Low as he had spoken, the sound awoke the sleeper. He opened his eyes dreamily at first, but with full recognition afterwards, and said, “O, you fellows, I’m so delighted to set you; when I saw Henderson last, he told me that you hadn’t come back, and that people were beginning to fear some accident; and I suppose that’s the reason why I’ve been dreaming so uneasily, and fancying that I saw you tumbling down the rift, and all kinds of things.”
“Well, we were very near it, Dubbs, but, thanks to Walter, we escaped all right,” said Power.
Daubeny looked up inquiringly. “We must tell you all about it to-morrow,” said Power. “How are you feeling?”
“O, I don’t know; not very well, but it’s no matter; I daresay I shall be all right soon.”
“Hush, you young gentlemen,” said the nurse; “this’ll never do; you oughtn’t to have awoke Master Daubeny just as he was sleeping so nice.”
“Very sorry, nurse; good-night, Dubbs; hope you’ll be all right to-morrow,” said they, and then adjourned to Power’s study.
The gas was lighted in the pretty little room, and the matron, regarding them as heroes, had sent them a very tempting tea. They ate it almost in silence, for they were quite tired out. It seemed an age since they had started in the morning with Henderson and Daubeny. Directly tea was finished, Kenrick, exhausted with fatigue and excitement, fell asleep in his chair, with his head thrown back and his lips parted.
“There, I think that’s a sign that we ought to be going to bed,” said Walter, laughing as he pointed at him.
“O no,” said Power, “not yet; it’s so jolly sitting here; don’t wake him, but come and draw your chair next to mine by the fire and have a chat.”
Walter obeyed the invitation, and for a few minutes they both sat gazing into the fire, reading faces in the embers, and pursuing their own thoughts. Each of them was happy in the other’s presence; and Walter, though more than a year Power’s junior, and far below him in the school, was delighted with the sense of fully possessing, in the friendship of this most promising and gifted boy, a treasure which any one in the world might well have envied him.