"WHAT'S THE MEANING OF ALL THIS?"
I did know the rest; how Shock and I lay for a fortnight at the little
country inn carefully tended before we were declared fit to go back
home, for the doctor was not long in bringing us back to our senses;
and, save that I used to wake with a start out of my sleep in the dark,
fancying I was back in the pit, I was not much the worse. Shock was
better, for he looked cleaner and fresher, but he objected a great deal
to our nurse brushing his hair.
I was just back and feeling strong again, when one day Sir Francis came
down into the pinery, and stopped and spoke to me. He said he had heard
all about my narrow escape, and hoped it would be a warning to me never
to trust myself in a sand-pit again.
He was very kind after his manner, which was generally as if he thought
all the world were soldiers, and I was going up to my dinner soon, after
I had stopped for a bit of a cool down in one of the other houses, when,
to my great disgust, I saw Courtenay and Philip back, and I felt a kind
of foreboding that there would soon be some more troubles to face.
I was quite right, for during the rest of their stay at home they seemed
to have combined to make my life as wretched as they possibly could.
I was often on the point of complaining, but I did not like to do so,
for it seemed to be so cowardly, and besides, I argued to myself that I
could not expect all sunshine. Old Brownsmith used to have me over to
spend Sundays with him, and his brother and Mrs Solomon were very kind.
Ike sometimes went so far as to say "Good-morning" and "good-night,"
and Shock had become so friendly that he would talk, and bring me a good
moth or butterfly for my case.
I went steadily on collecting, for Mr Solomon said, as long as the work
was done well he would rather I did amuse myself in a sensible way.
The consequence was that I often used to go down the garden of a night,
and my collection of moths was largely increased.
I noticed about this time that Sir Francis used to talk a good deal to
Shock, and by and by I found from Ike that the boy was going regularly
to an evening-school, and altering a great deal for the better.
Unfortunately, Ike, with whom he lodged, was not improving, as I had
several opportunities of observing, and one day I took him to task about
it.
"I know the excuse you have, Ike," I said, "that habit you got into when
going backwards and forwards to the market; but when you had settled
down here in a gentleman's garden, I should have thought that you would
have given it up."
"Ah, yes," he said, as he drove in his spade. "You're a gent, you see,
and I'm only a workman."
"I'm going to be a workman too, Ike," I said.
"Ay, but not a digger like me. They don't set me to prune, and thin
grapes, and mind chyce flowers. I'm not like you."
"It does not matter what any one is, Ike," I said. "You ought to turn
over a new leaf and keep away from the public-house."
"True," he said, smashing a clod; "and I do turn over a noo leaf, but it
will turn itself back."
"Nonsense!" I said. "You are sharp enough on Shock's failings, and you
tell me of mine. Why don't you attend to your own?"
"Look here, young gent," he cried sharply, "do you want to quarrel just
because I like a drop now and then?"
"Quarrel! No, Ike. I tell you because I don't want to see you
discharged."
"Think they would start me if they knowed, lad?"
"I'm sure of it," I said earnestly. "Sir Francis is so particular."
"Then," he said, scraping his spade fiercely, "it won't do. I want to
stop here. I'll turn over a noo leaf."
One day in the next autumn, as I was carefully shutting in a pill-box a
moth that I had found, a gentleman who was staying at the house caught
sight of me and asked to see it.
"Ah, yes!" he said. "Goat-moth, and a nice specimen. Do you sugar?"
"Do I sugar, sir?" I said vacantly. "Yes, I like sugar, sir."
"Bless the lad!" he said, laughing. "I mean sugar the trees. Smear
them with thick sugar and water or treacle, and then go round at night
with a lantern; that's the way to catch the best moths."
I was delighted with the idea and was not long before I tried it, and as
luck would have it, there was an old bull's-eye lantern in the
tool-house that Mr Solomon used when he went round to the furnaces of a
night.
I remember well one evening, just at leaving-off time, taking my bottle
of thick syrup and brush from the tool-house shelf, and slipping down
the garden and into the pear-plantation where the choice late fruit was
waiting and asking daily to be picked.
Mr Solomon was very proud of his pears, and certainly some of them grew
to a magnificent size.
I was noticing how beautiful and tawny and golden some of them were
growing to be as I smeared the trunk of one and then of another with my
sweet stuff, and as it was a deliciously warm still evening, I was full
of expectation of a good take.
I had just finished when all at once I heard a curious noise, which made
me think of lying in the dark in the sand-cave listening to Shock's hard
breathing; and I gave quite a shudder as I looked round, and then turned
hot and angry.
I knew what the noise was, and had not to look far to find Ike lying
under a large tree right away from the path fast asleep, and every now
and then uttering a few words and giving a snort.
"Ike!" I said, shaking him. "Ike! wake up and go home."
But the more I tried the more stupid he seemed to grow, and I stood at
last wondering what I had better do, not liking the idea of Mr Solomon
hearing, for it was certain to mean a very severe reprimand. It might
mean discharge.
It seemed such a pity, too, and I could not help thinking that this bad
habit of Ike's was the reason why he had lived to fifty and never risen
above the position of labourer.
I tried again to wake him, but it was of no use, and just then I heard
Mr Solomon shout to me that tea was waiting.
I ran up the garden quickly for fear Mr Solomon should come down and
see Ike, and as I went I made up my mind that I would get the key of the
gate into the lane and come down after dark and smuggle him out without
anyone knowing.
"Well, butterfly boy," said Mrs Solomon, smiling in her half-serious
way, "we've been waiting tea these ten minutes."
I said I was very sorry, and though I felt a little guilty as I sat down
I soon forgot all about Ike in my pleasant meal.
Then I felt frightened as I heard some laughing and shouting, and
started and listened, for it struck me that Courtenay and Philip might
be going down the garden, and if they should see poor Ike in such a
state, I knew that they would begin baiting and teasing him, when he
would perhaps fly in a passion such as I had seen him in once before,
when he abused me, and apologised the next day, saying that it wasn't
temper, but beer.
The sound died away, and then it seemed to rise again nearer to us.
"Ah!" said Mr Solomon, "I'm sorry for those who have boys."
"No, you are not, Solomon," said his wife, cutting the bread and butter.
"Well, such boys as them."
"Ah!" said Mrs Solomon. "That's better."
That seemed a long tea-time, and it appeared to be longer still before I
could get away, for Mr Solomon had a lot of things to ask me about the
grape-house and pit. I kept glancing at the wall where the key hung on
a nail, and though another time I might easily have taken it, on this
particular occasion it seemed as if I could not get near the place
unobserved.
At last my time came; Mrs Solomon had gone into the back kitchen, and
Mr Solomon to his desk in the parlour. I did not lose a moment, but,
snatching the key from the nail, I slipped it in my pocket, caught my
cap from the peg, and slipped out.
I was not going to do any wicked act, but somehow I felt as if all this
was very wrong, and I found myself running along the grass borders,
leaping over the gravel paths, so that my footsteps should not be heard,
and in this way I reached the tool-house, where, quite at home in the
darkness, and making no more noise than jingling a hanging spade against
the bricks, I reached up on to the corner shelf and found my lantern and
matches.
There was the little lamp inside already trimmed, and I soon had it
alight and darkened by the shade, slipped it in my pocket, and then
started down the long green walk by the big wall where the espaliers
were trained, and the wall was covered with big pear-trees.
"I feel just like a robber," I said to myself as I stole along to find
Ike and turn him out.
Then I stopped short, for there was a scrambling noise on one side.
"He is awake and trying to get over the wall," I said to myself, and
setting down my lantern by one of the big trees, I went forward towards
the great pear-tree, whose branches would make a ladder right to the
top.
It was very dark, and the great wall made it seem blacker as I stole on
over the soft green path meaning to make sure that Ike had gone over
quite safely, and then go to my moth-hunting.
"It's as well not to speak to him," I thought.
Then I stopped again, for if it was Ike he was either talking to himself
or had some one whispering to him.
"It can't be Ike," I thought, for after the whispering some one jumped
down on the soft bed, and then some one else followed--_crash_.
There was a scuffle here, and some one uttered an ejaculation of pain as
if he had hurt himself in jumping, while the other laughed, and then
they whispered together.
It was not Ike going away then, but two people come over the wall to get
at the great choice pears that were growing on my left.
"What a shame," I thought; and as I recalled a similar occurrence at Old
Brownsmith's I wished that Shock were with me to help protect Sir
Francis' choice fruit.
I ought to have slipped off back and told Mr Solomon, who would have
made the gardener come from the lower cottage; but I did not think of
that; I only listened and heard one of the thieves whisper to the other:
"Get up; you aren't hurt. Come along."
Then there was a rustling as they forced their way among the bushes, and
went bang up against an espalier. This they skirted, coming close to me
as I stood in the shadow of a pear-tree.
"Come along quick!" I heard; and then the two figures went on rustling
and crashing among the black-currant bushes, so that I could smell the
peculiar herbaceous medicine-scent they gave out.
I knew as well as if I had been told where they were going, and that was
to a double row of beautiful great pears that were just ready to pick,
and which I had noticed that morning, and again when I was sugaring the
trees close by.
At first I had taken them for men, but by degrees, by the tone of their
whispers and the faint sight I got of them now and then as they passed
an open place, I knew that they were boys.
A few minutes before I had felt excited and nervous; then I felt less
alarm. My first idea was to frighten them by shouting for the different
men about the place; but as soon as I was sure that they were boys, a
curiously pugnacious sensation came over me, and I determined to see if
I couldn't catch one of them and drag him up to Mr Solomon, for I felt
sure that I should only have one to fight with, the other would be sure
to run as hard as he could go.
I stopped short again with an unpleasant thought in my mind. Surely
this could not be Shock with some companion.
No, it could not be he, I felt sure, and I was rather ashamed of having
thought it as I crept on after the two thieves, so that I was quite near
them when, as I expected they would, they stopped by the little thick
heavily-laden trees.
"Look out! hold the bag and be quick," was whispered; and then there was
snapping of twigs, the rustling of leaves, and a couple of dull thuds as
two pears fell.
"Never mind them," was whispered in the same tone. "There's no end of
'em about."
I crept nearer with my teeth grinding together, for it seemed to be such
a shameful thing to clear those pears from the tree in that way, and
then I grew furious, for one whispered something to the other, and the
tree being stripped was shaken, and then _thump, thump, thump_, one
after another the beautiful fruit fell.
They scuffled about, and I was so close now that I could hear the pears
banged and bruised one upon another as they were thrown into a bag.
Then I felt as if I could bear it no longer. The pears were as if they
were my own, and making a dash at the faintly seen figure with the bag I
struck him a blow with all my might, and that, the surprise, and the
weight of my body combined were sufficient to send him over amongst the
black currants, while I went at the other, and in a blind fury began
laying on to him with my fists as hard as I could.
He tried to get away, but I held on to him, and this drove him to fight
desperately, and for some minutes we were up and down, fighting,
wrestling, and hanging on to each other with all the fury of bitter
enemies.
I was beaten down to my knees twice over. I struggled up again though,
and held on with the stubbornness of a bull-dog.
Then being stronger than I he swung me round, so that I was crushed up
against the trunk of one of the trees, but the more he hurt me the more
angry I grew, and held on, striking at him whenever I could get an arm
free. I could hear him grinding his teeth as he struggled with me, and
at last I caught my feet in a currant bush, for even then I could tell
it by the smell, and down I went.
But not alone. I held on to him, and dragged him atop of me.
"Let go!" he cried hoarsely, as he struck me savagely in the face; and
when the pain only made me hang on all the more tightly he called out to
his companion, who had taken no farther part in the fray:
"Here, Phil, Phil. Come on, you sneak."
I felt as if I had been stunned. Not by his blow, but by his words, as
for the first time I realised with whom I had been engaged.
A rustling noise on my left warned me that some one else was coming; but
I let my hands fall to my side, for I had made a grievous mistake, and
must strike no more.
In place now of my hanging on to Courtenay, he was holding me, and
drawing in his breath he raised himself a little, raised one hand and
was about to strike me, but before he could, Philip seemed to seize me
by the collar, and his brother too, but in an instant I felt that it was
a stronger grip, and a hoarse gruff voice that I knew well enough was
that of Sir Francis shouted out, "Caught you, have I, you young
scoundrels."
As he spoke he made us rise, and forced us before him--neither of us
speaking--through the bushes and on to the path, a little point of light
appearing above me, and puffs of pungent smoke from a cigar striking my
face.
"I've got t'other one," said a rough voice that I also recognised, and I
cried out involuntarily:
"Ike--Ike!"
"That's me, lad. I've got him fast."
"You let me go. You hurt me," cried Philip out of the darkness.
"Hurt yer? I should think I do hurt you. Traps always does hurt, my
fine fellow. Who are you? What's your name?"
"Bring him here," cried Sir Francis; and as Ike half carried, half
dragged Philip out from among the trees on to the broad green walk, Sir
Francis cried fiercely:
"Now, then! What's the meaning of all this!"
I heard Philip give a gasp as I opened my lips to speak, but before I
could say a word Courtenay cried out quickly:
"Phil and I heard them stealing the pears, and we came down to stop
them--didn't we, Phil?"
"Yes: they pounced upon us in the dark."
"I am knocked about," cried Courtenay.
"What a wicked lie!" I exclaimed, as soon as I could get my breath.
"Lie, sir, lie!" cried Sir Francis fiercely, as he tightened his grasp
upon my collar. "Why, I saw you come creeping along with that dark
lantern, and watched you. You had no business down here, and yet I find
you along with this fellow, who has no right to be in the garden now,
assaulting my sons."