Over Sea, Under Stone, Chapter 13

Simon and Jane, back at the Grey House, are getting worried since Barney's no where in sight. The carnival has apparently moved on, and they can't think of anywhere else he would go. Things get worse when Rufus arrives without Barney, looking oddly apathetic and disinterested. He's also moving slowly and strangely when Jane and Simon end up following him out to the harbor.

We flash over to Barney, who is definitely under some form of mind-control.

“He no longer had any thought of his own; it was a strange, relaxed feeling, as if he were comfortably half asleep. There could be no argument now. No fighting. He knew only that the tall dark figure walking by his side, wearing a wide-brimmed black hat, was his master.”

Barney may not be able to think for himself, but he can still see and hear. So, the reader hears along with him that they are heading down to the yacht, and that “our old Cornish friend” (Mrs. Palk, I assume) is responsible for getting everyone away from the harbor so that they won't be seen.

Fortunately, at that moment, Rufus saves everyone! Well, he howls “a long weird note so unexpected and anguished that for a moment they all stopped dead.” I'm not quite sure how that happened or what it signified (animals don't like The Dark?) but it works: Barney snaps out of the mind control and flees, rejoining Jane and Simon; they all race back to the Grey House, where the front door has just locked itself behind them. Taking temporary refuge behind the garden walls, Barney organizes his now-conscious thoughts from the last few hours, and realizes that they need to get the grail. Now.

Bill, Hastings and the Withers are watching the house and headlands. Trapped in the garden, Barney and Jane compare notes, and determine that the building Barney was in is the vicarage Jane visited-- though he's convinced that Hastings isn't actually the vicar.

With their route towards the headland blocked, Jane suggests waiting for Merry (a good idea if, say, they were in a place of relative safety, but they are currently outdoors, surrounded, and outnumbered, and why does she keep having to be the wet-rain-cloud-of-hopelessness?). 

Simon gets a moment of insight, and suggests that they can take advantage of the extremely low tide to try to reach the cave under the headland. They can walk there from the harbor, along the exposed rock. Jane's immediately back on task, noting that it was high tide when they heard the sea in the cave, so the entry was likely was still covered then, but it may be uncovered now, like all of the rocks. The two of them convince Barney, and Simon comes up with a plan for evading capture by approaching the rocks from an unexpected direction (through the next bay, where they normally go swimming).

Barney expresses concern for Great-Uncle Merry worrying about them, and I immediately dislike Simon again (a bit) for pulling rank as the eldest. He has a point that they can't look for both Merry and the grail, and taking Merry's absence as a sign of unconcern is understandable. However, under the circumstances, I'm surprised no one's fearing foul-play, or pointing out that they already looked for Merry (without success), and they've also been searching all likely places for Barney. Where else could they look for Merry at this point?

They reach the beach, but their moment's rest is disturbed by an "owl" call--Jane recognizes it as the enemy's signal from the night on the headlands--and the kids run for the tide pools.

We get another weird interlude between the characters: Jane's “motherly” concern is finally heeded (to get Barney to wear his sandals on the sharp rocks), but Simon, somehow, still can't resist teasing the others about ravenous fishes in the deep pools. With everything else going on that they have to actually fear, this inability to not stop taunting the others seems like a real personality problem. I'm not buying it as a reaction to stress, as he did the exact same thing when they first arrived in Trewissick (mocking Jane's motion sickness), and in the attic just before Barney found the map (talking up rats).

May I also say that it's bothering me how quickly Jane goes from resourceful and clever to designated pessimistic nay-sayer, and back? Maybe I'm expecting too much of a young character, but she's utterly awesome for long periods, and abruptly becomes the voice of hopelessness and worry when needed as a foil for Simon or Barney, then bounces right back to solving problems. Characters and people can be complex, but I don't care for how it's handled here.

The next section's pretty tough for that: Jane is worrying that Barney should have stayed behind (Where? In the garden surrounded by people whose mind-control he just escaped from?) on account of the pool depth, fretting about the narrow cave and the lack of light, and wishing they had a rope in case someone gets lost. Simon's now the thoughtful, prepared one (apparently), because he thought to grab some fishing line, a candle, and matches after their adventure with the hole under the stones. Jane also gets to fret about Barney going into the cave (after he's pointed out that, as the smallest, it'll be easier to for him than for anyone else). At least she's allowed to come up with the idea of using certain numbers of rope pulls to keep track of time/tide and to indicate trouble.

And thus ends chapter 13.