The Wolf Patrol Part 44

d.i.c.k remembered the twinkle in his father's eye, when Mr. Elliott handed over the half-sovereign for way money. The smile meant that he felt perfectly certain that the two boys would soon run through the ten s.h.i.+llings and have to turn back. d.i.c.k had perfectly understood, and the more he could return of that half-sovereign the prouder be would feel.

They pressed on across the common with a distant fir coppice for their landmark and goal. Such a place meant a comfortable bed for the night, and as soon as they gained its shelter Chippy cried halt, and forbade d.i.c.k to stir another step.

'It's been gettin' wuss and wuss lately,' said Chippy. 'Ye don't say a word, an' ye try to step out just as usual, but it's gettin' wuss an'

wuss.'

'Oh, I don't mind admitting it's a trifle sore,' said d.i.c.k, 'but it will be all right in the morning.'

'Hope so,' said Chippy. 'Now you just drop straight down on that bank, an' I'll do th' odd jobs.'

d.i.c.k protested, but the Raven was not to be moved. He forced his chum to stretch himself on a warm, gra.s.sy bank while he made the preparations for camping that night. A short distance away a rushy patch betokened the presence of water. d.i.c.k pointed it out. 'I'll go over there and wash my foot,' he said.

'Right,' said Chippy, 'an' dab some more o' that fat on the cut.'

d.i.c.k found a little pool in the marshy place, and the cool water was very pleasant to his wounded foot, which had now become sore and aching. When he returned, Chippy was emerging from the coppice with armfuls of bedding; he had found a framework in the rails of a broken fence which had once bounded the firwood.

'Here, Chippy, I can lend a hand at that,' said d.i.c.k. 'There's no particular moving about in that job.'

'Aw' right,' said the Raven; 'then I'll set plenty o' stuff to yer hand an' see about the fire.'

Chippy soon had a fire going, and a heap of dry sticks gathered to feed it. A short distance away a big patch of gorse had been swaled in the spring. It had been a very partial affair, and the strong stems stood blackened and gaunt, but unburned. Thither went Chippy with the little axe, and worked like a n.i.g.g.e.r, hacking down stem after stem, and dragging them across until he had a pile of them also.

'They'll mek' a good steady fire for the night,' he remarked. Then he seized the billy.

'What d'ye say to a drop o' milk?' he said. 'We could manage that, I shouldn't wonder. When I wor' up in the wood I seen a man milkin' some cows t'other side o' the coppice, an' now as I wor' luggin' these sticks back I seen him a-comin' down the bank. Theer he goes.'

Chippy pointed, and d.i.c.k saw a man crossing the common with two s.h.i.+ning milk-pails hanging from a yoke. At this warm season of the year the cows were out day and night, and the man had clearly come to milk them on the spot, and thus make a single journey instead of the double one involved in fetching them home and driving them back to the feeding-ground.

d.i.c.k turned out twopence, and Chippy pursued the retreating milkman.

He returned, carrying the billy carefully.

'He wor' a good sort,' cried Chippy. 'He gied me brimmin' good measure for the money.'

The scouts now made a cheerful supper. Chippy broiled the trout in the ashes; Mrs. Hardy's sandwiches were very good, and the milk was heated in the billy and drunk hot from their tin cups.

Supper was nearly over when a small, reddish-coated creature came slipping through the gra.s.s towards them.

'There's a weasel,' said d.i.c.k, and the scouts watched it.

The little creature came quite near the fire, loping along, its nose down as if following a track. Then it paused, raised its head on the long snake-like neck, and looked boldly at the two boys, its small bright eyes glittering with a fierce light.

'Pretty cheeky,' said d.i.c.k, and threw a sc.r.a.p of wood at it. The weasel gave a cry, more of anger than alarm, and glided away.

Within twenty minutes they saw a second weasel running along under the brake, nosing in every hole, and pausing now and again to raise its head and look round sharply on every hand.

'Weasels seem pretty busy about this 'ere coppice,' observed Chippy.

'No mistake about it,' agreed d.i.c.k. 'Do you know, Chippy, I've heard that they are always active and running about before bad weather.'

'Hope they've got another reason this time,' growled the Raven. 'Sky looks all right.'

'It does,' replied d.i.c.k.

The two scouts looked to every point of the compa.s.s, and raked their memories for weather signs, and compared what they remembered, but they could see nothing wrong. The sun was going down in a perfectly clear sky, and flooding the common with glorious light. There was no wind, no threat of storm from any quarter: the evening was cool, calm, and splendid.

'We'll turn in as soon as the sun's gone,' said d.i.c.k, 'and be up early in the morning, and make a long day of it.'

Chippy nodded, and the boys watched the great orb sinking steadily towards a long bank of purple woodland, which closed in the horizon.

'Wot's the home stretch run out at?' asked the Haven.

'The march in from here?' said d.i.c.k. 'Where's the map? We'll soon foot it up.'

The map was spread out, and careful measurements taken. 'Rather more than twenty-one miles,' said d.i.c.k.

Chippy whistled softly. 'We'd do it aw' right if nuthin' had happened to yer foot,' he murmured.

'We'll do it all right as it is,' cried the Wolf. 'Do you think I'm going to let that spoil our grand march? Not likely. I'll step it out to-morrow, and heel-and-toe it into Bardon every inch, Chippy, my boy.'

'It's a tidy stump on a cut foot,' said the Raven soberly.

'Hallo! what's that?' said d.i.c.k, and they looked round.

A furious squealing broke out among the trees behind them, and then a rabbit tumbled out of a bush, made a short scuttling run, and rolled over in a heap.

Close at its heels came the bloodthirsty little weasel in full pursuit, sprang on its prey once more, and fixed its teeth in the back of the rabbit's head, when the squealing broke forth anew.

Up leapt the Raven and took a hand in the affair at once. He caught up a stick of firewood, but the weasel ran away and left the rabbit kicking on the ground. Chippy picked up the bunny and came back to the fire.

'A good fat un, he cried, 'about three-parts grown. Good old weasel!'

'Very kind of him to go foraging for us,' laughed d.i.c.k.

'Ain't it?'--and the Raven showed the rabbit. It was not yet dead, and Chippy at once put it out of its pain by a sharp tap on the back of its neck with the edge of his hand. This killed it instantly.

'That's a good breakfast for us,' said d.i.c.k. 'We've got one or two sandwiches left as well.'

'Righto,' said Chippy, and turned to and skinned the rabbit, and cleaned it, ready for broiling in the morning.

Then they turned in, and were soon off to sleep.

Three hours later the Raven was wakened by something moving and sniffing about his bed. He sat up, and a creature, looking in the faint light something like a dog, ran away into the coppice.

Next d.i.c.k awoke, aroused by his chum's movements, and heard the Raven grunting and growling softly to himself.

'Anything wrong, Chippy?' he asked.

'Sommat's been here an' bagged the brekfus',' replied the Raven.