CHAPTER IV

A RESCUE

THEN Aylwin came tearing back.

"Here, you girls, got any sashes? We must make a rope; there's a fellow a good way down the cliff. He has stuck there, can't get up or down—we'll have to get him up."

Lynette and I got out of the cart hurriedly and Puff followed us. Slapper stopped quite contentedly and began to munch some coarse grass.

"We've no sashes," I said in despair. "What shall we do?"

"Tear up your frocks!"

"Oh, we can't, we really can't!" I cried. "Our brand-new dresses—you had better tear up something of yours!"

"What are frocks when a chap's life is at stake!" said Aylwin.

And then Denys came up.

"We must do something at once; a bit of the cliff crumbled away, and he is just hanging to a bush. Here, give us the reins. They look new and strong."

They were. We unbuckled them and the boys went back.

Lynette and I stole up as near the edge as we could, but we could see nothing and Denys waved us back. Then he carefully lowered one end of the reins.

"Tie it round you, and we'll haul you up!"

"It will break," said Aylwin, shaking his head.

Then Denys made us all stand one behind the other with a bit of the rein twisted round our hand, but we got hold of each other as well.

"Now," he shouted, "when I say 'Go,' we'll pull."

There was a moment's silence and I felt my heart thump.

"Supposing," I thought, "he pulls us all over, instead of us pulling him up?" And then I said out loud, for I was very excited:

"O God, make us very strong!"

Then Denys shouted—

"Go!"

And we pulled and pulled for all we were worth. The jerk at first was awful, and it seemed as if we were never going to haul in. But in another minute, a boy's head appeared above the cliff, and then he climbed up. He told us afterwards, that when he let go of his bush, he thought he was going to certain death, and then he found he could seize hold of ledges to help him up, and he found we were strong enough to pull him.

He was a very slight-looking boy about Denys's size, with merry eyes and short crisp brown curls. His coat was torn, and for a moment he turned white and giddy, then he laughed and said:

"I thought I was a goner!"

We were gasping for breath, and then he looked at us in astonishment.

"Have you descended from the skies?" he asked.

"No," said Denys; "don't you see our steed?"

And then we all cried out, for there was no sign of Slapper or the cart.

"Oh, what an old humbug!" said Aylwin. "He's sharp enough to give us the slip when he chooses!"

"It was having no reins, I guess!" said Denys. He looked rather worried. The road stretched away from us empty and bare; there was no sign of the cart anywhere.

"And he has gone away with my hat!" said Lynette, laughing.

The strange boy looked at her.

"Ah!" he said. "And sure I wish I had my own hat to offer you, but it's at the bottom of the cliff long ago. Where do you come from?"

We told him; he was frightfully interested, and then he told us about himself. He had come to live with an old aunt about fifteen miles from us, and he had a tutor, and his name was Patrick Douglas.

"Oirish I am," he said with a merry chuckle; "and I can tell you the Scotch are terrible sober sides. They say I'm making my aunt sit up. She'll be grey-headed, I fear, before her time! Yesterday they were for having me before the magistrate, and of all the conceited, starched-up blunderbusses, give me a Scot Bobby!"

"What did you do?" asked Aylwin with interest.

"Oh, I just gave a whisky-loving farmer a seat in some old stocks near by. He turned out to be our good Bobby's brother-in-law, so I was run in for assault. But it was a storm in a teacup, and I got off."

We were so interested in listening to the boy that we forgot our plight, until Denys reminded us of it.

"Which way has that beast gone? That's the question."

"It's Andy over again," Lynette said, "we do seem very unlucky with our animals."

Denys looked worried, and I was anxious too. The horse wasn't ours, but grandfather's, and if we went home without him we should never be allowed to drive him again.

And then Denys and Aylwin lay flat down on the road on their faces and studied the wheel marks. They're always clever at woodcraft, and very soon tracked the mark of our wheels in the dust.

But Slapper hadn't gone home; he had gone on, and we all agreed we must go on too.

"We're not going home without our steed, if we stay out all night," said Denys.

"Hurrah!" cried the strange boy. "Then my way is yours, and we'll tramp it together."

And so we did, and Pat, as he told us to call him, was so funny and so full of talk that we became the greatest friends with him.

We soon met two men in a cart. We stopped them, but they had not seen Slapper, and I began to get afraid that Puff would get tired and refuse to go on. It was quite three miles before we came to a little town or big village called Nellsolley, and then, to our great relief, we found that Slapper had been stopped as he was quietly trotting through. The man at the inn had got him in the yard. Denys came to me looking very hot and red.

"Of course he expects a tip, Grisel; it's awfully hard lines not to have a penny to give him!"

"I haven't got my purse," I said; "and even if I had, he wouldn't thank us for twopence halfpenny."

"Shall we borrow from Pat? I hear him jingling money in his pocket."

"Oh no!" I cried. "Father always made us promise never to borrow from anybody. And we might not be able to pay it back again!"

Denys shrugged his shoulders.

"This is an exception!" he said.

"Hold fast!" I whispered.

Denys scowled, but he walked away, and I heard him say very grandly to the landlord:

"I'm sure we're awfully obliged—and our grandfather, Colonel Noble, will be too—and you'll hear from him about it—as soon as we get back!"

The reins were very much twisted and stretched, and Pat, in his funny way, put them up to his lips and kissed them before the man fastened them on to Slapper again.

"There for ye!" he said. "And that's for saving my worthless life."

And then he shook hands with us all round and his shake was more like a wring; I almost cried with pain. He said a lot about his gratitude to us, and then he finished up by laughing.

"There's only one person in the wide world who's truly grateful to you, and that's myself, for nobody else would give you a 'thank you' for keeping me alive in the world at all, at all!"

We begged him to come and see us, and he said he had a little sailing-boat of his own, and he'd come along the very next day and take us all for a sail. I felt rather doubtful whether we would be allowed to go with him, but Denys seemed to think it would be all right.

And then we said good-bye and drove back home as fast as we could. We felt we had had quite an adventure, and certainly it was a thrilling moment when we were all pulling Pat up the cliff by the reins, and not knowing whether they would break in our hands!

We got home about five o'clock, and as we were tumbling out of the cart, Denys called to me:

"Here, Grisel, I want you."

"What is it?" I said.

Aylwin and Lynette were racing each other up the backstairs, and Puff following, so I stood still and waited.

Denys looked very grave.

"I think you'd better come with me. It isn't that I'm afraid of going alone, but we're the two eldest, and if I should get a bit hot, you can put the butter on, and cool the old chap down."

"You mean grandfather?" I asked.

"Yes, I must tell him, for he'll have to send the landlord of the inn something. It may open his eyes as to the emptiness of our pockets! And you heard that upstart groom ask what we had been doing to the reins!"

"Oh, all right. I'll come with you, only let us get it over quick!"

I felt rather frightened, for we all consider that we don't know grandfather yet.

So we went through the baize door into the front hall, and asked Jenkins the butler to take us to grandfather. He shook his old head at first.

"The Colonel don't wish to be disturbed."

But Denys said grandly:

"Please do as you are told. Tell him we have particular business to talk over."

I like old Jenkins, so I added:

"Do get him to see us, Jenkins. I know you'll manage it. And we won't hurt him!"

He walked off to the library and then he came back.

"The Colonel will see you."

So we went in. Grandfather was sitting in his arm-chair reading a paper, and I was rather glad that Aunt Isobel was not with him.

"Good afternoon, grandfather," Denys said cheerfully. "Hope you don't mind us coming to see you, but we've been out for a drive, and found a fellow hanging on by his eyelids over a cliff, so we had to haul him up and took the reins to do it, and old Slapper trotted on without us. We found him again. A chap called Pittock, who keeps the inn at Nellsolley, had taken him in for us. He was awfully civil and obliging, but I hadn't a penny in my pocket, so I told him I'd tell you about it."

He paused, for grandfather has a way of fixing you with his eye that rather dries one up.

He didn't say anything at first, and then he spoke very slowly:

"It strikes me you may prove rather expensive young people. Why am I to be told about him?"

Denys got a little red, and then I tried to help him.

"You see, grandfather, we ought to have given him a tip. You would if you had been there, wouldn't you? It was very awkward, so we thought perhaps you could very kindly give us a shilling for him. Not more than that—and if you like only to give ninepence halfpenny, it will be enough, for I have twopence halfpenny of my own."

He looked at me, and then for the first time I saw a twinkle in his eyes, and now I shall never be afraid of him again. I always know, when people have twinkly eyes, that they have kindness inside.

"I should like a few more details, please," he said, and so we told him every bit of our drive.

"Pat Douglas!" he said. "Well, you've wasted no time in scraping up acquaintance with a thorough bad lot! It's a pity you hauled him up. My new reins were worth more than he was."

"Yes, that's what he seemed to feel," I said rather sadly; "he told us nobody would thank us for saving him. I felt so sorry for him, grandfather! And he's such a nice merry boy!"

"A scamp! A worthless scamp! He will drown himself before long in that cockleshell of his. Mind you, I forbid any of you to go out in his sailing-boat!"

Denys and I looked at each other.

"He's coming round to-morrow to take us for a sail!" I said.

"Bless my soul! You don't let the grass grow under your feet! Send him packing when he comes."

"Couldn't we go if we're very, very careful?" I pleaded.

And then he thundered out, "No!" and told us to leave him.

But Denys stood still.

"And what about the chap Pittock?"

Then grandfather put his hand in his pocket and drew out a two-shilling piece. Denys took it and thanked him, and then we went away.

"He isn't half bad," I said.

Denys looked gloomy.

"It's rot not to let us sail, but we'll get the man to come out in the boat, and race him."

We cheered up at that thought, and ran upstairs to tea.

We got Peggy to tell us about Pat when she came in. She knows about everybody and everything for miles round. She told us a Mr. Douglas had married a wild Irish girl, and lived in France after his marriage. When his father died, he came home and lived on his property, but his wife wasn't much liked. She shocked people by things she said and did, and hunted morning, noon, and night. Pat was only three years old when she was thrown from her horse in the hunting-field and killed on the spot. Then Mr. Douglas asked his sister to come and live with him, and he died when Pat was eight. Then his mother's people in Ireland took him, and when his grandfather and grandmother died over there, he came back to his aunt, and has lived with her ever since.

"He's a terrible laddie!" Peggy said. "He's in scrapes most days. He is going to the school where you young gentlemen will be going, for his tutor can't manage him. He seems to have nine lives, like a cat."

"Poor Pat!" I said. "He must feel very sad sometimes when he thinks of all of his relations dying and leaving him. What is his aunt like?"

"Miss Douglas? Oh, she's Miss Douglas, but she's rare fond of the laddie, they say. She and your mother were fast friends, and she'll be over here to see ye before long if I'm not mistaken."

"Is she as stiff and cold as Aunt Isobel?"

"Hush now, for shame on ye! The mistress has a sad heart. None but a lone widder with ne'er a son or daughter to cheer her old age can tell the black days that are waitin' for her!"

"Well, we're ready to cheer her up any day she likes," said Lynette, "but she never comes near us."

I began to think about Aunt Isobel. I wonder if she is really lonely and unhappy. It is so difficult to understand grown-up people. So many of them are grave and quiet, and they never enjoy the things we do. But I wish she would talk to us a little more.

Puff is getting rather troublesome here. He's always trying to get out into the other part of the house through the baize door. We rather enjoy having a part of the house to ourselves, but he seems to think all kinds of things are happening the other side of the door. After tea this evening, I suddenly missed him. The boys and Lynette were trying to do some conjuring tricks out of "Peter Parley's Tales," and I was so deep in a book that I thought Puff was watching them. When I missed him, I went along the passage, and found, as I feared, that the baize door was open. There is a gallery at the top of the big staircase and I looked over and there I saw Puff stumping down the stairs. I was just going to call out to him when I saw grandfather coming very slowly across the hall, and then I was horrified at hearing Puff's shrill little voice:

"Hullo, old gempleum!"

"What are you doing here?" grandfather said gruffly.

Puff put his head on one side and smiled in his sweetest manner.

"I'm—er—coming down to say how d'ye do to you."

He stumped on down, and grandfather just stared at him.

Then Puff went straight up to him and took hold of his coat-sleeve coaxingly.

"They're all so stoopid upstairs, pretending to make eggs lay theirselves in a hat, as if the little chickens would think o' doing such a thing, and I just come away, and if you like me to come into your room, I'll help you smoke a pipe. Our gardener at home let me try lots o' times. And p'raps you've a long white pipe. They smokes bubbles. I can do that best."

He was trotting along by grandfather's side and never stopped talking. They both went into the library, and Puff slammed the door with all his strength.

I thought I had better not interfere. Puff is never shy with anybody, but I never thought he would be friends so quickly with grandfather. I went back to the schoolroom and told the others, but they were too busy with their tricks to care.

"We shall hear a howl soon," said Denys, "and he'll be sent back to us in disgrace."

But that did not happen. Puff stayed away an hour, and came upstairs with shining eyes and red-hot cheeks.

"I'm going to call him Gruffy. He said I might, and I've been sealing-waxing thousands of embelopes, and he gave me his ring, and I tolded him all about myself, and stood on my head for hours!"

"I wish you'd learn to speak true, Puff," I said.

Puff was too excited to listen to me.

"And Gruffy says I can ride and hunt the fox. He doesn't come out in the summer, but next winter I can. And I sawed pictures of hunting gempleums, and Aunt Isobel give me some grapes."

Puff seemed to have got on, as he always does with strangers, and then he got very wild. Denys told him he was suffering from "a swelled head," and we were quite glad when he went to bed.

Now I must tell about to-day, but I shall have to take another chapter, for something awful has happened, and I shall have to begin from the very beginning.