The Ocean Cat's Paw: The Story of a Strange Cruise

  CHAPTER FOUR.

  OH, SUMMER NIGHT!

  Mrs Champernowne's arbour was a very homely affair, consisting of fourfir poles to form as many corners, and a few more nailed and peggedtogether to form gables. Nature built all the rest with roses andhoneysuckle and some vigorous ivy at the back, the roses spiring up, thehoneysuckle creeping in and out among the long strands and holding themtogether, while the ivy ran rapidly up the back till it could grow nohigher, and then began to droop down till it had formed itself into athick curtain which kept out the wind.

  There was a very rustic table in the middle, formed by nailing twopieces of plank on to a tree stump, and a couple of seats, one on eachside, pierced with holes that had once upon a time been made by shipcarpenters' augers, when the wood was built up over the ribs of somestout ship which long years after was bumped to pieces by the waves uponthe rocks and then cast up upon the southern shore, to be bought up andcarted all through the county.

  Yes, it was a very rustic place, but it suited its surroundings, andUncle Paul looked supremely happy as he sat there slowly smoking hispipe and gazing dreamily before him at the beautiful landscapestretching far, and the garden of the one cottage within reach only ashort distance away from the plot of ground where by the help of theneighbour sufficient potatoes were grown for the widow's use. "What asilent, peaceful evening, Pickle," said Uncle Paul. "Look yonder in theeast; the moon will be up soon, and then it will be night, and we havedone no work. How do you feel, my boy?"

  "Tired and stupid, uncle. My legs ache right down to the ankles."

  "No wonder, hopping about amongst those granite boulders. My back's abit stiff too. There, let's go into the parlour, light up, and then youshall fetch down the microscope."

  "Oh, not yet, uncle!--I say, have another pipe."

  "A vaunt, you young tempter! Trying to lead me astray into idleness!No, let's get in. We have been playing all day; now let's go and get abit of work done before we lie down to sleep."

  "But I say, uncle, do you think that Napoleon will ever start anotherwar in France?"

  "Who knows, boy? His goings-on have brought nearly everything to astandstill, and there has been war enough to last for a hundred years."

  "Yes, uncle; but do you think that Napoleon and the war put a stop toyour expedition that you were to make in a vessel of your own?"

  "Of course I do, Pickle," said Uncle Paul, smoking very slowly now, withhis eyes shut, so as to make the little incandescent mass at the bottomof his bowl last for a few minutes longer. "Government promised me andmy friends to make a grant for the fitting out of a small vessel, andfor the payment of a captain and crew, and it was voted that we shouldhave it; but do what we might, my friends and I could never get thecash, and it has always been put off, put off, on account of theexpenses of the war."

  "But, uncle--" began Rodd.

  "No, you don't, sir," said Uncle Paul, with a soft chuckle. "None ofyour artfulness! You are trying to lead me on to prattle about Bony, soas to avoid my lecture upon the fresh-water polypes I have taken to-day.Get out, you transparent young scrub! In with you, and fetch down thecase, and light the two candles on the parlour table. Nice innocent wayof doing it. Think I couldn't see through you, sir? Be off!"

  A few minutes later Uncle Paul's pipe was cooling on the parlourchimney-piece, kept almost upright by the waxy end leaning against aglass tube which had been formed into a sort of ornamental rolling-pinto be suspended over the fire, and to be much treasured by its owner.

  It was not a very aesthetic piece of art or ornamentation, being onlycomposed of coloured flowers carefully cut out of a piece of chintz,before being gummed upon the inside of the glass tube. This was thenfilled up with salt, and the ornament was complete.

  The candles were burning brightly after each application of thesnuffers; the polished mahogany microscope case stood on a side-table,and the brass tube that had been taken out was ready to receive one ofthe many slips of glass, some of which had little cup-like hollowsground out of one side ready for receiving a tiny drop of water and oneor other of the specimens, the result of the past day's search.

  Uncle Paul was on one side of the table with his big glass bottle; Roddsat on the other, with his chin resting in his hands, trying to listento his uncle's discourse, and with his eyelids drooping down now andagain.

  "Bother the flies and moths!" said Uncle Paul testily. "Who's to workwith them circling round and round the candles, trying to singethemselves to death? What's that white one, boy?"

  "Ghost moth, uncle," replied Rodd sharply, his uncle's question seemingto rouse him up to attention.

  "Good boy! Well named. Trying hard to make a ghost of itself too.Why, there's a great Daddy Longlegs now! Here, you'll have to shut thewindow."

  "Oh, don't, uncle! It will make the room so hot."

  "Umph! So it will. Very tiresome, though, when one's trying to work.Now then, let me see; let me see. I want to examine this hydra, but Imust put on a lower power, and--Oh, dear, dear, dear! Gnats! Moths!Tipulae and--Really, really, Pickle, that lamp gives no light at all;"and Uncle Paul leaned forward, took a pin out of the edge of hiswaistcoat, and began to prick at and try to raise the wick of thereflecting microscope lamp.

  Then there was a little catastrophe, for after a most vigorousapplication of the pin the wick seemed to resent it as if it were somekind of sea worm, and drew back out of reach into its little brass cell.

  "There, now I've done it!" said Uncle Paul. "Did you ever see anythingso tiresome in your life, Pickle?"

  "Yahah!" sighed the boy slowly.

  "Why, what are you doing? Yawning!" cried Uncle Paul. "You are aboutthe sleepiest chap I ever knew. There, I am afraid I shall have to waitfor to-morrow morning's sunshine. Clear away, or help me. Let's puteverything on a side-table, and I'll tell Mrs Champernowne that sheisn't to touch what she sees there."

  "Yes, uncle," said the boy, with something like alacrity, as the tablewas cleared and the candles re-snuffed, the effect of opening andshutting the snuffers seeming to act upon Rodd and making him yawnwidely, while quite involuntarily Uncle Paul did the same. "Now then,"said Uncle Paul.

  "Aren't we going to bed, uncle?" said Rodd eagerly. "Bed? Nonsense!Because we are in a country place where people like going to bed almostin the middle of the day and getting up in the middle of the night, doyou think we need follow their example? Absurd! I want to talk to youabout some of the wonderful things I captured to-day. The waters on themoor swarm with the most beautiful limpid specimens."

  Rodd sighed softly, and put his hand before his mouth to stop a yawn.

  "Oh, by the way," said Uncle Paul, "did you change your trousers whenyou went up to wash?"

  "No, uncle; they didn't want it."

  "Weren't they damp?"

  "No, uncle; I only got my shoes wet, and they were pretty well dry whenI got home. Besides, you had got my other trousers in the bigportmanteau in your room."

  "Well, you could have come and fetched them. Always be careful tochange damp things.--Come in!"

  There had been a soft tap at the door, and Mrs Champernowne appeared.

  "I beg pardon, sir, but what would you like for breakfast in themorning?"

  "Breakfast, Mrs Champernowne? Nothing."

  "Oh, I say, uncle!" said Rodd sharply. "We seem to have eaten enoughthis evening to last us for twenty-four hours."

  "Oh no, sir," said the landlady. "Excuse me, but our moorland air willmake you think very differently to-morrow morning."

  "Humph!" grunted Uncle Paul.

  "You see, sir, I did think that you'd bring home enough trout thisevening to do for your breakfast too, and I am afraid there's nothingbut ham and eggs. Would you mind them?"

  "I'll tell you to-morrow morning, madam," said Uncle Paul.

  "Then if you wouldn't mind, sir--I don't want to hurry you and the younggentleman--but it's my time, and if you will excuse me I'll saygood-night."

  "Good-night, Mrs
Champernowne; good-night, and pleasant rest to you,"said Uncle Paul heartily, "and--Yes? You were going to say something?"

  "If you wouldn't mind, sir, being sure that the candles are well out."

  "Oh, of course; of course."

  "And it's a very hot night, sir."

  "Yes, madam; we have found that out."

  "So if you'll be kind enough to shut and slip the bolt of the front doorI'll leave it for you to do so when you go up to bed."

  "Certainly, Mrs Champernowne, certainly. Once more, good-night."

  Their landlady smiled benevolently on both, and the next minute theyheard the little old staircase creaking beneath her tread, this beingfollowed by the cracking of the boards in the little room over thekitchen, the visitors both listening till all was silent again.

  Somehow as Rodd sat opposite to his uncle, his head seemed to beunusually heavy, and he rested more and more upon his two thumbs, whichhe had placed for support beneath his chin.

  There was a faint pinging sound, the trumpeting of a gnat flitting aboutthe room, and then the deep boom of a beetle somewhere outside the openwindow. There was a hot delicious odour, too, floating in over theflowers in the garden, a portion of whose scent the warm air seemed tobe taking up to mingle with that which it had swept off the moor.

  And then as Rodd listened and gazed across the table between the twocandles, whose tops were growing tiny brown mushrooms as they silentlyasked to be snuffed, it seemed to the boy that his uncle's face lookeddim and misty, and then that it swelled and swelled and began to floatup like a faintly seen balloon, till it died right away. And all wasstill but the _um-um-um_ of the great beetle or chafer which had passedin through the window, and began circling round just below thewhitewashed ceiling, against which its wings brushed from time to timewith a faint fizz, till all at once Rodd started up, for his uncleexclaimed--

  "Why, Pickle, what are you about?"

  "I--I--nothing, uncle," said the boy hastily. "Why, I believe, sir, youwere going to sleep!"

  "Oh, I am quite wide awake, uncle," cried the boy.

  "Humph, yes--now. You see, my boy, these hydras are most extraordinarythings, and to-morrow morning in the bright sunshine we will get themicroscope to work, and I'll show you how they--"

  _Burr_--_burr_--_burr_--_hum_--_hum_--_hum_--_um_--_um_.

  Was that Uncle Paul talking in a low tone with his voice getting fartherand farther away, or was it that big chafer spinning round and round theroom? Now it nearly died out, and then it grew louder again and seemedto double into a duet, just as if the great stag beetle had whisked inat the casement and had joined in the nocturnal valse, the duet seemingto be intended to lull the naturalist and his nephew to sleep in thesoft musky sweetness of that delightful summer's night.

  How long it lasted, who could say, but all at once there was a suddenstart, and Uncle Paul's hand came down with a thump upon the tableclothafter he had knocked over one of the candlesticks, making so much noisethat, wide awake now, Rodd made a dash and stood the candlestick upagain, before snatching the candle from where it lay singeing thelavender and red-check cotton table-cover and beginning to deposit a bigspot of grease.

  "Bless my heart, Pickle!" cried Uncle Paul. "I believe I was going todrop asleep."

  "I am afraid I was asleep, uncle," replied the boy. "You were sayingthat hydras--that hydras--er--er--er--something about hydras."

  "Yes, yes, yes, but never mind. Perhaps we had better go to bed, andI'll finish what I was saying in the morning. There, light the two flatcandlesticks, and we will have a good long snooze. That's right; putout the others. No, no; use the extinguisher! Don't blow them out, orthere will be such a smell."

  Then--

  "Shall I shut the window, uncle?"

  "Oh, no, I don't think you need. The place is like an oven. Heigho--ha--hum! Yes, I am sleepy. Come along. Good-night, my boy. I amgoing to sleep with my chamber window wide open, and you'd better do thesame."

  "But I say, uncle, we shall hardly want our candles. Look at the moon.It is almost as light as day."

  All the same they took the candles up with them, the stairs creakingagain beneath their tread as if uttering a protest against them fortheir forgetfulness in not attending to their hostess's request to closeand bolt the door; but they were too sleepy to do anything more thanslip off their things on reaching their rooms, while almost directlyafter, the moon was shining in right across Rodd's snowy white bed, thepillow being in the darkness, which also formed a black bar across thefoot, so that only the boy's hands and breast lay in the light.

  One moment after laying his head down in that black velvety darknessRodd Harding was wide awake and thinking that all outside the window wassilver, a broad streak of which came straight over him to die away inthe wall on his left; the next, he was far away in the land of dreams,wandering over the moor, his confused visions taking the form ofescaping prisoners flying before soldiers in scarlet coats.

  And then after a blank pause which seemed to have lasted only a fewminutes, Rodd opened his eyes upon the bright silvery light once more,to find that it struck across from the window in the opposite direction,for he was wide awake, listening to a soft tap, tap, tap, evidentlyadministered by a knuckle upon his door.