Brownsmith's Boy Part 71

"It was a long job, hour after hour, for I couldn't hurry--that little looking load was too heavy for that. And so I went on, and eight o'clock come, and nine, and ten, and you didn't overtake me, and then it got to be twelve o'clock; and at last, reg'lar f.a.gged out, me and hoss, we got to the yard just as it was striking four, and getting to be day.

"I put the hoss up, and saw Juno go into her kennel, but I was too tired to chain her, and I lay down in the loft on some hay and went off to sleep.

"I didn't seem to have been asleep above ten minutes, but it was eight o'clock when Old Brownsmith's brother stirs me up with his foot, and I sat up and stared at him.

"'Where's young Grant and the boy?' he says.

"'What! ain't they come?' I says, and I told him.

"'And you've left the dog behind too,' he says, quite waxy with me.

"'No,' I says; 'she come home along o' me and went into her kennel.'

"'She's not there now,' he says.

"'Then,' says I, 'she's gone back to meet 'em.'

"'Then there's something wrong,' he says sharply; 'and look here, Ike, if you've let that boy come to harm I'll never forgive you.'

"'Why, I'd sooner come to harm myself,' I says. 'It's larks, that's what it is.'

"'Well,' he says, 'I'll wait till twelve o'clock, and if they're not back then you must come along with me and find 'em, for there is something wrong.'

"I never cared a bit about you, my lad, but I couldn't sleep no more, and I couldn't touch a bit o' breakfast; and when twelve o'clock came, Mrs Old Brownsmith's brother's wife had been at me with a face as white as noo milk, and she wanted us to go off before.

"We was off at twelve, though, in the light cart and with a fresh horse; and though I expected to see you every minute along the road, we got back to the public, and asked for you, and found that you hadn't been seen.

"Then we put up the hoss and went and looked about the sand-pits, and could see nothing of you there, and we didn't see nothing of the dog.

Then we went over the common and searched the wood, and there was no sign.

"Then back we was at the sand-pits, and there was the sand everywhere, but nothing seemed to say as it had fallen down. There was some holes, and we looked in all of 'em, but we couldn't tell that any of 'em had filled up. Last of all, it was getting dark, when we heard a whine, and saw Juno come out of the fir-wood on the top with a rabbit in her mouth.

"But that taught us nothing, and we coaxed her down to the public again, and drove home.

"'I've got it,' I says, as we stood in the stable-yard: 'that boy Shock's got him on to it, and they've gone off to Portsmouth to be sailors.'

"Old Brownsmith's brother looked at me and shook his head, but I stack to it I was right; and he said he'd go down to Portsmouth and see.

"But he didn't, for next day he goes over to Isleworth, and as I was coming out of the garden next night he was back, and he stops me and takes me to the cottage.

"'Good job,' he says, 'as Sir Francis ain't at home, for he thought a deal of that boy.'

"'Warn't my fault,' I says; but he shook his head, and took me in, and there sat Old Brownsmith's brother's wife, with a white face and red eyes as if she had been crying, and Old Brownsmith himself.

"Well, he gives me a long talking to, and I told him everything about it; and when I'd done I says again as it warn't my fault, and Old Brownsmith turns to his brother and he says, as fair as a man could speak, 'It warn't his fault, Solomon; and if it's as he says, Grant's that sort o' boy as'll repent and be very sorry, and if he don't come back before, you'll get a letter begging your pardon for what he's done, or else I shall. You wait a couple of days.'

"I dunno why, but I was reg'lar uncomf'table about you, my lad, and I didn't understand Juno stopping away so, for next day she was gone again, but next night she was back. Next day she was gone again, and didn't come back, and on the fourth, when I was down the garden digging--leastwise, I wasn't digging, for I was leaning on my spade thinking, up comes Old Brownsmith's brother with his mouth open, and before he could say a word I says to him, 'Stop!' I says; 'I've got it,' for it come to me like a flash o' lightning.

"'What?' he says.

"'Them boys is in that sand-pit, covered over!' I says.

"'That's it!' he says. 'I was coming to say I thought so, and that we'd go over directly.'

"Bless your heart, my boy, I was all of a s.h.i.+ver as I got into the light cart alongside Old Brownsmith's brother and six shovels and four spades in the bottom of the cart as I felt we should want, and I see as Old Brownsmith's brother had got a flask o' something strong in his breast-pocket. Then I just looked and saw that Juno warn't there, and we were off.

"My hye, how that there horse did go till we got to the little public.

We stopped once to give her mouth a wash out and a mouthful of hay, and then we were off again, never hardly saying a word, but as we got to the public we pulls up, and Old Brownsmith's brother shouts to the landlord, 'Send half-a-dozen men up to the sand-pit directly. Boys buried.'

"You see he felt that sure, my lad, that he said that, and then we drove on up the hill, with the horse smoking, and a lot of men after us.

"First thing we see was Juno trotting towards us, and she looked up and whined, and then trotted back to a place where it was plain enough, now we knew, a great bit of the side had caved down and made a slope, and here Juno began scratching hard, and as fast as she scratched the more sand come down.

"I looked, at Old Brownsmith's brother, and he looked at me, and we jumped out, slipped off our coats and weskits, took a shovel apiece, and began to throw the sand away.

"My head was all of a buzz, for every shovelful I threw out I seemed to see your white gal's face staring at me and asking of me to work harder, and I did work like a steam-engyne.

"Then, one by one, eight men come up, and we set 'em all at work; but Old Brownsmith's brother, the ganger, you know, stops us after a bit.

"'This is no use!' he says; 'we're only burying of 'em deeper.'

"Right he was, for the sand kept crumbling down from the top as soon as ever we made a bit of s.p.a.ce below, and twice over some one called out '_Warning_!' and we had to run back to keep from being buried, while I got in right up to the chest once.

"'There's hundreds o' tons loose,' says the old--the ganger, you know; 'and we shall never get in that way.' He stopped to think, but it made me mad, for I knowed you must be in there, and I began digging again, wondering how it was that Juno hadn't found you before, and 'sposed the sand didn't hold the scent, or else the rabbits up above 'tracted her away.

"'I can see no other way,' said the ganger at last. 'You must dig, my lads. Go on. I'll get on the top, and see how much more is loose.

Take care. You,' he said to a tall, thin lad of sixteen--'you stand there; and as soon as you see any sand crumbling down, you shout.'

"The men began to dig again, and at the end of a minute the lad shouted, and we had to scuttle off, or we should have been buried, and things looked worse than ever. We'd been digging and shovelling back the sloping bank, but it grew instead of getting less, and this made me obstint as I dug away as hard as I could get my shovel down.

"All at once I hears a shout from the ganger. 'Come up here, Ike,' he says; and I shouldered my spade, and had to go a good bit round 'fore I could climb up to him, and I found him twenty or thirty foot back from the edge, among some furze.

"'Look here,' he says; 'I was hunting for cracks when I slipped down here.'

"I looked, and I saw a narrow crack, 'bout a foot wide, nearly covered with furze.

"'Now, listen,' he says, and he kneeled down and shouted, and, sure enough, there was a bit of a groan came up.

"'Echo!' I says.

"'No,' he says. 'Listen again,' and he shouted, and there was a sort of answer.

"'They're here,' he says excitedly. 'Hi! Juno, Juno!' The dog came rus.h.i.+ng up, and we put her to the hole or crack, and she darted into it, went down snuffling, and came back again barking. We sent her down again, and then she didn't come back, and when we called we could hear her barking, but she didn't come to us, and at last we felt that she couldn't get back.

"'What's to be done?' said the ganger. 'We can't get down there.'

"'Dig down,' I says.