Chapter Eleven.
In a sad Plight!
The Captain, who had remained on the plateau above, in company with Mrs Gilmour and Dick—the latter still in charge of the precious hamper—pricked up his ears at the sound of poor Nellie’s scream and Bob’s expressive cry of alarm.
“Hullo!” he sang out in his sailor fashion— “I wonder what’s the row now? By Jove, I thought it wouldn’t be long before those two young persons got into mischief when we left them alone together.”
“I hope to goodness they haven’t come to any harm,” said Mrs Gilmour dolefully. “Sure and will you go and say what’s happened?”
“Sure an’ I’m just a-going, ma’am,” replied the Captain, keeping up his good-humoured mimicry of her accent so as to reassure her; adding, as he scrambled down the slope cautiously with the aid of his trusty malacca cane— “You needn’t be alarmed, ma’am, ‘at all at all,’ for I don’t believe anything very serious has occurred, as children’s calls for assistance generally mean nothing in the end. They are like, as your countryman said when he shaved his pig, ‘all cry and little wool!’”
He chuckled to himself as he went on down the declivity, turning round first, however, to see whether Mrs Gilmour appreciated the allusion to “poor Pat”; while Dick, leaving the hamper behind, followed, in case his assistance might also be needed in the emergency.
Arrived at the bottom of the dell the old sailor found it impossible at first to tell what had happened; for, Bob was trying to force his way through the brushwood brake, and Rover barking madly. Nellie was nowhere to be seen, although her voice could be heard proceeding from somewhere near at hand, calling for help still, but in a weaker voice.
“Where are you?” shouted the Captain. “Sing out, can’t you!”
“Here,” came the reply in the girl’s faint treble; “I’m here!”
“Where’s ‘here’?” said he, puzzled. “I can’t see anything of you!”
“I’ve tumbled into a pit,” cried Nellie piteously, in muffled tones that sounded as if coming from underground. “Do take me out, please! There’s a lot of wild animals here, and they’re biting my legs—oh!”
A series of piercing shrieks followed, showing that the poor child was terribly alarmed, if not seriously hurt; and the Captain saw that no time was to be lost.
“Can you reach her, Bob?” he sang out; “or see her, eh?”
“No, I can’t get through these prickly bushes, they’re just like a wall!” replied Bob, fighting manfully through to get down to his sister’s relief. “I can’t see her a bit, either!”
“Humph!”
The Captain thought a moment, rather shirking going amongst the thorns.
“Ha, the very thing!” he exclaimed. “Hi, Rover!”
The dog, who had been barking and running here and there aimlessly, at once cocked his ears and came up to the Captain, scanning his face with eager attention.
“Fetch her out, good dog!” he cried, pointing to the spot where the broken branch of the oak-tree had given way, adding in a louder voice, “Call him, Nellie—call the dog to you, missy.”
A cry, “Here, Rover!” came from underneath the tangled mass of brushwood, borne down and partly torn away by Nellie in her fall to the depths below. “Come here, sir!”
No sooner did he hear this summons, faint though it was, from his young mistress, than any uncertainty which may have obscured his mind as to what the Captain meant by telling him to “fetch her out,” at once disappeared; and Rover, uttering a short, sharp, expressive bark, to show that he now understood what was expected of him, boldly plunged into the thicket with a bound.
“Chuck, chuck, chuck! Whir–r–r–ur,” and a blackbird flew out, dashing in the Captain’s face; while, at the same time, another piercing screech came from Nellie— “Ah–h–ah! Help!”
The old sailor was so startled that he jumped back, his hat tumbling off into a bramble-bush.
“Zounds!” he exclaimed. “What the dickens is that?”
In a moment, however, he recovered himself.
“Pooh, what a fool I am!” he said, ashamed of the slight weakness he had displayed, and hoping neither of the boys had noticed it; and then, to show how cool and collected he was, he whistled up the retriever. “Whee-ee-up, Rover, fetch her out, good dog!”
Rover did not need this adjuration, not he.
Even as the Captain spoke, there was a rustling and tramping in the thicket, accompanied by the snapping of twigs; and, almost at the same instant, the dog dashed out from amidst the brushwood with Nellie holding on to his tail.
“Oh my!” ejaculated Dick, rushing to her side; and, with the assistance of Bob, who also emerged from the prickly cavern at the same time, she was got on her feet— “Poor Nell!”
She presented a sorry spectacle.
Never was such a piteous plight seen!
Her face was scratched by the thorns, her clothes torn, and her hat had fallen off like that of the Captain, who had, by the way, in the flurry forgotten to replace his on his head, the venerable article remaining in a sadly battered condition where it had fallen.
On being released, however, from her predicament, Nellie treated the matter much more lightly than might have been expected.
She was a very courageous little girl now that she knew she was in safety.
But she was also, it should be said, blest, too, with great amiability.
“Oh, never mind the scratches,” she replied, in answer to the Captain’s inquiries. “I’m not at all hurt, thank you.”
“How about those wild animals?” asked the old sailor smiling, “eh, missy?”
Nellie coloured up, but could not help laughing at the Captain’s quizzical face, as he took up his hat gingerly and put it on.
“I—I made a mistake,” she stammered. “I was frightened!”
At that moment, however, very opportunely, Master Rover, who had darted back into the thicket after reclaiming his young mistress, saved her all further explanation as to the unknown beasts that had caused her such alarm by appearing now in full pursuit of an unfortunate rabbit which, putting forth its best speed, escaped him in the very nick of time by diving into a hole on the other side of the knoll, contemptuously kicking up its heels as it did so, almost into his open mouth.
The mystery of Nellie’s disappearance was thus satisfactorily solved.
She had fallen into an old rabbit-burrow.
The harmless little creatures, whom she had imagined to be making desperate assaults on her legs and about to eat her up, too, were probably even more frightened than she was!
“Oh—oh, that’s one of those ferocious wild animals, little missy, eh?” chuckled the Captain. “I see, young lady.”
“Yes, but they frightened me,” pleaded poor Nell. “They moved about under my feet, jumping up at me, I thought; and it was so dark down there that I didn’t know what they might be. You would have been frightened too, I think, sir!”
She added this little retort to her explanation with some considerable spirit, a bit nettled by the Captain’s chaff.
“Well, well, my dear, perhaps you are right,” he replied good-humouredly. “I also have a confession to make, missy. Just before Rover cantered up, with you holding on to his tail like Mazeppa lashed to the back of the fiery untamed steed of the desert, a blackbird flew out of your blackberry thicket, brushing past my face, and do you know it startled me so that I jumped back, losing my hat. So, you see, I got a fright too!”
“I see’d yer, sir,” said Dick, the Captain looking round as if awaiting comment on his action. “I see’d yer done it!”
“And so did I,” cried Bob, the appearance of whose face had not been improved by his struggles with the thorny bushes as he tried to force his way through them to Nellie’s rescue. “I saw you too!”
“You young rascals!” exclaimed the Captain, shaking his stick at them. “I thought you were looking at me! I suppose you’ll be going and telling everybody you saw the old sailor in a terrible funk, and that I was going to faint?”
“Sure and that’s what I feel like doing!” cried Mrs Gilmour in a very woebegone voice, she having only just succeeded in arriving at the scene of action, scrambling down with some difficulty from the top of the slope, the pathway being blocked at intervals by the struggling creepers which twined and interlaced themselves with the undergrowth, trailing down from the branches of the trees above, and making it puzzling to know which way to go. “I couldn’t crawl a step further. What with scurrying to catch that dreadful steamboat, and then my fright of hearing the children scream, and now having to clamber down this mountain, I’m ready to drop!”
“Don’t, ma’am, please,” said the Captain imploringly; “you’ll be sorry for it if you do. The ground is full of rabbit-burrows, and there are a lot of nettles about.”
“Good gracious!” she exclaimed, looking round her in the greatest alarm, and drawing in the skirts of her dress. “Whatever made you bring me here then, Captain Dresser?”
“Well, ma’am,” began the Captain; but Mrs Gilmour, who at that moment first caught sight of Nellie’s face, interrupted him before he could get in a word further than, “you see—”
“Oh, my dearie!” cried she, in a higher key, forgetting at once all her own troubles; and, rushing up to Nell with the utmost solicitude, she hugged her first and then inspected her carefully, “what have you done to your poor dear face?”
“Oh, it’s not much, auntie,” said Nellie, just then busy arranging her dress. “I have only got a scratch or two.”
“And your clothes too,” continued Mrs Gilmour, her consternation increasing at the sight of the damage done. “Why, your frock is torn to shreds!”
“Not so bad as that, auntie,” laughed the girl, but with a look of dismay on her face the while. “It is rather bad though.”
“Bad,” repeated her aunt, “sure, it’s scandalous! And, say your brother, now—whatever have you both been about? His poor face is all bleeding, too!”
“Now, don’t you make matters worse than they are,” interposed the Captain. “A little water will soon set them both right.”
“And where shall we get water here?” she asked. “Tell me that!”
His answer came quick enough, the Captain being seldom “taken aback.”
“You forget, ma’am, the little rivulet we passed on our way. Dick,” he added, “run and fetch some for us, like a good lad.”
Nell had brought with her from home a little tin bucket, which she usually took down to the shore for collecting sea-anemones and other specimens for her aquarium; so, catching hold of this, Dick started off in the direction of the tiny brook they had crossed some little time before, returning anon with the bucket brimming full.
Miss Nell and Bob thereupon set to work in high glee at their extempore ablutions; and, when they had subsequently dried their faces in their pocket-handkerchiefs, both presented a much improved appearance.
With the exception of a few scratches, they bore little traces of the fray, the blood-stains, which looked at first sight so very dreadful, having vanished on the application of the cold water, as the Captain had prophesied.
“There, ma’am,” cried he now exultingly; pointing this out to Mrs Gilmour, “I told you so, didn’t I? ‘all cry and little wool,’ eh, ho, ho, ho!”
“That may be,” retorted she; “but, water won’t mend Nellie’s dress.”
“Well then, ma’am, I will,” replied the Captain. “You’ll always find a sailor something of a tailor, if he’s worth his salt!”
He laughed when he said this, and his imperturbable good-humour banished the last vestige of Mrs Gilmour’s vexation at the children’s plight.
“Sure, and you shan’t do anything of the sort,” she said smiling. “I’ll run up Nell’s tatters meesilf!” As she spoke she produced from her pocket—a handy little “housewife,” containing needles and thread, as well as a thimble, which useful articles the good lady seldom stirred out without; and, sitting down on a shawl which the Captain spread over a bit of turf that he assured her was free from nettles, and ten yards at least from the nearest rabbit-burrow, she proceeded to sew away at a brisk rate on the torn frock of Miss Nellie, who sat herself demurely beside her aunt.
“Will you be long?” inquired the old sailor, after watching her busy fingers some little time, getting slightly fidgety. “Eh, ma’am?”
“I should think it will be quite an hour before I shall be able to make the child decent,” she replied. “Why do you ask?”
“Humph!” ejaculated the Captain, as he always did when cogitating some knotty point, “I’ll tell you, ma’am. If it’s agreeable to you, ma’am, the boys and I might go on to Brading and see the remains of that Roman villa I was talking about yesterday. That is, unless you would like us to wait till you’ve done your patchwork there, and all of us go together, eh?”
“No, I wouldn’t hear of such a thing,” answered Mrs Gilmour, looking up but not pausing for an instant in her task. “I wouldn’t walk a mile to see Julius Caesar himself, instead of his old villa, or whatever you call it.”
The Captain appeared greatly amused at this.
“I’m not certain that the place ever belonged to that distinguished gentleman,” he said. “It is supposed, I believe, to have been the residence of a certain Vespasian, who was governor of the Isle of Wight some period after its conquest by the Romans; but how far this is true, ma’am, I can’t vouch for personally, never having as yet, indeed, seen the spot.”
“But, I assure you, I’ve no curiosity to go. I feel much too tired, and would rather sit comfortably here. Would you like, Nell, to go with the Captain and Bob?”
“No, auntie, I’d prefer stopping with you. I want to get some ferns and lots of things after you’ve mended my dress for me,” replied Alice. “I like flowers better than old ruins.”
She said this quite cheerfully, as if she didn’t mind a bit not going with the boys.
This surprised the Captain somewhat, for he thought she would not like being left behind, and would have looked at all events a trifle cross.
But, seeing how she took the matter, the old sailor’s mind was immensely relieved.
“Well then,” he cried smiling, with his eyes blinking and winking away, “the sooner we’re off, why the sooner we’ll be back. Hullo, though, I’ve forgotten the hamper! Run up, Dick, and fetch it down here.”
Off scampered the lad, coming back quickly with the hamper, which he placed carefully by Mrs Gilmour’s side.
“There ma’am,” said Captain Dresser, “you can look after the luncheon while we’re away. Come along, boys—hi, Rover!”
“Oh, please leave him behind,” implored Nellie. “We want him.”
“What, who?” asked the Captain. “Dick or the dog?”
“Rover,” replied Nellie promptly. “He’ll protect us in your absence in case anything happens.”
“What’s that, eh!” quizzed the old sailor. “I suppose you’re thinking again of those ferocious wild animals you encountered awhile ago, eh, missy?”
“It’s a shame, auntie, for the Captain to tease me so!” exclaimed Nellie, as the chaffy old gentleman went off chuckling, followed by Master Bob and Dick, the three soon disappearing amidst the greenery. “Never mind, though, I have got you, my good doggie; and I shan’t forget how you came to my help, nor how glad I was to catch hold of your poor tail, you dear Rover, when you dragged me out of that horrid hole!”
“Be aisy, me dearie,” remonstrated Mrs Gilmour, as Nell reached over to hug Rover in a sudden caress of affection, and caused by the sudden movement a breakage of the thread, thus interrupting her aunt’s handiwork. “Sure, if you go wriggling about like an eel with that dog, I shall never get your frock mended!”
“All right, auntie, I beg your pardon. I’ll be very good now, and promise not to move again till you tell me to.”
So saying, Miss Nell resumed her former position, and, making Rover lie down at her feet, remained “as quiet as a mouse,” as her aunt acknowledged, until the latter had completed her task of gathering up the rents in the damaged garment that the envious blackberry-thorns had made.