CHAPTER XX
THE QUEER NOISE
Freddie Bobbsey sat down with a thump. Flossie Bobbsey sat down with abump. This was after they had fallen down the queer hole. And yet it hadnot been so much of a fall as it was a slide.
Both of them being fat and plump--much fatter and plumper since they hadcome to Twin Camp than before--the thump and the bump did not hurt themvery much.
They had slid down into the hole on a sort of hill of sand, and if youhave ever slid down a sandy hillside you know the stopping part doesn'thurt very much. And, after all, the part of a fall that hurts, as theIrishman said, is not really the falling, it's the stopping so suddenlythat causes the pain.
"Freddie! Freddie!" called Flossie, a few seconds after she and herlittle brother had fallen down the hole. "Freddie, are you there?"
"Yep, I'm here, Flossie," was Freddie's answer, "only I dunno 'xactlywhere it is. I can't see."
"Nor me neither. But are you been hurted, Freddie?"
"No, are you?"
The children were forgetting all about the right way to use words, whichtheir mother had so often told them, but as they were excited, and alittle frightened, perhaps we must excuse them this time.
"I--I just sort of--of bumped myself, Flossie," said Freddie. "Are youall right? And where are you?"
"I'm right here," replied the little girl, "but I can't see you.I--I----It's awful dark, Freddie!"
"I can see a little light now," Freddie went on. "Let's get up and seeif we can crawl back. My legs are all right."
"So's mine, Freddie. I guess I can----" and then Flossie suddenlystopped and gave a scream.
"What's the matter?" asked Freddie, and the little boy's voice was notquite steady.
"I--I touched something!" gasped his sister. "It was something soft andfuzzy."
"Oh, was that you?" asked Freddie, and his voice did not sound sofrightened now. "Well, that was my head you touched. I--I thought maybeit was something--something after me. I didn't know you were so close tome, Flossie."
"I didn't either. But I'm glad I touched you. Where's your hand. I'msort of stuck in this sand and I can't get up."
By this time the eyes of both the children had become more used to thedarkness of the place into which they had fallen, and they could dimlysee one another. Freddie scrambled to his feet, shaking from his waistand trousers the sand that had partly filled them when he had slid downthe incline, and gave his hand to Flossie. She had about as much sandinside her clothes as he had, and she shook this out. Both children thenturned and looked up at the slide down which they had so suddenlyfallen.
Up at the top--and very far up it seemed to them--they could see, at theend of the sandy slide where they had started to slip, a hole throughwhich they had fallen. It was between two big stones, and had a largebush on either side. It had been covered with grass and bushes so thatthe small twins had not seen it until they stepped right into it. Thenthe grass and bushes had given way, letting the children down.
"We--we've got to get back up there--somehow," said Freddie with adoleful sigh, as he looked at the place down which he and his sister hadtumbled.
"Yes, I would like to get up out of here," said Flossie, "but how canwe, Freddie?"
"Climb up, same as we falled down. Come on."
Taking his sister by the hand, Freddie started to climb up the hill ofsand. But he and Flossie soon found that though it was easy enough toslide down, it was not so easy to climb back. The sand slipped fromunder their feet, and even though they tried to go up on their hands andknees it was not to be done.
"Oh, dear!" cried Flossie after a while, "I wish we were Jack andJill."
"Why?" asked Freddie.
"'Cause they went up a hill, an' we can't."
"Maybe we can if we try again," said Freddie. "Anyhow, I don't want tobe Jack, and fall down and break my crown."
"You haven't any crown," said Flossie. "Only kings an'--an' fairies havecrowns."
"Well, it says in the book that Jack has a crown; an' if I was Jack I'dhave one too. Only I'm not and I'm glad!"
"Well, I wish I was Jill, so I could have some of that pail of water,"sighed Flossie. "I'm firsty," and she laughed as she used the word sheused to say when she was a baby.
"So'm I," said Freddie. "Let's try to get up to the top, an' then we canget a drink, maybe. Only I'd rather be Ali Baba than Jack, then I couldsay, 'Open Sesame,' and the door to the cave would open of itself, andwe could walk out and carry diamonds and gold with us."
"I'd rather have bread and butter than gold. I'm hungry. And I'd mostrather have a drink," sighed the little girl. "Come on, Freddie, let'stry to get up that hill. But it's awful hard work."
"Yes, it's hard," agreed Freddie; "but we've done lots harder thingsthan that." You see, Freddie was trying to keep up his little sister'scourage.
Once more the two little twins tried to climb the hill of shifting sand,but they could get up only a little way before slipping back. They didnot get hurt--the sand was too soft and slippery for that, but they weretired and hot, and, oh! so thirsty.
"I'm not goin' to climb any more!" finally said Flossie. "I'm tired! I'mgoin' to stay here until mamma or papa or Nan or Bert comes for us."
"Maybe they won't come," Freddie said.
"Yes, they will," declared Flossie, shaking her head. "They allers comeswhen we're lost and we're losted now."
"Yes, I guess so," agreed Freddie. "I wonder where we are anyhow,Flossie?"
"Why, in a big hole," she said. "Oh, Freddie!" she suddenly cried,"maybe we can get out the other way if we can't climb up."
"Which other way?" asked her brother.
"Out there," and in the light that came down the hole through which thetwins had fallen Freddie could see his sister pointing to what seemedanother dim light, far away at the end of the big hole. For Flossie andFreddie had fallen into a big hole--there was no doubt of that. Thoughit was pretty dark all about them, there was enough light for them tosee that they were in a cavern.
"Maybe it's a cave, like the one we went into from the lake when wefound the boat," said Flossie, after thinking it over a bit, "and if wecan't get out one end we can the other."
"Maybe!" cried Freddie eagerly. "Anyway, we can't get up that hill ofsand," and he pointed to the one down which they had slid. "Come on,we'll walk toward the other light."
Far away, through what seemed a long lane of blackness, there was a dimlight, like some big star, and toward this, hoping it would lead to ahole through which they could get out, the children walked.
As they neared it the light grew brighter, and they were beginning tofeel that their troubles were over when suddenly they both came to astop.
For, at the same time, they had heard a queer noise. It came from thedarkness just ahead of them and was such a funny sound that Flossie putboth her arms around Freddie, not so much to take care of him as thatshe wanted him to take care of her.
"Did--did you hear that?" she whispered.
Freddie nodded his head, and then, remembering that Flossie could notvery well see his motions in the darkness he said:
"Yes, I heard it. I wonder----"
"Hark!" whispered Flossie. "There it goes again!"