A voice came up to her from below the floor, a rather thin, peevish voice that sounded exceedingly tired, and had a curious accent.
"You are at least two hours earlier than you said you would be; how can you then expect me to be ready?"
Joey quite jumped--the voice was so entirely unexpected. Then she realised that she must be taken for somebody else.
"I can't be anyone you expected two hours later, because I didn't know myself about walking home and this old fog," she said. "Do tell me, are you down a trap-door, or what?"
A square of floor lifted with some difficulty, and a head appeared--the head of a pale, unhealthy-looking young man, with large, startled, blue eyes.
"I say, I hope I didn't frighten you coming in like this," Joey said politely. "But the fog--the sea-roke, I think they call it, is so beastly, and I couldn't find my way back."
The young man came altogether out from the trap-door. Joey didn't think much of his nerves; his hands were trembling and he looked as though Gavin could have knocked him down quite easily.
"Do you live here?" Joey asked, as he did not speak. "I hope you don't mind my coming in like this; but Noreen, one of the Redlands girls, tells me that the Deeps are really rather dangerous when the roke is about."
The young man seemed to recover his breath.
"You are a Redlands young lady, are you? Surely your mistress does not know that you are wandering about the Deeps alone?"
"Miss Conyngham? No, I don't suppose she does," Joey said easily. "I didn't know myself till it happened, but of course I ought to have come by the road."
[Illustration: "I HOPE I DIDN'T FRIGHTEN YOU COMING IN LIKE THIS," JOEY SAID POLITELY]
"It would be _much_ safer," the young man said impressively. He did not answer Joey's question about living in the tower; but proceeded to tell her story upon story of accidents happening on the Deeps to people who strayed there in the fog or the dark. Joey thought his stories were a little like the _Cautionary Tales_; from his account the sea-roke perpetually lay in wait, in company with horrid oozy spots where people disappeared with no trace left to tell how they had died. His stories were so interesting that Joey forgot her desire to explore, and sat by his side on a great block of fallen stone, listening with all her ears, and foreseeing a thrilling time in Blue Dorm this evening. She was so absorbed that she never noticed the lightening of the roke, until a long, narrow bar of sunshine fell through a chink in the shutters of the window, making the red glow of the lantern look pale and unnatural. Then she jumped up in a hurry, and held out her hand. The post went out at six on Sundays, and she still had four miles to walk before she could write that apology to Cousin Greta. She must go at once now it would be safe to cross the piece of marsh-land to the road. She held out her hand to the young man.