must have dropped +on that field." + +"But," said Jerry, "if it hit the earth at that speed it would bury +itself ever so deep. You could not possibly see it." + +"I thought of that," said Hugh, "so I looked for the hole, and I found +it. About thirty feet from the tree, which was a good hit considering. +I could soon learn to aim well--that is, if I'm not hanged or sent to +prison for life. Oh--Well, I found the hole, and beside it I found--" + +No one dared to ask a question. Hugh remained silent till it was almost +more than they could bear. + +"Blood!" he whispered at last. + +"Jiminy! Is that all!" exclaimed Dick. "I thought you were going to say +a dead body. If the body got up and walked away it couldn't have been +so very dead. How much blood? Were there any footmarks about?" + +"That part of the field hadn't been ploughed, and the ground was rather +hard, covered with grass the cattle had been cropping. There were some +stones in a little pile, but my stone wasn't among them. I looked at +those stones--by George, I looked at them! They were splashed with +blood--Then I got sick, and then had to skedaddle because someone was +calling me." + +"I am _sure_ it will turn out all right; you had the lucky diamond," +Grizzel said consolingly. + +"That makes it worse," said Hugh, groaning again. "I tied the diamond +up with the stone and forgot to take it out." + +"Oh, _Hugh_!" exclaimed Prudence, more perturbed by this disaster than +by the hypothetical murder, "how _could_ you be so careless?" + +"It doesn't matter," Grizzel persisted, with cheerful calm, "that +diamond brings luck. It has had one miracle, and I expect it will have +another. It will come back. Very likely the dead man will bring it back +himself." + +"It will come back all right," said Hugh, "because the ring has +Grizzel's name inside it, and, seeing that mine is the same on the +handkerchief, the police will have a jolly good clue to start on. If +the person was _not_ hit and steals the diamond he'll take good care +not to show himself. Then the diamond will be gone, but I'll give +Grizzel mine. I'll spend my bank money on getting a ring made. Oh--if I +only knew! If I only knew what was going to happen I shouldn't mind so +much. It's waiting for that bobby to turn up that gives me the +horrors." He looked over his shoulder as he spoke, with a shiver of +anticipation. + +"It sounds to me a bit fishy, you know," said Jerry, with a thoughtful +frown. "How do you know that the hole you saw was made by your stone? +It might have been there already." + +"Because it was fresh, and the earth round was freshly thrown up; and +some of my handkerchief was lying beside it." + +The boys looked grave. This did sound rather serious. + +"But," said Mollie, "the stone could not have buried itself in a hole +and hit a person so that the person was killed at the same time. If it +went down into a hole it did not hit anyone." + +"I never thought of that," said Hugh, cheering up for the first time. +"Neither it could; but there was the blood," he added despondently, +"pints of it. I never thought anything could bleed so much. Well--I +shall know before very long one way or the other, for either some news +will turn up or the diamond will stay away." + +"The best thing you can do now is to have some tea," said Prudence, +"then you will feel better and we can plan what to do." + +Things certainly looked less black after tea. Hugh, beginning to hope +for Grizzel's miracle, decided to develop some photographs of the +ballooners which he had taken on the previous day. "I promised Mr. +Ferguson to have some prints ready for him to-morrow," he said, "so I +may as well begin. If the bobby comes you can call me." + +But everyone wanted to watch the developing process. Hugh's dark-room +was a roomy lean-to shed, built by himself and well equipped with +shelves, sink, and taps. It would hold six people at a pinch. + +"No, I can't have you all," Hugh said, "you wouldn't all see at once, +and it is too much of a crowd. I'll take two at a time. Dick and Prue +to begin with." + +The remaining three settled themselves within sight of the garden gate, +and discussed the various features of Hugh's adventure. + +"I don't believe it is half so bad as he thinks," Jerry said, "because +it stands to reason that a dead man could not get up and walk away, +especially not across a ploughed field. I doubt if even a man who had +lost several pints of blood could walk very far. And if he had been +_carried_ off, there would have been a fuss, and the ballooners would +have been tackled at once--in fact, I can't think why they weren't. I +think it looks rather bad for Grizzel's diamond; worse for the diamond +than for the man. I wonder how fast the balloon was going. How fast +does a balloon fly?" + +"Somewhere from eight to thirty-six miles an hour, according to the +wind, Jules Verne says," Grizzel answered. + +"Eight miles an hour! My hat! Fancy crawling through the air at eight--" + +There was a sound at the garden gate and the three jumped to their +feet. A young man walked up the broad path between the cypress trees, +striking across the grass when he saw the children. He was not a +policeman, having indeed a very kind and cheerful expression, which he +was trying, not very successfully, to hide under a severe frown. + +"Does anyone named Grizzel Campbell live in this house?" he asked. + +"Yes, me," Grizzel answered, turning a little pale. + +"You!" exclaimed the young man, looking with some astonishment at the +small figure before him, with its tumbled red curls. "I don't suppose +_you_ are the owner of a--" he broke off uncertainly. + +"She is the owner of a green diamond in a ring, if that is what you +wish to know," Jerry spoke up. + +"What on earth is a kid like you doing with a magnificent diamond +ring?" the young man asked, forgetting to frown and letting everyone +see quite plainly what a nice face he really had. + +"Oh--have you got my ring? Has there been a miracle?" Grizzel cried, +clutching at the young man's arm. + +"I have got the ring, and there has been a miracle sure enough," he +answered rather grimly. "I suppose that Mr. Hugh Campbell is your +brother. Where is he?" + +"He's here all right," Jerry answered, "but would you mind telling us +what happened before I call him? Whatever he did he's jolly cut up +about it, and if it was anything very bad I'd like to--to prepare him a +bit, you know. He went to look for his stone and got the fright of his +life when he found his hank and the blood." + +"Blood!" the young man ejaculated, with a puzzled frown. "What blood?" + +"He said the ground was soaked in blood. All the stones were red. He +thinks that the person he hit must have lost pints of blood." + +The young man threw back his head and laughed--a big, reassuring laugh +which brought some colour into the three pale and anxious faces turned +up to his. "Blood! I see! No, it was not so bad as all that, it only +_might_ have been. It was not blood, it was only--but I'd better begin +at the beginning and tell you what happened. I was sitting in +Macgregor's Burnt Oak field, working at--well, a little experiment I am +interested in, when I saw the balloon had come right over. Of course I +had been watching it, but for a bit I was absorbed in my experiment and +had not looked up. I looked up then and was staring hard, when +suddenly, before I could say Jack Robinson, a whacking stone came +hurtling down and cleared my head by less than a foot. If it had hit +me--by Jove! I'd have tried the last and biggest experiment before +this!" + +"A foot is a pretty good miss," said Jerry, a look of immense relief +spreading over his face. "I know a chap who had a parting cut in his +hair with a bullet; that's what _I_ call a narrow shave. That's what he +calls it too," Jerry added, with a grin. + +"No doubt he does. My shave was narrow enough for me, thank you. It all +but knocked my precious experiment into the middle of next week. But +what I want to know is why Hugh Campbell throws diamond rings about the +country. If the stone hadn't plopped into the middle of my--my little +game--which was almost another miracle when you consider the size of +the field--the ring would have been lost for ever." + +"It's a miraculous ring," Grizzel explained, "and it brings luck. I +expect you'll be ever so lucky now. But how did you know where to look +for Hugh?" she added rather anxiously. Mr. Ferguson would not be +pleased, to put it mildly, if he knew how nearly Hugh had involved him +in a tragedy. + +"I know your father," the young man replied, "he once did me a good +turn. So I knew where to look for the owner of the handkerchief without +troubling Mr. Ferguson." + +"But what was that mush if it wasn't blood?" asked Jerry. + +"That? Oh--that was merely my little experiment; that is my secret for +the present, and I trust you not to mention it. But no one has told me +why your brother chucked a diamond ring out of the balloon." + +"It was a mistake; he was trying experiments too," Grizzel explained. +"But, please, may I go and tell him that he isn't a murderer? He is +expecting to be hanged every minute, and it makes him feel perfectly +miserable. But I was sure that my ring would bring him luck." + +Grizzel sped off on her mission. She knocked at the dark-room door. +"Please put an ear at the keyhole--I have important news." + +An ear was promptly at her disposal. She did not ask whose, but went on: + +"The murdered man has come, and he isn't in the least dead. And his +blood wasn't blood, only his experiment, and he's got my ring. He is a +nice man, and he is forgiving Hugh as hard as he can, and there were +two miracles, and I told you so!" + +There was a momentary silence within, and then a glad shout. Dick began +to sing "God save the King", which seemed less appropriate when he +remembered that the sovereign of the moment was a queen; but no one +noticed, and the main point was that someone was saved. A few minutes +later the dark-room party emerged, Hugh very pale and shaky as he went +to meet his supposed victim. Indeed, for a moment he was incapable of +speech, and Jerry, who knew only too well what it felt like to have a +lump sticking in his throat just when he wanted to be most manly and +soldier-like, filled up what would have been an awkward pause by saying +anything that came into his head until Hugh had recovered himself. + +"I've had a lesson," he began, as he shook hands with the young man, +whose name they now learnt was Desmond O'Rourke. "I am awfully sorry--" + +"That's all right," Mr. O'Rourke interrupted, "we all have to learn +lessons now and then--I've learnt some myself--at least I hope I have. +How are the photographs turning out?" + +"Very well, thank you. Would you like to come and see them? Mr. +Ferguson's is the best portrait I have done yet." Hugh recovered from +his emotion as he spoke, but he was still very pale. + +Mr. O'Rourke accepted the invitation with alacrity. "We can exchange +experiences," he said. "I am curious to know what the experiment was +that so nearly bowled me out. But first I must return the diamond to +its owner." He drew the ring out of an inner pocket and held it out to +Grizzel. As the diamond met the golden glow of the fading day its green +rays gleamed and sparkled. "One might believe it was alive!" Mr. +O'Rourke exclaimed. "I never saw anything like it. You kids ought not +to have a jewel like that to play pitch-and-toss with; someone should +keep it for you." + +"I wear it round my neck," said Grizzel, unfastening the neckband of +her overall and showing a slender chain of finely wrought gold. She +took it off and slung the ring on. + +"I have one almost as good," Hugh observed, as they watched Grizzel, +"but mine is not set yet; perhaps I'll have it made into a ring some +day. Mamma says I should keep it till I want an engagement ring--" + + "O bay o' Dublin, my heart you're troublin'," + +Mollie gave a violent start--but it was only Bridget singing in the +kitchen. + +Mr. O'Rourke turned his head and listened. "Who comes from Dublin?" he +asked. + +"It's Bridget, our nurse when Baby is here and our cook just now," +Prudence answered. "She's feeling homesick. She does sometimes." + +"So do I," said Mr. O'Rourke. "It's a long time since I've seen the bay +o' Dublin. I must shake hands with Bridget." + +Mollie gazed earnestly at Mr. O'Rourke. Was _he_ Aunt Mary's long-ago +lover? No--he was too old. He must be twenty-two at least. But she felt +almost sure that _somehow_ he had something to do with that romance. + +As they stood at the white gate later on, saying good-bye, their new +friend pulled a round white stone out of one of his many pockets. +"Shall I keep this or shall I give it to you?" he asked Hugh. + +There was a curious silence as the children gathered round to gaze at +the innocent-looking missile in Mr. O'Rourke's hand. It was little the +worse of its adventure--slightly chipped and scratched, and on one side +an ominous red stain which made Hugh shiver and turn pale again, as it +reminded him how nearly his thoughtlessness had cost a life. + +"Give it to me," he said at last. "I will write the date on it, and if +it doesn't remind me to think twice, nothing will, and I will _deserve_ +to be hanged." + +"Very well," agreed Mr. O'Rourke, "only remember that the red stain is +only what I told you it was." + +"I'll remember," said Hugh, holding the stone in his hand and looking +gravely down at it, "but I won't forget that it _might_ have been what +I thought it was." + +Grizzel's solemn round eyes went from one to the other during this +transaction. "Is that what it means in books when it says, 'marked with +a white stone'?" she asked Hugh. + +"It _is_ a sort of milestone," Hugh answered thoughtfully, "and it will +mark a new start for me. It ought to have your name on as well as +mine," he added, looking up at Mr. O'Rourke. "Perhaps it means a new +mile for you too. You can't tell." + +The young man laughed: "You make me feel as if it were my tombstone; +you are all so solemn. Let me see a smile before I go." + +A nice white smile flashed round the company, but Hugh's eyes remained +thoughtful as he watched the young Irishman walk away down the leafy +road. + +After all the emotions of that exciting day Hugh was tired, so next +morning found the children sitting quietly in the broad veranda. +Prudence busied herself with sewing; Grizzel sat at the table happily +absorbed in painting a spray of wattle to send to Mamma. She had placed +it in a tall, slender vase of Venetian glass, pale yellow flecked with +gold. Hugh lay on the floor, his chin in the hollow of his hands, and +his feet alternately tapping the red bricks and waving in the air, as +he contemplated a small steam-engine which he had been putting through +its paces. Mollie, Dick, and Jerry sat on the veranda steps, the boys +printing photographs, while Mollie idly played with the trailing +garlands of morning-glory and traveller's joy which hung around her. +Between the blossoming almond trees she could see golden splashes of +wattle in the field beyond. At her feet a mass of big Russian violets +boldly lifted their heads above their leaves, and an acacia, which +overshadowed the veranda, was dropping milky petals on the path. Mollie +knew all the sweet scents by name now. It was queer, she thought, how +the seasons came slipping round, each bringing its own fruit and +flowers--here in Australia in Prue's Time, and there in Chauncery in +her own Time. She turned her head and stared at the shabby old +grandfather clock which stood in a corner of the veranda. For forty +years, she thought, its pendulum would slowly swing, till it said "How +d'ye do" to the ticking clock in Grannie's morning-room. Forty years +was a long time to look forward to. + +"Jolly nice smells here," Dick remarked. "How ripping the almond +blossom looks in the sunshine. We've got an almond tree in our +backyard, and once there was an almond on it." + +"There are thousands of almonds here," Prue said, pausing in her work +for a moment and gazing dreamily at the delicate outline of almond +branches against the sky. "They are nicest when they are green, but I +must say they do give you dreadful pains. I wonder why so many nice +things leave a pain. Music does too--and even one's best friends +sometimes." + +"Do you eat your best friends boiled up with green almonds to the tune +of 'Good-bye for ever--good-bye, good-bye'?" Dick inquired. + +They laughed. "There's an old gentleman come to live next door," +Prudence continued, taking up her sewing again, "who watches us through +a telescope sometimes, and when he sees us in the green-almond trees he +writes to Papa. He says it is for our good, old telltale. Once, though, +he took us into his library and showed us some beautiful fossils. He +said they were as old as Moses, and one of them might be a million +years old. It was a fan-shell, quite whole and pretty. Fancy a million +years! I wonder what the world will be like in another million years." + +"Bust," said Dick briefly. + +They laughed again and then were silent. Mollie looked round at the +little group and thought how easy it was to be good when one had nice +things to do and plenty of time and room to do them in. "Where is Miss +Hilton?" she asked, "and where is Laddie? And why aren't you at school +this time? How do you ever learn enough to pass your exams?" + +"Miss Hilton is housekeeper while Mamma is away," Prudence answered, +"and she hasn't much time for lessons. Laddie is dead. He was poisoned. +We couldn't bear to have another dog. Papa doesn't like exams. He likes +us to be out all the time and not to stoop over books. He says we can +'find tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, sermons in stones, +and good in everything'." + +Mollie gave a little jump. The very words Aunt Mary had quoted that +morning! There was certainly _something_ queer somewhere! + +"What a jolly kind of father to have," Dick exclaimed. "I wish my good +parent held these views. His are quite otherwise. He believes in any +amount of stooping over books, though I am always pointing out to him +that it isn't the chaps who swot over books that turn into Generals and +things in the end." + +"When Mamma comes home Grizzel and I are going to school." Prudence +said regretfully. "I know we shall hate it, but I suppose we must learn +grammar and geography some time." She sighed at the distressing +prospect before her. + +Mollie smiled as she wondered what school would make of Grizzel. She +looked at Hugh, absorbed in some great new idea. What would he be like +in forty years. In Chauncery Time he must now be fifty-four. Were there +then _two_ Hughs? And if two, why not twenty? Or hundreds, for that +matter, like the films of a cinematograph. Perhaps everyone had a sort +of film-picture running off all the time, and some day, before those +million years had passed, a way would be found to develop them. It +would not be much more wonderful than wireless and flying and all those +things that looked impossible to people in this Time. Mollie began to +think of London, and of home in North Kensington, and then felt a +sudden longing for her mother and Jean and the little ones--for all the +familiar ways of home and school. This place was lovely, and the +children were perfect dears, but it would be nice to feel a +hockey-stick in her hand again--and she _should_ like to see her own +comfortable mother. In fact, she felt homesick! + +"A balloon is all very well," Hugh said, "so far as it goes." He rolled +round on to his back, clasping his hands under his head and staring up +at the white clouds over which he had flown yesterday. "But it doesn't +go far _enough_. It will never be much use until we learn to steer. You +have to go whichever way the wind chooses, which may be exactly the way +you don't want to go. I can't see myself how one could ever steer +without machinery, and to carry that weight you'd have to have a +balloon the size of a mountain." + +"There's wings," said Prudence, "like Hiram Brown." + +"What's the good of wings that let you drop the moment you try to fly +with them. Hiram Brown is as dead as a door nail with his wings. No, +wings fastened on _that_ way will never work. Our internal machinery +isn't made like birds'." As he spoke a parrot flew overhead, its +brilliant wings flashing in the sunlight and then becoming apparently +motionless as it swooped down towards the house. Hugh's eyes followed +it intently, and presently he rolled over again and resumed his study +of the steam-engine. + +"Wings," he murmured, "after all wings are the right things to fly +with. Why not make the whole thing, body and all." He frowned hard as +he concentrated his whole attention upon the toy before him. +"Wings--and steam--a boiler--" + +The boys and Mollie watched him curiously. This was the Thought that +came before the Thing, Mollie thought, remembering her conversation +with Aunt Mary. It was rather like a game of hide-and-seek. Hugh was +getting warm--how near would he get? They tried to catch the disjointed +words that fell from his lips at intervals. "Wings," he muttered again, +"and a place for the flier--why not a car--a--a--a box like an +engine-driver's, with handles for controlling--" + +In the minds of the English children, now listening breathlessly, there +arose a vividly distinct image of an aeroplane, darkly silhouetted +against a pale English sky. How many they had seen! + +Hugh's mutterings ceased. It seemed to Mollie that the world had grown +very still. She fancied that she could almost hear the blossoms +dropping on the grass; there was a faint stir of leaves as a stray +breeze came wandering by, and another sound mingled with that stir--a +far-away hum--hum--growing louder every moment! + +The English children looked at each other. Was this one of Grizzel's +miracles? Their eyes turned to the sky--yes, there it came! It winged +its way like a mighty bird, singing its strange rough song. Prue +dropped her work and stood up, Grizzel let fall her pencil and clung to +Prue, Hugh leapt to his feet and ran down the steps, his face upturned +to the clouds. + +"Oh, what is it?" he cried. "What is it? Who are you?" + +The aeroplane swooped down as the bird had done, till it was straight +overhead, then, with a lovely curve, it skimmed away, the great wings +outstretched as the bird's had been, away into the distant blue! + +Hugh held out his arms. "Don't go--oh, don't go!" he cried. "Come back, +come back!" + +But it had gone. + +The English children looked at each other again, and from each other to +Hugh. + +"_We_ brought it," whispered Jerry, "it was a Time-traveller." + +Mollie turned to the Australians. The sunlight fell on Hugh's pale +face, on Grizzel's ruddy curls; there was a faint smile on Prue's lips. + +"Oh, we have brought our Time too near," she exclaimed. "It is +good-bye! No, no, Prue! Oh--_this_ time it is good-bye!" + + * * * * * + +"No, no--I don't want to wake up yet! It is too soon! I haven't said +good-bye. Not yet, Aunt Mary!" + +"It's not 'good-bye', my Mollie, it's 'how d'ye do?' you've got to say! +You have been dreaming too hard, child." + +Mollie sat up and rubbed her eyes in bewilderment, for it was not Aunt +Mary at all, but Mother, standing there and smiling. + +"No, it's not my ghost," she laughed, when Mollie had released her +stranglehold. "I came down partly to see how my daughterling was +getting along, and partly to ask Grannie and Aunt Mary if they would +like two more troublesome, non-paying guests. Would it bore you +unutterably to have to entertain your twin and Jerry Outram for a +fortnight?" + +"Oh, Mother! Not really! How perfectly lovely! Why?" + +"Measles at school; so they are closing a month early, and it would be +_such_ a boon to Mrs. Outram and me if the boys could be quarantined +away from home. Aunt Mary says she would _like_ to have them, strange +woman, and Grannie is already planning a course of Manners--the +beautiful capital-M Manners of her young days." + +Mollie laughed as she gave her mother a comfortable unmannerly hug. +"You are all frauds," she said. "Don't talk to me of your young days. I +guess they weren't one pin better than ours. I hope Dick and Jerry are +coming soon." + +"To-morrow. Now, I'll have some tea, and then a little talk, and then I +must be off again. I stole Father's car, as he has gone down to +Bournemouth. So there's no time to waste. What beautiful strawberries!" + +"They are ready just in time for the boys," said Grannie benignly. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +How it Ended + + +Dick and Jerry arrived on the following morning in rampageous spirits. +To get away from hot and dusty London to the cool, green country, from +the discipline and restrictions of school to the benevolent and +generous rule of Grannie's household, from plain bread-and-butter, +stews, and solid puddings, to Martha's delicious scones and unlimited +strawberries and cream--was enough to make any thirteen-year-old +schoolboy radiantly cheerful. There was plenty to do at Chauncery, too; +a first-class tennis-court and an aunt who played for her county; +excellent golf and the same aunt nearly as good at golf as she was at +tennis; a pony to be ridden or driven, several dogs and a new litter of +puppies, and last but not least, Mollie, and the mystery of the +Time-travellers to be talked over. + +"Here we are, Grannie," Dick exclaimed superfluously, running up the +front steps to where Grannie stood with a smile of welcome on her +beaming face. "And jolly glad to be here, you bet your best Sunday +bonnet. London is like a baker's oven. You look very fit, Grannie, and +Jerry says Aunt Mary is too young to be my aunt; I believe he is spoons +on her already--what ho! my Uncle Jerry! Come and be introduced." Dick +gave Jerry's arm a tug, and Young Outram shook hands with a smile that +won Grannie's heart at once. + +Mollie had limped out of the morning-room with the help of a stout +crook-handled stick. Dick gave her a brotherly peck, and Jerry looked +at her commiseratingly. It was rather difficult to reconcile this pale, +limping Mollie with the active young Time-traveller of yesterday. + +"You're looking a bit like a mashed potato," Dick remarked critically. +"You've been shut up in the house too much. It's time we came and +hauled you out. I'll tell you what, Aunt Polly-wolly-doodle, we'll take +her out for a drive in the trap this afternoon." + +"We'll see," said Aunt Mary. "I am afraid you are too fresh, Dick. You +might tumble her out in the exuberance of your spirits. Besides, it is +going to rain--it is drizzling already." + +"Pouf!" said Dick lightly. "What's a little rain! A little soft, wet +rain will do her good. And Long John seems to have been eating his fat +head off; he played no end of jinks coming along just now. I'll take +him round to the stables--I want to see the puppies. Hop in, Moll. +We'll bring you back in a queen's chair." + +But Grannie insisted upon some light refreshment first. She was sure +the boys must be exhausted after their two hours' journey from town. +"And the best way to fight measles is to feed you up," she said, +leading the way to the dining-room, where strawberries, cherries, +biscuits, and a jug of creamy milk stood invitingly upon the table. + +The boys consented to the feeding-up process without a murmur. When the +plates were all empty they departed on a round of visits to the stable, +tennis-court, tool-shed, and other haunts dear to the heart of boy. +Aunt Mary firmly refused to allow Mollie to accompany them, even in the +queen's chair they offered. + +"You are tired already," she said to her niece, "and if you want to go +for that drive this afternoon you must certainly rest first. Back to +your sofa, Miss Mollie--away with you!" + +So Mollie rested, with a book in her lap and her thoughts by turns far +away and near home. + +Later on she was carefully helped into the little governess-cart, with +a list of messages to be done in the village, and another list of +extravagant promises from the boys of the amazing benefits she was to +derive from her outing with them. Long John had got over his first fine +raptures, and was now willing to jog along the sweet country lanes at a +steady and sober pace, suitable for the invalid he carried behind him. + +"How jolly nice it does look after London," Jerry remarked, as a long +branch of honeysuckle swept his cap on to the floor of the trap, where +he let it lie unconcernedly. "After all--there's no place like old +England. For looks, anyhow." + + "Each to his choice, and I rejoice + The lot has fallen to me + In a fair ground--in a fair ground-- + Yea, Sussex by the sea," + +Mollie quoted, as they came to a standstill at the top of a long +incline. In the distance they saw the sea gleaming somewhat greyly +under a brief spell of sunshine. All around them the trees and hedges +sparkled with raindrops, green and cool and wet. + +"They look like green diamonds," said Dick, letting his cap drop beside +Jerry's and allowing the reins to fall loosely on Long John's back, as +the pony edged to the side of the road and began to nibble the grass. +"Rather different from the gold-diggings, isn't it?" + +This remark set the ball rolling. "What do you think it was?" Mollie +began. + +"Blessed if I know," Dick answered, with a shake of his head, "blue +magic of some sort. Unless we all dreamt it." + +"No, it wasn't a dream," said Jerry thoughtfully. "It was simply +psychical phenomena. I've heard of things just as queer. Awfully funny +things happen in India. And look at the 'phantom armies' in France." + +"Rot," said Dick briefly. "_I_ think it was a kink in Mollie's brain, +and she passed it on to me. We do, sometimes. Mother says all twins do. +And your silly head was as empty as usual and you psychicked it from +me." + +"Rot," said Jerry, with as much decision as Dick. "I saw the blooming +parrot as soon as you did, if not sooner." + +"It wasn't rot," Mollie said decidedly; "whatever it was it wasn't rot. +_I_ think--" she paused for a moment to consider her words--"I believe +it may have been just what Prue said it was. We travelled back in Time. +It sounds impossible, but if you come to think of it lots of things +that happen now would have sounded impossible to those children, or at +any rate to Papa and Mamma. If Alice in Wonderland could have seen +forty years ahead she would have found it quite easy to believe six +impossible things before breakfast. There's submarines for one, and +flying, and wireless, especially telephones, and the cinema. If we +could have taken the Campbells to a moving picture of a submarine +submerging, with aeroplanes flying round, and a lecture wirelessed from +America coming out of a gramophone, and the music done with a +piano-player, Time-travelling would not have seemed much more wonderful +to them." + +Dick shook his head again. "It's different," he said. "All those things +might have seemed very wonderful and _almost_ impossible, but they +weren't _quite_ impossible. Time-travelling is." + +"But we've done it," said Mollie. + +Nobody answered. There did not appear to be an answer to that statement. + +"Have you ever heard," Mollie said at last, speaking slowly and looking +at the boys with solemn eyes, "of a thing called Einstein's Theory of +Relatittey--I mean Rela_tiv_ity--Rel-a-_tiv_-ity?" + +"Old Bibs jawed us about it one day," Dick answered, "but he said no +one could understand it except the chap himself and not always him. So +he didn't expect us to, which was a good job for everybody." + +"That's what Aunt Mary said; I heard her talking. That's why I read +about it, because I'm fairly good at maths. She has it all pasted in a +book. I had to skip most of it, but here and there I found bits. I took +some notes," Mollie drew a penny notebook from her pocket. "One man +says that, if the world travelled as fast as light, there would be no +Time. All the clocks would stop, and we'd be There as soon as we were +Here. Well now, that's just what we did. We were Here--and we were +There. So our time stopped and Now was Then. See?" + +"He says _If_. You couldn't live without Time. You _must_ have Time to +do things in or where would you be? You'd have to swallow all the meals +of your life at one mouthful and you'd bust. What comes next?" + +"Another man says," Mollie read impressively, "that any +schoolboy--_any_ schoolboy," she repeated, fixing a stern eye upon her +brother, "can see that, if the velocity of light has a given value with +reference to the fixed stars, it cannot have the same value with +reference to its source when this is moved relatively to the stars." + +"Gee-whiz!" said Dick. "Next, please." + +"A man says that perhaps things measured north and south are different +from things measured east and west. _We_ travelled north and south. +Perhaps we stretched back in Time all of a sudden, like elastic." + +"Couldn't be done. Elastic stretches both ways. If _you_ tried to move +north and south both at the same time you'd go off like a Christmas +cracker. Next." + +"A man says that our ideas of space and time may be all wrong." + +"Aunt Polly will agree with him if we stand here much longer," said +Dick. "Next. Hurry up." + +"You don't stop to _think_," Mollie said impatiently. "Try and _think_. +Your head might just as well be a football. What _I_ think is that if +two un-understandable things are discovered about the same time they +must belong to each other. Don't you see _that_?" + +"They might," Dick said cautiously, "and then again they mightn't. I +don't think myself that there's any use trying to understand things +like Time-travelling and Relativity. People like us never will." + +"I don't know that," said Jerry, who had been listening to the +discussion in silence. + +"There's lots of things just as hard to understand, only you take them +for granted. Being alive, for instance. Look at Mollie fidgeting about, +and Long John chewing and twitching, and the trees waving their +branches, and you shaking your head as if it were a dinner-bell, which +is about what it is--it's all life. Just as hard to understand as +Relativity, and a jolly sight harder if you ask me. I can't say I +understand Time-travelling, but--" Jerry broke off. + +Mollie frowned thoughtfully. "We don't understand it _yet_," she said, +"but in _another_ forty years--" + +They were all silent. Another forty years! + +"We'll be fifty-three," Dick said at last. "A jolly funny looking lot +we'll be. All sitting round staring at each other through specs, with +white hair and no teeth worth mentioning. I'll have an ear-trumpet, and +Mollie will wear a cap like Grannie's, and Jerry will be a blithering +old idiot saying, 'Hey!' like General Dyson-Polks." + +They had to laugh at this picture of themselves, and then Mollie began +at the beginning and told the story of Prue's first visit. The boys +were deeply interested. Their own experiences had merely been a +repetition of the first--Hugh had appeared and, like the gentleman who +dealt in Relativity, they were Here and they were There. "It has taught +us something about Australia anyhow," said Dick; "that is, of course, +if we saw the real thing. The next thing is to find out whether we did +or if the whole show was just bunkum." + +"What I should like to know," said Jerry reflectively, "is who the +Campbells were, and how they got mixed up with your lot. They must have +at some time, or your people wouldn't have those photographs." + +Mollie smiled. She knew how they and the Campbells had got "mixed up", +but she had never told the boys of her discovery; it was a little +secret between her and a certain photograph that smiled down at her +from the morning-room mantelpiece. She liked to think how the original +would have laughed along with her. + +"What I should like to know," said Dick, "is what that chap O'Rourke +was doing in that field. What was his mysterious experiment, and how +did Hugh's stone cut into it? That's what I want to know, and I don't +suppose I ever will, now. I don't think we'll go back, not at present +anyway. The show's over for this time. In fact I don't want to go; I'm +too jolly well pleased to be where I am. Gee-up, you lazy brute,"--this +to Long John, who apparently thought he had done enough work for one +day and was nosing about the soft grass with contemptuous disregard for +his passengers. He moved on unwillingly, and Dick took him briskly +downhill. + +In the village there were old friends to be greeted, and many inquiries +for Mollie's ankle to be answered. Fresh crusty loaves were brought out +by the baker, loosely wrapped in soft paper, and packed away under the +seats. A large box, containing a peculiarly delicious make of sponge +cake, was set on Mollie's lap, and a blue paper bag of sifted sugar was +entrusted to Jerry's special care by a misguided grocer. Dick had a +golf-club needing attention, which entailed a long and intimate +conversation with the local carpenter, who was also a well-known local +golfer, and the best hand at repairing clubs, Dick was convinced, in +the whole of Great Britain. + +It was getting on towards tea-time when Long John's head was at last +turned homewards, and his feet covered the ground with cheerful and +approving swiftness. A drizzle of rain fell, "Just enough to save us +the trouble of washing for tea," Dick commented. "Do you think our +white aunt can be induced to come and play golf after tea, Moll, or is +she afraid of rain?" + +"Good gracious, no," Mollie replied. "Aunt Mary goes out in all the +weathers ever invented. She will love a round of golf; she hasn't +played since I sprained my ankle. I wish I could come too. I wonder if +I could hop round with my stick and look on. I do love to watch Aunt +Mary drive; I learnt a lot from her last week before I sprained my +ankle in that idiotic way." + +The boys negatived this proposal. "You'd get a ball in the eye to +finish you up with," Dick said. "We'll plan some picnics till you are +better, and explore the country a bit and knock some fat off this +animal--hullo!--what's that?" + +A sudden twist in the narrow road had brought into view a motor +bicycle, leaning dejectedly against the hedge, whilst its owner +squatted beside it and tinkered at its mechanism--tinkered in vain +apparently, for, as the boys drew up beside him to offer assistance, he +rose to his feet and shook his head hopelessly. + +"Can we help you?" Dick asked, eyeing the bicycle with interest. "I'm +afraid we've got no tools here, but there is a smithy about a mile +farther on and the chap there has a motor bike, so I expect he could +lend you a hand." + +"Thank you very much," replied the stranger, looking relieved. "I'll +shove her along there and leave her. I am much afraid she's gone +altogether phut for the time being, and will have to be trundled back +to town by rail. Can you tell me if I am anywhere near a place called +Chauncery?" + +"Rather," Dick answered, with a grin. "That's our place. It's about +half a mile up the next turning to the left." + +"Indeed!" said the stranger, looking somewhat surprised and slightly +dismayed; "I understood that it was occupied by Mrs. and Miss Gordon, +not by anyone with chil--young people," he corrected himself hastily. + +"So it is. But at present they've got us, owing to circs. We are Mrs. +Gordon's grandchildren." + +"Oh--I see! I hope that Mrs. and Miss Gordon are in good health?" + +"Pretty bobbish, thank you," Dick was answering when Mollie interrupted: + +"Can we give you a lift? We are on our way home, and I am sure it is +going to rain hard presently." + +"That is a very kind offer," the motorist replied gratefully, "and I +wish I could accept it, as I am a trifle lame; but I can't very well +leave my machine lying derelict by the roadside, and I fear that your +hospitality cannot be extended to the old bus, I thought perhaps--if +you would be so very kind--you might drop a message at the smithy you +mentioned, and I will wait here until they send someone along." + +But the word "lame" had roused all Mollie's sympathy. "How lame are +you?" she asked. "Is it a wound? I am lame too--only a sprained ankle, +but I should hate to walk from here to Chauncery." + +"Of course you couldn't," the motorist said kindly. "I am not so bad as +that. My wound healed long ago, but it has left rather a crocky foot +behind. I could manage well enough, however, if someone from the smithy +would come and push the bike." + +"Tell you what," Dick suggested; "if you hop in and look after Mollie, +Jerry and I will push the bike to the smithy; we'll be after you in two +jiffs." + +The stranger looked at Dick with a smile and a slight lift of his +eyebrows. "You are very trusting, young man. Supposing I run away with +the pony and the cart and the sister? What will you do then?" + +"Stick to the bike," Dick answered promptly, "I have been wanting one +most frightfully badly, and Father says I might as well ask him to give +me the Isle of Wight. Besides--you _said_ you knew Grannie and Aunt +Mary." + +"Well, I happen to be quite a safe person, so you're all right this +time, but it wouldn't _always_ do, you know," and the stranger gave his +head a warning shake. "You are exceedingly kind. I only fear it would +be rather a heavy job for you." + +But this the boys denied strenuously. "If we stick, one of us will go +and collect young Simpson and the other will watch the bike; but we'll +be as right as rain--and we'd better hurry up." Dick left the trap as +he spoke by the simple means of dropping over the side, and Jerry +followed his example. + +"I had better give you my name for Mr.--Simpson, did you say?--Major +Campbell--Hugh Campbell." + +There was a dead silence. If the stranger had said "George the Fifth of +England" he could not have produced more effect. All three stared at +him with their mouths open. "What's the matter with that?" he asked. +"It's a very respectable name, and it really does belong to me. Perhaps +I should give you my card." He put his hand in his breastpocket. + +"Oh no," Mollie said rather breathlessly. "No--please don't mind--it's +quite all right, only--you look so young." + +"So _what_?" exclaimed Major Campbell, standing stock still with his +hand in his pocket. + +"I mean," Mollie explained nervously, "I mean--" looking at the boys +for help, but in vain, "I--you--so young to be a friend of Grannie's" +she ended feebly. + +"You're a goose, Moll," Dick broke in. "We once knew a Hugh Campbell, +but it was years and _years_ ago, and he was ever so much younger than +you--he was my age--and there must be thousands of Hugh Campbells." + +"Years and years ago! Your age! And she says I look too young!" +repeated Major Campbell in pardonable bewilderment. "How old do I +look--five perhaps?" + +Mollie blushed, and the boys giggled. "Look here," said Dick, "if we +stand here till midnight discussing Major Campbell's age we won't get +home to tea, and then Aunt Mary will send out a search party, and we'll +look pretty asinine. Long John's getting baity, he'll bolt in a minute. +Take the reins, Mollie. Don't eat all the strawberries, and tell Aunt +Mary that cherry jam is my fancy. Come on, Young Outram." + +Major Campbell saw the boys start before taking the reins from Mollie. +Long John gave his head an impatient toss, and set off with the +determination that he would not stop again for anybody till he was in +sight of his stable. + +A hundred thoughts chased each other through Mollie's mind. Of course +this could not possibly be _that_ Hugh Campbell. It would be altogether +_too_ queer. And yet--after all, nothing could be much queerer than the +experience they had already had. Putting one thing and another together +it did seem to be more than a coincidence that a Hugh Campbell should +be on his way to see someone who had a green diamond set in a ring +given to her "long, long ago". She stole a look at her companion as he +sat opposite her, his eyes fixed on the road ahead and his thoughts +obviously elsewhere. Hugh the inventor had not passed even thirteen +years without gathering various little mementoes of his inventions in +the shape of scars here and there, and these had not escaped the sharp +observation of Mollie, the Girl Guide. There had been a tiny gap in his +left eyebrow, the result of inventing a new pattern of firework--a +crooked little finger on his left hand--a funny star-shaped mark on his +right jaw. Some of these and other remembered marks might have been +obliterated by time, but if even one remained she would recognize it. +He had removed his hat and disclosed a head of closely cropped grey +hair, which made him look older. Yes--there was the gap in his eyebrow +_and_ the crooked finger. Mollie felt certain that this was indeed the +inventor. + +"Have you ever been in Dublin?" she asked abruptly, forgetting for the +moment that asking questions was forbidden. + +"In Dublin?" echoed Major Campbell, bringing his eyes and his thoughts +from the winding road and concentrating both upon Mollie. "Are you a +thought-reader, Miss Mollie? For I was thinking of Dublin at that very +moment. Yes, I have been there. Indeed, it was there that I first met +Miss Gordon, at a ball at Dublin Castle. I was visiting some people she +knew, and later on she joined us. My sisters were over here at that +time too. Has Miss Gordon ever mentioned the O'Rourkes to you?" + +"Yes," said Mollie, feeling absolutely giddy with excitement, "that is, +no--not exactly----" she felt very confused--"I mean--was there a +Desmond O'Rourke?" + +"That's right," said Major Campbell, nodding his grey head, and +apparently too wrapped up in his own memories to notice Mollie's +confused answer. "Good old Desmond! Of course he was home then too. +Dublin was a very different place in those days, and we had what you +youngsters would call the time of our lives. It was a long time +ago--long, long ago." He sighed, and his thoughts evidently wandered +away again from his agitated little companion, which Mollie felt was a +good thing, as, if he had been observing her closely, he would +certainly have thought that the poor child was "not _quite_ on the +spot". + +She was now quite convinced that this was really Hugh, the brother of +Prudence and Grizzel. He showed no signs of remembering her, but, of +course, she said to herself, what was only yesterday to her was forty +years ago to this elderly man--and, besides, perhaps the +Time-travelling was all hers and Prue's and he was never really in it +at all. "Like Alice in the Red King's dream," she thought vaguely. She +felt sure, too, that it was he who had given Aunt Mary the green +diamond long ago, though why he had never married her was past Mollie's +power of understanding. Grown-up people did--and left undone--the most +incomprehensible things. In the meantime she felt that she would like +to give her aunt some sort of warning of the surprise in store, +otherwise Aunt Mary might be _too much_ surprised. Mollie herself hated +with all her might and main showing her feelings before people--but +_how_ to prepare Aunt Mary! That was the difficulty. She put all her +Guiding wits to work, but nothing feasible suggested itself. There was +no boy to send ahead with a message, and, of course, she could not send +Major Campbell himself. How on earth could she get even the slightest +warning conveyed. + +The had begun to climb the hill which led to Chauncery gate; Long +John's enthusiasm cooled a little, and he dropped into a jogging zigzag +walk. Major Campbell was looking about him with interest, "Just the way +I did," Mollie thought--and then the idea came. + +"I'm going to signal to Aunt Mary that we are nearly home," she warned +her companion, "so that she'll have tea ready," and, putting her hands +to her mouth, she gave a long, shrill "cooo-eeeee!" "Now," she said to +herself, "that should remind her of Australia and Desmond O'Rourke and +green diamonds." + +But Mollie's brilliant idea had not exactly the effect she expected. +When the sound of that shrill cooo-eeeee penetrated to the +morning-room, Aunt Mary did indeed think of Australia, but she also +thought, naturally enough, that the children were in difficulties and +needed her help. So, a few minutes later, Mollie and Major Campbell saw +a slim figure, clad in a short skirt and jumper, running down the hill +as fast as a pair of active feet could carry it. + +"Oh, _dear_!" Mollie exclaimed, "Aunt Mary thinks something is wrong, +and when she sees no boys and you here instead she will think it is +wronger." + +"_That_ can't be Mary Gordon!" exclaimed Major Campbell. "She doesn't +look much older than you!" + +"It is, though," Mollie replied hurriedly, more flashes of genius +scintillating through her brain. "Jump out and meet her, Major +Campbell, and tell her we are all right." + +This suggestion evidently met with entire approval, for Major Campbell, +adopting Dick's tactics, was over the side of the cart and striding +(with a slight limp) up the hill "Before you could say Jack Robinson," +Mollie quoted, as she took the reins and tactfully directed Long John's +attention to an extra juicy patch of grass. Between his greed and her +excitement they nearly overturned into the ditch, but a kindly boulder +saved them in the nick of time. + +"I must say," Mollie soliloquized, "he is fairly old for Aunt Mary, +though he doesn't look it even with that white hair. What _will_ the +boys say? I believe Aunt Mary has forgotten all about us--there they +go! Up the hill without ever once looking at me. I suppose I may follow +now. Gee-up, Long John. Don't you ever think of _anything_ but eating?" +(which was a little unfair of Mollie under the circumstances). + +But if Aunt Mary had forgotten her family she very soon remembered it +again, for she and Major Campbell were waiting at the gate when Mollie +came up, and they all arrived at the front door together. + +When Dick and Jerry came within sight of the house, the first thing to +catch their eyes was Mollie at an upstairs window, and a pair of +signalling flags going hard. The boys stopped short. + +"It--is--Hugh. It--is--Hugh. It--is--Hugh," the flags repeated +emphatically. "Look--out. With--Aunt--in drawing--room. Beware. +Hurry--up." + +"My aunt!" Dick exclaimed appropriately. "What the dickens does she +mean? Aunt Mary and that old chap! Get out! His hair is whiter than +Father's. Aunt Mary has got the hardest overhand serve in Sussex. _She_ +doesn't want to get married, I'll bet my boots. Rot!" + +"I don't know that," said Jerry. "I rather twigged that when he asked +for her. I believe that old Johnny _is_ Hugh. I think he is a jolly +decent-looking chap, and white hair means nothing nowadays. And after +you're forty I don't see that it matters what age you are." Jerry was +encouraging a romantic tenderness for Prue and her brown curls, +consequently he felt slightly superior to Dick. + +The boys left the tell-tale scrunching gravel and trod gently on the +velvety border of grass that edged the drive. They stole round the +house like thieves, and found their way up to Mollie's bedroom. That +young lady hopped round on one foot waving her flags triumphantly. + +"I guessed it ages ago," she said, forgetting in her excitement that +"ages ago" was only yesterday morning--it was really very difficult to +keep pace with a Time that behaved so erratically--"Something Aunt Mary +told me about having a green diamond made me wonder. That's why I knew +him before you did. Now Hugh will be our uncle. My goodness!" + +The tale of the Desmond O'Rourke conversation convinced even the +unwilling Dick that Major Campbell was Hugh the inventor, but he still +refused to share Mollie's conviction that there was a romance +connecting him with Aunt Mary. "You girls are so jolly sentimental," he +said impatiently. "Why _should_ Aunt Mary want to go and get engaged to +a chap old enough to be her father, or at any rate her uncle, just as I +have arrived. I bet I play a better game of golf than he does, and even +Bemister says my tennis has improved a lot this term." + +"_I_ agree with Mollie," said Jerry, trying to look romantic, "I +thought so first go-off, as soon as he said 'Miss Gordon'; there's a +look--" + +"If it's the look you think you've got on just now it's a fairly +imbecile one," Dick interrupted scornfully. "Perhaps you are in love +with Mollie!" + +Mollie, who was rather tired, was leaning back against her pillows, her +bandaged foot lying on the bed and the other foot swinging over the +side. Her short, blue-serge skirt was at its shortest and made no +pretence at hiding her serviceable blue knickers, from which emerged a +pair of useful girl-guidish legs, suitably clad in black merino +stockings and lace-up shoes. Her bobbed hair was for the moment rough +and tumbled, and she still held her flags spread out on either side of +her. No one could have looked less romantic, and they all three had to +laugh at Dick's suggestion. He cheered up slightly. + +"Anyhow--now perhaps we can find out a few things--what the blood was, +and how rich the diamond-mine made them." + +"And if Grizzel made her fortune in jam," Mollie added, "and if Hugh +ever invented an aeroplane." + +"He's in the R.A.F.," Jerry remarked, "we saw it on the card he gave +us." + +This reminder cheered Dick up still more. If his favourite aunt had the +bad taste to throw over a promising football nephew for anything so +wishy-washy as a lover, it was consoling to know that the wisher-washer +might include an aeroplane. "Perhaps he'll take us up one of these days +if we behave nicely about Aunt Polly-wolly-doodle," he said hopefully; +"that is, if there really is anything in Mollie's tosh. He looks an +aged old party to be turning somersaults in the air, I must say." + +The welcome sound of the tea-bell put an end to their discussion, and +soon Dick was drowning his sorrows in strawberries and cream. It was +rather a bad--or good--sign that Aunt Mary and the mysterious Major +Campbell were absent, but on the whole it was a relief. Only a somewhat +preoccupied Grannie was there to attend to their wants. No one spoke +very much. There was a slightly depressing atmosphere about that tea, +so carefully prepared by the missing aunt. The place where she usually +sat looked extraordinarily empty, much emptier, Mollie thought, than it +did when her aunt merely happened to be out. As soon as tea was over +the boys went off to visit the puppies again; Grannie, still inclined +to be silent and absent-minded, sat down to her knitting; and Mollie, +feeling somehow more lonely than she had done before the boys came, +wandered into the deserted morning-room. She picked up a book she had +been interested in yesterday, but it had lost its flavour and she soon +laid it down and went over to the window, where she stood looking out +at the wet garden. It was raining in earnest now, not heavily but +steadily; little pools were collecting in the gravel, rose-petals were +dropping in showers, and the flowers in the herbaceous borders were +beginning to look as if they had had enough rain for the present and +would welcome now a chance to dry themselves. Mollie opened the window +wide and seated herself sideways on the sill, heedless of the raindrops +that blew against her face and blouse. For a long time she stared out +into the rain, seeing not the well-kept garden before her, but the +cypress-bordered path in that other garden. + +The sound of the clock striking made her turn her head and look +indoors. The room looked dark and dull. Aunt Mary's work-basket stood +open on the table, with her work lying where she had flung it down when +she ran out to meet Mollie. The jig-saw puzzle was tidied away, and the +sofa cushions sat in a prim row on the sofa, with nothing about them to +show how often a kind hand had tucked them in behind a young invalid's +back. The volume of Shakespeare still lay on a side-table, and reminded +Mollie freshly of Prue's first visit. + +"I am being sorry for myself," she thought, "and of all the useless +things--! I will go upstairs and change my frock and tidy my hair, and +then write to Mother. And when the boys come in we must find something +to do. It is simply horrid of me to be moping round because dear Aunt +Mary is happy, especially as it is the very thing I was keen on +yesterday. I feel as if I lived in the middle of one of Hugh's +shadow-clocks," she sighed as she went slowly upstairs, "with Yesterday +and To-morrow going round me all the time, and my own shadow falling on +them both." This poetic fancy rather pleased her, and she decided to +put on her best evening frock and fasten her hair with a rose velvet +bandeau. + +She was clasping a pale coral necklace round her throat when there came +a tap at the door, followed by "May I come in?" and then Aunt Mary +herself appeared. And such a radiant and smiling Aunt Mary that all +Mollie's depression vanished in the twinkling of an eye. She hurried +across the room and gave Mollie a hug. + +"Why--how pretty you have made yourself, Mollie darling. That is sweet +of you, for I want you to look your very best this evening. I have a +most astonishing piece of news for you--why do you laugh, you naughty +girl? I don't see how you can possibly have guessed, and I am sure +Grannie didn't tell you." + +Mollie laughed again as she returned her aunt's hug: "It was not so +frightfully difficult to guess, after what you said about the green +diamond ring yesterday--why, you have got it on! It _is_ lovely, isn't +it? I think it is _just_ as beautiful--" Mollie stopped in some +confusion, "I mean it is the loveliest ring I ever saw. If I ever get +engaged I should like one exactly the same." + +"I hope it will bring you a little more luck than it brought us to +begin with," Aunt Mary said, with a sigh, looking down at the hand +which lay in Mollie's. "It is ten years since I got it, and if you had +asked me yesterday I should have said it would perhaps be another ten +before I could wear it like this, but all sorts of wonderful things +happened all of a sudden and here we are! But I cannot understand why +you guessed anything yesterday, you funny child. I am sure I said very +little." + +"It wasn't what you _said_, it was how you _looked_. And you didn't +hear yourself sighing, Aunt Polly-wolly-doodle. We were doing _As You +Like It_ at school before I got measles, and we learnt something about +people in love, I can tell you!" Mollie nodded her head wisely. "I am +not romantic myself like the girl who was doing Rosalind, but I'm not +_quite_ so blind as a bat is, and I came up with Major Campbell this +afternoon." + +"Dear me!" Aunt Mary exclaimed with a laugh, "you are getting +dreadfully grown-up, Mollie. I hope you don't--that you don't think my +dear old Hugh is really old, because he happens to have rather white +hair. It is the heart that counts, and his blessed old heart is as +young as yours. Now I must run and dress. Call the boys and tell them +to come in and be nice to their new uncle. You have simply _got_ to be +friends." + +Half an hour later three exceedingly tidy and rather prim young people +were formally introduced to "Uncle Hugh", who surveyed them gravely +through a pair of gold-rimmed eyeglasses. Mollie was not sure whether a +twinkle she thought she saw belonged to the eyes or to the glasses. "I +could almost believe that he remembers the Time-travellers," she said +to herself. But if he did he gave no further sign of it, nor could the +children see much trace of the boy Hugh in this keen-eyed, +white-haired, brown-skinned stranger. + +"I suppose you are detesting me with all your might," he remarked as +they seated themselves. "You have all my sympathy. I should detest +myself if I were you. But you have had her for a good many years, +haven't you? It is high time that she flew off with me." + +"Is she going to fly?" Dick asked with interest. "I could put up with +getting married myself if my wife came in an aeroplane and took me for +a jolly good flight. I could chuck her out if I didn't like her," he +added, with a grin. + +"The very first time I ever flew in my life," Major Campbell said, "was +in a balloon, and I played at the game of chucking out, and got a +fright which I am convinced caused my hair to turn prematurely grey. +Would you like to hear about it?" + +"Ra-_ther_!" Dick and Jerry replied together. (Now perhaps the mystery +of the blood might be explained.) + +So Major Campbell told them the story that they already knew nearly as +well as he did himself--in fact, Mollie found herself on the point of +correcting him upon one or two points. He told it well, better than he +had done on that agitating occasion so many years ago, but--he did not +divulge the mystery. + +It was almost too tantalizing to be endured. Mollie had to keep +repeating to herself "A Guide's Word is _Always_ to be Trusted," as she +reflected upon that most provoking promise extracted from her by Prue. +It was so long ago, surely a question, one question, would not matter +now. Unfortunately it was also, as Mollie expressed it to herself "so +short ago" that she could remember Prue's words only too plainly: "_You +must not ask questions however much you want to_." It is true that she +had broken the rule once, but it had been in forgetfulness, not +deliberately. Dick and Jerry were perhaps less picturesque in the +manner of their vows, but they certainly had no intention of breaking +them. It was Aunt Mary who unconsciously came to the rescue: + +"And what _was_ the blood that wasn't blood?" + +"Oh, that! That was merely--that was merely----" Major Campbell stopped +and began to laugh. + +"Merely what? Be quick," said dear Aunt Mary, "we are longing to know." + +"I am sorry--I hate to let you down, but it was only dye. Desmond had a +notion that he could make a fortune with a native dye +factory--vegetable dyes, you know. But it never came to anything. I +think it is rather a pity he didn't persevere; he might have done +something with it." + +Dye! Well, of all the prosaic endings to a thrilling tale! And yet, +when the children came to think of it, what else could it have been? +They were annoyed at themselves for not thinking of such an obvious +thing. Major Campbell laughed again when he saw the blank look on three +faces. + +"It's a poor end-up, isn't it?" he said. "Why did you force me into it? +But there is still the stone, if you would like to see it. You will +find it over there on the writing-table." + +Dick fetched the stone--the identical stone they had last seen in +Hugh's hand forty years ago. After all, the end was not so prosaic! + +It looked little the worse for its adventures through Time and Space as +it lay in Dick's hand. An inscription had been scratched in and inked +over: + + Hugh Campbell } + August 4th, 1880. + Desmond O'Rourke } + Mary Gordon. 1910. + +They looked at in silence for a minute. + +"It reminds me of a tombstone," Dick remarked cheerfully, "if you wrote +'Wife of the Aboves' under Aunt Mary's name it would look jolly +mysterious." + +"Grand-daughter of one of the aboves would be more appropriate," Major +Campbell said ruefully, smoothing the back of his grey head with one +hand, while with the other he gave a gentle tug to a stray lock of Aunt +Mary's pretty brown hair. + +"Fiddlesticks!" Aunt Mary said briskly. "We'll get you a wig if you +feel so badly about it, or perhaps Desmond would dye you a nice bright +red. No--I'll tell you what would be really interesting--if you could +write on your stone the names of all the people whose lives it dropped +into that day. There are Desmond and Prue and their children" (Jerry +looked up with a startled glance), "and their wonderful grandchild" +(Jerry's eyes were round with dismay. Farewell, Romance!), "and Grizzel +and Jack and _their_ children, for Grizzel would never have met Jack if +Prue hadn't married Desmond. And there's me, for if you hadn't got +tangled up with the O'Rourkes we should probably never have met, even +though our greats and grands were such friends. Then we may add Dick's +name to our list, for I mean to have him out in Australia one of these +days, and perhaps Jerry too--who knows! And Mollie may go green-diamond +hunting among the young O'Rourkes--Brian would do nicely." Aunt Mary +laughed mischievously at Mollie. + +"That _would_ be a sermon in stones and no mistake," Major Cambell +said, with a smile. "We should require a regular palimpsest to hold +them all. Think of Grizzel and all the pies she loves to have her +fingers in--all those people on their fruit farm for instance, mostly +people who have been down on their luck one way or another. And the +young persons she has helped with what she calls their artistic +careers. And Prue with her army of Girl Guides!" + +"And all through one little stone," Aunt Mary said, taking the stone +into her own hand and looking at it thoughtfully. + +"I expect the green diamond had more to do with it than the stone, +really," Mollie said dreamily, thinking to herself that if Desmond had +not found the ring he would not have troubled to seek for the +stone-thrower. She would have pursued this interesting line of thought +had not someone at that moment trod upon her well foot, and someone +else pinched an arm hard. These delicate attentions brought her back to +reality and she felt that she had "dropped a brick" pretty badly. Aunt +Mary looked puzzled, and Major Campbell's eyes twinkled--or was it his +eye-glasses? + +"The diamond may have been a temptation," he said, "but I hope it +wasn't such a bribe as all that comes to. You have to remember that she +might have stuck to the ring and thrown me over any time all these +years." + +Mollie breathed a sigh of relief. Her words had evidently been +misunderstood--or had he understood and come to her help? She wished he +would take off those glasses! + +"Catch her!" Dick was saying indignantly, "Aunt Mary is a jolly good +old sport! You don't know her half as well as I do if _that_ is what +you think." + +[Illustration: THERE THEY WERE--OH, HOW MOLLIE LONGED TO KEEP THEM!] + +"Don't I?" said Major Campbell, turning to look at Aunt Mary, who was +beginning to show signs of embarrassment under so much scrutiny. He +took off his eye-glasses, but immediately replaced them by a pair of +large round tortoise-shell spectacles through which he gazed at her +solemnly. + +"What _are_ you doing, Hugh? Take off those absurd things this moment," +Aunt Mary commanded as the children laughed. + +"I am looking at you through stronger glasses," he answered. "I thought +perhaps I wasn't seeing you properly, but the better I see the prettier +you look." + +"My hat!" Dick exclaimed, "look at Aunt Mary blushing. She's the colour +of a ripe red currant. I think it's time we did a bunk. Come on, you +kids!" + +Late that evening Mollie sat at the open window again, this time to +watch for the boys, who had set out for a belated round of golf. The +rain had ceased and the air was fresh and sweet, but the lingering +twilight was darkened by clouds and the garden was veiled in a ghostly +white mist. Mollie had been listening to talk of times old and new, and +now Grannie had settled down to her nightly game of patience, Major +Campbell was seated in a deep and roomy arm-chair, and Aunt Mary had +gone to the piano. + +"Play the old tunes you played me to sleep with," Mollie begged. "I +think I like old tunes best of all." + +"So do I, Mollie," said Major Campbell. "Do you remember Prue's old +musical-box, Mary? It is still in existence. Prue always turns it out +on the dear old pater's birthday and has a sort of memorial +service--I'm glad he didn't live to see the war. He was such a +softhearted, confiding old chap, and never could be induced to see the +black spots in poor human nature--he was always ready with an excuse +for any lapse from virtue. He never could screw himself up to the pitch +of giving his children a thorough good rowing, though I am sure we +often needed one badly enough." + +Aunt Mary's fingers wandered vaguely over the piano for a few minutes, +and then she began to sing: + + "Oft in the stilly night + Ere slumber's chain hath bound me, + Fond memory brings the light + Of other days around me." + +It seemed to Mollie that she could hear the silvery tinkle of Prue's +musical-box again, and see Papa's kind blue eyes. + +As she listened to the music and gazed into the misty garden, she saw, +as she thought, the boys standing in the shadow of the black Cedar of +Lebanon across the way. She leaned forward, wondering why they lingered +there so silently. It was not easy to see in the on-coming +darkness--surely there were _three_ figures, and two of them looked +like girls. Her heart gave a sudden jump--yes, she could plainly make +out two girls and a boy. She slipped through the window and crossed the +terraced drive. + + * * * * * + +There they were--dear Prue, with Grizzel clinging to one arm, and Hugh +in the background--oh, how Mollie longed to keep them! + +"I was thinking of you, Prue," she said eagerly, "I wanted you so much. +If you could only stay!" + +Prue shook her head, with a smile. "No, we have only come to say +good-bye, Mollie. Your Time-travelling is over for this time, you won't +come to our Time any more. Did you like it?" + +"I _loved_ it," Mollie answered fervently, not pausing to ask herself +whether it was the Time or the children that she had loved. "If only it +could be _now_, Prue, so that you could stay!" + +But Prue shook her head again: "We've got to go. Perhaps some day we +will meet again--Time-travellers often do. I think that's why--that's +why----" she knit her pretty brows in the effort to express a difficult +thought. + +"Hush!" Grizzel said suddenly, "she is singing 'I shot an arrow into +the air'; Mamma sings that and I love it. I want to listen; may we go +nearer?" + +They tip-toed across the gravel, and stood in the shadow of the +lamp-lit window. + + + "I breathed a song into the air, + It fell to earth I know not where, + For who has sight so swift and strong + That it can follow the flight of a song? + + "Long, long afterwards, in an oak + I found the arrow still unbroke. + And the song from beginning to end + I found again, in the heart of a friend." + +"I love that," Grizzel whispered. "Papa says you often do find the song +long, long afterwards. I think it's something like casting your bread +upon the waters, though I never could understand why they chose +_bread_. I shouldn't think there would be much of it left after many +days in the water. I like a song better." + +Hugh had stepped nearer to the window, and was observing the interior +of the room with curious eyes. "Who's the old buffer with white hair?" +he asked. + +Mollie began to laugh, but suddenly stopped. She looked from the boy to +the man--so there _were_ two Hughs! "He is a Time-traveller," she +answered softly, "but he has travelled the other way, forwards, you +know. He has invented a lot of things about flying." + +"Has he!" exclaimed Hugh. "That old chap!" He leaned forward and gazed +more intently at the white-haired man. "I wish I was him," he said +wistfully! + +"Cooo-eee!" + +The call seemed to come from far away, muffled, perhaps, by the night +air. + +"They are calling us," said Prue. "We must go--come, Hugh. Good-bye, +Mollie, goodbye." + + * * * * * + +"Where are you, Mollie, my child?" Aunt Mary had risen and was coming +towards the window. Mollie turned to answer her. + +"All right, Aunt Mary. I am here looking for the boys." + +"Are the boys not there? I thought I heard voices." Aunt Mary leaned +out and peered into the dark. "How dark it is--I can't see--I thought +for a moment I saw someone there--here they are coming!" + +"Cooo-eee! Where are you, Moll? We want you." + +"It's Dick calling," Mollie said. "I'll go and meet them, Aunt Mary; +it's only a step. Coming, Dick," she called back. + +But she found it hard to walk on the wet gravel without her stick, and +after sending another call to the boys stood and waited where she was, +wondering why she had not felt her foot when she had gone to the other +children. She stared into the shadows of the cedar, but the little +figures had disappeared. "I love them," she murmured to herself, "and I +can never forget this week, whether I ever learn to understand +Time-travelling or not. I mean to learn ever so much about Australia +and our other colonies, and about the immigrant ships Prue talked of. I +am glad she is a Guider and that I am a Guide." She looked back to the +lighted window, through which she could see Aunt Mary and Major +Campbell standing together, then forward into the misty dark--she could +hear the boys coming up the hill. "I loved Prue and Grizzel and their +Time," she repeated, "and of course Aunt Mary is going to have a +tremendously happy time now, but--I am glad that _I_ belong to Dick and +Jerry. I like our own Time best; it suits us. It's a good sort of Time +for doing things, and it will be better before we are done with it, if +we all Carry On. + +"I'm here, Dick!" + +THE END + + + + + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Happy Adventurers, by Lydia Miller Middleton + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE HAPPY ADVENTURERS *** + +***** This file should be named 6901-0.txt or 6901-0.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/6/9/0/6901/ + +Produced by Tiffany Vergon, Charles Franks, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team. + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will +be renamed. + +Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright +law 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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