Part 14 (1/2)
”If we had but flint and steel to make a fire it were something!”
exclaimed Browne. ”What Jack-o'-Bedlams we were to set off thus unprovided. Catch me so again!”
”But we came out to cut thatch, not to chase deer and get lost in the woods,” suggested Goodman trying to laugh, though his teeth chattered like castanets.
”It will never do for thee to lie down as chilled as thou art,”
exclaimed Browne anxiously. ”I promised thy old mother I'd have an eye to thee, and lo it is I that have led thee into this mischance! What shall I do for thee? I have it, lad! Sith it is too dark and rough to walk farther I'll try a fall with thee; there's naught warms a man's blood like a good wrestling match. Come on, then!”
”I'm no match for thee, Peter, but here goes!” replied Goodman struggling to his feet, and the two men joined there in the darkness and the wilderness in what might truly be called a ”joust of courtesy,”
moved only by mutual love and good will, for the event proved Goodman's modesty well founded, and it was only a few moments before Browne, raising his slender opponent in his arms, set him down sharply two or three times upon his feet, saying,--
”I'll not throw thee, for that might prove small kindness. Art warmer?”
But before Goodman could answer a snarling cry broke from the thicket close at hand, and was answered by another and another voice until the air seemed filled with the cries of howling fiends.
Nero started to his feet, his eyes glowing, the hair bristling stiffly upon his neck, and with a fierce growl of defiance would have sprung forward had not his master seized him by the collar exclaiming,--
”Nay, fool! wouldst rush on thy destruction!”
”'T is the salvages!” stammered Goodman staring about him in the darkness.
”Nay, 't is lions,” replied Browne. ”Hopkins saith they swarm about here. We must climb a tree, John. Here is a stout one; up with thee, man, as fast as may be!”
”But thou, Peter?” asked John clambering into the oak his friend pointed out.
”I cannot leave Nero. He'll be gone to the lion so soon as I quit my hold of his collar, and I'll not lose him but in sorer need than this.
Here, take thou the spaniel and hold her to thee for warmth.”
”Nay, I'll not be safe and thou in danger,” replied the young man springing down; ”and, moreover, it is deadly cold perching in a tree.”
”Well, then, we'll both stand on our guard here, and if the lions come we'll e'en up in the tree hand over hand and leave the poor beasts to their fate. Stamp thy feet on the ground and walk a few paces up and down, John. I fear me thou 'lt swound with the cold like poor Tilley.”
”I could not well be colder and live,” replied Goodman faintly, as he tried to follow his friend's injunction.
The night crept on, with frost and snow and icy rain and heavy darkness, and still the wolves prowled howling around their prey, and the good dog held them at bay with savage growls and deep-throated yelps of defiance, and his master, caring more for the humble friend he had reared and brought over seas from his English home than for his own safety, held him all night by the collar, and the spaniel whimpered with cold and terror in her master's arms, and he, poor lad, suffered all the anguish of death as his feet and legs chilled and stiffened and froze like ice.
A night not to be numbered in those men's lives by hours but years, a night of exhaustion, terror, and agony, a night hopeless of morning save through the exceeding mercy of G.o.d.
The gray light broke at last, however, and with it the wolves grew mute and slunk away, Nero quieted into obedience, and Browne carefully straightening his own stiffened joints and rising to his feet looked into his comrade's face and shook his head.
”John, hearken to me, lad! We're in a sore strait but we're not dead, and daylight hath broken. Hold up thy face to the sky, man, and say 'I WILL win through this, so help me G.o.d!' and having said it, stick to it, even as Nero would have stuck to yon lion's throat until he was clawed away in shreds. Come, try it, my lad, try it!”
Catching something of his friend's heroic spirit the poor fellow did as he was bidden, but followed the brave resolve with a piteous look into the other's face while he said,--
”My feet are froze, Peter; there is no feeling nor power in them. But lead on, and I will follow if I must crawl.”
”Tarry a bit till I see”--
And not pausing to finish his sentence Browne set himself to climb the tree beneath which they had pa.s.sed the night. His cramped limbs and benumbed fingers made this no easy task and more than once he was near losing his grasp and finis.h.i.+ng the story by a headlong fall to the frozen earth, but this danger was pa.s.sed also, and presently hastening down he said,--