Freaks on the Fells: Three Months' Rustication Part 24

We dashed on at a killing pace, and, strange to say, without feeling the slightest fatigue. Having cleared the avenue, we mounted the high ground in the neighbourhood, pa.s.sed the church, entered the village, and went through it like a railway train; came out upon the road beyond, and reached a wooded part of the country where several roads and by-paths diverged from the highway. All this time Edwards kept close on our heels. He did not gain on us, but we felt that we did not distance him.

"Down here!" cried Jack, doubling suddenly into a lane.

We pa.s.sed a small bridge that crossed a mill-lake. Beyond, there was a farm-yard. The path-way was high, and we could look down on the tops of the stacks. One of these, a haystack, stood about ten feet from the low wall that skirted the road. It had been half pulled down, and the hay was loose. Without a word or warning Jack sprang completely across this s.p.a.ce, turned right over, and plunged head first into the hay. I followed instantly, and disappeared. We lay for a few seconds perfectly still, and heard Edwards pa.s.s at full speed. Then we struggled out and watched him out of sight.

Sliding down, we regained the lane, returned to the high-road, and continued our flight.

We saw no more of Edwards.

About eight miles from my father's house there was a small seaport town.

We made for this, and reached it just as the sun rose in all his golden glory on the distant edge of the sleeping sea.

STORY TWO, CHAPTER 3.

On entering the village we found it in a state of unusual bustle. I had often been there before, and had thought it rather a quiet place for a seaport. But now there was a sort of bustling activity and an air of mystery about it that I could not understand. I mentioned my feelings to Jack, but he did not answer me, which was a piece of rudeness so unusual, that I could only suppose that his mind was so deeply affected with the circ.u.mstances, in which we had placed ourselves, as to render him somewhat absent.

On arriving at the chief, indeed the only, inn of the place, we discovered the reason of all the bustle. A strange s.h.i.+p had arrived the night before--a large s.h.i.+p, fitted out for an expedition to some distant part of the world. She had come to complete her supply of provisions and to engage a few extra hands.

Here then was a fortunate opportunity! We asked at once where we could find the captain. He was in the bar-room of the inn. We entered it and found him there, standing with his back to the fire and a coat-tail under each arm. He was a big fat man, with a savage expression of countenance, and ragged head and beard, and a red nose.

"Sir," said Jack, "we wish to s.h.i.+p with you."

The captain stared, took a pencil-case out of his pocket, picked his teeth therewith, and surveyed us from head to foot.

"Oh, you do, do you? You wish to s.h.i.+p with me?"

"Yes."

"Suppose I don't want you."

"Then we shall have to try elsewhere."

The captain smiled grimly, shut up the pencil-case, and said--

"What can ye do?"

"We can read, and write, and count," said I, taking the words out of Jack's mouth; for I felt that his brusque manner of replying was not calculated to commend us to the captain.

"Oh, you can read, and write, and count, can ye?" repeated the captain, with deep sarcasm. "If ye had said ye could feed, and fight, and shout, it would have bin more to the purpose."

"Perhaps we can do a little of that sort of thing, too," suggested Jack, with a broad grin.

"Hah?" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed the captain. "Wot else can ye do?"

"Oh, anything," said Jack.

"I gin'rally find," observed the captain, "that w'en a boy says he can do anything, he very soon proves that he can do nothing."

"Well, I don't mean that exactly," rejoined Jack; "I mean we can _try_ anything."

"Ha! that's more to the pint. Where did ye come from?"

We looked at each other. "That," said I, "is a matter of no importance to any one but ourselves. We have run away from home, and we want to go to sea as fast as possible. If you are willing to take us, we are willing to go. What say you?"

"Run away! ho! ho!--run away!" said the captain, chuckling; "you are just the lads I want. Nothing like runaway boys for me. I wouldn't give a pinch of snuff for your good boys that do wot they're bid.

Commend me to the high-spirited fellers that runs away, and that folk are so wicked as to call bad boys. That's the sort o' stuff that suits _our_ service."

I did not by any means relish the manner and tone, in which all this was said: so I asked him what particular service he belonged to.

"You'll know that time enough," he replied, laughing; "but after all, why shouldn't I tell ye? there's nothing to conceal. We're a discovery-s.h.i.+p; we're goin' to look for Sir John Franklin's expedition, and after we've found it we're going to try the North Pole, and then go right through the Nor'-west pa.s.sage, down by Behring's Straits, across the Pacific, touchin' at the Cannibal Islands in pa.s.sin', and so on to China. Havin' revictualled there, we'll bear away for j.a.pan, Haustralia, Cape o' Good Hope, and the West Indies, and come tearin'

across the Atlantic with the Gulf-stream to England! Will that suit ye?"

It may seem strange, and the reader will hardly believe me when I say, that, transparently absurd though this statement was, nevertheless I believed every word of it--and so did Jack. I saw that by his glowing eye and heightened colour.

"And when do you sail?" I inquired joyfully.

"In half an hour; so get aboard, boys, and don't give so much tongue.

I've other matters to mind just now. Come, be off!"

We retreated precipitately to the door.

"What's her name?" inquired Jack, looking back.

"'The Ring-tailed Smasher,'" cried the captain, fiercely.

"The what?"

"'The Ring-tailed Smasher,'" roared the captain, seizing the poker.

We vanished. In five minutes we were on board the s.h.i.+p. To this hour I have no remembrance of how we got on board. My brain swam with intense excitement. I felt as if I were flying, not walking, as I ran about the deck and clambered up the rigging.

Shortly after, the captain came aboard. The rope that attached the vessel to the quay was cast off, the sails flew out as if by magic, and the sh.o.r.e began to fall rapidly astern.

It was now, for the first time, that a full sense of what I had done came over me. I leaned over the stern of the s.h.i.+p, and gazed at my native sh.o.r.e as it grew fainter in the distance, until the familiar hills became a mere line of blue on the horizon, and were finally blotted from my view by the blinding tears that sprang suddenly to my eyes. Oh! the agony of that moment I shall never forget. The words that Jack had quoted to me the night before--"Honour thy father and thy mother"--seemed to be stamped in letters of fire within my brain. I felt keenly that, in a moment of pa.s.sionate self-will, I had done that which would cause me the deepest sorrow all my life.

In that dark hour I forgot all my romantic notions of travel in foreign lands; I cared not a straw for hunting, or fighting, or wild adventures.

I would have cheerfully given worlds, had I possessed them, to be permitted to undo the past--to hasten to my dear father's feet, and implore forgiveness of the evil that I had done. But regret was now unavailing. The land soon sank below the horizon, and, ere many hours had pa.s.sed, our s.h.i.+p was scudding before a stiff breeze and leaping wildly over the waves of the Atlantic Ocean.

STORY TWO, CHAPTER 4.

"Ho! tumble up there, tumble up! All hands, ahoy! tumble up! Look alive, lads; there's work to do, my hearties!"

Such were the words, uttered in the most terrifically violent ba.s.s tones, that awoke me on the first morning after I went to sea.

Instantly all the men around me leaped out of their hammocks. They were all half-dressed, and I noticed that the greater part of them completed their toilet in the short interval between quitting their hammocks and gaining the deck. Jack and I had lain down in our clothes, so we were on deck almost as soon as the others.