But here Mrs. Davenport"s remarks, which had been wafted along in gusts, died away in the distance as she departed down the pasture to inspect the hen-coops, and hint broadly for the gift of a couple of young pullets, "for yours are such an excellent breed, dear Miss Vaughan, and such capital winter layers. I shall only be too delighted to add them to my stock, since you are so kind as to offer them, though really I am afraid you will think I never come to the Abbey without taking something away with me."
Which was exactly what Aunt Helen did think, though she was too polite to say so, for Mrs. Davenport was well known to have an extreme partiality for presents, perhaps considering them as only her due in exchange for so much good advice.
The children looked at one another with rather long faces.
"I had no idea she was there," said Bobby in an awe-struck whisper, "or we would have run away to the orchard. You don"t think Father would really be likely to get us that governess, do you?"--the horrible possibility of the lady, still energetic, though no longer young, and evidently capable of so much in the way of discipline, quite casting a gloom over his youthful spirits.
"No, no," said Peggy hurriedly; "he can"t afford it. That"s one comfort in not being well off, at any rate. And you know he said Lilian was to do the housekeeping. Oh, I don"t think he would like that kind of a governess any better than we should ourselves--" privately hoping that Father"s notions of self-sacrifice would not make him see fit to inflict so great a penance on himself and his family.
But the very idea that such a course had evidently been suggested made the children uneasy, and kept them for several days at a pitch of sedate behaviour calculated to calm down Aunt Helen"s possible fears for their future welfare, and to render unnecessary the criticism of the most faithful and interfering of friends.
Perhaps it was the natural reaction arising from this very unwonted state of affairs, or merely the desire to keep as much as possible out of the way of afternoon callers, that put it into Peggy"s head one close, sultry afternoon that they should go and explore a cave which lay on the river at no great distance from the Abbey meadows.
That such a cave existed the children knew well, for Joe had once been inside, and had told them wonderful stories of smugglers in bygone days, and of kegs of brandy, and bales of silk and lace, and boxes of tea and tobacco, which were still supposed to be hidden in its depths, only waiting for some enterprising spirit to discover their hiding-place and bring them to light again.
"And I don"t see why _we_ shouldn"t find them as well as anybody else,"
said Peggy with enthusiasm. "Just think of yards and yards of silk as stiff as paper, and old French lace, all yellow with age! We shouldn"t care about the brandy, but Father and David would like the tobacco, and Mrs. Davis and old Ephraim should have some of the tea. And we might find money, too. Smugglers always had bags of money--spade guineas, you know, and Spanish doubloons, and all those kinds of things you read about in books."
Having a very shrewd suspicion that Father and Aunt Helen might not approve of such an escapade, Peggy took care not to mention her plans, and the children started off, feeling like a pair of conspirators, with the stable-lantern, a few extra pieces of candle, and a box of matches.
At the bottom of the meadows which bounded the Abbey land the river took a sharp turn past a few bold cliffs which rose almost sheer out of the water, and by scrambling along the rocks at the base it was possible to get round this headland and reach the low entrance of the cave, which was raised only a few feet above the level of the river.
The mouth was overgrown with hazel-bushes and brambles and long, trailing twines of ivy, and it seemed to the children as if no foot but theirs had disturbed it for a long time. Peggy looked at Bobby, and Bobby looked at Peggy, and I think each felt just a little inclined to hang back, though neither would have confessed it for worlds; then, with the solemn air of a Guy Fawkes, Peggy lighted the lantern, and boldly plunged into the darkness, with Bobby following particularly closely at her elbow. At first the entrance was rather narrow and low, but it soon broadened out until the roof was ten feet or more above their heads. The sides of the rocky walls bulged out into irregular shelves, covered in parts with moss, and moist and clammy with slowly-dripping water.
"Those will be the smugglers" cupboards that Joe spoke about," said Peggy, flashing the lantern into every nook and cranny, but with no success, for there was never a sign of a box of tea or a keg of brandy to be seen.
The air was close and damp, and their footsteps raised strange echoes as they went, and loud voices seemed so out of place that, with one accord, the children spoke in whispers.
"O-o-gh! something soft flapped in my face then!" exclaimed Bobby.
Peggy held up the lantern over her head, and a number of bats, disturbed by the light, dropped from the roof where they had been suspended and whirled round the cave, "cheeping" angrily for some moments, and opening their tiny jaws at the children in quite a threatening manner, till Bobby clapped his hands, and they flew off to find their way into some deeper retreat.
"Come along," said Peggy; "let"s go higher up. There"s nothing to be found here."
Clinging together, the two walked with some caution, and it was well they did so, for the floor of the cave was suddenly interrupted by a chasm, which seemed to have rent the earth in two, and was so deep that they could not see to the bottom. It was spanned by a plank, green with slime and rotten with age, placed there perhaps by the smugglers as a means of retreating to a more secure hiding-place.
Peggy flashed the light over the dark abyss to the still more gloomy depths beyond, but even her foolhardiness did not prompt her to try so perilous a bridge.
"We"ll get Joe to come some time with a new plank, and help us across, and then perhaps we may find something," she said rather hurriedly, in case Bobby might expect her to continue the explorations.
But that hero suggesting that it must be after teatime, she cordially agreed with him, and they began to retrace their steps to the entrance, feeling just a little disappointed, for somehow they had imagined a smugglers" cave would be a jolly, dry sort of a place, with at least a few remains of its former tenants strewn about--a pistol or two, perhaps, or a coil of rope, or a rusty dagger, just sufficient to give an air of romance to the adventure, even if the missing treasure were not forthcoming.
The air seemed to have grown more close and sultry while the children were within the cave, and, just as they reached the mouth, a low, grumbling sound, which they had heard for some time, but not taken much notice of, broke into a crash of thunder that seemed to make the ground shake beneath them, while at the same instant a brilliant streak of lightning flashed zigzag across the sky, lighting up the gloom behind them to its furthest recess.
The storm had broken. Peal after peal of thunder rent the air, echoing in the cavern till Peggy and Bobby clung to one another in terror, while the rain came down in a perfect deluge, with such tropical fury that it seemed as if the very sky were descending. Crouched down on the floor by the entrance, the children waited for the storm to pa.s.s by, wondering at the vivid pink flashes and the size of the hailstones which beat in through the hazel-bushes. A little runnel of water, flowing uncomfortably near, brought Peggy to her feet with a sudden cry.
"Bobby! Bobby! the river is rising, and the rocks are covered. We cannot get round the point to the meadow again!"
It was but too true, for the sudden violence of the storm had swollen the mountain-streams that fed the river, and the once-placid waters were flowing past in a brown, turbulent flood, which seemed to sweep everything along in its course. The stones over which they had scrambled were completely covered, while waves were dashing against the face of the cliff. Here and there a dead sheep or pig drifted by, or a portion of a haystack; a hurdle floating like a raft bore on it a few disconsolate fowls, clucking dismally; while an occasional wash-tub or upturned table showed that the river must have already flooded some of the low-lying cottages higher up on its course.
The children looked at each other with blanched faces.
"We must stay where we are for the present," said Peggy, trying to speak bravely, "and perhaps the water will fall soon, and we shall be able to get home."
But the water did not fall. Each moment it seemed to flow with even swifter current, and to be rising with terrible sureness nearer and nearer the mouth of the cave. It was already growing dusk, and distant rumblings among the hills showed that the storm was still raging over the Welsh border, and sending down its torrents of rain to swell the already overflowing river.
Hungry, and chilly from the damp moisture that oozed down the walls, the poor children sat quietly huddled together watching the cold gray surface of the water, which seemed like some cruel monster ever creeping nearer and nearer to infold them in its treacherous grasp.
"Perhaps Father will guess where we"ve gone, and come for us with a boat," suggested Bobby. "I wish he would be quick. It"s so cold and horrid here, and I want my supper."
"Perhaps he will," replied Peggy, as hopefully as she could, though in her heart of hearts she knew that the cave was about the last place anyone would dream of searching for them.
There was a long silence; then, "It"s getting dark now," said Bobby, "and the water is beginning to wet my feet."
"We must go back into the cave," said Peggy. "We shall be quite dry there, for the ground shelves up. See, I"m going to light the lantern again. What a good thing we brought several pieces of candle!"
The mere effort of having something to do cheered them up a little. They hunted about to find as dry a spot as possible, and put the lantern up upon one of the shelves of rock, so that it should cast as much light as it could around the cave. Then they sat down to wait again, for what seemed to them an eternity of time.
The mouth of the cavern loomed like a great eye, growing gradually fainter and fainter as the daylight faded and the darkness grew outside.
The river flowed by with a dull, roaring sound, and the little channel had risen from the entrance, and began to lap gently on the floor. The moisture dripped from the walls in loud-sounding drops, and the bats had awakened again, and flew to and fro towards the lantern with a soft whir of wings. When the last faint patch of light faded from the opening Bobby"s bravery gave way, and the poor little fellow"s tears chased each other down his cheeks as he crouched in a miserable heap on the damp ground.
"I want to go home!" he wailed. "Why doesn"t Father come to fetch us?
Don"t you think they know where we are?"
Peggy flung her arms round him in an agony of self-reproach.
"Oh, Bobby darling! it"s all my fault, for I made you come, and wouldn"t let you tell where we were going, though you said we ought to ask leave first! Put your head on my shoulder, and try to go to sleep. Perhaps Father may find us after all, or the river will have gone down by morning, and we shall be able to scramble round by the rocks."
"I must say my prayers first. Aunt Helen always comes into my room and hears them last thing before I get into bed."
"Say them with me to-night," said Peggy, with a lump in her throat, as she knelt by his side, thinking that perhaps Aunt Helen, too, was praying at that moment that her dear ones might be safe.
The old, familiar words seemed to have new meaning in them, said in the midst of the darkness and the danger, and the children felt that, though their earthly Father might be seeking far and wide for them in vain, they were known and cared for by "our Father which art in heaven," to whom the darkness is the same as daylight, and in whose sight not even a sparrow falls to the ground unnoticed.
Bobby fell asleep at last, with his head on Peggy"s knee, the sound of his regular breathing mingling strangely with the lap of the water which crept nearer and ever nearer to them up the cave. Many thoughts came to Peggy that night, as she sat watching the light of the lantern flicker upon the rough walls. Father"s reproachful face seemed to rise up out of the darkness, asking "Where is Bobby? What have you done with my little boy?" Good resolutions made, and alas! too often forgotten, crowded in now upon her remembrance, and as she listened to the roar of the river, she thought how strange it would seem that they two, so full of life, might in a few hours be floating very still and silent upon that flowing stream, with the world only a memory behind them. But Peggy had been too much with the Rector to have any fear of death. He, she knew, viewed this life as merely the stepping-stone to a fuller and richer life beyond, and the body as but the worthless husk of the soul, so with a dreamy feeling that somehow Mr. Howell had set the gate of the next world ajar, and allowed some of the glory to steal out and comfort her, the child closed her tired eyes, and slept as quietly as if she had been safe in her bed at home, and the storm and the rushing water nothing but a vision of the night.
She woke with the sound of little lapping waves, to find that the water had risen higher, and now formed a deep pool on the floor of the cave, reaching almost to their feet. The candle had burnt low in the lantern, and even as she looked it gave a last flicker, and guttered out, leaving her in utter darkness. With trembling fingers, Peggy felt in her pocket for the remaining piece of candle and the box of matches. She tried to strike a light, but the match was damp, and fizzled away without igniting. A second and a third met with the same fate, and Peggy was in a panic of despair, until she remembered that Father had once told her to rub damp matches through her hair before striking them. This method proved a success, and she was able to relight the lantern, laying Bobby gently down on the floor, hoping he might not wake.
But the movement disturbed him, and he sprang to his feet, calling: "Father, is that you? We"re here, in the cave!"
"It"s not Father yet, dear; only me lighting the lantern again."
"I was dreaming that it was morning," said Bobby, rubbing his eyes, "and that Father had come to fetch us away in a boat."
"I think it will be morning soon," said Peggy. "We seem to have slept for a long time. Bobby, dear, the water is rising so fast that I don"t think we shall be able to stay here much longer, but I have a plan which I think we might perhaps carry out. Joe told me that people say the cave was really only the entrance to a secret pa.s.sage which runs to the Abbey, and in the old days the smugglers used to carry their goods up there, and hide them away amongst the ruins. We must try and cross by that plank, and see if there is really any possible opening, except by the river."
Anything seemed better than sitting still in the darkness watching the growing water, so the children went up the cave again to where the chasm lay yawning across their path.
"We mustn"t try to walk over it," said Peggy, as she doubtfully examined the slippery, shaky plank. "I shall crawl over first with the lantern, and then I"ll hold the light for you, and you must follow in the same way."