The shock the word gave me I can recall yet. Die! If there was any fear of that, it was all the more necessary I should make a rush for Dr. Frost and Featherston. Never had I been so near my wits’ end before, in the uncertainty as to what course I ought to take.
All in a moment, there arose a shrill whistle on the other side the stile. It was like a godsend. I knew it quite well for that vicious young reptile’s, but it was welcome to me as sunshine in harvest.
“There’s Raddy, Van Rheyn. I will send him.”
Vaulting over the stile, I saw the young man standing with his back to me near the hedge, his wretched outer garment—a sack without shape—hitched up, his hands in the pockets of his dilapidated trousers, that hung in fringes below the knee. He was whistling to his dog in the coppice. They must have struck through the tangles and briars higher up, which was a difficult feat, and strictly forbidden by law. It was well Sir John’s agent did not see Mr. Raddy—whose eyes, scratched and bleeding, gave ample proof of the trespass.
“Yah!” he shrieked out, turning at the sound of me, and grinning fresh defiance.
“Raddy,” I said, speaking in persuasive tones to propitiate him in my great need, “I want you to do something for me. Go to Dr. Frost as quickly as you are able, and say——”
Of all the derisive horrible laughs, his interruption was the worst and loudest. It drowned the words.
“One of the school has fallen and hurt himself,” I said, putting it in that way. “He’s lying here, and I cannot leave him. Hush, Raddy! I want to tell you,”—advancing a step or two nearer to him and lowering my voice to a whisper,—“I think he’s dying.”
“None o’ yer gammon here; none o’ yer lies”—and in proportion as I advanced, he retreated. “You’ve got a ambush in that there coppy—all the lot on you a-waiting to be down on me! Just you try it on!”
“I am telling you the truth, Raddy. There’s not a soul in there but the one I speak of. I say I fear he is dying. He is lying helpless. I will pay you to go”—feeling in my pockets to see how much I had there.