Patience Wins Part 9

"Hush, boy! Don't ask."

"But, uncle, I may come to you, may I not?" I cried, trembling with the dread of what had happened, for in spite of my confused state I realised now that Uncle d.i.c.k must have fallen.

"My boy," he shouted back, "I daren't say yes. The place ends here in a terrible way. We two nearly went over, and I dare not stir, for I cannot see a yard from my feet. I am on a very steep slope too."

"But where has Uncle Jack gone then?"

"Ahoy!" came from somewhere behind me, and apparently below.

"Ahoy! Uncle Jack," I yelled.

"Ahoy, boy! I want to come to you. Keep shouting _here_--_here_--_here_."

I did as he bade me, and he kept answering me, and for a minute or two he seemed to be coming nearer. Then his voice sounded more distant, and more distant still; then ceased.

"Cob, I can't hear him," came from near me out of the dense gloom. "Can you?"

"No!" I said with a s.h.i.+ver.

"Ahoy, Jack!" roared Uncle Bob.

"Ahoy-oy!" came from a distance in a curiously stifled way.

"Give it up till the fog clears off. Stand still."

There was no reply, and once more the terrible silence seemed to cling round me. The gloom increased, and I sank on my knees, not daring to stand now, but listening, if I may say so, with all my might.

What had happened? What was going to happen? Were we to stay there all night in the darkness, s.h.i.+vering with cold and damp? Only a little while ago I had been tired and hot; now I did not feel the fatigue, but was s.h.i.+vering with cold, and my hands and face were wet.

I wanted to call out to Uncle Bob again, but the sensation came over me--the strange, wild fancy that something had happened to him, and I dared not speak for fear of finding that it was true.

All at once as I knelt there, listening intently for the slightest sound, I fancied I heard some one breathing. Then the sound stopped.

Then it came nearer, and the dense mist parted, and a figure was upon me, crawling close by me without seeing me; and crying "Uncle Bob!" I started forward and caught at him as I thought. My hands seized moist wool for a moment, and then it was jerked out of my hands, as, with a frightened _Baa_! Its wearer bounded away.

"What's that?" came from my left and below me, in the same old suffocated tone.

"A sheep," I cried, trembling with the start the creature had given me.

"Did you see which way it went?"

"Yes--beyond me."

"Then it must be safe your way, Cob. I'll try and crawl to you, lad, but I'm so unnerved I can hardly make up my mind to stir."

"Let me come to you," I cried.

"No, no! I'll try and get to you. Where are you?"

"Here," I cried.

"All right!" came back in answer; but matters did not seem all right, for Uncle Bob's voice suddenly seemed to grow more distant, and when I shouted to him my cry came back as if I had put my face against a wall and spoken within an inch or two thereof.

"I think we'd better give it up, Cob," he shouted now from somewhere quite different. "It is not safe to stir."

I did not think so, and determined to make an attempt to get to him.

For, now that I had grown a little used to the fog, it did not seem so appalling, though it had grown thicker and darker till I seemed quite shut-in.

"I'll stop where I am, Cob," came now as if from above me; "and I daresay in a short time the wind will rise."

I answered, but I felt as if I could not keep still. I had been scared by the sudden separation from my companions, but the startled feeling having pa.s.sed away I did not realise the extent of our danger. In fact it seemed absurd for three strong men and a lad like me to be upset in this way by a mist.

Uncle d.i.c.k had had a fall, but I would not believe it had been serious.

Perhaps he had only slipped down some long slope.

I crouched there in the darkness, straining my eyes to try and pierce the mist, and at last, unable to restrain my impatience, I began to crawl slowly on hands and knees in the direction whence my uncle's voice seemed to come.

I crept a yard at a time very carefully, feeling round with my hands before I ventured to move, and satisfying myself that the ground was solid all around.

It seemed so easy, and it was so impossible that I could come to any harm this way, that I grew more confident, and pa.s.sing my hand over the rough shale chips that were spread around amongst the short gra.s.s, I began to wonder how my uncles could have been so timid, and not have made a brave effort to escape from our difficulty.

I kept on, growing more and more confident each moment in spite of the thick darkness that surrounded me, for it seemed so much easier than crouching there doing nothing for myself. But I went very cautiously, for I found I was on a steep slope, and that very little would have been required to send me sliding down.

Creep, creep, creep, a yard in two or three minutes, but still I was progressing somewhere, and even at this rate I thought that I could join either of my companions when I chose.

I had made up my mind to go a few yards further and then speak, feeling sure that I should be close to Uncle Bob, and that then we could go on together and find Uncle Jack.

I had just come to this conclusion, and was thrusting out my right hand again, when, as I tried to set it down, there was nothing there.

I drew it in sharply and set it down close to the other as I knelt, and then pa.s.sed it slowly from me over the loose sc.r.a.ps of slaty stone to find it touch the edge of a bank that seemed to have been cut off perpendicularly, and on pa.s.sing my hand over, it touched first soft turf and earth and then sc.r.a.ppy loose fragments of shale.

This did not startle me, for it appeared to be only a little depression in the ground, but thrusting out one foot I found that go over too, so that I knew I must be parallel with the edge of the trench or crack in the earth.

I picked up a piece of shale and threw it from me, listening for its fall, but no sound came, so I sat down with one leg over the depression and kicked with my heel to loosen a bit of the soil.

I was a couple of feet back, and as I kicked I felt the ground I sat upon quiver; then there was a loud rus.h.i.+ng sound, and I threw myself down clinging with my hands, for a great piece of the edge right up to where I sat had given way and gone down, leaving me with my legs hanging over the edge, and but for my sudden effort I should have fallen.

"What was that?" cried a voice some distance above me.

"It is I, Uncle Bob," I panted. "Come and help me."

I heard a fierce drawing in of the breath, and then a low crawling sound, and little bits of stone seemed to be moved close by me.

"Where are you, boy?" came again.

"Here."

"Can you crawl to me? I'm close by your head."