Viking Boys Part 13

Fred had dismounted, and he and Signy stood together watching the boat get on her course again.

Then Fred said, laughing, "I shall feel like some robber chief carrying off a fair prize when I ride away with you! You will not be afraid to trust me and Arab, I hope?"

"No! of course I can trust you," was Signy's ready answer.

He sprang into his saddle, and then with the aid of his hand and stirrup Signy climbed lightly to the place before him, and settled herself there composedly.

"This is how I used to have delightful rides with Uncle Brus," she said; "but he could not hold me so firmly as you do, and once his pony stumbled and I had a fall, and he never would let me up beside him again."

"When my sister was a little girl like you, she was never so happy as when our father took her up like this; and sometimes he would ride miles and miles with her. Don't you like Arab's step? I always think there never was a horse like him. He was a present to me on my birthday--the last gift of my dear father."

"How you must love him! He goes as easy as a sail-boat on a smooth sea."

And then Arab was put at a gallop, to Signy's delight. She was perfectly safe (and felt herself to be so) with that strong arm around her, and that firm hand holding the reins. She enjoyed that ride immensely, and remembered the pleasure of it for a long time; but Fred remembered it all his life long, because from that moment he could date a new colour in his life, a kind of thought and feeling which were novel in his experience.

[1] Headstrong and cross-grained.

CHAPTER XV.

"AND PEACE SHALL BE SURER."

A large party were stationed on the lawn at Collaster when Fred rode up. His sister and Mrs. Mitch.e.l.l had come to plan a picnic in honour of Yaspard, and the Manse boys were of course "to the fore" on such an occasion. The Holtum girls, with the Doctor, his wife, and the Viking, were all there. If it had been pre-arranged it could not have been managed better.

"It's like a bit out of a book," Signy said in a whisper, as Arab pranced up to the door, and everybody there struck an att.i.tude (unconsciously) with quite dramatic effect.

Yaspard was the first to speak and act.

"Signy! have you come from Boden on a witch's broomstick? Where did you find her, Mr. Garson?" he said, as he lifted his little sister from the saddle.

"I've come to ransom you, brodhor," said she; and then she was given up to the ladies to be petted and welcomed with the greatest tenderness, while Fred explained; and the appearance of the boat sent Yaspard and the Mitch.e.l.l boys racing off to the quay.

It had been arranged that the picnic should consist of an excursion up the gill (ravine) near the Ha' at Blaesound, and a strawberry tea in the Ha' garden. Fred and his mother were very anxious to draw Yaspard within the circle of their best affections, but they knew they must be careful not to touch Mr. Adiesen's weak points in extending the hand of friendship to his nephew. He would, as likely as not, resent their well-meant intentions if they invited the boy to their house, but a picnic under Dr. Holtum's auspices to the neighbourhood of the Ha' was different.

Any of us who remember the recorded adventures of the Lads of Lunda and the Yarl of Burra Isle, will know with what perfect success entertainments of the sort were conducted by the Garsons or any of their friends. There seldom had been a day more happily spent by those young folks than _that_ day, and each and all combined to make it a period of unclouded bliss to Yaspard and Signy.

They revelled in the society of so many charming girls and fine boys, and thought that life could need nothing more than the pleasure such companionship afforded. How they enjoyed the scramble up the gill, the fun bubbling up constantly, the manner in which the fathers and mothers shared in the children's play; the running and singing and laughter; the dainty meal of cake and chicken and strawberries with rich cream, dispensed--after a very un-English but wholly satisfactory manner--in heaped platefuls! The scent of flowers, the sunshine and universal hilarity, cast a spell over Signy, and she sat on the garden turf eating her strawberries without speaking for some time, but radiant with happiness.

"Are you dreaming, or composing an ode, little lady?" Fred asked her, after having watched the soft play of her expressive features for some minutes.

"I was--thinking, and I never enjoyed anything so much before; but"--and she looked up wistfully--"I was wishing too that there had never been any feud, and that Uncle Brus could see for himself how good you all are. _I wish he could!_"

"I hope he will before long. I think, now the ice is broken, that it will all come right, little one."

I ought to have mentioned before that the Harrison boys had gone with Gloy to see his mother, and had been directed to return in their own boat to Boden before night; so when the Holtums, with their guest and the Viking, returned to Collaster at dayset, they were just in time to see James Harrison's boat disappear round the Head of Collaster.

"I am so glad," said Yaspard, "that uncle gave you leave to come and to stay overnight, Mootie."

"I wish she might remain some days," said Mrs. Holtum; but the Doctor, understanding best the kind of man Mr. Adiesen was, remarked, "That will be next time. We must not take more than his lairdship has conceded. By-and-by we may venture to stretch a point with him."

"What has been settled about the captive Viking?" Harry Mitch.e.l.l then asked. "I am sorry to remind you, Yaspard, in such an abrupt manner of your precarious position; but we must not forget that we have to make capital of you."

"I offered him free, gratis, and for nothing to this high and haughty miss; but she tossed her curls and declined my civility," answered Tom.

"There would be no fun in that," Yaspard said in an aside; and Signy remarked, "Brodhor is worth a great deal to me, and he ought to be worth a lot to his captors. Just put a price on him that I am able to pay, and you shall have it."

"Bravo!" shouted the boys in chorus.

"Do you then absolutely refuse my princely offer?" Tom asked her, and the little girl replied boldly--

"Yes. I'd be ashamed to take him for nothing."

"The lads of Lunda," answered he loftily, "don't make bargains with ladies. If you won't take my offer you're 'out of it,' miss! Now, Sir Viking, let me tell you under what condition I will set you free. You shall give me your royal word--on the faith of a Viking--that you will give me your a.s.sistance in a deed of high emprise which I have vowed to perform."

"Why, Harry," exclaimed Bill, "you could not have said that in a more booky way yourself!"

"I haven't got another word of the sort in my vocabulary, so must return to my usual style, gentlemen," said Tom. "The long and the short of it is, when I was a prisoner at Trullyabister, I discovered that I was not the only poor wretch whom the ogre had nabbed. There are others----"

"Oh, goloptious!" shouted Yaspard, interrupting Tom without the least ceremony. "You have found out the very thing I meant to tell you. I meant to ask you fellows to help me."

"Then it would seem," said Dr. Holtum, smiling--for he had had a private talk with Tom, and had come to a conclusion of his own--"that Yaspard's 'knightly quest' and Tom's 'deed of high emprise' are one and the same. You have my approval, boys; only let me warn you to be very wary, for if you do _not_ succeed you will have no support from any one, and may find yourselves in an awkward fix."

"Doctor!" Harry exclaimed, "did the lads of Lunda ever fail to carry out their schemes, or squirm out of the ugliest fix in creation?"

"I must own," laughed the Doctor, "that collectively you have a wonderful faculty for emerging with _eclat_ from every adventure; but I can't say as much for you individually."

"One for you, Tom," whispered Bill.

"And one for yourself," retorted Tom.

Meantime Signy had crept into Yaspard's arms, and was coaxing him to tell her the secret; but he put her off with a promise of telling it when they were on the way home. "And, Mootie," he added thoughtfully, "I believe we ought not to stay here very long to-morrow, just that Uncle Brus may see that we aren't anxious to take the greatest advantage of his permission. Besides, we don't want him to feel that we like being away from Boden so awfully much."

She squeezed his hand. She understood him perfectly, and Yaspard, laughing into her upraised eyes, said aloud, "Here is a little girl who wouldn't contradict me for worlds, and is agreed with me in stating that the _Osprey_ must be on wing to-morrow morning."

But when to-morrow morning came there had been a breeze in the night which had raised the sea a bit, and Dr. Holtum would not permit them to leave until it had subsided, notwithstanding the Viking's declaration that he never minded such a small thing as that.

"My boat and I go out in rough weather," he declared; "and even Signy would laugh at the idea of calling this a 'rough morning!'"

The Doctor was firm, however, and the morning slipped happily away in the pleasant companionship of so many new and agreeable friends.

It was arranged that the Lunda boys were to run across to Boden on the evening of the following day, to carry out the mysterious plans of Tom and Yaspard. They were to wait at the geo for Yaspard and his chums, and the mighty deed was to be done at the witching hour of night. So they planned, and put aside with unwonted impatience the Doctor's declaration that there was going to be unsettled weather, and that they must not count upon being able to carry out their scheme in such an expeditious way.

"I don't know what has come to father," Tom muttered; "he is quite scarey: he proposes that some of us go in the boat with you, Yaspard; or that we escort you in our own boat!"

The Viking's face flushed hotly, for he knew himself to be an expert "seaman," and it was exasperating that anybody should be afraid for him; but Harry Mitch.e.l.l soothed his wounded pride by saying, "I expect the Doctor is thinking of Signy. He is always so careful that girls shall not be frightened--and she might be, you know, if she saw a big wave alongside, and no one with her but you."