Three Boys Part 40

"I say, Scoody, why did the rope break?"

"Oh, she's a pad rotten old rope, an' she'll burn her as soon as she gets up again. But what a ding I gave my airm!"

"That's it, Max; the rope was rotten. Can you tie it together if we throw it up to you?"

"Na," shouted Scoodrach; "she couldna tie it together, and she couldna throw it up."

"I'm afraid I couldn't tie it tight enough," faltered Max; "but if I could, it would not bear you."

"It would have to bear us. We can't stop down here. I say, Scoody, think we could climb up?"

Scoodrach shook his head.

"Well, then, can we get down?"

"If she could get up or doon without a rope, the hawks wouldn't have built their nest."

"That sounds like good logic, Max," cried Kenneth, "so you had better let yourself over till you can hang by your hands, and then drop, and we'll catch you."

"What?"

"You wouldn't hurt yourself so much as Scoody did, because we can both help you. He nearly went right over, and dragged me with him."

"Oh!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Max, with a shudder.

"Well, are you coming?"

"No! Impossible! What for?"

"To keep us company for a week or two, till somebody sees us. Hallo, Sneeshing! Good dog, then! Come down, we want you. Hooray, Scoody!

dog for dinner! enough for three days. Then the young falcons will do for another day. Well, are you coming?"

"Oh, Kenneth," cried Max, "you're making fun again. What shall we do?"

"You mean, what shall we do? You're all right. But you had better lower down the gun, and then I can shoot Scoody decently, when Sneeshing and the young hawks are done!"

"Oh, pray be serious!"

"I am. It's a serious position. We mustn't trust the rope again--eh, Scoody?"

"Na! Oh, what a ding she gave her airm!"

"Bother your arm!" cried Kenneth. "Here, Max, what's to be done?"

"I'll run back and tell them at Dunroe."

"Ah, to be sure, that's the way! but I didn't know you could run across the loch."

Max's jaw dropped, and he gave his companions a helpless stare.

"I forgot the loch," he said. "What shall I do? Where's the nearest house?"

"Across the loch."

"Are there none this side?"

"There's a keeper's lodge ten miles away, on the other side of the mountain."

"I'll run all the way there!" cried Max eagerly. "Tell me the way."

"Well, you go right north, straight over the mountain, and whenever you come to a bog, you stick in it. Then you lose your way every now and then, and get benighted, and there you are."

"You're laughing at me again," cried Max in agony; "and I want to help you."

"Well, I want you to help us, old chap, for we're in a regular mess, and perhaps the hawks'll come and pick our eyes out to feed the young ones."

"There, now, you're laughing at me again!" cried Max. "I can't help being so ignorant of your ways."

"Of course you can't, Maxy. Well, look here, old chap, you can't get over the mountain without some one to show you the way."

"Na; she'd lose hersel'," cried Scoodrach. "Oh, what a ding she did give--"

"Bother your old airm, Scoody! do be quiet. Look here, Max: now, seriously, unless a yacht comes by, there's no chance of help, and just because we want a yacht to come by, there won't be one for a week."

"Then what shall I do?"

"Well, there's only one thing you can do."

"Yes? quick, tell me!"

"Go down to the boat and hoist the sail, and run back to Dunroe."

"But I couldn't manage her."

"All right, then. Let's all set to work and make our wills before we're starved to death. No, I tell you what: you've got the gun; you'll have to go shooting, and drop the birds over to us. You're a good shot, aren't you?"

Max was silent.

"Well, why don't you speak? Look here, take the gun and shoot a hare.

You'll find one somewhere. Got any matches?"

"Yes, I have a little silver box of wax-lights."

"That's your sort! Then you can light a fire of heath and peat, and cook it, and drop it down, and we can eat it."

"But, as Mrs Gla.s.se said in her cookery-book, 'First catch your hare.'"

"Why, you don't mean to say you couldn't shoot a hare?" cried Kenneth.