Quicksilver: The Boy With No Skid to His Wheel

by George Manville Fenn

  CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT.

  PREPARATIONS FOR FLIGHT.

  Dexter listened till Bob Dimsted's whistle died away, and then stolefrom the place of appointment to go back to the house, where he struckoff to the left, and made his way into the loft, where he took a smallpiece of candle from his pocket, lit it, and set it in an oldginger-beer bottle.

  The light roused the various occupants of the boxes and cages. That andthe step were suggestive of food, and sundry squeakings and scratchingsarose, with, from time to time, a loud rap on the floor given by one ofthe rabbits.

  There was a lonely desolate feeling in Dexter's breast as he set the ratat liberty, for the furtive-looking creature to hurry beneath the boardswhich formed the rough floor.

  Then the mice were taken out of their box, and the first movement of thelittle creatures was to run all over their master, but he hurriedly tookthem off him, feeling more miserable than ever, and ready to repent ofthe step he was about to take.

  The rabbits were carried downstairs, and turned out into the yard,Dexter having a belief that as they had once grown tame perhaps, manygenerations back, they might now as easily grow wild, and if in theprocess they made very free with old Dan'l's vegetables, until theyescaped elsewhere, it would not be very serious.

  As it was, they crept here and there over the stones for a few moments,and then went off investigating, and evidently puzzled by their freedom.

  The hedgehog and squirrel were brought down together, and carried rightinto the garden, where the former was placed upon one of theflower-beds, and disappeared at once; the latter held up to a branch ofthe ornamental spruce, into which it ran, and then there was a scufflingnoise, and Dexter ran away back to the stable, afraid to stop, lest thelittle ragged jacketed animal should leap back upon him, and make himmore weak than he was.

  He climbed again to the loft, hearing a series of tiny squeaks as hemounted--squeaks emanating from his mice, and directly after he nearlycrushed the rat, by stepping upon it as the little animal ran up to befed.

  He had come for the toad and snake, and hurriedly plunging his hand intothe big pot he found Sam the toad, seated right at the top, evidentlyeager to start on a nocturnal ramble, but the snake was coiled upasleep.

  It was a curious pet, that toad, but somehow, as it sat nestled up allof a squat in the boy's warm hand, he felt as if he should like to takeit with him. It was not big, and would take up little room, and costnothing to feed.

  Why not?

  He hesitated as he descended and crossed the yard to the garden, anddecided that he would not. Bob Dimsted might not like it.

  He reached the garden, and crossed the lawn to the sunny verbena bed.That seemed a suitable place for the snake, and he tenderly placed it,writhing feebly, among the thin pegged-down strands.

  Then came the other reptile's turn.

  They had been friends and even companions together in the bigflower-pot, Dexter argued, so they should have the chance of beingfriends again in the flower-bed.

  The toad was in his left hand, and going down on one knee he separatedthe verbenas a little, and then placed his hand, knuckles downward, onthe soft moist earth, opening his fingers slowly the while.

  "Good-bye, Sam," he said, in a low voice. "You and I have had some goodfun together, old chap, and I hope you will be very happy when I'mgone."

  He slowly spread his hand flat, so that his fingers and thumb ceased toform so many posts and rails about the reptile, or a fleshly cage. Inimagination he saw the dusky grey creature crawl off his hand gladlyinto the dewy bed, and it made him more sad to find how ready everythingwas to be free, and he never for a moment thought about how he was goingto play as ungrateful a part, and march off too.

  "Good-bye, Sam," he said, as he recalled how he had played with andtickled that toad, and how it had enjoyed it all, and turned over to berubbed. Then he seemed to see it walk in its heavy, cumbrous way slowlyoff, with its bright golden eyes glistening, till it sat down in ahollow, and watched him go.

  But it was all fancy. The toad did not crawl out of his hand among theverbenas, nor go right away, but sat perfectly motionless where it was,evidently, from its acting, perfectly warm, comfortable, and contented.

  "Well, Sam, why don't you go!" said Dexter softly. "Do you hear?"

  He gave his hand a jar by striking the back on the earth, but the toaddid not move, and when he touched it with his right hand, it was to findthe fat squat reptile squeezed up together like a bun.

  He stroked it, and rubbed it, as he had rubbed it scores of timesbefore, and the creature once more pressed up against his fingers, whileDexter forgot everything else in the gratification of finding his uglypet appreciate his attentions.

  "Now then! off you go!" he cried quickly; but the creature did not stir.

  "Are you going?" said Dexter. "Come: march."

  Again it did not stir.

  "He don't want to go," cried the boy, changing it from, one hand to theother; and the next moment he was holding it, nose downward, over hisjacket-pocket, when the toad, pretty actively for one of its kind, beganto work its legs and dived slowly down beneath the pocket-handkerchiefcrumpled-up there, and settled itself at the bottom.

  "It seems to know," cried Dexter. "And it shall go with me after all."

  Curious boy! some one may say, but Dexter had had few opportunities forturning his affections in ordinary directions, and hence it was thatthey were lavished upon a toad.

  Indoors, when he stole back after setting all his pets at liberty toshift for themselves, Dexter felt very guilty. He encountered MrsMillett in the hall, and a thrill ran through him as she exclaimed--

  "Ah, there you are, Master Dexter, I just want a few words with you."

  "Found out!" thought the guilty conscience, which needs no accuser.

  "Now just you look here, sir," said the old housekeeper, in a loudvoice, as she literally button-holed the boy, by hooking one thin fingerin his jacket, so that he could not get away, "I know all."

  "You--you know everything," faltered the boy.

  "Yes, sir. Ah, you may well look 'mure. You little thought I knew."

  "How--how did you find out?" he stammered.

  "Ah! how did I find out, indeed! Now, look here, am I to go straight tothe doctor and tell him!"

  "No, no, pray don't," whispered Dexter, catching her arm.

  "Well, then, I must tell Miss Helen."

  "No, no, not this time," cried Dexter imploringly; and his tone softenedthe old lady, who shook the borders of her cap at him.

  "Well, I don't know what to say," said Mrs Millett softly. "Theycertainly ought to know."

  Dexter gazed at her wildly. He knew that everything must come out, butit was to have been in a few hours' time, when he was far away, and deafto the angry words and reproaches. To hear them now seemed more than hecould bear. It could not be. Bob Dimsted must think and say what heliked, and be as angry and unforgiving as was possible. It could not benow. He must plead to the old housekeeper for pardon, and give up allidea of going away.

  "Ah!" she said. "I see you are sorry for it, then."

  "Yes, yes," he whispered. "So sorry, and--and--"

  "You'll take it this time, like a good boy!"

  "Take it?"

  "Yes, sir. Ah! you can't deceive me. Last time I saw the empty glass Iknew as well as could be that you hadn't taken it, for the outside ofthe glass wasn't sticky, and there were no marks of your mouth at theedge. I always put plenty of sugar in it for you, and that showed."

  "The camomile-tea!" thought Dexter, a dose of which the old ladyexpected him to take about once a week, and which never did him anyharm, if it never did him any good.

  "And you'll take it to-night, sir, like a good boy!"

  "Yes, yes, I will indeed," said Dexter, with the full intention ofkeeping his word out of gratitude for his escape.

  "Now, that's like being a good boy," said the old lady, smiling, andextricating her fingers from his button-hole, so
as to stroke his hair."It will do you no end of good; and how you have improved since you havebeen here, my dear, your hair's grown so nicely, and you've got such agood pink colour in your cheeks. It's the camomile-tea done that."

  Mrs Millett leaned forward with her hands on the boy's shoulder, andkissed him in so motherly a way that Dexter felt a catching of thebreath, and kissed her again.

  "That's right," said the old lady. "You ain't half so bad as Mariapretends you are. `It's only a bit of mischief now and then,' I says toher, `and he's only a boy,' and that's what you are, ain't it, my dear?"

  Dexter did not answer.

  "I shall put your dose on your washstand, and you mind and take it themoment you get out of bed to-morrow morning."

  "Yes," said Dexter dismally.

  "No! you'll forget it. You've got to take that camomile-tea to-night,and if you don't promise me you will, I shall come and see you take it."

  "I promise you," said Dexter, and the old lady nodded and went upstairs,while the boy hung about in the hall.

  How was it that just now, when he was going away, people were beginningto seem more kind to him, and something began to drag at his heart tokeep him from going?

  He could not tell. An hour before he had felt a wild kind of elation.He was going to be free from lessons, the doctor's admonitions, and thetame regular life at the house, to be off in search of adventure, andwith Bob for his companion, going all over the world in that boat, whilenow, in spite of all he could do, he did not feel so satisfied and sure.

  There was something else he knew that he ought to do. He could not bidHelen good-bye with his lips, but he felt that he must bid her farewellanother way, for she had always been kind to him from the day he came.

  He crept into the study again, this time without being seen.

  There was a faint light in the pleasant room, for the doctor's lamp hadbeen turned down, but not quite out.

  A touch sent the flame brightly round the ring, and the shade cast awarm glow on the boy's busy fingers as he took out paper and envelope;and then, with trembling hand, sore heart, and a pen that spluttered, heindited another letter, this time to Helen.

  My dear Miss Grayson,

  I am afraid you will think me a very ungrateful boy, but I am obliged to go away to seek my fortune all over the world. You have been so kind to me, and so has Doctor Grayson sometimes, but everybody else has hated me, and made game of me because I was a workhouse boy, and I could not bear it any longer, and Bob Dimsted said he wouldn't if he was me, and we are going away together not to come back again any more.--I am,

  Your Affec Friend.

  Dexter Grayson.

  _PS_--I mean Obed Coleby, for I ought not to call myself Dexter any more, and I would have scratched it out, only you always said it was better not to scratch out mistakes because they made the paper look so untidy.

  I like you very much, and Mrs Millett too, but I can't take her fiz-- physick to-night.

  Is physick spelt with a k?

  There was a tear--a weak tear in each of Dexter's eyes as he wrote thisletter, for it brought up many a pleasant recollection of kindnesses onHelen's part.

  He had just finished, folded and directed this, when he fancied he hearda door open across the hall.

  Thrusting the note into his pocket so hastily that one corner went intothe toad, he caught up a piece of the doctor's foolscap, and beganrapidly to make a triangle upon it, at whose sides and points he placedletters, and then, feeling like the miserable impostor he was, herapidly let his pen trace a confused line of _A's_ and _B's_ and _C's_,and these backwards and forwards.

  This went on for some minutes, so that there was a fair show upon thepaper, when the door softly opened, Helen peered in, and then comingbehind him bent down, and, in a very gentle and sisterly way, placed herhands over his eyes.

  "Why, my poor hard-working boy," she said gently. "So this is where youare; and, oh dear, oh dear! Euclid again. That Mr Limpney will wearyour brains all away. There, come along, I am going to play to papa,and then you and I will have a game at draughts."

  Dexter rose with his heart beating, and that strange sensation ofsomething tugging at his conscience. Why were they all so kind to himto-night, just when he was going away?

  "Why, you look quite worn out and dazed, Dexter," said Helen merrily."There, come along."

  "Eh? Where was he? In mischief?" said the doctor sharply, as theyentered the drawing-room.

  "Mischief? No, papa: for shame!" cried Helen, with her arm resting onthe boy's shoulders. "In your study, working away at those terriblesides and angles invented by that dreadful old Greek Euclid."

  "Work, eh? Ha! that's good!" cried the doctor jovially. "Bravo,Dexter! I am glad."

  If ever a boy felt utterly ashamed of himself, Dexter did then. Hecould not meet the doctor's eye, but was on his way to get a book toturn over, so as to have something to look at, but this was not to be.

  "No, no, you have had enough of books for one day, Dexter. Come andturn over the music for me. Why! what's that?"

  "That?" said Dexter slowly, for he did not comprehend.

  "Yes, I felt it move. You have something alive in your pocket."

  He felt prompted to lie, but he could not tell a falsehood then, and hestood with his teeth set.

  "Whatever have you got alive in your pocket?" said the doctor. "I know.A young rabbit, for a guinea."

  "Is it?" cried Helen. "Let me look: they are such pretty littlethings."

  "Yes, out with it, boy, and don't pet those things too much. Kill themwith kindness, you know. Here, let me take it out."

  "No, no!" cried Dexter hastily.

  "Well, take it out yourself."

  A spasm of dread had run through the boy, as in imagination he saw thedoctor's hand taking out the letter in his pocket.

  "It isn't a young rabbit," he faltered.

  "Well, what is it, then? Come, out with it."

  Dexter hesitated for a few moments, and now met the doctor's eye. Hecould not help himself, but slowly took out his pocket-handkerchief, ashe held the note firmly with his left hand outside the jacket. Then,diving in again, he got well hold of Sam, who was snug at the bottom,and, with burning cheeks, and in full expectation of a scolding, drewthe toad slowly forth.

  "Ugh!" ejaculated Helen.

  The doctor, who was in a most amiable temper, burst into a roar oflaughter.

  "Well, you are a strange boy, Dexter," he said, as he wiped his eyes."You ought to be a naturalist by and by. There, open the window, andput the poor thing outside. You can find plenty another time."

  Dexter obeyed, glad to be out of his quandary, and this time, as he putSam down, the reptile crawled slowly away into the soft dark night.

  He closed the window, and went back to find the doctor and Helen allsmiles, and ready to joke instead of scold. Then he went to the piano,and turned over the music, the airs and songs making him feel more andmore sad, and again and again he found himself saying--

  "Why are they so kind to me now, just as I am going away?"

  "Shall I stop!" he said to himself, after a time.

  "No: I promised Bob I would come, and so I will."