CHAPTER VI
An Awkward Predicament
The girls sprang to their feet. It was unfortunately only too true; thevessel had steamed past the quay, and was heading out into the bay, awayfrom the land.
The four looked at each other in consternation too great for words. Whatwere they to do? Could anybody have imagined a more horrible situation?They must indeed have made some great mistake.
"Tickets, please!" cried the purser, coming round at this criticalmoment to collect the fares, and holding out his hand in anticipation.
"We--we haven't any!" faltered Dora. "We thought you stopped at thejetty."
"Why, no, miss. This is the Everston boat; we don't stop until Sandsend.You've got on the wrong steamer, that's what you've done. Didn't you seethe notice up on the gangway? The North End boats have red funnels and ablue flag. A shilling each, please, to Sandsend, or half a crown toEverston."
"Oh, can't you turn back, and put us off at the jetty?" implored Dora,almost crying. "We don't want to go to Sandsend, and certainly not toEverston."
"And we're in a great hurry," added Aldred.
"Sorry, miss, but it can't be done! The captain won't stop the steamerfor anybody," said the man, smiling.
"Not if we went and asked him ourselves?" begged Phoebe eagerly.
"Not for the Queen of England!" returned the purser, as he waited,shuffling the tickets and some loose change suggestively in his hand.
The girls felt in their pockets in vain. Most of their substance hadgone on postcards and popcorn, and all they could muster among them wassevenpence-halfpenny.
"I'm afraid we haven't enough money. We only expected to pay penny faresto the jetty."
Dora's voice trembled a little. She felt so upset, she scarcely knewwhat she was saying, and the others looked equally solemn and concerned.The purser rubbed his chin, as if in doubt.
"It's an awkward case, certainly," he said. "I can't think what theywere doing at the pier-head to let you come on without tickets. Thisboat goes to Everston, you see, and stays the night there, so we can'ttake you back to Chetbourne. You'd best get off at Sandsend, and walkhome along the shore. I'll make it all right with the captain about thefares."
Were ever four wretched girls in such a predicament? It was a judgmentwith a vengeance on their naughtiness. To be carried away by the steamerand set down at such a remote place as Sandsend seemed an appallingprospect, and they were quite aghast at the idea.
"Well, we have got ourselves into a scrape!" exclaimed Phoebe, as soonas the purser was out of earshot.
"I was so sure it was the ferry-boat!" sighed poor Dora. "I feel as if Iwere to blame for proposing it."
"It wasn't your fault more than anybody else's," said Myfanwy. "Isuppose we ought to have stopped to ask."
"We were in such a hurry!"
"How far is Sandsend from Birkwood?" asked Aldred.
"Six miles. It will take us a most fearfully long while to walk, andit's four o'clock now."
"Oh, dear! We shan't get in till supper. What will Miss Drummond say?"
"There'll be a regular hue and cry after us."
"What will Blanche and Freda do?"
"I suppose they'll go back, when they can't find us, and report us asmissing. They wouldn't dare to stay in Chetbourne too long, and be latefor tea."
"We're having a free excursion on the steamer, at any rate," saidAldred.
Dora appeared to think that a decidedly doubtful advantage. She was nota good sailor, and the sea was rough now that they were outside the bay.Phoebe, too, began to show signs of distress; and Myfanwy, usually sorosy and talkative, had suddenly grown unwontedly pale and pensive.Aldred was the only one who enjoyed the voyage; to the others it was thereverse of pleasant, and they were much relieved when the vessel at lastarrived at Sandsend. They scurried across the gangway on to the quaywith almost undignified haste.
"Oh, it is nice to feel oneself on terra firma again!" ejaculated Dora.
"Or 'terra-cotta', as the old lady remarked!" laughed Aldred. "I'mafraid you wouldn't appreciate a yachting cruise, Dora."
"I certainly shouldn't. Nothing would induce me to go. I should be lyingin my berth the whole time, in a state of utter collapse and misery. Noyachting for me, thank you!"
"We'd better ask somebody which is the right way," said Myfanwy. "Wedon't want to make any more mistakes."
They found, on enquiry, that the high road ran inland over the downs,and that, instead of it being only six miles to Birkwood, as Dora hadsupposed, it was in reality nearer nine.
"The road twists, and goes round by Greenstaple," said the old sailorwho directed them. "It's only a matter of five miles if you went as thecrow flies, but you'd maybe get lost on the downs. It's about the samedistance along the coast, if you care to go by the shore. The tide won'tbe up yet awhile, and you'd have ample time to get round the headland,if you stepped out fairly well."
The beach sounded so much the most attractive route that the girls atonce decided in its favour. It was a consideration to save four miles,and they all preferred the seashore to the hills. If they walked fast,they calculated that it would not take more than a couple of hours, andthey would get back to school just before dark.
"We must 'step out', as the old man advised," said Phoebe. "No onemust slack off, or lag behind."
It was all very well to make good resolutions, but quite another matterto keep them. The beach near Sandsend was an especially fascinating partof the coast. It abounded with little, shallow pools among the rocks,where such a variety of beautiful anemones, madrepores, sea-cucumbers,and other marine objects might be seen that it almost resembled anaquarium. None of these treasures were to be found at Birkwood, wherethe cliffs were of a different geological formation; indeed, theseparticular few miles of shore were a noted spot for zoologists, andcould show more choice species than anywhere else within a radius offifty miles. It was not astonishing, therefore, that the girls stoppedto marvel at some of these flowers of the sea, to watch the anemonesstretching out their delicate, brilliantly coloured tentacles, to admirethe corallines or the many strange forms of zoophytes, to chase spidercrabs, and to pick up rare shells, and gather some of the lovelyseaweeds that fringed the pools. They quite forgot the time, and wentdawdling on from one interesting rocky basin to another, wishing theyhad a glass jar, or a bucket, in which they could carry some specimensback to the Grange.
"Don't you think we might put a few anemones in our handkerchiefs?"suggested Aldred.
"Not an atom of use! They die directly they're out of water. We tried itonce before, and it wasn't a success," replied Phoebe.
"We'll tell Miss Drummond about the place, and ask her to bring us foran expedition some day," said Dora. "The school aquarium needsreplenishing badly."
They had been walking, or, rather, strolling for about an hour when theyreached a small bay, which lay between two promontories. The water herewas so low that they decided they might as well cross the sands,instead of keeping close under the cliffs; they made a bee-line,therefore, for the opposite headland, jumping over the narrow channelsthat intercepted their path. On the flat sandbank they found at least adozen large jellyfish, left stranded by the tide. Aldred insisted uponpicking up some of these and restoring them to their native element; andshe kept poking about in so many heaps of seaweed, and investigatingsuch a number of species, that the other girls began to despair of evergetting her back to Birkwood.
"We shall be all in the dark if we don't mind!" remonstrated Phoebe."We've been sauntering along as if we had the whole day before us."
"And as if there were no tide! Just look behind you!" exclaimed Myfanwy.
Phoebe turned round uneasily. What she saw was enough to make hershout wildly to the others, and set off running as fast as she couldtowards the cliff in front. All the time they had been amusingthemselves with the jellyfish, the water had been creeping stealthilyand silently up, and had flowed in an ever-widening channel between themand the land. Except for a narrow space,
which led to the rocks at theend of the promontory opposite, they were entirely cut off; and unlessthey cared to swim it was utterly impossible for them to reach thebeach.
Most of them were good runners, and could do well enough at the schoolsports; but it seemed quite a different matter to race with the tide,and much too risky a performance to be appreciated. They just reachedthe rocks before the sands were entirely covered, and were obliged tosplash anyhow through pools, getting their feet horribly wet, for therewas no time to stop and take off their shoes and stockings.
Once on the promontory they were safe enough, and they began to maketheir way back towards the mainland, scrambling over the rocks, whichwere slippery and slimy with seaweed, and becoming extremely draggled inthe process. There were several claps of distant thunder, and rain,which had been threatening for some time, suddenly descended in adrenching stream. The tide came thundering in, dashing great wavesagainst the rocks, and sending showers of spray to join the rain.
The girls plodded steadily on, hoping that they would soon regain thebeach; but it was hard walking, and they were getting wetter everyminute. All at once they came to a full stop. In front stretched achannel of water so broad that through the blinding rain they couldbarely make out the opposite side, against which some very ugly wavesappeared to be beating. They gazed at each other in blank dismay.
"Perhaps it's nothing but a creek, and we can get round it," saidMyfanwy. "I'm used to this kind of coast in Wales. Let us try to ourleft; it looks fairly promising."
She led the way, and the others followed as best they could. It was aforlorn hope, however. The end of the promontory was completelysurrounded at high water, and was temporarily turned into an island; andfor the time being they were as completely stranded as a crew ofshipwrecked mariners.
"I'm afraid it's no use," confessed Myfanwy, at last. "We've gotourselves into a tight place, and we shall just have to stay here untilthe tide goes down."
"Unless we could manage to swim," suggested Dora, looking dubiously overthe channel to where some heavy breakers were booming against whatseemed through the spray to be a steep and jagged precipice.
"Impossible!" exclaimed Phoebe, without any doubt in her voice. "Weshould be dashed to bits in that rough sea. There isn't a spot where wecould land, even if we could struggle across. It would simply bemadness."
"I don't want to try!" declared Aldred, with a shudder. "I can't swim,to begin with; and even if I could, I shouldn't venture through thosewaves. But what are we going to do?"
"Stop here till we can get off, I suppose," said Phoebe, shrugging hershoulders. "There's nothing else for it. We're in no particular danger,that's one comfort!"
"Let us climb higher up on to the rocks, and perhaps we may find someplace a little out of the rain," proposed Myfanwy.
After considerable hunting about, they did at last come upon a ledgethat shelved over so as to form a kind of cave; and creeping underneath,they squatted as close together as they could.
They were feeling the very reverse of jolly. It seemed anything butdelightful to be sitting in a cramped position, wet through, without thechance of a meal, and with the prospect of spending perhaps the wholenight in such unenviable surroundings.
"I'd give a great deal to be back in the classroom, learning my Germanprep.!" groaned Dora.
"I suppose an adventure never feels nice at the time," said Myfanwy.
"No. I can't help suspecting that Stanley, and Shackleton, and all theexplorers didn't enjoy the fun of the thing until they got home andwrote books about it," agreed Aldred.
"It sounds so thrilling when you read it," continued Myfanwy; "but whenyou're cold and wet and hungry, it takes the romance away."
"I wish we hadn't eaten all our sweets," lamented Phoebe; "I'm simplystarving!"
It had grown rapidly dusk; there was not even light enough to see theirwatches, but they calculated that the time must be about half-past six.They were not sure when the tide would be at the full, nor how soon itwould go down again sufficiently to enable them to cross on to themainland.
"We certainly can't stumble over these rocks in the dark," said Aldred."Unless there's a moon, we're fixed here until morning."
"I can't remember whether there's a moon or not," sighed Dora. "The sundoesn't rise particularly early either--not until about six, I believe."
"What will they be thinking at the Grange?" said Myfanwy, whose tearswere beginning to wander slowly down her cheeks at the misery of theprospect in store.
As to that, no one liked to hazard a guess. In all the annals of theschool it had never been recorded that any girls had been lost before;and they knew that Miss Drummond must be in a fever of anxiety on theiraccount. The rain kept on steadily, and the time passed by slowly--veryslowly; the long hours seemed interminable. It was most forlorn andwretched to sit crouched under the rock, with the dripping rain beatingin upon their wet clothes, listening to the sound of the water dashingbelow them.
FOUR UNHAPPY TRUANTS]
"It's like a horrible nightmare," said Phoebe. "I wish I could wakeup, and find myself in my own bed in No. 5!"
"It's so much worse now it's dark," groaned Aldred.
She was in a very dejected frame of mind, and would have burst outsobbing like a baby if she had not been too proud. Her friends were alsoin low spirits, and did not keep up their usual flow of jokes andchatter. All four snuggled as close together as they could, to keep oneanother warm, and sat silent, listening to the waves and the rain, tillkind Mother Nature sent merciful sleep, and for a while at least theywere able to forget their troubles.
Aldred had a long and confusing dream. She thought that she saw Mabel indanger of drowning, and that she plunged boldly into the sea, swameasily to her aid, and brought her back to shore amid the cheers of theschool; and that Mabel was saying: "I knew you would come to the rescue.It's not the first time you have done a heroic deed!"
She woke with a start. The words seemed so clear, she could almostbelieve Mabel had really spoken them. Certainly she had done nothingparticularly heroic that day; indeed, her conscience told her that shewas mainly responsible for that unpleasant adventure. It was she who hadbegged the others to leave the post office, and urged them to go downthe promenade and along the pier. But for her it would not have occurredto them to break bounds; they would have waited until Blanche and Fredareturned, walked straight back to school, and considered that they hadhad an enjoyable afternoon, without transgressing rules. None of them,however, had accused her of this. They appeared perfectly ready to takethe full blame--indeed, they had hinted that, as a new girl, she wouldprobably escape the consequences of the escapade more easily than they.
"After all, it's mostly their fault, for they'd no need to come, even ifI asked them," she decided hastily. "I'm not bound to explain everythingand get into extra trouble. No one is likely to ask who suggested it."
She tried to stretch her cramped limbs, and felt so stiff that it waspain to move. But it was worse to remain in the same position; so,making an effort, she dragged herself up, and crept out from under therock. The rain had stopped, and a full moon was shining outside, soclearly that she was able to consult her watch and ascertain that it wasa little after ten o'clock. She roused the others immediately.
"Look--look!" she cried, shaking them eagerly. "It's bright moonlight!The tide will have gone down. We must try to get on to the sands atonce."
Yawning and stretching, the girls emerged from the cave. It wassufficiently light for them to see their way over the rocks, so they setoff without further delay in the direction of the shore. They were nowable to cross easily at the place where the channel had stretched a fewhours earlier, and found themselves, after a considerable amount ofscrambling, on the beach at the farther side of the promontory.
It was the queerest walk home that they had ever experienced. Sands aregenerally associated with blue sky and bright sunshine, and those seemedvery eerie and weird and strange in the moonlight, with the deep, darkshadows under the c
liffs, and the sea gleaming silver in the distance.With one consent they took each others' arms. Aldred certainly did notfeel sufficiently courageous to walk alone; moreover, she was tired, andcould contrive to lean upon both Phoebe and Myfanwy, who were kindenough to pull her along without remonstrance.
The sands on this part of the shore were not very firm, and the girls'feet sank with every step, while they stumbled now and then over stonesor clumps of seaweed. It took a long time to cover the three miles toBirkwood; the distance seemed twice as far as it would have done by day,and they were thankful when at last they found the path which they knewled up the cliffs to the Grange.
There was a light in the house; they could see it gleaming when theywere still quite far off, and it seemed to hold out a promise of foodand rest. As they opened the gate, the gardener's wife came running outof the lodge. She gave a shriek at the sight of them, and rushedstraight up the drive to tell the news: and the four had barely arrivedat the door before Miss Drummond herself came hurrying to meet them.
"Girls! Girls! Where have you been?" she cried, with such a look on herpale face that they realized for the first time what she must havesuffered during all the hours of that anxious night.
Freda and Blanche (as the girls had supposed), not finding them at thepost office, had imagined that they must have started home, and hadreturned without them. They had been greatly dismayed, when they arrivedat the Grange, to discover that the four had not come back. Theyreported their absence at once, and a teacher started for Chetbourne, totry to find them. When darkness fell, and they were still missing, MissDrummond, in the greatest alarm, applied to the police, and bands ofsearchers were looking for them in various quarters. It had never struckanybody that they could have gone on the steamer to Sandsend, which layin the opposite direction to Chetbourne.
The four truants were very glad indeed of the hot baths and basins ofbread and milk that were waiting for them. They did not equallyappreciate doses of camphor, but did not dare to remonstrate, being onlytoo thankful that Miss Drummond had forborne as yet to scold. ThePrincipal's chief object was to get them to bed, and to ward off anyrisk of colds or rheumatism that might follow their many hours ofexposure in wet clothes. Fortunately, her prompt measures had thedesired effect, and no evil consequences ensued. The girls were allowedto sleep late the next morning, and when they arrived downstairs seemedquite free from all aches, pains, coughs, sneezes, and other suspicioussymptoms. They were in dire disgrace, however, for now that MissDrummond was reassured as to their health, she turned her attention totheir conduct.
"I'm most dreadfully sorry about it," said Mabel to Aldred that evening."You see, Miss Drummond has always trusted us so entirely at the Grange,and this is the first time anybody has ever gone out of bounds. She saysit shakes her confidence in us. I'm afraid she'll stop all exeats forthe Lower School. Of course, I know it wasn't your fault. You're a newgirl, and how could you tell we weren't allowed on the promenade? Youonly went where the others took you. You'd no idea you were breaking therules, had you?"
Aldred was brushing her teeth at the moment, therefore a grunt was heronly means of reply. Mabel took it as the required denial.
"I was sure you hadn't," she declared triumphantly. "A girl who can dosuch splendid things always lives up to them. It was a mean trick toplay on Blanche and Freda, when they had invited you all for a walk, butI was certain you weren't capable of it. Naturally, you're ready to takeyour share of the scolding (I shouldn't have tried to get out of thatmyself); but I'm so glad that I, at any rate, know you don't reallydeserve it!"