OUR SEARCH
WELL—Saturday came, and when Aunt Grisel's car came over for me there
was a note inside, asking Lynette too; so she was delighted.
When we got there, we were introduced to Miss Fawcett. She was very
tall, with grey hair rolled up off her forehead and beautiful big blue
eyes, and she had a jolly comfortable smile that you were not afraid of.
She set us to work at once. We went upstairs to the linen-room, and she
told us how to make bandages out of some old linen sheets. Aunt Grisel
came in and helped us. She pretended she was quite overcome with her
house being turned topsy-turvy, but I think she rather liked it, and
then she showed us a side-wing of the house which was just as sunny as
the front of it, and which Miss Fawcett thought would suit the soldiers
much better, because it was shut off from the rest of the house by a
thick baize door.
"It's like our wing at grandfather's," I said.
"Yes, it is, and it was the children's wing when my husband was a
boy," said Aunt Grisel. "I am glad I haven't to turn out all my best
furniture. It is so cumbersome that it would have been difficult to
find rooms big enough for it in other parts of the house."
Workmen seemed busy in every direction, and Miss Fawcett was directing
them all.
When we sat down to lunch she said:
"And who is the originator of this hospital scheme?"
Aunt Grisel waved her hand towards me, and I felt my cheeks getting
extremely red and hot.
"I only wish I could be one of the nurses," I said.
And Lynette joined in:
"I would rather clean the rooms than nurse; don't you think our lessons
might be stopped till after the war is over?"
"Your time will come, girls," Miss Fawcett said. "Don't hurry to grow
up too soon. I think your help may be more wanted a few years later
than it is now. A good many of us may be worn out by that time, and the
young will have to take our places. You can train yourselves now for
all emergencies."
"I love emergencies," said Lynette. "What kind do you think will come?"
"Just the kind we don't expect," said Miss Fawcett, laughing. "Learn
all you can now. Languages will help you, so will habits of order and
neatness and thoroughness. Be able to turn your hand to anything, from
making a poultice to cooking light puddings for invalids. The wounded
will be with us for several years yet, I am afraid."
"Don't you think," said Lynette, turning to Aunt Grisel, "that we may
possibly get a lot of wounded sailors here? You see, we are almost
opposite the Kiel Canal, and we must have a naval battle before long."
"The German Fleet won't come out. It dare not," said Aunt Grisel. "No,
we shall get nerve cases from France, I should think, and those who
want thorough rest and quiet. London is not a good place for nerves."
"Oh," said Lynette, "but I hope proper wounded soldiers will come to
you. I shan't care to see any of those others."
"They are often the most to be pitied," said Miss Fawcett. "When you
young people grow older, you will realise that nerves are a very
serious matter."
After lunch, we went upstairs and helped Aunt Grisel to empty some
drawers and cupboards in the rooms that were being got ready for the
soldiers. Such funny old things we turned out. Old-fashioned children's
frocks, and baby's feeding-bottles, and a box of lead soldiers, and
books and papers and letters, and wax flowers, and samplers, and
pincushions, and dear little boxes of all shapes and sizes. Lynette and
I exclaimed so often at what we found that Aunt Grisel told us we could
take anything away that we took a fancy to. It was very good of her.
And when we got home, we unpacked a large box of odds and ends which we
had been allowed to bring away, and gave Puff a lot of them.
Aunt Grisel promised to let us know when her first soldiers came, and
then Miss Fawcett asked us if we would make some scrap-books for them,
and we have started doing it. She said there was nothing that invalids
liked better than looking at pictures.
Miss Garton helps us, and really, with our knitting and lessons and
ambulance work, and now these scrap-books, we are as busy as we can be.
There has been great talk lately in the newspapers about spies in
our midst, especially along the sea-coasts. And some visitors of
grandfather's told him that one had been caught not so far off from
us only a few days ago. It is all very exciting, but everything is
that now. What with the air-ships and Zeppelins and torpedoes and
submarines, and the awful bombs and shells, and this wicked wicked gas
that the enemy is just beginning to use, I don't see how any of our
soldiers have a chance of coming back to us safely. And I'm beginning
to think that war is not glorious after all!
Lynette and I talk a lot together about these spies. They say
submarines are helped to get their oil by traitors on our coasts, who
flash lights to them, where the oil is hid, and then they come and get
it. There's an old coastguardsman who loves to talk about it; he says
he'd ferret a spy out a hundred miles off, and he's thankful that none
are in our part. His name is David Grier, and he smells a good deal of
whisky. Lynette says he drinks too much to be a good coastguardsman. He
lives in a dear little house on the cliff by himself, and he has been
there for nearly twenty years, they say.
Grandfather says Government is going to have a proper up-to-date guard
all round our coast soon, but they take a long time to settle anything.
I suppose they have such a terrible lot to think of, that they can't
get through. I think my brain would burst, if I was in the Government
now.
Miss Garton is rather sad about her brother, who is going to the front
some time next week. She is going home from Saturday to Tuesday to wish
him good-bye, and we shall have all Monday and Tuesday for holidays
as well as Saturday. It will be very jolly. And Lynette and I mean to
do some coastguarding on our own. We think it quite necessary. And we
can manage a boat quite well now. Both of us can row, and Aunt Isobel
doesn't mind us going out alone when the sea is smooth, if we're very
careful. On Saturday we're going over to Aunt Grisel. She hasn't got
her soldiers yet, but we're getting ready for them.
When Lynette and I go to bed at night, we always look-out of our
windows, and watch for a flash-light. We see a good many lights from
distant lighthouses, and sometimes we see a lantern bobbing along.
That is David going his rounds.
We were talking about it last night, and Lynette suddenly said:
"Grisel, do you know where would be a splendid place for a spy to hide
oil?"
"On the island," I said thoughtfully; "I've thought of that."
"Yes, on the other side of the island in those caves. You see, if any
one flashed a light from there, we shouldn't see it. They could flash
it low down through those holes in the cliff, or they could burn a
coloured light."
"I wonder if David goes round there?" I said.
"Oh, don't mention it to him. Don't tell any one. Just fancy, Grisel,
if you and I could catch a spy or a traitor at work, wouldn't it be
ripping! That would be doing work for one's country with a vengeance.
Let us keep it secret from every one, and just watch ourselves with all
our main and might!"
"Yes," I cried, "we'll row across there and have a good search when
Miss Garton goes. On Monday we'll do it."
"What should we do if we found a man there?" Lynette questioned. "Could
we shoot him?"
"Oh no, nobody is shot without a trial. We should just have to creep
away without his seeing us and send the police to him."
"But I should like to do something to him. It's a pity we don't know
how to make bombs. We could leave one to blow him up, and the oil too.
It would save a lot of trouble!"
"Oh, Lynette, how can you!"
"I feel I could do anything to make such a traitor meet with his
deserts!" said Lynette grandly.
We are quite anxious now for Monday to come. I would really like to do
something for my country, and so would Lynette.
* * * * *
This poor old diary.
We're living in such exciting times that I don't feel inclined to sit
down and write. I haven't the time, to begin with. But it's a wet day
to-day, and, after all that has happened, I really think I ought to set
it down for the sake of our great-grandchildren who will talk about
their grandmother's remembering the Great War.
I must go back to the Monday when Miss Garton was away from us. First
on Sunday night, Lynette and I were staring out of our windows when
we thought we saw a twinkling light in the direction of the island.
It might have been fancy, but we both saw it at the same moment. It
went out at once. But it gave us distinct hope that something might be
going on there. And Monday morning we were busy preparing things. We
didn't tell a soul. Aunt Isobel was driving out to see Aunt Grisel,
and grandfather was going with her. It seemed to leave the coast clear
for us. There was Puff certainly, but he was always happy playing by
himself.
Lynette insisted on us taking some rope with us. "To tie him up, if we
find him," she said.
I took some food, and some ends of candle, and four boxes of matches.
You can't have too many matches for those caves, and then I remembered
that Denys had left his beautiful little electric torch behind him. It
was in his room, so I took it with joy. We took some paper with us too,
in case we should want a fire.
And then Lynette wanted to take a couple of old pistols that were hung
up in our upstair passage. But I thought she had better not.
"It would frighten any one if they saw us with pistols," she said.
"They wouldn't know they weren't loaded."
"We shouldn't stand a chance if we started fighting them, or trying to
frighten them," I said. "We're really only going to spy out the land."
"I shall be frightfully disappointed if nobody's there," Lynette said.
We determined to start for the island directly after our early dinner.
It was a bright sunny day, and the sea was like a mill-pond. Everything
was in our favour. The tide had been going out for some time. I knew it
was only when it was high tide that the currents were dangerous, and we
calculated that we should be back before that.
We put all our things in the boat, and I put some biscuits and some
apples in it too, for I thought we might get hungry. But we found that
we should have to get some one to push the boat into the water for us,
because the tide was low. Davey, who has taught us all to steer and
row, has left us to enlist, but I ran up to the stable and got two of
the stable lads to come down and help us.
We told them we were going out for a row, and they thought nothing of
it.
Then Lynette and I both took an oar, and rowed steadily in the
direction of the cave island, where Pat and the boys had been all
night. It wasn't very hard rowing. We were both silent; for, now we had
started, it seemed a bigger thing than when we had just talked it over.
And the island seemed farther off than we had thought. We thought we
should never reach it.
We did come to the beach at last, and we rowed fast and furiously then,
driving our boat right up on the shingle like the boys do. Lynette
jumped out like lightning and tied the boat-rope round one of the
stakes that was there for the purpose. The seagulls flew round our
heads shrieking, as if to complain at being disturbed. Otherwise, it
seemed very still and silent.
And a lonely kind of feeling came over me. I would not have told
Lynette, but I didn't feel as if I wanted to go into the dark caves
and search there. And then I was ashamed of myself; for we had always
declared we should never be afraid of anything, if it concerned our
King and country. And this was real important duty, what Lynette and
I were doing. Then we took out two baskets in which we had packed our
things; and we came to the first entrance to the cave.
"Now," I said as I lighted my candle. "I'll go first as I'm the eldest,
and remember, Lynette, we mustn't speak a word, but keep our ears and
eyes well open and very busy."
Lynette nodded.
"Isn't it thrilling?" she said. "Oh, I do hope we shall find somebody
or something."
But for a long time we found nothing at all. There was a big passage
that went right through the cliff and out at the extreme end of the
island, and we went along this, and searched two or three little kinds
of rooms that went off it; we had been over so often with the boys that
we knew the caves quite well. Then suddenly, as we were coming towards
the light again, Lynette threw up her head and whispered excitedly:
"I smell tobacco smoke!"
I stopped still and sniffed.
"Well," I whispered, "boys and men do come over here, you know, for
seagulls' eggs."
I certainly smelt smoke. Somebody had been smoking along here.
The next thing we found was a pipe.
Lynette stumbled against it. She put it in her pocket. "We may find
this a most important piece of evidence," she said grandly.
Then we came to an inner cave just before the outlet that led to the
beach again. Here there was something else. A lot of rotten old boards
stood up on end, and formed a kind of door to it. And there was an old
barrel that used not to be there, and the seaweed that was on it did
not belong to it, it had either been put there or had been washed up by
the tide. We were quick to notice all this.
Yet even when my heart was beginning to thump with suspense, Lynette
whispered in a pleased sort of way:
"Curiouser, and curiouser!"
"We must take away one of these boards," I said, "and see what is
behind."
So we tugged and pulled, and it was real hard work, but the thought of
what "might" be there gave us the will and the strength to move them.
We got two away, and then with our electric torch we crept through.
Then indeed we stood and stared at each other. It seemed like a dream.
For there were tins and great barrels packed up against the wall. Dead
seaweed covered them, but we soon pulled that off. There was no mistake
about it—we had found the oil! We put our fingers round the cork of
one and smelt them. They smelt of motor-oil! I think, though we had
imagined a lot, we never really thought we should find it.
"What are we to do now?" I said, for I really felt, quite helpless.
"We must go on and find out some more," said Lynette.
"No," I said; "I think we had better fly back as quickly as possible,
and send the police and coastguards."
"But who has brought it here?" said Lynette.
I was just going to reply when we heard a man cough, and the cough
was not very far away. Instantly I pulled hold of Lynette, and we
crouched down behind the barrel. I put out my torch at the same moment.
I really, honestly never felt more frightened in my whole life than I
did then. My heart was thumping against my ribs, and I heard Lynette
breathing very quickly.
"He'll kill us," she whispered, "and drown our bodies, and nobody will
ever know!"
She wasn't exactly comforting.
I knew that when he saw the boards had been moved, all would be up;
and then I peeped out over the barrel. In the distance we could see
the opening of the cave and the sun shining upon the sea. There was
silence, and then a strong whiff of tobacco reached us; in another
moment, a man's figure blocked the opening. But his back was towards
us, and he was looking out to sea. He just looked an ordinary fisherman
in big seaboots and a blue jersey and a knitted cap. He was smoking a
pipe. We felt we hardly dare breathe, but we were thankful that, so
far, he did not know of our being on the island.
"He'll find our boat, and then he'll hunt for us," said Lynette. "Oh,
Grisel, I do wish we hadn't come. I do wish we were safe home again."
I tried to brace myself up.
"Look here, Lynette, the longer we wait here the worse it will be. We
must get back at once before he finds us out, and tell the coastguards.
This is our chance of serving our country. We mustn't be cowards. We
will wait a moment to see if he will go, and the moment he does, we
must creep out and dash along the passage back to our boat."
"He'll run after us and catch us!" cried Lynette. "And then I shall die
of fright."
"Nonsense! We can pretend we know nothing. After all, we have as much
right on this island as he has."
We watched him breathlessly. Once we thought he was going to turn round
and come towards us, but presently he walked away along the beach.
Then we crept out of our hiding-place, but I daren't light the torch.
We took hold of each other's hands and ran along the broad passage as
fast as we could. Twice we stumbled, and once Lynette grazed her knee
against a bit of rock. It seemed years to us till we saw the light
appearing in front of us.
Half dazed with fright and with the darkness, we dashed out into the
sunshine—and then, to our unutterable horror, we met that burly man
face to face!