"Gracious heavens! The boy will be drowned!" exclaimed Mrs Gilmour,
wringing her hands frantically and rushing forward at once; while
Nellie, 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 the
Captain, laying his hand on Mrs Gilmour's arm, and putting both her and
Nellie back, to prevent any rash impulse on their part. "You just keep
as cool as the young rascal must be now! I'll fish him out in another
minute, if you'll leave me alone; and, he'll be none the worse, barring
a wetting."
With these words, the spry old gentleman, who was more active than many
a younger man, began making his way cautiously down the treacherous
slope of the rampart, aided by his trusty malacca cane, poking his stick
between the niches of the stonework to act as a stay, and so prevent his
slipping on too fast.
But, quick as he was in his movements, hardly had he made a dozen
sliding steps down the decline, the action of the whole scene being
almost instantaneous, when he felt, rather than saw, some one else glide
swiftly past him still more expeditiously; and then, there was another
heavy plunge in the water below, where Bob and Rover were struggling for
dear life.
"Bless my soul!" ejaculated the Captain, halting abruptly with the
assistance of his sheet anchor, the malacca cane, as he half turned
round. "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's
exclamation of terror, the Captain's movement to the rescue, and the
grateful Dick's perilous jump, for it was almost a leap from the top of
the castle wall, were all, as has been already pointed out, the work of
a moment; the chain of incidents taking much longer to describe than to
happen.
So, there, before you could cry `Jack Robinson,' as the Captain
afterwards said, two boys, instead of one, were struggling with the dog
in the water; and of all these three, to heighten the excitement of the
scene, Rover alone was able to swim!
Bob, of course, had plunged in unwittingly, while Dick's only thought
was to help one from whom he had received such unexpected kindness; the
lad not having reflected for an instant on the danger of the task he was
undertaking.
Now, therefore, although on reaching the water the grateful boy
succeeded in carrying out his object of catching hold of Bob, both
immediately sank under the surface.
They came up the next moment locked together, spluttering and
splattering for breath and holding up their hands for aid, an action
which naturally sent them down again; the tide meanwhile sweeping them
away from the shore.
Rover was master of the situation--that is, he and the Captain, who by
this time had scrambled down to the last ledge of the rampart, and took
in the position of affairs at a glance.
"Hi, Rover, good dog, fetch them out!" cried the old sailor, at the same
moment throwing off his coat and preparing to go into the sea, too, if
need be. "Fetch 'em out!"
But, there was no necessity for this appeal to Rover, who did not
require any orders or directions as to his duty.
The dog, like the Captain, was quite aware of the perilous position of
his young master, and had already determined in his own mind what was
best to be done under such circumstances.
Master Bob having come down flop on top of him as he was trying to
clamber out, had in the first instance somewhat obscured his faculties;
and the subsequent appearance of Dick on the scene, as he was just
recovering from this douche, did not tend to make matters clearer to the
retriever, whose eyes and ears were full of water, besides being
moreover tired out by his previous exertions.
Any hesitation poor Rover might have felt, though, barely lasted an
instant; for, the sight of two figures battling for life in the sea
there under his very nose, and the knowledge that one of these was his
young master, brought in an instant all his sagacious instincts into
play.
He did not need the Captain or anybody else to tell him what to do. Not
he!
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 were
struggling.
Reaching the pair, he at once gripped Bob's collar in his powerful teeth
and proceeded to tow him to land, Dick hanging on behind; and Rover's
muzzle was already turned shorewards, dragging his double burthen astern
ere the Captain's cry of encouragement came to his ears, although on
hearing 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 easy
work of it, as then one of them might have held on to his collar and the
other to his tail, and he could have pulled them both out without much
trouble; as it was, now, they clung so frantically to each other and to
him that they retarded in lieu of assisting his gallant attempt to save
them.
But, help was at hand.
Just as the Captain called out, a couple of coastguardsmen were coming
round 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 a
state of great agitation, with Nellie sobbing beside her and the Captain
at the bottom of the sloping rampart in the act of taking off his
coat--"Anything wrong, mum?"
Mrs Gilmour's heart was so full that she could not speak at once, and
the man who addressed her jumped to a wrong conclusion from the absence
of any explanation at the moment.
"Oh, I see, mum, he's a-going to commit sooacide? We'll soon spoil his
little game, mum. Bear a hand, Bill, will ye?"
So saying, the speaker and his comrade, with a catlike ease that came
naturally to them from their practice at sea, where they had a rolling
deck beneath their feet much more difficult to traverse than the
slippery slope they were now on, had reached the spot where the coatless
old sailor stood almost as these words were uttered, leaping down the
steep descent in a sort of `hop-skip-and-jump' fashion.
"None o' that!" exclaimed the elder of the two men who had previously
spoken, 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 face
on which the animated expression produced by his determination to try
and rescue the boys was mingled with a puzzled look of astonishment at
being tackled in this unceremonious manner when on the very point of
action.
His black eyes twinkled and his bushy eyebrows moved up and down at a
fine rate as he looked up indignantly to see who had dared to lay hand
on him.
"My stars!" ejaculated the coastguardsman Bill, dropping hold of the
Captain's arm as if it had been a hot poker, "I'm blest if it ain't the
old cap'en!"
The other man also recognised him at the same time, releasing the old
man 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, and
where the head of Rover could be dimly seen in the gathering dusk of the
evening, 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 had
reached poor Rover, now quite exhausted, gallant dog though he was!
Then, one of the men grasping hold of Bob and the other catching hold of
Dick, 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 Captain was ready and waiting to lean over and lend them a
hand, keeping the while a steady purchase to his feet by the aid of his
malacca stick, which possibly had never been of such service before;
and, presently, the coastguardsmen, the boys, and Rover, who would not
let go his young master's collar and was lifted out along with him, were
all 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 the
castle and had their attention arrested by the scene passing in the
water 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 the
harbour, did not shelve down there so abruptly, broadening out by
degrees to a wide flat surface where it joined the esplanade bordering
the beach.
At this spot, the coastguardsmen laid down the rescued boys, who were
quite insensible from their long immersion; when Rover, at length
satisfied that his young master was ashore and in safe hands, was
persuaded to loose his grip of Bob's collar, contenting himself by
venting his joy in a series of bounds and barks around his inanimate
form 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 those
of the little girl, who was too stunned to speak. "But, what shall I
say 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 the
Captain, somewhat snappishly, his anxiety and excitement preventing him
from 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 were
proceeding to lay them down again on their faces, when the Captain
stopped 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 the
two, looking up in his face and touching his forelock with his finger in
proper nautical salute. "Ain't that right, sir?"
"Hullo! that you, Hellyer?" cried the old gentleman, recollecting him as
a former coxswain. "Glad to see you again. By Jove, you came just now
in 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 people
have, that turning a poor half-drowned body upside down to empty him, as
if 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 thought
it were the right thing, sir?"
"Why, turn the poor fellows slightly a one side and then rub them
smartly to restore the circulation," said the Captain promptly, suiting
the action to the word; and, the next instant, he and the men were
busily shampooing the boys till their arms ached. "Rub away, Hellyer;
rub away!"
Rover growled at first on their touching Bob, apparently thinking the
operation to mean an attack on his young master--he didn't mind what
they 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 face
and feet alternately to bring him back to consciousness.
In a short space, although to the anxious onlookers it seemed hours, the
efforts of the Captain and coastguardsmen were rewarded by Bob drawing a
deep breath, which, it must be confessed, was sadly impregnated with the
odour of tobacco from the air which Hellyer had puffed into his lungs to
induce respiration!
This tobacco made poor Bob cough, but it likewise caused him to get rid
of the greater portion of the sea-water he had swallowed; and after
that, he opened first one eye and then the other and, finally, his
mouth, exclaiming, much to the delight of Rover, who was just then in
the act of licking his face, "Good dog!"
"Bravo!" cried the Captain, stopping his shampooing process on Bob's
body and rubbing his own hands instead, in great glee. "Now we'll do!"
As for Mrs Gilmour and Nellie, they expressed their delight by almost
hugging the little newly-recovered life out of Bob and giving way to
fresh tears, only this time they cried for joy and not from grief; while
Rover could not contain himself, whining in a sort of hysterical fashion
between 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 stand
without assistance, the only effect of his ducking being that he looked
pale, 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 been
put in a fidget by the crowd clustering round--`a pack of star-gazing
fools' as he whispered pretty audibly to Mrs Gilmour--thought it was
time to make a move.
"Hellyer, you and your shipmate had better call round at my house in the
morning," he said to his old coxswain, the elder of the two
coastguardsmen. "You know my house, eh, the same old place?"
"Aye, aye, sir," replied the man, saluting as before. "We knows it well
enough!"
"Then, good-night to you, and thank you both for your timely
assistance," said the Captain, turning away with a touch to the brim of
his hat in acknowledgment of their salute. "Come on, boys, you'll have
to hurry home fast to prevent catching cold after your swim."
So saying and offering his arm to Mrs Gilmour, who was feeling faint
after all the anxiety she had gone through, the brisk old gentleman led
the way round the castle.
He insisted that Bob and Dick should run races across the common on
their way towards the south parade, in which gymnastic display Miss
Nellie and Rover both joined, for company sake as well as to set a good
example; the big black retriever going over more ground than either of
the competitors ere they reached `The Moorings,' as Mrs Gilmour's house
was 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 have
a rest, me dear Captain?"
"No, thanks, not up to cribbage to-night," he replied, shaking his head
and chuckling. "Feel my old bones too sore from sliding down that
confounded rampart. I mustn't keep you chattering here, however, for
you've got to see about those youngsters. You are sure you don't mind
the trouble of putting up my foundling Dick for the night, eh?"
"I should think not, especially after his jumping into the sea so nobly
after Bob; and the poor boy, sure, not able to swim either!" said she
warmly. "Dick shall not only stop in my house to-night, but as long as
you please to let him, I tell you; and sure it's always grateful I'll be
to him."
"Well, then," cried the Captain, "there's no use my stopping yarning
here like an old woman now that point is settled. You'd better go and
see after the boys at once."
"Oh, I'll say after them," she answered, laughing at his impatience, as
he almost pushed her within the doorway and rushed down the steps
towards the gate--"I'll say after them, never fear!"
"Mind you put them between the blankets, and give them each something
hot 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 a
thump on the pavement at every third step he took, until the sound died
away in the distance--"Stump, Stump, Thump!--Stump, stump, Thump!--
Stump, stump, Thump!"