THE MORNING AFTER THE STORM
NOT often was the little village of Holton in such a ferment
of excitement as on the morning following the storm. As soon as the
first faint gleams of day-break brightened the eastern sky, several
fishermen assembled on the beach and strained their eyes in the
direction of the Pope's Nose to ascertain what had become of the
wreck. It was seen immediately that the ill-fated vessel had broken
up during the night; the sea, which had calmed down considerably,
was strewed with wreckage; and very soon the scene on the shore was
a busy one, as the fishermen ran their boats into the water, and
commenced collecting whatever salvage they could lay their hands
upon.
By eight o'clock quite a crowd was watching the proceedings,
including the captain of the lost schooner and the sailors who had
been so mercifully preserved from a watery grave. Granfer Cole was
there also, no worse for the drenching he had received the preceding
night; and Miss Tidy hovered about, first gossiping with one, then
with another, till it was time for her to hurry home and open the
post-office to the public. Then Sir Richard Gidley with Ruth, closely
followed by Nero, were seen approaching. Nothing had been known of
the wreck at the Manor House till the morning, when the postman, the
first corner from the village, had brought the news. Sir Richard had
started for Holton at once with his grand-daughter, who had begged to
be allowed to accompany him. The little girl had been thrown a great
deal with her grandfather during her brother's illness; she had grown
to know him better, and had lost her fear of him; whilst he, from at
first tolerating her society, had actually grown to appreciate it.
The first enquiries Sir Richard made when he appeared in the midst
of the villagers were for the shipwrecked crew. Immediately the
captain of the lost vessel came forward, and gave him a brief account
of the perils undergone during the preceding night. Sir Richard's
eyes glowed as he listened to the story, so gratefully told, of how
the doctor and his volunteers had gone out, at the imminent risk of
their lives, to the doomed ship, for he dearly loved to hear of a
brave deed; but he made no remark, although everyone saw he was
deeply moved.
Meanwhile Dick had started to walk to the Manor House. Great was his
disappointment, when he arrived there, at the absence of his
grandfather and Ruth; but he found Mrs. Compton and Lionel in the
dining-room, and poured the story of his experiences the night before
into their ears.
"How I wish I had been there!" Lionel exclaimed. He was lying on a
sofa, and his mother had been reading to him. "What a nuisance it is
to have a game leg, to be sure! If there's anything exciting going on
I'm certain to be out of the way! We could hear the sea roaring last
night—grandfather said it was a ground swell; and I was simply
longing to be down on the beach, although we knew nothing whatever
about the wreck. You were in luck's way, Dick!"
"It was awful!" Dick responded impressively. "I never wish to see
a storm again! The waves were like great mountains of foam, and the
wind almost blew us off our feet, and made us gasp for breath!"
"How brave of Dr. Warren to go out to the wreck!" Mrs. Compton
exclaimed. "Now, I call him a real hero!"
Dick looked delighted, especially when Lionel added his word of
praise by saying heartily,—
"Dr. Warren's a very good sort! I shall never forget how awfully kind
he's been to me, and I'm not a bit surprised that he showed up so
well last night!"
By and by Sir Richard and Ruth returned. The latter was so full of
chatter that her mother had to ask her to allow some one else an
opportunity of speaking; and seeing her grandfather was regarding her
with a disapproving frown on his face, the little girl sat down at
the foot of her brother's sofa, and lapsed into silence.
"The storm has done a great deal of damage along the coast," Sir
Richard informed his daughter. "The east cliff was washed right away
last night."
"Washed right away!" Mrs. Compton echoed wonderingly. "What terrible
force the waves must have had! I should have thought the east cliff
would have withstood any storm!"
"I wish I could go and look!" Lionel cried impatiently. "If only my
leg was well enough for me to get about!"
"You should be thankful it is as well as it is," his grandfather
reminded him gravely.
"Oh, I am," Lionel answered quickly, flushing under the gaze of Sir
Richard's reproving eyes; "but it's such a pity to be shut out of all
the fun! Did you know the east cliff was washed away, Dick?"
"No," was the reply; "I never heard of the east cliff before."
"It was that high cliff which jutted out into the sea at high tide,
forming a headland on the east from Holton," explained Sir Richard.
"Oh, yes; I've often been round that cliff looking for the secret
passage," Dick answered, "but I did not know what it was called
before. Is it quite washed away, grandfather?"
"Quite. The headland has disappeared altogether, making the line of
cliffs almost straight."
Presently Sir Richard asked his daughter to accompany him into the
garden to see the havoc the storm had worked there. The minute after
they had left the room, Ruth's busy tongue began to chatter.
"Much good all our fine plans were for finding the secret passage!"
she exclaimed. "I believe you boys thought you'd be sure to discover
it!"
"We must have been near the entrances scores of times!" Lionel cried
vexedly. "It would have been something to have been proud of if we
had been successful in finding it!"
"I don't know," Dick responded; "I haven't thought so much about it
lately—not since you were shot. That put it quite out of my head."
"Oh, but think how people would have talked about us if we had found
the secret passage!" said Lionel, who set great store on public
opinion. "I daresay it would have been put in the newspaper!"
"Well, they put all about your accident in the newspaper," Ruth
reminded her brother. "I heard grandfather read it out to Susan
Morecombe. It was headed in big print—'A Terrible Gun Accident,'
and it said—"
"You've told me about that before," Lionel interposed hastily,
mindful that the newspaper account had spoken of his ignorance
of fire-arms, and desirous of hearing no more on that score; "you're
such a magpie that you're bound to repeat the same things over and
over again."
There was a little further conversation, and then Dick declared he
must be going, for Aunt Mary Ann would expect him home in good time
for the mid-day meal. Ruth suggested walking a short way with him,
so after Dick had taken a farewell of Lionel and promised to come
again shortly, and had found his aunt and grandfather in the garden,
and had said good-bye to them, the two children started off together.
On reaching the lodge, Dick remarked to Ruth that she had better
retrace her footsteps, but she elected to accompany him a little
further; and he discovered her reason for doing so when she pulled
him up at a gateway on one side of the road, and pointed to a small
grey donkey complacently munching the fresh green herbage in the
field within.
"That donkey belongs to an old woman who goes about selling
scrubbing-sand," Ruth informed her cousin; "he's having a holiday now
because his mistress is laid up with rheumatism. He's quite tame, and
so good-tempered! Here, Neddy, Neddy!" And the little girl extended
her hand coaxingly through the bars of the gate.
The donkey promptly came up to them, and submitted to have his face
stroked, and his ears pulled softly, evidently pleased and flattered
by these attentions.
"He knows me quite well," Ruth said; "I've often noticed him before.
Wouldn't you like to have a ride on his back, Dick?"
"Without a saddle?" Dick asked somewhat doubtfully. "I don't believe
I could stick on."
"Oh, yes, I'm sure you could!" she assured him. "It's much easier
than you think! I tried yesterday—there was no one about—and it
was not at all difficult."
The children climbed the gate, which was locked, and dropped into the
field. Neddy threw up his heels, and scampered a way from them; but
he was soon encouraged to return, and Dick caught him around the
neck.
"Now, you hold him whilst I get up," Ruth commanded.
"All right!" Dick replied.
After several ineffectual attempts to jump upon Neddy's back, the
little girl at length accomplished the difficult feat. She sat
sideways, bolt upright, scarcely daring to move lest she should slip
off, but triumphant and smiling.
"He's the steadiest old donkey I know!" she cried gaily. "There! See
how easy it is! Let him go now, Dick! Gee up, Neddy!"
The donkey paced solemnly around the field to Ruth's intense
enjoyment. Suddenly he paused, seemed to think matters over, and then
began to kick. Ruth uttered a shrill scream as she was pitched into a
bramble-bush in the hedgerow; and Dick rushed towards her with a
wildly beating heart, and a face from which all the colour had fled.
"Oh, Ruth, are you hurt?" he cried, as he assisted her to get up, and
disentangled her skirts from the brambles. He gazed with dismay at a
scratch on her cheek, and another on her nose, and tenderly wiped
away the blood with his own handkerchief. "Oh, I'm afraid you are
hurt!"
For a few minutes Ruth scarcely realised what her injuries were, but
after she had given herself a shake which appeared to reassure her,
she declared herself unharmed except for her scratched face.
"I'm sure I don't know what they'll say at the Manor House!" she
exclaimed dolefully. "That wretched donkey! And I thought him so
good-tempered! Do I look an awful sight?"
"Well, yes, you look pretty bad!" Dick answered truthfully.
"Oh dear! Lionel's sure to laugh at me! He always does whenever he
gets a chance! I shall never have anything to do with Neddy again,
and I meant to bring him some carrots to-morrow!"
The donkey had retreated to a distance, where he was calmly nibbling
the grass. Ruth cast a resentful glance in his direction, but wisely
took no further notice of him. The children climbed over the gate,
and stood talking a few minutes in the road before they parted.
"What are you going to do this afternoon?" Ruth enquired.
"I think I shall go down on the beach and see what has happened
to the cliffs," Dick replied.
"Perhaps I'll come too! I will if I can! Shall we explore, and try to
find the secret passage? Lionel would be so surprised if we did! Oh,
it would be splendid!"
"So it would!" Dick agreed. "But I'm afraid it won't be much good our
searching!"
"Oh, but do let us! Anyway, I'll bring Nero, and we'll have fine fun
with him. If you're on the beach first you must wait for me, and if
I'm there first I'll wait for you."
"Very well. I'll come if I can. I hope your face does not hurt you
much?" —and Dick regarded his cousin's disfigured countenance with
real concern.
"Oh, no!" she responded, squinting in a vain attempt to look at the
scratch on her nose, "nothing to speak of! I wonder if grandfather
will want to know what I've been doing; if he does, I think I shall
tell him, because he likes us to speak out, and if he asks you,
you'll be sure to tell the truth."
"Why, of course," Dick returned; "you wouldn't wish me to tell a lie,
would you?"
"No; but you might say I fell into a bramble-bush and scratched my
face, without saying the donkey pitched me there."
"That would be only part of the truth," Dick objected, looking
decidedly uneasy.
"Well, you needn't bother, I'm going to tell about the donkey," Ruth
assured him, "and if grandfather is angry, I can't help it. I hope,
though, he won't make me stay indoors this afternoon; and I must
manage to get away from Lionel. Come down on the beach as early as
you can!"
Dick said he would; and after that the two children went their
separate ways. Going up the village street Dick overtook Granfer
Cole, who had spent his morning on the beach, having had a most
pleasant and exciting time in recounting his experiences of storms
of bygone years to an admiring audience.
"I never saw one to beat last night's gale," he told Dick. "To think
that the east cliff is gone! Dear, dear! I mind when I was a
youngster how I used to go shrimping around the rocks that way at low
tide, and what a powerful lot of shrimps I used to catch!"
"Do you think it likely that there is an entrance to the secret
passage in that direction?" Dick questioned eagerly.
Granfer reflected in silence for a moment, then he replied,—
"Well, I should say it was probable. The east cliff was in a line
with the Manor House, and nearer than any other part of the coast
would be. Are you still hoping to find the secret passage, young
gentleman?"
"Oh, yes! I daresay if it had not been for my cousin Lionel's
accident we should have found it long ago! I've looked for it by
myself, often; and now my cousin Ruth is going to help me. She only
a girl, but she's a very nice sort of girl, with plenty of pluck."
Granfer nodded his head, and chuckled with amusement. Dick
proceeded:—
"She can play cricket, and run nearly as fast as Lionel could before
his accident, and climb like a cat, and shy stones—yes, I do
believe better than I can; and I think she's about as brave as a girl
can be. Why, only just now, she was kicked off a donkey's back into a
bramble-bush, and she never even cried, although her face was badly
scratched."
"What donkey was it?" Granfer enquired in his inquisitive fashion.
"A donkey belonging to an old woman who sells scrubbing-sand. It is
in a field not far from the lodge of the Manor House."
"Ah, you mean a meadow adjoining the cliffs. I know the field, and I
know the donkey, and I know its owner!"
Dick laughed, for Granfer's tone was quite triumphant. The old man
prided himself on his knowledge of the district, and of every one
living in the neighbourhood for miles around.
"You must be very tired," the little boy said kindly, as he noted the
other's feeble steps, and how heavily he leaned upon his stout stick
for support; "it's a pity your way home is all up hill!"
"I'd rather live where I do than anywhere else in the village,"
Granfer responded contentedly, "for I've plenty of fresh air, and I'm
close to the church, so that as long as I can put one step before
another I shall be able to go to God's house, and hear His Holy Word.
Oh, I've much to be thankful for! But I'm keeping you, young
gentleman, so I'll say good-morning!"
"Good-morning, Granfer!" Dick returned blithely.
He hurried home, fearing he was already late, and reached No. 8 Fore
Street just as Aunt Mary Ann was taking up her position at the window
to watch for his arrival, so as to welcome him with her brightest
smile.