Crown and Sceptre: A West Country Story

before his companion could realise what heintended, he had leaped ashore, given the boat a thrust, and run up thebank.

  "No, no," cried Fred. "I'll go."

  "It's my place, and I shall go myself," replied his companion. "Takethe oars and row gently along. I don't think I shall mind. If I do,I'll come back and you shall go."

  "But you have no light."

  "No," said Scarlett, gravely; "but I know the way now, and that there'sno danger, so I shall not care." Before Fred could offer furtherremonstrance, Scarlett had run into the nearest patch of woodland anddisappeared.

  "I don't like letting him go," muttered Fred, as he gazed at the spotwhere his companion had disappeared. "It seems as if I were a coward.Perhaps I am, for it does seem shivery work to do. Never mind, I'll gonext time," he added quickly; and, taking the oars, he sat down wherehis companion had vacated the seat, and began to row slowly back towhere he fancied the entrance must be.

  Then followed so long a period of waiting that the boy grew anxious, andafter rowing to and fro for some time outside the thick growth whichedged that portion of the lake, he made up his mind that something mustbe wrong, and determined to land and go in search of Scarlett.

  "How horrible if he has waded into a deep place, and gone down!" hemuttered, as he bent over the oars, to pull with all his might, when hefancied he heard a distant hail.

  He ceased rowing, and the water rippled about beneath the front as helistened.

  "Where are you?" he cried.

  "Here," came from apparently a great distance.

  "Where's here?"

  "Here, here, here. Can't you see?"

  The voice seemed to come from far away, and he drew in the oars, andstood up in the boat to look from side to side, searching eagerly, andtrying to pierce the bushes and overhanging ivy, which screened therocky shore.

  "Here! Hoy!"

  Fred faced round now, and looked across the lake, to see Nat standing onthe farther shore.

  "What are you doing? Got any?" shouted Nat.

  Fred put his hands to the sides of his mouth, and shouted back.

  "No! not yet."

  "Where's Master Scarlett?"

  "Ashore."

  "Oh!"

  "He thinks we've been setting eel-lines," muttered Fred, as, to hisgreat annoyance, he saw the gardener seat himself on the distant bankand watch him.

  "Oh, what a bother!" he cried, with an impatient stamp on the bottom ofthe boat. "Well, he must think so, then."

  To induce the spy upon his proceedings to go on in this belief, Fredstooped down in the boat, and picked up and threw in an imaginary line.After which, he took up one oar, and, standing upright, began to paddlethe boat in toward the bank, where a large birch drooped over and dippedits delicate sprays of leaves almost into the surface of the lake.

  "I'll moor her fast here," thought Fred, "and go ashore and warn Scar.We can't do any more, with that fellow watching."

  To this end, he paddled the boat close to the silver trunk of the birch,whose roots ran down into the clear water, forming quite a delicatefringe, amongst which the tiny perch loved to play.

  He was in the act of fastening the chain as he stood up, and had passedit round one of the lower boughs, being fairly well screened now fromNat's observation by the delicate spray, when a fly seemed to tickle hisear.

  Fred struck at it viciously without looking round, and went on fasteningthe chain, when the fly again seemed to tickle him, this time low downin the nape of his neck.

  "Get out! Will you?" he cried: and he turned, sharply struck at thefly, and caught--

  The end of the willow rod with its tuft of leaves.

  "Oh!" he ejaculated, as the tug he gave at the wand was replied to byanother at the end; and as he looked, he saw that it came from out of adense mass of twiggy alder above his head, where a quantity of ivy grew.

  "Scar," he cried, giving the wand a shake, "are you there?"

  "Yes," came in a faint whisper that sounded very hollow and strange."Didn't you hear me shout!"

  "No."

  "I was afraid to cry too loud, because it goes backward so, rumbling allalong the passage. Whereabouts is it?"

  "By the big birch-tree; just where we thought it couldn't be."

  "Eh? Speak up."

  "By the big birch-tree; just where we thought it couldn't be; and Ican't speak louder, because Nat's over the other side, watching."

  "Can he see you now?"

  "No. But are you all right!"

  "Yes."

  "You're higher up than I thought. Stop till I push the boat closer, andI'll see if I can find any loose stones."

  "Stop a minute," said Scarlett, in the same smothered voice, whichsounded faint as a whisper. "Let me see if I can move any of them."

  Fred waited, and, peering through the twigs, he could see that Nat waspatiently waiting for him to come in sight again.

  "Some of them seem loose," came from within; "but I can't get them out."

  "Don't stop to try now," said Fred. "Let's come another time; we can'tmake any mistake, now. Oh!"

  The cry was involuntary, for all at once a patch of ivy just above thelevel of the water seemed to be driven outward, and several stones aboutthe size of his head fell with a splash down among the alder roots,followed by a heavy gush of water, which poured forth fiercely into thewoody edge of the lake, and continued to pour as if a fresh lake wasdischarging its waters into the old one.

  So near was the edge of the boat, that the water nearly rushed in; butthough it was afterwards slightly drawn toward it, a snatch at a boughdrew it back, and Fred stood gazing wonderingly at the rush which foamedin.

  Then he looked across the lake, wondering whether Nat could hear andsee. But he was too far distant to see more than a little ebullitionwhich might have been caused by the movement of the oars and boat, forthe water that poured in was discharged in quite a dense thicket ofmoisture-loving growth.

  "I say, Scar," cried Fred, at last, alarmed by the silence, and afterlistening to the surging noise of the water for a few minutes.

  "Yes."

  "Are you all safe?"

  "Yes, of course."

  "What does all this water mean?"

  "I was pushing against the wall high up, and slipped, and my kneesstruck against the bottom, driving out some of the stones."

  "Then--Stop a minute; Nat's going away."

  The lad held some of the twigs aside, and could see that the gardenerwas moving off, apparently tired of waiting, and, once he was out ofsight, there was no occasion to be so particular about shouting, and aconversation was painfully carried on above the rushing noise of thewater.

  "I can't understand it, Scar," cried Fred. "There must be a streamrunning through that passage."

  There was no reply; but the willow wand was withdrawn, and the nextminute it appeared through the hole where the water was rushing.

  "I say, Scar."

  "Yes."

  "Haven't you done some harm, and oughtn't we to let them know up at thehouse?"

  "I don't know. I couldn't help it."

  "I thought the passage was partly under the water," said Fred tohimself, "and so it ran in; but it couldn't have been meant to be wetlike that. I say, Scar," he cried aloud, "whereabouts is the bottomwhere your feet are?"

  "Eh?"

  "I say, where are your feet?"

  "Where this stick is," came back more clearly now.

  And it suddenly struck Fred that the water was not pouring out in quiteso great a volume. But for the moment he could not see the stick forthe foam. Directly after, though, he made out where it was being movedto and fro, exactly on a level with the surface of the lake.

  "I'm coming back now," cried Scarlett; and his voice was plainly heard,after which Fred sat watching the water, rapidly draining away with lessand less violence, till he heard a shout, answered it, and soon afterScarlett came along, forcing his way through the hazels till he reachedthe edge of the lake, and, by the help of one of the b
oughs of thebirch, swung himself lightly into the boat, and began looking curiouslyat the opening, nearly hidden by the growth, through which the waterstill poured.

  "No wonder we could not find the place," he said, as he at once placedthe right construction on the presence of the water; "and, do you know,all that could not have come from the lake."

  "Where could it have come from, then?"

  "It must have drained in by degrees from the sides in wet weather, andthe stones at the end dammed it up, so that it