Authors: Elizabeth Goudge
The Runaways (20 page)
‘I’m sorry I said this morning that Uncle Ambrose wouldn’t help us with the jam,’ said Nan. ‘He did, and he looked wonderful while he was doing it.’
‘Huh,’ said Ezra. ‘’Andsome is as ’andsome does an’ come the mornin’ there’ll be no way o’ gettin’ that jam out o’ them pots without takin’ an ’atchet to ’em. Be there anythin’ more that you fancy?’
Next day after dinner Ezra left the children to do the washing-up by themselves while he went, he said, to tog himself up. This they thought was mean of him. Hadn’t they got to tog themselves up? They did a very sketchy wash up, changed into clean frocks and sailor suits, brushed Absolom and then found to their astonishment that Ezra, Rob-Roy, and the trap were already waiting for them outside the front door. Ezra was wearing his bunchy coat and the mustard waistcoat, but a little awry as though he had got into them in a hurry, and carrying on quite a friendly conversation with Tom Biddle, who was sitting on his Windsor chair as usual, just as though there had been no unpleasant occurrence in the wood two days ago.
‘Goin’ to town?’ asked Tom Biddle. But it sounded a rhetorical question, as though he knew the answer already.
‘Aye,’ said Ezra. ‘Us’ll be back late I shouldn’t wonder, shoppin’ an’ that.’
‘The children will want to see their granny,’ said Tom.
‘Aye,’ said Ezra.
‘Pretty little dears!’ said Tom, as the children and Absolom took their places in the trap. ‘Nice little dog that be.’
Absolom growled and the little dears, with the exception of Nan, glared in silence, and Nan’s smile, bestowed upon Tom Biddle because if he was wicked he was also old, was not as friendly as usual. Ezra said, ‘Come up, lad,’ to Rob-Roy and they went off down the hill at a spanking pace.
‘
I
was going to harness Rob-Roy,’ said Robert crossly to Ezra. ‘And why did you bring him up the hill to the front door? We always start off from the yard.’
They crossed the bridge and were out of sight of the village, and then suddenly Ezra turned off the road and swerved to the left along a cart track that led across the moor.
‘This isn’t the way to town, Ezra,’ said Robert.
‘No need to teach your grandmother to suck eggs,’ said Ezra. ‘We ain’t goin’ to town. Us be goin’ to Pizzleton.’
‘But, Ezra, you told Uncle Ambrose we were going to town,’ said Timothy, and he looked very grave because he had not thought that Ezra would tell a lie.
‘Pizzleton means pixies’ town,’ said Ezra. ‘An’ it weren’t only your Uncle Ambrose I were tellin’. What for did ee think I opened that window so wide?’
‘So that Tom Biddle should hear,’ said Nan. ‘Ezra, you’re very clever. They won’t be keeping watch at Lion Tor today. Are we going there?’
‘Pizzleton is below Lion Tor on t’other side from Barton,’ said Ezra.
‘I needn’t have put on my clean sailor suit,’ said Timothy, who hated being clean.
‘Nor I needn’t ’ave put on me mustard weskit,’ said Ezra. ‘But ’tis all in a good cause.’
The drive was long and bumpy but glorious. The heather and ling were beginning to colour and the gorse smelt like peaches in the hot sun. They saw the moorland birds, falcons and snipe and curlews with their wonderful curved beaks, and heard the larks singing and sometimes the rush of a moorland stream. The way they followed circled round the great sweep of Linden Wood and they never lost sight of the towering mass of Lion Tor, though as they came round behind it they no longer saw the Lion, but only the crags of the Castle Rock. Presently the track entered a lane which turned and twisted between windblown hawthorn trees until it brought them out into Pizzleton. It was a bigger village than theirs, but it had the same cottages of cob and thatch grouped round another church on a hill, with a tower so tall that the cottages looked like mushrooms about its feet.
The shop was bigger than Emma Cobley’s and was kept by a very respectable-looking lady, apple-cheeked and wearing a blue print dress sprigged with roses. But even so the children had a good look through the window before they followed Ezra into the shop in case she kept a cat, but all they could see was a canary, so they trooped in to give Ezra the benefit of their
suggestions
and advice. They were in the shop for half an hour, and there wasn’t anything left out of the golden guinea that Uncle Ambrose had given Ezra by the time they’d finished, even though food was cheap in those days, and the big shopping basket was nearly overflowing with parcels. The respectable lady was looking very happy when they left the shop. After that they went to the forge where Daft Davie had worked when he was a boy.
The man who had been cruel to him was, of course, dead long ago and the present blacksmith was a distant cousin of Ezra’s, a very charming man, Jake Barley by name. Rob-Roy had a shoe loose and Jake allowed Robert to help him put it on again. It was marvellous in the forge with the clang of iron, the roaring fire and the flying sparks. If they hadn’t had an adventure on their hands the children would have liked to stay there till bedtime.
‘Right,’ said the blacksmith. ‘Where be goin’?’
‘A picnic,’ said Ezra.
‘What about a picnic tea?’ asked Robert.
‘Take what you like from the basket.’
Robert took ham and ginger biscuits from the basket and stowed them away in Ezra’s capacious pockets and they set off. Beyond the village a stony road climbed up towards the tor. It was creepy here on the north side of the great hill, dark and strange. The larks did not sing here and the cry of the curlews was sad and wild. It was such a long climb that Ezra made Nan and Timothy as well as Betsy take turns on Rob-Roy’s back. The pony picked his way up bravely and nimbly and so did Ezra on his wooden leg,
with his crook to help him, and so did Absolom though his tongue hung out nearly to the ground. In the face of their perseverance Robert could not for very shame ask to take a turn on Rob-Roy’s back too, though he felt very sorry for himself until he suddenly remembered that he was leading his band of heroes in the summit of Everest, and then he strode ahead with no fatigue at all.
The road ended on a grassy plateau beneath the great pile of rocks and Ezra called a halt. They flung
themselves
down on the sweet-smelling turf, gazing out over the great and glorious view, and when they were rested they drank water from a stream and ate ham and ginger biscuits, which contrary to what you might expect are excellent when eaten together. Then Ezra loosely hobbled Rob-Roy, so that he could go on cropping the turf, and led the way up on the rocks, up and around to the left, and very soon they were on the other side and could see the Lion’s head and Linden Woods down below them.
‘Now where be this cave?’ asked Ezra.
It was so well hidden that it took a while to find it, but presently they saw the big rock upon which Frederick had leapt. ‘You children stay ’ere,’ said Ezra. ‘When you ’ear me call “’i there!” come an’ join me, but if I should yell like a screech owl, then you take to your ’eels an’ run back to Rob-Roy and get along ’ome as quick as you can.’
He left them standing together in an apprehensive bunch, climbed doggedly up to the big rock and
disappeared
round it. After a pause which seemed long to the children they heard a hail of ‘’i there!’ and
scrambled
to join him.
There was the width of a doorway between the rock
and the narrow entrance to the cave, hardly more than a long crack through which a big man could squeeze with difficulty. Ezra was standing in the entrance. ‘All except one, come in,’ he said. ‘But one o’ you must keep watch. You, Robert, for a start. Don’t ee climb to the top of the rock where you’d be seen. Stand at the side an’ look round an’ call if you see anythin’ you don’t like the looks on. Keep Absolom with ee. Don’t fret, lad, you shall take your turn inside later.’
Robert scowled a bit, but he did what he was told and the others followed Ezra into the cave. It was not quite dark inside, for a crack in the roof let in some light, and when their eyes grew accustomed to the dimness they could see quite well. At first there seemed to be nothing to be seen; just rock and ferns, for rainwater came in through the roof and the cave was damp; but Ezra went nosing round like a dog after a rabbit, examining the rocks and feeling behind the clumps of ferns and presently he gave an
exclamation
, took his jackknife from his pocket and opened it. ‘’Old up them ferns, Nan,’ he commanded.
Nan lifted up the curtain of green that he had pointed out to her and he set to work with his knife on the rock behind it. Then he drew out a loose stone that had been shaped to fit like the stopper of a bottle into the hole behind, a roughly circular hole about the width of a man’s hand.
‘Be careful, Ezra,’ Nan said anxiously, ‘there might be snakes inside.’
‘Mun risk that, maid,’ said Ezra with a grin and he plunged his hand and arm into the hole. ‘No snakes,’ he assured her, ‘but plenty else. Quite a sizeable little cupboard inside. I’ll ’and ’em out to ee one by one,
maid, an’ put down on that ledge o’ rock there.’
One by one he handed out a number of objects about the size of small dolls, queer knobbly little figures stuck with rusty pins. Nan put them down on a shelf of rock and they were just looking at them when Robert appeared at the mouth of the cave. ‘Come quick,’ he said.
‘Who is it, lad?’ asked Ezra sharply.
‘It isn’t a person,’ said Robert, ‘it’s a thing.’
Ezra swept up the little figures, put them in his pockets and followed Robert, the other children at his heels.
As they rounded the rock they shivered, for in the short time that they had been inside the cave the weather had suddenly changed. The Lion, facing south, was still in full sunshine, and he looked warm and peaceful and good, but when they turned and faced the other way the sunlit moor had vanished in a moving pall of gloom. There was no wind, but the air that touched their faces was clammy and cold.
‘The sea is coming in over the moor!’ gasped Nan.
‘And there are devils on horseback riding over the waves,’ said Timothy. He spoke calmly, but with a sort of despair, as well he might, for the sight was truly frightening. The waves that were rolling in were the high grey waves of storm, but they made no sound, and the terrible tossing riders made no sound either. It would have been less terrifying if they could have heard the crash of the waves or the neighing of the horses.
‘Don’t ee be feared, children,’ said Ezra. ‘’Tis naught but mist rollin’ in over Weepin’ Marsh. It can come very sudden an’ take queer forms. But best be goin’ an’ quick too. Us’ve a long way to get ’ome. Come on now.’
They scrambled back to Rob-Roy, unhobbled him and put Betsy on his back, and they got down the steep way to Pizzleton in double-quick time. Jake Barley and his wife were looking out for them and no time was wasted in conversation. Rob-Roy was put into the trap, the basket was stowed inside and they were off, going quickly down through the village and along the lane beyond, with the mist at their heels. Facing the sunlit south, and with the cheerful rattling of the trap in their ears, the children forgot to feel afraid.
‘I never saw the inside of the cave,’ said Robert, much aggrieved.
‘We’ll tell you about it when we get home,’ Nan consoled him.
‘If we’d been half an hour later climbing up the tor the mist would have got there first and we wouldn’t have found the cave,’ said Timothy.
‘Nearly got us,’ growled Ezra. He was looking very grim and Nan thought he spoke as though the mist were a savage beast who had been set on them by
somebody
. Weeping Marsh, she thought, that was where the little boy was lost. She began to shiver and pulled Betsy closer to her, for it was growing colder, and Ezra took the old torn rug and a couple of sacks from under the seat and made the children wrap themselves up. The sun was veiled now, as though a bonfire had been lit below the horizon and was sending up smoke across its face. Presently they left the lane for the track across the moor and they could now only see a few yards in front of them.
