CHAPTER XVI

"IT IS ONLY THE SELFISH WHO ARE COWARDS"

"AND now, Susy, we shall have to wait."

"Yes, but we can watch out of the window, and we won't let a single boy up the stairs. I don't mean you to be taken a prisoner, Miss Tina."

The fun had begun. Being Saturday, the village boys were only too delighted to join the forces of the two leaders. Dawn had borrowed Christina's pony, and one of the Murphys was his standard bearer, and carried the green flag which was eventually to fly triumphantly out of the turret window, when the Union Jack that was waving there now had been captured.

Puggy was flying the Royal Standard, and he rode on his own pony at the head of his followers. Christina and Susy watched Puggy march down the drive, and from their window they saw in the woods Dawn's force gathered round him. About eleven o'clock Puggy cantered up the drive, and behind him ran two of his followers, guarding carefully two small Murphy boys who had been taken prisoners. Their arms were bound with rope. Puggy came triumphantly to the bottom of the turret stairs, and Christina and Susy ran down to meet him.

"A victory! A thousand dead! And two Irish barons prisoners!" shouted Puggy excitedly. Then he put his prisoners in a housemaid's cupboard at the bottom of the stairs.

"Guard them well!" he cried. "I've locked them in, and you keep the key. Now I'm going to return to the fight. Another battle is coming off at one o'clock!"

"But aren't you coming home to dinner?" asked Christina.

"Do soldiers ever think of dinner? But after it's over, we've got provisions, I can tell you; for Dawn's cook gave him a big basket, and we're going to capture it."

The boys disappeared.

"I think," said Susy, "I'll go down to your cook and ask her to give me some food, and I'll steal out to the woods, and take 'em to the soldiers. I'll say my mistress the countess sent me!"

"That will be lovely," said Christina; "but you mustn't take dinner to the wrong soldiers."

"I knows better than that! I can hear Master Puggy's voice a mile off."

"And you won't be away very long?"

"I'll be as quick as I can."

Cook was in a good temper. She packed up a basket and gave it to Susy, and Christina saw her running down the drive with it.

But she was away a long time, and when she came back was flushed with excitement.

"Oh! It's first-rate, Miss Tina; 'tis just like real battle. I was nearly ketched by Master Dawn's soldiers; they chased me, but I hid in the bushes, and they couldn't find me nowheres. They called out that I was a spy, but I nipped round and laid the basket at Master Puggy's feet. He was awful pleased. And then comin' back I had another race past Master Dawn hisself. He is in one part of the wood, and Master Puggy is in the other, and Master Dawn have got six prisoners!"

"Susy, those two poor little boys ought to have some dinner. I've been thinking about them. They oughtn't to be locked up in that cupboard so long. I shouldn't like it."

"I'll take them some dinner. Are we going to have ours up here?"

"Yes, Puggy said we were to, and you must fetch it, Susy, from the kitchen; for we're not to let any of the maids come near us, the boys said."

So when Susy brought the dinner up, she took a good share of it down to the cupboard, and when she carefully opened it, she found one of the little boys crying.

"I wants my mother! I wants to go home! I wants my arms untied!"

"You must stay here till Master Dawn comes to let you out," said Susy sternly. Then her heart relented, for the smallest boy was only seven years old.

"Will you promise to stay here quiet if I unties your arms?" she asked.

The promise was promptly given, so she untied the rope, and the two plates of meat and pudding looked so appetising that the prisoners were more than half consoled. Susy locked the door upon them, and came upstairs to Christina.

"It won't be very long afore you is taken prisoner now," she said to Christina, "and when you goes, I shall go along with Master Puggy and fight with the boys."

"I would much rather be taken prisoner than fight," said Christina. "I do hope the boys aren't really hurting each other. It's only play, isn't it?"

"I think they're using sticks a bit," confessed Susy.

And then Christina was seized with terror for their safety, and Susy had to assure her that boys didn't mind a few whacks occasionally.

About three o'clock, Susy, from the window, called out excitedly:

"The soldiers are coming! And Master Dawn at the head of them!"

A qualm of fear seized Christina, but she valiantly helped Susy to barricade the door with furniture. They heard the boys clamping up the stairs, then the shouts of the prisoners to be let loose, and the yell of triumph when the cupboard was unlocked, for the key had been left in the lock outside. Tramp, tramp, tramp up the stairs came the boys. It did not take many minutes to burst the door open, but Susy seized a can of water and deluged two boys with it before she let them approach her. Dawn seized hold of Christina with delight.

"Haul down the flag, fly our colours! The emerald isle for ever!"

Susy was too quick for them; she seized hold of the green flag and tore down stairs with it; two boys pursued her, but she outran them, and finally reached Puggy's camp in safety.

Meanwhile Christina was being marched downstairs by Dawn.

"You'll have to ride the pony, and I'll get up behind you," he announced.

His curls were flying in the wind, his cheeks flushed; he had the air of a conqueror!

"I don't think both of us can ride my pony," objected Christina shrinking back, as she was being hoisted up to the saddle.

"Prisoners are not allowed to speak!" said Dawn in a masterful way.

Poor Christina did not enjoy her ride. To begin with, she was obliged to ride astride, as it was a boy's saddle that had been put on her pony; then Dawn was clutching the reins, and making the pony gallop. If Christina had not learnt to ride by this time and to ride fairly well, she would not have been able to keep her seat.

"Don't go quite so fast!" she pleaded, but she might just as well have spoken to the wind.

Dawn's blood was up, and he cared for nothing and nobody.

Presently he looked behind him, and whipped up the pony afresh.

"They're pursuing us. Now we'll have a mad race!"

He galloped up a country lane, then across a bit of wild common, and then was stopped by the river.

"We'll swim across," he said. "Once on the other side we'll be safe!"

Christina besought him not to venture. "We shall be drowned!" she cried. "Oh, Dawn, do stop; it's only a game!"

But Dawn only thought of Puggy behind him. He looked round, and to his delight saw that there was a pause amongst his pursuers. Something had happened to Puggy's pony. He had dismounted, handed it to one of the village boys, and was tearing along on foot with his followers.

"We must go through the river. They won't come after us there, and we shall be quite safe the other side. Don't be a funk, Tina; we'll ride along a little further. There! A cart has been over here, I see the mark of the wheels; it must be the ford!"

He pushed the pony down to the water. Christina shivered and shuddered. Her fears almost overwhelmed her. "Can I pray to God when it's only a game?" she asked herself, and habit made her repeat her text.

The pony did his best, but his footing was very insecure; he stopped mid-stream and refused to go any further. The current was strong; Dawn leant over Christina to whip him on, then overbalanced himself and fell head foremost into the river. With a start the pony turned back and reached the shore in safety, but Dawn cried out sharply:

"Help, Tina, help! I've hurt my leg. I can't swim!"

To the little girl's horror, she saw him swept down by the current. In an instant she was off her pony and running along the bank. It seemed as if quick sight was given to her. She saw a shallow part of the river a little distance off, with a large rock in the middle of it. It flashed across her that if she could get there first, she could catch hold of Dawn as he came past.

No fear now was in her heart, Dawn and only Dawn filled her thoughts. She ran as she had never run before; she dashed into the water and reached the rock, and an instant after had clutched hold of Dawn by his long hair as he was being whirled along.

He was not unconscious, and struggled up to the rock, but when he was safely there fainted away.

Then Christina called for help, and in a few minutes the village boys reached them and assisted them across to the bank.

But Dawn lay still and white, and Puggy cried out frantically: "He's drowned! He's dead!"

A farmer driving by saw that an accident had happened, and came up to the children. He whipped out a flask from his pocket, and made Dawn swallow some of it.

"Bless your hearts!" he cried cheerfully. "He's all right. 'Tis only a bit o' faint. I knows the young gent and I'll drive him straight home. Any more hurt?"

His eye fell on Christina. She was wet up to her waist, and, now the danger was past, was shivering with fright and cold.

"I think you'd best come along too!" he said, and he lifted her into his cart.

"I'll take the ponies home, and then come to the cottage for you, Tina," said Puggy, who was recovering himself.

Christina could not speak.

When Miss Rachael received the two children, Dawn seemed in a better plight than his rescuer. He could give explanation, which Christina could not.

"I've sprained my knee against a stone. I couldn't swim," he said, "and Tina pulled me out of the water when I was drowning!"

Miss Rachael did the wisest thing she could. She put both children to bed and kept them there, sending a message to the Towers to say that she was keeping Christina for the night. The civil war came to an end. Puggy felt very ill used, because he had not been nearly drowned too.

Susy went back to Miss Bertha and told her all that happened, and Miss Bertha could not rest that night until she had been to inquire after her little friends. She met Mr. Maclahan at the door. He was coming away.

"I have just been up to see my little daughter," he said. "I am thankful she is all right. Miss Bertha, what do you think of her? A more extraordinary mixture of pluck and timidity, of childishness and wisdom, I have never come across! That boy in there owes his life to her!"

Miss Bertha nodded, well pleased. "I am not surprised," she said simply.

And then she went indoors, and Christina, looking at her sleepily from Miss Rachael's big feather-bed, drew her down to her and put her arms round her neck.

"I got wet, and Miss Rachael has given me something hot to drink, and I'm going to sleep here all night, and—and, Miss Bertha—the civil war is over!"

* * * * *

It was a tea-party at Miss Bertha's. Puggy and Dawn and Christina were all there, and they were busy telling her about the lovely game they had played before the catastrophe occurred.

"And if I hadn't tumbled in the river, I would have won," said Dawn, "because I was riding away with my enemy's wife."

"No," said Puggy, "I was coming after you as hard as I could. You wouldn't have escaped me, and if Tina had played the game properly, she would have ridden back to me directly you fell off the pony!"

"But," said Christina, with big eyes, "Dawn was drowning!"

"Tina is so funny," said Dawn with a little chuckle. "She funked the river awfully when we went through it first, and then—"

"Then she proved herself a little heroine," said Miss Bertha.

"I was just too late," said Puggy. "It's a pity I wasn't there a minute sooner! My schoolmaster has a saying:

"'Opportunity makes the hero.'

"So Tina was the lucky one! I didn't have a chance."

"You wouldn't have been as brave as Tina, if you had saved Dawn," said Miss Bertha, "for you would have had no fears to overcome."

"I wasn't brave," confessed Christina, "only there was no time to stop to think."

"We will never say you're afraid again," said Dawn, looking at her gravely. "I'm not sure that I quite like being pulled out of the water by a girl; but I wasn't quite helpless, I helped to get myself out."

"And you were saved by your curls," said Puggy, a little scoffingly. "Tina hauled you up by your hair! Why does Tina always do the things I wonder!"

"Because," said Miss Bertha with much emphasis, "Tina always thinks of others before herself. An unselfish person is always brave in an emergency. It is only the selfish who are cowards."

"Then you really think I'm not a coward?" questioned Christina with anxious eyes.

"I am quite sure you are not," said Miss Bertha.

And the boys began to sing a piece of doggerel that they had invented themselves:

"United Kingdom we, As brave as brave can be, We all hold together In fine and stormy weather. And if we have to fight, We do it with our might; So three cheers for three, United Kingdom we!"

In the kitchen Susy, hearing the song, said to Lucy:

"If Master Puggy and Master Dawn are brave, they never do the brave things that Miss Tina does. They're always talking and singing about it, but Miss Tina does it without any talk. And I know which of them I'd like to be!"

Lucy smiled and said nothing; but in her heart she agreed with Susy.

That same evening Mr. Maclahan was walking with his little girl round the picture gallery at the Towers. He often went up there after dinner to smoke a cigarette, and if Christina were not already in bed, she would slip out of the schoolroom and join him. She was never tired of hearing stories about her ancestors, and would gaze wistfully at their stern proud faces, as she would ask:

"And do you think I shall grow up like them, father?"

Mr. Maclahan's mind was full of what his little girl had done. He stopped suddenly, and putting his hand under her chin turned her small face up to him.

"You have the right spirit, little woman, in spite of your size. How do you manage it? Has fear by this time departed from you?"

Christina shook her head solemnly.

"I am afraid I shall always be afraid, father; but I think my text will keep me from being a coward. And if I can't say, 'Fear dwells not here,' don't you think my text will do as well:

"'What time I am afraid, I will trust in Thee'?"

Her father, looking down upon her, said with deep feeling in his tone:

"God's words are best, Christina. If you keep to them, you will never need our motto to remind you to be brave."

FINIS

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