The Flamp, The Ameliorator, and The Schoolboy's Apprentice Part 9

'Very well,' the Hermit replied seriously, 'I will add a few things; but, if you don't mind, not rats of any colour, nor in fact any live stock.'

'Just as you like,' said the magnanimous Chimp. 'You wouldn't do for Billy Lincolne though: he usually carries half a dozen frogs in his trousers' pockets.'

When the cricket gear was complete, Chimp stepped out twenty-two yards and pitched the stumps. 'You go in first,' he said.

The Hermit seized the bat.

'Now all you have to do at first,' Chimp continued, 'is to keep the ball out of the wicket. Hit it any way you like, and hold your bat straight.'

The Hermit obeyed to the letter. To Chimp's intense astonishment he punished the bowling all round, pulling off b.a.l.l.s to square leg in a shameless fashion.

Chimp was kept busy, and at last he grew almost vexed. 'Well, you mayn't have much science,' he cried, as, nearly out of breath, he flung himself down after some miles of running, 'but you've got a gorgeous eye. Why, you hit everything. You've played before, haven't you?' he added suspiciously.

The Hermit smiled again. 'A little,' he admitted. 'Yes, my late instructor, the sage to whom I was confided by my parents many, many years ago, he and I occasionally had a game together. It was our only recreation. I thought it hardly worth while to mention it, expecting that all skill had left me.'

'By jingo! though, it hasn't,' Chimp exclaimed. 'You're a regular W. G.

in your way. But, I say, another time you know how to do a thing you might let a fellow know first.'

'This is too silly,' was Chimp's persistent thought during the next few days, but he kept up the game of make-believe like a hero. As a matter of fact, it was sound amus.e.m.e.nt to explore the island and plunge on sudden impulses into a score of high-spirited enterprises, although the presence of the old man panting at his side touched him rather sadly now and then. The Hermit, however, endured stolidly and pluckily, and neither of them ever let the time appear to drag.

Chimp and his apprentice bathed together, and hunted for anemones among the rocks; they gave chase to b.u.t.terflies and lizards; they told stories; they even pretended to be Robinson Crusoe and Friday, the part of Friday falling to the Hermit.

'You see, Billykins,' Chimp said, 'you are better suited to the part: you can make such a whacking footprint.'

'I think I am progressing well, Simian,' remarked Chimp's apprentice at breakfast one morning, 'although I must admit that many impulses and movements that come naturally to you are acquired by me with difficulty.

Last evening's attempt at leap-frog, for example, has left me so stiff that I can hardly move, and I a.s.sure you that it has never before occurred to me to climb that tree all the years I have known it. Perhaps in a week or so, when my hands are healed, I may try again. But I can see, Sim, that it must be very good to be a boy--very, very good.'

'Why yes, Billykins,' Chimp broke in, 'but you don't know really anything about it yet. And I'm afraid you can't know on this island.

There isn't the company and there isn't the means. I can't even make you an apple-pie bed, when you sleep in a single blanket; and a b.o.o.by-trap needs a door. And when there are only two people, and no one else to laugh, it's no fun to stick a cactus in a fellow's chair. Tuck, too!

What do you know about tuck? What can you know about tuck when there's no shop for chocolate and Turkish Delight and things like that? Tinned stuff is all very well, but it gets jolly tedious. And birds'-nesting, and ratting, and setting night lines, and dodging game-keepers, and breaking into orchards! You haven't even elastic to make a catty with, or so simple a contrivance as a fish-hook. Still we might rig up a bow and arrow.'

'But,' the Hermit objected, 'there is nothing to shoot.'

'Oh yes!' said Chimp, 'sea-gulls.'

'We can't eat sea-gulls,' his apprentice replied. Then anxiously, 'Boys don't eat sea-gulls, do they?'

'Why, no, Billykins; but that isn't the thing. Bringing them down is the thing. It's sport.'

That evening after tea, Chimp approached his apprentice with a troubled expression.

'I think I ought to tell you, Billykins,' he goaded himself to say, 'that some boys fall in love. Not all, mind. I never did it myself--I think it's footle--but lots and lots do. I suppose you'd like to try it, you're so thorough; though I don't see how you're going to manage exactly.'

'You mean,' said the Hermit, 'on an island so poor in opportunities?

Yes, it would be difficult. Still, give me the outline.'

'Well, Billykins, it isn't very clear,' said Chimp. 'I believe though, that the fellow feels sort of jolly inside while it's going on. But it never lasts long.'

'And it's not compulsory?' the Hermit asked in some trepidation.

'Oh no, Billy, not at all.'

'Then we will dismiss love along with sport,' was the Hermit's decision.

Thus, in games and rambles and conversation, the time pa.s.sed by, until it was the evening before the day that would bring _The Tattooed Quaker_, and Chimp and his apprentice were sitting before the cave, watching the sinking sun.

'Well,' said the Hermit, 'only a few more hours, Sim, and you will be on the way home again. Then I must to work once more. My great work on Man and his place in Society, scientifically considered, awaits me. But I shall miss you, Sim,' the old man added; 'you have been a very pleasant chapter in my life. Don't forget me altogether, will you; and you'll pay my Aunt Amelia a visit, won't you, and tell her about me?'

Chimp had a little difficulty in replying. He felt girlish, that is to say, gulpy and tearful. At last, 'Why don't you come back too?' he asked.

'I?' said the Hermit. 'Oh no, there is no place for Hermits in your country.'

'I don't know about that,' said Chimp, speaking more naturally again.

'You might make a lot of money showing yourself in caravans at fairs.

People would go miles to see a hermit. I paid a penny once to see a fat woman, and there was no end of a squash in the tent. You must come. I'll take you to my uncle's, where I live in the vacs. and Jim--that's my cousin--Jim and me'll give you a ripping time.'

The Hermit smiled sadly. 'No, no,' he said. After a short silence he spoke again. 'Tell me, Sim--I ask merely out of curiosity--are boys always contented with their surroundings?'

'Not by a long chalk,' Chimp answered. 'They're always running away.'

'Ah!' said the Hermit. 'How often have you run away?'

'Well, not at all, so far,' said Chimp, 'although Goring minor and I did get all ready to bunk once, only Mother Porker copped us on the landing.

But we meant it, I can tell you. We were going to walk to Portsmouth, sleeping under hay ricks, and hide ourselves as stowaways on board a man-of-war, and show up when we got to sea, and do something heroic to please the Captain, and after that win loads of prize-money and come back covered with glory. Boys often do that in books. But old Mother Porker copped us on the landing.'

'Bed-time,' said the Hermit.

When they rose the next morning, there, in the offing, heading straight for the island, was _The Tattooed Quaker_. They hurried to the peak, and the Hermit waved his handkerchief. The signal was seen on deck, and an answering flag scurried up to the mast-head. After breakfast Chimp and his apprentice walked down to the creek to welcome the yacht's boat.

The Captain looked at Chimp in amazement. 'What, Master Augustus!' he said when he had shaken hands with the Hermit and delivered Aunt Amelia's letter, 'what! have you got a pupil, then?'

'No,' replied the Hermit, 'he's not my pupil, he's your pa.s.senger'; and so saying, he introduced Chimp, and then stood aside to see what his aunt had to say; while the crew waited for the Captain's orders to move the stores from the boat to the cave.

When the Hermit had finished reading, he returned the letter to its envelope and slipped it into his pocket.

'Well, Master Augustus, are you coming back with us?' said the Captain, exactly as he had asked the question for the past forty years.

The Hermit laughed in negative reply, exactly as he had laughed once a year for the past forty years.

'Now then, my men, be quick,' said the Captain.

In the boat was a large hamper in which to convey the stores over the rocks to the cave. Two of the sailors held it at each end, and the Hermit accompanied them, while Chimp and the Captain strolled away together. Three times the hamper was borne from the boat to the cell.

There then remained only a dozen or so of parcels, which the men might easily carry in their hands. This time the Hermit did not accompany them.

When the last of the stores were safely within the cave the boatswain blew his whistle as a signal that all was ready, and Chimp and the Captain of _The Tattooed Quaker_ hurried back to the creek.

'Where is Master Augustus?' the Captain inquired. 'The young gentleman wants to say good-bye to him.'

'He must be in the cave,' said Chimp. 'I'll run and see.'