"But I want to be in at what they call the death."
"There"ll be no death to-day: the hare"s safe to win."
"I want to keep up," he answered, getting over the stile. "I said I could keep up, and do what the rest did." And off he was again, full rush.
Before us, on that side of the stile, was a tolerably wide field. The pack had wound half over it during this short halt, making straight for the entrance to the coppice at the other end. We were doing our best to catch them up, when I distinctly saw a heavy stone flung into their midst. Looking at the direction it came from, there crept a dirty ragam.u.f.fin over the ground on his hands and knees. He did not see us two behind; and he flung another heavy stone. Had it struck anyone"s head it would have done serious damage.
Letting the chase go, I stole across and pounced upon him before he could get away. He twisted himself out of my hands like an eel, and stood grinning defiance and whistling to his dog. We knew the young scamp well: and could never decide whether he was a whole scamp, or half a natural. At any rate, he was vilely bad, was the pest of the neighbourhood, and had enjoyed some short sojourns in prison for trespa.s.s. Raddy was the name he went by; we knew him by no other; and how he got a living n.o.body could tell.
"What did you throw those stones for?"
"Shan"t tell ye. Didn"t throw "em at you."
"You had better mind what you are about, Mr. Raddy, unless you want to get into trouble."
"Yah--you!" grinned Raddy.
There was nothing to be made of him; there never was anything. I should have been no match for Raddy in an encounter; and he would have killed me without the slightest compunction. Turning to go on my way, I was in time to see Van Rheyn tumble over the stile and disappear within the coppice. The rest must have nearly shot out of the other end by that time. It was a coppice that belonged to Sir John Whitney. Once through it, we were on our own grounds, and within a field of home.
I went on leisurely enough: no good to try to catch them up now. Van Rheyn would not do it, and he had more than half a field"s start of me.
It must have been close upon six, for the sun was setting in a ball of fire; the amber sky around it was nearly as dazzling as the sun, and lighted up the field.
So that, plunging into the coppice, it was like going into a dungeon.
For a minute or two, with the reflection of that red light lingering in my eyes, I could hardly see the narrow path; the trees were dark, thick, and met overhead. I ran along whistling: wondering whether that young Raddy was after me with his ugly dog; wondering why Sir John did not----
The whistling and the thoughts came to a summary end together. At the other end of the coppice, but a yard or two on this side the stile that divided it from the open field, there was Charles Van Rheyn on the ground, his back against the trunk of a tree, his arms stretched up, clasping it. But for that clasp, and the laboured breathing, I might have thought he was dead. For his face was ghastly, blue round the mouth, and wore the strangest expression I ever saw.
"Charley, what"s the matter?"
But he could not answer. He was panting frightfully, as though every gasp would be his last. What on earth was I to do? Down I knelt, saying never another word.
"It--gives--me--much--hurt," said he, at length, with a long pause between every word.
"What does?"
"Here"--pointing to his chest--towards the left side.
"Did you hurt yourself? Did you fall?"
"No, I not hurt myself. I fell because I not able to run more. It is the breath. I wish papa was near me!"
Instinct told me that he must have a.s.sistance, and yet I did not like to leave him. But what if delay in getting it should be dangerous? I rose up to go.
"You--you are not going to quit me!" he cried out, putting his feeble grasp on my arm.
"But, Charley, I want to get somebody to you," I said in an agony, "I can"t do anything for you myself: anything in the world."
"No, you stay. I should not like to be alone if I die."
The shock the word gave me I can recall yet. Die! If there was any fear of _that_, it was all the more necessary I should make a rush for Dr.
Frost and Featherston. Never had I been so near my wits" end before, in the uncertainty as to what course I ought to take.
All in a moment, there arose a shrill whistle on the other side the stile. It was like a G.o.dsend. I knew it quite well for that vicious young reptile"s, but it was welcome to me as sunshine in harvest.
"There"s Raddy, Van Rheyn. I will send him."
Vaulting over the stile, I saw the young man standing with his back to me near the hedge, his wretched outer garment--a sack without shape--hitched up, his hands in the pockets of his dilapidated trousers, that hung in fringes below the knee. He was whistling to his dog in the coppice. They must have struck through the tangles and briars higher up, which was a difficult feat, and strictly forbidden by law. It was well Sir John"s agent did not see Mr. Raddy--whose eyes, scratched and bleeding, gave ample proof of the trespa.s.s.
"Yah!" he shrieked out, turning at the sound of me, and grinning fresh defiance.
"Raddy," I said, speaking in persuasive tones to propitiate him in my great need, "I want you to do something for me. Go to Dr. Frost as quickly as you are able, and say----"
Of all the derisive horrible laughs, his interruption was the worst and loudest. It drowned the words.
"One of the school has fallen and hurt himself," I said, putting it in that way. "He"s lying here, and I cannot leave him. Hush, Raddy! I want to tell you,"--advancing a step or two nearer to him and lowering my voice to a whisper,--"I think he"s dying."
"None o" yer gammon here; none o" yer lies"--and in proportion as I advanced, he retreated. "You"ve got a ambush in that there coppy--all the lot on you a-waiting to be down on me! Just you try it on!"
"I am telling you the truth, Raddy. There"s not a soul in there but the one I speak of. I say I fear he is dying. He is lying helpless. I will pay you to go"--feeling in my pockets to see how much I had there.
Raddy displayed his teeth: it was a trick of his when feeling particularly defiant. "What"ll yer pay me?"
"Sixpence"--showing it to him. "I will give it you when you have taken the message."
"Give it first."
Just for a moment I hesitated in my extremity, but I knew it would be only the sixpence thrown away. Paid beforehand, Raddy would no more do the errand than he"d fly. I told him as much.
"Then be dashed if I go!" And he pa.s.sed off into a round of swearing.
Good Heavens! If I should not be able to persuade him! If Charles Van Rheyn should die for want of help!
"Did you ever have anybody to care for, Raddy? Did you ever have a mother?"
"Her"s sent over the seas, her is; and I be glad on"t. Her beated me, her did: I wasn"t a-going to stand that."
"If you ever had anybody you cared for the least bit in the world, Raddy; if you ever did anybody a good turn in all your life, you will help this poor fellow now. Come and look at him. See whether I dare leave him."
"None o" yer swindles! Ye wants to get me in there, ye does. I warn"t borned yesterday."
Well, it seemed hopeless. "Will you go for the sixpence, if I give it to you beforehand, Raddy?"
"Give it over, and see. Where the thunder have ye been?" dealing his dog a savage kick, as it came up barking. "Be I to whistle all day?" Another kick.
I had found two sixpences in my pocket; all its store. Bringing forth one, I held it out to him.
"Now listen, Raddy. I give you this sixpence now. You are to run with all your might to the house--and you can run, you know, like the wind.
Say that I sent you--you know my name, Johnny Ludlow--sent you to tell them that the French boy is in the coppice dying;" for I thought it best to put it strong. "Dr. Frost, or some of them, must come to him at once, and they must send off for Mr. Featherston. You can remember that. The French boy, mind."