The Garnetts' house stood at the corner of Sandon Terrace, and possessed
at once the advantages and drawbacks of its position. The advantages
were represented by three bay windows, belonging severally to the
drawing-room, mother's bedroom, and the play-room on the third floor.
The bay windows at either end of the Terrace bestowed an architectural
finish to its flattened length, and from within allowed of extended
views up and down the street. The drawback lay in the position of the
front door, which stood round the corner in a side street, on which
abutted the gardens of the houses of its more aristocratic neighbour,
Napier Terrace. Once, in a moment of unbridled temper, Vie Vernon had
alluded to the Garnett residence as being located "at our back door,"
and though she had speedily repented, and apologised, even with tears,
the sting remained.
Apart from the point of inferiority, however, the position had its
charm. From the eerie of the top landing window one could get a bird's-
eye view of the Napier Terrace gardens with their miniature grass plots,
their smutty flower-beds, and the dividing walls with their clothing of
blackened ivy. Some people were ambitious, and lavished unrequited
affection on struggling rose-trees in a centre bed, others contented
themselves with a blaze of homely nasturtiums; others, again, abandoned
the effort after beauty, hoisted wooden poles, and on Monday mornings
floated the week's washing unashamed. In Number Two the tenant kept
pigeons; Number Four owned a real Persian cat, who basked majestic on
the top of the wall, scorning his tortoiseshell neighbours.
When the lamps were lit, it was possible also to obtain glimpses into
the dining-rooms of the two end houses, if the maids were not in too
great a hurry to draw down the blinds. A newly married couple had
recently come to live in the corner house--a couple who wore evening
clothes every night, and dined in incredible splendour at half-past
seven. It was thrilling to behold them seated at opposite sides of the
gay little table, all a-sparkle with glass and silver, to watch course
after course being handed round, the final dallying over dessert.
On one never-to-be-forgotten occasion, suddenly and without the
slightest warning, bride and bridegroom had leaped from their seats and
begun chasing each other wildly round the table. She flew, he flew; he
dodged, she screamed (one could _see_ her scream!) dodged again, and
flew wildly in an opposite direction. The chase continued for several
breathless moments, then, to the desolation of the beholders, swept out
of sight into the fastnesses of the front hall.
Never--no, never--could the bitterness of that disappointment be
outlived. To have been shut out from beholding the _denouement_--it was
_too_ piteous! In vain Darsie expended herself on flights of
imagination, in vain rendered in detail the conversation which had led
up to the thrilling chase--the provocation, the threat, the defiance--
nothing but the reality could have satisfied the thirst of curiosity of
the beholders. Would he kiss her? Would he beat her? Would she
triumph? Would she cry? Was it a frolic, or a fight? Would the morrow
find them smiling and happy as of yore, or driving off in separate cabs
to take refuge in the bosoms of their separate families? Darsie opined
that all would _seem_ the same on the surface, but darkly hinted at the
little rift within the lute, and somehow after that night the glamour
seemed to have departed from this honeymoon pair, and the fair seeming
was regarded with suspicion.
As regards the matter of distance, it took an easy two minutes to cover
the space between the front doors of the two houses, and there seemed an
endless number of reasons why the members of the different families
should fly round to consult each other a dozen times a day. Darsie and
Lavender, Vie and plain Hannah attended the same High School; the
Garnett boys and John Vernon the same Royal Institute, but the fact that
they walked to and from school together, and spent the intervening hours
in the same class-rooms, by no means mitigated the necessity of meeting
again during luncheon and tea hours. In holiday times the necessity
naturally increased, and bells pealed incessantly in response to tugs
from youthful hands.
Then came the time of the great servants' strike. That bell was a
perfect nuisance; ring, ring, ring the whole day long. Something else
to do than run about to open the door for a pack of children!
The two mistresses, thus coerced, issued a fiat. Once a day, and no
oftener! All arrangements for the afternoon to be made in the morning
_seance_, the rendezvous to be _outside_, not _inside_ the house.
After this came on the age of signals; whistlings outside the windows,
rattling of the railings, comes through letter-boxes and ventilation
grids, even--on occasions of special deafness--pebbles thrown against
the panes! A broken window, and a succession of whoops making the air
hideous during the progress of an extra special tea party, evoked the
displeasure of the mistresses in turns, and a second verdict went forth
against signals in all forms, whereupon the Garnetts and Vernons in
conclave deplored the hard-heartedness of grown-ups, and set their wits
to work to evolve a fresh means of communication.
"S'pose," said Russell, snoring thoughtfully, "s'pose we had a
telegraph!"
"S'pose we had an airship! One's just as easy as the other. Don't be a
juggins."
But Russell snored on unperturbed.
"I don't mean a _real_ telegraph, only a sort--of _pretend_! There's
our side window, and your back windows. If we could run a line across."
"A line of _what_?"
"String. Wire. Anything we like."
"S'pose we _did_ fix it, what then?"
"Send messages!"
"How?"
Russell pondered deeply. He was the member of the family who had a
natural aptitude for mechanism; the one who mended toys, and on occasion
was even consulted about mother's sewing-machine and escapes of gas,
therefore he filled the place of engineer-royal and was expected to take
all structural difficulties upon his own shoulders. He pondered,
blinking his pale blue eyes.
"Can't send messages in the usual way--too difficult. If the cord were
double, we might have a bag and switch it across."
Ha! the audience pricked its ears and sat alert, seeing in imagination
the tiny cord swung high in space above the dividing ground, stretching
from window to window, fastened securely on the sills, "somehow,"
according to the girls, the boys critically debating the question of
ways and means, strong iron hoops, for choice, clamped into the
framework of the windows.
"How would the messages be sent?"
"In a bag, of course. Put the letter in the bag; then we'd pull and
pull, and it would work round and round, till it arrived at the opposite
end."
A stealthy exchange of glances testified to the general realisation of
the fact that it would take a _long_ time to pull, a much longer time,
for instance, than to run round by the road, and deposit the missive in
the letter-box, a still unforbidden means of communication. Every one
realised the fact, but every one scorned to put it into words. What was
a mere matter of time, compared with the glory and _eclat_ of owning a
real live telegraph of one's own?
The first stage of the proceedings was to obtain the parental consent,
and this was secured with an ease and celerity which was positively
disconcerting. When mothers said, "Oh, yes, dears, certainly--certainly
you may try!" with a smile in their eyes, a twist on their lips, and a
barely concealed incredulity oozing out of every pore, it put the
youngsters on their mettle to succeed, or perish in the attempt. The
mothers obviously congratulated themselves on a project which would
provide innocent amusement for holiday afternoons, while they inwardly
derided the idea of permanent success.
"We'll show 'em!" cried Harry darkly. "We'll let 'em see!"
The next point was to decide on the window in each house which should
act as telegraph station. In the case of the Vernons there was
obviously no alternative, for the third-floor landing window possessed
qualifications far in excess of any other, but with the Garnetts two
rival factions fought a wordy combat in favour of the boys' room and the
little eerie inhabited by Lavender, each of which occupied equally good
sites.
"Stick to it! Stick to it!" were Harry's instructions to his younger
brother. "They can't put the thing up without us, so they're bound to
come round in the end, and if we've got the telegraph station, it will
give us the whip hand over them for ever. It's our room, and they've
jolly well got to behave if they want to come in. If they turn rusty,
we'll lock the door, and they'll have to be civil, or do without the
telegraph. Let 'em talk till they're tired, and then they'll give in,
and we'll go out and buy the cord."
And in the end the girls succumbed as predicted. Lavender's pride in
owning the site of the great enterprise weakened before the tragic
picture drawn for her warning, in which she saw herself roused from
slumber at unearthly hours of the night, leaning out of an opened window
to draw a frozen cord through bleeding hands. She decided that on the
whole it would be more agreeable to lie snugly in bed and receive the
messages from the boys over a warm and leisurely breakfast.
These two great points arranged, nothing now remained but the erection
of the line itself, and two strong iron hoops having been fixed into the
outer sills of the respective windows a fine Saturday afternoon
witnessed the first struggle with the cord.
Vie Vernon and plain Hannah unrolled one heavy skein, threaded it
through their own hoop, and lowered the two ends into the garden, where
John stood at attention ready to throw them over the wall. Darsie and
Lavender dropped their ends straight into the street, and then chased
madly downstairs to join the boys and witness the junction of the lines.
Each line being long enough in itself to accomplish the double journey,
the plan was to pull the connected string into the Garnett station, cut
off the superfluous length, and tie the ends taut and firm. Nothing
could have seemed easier in theory, but in practice unexpected
difficulties presented themselves. The side street was as a rule
singularly free from traffic, but with the usual perversity of fate,
every tradesman's cart in the neighbourhood seemed bent on exercising
its horse up and down its length this Saturday afternoon. No sooner
were lines knotted together in the middle of the road than the
greengrocer came prancing round the corner, and they must needs be
hastily untied; secured a second time, the milkman appeared on
incredibly early rounds, reined his steed on its haunches, and scowled
fiercely around; before there was time to rally from his attack a
procession of coal-carts came trundling heavily past. By this time also
the frantic efforts of the two families had attracted the attention of
their enemies, a body of boys, scathingly designated "the Cads," who
inhabited the smaller streets around and waged an incessant war against
"the Softs," as they in return nicknamed their more luxurious
neighbours.
The Cads rushed to the scene with hoots and howls of derision; white-
capped heads peered over bedroom blinds; even the tortoiseshell cats
stalked over the dividing walls to discover the cause of the unusual
excitement. Clemence, with the sensitiveness of seventeen years,
hurried round the corner, and walked hastily in an opposite direction,
striving to look as if she had no connection with the scrimmage in the
side street. Darsie read the Cads a lecture on nobility of conduct,
which they received with further hoots and sneers. Plain Hannah planked
herself squarely before the scene of action with intent to act as a
bulwark from the attack of the enemy. The three boys worked with
feverish energy, dreading the appearance of their parents and an edict
to cease operations forthwith.
The first lull in the traffic was seized upon to secure the knots, when
presto! the line began to move, as Russell the nimble-minded hauled
vigorously from the upstairs station, whence he had been dispatched a
few moments before. The Cads yelled and booed as the first glimmering
knowledge of what was on foot penetrated their brains; they grouped
together and consulted as to means of frustration; but with every moment
that passed yards of line were disappearing from view, and the skeins in
the streets were rapidly diminishing in size. Presently there was not a
single coil left, and a cheer of delight burst from the onlookers as
they watched the cord rise slowly off the ground. Now with good luck
and the absence of vehicles for another two minutes the deed would be
done, and the Garnett-Vernon telegraph an accomplished fact; but alas!
at this all-important moment one line of string caught in an ivy stem at
the top of a garden wall, and refused to be dislodged by tuggings and
pullings from below. The Cads raised a derisive cheer, and to add to
the annoyances of the moment a cab rounded the corner, the driver of
which pulled up in scandalised amaze on finding the road barricaded by
two stout lines of string.
His strictures were strong and to the point, and though he finally
consented to drive over the hastily lowered line, he departed shaking
his whip in an ominous manner, and murmuring darkly concerning police.
"On to the wall, John. Quick! Climb up and ease it over. If we don't
get it up in a jiffy we shall have the bobbies after us!" cried Harry
frantically, whereupon John doubled back into his own garden, and by
perilous graspings of ivy trunks and projecting bricks scaled to the top
and eased the line from its grip.
"Right-ho!" he cried, lifting his face to the opposite window. "Pull,
Russell! _pull_ for your life!"
Russell pulled; a second time the double thread rose in the air. Darsie
jumped with excitement; Lavender clasped her hands, all white and tense
with suspense, plain Hannah ran to and fro, emitting short, staccato
croaks of delight; Harry stood in manly calm, arms akimbo, a beam of
satisfaction broadening his face. That smile, alas! gave the last touch
of exasperation to the watching Cads. To stand still and behold the
line vanishing into space had been in itself an ordeal, but Harry's
lordly air, his strut, his smile--these were beyond their endurance!
With a rallying shout of battle they plunged forward, grabbed at the
ascending cord, hung for a dizzy moment suspended on its length, then
with a final cheer felt it snap in twain and drag limply along the
ground.
Alas for Harry and for John--what could they do, two men alone, against
a dozen? The girls screamed, declaimed, vowed shrill revenge, but in
the matter of practical force were worse than useless. Even with
Russell's aid the forces were hopelessly uneven. Harry stood looking on
gloomily while the Cads, chortling with triumph, galloped down the road,
trailing behind them the long lengths of cord; then, like a true
Englishman, being half-beaten, he set his teeth and vowed to conquer, or
to die.
"They think we're sold, but they'll find their mistake! We'll get up at
five on Monday morning and have the thing in working trig before they
have opened their silly eyes."
This programme being duly enacted, the telegraph stations remained for
years as an outward and visible sign of the only piece of work which
Harry Garnett was ever known to accomplish before the hour of his
belated breakfast.