then,” Elizabeth said suddenly. “Let’s go.” She turned to leave the room, and Jeff smiled. It had worked.
Elizabeth found her coat and put it on. “We’ll have to take Sarah with us,” she said. “I can’t leave her here by herself.”
“What about the housekeeper? Can’t she watch her?”
“She’s asleep. Besides, she wouldn’t know what to do if Sarah gets upset.”
Jeff decided it was better to take Sarah with them than not to go at all.
“All right,” he agreed. “Let’s go.”
Elizabeth put Sarah into her coat and buttoned it up. Then the three children left the house.
The rain seemed to have let up slightly as they crossed the field, and when they were in the woods the trees protected them from it almost completely. As they entered the woods, Jeff looked around.
“Which way?” he asked.
“There’s a path,” Elizabeth said. “You can hardly see it, but it’s there. Come on.” Her voice seemed suddenly different to Jeff, and he thought her eyes looked odd.
Silently and quickly she led the way through the woods, and Jeff was amazed at her sure-footedness. Elizabeth seemed to know exactly where she was going, and where to put each foot in the tangle of roots and rocks that carpeted the path. Nor did she look back to see if the others were keeping up. Twice Jeff had to call to her to wait, and he stopped two more times to help Sarah, who was picking her way with great difficulty. And then they emerged from the woods and stood on the embankment. The rain had begun coming down harder now, and the wind whipped it into their faces. Below them the sea looked angry. Jeff felt himself shiver a little, and wondered if he should have talked them into this. The embankment looked as dangerous as his parents had told him it was.
“Where do you suppose it is?” he said, hoping that Elizabeth would suggest that they give it up.
“I’m not sure,” Elizabeth said. “Let’s try this way.” She led them along the embankment, and Jeff was about to suggest that it was too dangerous when Elizabeth suddenly started making her way down the face, following a path that Jeff couldn’t see at all. He watched her move surely from rock to rock and decided that if she could do it, so could he.
But he found it more difficult than he had imagined. The rocks were slippery, and he couldn’t seem to find the same toeholds that had served Elizabeth so well. He made his way slowly, trying to keep one eye on Elizabeth to try to see where she was putting her feet Now and then he glanced back to see how Sarah was faring, but she seemed to be able to keep up with him, and in a couple of minutes he stopped worrying about her. The rain was making the rocks more slippery every minute, and he was afraid he was about to lose sight of Elizabeth as she made her way nimbly downward. He called to her, but she didn’t hear him over the roar of the wind and the surf. And then she disappeared behind a large boulder.
He crept cautiously along, picking his way from one rock to another, and concentrated on keeping the large boulder behind which Elizabeth had disappeared in sight Behind him Sarah was matching his slow pace.
“Here.”
Jeff jumped at the sound of the word, and peered into the shadow of the huge stone. There was Elizabeth, crouching low to protect herself from the rain and wind.
“What?” he said.
“It’s here,” Elizabeth told him. “I found the cave.”
Jeff frowned and searched the darkness. “There’s nothing there,” he said.
“Yes, there is,” Elizabeth insisted. “Come down here.”
He climbed down till he was beside her. “Where?”
“Right there,” Elizabeth said, pointing. Then he saw it. There, in the rock’s deep shadow, almost invisible in the darkness, was a hole in the embankment. He moved closer and peered in. He was aware of Sarah behind him, pulling at him and making small, sobbing noises. He shook her off, and when she reached out for him again Elizabeth took her hands and stared into her eyes. A moment later, Sarah was calm.
“What do you suppose is inside?” Jeff asked.
“I don’t know,” Elizabeth replied. “Shall we look?”
Jeff looked doubtfully at the hole. It seemed just large enough to crawl into, and he wasn’t sure it led anywhere. Still, he didn’t want to look like a coward.
“I’ll go first,” he said, trying to sound much more confident than