"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.