Chapter XIX: Where's Jim?

Jack, having lived through an unusually exciting time in the neighbourhood of Carthage, came back to himself in the kitchen at Carne and the first thought of Jim he had had for over an hour.

"Hello! Where's old Jim?" he asked.

"I d'n know. Yo'd better seek him or he'll be into some mischief. I nivver did see sich lads." And Jack strolled out to look for Jim.

He was in none of his usual places, and Jack stood gazing vaguely along the shore, wondering where he could have got to. He might have gone to Mr. Eager's. It was not usual with them of an afternoon, for then Mr. Eager was busy with his parish affairs. But Gracie was always an attraction--the warmest bit of colour in their lives--and she made them welcome no matter when they came.

As he turned to trot away inland, with a last look along the shore, a fishing-smack beat out from behind the distant bend and went thrashing out to sea with the waves flying white over her bows.

"Glad I'm not there, anyway," said Jack, and galloped away among the hummocks towards Wyvveloe.

"Oh, Jack, I _am_ so glad to see you. I've got so tired of myself. Mrs. Jex has been showing me how to make crumpets, and you shall have one as soon as Charles comes in. If they're not very good you mustn't say so, because they're the first I've made, you see. What? Jim? No, he's not been here. What a troublesome boy he is!--always getting himself drowned or lost. Dear, dear, dear! What with you two, and Charles, and the vicar falling ill again--my hair will go quite white, I expect! And there's that Margaret never been near me all day, and if it hadn't been for Mrs. Jex and the crumpets I don't know what I would have done. . . . Thank you, Mrs. Jex, I'll come at once; but we must keep them hot for Charles, they do lie so heavy on your stomach when they're cold. He can't be long, Jack. You sit down there and look at that book." And the Little Lady went off to butter her crumpets, while Jack, at the end of his tether as regards Jim and his possible whereabouts, lay down contentedly on the hearthrug and lost himself in the book.

When Eager came in at last, tired with a long round among outlying parishioners, he was surprised to find the boy there and still more surprised to learn why he had come.

"Jim's a jimsa! He's always getting himself lost," was Gracie's contribution to the discussion, but it did not help much.

"Where can he have got to, Jack?" asked Eager, with a touch of anxiety. "When did you see him last?"

"I was reading in the kitchen, and when I looked up he'd gone. I looked in all the places I could think of, and then I came here." And that did not help much, either.

"Well, I must have a bite. I'm famished. And then we'll have another look. Maybe he's at home by this time. He wouldn't be likely to go to Knoyle, would he?"

Jack shook his head very decidedly.

"He wouldn't go alone."

"Seth Rimmer's?"

"I d'n know. He might."

"We'll call at Carne and then go along to Rimmer's. Oh-ho! hot buttered crumpets and coffee! And the crumpets made by a master-hand, unless I'm very much mistaken!" For Gracie had dumped them down before him herself with an air of triumphant achievement, and now stood waiting his first bite with visible anxiety.

"Excellent!" said the Rev. Charles, smacking his lips. "If there's one thing Mrs. Jex does better than another, where all is well done, it's hot buttered crumpets."

"They're not at all a bit heavy?"

"Heavy? Light as snowflakes--hot buttered snowflakes! That's what they are. How do you find them, Jack?"

"Fine!"

"I _am_ glad. I was afraid they'd turn out a bit----"

"You don't mean to tell me you made them!"

"Yes, I did. All myself--with Mrs. Jex just looking on, you know!"

"Well! Two more, please, just like the last! Best crumpets I ever tasted in my life!"

And so they were--because Gracie made them; and the Rev. Charles would have pledged himself to that though they had choked him and given him indigestion for life. He had a pretty bad night of it--but that might have been the coffee,--but most likely it was Jim.

For presently they all set off in the riotous wind, Gracie skipping joyfully in the pride of accomplishment, and went first to Carne, hopeful of finding Jim there. But Mrs. Lee greeted their inquiry with a tart:

"'Oo's none here. Havena set eyes on him sin'---- Didn' yo' go out tegither?"--to Jack.

"No, I d'n know when he went."

"Where can th' lad ha' gotten to now? 'Oo's aye gett'n' i' mischief o' some kind."

"We'll go along to Seth Rimmer's, Mrs. Lee. He may have gone down there," said Eager.

"'Oo mowt," she admitted unhopefully. And they set off in the windy darkness, with the roar of the sea and the long white gleam of the surf on one side, and on the other the fantastic hummocks of the sand-hills, which looked strangely desolate by night and capable of holding any mystery or worse.

Eager had wanted the children to wait at Carne till he returned, but they would not hear of it. Gracie was enjoying the spice of adventure. Jack wanted to find Jim. Eager himself was beginning to feel anxious, though he would not let the others see it.

"If he is not here--where?" he asked himself, as they ploughed through the sand and the crackling seaweed. And he had to confess that he did not know where to look next. The grim desolation of the sand-hills made him shiver to think of. Suppose the boy had damaged himself in some way and was lying there waiting for help. A thousand boys might lie there unfound till help was useless.

A glimmer in the distant darkness, and presently they were at Rimmer's cottage.

Kattie opened to them--both the door and her big blue eyes--and stood staring.

"Hello, Kattie! Is Jim here?" asked Eager cheerfully.

"Jim? No, Mr. Eager."

"Who's it, 'Kattie?" asked her mother anxiously, from her bed; for over the lonely cottage hung the perpetual fear of ill-tidings.

"It's only us, Mrs. Rimmer." And they stepped inside.

"Ech! Mr. Eager, and the little lady, and----"

"We're looking for Jim, and were hoping he might have come along here."

"Jim?" said Mrs. Rimmer, looking steadfastly at Jack. "I nivver con tell one from t'other; but none o' them's been here to-day."

"No? I wonder where the boy can have got to. Is Seth about? Maybe he could help us."

"Seth's away," said Mrs. Rimmer briefly; and Eager did not ask her where. For "Seth's away" was an understood formula, and meant that young Seth was off on one of his expeditions, and the less said about it the better.

"I don't quite know where to look next," said Eager anxiously. "Can you suggest anything, Kattie?"

But Kattie shook her mane of hair and stared back at them nonplussed, and presently said:

"Jim knows his way; he couldn' get lost."

"I'm just afraid he may have got hurt somewhere--twisted his ankle, or something of that kind, and be lying out in the sand-hills; and it's as black as pitch outside, and going to be a bad night."

"Puir lad, I hope not," said Mrs. Rimmer, with added concern in her face. "'Twill be a bad night for them that's on th' sea." Her face, in its setting of puckered white nightcap, looked very frail and anxious. "But they're aw in His hands, passon."

"And they couldn't be in better, Mrs. Rimmer," he said, more cheerfully than he felt.

"Ay, I know; but I wish my man were home. Whene'er th' wind howls like that, I aye think of them that's gone and them that has yet to go."

"Not one of them goes without His knowing. Your thoughts are prayers, and the prayers of a good woman avail much." And he pressed the thin white hand, and Gracie kissed her and Kattie, and they went out into the night.

The wind hummed across the flats till their heads hummed in unison. More than once the drive of it carried them off their course, and brought them up against the ghostly hummocks, where the long, thin wire-grass swirled and swished with the sound of scythes. The grim desolation beyond struck a chill to Eager's heart, as he imagined Jim lying out there, calling in vain for help against the strident howl of the gale.

There was just the possibility that he had got home during their absence, however; so, in anxious silence, they made for Carne.

"No, I hanna seen nowt of him," said Mrs. Lee, and stood glowering at them with set, pinched face.

"I had better see Sir Denzil. Shall I go up? You wait here with Jack, Gracie." And he went off along the stone-flagged passage, and climbed the big staircase, and knocked on the door leading to Sir Denzil's rooms.

Mr. Kennet opened to him at last, with so much surprise that he was, for the moment, unable to recognise the unexpected visitor, and stood staring blankly at him.

"I want to see Sir Denzil, Kennet--Mr. Eager. One of the boys is missing----"

"Eh?--Ah!--Missing?--Tell him. Will you wait a moment, sir?" And Eager concluded from his manner that Mr. Kennet had been enjoying himself, and hoped that it might not be, in this case, like man like master.

Sir Denzil, however, received him with most formal politeness.

"You bring me good news, Mr. Eager?" he asked, snuffing very elegantly. "Who is it is a-missing?"

"We can't find Jim, Sir Denzil."

"Ah--Jim! Let me see--Jim! Now, which is Jim?"

"Jim is the hero of the sand-boat----"

"Ah--and is the boat gone again?"

"No, sir. They both pledged themselves not to go out in her alone again."

"Ah--pity! Great pity! I rather counted upon that monstrosity to solve our difficulty. However, Jim is missing!" And he tapped his snuff-box thoughtfully. "And what do you infer from that, Mr. Eager?"

"I'm afraid he may have gone off into the sand-hills and possibly got hurt. We've been down to Seth Rimmer's----"

"Ah--Rimmer! That was, if I remember rightly, the young dolt who bungled the matter so sadly last time. Well?"

"He has not been there. Jack was reading in the kitchen----"

"Jack? Ah--yes. That's the other one."

"And Jim was with him. Jim wandered out, and we cannot find any trace of him."

"Hm! . . . Ah! . . ." And the grim old head nodded thoughtfully over another pinch of snuff. "Well, I don't really see what we can do to-night, Mr. Eager. If, as you suggest, he is lying hurt somewhere in the sand-hills, it would take an army to find him, even in the daytime. We must wait and see. If we don't find him"--hopefully--"if he is gone for good, I shall feel myself under deepest obligation to him or to whoever is concerned in the matter. It leaves us only one boy to deal with--the wrong one, of course--but still, only one."

"Why the wrong one, sir?"

"If the other has been purposely removed, as is possible, it is, of course, in order to foist upon us the one who has no right to the position. There could be no other reason. You follow me?"

"I follow your reasoning, of course; but at present we have not the slightest reason to suppose he has been purposely removed. He may be lying in the sand-hills unable to get home."

"In which case he will have a very bad night," said Sir Denzil, as a fury of wind and rain broke against the windowpanes--"a very bad night."

"Is there nothing we can do?"

"There's only one thing I can think of."

"Yes?"

"Keep an eye on that old witch's face downstairs. You may learn something from it if you catch her unawares."

Eager slept little that night for thinking of the missing boy. His anxious mind travelled many roads, but never touched the right one.

Soon after daybreak he was on his way to Knoyle, but returned disappointed, and went on to Carne with a faint hope in him still that Jim might have returned during the night.

"Any news of him, Mrs. Lee?" he asked anxiously, through the kitchen door.

"Noa," said the old lady stolidly. "We none seen nowt on him." And her face was as unmoved as a gargoyle, and the gleam of her little dark eyes struck on his like the first touch of an opponent's foil.

"What on earth can have taken the boy? I've been up to Knoyle, but they know nothing of him there."

"Ay!"

"I'll turn out all the men I can get, and we'll rake over the sand-hills."

"Ay!"

As he turned to go, Jack came trotting in.

"I d'n know what's come of him," he said; "I've been everywhere I can think of."

"I'm going to get all the help I can, and we'll search through the sand-hills, Jack."

"I'll come too," said Jack. And they went away together.