Chapter 5

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_ CHAPTER FIVE.

"He's a two and a half pounder, he is," said Jem Roff as, after a bit of a struggle, he got tight hold of the writhing monster. "My word," he continued, holding it down, "he's a strong un! Here, you just slip your hand into my jacket pocket and get out my knife. Open it, will you?"

I followed out his instructions, and handed him the opened knife, when with one clever cut he divided the eel's backbone, and its writhings almost ceased.

"There," continued Jem, taking hold of the line, "let's get you off. What a tangle! why, it's reg'lar twissen all about your ankles. I must break it. Why, it's tough as--look ye here," he continued, tugging at the plaited silk, "it's strong enough to hold a whale. I shall have to cut it. Bob Hopley won't mind."

_Snick_, and the line was divided, the eel thrown down, and Jem began to untwine the line from about Mercer's legs, as the poor fellow, looking terribly white and scared, now sat up on the grass, looking dolefully from one to the other.

"My heye! you do look like a drownded rat, master," said Jem, chuckling. "Lucky I come, warn't it?"

I looked angrily at the man, for he seemed horribly unfeeling, and then, turning to Mercer,--

"How are you now?" I said.

"Very wet," he replied feebly.

"Raw, haw!" laughed Jem. "There, get up, you're clear now. Couldn't swim a bit like that."

"No," said Mercer, getting up shivering, and shaking the water from his hair.

"Worse disasters at sea, lads. Here, come on along o' me. Let's put the rods back again;" and, taking the one he had dragged ashore with Mercer, he whipped the line round the other and pulled it ashore, swung the lines round both, and trotted with them to the boat-house, where he laid them on the pegs, and then came back to where we stood, so utterly upset that neither of us had spoken a word.

"Now then," cried Jem, taking hold of the scrap of line to which the eel was attached and twisting it round his finger. "This all you caught?"

"No," I said helplessly; "there's an eel in that handkerchief hanging on the tree."

Jem dropped the big eel again and trotted to the tree.

"Big as t'other?" he said. "Raw, haw! Here's the hankerchy, but there's no eel. Look ye here, he's worked a hole through and gone. You didn't kill him first?"

"It must be down there," I said.

"Down here!" said Jem contemptuously; "he's found his way back to the water again. Eels goos through the grass like snakes. Ketch anything else?"

"Two carp," I said. "Here they are."

"Ah, that's better, and all alive, oh! I'll carry 'em. Come along."

He thrust a twig of willow through the gills of the fish, and led the way through the woods, and across some fields to a cottage, where a woman came to the door.

"Here, missus," he said, "pitch some more wood on the fire. Young squire here stepped into the pond."

"Oh, a mercy me!" cried the woman. "Pore dear, he do look bad."

"Not he. All right again direckly. You let him warm himself, and I'll run up to the schoolhouse and fetch him some dry clothes."

"No," cried Mercer, rousing himself now. "We'll both run up, and get in without any one seeing us, and go and change our things."

"Ay, that'll be best," said Jem; "and, if I was you, I'd start at once. Run all the way, and it'll warm you up."

"Yes. Thank you for coming and helping us," said Mercer, who had now quite found his tongue.

"Oh, that's all right," said the man jocularly. "That's a fine eel, but don't fish for 'em that way again. Going in after 'em ain't the best way; you see they're quicker, and more used to the water than you are."

Mercer shuddered.

"Come along, Burr," he said feebly.

"Wait a minute. Here's your eel and the carp. Where's that there rush basket, missus?"

"Oh, we don't want the fish," said Mercer, with a shiver. "Come along, Burr."

He hurried out of the cottage, and into a lane. "Keep listening," he said. "If you hear any one, we'll go across the fields."

"There's some one coming now," I said.

"Oh dear! it's old Rebble. He hasn't seen us. This way."

He stooped down, and ran to a gate, crept through, and then, leading the way, he walked fast along by the side of a hedge till we had crossed one field, and then began to trot, seeming to get stronger every minute, while I followed, with my wet trousers clinging to my legs, and the water going "suck suck" in my boots.

We crossed two or three fields, and then Mercer drew up, panting, and with the natural colour coming back into his face.

"We'll walk now," he said, "and go right round, and slip in through the garden. Perhaps we can get in and up to our room without being seen."

"Yes, do," I said, looking dolefully at my wet legs, and my jacket all covered with green from the penstock. "Feel better now?"

"Yes, I'm getting all right. I say, didn't I seem like a horrid coward?"

"I don't think so," I said. "It was enough to frighten anybody."

Mercer was silent for a few minutes. Then he began again.

"I never felt like that before. I was going to swim, but the eel had gone about my legs, and as soon as I felt the line round them, and that horrid great thing twining it all over me, I tried hard to kick it off; but you haven't got much strength in the water, and then, as I felt that I couldn't get my legs clear, I came over all queer, and so horribly frightened that I couldn't do anything. It was just like having a dream in the night, after eating too much cake."

"It was very horrible," I said, with a shiver at the recollection, though I was beginning to feel warm.

"Yes, wasn't it? I say, don't go and think me a coward, there's a good chap."

"I was not going to think you a coward," I said. "It isn't likely."

"But I must have seemed like one, because I can swim ever so far, but when I found myself like that, all the strength went out of me.--I say!"

"Yes?" I said, for he remained silent, and trudged on, looking hard at the ground.

"I did like you for paying at Polly Hopley's, and I said I'd do anything for you, but I can't tell you what I feel now, for your helping me."

"Don't wish you to tell me," I replied. "Come along. I want to get on some dry things."

"But--"

"Hold your tongue," I said. "There's some one coming."

He looked sharply in the indicated direction, and a shout saluted us.

"It's some of the boys," he whispered. "Come on." He led the way to a hedge, forced his way through, and I followed, and once more he led me along at a trot, with the great house right before us among the trees, and then, striking off to the right, he went through field after field, and then through a gate, and along by the side of a deep ditch, to stop short all at once, as a man started out of the hollow, and tried to hide a small gun.

"Why, Magglin," cried Mercer, "you're after rabbits."

"Nay, nay; rats. They comes after the taters. Been fishing?"

"Come on," whispered Mercer, and he ran along by the hedge, turning once more to the left, and at last pulling up in a clump of fir-trees, on the north side of the big house.

"Now then," he said, "I daresay the Doctor hasn't come back, and the ladies are sure to be with him. We'll creep in by the front door and get up-stairs. Keep close to me."

He paused for a few minutes to get breath, and then started off, through the shrubbery, across the lawn, and in at the front door.

The hall was empty, and he sprang up the well-carpeted staircase, reached the first floor, ran lightly along a passage, and through a baize door, which separated the Doctor's part of the house from the boys' dormitories.

"All right!" he whispered, as he held the baize door for me to pass through; "nobody saw us, and the boys will not be up here."

He led the way down a long passage to another staircase, ran up, and I recognised the floor where our bed room was, when, just as we were making a rush for it, a door opened, and the big fat boy Dicksee came out, stared, and then burst into a roar of laughter.

"Oh, here's a game!" he shouted. "Old Senna's been diving after podnoddles, and giving the new chap lessons."

Mercer rushed at him so savagely that Dicksee stepped back, and the next minute we had reached our room, rushed in, and banged the door.

"Oh, isn't he a beast?" cried my companion, panting, and looking all aglow now. "He'll go and tell the boys, but we mustn't say where we've been."

Half an hour after, we went down, dressed in our other suits, feeling very little the worse for our adventure, and just as we reached the big schoolroom, the big clock up in the turret chimed.

"Why, we're in good time for tea after all," said Mercer. "They always have it late on holidays. Quarter of an hour to wait. Let's go and walk down to the boys' gardens."

He led the way out and across the playground to a gate in the hedge, through which we passed, to come plump on the Doctor, three ladies, and Mr Rebble, who carried a creel by the strap, and had a rod over his shoulder.

"So you've had no sport, Mr Rebble?" the Doctor was saying.

"No, sir, none. The wind was in the wrong quarter again."

"Aha!" said the Doctor, as he caught sight of us; "our new young friend, Burr junior. My dears, this is our new student. Burr junior, my wife and daughters."

We both took off our caps.

"Friends already, eh?" said the Doctor. "History repeats itself, the modern based upon the classic. Quite a young Pylades and Orestes. Well, Burr, have you made acquaintance with all your schoolfellows?"

I turned scarlet, and was at a loss as to what to say. But there was no occasion for me to feel troubled--the Doctor did not want an answer. He nodded pleasantly, the ladies bowed and passed on with him, while Mercer hurried me away.

"What a game!" he said; "and you've only made friends with one. I say, poor old Reb's been fishing all day again for roach, and never caught one. He never does. I wish he'd had the ducking instead of me."

"Nonsense!" I said. "You don't."

"Oh, but I just do," he said. "I say, let's go round and see cook."

"What for?"

"To ask her to dry our clothes for us. This way." He ran off, and I followed him, to pass through a gate into a paved yard, across which was a sloping-roofed building, at the side of the long schoolroom.

Mercer tapped at a door, and a sharp voice shouted,--

"Come in!"

"Mustn't. Forbidden," said Mercer to me, and he knocked again.

"Don't want any!" shouted the same voice, and a big, sour-looking, dark-faced woman came to the door.

"Oh, it's you, is it, Master Mercer? What do you want?"

"I say, Cookie, this is the new boy."

"Nice pair of you, I'll be bound," she said roughly.

"We've been out, and had an accident, and tumbled into a pond."

"Serve you both right. Wonder you weren't both drowned," she said sharply.

"Don't tell anybody," continued Mercer, in no wise alarmed. "We nearly were, only Jem Roff at Dawson's farm came and pulled us out."

"Oh, my dear bairns," cried the woman, with her face and voice changing, "what would your poor mammas have said?"

"It's all right, though," said Mercer, "only our things are soaked. Do have 'em down and dried for us by the morning."

"Why, of course I will, my dears."

"And, Cookie, we haven't had any dinner, and it's only bread and butter and milk and water."

"Yes; coming," cried the woman, as a door was heard to open, and a voice to call.

"Go along," she said. "They're calling for the bread and butter. You look under your pillows when you go to bed."

"It's all right," said Mercer. "Come along. She came from our town, and knows our people. My father set her brother-in-law's leg once, after he'd tumbled off a hay stack. Isn't she a gruff one when she likes! This way. Let's get in our places now."

We went in to tea, which was only tea for Mr Rebble, who had a small black pot to himself, and a tiny jug of cream; but the bread and butter and milk and water were delicious, and I had made so good a meal that I had forgotten all about our visit to the cook till we had been in bed some time. I was just dozing off to sleep, when I was roused up by Mercer's hand laid across my mouth.

"Don't speak," he whispered; "the others are asleep. Boiled beef sandwiches in a paper bag, and two jam puffs."

"What?" I whispered. "Where?"

"Here--in my fist. They were tucked under my pillow. Now, then, pitch in."

I sat up in bed, and Mercer sat up in his. It was so dark that we could hardly see each other, but the darkness was no hindrance to our eating, and the next minute there was a sound which may be best expressed as ruminating, varied by the faint rustle made by a hand gliding into a paper bag, followed after a long interval by a faint sigh, and--

"Good-night."

"Good-night."

"Think we shall catch cold?"

"I hope not."

"If we do, I've got some capital stuff in a bottle to cure colds, and I'll give you some."

"Thank you," I said, and there was a pause.

"Are you asleep?" I said after a time, during which I had lain thinking about our experience of the day.

"No."

"What are you thinking about?"

"I was wondering whether Mr and Mrs Jem Roff ate all that eel."

Mercer did not say any more just then, and I seemed to glide back into the cottage, where Mrs Roff was frying eel in a pan over the fire, and just as they had asked me to supper, and I was taking my place, a big bell began to ring, and Mercer shouted,--

"Now, Burr junior, time to get up."

I started and looked round, to see that the sunshine was flooding the room, and that the occupants of the other beds were sitting up grinding their knuckles into their eyes, and yawning as if in chorus. _

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