"But you"ll be afraid to sleep there all alone."
"Oh, no, I shan"t! Mademoiselle offered to send Hunter--she"s generally told off for hospital duty--but I said I"d rather not have her. I"m not a sc.r.a.p ill; it"s only my head."
"And Mademoiselle"s idiotic nonsense! I never heard of such a silly notion as to pack you off there! She"s absolutely mad!"
"Well, it can"t be helped. There"s no one to appeal to. Mademoiselle is as much in authority, I suppose, as Miss Forster, or Miss Bardsley, or anybody else."
"The school seems lost without Miss Drummond."
Feeling decidedly a martyr, Mabel, taking the various possessions she needed for the night, marched upstairs to the hospital.
"If it"s anything catchable I"ll catch it too!" Aldred called after her.
"You"re not to be ill up there without me! You may choose measles, or scarlatina, or anything you like; I"m quite agreeable, so long as I can have a share in it!"
"It"s for Mademoiselle to decide the complaint to-morrow!" laughed Mabel, already half-way down the pa.s.sage. "I don"t mind what it is, so long as she doesn"t declare it"s suppressed smallpox, and have me re-vaccinated as a precaution. Good night!"
Aldred felt injured and aggrieved at her room-mate"s banishment. It was really very tiresome and unnecessary of Mademoiselle to have insisted upon it.
"She"s a Jack-in-office!" thought Aldred. "If she were head of the school, I should ask to be taken away. How particularly slow and stupid it is without Mabel! She"s forgotten her bedroom slippers, by the by. I wonder if I dare take them up to her? On the whole, I think I"d better not; I suppose she"ll manage without them."
It was a warm evening, and light until very late. Aldred undressed leisurely, and took a last delicious sniff at the roses that framed her window before she jumped into bed. She was tired, and dropped asleep almost immediately, falling into a confused dream, in which Mabel and Mademoiselle and measles were hopelessly mixed. The doctor had come to see Mabel, and had prescribed a huge bottle of nasty medicine, labelled "Two quarts to be taken every two hours". He was coming again, and was ring-ring-ringing at the front-door bell. Why did not one of the servants go to the door? And why was Mademoiselle sounding the gong? It was not dinner-time yet. Would n.o.body stop her? It would make Mabel"s headache worse. In her dream, Aldred rushed downstairs, and tried to hold Mademoiselle"s arm; but the clanging grew louder and louder, and with a start she awoke and sat up in her bed, half-awake.
The noise was actual fact. Somebody downstairs was hammering the gong, with frantic, jarring strokes; while the big bell that rang for cla.s.ses was clanging l.u.s.tily. There was a curious smell in the air, very different from the scent of the roses outside; and there was also a ruddy light, surely neither that of the moon nor of the rising sun.
Before Aldred had time to do more than rub her eyes, hurried footsteps resounded along the pa.s.sage, her door was flung open, and a voice cried: "Fire! Come at once!"
The girls at Birkwood had been trained in fire drill, and Aldred knew immediately what she must do. Her heart was beating quickly, and her hands were trembling, but she flung on her dressing-gown, slipped her feet into her slippers, seized a pocket-handkerchief and dipped it in the bedroom jug (all the work of three seconds), and dashed without further delay down the stairs.
The landing and hall were filled with dense clouds of choking smoke. To get to the front door was like pa.s.sing through the mouth of a cannon, and Aldred felt almost suffocated before she reached the fresh air. In the garden several agitated teachers were trying to review an even more panic-stricken crowd of girls and servants. Mademoiselle was sobbing hysterically, and though all the teachers were striving each to number her own flock, they kept getting in one another"s way, and missing count and having to begin again. n.o.body seemed responsible, or in command. The gardener rushed about distractedly with buckets of water, a.s.suring everyone that he had sent for the fire brigade from Chetbourne. The servants shrieked and wailed, and neighbours who came running from various farms and cottages on the downs only added to the general noise and confusion.
From one of the windows of the upper story flames were bursting, throwing a red glare over the garden. By this livid light Aldred pushed her way among the excited, jostling girls, scanning each face, and asking one constantly reiterated question: "Where"s Mabel?"
n.o.body knew. n.o.body seemed to have noticed, in the general confusion, that she was not with them.
"Where"s Mabel?" Aldred"s voice was frantic with alarm.
"Isn"t she with you?" asked Miss Bardsley wildly. "I opened your door and called you both. Oh, girls, if you would only keep together, I could tell if you were all here!"
"She was sleeping in the hospital!" cried Aldred, disregarding the teacher"s request, and tearing away to interrogate Mademoiselle--a vain errand, for the unfortunate French governess had fallen in a dead faint upon the gra.s.s.
Aldred grasped the fact only too speedily that there was but one terrible answer to her question. _Mabel was in the burning house, for n.o.body had gone to warn her!_ Without a moment"s hesitation, she rushed back to the front door. There was no alternative; the emergency was all-compelling. Mabel was in imminent and pressing danger; no one realized it, or had even missed her, and there was no time to appeal to Miss Forster or Miss Bardsley. She, Aldred, alone and on her own responsibility, must save her friend. There was not a second to be lost; already it might be too late, for the blaze was fast making headway.
From the open door clouds of smoke belched forth as if from a furnace, and Aldred was driven back with blinded eyes choking and gasping for breath. It was her own fault. How stupid she was to forget, in her excitement, what she had learnt at the fire-drill practice! Her dripping pocket-handkerchief was still clasped, almost unconsciously, in her hand; she tied it rapidly over her nose and mouth, then, dropping on to her hands and knees, she began to crawl along the hall in the direction of the staircase. The difference was marvellous. Down on the ground the air was comparatively fresh and clear--she could see the bottom of the umbrella stand and a pair of Miss Drummond"s goloshes quite plainly; while only a foot higher the atmosphere was dense and impenetrable. The wet handkerchief also made breathing easier, and though her eyes were smarting and the heat was very great, she found it quite possible to get along. With half-closed eyelids, and her mouth well to the floor, she crept up the stairs; each one seemed a victory gained, and a step nearer to the accomplishment of her purpose. Oh, how many there were, and how interminable was the pa.s.sage at the top! The heat grew more intense, and a roaring, crackling sound warned her that she was reaching the west wing, where the flames were raging worst and had burst through the windows.
The hospital was on the top story, so there was another staircase to be mounted. Dared she do it? Every fresh step cut off her retreat, and put another bar between herself and safety. Yet Mabel was there, solitary, unaided, in the midst of awful peril. No, she could not abandon her, come what might! She would face death with her friend, rather than leave her to perish alone.
She never remembered quite how she dragged herself along; her nerves were strung to the highest pitch, her brain felt bursting. The room she was in search of was over the kitchen, where the fire had originally broken out. Fortunately, it was a little clearer there, and Aldred was able to stand up; and by groping her way along the walls, she found the handle and flung open the door of the hospital.
"Mabel! Mabel!" she cried vehemently.
There was no reply. The room was filled with smoke, but the glare outside made just enough light to distinguish objects.
"Mabel! Are you there? Mabel!"
Aldred was in an agony of apprehension. There were several beds in the hospital, and she ran from one to the other, feeling in them with eager hands. They were empty. Had she, after all, come on a vain quest? Mabel must have heard the alarm bell, and have escaped and joined the others in the garden! Aldred"s heart almost stopped beating, as for a moment the horror of the situation overcame her. Her search was quixotic, fruitless--she had risked her life for nothing! She moved instinctively to clutch a bedpost to steady herself, and as she did so her foot touched something soft. With a cry she dropped upon her knees. Mabel was lying on the floor just by the bedside, where she must have fallen, overpowered by the smoke, in an effort to make her way to the door.
With frantic hands Aldred dragged her friend across the room, and by sheer effort of will hoisted her up, so that her head might reach the open window. It was a task far beyond her ordinary powers, but in such moments a strength not our own is often given to us. The fresh air soon restored consciousness, and Mabel, to Aldred"s intense relief, opened her eyes.
"What is it? Where am I?" she asked confusedly.
"The house is on fire, dear, and I don"t know how we are to save ourselves. Stay where you are, and go on getting the air; I"m going to see if we can manage to get back down the pa.s.sage."
Directly Aldred opened the door she realized that escape in that quarter was impossible. A roaring sound and a glare at the end of the landing told her only too plainly that the staircase had broken into flames.
She shut the door again hurriedly, and, returning to the window, shouted with all her might. Would anybody hear, and if so, could they help? The Fire Brigade had not yet arrived from Chetbourne, and it was unlikely that there would be any ladder about the place long enough to reach to the top story of the house.
"Help! Help! Hallo!" Her voice sounded so thin and weak, compared with the crackling of the flames, she feared it would not carry far enough.
Mabel, still in a half-dazed state, clung to her wildly, trembling and shivering with terror.
Would no one ever come? They were all watching the front of the house, and had completely forgotten the back.
At last! There was a shout from below, and a sudden rushing and noise, as the ever-increasing crowd poured round the corner.
"Fetch a ladder!"
"It"s too short!"
"Tie two together!"
"There aren"t two!"
"Tell them to jump!"
"No! No! They"d break their necks!"
"Someone go in and fetch "em!"
"Impossible! The stairs are ablaze!"
"Does anyone hear the engine coming?"
"Not a sign of it yet."
"Then G.o.d help them, for we can"t!"
The room was getting hotter and hotter. Aldred could hear the roar of the flames in the pa.s.sage now. How long would the door keep them out? It was plain that, unless both girls were to perish, something must be done, and that instantly. Disengaging Mabel"s clinging arms, Aldred propped her against the window-sill, then groped her way through the dense smoke across the room. The six beds in the hospital were always kept made up, perfectly ready for use. Aldred pulled off the twelve sheets one after the other, and carried them in a bundle back to the window, where, with trembling hands, she knotted them firmly together, just as Miss Drummond had shown in the fire-drill practice. She dragged forward the nearest bedstead till its foot almost touched the sill, and, fastening her improvised rope round a post, pulled it hard, to make sure that the knot was safe.
"Mabel," she said loudly, "we must try the sheet dodge. I"m going to lower you down. Let me tie this end round your waist, quick!"
"No! No!" cried Mabel, who had somewhat recovered her scattered senses.
"I"ll lower you! I"m the bigger, and stronger than you. Here, give me the end!"