Part 20 (1/2)

”But, sister, how can us go home? _I_ don't know the way, do you?”

Pamela looked about her doubtfully.

”P'raps it isn't so very far,” she said. ”Us had better go on; and when it's a long way from the policeman, us can ask somebody the road.”

There seemed indeed nothing else to do. On they tramped for what seemed to them an endless way, and still they were in the narrow lane with the high hedges; so that, after walking for a very long time, they could have fancied they were in the same place where they started. And as they met no one they could not ask the way, even had they dared to do so. At last--just as they were beginning to get very tired--the lane quite suddenly came out on a short open bit of waste land, across which a cart-track led to a wide well-kept road. And this, though they had no idea of it, was actually the coach-road to Sandlingham; for--though, it must be allowed, more by luck than good management--they had hit upon a short cut to the highway, which if Tim had known of it would have saved him all his present troubles!

For a moment or two Duke and Pamela felt cheered by having at last got out of the weary lane. They ran eagerly across the short distance that separated them from the road, with a vague idea that once on it they would somehow or other see something--meet some one to guide them as to what next to do. But it was not so--there it stretched before them, white and smooth and dusty at both sides, rising a little to the right and sloping downwards to the left--away, away, away--to where? Not a cart or carriage of any kind--not a foot-pa.s.senger even--was to be seen.

And the sun was hot, and the four little legs were very tired; and where was the use of tiring them still more when they might only be wandering farther and farther from their home? For, though the choice was not great, being simply a question of up-hill or down-dale, it was as bad as if there had been half a dozen ways before them, as they had not the least idea which of the two was the right one!

The two pair of blue eyes looked at each other piteously; then the eyelids drooped, and big tears slowly welled out from underneath them; the twins flung their arms about each other, and, sitting down on the little bit of dusty gra.s.s that bordered the highway, burst into loud and despairing sobs.

CHAPTER XII.

GOOD-BYE TO ”US.”

”And as the evening twilight fades away, The sky is filled with stars, invisible by day.”

_Morituri Salutamus._

By slow degrees their sobs exhausted themselves. Pamela leant her head against Duke and shut her eyes.

”I am so tired, bruvver,” she said. ”If us could only get some quiet place out of the sun I would like to lie down and go to sleep. Wouldn't you, bruvver?”

”I don't know,” said Duke.

”I wonder if the birds would cover us up wif leaves,” said Pamela dreamily, ”like those little children long ago?”

”That would be if us was dead,” said Duke. ”Oh sister, you don't think us must be going to die!”

”I don't know,” said Pamela in her turn.

Suddenly Duke raised himself a little, and Pamela, feeling him move, sat up and opened her eyes.

”What is it?” she asked, but he did not need to answer, for just then she too heard the sound that had caught Duke's ears. It was the barking of a dog--not a deep baying sound, but a short, eager, energetic bark, and seemingly very near them. The children looked at each other and then rose to their feet.

”Couldn't you fink it was Toby?” said Pamela in a low voice, though why she spoke so low she could not have said.

Duke nodded, and then, moved by the same impulse, they went forward to the middle of the road and looked about them, hand in hand. Again came the sharp eager bark, and this time a voice was heard as if soothing the dog, though they could not quite catch the words. But some one was near them--thus much seemed certain, and the very idea had comfort in it.

Still, for a minute or two they could not make out where were the dog and its owner; for they did not know that a short way down the road a path ending in a stile crossed the fields from the village of Nooks to the high-road. And when, therefore, at but a few paces distant, there suddenly appeared a small figure, looking dark against the white dust of the road, frisking and frolicking about in evident excitement, it really seemed to the little brother and sister as if it had sprung out of the earth by magic. They had not time, however, to speak--hardly to wonder--to themselves before, all frisking and frolicking at an end, the s.h.a.ggy ball was upon them, and, with a rush that for half a second made Pamela inclined to scream, the little dog flew at them, barking, yelping, almost choking with delight, flinging himself first on one then on the other, darting back a step or two as if to see them more distinctly and make sure he was not mistaken, then rolling himself upon them again all quivering and shaking with rapture. And the cry of ecstasy that broke from the twins would have gone to the heart of any one that loved them.

”Oh Toby, Toby!--bruvver--sister--it is, it _is_ our own Toby. He has come to take us home. Oh dear, _dear_ Toby!”

[Ill.u.s.tration: ”OH TOBY, TOBY!--BRUVVER--SISTER--IT IS, IT IS OUR OWN TOBY, HE HAS COME TO TAKE US HOME. OH DEAR, DEAR TOBY!”--p. 220.]

It _did_ go to the heart of some one not far off. A quaintly-clad, somewhat aged, woman was slowly climbing the stile at the moment that the words rang clearly out into the summer air. ”Oh Toby, _our_ Toby!”

and no one who had not seen it could have believed how nimbly old Barbara skipped or slid or tumbled down the steps on the road-side of the stile, and how, in far less time than it takes to tell it, she was down on her knees in the dust with a child in each arm, and Toby flas.h.i.+ng about the trio, so that he seemed to be everywhere at once.

”My precious darlings!--my dear little master and missy!--and has old Barbara found you after all? or Toby rather. I thank the Lord who has heard my prayers. To think I should have such a delight in my old days as to be the one to take you back to my dearest lady! A sore heart was I coming along with--to think that I had heard nothing of you for all I had felt so sure I would. And oh, my darlings, where _have_ you been, and how has it all come about?”