CHAPTER ELEVEN.
IN A SAD PLIGHT!
The Captain, who had remained on the plateau above, in company with MrsGilmour and Dick--the latter still in charge of the precious hamper--pricked up his ears at the sound of poor Nellie's scream and Bob'sexpressive cry of alarm.
"Hullo!" he sang out in his sailor fashion-- "I wonder what's the rownow? By Jove, I thought it wouldn't be long before those two youngpersons got into mischief when we left them alone together."
"I hope to goodness they haven't come to any harm," said Mrs Gilmourdolefully. "Sure and will you go and say what's happened?"
"Sure an' I'm just a-going, ma'am," replied the Captain, keeping up hisgood-humoured mimicry of her accent so as to reassure her; adding, as hescrambled down the slope cautiously with the aid of his trusty malaccacane-- "You needn't be alarmed, ma'am, `at all at all,' for I don'tbelieve anything very serious has occurred, as children's calls forassistance generally mean nothing in the end. They are like, as yourcountryman said when he shaved his pig, `all cry and little wool!'"
He chuckled to himself as he went on down the declivity, turning roundfirst, however, to see whether Mrs Gilmour appreciated the allusion to"poor Pat"; while Dick, leaving the hamper behind, followed, in case hisassistance might also be needed in the emergency.
Arrived at the bottom of the dell the old sailor found it impossible atfirst to tell what had happened; for, Bob was trying to force his waythrough the brushwood brake, and Rover barking madly. Nellie wasnowhere to be seen, although her voice could be heard proceeding fromsomewhere near at hand, calling for help still, but in a weaker voice.
"Where are you?" shouted the Captain. "Sing out, can't you!"
"Here," came the reply in the girl's faint treble; "I'm here!"
"Where's `here'?" said he, puzzled. "I can't see anything of you!"
"I've tumbled into a pit," cried Nellie piteously, in muffled tones thatsounded as if coming from underground. "Do take me out, please!There's a lot of wild animals here, and they're biting my legs--oh!"
A series of piercing shrieks followed, showing that the poor child wasterribly alarmed, if not seriously hurt; and the Captain saw that notime was to be lost.
"Can you reach her, Bob?" he sang out; "or see her, eh?"
"No, I can't get through these prickly bushes, they're just like awall!" replied Bob, fighting manfully through to get down to hissister's relief. "I can't see her a bit, either!"
"Humph!"
The Captain thought a moment, rather shirking going amongst the thorns.
"Ha, the very thing!" he exclaimed. "Hi, Rover!"
The dog, who had been barking and running here and there aimlessly, atonce cocked his ears and came up to the Captain, scanning his face witheager attention.
"Fetch her out, good dog!" he cried, pointing to the spot where thebroken branch of the oak-tree had given way, adding in a louder voice,"Call him, Nellie--call the dog to you, missy."
A cry, "Here, Rover!" came from underneath the tangled mass ofbrushwood, borne down and partly torn away by Nellie in her fall to thedepths below. "Come here, sir!"
No sooner did he hear this summons, faint though it was, from his youngmistress, than any uncertainty which may have obscured his mind as towhat the Captain meant by telling him to "fetch her out," at oncedisappeared; and Rover, uttering a short, sharp, expressive bark, toshow that he now understood what was expected of him, boldly plungedinto the thicket with a bound.
"Chuck, chuck, chuck! Whir-r-r-ur," and a blackbird flew out, dashingin the Captain's face; while, at the same time, another piercing screechcame from Nellie-- "Ah-h-ah! Help!"
The old sailor was so startled that he jumped back, his hat tumbling offinto a bramble-bush.
"Zounds!" he exclaimed. "What the dickens is that?"
In a moment, however, he recovered himself.
"Pooh, what a fool I am!" he said, ashamed of the slight weakness he haddisplayed, and hoping neither of the boys had noticed it; and then, toshow how cool and collected he was, he whistled up the retriever."Whee-ee-up, Rover, fetch her out, good dog!"
Rover did not need this adjuration, not he.
Even as the Captain spoke, there was a rustling and tramping in thethicket, accompanied by the snapping of twigs; and, almost at the sameinstant, the dog dashed out from amidst the brushwood with Nellieholding on to his tail.
"Oh my!" ejaculated Dick, rushing to her side; and, with the assistanceof Bob, who also emerged from the prickly cavern at the same time, shewas got on her feet-- "Poor Nell!"
She presented a sorry spectacle.
Never was such a piteous plight seen!
Her face was scratched by the thorns, her clothes torn, and her hat hadfallen off like that of the Captain, who had, by the way, in the flurryforgotten to replace his on his head, the venerable article remaining ina sadly battered condition where it had fallen.
On being released, however, from her predicament, Nellie treated thematter much more lightly than might have been expected.
She was a very courageous little girl now that she knew she was insafety.
But she was also, it should be said, blest, too, with great amiability.
"Oh, never mind the scratches," she replied, in answer to the Captain'sinquiries. "I'm not at all hurt, thank you."
"How about those wild animals?" asked the old sailor smiling, "eh,missy?"
Nellie coloured up, but could not help laughing at the Captain'squizzical face, as he took up his hat gingerly and put it on.
"I--I made a mistake," she stammered. "I was frightened!"
At that moment, however, very opportunely, Master Rover, who had dartedback into the thicket after reclaiming his young mistress, saved her allfurther explanation as to the unknown beasts that had caused her suchalarm by appearing now in full pursuit of an unfortunate rabbit which,putting forth its best speed, escaped him in the very nick of time bydiving into a hole on the other side of the knoll, contemptuouslykicking up its heels as it did so, almost into his open mouth.
The mystery of Nellie's disappearance was thus satisfactorily solved.
She had fallen into an old rabbit-burrow.
The harmless little creatures, whom she had imagined to be makingdesperate assaults on her legs and about to eat her up, too, wereprobably even more frightened than she was!
"Oh--oh, that's one of those ferocious wild animals, little missy, eh?"chuckled the Captain. "I see, young lady."
"Yes, but they frightened me," pleaded poor Nell. "They moved aboutunder my feet, jumping up at me, I thought; and it was so dark downthere that I didn't know what they might be. You would have beenfrightened too, I think, sir!"
She added this little retort to her explanation with some considerablespirit, a bit nettled by the Captain's chaff.
"Well, well, my dear, perhaps you are right," he replied good-humouredly. "I also have a confession to make, missy. Just beforeRover cantered up, with you holding on to his tail like Mazeppa lashedto the back of the fiery untamed steed of the desert, a blackbird flewout of your blackberry thicket, brushing past my face, and do you knowit startled me so that I jumped back, losing my hat. So, you see, I gota fright too!"
"I see'd yer, sir," said Dick, the Captain looking round as if awaitingcomment on his action. "I see'd yer done it!"
"And so did I," cried Bob, the appearance of whose face had not beenimproved by his struggles with the thorny bushes as he tried to forcehis way through them to Nellie's rescue. "I saw you too!"
"You young rascals!" exclaimed the Captain, shaking his stick at them."I thought you were looking at me! I suppose you'll be going andtelling everybody you saw the old sailor in a terrible funk, and that Iwas going to faint?"
"Sure and that's what I feel like doing!" cried Mrs Gilmour in a verywoebegone voice, she having only just succeeded in arriving at the sceneof action, scrambling down with some difficulty from the top of theslope, the pathway being blocked at intervals by the struggling creeperswhi
ch twined and interlaced themselves with the undergrowth, trailingdown from the branches of the trees above, and making it puzzling toknow which way to go. "I couldn't crawl a step further. What withscurrying to catch that dreadful steamboat, and then my fright ofhearing the children scream, and now having to clamber down thismountain, I'm ready to drop!"
"Don't, ma'am, please," said the Captain imploringly; "you'll be sorryfor it if you do. The ground is full of rabbit-burrows, and there are alot of nettles about."
"Good gracious!" she exclaimed, looking round her in the greatest alarm,and drawing in the skirts of her dress. "Whatever made you bring mehere then, Captain Dresser?"
"Well, ma'am," began the Captain; but Mrs Gilmour, who at that momentfirst caught sight of Nellie's face, interrupted him before he could getin a word further than, "you see--"
"Oh, my dearie!" cried she, in a higher key, forgetting at once all herown troubles; and, rushing up to Nell with the utmost solicitude, shehugged her first and then inspected her carefully, "what have you doneto your poor dear face?"
"Oh, it's not much, auntie," said Nellie, just then busy arranging herdress. "I have only got a scratch or two."
"And your clothes too," continued Mrs Gilmour, her consternationincreasing at the sight of the damage done. "Why, your frock is torn toshreds!"
"Not so bad as that, auntie," laughed the girl, but with a look ofdismay on her face the while. "It is rather bad though."
"Bad," repeated her aunt, "sure, it's scandalous! And, say yourbrother, now--whatever have you both been about? His poor face is allbleeding, too!"
"Now, don't you make matters worse than they are," interposed theCaptain. "A little water will soon set them both right."
"And where shall we get water here?" she asked. "Tell me that!"
His answer came quick enough, the Captain being seldom "taken aback."
"You forget, ma'am, the little rivulet we passed on our way. Dick," headded, "run and fetch some for us, like a good lad."
Nell had brought with her from home a little tin bucket, which sheusually took down to the shore for collecting sea-anemones and otherspecimens for her aquarium; so, catching hold of this, Dick started offin the direction of the tiny brook they had crossed some little timebefore, returning anon with the bucket brimming full.
Miss Nell and Bob thereupon set to work in high glee at their extemporeablutions; and, when they had subsequently dried their faces in theirpocket-handkerchiefs, both presented a much improved appearance.
With the exception of a few scratches, they bore little traces of thefray, the blood-stains, which looked at first sight so very dreadful,having vanished on the application of the cold water, as the Captain hadprophesied.
"There, ma'am," cried he now exultingly; pointing this out to MrsGilmour, "I told you so, didn't I? `all cry and little wool,' eh, ho,ho, ho!"
"That may be," retorted she; "but, water won't mend Nellie's dress."
"Well then, ma'am, I will," replied the Captain. "You'll always find asailor something of a tailor, if he's worth his salt!"
He laughed when he said this, and his imperturbable good-humour banishedthe last vestige of Mrs Gilmour's vexation at the children's plight.
"Sure, and you shan't do anything of the sort," she said smiling. "I'llrun up Nell's tatters meesilf!" As she spoke she produced from herpocket--a handy little "housewife," containing needles and thread, aswell as a thimble, which useful articles the good lady seldom stirredout without; and, sitting down on a shawl which the Captain spread overa bit of turf that he assured her was free from nettles, and ten yardsat least from the nearest rabbit-burrow, she proceeded to sew away at abrisk rate on the torn frock of Miss Nellie, who sat herself demurelybeside her aunt.
"Will you be long?" inquired the old sailor, after watching her busyfingers some little time, getting slightly fidgety. "Eh, ma'am?"
"I should think it will be quite an hour before I shall be able to makethe child decent," she replied. "Why do you ask?"
"Humph!" ejaculated the Captain, as he always did when cogitating someknotty point, "I'll tell you, ma'am. If it's agreeable to you, ma'am,the boys and I might go on to Brading and see the remains of that Romanvilla I was talking about yesterday. That is, unless you would like usto wait till you've done your patchwork there, and all of us gotogether, eh?"
"No, I wouldn't hear of such a thing," answered Mrs Gilmour, looking upbut not pausing for an instant in her task. "I wouldn't walk a mile tosee Julius Caesar himself, instead of his old villa, or whatever youcall it."
The Captain appeared greatly amused at this.
"I'm not certain that the place ever belonged to that distinguishedgentleman," he said. "It is supposed, I believe, to have been theresidence of a certain Vespasian, who was governor of the Isle of Wightsome period after its conquest by the Romans; but how far this is true,ma'am, I can't vouch for personally, never having as yet, indeed, seenthe spot."
"But, I assure you, I've no curiosity to go. I feel much too tired, andwould rather sit comfortably here. Would you like, Nell, to go with theCaptain and Bob?"
"No, auntie, I'd prefer stopping with you. I want to get some ferns andlots of things after you've mended my dress for me," replied Alice. "Ilike flowers better than old ruins."
She said this quite cheerfully, as if she didn't mind a bit not goingwith the boys.
This surprised the Captain somewhat, for he thought she would not likebeing left behind, and would have looked at all events a trifle cross.
But, seeing how she took the matter, the old sailor's mind was immenselyrelieved.
"Well then," he cried smiling, with his eyes blinking and winking away,"the sooner we're off, why the sooner we'll be back. Hullo, though,I've forgotten the hamper! Run up, Dick, and fetch it down here."
Off scampered the lad, coming back quickly with the hamper, which heplaced carefully by Mrs Gilmour's side.
"There ma'am," said Captain Dresser, "you can look after the luncheonwhile we're away. Come along, boys--hi, Rover!"
"Oh, please leave him behind," implored Nellie. "We want him."
"What, who?" asked the Captain. "Dick or the dog?"
"Rover," replied Nellie promptly. "He'll protect us in your absence incase anything happens."
"What's that, eh!" quizzed the old sailor. "I suppose you're thinkingagain of those ferocious wild animals you encountered awhile ago, eh,missy?"
"It's a shame, auntie, for the Captain to tease me so!" exclaimedNellie, as the chaffy old gentleman went off chuckling, followed byMaster Bob and Dick, the three soon disappearing amidst the greenery."Never mind, though, I have got you, my good doggie; and I shan't forgethow you came to my help, nor how glad I was to catch hold of your poortail, you dear Rover, when you dragged me out of that horrid hole!"
"Be aisy, me dearie," remonstrated Mrs Gilmour, as Nell reached over tohug Rover in a sudden caress of affection, and caused by the suddenmovement a breakage of the thread, thus interrupting her aunt'shandiwork. "Sure, if you go wriggling about like an eel with that dog,I shall never get your frock mended!"
"All right, auntie, I beg your pardon. I'll be very good now, andpromise not to move again till you tell me to."
So saying, Miss Nell resumed her former position, and, making Rover liedown at her feet, remained "as quiet as a mouse," as her auntacknowledged, until the latter had completed her task of gathering upthe rents in the damaged garment that the envious blackberry-thorns hadmade.