“But we must have that strap and bell.”
“Come and fetch it then. It’s hanging on the hitching-up hook at the end of the house.”
“Oh!” sighed Ned in a voice full of relief, and he ran to the place specified, to lift down the bell and the collar-strap, to come back ringing it loudly.
“Hoi! Hallo, there! Steady!” cried Wilton excitedly. “Don’t do that.”
Ned gagged the bell at once by thrusting his left hand in its mouth and holding the clapper; but the little peal he had rung had done its work of setting all the mules in motion, bringing them all up close to the ringer, who found himself in the midst of a knot of squealing and kicking brutes, who diversified their vicious play by running open-mouthed at one another to bite.
But they were all loaded at length, there was a final look round, and then a move was made for the long shed, whose big door gaped wide, and as their footsteps were heard there was a shrill neigh from within and the sound of impatient stamping.
“This looks like a start at last, doctor,” said Griggs, who came up last.
“Yes, at last,” said the doctor.
“Got the map all right, sir?”
“Yes, in my saddle-bag. You said you had done everything that fell to your share.”