A College Girl Part 12

At long intervals strange men came to investigate the mill and its machinery, and the Percivals were cheered by rumours of a certain "let,"

but as one rumour after another died away without bringing any tangible result their hopes had reached a vanishing point, and they paid little attention to the occasional stirring into life of the dreamy backwater.

Darsie walked to the end of the jetty, stepped lightly into the punt, and sank down on the soft red cushions. One might not eat one's neighbour's fruit, but one might sit in his punt, and arrange his cushions to fit comfily into the crick in one's back, without infringing the laws of hospitality. Darsie poked and wriggled, and finally lay at ease, deliciously comfortable, blinking up at the sunshine overhead, and congratulating herself on having hit on the spot of all others in which to spend the time of waiting. She could lie here for hours without feeling bored; it was the most deliciously lazy, drowsy sensation she had ever experienced. At the end of five minutes, however, the drowsy feeling threatened to become altogether too p.r.o.nounced, and having no wish either to be discovered fast asleep, or to sleep on undiscovered till past the hour for her return. Darsie sat up hurriedly and began to look around for fresh distractions.

At the very first glimpse the usual temptation for idle hands stared her in the face, for there on the jetty lay, not only the long punt-pole, but also the dainty little paddle which she had handled under Ralph's instructions the week before. It had been quite easy, ridiculously easy; the girls declared that she took to it as to the manner born; she had paddled the whole boatload for quite a considerable distance.

Naturally it would be much easier and lighter to paddle for oneself alone. The chain holding the punt to the jetty could easily be slipped from its ring; there was not, _could_ not be, any danger in paddling peacefully along a quiet little backwater. Of course, prudent people would say--Aunt Maria would say-- But then if you waited until all the prudent people on earth approved of all that you did, you might sit with your hands crossed in your lap for the rest of your life!

Darsie tossed her head with the defiant little jerk which meant that she was _going_ to do it, and she didn't care, and the consequences could look after themselves. In another moment the punt was free from the chain, and was being paddled slowly down the stream. Really, she told herself, the solid old craft was as safe as a house; so big, so heavily built was it that it seemed curious, not that its progress should be slow but that it should move at all in response to the efforts of one inexperienced girl! Glancing over, Darsie could see the weeds rising from the bed of the stream, sometimes so high that they caught in the paddle as it worked and greatly impeded its force; still she was steadily moving along, and, fired with ambition, her eyes fell on a willow-tree standing out from the bank some hundred yards ahead, and she determined to persevere until the point should be reached. To declare she had paddled "some way"--"quite a long way"--would probably be discounted to mean but a few yards by the Percival sisters, but "to the willow and back" was a definite feat which could not be gainsaid. So Darsie worked and strained till her arms ached and her cheeks flamed, till the punt, moving heavily through the weeds, ran at last beneath the willow branches and found a natural anchorage.

Well, it was good to lie back against the cushions and rest one's weary arms and back! Darsie peeped at her watch, saw with relief that she had still a good quarter of an hour to spare, and abandoned herself to a lazy enjoyment of the situation.

And then the inevitable happened, for the soothing influence of the shaded light lulled the tired senses into deeper and deeper unconsciousness, until at last the fringed eyelids ceased to flicker, and remained peacefully closed, and, like a happy, tired child, Darsie rested her cheek on her hand and slept.

Subsequent comparisons proved that her doze might have lasted for half an hour or more, before a sudden movement of the punt roused her with a start. She sat up, blinked sleepily around, and discovered to her surprise that the punt had moved from its anchorage and drifted into the centre of the stream. It had appeared so safely moored against the tree that she was puzzled to understand how this had come about, but as the movement had roused her from sleep she was glad that it had occurred, and, seating herself steadily, lifted her paddle to work her way back to the jetty.

As she settled herself, however, Darsie's attention was arrested by the manner in which the banks seemed to be slipping past; she turned her head over her shoulder, and discovered that in the minute which had elapsed since she had awakened from sleep the willow-tree had been left several yards behind. Some mysterious change seemed to have pa.s.sed over the surface of the still, almost stagnant, waters; they were flowing as with a tide, the rippling movement stirring the weedy banks. Darsie used her paddle automatically, but its puny force seemed superfluous, for the punt was moving of itself, quickly and still more quickly, swinging broadside to the stream in defiance of her efforts to keep it straight. Darsie ceased to struggle and leaned forward on the paddle to consider the situation. Then, for the first time, she became aware that the former stillness of the stream was replaced by a harsh, continuous noise, which seemed momentarily to increase in volume. What could it be? She stared around with puzzled eyes, but there was no hint of alarm in her bewilderment. A child of the city, she was inured to sudden and inexplicable noises; it was only when the punt swung heavily round a bend that she realised the seriousness of her position. The mill was working! One of the infrequent experimental trials of which she had heard was even now in process, the great moss-covered wheel was revolving creakily on its axle, waking the sleeping river into life, and the heavy punt was bearing down, more and more rapidly towards the crazy wooden gates!

In a second all that she had heard on this subject from the Percival family flashed through Darsie's brain. The gates were frail, so eaten by long action of water, that at the impact of a heavy ma.s.s they would almost certainly burst apart, and then--what would happen to the punt and to its hapless occupant? Would she be hurled against a broken boulder, wedged helplessly beneath the debris, or rushed forward into the swirl of the millpond itself? Whatever happened it seemed certain that danger--and serious danger--loomed close at hand, unless she could succeed in overmastering the current and landing the punt safely at the little jetty. At this moment it was not fear but rather an exhilarating tingling of excitement of which Darsie was most aware. Here was an adventure--a full-fledged adventure, such as came but seldom to break the monotony of life!

For the sake of her future credit she must bear herself bravely, be swift, resourceful, energetic. With all her strength she plied the paddle to and fro, but for all the effect produced she might as well have sat still upon her cushions. It would have required an experienced hand to guide the heavy punt through the sweeping current, and under Darsie's unpractised strokes it twisted, and turned, and revolved in aimless and disconcerting circles... No matter! she was determined to win; by hook or by crook she must make the left side of the stream and gain an anchorage. The jetty or the millpond--that was the alternative, and it was one to put power into the arm and give staying power to the laboured breath! The moments were flying now, the banks seemed to be flitting past more quickly than ever. Darsie tried to convert the paddle into an oar, with which to steer more vigorously for the desired bank; then came a breathless second of suspense, followed by a sickening realisation of failure. The punt had swept past the jetty at a distance just wide enough to make it impossible to grasp the chain, and was now bearing straight for the wooden gates!

CHAPTER TWELVE.

DARSIE'S SUGGESTION.

With the pa.s.sing of the jetty, fear awoke for the first time in Darsie's breast--the fear which arises when the possibility of action is over and nothing remains but to sit still and await the end. In one moment of time an incredible number of thoughts flashed through her brain; she thought of her father and mother, of their grief and pain at the knowledge of her untimely end; she thought of her brothers and sisters, of Vie Vernon and plain Hannah, and Dan; she saw a vision of them all garbed in black, sitting round the study fire, enlarging upon her own virtues and graces; she thought of Aunt Maria and her responsibility; she saw a vision of herself, cold and still, being dragged out of the millpond, with her hair floating like seaweed behind her, and at the thought a wild rebellion rose in her heart, a determination to fight on, to fight to the end for her precious life! One or two large trees stood out from the bank.

Darsie leaped to her feet and, raising the paddle so high above her head that it caught against the branches, strove to delay the progress of the punt. The result was to upset her own equilibrium, and as she fell forward she screamed loudly, a shrill, penetrating scream of panic and appeal.

With almost startling quickness the answer came, in the form of an answering cry, close at hand. Round the corner of the next clump of bushes dashed the figure of Ralph Percival, bareheaded, eager-faced, and, thank Heaven! unhesitating in action. Not for one fraction of a second did he hesitate, but with the a.s.surance of one who knows every inch of the land rushed forward waist-deep into the river; halted there, and called out a sharp command--

"Your paddle! Stretch out your paddle towards me! Hold hard! Lean out as far as you can!"

Darsie fell on her knees, and, leaning forward to the utmost extent of her body, held out the paddle as directed. There was a moment of sickening suspense, then came a halt, a jerk that seemed to pull her arms half out of the sockets, and the punt swung heavily towards the sh.o.r.e. The danger was over; she was helped on to the bank, where she collapsed in a little heap, while Ralph worked the punt slowly along to the jetty and fastened it to its chain.

_The short_ breathing s.p.a.ce had allowed Darsie to recover her self- possession, to master the overpowering temptation to cry, and to swallow the lump in her throat sufficiently to be able to say in a weak little voice--

"You've saved my life!"

"You've spoiled my trousers!" retorted Ralph in a matter-of-fact manner calculated to put an instant check on sentimentality. He sat down on the bank, unfastened his mud-soaked gaiters, and threw them on one side.

"The river's beastly dirty, and the mud sticks like the d.i.c.kens. A new suit, too! It will never look the same again."

"I'm sorry."

"So you ought to be. Things are bad enough as they are, _but_... How on earth did you come to be careering about alone in that punt?"

"I was waiting to see your sisters. I wandered down here, and thought I'd just sit in it for a rest, then I thought I could just paddle up and down. I managed quite well going up the stream; I got as far as the willow!" Even at that moment a faint note of pride crept into Darsie's voice. "We grounded there, and I--I must have fallen asleep, I suppose, and that hateful old mill must needs choose the opportunity to begin working at that very moment... Just my luck!"

Ralph pursed his lips in eloquent comment.

"If it comes to that, I think you have had a fair amount of luck in another way! I heard the noise of the mill and came down to look on.

If I hadn't been there, you'd have been pretty considerably in Queer Street by this time. Nice thing it would have been for us to discover your drowned body in the millpond, and have had to tell your aunt!"

"I thought of that," agreed Darsie meekly. "It was one of my dying thoughts. Don't scold me, please, for I feel so shaky, and you wouldn't like it if I cried. It was my own fault, and I got what I deserved. I wasn't a bit frightened till I missed the jetty, but that one moment was like a hundred years. Did my yell sound very awful?"

"Pretty middling blood-curdling!" replied Ralph, smiling. "Good thing it did. Gave me a bit of a shock, I can tell you, to see the old punt dashing down to the gates, with you sitting huddled up in the bottom, with your hair hanging wild, and your face the colour of chalk. You looked like a young Medusa."

"Sounds attractive, I must say! Medusa froze _other_ people's blood, not her own," declared Darsie, tilting her chin with a little air of offence, at which her companion laughed triumphantly.

"Oh, _you're_ better; you're coming round again all right! I was afraid you were going to faint. I don't mind telling you that you were jolly plucky. Most girls would have started screaming miles before, but you held on like a Briton. How do the arms feel now? Rather rusty at the hinges, I expect. The stiffness will probably spread to the back by to- morrow, but it'll come all right in time. It is a pretty good weight, that punt, and I had to pull for all I was worth... Don't you think you'd better come up to the house and have some tea?"

"Yes, please. And you can change your clothes, too. I should feel so miserable if you caught cold."

"No fear of that. I'm used to splashing in and out of the water half a dozen times a day. You need have no anxiety about me."

"But--the trousers?"

"Oh, bother the trousers! I piled that on a bit, just to prevent you from getting sentimental. _They're_ all right!" Ralph paused a moment, then, "I say!" he cried anxiously, "is this going to get you into trouble with the aunt? Need you say anything about it, do you think?

I'll swear to secrecy, if you say the word, and not a soul need know."

Darsie debated the point thoughtfully while the two walked side by side along the gravelled paths, and finally arrived at a conclusion.

"I think, on the whole, I'll tell! Aunt Maria allowed me to go out alone as a great concession, and it was mean to take advantage and run risks. So upsetting for her if I were killed in her house! So I'm in honour bound to confess, and promise not to do it again."

"You might do something else just as bad! Probably she'll withdraw her permission and keep you under her thumb as she did those first weeks."

"She _may_; but I don't think she _will_! I think she will appreciate my confidence," said Darsie, with a grandiloquent air, at which her companion whistled softly, his face twitching with amus.e.m.e.nt. He was much more natural and boyish in his manner than on either of the previous occasions on which Darsie had met him, and the agitation of the last few minutes seemed to have carried them in a bound past all the formalities of early acquaintance.

"Right you are!" he said briskly. "I like a straight girl. But if you don't mind we won't speak of it before the mater. She's a bit nervous, and would be always imagining that the girls were going to have the same experience. You might warn Lady Hayes not to speak of it either. We'll keep it a secret between us."

"Just as you like! I _believe_," said Darsie shrewdly, "that you're afraid of being praised and fussed over, as you would be if people knew that you had saved my life! Men hate a fuss, but you can't escape my grat.i.tude. I didn't want to die. It came over me with a sort of horror--the thought of leaving the flowers, and the trees, and the blue sky, and all the people I love. Have you ever been so nearly dead to know how it feels?"

"Once--when I had enteric at school. It was a near squeak at the crisis."

"And how did you feel? What did you think?"

"I didn't care a whit one way or another. I wanted to have the pillow turned. That seemed a hundred times more important than life or death; I was too ill to think... Well, thank goodness, you are _not_ dead! I hope you'll live for many years to be a pride and glory to--er--er--the ranks of women blue-stockings!"

Darsie looked at him sharply.

"The girls have been telling you of my ambitions! Mean of them! They might have known you'd scoff. All boys do, but I fail to see why if a girl has brains she should not use them as well as a man."

"The inference being--"

"Certainly! I'm unusually clever for my years!" returned Darsie proudly, whereupon they simultaneously burst into a peal of laughter.