Over Sea, Under Stone: Chapter 11

In which very little happens.

(Apologies for the delay on this one.)

This chapter probably works best when one is reading straight through the book; in isolation it suffers from being between what came before and what came after, with little new content to its own.

The kids return to the Grey House to share their news with Great-Uncle Merry, but the house is empty.  The reader anticipated this: in chapter 9, Merry dashes off immediately after being woken at 11 am, while the kids came looking for him in chapter 10 after noticing it was already 11:30 am and figuring that he should be awake.

Finding the house empty, with no trace of Merry or Mrs. Palk, they decide to split up and search. Barney and Rufus will head up the hill to see if Merry is climbing the headland and passed them. Jane and Simon will look for Mrs. Palk at the festival, to see if she knows were Merry went.

Simon and Jane head back to the harbor, where they met Mr. Penhallow (the fisherman from chapter one, owner of the White Heather), and pick up some more local knowledge.  Mrs. Palk's first name is Molly; her husband, Jim, is deceased.  He also mentions her relationship to Bill Hoover (who just lost the swimming contest to young Walter Penhallow), but goes on to say that the family's estranged; Molly Palk apparently also has a reputation for avarice.  This ruins my previous hypothesis that she's only working for "the dark" because she was doing a favor for, or was tricked by, her relatives; instead, we're meant to conclude that Mrs. Palk betrayed a group of kids for mere money.  That's... not a very nice thing to do.

Then music-and-dance procession shows up, and the Simon and Jane spot Mrs. Palk; they try to follow her, still meaning to ask after Merry.  Apparently, they're still not taking Barney's warning seriously--and they just missed the rendezvous with Barney by following the procession.  On that ominous note, the chapter ends.

New characters (mentioned, have not interacted with the POV characters)

Walter Penhallow--Sixteen; youngest son of Mr. Penhallow; in the merchant navy; better swimmer that Bill Hoover and apparently gracious about it

Jim Palk--dead, was married to Molly Palk