The Treasure-hunters or The Duke's Nose
"Cherry jam is certainly very _runny_," said Aunt Mary at tea-time.
"Do you put a handful of gooseberries into it?" Mollie asked rather
dreamily, as she tried in vain to spread her scone tidily.
"Gooseberries! Why, no; I never thought of it. It might be quite a good
idea."
"Or red currants?" Mollie went on.
"Red currants! Bless the child! I didn't know you were a cook, Mollie."
"Neither I am," said Mollie, rousing herself up to the fact that she
was back in Chauncery, and must set a watch upon her tongue. Why was
it, she wondered, that she forgot Chauncery so much more when she was
with those other children than she forgot the children when she was at
Chauncery? "I once heard a person say they put gooseberries and red
currants into cherry jam, and I suddenly remembered," she told Aunt
Mary.
"Well, it is too late for cherries, but I will try it for the
strawberries to-morrow. It will be quite an interesting experiment."
Mollie resolutely pushed her thoughts about the cherry garden and its
occupants into the background, and gave her whole mind to a game of
patience with Grannie, who was getting a little tired of jig-saw. But
when that was over, and Grannie was absorbed in casting on a
stocking-top with an intricate pattern, while Aunt Mary wrote letters,
she began again to think and wonder about her curious journey, which
for some reason seemed less strange to-day than it had done yesterday.
She pondered over ways and means to get Dick across, or over, or
through, "or whatever you call it when you travel in Time", she
thought; "back might be the best word. I do _wish_ I could tell Aunt
Mary."
She looked thoughtfully at her aunt, whose head was bent over her
writing, the smooth bands of her silky, brown hair shining brightly in
the lamp-light. No doubt some, perhaps most, grown-ups would scoff at
her tale if she told it, Mollie thought. Grown-up people as a rule love
best to jog along on well-trodden, safe, commonplace paths, and avoid
adventurous by-ways, but Aunt Mary, Mollie felt sure, was an
anti-jogger, so to speak, and would always choose adventures if she had
a choice. "It's funny to think," Mollie reflected, "that she can't be
so very much younger than Mrs. Campbell is--was--is--was then. I
suppose she is about thirty-five, and Mrs. Campbell forty or so--she
looks--looked old enough to be Aunt Mary's mother. Being good at games
keeps her young; she can beat me to a frazzle at golf and tennis; and
she is frightfully keen on aeroplanes; I'm sure she would fly if it
weren't for Grannie. I wonder why she never got married?"
Mollie had not yet come to the age of sentiment, but now and then she
reached forward a little and surveyed its possibilities, and now she
paused awhile to muse upon the subject of her aunt's spinsterhood. Not
for long, however; she decided that Aunt Mary must have had excellent
reasons of her own for remaining single, and returned to the more
pressing problem of how to get Dick into the Campbells' garden. Finally
she thought of a plan worth trying.
"Grannie, may I have the loan of one of your photographs?" she asked.
"Dick has a way of copying them with a thing he has that makes them
look like drawings, and the old-fashioned ones are the prettiest."
"By all means, if he will be careful," Grannie answered, nine-tenths of
her mind being fixed on her new pattern and only one-tenth upon her
grandchild's peculiar fancy for Victorian photographs. So Mollie wrote
a short letter to her brother, enclosing the group which had worked the
magic charm for herself that afternoon. She put it into the evening
post-bag with a sigh. "If that doesn't do it I _can't_ think of
anything else," she said to herself.
It is remarkable how quickly one becomes used to a new routine. Already
Mollie was making more use of her hands and head because she could not
use her feet. She was fond of writing, and decided next morning to
begin an account of her strange adventure while it was still fresh in
her mind. In the intervals of other plans for her future career she had
dreams of becoming a writer of books, but her difficulty hitherto had
been that the usual sort of book is so ordinary, and she had never been
able to think of anything remarkably unusual to write about. The
autobiography of a person who could live in various periods of the
Christian Era might turn out to be quite interesting, she thought, if
only people would believe that it was true. The trouble was that most
likely they would think she was inventing it, "and anyone can _invent_
any old thing. And this is only the beginning of my adventures. When I
have thoroughly learnt how to Time-travel I will go back much
further--perhaps to the French Revolution, and watch people being
guillotined."
She scribbled diligently in the thick exercise-book, which Aunt Mary
produced without once asking what it was wanted for. "It just shows--"
Mollie murmured gratefully; "some people would have teased me to death."
And so time passed, and half-past two came round again in the usual
inevitable way, and Mollie lay expecting Prudence as calmly as though
she were coming from next door. She had the album on her lap, and was
turning the pages in search of a new photograph, when in the twinkling
of an eye Prue was there.
"We don't need that now," she said, "but we must have Aunt Mary's
tunes. Where is she?"
"Oh dear, dear, I forgot!" Mollie cried in dismay. "I do believe Aunt
Mary is making strawberry jam, and I went and told her about putting in
gooseberries and red currants, and her head will be full of them and
she will forget me!"
But the lullaby had not been forgotten. At that very moment the piano
began--a tune Mollie knew well this time, for she had often heard the
American soldiers sing it in London:
"Oh, darkies, how my heart grows weary,
Far from the old folks at home".
"Give me your hand--quick," said Prue in a whisper.
* * * * *
Mollie found herself standing on a wide beach in the curve of a
beautiful bay. Before her lay the sea, dark blue in the distance, a
clear emerald green by the shore. To the right of her the beach
stretched as far as she could see, firm yellow sand on the lower half,
fine white silvery sand higher up. On the left it only ran for a couple
of miles or so and then ended in rocks, over which the sea threw a cool
white spray. Behind her, Mollie saw, when she turned, the line of the
beach was followed by sandhills, some covered with low-growing scrub
and some quite bare and treeless, shining like snow in the hot sunlight.
The children were all there. At a little distance from where she stood
Mollie could see Hugh and Prudence, Hugh lightly clad in a
swimming-suit, and Prue with her skirts rolled up and her feet bare. A
wide sun-hat covered her head, and her brown curls were fastened back
with a clasp, which made her look older, Mollie thought.
The two children were hauling a large, square, flat object down to the
sea, Hugh pulling in front with ropes, and Prudence pushing behind.
"I do believe it's the raft," thought Mollie. "This must be Brighton,
and I suppose the summer holidays have come round again. It is a little
difficult to keep up with Time here. I do _wish_ Dick could come!"
Grizzel was sitting on the beach close beside her, and seemed to be
gathering shells from a little pale-rose patch on the sand at her feet.
She was very absorbed in her task, but she looked up at Mollie with a
smile, apparently not at all surprised to see her there. She was
dressed, like Prue, in a turned-up overall and wore a wide hat, which
hid the red curls from view and gave her an unfamiliar look. Bridget
was sitting not far from Grizzel, busily doing crochet-work and singing
a song about a wild Irish boy, while her eyes wandered after Baby, who
was singing a little song of her own invention about a poor lonely
whale who had a loving heart. Higher up the beach, at the foot of the
sandhills, Mollie could see Professor and Mrs. Campbell, one reading
aloud and the other sewing.
"Where shall I go first?" Mollie asked herself, "I think I'll go and
see what Hugh and Prudence are doing."
She found, when she began to walk, that she was bare-legged and bunchy
about the skirts like the other girls, and that her head was covered
with a sun-hat like theirs, a tanned Panama straw, light as a feather,
and shading her eyes from the glare of sea and sand. The sun was very
hot and the sand was warm under her feet.
"Hullo! Here's Mollie the Jolly!" exclaimed Hugh, as she drew near.
"Come along and lend a hand--we are just about to launch the good ship
_Nancy Lee_ on her trial trip."
Mollie examined the raft with deep interest. It was really very neatly
made, the planks straight and smooth, and firmly held together by
cross-bars underneath. There was a mast in the exact centre, with a
sail at present close-reefed, and there was a pair of old oars which,
Hugh explained, had been purchased from a boatman of his acquaintance.
All round the raft were bunches of corks, several hundreds at least.
"Did Prue and Grizzel find all those?" Mollie asked.
"We all collected 'em," Hugh replied; "lots of people gave us
corks--jolly old winebibbers they must be," he added ungratefully. "Now
then--with a long, long pull and a strong, strong pull!"
They got to the edge of the water, and the two girls waded in as far as
they could go without getting their clothes wet, before the raft
finally took to her natural element and rocked up and down on the
smoothly rippling wavelets. A gentle breeze was blowing off the sea,
but the tide was running out, which, Hugh remarked, was a good plan, as
the raft would go out to sea with the tide and come back with the wind
in her sail. He thought, however, that he would not carry any
passengers on the first trip--in fact, to begin with, he would harness
himself to his craft and pull her both out and in, "just till I see how
she goes; she's got to find her sea-legs."
The girls watched the raft and its owner depart into deep water; they
saw Hugh climb on board, and decided that the passengers who sailed
aboard the _Nancy Lee_ would be most suitably attired in
bathing-dresses, as she appeared to slide along as much below the ocean
as above it. After standing for some minutes they wandered along
towards Grizzel, who was still sitting by the pale rosy patch on the
sand. When they sat down beside her Mollie saw that the shells she was
gathering were so tiny that they were hardly larger than a pin's head,
and yet they were perfect in form and colour; she thought she had never
seen anything more exquisite.
"We thread them and make necklaces," Prudence explained; "they are so
thin that you can stick a needle through them quite easily; they come
in beds like this all along the beach. There are lots of lovely shells
here, and sea-eggs too. We collect them sometimes, but our collections
have such a way of getting lost somehow, they are always beginning over
again and ending too soon."
"Can you say 'She sells sea-shells' twenty times running, as fast as
lightning?" asked Grizzel.
"Not running as fast as lightning," Mollie answered, "but I could say
it if I were walking rather slowly."
"I couldn't," said Grizzel, taking no notice of Mollie's flippancy, "if
I were to crawl at the rate of half an inch a year I should be saying
'She shells sea-shells' the whole time."
"You are talking nonsense," said Prudence. "Come up and see Papa and
Mamma."
Mollie was greeted kindly by the older people. She had forgotten to ask
if she was supposed to be a visitor or only spending the day with the
Campbells, but gathered from Mamma's conversation that she was paying a
visit and had arrived that morning. She wondered again how they heard
about her coming; the children appeared to take her for granted, but,
of course, _they_ knew she was a Time-traveller!
As the girls sat by their elders, idly playing with the silvery sand
and chatting to each other, a large steamship came in view, coming from
the north and heading south-west. They all stopped working and talking
as they watched her steaming along, a trail of smoke blowing behind
her, smudging the blue sky with clouds, black at first and gradually
fading to grey.
"That's the English mail," Papa said at last; "she was due to leave the
Semaphore at three o'clock to-day."
They were silent again; the great ship drew nearer--now she was almost
opposite.
"Oh--John--_Home!"_ Mamma said. There was a tremble in her voice that
made Prudence and Mollie look up--there were tears in her eyes.
"I know, little wife, I know," Papa answered softly, putting a hand
over the white hands which had dropped the busy needle.
The girls rose to their feet and left Papa and Mamma. They went down to
the edge of the shore, and stood watching the ship as she began to slip
over the horizon.
"Now she has begun to go down the Big Hill," said Prue. "She will sail
for miles and miles and thousands of miles, and for days and nights and
weeks across all that sea. I wonder if some children on the other side
will be playing on that beach, and will watch her funnel climb over the
top of the hill again and say: 'Here comes the Australian mail!'"
Mollie did not answer. She could not remember ever taking much interest
in the Australian mail. But in future she determined she would always
watch when she had the chance, and wave a friendly hand to the incoming
ships.
Soon there was nothing to be seen of the big steamer but a trail of
smoke, which lingered long in the sky.
Prudence had fallen into a day-dream; and Mollie's eyes were roaming
over the blue sea, when suddenly she caught sight of the raft bobbing
about on the little waves, sometimes above and sometimes below. In the
water in front of the raft she could see Hugh's head, like a round
black ball--and--yes, she was not mistaken, there were two other round
black balls which must also be heads. That was rather odd, she thought;
she had not noticed any other boys about.
"Look, Prue!" she exclaimed, catching Prue by the arm, "look--there is
Hugh, and he has got someone with him--oh, _do_ you think he has
rescued some drowning sailors?"
Prue came out of her day-dream with a jerk, and brought her thoughts
and her eyes back to earth, or rather to sea.
"Yes, he _has_ someone with him," she said. "How funny!"
As they gazed, the three swimmers turned round and, with a good deal of
ducking and slipping, climbed aboard the raft, which triumphantly
survived and remained afloat, though decidedly wet about the deck. They
proceeded to unfurl the sail, which one boy held while the other two
took to the oars, and, after some hard work, the _Nancy Lee_ was safely
beached. Grizzel joined Mollie and Prudence, and the three girls
watched the three boys, not offering to go and help with the raft
because they felt a little shy of the strangers.
Presently one of them turned round--and Mollie gave a jump. The boy's
hair hung over his forehead in wet, black streaks, and he was dressed,
or rather undressed, in a swimming-suit, the rest of him being wet,
white skin; but in spite of this unusual appearance Mollie was almost
sure--in fact she was quite sure--that it was Young Outram. And the
other boy--who kept his back turned in a provoking way as he examined
the raft--why, _that_ boy--yes, it surely was Dick! Mollie squealed and
caught Prue by the arm:
"It's Dick and Jerry Outram!" she exclaimed, jumping up and down with
excitement. "Oh, Prue--have they swum all the way from London without
any clothes?"
Prudence laughed. "Mollie, you _are_ a goose! _Do_ you think they could
swim fourteen thousand miles?"
"Well how--? Oh, I forgot! It is so hard to remember about
Time-travelling here! Oh, Prue, _how_ exciting it is!"
At that moment Dick looked round and saw his sister. Both boys came
racing along the sand towards the girls, kicking up their heels like
young colts.
"Cheerio!" cried Dick, as he pranced up. "What price school! How's this
for a rag? Jolly old beano, I call it!"
"What does he say?" asked Grizzel.
"He says that school isn't much of a place, and that this is a great
lark, and that he enjoys being here immensely," translated Mollie.
"_Some_ psychical phenomena!" exclaimed Young Outram, prancing up in
his turn.
"I'm afraid we haven't got any," said Prudence politely.
"And you forgot to say 'Please' if we had," said Grizzel, with a frown.
"_What_ do they say?" asked Young Outram, looking puzzled.
"Prudence thought you were asking for some what's-its-name-how-much,"
Mollie explained again.
"What _does_ he mean then?" Grizzel asked.
"He means that this is the loveliest magic that he ever heard of," said
Mollie. "You shouldn't use such long words, Jerry, and they aren't true
either, for this is _not_ thingummy phenomena, it is simply common
everyday magic."
"There is no such thing as common magic," said Jerry.
"There is," said Mollie.
"There isn't," said Jerry.
"What do you call it when your mother gives you a dirty little brown
onion to put in the ground and you bring it back to her turned into a
parrot-tulip?" asked Mollie.
"Oh--if you--"
"Stow it, Young Outram, you blighter," Dick interrupted. "Don't be such
a silly old Juggins, making them ratty first go-off like that. Keep
your hair on, Mollie, and don't get the hump over nothing. If you
_must_ jaw about parrots, jaw about the dossy chap we spotted in
school; you are simply talking hot air, both of you."
"_What_ does he say?" asked Hugh, who had come up by this time.
"I wish to goodness you boys would speak plain English," Mollie said
impatiently. "I don't want to spend all my time explaining you to the
others."
"Irry yourry tawrry lierry tharry weerry wirry tawrry lierry thirry,
arry therry yourry woerry urrystarry wurry wurry tharry weerry sayrry,"
said Grizzel, rather angrily and very rapidly.
"_What_ does she say?" asked both boys at once.
"It's only our private language," said Prudence; "she says that if you
talk that way we'll talk our way, and then you won't understand us.
_That_ wouldn't do any good. I think we'd better have a Circle. Give me
your hand, Mollie, and you take Hugh's. And Hugh Dick's, and Dick
Grizzel's, and Grizzel Young Outram's, and Young Outram my other hand.
Now all stand quite still and shut your eyes; listen to the waves, and
try and think of three nice things about the people next you."
The six children stood in a circle, silent and still, as Prudence had
ordered, their eyes tightly closed. They felt the hot beams of the sun
pouring over them, and the cool salt wind blew on their faces and
through their hair; their toes curled and wriggled in the warm, wet
sand, and in their ears was the plash-plash of the little waves beating
backwards and forwards on the beach. It was very pleasant. It seemed
quite easy to think of those three nice things. And presently each
child felt a warm and friendly glow steal up its left arm, through its
heart, down its right arm--and so on to its neighbour. When this
pleasing and cheerful sensation had gone round the Circle three times,
Prudence said: "Now, open your eyes and let go."
They stood there smiling at each other, and feeling almost ready to
burst with goodness and loving kindness towards all the world.
"Now we'll understand each other," said Prue. "Words don't matter much
if you understand people. Now what shall we do?"
"Don't let's stand about any more," said Mollie; "the time does go so
quickly, and there are lovely things to do. What would you like to do,
Young Outram?"
"Call me Jerry all the time," he answered first. "I want to forget
about school while I can--there are a good many of us at school," he
explained to Prudence, "and we are called Old Outram, and Outram Two,
and Young Outram; and there are three Outram Kids at the prep, and
another kid at home."
"_All_ boys!" exclaimed Prudence.
Jerry nodded. There had been nine Outram boys before the war! "Let's go
out on the raft again--please," he added, with a wink at Grizzel, who
smiled back. "You come too; we could easily push you along."
"We'll have to change into our bathing things first," said Prudence;
"the raft looks a little wet. We won't be long."
The girls ran up into the sandhills to change, but before Prue
disappeared she returned to the boys with a basket made of rushes in
her hand, which she had begged from Bridget.
"Here are some buns and grapes," she said a little shyly, "I thought
you might be feeling hungry, and it is a long time yet till tea-time."
Jerry decided on the spot that if he ever _did_ go in for the peculiar
entertainment of falling in love, he would choose a shy girl with brown
curls who did not talk slang and went about distributing buns to hungry
boys. "Her for mine," he expressed it to himself.
The girls were soon back, all in navy-blue bathing-suits, knickers
below, and a belted tunic reaching to their knees above--too much
clothed for Mollie's taste; she liked to be skimpy when she went
swimming. But no one grumbles after they have been in a Circle--at
least, not for the next twenty-four hours--so Mollie endured her
substantial garments philosophically and soon forgot all about them.
The girls waded out to the raft, which the boys had launched. They
climbed on board and were soon in fairly deep water. Mollie and
Prudence slipped off and left lazy Grizzel alone on deck, sitting
cross-legged like a little tailor, one arm flung round the mast. The
raft rocked gently up and down on the calm sea, while the children
swam, ducked, and played about in the clear, sun-warmed water like a
school of young porpoises. As Grizzel sat idly watching the rest, her
eyes fell upon an object which floated at a little distance from the
raft. It was a bottle--a common beer-bottle--its cork rammed well in
and sealed with red wax.
"What's that?" she called to Hugh, pointing to the bottle as it danced
about, twirling round and round, tossing from side to side in the wide
ripples sent out by the children and the drifting raft.
They all made for it. "It's a message from the deep," cried Jerry;
"probably from a ship-wrecked sailor."
Hugh, being the nearest, caught it by its red neck, and the whole party
collected on and about the raft to see what would happen next. But Hugh
refused to break the bottle until they went ashore again.
"The sea might get in and spoil the paper, and the broken glass would
get on deck and cut us; we'll pull her in now and read the message on
the beach," he decided.
They got under way and, practice making perfect, were soon high and dry
on the beach, and the _Nancy Lee_ dragged up and comfortably moored.
The children seated themselves in a ring, and Hugh cautiously knocked
off the neck of the bottle with a stone. He drew out a paper, which had
been carefully rolled round a thin bamboo stick and tied with a red
ribbon. There was no date on the paper, nor was there any sign to show
where the bottle had been thrown in, but written in large, clear
round-hand was the following message:
IF THE FINDER OF THIS BOTTLE
WILL SEARCH THE CAVE UNDER
_THE DUKE'S NOSE_ HE WILL FIND
SOMETHING TO HIS ADVANTAGE.
"Hidden treasure," said three boys all at once. "Where is The Duke's
Nose?" asked Dick.
"Never heard of it," answered Hugh, looking hard at Jerry, whose nose
was distinctly aquiline and promised to be more so in the future. "You
aren't a duke by any chance, I suppose?" he asked.
"No, old sport, I'm not," Jerry answered, with a grin, "and if I were,
the only treasure you would find in the cave under my nose would be
some jolly sharp teeth, and they wouldn't be at all to your advantage
either."
"It's probably among those rocks over there," Mollie suggested; "I
expect if we went there and walked round we would see something that
looked like a duke's nose."
"But there aren't any big enough to have a cave under them," said
Prudence; "they are all quite little rocks."
"It will be a bit of the cliff, most likely," said Dick, "in fact it is
almost bound to be if there is a cave."
The others agreed that this was probable. "What do you think the hidden
treasure will be?" asked Grizzel. "A sack of diamonds and rubies?"
"I hope not," said Jerry, "for, if it is anything of that sort, we will
have to give it up. If we were caught trying to sell diamonds we'd be
copped at once, and the bobbies would think the bottle story was all
made up. I expect we'd all be put in jail, and it would be jolly
awkward for Dick and me when we got back to school. I think I see the
Old Man's face when we explained that we couldn't come because we were
in an Australian prison in the year 1879 for stealing diamonds. I don't
think!"
"Schoolmasters and mistresses are extraordinarily stupid sometimes,"
said Mollie reflectively. "They are so hard to convince, even about
quite simple things, if they don't want to be convinced. But I
shouldn't care for diamonds myself. I'd like a swanky tennis-racket."
"I'd like a revolver, latest pattern," said Jerry.
"I should like a first-class camera," said Hugh.
"I'd like a pure-bred bull-dog," said Dick.
"I'd like a nice little model sewing-machine," said Prue.
"I'd like six pairs of stilts," said Grizzel, "and then we could all
walk home on them."
Everyone looked a little ashamed; Grizzel was the only one who had
thought of the five others. A murmur went round that of course they had
_meant_ six of everything. Then Mollie began to laugh: "How funny we
will look if we each get all the things," she giggled. "We will walk
home on the stilts, with a revolver and a sewing-machine tied on to
each stilt, and a tennis-racket and a camera on our backs, and six
bull-dogs trotting after us."
This flight of fancy made everyone laugh consumedly: "We must go home
now, anyway," Prudence said, as she dried a tear, "because it is
getting on for tea-time and we have got to get dressed. Perhaps there
will be time to go to the rocks after tea and just _look_ for a nose,
and if we find it we'll take some spades in the morning and dig."
The Campbell's seaside cottage stood behind the sandhills. It had been
built by a retired sea-captain, who had planned it to look as like a
ship inside as a house could be made to look. The walls were panelled
in wood, painted bird's-egg blue, and decorated with pictures of ships.
The windows were round like portholes; the table stood across one end
of the room and was screwed to the floor, as were also the benches on
either side. In the children's rooms were bunks, in rows one above the
other, and the washing-stands were fixtures. It was altogether very
charming and romantic.
Tea was of the kind called high, and the hungry children disposed of
cold ham, an extraordinary number of boiled eggs, several loaves of
smoking hot new bread, and at least a pound of butter and two or three
pounds of jam.
"May we go for a walk to the rocks?" asked Prudence, when tea was over.
"We will go very quietly along the beach and not get wet, and be home
before dark."
Papa said he would walk that way a little later on and meet them; so
Mamma gave permission, and soon a party of six were wandering by the
shore towards the rocks, carrying their boots and stockings slung round
their necks. It did not take them long to cover the two miles which lay
between their beach and the rocks. Mollie found it hard to pass by all
the lovely shells with which the beach was strewn, but the rest were
impatient. The sun was dropping down the sky and they had not too much
time for their search.
It did not promise to be a very successful search, for nowhere was
there anything even remotely like a duke's nose to be seen--nor indeed
any sort of nose. The rocks were low and for the most part jagged, with
pools of water in the hollows between them for unwary or careless
people to slip into. Many of them were covered with periwinkles, which
Grizzel could not resist gathering. She filled her boots with them.
"Papa likes them," she said, when Prudence and Mollie remonstrated with
her for lingering; "he says they taste like a sea-breeze, and if we
aren't going to take back a duke's nose I may as well take a
periwinkle's nose; it will be better than nothing."
The cliffs were high and precipitous, but they were no particular
shape, being, as Hugh said, merely the edge of Australia. The children
scrambled along till they reached the turn of the coast-line, beyond
which were more rocks and cliffs, much the same as those about them.
"Perhaps it isn't here at all," Prudence said, as they seated
themselves in a row on the edge of a big boulder; "the message didn't
say it was. It might be anywhere. Perhaps that bottle came hundreds of
miles, and the Duke's Nose is at the South Pole."
"More likely Kangaroo Island or Yorke's Peninsula," Hugh said. "We
might sail the raft across--it's only about fifty miles to the
Peninsula."
"How'd you get her to go?" asked Jerry. "We couldn't swim fifty miles;
half a mile is my limit at a stretch; Dick can do three-quarters."
"We'd have to use the sail and tack a bit, and we'd have the oars."
"What about food?" asked Prudence.
"We'd sling it in a can on the mast. Water's the trouble; we'd have to
distil sea-water, and that takes coal and might be a bit difficult;
there isn't a place for coal on board yet."
Mollie remembered the attar of roses and decided not to embark upon
that voyage. "We would be pretty thirsty before there was enough water
distilled for us all to drink," she thought to herself.
"Well, we'll have to be getting home now," said Prudence, with a sigh.
"It will be dark before so very long."
A somewhat silent and subdued party set out on the homeward scramble,
the boys in front, Mollie and Prue together, and Grizzel in the rear,
being hampered by her bootfuls of periwinkles, which would keep falling
out. She stopped at last, and, sitting down, she laced her boots
tightly up and tied the tops round with the lace ends. When she looked
up from this task she stopped again to admire the gorgeous sunset. The
whole sky was ablaze, and the sea had changed from blue to crimson and
gold; the wet beach was gleaming like an opal, pale-rose and lavender,
with fiery amber lights shimmering on the rippled sand. The brilliant
glow of the western sky was reflected in the east, and the cliffs stood
out sharply against the light, themselves flushed with pink. Grizzel's
keen young gaze ran along the outline, black where it cut the sky.
"There's nothing there," she said to herself, "only that flagstaff hut,
and it's as square as square."
As she watched, a door opened in the side of the hut and a man came
out, swinging a billy-can in his hand. Suddenly Grizzel caught her
breath. Where had she heard someone say that that hut was a tiny
refreshment-bar, where a man could go in and get boiling water for his
tea--that everlasting tea which the Australian drinks at any and every
hour of the day? It was Papa, and he had said they called the hut 'The
Nose'--short, Grizzel felt sure, for The Duke's Nose. Her eyes ran
quickly down the cliff underneath--yes, she could see the cave quite
plainly when she looked hard, though to the casual glance it looked
like a deep crevice in the cliff.
She looked after the others. They had scrambled on ahead while she was
tying up her periwinkles, and were now too far away to hear anything
but a shout. She put her two hands up to her mouth and gave the long
shrill "Cooo-eeeee!" of the Australian-born child, which caused five
heads to be turned in her direction instantaneously. Prudence started
running back, fearing that her sister had fallen and hurt herself.
Grizzel's gesticulations made things no plainer to the others--when she
pointed to the hut they thought she meant them to get help, so that
Hugh and Dick set off towards the cliff, while Jerry came on with
Mollie and Prudence in case there should be a broken limb.
Even when they got within hailing distance they did not understand, for
what between keeping a foothold on the slippery rocks, hanging on to
her periwinkles, and her excitement over her discovery, Grizzel was
getting breathless and incoherent, and all she did was to point a small
forefinger at the hut and say:
"Duke's-nose-you-know-duke's-nose-you-know-your-nose-dukes-know."
"She is delirious with pain," said Mollie, "and she is mixing the
Duke's Nose up with 'She sells sea-shells'."
However, it was not very long before they reached her side, and she was
able to explain the situation. A few more excited coo-ees brought the
boys back, and the question became: What to do next? The sun was
getting perilously near the horizon, and once it dropped behind the
sea, darkness would fall rapidly and the rocks be really unsafe,
especially as the tide was now coming in.
"We must get up frightfully early in the morning," said Dick at last,
"and come along before breakfast. Nobody is likely to find that
treasure in the next ten hours or so."
With many backward looks they resumed their homeward trek. It was hard
luck to have to leave the treasure when, perhaps, they had almost found
it, but Mamma's word was law, and if they broke their promise about
getting home, or at least meeting Papa, it was quite possible that
to-morrow would be spent by the girls in doing French verbs and making
buttonholes.
The children slept soundly all night in their funny little bunks. Early
in the morning a small figure slipped into the boys' room and shook
first one boy and then another by the shoulders. Dick and Jerry woke up
after a few grunts; Hugh as usual was a sleepy-head.
"Leave him to us," Dick said confidently, "_we'll_ get him up--you'll
see."
"Tell him to come by Gobbler's Hollow," ordered Grizzel; "you'll find
us there. Don't stop to wash."
When the boys were half-way across the sandhills, they saw a thin
column of blue smoke rising from somewhere among the low scrubby trees,
and a minute after a delicious smell greeted their unducal noses--a
smell of wood-smoke and toast combined.
"It's the girls making grub," Hugh explained to the other two; "they're
great on grub." He might have added that he was great on it himself, so
far as eating it was concerned. Certainly Dick and Jerry were very
pleased to know that they had not to wait until half-past eight for
breakfast, for the fresh sea air had given them ravenous appetites.
They found the girls in Gobbler's Hollow--appropriately so named by
Hugh--bending over a gipsy fire. The inevitable billy-can hung from a
tripod, and the steam from it mingled with the smoke of the fire.
Mollie was toasting bread, which Prudence buttered with a lavish hand,
and Grizzel was shelling hard-boiled eggs.
"I call this top-hole," Dick announced, as he squatted down on the sand
and took his tin mug from Mollie, who had begged to be allowed to make
the tea as she had seen Grizzel make it before. "It will buck us up no
end and make us as sharp as needles."
They were in a hurry to get on; so when breakfast was done they pushed
the mugs and knives into the hollow of a bush, which Grizzel explained
was their storeroom. Later in the day the girls would come back and
tidy up; for the present the great thing was to get to the cave as
quickly as possible. They had two clear hours before them in which to
make their search.
The tide was at its lowest, and there was a broad stretch of wet sand
between the sandhills and the sea. Wide shallow pools of water had been
left behind by the receding waves, while here and there lay long heavy
drifts of seaweed, shining darkly in the early rays of the morning
sunlight. The children splashed their way along, their eyes fixed on
the flagstaff hut. As they drew nearer they left the sea and steered
for the cave, the entrance to which was plain enough now that they knew
where to look for it.
"It's such a conspicuous sort of cave," Hugh said, "I don't see how
anyone could miss finding treasure unless it is buried very deep."
Caves have always a certain amount of mystery about them, but this one
was undoubtedly as ordinary looking a cave as one could find. It did
not burrow very far back into the cliff side, and what there was of it
was open to the daylight and contained no lurking dark corners. The
walls were rough and rocky but not high; the roof was, as Jerry said,
nothing particular, and the floor was of shingle and rather wet, as if
the sea, now so far away, had paid it a visit not so very long ago.
But, as the rocks and stones before the entrance were dry, it was
obviously not the tide which had washed the floor.
"It must be a spring or something," Hugh said; "let's taste and see--"
he stooped as he spoke and scooped up a handful of water, which he put
to his lips.
"Thought so; it's quite fresh and sweet--that's rather a find--jolly
useful for picnics, it will save us carting water about--by jinks!" he
exclaimed, looking round at the others with an expression of blank
dismay; "do you suppose _that's_ what we were to find to our advantage?"
They all stared hard at the shining wet stones, through which the
trickle of water was now plainly discernable. Then they stared round
the cave again. There did not seem to be a place where treasure _could_
be hidden. Moreover, there were traces of a not very remote picnic--the
dead ashes of a gipsy fire, one or two crumpled-up balls of paper, some
broken bottles!
"That's it," said Jerry at last. "It was probably the people who had
that picnic--those broken bottles are the same as the one we found.
They played cock-shy with them, and then thought it would be a lark to
chuck one into the sea. What a jolly old sell!"
"We've had a nice morning anyhow," said Prudence, "and the spring
certainly _will_ be an advantage when we've got used to it not being a
sewing-machine and bull-dogs and things."
"I somehow don't believe it is the spring," said Mollie thoughtfully,
still staring about her. "There is something about the way that paper
is written; it doesn't look like the writing of the sort of person who
plays that kind of joke--and of course it would be meant for a joke.
Let's all stand quite still in a circle back to back, and each stare
hard all over the bit of cave that comes in front of us, and see if
there isn't a sign of some sort."
They agreed that there would be no harm in trying this plan, though the
boys' hopes were small. Dick and Jerry were uneasily conscious that
they were "the sort of person" who would have thought that bottled
message an excellent joke--to play on someone else!
So they stared. They even circled slowly round so that each part of the
cave was examined with meticulous care by six pairs of eyes in turn.
But it was all in vain; the cave only seemed to become more and more
ordinary the longer they looked at it.
"There's not a place where you could hide a thimble," Prue said sadly,
"let alone a treasure."
"What's that?" Grizzel called out suddenly, pointing to the broken
bottles in the corner.
After all there _had_ been a dark spot, and with the brightening
daylight that dark spot had all at once lighted up, and there lay a
bottle, the very twin of the one they had found in the sea, red
sealing-wax and all. The boys made a dive for it, but Dick stopped
abruptly and held back the others: "Grizzel saw it first, let her open
it too," he said.
Grizzel advanced, and picking up the bottle held it to the light--yes,
there was a message plainly to be seen.
"I think one of you had better break it open," she said; "I'd probably
cut my fingers."
Hugh solemnly knocked off its head and drew out the paper. It was
written in the same round, clear handwriting:
IF THE PERSON WHO FINDS THIS
BOTTLE WILL ASK FOR MR. BROWN
AT THE DUKE'S NOSE, HE WILL
HEAR OF SOMETHING TO HIS ADVANTAGE.
"Why the dickens couldn't they have said that first shot?" Jerry
exclaimed.
"I expect Mr. Brown will tell us to go to the Duchess's Toes and hear
of something to our _dis_-advantage," said Hugh sarcastically.
"If we are going to look for Mr. Brown we will have to hurry," said
Prudence, who had gone to the entrance of the cave and was scrutinizing
the beach; "by the look of the shadows I should say it was a good bit
after seven. In not much more than an hour we must be sitting down at
breakfast tidy and brushed."
They found when they came out that there was a footpath up to the
Duke's Nose--a very steep and boulder-strewn path, but quite a possible
one for them all; so they went for it manfully and womanfully and were
soon at top. But alas! the door of the hut was closed and locked; no
one answered their repeated knocks, and they came to the unwilling
conclusion that the place was empty.
"Blow!" said Dick at last. "Why couldn't the old treasure-hider put his
old treasure in an easier place?"
"If he had, someone else would have found it," Mollie remarked
sensibly, "and anyhow it is a lark searching for it."
At that moment a man's figure could be seen coming towards the hut; he
was swinging a billy-can by the handle.
"That's the man I saw last night," exclaimed Grizzel; "I expect he is
Mr. Brown."
The man was rather surprised to see six children congregated before his
hut door at that hour of the morning. Prudence was pushed forward as
spokeswoman. "Please, are you Mr. Brown?" she asked, in her most polite
voice.
"I am, miss. Anything I can do for you?"
"We found this piece of paper," she said, showing the latest message to
him, "and we brought it to you like it says."
The man grinned broadly--he had a nice grin, the children
thought--"You've found it, have you? Well, that beats me! That's darned
clever of you. Our little Missie will be no end bucked to hear that bit
o' news; she was mighty taken up with her messages, she was. You'll
have to wait a bit, though. I can't leave this place before twelve
noon. You be on the beach above where that big hump o' seaweed is at
twelve-thirty to-day, an' you'll see--" the man broke off and grinned
again.
"What?" asked several excited people at once.
"That's tellin'," said Mr. Brown; "just you wait an' you'll see
somethin' to your advantage, same as it says here."
It was terribly hard to have to leave the treasure at this thrilling
stage, but there was nothing else to be done, especially as it was
getting late, and they would have to hasten their steps as it was, if
they were to reach home in time for a proper tidy-up before breakfast.
Mamma was very particular about many things, but she was particularly
particular about coming to table with clean hands and freshly brushed
hair.
* * * * *
They were at the trysting-place long before half-past twelve. Nobody
had a watch, but the Australian children had a device of their own for
telling the time.
"You stand on one foot," Hugh explained, "and twirl round with your
other big toe in the sand--like this. That makes a circle to fit your
own shadow. Then you stand in the middle and see where the shadow hits
the circle. And then you guess the time near enough for all practical
purposes. It's quite simple."
"Did you invent that sort of clock yourself?" Mollie asked
deferentially.
"There wasn't much to invent," Hugh replied modestly; "it's on the same
principle as a sundial. I only applied my legs."
"God invented Hugh's legs and the sun," Grizzel said; "Hugh only put in
the squiggly toe."
"But that's just it," Jerry argued; "like Newton and the apple. The
simple things are there all the time, and no one sees them till the
right person comes along. I think that's a jolly ingenious idea. You'd
have to know exactly where due north was, of course, and you'd have to
have the sun. That's the trouble in London; the sun just slops about
the sky, and half the time you can't see him at all."
The children now twirled round and round like dervishes, making
shadow-clocks till there were hardly any shadows left, as the sun rose
higher and higher in the heavens. It also became warmer and warmer; so
they decided to sit in a row with their backs to the sea and their eyes
firmly fixed upon the hut, determined not to miss the sight of the
treasure for a single moment.
"Let's play 'I went to market with a green umbrella'," Prue suggested,
"and we can think of all the things the treasure might be." The green
umbrella had been to market about twenty times when a voice behind them
made them all start.
"Well, now--to be sure!"
And there was Mr. Brown, with nothing in his hands--no sack upon his
back.
"How _did_ you come, Mr. Brown?" Mollie asked. "We looked and looked."
"Grand sentries you'd make--all lookin' one way," said Mr. Brown.
"Suppose you look at the sea for a change."
Six pairs of eyes turned to gaze at the sea--and six pairs of feet
instantly began to run, for there, drawn up on the beach, was a boat!
"How's that for a tidy craft?" asked Mr. Brown. "Is she pretty shaped?
How do you like her paint? Look at her nice little oars. Eight, she
holds--nice-sized party eight is, sort o' cosy an' cheerful."
The children looked from the boat to Mr. Brown and back again. Nobody
thought any more of stilts or sewing-machines, or even of bull-dogs;
the only thing on earth worth having at that moment was the wonderful
boat around which they were standing. Her outer dress was of bright,
dark green, with a scarlet line round the rim; inside she was pure
white. A little railing of delicate iron scroll-work ran round her
stern, and across it curved a board, with the boat's name in scarlet
and gold: _The Belle of Canada._
"Do you mean--" Hugh began, but he was too overpowered to finish,
because it was all very well to talk about cameras and things in the
abstract, but that such a thing as a real, life-sized boat--and such a
beautiful boat too--should fall into their hands in this casual way was
too wildly improbable to be true.
But it was true, nevertheless. That lovely little boat was really
theirs!
The way it happened was this, Mr. Brown explained: the year
before--while the Campbells were in the hills--a little Canadian girl,
visiting her Australian relations, had come with them to stay in the
very cottage the Campbells were in now. She was very ill when she
arrived. The doctors feared consumption, and said that open air all day
long was the best medicine she could have. So the boat was bought--"and
a fine price they paid for her too," Mr. Brown remarked--and the little
girl was half her time on the sea, and got so sun-burnt and sturdy that
before she left she was rowing the boat herself--"an' you'd never know
she'd had a mite the matter with her," Mr. Brown said. When the time
came for her to leave she took a fancy to give her boat to some other
children, so that they might have as happy a summer with it as she had
had. But it wasn't enough to give it in the usual way of giving--she
made up the plan of the message in the bottle, which she left with Mr.
Brown.
"But I wasn't in no hurry," he said. "I kep' my eye on the cottage
children. The last lot were a rampagin' set o' young ruffians, smashin'
everything they set hands on. I soon saw that this chap was a different
sort altogether, hammerin' an' tinkerin' away at his raft, and careful
of her as if she was a lady--he's the sort for little Missie an' me, I
said to myself, so in the bottle went, only an hour or two before you
found it."
"And suppose no one had found it, or the other bottle?" Dick suggested.
"Not much danger o' that, with six pair o' sharp eyes an' inquisitive
headpieces around," Mr. Brown answered, with a laugh. "The only bit I
wasn't sure about was the Duke's Nose, for not many knows it by that
name; but little Missie would have it--said it was more romantic like,
though what's romantic about a duke's nose it beats me to see--just
like any other nose, I don't mind bettin'."
"Hugh says Jerry's nose is like a duke's," Grizzel said, so that all
eyes were immediately fixed upon poor Jerry's nose.
"Jolly romantic, especially when I have a cold in the head!" he
exclaimed.
"Well now, jump in, the lot o' you, an' I'll row you along to your Pa,"
said Mr. Brown.
"Do you know Papa?" asked Grizzel, whose round blue eyes had never left
Mr. Brown's face since he began his story.
"Yes, I know your Pa. There ain't many round here that don't. Now
then----"
As Mr. Brown talked he had pushed the boat out, with some help from the
boys, and had lifted the girls in. Now he took the oars, and, with a
few powerful strokes, he sent the boat skimming over the sparkling blue
sea.
All the children could row, more or less, but Mr. Brown gave them some
useful hints. "An' you mustn't ever go far out to sea by yourselves,"
he said, "nor yet too near the rocks except it be a calm day like
to-day. Remember that a good sailor won't ever run his ship into danger
unless he can't help himself, no more than he would his wife. If you
want to go a regular excursion to the Port or such, you can always get
one of us to go with you, unless, of course, your Pa can take you. But
you'll get plenty of fun, an' learn a lot too, playin' round
here--you'll learn the feel o' the sea, which is something quite
different from rowin' on a river. An' don't you be givin' the raft the
go-by," he added, addressing himself to Hugh; "there's a lot goes to a
raft an' you never know when your knowledge o' handlin' one may come in
useful. That's a tidy one you've made, but it wants a bit o' tar. I'll
bring some along one o' these days an' show you how to use it--there's
your Pa wavin' to you."
An excited party of children landed on the beach and told their story
to Papa, whose consent had to be won before the lovely boat was really
theirs. He was as delighted as they were themselves, and an expedition
was planned for that very evening, to include Mamma and her guitar.
"If you will give me the little girl's address I will write and tell
her all about how we found the bottle," Prudence said to Mr. Brown,
"and we will all write and say 'Thank you' for her _beautiful_ idea."
"She's back in Canada now," Mr. Brown answered. "She'd be mighty
pleased to hear from you."
It was difficult to sit down soberly to boiled mutton and batter
pudding after these exhilarating adventures, but it had to be done, and
after dinner the girls had to "sit quietly with their needles" for an
hour; but at last tea-time came, and evening followed, and the whole
family except Baby embarked upon the first voyage in _The Belle of
Canada_. It was delightful to float about on the moonlit water and
listen to Mamma's lovely voice. She sang a Canadian boat-song, in
honour of the little hostess in far-away Canada:
"From the lone sheiling of the misty island
Mountains divide us, and the waste of seas--
Yet still the blood is strong, the heart is Highland,
And we in dreams behold the Hebrides.
"Fair these broad meads--these hoary woods are grand;
But we are exiles from our father's land."
Silence fell upon them all after that. Mamma's white hands dropped from
the guitar and slipped under Papa's arm; Prudence thought in her dreamy
way of the little Canadian; Mollie remembered the American soldiers and
their song; Hugh's mind was full to the brim of boats and rafts and
ships.
"Look here!" cried Jerry suddenly; "we're a good slice of our jolly old
Empire to-night--Great Britain, Australia, India, sailing in a Canadian
boat--there's another song we ought to sing----" he jumped to his feet
as he spoke, making the boat rock in the silvery water. "Come on!" he
sang:
"Rule, Britannia! Britannia rule the waves!"
* * * * *
"Oh, Jerry! _Why_ did you go and do that?" Mollie called out, as she
sat up and rubbed her eyes. "It isn't nearly time to wake up yet!"
"Indeed it is, you little lazy bones," Aunt Mary said, with a laugh.
"Goodness, child! You are beginning to look quite rosy and sunburnt!
Spraining your ankle seems to suit you. I think I'll sprain mine and
see if I can raise a complexion like that. It's as good as a visit to
the seaside."
"Ah!" said Mollie.