· 5 June 1939 ·
ALONG THE NORTH COAST
Kate, don’t worry,” Nick said. “Some old ‘greybeard’ has probably rolled in and blocked the sun from the mouth of the cave.” He was summoning up a great deal more calmness than he actually felt. Kate knew as well as he did that their little island was named for the sudden, unpredictable fogs that could turn midday to midnight in minutes. “At any rate, I think that’s why not much sun can get this far back into the cave.”
“Not much sun? Not any sun!” Katie said, and even her voice was shaking. “I can’t even see my fingers when I hold my hand up, Nicky! And the cave is filling up with water!”
“It’s not filling up with water, it’s just the tide coming in. Every cave along here gets about a foot of water inside when the tide comes in. That’s why I wanted to get the chest on the ledge, remember? Why, Gunner and I spent a whole night in a cave just like this last summer. Slept out a rainstorm up on one of these ledges, we did, dry as bones, like a couple of babies, even at high tide.” He laughed, but it was a hollow laugh, and he was cursing himself for putting his little sister in a frightening situation.
“I’m still scared, Nicky.”
Nick reached out in the darkness of the cramped ledge and placed his hand on his sister’s shoulder. “Don’t worry, Katie, we’ll get out of here, I promise. Even if we can’t see too well because of the fog outside, we can smell the sea air, right? Take a deep breath and follow your nose, that’s the ticket.”
“I don’t smell anything in this stinky old cave but Jip’s breath,” Kate said. “And I don’t much like that smell, either.”
“Right, then, let’s get out of here, Kate.”
A sharp scratching noise and a sudden flare of burning magnesium pierced the black gloom. “Lucky we’ve got these matches to help us see where we’re going, aren’t we? Are you ready? On ‘three,’ I want you to jump down from the ledge. Jump straight out and bend your knees. Mind your head!”
“Oh, all right, if I have to, but I’ll never set foot in this rotten old cave again!” Kate said. On “three” she bravely jumped down into the narrow stream of black water that was flowing into the cave. He heard her take a deep breath.
“Come on, Nicky!” Kate cried. “The water’s cold. But I can smell the sea! It’s that way! Let’s go!”
As Nick prepared to jump, his match went out. He lit another, perhaps his last, he guessed, and with his foot shoved the sea chest as far back on the ledge as he could, wondering if he’d ever see it again, much less solve its mystery. He jumped from the ledge, cupping his hand around the match to keep it lit.
The cold seawater was lapping about his ankles. He’d been right, the evening tide was on its way in. Hearing a heavy panting noise above him, he lifted the burning match to see. It was only Jip, still up on the ledge. “Come on, boy, jump!” Nick cried, but the dog stayed put. And that’s when his match went out. The tunnel was plunged again into total darkness. He’d used his last match.
“It’s all right, Kate,” Nick said. “We just have to follow our noses.”
“Nicky!” Kate said. “What’s that noise?”
“It’s only Jip, breathing. He’s a little scared, too, I guess. Come on, boy, jump!”
“No. Not that noise, Nicky,” she said in a low whisper. “Another noise. Behind us. Far back in the cave.”
“Another noise? I don’t hear anything, Katie,” Nick said, listening. But, wait, he did hear something! A low, gurgling sound from deep in the cave. It sounded familiar, Nick thought.
Laughter.
“Do you hear it now, Nicky?” Kate asked in a trembling voice. “There’s somebody back there, behind us! It sounds like they’re laughing!”
“Don’t be silly, Kate, that’s not possible,” Nick whispered. “It’s just a trick of the water sloshing around back there inside the—what’s that?”
Another sound now, from deep in the cave. It sounded, Nick thought, like heavily beating wings. And it was coming closer. Bats, he said to himself. The whole cave must be full of them.
“Oh Nicky oh Nicky oh Nicky oh Nicky,” Kate whispered feverishly and she clung to her brother in the pitch-black darkness.
“It’s all right, Katie, it’s all right,” Nick said. “We’re getting out of here right now!” He picked his sister up in his arms and had just started slogging through the black water when there was a huge splash just in front of them!
“Nicky!” she screamed. “What’s that? What’s that?”
And Nick, too, was terrified at the loud splash until he heard loud barking fill the cave. “It’s Jip! He jumped off the ledge and now he’s caught the scent of fresh air and is leading us out! We’ll just follow him to the opening of the cave! Hold on, Kate, I’m going to run as fast as I can, so put your arms around my neck and don’t let go no matter what happens!”
And Nick, with Katie held tightly in his arms, ran as hard and fast as he could, lifting his feet high above the icy water, following the sound of Jip’s loud exclamations up ahead in the darkness, until finally they burst from the mouth of the cave into the open air. He took a deep breath, panting with exhaustion, sucking the cool air into his lungs. It was almost like breathing water. Fog, and a thick one, blanketed the little cove.
“Christmas!” Nick exclaimed, staggering up out of the tidal flow at the cave mouth and onto some dry scree. “This fog is a real ‘greybeard,’ isn’t it? That’s what blocked most of the sun, see! May I put you down? It’s all right, you can open your eyes now. We’re safely out of it!”
“Isn’t it too early to be this dark, Nicky?” Kate asked, opening her eyes. “What’s Jip barking at?” Jip was still looking back into the mouth of the cave, barking fiercely.
“Jip! Come! We’re getting out of here, boy!” Nick said to his dog.
“What’s in t-t-there, Nicky?” Kate asked, shivering from both fright and her soaked clothing.
“Bats,” Nick said, hugging her tightly. “That’s what we heard. Whole cave must be full of them.” But it wasn’t bats they’d heard inside the cave. Someone, or something more likely, had been laughing back there. And a bat, as far as he knew, didn’t have a sense of humor.
“Can we go home now?” Kate asked, tugging on his sleeve. “I’m v-very cold.”
Cold and frightened, Nick knew, with leagues to go before sleep and a warm bed. And his poor mum wondering where they were once more. He took his sister’s hand in his own. “This way,” he said, mounting a nearby ledge that seemed to lead upward.
And so the little band made its way, cold and wet, up the slippery steps of the rocky cliffside. As they neared the top of the cliff, the greybeard fog became more and more patchy, and, to their increasing discomfort, mixed with a hard slanting rain.
Gaining the top at last, they made their way across the rocky headland. Nick tried to ignore the stinging rain and concentrate on the mystery they’d discovered in the sandy cove. The fact that the chest looked so new and happened to bear his own name was curious enough. But the big red bird, he was a mystery, too. Whatever was such a creature doing on this little island? It was passing strange. And now, slogging across the rainswept fields, tired and bone cold, he came to grips with what had been troubling him since they’d run out of the cave.
The laughter in the cave. He’d heard it before. It had come from the mouth of the red parrot sitting on the sea chest!
They reached the coast road and Nick made a decision.
“We’ll stop at Gunner’s, Kate,” he said. “He’s sure to have a fire going on a night like this and I think we could use some warm blankets and a pot of tea.”
And so where the road forked, the little trio, led by Jip running up ahead, took the turning east for the Greybeard Inn instead of bearing north along the coast road to the lighthouse and home. Although they were late, and he had surely missed supper once again, Nick decided his shivering sister needed some warm clothes and hot tea.
It would prove to be an unfortunate decision.