SHE STOOD UP CAUTIOUSLY
She waited a while and then shouted, and kept on calling at intervals. Her wrist watch told her she had been nearly an hour down the shaft. Would help never come? She was very tired and her head swam. If she were to faint, nothing could save her from falling down into that black gulf below. Her voice was growing weaker. It seemed stifled inside the shaft. What was that sound in the distance? Surely a shout! With all her remaining energy she raised her voice in a wild halloo. Next moment Dorothy peeped over the bushes and turned with a cry to summon Claudia.
Though she was found, it was more than an hour before adequate help could be fetched from a farm, but at last two men appeared carrying a ladder, which they lowered down the shaft on to the ledge of shale. Then one of them descended and helped Lorraine to mount. Madame and a thrilled group of girls were waiting for her at the top.
"Did Landry tell you?" Lorraine asked Claudia.
"Yes, he told me and brought me to the place," said Claudia. "Landry may be very proud of himself to-day, the dear boy!"
"That mine did ought to be fenced round," remarked one of the men who had brought the ladder. "Mr. Tremayne's been warned about it many a time, but he's always put off having it done."
"Ah yes, it must be fenced!" exclaimed Madame, hysterically. "Mon élève! If she had fallen a little farther, what then?"
The man shrugged his shoulders, but Lorraine, who had been sitting on the grass, sprang to her feet.
"Don't!" she implored. "Don't please say any more about it. I want to get away from the place. I know I shall dream it over again all night! Let me go straight home. I don't want to get any more flowers. I want just to be quiet and forget about it if I can."