"Shock!" I whispered again. "Shock!"
"If ver don't go I'll heave the hay-fork at yer," came in a low angry
voice.
"No, no: don't," I said. "I want you. Come on, and bring a big stick:
there's some boys stealing the pears."
There was a rustle and a scramble, and Shock was by my side, more full
of life and excitement than I had ever noticed him before.
"Pears?" he whispered hoarsely; "arter the pears? Where? Where are
they?"
He kept on the move, making for the door and coming back, and behaving
altogether like a dog full of expectation of a rush after some wild
creature in a hunt.
"Be quiet or we sha'n't catch them," I whispered. "Some boys have
climbed over the wall, and are after the _Marie Louise_ pears."
He stopped short suddenly.
"Yah!" he cried, "they ain't. It's your larks."
"You stupid fellow! I tell you they are."
"Mary Louisas ain't ripe," he cried.
"Don't care; they've gone after them. Come, and bring a stick."
"Fain larks," he said dubiously.
"Just as if I would play tricks with you!" I cried impatiently.
"No, you wouldn't, would yer?" he said hoarsely. "Wouldn't be hard on a
chap. Stop a minute."
He rustled off amongst the straw, and I heard a rattling noise and then
a chuckle, and Shock was back to hand me a stick as thick as my finger.
"Hezzles," he whispered--"nut hezzle. Come along. You go first."
Though I had roused Shock out of bed he had no dressing to do, and
following me down the ladder he walked quickly after me down one of the
paths, then to the right along another till we came to a corner, when we
both stopped and listened.
Shock began to hiss very softly, as if he were a steam-engine with the
vapour escaping from the safety-valve, as we heard, about fifty yards
from us, the rustling of the pear-trees, the heavy shake of a bough, and
then through the pitchy darkness _whop! whop! whop! whop_! as the pears
fell on to the soft ground.
"You go this way," I whispered to Shock, "and I'll go that way, and then
we'll rush in and catch them."
"Yes," he said back. "Hit hard, and mind and get hold o' the bag."
We were separating when he caught hold of my arm.
"'Old 'ard," he whispered. "Let's rush 'em together."
In the darkness perhaps his was the better plan. At all events we
adopted it, and taking hold of hands we advanced on tiptoe trembling
with expectation, our sticks grasped, and every now and then the pendent
branches of some tree rustling in and sweeping our faces. And all the
time, just in front, we could hear the hurried shaking of boughs, the
fall of the pears, and tittering and whispering as the party seemed to
be picking up the spoil.
"We shall have too many," whispered a voice just before us.
"Never mind; let's fill the bag. Go it, boys."
"Hush! Some one'll hear."
"Not they. Go on. Here's a bough loaded. Oh, I say!" Shock gave my
hand a nip to which I responded, and then all at once from under the
tree where we stood we made a rush at the indistinct figures we could
sometimes make out a few yards away.
_Whish, rush, whack_!
"I say what are you doing of?"
"Oh!"
"Run! run!"
"Oh!"
These ejaculations were mingled with the blows dealt by our sticks,
several of which fell upon heads, backs, legs, and arms, anywhere,
though more struck the trees; and in the excitement one I delivered did
no end of mischief to a young pear-tree, and brought down a shower of
fruit upon my head.
It was all the work of a few moments. At the first the marauding party
thought it was some trick of a companion; directly after they scattered
and ran, under the impression that Old Brownsmith and all his men were
in pursuit.
As for me, I felt red-hot with excitement, and found myself after a dash
through some gooseberry bushes, whose pricking only seemed to give me
fresh energy, running along a path after one boy at whom I kept cutting
with my hazel stick.
At every stroke there was a howl from the boy, who kept on shouting as
he ran:
"Oh! please, sir--oh! sir--don't, sir--oh! pray, sir!"
In my hard-heartedness and excitement I showed no mercy, but every time
I got near enough as we panted on I gave him a sharp cut, and he would
have been punished far worse if all at once I had not run right into a
hanging bough of one of the pears, and gone down backwards, while when I
scrambled up again my stick was gone.
I felt that if I waited to search for it I should lose the boy I meant
to make a prisoner, and ran on in the direction where I could hear his
steps.
Knowing the garden as I did I was able to make a cut so as to recover
the lost ground, for I realised that he was making for the wall, and I
was just in time to catch him as he scrambled up one of the trained
trees, and had his chest on the top.
He would have been over in another second or two had I not made a jump
at his legs, one of which I caught, and, twisting my arms round it, I
held on with all my might.
"Oh! oh!" he yelled pitifully. "Pray let me go, sir. I'll never come
no more, sir. Help! oh my! help!"
"Come down," I panted as well as I could for want of breath, "come
down!" and I gave the leg I held a tremendous shake.
"Oh!--oh! Pray let me go this time, sir."
"Come down," I cried again fiercely, and I nearly dragged him from the
wall, as I held on with all my might.
"No, sir! oh, sir! It wasn't me, sir. It was--oh, please let me go!"
The voice sounded as if it were on the outside of the wall, as my
captive hung by his elbows and chest, while I could feel the leg I held
quiver and tremble as I tugged hard to get its owner down into the
garden; but distant and muffled as that voice was, it seemed familiar
when it yelled again:
"Oh I pray let me go this time, sir."
"No," I shouted, as I gave the leg a snatch and hung on, "Come down, you
thieving rascal, come down."
"Why, it's you, is it?" came from the top of the wall, a little plainer
now.
"What! George Day!" I exclaimed, but without relaxing my hold.
"Oh, you sneak!" he cried. "Let go, will you."
"No," I cried stoutly. "Come down."
"Sha'n't. It ain't your place. Let go, you sneak."
"I sha'n't," I cried angrily. "Come down, you thief."
"If you call me a thief I'll come down and half smash you. Let go!"
His courage returned as he found out who was his captor, and he kicked
out savagely, but I held on.
"Do you hear?" he cried. "Here, let go, and I'll give you a fourpenny
piece out of my next pocket-money."
"You come down to Mr Brownsmith," I cried.
"Get out! You know who I am: George Day."
"I know you're a thief, and I shall take you up to Mr Brownsmith," I
said, "and here he comes."
"If you don't let go," he cried with a sudden access of fury, "I'll just
come down and I'll--"
He did not finish his threat. I daresay it would have been something
very dreadful, but I was not in the least frightened as I held on; but
as he clung to the big quaint coping of the wall he suddenly gave two or
three such tremendous kicks that one of them, aided by his getting his
free foot on my shoulder, was given with such force that I was driven
backwards, and after staggering a few steps, caught my heel and came
down in a sitting position upon the path.
I leaped to my feet again, but only just in time to hear a scuffling
noise on the top of the wall, the sound of some one dropping on the
other side, and then _pat, pat, pat_, steps fast repeated, as my
prisoner ran away.
"Ah!" I exclaimed, with a stamp of the foot in my disappointment.
"Chiv-ee! Why, ho! Where are yer?"
"Here, Shock!" I cried in answer to the shout on my right, and the boy
came running up.
"Got him?"
"No," I replied. "He climbed up the wall and kicked me backwards.
Didn't you catch one?"
"No. They skiddled off like rabbuts, and the one I tried to run down
dodged me in the dark, and when I heerd him he was close up to the fence
t'other side, and got away. Didn't I give it some of 'em though!"
"Oh! I do wish we had caught one," I exclaimed; and then I felt as if I
did not wish so, especially as the boy I had chased was George Day.
"They didn't get the pears," said Shock suddenly; and now it struck me
that we had suddenly grown to be wonderfully talkative, and the best of
friends.
"No," I replied, "I don't think they got the pears. Let's go and see."
We trudged off, I for my part feeling very stiff, and as if all the
excitement had gone out of the adventure; and in a minute we were
feeling about under the pear-trees, and kicking against fallen fruit.
"Here she is," said Shock suddenly. "Big bag. Stodge full."
I ran to him, and was in the act of passing my hands over the bulging
bag when I uttered a faint cry of horror, for something soft seemed to
have dropped upon my back, and a voice from out of the darkness
exclaimed:
"What are you boys doing here?"
At the same moment I knew that it was one of the cats that had leaped
upon my back, and Old Brownsmith who was speaking.
"We have been after some boys who were stealing the pears, sir," I said.
"Were they?" cried the old man sternly; "and I've come and caught them.
You, Shock, bring that bag up to the door."
Shock seized and shouldered the bag, and we followed the old gentleman
to the house; but though I spoke two or three times he made no reply,
and I felt too much hurt by his suspicions to say more.
There was a large house lantern alight in the kitchen, as if the old
gentleman had been about to bring it down the garden with him and had
altered his mind, and the first thing he did was to open the lantern,
take out the candle in his fingers, and hold it up so as to look at each
of us in turn, frowning and suspicious, while we shrank and half-closed
our eyes, dazzled by the light.
Then he turned his attention to the big bag which Shock had placed upon
the table, the top of which opened out, and a pear or two rolled upon
the floor as soon as it was released.
"Humph! Pillow-case, eh?" said the old man, and his face brightened as
if the suspicion was being cleared away. "Who heard 'em?"
"I did, sir," I cried; and I told him how I had wakened up Shock, and of
our fight; but I did not mention George Day's name, and I did not mean
to do so unless I was asked, for it seemed to be so shocking for a boy
like that to be charged with stealing fruit.
"Humph! Ought to have caught some of the dogs! but I say, did you hit
'em hard?"
"As hard as I could, sir," I replied innocently.
"Hah! aha! That's right. Young scoundrels. Spoilt a basket of pears
that were not ripe. Young dogs! I'll put glass bottles all along the
walls, and see how they like that. There, be off to bed."