04 The Head Girl of the Chalet School (18 page)

“What were you making?” Jo demanded of her sister as she entered the room.

“Treacle toffee,” was the reply. “It’s done now and cooling outside.”

“Scrummy!” sighed Jo, whose weaknedd for treacle toffee was well know. “Madge, you’re a dear! I adore your treacle toffee!”

“I am hungry,” observed the Robin.

“Are you dearie? Well, Marie is bringing
Kaffee und Kuchen
now, so you won’t be hungry long,” replied Madge, lifing the small girl on her knee.

“That’s a mercy!” declared Joey. “I’d have had to tighten my girdle or something if you had wanted us to wait much longer. Here’s Jem again. I say, Jem, I’ve nearly finished my story! The only thing I can’t decided is what to do about marrying them.”

“Aren’t you going to marry them?” asked Madge, wh had been privledged to read the first part of this tale.

“Oh, I think I should, Joey. What else do you want to do with them?”

“I could kill ‘Raymonde’ off,” said Jo. “Then ‘Adelaide’ could – could-”

“Well? Could – what?” demanded Jem

“Go into a convent?” suggested Grizel.

“Of course not, idiot! She’s not a Catholic!”

“Marry them, of course,” said Madge. “Don’t make them unhappy, Jo! Even if it’s only a story, let them end up all right.”

“Lots of stories don’t,” argued Jo as well as she could for a mouthful of cake. “Look at
A Tale of Two
Cities,
and
The Old Curiousity Shop,
and
The Mill on the Floss
.”

“It required genius to write a tragedy, Jo,” said her brother-in-law. “I grant you that Dickens and George Eliot got away with it; but nothing is worse than the mawkish rot that some people write.”

“Well, there’s
Comin’ through the Rye,
an’
Trilby
.”

“I’ve never read the first, but Du Maurier was as much a genius as Dickens,” said Jem. “And may I ask who gave
you Trilby
to read?”

“I read it when I was at the Maynard,” explained Jo. “Why? Oughtn’t I?”

No one answered her. Truth to tell, Jo was such an omnivorous reader that there was never any sayng was she would get hold of. Ususally she was allowed to go her own sweet way, but Jem felt that she was too young to have understood the sad beauty of Du Maurier’s masterpiece. It should yhave been kept from her till she was old enough to appreciate it.

Jo never bothered about it. She had just remembered that Madge would know nothing about the caves, and she promptly pourted out all she had gleaned from Marie together with her own theories on the subject. The doctor was interested at once. “I say, that interesting!” he said. “When I was last in Vienna I met that open-air fiend, Professor von de Witt – you remember, Madge? He said he thought there ought to be something of the kind hereabouts, But I don’t think he knew anything definitely. I must write and let him know about this! Well, what are you minkeys giggling about?”

“The last time we met him!” choked Jo. “Grizel, shall you ever forget ‘the Stuffer’ and ‘Maria’?”

“
Never
!” said Grizel with conviction.

“What is this?” asked Captain Humphries, who had come into the room in time to hear the last two speeches.

“Yes; who are your friends with the inviting name?” queried Jem.

“Oh, didn’t Madge tell you?”

“No, I forgot all about it,” said Madge.

“Oh,
priceless
!” Jo settled herself firmly in her chair and proceeded to give a somewhat lurid version of their journey from Paris to Basle.

The two gentlemen roared over it, and declared that they wished that had been here to see the fun. The Robin sat looking very serious. “But me, I never knoe this, Joey,” she said when Jo had finished. “I was asleep.”

“You were,
petite
,” said Grizel, slipping an arm round her. “But it was fun! Jo, have you ever written to the old thing as she said?”

“Ages ago! I wrote the first Sunday we were back. I;ve never heard from her though.”

A ring at the telephone put a stop to their chatter just then, and Jem went to answer it. He came back looking serious. “It’s the sanatorium. That poor fellow is worse again. Maynard thinks he can’t last many hourse now. I must go, dear.”

Madge rose at once. Seven months as a doctor’s wide had taught her many things, Her face was very grave as she followed her husband from the room. The girls looked at each other miserably.

Only the Robin seemed untouched. “Papa, is it someone going to Paradise?” she asked.

“Yes, ny pet,” he replied quietly.

“I am so sorry; but if he is ill, I ‘spect he’ll be glad to get there,” decided the baby, for whome death, as ytet, held no terrors.

“Let’s go and see Rufus,” suggested Grizel, shying away from the subject with instinctive dread. “He’s in the she, Captain Humphries, isn’t he?”

“Yes,” said the captain. “Go through the kitchen,, children, and don’t stay long. Perhaps you had better go and bring him here.”

They went off to call Joey’s best-loved possession, a magnificent speciment of a magnificent breed, and presently returned with him, just as Madge entered the salon. The Robin’s father had gone, but she joined in the romping of the others very gaily. Six o’clock brought the baby’s bedtime, and she was wisked off, Rufus following, to have her bath, while the elder girls settled themselves with books.

There was a long silence in the pretty room, the Jo put her book down. “Grizel!”

“Yes?”

“Grizelm isn’t it awful? Just when we are having a jolly time, that poor man over there is – dying.”

Grizel nodded. She was older than Jo, but she had not thought as deeply as the younger girl. Her mind had been running on the same subject while she had been pretending to be buried in her book. She had neither the Robin’s baby faith, nor Jo’s contemplative nature, and she shied away from her thoughts.

“You’d better go on with your book,” she said. “It’s nearly time for
Abendessen
.”

Jo returned to the pagesd, but she was not following them. Her thoughts were all on that mysterious thing that ws happening at the sanatorium.

Madge divined it as soon as she entered the rtim after tucking up the Robin, and she crossed over to her sister. “Joey, yo need not be sorry for this poor fellow. He has nothing to live for, and he will be joining those he loved best tonight. The priest was here this morning, and she is prepared.”

The two girls came and sat on the floor besid eher.

“Madame, what is death?” asked Grizel suddenly.

“Just falling asleep with God – to awake in His presence – that’s all,” said Madge Russell quietly.

“Then why are we afraid of it?”

“Because it means a change, and most of us are afraid of chages that we don’t really understand. But, Grizel, there is nothing to fear, really, any more than there is anything to fear when wefall asleep at night.”

Grizel sat silent, thinking this over.

“God is with us through it all?” asked Joey.

“Yes, Jo. He never leaved us if we have faith in Him.”

It was not many weeks later that this came back to both girls in another and very different palce, and those quiet sentences helped them to face what looked like certain death with courage and calm.

Presently, as they sat there, the telephone bell shrilled again. Madhe rose and answered it.

Presently she came back. The two faced turned o her with questioning in theor eyes.

She nodded. “Yes; he has falledn asleep, and will waken in Paradise.”

They said no more, but the rest of the eveing was a quiet one. Their weekend had begun sadly, but, somehow they were not as said as they had thought they would be, and the event cast no gloom over their hokidya, as the elders had feared it might.

Jem had not returned by nine o’clock, whe Madge insisted on Joey and Grizel going to bed, since they were tired from their scramble.

“I’d like to go on with my book,” Joey protested.

“You may do that tomorrow,” said her sister serenly. “Bedtime for you now. Your eyes are like saucers, and Grizel’s aren’t much better, Off you go, noth of you! I’ll come rounf and put the lights out presently.”

Grizel was already asleep when she went to them, but Joey was lying awake. “That’s all it is?” she asked, apropos of nothing, as her sister ben to kiss her.

Madge understood. “Yes, Jo; that’s all.”

“I sha’n't forget,” said Joey. “O-o-ow! How tired I am! G’night, Madge!”

“GIRLS, have you seen the Robin?”

The prefect looked up as Miss Maynard came into their room, the question on her lips.

“But no, Madame,” said Vanna. “I have not seen her all day.”

“Nor I,” added Rosalie. “When did anyone last see her?”

“Nobody seems to know,” replied the mistress with a worried look. “Amy says she went off for her afternoon nap as usual, and Klara saw she was tucked up. Since then, no one knows anything about her.”

“Is she with Joet?” asked Grizel doubtfully.

“Jo has been working all the afternoon, and knows nothing about her. She was never missed until half an hour ago, when Mademoiselle sent for her to have her new frock tried on. Girls, are you
sure
you haven’t seen her anywhere?”

They shook their heads.

“We had German literature at two,” said Grizel, “and at three we came up here. I had my lesson woth Herr Anserl at half past, but I certainly saw nothing of her then.”

“Well, it’s very mysterious,” said Miss Maynard. “Where
can
she have got to?”

“Could she have gone to talk to Luise?” suggested Gertrud. “She is very fond of her, and Luise loves our baby.”

“That’s an idea. She may be in the kitchen.”

“I’ll run down and see, shall I?” prposed Mary, getting to her feet. “I won’t be a second, Miss Maynard.”

She tore off downstairs, but returned to say that Luise had seen nothing of the Robin that day. “And please, Miss Maynard, she thinks she may be in the shed with Rufus.”

Rufus had come back from the Sonnalpe with his mistress, who had declared that she simply
must
have him with her for the rest of the term. As there were only five weeks left, Madge had agreed, and the big dog had been duly installed in the shed when the girls came down with him on the Tuesday. So Miss Maynard promptly went off to see if she could find Robin there, and the prefects returned to their various pursuits without thinking any more about it. It was something of a shock to them, therefore, when the mistress returned ten minutes later to say that only Joey was with the big dog, and she had declared that the Robin had not been there when she had come.

The seniors dropped their work, and at once began to discuss how they were to find the baby. Grizel organised a search party, and sent them over to Le Petit Chalet, forming another with which she hunted through the chalet till there was not a hole nor a corner which they had not investigated. It was all in vain.

The Robin had vanished as completely as if she had never been there.

“It’s as strange as it was the day that you and Eigen rescued Rufus, Joey,” said Simone, referring to one of Jo’s exploits of two years before; “we couldn’t find you then, and we can’t find the Robin now.”

“Well, there are no pups to save from drowning just now,” said Mary, who was standing near, “so you must think of something better than that!”

But at the reminder, Johad rushed out of the room.

“Where has she gone?” demanded Marie von Eschenau.

They were answered by the return of Jo, leading Rufus, and Grizel behind her.

“Rufus can track her!” cried his owner. “He helped me find Elisaveta in the summer, and this is snowtime.

St. Bernards are always able to do things in the snow! Hang on to him, someone, while Grizel and I get our coats and tammics!”

Evadne obligingly caught the dog’s harness – he wore no collar, as they were afraid of spoiling his neck –and the pair vanished, to reappear wearing their outdoor things, while Grizel had the Robin’s rolled up into a bundle under her arm. Jo was waving a vacuum flask which she had persuaded Luise to fill with hot coffee, and they looked well equipped for their expedition.

There was no staff to stop them, for all the staff were busy hunting through the grounds in case the little girl had got lost there. Grizel gave her orders to her satellites.

“Gertrud, go over and tell Klara to have the Robin’s bed warmed for her. Rosalie, see that there is a hot bath ready. Vanna and Luigia, you might go and look after the babes. Deira, you and Mary must see to the middles. Eva, go and tell Mademoiselle that we have gone with Rufus to see if he can track her. Say that we will come back as soon as we have found her, and ask Matey to ring up the Sonnalpe, and ask if Doctor Jem can come down
without alarming Madame
! The rest of you, for any sake, be good! There’s enough trouble as it is. Come on, Jo!”

They dashed off, and presently the girls saw them at the gate of the fence, showing the dog something small, which Evadne pronounced to be one of the Robin’s gloves.

Evidently Rufus found the scent at once, for he dashed forward at a pace that made the girls pant breathlessly after him. Jo had hold of his chain, but he towed her along, Grizel running hard to keep up with them. Right round the fence he led them, and up to the pinewoods that covered the slopes of the Barenbad Alpe. There he began to lead them through the trees, keeping far from the path which they usually followed.

“Help!” thought Grizel. “How on earth has she got this far?”

On went Rufus, never slackening his pace for a moment, and on went the girls. They were now reaching a part of the mountain that they did not know. They had never been here, and, what was more, they had heard that the peasantry never came, as report had it that the place was haunted by devils. How the Robin’s baby feet had carried their owner this distance was a question neither Grizel nor Jo could settle at the moment. For one thing, they were too breathless to think much about it. For another, they couldn’t have answered it if they had. Just as both of them were beginning to feel that they could not go on any longer, and Joey was starting a stitch in her side, the dog suddenly stopped, circled round restlessly once or twice, and then, sitting down on his haunches, threw up his nose and bayed loudly. The melancholy sound nearly finished Jo, who was tired, and Grizel felt suddenly helpless and despairing. “What
has
happened to her,” cried the head-girl.