Sappers and Miners Part 34

"Oh, something you wouldn't like to hear."

"Yes, I should. Tell me what it was."

Gwyn took out his knife, and began to pick with the point at a large crystal of pinkish felspar, which stood partly out of the huge block of granite.

"I say, go on. What an aggravating chap you are!"

Gwyn went on picking.

"I say, do you want me to shove you off the top here?"

"No; and you couldn't, if I did."

"Oh, couldn't I?--you'd see. But I say, go on, Ydoll; tell us all about it. I did tell you what my father said."

"Said he supposed it was from a.s.sociating with such a boy as you; for he was sure that I was too well-meaning a lad to do such things without being prompted."

"Oh, my! What a shame!" cried Joe. "It was too bad."

"Well, I didn't want to tell you, only you bothered me till I did speak."

"Of course. Isn't it better to know than have any one thinking such things of you without knowing. But I say, though, it is too bad; I couldn't help turning like I did. It came on all at once, and I couldn't stir."

"He didn't mean about that so much. He bullied me for not taking care of you, and stopping you from going up the ladder."

"Did he? Why, you couldn't help it."

"He talked as if he supposed I could, and said if we went out again together, I had better take Grip's collar and chain, put the collar round your neck, and lead you."

"Oh I say! Just as if I was a monkey."

"No; father meant a dog, or a puppy." Joe gave himself a sudden twist round to face his companion, flus.h.i.+ng with anger the while, and as the s.p.a.ce on the top of the stone was very small, he nearly slipped off, and had to make a s.n.a.t.c.h at Gwyn to save himself from an ugly fall.

"There!" cried Gwyn, "you're at it again. You've made up your mind to break your neck, or something else."

"It was all your fault," cried Joe, "saying things like that. I don't believe your father said anything of the kind. It was just to annoy me."

"What, do you suppose I wanted to go home with fresh trouble to talk about?"

"No, but it's your nasty, bantering, chaffing way. Colonel Pendarve wouldn't have spoken about me like that."

Gwyn laughed.

"I suppose he didn't say I had better give you up as a companion--"

"Did he?"

"If I was always getting into some sc.r.a.pe or another."

"No; but I say, Ydoll, did he?"

"Something of the kind. He said it was getting time for me to be thinking of something else beside tops and marbles."

"Well, so we do. Whoever thinks about tops and marbles now? Why, I haven't touched such a thing for two years."

"So I suppose you and I will have to part," continued Gwyn.

Joe glanced at him sidewise.

"It's no use for us to be companions if it means always getting into scapes at home."

Joe began to whistle. His face became perfectly smooth, and he watched his companion, as he picked away at the crystal, while Gwyn looked puzzled.

"I say, you'll break the point of your knife directly," said Joe.

"Well, suppose I do?"

"Be a pity. It's a good knife."

"Well, you won't see it when it's broken if we're going to part."

"Of course not; and you could get to the big grindstone they've set up under that shed for the men to grind their picks. Soon give it a fresh point. I say, how jolly that is--only to put on the band over the wheel shaft from the engine, and the stone goes spinning round! I tried it one day on my knife. It was splendid."

"You seem precious glad that we've got to part," said Gwyn.

"Not a bit of it. It's all gammon."

"Eh? What is?"

"Talking about separating. It doesn't mean anything. I know better than that. Come, let's talk sense."

"That's what I have been doing," said Gwyn, stiffly.

"Not you; been bantering all the time. They didn't mean it, and you didn't mean it. We're to be partners over the mine some of these days, Ydoll, when we grow up, and they're tired of it. I say, though, I don't think I shall like having that Tom Dina.s.s here."

"No," said Gwyn, thoughtfully. "He looks as if he could bite. Think what he said about getting work was all true?"

"I suppose so. Seems reasonable. I don't like to disbelieve people when they speak out plainly to you."

"No," said Gwyn, thoughtfully. "If they've told you a crammer at some time, it makes all the difference, and you don't feel disposed to believe them again. Perhaps it's all right, and when he's taken on, he may turn out a very good sort of fellow."

"Yes; we shall have to chance it. I say, though, Ydoll, we must be more careful for the future about not getting into sc.r.a.pes together."

"Won't matter if we're not to be companions any more. We can't get into any, can we?"

"Gammon! They didn't mean it, I tell you. We've only got to mind."

"And we begin by getting up here, and running the risk of breaking our legs or wings."