01 The School at the Chalet (19 page)

‘Madge! Madge! Wake up! Wake up! Madge! I’m frightened!’ In a moment Madge sat up and regarded the awesome scene with horror in her eyes. The next instant she was on her feet.

‘Thunder! What a fool I was not to think of it! Joey, be a man! You must! We must get down at once!

Girls! Wake up!’

They woke up at her urgent cries, and Simone and Amy promptly burst into tears. The Tyroleans were too accustomed to the terrible thunderstorms which come up with such terrifying suddenness to be scared, although the elder girls looked serious. They knew what thunder from the north-west meant.

Meanwhile, the three elders were taking rapid counsel, while Juliet and Gisela tried to console the two weepers. Joey was watching her sister’s face anxiously, and Grizel was too excited to feel afraid.

Then, even as Miss Bettany turned to bid the girls hurry to the mountain-path, there was a vivid glare, that seemed to rend the very clouds asunder, followed by a terrific crash, which scared what few wits Simone had left completely from her. She clung to Mademoiselle, screaming hysterically, and Madge realised that if they were to get her down the path at all they would have to carry her.

A sudden shout coming out of the gloom which had descended so rapidly made her turn, and there was the herdsman running towards them, beckoning to them as he did so. In a flash she realised that he meant them to come to the hut. The next moment the darkness descended completely, and overhead the lightning flickered and the thunder crashed almost incessantly. There was no question of going down yet. Even if Simone had kept her head it would have been impossible. The path was easy enough in daylight, but there were great tree roots sprawling across it at intervals, as well as occasional boulders which had worked loose and rolled into it. Any attempt to descend it now was more than likely to end in sprained ankles, if nothing worse. She made a swift decision. Even as the panting herd reached them, she spoke.

‘Come! We must go to the hut! It is the only thing to do, and we can stay there till it is over–’

The rest of her sentence was drowned in a mighty peal of thunder. The girls, luckily, were trained to an instant obedience. Gisela, Bette, and Bernhilda had already collected the baskets together, and now they all turned and followed the man, who had picked up Simone with as much ceremony as if she were a bundle of hay, and was now leading them across the little plateau to the hut.

It was really quite a short distance, but to Madge it seemed never-ending, that strange walk-half walk, half run-in almost pitchy blackness, lightened only by the fearful glare of the lightning, while all round them the thunder roared frighteningly. Little Amy Stevens was between her and Miss Maynard, while the elder girls looked after the other Juniors, and Mademoiselle hurried gaspingly after them, with an arm round Margia Stevens. At last they reached the hut, and oh, what a haven of refuge it seemed to them, with the cheerful glow of the wood fire lessening the gloom a little!

Once they were all safely inside, the herd shut the door and set Simone down on the bench. She had stopped screaming now, but little heart-rending moans came from her lips every now and then. Leaving Amy to Miss Maynard’s care, Madge went over to her.

‘Simone,’ she said sternly, ‘you must stop crying at once-at once! Do you hear?’

‘I-I have such fear!’ sobbed Simone in her own language.

‘So have the others,’ replied her headmistress, ‘but you are the only one who is behaving like a baby.

Come! You must stop at once or I shall slap you!’

She nearly burst out laughing when she finished, for, as she glanced up, she had happened to catch sight of Joey’s face, with eyes and mouth round O’s of wonder. However, her dramatic speech had its effect on Simone, who gradually began to recover her self-control, and presently was able to sit up and drink the milk Gisela brought her.

Meanwhile, the herdsman had drawn the young headmistress aside.

‘The gracious lady must stay here to-night,’ he said. ‘ There is hay, and we can give bread and milk and cheese. To go down the path would be dangerous while the storm rages.’

‘But surely it cannot go on long?’ said Madge in startled tones. ‘ It is too heavy to last.’

‘It is from the north-west,’ he replied. ‘It will last many hours yet-four, or perhaps five; and then it will be night.’

‘Good heavens! How awful!’ She stood silent for a few moments, going over the state of affairs in her mind. Then she turned to the Seniors. ‘Gisela! Bette! Is this true? Are we storm-stayed here for the night?’

‘I am afraid so,’ replied Gisela. ‘When a storm comes from the north-west it does not die quickly.’

‘But how appalling! What will your parents think?’

‘They will know we took refuge here,’ said Bette. ‘Everyone at Tiern See knows of the hut, and they will know that we should stay here. These storms come so quickly; often there is no time to do anything. Don’t worry, Madame. They will be sure we shall be here, and quite safe.’

‘I wish I could think so!’ murmured her headmistress. ‘Well, I suppose there is nothing else for it.’

‘Do you mean we’re going to stay here all night?’ gasped Grizel, who had been standing near. ‘ How simply thrilling!’

‘I’m glad you think so!’ returned Madge dryly. ‘I’d be thankful to know we were all safe in our beds.’

‘It’s an adventure, though,’ said Joey, who had quite recovered her self-control, although her jaunty air was rather overdone. She did not like thunderstorms, and this one was really alarming. ‘It’ll be something to tell Dick when we write next.’

Madge laughed rather ruefully, and moved away. She felt tired, for it was no joke talking against the thunder. You had to shriek to make yourself heard, and even then it sometimes meant repeating what you said.

The herdsman, having given his opinion, was now busily engaged in carrying in great armfuls of fresh, sweet hay from a little shed which stood nearby. The rain had not yet come, and he had evidently made up his mind to prepare for the night before it did.

Grizel sprang forward. ‘Let me help!’ she said in her pretty broken German. ‘Yes, do! I’d like it!’

‘Oh, so would I!’ exclaimed Margia. ‘I’ll come too!’

The man made no attempt to stop them, so they followed him out; and very soon one end of the room was thickly littered with the hay, which the elder girls shook up and covered with their raincoats. When that was done, he shut the door once more, cast a couple of logs on the fire, and then sat down on the bench and lighted his pipe. He had done all he could, and now he was prepared to sit and smoke contentedly until he was sleepy, when he would go to bed in the next room.

A little silence fell on them all, which was suddenly broken by a ‘swish-swish!’ and the rain had come.

Such rain! Joey, opening the door to see, had to shut it again in a hurry or they would have been flooded out.

‘Gracious Peter!’ she remarked, as she came back to the others. ‘It’s like the Flood! This is Mount Ararat, I shouldn’t wonder!’

‘Tosh!’ retorted Grizel. ‘Mount Ararat has snow on it-I think!’

She finished rather doubtfully.

‘Well, this has in winter,’ argued Jo amiably. ‘Anyhow, it’s some rain!’

‘Not unlike the rainy season in India,’ laughed Madge-the thunder had died away for the moment. ‘Do you remember how I told you about the time when we were flooded out the year before we came home?’

‘Rather! Tell the others now!’ said Joey. ‘It’s like a story in a book!’

‘It will take too long,’ replied her sister. ‘Ask me about it some time when there isn’t a thunderstorm going on. Just listen to it!’ as a fresh rumble forced her to shriek the last words.

‘It often does that,’ said Gisela. ‘It travels round and round the lake till it dies away. It will come back again and again before it is over to-night.’

‘How dreadful!’ shuddered Simone.

‘I call it jolly thrilling!’ laughed Grizel. ‘I’ve never been in such a storm in my life before!’

‘Where are we going to sleep?’ asked Amy with interest. ‘And oh, Miss Bettany, what is that funny thing on the wall?’

She pointed as she spoke to a zither which was hung up by a loop of soiled ribbons. The herdsman, seeing her point to it, got up from his seat and, taking it down, produced a little twist of wire attached to a silver ring which he fitted on his thumb, and then ran it across the string, producing a shower of silvery sounds.

‘A zither!’ cried Miss Maynard. ‘And I never noticed it!’

‘Gnädiges Fräulein plays the zither?’ queried the man, holding it to her.

‘Yes; but you play first,’ she said, smiling at him.

He bowed somewhat clumsily, and then played them a simple little air, whose notes rippled through the hut like bird-notes. When he had finished, he handed it to Miss Maynard, and she played a song which, she told them, she had learnt from the New Forest gipsies. Every now and then the thunder roared above the tinkling music, and made the nervous people start. The first awful gloom was wearing off, but the lightning flashes were as vivid as ever, and the rain still poured down ceaselessly.

Presently the herd produced a huge pot, which he slung on a hook hung over the fire by an iron chain. Into this he poured a panful of milk, and, when it was heated, he invited them to dip big earthenware mugs, which he had brought from the inner room, into it, and drink. It proved very good if it did have a smoky flavour. Certainly, drunk in that room as an accompaniment to black bread and milk-cheese, it had a taste all its own.

When they had finished it, there was silence for a little. The close atmosphere and the warmth were doing their work. It was barely seven o’clock, but most of the Juniors were already nodding sleepily, and presently Amy turned to Miss Bettany with a request for bed. ‘Please may I go to bed? I’m so sleepy!’ she pleaded.

‘I think most of you would be better in bed,’ said the young headmistress. ‘Come along, you people! You can slip off your frocks and lie down in the hay, and then we’ll cover you up.’

‘In the hay?’ Amy wasn’t sure whether to laugh or cry.

Luckily, Maria Marani settled it for her. ‘It is topping!’ she said cheerfully.

‘Just like camping out!’ added Grizel approvingly. ‘Oh, this is something like an adventure!’

The herdsman, seeing that bed seemed to be the order of the day, got up, lit two lanterns, hanging one on a nail near the door, and, taking the other, slouched into the inner room with a muttered ‘Gute Nacht!’

‘And that’s that!’ observed Joey, wriggling out of her frock. ‘I say, supposing the others come back, what a shock they will get if they walk in and see us lying round!’

‘I hadn’t thought of that!’ Madge looked disturbed.

‘I do not think they will come,’ said Gisela consolingly. ‘See, the door is barred. I think there is another hut at the other side, and they will spend the night there.’

‘Do you? Shunt along, Grizel! You’ve got three times your share of the hay-I mean bed! Righto, Simone!

You can come next me-if you can keep your arms to yourself, that is!’

Thus Joey, as she slipped off her shoes and curled herself up. She suddenly sat up again to ask, ‘I say, does anyone snore?’

‘Not unless it’s yourself!’ retorted Grizel promptly.

‘Girls! Girls! Be quiet!’ put in Madge, laughing. ‘You really must settle down and get to sleep! We shall have to be up at six, to get down before Briesau is awake to see what scarecrows we are!’

Joey lay down, and presently they were all settled. Madge put out the lantern and lay down in her own place. It took her a little time to drop off, though everyone else quickly fell asleep-or so it seemed. But just as she was getting drowsy, a low voice said, ‘Madge!’

‘Well?’ she asked sleepily.

‘We’ll have a holiday to-morrow after this sha’n't we?’

Madge sat up, fully awake.

‘Joey Bettany, lie down at once and go to sleep, and don’t let me hear you again till the morning!’ she said severely.

There was a rustle in the hay and a little chuckle. Then silence.

Chapter 18.

The Châlet Magazine.

Oh, it was priceless!’ Grizel gave a little chuckle. ‘There we were, all grubby and untidy, and our hair full of hayseed, and all that walk to take! You’d have screamed if you had seen us!’

She laughed again at the memory, and Wanda von Eschenau joined her. Arrangements had been made for the next term, and Wanda and Marie were to join the Châlet School as boarders. In the meantime, they were to be with the girls as much as possible, partly with a view to learning English, so that they should be able to follow the lessons easily. Wanda already spoke fairly well, but Marie made funny mistakes at times. She and Joey and Simone were sitting in the grass some little distance away, revelling in the warmth of the sun, while Wanda and Grizel were perched on the railings which cut off the path to Geisalm. Farther along, Juliet was lying on the bank reading, while Margia, Amy, and the two little Merciers were making wreaths of the big white marguerites which grew everywhere.

It was a Saturday morning; practice was finished, and the boarders were free to amuse themselves. Grizel was telling Wanda about the birthday expedition with its unexpected ending. The young Viennese, who led the sheltered life of most girls of her class, was deeply thrilled, for Grizel told the tale well.

‘It must have been full of terror up there on the Alpe,’ she said in her slow, careful English. ‘The storm was terrible, even here!’ ‘It was ghastly,’ agreed Grizel. ‘Simone shrieked like mad and Amy cried, and I’m sure I don’t wonder! It must be awful if you are afraid of thunder! I’m not! But then, I’m not afraid of anything much!’

‘You must be very courageous,’ replied Wanda simply.

Grizel coloured to the roots of her hair. She had not meant to boast, but she had to admit that her last speech sounded uncommonly like boasting.

‘Sorry! I’m afraid that was swank,’ she said.

‘Swank?
Was ist denn
“swank”?’ queried Wanda.

‘Oh, bucking-er-boasting,’ returned Grizel hastily. ‘Er-I wouldn’t use it if I were you, Wanda. It isn’t good English-not proper, you know.’