the time had come for the twins to take their annual change of air. they took that change at but a short distance from their home, since the cost of a visit to the sea was more than their mother could afford. they were allowed to encamp for ten days, if the weather were fine, in the dry sandstone caves of deeping knoll, which rises in the middle of little deeping wood, the property of mr. anstruther.
kind-hearted as the twins were, they felt that to make the journey from the knoll to muttle deeping home wood was beyond the bounds of philanthropy; and they broke the news to the princess as gently as they could. she was so deeply grieved to learn that she was no longer going to enjoy their society that, in spite of the fact that she had been made well aware that they despised and abhorred tears, she was presently weeping. she was ashamed; but she could not help it. the compassionate twins compromised; they promised her that they would try to come every third afternoon; and with that she had to be content.
none the less on the eve of their departure she was deploring bitterly the fact that she would not see them on the morrow, when the terror was magnificently inspired.
“look here: why shouldn’t you come with us into camp?” he said eagerly. “a week of it would buck you up more than a month at the grange. you really do get open air camping out at the knoll.”
the face of the princess flushed and brightened at the splendid thought. then it fell; and she said: “they’d never let me—never.”
“but you’d never ask them,” said the terror. “you’d just slip away and come with us. we’ve kept our knowing you so dark that they’d never dream you were with us in the knoll caves.”
the princess was charmed, even dazzled, by the glorious prospect. she had come to feel strongly that by far the best part of her life was the afternoons she spent with the twins in the wood; whole days with them would be beyond the delight of dreams. but to her unadventured soul the difficulties seemed beyond all surmounting. the twins, however, were used to surmounting difficulties, and at once they began surmounting these.
“the difficult thing is not to get you there, but to keep you there,” said the terror thoughtfully. “you see, i’ve got to go down every day for milk and things, and they’re sure to ask me if i’ve seen anything of you. of course, i can’t lie about it; and then they’ll not only take you away, but they’ll probably turn us out of the caves.”
“that’s the drawback,” said erebus.
the twins gazed round the wood seeking enlightenment. a deep frown furrowed the terror’s brow; and he said: “if only you weren’t a princess they wouldn’t make half such a fuss hunting for you, and i might never be asked anything about you.”
“i should have to come to the camp incognita, of course,” said the princess.
the terror looked puzzled for a moment; then his face cleared into a glorious smile, and he cried:
“by jove! of course you would! i never thought of that! why, you’d be some one else and not the princess at all! we shouldn’t know where the princess was if we were asked.”
“of course we shouldn’t!” said erebus, perceiving the advantage of this ignorance.
“i generally am the baroness von zwettel when i travel,” said the princess.
the terror considered the matter, again frowning thoughtfully: “i suppose you have to have a title. but i think an english one would be best here: lady rowington now. no one would ever ask us where lady rowington is, because there isn’t any lady rowington.”
“oh, yes: lady rowington—i would wish an english title,” said the princess readily.
“if we could only think of some way of making them think that she’d been stolen by gipsies, it would be safer still,” said erebus.
“gipsies don’t steal children nowadays,” said the terror; and he paused considering. then he added, “i tell you what though: nihilists would—at least they’d steal a princess. are there any nihilists in cassel-nassau?”
“i never heard of any,” said the princess. “there are thousands of socialists.”
“socialists will do,” said the terror cheerfully.
they were quick in deciding that the princess should not join them till the second night of their stay in camp, to give them time to have everything in order. then they discussed her needs. she could not bring away with her any clothes, or it would be plain that she had not been stolen. she must share the wardrobe of erebus.
“but, no. i have money,” said the princess, thrusting her hand into her pocket. “will you not buy me clothes?”
she drew out a little gold chain purse with five sovereigns in it, and handed it to the terror. he and erebus examined it with warm admiration, for it was indeed a pretty purse.
“we should have had to buy you a bathing-dress, anyhow. there’s a pool just under the knoll,” said the terror. “how much shall we want, erebus?”
“you’d better have two pounds and be on the safe side,” said erebus.
the terror transferred two sovereigns from the purse of the princess to his own. then he arranged that she should meet him outside the door of the peach-garden at nine o’clock, or thereabouts at night. he would wait half an hour that she might not have to hurry and perhaps arouse the suspicion that she had gone of her own free will. he made several suggestions about the manner of her escape.
when she left them, they rode straight to rowington and set about purchasing her outfit. they bought a short serge skirt, two linen shirts, a blue jersey against the evening chill, a cap, sandals, stockings, underclothing and a bathing-dress. they carried the parcels home on their bicycles. when she saw them on their arrival mrs. dangerfield supposed that they were parts of their own equipment.
that evening the terror worked hard at his ingenious device for throwing the searchers off the scent. it was:
he went to bed much pleased with his handiwork.
they spent a busy morning carrying their camping outfit to deeping knoll. the last two hundred yards of path to it was very narrow so that they transported their belongings to the entrance to it in tom cobb’s donkey-cart, and carried them up to the knoll on their backs.
in other years their outfit had been larger, for their mother had encamped with them. this year she had not cared for the effort; and she had also felt that ten days’ holiday out of the strenuous atmosphere which spread itself round the twins, would be restful and pleasant. she was sure that they might quite safely be trusted to encamp by themselves on deeping knoll. not only were they of approved readiness and resource; but buried in the heart of that wood, they were as safe from the intrusion of evil-doers as on some desert south sea isle. she was somewhat surprised by the terror’s readiness to take as many blankets as she suggested. in other years he had been disposed to grumble at the number she thought necessary.
the twins had carried their outfit to the knoll by lunch-time; and they lunched, or rather dined, with a very good appetite. then they began to arrange their belongings, which they had piled in a heap as they brought them up, in their proper caves. with a break of an hour for a bath this occupied them till tea-time. after tea they bathed again and then set about collecting fuel from the wood. they were too tired to spend much time on cooking their supper; and soon after it, rolled in their blankets on beds of bracken, they were sleeping like logs. they were up betimes, bathing.
this day was far less strenuous than the day before. they spent most of it in the pool or on its bank. in the afternoon wiggins came and did not leave them till seven. soon after eight o’clock the terror set out to keep his tryst with the princess. he took with him the socialist manifesto and pinned it to the post of a wicket gate opening from the gardens into the park on the opposite side of the grange to deeping knoll. then he came round to the door in the peach-garden wall two or three minutes before the clock over the stables struck nine.
he had not long to wait; he heard the gentle footfall of the princess on the garden path, the door opened, and she came through it. he shook hands with her warmly; and as they went up the screen of trees she told him how she had bidden the baroness and miss lambart good night, gone to her bedroom, ruffled the bed, locked the door, and slipped, unseen, down the stairs and out of the house. he praised her skill; and she found his praise very grateful.
the path to the knoll lay all the way through the dark woods; and the princess found them daunting. they were full of strange noises, many of them eery-sounding; and in the dimness strange terrifying shapes seemed to move. the terror was not long discovering her fear, and forthwith put his arm round her waist and kept it there wherever the path was broad enough to allow it. when she quivered to some woodland sound, he told her what it was and eased her mind.
she was not strong enough in spite of her exercises and the active games with wiggins, to make the whole of the journey over that rough ground at a stretch; and twice when he felt her flagging they sat down and rested. the princess was no longer frightened; she still thrilled to the eeriness of the woods, but she felt quite safe with the terror. when they rested she snuggled up against him, stared before her into the dark, and thought of all the heroes wandering through the forests of grimm, with the sense of adventure very strong on her. she was almost sorry when they came at last to the foot of the knoll and saw its top red in the glow of the fire erebus was keeping bright.
also erebus had hot cocoa ready for them; and after her tiring journey the princess found it grateful indeed. they sat for a while in a row before the glowing fire, talking of the hartz mountains, which the princess had visited. but soon the yawns which she could not repress showed her hosts how sleepy she was, and the terror suggested that she should go to bed.
with true courtesy, the twins had given her the best sleeping-cave to herself, but she displayed such a terrified reluctance to sleep in it alone, that her couch of bracken and her blankets were moved into the cave of erebus. after the journey and the excitement she was not long falling into a dreamless sleep.
when she awoke next morning, she found the terror gone to fetch milk. erebus conducted her down to the pool for her morning bath. the princess did not like it (she had had no experience of cold baths) but under the eye of erebus she could not shrink; and in she went. she came out shivering, but erebus helped rub her to a warm glow, and she came to breakfast with such an appetite as she had never before in her life enjoyed.
the knoll was indeed the ideal camping-ground for the romantic; the caves with which it was honeycombed lent themselves to a score of games of adventure; and the princess soon found that she had been called to an active life. it began directly after breakfast with dish-washing; after that she was breathless for an hour in two excited games both of which meant running through the caves and round and over the knoll as hard as you could run and at short intervals yelling as loud as you could yell. after this they put on their bathing-dresses and disported themselves in the pool till it was time to set about the serious business of cooking the dinner, which they took soon after one o’clock.
the terror kept a careful and protective eye on the princess, helping her, for the most part vigorously, to cover the ground at the required speed. also he turned her out of the pool, to dry and dress, a full half-hour before he and erebus left it. after dinner the princess was so sleepy that she could hardly keep her eyes open; and the terror insisted that she should lie down for an hour. she protested that she did not want to rest, that she did not want to lose a moment of this glorious life; but presently she yielded and was soon asleep.
they were expecting wiggins in the afternoon. but he could be admitted safely into the secret, since, once he knew that the princess had become lady rowington, he would be able with sufficient truthfulness to profess an entire ignorance of her whereabouts. also he would be very useful, for he could bring them word if suspicion had fallen on them.
at about half past two he arrived, bringing a great tale of the excitement of the countryside at the kidnaping of the princess. so far its simple-minded inhabitants and the suite of the princess were content with the socialist explanation of her disappearance; and three counties round were being searched by active policemen on bicycles for some one who had seen a suspicious motor-car containing socialists and a princess. it was the general belief that she had been chloroformed and abducted through her bedroom window.
with admirable gravity the twins discussed with wiggins the probabilities of their success and of the recovery of the princess, the routes by which the socialists might have carried her off, and the towns in which the lair to which they had taken her might be. at the end of half an hour of it the princess came out of her cave, her eyes, very bright with sleep, blinking in the sunlight.
wiggins cried out in surprise; and the twins laughed joyfully.
wiggins greeted the princess politely; and then he said reproachfully: “you might have told me that she was coming here.”
“you ought to have known as soon as you heard she was missing,” said erebus sternly.
“so i should, if i’d known you knew her at all,” said wiggins.
“that’s what nobody knows,” said erebus triumphantly.
“and look here: she’s here incognita,” said the terror. “she’s taken the traveling name of lady rowington; and she’s not the princess at all. so if you’re asked if the princess is here, you can truthfully say she isn’t.”
“of course—i see. this is a go!” said wiggins cheerfully; and he spurned the earth.
“the only chance of her being found is for somebody to come up when we’re not expecting them and see her,” said the terror. “so i’m going to block the path with thorn-bushes; and any one who comes up it will shout to us. but there’s no need to do that yet; nobody will think about us for a day or two.”
“no; of course they won’t. i didn’t,” said wiggins.
the active life persisted throughout that day and the days that followed. it kept the princess always beside the terror. always he was using his greater strength to help her lead it at the required speed. never in the history of the courts of europe has a princess been so hauled, shoved, dragged, jerked, towed and lugged over rough ground. on the second morning she awoke so stiff that she could hardly move; but by the fifth evening she could give forth an ear-piercing yell that would have done credit to erebus herself.
all her life the princess had been starved of affection; her mother had died when she was in her cradle; her father had been immersed in his pleasures; no one had been truly fond of her; and she had been truly fond of no one. it is hardly too much to say that she was coming to adore the terror. even at their most violent and thrilling moments his care for her never relaxed. he rubbed the ache out of her bruises; he plastered her scratches. he saw to it that she came out of the pool the moment that she looked chill. he picked out for her the tidbits at their meals. he even brushed out her hair, for the thick golden mass was quite beyond the management of the princess; and erebus firmly refused to play the lady’s-maid. since the terror was one of those who enjoy doing most things which they are called upon to do, he presently forgot the unmanliness of the occupation, and began to take pleasure in handling the silken strands.
it was on the fifth day, after a bath, when he was brushing out her hair in the sun on the top of the knoll that he received the severe shock. heaven knows that the princess was not a demonstrative child; indeed, she had never had the chance. but he had just finished his task and was surveying the shining result with satisfaction, when, of a sudden, without any warning, she threw her arms round his neck and kissed him.
“oh, you are nice!” she said.
the terror’s ineffable serenity was for once scattered to the winds. he flushed and gazed round the wood with horror-stricken eyes: if any one should have seen it!
the princess marked his trouble, and said in a tone of distress: “don’t you like for me to kiss you?”
the terror swallowed the lump of horror in his throat, and said, faintly but gallantly: “yes—oh, rather.”
“then kiss me,” said the princess simply, snuggling closer to him.
the despairing eyes of the terror swept the woods; then he kissed her gingerly.
“i am fond of you, you know,” said the princess in a frankly proprietary tone.
the terror’s scattered wits at last worked. he rose to his feet, and said quickly:
“yes; let’s be getting to the others.”
the princess rose obediently.
but the ice was broken; and the kisses of the princess, if not frequent, were, at any rate, not rare. the terror at first endured them; then he came rather to like them. but he strictly enjoined discretion on her; it would never do for erebus to learn that she kissed him. the princess had no desire that erebus, or any one else for that matter, should learn; but discretion and kisses have no natural affinity; and, without their knowing it, wiggins became aware of the practise.
he had always observed that the twins had no secrets from each other; and he never dreamed that he was letting an uncommonly awkward cat out of a bag when during a lull in the strenuous life, he said to erebus:
“i suppose the terror’s in love with the princess, kissing her like that. i think it’s awfully silly.” and he spurned the earth.
erebus grabbed his arm and cried fiercely: “he never does!”
wiggins looked at her in some surprise; her face was one dusky flush; and her eyes were flashing. he had seen her angry often enough, but never so angry as this; and he saw plainly that he had committed a grievous indiscretion.
“perhaps she kissed him,” he said quickly.
“he’d never let her!” cried erebus fiercely.
“perhaps they didn’t,” said wiggins readily.
“you know they did!” cried erebus yet more fiercely.
“i may have made a mistake. it’s quite easy to make a mistake about that kind of thing,” said wiggins.
erebus would not have it, and very fiercely she dragged piecemeal from his reluctant lips the story of the surprised idyl. he had seen the princess with an arm round the terror’s neck, and they had kissed.
with clenched fists and blazing eyes erebus, taking the line of the least resistance, sought the princess. she found her lying back drowsily against a sunny bank.
erebus came to an abrupt stop before her and cried fiercely: “princess or no princess, you shan’t kiss the terror!”
the drowsiness fled; and the princess sat up. her gray eyes darkened and sparkled. she had never made a face in her life; it is not improbable, seeing how sheltered a life she had led, that she was ignorant that faces were made; but quite naturally she made a hideous face at erebus, and said:
“i shall!”
“if you do, i’ll smack you!” cried erebus; and she ground her teeth.
for all her hohenzollern blood, the princess was a timid child; but by a gracious provision of nature even the timidest female will fight in the matter of a male. she met erebus’ blazing eyes squarely and said confidently:
“he won’t let you. and if you do he’ll smack you—much harder!”
had the princess been standing up, erebus would have smacked her then and there. but she was sitting safely down; and the queensberry rules only permit you to strike any one standing up. erebus forgot them, stooped to strike, remembered them, straightened herself, and with a really pantherous growl dashed away in search of the terror.
she found him examining and strengthening the barrier of thorns; and she cried:
“i know all about your kissing the princess! i never heard of such silly babyishness!”
it was very seldom, indeed, that the terror showed himself sensible to the emotions of his sister; but on this occasion he blushed faintly as he said:
“well, what harm is there in it?”
“it’s babyish! it’s what mollycoddles do! it’s girlish! it’s—”
the terror of a sudden turned brazen; he said loudly and firmly:
“you mind your own business! it isn’t babyish at all! she’s asked me to marry her; and when we’re grown up i’m going to—so there!”
