"Himmel! are you hurt, Fritz?" called out Eric, hastening up on hearing the report of the rifle. He was alarmed at seeing his brother lying motionless on the ground.
But, there was no answer; nor did Fritz even move at the sound of his voice!
CHAPTER THIRTY.
ANOTHER MISHAP.
In another minute Eric arrived where his brother was lying; when, throwing himself on his knees, he bent over him anxiously. "Oh, Fritz, are you badly hurt?" he cried: and, still receiving no answer, he burst into a pa.s.sion of sobs. "He"s dead, he"s dead!" he wailed in a broken voice--"dead, never to speak to me more!"
"No, laddie, not quite dead yet," whispered Fritz faintly. The sudden blow in the back from the goat"s horns, striking him as it did at the base of the spine, had rendered him for the moment unconscious; the unexpected attack had injured him terribly--more so, indeed, than the bullet wound through his leg. Besides, he was lying face downwards, and so was unable to turn over, which fact prevented him from speaking more plainly when he recovered his senses.
"Not dead? Oh, I am so glad!" shouted out Eric joyously, in sudden revulsion of feeling. "I was afraid that you were killed!"
"I feel pretty near it," said Fritz, although he spoke now in a stronger tone, Eric having partly raised him up, by putting his arm under his neck. "Gently, laddie, gently," he called out, however, as his brother lifted him, "my poor back hurts fearfully!"
"I thought it was your leg, Fritz, for it is bleeding awfully. Your trousers are wet with blood!"
"That"s nothing, laddie--nothing to speak of," said Fritz.
"Oh, isn"t it?" cried the other, who had been busily cutting away the trouser leg and stocking with his sheath knife. "Why, the bullet has gone through the fleshy part of your calf."
"I wish it had gone through the h.o.r.n.y part of that horrid old goat,"
said Fritz grimly, smiling at his own joke, which made Eric laugh.
"The old brute! But, you would go after him, you know."
"Yes; still, I am suffering now, and perhaps justly, for not leaving the poor animal alone. He never harmed me before I tried to harm him, so it only serves me right! It"s a bad job, Eric; I"m afraid I shan"t be able to get down to the hut again. You will have to rig me up some sort of shelter here."
"Oh, no, that won"t be necessary," said Eric, glad that his brother seemed to be getting more like his old calm self and able to look matters in the face.
"Why, how can I move? Do you think I shall be able to climb down that abominable tussock-gra.s.s ladder in this condition, especially when I was hardly able to manage it while sound in wind and limb--which I can"t say is the case at present?"
"I didn"t think of your getting down that way, old fellow," said the lad, after a moment"s reflection. "I"ve got another plan in my noddle-- a better one than yours I think."
"And what is that?" asked Fritz.
"Why, you know where you are now, don"t you?"
"Yes, I should think I did; I haven"t quite lost my consciousness yet!"
"You are close to the western side of the coast, just near where the plateau slopes down to the sea by our sealing ground."
"Well, what of that?"
"Why, don"t you see through my plan yet, brother? Can I not pull the whale-boat round from our bay, and then manage to lift you down the incline here into it--thus getting you back home easily in that way?"
"Himmel, Eric, you"re a grand fellow," exclaimed Fritz, in honest admiration of the proposal. "I declare I never thought of such a simple thing as that. Of course it can be done. What a stupid I was, not to think of it! That old goat must have knocked all my seven senses out of my head; for, I declare I never recollected that there was any other way of getting down from here save by the waterfall gully!"
"Ah, well, there is another way," said Eric, laughing joyously. "But, really we must now see about using it, for I don"t want you to remain up here all night when you may be so much more comfortable in the hut. I will scramble down and fetch round the boat at once, if there is nothing more I can do for you before I go--is there anything you wish?"
"No, nothing, now that you"ve raised my head and propped it up so nicely with your coat. I should be glad, though, if you will bring a can of water with you when you come back with the boat."
"Stay, I"ll get some for you now!" cried the lad; and, flying across the plateau, he was soon half-way down a niche in the gully whence he could reach the cascade. In a few minutes more, he was up again on the tableland and by the side of Fritz, with his cap full of the welcome water, which tasted to the sufferer, already feverish from the bullet wound--which Eric had bandaged up to stop the bleeding--more delicious than nectar, more strengthening than wine. It at once brought the colour back to his cheek and the fire to his eye.
"Ha!" Fritz exclaimed, "that draught has made a new man of me, laddie.
You may be off as soon as you please, now, to fetch the boat; while I will wait patiently here until you can bring it round the headland.
How"s the wind?"
"South-east and by south," cried the young sailor promptly.
"That will be all in your favour, then. Go now, laddie, and don"t be longer than you can help."
"You may depend on that," cried Eric, pressing his brother"s hand softly; and, in another moment, he was racing again across the plateau to the point where the two had ascended from the gully by the waterfall.
Ere long, Eric had brought round the whale-boat to the haunt of the seals on the west beach; when, after a good deal of labour, in which he could not help hurting Fritz somewhat, he succeeded in getting the sufferer down the sloping rocks. Thence, he lifted him bodily into the stern-sheets of the boat, where he had prepared a comfortable couch by piling up on the bottom grating all the blankets and rugs from the hut.
Eric had a hard pull back against the wind and tide round the headland, there being none to help him with an oar; but, naturally indomitable, he bravely accomplished the task at last, arriving back at the bay before sunset with his almost unconscious burden, who was now unable to move or a.s.sist him in the least.
Fortunately, the most arduous part of the transportation was now accomplished, the remainder being "all plain sailing," as Eric said.
The lad certainly had a most inventive mind; for, as soon as they reached their own little bay, he once more astonished Fritz--who was glad enough to get so far, but puzzled as to how he would ever arrive at the hut, knowing that the lad would never be able to carry him there.
"Now, brother," cried Eric, "you just stop quietly where you are a minute or two while I get the carriage ready."
"The carriage?" cried Fritz, more puzzled than ever. "What do you mean, laddie?"
"The wheelbarrow, of course," answered Eric, laughing. "See, I have put the door of our hut across it; and, with the bedding on top of this, I shall be able to wheel you, without the slightest jolting, right up to the cottage."
"Donnerwetter!" exclaimed Fritz--"you"re a wonderful lad; you seem to think of everything."
"Nonsense! Silence, now--you mustn"t talk; it might bring on fever perhaps!" exclaimed Eric, to stop his brother"s grateful expressions.
Then, lifting him out carefully from the boat, he placed the invalid on the novel ambulance wagon he had so ingeniously improvised; and, rolling the wheelbarrow along the little pathway up the incline that led to the hut, he proceeded carefully to transport him home. Arrived here, Eric at once put Fritz to bed, so that he might be able to examine his injuries more closely and apply proper bandages to the wounded leg and back, in place of the temporary appliances he had made shift with when first attending to the wounded hero, who was now able to direct him what to do and how to do it.
Eric could not help thinking what an unlucky fellow that elder brother of his was!
The cliff seemed fatal to him; for, the first time he ascended it, he sprained his ankle, which laid him up for three weeks; and now he had hurt himself even worse. Really, the sailor lad wished there were no crags at all; but, should that devout consummation not be feasible, then he wished there were no means of getting to the summit, for then Fritz would never incur any danger through climbing there.
Little did Eric think, as these hasty reflections pa.s.sed through his mind, that, in a very short while, his last wish would be gratified--and that in a way, too, which would seriously affect them both!
The very next morning, indeed, he was glad enough to go up the cliff by the tussock-gra.s.s ladder, in order to fetch the young goat he had shot the day before, which, in the excitement of Fritz"s accident, had been left behind on the plateau; and, as he was coming down the gully again, he saw the old goat "Kaiser Billy," and shook his fist at him.
"You old rascal!" he cried--"had it not been for you and your nasty horns, poor Fritz would be now all right."
He then fired a shot at the animal in the distance; but, the knowing fellow, who must have noticed the lad"s deadly aim the previous afternoon--when he had slain one of his family while she was galloping along beside him--now kept carefully out of the range of Eric"s rifle, so that the bullet did not fall any way near him, so the lad had to descend the tussock-gra.s.s ladder in a somewhat disappointed frame of mind.
He had not wished actually to hurt the old goat, but merely to give him a sort of mild lesson anent his impudent treatment of Fritz. However, the astute animal declined learning even from so gentle an instructor as Eric, despite the possibility of the lad having his welfare at heart!