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Quicksilver; The Boy With No Skid To His Wheel, a fiction by George Manville Fenn |
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Chapter 36. In Dire Straits |
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_ CHAPTER THIRTY SIX. IN DIRE STRAITS
"I haven't done anything with the boat." "Then where is it?" "Fastened up to that old tree." "Oh, is it!" cried Bob derisively. "I should like to see it, then. Come and show me!" Dexter ran to the water's edge, and found the place on the bark where the chain had rubbed the trunk, but there was no sign of the boat. "Now then," cried Bob fiercely, "where is it?" "I don't know," said Dexter dolefully. "Yes, I do," he cried. "The chain must have come undone, and it's floating away." "Oh, is it?" said Bob derisively. "Then you'd better go and find it!" "Go and find it?" "Yes; we can't go to sea in our boots, can we, stoopid?" "But which way shall I go, Bob? Sometimes the tide runs up, and sometimes it runs down." "Yes, and I'll make you run up and down. You're a nice un, you are! I just shet my eyes for a few minutes, and trust you to look after the boat, and when I wake up again you're fass asleep, and the boat gone." "I'm very sorry, Bob, but I was so tired." "Tired! You tired! What on? Here, go and find that boat!" Dexter started off, and ran along the bank in one direction, while Bob went in the other, and at the end of half an hour Dexter came back feeling miserable and despondent as he had never felt before. "Found it, Bob!" he said. For answer his companion threw himself down upon his face, and began beating the ground with his fists, as if it were a drum. "I've looked along there as far as I could go," said Dexter sadly. "What shall we do!" "I wish this here was your stoopid head," snarled Bob, as he hammered away at the bare ground beneath the tree. "I never see such a chap!" "But what shall we do?" said Dexter again. "Do? I dunno, and I don't care. You lost the boat, and you've got to find it." "Let's go on together and walk all along the bank till we find somebody who has seen it." "And when we do find 'em d'yer think they'll be such softs as to give it to us back again!" This was a startling question. "I know 'em," said Bob. "They'll want to know where we got it from, and how we come by it, and all sorts o' nonsense o' that kind. Say we ain't no right to it. I know what they'll say." "But p'r'aps it's floating about?" "P'r'aps you're floating about!" cried Bob, with a snarl. "Boat like that don't go floating about without some one in it, and if it does some one gets hold of it, and says it's his." This was a terrible check to their adventurous voyage, as unexpected as it was sudden, and Dexter looked dolefully up in his companion's face. "I know'd how it would be, and I was a stoopid to bring such a chap as you," continued Bob, who seemed happiest when he was scolding. "You've lost the boat, and we shall have to go back." "Go back!" cried Dexter, with a look of horror, as he saw in imagination the stern countenance of the doctor, his tutor's searching eyes, Helen's look of reproach, and Sir James Danby waiting to ask him what had become of the boat, while Master Edgar seemed full of triumph at his downfall. "Go back?" No he could not go back. He felt as if he would rather jump into the river. "We shall both get a good leathering, and that won't hurt so very much." A good leathering! If it had been only the thrashing, Dexter felt that he would have suffered that; but his stay at the doctor's had brought forth other feelings that had been lying dormant, and now the thrashing seemed to him the slightest part of the punishment that he would have to face. No: he could not go back. "Well, whatcher going to do!" said Bob at last, with provoking coolness. "You lost the boat, and you've got to find it." "I will try, Bob," said Dexter humbly. "But come and help me." "Help yer? Why should I come and help yer? You lost it, I tell yer." Bob jumped up and doubled his fists. "Now then," he said; "get on, d'yer hear? get on--get on!" At every word he struck out at Dexter, giving him heavy blows on the arms--in the chest--anywhere he could reach. Dexter's face became like flame, but he contented himself with trying to avoid the blows. "Look here!" he cried suddenly. "No, it's you've got to look here," cried Bob. "You've got to find that there boat." Dexter had had what he thought was a bright idea, but it was only a spark, and it died out, leaving his spirit dark once more, and he seemed now to be face to face with the greatest trouble of his life. All his cares at the Union, and then at the doctor's, sank into insignificance before this terrible check to their adventure. For without the boat how could they get out of England? They could not borrow another. There was a great blank before him just at this outset of his career, and try how he would to see something beyond he could find nothing: all was blank, hopeless, and full of despair. Had his comrade been true to him, and taken his share of the troubles, it would have been bad enough; but it was gradually dawning upon Dexter that the boy he had half-idolised for his cleverness and general knowledge was a contemptible, ill-humoured bully--a despicable young tyrant, ready to seize every opportunity to oppress. "Are you a-going?" cried Bob, growing more brutal as he found that his victim made no resistance, and giving him a blow on the jaw which sent him staggering against one of the trees. This was too much; and recovering himself Dexter was about to dash at his assailant when he stopped short, for an idea that seemed incontrovertible struck him so sharply that it drove away all thought of the brutal blow he had received. "I know, Bob," he cried. "Know? What d'yer know?" "Where the boat is." "Yer do?" "Yes: that man followed us and took it away." Bob opened his mouth, and half-closed his eyes to stare at his companion, as he balanced this idea in his rather muddy brain. "Don't you see?" cried Dexter excitedly. "Come arter us and stole it!" said Bob slowly. "Yes: he must have watched us, and waited till we were asleep." "Go on with you!" "He did. I feel as sure as sure," cried Dexter. There was a pause during which Bob went on balancing the matter in his mind. "He has taken it up the river, and he thinks we shall be afraid to go after it." "Then he just thinks wrong," said Bob, nodding his head a good deal. "I thought something o' that kind a bit ago, but you made me so wild I forgot it again." "But you see now, Bob." "See? O' course I do. I'll just let him know--a thief. Here, come on, and we'll drop on to him with a policeman, and show him what stealing boats means." "No, no, Bob, we can't go with a policeman. Let's go ourselves, and make him give it up." "But s'pose he won't give it to us!" "We should have to take it," said Dexter excitedly. "Come on, then. He's got my fishing-tackle too, and--why just look at that! Did you put them there?" He darted to where his bundle and rough fishing-rod lay among the trees. "No; he must have thrown them out. Let's make haste. We know where the boat is now!" The boys started at once, and began to tramp back along the side of the river in the hope of finding the place where the boat was moored; but before they had gone far it was to find that floating down with the stream, or even rowing against the tide, was much easier work than forcing their way through patches of alder-bushes, swampy meadows, leaping, and sometimes wading, little inlets and ditches and the like. Their progress was very slow, the sun very hot, and at least a dozen times now they came upon spots which struck both as being the muddy bank off which they had captured the smelts. It was quite afternoon before they were convinced, for their further passage was stopped by the muddy inlet up which they had seen the man row, and not a hundred yards away was the bank under which they had fished. "Sure this is the place?" said Bob, as he crouched among some osiers and looked cautiously round. "Yes," said Dexter; "I'm certain this is the place. I saw him row up here. But--" "But what?" "He'd be quite sure not to take the boat up here." "Why not?" "For fear we should come after it." "Get out! Where would he take it, then?" "He'd hide it somewhere else; perhaps on the other side. Look!" Dexter pointed up the river to where, about a couple of hundred yards further on, a boat could be seen just issuing from a bed of reeds. Bob seized Dexter's arm to force him lower down among the osiers, but it was not necessary, for they were both well concealed; and as they continued there watching it was to see the boat come slowly toward them, and in a few minutes they were satisfied that it was the man they sought, propelling it slowly toward where they stooped. The fellow came along in a furtive manner, looking sharply round from time to time, as if scanning the river to see if he was observed. He came on and on till he reached the creek at whose mouth the boys were hidden, and as he came so close that they felt it impossible that they could remain unseen he suddenly ceased rowing, and stood up to shade his eyes from the sunshine, and gaze sharply down the river for some minutes. Then giving a grunt as of satisfaction he reseated himself, and rowed slowly up the creek, till he disappeared among the osiers and reeds which fringed its muddy banks. As he passed up he disturbed a shoal of large fish which came surging down, making quite a wave in the creek, till they reached the river, where all was still. "The boat's up there, Bob," said Dexter, after a long silence, so as to give the man time to get well out of hearing. "Yes, but how are we to get to it?" "Wade," said Dexter laconically. "'Tain't deep, only muddy." To cross the creek was necessary, and Bob softly let himself down from the bank till his feet were level with the water, then taking hold of a stout osier above his head he bent it down, and then dropped slowly into the water, which came nearly to his waist. "Come on!" he said, and after getting to the end of the osier he used his rod as a guide to try the depth, and with some difficulty, and the water very nearly to his chest, he got over. Dexter did not hesitate, but followed, and began to wade, feeling his feet sink at every step into the sticky mud, and very glad to seize hold of the end of the rod Bob was civil enough to hold to him from the further bank, up which they both crept, dripping like water-rats, and hid among the osiers on the other side. "Come on," whispered Bob, and with the mud and water trickling from them they crept along through quite a thicket of reeds, osiers, and the red-flowered willow-herb, while great purple patches of loosestrife blossomed above their heads. Every step took them further from the enemy, but they kept down in their stooping position, and a few yards from the bank of the river, feeling sure that they could not miss their way; and so it proved, for after what seemed to be an interminable journey they found themselves stopped by just such another creek as that which they had left, save and except that the mouth was completely hidden by a bed of reeds some of which showed where a boat had lately passed through. Whether their boat was there or not they could not tell, but it seemed easy to follow up the creek from the side they were on, and they crept along through the water-growth, which was thicker here than ever, but keeping as close as they could to the side, the scarped bank being about eight feet above the water. The creek was not above twenty feet wide, and, from the undisturbed state of the vegetation which flourished down its banks to where the tide seemed to rise, it seemed as if it was a rare thing for a boat to pass along. They stopped at every few yards to make sure that they were not passing that of which they were in search, looking carefully up and down, while the creek twined so much that they could never see any extent of water at a time. They must have wound in and out for quite three hundred yards, when, all at once, as they stooped there, panting and heated with the exercise, and with the hot sun beating down upon their heads, Dexter, who was in front, stopped short, for on his right the dense growth of reeds suddenly ceased, and on peering out it was to see a broad opening where they had been cut down, while within thirty yards stood a large stack of bundles, and beside it a rough-looking hut, toward which the man they had seen rowing up the other creek was walking. They had come right upon his home, which seemed to be upon a reedy island formed by the two creeks and the river. The boys crouched down, afraid to stir, and watching till they saw the man enter the rough reed-thatched hut, when, moving close to the edge of the bank, they crept on again after a few moments' hesitation, connected with an idea of making a retreat. Their perseverance was rewarded, for not fifty yards further on they looked down upon what seemed to be a quantity of reeds floating at the side of the creek, but one bundle had slipped off, and there, plainly enough, was the gunwale of the boat, the reeds having been laid across it to act as a concealment in case any one should glance carelessly up the creek. "Come on, Bob," whispered Dexter; and he let himself slide down into the muddy water as silently as he could, and began to tumble the bundles of reeds off into the creek. Bob followed his example, and, to their great delight, they found that the sculls and boat-hook were still in their places, while the boat-chain was secured to a stake thrust down into the mud. This was soon unloosed after they had climbed in, dripping, and covering the cushions with mud, but all that was forgotten in the delight of having found the boat. "Now, Bob, you row softly down and I'll use the boat-hook," whispered Dexter, as he stood up in the stern, while Bob sat down, seized the oars, and laid them in the rowlocks, ready to make the first stroke, when high above them on the bank they heard a quick, rushing noise, and directly after, to their horror, there stood, apparently too much dumbfounded to speak, the man they had seen a few minutes before going into the reed hut. _ |
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