04 The Head Girl of the Chalet School (28 page)

The return of the juniors from their expedition put an end to the tale, and they all moved off in other directions. But
one
young person had heard all she wanted, and it would not be Cornelia’s fault if she did not get ahead of them in finding the caves. “And that’ll be one in the eye for Joey and that pig Grizel!” she thought complacently to herself. Her greatest difficulty would he in getting away. She must manage it through the night, if she could. Fortune favoured her for once. Matron, who had been looking rather white and poorly, now owned to a headache, which increased so that when they got home she was only fit for bed.

“You must go at once,” said Miss Maynard. “As for Cornelia – I’m sure you don’t want a tiresome child next door to you tonight – she can go over to Le Petit Chalet for the night. I’ll tell her to get her things and go at once.”

When Miss Maynard made up her mind to a thing it was generally done quickly. On this occasion Cornelia found herself bundled off to Le Petit Chalet, along with three or four other middles, who had had to turn out to make room for the four old girls. Her joy when she found that she was given a window cubicle was great.

She had managed to secrete her electric torch, and she went to bed with unusual serenity. One of her minor grievances against the school lay in the fact that she was not allowed to sit up as long as she chose, and she generally made a fuss about this. Tonight, however, she went off as quietly as the others, and unsuspicious Mademoiselle was under the impression that she was tired by the long day in the woods, and took no notice of it, as Matron certainly would have done.

Cornelia waited till she heard the last door shut, keeping herself awake by sitting up in bed; and when she thought she had given everyone sufficient length of time to fall asleep, she got up, dressed herself with the utmost quietness, and climbed out of the window on to the balcony. From there it was an easy matter for her to drop to the ground, and then she set off at her best pace, making for the cleft in the rock of which the girls had spoken that afternoon; while Frieda, who had been disturbed by the sound of her drop, sat up and looked round her wanderingly. However, Frieda could not see through the curtains; she decided that it must have been a dream, and lay down again, and was soon fast asleep. Cornelia was not missed till
Fruhstuck
next morning, and by that time she was safely at the cleft, and was making her way in, undeterred by any fears, though, had she known what was before her, she would have turned tail, and never stopped running until she was safely back at school again.

IT WAS ALMOST eight o’clock when Cornelia reached the cleft of which Jo and Grizel had spoken. She recognised it at once – long, and narrow, and almost under the mountain. She was hungry, so she sat down and ate one of the apples she had bought at a chalet on her way. Then, throwing away the core, and cleansing her fingers by the simple method of licking them, she felt in her pocket to see that the two new batteries she had put there were all right, switched on her torch, and squeezed her way in.

She found herself in a dark, narrow passage, which went on as far as she could see. Walking warily, for she had no desire to tread on any snakes, and one might have made its home here, she went slowly along, her torch casting its bright light on the ground in front. For a long way the passage went fairly straight, then it suddenly took a sharp turn to the left, and she found that she was going downhill. It was quite dry underfoot, and as she went, the roof, which had been low at first, seemed to rise. There was no sound to be heard save the ring of her own feet on the hard ground, and many children would have been terrified. Not so Cornelia!

She had made up her mind that she was going to discover those caves, and discover them she would. Of what dangers might be ahead of her, she never even thought. Her one idea was to go on.

When she had been walking a long time – or so it seemed – she came to a kind of cross-roads. This was the first check she had received, and she looked in dismay as she wondered which way she ought to take. She was tired now, for she had been up all night, and her legs were aching. With a little sigh, she sank down on the ground, and stared dismally round her. What should she do?

As if in answer to her question, one of the apples in her coat pocket rolled out, and trundled off on the path that led to the left, as if setting forth on a journey on its own account.

“I’ll go that way,” decided Cornelia, getting on to her weary feet again. “Of course, they said that the caves were probably under the lake, so this must be the path. But I wonder where the others go.”

She stooped down, picked up the apple, which had come to rest against a hump in the ground, and walked on, munching as she went. She was dreadfully tired, and only her indomitable will kept her going. Suddenly she tripped up over an unexpected depression in the earth, and fell headlong. She was not hurt, but she felt that she simply could not drag herself one step farther. She must rest a little before she went on!

She stretched herself out, sighing for very relief, and switched off her torch. The air was fairly fresh here, and she had sense enough to realise that she must not waste light. The thick darkness which descended on her dismayed her a little, but she argued that she didn’t need a light to rest by. Then weariness did its work, and before she had grasped anything she was asleep.

For long hours she lay there, slumbering as peacefully as if she were in her own bed at school. She never heard light, almost stealthy steps coming along the passage, nor saw the flare of a rude torch of pinewood and resin. Neither did she feel herself lifted up in strong arms, and borne on steadily, while a cracked voice murmured exclamations of wonder over her. She had no knowledge of being carried for some two miles thus, and then of being laid down on a heap of deerskins, while the strange being who had found her hung over her, and talked to himself in queer gutturals.

It was, in point of fact, nearly five o’clock when she awakened, and by that time the whole valley had been roused, and was out searching for her. Dr. Jem had been summoned from the Sonnalpe, and had come down to hear that she had vanished. She had not gone downwards, for she had not been seen on any of the trains.

Equally, no one had met on the mountain path leading to Spartz. The only clue they had to go on was that she had bought apples at one of the cottages on the way to Lauterbach; but that she had not gone on to the great Tiern Pass was proved, for a party of German students came that way, and they all agreed that they had seen nothing of a little girl with fair bobbed hair, a blue cotton frock, and a short brown coat.

“Can she have tried to go up the Tiernjoch?” questioned Grizel of Jo.

“Goodness knows,” was Jo’s gloomy response. “I don’t think so, though. She’s not keen on climbing – you know the fuss she made about going up to the Barenbad alpe.”

Grizel flashed a quick glance at her friend. “Dr. Jem won’t tell Madame yet, Joey,” she said.

“My goodness! I hope not!” returned Jo vigorously. “It would make her ill if she knew!”

Mademoiselle came up to them at this moment – a distraught Mademoiselle, with her hair untidy, and her face white. “Come,
mes enfants
. You must come and eat. Going without food will help no one!”

The two turned and followed her in from the garden where they had been talking. There was wisdom in her words, as they knew, but they felt as if they could never touch food until Cornelia had been found. They sat down at the table and ate their bread and butter, and drank their milk in silence, which even the talkative middles didn’t break. Once, towards the end of the meal, Marie turned to her next-door neighbour, Deira.

“It’s almost as if the Kobolds had carried her off,” she said seriously.

“Ah, then, hold your tongue, will you?” said Deira in answer, and Marie obeyed.

When they had finished, the girls wandered out again, and roamed restlessly about the grounds. What they ought to have done was to settle to games, but Gertrud and Grizel were busy conferring together with Jo, and no one else bothered to attempt any organisation. The babies were soon swept away to bed by Miss Annersley, who had undertaken to look after them while the other staff joined in the hunt. The younger middles clustered together in the flower-garden, and tried to think of
where
Cornelia could have gone. The rest just mooned about – to quote Mary Burnett – and did nothing.

The great fear in everyone’s heart was that the child might have got herself into difficulties on one of the mountain slopes, and might be lying, even now, hurt and helpless. Their main consolation was that she could not have fallen into the lake, since she had been going in the opposite direction. At nine o’clock the middles were sent to bed, and the seniors were made to follow at half-past. Only Grizel sat with the old girls, her face white with anxiety, while the staff still searched through the nearby pine-woods, even Mademoiselle having gone with them.

Herr von Gluck was with the five girls in the study, having just come back from an apparently fruitless hunt through the woods across the little stream. He was tired and hungry, and Grizel had gone to the kitchen to get Luise to bring
Kaffee und Butterbrod
for him. She returned with her laden tray, and he had just sprung up and taken it from her, when there came the sound of bare feet running down the stairs, and then Joey, clad only in her pyjamas, and with her hair standing on end, burst into the room. She paid no heed to anyone but Grizel, on whom she flung herself. “Grizel! I believe I know where she’s gone! It’s the caves!

Don’t you remember all the questions she’s asked about them? Well, I believe she’s gone off to try to find them on her own! Come on! I’m going to fetch her out!”

“Oh
no
, Joey!” It was Gisela who spoke, springing to her feet, and nearly overturning the tray the captain still held. “You must not! Think of what Madame would say!”

“I’m going,” repeated Jo, her jaw set square. “I am thinking of Madame! If she knew about this, it would he enough to kill her. Grizel and I are the only two who know exactly where that entrance is, and, if we go, we can get there without wasting any time. She must be brought back before Madge has to hear about it, and I’m
going
!”

Herr von Gluck set down the tray, and spoke with determination. “I will come with you, Fraulein Joey.

What you say is right. Listen, Wanda.” He turned to his betrothed. “I will take Fraulein Joey and Fraulein Grizel with me now, and we will set off at once. You must tell the others, and bid them follow us as soon as they come back. We will take string, so that we may leave a guiding cord for them to follow, and so that we may not lose our way when we are returning. Fraulein Joey, go and dress at once, and put on thick shoes.

You also, Fraulein Grizel. Fraulein Marani,” he turned to Gisela, “you must find me some brandy. We may need it!”

The girls hurried off to do his bidding, and an hour later found the three who formed the vanguard of this wild expedition creeping along the face of the mountain, hunting for the cleft.

Could poor terrified Cornelia have known how near they were, things would have been better.

Unfortunately, she had no idea that help was coming, and it seemed to her as if she was alone – abandoned to the tender mercies of a maniac.

When she had awakened, shortly after five in the afternoon, it had been to find herself in a gigantic hollow place, full of pillars that glittered in the light cast by rude torches which someone had lit and placed in holes here and there. The shape was nearly circular, and for a moment Cornelia lay and wondered if she were dreaming. She seemed to have got into some fairies’ palace. Then, there was a movement near her, and, looking round, she repressed a scream with difficulty, for coming towards her was the man whom she recognised as being the lunatic of Grizel’s and Joey’s story of the Robin’s rescue. He came softly, smiling at her, and with a strange light in his crazy blue eyes which scared her. “The gracious lady has, slept long,” he said in his soft, mumbling patois. “Almost I thought her under a spell, and would not open her eyes for a century. What does the gracious lady will that I, her servant, shall do for her?”

With a mighty effort Cornelia pulled herself together, and stood up. “Take me back,” she said.

He shook his head with a cunning smile. “Nay, gracious lady. That may not be. They who come here are prisoners of the Kobolds and other fairy-folk. Anything but that!”

He had raised his voice as he spoke, and it boomed through the great pillared cave, echoing and re-echoing weirdly among the pillars. He came nearer as he spoke, and stretched out his hand to her. Cornelia shrank back against the pillar under which she had been lying. In her movement, she tripped over the deer-skins which had formed her bed, and reeled, and would have fallen had not the maniac caught her, and set her gently on her feet again.

“The gracious lady must be careful,” he said reproachfully. “You shiver, my little princess. Are you cold?

Permit that I wrap this round you.”

He picked up one of the skins, and drew it round her shoulders; then, stooping, he picked her up, and carried her to the other side of the place, where two pillars rose on each side of a mound, forming a kind of fantastic throne, on which he placed her.

How it was Cornelia managed to keep her senses was something no one was ever able to understand. Jo declared after it was all over that she would have died if it had been she. However, she did keep them, and, when he brought her some bread and a handful of berries, she even managed to control herself sufficiently to take them and eat them. He brought her a wooden cup full of water, and she drank it thankfully, for she felt uncommonly thirsty. When her meal was over she felt better, and rose from her seat, anxious to explore.

She had been right in coming here, so far as the caves were concerned – she recognised that. Margia had been quite correct when she had guessed the cleft to he the entrance. Cornelia looked round her in wonder at the white, gleaming walls. What could it be? She thought it looked like diamonds. Wondering, she scraped her finger over the nearest pillar, and then took it to her lips. Salt! It was salt!