IN THE PIT
When Tommy left the hut she ran with all the fleetness of her young
legs up towards the ridge. All the way she said to herself, "I won't
be afraid, I won't, I won't," keeping up her courage also with the
thought of the surprise she would give her sisters when she returned
laden with fruit.
The morning was somewhat misty, but the mist was not so thick as to
hide the general features of the country. As before, she followed the
course of the stream, and when she came to the swamp she turned to the
right, and continued as nearly as possible in a straight line with the
crest. Arriving at the top, she stopped for a few moments rather
puzzled. The appearance of the country was unfamiliar; the spot she
had reached was certainly not the place to which she, with her sisters,
had come on the former excursion. It was clear that she had wandered
somewhat from the proper route.
She went on, the very difficulty in which she found herself helping to
strengthen her determination. There were trees on all sides, but for
some time she discovered none that were bearing oranges. At length,
however, as the mist lifted, she perceived some golden spots among the
foliage, and ran towards them. She hoped that this was not the orange
grove in which she had been so much frightened, and a return of her
nervousness made her quicken her pace and gather, in a kind of frantic
haste, a number of oranges that bespattered the ground.
In order to turn her journey to the utmost advantage she meant to fill
her pocket with oranges and take as many as possible in her hands as
well. But remembering that her pocket was usually full of all sorts of
odds and ends, she knelt down to empty it and throw away what was
useless, so as to have more room for the oranges. She had just laid on
the ground her knife and a few oddments when, throwing in spite of
herself a nervous glance around, she noticed a slight movement in the
bushes on her right--the direction in which she had come. She could
not help looking again, and then she sprang to her feet transfixed with
terror. There was the same little brown face peering out from among
the background of foliage. For a few seconds the two pairs of eyes
remained staring at each other; then, scarcely knowing what she did,
but in an instinctive movement of defence, Tommy waved her arms towards
the bush.
The face instantly disappeared, but Tommy in her agitation forgot her
errand, forgot the things she had placed beside her, and took to her
heels, flying in a blind panic from the spot. She did not even stay to
make sure she was going in the right direction; she had quite lost
command of herself, and regardless of thorns and creepers that tore her
skirts and tripped her steps, she plunged through the undergrowth.
Every sound seemed to her excited imagination to be made by pursuers
following upon her track. Suddenly the earth gave way beneath her, she
felt herself sinking, sinking. "Bess! Bess!" she screamed, and then
she knew no more.
When she regained consciousness she found herself in semi-darkness.
For a moment she was simply bewildered; she was half smothered with
twigs, leaves and earth; then she remembered all that had happened and
sprang to her feet. But an excruciating pain in her left ankle caused
her to fall back, and the agony was so intense that she remained for
some time in a half-fainting condition. Presently she recovered. A
second attempt to rise gave her such a twinge that she knew her ankle
was seriously sprained; to move without help was impossible.
Her fear of the little brown face was overcome by a still greater
anxiety. Where was she? She looked about her. Some distance above
her head, considerably higher than the rooms at the farm, was a wide
opening. She must have fallen into a pit. But it seemed to her a
strange pit, for, her eyes becoming accustomed to the dimness, she saw
that the floor upon which she lay was much broader than the opening at
the top.
An insect touching her hand made her jump: and with a feeling of horror
she wondered if the pit was infested with noxious creatures that would
sting her to death. She shouted, frantically, again and again, but her
voice only seemed to be thrown back at her; and when she remembered how
far off her sisters were, she realized that her cries, if they were
heard above, could bring only the savages from whom she had fled.
For a time she cowered among the trash, overwhelmed with despair.
Then, when she was calm enough to think, it was only to recognize more
fully the seriousness of her plight. Her sisters could never guess
what had become of her. If they took alarm at her absence, and
Elizabeth came in search of her, it was quite likely that she would
never discover the spot. Perhaps even she might be captured by the
natives, for the sight of the little brown face had convinced Tommy
that beyond the ridge the island was overrun with cannibals. It was
nothing to her that they had never appeared on her side of the island;
she told herself that they had simply waited until they could catch one
girl alone. Nor did it seem to her ridiculous that a tribe of
bloodthirsty savages should be so timorous as to refrain from openly
attacking three defenceless girls.
The dreadful thought occurred to her, "Am I to die in this prison?"
The prospect of such a fate made her shiver. She felt that even to
fall into the hands of cannibals was preferable to a lingering death in
this pit, and again she raised her voice in wild cries for help,
repeating them until she was exhausted. For some time she remained in
a state of stupor: but when she was able to collect herself she
wondered whether, in spite of her injured foot, she could, by any
exertion of her own, escape. She crept on hands and knees to the side
of the pit; but even if she had been able to use her foot she saw that
she could never climb up those sloping walls.
Glancing round, however, she saw that in the wall to her right there
was an opening yawning black. She crawled to it, and peered in. It
was so dark that she could see nothing beyond a yard. But she felt a
faint hope that it might be a passage leading somehow to the level
ground. Recollecting her automatic match-box, which, fortunately, she
kept attached to her belt, she threw its small flickering light on the
scene. She saw now that she was indeed at the entrance of a tunnel.
It could not be a short one if it led to the outer air, for there was
no glimmer of light from its black depths. But it was worth trying;
so, the light, small as it was, giving her a sense of security, she
began to creep slowly along the dark passage, every now and again
wincing as a pang shot through her injured foot.
It was a strange tunnel; not rounded and of regular shape like the
railway tunnels at home, but varying in width and height. In some
places the roof was beyond the range of Tommy's feeble light; at others
it came so low that she could not have stood upright. The floor was
uneven, the walls were rugged, a recess here, a protuberance there.
Clearly it had not been cut by the hands of men, but must be attributed
to a freak of nature.
To Tommy, crawling inch by inch along the ground, it seemed that the
tunnel would never end. How long it was, how many minutes or hours
this painful progress continued, she was quite unable to guess. At
last, with a cry of gladness, she saw a faint gleam of light beyond,
and tried to advance more quickly, so as to gain liberty and fresh air.
The light came through an aperture in the wall that appeared to be the
end of the passage. It was high above the ground, and Tommy, standing
on one foot, was just able to look through it. She thought that if she
could only manage to heave herself up to it, the aperture was just wide
enough to let her body through.
But first of all she must make sure that it led to safety. It was not
full daylight outside; beyond the wall there appeared to be, not open
space, but another confined chamber. Supposing she climbed up and got
through, how far would she have to drop to reach the ground on the
other side? and what if she should find herself only in another place
from which escape would be no easier than from the pit?
To stand on one foot was fatiguing, and Tommy had to sit down and rest
for a little. She had now recovered from her panic, and was ready to
bend all her young wits upon the problem of escape. Presently a means
occurred to her of discovering at least whether it would be safe for
her to make an attempt to clamber through the aperture. She felt along
the floor for a piece of rock, and standing up again, dropped it over
the ledge. In an instant there came a faint thud, and immediately
afterwards a great whirring and screaming. She was quick to infer that
the ground was at some depth below the opening, and that the falling
rock had disturbed a colony of birds of some kind. "Can I be at the
top of a cliff?" she thought.
Plainly it was impossible to escape in this direction. The dashing of
her hope almost made Tommy weep. She had done no good; indeed had only
wasted time. There was nothing for it but to crawl back to the pit;
and as she wearily crept through the passage despair seized upon her
heart; she felt the choking sensation of helpless misery.
Her terror was even deepened when, on getting back to the pit, she
found that it was now quite dark. Through the opening she could see
the stars overhead, but there was no pleasure in watching them as she
had many times watched them from the hut. She crouched upon the
leaves, scarcely able to bear the throbbing pain in her foot; and when
presently she fell asleep from sheer exhaustion, it was with a prayer
on her lips: "God help me, and let me see my sisters again."
Pain and thirst awakened her several times before dawn. A slight
shower fell during the night, and by catching the raindrops in her
outspread palm she was able to moisten her parched lips. She also
wetted her handkerchief and bound it about her inflamed ankle, thus
easing the pain a little. When it was quite light overhead she began
to shout again, her voice sounding very cracked and hoarse. Soon she
had to give up even this; her tongue and the roof of her mouth were so
dry that she could not utter a word. Then she lost all hope, and lying
down sobbed herself to sleep.
When she awoke it was again dark. Her foot was much less painful, but
she felt more hungry and thirsty than ever before in her life. If only
she had filled her pocket with oranges before she saw that little brown
face! Again the idea came to her of attempting to climb the side of
the pit by cutting steps in the earth; but on feeling in her pocket she
remembered that she had dropped her knife on the ground. Hobbling
across the pit she felt along the walls, only to find, as before, that
their slope made it quite impossible to clamber up. Then feeling that
starvation must be her doom, she sank back and lay in a state of dreamy
somnolence.
All at once she was startled into wakefulness by a faint sound
somewhere above her. She sprang up. Sunlight was streaming through
the opening; the sound came again. It was some one calling. Tommy
tried to shout in answer, but the feeble croak that was all she could
utter dismayed her. With help at hand, she might not be heard! The
call above was now quite clear. It was coming nearer. She heard her
own name. But the more she tried to call the less she seemed able to
make a sound. The voice above began to recede. Then with a last
desperate effort she did manage to produce a hoarse cry that she could
scarcely believe came from her own throat, so strange it was. It
seemed to have used up all the little strength she had left, and she
fell exhausted to the ground, believing that the last chance of rescue
had now utterly vanished.