Old Farm Fairies Part 18

"Yes, all safe. They are in limbo now, ready to be exchanged if need be.

But the Captain hopes to keep them for another and worse difficulty than the present."

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 59.--Spite Sends off Lycosa and his Balloon Corps.]

"Humph!" grunted Heady, "that would be hard to find, I fancy. Go on!"

"He sends word by me that the old suspension bridge is pa.s.sable; that a few cables stretched across spans Nos. 1, 2 and 4, will make it a quite good route. I am here with my companions, not only to bring the message, but to do this work of repair."

"But when is it to be done," asked Heady, "and how are we to make a landing in face of the enemy's camp? The Brownies would climb the piers and cut the strands under us; or would send their cavalry up to do it, and attack parties crossing.

"They would swarm on the sh.o.r.e and prevent our landing. They would have us at great disadvantage, for they could destroy us one by one. A pretty plan that! Perhaps our chiefs had better come and try their own chances in it. No! let them send out their she Brownies and try the ransom."

Heady spoke with much warmth and the Pixies applauded.

"Not so fast, General," said Lycosa, like a good diplomat conciliating Heady with a high sounding t.i.tle. "All that has been attended to. The Fringe, a fast yacht, has gone down to the outlet with your officers, to order up the navy. The ships will be anch.o.r.ed off the Old Bridge within two hours. It will then be the hour just before dawn, which you know is the darkest of the night. We can have the bridge ready for travel by that time. Both your chiefs agree that the Brownies will then be quieted down and will sleep more soundly because of this disturbance. One of us, however, is to make a balloon reconnoissance before the start from the fort shall be made, to see whether all is quiet. The navy will land your party as fast as they arrive, and we can get over, it is thought, before daylight. Should the movement be discovered, the ships can resist any onset until all the garrison are off. That is the plan which I bring.

The chief orders the trial. If it fails, the ransom plan will not."

Heady looked sullen, shook his head, and meditated for a few moments.

No one spoke. All waited for his decision.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 60.--The Pixinees Leave Fort Spinder, Carrying their Cradles and Babies.]

"Well, lads," said the Lieutenant, looking around with brightened face, "Is that little unpleasantness settled? What say you?"

The Pixies clapped their fangs in chorus by way of approval.

"You will stop your nonsense, return to duty and obey orders, will you?"

"Yes, yes!" was the unanimous response.

"Very well, then. To your posts, all of you! Cousin Lycosa, go on with your engineering, and draw on us for all the men and material that you need."

The garrison scattered to their various posts at the barricades and ramparts. Many laid down for a short sleep. Some went out with Heady to look after repairs upon the bridge. The mutiny was over. Once more Spite had saved Fort Spinder. It was Lycosa and his companions, just alighting upon Aranea's Isle in their balloons, that had fixed the attention of the chief while the Fringe approached the sh.o.r.e carrying the captive Nurses. The whole plan of rescue flashed upon his mind: he would send a balloon message to the fort, and with it engineers to direct the repair of the Old Bridge and the proposed escape thereby! Meantime Hide and himself would bring up the fleet to convey the garrison across the lake.

Lycosa and his chief a.s.sistant Gossamer lost no time in beginning work.

Their balloons were anch.o.r.ed by strong cords to gra.s.s stalks, and hung in the air swaying backward and forward ready for the embarkation. They were hammock shaped silken structures, quite wide at the middle, and gathered into a point at each end. From the bow and stern floated filaments of silk, which served the purpose of gas in human inventions for air locomotion, that is to say, they buoyed up the balloon so that it floated aloft.

The Pixie aeronaut was seated in or beneath his hammock. Gossamer's hammock or "car," was a rather broad, close ribbon of silk but Lycosa's was a light meshwork affair, just enough for his body to rest upon, and which he aptly called his basket.[AH] When the time came to ascend, the stay lines would be cut, the balloons rise up and be carried along by the breeze. If he wished to go higher, the balloonist opened his spinnerets, set his tiny silk factory agoing, and thus by adding to the number and length of the filaments increased the buoyancy of the machine. If he wished to descend he gathered up the floating lines into a little ball underneath his jaws, something like a seaman reefing sails, and as the surface exposed to the air was diminished, the balloon descended.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIGS. 61 and 62.--Madame Lycosa and American Dolomede Carrying Their Coc.o.o.ns.]

"Let go the ropes!" shouted Lycosa, as he climbed by a thread into his car, which swung beneath the netted hammock. The ropes were cut, and away the voyager went to the Old Bridge, followed by his brother balloonists. a.s.sisted by the fort engineers, they stretched new cables across the broken spans, and strengthened the old ones. An hour's steady service finished all needful repairs. Then Lycosa ascended from one of the piers, made a survey of the Brownie camp, returned and reported that the camp had settled into its usual quiet. Rodney and his sailors were off to the inlet. Being certain that the lost Nurses were not in the fort, the Brownies had recalled the extra pickets. There was little more risk in crossing the bridge than had attended the venture of Spite and Hide, especially as a fog now hung over the sh.o.r.e. Lookouts were placed upon the sh.o.r.e pier to watch for the fleet. All baggage and portable material were packed. Some of the Pixinees took their children upon their backs, like Madam Lycosa; others carried their round, silken cradles in their jaws, like Madam Pholcus, or lashed beneath their bodies, like Madam Dolomede.[AI] Fort Spinder was stripped and ready to be abandoned to its fate.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 63.--Madam English Ocyale Carries Her Cradle Lashed to Her Body.]

Soon Lycosa's signal flag was seen flying from above the pier. The fleet was in sight! The news was pa.s.sed rapidly from mouth to mouth along a line of sentinels stationed on the bridge. The garrison was set in motion. In a short s.p.a.ce of time the whole force had gone over without accident, and without a sound loud enough to alarm the Brownie pickets, a result much a.s.sisted by a contrivance of Lycosa's. To prevent the noise made by vessels mooring to the sh.o.r.e, he caused all the ships to anchor some distance from land. He then attached cords to the masts and bowsprits, and by means of his balloons carried them directly from the bridge to the ships. Thus there was no tramping from abutment to lake across the bank. There were no splash of oars and wash of waves by the plying of boats from sh.o.r.e to ship.

The last soldiers had embarked. The cables were cut, the anchors weighed, and with a favoring breeze the fleet crossed the lake and anch.o.r.ed in Big Cave harbor on the opposite or orchard sh.o.r.e. One of their camps or villages was located here, and the wearied Pixies were disembarked and comfortably housed.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote AG: Appendix, Note A.]

[Footnote AH: Appendix, Note B.]

[Footnote AI: Appendix, Note C.]

CHAPTER XVI.

BROWNIES ON A LARK.

After the evening meal there usually comes a lull in the duties of Brownie camp life. Pickets have been told off and stationed at their posts, camp fires are kindled, and the soldiers gather around the glowing light, stretched upon the gra.s.s underneath the shadow of leaves and flowers, or seated on rude stools of pebbles and twigs. In chat and story they forget the fatigues and dangers of a soldier's life. They spin yarns of past adventure, tales of "moving accident by flood and field" and "perils in the imminent deadly breach;" they discuss the chances of the campaign, the strategy and behavior of the enemy, and the merits of their commanders. Jokes, quips, merry anecdotes and witty sayings run around the circle, and ever and anon hearty peals of laughter break out upon the still evening air.

"Ho, lads! Tone down your mirth a bit!" cried the officer of the day to one of these groups, in the camp before Fort Spinder.

"Aye! aye, Sir!" was the response, and for a moment silence fell upon the circle.

"Say, boys," at last exclaimed one of the company, "let's get out of this and go for a lark. I have a capital idea in my head."

"Ho, ho!" cried Brownie Highjinks; "Twadeils really has an idea in his head! I'll warrant it's a lively one. Out with it! I'm for any fun that's not against general orders."

"Well then, lads, come close together and listen."

Twadeils was one of two brothers who had got their somewhat peculiar name from their daring and mischievous spirit which kept them and most people around them in a whirl of excitement and adventure. Their chums nicknamed them the "Twa deils," and the two words at length became one, and the lads were called Twadeils Senior and Twadeils Junior. But among their fellows they were simply known as "Twadeils" and "Junior."

The Brownies grouped themselves around Twadeils, heard his plan, and with little question gave hearty a.s.sent. An hour and place of meeting were fixed; and after discussing details of the proposed lark in whispers as they bent over the camp fire, the merry plotters retired to their tents.

In due time they were up and a.s.sembled at the rendezvous. The group that now started out upon their secret adventure was made up of Brownies from all arms of the service. The navy was represented by Brownies Barck, Ferrie, Wetman and Obersee; the cavalry by Brownies Gear, Saddler, Martingale, Hosson, Howrode and Barnit; the infantry by Halfrick, Highjinks, Esslade and the two Twadeils. A merry crowd they were and as bold as merry. The story of their night adventure we are now about to tell.

They silently stole from camp; pa.s.sed the sentries without much trouble, and reached the bank of the lake close by the point where the Brownie picket line touched the water. They were in a shallow depression formed in earlier time by an overflow of the lake. The water rose almost at this point to the surface of the sh.o.r.e, and only a narrow ridge of sand hindered it from flowing down the dry channel over which, indeed, it often ran during freshets.

Twadeils set Obersee and his sailor companions to form a raft. They were handy at such work, and soon had a number of beams lashed together into a rude raft that was secure enough, at least for such adventurers as those who expected to use it. The rest of the company were set to digging at the sandy ridge which banked the lake. All sorts of implements were used, drinking cups, table pans, shovels extemporized from splinters, stalks and chips picked from driftwood on the sh.o.r.e.

Indeed, the Brownies had been trained to turn a hand to such duty without use of spades, shovels, picks or other trenching tools.

By the time the raft was ready, a cut had been made through the sand almost to the verge of the lake, and the water had already begun to trickle over the top. Then the final order was given, and all the Brownies fell to with zeal, and removed the remaining sandy barrier.

Soon a breach was made in the sh.o.r.e through which the lake water began to pour. The spirits of the Brownies rose with the rising flood, and when at last enough water had entered the channel to float the raft, they let it swing out into the stream, and were afloat upon the swift running current.

Their purpose was now made plain. They intended to drown out the Pixie pickets, overflood and override the barricade, and get into the heart of the Pixie camp. But there were some difficulties in the way that these reckless spirits had not considered. The water was as frisky as themselves, and would not confine itself to the course in which they had expected it to run, but turned hither and thither, crawling among clumps and tufts of weeds, gra.s.s and bushes, whose tops presently appeared above the surface of the current, and lay in the way of the raft as it floated down stream.

"Look out there in front!" cried the leader but before the raft could be pushed away it b.u.mped against a bush. Several Brownies were tossed into the stream, and were pulled up with difficulty. Now the raft was off again, and its crew, a little more careful, managed to avoid the snags that threatened them in front.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 64.--Tetragnatha's Mimicry of a Green Twig.]

Soon the cry arose: "Look out on the right!" Too late again, for the raft was caught in an eddy and driven among the bushes on the margin of the little torrent. Some of the crew clambered upon the bushes others plunged into the stream, and by dint of pushing and pulling, and many hearty but subdued calls, and with much laughter, the vessel was released from the bushes and pushed again into the current. At this moment Esslade saw the form of a Pixie upon an overhanging bush. He lay along the stem with arms and legs stretched out before and behind and held close together, thus so tightly embracing the plant that it was difficult at first to distinguish him therefrom.