But I recoiled from the dangerous attempt. "No, no; some wave will roll the barrel on the beach," I replied; "no more struggling in the water for me!"
And the waves, bearing the barrel on their green backs, seemed often ready to land it safely on sh.o.r.e, but each time changed their minds, and kept it bobbing up and down, while they retired back with a grating noise over the pebbles, as if mocking our distress and impatience.
"We are farther off now than we were ten minutes ago," said Whiskerandos. "Perhaps the tide is on the turn. Pluck up a brave heart, and let"s dash in like rats!" and he plunged fearlessly into the water.
But for the sharp spur of hunger, I fear that I should have left him to make the bold attempt alone; but, famished as I was, I resolved to swim for my life. With a sudden effort I sprang into the waves; and so, following in the wake of my companion, I struggled in safety to the sh.o.r.e!
Oh! the delight of feeling dry ground again!-- of standing once more on the firm, solid earth! Never, never again, I firmly resolved, would I venture in any vessel, or trust my life to the mercy of the billows that had so nearly accomplished our destruction.
CHAPTER XX.
CATCH HIM-- DEAD OR ALIVE!
We made a hasty breakfast off a star-fish that we found stranded on the beach; but this rather increased our painful thirst, and to find some means of quenching it we hurried inland at the utmost speed which our weakened powers could command. We had not run far before we came to a large house.
"There is sure to be a supply of water here," said Whiskerandos. "Let us explore the place."
"I fancy that I hear a dripping!" I cried eagerly, as we approached the door of the back-yard.
The door was indeed closed, and sharp bits of broken bottles, on the top both of it and the brick wall, rendered it impossible to climb over them; but I-- my wit quickened by my painful thirst-- discovered in a moment that, at the bottom of the door, part of the wood had been broken away, either by time or perhaps the teeth of our brethren, leaving an opening just large enough for a rat easily to creep through.
I was not one to venture on an unexplored region, so I looked anxiously through into the yard.
At the opposite side of it there was-- oh, joyful sight!-- a pump, from which drop by drop fell, with a most inviting sound, into a trough below. And yet, faint with thirst as I was, the place had an aspect which alarmed me, and made me fear to venture across the yard. Not far from the pump, and between it and us, was an open green door, which led into a garden or pleasure-ground, and though I could see nothing to alarm me, my quick ear distinguished suspicious sounds in that direction.
"In with you!" exclaimed Whiskerandos, impatiently. "Don"t keep me here, dying with thirst at the hole."
I drew back with a gesture of caution. "Whiskerandos," said I, "I don"t like the green door open yonder. If any one came through it into the yard and cut off our retreat!"
"Nothing dare, nothing win!" he exclaimed; "I am thirsty and I must have water:" and, hurrying through the little opening which I have mentioned, he was soon eagerly drinking at the trough.
Hesitating, doubting, I was about to follow him, and already my nose was through the hole, when a sight, at the remembrance of which I shudder still, made me withdraw it instanter. Through the fatal green door near the pump, a young man, with his hands in his pockets and his cap c.o.c.ked on one side, followed by several dogs, leisurely sauntered into the yard.
I saw in an instant that for Whiskerandos escape was impossible. He had the whole length of the yard to cross; his foes were far nearer to him than me. His only chance was that of not being perceived; but this in broad daylight, with the noses of three or four dogs not two yards from him, was a miserable chance indeed. The dogs instantly found him out, and were at him in a moment. My unhappy companion darted behind the trough, quick as a flash of lightning. I felt a.s.sured that he would there bravely defend himself to the last; but what could one poor rat do, albeit the boldest of his race, against such terrible odds!
"Ha! a rat!" exclaimed the young man, looking quite amused and pleased-- barbarian that he was!-- at the prospect of seeing a poor defenceless creature torn to pieces before him. "Ha! Carlo, give it him!-- shake him by the ear!" The young man actually laughed aloud with delight!
I could not see Whiskerandos, for the trough was between us: I fancied his look of fierce despair as he faced the foes from whom he could not flee, and from whom he could expect no pity. He had evidently got into some corner, from which the dogs could not easily dislodge him; for they stood yelping and barking, showing their white teeth, with their greedy eyes all turned to one point.
So the human savage came to their aid. Having taken up a stick which happened to be lying on the ground near, while the dogs retired a step to allow their master to give his ungenerous a.s.sistance, he pushed the stick behind the trough, and by its means dragged poor Whiskerandos from his last place of refuge!
"Ha! the fellow"s dead! I must have killed him with the stick!" cried the young man; and stooping down he lifted up the poor rat by the tail, and held him aloft to examine him more closely, while the dogs leapt and barked around, eager to tear their victim limb from limb!
"He"s been in the wars-- lost his ears!" laughed the young man, still holding the stiffened body on high by the tail. "I"m sorry I poked him with the stick; he"d have given us some sport with the dogs!" Did ever such a heartless monster walk on two feet before!
"Oh! Whiskerandos! Whiskerandos!" thought I, as, almost rooted to the spot with horror, I stood gazing on the pitiful sight. "I am glad that you are dead! oh, I am glad that you are dead! bravest, n.o.blest of rats, they can torture you no more!"
The dogs showed by their impatient movements that they considered that their master took a great deal too much time in his survey of a lifeless rat I suspect that he only did so to tease and tantalize them, for suddenly raising Whiskerandos still higher, to give more force to his fling, he cried, "Now Carlo-- Rover-- Caesar-- who"s first!" and swung the body away towards the door behind which I stood a trembling, shuddering spectator!
But lo and behold! no sooner did the seemingly dead rat touch the ground, than he found life, strength, and speed in a moment! The dogs were after him like the wind, but the very force of the fling had given him a good start, and he was through the opening under the door, knocking me over as he pushed past, almost before I could recall my scattered senses sufficiently to understand that he was actually alive!
I have some remembrance of the young man"s exclamation of amazement as the dead rat found his feet and disappeared,-- his shout, and the yells of the disappointed dogs,-- but I recollect no more, for I heard no more. Whiskerandos and I had a fair start, and we made the best of it, and scampered off as rats scamper for their lives. Well for us that that door was locked!-- well for us that there were broken bits of bottles on the top! well for us that the hole was too small for the pa.s.sage of any thing larger than a rat!
I do not think that we were pursued: perhaps the unlocking of the door took our foe too much time, perhaps he did not think it worth while to hunt down such ign.o.ble game, or perhaps he considered (but this I much doubt) that the cleverness which a rat had shown in making so extraordinary an escape, ent.i.tled him to a little indulgence. But we ran as though a whole pack of hounds were behind us; we never paused to take breath or look behind us, till we had buried ourselves in a corn-field.
"And are you really unhurt?" I exclaimed, when we stopped at last, panting and exhausted.
"Unhurt? yes!-- only bruised by the fling,-- it was well that the yard was not paved with stones."
"And you were really alive and had your senses while that savage was holding you up with your head hanging down! Why, you looked as like a dead rat as ever I saw one!"
"I was wide awake all the time," said Whiskerandos, "but I knew that it was my only chance to feign death. This has been a narrow escape, Ratto; I was never so near being torn to pieces before, not even in my fight with the ferret!"
"I"ll never go near a house in daylight again!" exclaimed I, still trembling with excitement and terror. Whiskerandos appeared to feel the effects of the fright less than I did, though his danger had been so much greater.
"It is your thirst that makes you so nervous," said he; "you have not yet recovered from our voyage on the barrel. There seems to be a wet ditch around this field; come and moisten your nose in the water."
The relief was certainly great, and as I drank the cool liquid, I felt my spirits revive.
"I wonder where we are now!" said I.
"I have no doubt on the subject,-- we are in old England again! The look of the house, the hedges, the fields, that young fellow--"
"Oh! don"t speak of him!" I exclaimed, "cruel, barbarous monster that he is!"
"You are too hard on him," said Whiskerandos, in his own frank, good-humoured manner. "He may be no worse than the rest of his species, who think that there is no harm in being cruel to a rat. I suspect that even your blue-eyed friend would shout with joy to see a cat worry a mouse!"
"I don"t believe it!" I replied indignantly; "a generous and n.o.ble heart can never take pleasure in seeing pain inflicted on a poor defenceless creature!"
"Ah, but--" Whiskerandos commenced, but our conversation was suddenly interrupted by a little squeak from the hedge close behind us.
"I think that I know that voice!" exclaimed I, and I had hardly uttered the sentence ere from the thick covert sprang the well-remembered form of Bright-eyes!
CHAPTER XXI.
A NEW KIND OF WATCH-DOG.
What a rubbing of noses ensued! after all my travels and perils it was such joy to see again the face of a friend! I had so much also to relate, (I have ever been a loquacious rat,) that I almost lost breath in my long narration. I wound up my account with a description of the last adventure of Whiskerandos, who was now, in my eyes, ten times more a hero than before.
"And now that I have told you my news," said I, "let"s hear a little of yours. In the first place, where is old Oddity?"
Bright-eyes hung down his head, and drooped his long tail in a touching and melancholy manner. Such conduct in so lively a rat showed me at once that my last surviving brother was dead!