The Secret of Killimooin. Страница 22

The Terrible Storm

Meanwhile, what had happened to the two girls? They had done as the boys had suggested, and had awakened Tooku and Yamen at once. The couple sat up in their bed, bewildered at the children’s extraordinary story. Ranni and Pilescu captured by the robbers! The statue that split into two! All the boys gone! It seemed like an unbelievable nightmare to Yamen and Tooku.

“We can do nothing tonight,” said Tooku, nursing his injured arm. “The servants would be of no use to hunt for the boys and the others. They would be too afraid. Tomorrow, early, we must send the servants to gather together the villagers of the mountain-side.”

The girls did not want to wait so long, but there was nothing else to be done. They went back to bed, but not to sleep. They cuddled together on a small couch, covered with a warm fur rug, and talked together, worried about the boys. At last, just before dawn, they dozed off, and were awakened by Yamen.

Soon everyone in the castle knew what had happened the night before. The servants went about with scared faces. Paul’s mother heard the girls’ story again and again, tears in her eyes as she thought of how Paul had marched off to rescue his men.

“He is a true little Baronian!” she said. “How glad I am that Mike and Jack are with him! Oh, why didn’t they wait until we could send soldiers or armed villagers to find Ranni and Pilescu?”

A band of people came climbing up on mountain ponies, fetched by servants of the castle and by the goatherd, Beowald. They had been amazed at the tale told to them, but all of them were determined to rescue their “little lord” as they called Paul.

Beowald was with them. He led them up the hill to the old temple-cave. The villagers shrank back in fear when they saw the queer stone images. The statue of the sitting man, at the back, was now whole again. The robbers that the boys had seen the night before had come up to the cave, found the statue in half, and, fearing that their secret had been discovered, had closed the two halves together once more and gone back into the cave below.

Peggy and Nora watched Blind Beowald put his finger into the right ear of the statue. The villagers cried out in wonder when they saw the stone man split in half, and divide slowly. Beowald pointed down to the hole that the statue hid so well.

“That is the way,” he said.

The villagers went to the hole and looked down. They shivered. They did not want to go down at all. Thoughts of mysterious magic, of mountain-spirits, filled their heads.

But one bolder than the rest slid down the rope, calling to the others to follow. One by one they went down. The girls wanted to go too, but Tooku and Yamen forbade them sternly. “This is men’s work,” they said. “You would only get in the way.” So the girls had to go back to the castle, where Paul’s mother sat waiting for news, white and anxious.

Nora and Peggy tried to comfort her by telling her of the adventures they and the boys had had before, and how they had always won through in the end. The Queen smiled at them, and sighed.

“You are adventurous children!” she said. “Wherever you go, you have adventures. I shall be glad when this adventure is over!”

There was no news at all that day. The search party did not return. Beowald came down from the temple to say that although he had listened well by the hole, he had heard nothing. For the first time he was angry with his blindness, for he badly wanted to follow his friends into the mountain. But he did not dare to, because he would be completely lost in a place he did not know.

Towards tea-time the sky suddenly darkened. The girls went to the window. Yamen was with them, and she looked out too.

“A storm is coming,” she said, pointing to the west. “A great storm. You must not be frightened, little ones. Sometimes, when the weather has been hot, the big clouds blow up, and the lighning tears the sky in two, whilst the thunder roars and echoes round.”

“We are not afraid of storms, Yamen,” said Nora. “It ought to be a wonderful sight, a storm in the Killimooin Mountains!”

The sky grew so black that the girls could not see to read. Great clouds began to roll round the mountain itself, and soon the castle was completely swallowed up in the thick, swirling mists. Thunder rumbled in the distance. The little children in the nurseries of the castle began to cry.

“There’s the lighning!” said Nora, as a vivid flash appeared, and everything was lighted up clearly for an instant. “Oh — what thunder! I’ve never heard anything like it!”

Killimooin seemed to be in the midst of the storm. Thunder cracked round the castle, and the lightning shivered the sky to pieces. It was as dark as night between the flashes.

“Although the two girls were not afraid of storms, they were awed by this one. The noise was so terrific and the lightning was so grand.

Then the rain came. Rain? It sounded more like a waterfall pouring down on the castle, lashing against the windows, forming itself into rivulets that rushed down the hillside at top speed. Never in their lives had the two girls seen or heard such rain. It almost drowned the thunder that still rolled around!

“Well, it’s a mercy the boys are not out in this, but are somewhere in a cave,” said Nora, trying to be cheerful.

But the boys were not in a cave! No, they were making their way towards the river where it entered the Secret Forest! They were almost there, and could see its shining waters. They were glad, because now they felt that they knew their way. They had only to follow the river’s course backwards to the mountain, and climb up beside it as it flowed down through the heart of the hill!

Then the sky darkened, and the storm blew up. First, it was very still, and Ranni glanced uneasily at the sky. He knew the Baronian storms! They were as grand as the mountains themselves!

The storm broke, just as the little party reached the river and began to follow its swift course backwards to the mountain. Thunder cracked above their heads, and lightning split the darkened sky.

“We had better shelter,” said Ranni, and looked about for somewhere to go. He did not want to stand under the trees in case they were struck by lightning. There were some thickly-growing bushes nearby with enormous flat leaves. The rain fell off the leaves as if they were umbrellas.

“We’ll crawl under these bushes,” said Ranni. “We can draw our cloaks over our heads. The rain will not soak through the fur lining.”

But it did! It soaked through everything, and once again the company were wet! The boys hated the fierceness of this rainstorm. The drops pelted down, stinging them, slashing them, soaking through the bushes, their fur-lined cloaks, their clothes, and everything.

“What a storm!” said Paul. “It is the worst I ever remember in Baronia. I don’t like it, Pilescu.”

Pilescu pulled the small boy to him and covered him with his great arms. “You are safe with Pilescu,” he said. “Not even the worst storm can harm you now!”

For two hours the rain poured down, never-ending. Jack was astonished to think that so much water could be held by clouds! It was as if someone up in the sky was emptying whole seas of water down on to the earth.

At last a break came in the clouds and a bit of brilliant blue sky showed through. The thunder died away. The lightning no longer flashed. The clouds thinned rapidly, and the rain stopped. The boys heaved sighs of relief. They were wet, cold and hungry. Ranni felt about in his big pockets and brought out some chocolate. It was very welcome.

“Now we must get on,” he said. “If the sun comes out strongly, before it sets, we shall soon be dry again. We have a long climb ahead before we reach the place where the river gushes forth from the mountain. Shall I carry you for a while, little lord?”