Part 26 (1/2)

Then she heard it: a high, keening exhalation, like air being let out of a balloon. Breathless screaming was what it was, actually.

Next came a thud, followed by a thump like a sack of wet laundry hitting the floor. Something heavy collapsed for a while, like stones sliding down a chute. And then ...

”Oh!” said a woman's voice. ”Oh, good gracious!”

Shocked, uncertain, as if its owner was checking for broken bones. It was Bella Diamond's voice, coming from the rear of the chamber in an alcove where no light shone.

The voice was m.u.f.fled, as if it came from behind a door. The old tunnel, Jake realized. She's come down the ...

”Bella, over here!”

The creak of seldom-used hinges sounded. Suddenly an image of the slide bolt on the trapdoor above her flashed into Jake's mind. Lockable, so no intruder could find his way upstairs into the Artful Dodger.

The inhabitants of the Dodd House would no doubt have felt the same way, and their safeguard would have been more than a simple slide bolt. ”Bella! Don't close that ...”

Door, she meant to finish, but another loud hinge creak and a solid-sounding thud cut her off. Too late ... A flashlight beam appeared, wavering uncertainly around the chamber. Behind it was Bella, looking stunned but miraculously undamaged as far as Jake could tell in the gloom.

”Bella, I'm trapped. Get me out of these ropes, can you? Ellie's here somewhere, too ... .”

Sounds of slos.h.i.+ng filled the room as Bella's flashlight approached; the water in here was becoming very deep indeed.

Too deep. ”Oh,” Bella breathed in consternation when she got to Jake's side. ”Now you lie still. I'll get you out of here and ... hmm,” she finished, tugging at the cord around Jake's wrists.

”Bella,” Jake managed, ”the tide's coming in. We've got to get Ellie out of the-”

By the flashlight's beam Jake saw worry growing on Bella's face. ”It's going to fill up, isn't it?” Bella asked. ”This room is, I mean.”

She always had been quick on the uptake. ”Yes. Yes, it is. In fact, it's filling up right now, so I really do very strongly suggest that you-”

Hurry. ”Too bad I didn't bring scissors,” Bella remarked.

Yes, that is regrettable, Jake thought. But before she could say so, Bella had both hands on Randy's motionless form. Patting him down ...

”Maybe he's got a knife.”

With a mighty heave, Bella hauled hard on his jacket collar with one hand and on his belt with the other. Randy Dodd rolled over, head lolling hideously and sightless, half-open eyes aimed upward.

But then without warning, awareness came into them and he surged up, roaring and swinging. Jake flung herself at him; Bella had already found the knife on his belt and removed it.

s.n.a.t.c.hing it from her, he raised it and brought it down.

Trying to roll out from under it, Jake knew she was not going to be fast enough. Bella backed away hard as the knife, an unpleasantly large and sharp-looking specimen, continued to descend.

Until suddenly Randy's hand fell open, his eyes unfocused, and his mouth formed an O of unhappy surprise as Bella swung Roger Dodd's cast-iron skillet at his head and connected solidly. He dropped bonelessly on impact.

It was a lovely sight, but Jake didn't waste time gawking at it. ”Get the knife, cut these ropes, do not slit my wrists while you're at it,” she instructed.

Bella complied, then turned to Ellie. ”We'll haul her onto that cart,” she said. ”Then the two of us can-”

”No, we can't,” said Jake as Bella sat Ellie higher against the wall and began patting her cheeks gently.

Bella rubbed Ellie's bound wrists. ”Why not?” The water on the floor was nearly a foot deep now, and rising fast.

”Because the door you came through is locked.”

Jake made her way up the sloping floor to it, grasped its iron handle and pulled. But just as she'd expected, it wouldn't budge. Like the trapdoor, it was meant to let people in.

Not out. The people who lived in Dodd House hadn't wanted any menial laborers getting ideas about making their way up the tunnel, into the rich dwelling of their employers.

So they'd prevented it, and as she'd feared, they'd left nothing to chance. Whatever lock they'd installed, it engaged whenever the door was shut. Jake yanked again, felt the rusty antique iron of the old handle flaking under her touch. The years and the salt water had taken their toll.

Just not enough of one. And now water surged through the two high, barred window openings on the bay side of the room, foaming and churning. On the floor, it had risen to Ellie's waist.

Jake looked down at the iron door handle. It had been strong and new a couple of centuries ago, but ...

Then it hit her, that the bars in the window openings were probably iron, too.

Old iron. Rusty iron. She peered up at them.

”Bella, come over here and help me a minute,” she said. ”I'm going to try something.”

CHAPTER 11.

BELLA,” SAID JAKE AS SALT WATER WENT ON FILLING THE old stone chamber. ”What do you call that thing on a vacuum cleaner, with a brush at the end of it?”

”A wand,” Bella said promptly. She was crouched by Ellie's slumped, still-unconscious form.

”Right. Feel around under the water. You'll need two of them and I think I saw ...”

Old vacuum-cleaner parts. Bella waded obediently, felt under the water with her hands, and at length came up with a pair of long black plastic tubes.

”Good,” Jake said. ”I'm going to try to get out of here and find help. I'll be as quick as I can, but ...”

She explained what Bella would need to do. ”Breathe through it,” Bella repeated, eyeing the tubes doubtfully. ”And try to get Ellie to do it, too? But ... why don't we all go?”

”Bella, you can't swim,” Jake reminded her. ”And Ellie's unconscious.”

She turned to the window opening from which she'd pried the old iron bars. Rusted as they were, they'd been st.u.r.dier than she expected; luckily the welded spots holding them together weren't.

The water surged icily around her calves. ”It's by no means a sure thing that I'll make it, either,” she added gently.

Bella's face went still. ”All right,” she said. ”What else do you want me to do?”

”Give me a lift.” Short, sharp stubs of old iron still stuck out of the window opening. But she had hammered each one down with a rock until she thought it might not take out her appendix when she wiggled past it.

She placed her foot in the step formed by Bella's two hands. Please let all this work, Jake thought shakily.