Three days passed, and the idea of losing her companion was so startling
to Celia, that she made no further journey toward the cliffs, in spite
of several efforts made by Grip to coax her in that direction. But on
the fourth day there was so mean and unsatisfactory a dinner at the
Hoze, of the paltry little rock fish caught by the labouring men, that,
as Celia watched her mother partaking of the unsatisfactory fare, and
thought how easily it might have been supplemented by a dish of
mushrooms and a blackberry pudding, she made up her mind that the next
day she would go.
"I could be very careful, and not go near any of the slopes running down
to the cliff, and I could make Grip keep with me. Yes, I will go," she
said.
The next morning she partook of her breakfast quite early--a simple
enough meal, consisting of barley bread and a cup of fresh milk from the
Shackles' farm, and, taking a basket, she called Grip, who came bounding
about her in a state of the most exuberant delight.
The dog's satisfaction was a little damped as his mistress took her way
toward the fir-wood, and he kept making rushes by another path. But it
was of no use; Celia had made her own plans, and, as the dog could not
coax her his way, and would not go alone, he had to follow her.
There was a reason for this route being chosen, for Celia did not care
to be seen by Ram, or any of the men who might be pretending to work
hard on Shackle's farm, which was ill tended, and consisted for the most
part of cliff grazing land; but somehow seemed to need quite a large
staff of labourers to keep it in such bad order.
By passing through the fir-wood, Celia meant to get out of sight of the
cottages, and she went on, with the dog following sulkily behind, but
reviving a little upon being given the basket to carry.
She trudged on for about a mile over the thin stony pastures, found a
fair number of small, sweet, pink-gilled mushrooms where the turf was
finest and richest, and gradually adding to her store of glistening
bramble-berries till her finger-tips were purple with the stains.
The course she chose was down in the hollows between the hills, till at
last she struck the one along which she had passed after leaving Ram and
his companion, and turned down here, believing that, if the boy selected
it, there would be good reason for his so doing. She walked steadily
on, finding a button mushroom here and a bunch of blackberries there.
For one minute she paused, struck by the peculiar sweet and sickly odour
of a large-leaved herb which she had crushed, and admired its
beautifully veined blossoms, in happy ignorance of the fact that it was
the deadly poisonous henbane, and then all at once she missed Grip.
"Oh, how tiresome!" she cried excitedly; and she called him loudly, but
there was no reply. A gull or two floated about and uttered their
querulous calls, otherwise the silence was profound, and, though she
swept the great curved sides of the hollow, whose end seemed filled up
by the towering hill, all soft green slope toward her, but sheer scarped
and projecting cliff toward the sea, there was not so much as a sheep in
sight.
With a great horror coming upon her, she hurried along towards the
cliff, thinking of what Dadd had said, and picturing in her mind's eye
poor Grip racing along some seaward slope in chase of a rabbit, and
going right over the cliff, she went on almost at a run, pausing,
though, to call from time to time.
It was intensely hot in that hollow, for the sea breeze was completely
shut off, but she did not pause, and rapidly neared the cliff now, her
dread increasing, as she wondered whether Ram would be good enough to
get a boat, and row along under the cliff to find the poor dog's body,
so that she might bury it up in the fir-wood behind the house, in a
particular spot close to where she had so often sat.
No sign of Grip: no sound. She called again, but there was no cheery
bark in response, and with her despondent feeling on the increase, she
began to climb the side of the hollow, passing unnoticed great clusters
of blackberries, whose roots were fast in the stones, and the fruit
looking like bunches of black grapes; past glistening white mushrooms,
better than any she had yet seen, but they did not attract her; and at
last she had climbed so high that she could see the blue waves spreading
up and up to the horizon, and about a couple of miles out the
white-sailed cutter, which was creeping slowly along the shore.
"I wonder where that midshipman is," she thought, forgetting the dog for
the moment. "How strange that all was! Could it really have been a
dream?"
"Yes, it must have been, or else he would have gone and told his
captain, and they would have come and searched the cellar, and there
would have been sad trouble."
She turned her eyes from the sea, and began to search the green slopes
around, and then all at once she uttered a cry of joy as she could
sight, on the highest slope right at the end of the valley, a white
speck which suddenly appeared out of the earth, and then stood out clear
on the green turf, and seemed to be looking about before turning and
plunging down again.
It was quite half a mile away, and her call was in vain, and she began
to descend diagonally into the hollow, the tears in her eyes, but a
smile of content on her lips.
"Oh, you bad dog," she cried merrily, "how I will punish you!" and she
stooped and picked a couple of mushrooms, quite happy again, and even
sang a scrap of a country ditty in a pretty bird-like voice as she came
to a bramble clump, and went on staining her fingers.
By degrees she passed the end of the hollow, leaving all the
blackberries behind, and now, only pausing to pick a mushroom here and
there, she began to ascend the slope toward where she had seen the dog.
"It is getting nearer the edge of the cliff," she said; "but it slopes
up, and not down. Ah, I see you, sir. Come here directly! Grip!
Grip!"
The dog had suddenly made his appearance about fifty yards in front,
right as it were out of the grassy slope, to stand barking loudly for a
few moments before turning tail and plunging down again.
"Oh, how tiresome!" she cried. "Grip! Grip!"
But, as the dog would not come to her, she went on, knowing perfectly
well that he had gone down one of the old stone pits, and quite prepared
to stand at last gazing into a hole which inclined rapidly into the
hillside, but was as usual provided with rough stones placed step-wise,
and leading the way into darkness beneath a fern-fringed arch, while the
whole place was almost entirely choked-up with the luxuriantly growing
brambles.
"He has found a rabbit," she thought to herself, as her eyes wandered
about the sides of the pit, and brightened at the sight of the abundant
clusters of blackberries, finer and riper than any she had yet secured.
"I wish I was not so frightened of these places," she said to herself.
"Why, I could fill a basket here, and there can't be anything to mind, I
know; it is only where they used to dig out the stone."
A sudden burst of barking took her attention to the dog, who came
bounding up the rugged steps right to her feet, looked at her with his
great intelligent eyes, and, before she could stop him, rushed down
again, where she could hear him scratching, and there was a sound which
she knew was caused by his moving a piece of stone such as she could see
lying at the side in broken fragments, and of the kind dug in thin
layers, and used in the neighbourhood instead of tiles.
"Oh, Grip, Grip! And you know you can't get at him. Come here."
"Ahoy!"
Celia was leaning over the rugged steps, gazing down into the darkness
beneath the ferns, when, in a faint, smothered, distant way, there came
this hail, making her nearly drop her basket as she started away from
the pit.
The hail was followed by a sharp burst of barking, and the dog came
bounding up again, to stand looking after her, barking again before once
more descending.
Slowly, and with her eyes dilated and strained, the girl crept back step
by step, as she withstood her desire to run away, for all at once the
thought had come that perhaps some shepherd or labourer had fallen down
to the bottom, and was perhaps lying here with a broken leg.
She had heard of such things, and it would be very terrible, but she
must know now, and then go for help.
In this spirit she once more reached the entrance to the old quarry, and
peered down, listening to the worrying sound made by the dog, who kept
rattling one piece of stone over another, every now and then giving a
short, snapping bark.
"Ahoy!" came again, as if from a distance, and a thrill ran through the
girl, bringing with it a glow of courage.
"It is some poor fellow fallen down;" and, placing her basket by the
side, she began to descend cautiously, with Grip rushing to meet her,
barking now joyously, and uttering whine after whine.
The descent was not difficult, and after the first few steps the feeling
of timidity began to wear off, and Celia descended more quickly till,
about fifty feet from the top, some distance under where the fringe of
ferns hung, and where it had seemed quite dark from above, but was
really a pleasant greenish twilight, she found beneath her feet a few
loose flat stones, part of a quantity lying before her in the archway
that seemed to lead straight on into the quarry.
But here, right at her feet, the dog began to scratch, tossing one thin
piece of stone over the others upon which it lay.
Celia looked before her wonderingly, for she had expected to see a
fallen man at once, probably some one of the men whom she knew by sight;
but, in spite of the dog's scratching, she could not imagine anything
was there, and she was bending forward, gazing into the half choked-up
level passage before her, when there came from under her feet the same
smothered,--
"Ahoy!"
She started away, clinging to the side for support, and ready in her
fear to rush back to the surface.
But the dog's action brought her to herself, as he began again to bark
furiously, and tore at the stones.
"Hush! Quiet, Grip!" she said in an awe-stricken whisper, as she went
down on her knees and listened, her heart beating wildly, and a horrible
idea, all confused, of some one having been buried alive, making her
face turn ashy pale.
"Ahoy! Any one there?" came in the same faint tones.
"Yes--yes," panted the girl. "What is it?"
"Help!"