"Well, it was a fortunate chance you didn't drop on me, as you might very well have done. There isn't much area space down here. Isn't that rope-end tantalizing, dangling just out of reach! Do you think you could grab it if I lifted you up, or you stood on my back?"
Their united efforts to reach the rope, however, proved unavailing; the end still dangled a few inches too high.
"Oh dear!" said Monica. "I hope we shan't have to wait here much longer. It's so dirty and unpleasant. How long do you think the girls will be? Supposing they lose the trail and fail to track us here!"
It was Nat's philosophy to look on the bright side. "Not they," she replied confidently. "Besides, having come so far they would guess I was making for this point. You can't exactly wander over the country how you like; too many hedges and barbed wire fences about. And if I know Pam and Deirdre and one or two others, they won't be very far behind, either. You know, we wasted several minutes stopping to look at the well. We must shout."
They shouted as loudly as they could, but there was no response.
"Anyway, we know now how deep the well is," remarked Nat, still endeavouring to be cheerful. "Not a bit deep, really, so you can't believe all the exaggerated stories you hear. I wish it were quite dry, though this mud was certainly soft to fall on. I wonder there aren't some stones here. It seems such a fascinating occupation—I mean, throwing stones down wells to hear the splash."
"It's more fascinating than throwing yourself down," sighed Monica, on whose more highly strung nerves the strain of their unpleasant situation was beginning to tell. In response Nat shouted again, but still there was no answer to their cries for help. At last even Nat, whose head was throbbing violently, began to lose heart.
"I feel like Alice in Wonderland," she said dismally. "Only I'm sure she didn't find falling down a rabbit-hole nearly as unpleasant as falling down a well."
Monica giggled a little hysterically. "Or the Dormouse's treacle well," she suggested. "How long do you think we've been down here, Nat? Half an hour?"
"Ten minutes, more likely. Come on, we'd better keep shouting now. It would be awful if they passed us by and left us here."