"Where is he?" cried Uncle Richard. "Yes, I see!"
The words brought Tom back to himself, and he was as active again as the
rest, his strange seizure having lasted only a few moments.
"Heaven grant that we are not too late!" said the Vicar. "Here, Tom,
you had better keep the dog back."
"But you are sure some one is buried here?" said Uncle Richard.
"Yes; it is Pete Warboys--he has a kind of cave here. It's crushed in,"
Tom hastened to explain.
"If we try to dig him out we shall suffocate him," cried Uncle Richard,
speaking as if he had no doubt of the boy living still. "Look here,
carpenter--David, there is only one way: three of us must be here with a
rope fastened to this great root, and three others must work at a branch
yonder. We shall have great leverage then, and we may be able to turn
the trunk right over."
"Want a screw-jack, sir," said the carpenter.
"We must make screw-jacks of ourselves," cried Uncle Richard. "You,
David, take the axe and lop off a few of the branches that will be in
our way; you, carpenter, saw off three or four of these roots as closely
as you can; Tom, keep the hole open; Mr Maxted, keep the dog out of the
way; I'll make fast the ropes."
Every one went to work at once as Uncle Richard fell back into his old
way when he was a planter with a couple of hundred coolies under him,
and acre after acre of primeval forest to clear before he could begin to
cultivate the ground.
Then the dog barked furiously for a few moments, but at a word from Tom
crouched panting with its tongue out and ears pricked, evidently
satisfied with the efforts being made to release its master. The
strokes of the axe fell thick and fast, the saw rasped through the wood,
and dust and chips flew, while the forest echoed to the sounds of busy
work.
Best part of an hour's hard toil, and then one side of the tree was
fairly clear; the ropes were tied to root and branch projecting at right
angles, and the ends passed round tree-trunks.
"Now then!" said Uncle Richard. "Ready?"
"Hadn't we better haul straight, sir?" cried the carpenter. "It'll give
us more power."
"No," said Uncle Richard; "the pulling will be harder, but we can hold
inch by inch this way, and make fast the ropes when we have turned the
trunk over."
"Right, sir," said the man.
Then the word was given, and after a glance to see that the burrow was
still open, Tom seized the end of the rope, to add his bit of weight,
wondering the while whether they would injure the poor fellow beneath,
but pretty well satisfied that they were pulling right away.
The tree creaked and moved, some smaller branches snapped, but no good
was done.
"All together again," cried Uncle Richard; and they panted and hauled,
but all in vain.
"Off with that rope from the branch," cried Uncle Richard.
This was done, and it was then made fast to another projecting root, so
that all could pull at the one end.
Again the word was given, but there was no result, and after a couple
more tries the task seemed hopeless, when Tom seized the saw, and began
to cut at a piece of root which he had seen rise a little and move some
sand.
"Hah, that's right," cried the Vicar; "that's a sound root, and holds
the tree down."
In five minutes the saw was through, and once more all began to haul,
when the great tree seemed to give, turning over slowly like a wheel,
and amidst shouts and cheers, and a furious burst of barking from the
dog, the mass turned more and more, till the whole tree, with its vast
root, had made a complete revolution; and when the ropes had been made
fast, to secure it, there was the great hollow clear, but the sand had
gone down with a rush, and the burrow was covered in.
Tom did not wait for the trunk to be secured, for he had seen the
result.
"Don't, boy, don't," shouted the Vicar; "the tree may come back and
crush you."
"Let it!" muttered Tom between his teeth, as he dropped upon his knees,
scooping away at the sand, helped now by the dog, which began to be too
useful, and got in the way. All the same though, by the time the tree
was fast the sand had been swept from Pete Warboys' face; and David and
Uncle Richard stooping and passing their hands beneath him, very little
effort was required to draw him right out of the hole, and up among the
pine-trees, where he was laid gently down, amid a profound silence,
while Uncle Richard knelt beside him, and the dog, after a furious
volley of barks, began to snuffle at its master's face.
"Dead?" whispered the Vicar, as Uncle Richard carefully made his
examination, just as he had many a time played medicine-man or surgeon
to a sick or injured coolie.
He made some answer, but it was drowned by the dog, which threw up its
head and uttered a mournful howl, while a feeling of awe made those
around look on in silence.
"You are in too great a hurry, my good friend," said Uncle Richard then,
as he turned to the dog. "There's a little life in your master yet, but
one arm is broken, and I'm afraid that he is badly crushed."
Tom drew a breath full of relief, while his uncle rose to his feet.
"I think, Maxted, if you will go on first, and warn his grandmother, and
have a bed ready, and also get the doctor there, we will make a litter
of a couple of poles and some fir-boughs, and carry him home. It would
be better for you to go to the old woman than for Tom."
"Yes," said the Vicar, who set aside his regular quiet, sedate bearing,
and ran off through the wood at a sharp trot.
"Out with your knife, Tom," cried Uncle Richard; "cut a piece three feet
long off one of those ropes, and unravel it into string."
Tom set to work, while the carpenter cut off a couple of straight
fir-boughs, which David trimmed quickly with the axe, and a few
cross-pieces were sawn off about thirty inches long.
Then Tom stared in wonder to see how rapidly his uncle bound the short
pieces of wood across the long, afterwards weaving in small pieces of
the green fir, and forming a strong, fairly soft litter.
"Not the first time by many, Tom," he said. "Accidents used to be
frequent in clearing forest in the East. There: that will do. Now for
our patient."
He knelt down beside Pete, placed a bough of thickly-clothed fir beneath
the injured arm, and then closely bound all to the boy's side.
"More harm is often done to a broken limb by letting it swing about," he
said, "than by the fracture itself. Now four of us together. Pass your
hands beneath him, enlace your fingers, and when I give the word, all
lift."
This was done, Pete deposited upon the litter, and secured there by one
of the ropes, after which he was carefully borne to his grandmother's
cottage, where the doctor was already waiting, and the old woman,
tramping about stick in hand, looking as if prepared to attack her
visitors for bringing down mischief upon the head of her grandson.
At last, as the boy was laid upon a mattress, she began to scold at
Uncle Richard, but only to be brought up short by the doctor, who
sternly bade her be silent, and not interrupt him while he examined Pete
and set his arm.
This silenced the poor old woman, who stood back looking on, till the
doctor had finished, and gone away to fetch medicine for his patient.
"Yes," he said, "very bad, and will be worse, for in all probability he
will have a sharp attack of fever, and be delirious when he recovers his
speech. It is really wonderful that he is still alive."
As these words were said, Tom looked back through the open cottage door,
to see Pete lying motionless upon the mattress, and the dog sitting up
beside him, looking down at the still white face.
"Looking at the dog, Tom?" said the Vicar.
"Yes, sir. What a faithful beast it is."
"Splendid," said the Vicar. "And yet I've seen Pete ill-use the poor
brute, and I'm afraid it was half-starved; but it does not seem to
influence the dog's affection for him."
"No, sir, not a bit. There are worse things than dogs, sir."
"Yes, Tom," said the Vicar, tightening his lips, "a great deal."
That night Pete's eyes opened, and he began talking rapidly about
falling trees and sand, and the black darkness; but his grandmother,
worn-out with watching, had fallen asleep, and there was no one to
hearken but the dog, which reached over every now and then to lick his
face or hands.
And at the touch the injured, delirious lad grew calmer, to drop off
into his feverish sleep again, while, when Tom came early the next
morning, it was to meet the doctor coming away.
"Don't go in," he said; "you can do no good; quiet and time are the only
remedies for him.--Ah, good-morning, Mr Maxted."
For the Vicar was up early too, and had come to see after his worst
parishioner.
"Good-morning, doctor. May I go in?"
"Yes, if you will be quiet."
The Vicar stole in, stayed for some time, and then came out as silently
as he had gone in, to look inquiringly at the doctor.
"You think he will die?" he said.
"I hope not," replied the doctor earnestly. "Not if I can prevent it."
Just then there was another visitor to the cottage in the person of
Uncle Richard, while soon after David appeared round the corner, where
there was a sharp bend in the lane, having risen and started an hour
earlier so as to come round by Mother Warboys', and inquire about the
injured lad.
"Don't you go a-thinking that I keer a nutshell about Pete Warboys,
Master Tom," said David, as he was looking into the cottage with the boy
by his side, "because I don't, and it sims to me as the fewer Pete
Warboyses there is in the world the better we should be. It warn't him
I come about's mornin'--not Pete, you know, but the lad as had had an
accident, and got nearly killed. See?"
"Yes, I see, David," said Tom, nodding his head.
"It's him as has got the friends--the young accident--not Pete. Say,
Master Tom?"
"Yes."
"If Pete Warboys dies--"
"Hush! don't talk about it," cried Tom in horror.
"Oh, cert'ny not, sir, if you don't wish me to. May I talk about the
dog?"
"Oh yes, of course," cried Tom, as he looked round at the bright,
smiling earth, glittering with diamond-like dew, and thought how
terrible it would be for one so young to be snatched away.
"Well, sir, I was thinking a deal about that dog last night, for I
couldn't sleep, being a bit overcome like."
"Yes, I was awake a long time," said Tom, with a sigh.
"Not so long as I was, sir, I'll bet a bewry pear. Well, sir, I lay
a-thinking that if--mind, I only says if, sir--if Pete Warboys was to
die, how would it be, if master didn't say no, and I was to knock him up
a barrel for a kennel to live in our yard?"
"I should ask uncle to let me keep him, David, for he's a wonderful
dog."
"I don't go so far as that, sir, for he's a dog as has had a horful bad
eddication, but something might be made of him; and it was a pity,
seeing why he came yowling about our place, as you was so handy heaving
stones at him."
"What?" cried Tom indignantly.
"Well, sir, p'r'aps it was me. But it weer a pity, warn't it?"
"Brutal," cried Tom.
"Ah, it weer. He's a horful hugly dog though."
"Not handsome certainly," replied Tom.
"That he arn't, sir, nowheres. But if he was fed reg'lar like, so as to
alter his shape, and I took off part of his ears, and about half his
tail, he might be made to look respectable."
"Rubbish!" cried Tom.
"Oh no, it arn't, sir. Dogs can be wonderfully improved. But what do
you say to askin' cook to save the bits and bones while there's no one
to feed him? I'll take 'em every day as I go home from work. What do
you say?"
"Yes, of course," cried Tom; and from that day the ugly mongrel was
regularly fed, but after the first feeding it did not trouble David to
take the food, but left its master's side about three o'clock every
afternoon, and came and fetched the food itself.
"Which it's only nat'ral," said David, with a grim smile; "for if ever I
did see a dog as had ribs that looked as if they'd been grown into a
basket to hold meat, that dog is Pete Warboys'; but I hope as good meat
and bones 'll do something to make his hair grow decent, for he's a
reg'lar worser as he is."