MISSING!
They all struggled to their feet after that, collected their baskets,
and resumed their climb, over big boulders, through furze and bracken,
dead now and withered, but beautiful in the glow of the clear wintry
sunshine, until at last they came to an immense flat rock, with another
rising high behind it, sheltering them from the wind and catching every
gleam of sunshine that possibly could be caught.
Here they spread their cloth, laying large pebbles on the corners of it
to keep it down, and on it they spread their feast, and then at last
there was nothing left to do but sit down and enjoy it. The sun shone
quite warmly, a soft little breeze blew up from the valley, bringing
with it the mingled scents of peat smoke, crushed thyme, and wet moss.
From their high perch they looked down on long stretches of brown fields
ploughed in ridges, with here and there a big gray rock dropped into
the middle of it, and here and there a roughly-built cottage, not much
bigger, seemingly, than some of the rocks. In a distant field a man was
carrying mangolds to a flock of sheep. The bleating of the sheep
floated up to them through the still air, and, with the voices of the
birds, made the only sounds of life that reached them. The scene,
though lovely in the eyes of the children, was desolate to a degree.
Scarcely a tree marked the landscape, and those there were were bowed
and stunted, leaning landwards as though running before the cold winds
which blew with such force across the few miles of flat, bare country
which alone lay between them and the Atlantic Ocean.
To-day, though, it was hard to believe that that sunny spot was often so
bleak and storm-swept that man and beast avoided it. Anna gazed about
her wonderingly, but somewhat awed.
"It seems dreadfully wild and lonely," she said, with a shiver.
"And how flat and ugly it is, all but these tors. I wonder how they
came to be here like this. I should think the people who used to live
here must have piled up all these rocks to clear them out of the fields.
They left a good many behind, though."
"No one could have lifted rocks like these, and piled them up like
this," said Dan scornfully. "They were thrown up like this by an
earthquake, father says, and after the earthquake the sea--you know the
sea used to cover all the country as far as we can see--"
"Nonsense!" interrupted Anna. "Now you are trying to take me in; but
you won't make me believe such nonsense as that."
"Very well," crossly, "don't believe it then; only don't ask questions
another time if you mean to turn round and sneer when a fellow tries to
explain. I suppose you won't believe either that giants used to live
here?"
Anna laughed even more scornfully. "No, I will not," she said loftily.
"I am not quite stupid enough to believe all the nonsense you would like
to make me."
"If you could only realize it, it is you who are talking nonsense," said
Dan crushingly, and he turned away from her. He was not going to tell
any of his beloved legends and stories for Anna to sneer at. "It is
simply a sign of ignorance," he said, with his most superior air, "not
to believe in things because we haven't actually seen them with our very
own eyes. I suppose you will not believe that St. Michael's Mount used
to be surrounded with woods where there is sea now, until a huge wave
rushed in and swamped everything, right up to the foot of the Mount, and
never went back again?"
"No," said Anna obstinately, "of course I shouldn't believe it.
Such things couldn't happen. It is silly to tell such stories as you
Cornish people do, and expect other people to believe them."
Kitty looked at her in pained surprise. It seemed to her that Anna's
way of speaking was quite irreverent. She longed to know, yet shrank
from asking her, if she scorned, too, those other stories, so precious
and real to Kitty, the story of King Arthur in his hidden resting-place,
waiting to be roused from his long sleep; of Tristram and Iseult asleep
in the little chapel beneath the sea; of--oh, a hundred others of giants
and fairies, witches and spectres. But she held her peace rather than
hear them scoffed at and discredited.
The sunshine, chased by a cloud and a fresh little breeze, disappeared.
Anna shivered and looked about her.
"Oh, how gloomy and lonely it all looks directly the sun goes in!" she
cried. "I should hate to be here in the dark, or in a storm. Shouldn't
you, Kitty? I think I should die of fright; I know I should if I were
here alone."
"I'd love to be here in a storm," said Kitty firmly, "a real
thunderstorm. It would be grand to watch it all from the top of the
tors. I don't think I would very much mind being up here all night
either. You see, there is nothing that could possibly hurt one, no wild
beasts or robbers. Bad people would be afraid to come."
"I think it would be perfectly dreadful," shuddered Anna. "You would
never know who was coming round the rocks, or who was hiding; and
robbers could come behind you and catch you, and you wouldn't be able to
see or hear them until they were right on you; and you might scream and
scream with all your might and main and no one would hear you."
"If I sneered at giants, I wouldn't talk of robbers if I were you," said
Dan severely. "Imagine robbers coming to a place like this!
Why, there's nothing and nobody to rob."
"They would come here to hide, of course, not to rob," said Anna
crushingly, and Dan felt rather small.
Betty and Tony began to feel bored.
"I am going to get sticks for the fire," said Betty. "Come along, Tony.
You others can come, too, if you like."
"Betty is beginning to think of her tea already," laughed Dan, but they
all joined her in her search--not that there was any need to search, for
dry sticks and furze bushes lay all around them in profusion.
"Oh, here's the cromlech," cried Kitty, coming suddenly on the great
rock, which was poised so lightly on top of other great rocks that it
would sway under the lightest touch, yet had remained unmoved by all the
storms and hurricanes of the ages that had passed over it. She ran
lightly up and on to it, and stood there swaying gently, the breeze
fluttering out her skirts and flushing her cheeks.
"You must make a wish while you are standing on it, and then if you can
make the rock move you will get your wish," explained Betty to Anna.
"It isn't every one who can. I don't suppose you could, 'cause you
don't believe in things like we do."
Nevertheless Anna was bent on trying, and grew quite cross because the
rock would not move for her. "No, I don't believe it," she snapped.
"You Cornish people are so suppositios; and it is _dreadfully_ ignorant
to be so. Mother said so."
Dan fairly shrieked with delight; he always did when Anna or Betty used
a wrong word, particularly if it was a long one.
"Though it is so early, I am going to light the fire now," said Kitty,
anxious to make a diversion and prevent squabbles, "because I want to
smell the smell of the burning fuz."
Which she did then and there; and then, perhaps in absent-mindedness,
she put the kettle on, and it boiled before any one could believe the
water was even warm, and then, of course, there was nothing to be done
but make the tea and drink it. But the air up there was so wonderful
that no matter how quickly the meals came the appetites were ready.
"The smell of the smoke was feast enough in itself," Kitty said.
But she did not omit to take a liberal share of more solid food as well.
And oh! how good it all tasted--the tea, the bread and butter, the
saffron cake, all had a flavour such as they never had elsewhere, and
the air was growing fresh enough to make the hot tea very acceptable and
comfortable.
They did not sit long after they had done, for it really was beginning
to grow chilly.
"Now you had all better go and have a game of some kind or other," said
Kitty, "and I will pack the baskets ready to go into the cart, and then
I'll come and play too."
It took her longer, though, than she had counted on to pack all the
things so that they would travel safely, and she had put them in and
taken them out again so many times that when at last she had done, and
glanced up with a sigh of relief to look for the others, she saw with
dismay that the short winter's day was well-nigh over. The sun had
disappeared quite suddenly, leaving behind it a leaden, lowering sky,
while in the distance hung a thick mist, which told of heavy rain not
far off.
"I will call the others. I think we had better be starting soon; the
weather has changed," she murmured, and, springing to her feet, she
shouted, and shouted, and shouted again. No answer came.
Still calling, she went around the tors to another point, but she could
catch no glimpse of any living being, and in that great waste of rocks
and furze and underbrush it was not surprising. Kitty, though, was
surprised and a little bit alarmed, and she ran from point to point,
calling and calling again; but for a long time the only answer was the
long sighs the wind gave as it rushed over the level land, and lost
itself with a little wail of anger amongst the old tors. Then at last
came a long shout, and Dan appeared, and almost at the same moment a
drop fell smartly on Kitty's cheek, then another and another, and
suddenly a heavy downpour descended on them.
"I saw it coming," gasped Dan. "Look!" and Kitty looked across the land
stretching below, and saw rain in a dense column rushing towards them,
driven by a squall which dashed it into them pitilessly.
In little more than a moment the whole place had changed from a sunny,
idyllic little paradise to a bleak, howling wilderness, lonely, weird,
exposed to all the worst storms of heaven.
"Where are the others?" gasped Kitty, seizing some of the packages to
run with them to the cart.
"I told them not to climb up here again, but to start for home and we
would overtake them as quickly as we could. It wasn't raining then, or
I'd have told them to run to the little shanty; but I should think
they'd have the sense to do that," said Dan.
"Oh yes, I expect they are all right. Now then, run, but run
carefully," added Kitty. "All the cups are in that basket, and Aunt
Pike will be very angry if we break any."
But it was not easy to run at all, or even to hurry down that rugged
slope, while carrying five baskets and a rug or two, with a squall
catching them at every turn, and the short, dry grass becoming as
slippery as glass with the rain; but at long last they reached the foot
and the little hut, and there they found Betty struggling with all her
might to get Mokus between the shafts of the cart.
"He will have to be taken out again, I expect," said Dan in an aside to
Kitty. "She has probably done up every strap wrongly. It is good of
her, though, to try."
"I am glad she made Tony stand in under shelter," said Kitty thankfully,
as her eye fell on her little brother in the doorway of the hut.
"Where is Anna? I suppose she is inside."
"You bet," said Dan shortly. "Anna knows how to take care of herself."
But Anna was not in the shanty, or anywhere within reach of their
shouts.
"I expect she is ever so far towards home by now," said Betty absently,
quite absorbed in the interest of harnessing Mokus. "She started to
walk home as fast as ever she could. I called to her to wait, but she
wouldn't listen."
"Oh, well, it's all right; she can't miss the road, and we shall soon
overtake her," said Dan. "Now then, in you get."
It was great fun packing themselves into the cart. Betty and Tony, in
great spirits, sat in the bottom of it, with a rug drawn over them like
a tent, and two little peepholes to peer through, and were as happy and
warm as could be. Kitty and Dan sat upon the seat with the other rug
round their shoulders, and the moment they were ready and had gathered
up the reins, Mokus, who had been standing flapping his long ears
crossly when the rain struck him particularly smartly, started off at a
really quick trot, which covered the ground rapidly, but rattled and
jolted the cart to such an extent that it was all Dan and Kitty could do
to keep their seats, while as for the two in the bottom of the cart,
they were tossed about like parched peas in a frying-pan. And oh! how
they all laughed! It is not always the funniest or wittiest things that
cause the most laughter, and somehow to-day the sight of Mokus flying
along on his little hoofs, the dreary scene, the lashing rain,
themselves wrapped up like a lot of gipsies, with the risk of finding
themselves at any moment tossed out and left sitting in the mud, made
them laugh and laugh until they ached. And all the time Dan kept on
saying the silliest things, and waving his whip about his head as though
he were a Roman driving a chariot drawn by fiery horses, urging Mokus on
to a more and more reckless pace, until at last they had to beg him to
stop, they were aching so with laughter.
But except for some forlorn-looking geese on the common, who hissed at
them as they passed, they did not meet a living creature the whole of
the way they went.
"Cheer up, old ladies!" Dan shouted to the geese consolingly, "you've
nothing on to spoil. If I'd been made to stand a flood as you have, I
wouldn't make a fuss about a little summer shower like this."
"If you want your last glimpse of the tors," said Kitty, who knew every
inch of the way, "look back now." And they all looked, and all
shuddered as their eyes travelled over the spot where they had so lately
been basking in the sunshine. It looked gloomy and awe-inspiring now,
with black clouds lowering over it, a heavy mist wrapping it round,
while at the foot the little neglected shanty added the last desolate
touch to the wild scene. "Doesn't it seem impossible that we were
playing there only a little while ago," said Kitty, "and I was wishing I
could sleep there?" Then, with sudden recollection, "I wonder where
Anna is. She must have walked very fast."
"I only hope she isn't still up there," said Dan with a laugh, waving
his hand towards the tors. "Poor old Anna!"
"Oh!" squealed Betty, who loved horrors and excitements, "suppose she
is, and sees us going farther and farther away from her. If she called
and called, nobody would hear her, and oh, she'll be so frightened.
If she had to stay there all night, I am sure she would die of fright,"
and Betty looked utterly horrified. "What shall we do? Isn't it
egsciting!"
"No, not at all," said Dan impatiently; "don't be silly. Why should she
be there? I told you all to hurry homewards, and Anna did as she was
told. That is the difference between you and Anna, you see."
"Well," said Betty thoughtfully, "I didn't do as I was told, but I think
I've got the best of it--especially," she added, "if Anna _is_ left
behind."
Dan seemed to take it as a personal insult that she should dwell on such
a possibility. "If you say anything more about Anna being left behind,"
he said, "I'll put you out of the cart and send you back to look for
her."
"Then there would be two of us lost instead of one," said Betty
aggravatingly, "and oh, wouldn't you get into a row when you got home!"
"She must be on ahead," said Kitty, anxious to make peace.
"Only I didn't think she had had time to get so far."
"Perhaps some one has given her a lift," said Dan, with sudden hope.
"Anna is sharp enough to take or to ask for one if she had the chance.
She knows it is a tight pack for us all to get in this cart at once, and
she would think Mokus would behave as badly going home as he did on the
way out."
This all seemed to them so likely, that they drove on again gaily, their
minds quite easy about her; all except Betty, who persisted in gazing
back at the tors as long as they were in view, in the hope of seeing a
signal of distress. Mokus stepped out at a pace that the carrots had
never roused him to on the outward journey, yet darkness had come on
before they reached Gorlay.
"Isn't it like old times," sighed Betty happily, "driving through the
dark and the wet, and then reaching home, and changing and having a
jolly tea by the fire, and there will be no Aunt Pike, and we will be
able to stay up as late as we like--"
"But there will be Anna," said Tony. "It won't be _quite_ the same."
But, alas, there was no Anna, and her absence on this particular
occasion did much more to upset their evening than her presence would
have done. In answer to their inquiries as to when and how she got
back, they were told that she had not got back at all. No one had seen
her, and a dreadful conviction began to steal over them that she would
not come--that, in fact, she was lost, and probably, as Betty had
suggested, wandering about those dangerous tors, frightened nearly out
of her senses. What was to be done? At first they were for waiting;
but then, as the rain continued to stream down, and the wind to blow
gustily, they felt that it was no time for delay. Something must be
done, and done quickly.
"Oh, if only father were home!" cried Kitty despairingly.
But unfortunately Dr. Trenire was in Plymouth on business, and would
certainly not be home that night.
Dan sprang up, and began to put on his boots and leggings. "I am going
back there again," he announced. "It is only three miles or so, and I
can walk it in an hour."
"But you can't go alone."
"Yes, I can; and I can get people out there to help me search, and if I
find her I'll get some one to drive us home;" and flinging on his coat
and cap, he was rushing out of the house before they realized what he
was doing.
"But, Dan," Kitty called after him, "which way are you going?"
"The same, of course. There is but one--at least only one that Anna
knows," he called back, and he raced off into the darkness before any
one could say another word.
Kitty was vexed. "How foolish of him," she said. "Of course there are
other ways, and Anna must have taken one of them, or we should have
passed her; and he shouldn't have gone alone either, he should have
taken Jabez and a lantern. What can he do if he finds her?"
"And he may get lost too," said Betty comfortingly. But Dan was already
racing up through the dark wet street, too absorbed by the heroic side
of his actions to spare a thought for the common sense.
Kitty dropped into a chair in a state of deep despondency, blaming
herself for everything. "Why had she started for home without making
sure about Anna? How wrong it was of her not to turn back! What would
Aunt Pike say when she knew?" and so the thoughts poured through her
mind until she was well-nigh distracted.
Tony, worn out by his long day in the fresh air, was fast asleep.
Betty, exhausted by excitement and alarm, was scarcely able to keep
awake. The servants were in the kitchen regaling themselves and Jabez
with supper and a dish of horrors, when suddenly Kitty sprang to her
feet with the force of an idea that had come to her. She would take the
carriage and Jabez, and drive very slowly and carefully by another road
straight back to Helbarrow Tors. They would inquire at every house they
passed, and--only she did not tell Jabez this, for fear of alarming
him--if need be, they would search even the tors themselves.
It would be very difficult, she knew; but what did difficulties matter
at such a time as this? With Anna lost on such a night, her father and
aunt away, and she alone responsible, they must do something, they must,
they must, and quickly too. She looked at the clock; it was only seven.
There was just a chance that they might find Anna and have her home in
warmth and safety by ten. She ran to the kitchen and broached her plan
to Jabez. He winced at the prospect, but raised no objection.
Indeed, they were all too greatly alarmed to object to anything.
Jabez had been picturing Anna in turn killed, walking into the water,
stolen, wandering about lost and crying for help, so he could hardly
refuse his help in rescuing her from one of these fates.
In a very short time Prue was harnessed, and with Kitty beside him, and
a pile of rugs and wraps, Jabez was driving off at a good pace, while
those at home prepared fires and hot blankets and everything else they
could think of.
But many long, weary hours elapsed before the fires and the hot blankets
were needed, and the next day was dawning, bleak and cold, when at last,
to the intense relief and excitement of the weary watchers, old Prue's
step was heard coming quickly down the street, and the two servants flew
out to the door. But Jabez drove straight round to the yard with his
load, and there, with the help of Kitty and Dan--who was with them--they
lifted down a big still bundle, which was Anna, wet through, worn out,
unconscious. They carried her in very tenderly and put her to bed at
once, and everything they could do for her ease and comfort they did.
But though her strength revived and the dreadful exhaustion passed away,
it was soon evident that she was ill--very ill, it seemed to them--and
Fanny in alarm ran for Dr. Lang; and at his request telegrams were sent
to Dr. Trenire and Aunt Pike, bidding them come home at once; while poor
Kitty, overcome with fatigue and anxiety and remorse that this should
have happened while she was in charge of them all, went and shut herself
up in her room, locking out even Betty.
The story of that night's search she told later--of their long, slow
drive over the bleak roads in the teeth of a high wind and a driving
rain; of their close examination of every yard of the way, one walking
while the other drove; and of their hopelessness when they looked at the
gateways and fields, into any of which Anna might have turned, and the
lanes down which she might have wandered. But of her own feelings she
could not speak--the awful anxiety and remorse; the sense of
responsibility and blameworthiness that filled her; her remembrance of
Anna's sacrifice for Dan the night she saved his life; her dread of what
they might see or hear--those were feelings too deep for words.
So, too, was her agony of joy and relief when at last, almost by a
miracle, they came on her lying in a linhay down a lane they had very
nearly overlooked in the darkness.
How she had wandered there no one would ever know, and Anna could never
tell. She must have doubled back when she found she had taken the wrong
road, and then, in her fright and confusion, have gone round, and up and
down, until she had lost herself far more effectually than if she had
tried to. That she had met no one to ask her way of was not wonderful
on such a night and in a neighbourhood where there were only half a
dozen cottages altogether, and at long distances apart.
She had recognized Kitty and Jabez when they roused her, but in her
relief had had a fit of hysterics which frightened them both nearly out
of their wits, and then had fainted.
Poor Kitty did her best to keep calm, and she and Jabez carried Anna to
the carriage, and there, wrapped in all the rugs and shawls they could
muster, she lay in Kitty's arms while Jabez drove quickly home.
Their shortest and best way now was the road they had travelled so
happily in the morning, so once again Kitty had a dim glimpse of the
tors, standing up so lonely and desolate in the black night, lashed by
the rain and swept by the wind, but she turned her eyes away, half
shuddering. They were nearly home when they met Dan crawling along,
hopeless and dead beat. He was soaked to the skin, his feet were galled
and raw with walking in wet boots, but, worst of all, his search had
been fruitless. Crawling painfully, miserably homewards, with a mind
full of the fate that might have overtaken Anna--Anna, who had saved his
life--was it any wonder that he broke down and cried when, on hearing
wheels, and turning to ask for a lift, he recognized first old Prue,
then Jabez and Kitty, and, best of all, Anna, and knew that his search
was ended?