Part 46 (2/2)

' Alethea stood just where she was.

”Are you hurt, my dears?

' Their shouts were rea.s.suring.

”Then hang on, I'll pull you up.

' She had moved cautiously as she spoke and saw in the furthest corner

the dark hole which should have been the cellar stairs.

She got down on her knees and peered over the edge and caught a glimpse of the two faces below. Rather a long way down, but if she could find a chair and pa.s.s it down to them and they stood on it.

The door behind her banged shut and left her in almost complete

darkness.

It just needs a rat or two, she thought wildly, and asked with all the

calm she could muster if Sarel knew where the matches had been dropped. Somewhere in the middle, he told her vaguely, so she crawled around on her hands and knees on the filthy floor until she found them.

The box wasn't full, she had used almost all of them before she found a broken old chair in a corner. She picked it up with a triumphant cry and it fell to pieces in her hands.

She had to tell Sarel, of course, who suggested that she should go for help. ”We'll be all right,” he a.s.sured her in a voice that sounded as though he needed rea.s.suring rather badly, and certainly she could think of nothing else to do; it would be a waste of time to wring her hands and moan if only they had a light. . .

The door had jammed, but after a good deal of furious kicking on her part it gave way and she ran up the rickety little stairs to the hall.

The door was shut, locked, and she had left the key on the outside.

And this time it didn't yield to her blows and thumps.

It took a little while for her to admit that it was useless and when

she tried the only window she couldn't make any impression on the boards.

She went back slowly to the children and explained.

”I'm a fool to leave the key outside,” she told them, 'but at least when someone comes they'll be able to get in.

' ”Who'll come?

' asked Jacomina tearfully.

Alethea remembered that she had put the note they had written in her

pocket and she hadn't seen anyone before she left the house; probably no one would come.

”Your papa,” she said with loud conviction.

”But he's in Amsterdam.

' ”T know, but he might come back this evening.

' It was a forlorn hope; he was much more likely to stay away after what she had said to him.

”I'm coming down,” she called cheerfully.

”We might as well be together.

' There were no matches left.

Alethea crept cautiously towards the top of the non-existent stairs and

lowered herself very slowly, terrified out of her wits.

She dangled for a few seconds, feeling nothing below her.

”Sarel,” she called in a carefully calm voice, 'can you stretch out a

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