CHAPTER XIII

OUR SEARCH

WELL—Saturday came, and when Aunt Grisel's car came over for me there was a note inside, asking Lynette too; so she was delighted.

When we got there, we were introduced to Miss Fawcett. She was very tall, with grey hair rolled up off her forehead and beautiful big blue eyes, and she had a jolly comfortable smile that you were not afraid of.

She set us to work at once. We went upstairs to the linen-room, and she told us how to make bandages out of some old linen sheets. Aunt Grisel came in and helped us. She pretended she was quite overcome with her house being turned topsy-turvy, but I think she rather liked it, and then she showed us a side-wing of the house which was just as sunny as the front of it, and which Miss Fawcett thought would suit the soldiers much better, because it was shut off from the rest of the house by a thick baize door.

"It's like our wing at grandfather's," I said.

"Yes, it is, and it was the children's wing when my husband was a boy," said Aunt Grisel. "I am glad I haven't to turn out all my best furniture. It is so cumbersome that it would have been difficult to find rooms big enough for it in other parts of the house."

Workmen seemed busy in every direction, and Miss Fawcett was directing them all.

When we sat down to lunch she said:

"And who is the originator of this hospital scheme?"

Aunt Grisel waved her hand towards me, and I felt my cheeks getting extremely red and hot.

"I only wish I could be one of the nurses," I said.

And Lynette joined in:

"I would rather clean the rooms than nurse; don't you think our lessons might be stopped till after the war is over?"

"Your time will come, girls," Miss Fawcett said. "Don't hurry to grow up too soon. I think your help may be more wanted a few years later than it is now. A good many of us may be worn out by that time, and the young will have to take our places. You can train yourselves now for all emergencies."

"I love emergencies," said Lynette. "What kind do you think will come?"

"Just the kind we don't expect," said Miss Fawcett, laughing. "Learn all you can now. Languages will help you, so will habits of order and neatness and thoroughness. Be able to turn your hand to anything, from making a poultice to cooking light puddings for invalids. The wounded will be with us for several years yet, I am afraid."

"Don't you think," said Lynette, turning to Aunt Grisel, "that we may possibly get a lot of wounded sailors here? You see, we are almost opposite the Kiel Canal, and we must have a naval battle before long."

"The German Fleet won't come out. It dare not," said Aunt Grisel. "No, we shall get nerve cases from France, I should think, and those who want thorough rest and quiet. London is not a good place for nerves."

"Oh," said Lynette, "but I hope proper wounded soldiers will come to you. I shan't care to see any of those others."

"They are often the most to be pitied," said Miss Fawcett. "When you young people grow older, you will realise that nerves are a very serious matter."

After lunch, we went upstairs and helped Aunt Grisel to empty some drawers and cupboards in the rooms that were being got ready for the soldiers. Such funny old things we turned out. Old-fashioned children's frocks, and baby's feeding-bottles, and a box of lead soldiers, and books and papers and letters, and wax flowers, and samplers, and pincushions, and dear little boxes of all shapes and sizes. Lynette and I exclaimed so often at what we found that Aunt Grisel told us we could take anything away that we took a fancy to. It was very good of her. And when we got home, we unpacked a large box of odds and ends which we had been allowed to bring away, and gave Puff a lot of them.

Aunt Grisel promised to let us know when her first soldiers came, and then Miss Fawcett asked us if we would make some scrap-books for them, and we have started doing it. She said there was nothing that invalids liked better than looking at pictures.

Miss Garton helps us, and really, with our knitting and lessons and ambulance work, and now these scrap-books, we are as busy as we can be.

There has been great talk lately in the newspapers about spies in our midst, especially along the sea-coasts. And some visitors of grandfather's told him that one had been caught not so far off from us only a few days ago. It is all very exciting, but everything is that now. What with the air-ships and Zeppelins and torpedoes and submarines, and the awful bombs and shells, and this wicked wicked gas that the enemy is just beginning to use, I don't see how any of our soldiers have a chance of coming back to us safely. And I'm beginning to think that war is not glorious after all!

Lynette and I talk a lot together about these spies. They say submarines are helped to get their oil by traitors on our coasts, who flash lights to them, where the oil is hid, and then they come and get it. There's an old coastguardsman who loves to talk about it; he says he'd ferret a spy out a hundred miles off, and he's thankful that none are in our part. His name is David Grier, and he smells a good deal of whisky. Lynette says he drinks too much to be a good coastguardsman. He lives in a dear little house on the cliff by himself, and he has been there for nearly twenty years, they say.

Grandfather says Government is going to have a proper up-to-date guard all round our coast soon, but they take a long time to settle anything. I suppose they have such a terrible lot to think of, that they can't get through. I think my brain would burst, if I was in the Government now.

Miss Garton is rather sad about her brother, who is going to the front some time next week. She is going home from Saturday to Tuesday to wish him good-bye, and we shall have all Monday and Tuesday for holidays as well as Saturday. It will be very jolly. And Lynette and I mean to do some coastguarding on our own. We think it quite necessary. And we can manage a boat quite well now. Both of us can row, and Aunt Isobel doesn't mind us going out alone when the sea is smooth, if we're very careful. On Saturday we're going over to Aunt Grisel. She hasn't got her soldiers yet, but we're getting ready for them.

When Lynette and I go to bed at night, we always look-out of our windows, and watch for a flash-light. We see a good many lights from distant lighthouses, and sometimes we see a lantern bobbing along.

That is David going his rounds.

We were talking about it last night, and Lynette suddenly said:

"Grisel, do you know where would be a splendid place for a spy to hide oil?"

"On the island," I said thoughtfully; "I've thought of that."

"Yes, on the other side of the island in those caves. You see, if any one flashed a light from there, we shouldn't see it. They could flash it low down through those holes in the cliff, or they could burn a coloured light."

"I wonder if David goes round there?" I said.

"Oh, don't mention it to him. Don't tell any one. Just fancy, Grisel, if you and I could catch a spy or a traitor at work, wouldn't it be ripping! That would be doing work for one's country with a vengeance. Let us keep it secret from every one, and just watch ourselves with all our main and might!"

"Yes," I cried, "we'll row across there and have a good search when Miss Garton goes. On Monday we'll do it."

"What should we do if we found a man there?" Lynette questioned. "Could we shoot him?"

"Oh no, nobody is shot without a trial. We should just have to creep away without his seeing us and send the police to him."

"But I should like to do something to him. It's a pity we don't know how to make bombs. We could leave one to blow him up, and the oil too. It would save a lot of trouble!"

"Oh, Lynette, how can you!"

"I feel I could do anything to make such a traitor meet with his deserts!" said Lynette grandly.

We are quite anxious now for Monday to come. I would really like to do something for my country, and so would Lynette.

* * * * *

This poor old diary.

We're living in such exciting times that I don't feel inclined to sit down and write. I haven't the time, to begin with. But it's a wet day to-day, and, after all that has happened, I really think I ought to set it down for the sake of our great-grandchildren who will talk about their grandmother's remembering the Great War.

I must go back to the Monday when Miss Garton was away from us. First on Sunday night, Lynette and I were staring out of our windows when we thought we saw a twinkling light in the direction of the island. It might have been fancy, but we both saw it at the same moment. It went out at once. But it gave us distinct hope that something might be going on there. And Monday morning we were busy preparing things. We didn't tell a soul. Aunt Isobel was driving out to see Aunt Grisel, and grandfather was going with her. It seemed to leave the coast clear for us. There was Puff certainly, but he was always happy playing by himself.

Lynette insisted on us taking some rope with us. "To tie him up, if we find him," she said.

I took some food, and some ends of candle, and four boxes of matches. You can't have too many matches for those caves, and then I remembered that Denys had left his beautiful little electric torch behind him. It was in his room, so I took it with joy. We took some paper with us too, in case we should want a fire.

And then Lynette wanted to take a couple of old pistols that were hung up in our upstair passage. But I thought she had better not.

"It would frighten any one if they saw us with pistols," she said. "They wouldn't know they weren't loaded."

"We shouldn't stand a chance if we started fighting them, or trying to frighten them," I said. "We're really only going to spy out the land."

"I shall be frightfully disappointed if nobody's there," Lynette said.

We determined to start for the island directly after our early dinner. It was a bright sunny day, and the sea was like a mill-pond. Everything was in our favour. The tide had been going out for some time. I knew it was only when it was high tide that the currents were dangerous, and we calculated that we should be back before that.

We put all our things in the boat, and I put some biscuits and some apples in it too, for I thought we might get hungry. But we found that we should have to get some one to push the boat into the water for us, because the tide was low. Davey, who has taught us all to steer and row, has left us to enlist, but I ran up to the stable and got two of the stable lads to come down and help us.

We told them we were going out for a row, and they thought nothing of it.

Then Lynette and I both took an oar, and rowed steadily in the direction of the cave island, where Pat and the boys had been all night. It wasn't very hard rowing. We were both silent; for, now we had started, it seemed a bigger thing than when we had just talked it over. And the island seemed farther off than we had thought. We thought we should never reach it.

We did come to the beach at last, and we rowed fast and furiously then, driving our boat right up on the shingle like the boys do. Lynette jumped out like lightning and tied the boat-rope round one of the stakes that was there for the purpose. The seagulls flew round our heads shrieking, as if to complain at being disturbed. Otherwise, it seemed very still and silent.

And a lonely kind of feeling came over me. I would not have told Lynette, but I didn't feel as if I wanted to go into the dark caves and search there. And then I was ashamed of myself; for we had always declared we should never be afraid of anything, if it concerned our King and country. And this was real important duty, what Lynette and I were doing. Then we took out two baskets in which we had packed our things; and we came to the first entrance to the cave.

"Now," I said as I lighted my candle. "I'll go first as I'm the eldest, and remember, Lynette, we mustn't speak a word, but keep our ears and eyes well open and very busy."

Lynette nodded.

"Isn't it thrilling?" she said. "Oh, I do hope we shall find somebody or something."

But for a long time we found nothing at all. There was a big passage that went right through the cliff and out at the extreme end of the island, and we went along this, and searched two or three little kinds of rooms that went off it; we had been over so often with the boys that we knew the caves quite well. Then suddenly, as we were coming towards the light again, Lynette threw up her head and whispered excitedly:

"I smell tobacco smoke!"

I stopped still and sniffed.

"Well," I whispered, "boys and men do come over here, you know, for seagulls' eggs."

I certainly smelt smoke. Somebody had been smoking along here.

The next thing we found was a pipe.

Lynette stumbled against it. She put it in her pocket. "We may find this a most important piece of evidence," she said grandly.

Then we came to an inner cave just before the outlet that led to the beach again. Here there was something else. A lot of rotten old boards stood up on end, and formed a kind of door to it. And there was an old barrel that used not to be there, and the seaweed that was on it did not belong to it, it had either been put there or had been washed up by the tide. We were quick to notice all this.

Yet even when my heart was beginning to thump with suspense, Lynette whispered in a pleased sort of way:

"Curiouser, and curiouser!"

"We must take away one of these boards," I said, "and see what is behind."

So we tugged and pulled, and it was real hard work, but the thought of what "might" be there gave us the will and the strength to move them. We got two away, and then with our electric torch we crept through.

Then indeed we stood and stared at each other. It seemed like a dream. For there were tins and great barrels packed up against the wall. Dead seaweed covered them, but we soon pulled that off. There was no mistake about it—we had found the oil! We put our fingers round the cork of one and smelt them. They smelt of motor-oil! I think, though we had imagined a lot, we never really thought we should find it.

"What are we to do now?" I said, for I really felt, quite helpless.

"We must go on and find out some more," said Lynette.

"No," I said; "I think we had better fly back as quickly as possible, and send the police and coastguards."

"But who has brought it here?" said Lynette.

I was just going to reply when we heard a man cough, and the cough was not very far away. Instantly I pulled hold of Lynette, and we crouched down behind the barrel. I put out my torch at the same moment. I really, honestly never felt more frightened in my whole life than I did then. My heart was thumping against my ribs, and I heard Lynette breathing very quickly.

"He'll kill us," she whispered, "and drown our bodies, and nobody will ever know!"

She wasn't exactly comforting.

I knew that when he saw the boards had been moved, all would be up; and then I peeped out over the barrel. In the distance we could see the opening of the cave and the sun shining upon the sea. There was silence, and then a strong whiff of tobacco reached us; in another moment, a man's figure blocked the opening. But his back was towards us, and he was looking out to sea. He just looked an ordinary fisherman in big seaboots and a blue jersey and a knitted cap. He was smoking a pipe. We felt we hardly dare breathe, but we were thankful that, so far, he did not know of our being on the island.

"He'll find our boat, and then he'll hunt for us," said Lynette. "Oh, Grisel, I do wish we hadn't come. I do wish we were safe home again."

I tried to brace myself up.

"Look here, Lynette, the longer we wait here the worse it will be. We must get back at once before he finds us out, and tell the coastguards. This is our chance of serving our country. We mustn't be cowards. We will wait a moment to see if he will go, and the moment he does, we must creep out and dash along the passage back to our boat."

"He'll run after us and catch us!" cried Lynette. "And then I shall die of fright."

"Nonsense! We can pretend we know nothing. After all, we have as much right on this island as he has."

We watched him breathlessly. Once we thought he was going to turn round and come towards us, but presently he walked away along the beach.

Then we crept out of our hiding-place, but I daren't light the torch. We took hold of each other's hands and ran along the broad passage as fast as we could. Twice we stumbled, and once Lynette grazed her knee against a bit of rock. It seemed years to us till we saw the light appearing in front of us.

Half dazed with fright and with the darkness, we dashed out into the sunshine—and then, to our unutterable horror, we met that burly man face to face!