The Captain, who had remained on the plateau above, in company with Mrs
Gilmour and Dick--the latter still in charge of the precious hamper--
pricked up his ears at the sound of poor Nellie's scream and Bob's
expressive cry of alarm.
"Hullo!" he sang out in his sailor fashion-- "I wonder what's the row
now? By Jove, I thought it wouldn't be long before those two young
persons got into mischief when we left them alone together."
"I hope to goodness they haven't come to any harm," said Mrs Gilmour
dolefully. "Sure and will you go and say what's happened?"
"Sure an' I'm just a-going, ma'am," replied the Captain, keeping up his
good-humoured mimicry of her accent so as to reassure her; adding, as he
scrambled down the slope cautiously with the aid of his trusty malacca
cane-- "You needn't be alarmed, ma'am, `at all at all,' for I don't
believe anything very serious has occurred, as children's calls for
assistance generally mean nothing in the end. They are like, as your
countryman said when he shaved his pig, `all cry and little wool!'"
He chuckled to himself as he went on down the declivity, turning round
first, however, to see whether Mrs Gilmour appreciated the allusion to
"poor Pat"; while Dick, leaving the hamper behind, followed, in case his
assistance might also be needed in the emergency.
Arrived at the bottom of the dell the old sailor found it impossible at
first to tell what had happened; for, Bob was trying to force his way
through the brushwood brake, and Rover barking madly. Nellie was
nowhere to be seen, although her voice could be heard proceeding from
somewhere near at hand, calling for help still, but in a weaker voice.
"Where are you?" shouted the Captain. "Sing out, can't you!"
"Here," came the reply in the girl's faint treble; "I'm here!"
"Where's `here'?" said he, puzzled. "I can't see anything of you!"
"I've tumbled into a pit," cried Nellie piteously, in muffled tones that
sounded as if coming from underground. "Do take me out, please!
There's a lot of wild animals here, and they're biting my legs--oh!"
A series of piercing shrieks followed, showing that the poor child was
terribly alarmed, if not seriously hurt; and the Captain saw that no
time was to be lost.
"Can you reach her, Bob?" he sang out; "or see her, eh?"
"No, I can't get through these prickly bushes, they're just like a
wall!" replied Bob, fighting manfully through to get down to his
sister's relief. "I can't see her a bit, either!"
"Humph!"
The Captain thought a moment, rather shirking going amongst the thorns.
"Ha, the very thing!" he exclaimed. "Hi, Rover!"
The dog, who had been barking and running here and there aimlessly, at
once cocked his ears and came up to the Captain, scanning his face with
eager attention.
"Fetch her out, good dog!" he cried, pointing to the spot where the
broken branch of the oak-tree had given way, adding in a louder voice,
"Call him, Nellie--call the dog to you, missy."
A cry, "Here, Rover!" came from underneath the tangled mass of
brushwood, borne down and partly torn away by Nellie in her fall to the
depths below. "Come here, sir!"
No sooner did he hear this summons, faint though it was, from his young
mistress, than any uncertainty which may have obscured his mind as to
what the Captain meant by telling him to "fetch her out," at once
disappeared; and Rover, uttering a short, sharp, expressive bark, to
show that he now understood what was expected of him, boldly plunged
into the thicket with a bound.
"Chuck, chuck, chuck! Whir-r-r-ur," and a blackbird flew out, dashing
in the Captain's face; while, at the same time, another piercing screech
came from Nellie-- "Ah-h-ah! Help!"
The old sailor was so startled that he jumped back, his hat tumbling off
into a bramble-bush.
"Zounds!" he exclaimed. "What the dickens is that?"
In a moment, however, he recovered himself.
"Pooh, what a fool I am!" he said, ashamed of the slight weakness he had
displayed, and hoping neither of the boys had noticed it; and then, to
show how cool and collected he was, he whistled up the retriever.
"Whee-ee-up, Rover, fetch her out, good dog!"
Rover did not need this adjuration, not he.
Even as the Captain spoke, there was a rustling and tramping in the
thicket, accompanied by the snapping of twigs; and, almost at the same
instant, the dog dashed out from amidst the brushwood with Nellie
holding on to his tail.
"Oh my!" ejaculated Dick, rushing to her side; and, with the assistance
of Bob, who also emerged from the prickly cavern at the same time, she
was got on her feet-- "Poor Nell!"
She presented a sorry spectacle.
Never was such a piteous plight seen!
Her face was scratched by the thorns, her clothes torn, and her hat had
fallen off like that of the Captain, who had, by the way, in the flurry
forgotten to replace his on his head, the venerable article remaining in
a sadly battered condition where it had fallen.
On being released, however, from her predicament, Nellie treated the
matter much more lightly than might have been expected.
She was a very courageous little girl now that she knew she was in
safety.
But she was also, it should be said, blest, too, with great amiability.
"Oh, never mind the scratches," she replied, in answer to the Captain's
inquiries. "I'm not at all hurt, thank you."
"How about those wild animals?" asked the old sailor smiling, "eh,
missy?"
Nellie coloured up, but could not help laughing at the Captain's
quizzical face, as he took up his hat gingerly and put it on.
"I--I made a mistake," she stammered. "I was frightened!"
At that moment, however, very opportunely, Master Rover, who had darted
back into the thicket after reclaiming his young mistress, saved her all
further explanation as to the unknown beasts that had caused her such
alarm by appearing now in full pursuit of an unfortunate rabbit which,
putting forth its best speed, escaped him in the very nick of time by
diving into a hole on the other side of the knoll, contemptuously
kicking up its heels as it did so, almost into his open mouth.
The mystery of Nellie's disappearance was thus satisfactorily solved.
She had fallen into an old rabbit-burrow.
The harmless little creatures, whom she had imagined to be making
desperate assaults on her legs and about to eat her up, too, were
probably even more frightened than she was!
"Oh--oh, that's one of those ferocious wild animals, little missy, eh?"
chuckled the Captain. "I see, young lady."
"Yes, but they frightened me," pleaded poor Nell. "They moved about
under my feet, jumping up at me, I thought; and it was so dark down
there that I didn't know what they might be. You would have been
frightened too, I think, sir!"
She added this little retort to her explanation with some considerable
spirit, a bit nettled by the Captain's chaff.
"Well, well, my dear, perhaps you are right," he replied good-
humouredly. "I also have a confession to make, missy. Just before
Rover cantered up, with you holding on to his tail like Mazeppa lashed
to the back of the fiery untamed steed of the desert, a blackbird flew
out of your blackberry thicket, brushing past my face, and do you know
it startled me so that I jumped back, losing my hat. So, you see, I got
a fright too!"
"I see'd yer, sir," said Dick, the Captain looking round as if awaiting
comment on his action. "I see'd yer done it!"
"And so did I," cried Bob, the appearance of whose face had not been
improved by his struggles with the thorny bushes as he tried to force
his way through them to Nellie's rescue. "I saw you too!"
"You young rascals!" exclaimed the Captain, shaking his stick at them.
"I thought you were looking at me! I suppose you'll be going and
telling everybody you saw the old sailor in a terrible funk, and that I
was going to faint?"
"Sure and that's what I feel like doing!" cried Mrs Gilmour in a very
woebegone voice, she having only just succeeded in arriving at the scene
of action, scrambling down with some difficulty from the top of the
slope, the pathway being blocked at intervals by the struggling creepers
which twined and interlaced themselves with the undergrowth, trailing
down from the branches of the trees above, and making it puzzling to
know which way to go. "I couldn't crawl a step further. What with
scurrying to catch that dreadful steamboat, and then my fright of
hearing the children scream, and now having to clamber down this
mountain, I'm ready to drop!"
"Don't, ma'am, please," said the Captain imploringly; "you'll be sorry
for it if you do. The ground is full of rabbit-burrows, and there are a
lot of nettles about."
"Good gracious!" she exclaimed, looking round her in the greatest alarm,
and drawing in the skirts of her dress. "Whatever made you bring me
here then, Captain Dresser?"
"Well, ma'am," began the Captain; but Mrs Gilmour, who at that moment
first caught sight of Nellie's face, interrupted him before he could get
in a word further than, "you see--"
"Oh, my dearie!" cried she, in a higher key, forgetting at once all her
own troubles; and, rushing up to Nell with the utmost solicitude, she
hugged her first and then inspected her carefully, "what have you done
to your poor dear face?"
"Oh, it's not much, auntie," said Nellie, just then busy arranging her
dress. "I have only got a scratch or two."
"And your clothes too," continued Mrs Gilmour, her consternation
increasing at the sight of the damage done. "Why, your frock is torn to
shreds!"
"Not so bad as that, auntie," laughed the girl, but with a look of
dismay on her face the while. "It is rather bad though."
"Bad," repeated her aunt, "sure, it's scandalous! And, say your
brother, now--whatever have you both been about? His poor face is all
bleeding, too!"
"Now, don't you make matters worse than they are," interposed the
Captain. "A little water will soon set them both right."
"And where shall we get water here?" she asked. "Tell me that!"