The Worst Witch All at Sea (18 page)

piece of rock, just in case the boat relaunched itself. In fact, it was quite a sheltered crevice, the wind being in the opposite direction and blowing the waves away from them.

Mildred opened the cabin door so that she could perhaps drag Miss Hardbroom inside, out of the cold, but the formidable form-mistress was too heavy to move, so Mildred took off her sodden cloak, wrung it out, and draped it over Miss Hardbroom to keep out the wind. She sat hunched up next to her teacher, rubbing the long, bony hands in a useless attempt to warm them up.

Tabby escaped at last through the open door and wrapped himself around Mildred’s shoulders. Mildred

found him wonderfully warm and dry in the middle of all the wet clothes and breaking waves. She suddenly realized that Tabby could help to keep Miss Hardbroom warm, so she draped him around Miss Hardbroom’s neck and told him to stay there.

She was so tired that she couldn’t think any more, so she leaned half against the cabin and half against Miss Hardbroom to help with keeping her warm, and closed her eyes, hoping that perhaps it really
was
a nightmare and any minute now the rising bell would clang through the dormitory and wake her up.

ildred awoke to the sound of her name being shouted very loudly by several voices. For a moment she thought she was on her mat at the castle, where she had woken up so stiff and aching from the draught at the window. However, this stiffness was a hundred times worse and her eyes felt puffy as she prized them open and looked around at the extraordinary sight. Miss Hardbroom was still in exactly the same position on the floor

of the boat, Tabby was asleep, purring, on Mildred’s lap, the broomstick was lying across the two bench seats, and all around was a cloudless blue sky and a perfectly calm, innocent-looking sea. Mildred’s clothes were so thoroughly wet that she couldn’t imagine ever feeling warm again.

‘Mildred! Mildred Hubble!’ called a voice from the other side of the rock.

‘Over here!’ croaked Mildred. ‘I’m on the other side; over here!’

To Mildred’s eternal delight, Maud and Enid zoomed into sight on their broomsticks and landed on the rock just above the boat. They couldn’t believe their eyes when they saw Miss Hardbroom.

‘Gosh, Mil!’ said Maud. ‘I know you and Miss Hardbroom don’t quite see eye to eye about things, but what on earth’s happened?’

‘
I
don’t know,’ said Mildred. ‘I came to rescue Tabby, that’s all, and Miss Hardbroom was in the boat when I found it. She’s still breathing, but she’s been unconscious for ages. We must get her back.’

‘What’s Tabby doing here?’ asked Enid. ‘He’s supposed to be at the Academy!’

‘Oh I’ll explain all that later,’ said Mildred. ‘I can’t tell you how pleased I am to see you. It was really grim last night. I didn’t think I’d make it.’

‘Everyone’s out looking for you,’ explained Maud. ‘Poor Miss Cackle’s nearly gone out of her mind with worry, although when she discovered that Miss Hardbroom was missing, she thought perhaps you might be all right together. Anyway, this morning we all broke up into groups and set off to find you.’

‘
I
know,’ said Mildred. ‘Let’s tie the rope on to one of the broomsticks and let it fly us home. This one —’ she patted Miss Hardbroom’s recumbent broomstick – ‘was quite fantastic last night. I found it in the cave on the beach and it seemed to
know
where the boat was.’

‘That’s because it’s Miss Hardbroom’s broomstick, silly!’ said Maud. ‘Miss Cackle found her cat, Morgana, on the beach, so she must have left her broomstick in the cave… I say, Mil – Ethel must be having kittens. I mean, we all
heard
her say she’d let the boat out. Do you think she knew that Miss Hardbroom was in it?’

‘Perhaps she knocked her out and pushed the boat out on purpose!’ exclaimed Enid.

‘Even Ethel’s not
that
bad,’ said Mildred. ‘No, she pushed the boat out because I’d told her that I was taking it out to get the supposed treasure off this rock. I wasn’t
really
. I was only going down the steps to feed Tab – I’d hidden him in the boat for the holiday. I made up the story to put Ethel off the scent. I suppose she couldn’t bear the thought of me
possibly
finding the treasure. She didn’t know about Tabby being on the boat and probably not about Miss Hardbroom either. She really
did
think it was just a boat. Anyway, let’s get H.B. back to the castle as fast as possible. It can’t be doing her any good lying here in those damp clothes. Ethel is an idiot – fancy doing all that just in case I upstaged her by finding some mythical treasure chest!’

Mildred began untying the rope from the projecting piece of rock and, as she did so, she noticed that the rock was a rather odd shape, not jagged or pointed, but with neat, sheared-off sides almost hidden beneath barnacles and fronds of seaweed. She scraped at the seaweed and a large, unmistakable hinge appeared. More scraping