Sisters Three Part 8

But Norah would not listen to such a suggestion. What if her back did ache, it was not every day that she had the chance of such an adventure; besides, she had no particular wish to be left alone in the dark, while it yet remained to be proved how she was to turn round when the time came for the return journey. For five minutes longer they trudged forward in silence, then Rex's stick struck against some other substance than stone, and his outstretched hand came across a bar of iron. It proved to be a half-closed grating, shutting out the entrance into the further portion of the pa.s.sage, but he was not to be turned aside by such a trifle as this, and after much pushing and banging managed to raise it sufficiently to make it possible to scramble underneath. Norah followed in agile fashion, but hardly had she done so than there came the sound of a fall, and a sharp, metallic click.

"What's that?" cried Rex quickly, and Norah stretched out her hand to discover the cause of the noise. It came, into contact with something hard and cold, and her heart gave a leap of fear, for she realised in an instant that the trap-door had fallen, and that the click which they had heard had been the catch with which it had swung into its rightful position.

"I--I think something has fastened the grating," she said faintly. "I can't make it move. We shan't be able to get back this way."

"Oh, what nonsense! Let me come and try," said Rex impatiently, but the pa.s.sage was so narrow at this point that it was impossible for him to pa.s.s, and he had to content himself with directing Norah's efforts.

"I'll hold the lantern; look up and down and see if you can find the fastening. Push upwards! Put your fingers in the holes, and tug with all your might. ... Try it the other way. ... Kick it with your feet!"

Norah worked with all her strength--and she was a strong, well-grown girl, with no small muscular power--but the grating stood firm as a rock, and resisted all her efforts. "It's no use, Rex," she panted desperately; and there was silence for a few moments, broken by a sound which was strangely like the beating of two anxious hearts.

"Well, we shall just have to go on then, that's all," said Rex shortly.

"A pa.s.sage is bound to lead somewhere, I suppose. The worst that can happen is that we may have a walk home, and you couldn't come to much harm in that coat!"

"Oh no! I shall be all right," said Norah bravely. For a few moments she had been horribly frightened, but Rex's matter-of-fact speech had restored her confidence in his leadership. Of course the pa.s.sage must have an outlet. She considered where they would come out, and even smiled faintly to herself at the thought of the comical figure which she would cut, striding through the lanes in the squire's old yellow mackintosh. She was determined to let Rex see that though she was only a girl, she could be as brave as any boy; but it was difficult to keep up her spirits during the next ten minutes, for the pa.s.sage seemed to grow narrower all the time, while the air was close and heavy. A long time seemed to pa.s.s while they groped their way forward, then suddenly Rex's stick struck against some obstacle directly in his path, and he stopped short.

"What is it?" cried Norah fearfully. It seemed an endless time to the poor child before he answered, in a voice so strained and hoa.r.s.e as to be hardly recognisable.

"The pa.s.sage is blocked. It is walled up. We cannot get any further!"

Rex lifted the lantern as he spoke and looked anxiously into the girl's face, but Norah said nothing. It seemed as if she could not realise the meaning of his words, but there was a dizzy feeling in her head as if a catherine-wheel were whirling round and round, and she felt suddenly weak and tired, so that she was obliged to sit down and lean against the wall.

Rex bent over her with an anxious face.

"You are not going to faint, Norah?"

"Oh, no; I am--quite well."

There was a long silence, then--"Rex," said Norah, in a very weak little voice, "did anyone know that you were down in the cellars to-day?"

Rex cleared his throat in miserable embarra.s.sment.

"No, Norah. I am afraid no one saw me."

"Will they miss the keys?"

"They are very old keys, Norah. n.o.body uses them."

A little frightened gasp sounded in his ear, but Norah said no more.

Rex clenched his fist and banged it fiercely on his knee.

"Idiot! idiot that I was! What business had I to let you come. It's all my fault. It was no place for a girl; but the opening looked right enough, and I thought--"

"I know. Besides, you asked me if I would like an adventure, and I said I would. I came of my own free will. Don't be angry with yourself, Rex; it is as much my fault as yours."

"You are a little brick, Norah," said a husky voice, and Rex's hand gripped hers with a quick, strong pressure. "I never thought a girl could be so plucky. I'll not forget--" He broke off suddenly, and Norah's voice was very unsteady as she asked the next question--

"If--if we shouted very loudly would anyone hear?"

"I--er-- Think how far away from the house we must be by this time, Norah!"

There was a long, throbbing silence. Rex sat with his head bent forward on his knees; Norah stared blankly before her, her face looking thin and ghost-like in the dim light. The silence grew oppressive, and presently the lad raised his head and touched his companion on the arm. "Don't look like that, Norah. What is it? Norah, speak! What are you thinking about?" He had to bend forward to hear the answer, for Norah's lips were dry, and her throat parched as with thirst.

"Poor father!" she gasped; and Rex started at the sound with a stab of pain.

"Don't! I can't bear it. Norah, for pity's sake don't give in--don't give up hope. Something will happen--it will--it must! We shall get out all right."

"But if we can't go forward, and if we can't go back, and if no one can hear us call," said Norah, still in the same slow, gasping accents, "I don't see--how--we can. ... Rex! how long shall we have to wait before we--"

"If you say that word, Norah, I'll never forgive you! We must get out-- we _shall_ get out! Come, rouse yourself like a good girl, and I will go back to see what I can do with that grating. It's our only chance.

Lead the way until we come to the broadest part of the pa.s.sage, and then I must manage to pa.s.s you somehow or other. It has to be done."

Norah put out her hands and dragged herself wearily to her feet. The feeble gleam of the lantern seemed only to call attention to the inky blackness, and the air was so close and noisome, that she breathed in heavy pants. It had been a delightful adventure to explore this pa.s.sage, so long as it was in her power to turn back at any moment; but now that there was this dreadful terror of not being able to get out at all, it seemed like a living grave, and poor Norah staggered forward in sick despair. As they neared the grating, however, it became possible to stand upright, and this, in itself, was a relief, for her back was aching from long stooping.

Rex laid down the lantern at a safe distance, and put his hand on the girl's shoulder. "Now then, Norah, I am going to squeeze past. I may hurt you a little, but it will be only for a moment. Stretch your arms out flat against the wall, turn your head sideways, and make yourself as small as you can. I will take off my coat. Now! Are you ready?"

"Ready!" said Norah faintly; and the next moment it seemed as if the breath were being squeezed out of her body, as Rex pressed her more and more tightly against the wall. A horrible gasp of suffocation, a wild desire to push him off and fight for her own liberty, and then it was all over, and they were standing side by side, gasping, panting, and tremulous.

"That's over!" sighed Rex thankfully. "Poor Norah! I am afraid I hurt you badly, but it was the best plan to get it over as quickly as possible. Now then, hold up the lantern, and let me have a look round."

It was a time of breathless suspense as Rex went carefully over every inch of the door, examining niche and corner in the hope of discovering the secret of the spring by which it was moved. The grating was rusty with age, and had evidently stuck in the position in which he had found it an hour before, when his vigorous shakings had loosened the springs by which it was moved. Try as he might, however, he could not succeed in moving it a second time; there was no sign of k.n.o.b or handle; he could find no clue to its working.

"It's no use, Rex," said Norah feebly. "You will have to give it up."

But the lad's indomitable will would not permit him to agree in any such conclusion.

"I will never give it up!" he cried loudly. "I brought you into this place, and I'll get you out of it, if I have to break every bar with my own hands--if I have to pick the stones out of the wall! Move along a few yards; I'm going to lie down on my back, and try what kicking will do."

No sooner said than done. Rex stretched himself at full length on the ground, moved up and down to get at the right distance, and began to a.s.sail the grating with a series of such violent kicks as woke a babel of subterranean echoes. Not in vain he had been the crack "kick" of the football team at school; not in vain had he exercised his muscles ever since childhood in scrambling over mountain heights, and taking part in vigorous out-of-door sports. Norah clasped her hands in a tremor of excitement. It seemed to her that no fastenings in the world could long withstand such a battery, and when Rex suddenly sprang to his feet and charged at the door, she fairly shrieked with exultation.

"Go on! Go on! It shakes! I'm sure it shakes! Oh, Rex, kick! kick for your life!" It was a superfluous entreaty. The strength of ten men seemed to be concentrated in the lad for the next ten minutes, as he fought the iron grating, changing from one position to another, as signs of increasing weakness appeared in different parts of the framework.

Norah gasped out encouragement in the background, until at last, with a crash and bang, the old springs gave way, and the grating fell to the ground.

"Now--come!" shouted Rex. He did not waste a moment in rejoicing; now that the barrier was removed both he and Norah were possessed with but one longing--to get out of the pa.s.sage as quickly as possible into light, and air, and safety. Two minutes later they were seated side by side on one of the beams of timber on the cellar floor, gazing into each other's face with distended eyes. Rex was purple with the strain of his late efforts--his breath came pantingly, his hair lay in damp rings on his forehead. Norah's face was ghastly white; she was trembling from head to foot.

"Thank G.o.d!" said Rex solemnly. They were his first words, and Norah bent her head with a little sob of agitation.

"Oh, thank G.o.d! We might have been buried alive in that awful place."

Rex took out his handkerchief and mopped his forehead, looking anxiously at his companion the while. "You don't think you will be ill, do you, Norah? You look horribly white."

"Oh no!--oh no! I shall be all right in an hour, but I shall never forget it. Rex, I think we ought to be awfully good all our lives--we have had such a wonderful escape, and we know now how it feels-- When I thought I was never going to come out of that pa.s.sage, I was sorry I had been cross to Hilary, and--so selfish! I made up my mind if I had another chance--"

"I don't believe you have ever done anything wrong, Norah," said Rex, in a low, husky voice. There was a long silence, then--"My father will feel inclined to kill me when he hears about this!" he added shortly.

Norah started. "But need we tell them? I don't think it would be wrong to say nothing about it. We are safe, and it has taught us to be more careful in future. It would only upset everyone, and make them miserable, if they knew we had been in such danger. I'll slip quietly to my room, and it shall be a secret between us, Rex--you and I."

Rex looked at her in silence, with his big, keen eyes. "You are the best little soul in the world, Norah," he said. "I wish I were like you!"