Chapter 21

How Long will we have to Wait?

The rain seemed to be coming down harder and faster as every minute went by. By now all of the children along with their teacher were soaked.

"There it is!" shouted all ran towards the mine and went inside. Praying that it was safe,she and the two young girls went inside too. Knowing that she had no where else to take the kids,she tried to calm down about being in a mine. It was obviously abadoned and by the looks of it,no one had been in here for a very long time. She wished that she knew how to build a fire. She knew that Abigail had said that Frank had taken Becky and Cody camping so she decided to try her luck.

"Cody,would you like to try your luck and show the class how to build a fire?" He nodded and acted very excited. The class looked around and actually found enough wood to get a fire to start. Elizabeth wasn't sure why but Cody actually had some matches. As he got the fire going,Elizabeth started to give instructions.

" Ok kids,please take your coats, and everything else that you can take off and try to hold them close to the fire. Hopefully they will dry without to much trouble."

"Miss Thatcher,do you think that anyone will come looking for us? asked Emily. She seemed to tremble a little.

"I'm sure that someone will notice that we are not back in the school house,and that we never came back from our walk." She tried to assure herself as much as she assured the children. She hoped that someone would come...

Back in Hope Valley,in the jail house, had just been in and told Jack that Opal had not come home yet. A few minutes before that, had been in looking for Timmy and Maggie. Jack stood up from his desk,got his raincoat and hat on,and was about to head out in the pouring rain. All of a sudden,Lee came in and shook his hair like a dog.

"It's raining cats and dogs out stating that obvious, Where are you off to?Something that I can help you with?"

"Lee,have you seen Elizabeth? Or little Opal,Timmy and Maggie?" Jack wanted to know

"This afternoon I saw them heading out for a field trip to the woods. Wait,aren't they back yet?"Lee was starting to understand what Jack was worried about

"No they aren't.I'm heading out now to look for them."Jack opened the door

"In this rain? They must have gotten caught out in it. Come on,we really need to hurry and find them,it's getting chilly out there now that's it's getting 's still pouring buckets out there too." Lee put his raincoat and hat back on as well.

"I'm going to the livery to get Sergent and I'll meet you out front. Would you do me a huge favor and see if you can borrow Mayor Avery's truck? I'm not sure how many kids there are exactly but we'll need to be able to get them all back to town somehow."

About 10 minutes later, Jack and Lee rode towards the woods,not knowing how far or which way they went,but knew that they had to find them fast.

Back in the mine,alot more of the children were scared and crying,and Cody's fire had gone out about 10 minutes had run out of wood,and she wasn't letting anyone out of her sight to go look for more.

"Miss Thatcher,are there any more cookies left?"Emily asked her

"No sweetheart,I'm sorry,they were gone a little while ago."Elizabeth knew that the kids were gettting tired,cold,scared and hungry. The sun was in the process of going down and it was going to be dark soon. Plus it was still raining.

"How long are we going to have to wait until someone finds us?" little Opal asked yet again for what seemed to be the 50th time.

Before Elizabeth could answer,they heard some noises outside. Some kids were excited,but since it was dark,there was no way that she was letting any of the kids outside to see what the noise was. They heard a horse neigh,and just as Elizabeth was about to get up and take a look,someone came into the mine with a flashlight. It was Jack! Someone had finally come to save them

"Lee in here... Jack called out. Is everyone ok in here?" He looked at all the kids and then at Elizabeth. He asked her with his eyes if she was ok,she smiled a little smile back at him just to assure him that she was fine. He wasn't to convinced but accepted it because he knew that she was trying to keep it together for the kids. They all answered him that they were fine and told Sheriff Thornton that they were cold and hungry.

"Good, I'm glad that everyone is doing mommy's and daddy's were missing you."Jack was silently thinking of how he was going to get everyone back to the town safely.

"Children,you all heard Sheriff Thornton. We will all be able to ride back to town,but we have to get there all together. We are going to walk behind Cody and Robert in two groups like we did before. Jack, would you please take Opal with you on your horse? She is so cold and little,I don't want her to fall."Elizabeth gave instructions to her class.

"Of course I will, Jack picked up Opal and put her on Sergent and got on with grabbed Maggie and Elizabeth took Emily's hand. They walked for about 15 minutes and found the pickup truck. Jack got off his horse,knowing that Sergent would stand still,left Opal on. Both Jack and Lee put all the kids in the back of the pickup. Jack opened the door of the truck for Elizabeth and she got in beside Lee. She slide in and they were all on their way back to Hope Valley safe and sound.