by S G Read
The sun rose higher in the sky, as the coach glided along the motorway, until they had to turn off and then it was a different story with traffic jams and poorly maintained roads to contend. When Brian and Jenny ran out of things to talk about they turned the traffic it into a game, to try spot the next car that would cut them up before it actually did. As they woke up others joined in the game. Eventually, a cheer echoed round the coach as they saw the sign for Apsford ahead. By now, they were all awake and watched their progress eagerly.
The coach followed the route the boys knew well now and stopped in front of Apsford house, with all its memories for those who had been involved in the battle with the solicitor who was willing to kill anyone who got in the way of him and the money that Stevey now had. The gargoyle which Stevey had clung to, with the evil solicitor clinging to his trouser leg to stop himself from falling to his death, had been removed for repair. Stevey was having it put back where it had remained for many years guarding its treasure for Stevey’s great, great aunt. He automatically looked up where it had been to see the broken stone there awaiting the return of the gargoyle. He remembered the solicitor trying to throw him off the roof and he smiled when he remembered his mother shooting the solicitor to save him. In his wildest dreams, he had never expected her to do that. He imagined her screaming at the prospect but she just pulled out the pistol the boys had taken from the solicitor and shot him.
Everyone disembarked and stretched their legs to ease the stiffness from the long journey. They waited by the coach for the luggage to be unpacked then carried their cases or bags into the house. They walked into a very different Apsford House. The dark and dinginess had gone, as had the bare floorboards. Either there were carpets laid in the rooms or the wooden flooring had been prepared and polished, with all the holes filled. The toilets coped with the sixteen children and two grownups who entered, although some still walked down to the toilet in the garden to save queuing. Pat was soon marveling at the changes in the old kitchen as she found them. She praised Brian to his face when she found some of his work and it made him blush on occasion.
A tap on the front door reminded Stevey that the doorbell needed attention and he opened it to let in Wendy and David. They had chosen to drive down in their car, as David had to go to work later in the week. If he had his car, he go to the shops or the local restaurant to get things to save taking the coach. He could also go off to work and return for the weekend following. It meant that they had no car after that but Stevey had plans for that. While they were driving down there he was thinking of just that. They needed something to get around in, other than the coach, while they were there. He did not expect his mother to cook for so many mouths all the time they were there.
It also meant an early start for David at the end of his holiday but he thought it was worthwhile. If it became a problem, he would take some extra holiday the next week. Now that he was a junior partner, things were a lot different.
‘Hello Mrs. Sellars.’ Stevey greeted. ‘Come in and you Mr. Sellars.’
Wendy and David walked in carrying their bags and Pat came to show them to their room. Stevey took a few seconds to look at the old doorbell but he was not in the mood for sorting it out. He had repaired their doorbell in the flat many time, when the doorbell there had stopped working. Then they could not afford to get someone in to repair it, so he either repaired it or it stayed not working.
The children listened to Pat extolling the virtue of Brian's work for a few seconds then they decided to explore the house, even Jenny. The exploration took a while, even for those who had slept there before, with all the changes since they had been there last. Even the attic had changed. Brian had talked with Stevey on the phone while they worked out how to sleep everybody and he suggested they put in a new staircase leading up into the attic. He made two new rooms up there with large dormer windows to make the rooms big enough to sleep up to four people. The girls immediately commandeered one of those rooms for their bedroom and dumped their cases up there. Jenny had explained what the new rooms were like, as she had slept up there and the other three girls thought it was a good idea.
When the exploration was over in the main part of the house, the boys showed the girls all the secret passages. This led them eventually to the locked trapdoor, which in turn, they explained, led to the tunnel to the old graveyard. The girls, being just as bad as the boys where secret passages were involved, insisted on seeing it and walking it. Stevey had argued against it at first but in the end, had to get the key from the new key cupboard and unlock it. He unlocked the padlock and slid the key into his pocket.
‘That is it, you drop down into a tunnel and it leads to a graveyard.’ He explained.
‘Well let’s go, we aren’t scared of the dark, even if you are.’ Molly ordered.
‘We don’t know where the lever is to open the door at the other end.’ Stuart argued.
The girls scoffed.
‘I am sure we can find one little lever and come back the way we went.’ Celia declared.
‘With all of us there we are bound to find it, surely.’ Sherman exclaimed.
The arguments ceased and they followed the tunnel just as they had done before.
The upshot was that sixteen weary children tramped back to the house, through the field and down back roads. Just as last time the grave closed and try as they might, they could not find the lever to open it. It was a walk that Stevey did not mind after last time it happened, when they ran back all the way, thinking that Pat might be at the mercy of an intruder. Stuart could remember it as well and as they strolled back, he looked at all the scenery he had missed the first time.
'Why didn't you tell us we had to walk back?' Molly asked.
'We did if you remember.' Sherman answered.
'But you said they ran back, I thought it was just for the sake of running.' Molly replied.
'Hardly.' Stevey retorted but did not elaborate.
'I thought we might find the lever,' Simon chipped in; 'we are quite good at finding secret passageways and levers to open them.’
'We looked last time,' Stuart replied, 'believe me we looked and you can see why.'
'It is a long way over ground,' Celia agreed, 'it didn't seem so lo when we were in the tunnel.
They walked on, with no one complaining, both Stevey and Stuart had warned them about the door at the other end.
‘Not as fast as last time!’ Stuart noted, when he looked at his watch as they reached the hall.
‘No we did it a lot quicker last time.’ Stevey answered with a smile.
They spent some time exploring the land round the house, just to see what was there. In the distance they could see an old tree at one point. It looked dead but it looked interesting. They decided not to walk down to it as they had just had a good walk but made a note of it for further inspection. Simon just wanted to climb it, to show off.
David and Brian drove to the restaurant later to collect the food they had ordered. Brian could see the usefulness of having a smaller vehicle there. He imagined driving the coach down these little lanes and parking in front of the restaurant. He would block the road and there was no way he would get into their car park with it. They drove back and they sat round the new kitchen table eating. It was better to eat it while it was hot than to warm it up later, although, that was what would happen to the leftovers when someone grew peckish during the evening and they all new who would be peckish first.
For the rest of the evening they watched television or read books, until they decided to go to bed. No one sent them to bed; Pat and David did not even tell Stuart they thought he should go to bed. Instead, they let them decide when they were tired and the children went to bed when they wanted to. Apart from the girls who discussed it at length, then all went up together.
Morning came and despite the late night, they were soon all eating breakfast in the dining room, choosing from the array of cereals on the side cabinet or the porridge Pat had made. When the porridge threate
ned to run out, she made more. For her it felt different not to have to worry about making too much and having any wasted. Now, what was not eaten could be thrown to the wild animals. Were they going to be living there permanently Pat would keep some animals but until she knew, where home would be and she would wait. She always wanted to keep animals and now she could, if she chose to. She also had plans to learn to ride a horse but again that could wait until the children were back at school. She pictured chickens in a run, dogs, cats and a goat to eat the leftovers. She dismissed the idea of keeping pigs but when they were settled she would start looking for animals to keep her company. If they were ever settled, knowing what the team was like, they were likely to get into one adventure after another. She did not really know how they did it. Maybe they could smell it?
The children gathered in the lounge to discuss the forthcoming day and what they should do. In the end, with no decision made they chose to walk down into the surrounding woodland towards the old dead looking tree that they had found earlier. It looked old and rotting but it was still surprisingly sound. They found a rope dangling from one of the branches, a sign that the local children had strayed up here on more than one occasion but they had seen or heard no one since they had arrived.
Simon was the first to climb it, showing his Tarzan side. He swung about on it, after nimbly climbing right up the rope and back down. He swung higher and higher but his swing was not controlled and it took him into the tree. He fell on the ground complaining. When he hit the tree he moaned about his back and then when he hit the floor he moaned about his bum. As soon as he was off the rope, they others could have a go, although they were not so good and they certainly did not stay on it for long. They stayed playing there for some time then moved on when Simon's injuries allowed him to travel and reached a small cove with a little beach area.
‘Wow our own beach.’ Simon yelled, suddenly fully fit again.
To their right there was a cliff towering above the water and out of it a water spout was gushing water near to the cove at a low and inviting level. Further right there was another waterspout gushing water out into the bay at a much higher level.
'I had forgotten about those super flumes.’ Ben exclaimed when he saw them.
‘Super, as long as we don’t make the mistake of coming out the other one.’ Antony declared.
‘That one is a bit high.’ Celia agreed.
‘I bet we can’t even find the start of them,’ Sherman complained, 'we looked before without coming to a decision about them.'
‘There is only one way to find out.’ Ben pointed out.
‘Do we want to bother?’ Sherman asked. 'We did look before and the cave we thought they might be in was a bit awkward to get into and we didn't really know if the started in it.'
‘Do we want a vote on it?’ Stuart asked.
‘Is there anything else to do?’ Ben asked.
‘We could get our cossies and swim in the sea.’ Molly suggested.
‘We could go back and watch television.’ JC declared.
‘What a waste of time!’ Celia declared. ‘We could do that back Gordon Hall.’
‘Why don’t we just vote on it?’ Toby suggested. ‘That way we would at least be doing something.’
‘A good idea Toby.’ CJ declared.
'Does that mean you are seconding the motion?' Stuart asked officiously.
'Actually it does old chap.' CJ answered.
‘Okay, so who is in favour of climbing up to the top of the cliff and trying to find the start of those very inviting flumes?’ Stuart asked.
‘One very inviting flume.’ Jenny corrected.
‘Isn’t that my job?’ Toby complained.
‘All in favour!’ Stuart repeated, ignoring the interruption.
They all raised their hands, including Stuart but no one complained.
‘Carried.’ He declared.
They climbed up the slope to the top of the cliff. Even though they used the grassy slope at the back of the rocks, it was a long and tiring climb but they reached the top of the cliff and stood looking over at the bay in front of them. Now they had to search for the water as it flowed into the rocks. They walked forward, looking in every nook and cranny to see if they could see the water as it flowed down but all they found in the length of the cliff was the same cave, which started near the edge of the cliff and dropped steeply away making it impossible to climb down inside it. Stuart sent people into the nearby trees to find the stream that must flow down the hill behind them to form the flumes. They looked for a while and came back to report.
‘We can’t see any streams up there, so it must be and underground stream.’ Toby reported. ‘We went quite a way.’
‘It must be something to do with that cave.’ Ben declared, when they were well past the second flume, without seeing any sign of another opening.
‘Let us go back and look a little closer then.’ Stevey replied.
‘Do we need to vote on it?’ Simon asked.
‘No, there is nothing further on so it must be the answer, if there is one.’ Stuart declared.
They turned back and walked to where they had found the opening. Unlike a normal cave, this one was a hole in the top of the cliff. It appeared to go straight down and that was why they had not ventured inside when they first saw it. They walked to the opening and looked down into it, making sure no one fell. There were no pranks and no playing about near the entrance as it looked impossible for anyone to climb back out, including Simon.
‘The sides look very shiny,’ Simon declared, ‘even I couldn’t climb down there! The rain must have made it smooth over the years.’
‘Getting down is not the problem,’ Sherman exclaimed, ‘it's getting back out again.’
'If we had a liana we could go down there.’ Simon offered.
‘Can you see any trees with lianas growing up them, Si?’ JC asked.
‘No but we do know where there is a rope!’ Ben exclaimed.
'So we do.’ Celia declared, she was obviously up to the challenge they were about to face, she felt part of the team now and was up for anything. ‘The question is, do we go back for our cossies or do we look in there first?’
‘Cossies and torches.’ Molly declared.
‘No let us look first.’ Ben argued.
‘Okay let us have a vote on it.’ Stuart declared. ‘All in favour of getting the rope and going in to see what is in there?’
A flurry of hands went up and Stuart dutifully counted them.
‘Now, who is for going back for swimming costumes and torches first?’ He asked.
He counted the rest of the raised arms.
‘The costumes and torches have it,’ he declared, ‘which is sensible if you think about it, it is likely to be dark inside that cave.’
‘That’s why I suggested it!’ Molly declared and walked off toward the house, choosing to go directly to it, rather than to walk back down to the cove and follow the path they had followed to get to the cove.
They walked back to the house, making their own trail, with Sherman cutting a way through with the axe when the foliage needed it. By the time they returned to Apsford house they were all hungry and thirsty. They filled up with food and drink before finding as many working torches as they could and their swimming costumes, before walking back to the dead looking tree for the rope. It was down to Simon to climb up the rope, he untied the rope and dropped it down to the others waiting below. After that he had to climb down the trunk. They gathered up the old rope and watched his progress until he finally dropped to the ground. With Simon back down, they walked back to the cave taking the same route they had used to return to the house, as it saved climbing up the slope by the cove. There was now a trail of sorts they could follow. They found a suitable tree to anchor the rope to and lowered the opposite end into the hole. Simon climbed down without anyone asking, with a small torch in his mouth.
‘I can hear water!’ He declared as he started.
A few minutes
later, he called up from the cave.
‘I’ve found water but there is only one entry to the flumes, how can that be?’ He yelled.
Antony climbed down with a bigger torch and when his report was the same, they all climbed down, one by one, even the girls. They stood there with various torches surveying the scene in front of them, there was water flowing in a circle like water going down a plughole and then it disappeared into a hole in the middle.
‘What if we lowered someone down to see where it goes?’ Colin asked thoughtfully.
‘With what,’ Ben retorted, ‘the only rope is up there and if we use that we aren’t likely to get out again?’
‘Yes we are, silly.’ Molly exclaimed. ‘We can come out the flume and if it was good, we can get some more rope to get back in again.’
‘But it means we definitely have to find the flume entry point or we will be stuck.’ Stuart explained. ‘So we will vote on that one. Hands up then, who is for Simon going up to get the rope and then sliding back down into the cave, while we catch him?’
One hand was raised then another, as they thought about it, until everyone, bar Stuart had his hand up. Stuart was busily shining his torch to see who had their hand up.
‘Carried,’ Stuart declared, ‘of you go Si.’
‘Didn’t you want to do it,’ Molly asked, 'You didn't vote?'
‘I only have a casting vote which means if there is a draw I get to choose.’ Stuart explained.
‘But without you voting there are fifteen of us so how can there be a draw?’ Celia asked.
‘John is fond of abstaining.’ Ben explained.
'Actually there is a way out,' Simon declared, 'we can form a human pyramid and one of us can climb back out with the rope.'
