The Island House Part 8

"I heerd as how the wall looking this way suddenly bust," answered Jones, "and the water all rushed down here."

"But don't you know how the wall came to burst?" persisted Alfy.

"No-o; I can't say as how I do," replied Jones slowly, rubbing his head and knitting his brows as though deeply pondering the knotty point.

"Well, now, we must hasten on," said Alfy. "Where are those things for the house? Are they far?"

"They are in the cart in the lane."

"How can they be brought here?" asked Alfy. "Shall I help? Can't you bring the pony and cart through that gate? Let us be quick!"

"I think as how you and I must carry them here in lots," drawled slow-witted Jones. "I don't think pony and cart could come."

"Well, be sharp then!" urged Alfy, springing from the boat.

"Why, I do believe Mansy can see us from the house." And he shouted, and waved his handkerchief.

"Now, come on," cried he, "and show me where the things are."

The transferring of the goods from Mr. Daw's cart took some time, and made the youths very tired, for it was some little distance off. But Alfy was determined to start for the house as quickly as possible, and continued to urge on the slow-coach Jones; so that the task was accomplished more speedily than he had thought would be the case.

But then a new difficulty presented itself. Alfy wished to tie the tub and bath to the boat and take them back to the house, but he found that if he did so, wearied as he was, he could not row the laden boat against the flood. So he was finally obliged to take Jones with him.

Even then the task was difficult, for Jones was not an expert oarsman.

At length, however, the house was reached, and with joy and gladness, shoutings and hearty congratulations, the goods were borne in through the window, and on to the table as before. Mansy and Alfy's sisters were rejoiced to see him. He had been so long away they feared some accident had befallen him; but he did not tell what had happened until Jones had gone.

For Jones had to go back, and of course he went in the boat. This was against Alfy's plan, but he could not help it. Jones could not leave the pony all night, and he could not navigate Alfy's tub. So promising to send some one with the boat in the morning, he departed.

Yet, if Alfy had known what would happen with that boat in the night he would have gone with Jones, and tired as he was, would have brought it back. But he did not know; and after a hearty supper all the inmates of the Island House retired to bed.

They had hardly pa.s.sed out of their beauty sleep--_i.e._, the slumber before midnight--when, as the clocks were striking twelve, and an early chanticleer was crowing for the morn, Edie was awakened by some mysterious sounds--sounds as of something b.u.mping against the walls of the house outside.

CHAPTER VI.

AN UNWELCOME VISITOR.

She listened. Yes, it was so. Distinctly she heard something knock against the wall outside and underneath her window.

Her first thought was to arouse her brother. "But he must be so tired," she said; so she decided to awaken Mansy instead.

The good woman was sleeping in the room next to Edie's, so that it would not be very difficult for the little maiden to go to her.

Edie sprang from her bed, her heart beating fast, and was creeping along to Mansy's room, when, noticing the moon s.h.i.+ning brightly, she thought she would look out and see if she could discover what had b.u.mped against the wall. Just now everything was very quiet.

Cautiously, therefore, she peeped out of her window. No one was to be seen, and the water in the moonlight looked very peaceful and still.

But just underneath was a boat--the very boat, as it seemed to her, that Alfy had used that evening.

"Oh, I expect that boy from Mr. Daw's brought it back," she said; "that is all. How foolish of me to be frightened. I expect he got another boat and rowed this one back, and has now returned. I hear no sound down below. He must have gone. It was very kind of him to bring the boat. I don't think I need wake Mansy now. Everything seems very quiet."

So the little maiden crept back to bed, and secure in the idea that she had solved what had seemed to her something of a mystery, she was soon sound asleep again.

But in the early morning, when the busy-minded Mansy, anxious to get forward with the work of the day, descended to the kitchen, what was her amazement and horror, to discover a man lying at full length, and fast asleep, on the table.

Her first impulse was to seize the handy broom, and either sweep him away in some mysterious manner into the water, or else challenge him to mortal combat; but wiser counsels prevailed. Mansy thought of a little plan; and her worthy face looked quite knowing as, chuckling to herself, she hastily removed all the food from the room, and then carefully locked the door from the outside.

"Now, there is my gentleman safe and sound," she said. "If he gets out of the window he falls into the water and is drownded; while o' course we must see that he doesn't break the door down while Master Alfy is fetching a policeman; so there he is. Horrid idjot! what did he want to come here for; and how did he come?"

A glance outside showed her the boat, and showed her also that the water was certainly subsiding.

"That's a mercy!" said Mansy; "but, oh! what a mess the garden and everything will be in!"

The interior of the house showed that Mansy had been busy, for it presented a much more comfortable and tidy appearance than when she returned. A quant.i.ty of the water had been bailed out through the windows; and the cracks of the doors had been tightly plugged to prevent water trickling in again.

To-day Mansy wished to continue her tidying arrangements, and she also wanted to cook a good dinner. "Bother the man!" she exclaimed. "What a nuisance he is in the kitchen, when I wanted to have everything ready there!" And she commenced to boil a little water for breakfast over her spirit lamp.

Just then the unwelcome visitor gave more evidence of being a nuisance.

He had awakened, and finding the door locked, and no means of egress but into the water, he began knocking the panels of the portal to attract attention.

"Knock away, my gentleman, knock away!" said Mansy. "You won't get out except into a policeman's arms, I can tell you!"

The noise soon brought down the children, and Mansy speedily explained the position of affairs.

"Then it was somebody I heard in the night," exclaimed Edie. "I thought of waking you, Mansy." And she told her experience during the dark watches.

"As things have turned out, it does not matter," said Mansy; "and I am glad you did not wake me. Out he doesn't come 'cept into a policeman's arms. Do you hear that, you wagabone?"

"I'll break the door down," he shouted, "if you don't open it." And he continued to knock loudly.

"Why," said Alfy, "that is like the voice of the man who treated me so badly yesterday. I wonder if it is he! Yes, I do believe it is," he added, as he heard the man shout again. "Oh, we must keep the door fast. Let us put chairs and tables against it!"

"It will be of no use for you to break the door," cried Alfy aloud, "for we are going to put things against it! What did you come here for?"

"I didn't mean no harm," grumbled the man. "I haven't took nothing. I only come for a sleep." Then after a pause he commenced to knock the door more heavily than before.

"Be quick, Master Alfy; oh, do be quick, and get a policeman! We can pile up things against the door," and Mansy commenced at once to drag a table towards it. "I have put some breakfast ready for you in the dining-room. Take something to eat as you go along."

So in a very short time Alfy found himself sculling the boat along to the sh.o.r.e. He noticed that the flood had much subsided during the night. Indeed, but for the fact that the house lay in a hollow, the water might perhaps have gone down before.

He found the village policeman more easily than some of the blue-coated brethren are said to be found. He was at his house, rather tired after his perambulations during the night. Alfy quickly told his errand, and described the man.

"Why, I b'lieves it's the very cove as I'm in search of!" exclaimed the policeman. "Looked for him all night, I have; I 'spects he thought your house was empty in the flood, and he should be safe there for the night. But he's reg'lar caught hisself in a trap, ain't he?"

And policeman 451 Z. of the Blanks.h.i.+re constabulary chuckled. Then he took out a pair of handcuffs, looked at them, turned them round, clinked them together, and slipped them back into his pocket.

"If," said he, "it is as how my man don't go quiet they may come in handy."