The Long Vacation Part 24

"Not improbably there will be nothing else to shoot by that time,"

quietly said Gerald.

"I shall have a keeper in every lodge, and bring up four or five hundred pheasants every year," boasted the little baronet, quite alive to the pride of possession, though he had never seen Ironbeam in his life.

Edward laughed a "Don't you wish you may get it," and the others, who knew very well the futility of the poor boy's expectations, even if Gerald's augury were not fulfilled, hastened to turn away the conversation to plans for the afternoon. Anna asked the visitor if he would ride out with her and Gerald to Clipstone or to the moor, and was relieved when he declined, saying he had promised to meet Horner.

"You will come in to tea at five?" said his aunt, "and bring him if you like."

"Thanks awfully, but we hardly can. We have to start from the quay at six sharp."

All had gone their several ways, and Clement, after the heat of the day, was pacing towards a secluded cove out of an inner bay which lay nearer than Ans...o...b.. Cove, but was not much frequented. However, he smelt tobacco, and heard sounds of boyish glee, and presently saw Adrian and Fergus Merrifield, bare-legged, digging in the mud.

"Ha! youngsters! Do you know the tide has turned? I thought you had had enough of that."

"I thought I might find my aralia!" sighed Fergus. "The tide was almost as low."

Just then there resounded from behind a projecting rock a peal of undesirable singing, a shout of laughter, and an oath, with--

"Holloa, those little beasts of teetotallers have hooked it."

There were confused cries--"Haul 'em back! Drench 'em. Give 'em a roll in the mud!" and Adrian shrank behind his uncle, taking hold of his coat, as there burst from behind the rock a party of boys, headed by the two cadets, all shouting loudly, till brought to a sudden standstill by the sight of "Parson! By Jove!" as the Horner mid muttered, taking out his pipe, while Edward Harewood mumbled something about "Horner's brother's tuck-out." One or two other boys were picking up the remains of the feast, which had been on lobsters, jam tarts, clotted cream, and the like delicacies dear to the juvenile mind. The two biggest school-boys came forward, one voluble and thick of speech about Horner's tuck-out, and "I a.s.sure you, sir, it is nothing--not a taste. Never thought of such--" Just then the other lad, staggering about, had almost lurched over into the deepening channel; but Clement caught him by the collar and held him fast, demanding in a low voice, very terrible to his hearers--

"Where does this poor boy live?"

It was Adrian who answered.

"Devereux Buildings."

"You two, Adrian and Fergus, run to the quay and fetch a cab as near this place as it can come," said Clement. "You little fellows, you had better run home at once. I hope you will take warning by the shame and disgrace of this spectacle."

The boys were glad enough to disperse, being terrified by the condition of the prisoner, as well as by the detection; but the two who were enc.u.mbered with the baskets containing the bottles, jam-pots, and tin of cream remained, and so did the two young sailors, Horner saying civilly--

"You'll not be hard on the kids, sir, for just a spree carried a little too far."

"I certainly shall not be hard on the children, whom you seem to have tempted," was the answer as they moved along; and as the younger Horner turned towards a little shop near the end of the steps to restore the goods, he asked--"Were you supplied from hence?"

"Yes," said Horner, who was perhaps hardly sober enough for caution.

"Mother b.u.t.terfly is a jolly old soul."

Looking up. Clement saw no licence to sell spirituous liquors under the name of Sarah Schnetterling, tobacconist. The window had the placard 'Ici on parle Francais', and was adorned in a tasteful manner with ornamental pipes, fishing-rods and flies, jars of sweets, sheets of foreign stamps, pictorial advertis.e.m.e.nts of innocuous beverages. A woman with black grizzling hair, fashionably dressed, flashing dark eyes, long gold ear-rings, gold beads and gaudy attire, came out to reclaim her property. A word or two pa.s.sed about payment, during which Clement had a strange thrill of puzzled recollection. The bottles bore the labels of raspberry vinegar and lemonade, but he had seen too much not to say--

"You drive a dangerous trade."

"Ah, sir, young people will be gourmands," she said, with a foreign accent. "Ah, that poor young gentleman is very ill. Will he not come in and lie down to recover?"

"No, thank you," said Clement. "A carriage is coming to take him home."

Something about the fat in the fire was pa.s.sing between the cadets, and the younger of them began to repeat that he had come for his brother's birthday, and that he feared they had brought the youngsters into a sc.r.a.pe by carrying the joke too far.

"I have nothing to say to you, sir," said the Vicar of St. Matthew's, looking very majestic, "except that it is time you were returning to your ship. As to you," turning to Edward Harewood, "I can only say that if you are aware of the peculiar circ.u.mstances of Adrian Vanderkist, your conduct can only be called fiendish."

Fergus and Adrian came running up with tidings that the cab was waiting.

Edward Harewood stood sullen, but the other lad said--

"Unlucky. We are sorry to have got the little fellows into trouble."

He held out his hand, and Clement did not refuse it, as he did that of his own nephew. Still, there was a certain satisfaction at his heart as he beheld the clear, honest young faces of the other two boys, and he bade Adrian run home and wait for him, saying to Fergus--

"You seem to have been a good friend to my little nephew. Thank you."

Fergus coloured up, speechless between pleasure at the warm tone of commendation and the obligations of school-boy honour, nor, with young Campbell on their hands, was there s.p.a.ce for questions. That youth subsided into a heavy doze in the cab, and so continued till the arrival at No. 7, Devereux Buildings, where a capable-looking maid-servant opened the door, and he was deposited into her hands, the Vicar leaving his card with his present address, but feeling equal to nothing more, and hardly able to speak.

He drove home, finding his nephew in the doorway. Signing to the maid to pay the driver, and to the boy to follow him, he reached his study, and sank into his easy-chair, Adrian opening frightened eyes and saying--

"I'll call Sibby."

"No--that bottle--drop to there," signing to the mark on the gla.s.s with his nail.

After a pause, while he held fast the boy, so to speak, with his eyes, he said--

"Thank you, dear lad."

"Uncle Clement," said Adrian then, "we weren't doing anything.

Merrifield thought his old bit of auralia, or whatever he calls it, was there."

"I saw--I saw, my boy. To find you--as you were, made me most thankful.

You must have resisted. Tell me, were you of this party, or did you come on them by accident?"

"Horner asked me," said Adrian, twisting from one leg to another.

Clement saw the crisis was come which he had long expected, and rejoiced at the form it had taken, though he knew he should suffer from pursuing the subject.

"Adrian," he said, "I am much pleased with you. I don't want to get you into a row, but I should be much obliged if you would tell me how all this happened."

"It wouldn't," returned Adrian, "but for that Ted and the other chap."

"Do you mean that there would have been none of this--drinking--but for them? Don't be afraid to tell me all. Was the stuff all got from that Mrs. Schnetter--?"

"Mother b.u.t.terfly's? Oh yes. She keeps bottles of grog with those labels, and it is such a lark for her to be even with the gangers that our fellows generally get some after cricket, or for a tuck-out."

"Not Fergus Merrifield?"

"Oh no; he's captain, you know, but he is two years younger than Campbell and Horner, and they can't bear him, and when he made a jaw about it--he can jaw awfully, you know--and he is stuck up, and Horner major swore he would make him know his bearings--"

"I wonder he was there at all."

"Well, Horner asked him, and he can't get those fossils that were lost out of his head, and he thought they might be washed up. He said too, he knew they would be up to something if he wasn't there."