It was growing dusk, and the line of gold upon the sea had merged into
the gray twilight around. A drizzling rain fell like a veil between Susie
and the shore, and suddenly she remembered that for some time she had not
heard Dick's pleading voice. Instantly all the excitement and pleasure of
the stolen hour fell away from her, and with a frightened pang at her
heart she began a frantic search over the slippery rocks, flying in
heedless haste and shouting as she ran.
Her terror and tears impressed even the twins, though they were a little
inclined to mock. They too rushed and splashed from rock to rock, making
difficult and dangerous leaps that only bare toes made possible. The
pools between the rocks were full of water, and there was no yellow
reflection now from the wind-tossed sky. Susie felt despairing; but
suddenly, almost at her feet, she heard Dick's uncomplaining little
voice, "It's _me_, Susie. I knew you would come back; I am so glad. My
toe has got hurt, and I have sitted here till all my clothes has got
wet."
"How tiresome he is!" said Dot impatiently. "What a tiresome, silly
little boy! That's always the way with babies; they spoil all your fun."
"I'm not a baby," said Dick defiantly.
"Well, you're very like one. Every one will know now, and a jolly row
you've got us into."
"I'll tell you what," said Dash, in a hissing whisper into Susie's ear.
"Let's run back to the shore, and then they'll think he went alone."
"Come on, Susie, or we shall be drenched," said Dot. "When once we've got
on our shoes and stockings we can easily rush out and rescue him. Look at
the white horses, and the waves against the island. We are really a good
way out, but we could rescue him in two minutes, and your mother would be
_grateful_ to us."
But Susie was not listening. The twins' suggestions beat on her brain,
and found no entrance. All the best of Susie--the real, comfortable
Susie--brimming over with a love that was almost motherly, was in the
kind, quivering face she bent over Dick as he held out his tired arms.
In a minute she was down beside him, stroking and folding him close, till
his sobbing breaths were stifled on her shoulder.
"Oh, do come on, Susie!" said the twins; "we can't stay another minute.
If you won't leave him you'll be caught, and you will never be allowed to
play with us again."
Susie looked up, bewildered, into the twins' anxious faces. What did it
matter if she were caught, or blamed, or punished? The idea of leaving
Dick, even to make a sensational rescue, never entered her head for a
minute. _Leave him_, frightened and alone, out on the dark rocks! As she
had herself said, such a little while ago, "not for a king's ransom." She
only wanted the twins to go and leave her in peace, and so she told them
with that plainness of speech which to Susie seemed to suit the occasion.
"Please, please go," she said. "I can carry him quite well after he has
rested a little bit."
"You will be found out," said the twins warningly.
"Oh, it doesn't matter," said Susie.
"It seemed to matter a good deal a little while ago," said Dot
resentfully.
"Nothing matters now," said Susie, "except to get Dick home."
"Well, you can't rest long," said Dash, "because the tide's coming in."
Susie looked vaguely at the island behind her, with the waves splashing
against its sides, and then at the glistening rocks that made rough
stepping-stones to land. She had no idea about the tides; she only knew
that on some days the rocks showed more above the water than on others,
but there were always rocks. She shook her head impatiently.
"I know all about the tide," she said. "I am perfectly certain I can get
home all right."
"Oh, you're always perfectly certain," said Dot.
"So I am," said Susie.
"Well, good-night," said Dash. "Don't fiddle about too long with Dick,
that's all."
"Good-night," said Susie cheerfully.
She saw the two active figures leaping away into the twilight, splashing
from rock to rock, till they became gray and indistinct like moving
shadows. She felt suddenly chilled and lonely, and the silence and gloom
enveloped them--a forlorn little group in the midst of the growing dark.
"Dickie," said Susie presently, "we must start back before it gets any
darker. I think it's going to pour. If I put my arm round you, do you
think you can walk?"
"Why, the water would go over my head," said Dick.
He pushed out a fat leg and let it dangle against the rock; already the
white spray was splashing over it. Susie stared at it incredulously. When
the twins left, it had been a shallow pool, and they had waded through
it.
"Oh, hurry up, Dick!" she said, in a sudden panic. "Mother will be
frightened."
"It's fun, though," said Dick.
Fun! The word did not seem at all the right word to Susie, but she said
nothing. She knew now in a flash what the twins meant by the rising tide,
but all she saw was her mother's face with the fear on it.
But Susie had not been the eldest of the little family for so many
years for nothing. She knew that, whatever happened, Dick must not get
bronchitis, and she put her own fear bravely on one side to think of him.
First she slipped over the rock, and found that it reached her waist, and
that every wave made it more difficult to stand. With Dick on her back it
would be impossible; and the long links of the chain of rocks stretched
such a weary way with those shining pools between. The wind roared
against the island, and the spray dashed up it; but Susie remembered the
grass and the goats, and a gleam of hope sprang up within her.
"O Dick, we are close to the island," she said. "I had quite forgotten.
We must clamber over the rocks and get there; and, Dickie darling, even
if your foot hurts, you will be brave."
"I will be brave, Susie," said Dick.
The rocks were slippery, and the seaweed popped under their feet like
little guns; but jumping, slipping, clinging together, they reached the
foot of the island, and then began the difficult scramble upwards. Dick
hung heavily on to Susie's skirt, and his little feet were torn and
bruised. But Susie's courage was the courage of hope, not of despair. She
lifted him over difficult places, and clung to edges of the cliff where
it seemed as if even the seagulls had not room to stand. Once she found a
narrow track, but she lost it again in the darkness, and still she felt
the splash of the waves and heard the startled birds crying overhead.
Never, never had Susie been so tired; but those pursuing waves chased her
up, and by-and-by she felt dry crags under her feet, and then welcome
grass--wet with rain, not sea.
Drawing long, sobbing breaths, Susie sank down and drew Dickie into her
arms. In the far, far distance little lights were twinkling in the town,
and Susie's heart gave a passionate leap; it wanted to annihilate time
and space, and carry her home.
"Mother, mother, mother!" she cried under her breath.
Dick was wet and tired, but he was too excited to lie still. He lay in
the hollow of Susie's lap, with his wet feet curled up into her skirt,
and his round eyes shining.
"We can't be drowned now, Susie," he said, smiling.
Susie had to make quite an effort before her stiff lips would speak.
"No, Dickie, we are quite safe," she said; "but the ledge is so narrow
you must not fidget about. I am going to make you a dear little bed like
a bird's nest."
"I don't want to stay here all night," he said.
"But there are goats here."
"I don't want there to be goats," he said again.
"I only mean," said Susie, "that if God can take care of the goats, He
can take care of us too."
"I would rather," said Dickie, after a pause, "that He would put us back
into our cribs."
"Perhaps He will," said Susie; "but you must sit quite still, and let me
creep down and try if there is any other way to get to shore."
"No, Susie, you mustn't go," said Dick, whimpering. "I won't cry if you
are here, but if you go I shall--I shall _weep_," he said.
"O darling Dick, don't," said Susie imploringly. "Perhaps mother will
come to the shore and see us, or perhaps the twins will tell her, or
perhaps the fishermen will bring a boat."
"I shall _weep_," repeated Dick firmly. After that he did not speak
again, but he put his two chubby arms so tightly round her neck that he
nearly choked her. "I won't _let_ you go," he said sleepily.
Susie felt in despair. "I must go, Dick. I don't see what else I can do."
"You said yourself"--Dick's voice was sleepier, and he nestled
closer--"you said yourself that God would take care of us and the goats."
Dick was so determined that Susie was afraid to try to get away. She was
sure that he would insist on coming too, and that she would never be able
to do that terrible scramble again. Susie's active brain flashed from
point to point in a moment of time, and it seemed to her that there was,
after all, nothing particular to be gained by going down on to the rocks.
No one could see her through the mist and darkness, and her feeble voice
would never be heard through the wind. Dick was almost asleep, and the
ledge was sheltered. _If_ she could get him to sleep! She rolled him out
of her arms, keeping her arm as a pillow under his head. Then with her
free hand she unfastened her serge skirt and tucked it round him. When
he coughed, she slipped off her flannel petticoat and wrapped it round
his head and throat, and almost before he had shut his eyes she heard
his even breathing.
"O darling Dick!" said Susie, under her breath.
She crept as near to him as she could, sheltering him in the crevice of
the cliff. Her one flimsy petticoat was soaked, and her legs felt like
ice; but those little choking snores filled her with a joy almost too
great for words.
The rain beat in her face and flicked her wet hair against it like the
lash of a whip; but Susie felt nothing except the warm comfort of the
little body behind her, saw nothing but the gleaming row of lights that
marked the Parade. All her heart moved in one passionate cry, "If mother
will only forgive me!" And then she realized, with a glow of happiness,
that she had never really doubted it; that she had known quite well all
the time that there would be no need for tears or protestations--mother
would understand.
The stars came out and the leaping waves seemed to fall asleep, whilst
Susie, with wide-awake eyes, settled herself for the interminable night.
But nature is very kind to the remorseful sinner as well as to the happy
and the innocent, and presently her head fell back against Dick's
comfortable, cosy shoulder, and she too fell into a dreamless sleep.