"Oh! Mother," said Oscar, "let us stone him well as he comes down, and that will frighten him." "And let us hiss like snakes," said Felix, "and he'll think he has got into a nest of big snakes." "Capital," said Gatty, "it will be glorious fun." "No, we must shoot him," said Schillie. "No, no, little Mother, do let us stone him, and hiss him out," said all the little ones, and they ran to collect stones.
"Indeed, Schillie, I think the children's idea a very good one. If he is well stoned he won't come down, and if we hiss they will certainly think us snakes and, being already fearful about them, who knows but the fear of their being in the caverns of the island may drive them all away."
Schillie.—"Did ever any one hear of anything so silly. As if a man with an ounce of brains would be taken in by such a child's trick as this."
Oscar.—"Then keep the guns ready, cousin, and you and I will have a shot at him if necessary."
"Agreed," said she. "Now make haste, every one hide in different corners; he is coming down."
Most of this conversation was, of course, in whispers. Gatty was to give the signal for the stoning operations by her most accomplished hiss.
A sudden burst of daylight; he was cutting the brushwood away to investigate as far as he could before descending. We were all like silent mice. Three hairy faces peered down. We shivered, and picked up the biggest stones. Now then he is coming, they say all right in Spanish, and he requests they will let him down very slowly. Now we see his legs, now his body, now the whole of him. Why does not Gatty give the signal? Lower and lower, I must hiss in a minute if she does not; at last he is fairly half way down. A great hiss, a perfect hurricane of hisses ensues, and a shower of stones aimed with such right goodwill that the man roared again. In their start and alarm above they had let him slip down suddenly a few feet, but his violent cries and entreaties to be drawn up were quickly attended to, and, amidst incessant hitting, and such a volley of stones that I do not think one inch of his body escaped a bruise, he disappeared from our sight.
We heard him groaning and moaning above, while the others questioned him. He was too much stunned however to say anything as far as we could make it out, and presently we found they were lowering him down from the cliffs near Cartref Pellenig, as the easiest way of getting him home.
From our peep-holes we had the satisfaction of seeing our enemy in a deplorable state, and apparently insensible, which Gatty averred was her performance, as she aimed particularly at his head.
As Madame observed, a most unladylike proceeding!