_ CHAPTER THIRTY. HOW WE WERE RESCUED
It is all confused at times as I try to recall it. Some of our adventure stands out clear to me, as if it took place only yesterday, while other parts seem strange and dreamy, and I know now that we both dozed a great deal in the warm close place like a pair of animals shut up for their winter sleep.
We soon finished our food, for we were in such good hope of soon being dug out that we had not the heart to save a part of it in our hungry state. Then we slept again, and woke, and slept again, till waking and sleeping were mixed up strangely. The horror seemed to wear off a great deal, only when Shock started up suddenly and began talking loudly about something I could not understand, my feeling of fear increased.
How time went--when it was night and when it was day--I could not tell; and at last almost our sole thought was about what we should eat when we got out again.
At last I felt too weak and helpless to do more than lie still and try to think of a prayer or two, which at times was only half uttered before I dropped asleep.
Then I woke to think of Mr Solomon and the garden, and fell asleep again. And then I recall trying to rouse up Shock, who seemed to be always sleeping; and while I was trying feebly to get him to speak to me again I seem to have gone to sleep once more, and everything was like being at an end.
At first I had suffered agonies of fear and horror. At last all seemed to fade, as it were, into a dreamless sleep.
"It was like this here," Ike told me afterwards. "I lay down and made myself comfortable, and then after smoking a pipe I went off asleep. When I woke up I heerd you two a chiveying about and shouting, but it was too soon to move, so I went asleep again.
"Then I woke up and looked about for you, and shouted for you to come down and have something to eat, and bring up the horse again, for I thought by that time he'd have had a good rest.
"I shouted again, but I couldn't make you hear, so I went up higher and hollered once more, and then Juno came trotting up to me and looked up in my face.
"I asked her where you two was, but she didn't say anything of course, so I began to grow rough, and I said you might find your way back, my lads; and I went down to the public, ordered some tea and some briled ham; see to my horse having another feed and some water, and then, as you hadn't come down, I had my tea all alone in a huff.
"Then I finished, and you hadn't come, so I says, 'Well, that's their fault, and they may go without.' But all the same I says to myself, 'Well, poor chaps, they don't often get a run in the country!' and that made me a bit soft like, and I pulled a half-quartern loaf in two and put all the briled ham that was left in the middle, and tied it up in a clean hankychy for you to eat going home.
"Then I pays for the eating and the horse, harnessed him up, after a good rub down his legs, and whistled to Juno, who was keeping very close to me, and we went up the hill to the sand-pit again.
"I shouted and hollered again, and then, as it was got to be quite time we started, I grew waxy, and pulls out my knife and cuts a good ash stick out of the hedge for Master Shock, for I put it down to him for having led you off.
"Still you didn't come, and though I looked all about there was nothing fresh as I could see, only sand everywhere; and at last I says to myself, 'I sha'n't wait with that load to get out of the pit here,' and so I started.
"Nice tug the hoss had, but she brought it well out on to the hard road, and there I rested just a quarter of an hour, giving a holler now and then.
"'I'm off!' I says at last, 'and they may foller. Come on, Juno,' I says; but the dog wasn't there.
"That made me more waxy, and I shouted and whistled, and she come from out of the sand-pit and kept looking back, as if she wanted to know why you two didn't come. She follered the cart, though, right enough; and feeling precious put out, I went on slowly down the hill; stopped in the village ten minutes, and then, knowing you could find out that I'd gone on, I set to for my long job, and trudged on by the hoss.
"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 fagged 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 shiver 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 space 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 rushing 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.
"'No, no,' says he. 'If we do we shall smother them.'
"'That boy, then, you sot to look out--send him down.'
"'Go and bring him,' says the ganger; 'and--oh, we have no rope. Bring the reins; they're strong and new.'
"Five minutes after, the boy was up with us, and he said he'd go down if we'd put the reins round him like a rope, and so we did, and after we'd torn some furze away he got into the hole feet first, and wriggled himself down till only his head was out.
"'Goes down all sidewise,' he says, 'and then turns round.'
"'Will you go, my lad? The dog's down there, and we'll hold on to the reins, and have you out in a minute, if you shout.'
"'And 'spose the sand falls?'
"'Why, we've got the reins to trace you by, and we'll dig you out in a jiffy,' I says.
"'All right!' he says, and he shuffled himself down and went out of sight, and he kept on saying, 'all right! all right!' and then all at once, quickly, 'I've slipped,' he says, as if frightened. 'There's no bottom. I'm over a big hole.'
"Just then, my lad, the rein had tightened, but we held on.
"'Pull me up!' he says, and we pulled hard, and strained the reins a good deal, and at last he come up, looking hot and scared.
"'I couldn't touch bottom,' he says, 'and the dog began to bark loudly.'
"'I see,' says the ganger, 'the dog slipped there, and can't get out. We must have a rope; you, Ike, take the reins, and drive down to the village and get a stout cart-rope. Bring two.'
"The landlord of the inn had just come up, and he said he'd got plenty, and he'd go with me, and so he did, and in a quarter of an hour we'd been down and driven back with two good strong new ropes.
"There was no more digging going on, it was no use; but while we'd been gone they'd chopped away the furze, cutting through it with spades, so that the hole, which was a big crack, was all clear.
"'Now, then,' says Old Brownsmith's brother, 'go down again, my boy. With this stout rope round we can take care of you,' but the boy shook his head, he'd been too much scared last time.
"'Who'll go?' says the ganger. 'A sovereign for the man who goes down and fetches them up.'
"The chaps talked together, but no one moved.
"'It'll cave in,' says one of 'em.
"'You must cut a way down, Ike,' says the ganger. 'I'm too stout, or I'd go down myself.'
"'Nay,' I says, 'if they're down there, and you get digging, you'll bury 'em. P'r'aps I could squeedge myself down. Let's try.'
"So they ties the rope round me, and I lets myself into the hole, which was all sand, and roots to hold it a bit together.
"'It's a tight fit,' I says, as I wriggled myself down with my face to the ganger, but I soon found that wouldn't do, and I dragged myself out again and took off my boots, tightened my strap, and went down the other way.
"That was better, but it was a tight job going all round a corner like a zigger-me-zag, as you calls it, or a furnace chimney; and as I scrouged down with my eyes shut, and the sand and stones scuttling down after me, I began to wonder how I was going to get up again.
"'Here!' I shouts, 'I shall want two ropes. See if you can reach down the other.'
"I put up my hand as far as I could reach, and the thin boy put a loop round his foot and come down, shutting out the light, till he could reach my hand, and I got hold of the second rope, and went scuttling farther, till all at once I found it like the boy had said--my legs was hanging and kicking about.
"'Here's in for it now,' I says to myself; and I wondered whether I should be buried; but I shouts out, 'Lower away,' and I let myself slide, and then there was a rush of falling sand and I was half smothered as I swung about, but they lowered down, and directly after I touched bottom with my feet, and Juno was jumping about me and barking like mad.
"'Found 'em?' I heard the ganger shout from up in daylight, and I began to feel about for you; and, Lor'! there has been times when I've longed for a match, when I've wanted a pipe o' tobacco; but nothing like what I longed then, so as to see where I was, for it was as black as pitch.
"But I felt about with the dog barking, and followed to where she was, and feeling about, I got hold of you two boys cuddled up together as if you was asleep, and nearly covered up with sand.
"I puts my hands to my mouth, and I yells out as loud as I could: 'I've got 'em!' and there came back a 'Hooray!' sounding hollow and strange like, and then I s'pose it was the sand had got in my eyes so as they began to water like anything.
"But I knelt down trembling all over, for I was afraid you was both dead, and I can't a-bear touching dead boys. I never did touch none, but I can't a-bear touching of 'em all the same.
"Then I felt something jump up in my throat, as if I'd swallowed a new potato, only upside down like, other way on, you know, the tater coming up and not going down for when I got feeling you about you was both warm.
"'Out o' the way, dog,' I says, for she kept licking of you both, and I feels to find out which was you, and soon found that out, because Shock had such a rough head; and then I says to myself, 'Which shall I send up first?'
"I did think o' sending Shock, so as to make him open the hole a bit more; but I thought p'raps the top'd fall in with sending the first one up, and you was more use than Shock, so I made the rope, as was loose, fast round your chest, and then I shouts to 'em as I lifted you up.
"'Haul steady,' I shouts, and as the rope tightened hoisted you more and more, till you went up and up, and I was shoving your legs, then your feet, and then you was dragged away from me, and I was knocked down flat by 'bout hunderd ton o' sand coming on my head. I didn't weigh it, so p'r'aps there warn't so much.
"I was made half stupid; but I heerd them cheering, and I knowed they'd got you out, for they shouted down the hole for the next, and I had to drag the rope I had out of the sand before I fastened it round Shock, who give a bit of a groan as soon as I touched him, and I wished I'd heerd you groan too.
"'Haul away,' I shouted, and I walked right up a heap of sand, as they hauled at Shock, and as soon as they'd dragged him away from me, and he was going up, I jumped back, expecting some more sand to fall, and so it did, as they hauled, whole barrowfuls of it.
"Then come some more shouting, and Old Brownsmith's brother roared down the hole:--
"'All right. Safe up.'
"'All right, is it?' I says, scratching the sand out o' my head, 'and how's me and the dog to come?'
"They seemed to have thought of that, for the ganger shouts down the crooked hole--'How are we to get down the rope to you?'
"'I d'know,' I says; and I stood there in the dark thinking and listening to the buzzing voices, and wondering what to do.
"'Wonder how nigh I am to the hole,' I says to myself; and I walked up quite a heap o' sand and tried if I could touch anything, but I couldn't.
"Then I thought of the dog.
"'Hi, Juno!' I says, and she whined and come to me, and I took hold of her.
"'Here, you try if you can't get out, old gal,' I says; and I believe as she understood me as I lifted her up and helped her scramble up, and somehow I got her right with her stomach on my head. Then I lifted her shoulders up as high as I could reach, as I stood on the heap o' sand, and she got her legs on my head, and my! how she did scratch, and then the sand began to come down, and I knowed she could reach the top. Next moment she'd got one of her hind paws on my hand as I reached up high, and then there was a rush and scramble, and I heard another shouting of 'Hooray!' while the sand come down so that I had to get right as far away as I could.
"'What shall we do now?' says the ganger, shouting to me:--
"'Send the dog down again with the two ropes round her.'
"'Right!' he says; and then in a minute there was a scuffling and more rushing, and Juno come down with a run, to begin barking loudly as she fell on the soft sand.
"'There you are, old gal,' I says, patting her, as I took off one rope, and felt that the other was fast round her. 'Up you go again.' I lifted her up and shouted to 'em to haul, and in half a minute she was gone, and I was alone in the dark, but with the rope made fast round my chest.
"'Are you ready?' shouts the ganger.
"'Ay!' I says. 'Pull steady, for I'm heavier than the dog.'
"They began to haul as I took tight hold of the rope above my head, and up I went slowly with the sand being cut away by the tight line, and coming thundering down on me at an awful rate, just as if some one was shooting cart loads atop of me.
"'Steady!' I yelled; and they pulled away slowly, while I wondered whether the rope would give way. But it held, and I felt my head bang against the sand, and some more fell. Then, as I kicked my legs about, I felt myself dragged more into the hole, and I tried to help myself; but all I did was to send about a ton of sand down from under me. Then very slowly I was hauled past an elbow in the hole, and I was got round towards the other when a lot more sand fell from beneath me, and then, just as I was seeing daylight, there was a sort of heave above me, and the top came down and nipped me fast just about the hips.
"'Haul! my lads, haul!' the ganger shouted, and they hauled till I felt most cut in two, and I had to holler to 'em to stop.
"'I shall want my legs,' I says. 'They ain't much o' ones, but useful!'
"There was nothing for it but to begin digging, for they could see my face now, and they began watching very carefully that the sand didn't get over my head, when, all at once, as they dug, there was a slip, and the sand, and the roots, and stones all dropped down into the hole below, and I was hauled out on to the top safe and sound, 'cept a few scratches, and only a bit of the sleeve of my shirt left.
"There, you know the rest." _