"I don"t seem to see "Earty a-walkin" across a field," he remarked meditatively. "It don"t seem natural."
"You can"t see anything but what"s in your own wicked mind," she retorted acidly.
"Well, well!" he said philosophically. "P"raps you"re right. I suppose we shall see them merry whiskers of "is a-comin" round the corner, "im a-leadin" a lamb with a pink ribbon. I can see "Earty with a little lamb, an" a sprig o" mint for the sauce."
For nearly a quarter of an hour Bindle smoked in silence, whilst Mrs.
Bindle stood with eyes fixed upon a stile on the opposite side of the field, over which Mr. Hearty was due to come.
"What was that?"
Involuntarily she clutched Bindle"s knee, as a tremendous roar broke the stillness of the summer afternoon.
"That"s ole Farmer Timkins" bull," explained Bindle. "Rare ole sport, "e is. Tossed a cove last week, an" made a rare mess of "im."
"It oughtn"t to be allowed."
"Wot?"
"Dangerous animals like that," was the retort.
"Well, personally myself, I likes a cut o" veal," Bindle remarked, watching Mrs. Bindle covertly; but her thoughts were intent on Mr.
Hearty, and the allusion pa.s.sed unnoticed.
"It "ud be a bad thing for ole "Earty, if that bull was to get "im by the back o" the trousers," mused Bindle. ""Ullo, there "e is." He indicated with the stem of his pipe a point in the hedge on the right of the field, over which was thrust a great dun-coloured head.
Again the terrifying roar split the air. Instinctively Mrs. Bindle recoiled, and gripped the parrot-headed umbrella she was carrying.
"It"s trying to get through. I"m not going to wait here," she announced with decision. "It may----"
"Don"t you worry, Mrs. B.," he rea.s.sured her. ""E ain"t one o" the jumpin" sort. Besides, there"s an "edge between "im an" us, not to speak o" this "ere gate."
Mrs. Bindle retired a yard or two, her eyes still on the dun-coloured head.
So absorbed were she and Bindle in watching the bull, that neither of them saw Mr. Hearty climbing the opposite stile.
As he stood on the topmost step, silhouetted against the blue sky, the tails of his frock-coat flapping, Bindle caught sight of him.
""Ullo, "ere"s old "Earty!" he cried, waving his hand.
Mr. Hearty descended gingerly to terra firma, then, seeing Mrs. Bindle, he raised his semi-clerical felt hat. In such matters, Mr. Hearty was extremely punctilious.
At that moment the bull appeared to catch sight of the figure with the flapping coat-tails.
It made a tremendous onslaught upon the hedge, and there was a sound of crackling branches; but the hedge held.
"Call out to him, Bindle. Shout! Warn him! Do you hear?" cried Mrs.
Bindle excitedly.
""E"s all right," said Bindle complacently. "That there bull ain"t a-goin" to get through an "edge like that."
"Mr. Hearty, there"s a bull! Run!"
Mrs. Bindle"s thin voice entirely failed to carry to where Mr. Hearty was walking with dignity and unconcern, regardless of the danger which Mrs. Bindle foresaw threatened him.
The bull made another attack upon the hedge. Mr. Hearty"s flapping coat-tails seemed to goad it to madness. There was a further crackling and the ma.s.sive shoulders of the animal now became visible; but still it was unable to break through.
"Call out to him, Bindle. He"ll be killed, and it"ll be your fault," she cried hysterically, pale and trembling with anxiety.
"Look out, "Earty!" yelled Bindle. "There"s a bloomin" bull," and he pointed in the direction of the hedge; but the bull had disappeared.
Mr. Hearty looked towards the point indicated; but, seeing nothing, continued his dignified way, convinced that Bindle was once more indulging in what Mr. Hearty had been known to describe as "his untimely jests."
He was within some fifty yards of the gate where the Bindles awaited him, when there was a terrific crash followed by a mighty roar--the bull was through. It had retreated apparently in order to charge the hedge and break through by virtue of its mighty bulk.
Bindle yelled, Mrs. Bindle screamed, and Mr. Hearty gave one wild look over his shoulder and, with terror in his eyes and his semi-clerical hat streaming behind, attached only by a hat-guard, he ran as he had never run before.
Bindle clambered down from the gate so as to leave the way clear, and Mrs. Bindle thrust her umbrella into Bindle"s hands. She had always been told that no bull would charge an open umbrella.
"Come on, "Earty!" yelled Bindle. "Run like "ell!" In his excitement he squatted down on his haunches, for all the world like a man encouraging a whippet.
Mr. Hearty ran, and the bull, head down and with a snorting noise that struck terror to the heart of the fugitive, ran also.
"Run, Mr. Hearty, run!" screamed Mrs. Bindle again.
The bull was running diagonally in the direction of Mr. Hearty"s fleeing figure. In this it was at a disadvantage.
"Get ready to help him over," cried Mrs. Bindle, terror clutching at her heart.
"Looks to me as if "Earty and the bull and the whole bloomin"
caboodle"ll come over together," muttered Bindle.
"Oooooh!"
A new possibility seemed to strike Mrs. Bindle and, with a terrified look at the approaching bull, which at that moment gave utterance to a super-roar, she turned and fled for the gate on the opposite side of the field.
For a second Bindle tore his gaze from the drama before him. He caught sight of several inches of white leg above a pair of elastic-sided boots, out of which dangled black and orange tabs.
"Help, Joseph, help!" Mr. Hearty screamed in his terror and, a second later, he crashed against the gate on which Bindle had climbed ready to haul him over.
Seizing his brother-in-law by the collar and a mercifully slack pair of trousers, he gave him a mighty heave. A moment later, the two fell to the ground; but on the right side of the gate. As they did so, the bull crashed his head against it.
The whole structure shivered. For a moment Bindle gave himself up for lost; but, fortunately, the posts held. The enraged animal could do nothing more than thrust its muzzle between the bars of the gate and snort its fury.
The foaming mouth and evil-looking blood-shot eyes caused Bindle to scramble hastily to his feet.
"Oh G.o.d! I am a miserable sinner," wailed Mr. Hearty; "but spare me that I may repent." Then he fell to moaning, whilst Bindle caught a vision of Mrs. Bindle disappearing over the further gate with a startling exposure of white stocking.
"Well, I"m blowed!" he muttered. "Ain"t it funny "ow religion gets into the legs when there"s a bull about? Bit of a slump in "arps, if you was to ask me!"