And he sed, “It is; but if things go rite, and we are made of the
propper stuff for buckeneers, we’ll make England wring yet.”
Then it began to rain rather hard, and I found that a wood isn’t really
a dry place by night if it rains, and Bailey lighted a match, and sed it
was nearly nine.
“That’ll mean ‘lights out’ at Merivale,” he sed; “but for us it’ll mean
the begenning of the night.”
I sneazed just about then, becorse water from the fir-tree was dropping
down my neck rather fast, and Bailey sed if I was going to get annything
the matter with me I had better go back at once, becorse no buckeneer
ever had a cold, being men of steel and iron. And I sed a sneaze was
nothing.
Then we started very corsiously through the wood, and Bailey cocked his
pistell, and I asked him kindly to walk in front, feeling a curious
sensashun when he walked behind me with his pistell cocked. I told him,
and he sed it was fear, but I sed it was kaution.
Sometimes he whispered, “Cave!” and we sunk down and got fritefully
dripping in the wet, but nothing happened, and we were getting well on
through the wood when Bailey sed, “Cave!” again, and this time, when we
had sunk down, we distinkly herd a footstep, and Bailey sed it was our
first adventure, and I sed I wished it had come by daylight, becorse it
wants grate practise to face adventures in the dark at first.
Anyway the noise got nearer and got louder, and Bailey and me both
cocked our pistells, and he sed, “Reserve your fire to close range,” and
I sed, “Yes.” Then he sed, “I see the thing. It’s bigger than a beast
you would expect in an English wood”; and I sed, “I have got a sort of
fealing it is something out of the menaggerie”; and he sed, “Then it
will be a real adventure, and I wish we were up trees.”
But it was to late, and something went quite close. I sore a red spark,
and Bailey sed, “Fire!” which we did. At leest my pistell went off with
fereful effect; but Bailey’s didn’t, and he sed afterwards that he’d
make the pistell man biterly rew the day he sold him a treecherous
weppon.
But after I fired we herd a human voice, and it sed, “Hell!” Then it sed
other fearful words, which Bailey sed we ought to remember because they
were buckeneering words curiously enuff. And then the man dashed towards
us, which showed I had not slain him, or even hit him in a vittle spot;
and we fled, and soon we found that we had distanced him, though we had
a squeek for it.
“He was a keeper,” sed Bailey, “and he will think we were poachers, and
raise a hue-and-cry. We must keep on and get into Oakshott Woods, or we
shall very likely have to yield to supereer force.”
After this eksitement I got a curious feeling in my stomach, and telling
Bailey, he sed it was either hunger or fear. And I sed it was hunger;
but Bailey sed, seeing what a hevy meal we had made with sorsage and
bred and turpentine juice only two hours before, that it was fear.
I sed if he thought so he’d better go on without me, as I hadn’t taken
to this corse of life to be cheeked by him. And he sed he was leeder of
the gang, and I was the gang, and the first thing was to lern to obey
orders. And then I got rather cross with Bailey, and asked him who he
thort he was to give me orders, and reminded him my pistell could go off
anyway, which was more than his could. This worried him a good deal,
becorse, of course, the man whose pistell went off had the best of it.
Then he sed that it was no good having a quarrel between ourselves while
we were not yet out of danger. He also said that he beleeved we might
venture to take one hour’s sleep to strengthen us before getting on to
Oakshott, and I sed, “Yes,” but thought that one of us ought to watch
while the other slept. Bailey said he would watch first, and he sed also
that we might get to the woodman’s hut in the middle of Merivale Woods
if we kept on past a ded fir-tree with its stem white, becorse all the
bark was off, which we did, becorse the moon was now shining very
britely, and the rain had stopped. The cold was also friteful, and my
teath chattered once or twice, but I broke sticks and things to attract
Bailey, becorse if he had herd my teath he would have sed it was fear
again.
Once a bough jumped back and hit Bailey a friteful smack in the face,
and I was glad, and he sed he rather thort his eye was done for; and he
sed it didn’t much matter if it was, so long as he had one good eye to
see with, becorse most buckeneers lost an eye sooner or later, though
generally with a stroak from a cutlass.
We found the hut, and there was some dry fern in it, and we lighted a
candle-end we had, and took off our boots, and wrung out our socks, and
each had half a currant dumpling. Then Bailey looked at his watch and
sed I might turn in for half an hour. Then he would wake me and turn in
for half an hour himself. He went on gard with another candle-end, and
advised me to draw my pistell and sleep with it cocked under my head.
But I sed I never herd of such a dangerous thing as that being done, and
kept my pistell reddy cocked near my hand. I didn’t fall off to sleep,
as I expected, owing to anxiaty as to our fate, but I shut my eyes and
thort a good deal, and after my eyes had been shut some time I opened
one a little and was grately surprised to see Bailey coming towards me
steelthily. He had his pistell in his hand, and first I had a horrible
thort he wanted to kill me, so that he mite have all our food and money;
and then I felt sure he was coming to change pistells, so that he might
have the one that went off. This made me get in a friteful wax with him,
becorse I saw he was very unreliable and not reely as much of a chum as
I had thort. So I waited untill I saw him stretch out his hand for my
pistell, and then I leapt at his throat in a very ferocious way, that
much surprized him. I also sed “Hell!” like the keeper had.
It must have been a solumn site by the lite of the candle-end when we
began to fight tooth-and-nail for the pistell which could go off. We
were both desperet, and it was reelly a battle to deside which should be
the leeder of the enterprise and which should be merely the gang. Then,
while we wresled and straned every nerve, a curious thing happened, for
we fell against the candle-end, stuck on the top of a stick, and the
candle-end fell against the side of the hut, and the hut, being made of
wood, with walls of dried heather, was very inflameable and cort fire
almost immediately.
And then Bailey sed we must aggree to settle our dispute later on and
fli at once. So we each took our own pistell, and were just going to
leave the scene, when, to our grate horror, we herd voices, and among
them the voices of Browne and Mainwaring, who were, of corse,
house-masters at Merivale.
Exhorsted though we were, me and Bailey made a terrible effort to
escape, and I think we mite have done so even then, but, oweing to the
moon and two other men who were with Mainwaring, we could not reach an
impennetrable part of the wood, and finally Mainwaring cort me, and a
man cort Bailey, and they dragged us into the light of the blazing ruins
of the hut, and we found out that Browne and Mainwaring had come after
us, like beestly blood-hounds, and had met the keeper, who told them he
had been fired upon, and then the unfortunate burning of the hut had
directed their steps towards us. And it’s a lesson in a way, showing
what risks it is for buckeneers to fall out among themselves at kritikal
moments.
Of corse we had to walk back merely as prisoners of Mainwaring, but
Bailey told me not to answer questions and rather let them cut our
tongues out than know the truth. So they didn’t get anything out of us,
and when we got back, at two o’clock in the morning, Dunston was up to
meet us; and by that time, what with cold and bruises and the failure of
the skeem, I wasn’t equal to defying Dunston, and merely sed we wanted
to change our corse of life for something different, and had started to
do so. And I also sed that burning the hut was an axsident which might
have happened to anybody. And Bailey sed the same.
Then Doctor Dunston sent for the matron, and we had brandy-and-water and
a hot bath, which was very refreshing to me, but Bailey sed biterly when
he was in it that he had thought that morning never to have had a bath
again. He also sed we should be put in sepperate bedrooms that night,
and that if either of us got an opportunety to eskape, it was his duty
to reskue the other. But I sed I didn’t want to eskape, being fritefully
sleepy and exhorsted, and I sed that if he eskaped he needn’t trubble to
reskue me, becorse if I returned again to being a buckeneer it certinnly
wouldn’t be with him.
I didn’t see any more of him until next day; then we were taken in like
prisinners of war before the school, and Doctor Dunston lecktured upon
us as if we were beests of pray, and he sed that a corse of falty
literatuer was to blame for our running away, and sed that the school
liberary must be reformed. But he never knew the grate truth, becorse he
sed we were onley running away to sea becorse of the fascenation of the
ocean to the British karacter, when reely it was to be buckeneers and
the terrer of the Mediterranan.
Maine showed us all the points we had done wrong afterwards, and he sed
the way we had fought for the best pistell was very interesting to him
and a grate warning not to trust in your fellow-creetures. And, after he
had lecktured upon us, Doctor Dunston flogged me and Bailey in publick,
which showed the stuff we were made of, becorse, though Bailey gets very
red when flogged, he has never been known to shedd a tear; and I get
very white, curiously enuff; but I have never been known to shedd a tear
either.