The Lost Middy Part 13

Aleck noticed both scents when he threw open his window to let the perfume of the roses come in from the garden; but the kitchen windows and door were open, and the odour of the roses was regularly ousted by that of the food.

"My word! It does smell good," said the boy to himself, and his lips parted to be smacked, but gave vent to the interjection "O!" instead, for the movement of the articulations just in front of his ears caused a sharp pain.

"That's nice!" muttered Aleck. "How's a fellow to eat with his jaw all stiff like that?"

This reminder of the previous day's encounter brought with it other memories, which took the lad to the looking-gla.s.s, and the reflection he saw there made him grin at himself, and then wince again.

"Oh, my!" he said, softly. "How it hurts! My face feels stiff all over. I do look a sight. Can't go down to breakfast like this, I know; I'll stop here, and Jane will bring me some up. One can't stir out like this."

Grasping the fact that it was late, the boy dressed hurriedly, casting glances from time to time at the birds which sailed over from the sea, and at old Dunning, the gardener, who was busy digging a deep trench for celery, and treating the soft earth when he drove in the spade in so slow and tender a way that it seemed as if he was afraid of hurting it.

Aleck noted this, and grinned and hurt himself again.

"Poor old 'Nesimus," he said, feeling wonderfully light-hearted; "he always works as if he thought it must be cruel to kill weeds."

The boy had a good final look at the old man, who wore more the aspect of a rough fisherman than a gardener. In fact he had pursued the former avocation entirely in the past, in company with the speculative growing of fruit and vegetables in his garden patch--not to sell to his neighbours, the fishing folk of the tiny hamlet of Eilygugg, but to "swap" them, as he termed it, for fish. Then the time came when the Den gardener happened to be enjoying himself at Rockabie with a dozen more men, smoking, discussing shoals of fish, the durability of nets, and the like, when they suddenly discovered the fact that a party of men had landed on the sh.o.r.e from His Majesty's ship Conqueror, stolen up to the town in the darkness, and, after surrounding the little inn with a network of men, drawn the said net closer and closer, and ended by trammelling the whole set of guests and carrying them off as pressed men to the big frigate.

That was during the last war, and not a man came back to take up his regular avocation. Consequently there was a vacancy for a gardener at the Den, and it was afterwards filled up by Fisherman Onesimus Dunning, the wrinkled-faced man handling the spade and dealing so tenderly with his Mother Earth when Aleck looked out of the window.

"I wonder old Jane hasn't been up to see how I am," said Aleck, as he handled his comb as gingerly as the gardener did his spade.

"I wonder how Master Aleck is," said Jane, just about the same time.

"But I won't disturb him. Nothing like a good long sleep for hurts."

"I know," said Aleck to himself; "I can't call down the stairs, because uncle would hear. I daresay he's asleep. I'll tell old Ness to go round to the kitchen door and say she is to come up. No, I won't; he'd come close up and see my face, and it would make her cross now she's busy frying fish. How good it smells! I _am_ hungry! Wish she'd bring some up at once. How _am_ I to let her know?"

He had hardly thought this before he started, for there was a sharp rap at the door, the handle rattled, and the old captain came in.

"Getting up, Aleck, boy?" he said. "Ah, that's right--dressed. Come along down. You must be hungry."

"I am, uncle," replied the boy, returning his uncle's warm and impressive grasp; "but I can't come down like this," and the boy made a deprecating gesture towards his battered face.

"Well, you don't look your best, Aleck, lad," said the old man, smiling; "but you are no invalid. Never mind your looks; you'll soon come right."

Nothing loth, the boy followed his uncle downstairs, Jane hurriedly appearing in the little breakfast-room with a hot dish and plates on hearing the steps, and smiling with satisfaction on seeing Aleck.

"Ah, that's right, Jane!" said the captain, cheerfully, making the maid beam again on seeing "master" in such an amiable frame of mind.

"Fried fish?"

"Yes, sir; brill."

"Some of your catching, Aleck?"

"No, sir," put in the maid, eagerly; "that Tom Bodger was over here with it as soon as it was light. He knocked and woke me up. Said Master Aleck forgot it yes'day."

"No wonder," said the captain, smiling at his nephew; "enough to knock anything out of your head, eh, Aleck?"

"Yes, uncle; one of the fishermen said I was to bring it home."

"That's right. Shows you have friends as well as foes in Rockabie."

The breakfast went on, and after the first mouthfuls the boy's jaws worked more easily, and he was enjoying his meal thoroughly, when his uncle suddenly exclaimed:

"What are you going to do to-day, my boy?"

"Go on with those problems, uncle, unless you want me to do anything else."

"I do," said the old man, smiling. "I want you to leave your books to-day--for a few days, I should say, till your face comes round again-- I mean less round, boy," he added, laughing. "Have a rest. Go and ramble along the cliffs. Take the little gla.s.s and watch the birds till evening, and then you can fish."

Aleck jumped at the proposal, for the thought of books and writing had brought on suggestions of headache and weariness; and soon after breakfast he went up to his uncle's study, to find him sitting looking very thoughtful, and ready to start at the boy's entry.

"I've come for the spy-gla.s.s, uncle," said Aleck.

"To be sure, yes. I forgot," said the old man, hastily. "Take it down, my boy; and mind what you're about--recollect you are half blind. Let's have no walking over the cliff or into one of the gullies."

"I'll take care, uncle," said the boy, smiling. "I'll be back to dinner at two."

The captain nodded, and Aleck was moving towards the door, when the old man rose hastily, overtook him, and grasped his hand for a moment or two.

"Just to show you that I have not forgotten yesterday, Aleck, my boy,"

he said, gravely, and then he turned away.

"Who could forget yesterday?" thought the boy, as he slipped out by the side door and took the path leading round by the far edge of the cliff wall, the part which was left wild, that is, to its natural growth.

For Aleck's intent was to avoid being observed by the old gardener, whom he had last seen at work over the celery trench upon the other side of the house.

"He'd only begin asking questions about my face, and grinning at me like one of the great stupid fisher boys," said Aleck to himself, as he pa.s.sed the sling strap of the spy-gla.s.s over his shoulder and hurried in and out among the bosky shrubs close under the great cliff wall, till, pa.s.sing suddenly round a great feathery tuft of tamarisk, he came suddenly upon the very man he was trying to avoid, standing in a very peculiar position, his back bowed inward, head thrown backward, and a square black bottle held upside down, the neck to his lips and the bottom pointing to the sky.

Aleck stopped short, vexed and wondering, while the old gardener jerked himself upright, spilling some of the liquid over his chin and neck, and making a movement as if to hide the bottle, but, seeing how impossible it was, standing fast, with an imbecile grin on his countenance.

"Morning, Master Aleck," he said. "Strange hot morning. Been diggin'; and it makes me that thusty I'm obliged to keep a bottle o' water here in the shady part o' the rocks."

"Oh, are you?" said Aleck, quietly, and he could not forbear giving a sniff.

"Ah! nice, arn't it, sir? Flowers do smell out here on a morning like this, what with the roses and the errubs and wile thyme and things. It do make the bees busy. But what yer been eating on, sir? Or have yer slipped down among the nattles? Your face is swelled-up a sight. Here, I know--you've been bathing!"

"Not this morning, Ness; I did yesterday."

"That's it, then, my lad, and you should mind. I know you've had one o'

they jelly-fish float up agen yer face, and they sting dreadful sometimes."

"Yes, I know," said Aleck, beginning to move onward past the man; "but it wasn't a jelly-fish that stung my face."

"Wasn't it now? Yer don't mean it was a bee or wops?"

"No, Ness; it was a blackguard's fist."