Bob Strong's Holidays, Page 2

  CHAPTER TWO.

  A RUNAWAY.

  Nellie half sprang from her seat at this unexpected addition to theirlittle party, uttering a scream of terror the while, as genuine as itwas shrill and ear-piercing.

  She was a slight, delicate-looking girl of twelve, with a shower ofcurls of the colour of light gold that rippled over her forehead andshoulders and down her back, reaching well-nigh to her waist; and itseemed almost impossible that such a fairy-like little creature couldhave uttered such a volume of sound.

  However, she did it; and then, satisfied apparently with having exertedherself so far for the protection of all, Miss Nellie crouched down inthe corner of the carriage behind Bob, who, two years her elder and astoutly-built boy for his age, with short-cropped hair of a tawniertinge, stood up sturdily in front of his trembling little sister todefend her, if need be, as manfully as he could.

  But, the gallant old Captain was first in the field, jumping forwardwith an agility of which neither Bob nor Nellie thought him capable;and, in an instant, he had clutched hold of the intruder.

  "Who the dickens are you?" he cried, shaking him as a terrier would arat. "What the dickens do you want here, confound you!"

  "Please don't, ma-aster," gasped out a half-suffocated voice. "I bea'most shook to pieces!"

  "Humph! `when taken to be well shaken,' that's what doctors advise, eh?"said the Captain, somewhat sternly, although with a sly chuckle at hiswitty illustration of the phrase, as, with a strong muscular effort, heraised up the struggling figure he had clutched hold of and proceeded toinspect his capture--a lanky woebegone lad, whose rugged garments andgeneral appearance was by no means improved by the rough handling he hadreceived in the grip of the old sailor, who, as he now put him on hisfeet and released him, repeated his original imperative inquiry, "Whothe dickens are you and what do you want here?"

  "Please, sir, I ain't a-doing nothink," snivelled the lad, screwing hisknuckles into his eyes, as if preparing to cry, each word beingsandwiched between a sob and a sniff. "I--ain't--a-doing--nothink!"

  "Doing nothing?" echoed the Captain indignantly, overcome apparently bythe enormity of the culprit's offence. "Why, you young scoundrel, hereyou have been and gone and committed a burglary, breaking into arailway-carriage like this, besides nearly frightening the occupants todeath; and, you call that nothing! Do you know, if I were on the Bench,I could sentence you to penal servitude?"

  "Oh, pray don't, Captain Dresser, please!" cried out Bob and Nellietogether, impressed with the terrible powers of the law as thuspresented to their view and the extent of the Captain's authority. "Hereally did not mean any harm, poor fellow, I am sure he didn't!"

  "Then what did he do it for?" asked the old gentleman snappishly, thoughboth could see, from the merry twinkle in his eyes, that he was not insuch a bad temper as he pretended to be. "What did he do it for?That's what I'd like to know!"

  But, even the stranger lad, who had so unceremoniously intruded into thecarriage, seemed to become aware as he confronted him that the Captain's`bark was worse than his bite'; for, dropping his snivel and looking hisquestioner manfully in the face, he at once went on to tell who he wasand explain the reasons for his unexpected appearance on the scene--hisearnest accents and honest outspokenness testifying to the truth of hisstatement in the opinion, not only of Bob and Nellie, but of the whilomgrumpy old Captain as well.

  The lad said that his name was Dick Allsop and that he belonged toGuildford, the last station the train had passed, and the only one atwhich it had stopped since leaving Waterloo. His father had died someyears before, but his mother had lately got married again to a regularbrute of a man, who behaved very badly to her and treated Dick, heaverred, so cruelly, that he could not stand it any longer. That verymorning, Dick stated; he had beaten him so unmercifully that he hadsuddenly determined to run away to sea; and this was the reason why hewanted to get to Portsmouth.

  "But, you might have entered the carriage like a Christian!" interposedthe Captain at this point of the lad's story. "The train stopped longenough at Guildford for you to get in through the doorway, like anyordinary passenger, surely?"

  "No, sir, I couldn't," answered the other. "I couldn't a-done it."

  "But why not?"

  "Because, sir," snivelled the lad, "I didn't have no money, sir."

  "Humph! you had no money, eh?"

  "No, sir; nothing but thrippence-a'penny, which mother gave me afore Istarted, when she wished me good-bye. She was sorry as how she couldgive me nothing more; and so I couldn't pay the fare, and had noticket."

  "So, my joker, you got on the train without one at all!" said theCaptain, interrupting him. "Do you know that was really cheating therailway company?"

  "I knows it, sir," replied Dick Allsop, who had better now be called byhis own proper name, looking down as if ashamed of what he had done. "Iknows it's wrong; but, sir, I couldn't help it, as there was no otherway I seed of getting to Porchmouth."

  "But, why didn't you jump into the carriage like a Christian, as I saidjust now?" observed the Captain. "Eh?"

  Dick seemed amused by this question.

  "Does yer think, sir, the porters would ha' let me if they'd seed me a-trying it on?" said he, with a radiant grin that lit up his face, quitechanging its expression. "Not if they, knowed it!"

  "Perhaps not," agreed the Captain, nonplussed by the lad's logic andknowledge of human nature. "No, I don't think they would."

  "No, sir; that they wouldn't," exclaimed the runaway triumphantly, as ifhe knew all about that matter at any rate. "So, sir, I waits down bythe side o' the line, where I lays hid, sir, without nobody a-seeing me;and then, jist as the train was started and quite clear o' the station,a-going into the tunnel as ain't fur off, as yer know, sir--?"

  "Yes, I know the line, my lad," said Captain Dresser. "I ought to!"

  "Well, sir, there I climbs on by the buffers and coupling-chain of theguard's van to the step of the end carriage, and works myself along tillI reaches this; when, drawing myself up and looking in through thewindy, I thought I would get in here, not seeing nobody but young ma-aster and little missis in the corner--"

  "You didn't see me, eh?" questioned the Captain, with one of hisquizzical chuckles. "You didn't see me, I'll wager."

  "No, sir, or I wouldn't have tried it on," confessed Dick, with the mostopen candour. "I would a-been afeard like."

  "Lucky for you that you did, though," said Captain Dresser, his littleblack beady eyes blinking away furiously. "If you had got in anywhereand not come across such a good-natured old donkey as myself, you wouldhave had the signal-bell rung to summon the guard, who would havestopped the train and given you in custody at the next station fortravelling without a ticket! But what are you going to do now, eh?"

  "Please, sir, I dunno," replied Dick, looking puzzled.

  "Humph, that's a pretty state of things for an independent younggentleman running away to sea!" said the Captain in a quizzing tone."Do you know you're not half out of the scrape yet? You have got intothe train all right; but, how are you going to get out of it, eh--tellme that, my lad?"

  "I dunno, sir," again answered Dick laconically, still seeming unmovedby the critical nature of his position--"I dunno, sir."

  "Drat the boy!" exclaimed the Captain impatiently, stamping his foot."There you are again with your `dunno!' Why, when we arrive atPortsmouth, the collector will be asking for your ticket; what will yousay then, eh?"

  "I thought, sir, of jumping out afore the train got there, sir," saidDick, scratching his head reflectively. "Aye, I did."

  "Broke your neck, probably!" growled the old Captain. "The best thingthat could have happened to you, my lad."

  Bob and Nellie meanwhile had been whispering together and comparingnotes apparently as to the state of their respective funds; for, Nelliehad extracted a little leather purse from some hidden receptacle in herdress, while Bob was feeling in his pockets. Before either could speak,however, Captain Dresser anticip
ated their evident intention.

  "Suppose now I paid your fare for you?" he went on, addressing Dick."What would you say to that, eh?"

  "Lor', sir, I'd be orful grateful, that I'd be, sir--I would indeed,sir," eagerly replied the lad in an outburst of thankfulness; "and if,sir, I could work it out in any way so as to repay the money, I'd bethat glad yer wouldn't know me."

  "Humph!" grunted the Captain again. "We'll see about that."

  Bob and Nellie, both of whom had been listening with intense interest toDick's cross-examination, were quite carried away with enthusiasm atthis happy termination of the animated discussion that had gone on.

  "Oh, you dear Captain," cried Nellie, hugging the old sailorrapturously. "You've just done what Bob and I wished."

  "Have I?" said he smiling. "I don't see it, I'm sure."

  "Yes, you have, you have," she replied impulsively. "Bob and I werejust going to offer the same thing when you took the words out of ourmouth."

  "And the money out of my pocket, eh?" slyly added the Captain with achuckle--"eh, missy?"

  "But we'd like to pay too," said Bob. "Let us go shares, sir."

  "Not a bit of it," retorted the other, blinking away as he alwaysappeared to do when excited. "That was only my joke. I will pay hisfare for him when we get to Portsmouth; for, I like the pluck of the ladin climbing on to the train like that, and not being daunted byobstacles in carrying out a planned purpose. Can't say much for hislooks though. He seems to me half-starved."

  The latter observation was uttered in an undertone, the Captain havingtoo much delicacy to comment on Dick's appearance in his hearing. MissNellie, however, acted instantly on the suggestion, which gave it apractical turn.

  "Are you hungry, poor boy," she asked Dick--"very hungry?"

  "No, miss," he answered humbly; "not pertick'ler, I be."

  "But you could eat a sandwich, perhaps?" said she, opening a parcelwhich their mother had put up for the refreshment of Bob and herselfduring their journey. "Don't you think you could?"

  Dick's eyes glistened.

  "I'll try, miss," said he, trying to speak calmly; although they couldsee that he was really almost ravenous at the sight of the food. "Ithinks as how I could eat a mou'ful."

  "Give him the lot, poor chap," cried the old Captain; but Nellie did notneed this admonition, being in the very act of handing over the parcelof sandwiches to Dick even while the old sailor spoke. "There's no goodin his making two bites of a cherry, as the saying goes."

  "Eat these, my poor boy," cried Nellie. "Bob and I had buns at Waterloobefore the train started, and we shan't want anything till we get toauntie's house."

  "Fire away, old chap!" chimed in Bob, noticing that the lad hesitated amoment in accepting the proffered gift. "You needn't be afraid. Nellieand I are not hungry like you."

  Bob's friendly tone, coupled with the sight of the tempting viands, atonce removed any of Dick's lingering scruples; and, in another minute,he was gobbling up the sandwiches like a famished wolf--his fellow-travellers looking on with the utmost complacency and satisfaction atthe rapidity with which he got rid of them, bolting the little squaresof bread and meat one by one.

  All this time, the engine was puffing and snorting away as if it had abad attack of asthma, giving a fierce pull every now and then to thedragging carriages behind it; while, when the stalwart iron horseoccasionally loitered in his paces or slackened speed in going round asharp curve on the line, the coupling-chains would rattle as they losttheir tension and the buffers of the carriages behind, going faster forthe moment than the engine, would come together with a bang thatvibrated through the marrow-bones of all!

  The scenery altered, too, every instant along the route; the woodedheights around Guildford and Godalming and Haslemere, which the poetTennyson loved and where he lived and died, being succeeded by a stretchof level landscape, and this again by the steep bare hills encirclingsleepy Petersfield.

  Presently, a range of downs came in sight, curving away in horse-shoefashion from right to left, on which were a series of red-brick,detached structures, placed along the topmost ridge at equal intervalsapparently, until they were lost in the distance.

  As they approached these nearer, Miss Nellie's sharp eyes noticed thaton the landward side these brick piles were covered with a slant ofsmoothly-shaven green turf that contrasted conspicuously with the chalkysurface of the sloping ridge.

  "What funny things those are!" said she, pointing these out to Bob."Are they houses, or tombs, or what?"

  "Where, what do you mean?" asked the Captain, turning round from hiscontemplation of Dick, who, having finished the packet of sandwiches,was now carefully searching the piece of newspaper in which they hadbeen wrapped up on the chance of there being a few stray crumbs left."Why, hullo, here we are close to our destination! Those `funnythings,' as you style them, missy, are the Portsdown forts--you are notfar out though, in your estimate of their appearance, for they're called`Palmerston's Follies' by the political wags here."

  "Are we near Portsmouth then?" said Nellie, peering out anxiously. "Idon't see anything!"

  "Oh yes, missy, quite near," replied the Captain, also looking out ofthe window. "There's Havant just in front. Don't you smell the sea?"

  "Yes, Captain, yes, I do! Yes, I do!" cried Bob and Nellie together,clapping their hands. "Isn't it nice! Isn't it jolly!"--Bob, it may betaken for granted, using the latter term of approbation; Nellie addingon her own private account another, "Ah, how nice!"

  "Well, that's a matter of opinion," said Captain Dresser dryly, hisexperiences of the fickle element not having, perhaps, always beenpleasant ones; but, before he could explain this, the train, with apiercing shriek of warning from the steam-whistle of the engine, glidedinto the station.

  "Hav-'nt! Hav-'nt!" shouted the porters with lungs of brass and voicesof leather or gutta-percha. "Hav-'nt! Hav-'nt!"

  "That's just what this boy will say when the guard asks him presentlyfor his ticket, or the money for his fare," said the Captain, with hiscomical chuckle and merry twinkle of his bird-like eyes, pointing toDick as the ticket-collector banged open the door of the carriage as iftrying to wrench it off its hinges and held out his hand. "He haven'tgot his ticket. Hav-n't, you see, my dears! Ha--ha--ha!"