CHAPTER XVIII

THE RESCUE OF A PRINCESS

Barbara was none the worse for her relapse, and she made such a good recovery in the weeks that followed, that the Doctor decided she could be moved to Crofts on the last day of the holidays. Miss Finlayson vowed she had never enjoyed her Easter holidays so much before for she had persuaded Auntie Anna and the boys to remain her guests the whole time, to save her, as she said, from the horrible feeling of loneliness that always seized her as soon as the last fly went down the drive with the last box on the top of it, and the last girl sitting inside. 'At my age,' she told them laughingly, 'it is not safe to be left alone. Who knows that I might not begin talking about rheumatism and nerves, if I had a whole month to think about myself?' And Auntie Anna, who never talked about rheumatism by any chance, though it had bent her back for her ten years ago, nodded her head wisely like the old witch that she was, and consented to remain at Wootton Beeches with her adopted daughter and her noisy young nephews until Barbara was well enough to be taken home. The boys, for their part, enjoyed themselves every bit as well as if they had been at Crofts; for Finny was first-rate company as long as she was with them, and she contrived at the same time to leave them to themselves just as much as they wished to be left. And staying at a girls' school was by no means such poor fun as might have been expected; for it was big enough for them to make as much noise in it as they pleased without disturbing anybody, while they had the run of a capital gymnasium, and, as soon as their bicycles had been brought from Crofts, could explore the country for miles round as well. Altogether, the Easter holidays were a great success, and there were many groans when the month came to an end, and school once more threatened to darken the joy of their existence.

'You are a lucky beast, Kit,' observed Peter, as they sat swinging on the yard gate a couple of mornings before their departure. 'Wish I was you and needn't go to school.'

'You wouldn't like it, if you were me,' answered Kit, shortly. Nobody ever guessed how much he wished he were like other boys and could lead the healthy life they professed to despise so much.

Wilfred, who had just strolled up, had occasional glimmerings of understanding where Kit was concerned; and he had one now. 'Never mind, old chap,' he said consolingly. 'You've got all the genius, you know.'

Christopher kicked a stone across the yard without speaking; and Peter hastened to change the conversation, which he perceived was in danger of becoming serious. Peter never attempted to understand anybody, but he had a determined objection to anything that was serious.

'If we've done nothing else these holidays, we have at least saved Jill from the Doctor,' he remarked with a chuckle.

'What's the good of that?' growled Kit. He did not take the keen interest in the salvation of Jill that the others expected from him, though he certainly did not raise any grown-up objections to it, as Egbert would have done. Egbert was going to Oxford in October, and he was getting far too grown-up for ordinary intercourse with the rest of the family. Kit was not in the least grown-up; besides, he hated the Doctor--that was certain, because he so constantly said he did. But it was a pity, the others agreed, that he did not show more enthusiasm over persecuting him.

'It's a lot of good,' retorted Peter. 'You don't want her to marry the chap, do you?'

Kit smiled in a superior manner. 'I'm not interested in _marrying_,' he observed. 'You can't have marrying, or any of that rot, without girls. And I hate girls.'

'Do you hate Jill?' cried Wilfred, staring.

Christopher kicked another stone across the yard.

'That's different,' he said vaguely. 'Jill's not a girl, exactly.'

'What is she, anyway?' demanded Peter.

Kit's genius was hard pressed. It was so stupid of people to take him literally. Robin saved his embarrassment by suddenly rushing helter-skelter into the yard, from the direction of the carriage-drive.

'He's just driven in at the lodge gates,' he panted. 'An' Jill's waiting on the front doorstep. If you don't look sharp you won't cob them in time.'

The conspirators glanced hastily at one another. 'It's your turn, Kit,' said Wilfred.

Kit started uncomfortably. 'I don't think so,' he objected. 'I'm not in the mood, and I should make a mess of it. You go, Peter.'

'All right, I'm on,' said Peter, and he strode briskly towards the front of the house, swinging his long arms as he went.

Robin danced round the other two gleefully. 'Silly old Doctor won't marry Jill, won't marry Jill, all on a summer's morning!' he chanted in a kind of refrain he made up on the spur of the moment.

Kit turned upon him sternly. 'Chuck it, Bobbin, unless you want your head cuffed!' he commanded, and walked off before he could be provoked into carrying out his threat.

Upstairs Barbara lay on the sofa by the window and waited for the Doctor's visit. Her leg was in plaster of Paris now, and she could be lifted on to the sofa by Egbert, every morning. It was less wearisome than lying in bed all day, but even the fun of pretending she was enchanted by an evil fairy did not make up for the dulness of staying in one room all through her first holidays. To be sure, she was going to Crofts the day after to-morrow, and Auntie Anna had promised that Jean and Angela should come and see her the very next Saturday; but that did not make up for everything, and she hoped that if her bad fairy ever bewitched her again, she would manage to do it in term-time instead of when the boys came home.

The Doctor drove up just below as she came to this conclusion, and she forgot her own enchantment in the more thrilling amusement of thinking about his.

It was rather stupid of the Doctor, she reflected, to be such a long time working out the rest of his spell. Any one who had gone round the world seven times, as easily and as cheerfully as he had, might at least take the trouble to find a princess to rescue. He must really want to go on being a beast, she decided, as she craned her neck over the window-sill and watched him dismount from his gig. The princes in the fairy tales never wanted to go on being beasts; and it was very confusing. Just then, Jill came out on the doorstep, and she patted the horse and began to talk to the Doctor. Barbara laughed softly to herself. If only the cruel giant would come along now and clap Jill into a dungeon, the Doctor could rescue her on the spot and then stand before her in his real shape. A prince and princess, who had no giant to bring them together, did not make the right sort of fairy tale at all.

'Hullo! There _is_ the giant!' exclaimed Babs, immediately afterwards, as Peter came striding across the lawn to interrupt the conversation on the doorstep. 'He must be the giant,' she continued, watching the trio below her with great interest, 'because the Doctor is looking so angry and Jill has such a funny, frightened look on her face. Besides, Peter looks like a giant; he's so big and dangerous looking. I wonder if the Doctor will kill the giant _now_, or--oh, dear! they've both come indoors and left the giant outside. I don't think I ever heard of the prince and princess running _away_ from the giant before. I'm sure that's wrong. How Peter is grinning--just like a horrid old giant. _Coo-ey_, Peter!'

The prince and princess came into the room, talking busily.

'If you don't come to-morrow,' Dr. Hurst was saying, 'I am afraid it will have to be put off indefinitely, as I am going away for ten days. When I come back, you will have gone to Crofts, you see.'

'I will ask Auntie Anna,' answered Jill.

Barbara seized the first opportunity to interrupt them. 'What's going to happen to-morrow, Dr. Hurst?' she demanded. 'Are you going to carry off the princess at last?'

'I--I don't think so,' said Dr. Hurst, sitting down beside her.

'Why don't you?' demanded the child.

'Well,' said Dr. Hurst, smiling, 'I don't know whether the princess is ready to be carried off. Are you so anxious to get rid of her?'

Both he and Jill were used by this time to her fancy for weaving the people she liked best into a fairy tale. But Jill was not smiling so much as usual this morning.

'I don't want to be carried off by anybody, thank you, Babs,' she said demurely.

'Oh, that doesn't make any difference,' Babs assured her. 'If you're a princess, you just have to be carried off whether you like it or not.'

'Then I'll be a new kind of princess, and refuse to have anything to do with the prince when he comes. Shall I, Babs?' suggested Jill, lightly.

Barbara looked at her doubtfully. Jill's idea was not like anything she had ever read in a fairy tale, and she did not think much of it.

'You see, you're _not_ a new kind of princess,' she answered simply. And the Doctor looked amused; but Jill hurried away to the other end of the room and began talking about temperatures.

The giant must have been very busy all that day, for he did not come near the invalid's room till just before supper. Kit came, and so did the other boys, but they only said vaguely that Peter was in the barn; and when he ran in at last to say good-night to her, she knew it was no use trying to find out what his plans were for locking up the princess. For Peter did not know that he was a giant, and he did not know that Jill was a princess; and it was better to go on with the story in her own way than to provoke Peter's great laugh by telling him about it. So she went to sleep and dreamed of the dear old magician, who had been away from her kingdom for four whole months, and was going to be away for two months more; and in her dream he came back and rescued the princess himself, and turned the beast into a prince for her. But that was only a dream, and in the morning the end of the story seemed further off than ever.

'Do let me see what you have been writing, Peter,' she shouted through her open window, just before lunch-time. Peter and Wilfred had been more than an hour composing a letter on the lawn below, with Robin jumping round them all the time, jogging their elbows and otherwise provoking them into outbreaks of fury that did not improve his behaviour in the least.

'_Do_, there's a dear, nice, darling boy,' begged Barbara, as the conspirators looked at one another and hesitated.

'It's a secret,' said Wilfred.

'I can keep a secret; you _know_ I can,' cried Babs, indignantly.

'It's about Jill,' explained Peter, 'and you might do her a great and lasting injury if you were to go and blab. Mightn't she, Will?'

'I think it's a shame,' protested Babs. 'Here am I shut up all alone, with a bad leg that hurts and hurts and----'

'Oh, let her see it. Anything for a quiet life,' interrupted Wilfred, and Peter strode upstairs with the letter.

'Promise faithfully you'll endure any amount of awful tortures, sooner than betray us?' he demanded threateningly, when he arrived in her room.

'I'll be killed first, honour bright,' said Barbara, solemnly; and the letter passed into her hands. Her countenance grew very perplexed as she read it; for, to tell the truth, she could make neither head nor tail of its mysterious contents.

* * * * *

'Dearest Jill,' it ran,--'We the undersigned are anxious to save you from an awful and terrible fate that is hanging over your head. The barn, we know, is not a place you would choose to spend a happy afternoon in, but Peter has cleaned out as much of the filth as he can (he found several decayed martins' nests full of insects, two dead rats in an unspeakable condition, and a rotting owlet that made you squirm; so you see it might have been much worse, mightn't it?) And I (that's Wilfred) have successfully deposited in a box you will find secreted in the manger, two apples, some seed-cake (sorry it isn't plum, but there wasn't any), and a bottle of ginger beer. This, we think, will keep starvation from gnawing at you till the hour of release, which is seven o'clock, when we hope the Doctor will have given up waiting for you. We would put some more things to eat, but they are a little difficult to get without arousing suspicion; and we are afraid of attracting the mice and rats, which are plentiful already, and of which we believe you are afraid. We the undersigned all hope, dear Jill, that you will not attribute base motives to our action in this matter. We do assure you, honest Injun, that though you may dislike us for the moment, you will thank us deeply all the rest of your life.--We have the honour to remain,

Wilfred Everard Berkeley, Peter Everard Berkeley, Robin Everard Berkeley.

'P.S.--Kit isn't in it, because he raised objections and we shunted him. So your lifelong gratitude need not be extended to him.'

* * * * *

'But when are you going to give Jill the letter?' asked Barbara, looking extremely puzzled, as she came to the end of this elaborate composition.

'We're not going to give it to her,' explained Peter. 'It's going to be dropped into the barn through a hole in the roof, as soon as Robin has coaxed her to go inside. The letter is to explain why we've locked her----'

He did not finish his sentence, for Wilfred called him from below, and he seized the sheet of paper and scampered off with it.

Barbara was left in a great state of bewilderment. Something was evidently going to happen to Jill, and it was apparently intended to save her from something that was much worse; but what it all meant was a mystery to her, and there was no one about to give her any more details. The three conspirators were careful to keep out of her way, and she did not see any more of them until after lunch, when they raced out of the front door and disappeared in the direction of the nine-acre field.

'I'm going to leave you for half an hour,' said Jill, when Barbara had finished her midday meal. 'Bobbin has been worrying me all dinner-time to go and look at a baby rabbit he has found, so I promised to run down to the barn and meet him there. Do you mind?'

Barbara said she did not mind at all; and she was left behind, consumed with curiosity as to whether Jill was really going to be locked into the barn, and whether it really could be for her good, as the boys had said, and whether Jill would be angry with them for doing it or would give them her lifelong gratitude. Somehow, Babs did not believe in the lifelong gratitude much; it did not seem likely that Jill would be grateful to any one for shutting her up in a dark and dirty barn for a whole afternoon, even if it was to save her from an awful fate that still remained to be explained. As she thought about it, Babs even began to wonder if she had been right in promising not to warn Jill. But then, if it _was_ to save her from an awful fate, as Peter declared it was, it would have been very unkind to keep her from going down to the barn.

She gave up trying to reason it out, and hoped it was all a joke, and that Jill would come back again at the end of half an hour. But more than half an hour passed by, and still she did not come back. Everything suddenly grew very dull. The garden looked more deserted than usual, and after the pony carriage had come round and taken Finny and Auntie Anna and Egbert for a drive, there was not another sound to break the stillness. Babs began to feel neglected; she had not once been left alone like this, ever since she was first taken ill, and she found it extremely depressing. If it was really necessary for the future happiness of Jill that she should be kept in the barn all the afternoon, some one else might have been told off to take her place in the sickroom. Besides, as the afternoon wore on, the little invalid realised with some sadness that unless Jill did come in, there would be no one to get her tea ready; and she wanted her tea rather badly.

At last, to her intense relief, a thump came at the door, and Kit rushed unceremoniously into the room.

'Where's Jill?' he demanded hurriedly.

'I wish I knew for certain, but I don't,' said Barbara, plaintively.

'Then they've done it!' exclaimed Kit, in a tragic tone, and he dropped into a chair and looked at her.

'Done what?' inquired Babs, eagerly. Kit's behaviour was as remarkable as every one else's to-day, so perhaps she was going to get at the truth at last.

'Locked her up in the barn!' gasped Kit. 'They said they were going to, yesterday, but I thought they were only rotting. I told 'em it wasn't good enough, and I'd have nothing to do with it, so I s'pose that's why they didn't tell me any more. And then, I forgot all about it; and after dinner to-day I went into Finny's study to read a stunning book I'd found there; and I didn't think of anything, till it suddenly struck me how awfully quiet everything was. If she's disappeared, they must have done it, stupid owls!'

'But isn't it all right?' cried Barbara, looking distressed. 'Peter said it was to save her from an awful fate----'

'That's all very well,' returned Kit; 'but the game isn't worth it, and that's what I told them. You see, the Doctor's coming after tea to-day, to fetch Jill and take her over the new infirmary he's so keen about, because Jill is nuts on nursing and all that, don't you know. Well, Peter overheard them talking about it yesterday and Auntie Anna said at breakfast that she'd come home from her drive in time to go too, if she could. But we all knew that she wouldn't get back in time, most likely; and besides, the Doctor meant business from the look of him, Peter said, so he'd be dead certain to come early enough to go off with Jill alone. Trust him! That was jolly dangerous, you see, because the chap is going away to-morrow, and it's their last chance of being together.'

'Why is that dangerous?' asked Barbara, trying hard to follow his bewildering tale.

'Oh, well, if he's ever going to ask her to marry him, or any of that rot, he must be going to do it to-day,' explained Kit, with a certain contempt in his voice. 'Anyhow, what we've been trying to do all the holidays is to save Jill from the Doctor; so naturally we were rather upset when Peter brought us the news. But I said I'd have nothing to do with locking any one up, 'specially Jill; so they said I could make myself scarce, and I did.'

'Oh, Kit!' exclaimed Barbara, opening her eyes, 'do you think Jill is in that horrible dark barn all this time?'

Kit sprang to his feet and made for the door. 'I'll go and see if I can find those idiots,' he said, but an exclamation from the sofa made him look back. Babs was clapping her hands wildly, and her face had suddenly reddened with excitement.

'It's all right, Kit. It's beautiful,' she was crying joyfully. 'Don't stop them, Kit; don't help her to escape, whatever you do. Leave her alone till the prince comes. Don't you see he'll be able to break the spell at last!'

Kit did not see at all. Indeed, he looked rather alarmed, and came back into the room. 'Look here, Babe, you're not going to get excited again, or anything like that, are you?' he asked her, nervously.

Barbara set his mind at rest by laughing merrily. 'You silly old Kit, of course I'm not!' she said. 'I never felt so jolly in my life!'

Christopher sped away, reassured, and Barbara lay back on her cushions and waited impatiently for the sound of the Doctor's gig. She did not have to wait long, and she waved her hand gaily in answer to the flourish of his whip with which he greeted her as he drove up to the door.

'Come up here, Dr. Hurst, and be as quick as you possibly can!' she called down to him; and a minute later he was in the room.

The first thing he did was to ask where Jill was, just as Kit had done. Barbara laughed more merrily than ever. Her small black eyes were glittering with excitement.

'She _has_ been locked up by the cruel old giant, and you can go and rescue her at last,' she told him.

Dr. Hurst frowned slightly. 'What do you mean, child?' he asked a little impatiently. He was evidently not in a mood for joking, and Barbara instantly became grave.

'I didn't mean to play, but it _is_ so like a fairy story,' she said penitently. 'And it's quite true about the locking up. They've put her in the barn, Peter and the others have,--not Kit,--and they mean to keep her there till you've gone away, so that--so that you won't get a chance of marrying and living happily ever after! It's to save Jill from you, they say, but Kit's furious about it, and----'

The Doctor flung his driving-gloves on the table. They were quite new ones, she noticed, and he had even forgotten to take the tissue paper off the buttons of one of them. 'Where is the barn?' he asked grimly.

'It's at the far end of the nine-acre field,' explained Barbara, and before she could say any more she found she was alone.

Excitement had made her forget all about her tea, though the hour for it was long past. She wished with all her heart that she could be transported to the scene of the rescue and actually see the princess fall into the prince's arms, while the giant lay stretched at their feet. Then she remembered that the giant was Peter, and perhaps Will and Bobbin too, and she hoped he would not lie stretched there for long.

The minutes crept slowly by, and still no one came in. It was no use looking out of the window, for the nine-acre field was on the other side of the house, beyond the orchard. Then she began to be afraid that something dreadful must have happened. She reminded herself again that Peter was the giant, and that the Doctor was small and slight in comparison, even for a prince. Supposing, contrary though it was to all the laws of fairy tale, that the giant should be too strong for the prince, and the princess should not be rescued after all? At last she heard the welcome sound of footsteps coming along the gallery, and then Jill opened the door softly and hurried up to her. The Doctor was just behind her.

'My dear little Babs!' cried Jill, dropping on her knees beside the sofa, 'have you been wondering what had become of me?'

'Oh, no,' answered the child; 'I knew about the dark and gruesome dungeon. But I think I'd like my tea, please.'

'Of course you would,' said Jill, in much distress, and she began bustling about the room and making preparations for tea in quite a flustered sort of way. Babs turned to the Doctor. A question was burning on the tip of her tongue, and he smiled encouragingly.

'_Did_ you rescue the princess?' she asked.

'I did,' answered the Doctor, briefly.

She looked anxiously at his tie, which had wandered under his right ear, and at his collar, which was crumpled. 'Did you hurt the giant _much_?' she asked.

'I found him in three pieces,' answered the Doctor, gravely, 'and I give you my word I did not leave him in more.'

Barbara was not yet satisfied. 'How did you get into the dungeon?' she asked.

'Through the door,' replied the Doctor.

She opened her eyes wide. 'Then you must have stepped over the body of the giant,' she said.

'So I did,' laughed Dr. Hurst. 'But do not let that alarm you, for here he comes.'

The door was pushed open once more, and the three conspirators tumbled into the room. Their ties and collars were in much the same condition as the Doctor's, but they seemed none the worse for that. Indeed, they looked rather cheerful over it than otherwise, until they saw the Doctor sitting there, holding Barbara's hand; and then they stopped short and hesitated.

'Do, do tell me,' implored Babs. 'How did Dr. Hurst rescue Jill?'

'I'll tell you, Babs dear,' cried Robin, suddenly dancing up to the Doctor, and climbing on his knee in quite a friendly manner. 'He came walking with big long steps up to the door of the barn, where we was keeping guard over Jill; and he said, "Who can wrestle, out of you young scamps?" 'Course I said _I_ could, but he just swinged me up in the apple tree an' left me there, which was horrid, but I didn't mind much, 'cause I saw all the fun. An' the others said they could, if he liked; an' the Doctor said whoever won was to have Jill, an' Peter said "Yes," 'cos he's lots bigger'n the Doctor and he thought he'd win. But he didn't win, nobody did, 'cept only Dr. Hurst; so he got Jill and brought her back here; an' I climbed down from the apple tree all by myself, an' the others shook hands with the Doctor and stopped behind, lookin' scared!'

'I beg to state,' said Jill, severely, from the other side of the room, where she was preparing tea, 'that nobody has _got_ me, as you call it. And the sooner you all go out of this room and leave me alone with my patient, the better.'

[Illustration: 'So he got Jill']

'I say,' began Wilfred, who was standing first on one leg and then on the other, and trying not to laugh, 'you're not really wild with us, are you, Jill?'

'I'm simply _furious_ with you,' said Jill, and she began cutting bread and butter with vigour.

'We really did it for your good,' added Peter, putting on an air of mock penitence. 'How were we to know you didn't _want_ to be saved from the Doctor?'

Jill tossed her head and went on cutting bread and butter still, with her back turned to them all. 'Next time you try to save any one from any one else,' she remarked, 'you'd better make sure first that she does want saving.'

Anything they might have said in reply to this was drowned by the noisy entrance of Christopher. He bounced into the room and shook his fist wrathfully at his brothers.

'Look here, you fellows!' he shouted. 'Next time you shut a chap into a _pig-sty_, perhaps you'll choose a pig-sty that doesn't belong to a pig that comes home at tea-time and bangs against the door. I'd like to----'

He was brought to an abrupt pause. It suddenly struck him that there was something a little odd about the way every one was assembled in the Babe's room.

'Dry up, Kit!' said Wilfred, with a huge sigh. 'You were quite right; the game wasn't worth it. She didn't want to be saved, after all.'

'She's just a girl,' added Peter, in a tone of deep dejection.

'She's a _princess_!' insisted Barbara, from the sofa.

Christopher looked swiftly round the room. The attitude of every one seemed a little strained. Jill was cutting enough bread and butter for a school, and the crumbs flew in all directions as she stood there with her back to them all. The Doctor was smiling in a way that was clearly put on, and Bobbin was examining his watch-chain with a familiarity that would not have seemed possible an hour ago.

'Well, I'm bothered!' said Kit, at last. The truth was gradually dawning upon him. 'Do you mean to say that you two have been and gone and got _engaged_, while we've been trying to save you?' he demanded. '_Have_ you, Jill?'

'Oh, don't bother,' grumbled Jill. 'Why can't you ask Dr. Hurst?'

'_Have_ you?' repeated Kit, turning to the Doctor.

'Ask Jill,' replied the Doctor, smiling more than ever.

'Boys,' said Christopher, fixing his spectacles firmly on his nose and staring solemnly at his brothers, 'we've made shocking idiots of ourselves.'

Into the middle of them all now walked Mrs. Crofton of Crofts.

'Such a trouble as I've had to get back in time, my dear,' she was beginning, when she too stopped short and seemed to find things a little unusual.

'Hey-day!' she cried, leaning on her blue-knobbed cane and looking sharply round. 'What's every one looking so glum about, I should like to know?'

Nobody answered her at first. Dr. Hurst put Robin down and rose to his feet, and he stopped smiling at last, while Jill dropped the bread-knife and turned round with a very red face; but neither of them spoke. It was the Babe who came to the rescue, and it was she who explained everything in her small, dreamy voice.

'Dr. Hurst has saved Jill from the giant,' she said, 'and they are going away to their own kingdom, to live happily ever after! I do wish,' she added wistfully, 'that the magician would come back too. Then things would be _quite_ beautiful.'

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