The Missing Mortals, page 42
“Me too,” Doug said. “But then I’ve never actually looked for their graves. I’ll ask Lord Dinswood about it when we get back.”
“Speaking of getting back, how are we supposed to do that? Half of the staircase is gone and we’re like a jillion feet up,” Sebastian pointed out.
“What about the door on the other side of the bridge?” Emma asked.
Doug was already shaking his head in the negative. “That door’s made of solid oak, and it’s locked. There’s no way we’re going to break it down.”
“So we’re stuck up here forever?” Martha asked with a note of panic in her voice.
Doug didn’t answer immediately; instead he began looking around the room as if it might provide the answer. Then his eyes brightened as they lit on the drapes hanging at the chamber’s windows. “I think I have an idea.”
Emma was already pretty sure she wasn’t going to like Doug’s idea. His ideas usually involved him risking his life. Curiosity forced her to ask anyway. “Okay, what’s your idea?”
Before answering, Doug walked over to the nearest window and pointed to the tieback on one of the drapery panels. The tieback was a gold color and looked like a length of thick rope. Emma looked at all the windows then and saw that every drapery panel had an identical tieback.
“We can tie all of these together to make one long rope. Then I can climb down it,” Doug said casually as if it would be no big deal.
“That’s crazy!” Emma blurted out. “First of all, those things have to be almost three hundred years old. They’ve probably dry rotted by now. Not only that, even if we do manage to tie them all together, the rope won’t be long enough.”
“It only has to be long enough to lower me to the part of the staircase that’s still intact,” Doug pointed out patiently. He understood that Emma was afraid he’d get hurt or possibly killed, but they had to do something. They couldn’t just sit at the top of the tower hoping someone would eventually find them. He looked at Emma then and smiled slightly. “And we’ll make sure the rope is strong enough to hold me first. Okay?”
Emma nodded reluctantly. She still hated the idea, but as she had no other solutions to offer at the moment, she kept her mouth shut.
It didn’t take them long to get all the tiebacks gathered. Then, Sebastian’s sailing knowledge came in handy—specifically his knowledge of how to tie knots. In no time, he had the tiebacks all securely joined together. When he was finished, the rope looked like it would be just barely long enough to reach the very top of the intact portion of the staircase.
“Now, it’s time to give this thing a test,” Sebastian said, standing up from where he’d been sitting on the floor tying the knots.
The test consisted of performing a tug-of-war with Doug and Emma on one side and Sebastian and Martha on the other. They stood across from each other on the bridge, and when Doug gave the signal, each team pulled for all they were worth—putting their full weight into it. Much to everyone’s relief, the rope held together.
“Okay, that’s it then. Looks like we’re ready,” Doug said when the test had been completed.
“I think I should be the one that goes,” Sebastian volunteered suddenly.
“You failed rope climbing in PE last year,” Doug quickly reminded him. “Besides, I’m lighter. We don’t want any more weight than necessary on that rope.”
Sebastian hated to admit it, but Doug was right. In seventh grade, he’d been shorter and plumper than he was now, and he hadn’t been as strong. Back then, no matter how hard he’d tried, he hadn’t been able to climb the rope. Although he was pretty sure he could do it now, this wasn’t the time to learn. With a sigh of reluctance, he nodded.
“I’m a good rope climber, and I’m the lightest one here. It should be me that goes,” Emma said suddenly, surprising even herself. The thought of dangling a hundred feet above the ground by a rope made of tiebacks scared her to death, but if it would keep Doug from getting killed, she would do it.
“No,” Doug said, firmly shaking his head. “There’s more to this than just getting to the bottom of this tower. Whoever goes also has to find a way out of the passages and bring help back. Emma, are you sure enough of your sense of direction that you could lead someone back here?”
Emma nodded hesitantly. “We marked the way we came.”
“Those marks will lead you back to the underground lake. The only ways out of there are the underwater passage and the one that leads to the river. I was going to try some of the other passages and only go back to the lake as a last resort,” Doug explained. Although everything Doug was telling her was true, what he didn’t tell her was that under no circumstances would he even think about letting her do something so dangerous. But he knew if he just told her no, she would get mad and insist on going. He had to give logical reasons why she shouldn’t be the one to go for help.
When he put it like that, Emma wasn’t all that keen on going anymore. Once again, he was right. Her sense of direction was terrible, and even if she marked her path, she would most likely get turned around. Her bouts of claustrophobia wouldn’t help things either. The idea was to go for help—not end up needing help herself.
Sensing her inner struggle and admiring her courage more than she would ever know, Doug grinned at her and said, “I really appreciate you offering to go, but I need you to take care of these two.” With a laugh, he pointed at Sebastian and Martha. “Make sure they don’t strangle each other before I get back.”
No more was said as Doug began making preparations for his descent. He didn’t want to wait too long. If he had too much time to think about the danger involved, he might be tempted to change his mind. Added to that was the fact that it would be starting to get dark soon. The task ahead was going to be difficult enough in the light of day. It would be nearly impossible in the dark.
Doug took all the flashlights and put them in his backpack. He wanted to leave one for the others, but they insisted that he take them all. There weren’t any more extra batteries, and there was no way of knowing how long it would take him to find a way out.
“We don’t need a flashlight,” Sebastian had told him. “When the sun goes down, we’ll have light from the moon. You don’t know how long you’ll be wandering around down there, and you don’t want to be left in total darkness.”
Doug had to concede that this time Sebastian was right, so he quickly loaded the backpack and put it on his shoulders.
The plan was to tie one end of the rope around the wood railing of the bridge and then let Doug climb down, but when they finally had the rope secured to their satisfaction, the other end didn’t quite reach the top of what was left of the stairs. From their position, it was hard to tell how much distance there was between the end of the rope and the stairs. Also, the end of the rope wasn’t directly over the stairs; it was off to the side a bit. Unfortunately, because of the position of the stairs in relation to the bridge, there wasn’t anything they could do about it.
“You guys will probably have to swing me over and then it looks like about a two- to three-foot drop,” Doug estimated as he peered over the rail. “It shouldn’t be a problem.” Doug’s tone was light as if this was something he did on a daily basis. He knew that if he showed the slightest bit of fear, his friends would keep him from going.
Emma felt sick. She tried not to think about what would happen if Doug’s hands slipped off the rope. Taking a deep breath, she said a quick prayer and tried to pull herself together.
“Are you sure you want to do this?” Martha asked him for what must have been the tenth time. “You don’t have to go you know. We can wait here. Help will come eventually.” Even when they were searching for the treasure last year, they’d never tried anything this dangerous. Like Emma, Martha was sick with worry for Doug.
“We can’t count on that,” Doug replied, his jaw set in a firm line. “I’ll be careful. I promise.” Then he turned to Sebastian. “Sebastian, get set to swing me over to the staircase.”
“I’ll be ready,” Sebastian promised.
Doug looked at the worried faces of his friends and smiled in an effort to reassure them. Then he turned toward the railing and climbed over it, grabbing the rope on his way over. Quickly, he wrapped his legs around the rope and began to lower himself.
Almost immediately the rail the rope was tied around began to creak loudly under the force of Doug’s weight. They had tested the strength of the rope but hadn’t really had any way to test the strength of the bridge’s railing.
“Hurry, Doug!” Sebastian shouted. “I don’t know how long this rail’s gonna hold!”
Doug was already going as fast as he dared. He was gripping the rope so tightly his knuckles were white. There was no safety net below him. If he lost his grip on the rope, it wasn’t going to be pretty. Doug could hear the rail creaking above him. With an effort, he blocked the sounds out and concentrated on the task at hand. Sweat popped out on his forehead, and his hands began to sweat and slide down the rope. As it turned out, the knots Sebastian had tied every couple of feet were his salvation. His hands slid to one of the knots and stopped. Doug hung there for a moment and took a deep breath. Supporting his weight with only his legs, he carefully removed his hands from the rope one at a time and wiped them dry on his jeans. When he was finished, he started down again.
The others watched anxiously from above. All the while, the rail continued to creak alarmingly.
Doug was almost to the end of the rope, when everything began to fall apart at once. The wooden rail started making splintering sounds as one by one the nails holding it to the bridge began to pull loose.
“It’s coming loose!” Martha screamed.
“Start swinging me!” Doug yelled simultaneously. What the others didn’t know and couldn’t see was that the rope was beginning to fray as well. Doug knew he was running out of time.
Sebastian was lying down on the bridge on his stomach with his arms extended between the rail’s vertical slats. Grabbing the rope, he began trying to swing it back and forth. He soon realized that what he was doing was having absolutely no effect. Doug was hanging directly below him unmoving.
“I’m trying, Doug, but nothing’s happening,” Sebastian shouted in frustration.
“Maybe I can get it going,” Doug called. Gripping the rope firmly with his hands, he let his legs hang free and began pumping them as if he was on a swing. This action put even more strain on the rail, and it began creaking louder than ever. In the meantime, the rope was slowly coming apart in his hands.
At first, his efforts produced only a slight back-and-forth movement. But Doug didn’t give up; he continued to pump his legs—his progress agonizingly slow. Because his legs had to be free so he could swing them, he had to support his entire weight with his arms. It wasn’t long before his biceps began to burn painfully. Doug wasn’t sure how much longer he could keep going.
Above him, Sebastian was doing his best to brace the rail, but he knew he wouldn’t be able to hold it once the nails finally worked loose. “Hurry, Doug, hurry!” he urged frantically.
Gradually, Doug’s swings began to widen. He looked down and saw that he was almost there—the stairs tantalizingly close. The next swing should bring him directly over the stairs. He had just reached the top of his next swing when the rope broke. Doug felt himself falling, and then he landed with bone-jarring force on the top stair. His momentum carried him forward, and he collided with the tower wall. Thankfully, he got his head turned in time so that his left shoulder took the brunt of the collision.
Sebastian watched helplessly as Doug fell, giving a huge sigh of relief when he saw that Doug had miraculously managed to land on the stairs. He had been so focused on Doug that it took him a moment to realize that Martha was screaming something at him. In sudden comprehension, he let go of the rail just in time to keep it from dragging him over the edge with it. The nails had finally pulled free. With a loud splintering sound, a large portion of the rail disappeared from view and fell to the tower floor a hundred feet below.
Down below, Doug’s troubles weren’t over just yet. The force of his landing started a chain reaction, and the remainder of the staircase began to collapse. Wasting no time, Doug got to his feet and started racing down the stairs, barely managing to stay one step ahead of the destruction. He was halfway down the last flight of stairs when he realized that he wasn’t going to make it. Without giving himself time to think, he jumped the rest of the way and rolled clear just as the entire structure came crashing down. For the next several seconds, he lay there on the floor breathing heavily, thankful that he was still in one piece.
From somewhere far off, Emma heard someone screaming hysterically. Gradually, she became aware that someone was shaking her shoulders. A second later, she realized that she was the one doing the screaming. Her eyes focused, and she saw Martha kneeling in front of her with an anxious look, her hands on Emma’s shoulders.
“He’s all right. He made it,” Martha kept repeating over and over in an attempt to get through to Emma.
When Martha’s words finally sank in, Emma collapsed on the floor and began sobbing. The last few minutes had been the worst of her life, and she knew she would never forget the sight of that rail breaking free. She hadn’t really seen what happened after that. Her mind had immediately conjured an image of Doug lying on the tower floor in a mangled heap. The last thing she remembered before she’d started screaming was the thunderous sound of the collapsing staircase. Emma looked at Martha now with a hopeful expression. “He’s alive?” she asked. She was half afraid that Martha was lying to her just to calm her down.
“Yes,” Martha answered with a nod and a sigh. “I don’t know how, but he made it. See for yourself.”
Emma scooted to the edge of the bridge and cautiously peered over. The first thing she saw was a huge pile of splintered wood. Then, she saw Doug standing by the basement stairs looking up at her.
He waved and shouted, “I’m okay.”
All this did was make Emma cry even harder.
“I’m really okay,” Doug tried again, but Emma was making so much noise she didn’t hear him.
While Emma continued to sob in relief, Sebastian began whooping and hollering and pumping his fists in the air. “Wow! That was awesome! I can’t believe you made it. That was the coolest thing I’ve ever seen!” He would have gone on, but he happened to glance in Martha’s direction. Her icy stare stopped him cold. It was clear she didn’t consider Doug nearly getting himself killed either awesome or cool.
With a shrug of his shoulders, he said defensively, “He’s okay, you know. We don’t have to act like we’re at a funeral.”
Martha didn’t respond but continued to glare at him. Knowing when to give up, he turned away from Martha and looked back down at Doug. He saw that Doug was in the process of opening his backpack.
“Did the flashlights make it okay?” Sebastian called down.
“Yep.” Miraculously, none of the flashlights appeared to be broken. Doug tried each one in turn to make sure they all worked. When he was finished, he yelled, “I’ll be back with help as soon as I can.” He kept one of the flashlights out; he would need it once he left the tower. Then he slipped the backpack over his right shoulder and started down the stairs leading to the basement.
Sebastian watched Doug leave and then turned to the girls. “Well, we might as well make ourselves comfortable. This might take a while.”
“I don’t think we should stay on this bridge,” Martha said, “especially not with half the railing gone.”
“We don’t have a lot of options,” Sebastian pointed out.
“We can stay in the turret. At least it has a stone floor.” In the last few minutes, Martha had grown to distrust anything constructed of wood. The turret was made completely of stone with no wood to splinter and no nails to pull loose. In her book, that made it the best choice as a place to await their rescue.
Sebastian knew better than to argue. In fact, he found that he actually agreed with her. The bridge seemed to be solid but then so had the railing. “Okay then. After you, m’lady,” he said with an exaggerated bow.
He waited while Martha pulled Emma to her feet and then followed the two girls up the stairs. Once they were in the turret room, Martha couldn’t resist the urge to examine the sculpture of Mary and Jesus more closely. When she was finished, she began looking around for a comfortable spot to sit.
“I’ve got an idea,” Sebastian said suddenly. “We can make a pallet on the floor with the drapes.”
Martha had to admit that it was a good idea. The drapes were made of a heavy material, and it would certainly beat sitting on the cold hard floor. The only problem was going to be getting them down. The tops of the windows were well above their reach, so there was no way they could unhook the drapes, and although they were nearly three hundred years old, the drapes appeared to be in good enough shape that they couldn’t be torn down either.
“How are you going to get them down?” Martha asked dryly after she’d had a moment to consider the logistics of Sebastian’s suggestion.
“I have this,” Sebastian answered with a triumphant grin as he pulled out his pocketknife.
“You want to cut the drapes?” Martha asked in disbelief. “They’ll be ruined.”
“Who cares? No one’s been up here to see them for three hundred years. Besides, don’t you think it’s time for some new ones?”
Martha didn’t respond, but Sebastian could see that she was close to giving in. She just needed a little more persuading before agreeing to ruin the drapes.
“I’m sure Lord Dinswood will understand. He’ll be glad we tried to make ourselves a little more comfortable, and he can certainly afford to buy new ones.”
“Well, I guess it’s okay,” Martha said slowly.
Sebastian quickly began cutting drapery panels before Martha could change her mind. Then with the girls’ help, he piled several on the floor. It was already starting to get dark, and they were most likely going to have to spend the night, so Sebastian cut a couple more panels to use as blankets. Once their pallet was made, they all found a spot and settled down to wait.
