The Long Vacation Part 18

Adrian replied with a gracious nod and gesture towards his straw hat, and in another moment Anna found him answering questions, and giving his own account of the adventure to the inquirer, who, she had little doubt, was a reporter, and carrying his head, if possible, higher in consequence as he told how Fergus Merrifield had lingered over his stones, and all the rest after his own version. She did not hear the whole, having had to answer the inquiries of one of the bicycle friends of the previous day, but when her attention was free she heard--

"And the young lady, Sir Adrian?"

"Young lady! Thank goodness, we were not bothered with any of that sort."

"Indeed, Sir Adrian, I understood that there was a young lady, Miss Aurelia, that Master Merrifield was lamenting, as if she had met with a watery grave."

"Ha! ha! Aralia was only the name of a bit of fossil kind of a stick that Merrifield had us down there to find in the fossil forest. I'm sure I saw no forest, only bits of mud and stuff! But he found a bit, sure enough, and was ready to break his heart when he had to leave his bag behind him on the rock. Aralia a young lady! That's a good one."

He forgathered with a school-fellow on the way home, and Anna heard little more.

The next day, however, there arrived the daily local paper, addressed to Sir Adrian Vanderkist, Bart., and it was opened by him at breakfast-time.

"I say! Look here! 'Dangerous Accident in Ans...o...b... A Youthful Baronet in peril!' What a.s.ses people are!" he added, with an odd access of the gratified shame of seeing himself for the first time in print. But he did not proceed to read aloud; there evidently was something he did not like, and he was very near pocketing it and rushing off headlong to school with it, if his aunt and Anna had not entreated or commanded for it, when he threw it over with an uncomplimentary epithet.

"Just what I was afraid of when I saw the man talking to him!" exclaimed Anna. "Oh, listen!

"'The young Sir Adrian Vanderkist, at present residing at St. Andrew's Rock with his aunt, Mrs. Grinstead, and the Rev. E. C. Underwood, and who is a pupil at Mrs. Edgar's academy for young gentlemen, was, we are informed, involved in the most imminent danger, together with a son of General Sir Jasper Merrifield, K.G.C., a young gentleman whose remarkable scientific talent and taste appear to have occasioned the peril of the youthful party, from whence they were rescued by Gerald F.

Underwood, Esq., of Vale Leston.'"

"What's all that?" said Gerald F. Underwood, Esquire, sauntering in and kissing his aunt. "Good-morning. How is Uncle Clement this morning?"

"Much better; I think he will be up by and by," answered Mrs. Grinstead.

"What bosh have you got there? The reporters seized on their prey, eh?"

"There's Sir Jasper!" exclaimed Anna, who could see through the blinds from where she sat.

Sir Jasper had driven over with his little son, and, after leaving him at school, had come to inquire for Mr. Underwood, and to obtain a fuller account of the accident, having already picked up a paper and glanced at it.

"I am afraid my little scamp led them into the danger," he said.

"Scientific taste forsooth! Science is as good a reason as anything else for getting into sc.r.a.pes."

"Really," said Gerald, "I can't say I think your boy came out the worst in it, though I must own the Rockquay Advertiser bestows most of the honours of the affair on the youthful baronet! You say he blew his own trumpet," added Gerald, turning to Anna.

"The reporter came and beset us," said Anna, in a displeased voice. "I did not hear all that pa.s.sed, but of course Adrian told him what he told me, only those people make things sound ridiculous."

"To begin with," said Gerald, "I don't think Fergus, or at any rate Davy Blake, was in fault. They tried to go home in good time, having an instinct for tides, but Adrian was chasing a sea-mouse or some such game, and could not be brought back, and then he fell over a slippery rock, and had to be dragged out of a hole, and by that time the channel of the Ans...o...b.. stream was too deep, at least for him, who has been only too carefully guarded from being amphibious."

"Oh! that did not transpire at home," said Sir Jasper. "Boys are so reserved."

Mrs. Grinstead and Anna looked rather surprised. Anna even ventured--

"I thought Fergus got too absorbed."

"So did I," said his father dryly. "And he did not justify himself."

"M--m--m," went on Gerald, skimming the article.

"Read it," cried Anna. "You know none of us have seen it."

Gerald continued--

"'Their perilous position having been observed from Ans...o...b.. cliffs, Mr.

G. F. Underwood of Vale Leston heroically' (i.e. humbugically) 'made his way out to their a.s.sistance, while a boat was put off by the Coast-guard, and that of Mr. Carter, fisherman, from Rockquay was launched somewhat later.' We could not see either of them, you know. My eye, this is coming it strong! 'The young baronet generously insisted that the little fisher-boy, David Blake, who had accompanied them, should first be placed in safety--'"

"Didn't he?" exclaimed Anna. "I saw, and I wondered, but I thought it was his doing."

"You saw?"

"Yes, in the Coast-guard's telescope."

"Oh! That is a new feature in the case!"

"Then he did not insist?" said Mrs. Grinstead.

"It was with the wrong side of his mouth."

"But why did you send the fisher-boy first, when after all his life was less important?" exclaimed Anna, breaking forth at last.

"First, for the reason that I strove to impress on 'the youthful baronet,' n.o.blesse oblige. Secondly, that Davy knew how to make his way along the rocks, and also knew where to find the Preventive station. I could leave him to get on, as I could not have done with the precious Adrian, and that gave a much better chance for us all. It was swimming work by the time I got back, and by that time I thought the best alternative for any of us was to keep hold as long as we could, and then keep afloat as best we might till we were picked up. Your boy was the hero of it all. Adrian was so angry with me for my disrespect that I could hardly have got him to listen to me if Fergus had not made him understand, that to let himself be pa.s.sive and be floated by me till the boats came up was the only thing to be done. There was one howl when he had to let go his beloved aralia, but he showed his soldier blood, and behaved most manfully."

"I am most thankful to hear it," said his father, "and especially thankful to you."

"Oh! there was not much real danger," said Gerald lightly, "to any one who could swim."

"But Adrian could not," said Anna. "Oh! Gerald, what do we not owe to you?"

"I must be off," said Sir Jasper; "I must see about a new jacket for my boy. By the bye, do you know how the little Davy fared in the matter of clothes?"

"Better than any of us," said Gerald. "He was far too sharp to go mud-larking in anything that would be damaged, and had his boots safe laid up in a corner. I wish mine were equally safe."

Sir Jasper's purchases were not confined to boots and jacket, but as compensation for his hard words included a certain cabinet full of drawers that had long been Fergus's cynosure.

Anna and her aunt were much concerned at what was said of Adrian, and still more at the boastful account that he seemed to have given; but then something, as Mrs. Grinstead observed, must be allowed for the reporter's satisfaction in having interviewed a live baronet. Each of the parties concerned had one hero, and if the Merrifields' was Fergus, to their own great surprise and satisfaction, Aunt Cherry was very happy over her own especial boy, Gerald, and certainly it was an easier task than to accept "the youthful baronet" at his own valuation or that of the reporter.

Mrs. Grinstead considered whether to try to make him less conceited about it, and show him his want of truth. She consulted his uncle about it, showing the newspaper, and telling, and causing Gerald to tell, the history of the accident, which Clement had not been fit to hear all the day before.

He was still in bed, but quite ready to attend to anything, and he laughed over the account, which she ill.u.s.trated by the discoveries she had made from the united witnesses.

"And is it not delightful to see for once what Gerald really is?" she said.

"Yes, he seems to have behaved gallantly," said his uncle; "and I won't say just what might have been expected."

"One does expect something of an Underwood," she said.

"Little Merrifield too, who saw the danger coming, deserves more honour than he seems to have taken to himself."