Part 13 (1/2)

”To be sure, Oliver, that is the very reason. One must take one's revenge while one can. However, I wont notice him any more till you do.”

”Cannot you set down your pail, and help me to row?” asked Oliver. He was quite tired. The raft was heavy now; his nose had not left off bleeding, and his head ached sadly. Three pulls from Ailwin brought them nearer home than all Oliver's previous efforts. He observed that they must get round the house, if possible, and into the stream which ran through the garden, so as to land Roger on the Red-hill.

There was not much difficulty in getting round, as everything like a fence had long been swept away. As they pa.s.sed near the entrance-door to the garden, they observed that the waters were still sinking. They stood now only half-way up the door-posts. Oliver declared that when he was a little less tired, he would go through the lower rooms in a tub, and see whether he could pick up anything useful. He feared, however, that almost everything must have been swept off through the windows, in the water-falls that Mildred had thought so pretty, the first day of the flood.

”There is a chest!” exclaimed Oliver, pointing to a little creek in which a stout chest had stuck. ”Roger, I do believe it is the very chest that ... that we began our quarrel about. Come, now, is not this a sign that we ought to make it up?”

Roger would not appear to hear: so his companions made short work of it.

They pulled in for the sh.o.r.e of the Red-hill, and laid Roger on the slimy bank:--for they saw no occasion to carry one so heavy and so sulky up to the nice bed of gra.s.s which was spread at the top of the red precipice that the waters had cut Oliver knew that there was a knife in Roger's pocket. He took it out, cut the cord which tied his wrists, and threw the knife to a little distance, where Roger could easily reach it in order to free his legs; but not in time to overtake them before they should have put off again.

Roger made one catch at Oliver's leg, but missing it, lay again as if dead; and Ailwin believed he had not yet stirred when the raft rounded the house again, with the great chest in tow.

Mildred was delighted to see them back, and especially without Roger.

She thought Oliver's face looked very shocking, but Oliver would not say a word about this, or anything else, till he had found Roger's dog, and gone over in the basket, to set him ash.o.r.e with his master.

”There!” said he, as he stepped in at the window when this was accomplished, ”we have done their business. There they are, in their desert island, as they were before. Now we need not think any more about them, but attend to our own affairs.”

”Your face, Oliver! Pray do--”

”Never mind my face, dear, if it does not frighten poor Geordie. How is poor Geordie?”

”I do not think he is any better. I never saw him so fretful, and so hot and ill. And he cries so dreadfully!”

CHAPTER EIGHT.

NEW QUARTERS.

Ailwin presently made George's supper, with milk, a little thickened with meal. They were all about the child, watching how he would take it, when a loud crack was heard.

”What is that?” cried Oliver.

”It is a crack,” said Ailwin, ”in the wall or somewhere. I heard just such a one while Mildred was gone out to play, after dinner.”

”And there was another while you were away,” said Mildred. ”Some plaster fell that time:--look here! In this corner.--What is the matter, Oliver? What makes you look so frightened? What does it mean?”

”It means, I am afraid, that more of the house is coming down. Look at this great zigzag crack in the wall!--and how loose the plaster hangs in that part of the ceiling! I really think,--I am quite sure, we ought not to stay here any longer.”

”But where can we go? What shall we do?”

”We must think about that, and lose no time. I think this room will fall very soon.”

Mildred could not help crying, and saying that they could not settle themselves, and rest at all. She never saw anything like it. They were all so tired they did not know what to do; and now they should have to work as hard as ever. She never saw anything like it.

”No, dear, never,” said her brother: ”and thousands of people, far older than you, never saw anything like this flood. But you know, Mildred, we must not die, if we can help it.”

This reminded Mildred who it was that set them these heavy tasks,--that bade them thus labour to preserve the lives He gave. She was silent Oliver went on--

”If ever we meet father and mother again, we shall not mind our having been ever so much tired now. We shall like telling them all our plans and doings, if it should please G.o.d that we should ever sit with them by the fire-side.”

”Or whenever we meet them in heaven, if they should not be alive now,”