CHAPTER FOUR.
DICK TO THE RESCUE.
"Gracious heavens! The boy will be drowned!" exclaimed Mrs Gilmour,wringing her hands frantically and rushing forward at once; whileNellie, equally excited, burst into tears, clinging to her aunt's side."Oh, what shall I say to his mother? He's lost; he's lost!"
"No, he isn't--not a bit of it; no more drowned than I am," cried theCaptain, laying his hand on Mrs Gilmour's arm, and putting both her andNellie back, to prevent any rash impulse on their part. "You just keepas cool as the young rascal must be now! I'll fish him out in anotherminute, if you'll leave me alone; and, he'll be none the worse, barringa wetting."
With these words, the spry old gentleman, who was more active than manya younger man, began making his way cautiously down the treacherousslope of the rampart, aided by his trusty malacca cane, poking his stickbetween the niches of the stonework to act as a stay, and so prevent hisslipping on too fast.
But, quick as he was in his movements, hardly had he made a dozensliding steps down the decline, the action of the whole scene beingalmost instantaneous, when he felt, rather than saw, some one else glideswiftly past him still more expeditiously; and then, there was anotherheavy plunge in the water below, where Bob and Rover were struggling fordear life.
"Bless my soul!" ejaculated the Captain, halting abruptly with theassistance of his sheet anchor, the malacca cane, as he half turnedround. "The woman's never such a fool!"
He thought it was Mrs Gilmour.
But, he was mistaken.
Dick had anticipated them both.
Bob's unlucky slip and cry of alarm as he fell into the sea, his aunt'sexclamation of terror, the Captain's movement to the rescue, and thegrateful Dick's perilous jump, for it was almost a leap from the top ofthe castle wall, were all, as has been already pointed out, the work ofa moment; the chain of incidents taking much longer to describe than tohappen.
So, there, before you could cry `Jack Robinson,' as the Captainafterwards said, two boys, instead of one, were struggling with the dogin the water; and of all these three, to heighten the excitement of thescene, Rover alone was able to swim!
Bob, of course, had plunged in unwittingly, while Dick's only thoughtwas to help one from whom he had received such unexpected kindness; thelad not having reflected for an instant on the danger of the task he wasundertaking.
Now, therefore, although on reaching the water the grateful boysucceeded in carrying out his object of catching hold of Bob, bothimmediately sank under the surface.
They came up the next moment locked together, spluttering andsplattering for breath and holding up their hands for aid, an actionwhich naturally sent them down again; the tide meanwhile sweeping themaway from the shore.
Rover was master of the situation--that is, he and the Captain, who bythis time had scrambled down to the last ledge of the rampart, and tookin the position of affairs at a glance.
"Hi, Rover, good dog, fetch them out!" cried the old sailor, at the samemoment throwing off his coat and preparing to go into the sea, too, ifneed be. "Fetch 'em out!"
But, there was no necessity for this appeal to Rover, who did notrequire any orders or directions as to his duty.
The dog, like the Captain, was quite aware of the perilous position ofhis young master, and had already determined in his own mind what wasbest to be done under such circumstances.
Master Bob having come down flop on top of him as he was trying toclamber out, had in the first instance somewhat obscured his faculties;and the subsequent appearance of Dick on the scene, as he was justrecovering from this douche, did not tend to make matters clearer to theretriever, whose eyes and ears were full of water, besides beingmoreover tired out by his previous exertions.
Any hesitation poor Rover might have felt, though, barely lasted aninstant; for, the sight of two figures battling for life in the seathere under his very nose, and the knowledge that one of these was hisyoung master, brought in an instant all his sagacious instincts intoplay.
He did not need the Captain or anybody else to tell him what to do. Nothe!
Giving his head a quick shake to clear his eyes and uttering a short,sharp bark, as if to say, `Hold on, my boys, I'm coming to help you!'the dog appeared to scramble through the water by a series of leaps,rather than to swim, towards the spot where the two unfortunates werestruggling.
Reaching the pair, he at once gripped Bob's collar in his powerful teethand proceeded to tow him to land, Dick hanging on behind; and Rover'smuzzle was already turned shorewards, dragging his double burthen asternere the Captain's cry of encouragement came to his ears, although onhearing it the noble animal redoubled his efforts.
It was, however, a terrible ordeal; nay, almost a hopeless one!
Had the boys been conscious, Rover would have had comparatively easywork of it, as then one of them might have held on to his collar and theother to his tail, and he could have pulled them both out without muchtrouble; as it was, now, they clung so frantically to each other and tohim that they retarded in lieu of assisting his gallant attempt to savethem.
But, help was at hand.
Just as the Captain called out, a couple of coastguardsmen were cominground the corner of the castle on their beat towards the east pier; and,hearing his shout to Rover, they stopped.
"Hullo!" cried one of the men, observing that Mrs Gilmour was in astate of great agitation, with Nellie sobbing beside her and the Captainat the bottom of the sloping rampart in the act of taking off hiscoat--"Anything wrong, mum?"
Mrs Gilmour's heart was so full that she could not speak at once, andthe man who addressed her jumped to a wrong conclusion from the absenceof any explanation at the moment.
"Oh, I see, mum, he's a-going to commit sooacide? We'll soon spoil hislittle game, mum. Bear a hand, Bill, will ye?"
So saying, the speaker and his comrade, with a catlike ease that camenaturally to them from their practice at sea, where they had a rollingdeck beneath their feet much more difficult to traverse than theslippery slope they were now on, had reached the spot where the coatlessold sailor stood almost as these words were uttered, leaping down thesteep descent in a sort of `hop-skip-and-jump' fashion.
"None o' that!" exclaimed the elder of the two men who had previouslyspoken, grasping hold of one of the Captain's arms while his mate, or`Bill,' caught hold of the other. "A-going to make away with yourself,eh? Not if we knows it, sir!"
At the same instant, however, Captain Dresser turned round with a faceon which the animated expression produced by his determination to tryand rescue the boys was mingled with a puzzled look of astonishment atbeing tackled in this unceremonious manner when on the very point ofaction.
His black eyes twinkled and his bushy eyebrows moved up and down at afine rate as he looked up indignantly to see who had dared to lay handon him.
"My stars!" ejaculated the coastguardsman Bill, dropping hold of theCaptain's arm as if it had been a hot poker, "I'm blest if it ain't theold cap'en!"
The other man also recognised him at the same time, releasing the oldman equally hurriedly.
"Beg pardon, sir," he said. "Didn't know it wer' you, sir!"
But the Captain made no reply to this apology.
He only pointed to the water just below where they were standing, andwhere the head of Rover could be dimly seen in the gathering dusk of theevening, now rapidly closing in, splashing his way to the shore.
"Boys--save--quick--drown!" he stammered out brokenly. "Quick, quick!"
The men did not require any further explanation or incentive.
Without stopping to doff a garment, in they both plunged, boots and all;and, before the Captain knew that they were gone from his side, they hadreached poor Rover, now quite exhausted, gallant dog though he was!
Then, one of the men grasping hold of Bob and the other catching hold ofDick, they swam with the two boys between them, still locked together,to the end of the rampart wall that jutted out over the water.
Here the Ca
ptain was ready and waiting to lean over and lend them ahand, keeping the while a steady purchase to his feet by the aid of hismalacca stick, which possibly had never been of such service before;and, presently, the coastguardsmen, the boys, and Rover, who would notlet go his young master's collar and was lifted out along with him, wereall once more again on firm ground.
By this time, a small crowd of spectators had collected on the spot,composed principally of persons who had come out for a walk round thecastle and had their attention arrested by the scene passing in thewater below.
The majority of these now, in company with Mrs Gilmour and Nellie,hurried to the lower part of the rampart, which, on the side nearer theharbour, did not shelve down there so abruptly, broadening out bydegrees to a wide flat surface where it joined the esplanade borderingthe beach.
At this spot, the coastguardsmen laid down the rescued boys, who werequite insensible from their long immersion; when Rover, at lengthsatisfied that his young master was ashore and in safe hands, waspersuaded to loose his grip of Bob's collar, contenting himself byventing his joy in a series of bounds and barks around his inanimateform and licking his apparently lifeless face.
Both Mrs Gilmour and the weeping Nellie thought they were dead.
"Poor boys!" sobbed the former, her tears falling in sympathy with thoseof the little girl, who was too stunned to speak. "But, what shall Isay to Bob's mother? How can I tell her he is drowned?"
"Drowned? Not a bit of it--no more drowned than you are!" repeated theCaptain, somewhat snappishly, his anxiety and excitement preventing himfrom speaking calmly, as he turned and bent over the inanimate bodies."Help me, men, to rouse them back to life."
The coastguardsmen bent down, too, and lifting the boys up wereproceeding to lay them down again on their faces, when the Captainstopped them.
"You idiots!" he exclaimed. "What are you going to do, eh?"
"Why, to let the water run out of 'em, sir," replied the elder of thetwo, looking up in his face and touching his forelock with his finger inproper nautical salute. "Ain't that right, sir?"
"Hullo! that you, Hellyer?" cried the old gentleman, recollecting him asa former coxswain. "Glad to see you again. By Jove, you came just nowin the very nick of time to save these youngsters! Excuse me though;but, you've got hold of the same foolish idea a lot of other peoplehave, that turning a poor half-drowned body upside down to empty him, asif he were a rum-cask, is the best way to recover him!"
"What should we do, sir?" asked the man with a grin. "I allers thoughtit were the right thing, sir?"
"Why, turn the poor fellows slightly a one side and then rub themsmartly to restore the circulation," said the Captain promptly, suitingthe action to the word; and, the next instant, he and the men werebusily shampooing the boys till their arms ached. "Rub away, Hellyer;rub away!"
Rover growled at first on their touching Bob, apparently thinking theoperation to mean an attack on his young master--he didn't mind whatthey did to Dick. But, presently he altered his opinion on the subject,helping so far as he could by means of barking and licking Bob's faceand feet alternately to bring him back to consciousness.
In a short space, although to the anxious onlookers it seemed hours, theefforts of the Captain and coastguardsmen were rewarded by Bob drawing adeep breath, which, it must be confessed, was sadly impregnated with theodour of tobacco from the air which Hellyer had puffed into his lungs toinduce respiration!
This tobacco made poor Bob cough, but it likewise caused him to get ridof the greater portion of the sea-water he had swallowed; and afterthat, he opened first one eye and then the other and, finally, hismouth, exclaiming, much to the delight of Rover, who was just then inthe act of licking his face, "Good dog!"
"Bravo!" cried the Captain, stopping his shampooing process on Bob'sbody and rubbing his own hands instead, in great glee. "Now we'll do!"
As for Mrs Gilmour and Nellie, they expressed their delight by almosthugging the little newly-recovered life out of Bob and giving way tofresh tears, only this time they cried for joy and not from grief; whileRover could not contain himself, whining in a sort of hysterical fashionbetween his loud yelps, and jumping up on every one around as if to say,"Oh, I am so glad, my young master's all right again!"
Aye, Bob was soon all right, getting on his feet and being able to standwithout assistance, the only effect of his ducking being that he lookedpale, as far as could be seen in the twilight.
He was, besides, most unmistakably, as wet as a drowned rat!
Dick took a little longer time to recover; but, shortly afterwards, he,too, was himself once more.
When things had arrived at this happy stage, the Captain, who had beenput in a fidget by the crowd clustering round--`a pack of star-gazingfools' as he whispered pretty audibly to Mrs Gilmour--thought it wastime to make a move.
"Hellyer, you and your shipmate had better call round at my house in themorning," he said to his old coxswain, the elder of the twocoastguardsmen. "You know my house, eh, the same old place?"
"Aye, aye, sir," replied the man, saluting as before. "We knows it wellenough!"
"Then, good-night to you, and thank you both for your timelyassistance," said the Captain, turning away with a touch to the brim ofhis hat in acknowledgment of their salute. "Come on, boys, you'll haveto hurry home fast to prevent catching cold after your swim."
So saying and offering his arm to Mrs Gilmour, who was feeling faintafter all the anxiety she had gone through, the brisk old gentleman ledthe way round the castle.
He insisted that Bob and Dick should run races across the common ontheir way towards the south parade, in which gymnastic display MissNellie and Rover both joined, for company sake as well as to set a goodexample; the big black retriever going over more ground than either ofthe competitors ere they reached `The Moorings,' as Mrs Gilmour's housewas christened.
"Won't you come in?" said Mrs Gilmour on their getting to the door,when the Captain raised his hat in token of adieu. "Do come in and havea rest, me dear Captain?"
"No, thanks, not up to cribbage to-night," he replied, shaking his headand chuckling. "Feel my old bones too sore from sliding down thatconfounded rampart. I mustn't keep you chattering here, however, foryou've got to see about those youngsters. You are sure you don't mindthe trouble of putting up my foundling Dick for the night, eh?"
"I should think not, especially after his jumping into the sea so noblyafter Bob; and the poor boy, sure, not able to swim either!" said shewarmly. "Dick shall not only stop in my house to-night, but as long asyou please to let him, I tell you; and sure it's always grateful I'll beto him."
"Well, then," cried the Captain, "there's no use my stopping yarninghere like an old woman now that point is settled. You'd better go andsee after the boys at once."
"Oh, I'll say after them," she answered, laughing at his impatience, ashe almost pushed her within the doorway and rushed down the stepstowards the gate--"I'll say after them, never fear!"
"Mind you put them between the blankets, and give them each somethinghot to drink when they turn in," he shouted back over the railings."I'll come round in the morning and give them a lecture to wake 'em up!"
With these last words, off he went; his malacca cane coming down with athump on the pavement at every third step he took, until the sound diedaway in the distance--"Stump, Stump, Thump!--Stump, stump, Thump!--Stump, stump, Thump!"