Bob Strong's Holidays, Page 3

  CHAPTER THREE.

  ROVER DISTINGUISHES HIMSELF.

  The ticket-collector appeared puzzled for the moment, especially onnoticing a poor, ragged fellow like Dick travelling in a first-classcompartment "in company with gentlefolks," as he thought to himself;but, at the instant this reflection passed through his mind, herecognised the Captain as an old and regular passenger on the line,besides being one from whom he had received many a `tip,' so he at oncetouched his cap, responding with a grin of sympathy to the Captain'scheery laugh, as if he thoroughly entered into the joke.

  "Oh, haven't he, sir?" said he, the ungrammatical phrase dropping morenaturally from his rustic tongue; "then he'll have to get 'un sharp, orpay the fare, sir."

  "Never mind about that, my man, I'll pay for his ticket, for he'stravelling with me," replied the old sailor as he fumbled in hispockets, shoving his hand first in one and then in the other; producing,at last, a number of gold and silver coins, mixed up with coppers, abunch of keys, a clasp-knife, and his snuff-box, which somehow or otherhe had put back in the wrong place. "How much is it?"

  "Where from, sir?" inquired the man, reaching out his hand for Bob andNellie's tickets. "Far up the line, sir?"

  "No, only from Guildford," replied the Captain. "That's only half-wayfrom London; but there's half-a-sovereign, and you may keep the changefor yourself."

  "Thank you, sir," said the collector, touching his cap again and takingthe coin. He still lingered, however, as if wanting something more buthesitated to ask for it.

  "Well?" ejaculated the Captain impatiently. "What is it, my man?"

  "Your ticket, sir," said the man deferentially. "You forgot to give itme, sir."

  "Zounds!" cried the other, blinking away furiously and moving hiseyebrows up and down as he searched vainly in all his pockets, finallydiscovering that he held the missing ticket in his fist all the while!"I declare I forgot all about it. You see I was ready for you, though,eh?"

  "All right, sir, good-day," said the man, receiving the ticket andshutting the carriage-door gently, with a bow and a smile and anothertouch of his cap; and, the next moment, with another sharp unearthlyshriek of the steam-whistle similar to that which had heralded itsentrance into Havant station, the train, giving a joggle and a jerk asit got under way, was speeding along again, across the rattling bridgesthat spanned the moats of the fortifications and through the Portsealines, to the terminus beyond at Landport.

  "Here we are, children," exclaimed the Captain, on its pulling up at thejourney's end. "Here we are at last!"

  "And is this Portsmouth?" inquired Nellie. But, she need not have askedthe question; for, as she looked down the platform she cried outexcitedly in the same breath--"Why, there's aunt Polly! There's auntPolly!"

  "Let me look, let me look," said Bob, trying to squeeze in betweenNellie and the Captain, who was fumbling at the handle of the door,endeavouring to open it. "I can't see her, Nell! Where is she?"

  "Hold on, can't you!" grumbled the old sailor, angry with the door fornot yielding at once to his efforts. "If you wait a moment you'll beable to see your `aunt Polly' and everybody else to your heart'scontent; that is, as soon as we can get out on to the platform. Bothertake the door, how it sticks!" With this exclamation, muttered in ahoarse, stifled voice, by reason of his half-stooping position, theCaptain put his knee against the obnoxious door; and this, giving way tohis shove, unexpectedly, nearly precipitated him into the arms of MrsGilmour, the aunt of our hero and heroine, who had recognised littleNellie's face at the window and advanced to the side of the carriage,without his perceiving her approach.

  "Dear me, Captain Dresser!" she cried with a laugh, just catching himfrom falling on his face. "I've no doubt you are very glad to say meagain, but you needn't be quite so demonstrative in public."

  The Captain rose up, looking very red and confused. "I'm sure I begyour pardon, ma'am," said he, bowing and laughing, too, as he recoveredhimself; "but those porters slam and jam the doors so, that they neverwill open properly when you want to get out quickly!"

  His further excuses, however, were cut short by Nellie springing out ofthe carriage before he could utter another word.

  "Oh, aunt Polly!" she exclaimed, hugging the smiling lady, who was aplump merry-looking little body, with dark wavy hair and large,lustrous, almond-shaped eyes, which, strange to say, were of an intenseviolet blue, presenting a curious contrast. "You dear auntie Polly!How glad I am to see you again!"

  "So am I, me dearie, to say you," replied the other, with the slightestwee bit of a brogue, aunt Polly having been born in the North ofIreland, where blue eyes with black hair and brogues are common; "an'Bob, too, the darlint! How are you, me boy!"

  "All right, auntie, right as a jiffy," said he brightly, greeting herwith like effusion to his sister. "Really, I don't know when I was soglad as I am to come down here to the sea and see you. Hullo, though,I'm forgetting about Rover!"

  With these words, Master Bob darted down the platform to the guard's vanat the end of the train, with Miss Nellie cantering after him; bothleaving their newly-met aunt as unceremoniously as the Captain hadtumbled against her on emerging from the carriage the moment before!

  However, Mrs Gilmour did not appear to mind this, only exchanging asmile with the old sailor, who of course remained beside her; whileDick, as if anxious to make some return for the kindness shown him, hadstarted taking the children's traps out of the train without waiting forany one's orders.

  As for the Captain, he had no luggage beyond the queer-looking malaccawalking-stick called a `Penang lawyer' which he held in his hand, nevertroubling himself with `stray dunnage,' as he said, when travelling byrailway.

  Bob and Nellie were presently seen in the distance, in close colloquywith the guard, who, after a bit, lugged out from his van, with muchdeliberation of movement and `gingerliness' of manner, a huge blackretriever, who apparently did not wish just then to issue forth from hisretreat.

  No sooner, however, had the imprisoned animal once more touched the firmground of the platform with his four paws, than, carried away withdelight at being able to stand again on something that wasn't moving, hesuddenly wrenched himself free from the guard and began plunging aboutin a mad gambol around.

  "Come here, Rover!" cried Bob. "Come here, Rover!" echoed Nellie, alikein vain; for, although Rover approached and jumped up on each in turn inexpression of his pleasure at seeing them, he would dart away the nextinstant out of reach, evidently afraid lest the chain should be takenhold of, and he be boxed up again in purgatory. He would not attend toany, "Come here, sir!"

  "He's too artful to be caught, sir," said the guard, laughing at thedog's antics. "He's too knowing by half."

  "Oh, he'll come along fast enough after me," answered Bob with somereserve of manner, thinking it rather beneath his dignity, as well asunjust to Rover, to bandy words about the latter's disobedience oforders; and so, he walked on up the platform, whistling as he went andfollowed by Nellie, towards where aunt Polly and the Captain werechatting, the old sailor explaining to Mrs Gilmour how Dick'sacquaintance had been made, she having been much impressed by his civiland attentive demeanour, if not by his appearance.

  "Come on!" shouted Bob between his whistles, as he got nearer; Nellie,close behind him, likewise whistling and repeating his cry, "Come on,Rover!"

  Rover came on; but, not altogether in the way his young master andmistress wished.

  Galloping now in front, now in rear of the two, and then prancingtowards them sideways, but always out of reach, he whirled his heavychain about like a lasso, to the danger of everybody around; many of thepassengers being still on the platform looking after their belongings orwaiting for cabs, most of the vehicles that had been drawn up on thecab-rank having already driven off loaded.

  "Do catch hold of him, Bob!" cried poor Nellie in accents of alarm."He'll trip up somebody."

  Rover seemed to hear and understand what she said; and, as if anxious tooblige her, at once twirled his
clattering chain round the legs of a fatold lady, who, with her arms full of a number of parcels, was waitingfor one of the porters to extract yet more from the carriage in whichshe had come down.

  "Look out, ma'am!" said the Captain, seeing what was coming. "Keepclear of the dog, ma'am, or he'll foul your hawse!"

  But, he was too late for the warning to be of any use; for, at the sameinstant, the old lady was whirled violently round and round like ateetotum and fell to the ground, uttering the while a series of wildshrieks, coupled with the smothered exclamation--"My good gracious!"

  "I thought so!" ejaculated the old sailor as he hastened up to herrescue, and, with the aid of the porter, succeeded in placing her on herfeet again; while Nellie and Bob set to work collecting her parcelswhich were scattered in every direction. "I hope you are not hurt,madam," Captain Dresser added when the lady was, as he expressed it,`all a-taunto' once more. "I hope you are not hurt!"

  However, she did not pay any attention to the polite inquiry, displayingmore solicitude for her portable property than her person.

  "Who's to pay for my eggs, I'd like to know?" was all she said. "Is'pose they be all bruck to pieces!"

  She evidently alluded to the largest of her parcels, which still layclose to her on the platform, neither Bob nor Nellie having yet reachedthis to pick it up; for, a thick yellow fluid was oozing out from thewrappings, plainly betokening the nature of its fragile contents andtheir fate.

  "Oh, never mind your eggs, ma'am," cried the Captain impatiently."We'll reimburse you for their loss, as the dog has caused the mischief.I was thinking of your bones!"

  "Drat my bones and the dog, too!" said the old lady with equal heat."One doesn't get noo laid eggs every day, I'd 'ave yer to know, sir, andI was a-taking these a puppose for my darter, which I brought all theway now from Gi'ford only to 'ave 'em bruck at last!"

  "Never mind, never mind," replied the Captain soothingly; and on MrsGilmour at the same time telling her that she kept fowls and would sendher some more fresh eggs the very next morning, to replace those broken,if she would give her address, the old lady was finally pacified.

  She went off presently, with all her remaining parcels, in a cab, whichthe Captain insisted on paying for; the good dame beaming withsatisfaction and looking as if she thought she had made rather a goodthing than not by the mishap!

  Meanwhile, Bob and Nellie had to interrupt their task of parcel-collecting to go after the truant Rover, who, not satisfied with thedamage he had already done, was in active pursuit of the trafficmanager's favourite cat, right through the station.

  The roving delinquent ultimately `treed' his prey in one of the waiting-rooms, where poor pussy sought refuge on the mantelpiece, knocking downa glass water-bottle and tumbler in jumping thither out of the reach ofthe frantic Rover, who scared half to death the occupants of the room ashe dashed in, all in full cry!

  Then a most delightful concerted duet ensued.

  "Mia-ow, phoo, phit, phiz!" screamed pussy with all the variedexpression of which the cat language is capable, running up the gamutinto the treble and dying off in a wailing demi-semi-quaver. "Mia-o-w!"

  "Bow, wow, wuff!" chanted Rover, singing his portion of the refrain indeep bass notes that produced a hollow echo through the waiting-room,making the noise seem to proceed from twenty dogs instead of one."Wough!"

  Nor was Rover long content merely to take part in a musical performanceonly.

  Bent on more active hostilities, he jumped up at the angry cat in herretreat on the mantelpiece--standing up on his hind legs for thepurpose; and then, being only able to sniff near enough for puss to slaphis face energetically with her paws right and left with a sharp `smicksmack,' Rover uttering an agonised howl that came in at the end of thechorus and must have been heard all over the station.

  A catastrophe was avoided, just in time, by Bob and Nellie appearing onthe scene of action; when, catching hold of the end of Rover's chain,they bore him away captive again to where their aunt and the Captainwere waiting and wondering at their long delay.

  Nemesis followed behind the trio in the shape of one of the railwaypolice.

  He came in the ostensible interests of the hunted cat and damagedproperty belonging to the waiting-room; but the elders of the partyregarded him to be more intent on obtaining `hush-money,' wherewith toblot out Rover's misdeeds and line his own pockets at the same time.

  "Here's a pretty to-do, children," cried the Captain, taking this viewof the matter and slipping a shilling into the man's hand to avoid anyunnecessary explanations. "That dog of yours is like a wild elephant inan Indian jungle!"

  "He's a fine dorg," observed the railway policeman parenthetically,pacified by the coin he had received and willing on the strength of itto forget alike the onslaught on pussy and the broken glass. "Finestdorg I ever seed for a retriever, sir."

  "Ah, handsome is as handsome does!" replied the Captain sententiously."Dogs, like children, ought to be taught to behave themselves."

  Nellie, however, did not like this sort of slur on Rover's character.

  "Oh! Captain Dresser," she exclaimed. "It was only his playfulness ongetting out of confinement."

  "Humph!" ejaculated the old sailor--"playfulness, eh? A playful doglike that once bit me playfully in the calf of the leg, stopping all myplay for a fortnight!"

  "Oh, Rover wouldn't do that," said Bob--"No, not he!"

  "Wouldn't he? I'd be sorry to give him the chance," answered the otherwith a laugh, as he assisted Mrs Gilmour into an open fly, into whichthe children's luggage had been already put by the attentive Dick."There'd be precious little of me left, I'm afraid, if he once tackledme!"

  Nellie and Bob then got into the fly, the Captain following them ontheir aunt's pressing invitation to escort them all down to her house onthe south parade; while Dick, after having, with the help of the cabman,lifted Rover, who behaved like a lamb during the operation, on to thebox-seat, where he was wedged in securely between the trunks and thedriver's legs, climbed up himself and away they all started--`packed astightly as herrings in a barrel,' to use the Captain's expression.

  In the evening, after dinner, the whole party went down to the shore,where Bob and Nellie made their first acquaintance with the sea; adistant view of which they had a glimpse of previously from the balconyof their aunt's house on the parade.

  Both were in ecstasies of delight as they gazed out on the undulatingexpanse of blue water, with the tiny little wavelets rippling up totheir feet caressingly, as if inviting them to wade in over theglittering pebbles of the beach that glistened like jewels where wettedby the tide.

  "Jolly, isn't it?" cried Bob enthusiastically. "Don't it make a noisethough!"

  "Not a noise," said Nellie, shocked at his unromantic description. "Thewaves seem to say `Hush!' and speak to me, as softly as if they wantedto send me to sleep!"

  "Bravo, young lady!" put in the Captain, overhearing her remark."`Rocked in the cradle of the deep,' as the old song runs, eh? ThoughI've almost forgotten all my Greek knocking about the world, or ratherhad it knocked out of me in a midshipmen's mess, if I recollect aright,old Homer describes the noise of the waves nearly in your own words, mydear. His term for it is _polyploisboio thalasses_--the `murmuring ofthe many-voiced sea!' Grand, isn't it; grand, eh? But, let us walkround the castle, and then you will see and hear it better."

  They accompanied him, accordingly, around the sloping rampart; MrsGilmour walking by the side of the old sailor, while Bob and Nellielingered behind with Dick.

  On their way round the castle, Master Bob occasionally pitched in apiece of stick for Rover to fetch out of the sea, which the energeticdog did with the utmost gusto; barking with glee as he dashed into thewater and coming out sedately with his coat all dripping, to deposit thestick at his master's feet, with a shake that sent a shower of dropslike rain all over them, making them laugh in glee as great as his.

  The stragglers presently came up with the seniors of the party who hadseated themselves on
a little ledge of the wall on the highest point ofthe glacis at the back of the old fortification, from whence away to thewest the sun could be seen setting in a glory of crimson and gold behindthe dockyard, with the masts of the ships standing out in red relief, asif on fire.

  In front were the purple hills of the Isle of Wight, with the white-terraced Ryde lying in between, its houses lit up likewise by the raysof the sunset, and their windows all aflame; and, under their feet,stretching away to where it met the hills opposite and to the harbour'smouth and Haslar breakwater on the right, with the now twinkling Nablight on the extreme left, was the dancing, murmuring, restless sea, itshue varying every instant, from the rich crimson and gold it reflectedfrom the western horizon to the darker shades of evening that camecreeping up steadily from the eastward, blotting out by degrees itsprevious bright tones.

  Two or three merchant ships were anchored at Spithead; but there was nota single sail moving in sight.

  All was still; and, as if in harmony with the scene, the Captain andMrs Gilmour sat in silent contemplation of the sight before them,neither uttering a word.

  The children, however, were not quiet long.

  "Hi, Rover, fetch it, good dog!" cried out Bob presently, pitching thestick into the water that laved the base of the sloping rampart. "Fetchit out, sir; fetch it."

  Rover raced, slipping and sliding, down the slope, plunging in with animpetus that sent him souse in head and ears under the surface; but, hesoon re-appeared to view and, swimming out to where the stick floated,gripped it valiantly and made his way back to the shore, holding it inhis mouth crosswise.

  Now, however, poor Rover experienced more trouble in climbing out thanhe had probably anticipated; for, it being deep water at the foot of theramparts and the stones being slippery, as the animal got his fore-pawson the stonework and tried to raise his hind legs, back he would slipagain into the sea.

  "Poor fellow!" said Bob. "Why, he can't get up. I will go and helphim."

  So saying, he began to clamber down the slope.

  "Stop, boy, stop!" cried the Captain excitedly. "You will fall in!"

  "Come back, Bob, come back!" screamed Nellie and her aunt together."Come back!"

  But, hardly able to keep his footing, it was out of Bob's power eitherto arrest his rapid descent of the downward slope or to retrace hissteps.

  The very cries of warning, indeed, of those above brought about theresult they sought to prevent; for, looking up and waving his hand toreassure them, Bob all at once lost his footing, rolling over andplunging into the water right on top of Rover, his yell of dismay beingechoed by a howl of pain from the dog.