I tried very hard not to meet Doctor Chowne when he next came over to
our cottage, which was two days after the escape from drowning, for he
was very frequently in confab with my father.
They went into the little parlour, and so as to be out of the way I went
into the cliff garden to watch the sea seated astride of one of the
gates; but, as luck would have it, my father and the doctor came out to
talk in the garden, and as there was no way of escape without facing
them, I had to remain where I was and put on the boldest front I could.
"Oh, you're there, are you, Mr Sep?" exclaimed the doctor grimly.
"Yes, sir," I said.
"That's right; I only wanted to ask a favour of you."
"What is it, sir?" I said.
"Oh, wait a minute and I'll tell you," said the doctor in his grimmest
way. "It was only this. You see I'm a very busy man, twice as busy as
I used to be since your father has taken to consulting me. What I want
you to do is this--"
He stopped short and stared at me till I grew uncomfortable.
"This, my lad," he continued. "To save time, I want you to tell me when
you are going to try next to kill my boy."
"To kill Bob, sir?"
"Yes, I want to be ready, as I've so little time to spare. I want to
order mourning from Exeter, and to give orders for the funeral."
"I--I don't understand you, sir," I stammered.
"Not understand me, my lad! Why, I spoke plainly enough. You've tried
to kill my Bob twice; third time never fails."
"Doctor Chowne!" I exclaimed.
"Your most humble servant, sir," he continued sarcastically. "I only
wanted to add, that I should like you to do it as soon as you can, for
he is costing me a great deal for clothes and boots."
"There, there, Chowne," said my father, taking pity upon me, "boys will
be boys. I daresay your chap was just as bad as mine, and old
Uggleston's baby quite their equal."
"They lead my Bob into all the mischief," cried the Doctor sharply.
"Oh, no doubt, no doubt," said my father in his driest way.
"And I should like to know as near as I can when it's to come to an
end?"
"There, there, never mind," said my father good-humouredly. "Give them
another chance, and if they spoil these clothes we'll send into Bristol
for some sail-cloth, and have 'em rigged out in that."
"Sail-cloth!" cried the doctor, "old carpet you mean. That's the only
thing for them."
"Holidays will soon be over, Chowne, and we shall be rid of them."
"Yes, that's a comfort," said the doctor; and, as he turned away, I
looked appealingly at my father, who gave me a dry look, and taking it
to mean that I might go, I slipped off and went in to Ripplemouth.
I soon found Bob, sitting in a very ragged old suit, out of which he had
grown two years before, and he looked so comical with his arms far
through his sleeves, and his legs showing so long beneath his trouser
bottoms, than I burst out laughing.
"Yah! That's just like you," cried Bob viciously. "I never saw such a
chap. Got plenty of clothes, and it don't matter to you; but look at
me!"
"Well, I was looking at you," I said. "What an old guy you are!"
"Do you want me to hit you on the nose, Sep Duncan?" he said.
"Why, of course not," I said. "I came over to play, not fight. Where
are your Sunday clothes?"
"Where are they?" snarled Bob, speaking as if I had touched him on a
very sore spot. "Why, locked up in the surgery cupboard along with the
'natomy bones and the sticking-plaster roll."
"What! Has your father locked them up?"
"Yes, he has locked them up, and says he isn't going to run all over the
country seeing patients to find me in clothes to lose--just as if I
could help it."
"But haven't you been measured for some more?"
"Yes, but they won't be done yet, and father says I'm to go on wearing
these the rest of the time I'm at home."
I looked at him from top to toe as he stood before me, and it was of no
use to try to keep my countenance. I could not, and the more I tried
the more I seemed to be obliged to laugh.
As for Bob he ground his teeth and clenched his hands, but this only
made him look the more comic, and I threw myself in a chair and fairly
roared, till he came at me like an angry bull; but as I made no
resistance, only laughed, he lowered his fists.
"I can't help it, Bob; I was obliged to laugh," I cried. "There, you
may laugh at me now; but you do look so droll. Have you been out?"
"Been out? In these? Of course I haven't. How can I? No: I'm a
prisoner, and all the rest of my holiday time is going to be spoiled."
"Oh, I say, don't talk like that, old boy," I cried. "Why didn't you
keep the suit I lent you?"
"I don't want to be dependent on you for old clothes," he said
haughtily.
"Well, I'd rather wear them than those you have on, Bob. Oh, I say, you
do look rum!"
"If you say that again I shall hit you," cried Bob fiercely.
"Oh, very well, I won't say it," I said; "but I say, wouldn't you wear a
suit of old Big's?"
I said it quite seriously, but he regularly glared and seemed as if he
were going to fly at me, but he neither moved nor spoke.
"Never mind about your clothes," I said. "Big's sure to be over before
long. Let's get out on the cliff, or down by the shore, or go hunting
up in the moor, or something."
"What, like this?" said Bob, getting up to turn round before me and show
me how tight his clothes were.
"Well, what does it matter?" I said. "Nobody will see us."
"It isn't seeing you," he replied, "it's seeing me. No, I sha'n't go
out till I get some clothes."
Bob kept his word, and for the rest of the holidays when I went out it
always used to be with Bigley Uggleston. But we did not neglect poor
Bob, for we went to see him nearly every day, and played games with him
in the garden, and finished the gooseberries, and began the apples,
contriving to enjoy ourselves pretty well.
As for the doctor, it was his way of dealing with his son, and I suppose
he thought he was right; but it was very unpleasant, and kept poor Bob
out of many a bit of enjoyment, those clothes being locked away.
I said that Bob would not go out. I ought to have said, by daylight,
for he used to go with us after dark down to the end of the tiny pier,
where we sat with our legs swinging over the water, each holding a
fishing-line and waiting for any fish that might be tempted to take the
raw mussel stuck upon our hooks.
But somehow that narrow escape of ours seemed to act like a damper upon
the rest of our holidays, and I spent a good deal of my time with
Bigley, watching the preparations made by the masons at the works in the
Gap.
We all declared that we were not sorry when one morning old Teggley
Grey's cart stopped at our gate to take up my box. Bob Chowne's was
already in, and he was sitting upon it, while Bigley was half-way up the
slope leading over the moor waiting by the road-side with his.