‘This way, dear. That’s it, this way.’
She reached his side as John was coming down the stairs carrying a tin tray on which was a plate of thick slices of bread and a small mound of pieces of cheese. Placing the tray on the floor, he said, ‘He’s given us only one mug. I’ll…I’ll give her a drink first, sir.’
‘No.’
‘What!’
‘No, let me taste it. It was tea they gave me before and I was so thirsty I gulped at it before I realised that it had a queer tang. Just let me taste this.’
John half filled the mug with tea and handed it towards Sir Geoffrey, and when after a moment he said, ‘It’s the same, you mustn’t drink it,’ John visibly slumped. His mouth was so dry he was finding it difficult to swallow; what is more, the air in the cellar seemed to be getting fuggier.
‘I’m sorry, my dear.’ Sir Geoffrey was addressing Bella, and she answered, ‘So am I, because like Mrs Golightly used to say, me mouth feels like an over-smoked kipper.’
‘Mrs Go—?’
‘It’s a lady she knows, sir, who is always coming out with odd sayings.’
‘Oh…oh, I understand.’
‘Can we eat the bread then and whatever they’ve sent down?’
‘Yes, I think we can safely eat that. They would imagine we’d gulp at the tea first.’
After taking a few mouthfuls of the bread and cheese and swallowing deeply to get it down her throat, Bella said casually, ‘There’s a wall up there and it’s rotten.’
‘What?’ Both John and Sir Geoffrey spoke together.
‘Up behind the boxes. There’s two levels, not as broad as this one, just sort of ledges, and then the floor slopes up again. But the wall’s all crumbly and wet. If we had a hammer or something we could likely knock a hole through.’
‘A hammer or something?’ Sir Geoffrey had now risen to his feet and for a moment he swayed, then put his hand to his head as he said, ‘I’m still not clear of it. But…but come on, my dear, show me. Will you hold the candle, boy?’ He turned to John and added, ‘What is your name?’
‘John Thompson, sir.’
‘Well, John, let’s see what she’s found. But wait; let’s see if there’s any implement lying around.’
Holding the candle high, John walked around the enclosed space, then said, ‘There’s nothing that I can see, sir; but I’ve got a penknife on me.’
‘A penknife? Well, all I can say at this moment is thank God for boys and penknives. I only hope it’s a stout one.’
‘It’s pretty good.’
‘Come on then. And you lead the way, child.’
With her hands moving along the wall, Bella went quickly forward until she came to where the boxes blocked the path. Turning about, she said, ‘We can push them aside, because if they tumble the rest over it won’t matter when none of us are there, will it?’
‘No. But in any case go carefully.’
When Sir Geoffrey and John went to squeeze through the narrow aperture there was another rumble from the boxes, but it was followed by only one thump, and then a sound that suggested that they were all settling comfortably into place again.
‘Here, feel; it’s all wet, isn’t it?’ Bella was now tapping the wall.
‘Yes, yes; at least this part is.’ Sir Geoffrey was moving his hands over the wall now. ‘Yet to the side it’s dry. And…and the wall to the left is dry too!’
‘Let me try with my knife, sir. Here, you hold the candle.’ He now pushed the candle into Bella’s hand; then gripping the knife in his fist, he inserted it between the stones and when the damp mortar splayed out almost as soft as when it had first been placed there he laughed excitedly as he said, ‘The mortar’s rotten, sir; we could have the stones out of here in no time.’
‘It’s too good to be true. Here, let me have a try.’
Sir Geoffrey now grabbed the knife from John and started frantically digging the mortar from between the stones; but in a very short time he began to tire and, putting his hand to his head again, he muttered, ‘Damn!’
‘Give it here, sir.’ Again John had the knife, and when he had loosened the fourth side of one stone and was about to put his hand flat on it and push it outwards, Sir Geoffrey checked him hastily, saying, ‘Don’t let it fall, it might drop into the open and give the show away. This wet patch has likely been caused by a blocked gutter.’
‘Yes, yes; you’re right, sir.’ Now wedging his fingers about the stone, John edged it forward, and when he went to lift it from its place its weight nearly bent him double, and it took all his strength to hold it and not to let it drop onto the concrete floor. Now both he and Sir Geoffrey had their eyes to the hole, and it was John who said, ‘There’s no daylight, sir.’
‘No.’
‘Give me the candle, Bella.’ He turned and took the candle from Bella’s hand, and when he put it into the place where the stone had been he whispered in disappointment, ‘There’s some obstruction across the middle here. We’ll have to take out the upper stones before we can see further.’
‘Wait a minute.’ Bella was sniffing loudly, and it was she who now said, ‘Hold the candle, will you?’ and when John took it from her she asked, ‘Where’s the hole?’
‘Here.’ Sir Geoffrey brought her face on a level with the aperture, and still sniffing, she said, ‘Coal an’ coke.’
‘Coal and coke; what do you mean?’
She turned her face towards John, saying, ‘There’s coal an’ coke in there, I can smell it. It must be a coalhouse.’
‘Eeh, Bella!’ There was an unstinted note of admiration in John’s voice, and now he added, ‘Well, if it’s a coalhouse, let’s get into it as quickly as possible. What do you say, sir?’
‘I was never in more agreement with anyone in my life, John. The coalhouse seems to be our only avenue of escape. If Bella hadn’t found that damp mortar I think our chances of getting out would have been pretty slim.’
John was about to start his gouging of the mortar again when Bella said quietly, ‘What if they come back and expect to find us all laid out with that drink?’
John stopped his activity and there was silence for a moment before Sir Geoffrey said softly, ‘My dear, your wits are much clearer than mine; you’ve certainly got something there.’ Then, addressing John, he said, ‘Do you think from the time they put the key in that lock we’d be able to scramble back on to that straw and pretend to be asleep?’
‘I doubt it, sir.’
‘If you could do it in ten seconds you’d make it,’ said Bella.
‘Ten seconds?’
‘Yes.’ Bella had turned in the direction of Sir Geoffrey. ‘I’ve got to count things, like the time it takes for an egg to boil. Me da used to like his done for four minutes, and I used to county sixty seconds four times. You do it like this; hundred and one, hundred and two, hundred and three, the hundred gives you your timing. I do it for all kinds of things even when I don’t know I’m doing it. I remember doing it the second time the man opened the door.’
‘Child, you are a genius.’ Sir Geoffrey squeezed her chin and it stopped her from telling him what Mrs Golightly said she was on such an occasion as now when she used her wits. John said quickly, ‘Time me. Go on back down there and when you say, right! I’ll make a dash for it and see if I can do it.’
A few minutes later her voice came to them, saying, ‘Right!’
Turning from the wall, John scrambled downwards, only to lose his sense of direction in the dark immediately he reached the lower level, yet as Bella was saying, ‘Nine,’ so he flung himself down and lay prone, and she called to him, ‘You’ve done it!’
‘Where am I?’ he put out his hand gropingly, and she went towards him and caught hold of him and said, ‘The wall’s here.’
When he reached it he looked upwards and into the glimmer of the candlelight that was almost hidden by the boxes.
Now making his way back up again, he took the candle from Sir Geoffrey and said, ‘It can be done.’
>
‘Yes; you can do it but I doubt if I’ll make it.’
Bella’s voice came to them now, calling, ‘Right!’ which set Sir Geoffrey scrambling down by the wall. But he had managed to reach only the beginning of the level when she said, ‘Ten,’ and on his exclamation she called to him, ‘Well, it doesn’t matter where you’re lying as long as they can see you, does it?’
‘No, my dear; I don’t suppose it does. But John must come first otherwise I’ll hold him up.’
‘Yes, that’s right. And you must pour the tea out.’
‘Yes, we must pour the tea out.’
Sir Geoffrey gave a short laugh and Bella knew he was shaking his head; and now she said to him, ‘I’d better stay here then?’
‘Yes, my dear.’ There was a pause now before he asked, ‘You’re…you’re not frightened?’ only to add quickly, ‘That was a silly thing to ask.’
‘No, no, it wasn’t, though I’m not as frightened as I was. I was scared stiff when I first came down, but you don’t get so frightened when you’re doing things; it’s when you’re sittin’ and thinkin’. Mrs Golightly used to say that eggs hatched with heat, and fear hatched with idleness.’
‘She must be a very wise woman, this Mrs Golightly.’
‘Yes, she is.’
‘I must go now and help John.’
‘Mister?’
‘Yes?’
‘What if when we’re pretending to be asleep they pick us up and carry us away?’
It was as if he hadn’t heard her question, so long did he take to answer it; and then he said, ‘Yes, what if? Well, my dear, I think in that case John and I’ll put up a fight.’
‘I’m good at fightin’ meself once I get a hold.’
She smiled in her darkness as she heard the man give a low chuckle, then say, ‘I’m sure you’d be good at anything you attempted, my dear.’
He was a nice man; she liked him.
When Sir Geoffrey reached John he exclaimed excitedly, ‘Oh, you’ve got another two out, that’s good.’
‘The mortar’s rotten and it’s just the lifting of them out now. But it’ll take us to hurry for this candle is half gone. That’s another thing, sir; we must remember to snuff this out should Bella give us the warning.’
‘Yes, indeed. That child, she’s remarkably intelligent.’
John puffed as he lifted another stone out of the wall, then said, ‘She’s got her wits about her.’
Sir Geoffrey now bent down to the hole that John had made and he asked quietly, ‘Do you think you could get your head and shoulders through there now?’
‘I’ll try, but I’ve got to put my arm through first to hold the candle, because it looks as black in there as it is in here.’ Taking the candle now from where he had stuck it on a protruding stone he pushed his arm through the aperture, then slowly edged his head and shoulders after it; but it was only a matter of seconds before he withdrew it again, saying excitedly, ‘It’s as she said, it’s a coalhouse. There’s a heap of coal against one wall and nothing else. There’s a door, but it looks heavy and it’ll likely be barred on the outside…What do you think we should do?’
‘Nothing at present, for I feel sure they’ll come to inspect us in a short while. What I think we should do now is to go back and take up our positions on the floor to be…’
‘Right!’
The next second they were in blackness and John was scrambling through it, his hands clutching at the wall; and when he reached the straw and threw himself down he knew that Bella was already there. But what he didn’t know was whether or not Sir Geoffrey had made it.
He felt Bella’s hand pressing into the middle of his back, and through it he felt her trembling.
And Bella was trembling. She told herself to try to stop it but she couldn’t; even her teeth seemed to be rattling in her head. She heard two sets of footsteps coming down the stairs now; she heard them stop at the foot of the stairs, then one set of steps coming towards her.
Her knuckles pressed tighter into John’s spine as she felt the presence near her. Then a voice said, ‘Dead to the world.’ The footsteps moved away. Then the voice came to them from the far end of the cellar, saying now, ‘He must have passed out where he stood, and he would, too, right on top of the other dose.’
Bella’s whole body tensed further now as she listened to the second voice, the gentleman’s voice, saying, ‘It should keep them quiet until dawn. By that time we should have him aboard. We’ve got to have him aboard. Do you hear, Riley?’
‘I hear, but it’s gonna be easier said than done, for as I said, it’s me opinion they’ll be out lookin’ for the pair of them. An’ why do you want to take him across the water anyway, isn’t this place secret enough?’
‘You’re a fool Riley. Even a rabbit has two holes to its burrow. This place is only secret as long as they don’t get wind of it. But I found it, didn’t I? I found it through listening to tales, old men’s tales, and it only needs someone to start one of the old villagers talking again and then we’d have need of that other hole. I can smell trouble a mile off. I first got a whiff of it when I ran into that nosy, pert little individual.’
‘I say again, I think it’s a crazy idea.’
‘It’s the only one that’ll work. I’ll let them see me driving out of the village on my own. I’ll stop to make enquiries about the children. I’ll make it known that I’m on my way to Newcastle, but that I’ll be back at first light to help them in their search.’
They were going up the stairs now and the voice of the ‘fishy man’, as she thought of Dick Riley, came to her, saying, ‘It’ll be no easy job carryin’ a dead weight for a quarter of a mile, an’ in the black dark.’
‘There’ll be three of you when Morton gets here to tell us the boat’s ready. And it’s not a quarter of a mile, it’s just across the road and over the field. As I said, I’ll be waiting at yon end with the car.’
‘What if we bump into poachers?’
‘Poachers? Huh! I understood that you, Benbow and Morton were the leaders in that game around here.’
‘Aw.’
The voices faded away; the key grated in the lock.
‘Nosy, pert little individual, indeed!’ Bella muttered angrily. She went to move but John’s hand, coming quickly behind him, prevented her. It was almost a full minute before he released the pressure on her, then when Sir Geoffrey’s voice came in a muted whisper, saying, ‘All right?’ John answered as softly, ‘All right.’
The next minute the three of them were close together touching each other, and Sir Geoffrey whispered, ‘I don’t know how long we’ve got, but I think we’d better get through there as quickly as possible and see what we can do with that door.’
‘May I come now?’
‘Yes, of course, my dear. In fact, we’ll rely on you to lead the way. First of all, can you find that other candle and the matches?’
‘Yes, I think so. If I was standing at the bottom of the stairs I…I could tell you where John put them.’
She drew away from him and groped forward, and when she came in contact with the wall she turned to her right until she reached the foot of the stairs. Taking her bearings from there, she began to move parallel with the bottom step, and when suddenly she bumped into John she gave a small laugh and said, ‘They should be just a few paces behind you.’
A minute later John said, ‘She’s right, here they are.’ When he had lit the last candle he went towards the further wall, and Sir Geoffrey followed him, holding Bella by the hand now.
Here they worked furiously enlarging the hole, but as time went on the work became harder because they were digging into partly dried mortar now, for as Sir Geoffrey had pointed out to John they had better not loosen any more of those stones that led towards the roof because, the support gone, this whole section might drop.
John scraped frantically at the mortar round the big stone that would enable not only himself and Bella to make their escape from the cellar, but also Sir Geo
ffrey who, although apparently of slim build, had broad shoulders.
‘There.’ Between them they eased the stone from its resting place and onto the ground.
‘Now here goes.’ John looked from Sir Geoffrey to Bella. The next minute he went head first through the hole; then when he was on his feet again he took the candle that Sir Geoffrey was holding out and, securing it hastily to the floor near his feet, he put out his arms and helped to ease Bella through the jagged aperture.
Next came Sir Geoffrey. But his entry into the coalhouse wasn’t to be as easy as theirs, for he found that his shoulders became wedged. Whispering hoarsely now, he said, ‘I’ll try feet first.’
To support himself he gripped at the stones above his head, only to have John warn, ‘Careful, sir! they’re loose; you could bring them down.’
‘I’ll take my coat off; it’ll give me another half inch or so.’
After the whispered words he again thrust his head through the hole, and now, drawing his shoulders inwards, he pressed himself forward. At one point he gave a stifled groan as the jagged edge of stone tore through his shirt and scraped his flesh; but then with a heave, and as if he had been popped like a cork from a bottle, he came sprawling onto the floor of the coalhouse.
Remaining on his hands and knees for a moment, his head bent forward, he gave a shaky laugh, and when he felt Bella’s hands on him and her voice enquiring anxiously, ‘You all right, mister?’ he said, ‘Yes, I’m all right, child.’
John now helped him to his feet, and he, too, gave a shaky laugh as he said, ‘It’s like as if you’d just come up from the pits, sir; you’re all coal dust.’
‘You want to see yourself, John.’
They smiled weakly at each other in the candlelight. Then John went to the door and turned the handle gently, and not so gently he tried to pull the door towards him, but without effect.
Speaking over his shoulder, he muttered, ‘It won’t budge; it must be locked on the outside, and it’s a stout door.’
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