"I don't know what I have done. I could not help it. He wanted me not
to come to you when you screamed. He wanted to catch the chest instead.
I tripped him up--off into the water. He can swim. But there is the
tub--give me hold of the rope--quick! I will send it out into the
stream. He may meet it."
Down went all the gathered apples into the water, within the wall, and
off went the tub outside. Oliver fastened the line round a heavy stone
in the wall.
"I wish I had never screamed!" exclaimed Mildred.
"I am sure I wish so too. You _must_ leave off screaming so, Mildred.
I am sure I thought you were in the water, in the middle of all that
splash, or I should not have been in such a hurry. If Roger should be
drowned, it will be all your doing, for screaming so."
Mildred did not scream now; but she cried very bitterly. It was soon
seen, however, that Roger was safe. He was swimming in the still water
on the opposite side, and presently landed beside the pony and cow. He
left off wringing the wet out of his hair and clothes, to shake both his
fists at Oliver in a threatening way.
"Oh, look at him! He will kill you!" cried Mildred. "I never will
scream again."
"Never mind, as long as he is safe," said Oliver. "I don't care for his
shaking his fists. It was my business to save you, before caring about
him, or all the chests in the Levels. Never mind now, dear. You wont
scream again without occasion, I know. What made you do so? You can't
think what a shriek it was. It went through my head."
"Part of the wall fell; and the whole of it shakes so, I am sure it will
all be down presently. I wish we were at home. But what shall we ever
do about Roger? He will kill you, if you go near him: and he can't stay
there."
"Leave Roger to me," said Oliver, feeling secretly some of his sister's
fear of the consequences of what had just passed. He stepped on the
wall, and was convinced that it was shaking,--almost rocking. He
declared that it was quite unsafe, and that he must look to the
remaining walls before they slept another night in the building.
Mildred must get upon the raft immediately. What was that heap of blue
cloth?
Mildred explained, and the cloth was declared too valuable to be left
behind. Two pairs of hands availed to pull up the end which stuck under
water, and then the children found themselves in possession of a whole
piece of home-spun.
"May we use it? We did not make it, or buy it," said Mildred.
"I thought of that too," replied her brother. "We will see about that.
It is our business to save it, at any rate; so help me with it. How
heavy it is with the water!"
They pulled a dozen apples, and rowed away home with their prize.
Ailwin said, as she met them on the stairs, that she was glad enough to
see them home again; and more especially without Roger.
"Roger must be fetched, however," said Oliver, "and the sooner the
better."
"Oh not yet!" pleaded Mildred. "He is so angry!"
"That is the very thing," said Oliver. "I want to show him that I
tripped him over, not in anger, but because I could not help it. He
will never believe but that it was malice, from beginning to end, if I
do not go for him directly."
"But he will thrash you. You know he can. He is ever so much stronger
than you; and he is in such a passion, I do not know what he may not
do."
"What can I do?" said Oliver. "I can't leave him there, standing
dripping wet, with the cow and the pony."
"Would it be of any use if I were to go with you, and say it was all my
fault?" asked Mildred, trembling.
"No, no; you must not go."
"I would go, if there was no water between, and if Mildred would take
care of the baby," said Ailwin.
"Oh do,--do go! You are so strong!" said both the children.
"Why, you see, I can't abide going on the water, any way, and never
could: and most of all without so much as a boat."
"But I will row you as carefully," said Oliver, "as safely as in any
boat. You see how often we have crossed, and how easy it is. You
cannot think what care I will take of you, if you will go."
"Then there's the coming back," objected Ailwin. "If I am on board the
same raft with Roger, we shall all go to the bottom, that's certain!"
"How often have I been to the bottom? And yet I have been on the raft
with Roger, ever since it was made."
"Well, and think how near Mildred was going to the bottom, only just
now. I declare I thought we had seen the last of her."
"Roger had nothing to do with that, you know very well. But I will tell
you how we can manage. You can carry your pail over, and,--(never mind
its being so early)--you can be milking the cow while I bring Roger over
here; and I can come back for you. That will do,--wont it? Come,--
fetch your pail. Depend upon it that is the best plan."
Mildred remembered, with great fear, that by this plan Roger would be
left with her and George while Oliver went to fetch Ailwin home: but she
did not say a word, feeling that she who had caused the mischief ought
not to object to Oliver's plan for getting out of the scrape. She need
not have feared that Oliver would neglect her feelings. Just before he
put off with Ailwin and her milk-pail, he said to his sister--
"I shall try to set Roger down somewhere, so that he cannot plague you
and George; but you had better bolt yourself into the room up-stairs
when you see us coming; and on no account open the door again till I bid
you."
Mildred promised, and then sat down with George asleep on her lap, to
watch the event. She saw Ailwin make some odd gestures as she stood on
the raft, balancing herself as if she thought the boards would gape
under her feet. Oliver paddled diligently, looking behind him oftener
and oftener, as he drew near the landing-place, as if to learn what
Roger meant to do when they came within his reach.
The moment the boys were within arm's length of each other, Roger sprang
furiously upon Oliver, and would have thrown him down in an instant, if
Oliver had not expected this, and been upon his guard. Oliver managed
to jump ashore; and there the boys fought fiercely. There could be no
doubt from the beginning which would be beaten,--Roger was so much the
taller and stronger of the two, and so much the less peaceable in all
his habits than Oliver: but yet Oliver made good fight for some time,
before he was knocked down completely. Roger was just about to give his
fallen enemy a kick in the stomach, when Ailwin seized him, and said she
was not going to see her young master killed before her face, by boy or
devil, whichever Roger might be. She tripped him up; and before Oliver
had risen, Roger lay sprawling, with Ailwin kneeling upon him to keep
him down. Roger shouted out that they were two to one,--cowards, to
fight him two to one!
"I am as sorry for that as you can be," said Oliver, dashing away the
blood which streamed from his nose. "I wish I were as old and as tall
as you: but I am not. And this is no fighting for play, when it would
not signify if I was beaten every day for a week. Here are Mildred and
the baby; I have to take care of them till we know what has become of my
father and mother: and if you try to prevent me, I will get Ailwin, or
anybody or thing I can, to help me, sooner than they shall be hurt. If
father and mother ever come back to take care of Mildred, I will fight
you every day till I beat you, and let nobody interfere: but till then,
I will go to Mildred as often as she calls, if you drown for it, as I
showed you this morning."
Roger answered only by fresh kicks and struggles. Ailwin said aloud
that she saw nothing for it but leaving him on this spit of land, to
starve on the dunghill. There would be no taking him over to the house
in this temper. Roger vowed he would drown all the little pigs, and
hough the cow. He had done such a thing before; and he would do it
again; so that they should not have a drop more milk for George.
"That will never do," said Oliver. "Ailwin, do you think we could get
him over to the Red-hill? He would have plenty to eat there, and might
do as he pleased, and be out of our way and the cow's. I could carry
him his dog."
Ailwin asked Oliver to bring her the cord from off the raft, and they
two could tie up the boy from doing mischief. Oliver brought the cord,
but he could not bear to think of using it so.
"Come, now, Roger," said he, "you picked this quarrel; and you may get
out of it in a moment. We don't want to quarrel at such a time as this.
Never mind what has happened. Only say you wont meddle between me and
the others while the flood lasts; and you shall help me to row home, and
I will thank you. After all, we can fight it out some other day, if you
like."
More kicks from Roger. No other answer. So Oliver and Ailwin tied his
arms and legs with the cord; and then Ailwin proceeded to milk the cow,
and Oliver, after washing his face, to give the pony some more hay, and
see how the little pigs went on. The animals were all drooping, and
especially the cow. Oliver wished to have given the pigs some of her
milk, as the poor sow seemed weak and ill; but the cow gave so very
little milk this afternoon, that there was none to spare. Her legs
trembled as she stood to be milked; and she lay down again, as soon as
Ailwin had done.
"The poor thing ain't long for this world," said Ailwin. "Depend upon
it that boy has bewitched her. I don't believe she trembles in that way
when he is on the other side of the water."
"You will see that in the morning," said Oliver. "Shall we take him on
the raft now? I don't like to carry him tied so, for fear he should
throw himself about, and roll over into the water. He would certainly
be drowned."
"Leave that to him, Oliver: and take my word for it, that boy was never
made to be drowned."
"You thought the same about Stephen, you know; and he is drowned, I am
afraid."
"Neither you nor I know that. I will believe it when I see it," said
Ailwin with a wise look.
It was now Roger's mood to lie like one dead. He did not move a muscle
when he was lifted, and laid on the raft. Ailwin was so delighted to
see the boy she was so afraid of thus humbled, that she could not help
giving his face a splash and rub with the muddy water of the stream as
he lay.
"Ailwin, for shame!" cried Oliver. "I will fight you next, if you do
so. You know you durst not, if his hands were free."
"To be sure, Oliver, that is the very reason. One must take one's
revenge while one can. However, I wont notice him any more till you
do."
"Cannot you set down your pail, and help me to row?" asked Oliver. He
was quite tired. The raft was heavy now; his nose had not left off
bleeding, and his head ached sadly. Three pulls from Ailwin brought
them nearer home than all Oliver's previous efforts. He observed that
they must get round the house, if possible, and into the stream which
ran through the garden, so as to land Roger on the Red-hill.
There was not much difficulty in getting round, as everything like a
fence had long been swept away. As they passed near the entrance-door
to the garden, they observed that the waters were still sinking. They
stood now only half-way up the door-posts. Oliver declared that when he
was a little less tired, he would go through the lower rooms in a tub,
and see whether he could pick up anything useful. He feared, however,
that almost everything must have been swept off through the windows, in
the water-falls that Mildred had thought so pretty, the first day of the
flood.
"There is a chest!" exclaimed Oliver, pointing to a little creek in
which a stout chest had stuck. "Roger, I do believe it is the very
chest that ... that we began our quarrel about. Come, now, is not this
a sign that we ought to make it up?"
Roger would not appear to hear: so his companions made short work of it.
They pulled in for the shore of the Red-hill, and laid Roger on the
slimy bank:--for they saw no occasion to carry one so heavy and so sulky
up to the nice bed of grass which was spread at the top of the red
precipice that the waters had cut Oliver knew that there was a knife in
Roger's pocket. He took it out, cut the cord which tied his wrists, and
threw the knife to a little distance, where Roger could easily reach it
in order to free his legs; but not in time to overtake them before they
should have put off again.
Roger made one catch at Oliver's leg, but missing it, lay again as if
dead; and Ailwin believed he had not yet stirred when the raft rounded
the house again, with the great chest in tow.
Mildred was delighted to see them back, and especially without Roger.
She thought Oliver's face looked very shocking, but Oliver would not say
a word about this, or anything else, till he had found Roger's dog, and
gone over in the basket, to set him ashore with his master.
"There!" said he, as he stepped in at the window when this was
accomplished, "we have done their business. There they are, in their
desert island, as they were before. Now we need not think any more
about them, but attend to our own affairs."
"Your face, Oliver! Pray do--"
"Never mind my face, dear, if it does not frighten poor Geordie. How is
poor Geordie?"
"I do not think he is any better. I never saw him so fretful, and so
hot and ill. And he cries so dreadfully!"