Read Online The Hollow Land by Jane Gardam - Free Book Online Page B

“Kendal says it’s haunted up here,” she said, and hurried on, and up to the top of the fell where you could see in all directions, right to the Nine Standards, the huge old stones that watched from the horizon.
    She stood in the long white apron, shading her eyes.
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    â€œWake up,” said Bell, “wake up Harry lad. Here. We’ve got to yell again.”
    Harry stirred but didn’t wake. Bell shook him. “Here. Harry. It’s late. It must be about night. They’ll be looking by now. There’s sense yelling now. More sense than before when they was all away.”
    â€œMy throat’s sore.”
    â€œIt’ll be sorer if we’re here all night. It’s going to get right cold soon. This place has never seen the sun in a million years.”
    They were behind the iron-barred grille at the entrance to the mine, peering out into the cave beyond it over the rubbish and rubble of the sixty years since the bars had been fixed. The outer cave mouth was a maddening ten feet away from the inner, barred opening. From the cave mouth the bouse fell steeply away so that you could see the light beyond beginning to change to shadow as it drew to evening. To Bell and Harry it seemed near midnight.
    â€œWe ought to start bashing again, too.”
    â€œThe tin cans and that are wore out.”
    â€œThere’s the pick and shovel. Come on.”
    Bell began a great assault on the thick iron bars.
    â€œIt’s killing me ears,” said Harry.
    â€œGet to work with that shovel.”
    Harry made some lesser noises with the shovel. Then they both stopped and cried “Help” for a while.
    Then they sat down again and stared at the bars. After a while Harry said, “We’ll likely die.”
    â€œGet away,” said Bell. But dismally. His face was streaked with dirt. It looked gaunt. He kicked the bars with his foot. “By God,” he said. “I’se sorry for animals.”
    â€œAnimals? Sheep could get out. They could ease their way out if they ever wandered in. Dogs could get out. Rabbits could get out. Hares could get out.”
    â€œI mean gorillas. Lions and tigers.”
    â€œFoxes could get out. Ferrets could get out.”
    â€œI mean zoo animals. Caged up. We’re caged up. We’re caged up like slaves or gorillas. I’ll never go near a zoo again.”
    â€œSnakes could get out.” Harry picked up the end of a chain which hung from the wagon behind him. Already they had tried to heave at the wagons to make them roll up against the iron bars and break the grille down; but it meant pushing uphill and they were anyway afraid that they might block the entrance altogether and bring down everything. “I’d say we were going to die,” Harry said again. He began to feed the chain through the bars. After a bit he had to help it along by jabbing it with the shovel, pushing the shovel sideways through the bars and holding tight to the other end.
    â€œHave you read
Huckleberry Finn
?” asked Bell.
    â€œNo.”
    â€œJust as well. What you doing?”
    â€œWatching the chain being a snake. Why is it just as well?”
    â€œThere was a place like this in
Huckleberry Finn
. Some kids got lost in caves. When they got themselves out—miles away back from the place they’d started—everyone thought they was dead. So all their families blocked up the proper entrance so no other kids could go in again.”
    â€œWell I don’t wonder at that,” said Harry, pressing his face into the bars and jabbing on at the chain with the shovel end, urging it down the slope towards the cave mouth.
    â€œNo, but there was someone else left inside. A terrible Indian. Ages later when someone went up to have another look around, there was this dead skeleton lying, stretching out its poor bony hands. Horrible.”
    Harry stretched his hands and his arms out to their furthest extent through the bars and