QUIETNESS^DICK 
 
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 PRINTED IN U.S.A. 
 
 Cornell University Library 
 
 PZ 3.V5945Q 
 
 The quietness o» Dick, 
 
5] pi Cornell University 
 WB Library 
 
 The original of this book is in 
 the Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
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THE QUIETNESS OF DICK 
 
Dick Shot Straight over the Dashboard, and Tod Dropped 
 Gently from the Back of the Cart into a Dish of 
 Cakes. — Page 26. 
 
THE 
 
 QUIETNESS OF DICK 
 
 BY 
 
 R. E. VERNEDE 
 
 ILLUSTRATIONS BY 
 
 VICTOR PERARD 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY 
 
 1911 
 
V59<75£? 
 
 COFYRIGHT, 191 1, 
 BY 
 
 HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY 
 
 Published April, ign 
 
 
 
 '^/tfiiu^ ..."'' 
 
 THE QUtNN A BODEN CO. PRESS 
 RAHWAY, H. J. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 I. Dick Is Invited i 
 
 II. Dick Arrives 10 
 
 IIL Concerning Smugglers 27 
 
 IV. An Affray in Miclestead 41 
 
 V. Dick Makes Himself at Home .... 57 
 
 VI. An Opportunity Offers Itself ... 76 
 
 VII. A Rock Climb and a Rescue .... 84 
 
 VIII. The Shooting of the Wild Goat . . .103 
 
 IX. Dick Reassures the Major 123 
 
 X. Tod's Poacher . . ... 136 
 
 XI. Mrs. Wilton Has a Quiet Day . . . .158 
 
 XII. The Quiet Day Continued 175 
 
 XIII. The Quiet Day Further Continued . 185 
 
 XIV. The End of the Quiet Day 206 
 
 XV. Disappearance of Tod 218 
 
 XVI. Dick on the Trail 225 
 
 XVII. The Professional Detective 237 
 
 XVIII. The Watch on the Dunes 244 
 
 XIX. The Buried Ship 256 
 
 XX. Tod as Picador 267 
 
 XXI. Dick Finishes Up 281 
 
ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 Dick Shot Straight over the Dashboard, and 
 Tod Dropped Gently from the Back of the 
 Cart into a Dish of Cakes .... Frontispiece 
 
 FACING 
 PAGE 
 
 Dick by a Tremendous Zigzag Had Mounted Another 
 
 Five or Six Feet 94 
 
 He Clubbed His Gun as the Swimmer Stretched a 
 
 Lean Arm over the Stern 118 
 
 The Loop Settled Beautifully over the Man's Head 
 and Dropped Almost to His Knees Before Tod 
 Thought of Tightening 152 
 
THE QUIETNESS OF DICK 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 DICK IS INVITED 
 
 T"\ICK'S invitation arose out of Tod's boredom. 
 Tod had been in the extremities of boredom 
 for nearly a week. Only the day before he had felt 
 so dull that he had condescended to bandy words 
 with a fisher-boy from Miclestead who had provoked 
 him over the fence, and adjourning as in honor 
 bound to a field sufficiently distant to be considered 
 neutral territory, had received a black eye. As if 
 that were not trial enough, he had been unable 
 to conceal the fight, or rather, the results of it, 
 from his mother. 
 
 " Why did you let the nasty boy come near you, 
 Tod ? " she asked, fussing over him in great distress. 
 
 " I didn't," retorted Tod, resentfully, " I went 
 for him " 
 
2 The Quietness of Dick 
 
 "Oh, Tod!" Mrs. Wilton was busily applying 
 raw beef-steak to the injured eye, in spite of Tod's 
 remonstrances. " How could you ? " 
 
 "Well, I'd nothing else to do," explained 
 Tod. "You're always trotting about with Miss 
 Revers, and pater's busy, and I'm jolly sick 
 of it." 
 
 Tod's affection for his mother was sometimes 
 put to severe trials. 
 
 He reflected bitterly that, as result of this con- 
 fession, she had invited the Pollabys to tea — 
 Augustus and the girls. Tod detested all girls, and 
 , ^ Augustus Pollaby was worse than a girl. Now he 
 and his sisters were coming to tea on Saturday. 
 That was all the comfort he had got by admitting 
 he was dull. And it certainly was dull to be quite 
 alone for the holidays.' Still a fortnight of them 
 remained, and he was already half wishing that 
 he was back at school, where at any rate he would 
 have companions who were not girls. 
 
 Companionship was what he wanted. Even the 
 joy of shooting rabbits with his own gun, to which 
 he had been promoted on his birthday, was begin- 
 
Dick Is Invited 3 
 
 ning to pall, and solitary bathing was no fun what- 
 ever. Brooding over these things Tod wore so 
 dismal a countenance at luncheon the following day 
 that Mrs. Wilton became concerned. 
 
 " I really think we must go somewhere," she said 
 to her husband afterwards. " Tod isn't enjoying 
 his holidays. And he's so good, and brought back 
 such a nice character from school last term, that 
 I do think he ought to." 
 
 "What's that about Tod?" asked Mr. Wilton, 
 looking up from the papers with which he - was 
 busy. He thought that his wife was rather inclined 
 to spoil Tod, and muttered something to the effect 
 that in his day boys did not require so much looking 
 after. " Tod's an ungrateful young scoundrel," he 
 added. " Isn't that the character they gave him at 
 school?" 
 
 " Not at all," said Mrs. Wilton, drawing Tod's 
 report out of a bag she always carried. " Mr. 
 Turvey says that ' Tod is very steady on the whole, 
 and cannot fail to improve in Latin if he gives 
 his mind to it.' " 
 
 " Humph ! " said Mr. Wilton. 
 
4 The Quietness of Dick 
 
 " Isn't that a very good character? " asked Mrs. 
 Wilton, triumphantly. 
 
 "Pretty fair," said Mr. Wilton. "I should 
 say it meant he does as little as he can, 
 and " 
 
 " I'm sure it doesn't," said Mrs. Wilton, indig- 
 nantly. "Tod is never idle. He takes after me 
 a good deal. And I'm afraid if he gets too de- 
 pressed he may get into mischief." 
 
 " You always get into mischief, don't you ? " 
 
 " Be serious ! " said Mrs. Wilton, imploringly. 
 " If you don't think we can go away -" 
 
 " I don't " 
 
 "Couldn't we invite a friend of Tod's — that 
 Dick whom he is always talking about — to spend a 
 fortnight here ? He seems such a very nice sensible 
 boy " 
 
 " You think he'd keep Tod out of mischief ? " 
 
 " That's what I hoped," said Mrs. Wilton. 
 
 Her husband laughed. 
 
 " Just as you like, Kat," he said. " I never heard 
 
 that two boys were better than one for keeping out 
 
 . . of mischief. But bless your soul, what is life with- 
 
Dick Is Invited 5 
 
 out mischief to a boy! Here comes Tod ... see 
 if he likes the idea." 
 
 Tod had just come in with his hands in his 
 pockets, and his most blase expression. He was a 
 fair-haired boy, short for his age, and rather broad, 
 which gave him, to his horror, an appearance of 
 being fat. He had never forgotten or forgiven a 
 lady who was calling on his mother one afternoon 
 when he was about seven years old, and called him, 
 meaning to please, " a plump darling." 
 
 " Hullo, pater," he said cheerily enough, catching 
 sight of his father; " what are you up to ? " 
 
 " Business," said his father. " But your mother's 
 got a proposal to make to you, which isn't." 
 
 " It's not to go to tea with those beastly Jittle 
 creatures at Monnaway," said Tod, hastily, looking 
 about him warily. 
 
 "Oh, Tod!" said Mrs. Wilton, "they're such 
 sweet little girls." 
 
 " Blow girls ! " said Tod, shortly. 
 
 " And they would be so pleased to have you to 
 play with them any afternoon . . . they said so. 
 ... So would Augustus. But it wasn't that. 
 
6 The Quietness of Dick 
 
 We were wondering if you would like to have a 
 friend for a week or two to stop with you." 
 
 "Dick?" asked Tod, eagerly. 
 
 " Dick is that nice quiet school-friend you told 
 us of, isn't he?" said Mrs. Wilton. 
 
 "Did I?" said Tod. 
 
 " No pirates admitted, mind," said his father. " I 
 won't have your mother's life made a burden." 
 
 Tod hesitated a moment before he replied. He 
 had a fairly scrupulous regard for the truth, but 
 also a great desire to have Dick on a visit. In 
 his mind's eye he already saw himself and Dick 
 rabbiting, boating, bathing, walking, exploring, and 
 making the whole place hum with pleasant escapades. 
 Without Dick the holidays would be hardly toler- 
 able. And then, although Dick was not exactly 
 what one could call quiet — it often took people quite 
 a long time to find it out. Some people never found 
 it out at all. The wife of the Reverend Adolphus 
 Turvey, the head-master of their school, was very 
 fond of Dick, and even the Reverend Turvey him- 
 self usually missed finding out Dick's precise re- 
 sponsibility in matters of wrong-doing, partly of 
 
Dick Is Invited 7 
 
 course because Dick was so good at work, but chiefly 
 because he looked so eminently peaceable. So that 
 when Mrs. Wilton repeated anxiously that she 
 hoped Dick was quiet, Tod prevaricated. 
 
 " I'm sure you'd like him, mater," he said. " Mrs. 
 Topsey — the Tail, the Head's wife, you know — 
 almost kisses him. He's got the quietest man- 
 ners you can think of. Of course he isn't 
 soppy." 
 
 " Soppy ? " Mrs. Wilton was easily puzzled by 
 her son's slang. Some mothers are. 
 
 " Milk-soppy," Tod explained. " But he's very 
 decent and polite and all that sort of thing, besides 
 being clever. He could help me with my holiday 
 work." 
 
 " That would be very nice," said Mrs. Wilton. 
 
 " If we had any time," Tod put in this saving 
 clause, " I don't suppose we shall. When had he 
 better come ? To-morrow ? We could send a tele- 
 gram to-day. He's still at the school." 
 
 "At the school?" 
 
 Tod explained: 
 
 " People in India. It's jolly hard lines on Dick. 
 
8 The Quietness of Dick 
 
 Of course he's awfully sick at having to stop with 
 old Topsey." 
 
 " Poor boy," said Mrs. Wilton, warming towards 
 him. " I shall telegraph at once and ask him to 
 stop for the fortnight. I do hope he will enjoy 
 himself here." 
 
 " Rather! " said Tod. " He'll be all right. I'll 
 go over with Bumpstead in the dog-cart and bring 
 him back. He'll get in by the three to-morrow 
 afternoon, I should think. Bricks for you, mater ! " 
 
 "My dear Tod!" 
 
 Mrs. Wilton knew that she was being compli- 
 mented, but was not desirous of encouraging Tod's 
 strange language. He did use such curious ex- 
 pressions, school phrases no doubt, but still hardly 
 calculated to adorn the drawing-room. Perhaps this 
 nice friend of Tod's would act as a slight restraint 
 upon him. Tod would probably take more trouble, 
 Mrs. Wilton thought, to appear at his best in his 
 friend's eyes. But in the meantime Tod had van- 
 ished. He was getting out wickets and fishing rods, 
 and inspecting the boathouse where Mr. Wilton kept 
 his boats, in the cove at the bottom of the cliff. 
 
Dick Is Invited 9 
 
 The rowing boat that was Tod's own particular 
 property took on a new air of adventure, and the 
 stable boy, who did odd jobs, was given directions 
 to have bait enough to last for some months ready 
 by to-morrow at latest. 
 
 Then Tod cleaned his gun, then he went and 
 worried the keeper; finally, when every one was get- 
 ting tired of his new energy, he went to meet the 
 telegraph boy halfway. Luckily the Reverend Tur- 
 vey had been in, so that a reply telegram had come to 
 say that he should be delighted to allow Dick to 
 enjoy the hospitality of Mrs. Wilton for the period 
 named. 
 
 " Bricks for Topsey! " said Tod. 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 DICK ARRIVES 
 
 TT was ten miles from the Wiltons' place to the 
 little branch line station where Dick was due to 
 arrive, and Tod was quite certain all the way that 
 Bumpstead was driving too slowly. As a matter of 
 fact they got there ten minutes before the train 
 came in. . When it did come puffing along very 
 slowly, a straw hat and half Dick's body out of 
 one of the windows sufficed to show. that Dick 
 was in it. 
 
 Tod had gone to the extremity of the platform 
 to meet it, and traveled back on the footboard. 
 There were two elderly ladies in the carriage with 
 Dick, and one of them kept calling out, " Guard ! 
 Quick . . . guard ! Station-master ! " Tod thought 
 at first that she did not like his hanging on, but to 
 judge from Dick's attempts at consolation, he had 
 nothing to do with the matter. 
 
 10 
 
Dick Arrives n 
 
 " It's all right, really," Dick kept saying. " It's 
 only Squiffy. He's as tame as a cat. Take him 
 on your lap if you like. He'd eat out of your hand 
 if you had anything he liked." 
 
 " Gracious ! " cried the old lady in horror. And 
 the other shrieked. 
 
 "A rat!" 
 
 " But it isn't a rat," expostulated Dick ; " it's a 
 weasel, ma'am. They're awfully rare in captiv- 
 ity " 
 
 He made a dive under the seat of the carriage, 
 and jumped out as the train slowed down, hat-box 
 in hand. The ladies renewed their cries for the 
 guard. 
 
 " Hang on to Squiffy, Tod," he said, holding out 
 the hat-box, " I brought him along because Topsey 
 would have found out if I had left him. Besides 
 there was nobody to feed him. He's inside my 
 topper . . . quite comfy. But there was no time 
 to get him anything to eat, and he's just begun 
 squeaking away the last mile or so. I had to pre- 
 tend to the old ladies that there was a screw loose 
 in the -carriage, as I knew they'd funk anything 
 
12 The Quietness of Dick 
 
 ratty. They thought the train was going to blow 
 up." 
 
 " It's against the Company's regulations to carry 
 such a creature," said one of the old ladies, putting 
 her head out of the window in great indignation. 
 "Guard!" 
 
 " I know," said Dick, sympathetically. " I'm 
 awfully sorry you've been inconvenienced. But I 
 thought you looked nervous, so I didn't like to tell 
 you exactly what it was." 
 
 " How dared you do it ! " said the old lady. . . . 
 " An evil-smelling beast. Guard, I insist on having 
 this reported at once." 
 
 " Yes, 'm," said the guard, who had come up, 
 grinning. 
 
 " Where is the station-master? " 
 
 " He's a-coming, mum, I think " 
 
 " You'd better bolt, Tod," said Dick, anxiously, 
 " or they may nab Squiffy. If you clear out with 
 my hat I'll prove an alibi." 
 
 Tod departed through the booking-office just be- 
 fore the station-master arrived. He could hear that 
 dignified person beginning : 
 
Dick Arrives 13 
 
 " Now, madam, what can I do for you? " 
 
 Dick was talking to two or three porters gathered 
 round. " I say, you chaps, the train won't wait all 
 day, and I've got a bag somewhere. It's this 
 end." 
 
 He dived off in the direction of the luggage van 
 while the old ladies renewed their complaints. 
 
 " Just stick that bag on the dog-cart," Dick said. 
 " Here's my ticket. There's a way out here, isn't 
 there?" 
 
 He was out of the station by a side gate long 
 before the station-master could grasp the issues of 
 the case. 
 
 " Look here, Tod," he continued, climbing up into 
 the front seat of the dog-cart beside Bumpstead, 
 " we may as well move on, don't you think ? It's 
 an awful fuss to make about a weasel, especially as 
 it can't be helped now. That's the worst of old 
 ladies." 
 
 " Their name's Boodeney," said Tod, who had 
 kept himself out of the direct line of view all along, 
 " sisters of Squire Boodeney, who lives about seven 
 miles from us. They go on to the next station. I 
 
14 The Quietness of Dick 
 
 expect they will tell my mater all about it next time 
 they call." 
 
 " Silly sort of people to have calling," said Dick, 
 " but I suppose your mother can't pick and choose. 
 It was jolly decent of her to have me anyhow. Is 
 this Bumpstead ? Tod's told me all about you." 
 
 Dick rattled on, being in the highest spirits, de- 
 spite what might have been regarded as the narrow 
 escape of Squiffy. Bumpstead grinned delightedly 
 to see Master Tod's friend. For Dick, with his 
 polite and affable manner, always made a good first 
 impression. Dick's bag had just been hoisted up 
 on to the seat behind, beside Tod, and one of the 
 porters, pleased with Dick's tip, volunteered the in- 
 formation that the station-master was just coming 
 out. 
 
 " Maybe we'll be moving on, then," said Bump- 
 stead. 
 
 " The sooner the better," said Dick. 
 
 He waved his hand graciously to the station- 
 master, as they started down the road, to the 
 music of Squiffy's squeaking, which had just been 
 renewed. 
 
Dick Arrives 15 
 
 "Be thiccy rat all right under t' seat?" Bump- 
 stead inquired, as the mare pricked up her ears. 
 
 " Rather," said Dick, " and save you from using 
 the whip if he goes on like that." 
 
 " Ah ! " said Bumpstead, " t'is a flightsome noise 
 and t' mare not ower steady." 
 
 This was somewhat obvious, but Dick assured 
 Bumpstead, kicking his hat-box the while to quiet 
 Squiffy's nerves, that with a driver like him 
 nothing mattered. This gratified Bumpstead, even 
 if it did not make him feel altogether secure. Tod 
 was busy pointing out views along the road, which 
 ran between the gorse and heather of a moor before 
 it began to grow narrow and dip between the high 
 hedges that shut off the country round and were full 
 of the heavy atmosphere of honeysuckle. 
 
 " We're ten miles from the station," said Tod, 
 proudly, " and a pretty road all the way. Lots of 
 lizards and vipers on the moor; and very decent 
 bird's-nesting. But I like it by the sea best. We've 
 got a boat to ourselves, Dick — I told you, didn't I ? 
 And we can go to lots of places. Mother always 
 fancies I'm drowned till I get back. By the way " — 
 
1 6 The Quietness of Dick 
 
 Tod suddenly recollected— " she's rather nervous, 
 and she wanted to know if you were quiet. I said 
 you were — at least I didn't say you weren't. It's 
 all right, of course, you'll get round her." 
 
 "Why shouldn't I?" Dick inquired. He was 
 not accustomed to think about himself as quiet or 
 the reverse. 
 
 " You will" said Tod, a little uneasily. " Only 
 you know " 
 
 "What?" 
 
 " I've more or less made her think you were 
 quiet." 
 
 "Well, I am," said Dick. "Lambs not in it. 
 She won't mind Squiffy, will she ? " 
 
 " No, she likes animals," Tod said. 
 
 "What about your father?" asked Dick. 
 
 " Oh, he's all right," said Tod. " He's not so 
 keen on my being an angel. He's shot tigers with 
 Major Culliemore. I expect Major Culliemore'll 
 be coming round soon. He's about the best shot 
 there is living." 
 
 Dick nodded approbation. 
 
 "Every one ought to shoot a tiger," he said. 
 
Dick Arrives 17 
 
 " I'm going to as soon as I can — and a rhinoceros. 
 I think I'd rather shoot a rhinoceros of the two." 
 
 "I expect Major Culliemore has," said Tod. 
 " At present he's keen on poachers — at least my 
 pater is, and he and Squire Boodeney have promised 
 to join him in a raid some night. It's rather a 
 secret though at present." ' 
 
 " We might help," said Dick, thoughtfully. 
 
 "I hadn't thought of that," said Tod, "but I 
 don't see why we shouldn't. I don't suppose they'll 
 want us." 
 
 " That wbuldft't matter," said Dick. 
 
 " No," said Tod, doubtfully. 
 
 " All the better," said Dick. 
 
 " Rather," said Tod, carried away from his sober 
 state of mind. " We could hunt round on our own. 
 There's been some smuggling tried lately, too. We 
 might find some kegs. So long as mater doesn't 
 get into a funk, we can make things hop." 
 
 Tod, having slipped back into Dick's way of look- 
 ing at things, had completely forgotten his bore- 
 dom. For Dick, whether quiet or not, had no con- 
 ception of what dullness meant. To him at present 
 
1 8 The Quietness of Dick 
 
 the world in general was a huge preserve full of 
 springs and traps and trespass boards among which, 
 if one was to find one's proper pleasure in life, one 
 must adventure gaily in search of game. The notices 
 were there for Dick simply in order to be disre- 
 garded : pastors and masters were so many game- 
 keepers, doing their duty, no doubt, and to be treated 
 in a friendly and polite manner, so long as they did 
 not see too far ; but if they were prying, they were 
 to be taken advantage of as much as possible. Dick 
 never minded being caught red-handed, nor did he 
 bear any malice to the catcher: he only objected 
 to those who said that it was a painful duty to them 
 to punish him. He never could see why it should 
 be painful to them. As they drove along, Tod saw 
 through Dick's eyes new chances and opportunities 
 in every hedge and turn of the road, every pond 
 and coppice that they passed. Things took on new 
 color and profound interest of adventure places. 
 There one could hide from an irate squire after 
 ferreting his rabbits; in that stream one could hide 
 one's tracks, supposing (which was most unlikely 
 in reality, but not at all improbable to Tod when 
 
Dick Arrives 19 
 
 Dick suggested it) the squire pursued with a blood- 
 hound. 
 
 Tod's recent boredom had in fact become an 
 ill-restrained zeal for mischief long before Bump- 
 stead pulled up at a small cottage on one side of 
 the road, and said that that was where Mrs. Chirk, 
 the laundress, lived. 
 
 " Do you want to see her ? " Tod asked, seeing 
 that they had stopped. 
 
 Bumpstead scratched his head with the whip. 
 
 " Tiddn't that I want to see her," he said, slowly, 
 " but there was a message from t' mistress to be 
 given, and I doan't see nobbody about. Hi ! " he 
 shouted to a small child that appeared at the mo- 
 ment from a field close by, " be Mrs. Chirk in 
 t' house?" 
 
 " No," said the child. 
 
 "Where be she, then?" 
 
 " She's in the orchard, dryin'," said the 
 child. 
 
 " P'raps you'd better get down," suggested Tod, 
 giving Dick a poke in the back to convey that some- 
 thing lay behind this. Dick, always alert on. these 
 
20 The Quietness of Dick 
 
 occasions, leant back with his hand over his mouth. 
 
 "What is it?" he asked. 
 
 "Bumpy's spoony on Mrs. Chirk," whispered 
 Tod, " it would be rather fun if we could spot 'em 
 together in the orchard." 
 
 " I doan't know what tew do," said Bumpstead 
 at this moment. 
 
 " Shall I hold the reins? " Dick said promptly. 
 
 It may have been that Bumpstead thought that to 
 go to the orchard would be the quickest method of 
 delivering his message, or it may have been, as Tod 
 suggested, that he yearned to see Mrs. Chirk there. 
 He certainly looked as if he wanted to get down. 
 Dick stretched out his hands for the reins. Bump- 
 stead hesitated. 
 
 " I wud'n trust Master Tod," he said, slowly, 
 " not wi' t' mare. But yew understand hosses, 
 sir?" 
 
 " I love 'em," said Dick. 
 
 " Yew'll not be playing pranks ? " continued 
 Bumpstead. 
 
 " Rather not," said Dick. 
 
 And with extreme gravity, worthy of the driver 
 
Dick Arrives 21 
 
 of a stage-coach, he took the reins in his hands as 
 Burnj?stead got down. 
 
 Now one can never get at the precise cause of 
 an accident like the one that followed. Though it 
 must be admitted that Dick's lOve of horses ex- 
 ceeded his experience, he held the mare steadily 
 enough, and sternly resisted Tod's suggestion that 
 it would be rather fun to go for a short drive down 
 the road, and come back for Bumpstead later. No 
 doubt the coachman took his time. Nor did he give 
 Tod the satisfaction of being visible. The sun was 
 hot, too, and the child, with its finger in its mouth, 
 hung on the garden gate, shy but inquisitive, and 
 it occurred to Dick that it would be kind to pass 
 the time by showing it Squiffy. Unfortunately Tod 
 jumped at the idea, and though the mare was be- 
 ginning to paw the ground restlessly, without any 
 warning he brought Squiffy out of the hat-box. 
 Whether it was the unaccustomed handling, or the 
 sudden glimpse of daylight after so long an im- 
 prisonment, that made Squiffy give vent to a pierc- 
 ing squeak, only an authority on weasels can say. 
 But it was too much for the mare's equanimity. 
 
22 The Quietness of Dick 
 
 In an instant she had thrown up her heels, put down 
 her head, and bolted. 
 
 " Hullo ! " cried Tod, as he and Squiffy were 
 almost shot out from behind. 
 
 " It's all right," said Dick, explanatorily, as he 
 gripped the reins. " She seems to be running away 
 somehow . . . that's all. You'd better hold 
 
 on. 
 
 To tell the truth, Tod was holding on with might 
 and main, while the cart progressed with leaps and 
 bounds, and appalling swerves that almost took 
 away his breath. He had slid the wretched Squiffy 
 under the seat, and watched the road anxiously. 
 Just a little ahead of them it began to slope uphill, 
 though the mare did not seem to notice it. 
 
 "Can't you pull her in here, Dick?" he de- 
 manded. 
 
 "Daresay I could if I tried," said Dick, with 
 sarcasm, being red in the face with tugging. 
 
 " But there's a hill down just coming." 
 
 " Hang on then," said Dick. 
 
 His peculiar notion of driving certainly made no 
 impression on the mare. She took the straight hill 
 
Dick Arrives 23 
 
 up in a fury, shook herself on the top, and without 
 a pause began to go down like a hurricane. 
 
 " If there are any carts coming ! " said Tod. 
 
 " They'll stop," said Dick. 
 
 " Do mind the turn at the bottom," Tod pleaded. 
 
 " Do shut up," said Dick. 
 
 Rattling and bounding, the cart swept on down 
 the still straight road. Dick on the front seat could 
 see a valley of trees that went down to the sea, and 
 beyond the valley, cliffs that stood up like a wall. 
 Tod, clinging to his place, could see on the top of 
 the hill they had just left some one who might be 
 Bumpstead giving chase, with bent elbows and bow 
 legs, which seemed to scuttle along like a crab's. 
 For the mare was increasing her pace. She was 
 going too fast to stop, and if only she could keep 
 ahead of the cart, the wheels of which revolved 
 giddily fast, there was just a chance of their getting 
 to the bottom of the hill. Dick held the reins, but 
 that was about all. Now the turn in the road had 
 come and Tod shut his eyes. He could feel that 
 the cart was on one wheel at the angle of a sailing- 
 boat coming round in a strong wind, and it seemed 
 
24 The Quietness of Dick 
 
 horrible to be dashed to pieces just outside one's 
 own gates. Then the cart righted with a jerk, and 
 Tod opened his eyes. 
 
 " That's our gate, the white one that's open on 
 the left," he cried; "see if you can get through 
 on to the grass." 
 
 The mare was still going at full speed, but Dick 
 stood up with both hands on the left rein, and sat 
 down again with all his weight. Tod became aware 
 that they had passed between the gate-posts. He 
 supposed that the splintered appearance of the right 
 gate-post was accounted for by the fact that they 
 had struck it on the way. 
 
 " Get on to the grass," Tod cried again, " after 
 you have passed those two oak-trees." 
 
 The mare preferred to go on to the grass at once 
 and between the two oak-trees, though a man with 
 his back to them was walking there. 
 
 " Hi ! " yelled Dick. 
 
 The man, who happened to be Mr. Wilton, flat- 
 tened himself against one of the trees just in time. 
 
 Mrs. Wilton had arranged that tea should be 
 served on the lawn that day under the rose-hedge., 
 
Dick Arrives 25 
 
 where two beeches gave a pleasant shade; and about 
 the time that Dick, as has just been related, uncon- 
 scious of further obstacles, gave the mare her way, 
 or rather gave up trying to prevent her taking it — 
 on to the open grass, tea was in full swing. A good 
 many people had chanced to call, including Major 
 Culliemore, who was very good at handing the cups 
 poured out by Miss Betty Revers. He and Miss 
 Revers seemed to be working so effectively to- 
 gether that Mrs. Wilton had been able to give her 
 whole attention to entertaining her guests — with 
 stories about Tod and the friend he had gone to 
 the station to meet. She was jUst beginning anew 
 to Mrs. Maynard, wife of the rector. 
 
 " Such a nice quiet boy. Tod says " 
 
 When an ear-splitting yell broke the even tenor 
 of the assembly. The yell was Dick's warning of 
 the mare's arrival at an undiminished pace. That — 
 evoked by a rapid view of the tea-party and realiza- 
 tion of their danger-^-together with one last jerk, 
 was all he was capable of. By a stroke of luck 
 it did the business. For, almost before Mrs. Wilton 
 had opened her mouth to utter a cry of horror, or 
 
26 The Quietness of Dick 
 
 her guests had thought of scattering, the mare came 
 to on her haunches, Dick shot straight over the dash- 
 board, and Tod, prevented from following him in 
 the same direction by reason of the rail being 
 front of him, but unseated by the recoil, dropped 
 gently from the back of the cart into a dish of 
 cakes which had been left on the grass. 
 
 Next moment Major Culliemore had the mare 
 by the head, and Mrs. Wilton had cried frantically : 
 
 "Tod, my son!" 
 
 " I'm all right, mater," said Tod, picking himself 
 up from among the cakes. . . . " Is Dick?" 
 
 " Rather," said the Jehu. ..." Wasn't it rip- 
 ping? " 
 
 " Oh, my dear boy ! " said Mrs. Wilton, divided 
 between gratitude and faintness. ..." How can 
 you? Are you really not hurt? How ever did it 
 happen? . . . Yes, Mrs. Maynard, this is Tod's 
 friend, Dick. The— the boy I was telling you 
 about." 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 CONCERNING SMUGGLERS 
 
 /CONTRARY, it must be confessed, to his own 
 expectations, Dick received praise rather than 
 blame for the manner in which he had arrived with 
 the dog-cart on the lawn and into the middle of 
 Mrs. Wilton's tea-party. Bumpstead, when he 
 turned up at last, purple in the face and altogether 
 crumpled, was so convinced that the startling of 
 the mare was all Master Tod's fault, and that, 
 judging from what he had seen, only Master Dick's 
 brilliant handling of the reins had prevented whole- 
 sale disaster, that, although Dick spoke up for his 
 friend, and assured Mr. Wilton that the whole 
 affair was an accident, and neither of them had 
 done anything either to hasten or prevent it, never- 
 theless he found himself established in high favor. 
 Tod got a wigging. This was hard lines on Tod, 
 since, as a matter of fact, it was — as we have seen — 
 
 37 
 
28 The Quietness of Dick 
 
 mostly Squiffy 's fault, or else Bumpstead's, for 
 desiring to interview Mrs. Chirk, and the weasel 
 no more belonged to Tod than did the coachman. 
 But Tod was practised in misfortunes, Dick's com- 
 pany was sufficient consolation, and both of them 
 made a very good tea. 
 
 Major Culliemore, whom Dick entertained with 
 many school anecdotes, while finishing the tea-cakes, 
 was perhaps a little more suspicious of Dick's merits 
 and supposed peaceable habits, than Mrs. Wilton 
 would have been pleased to know of. But he liked 
 him. 
 
 " He's the kind of boy who's just as likely to 
 get out of scrapes as into them," said the Major 
 to Miss ReVers, when Dick had gone off to make 
 himself polite to his hostess. " Scrapes are made 
 for boys like Dick. In fact without boys like Dick 
 there'd be no scrapes." 
 
 Miss Revers nodded appreciatively. 
 
 " He's a nice boy," she said, " but I shall keep 
 an eye on him, or I'm sure Mrs. Wilton will be 
 worried out of her life." 
 
 It was one thing, as the Major could have told 
 
Concerning Smugglers 29 
 
 her, to resolve that an eye should be kept on Dick, 
 and quite another thing to carry out the resolve. 
 To take a mild instance of that difficulty — any one 
 might have supposed that Dick, when he retired 
 that night, to the bedroom assigned to him, would 
 have been glad, after the fatigues of the day, imme- 
 diately to go to sleep. Mrs. Wilton had supposed 
 so, and had exhorted Tod not to keep his 
 friend up talking. Tod even had supposed so, 
 and after talking for about an hour and a half 
 in Dick's room, had bidden him good-night and 
 gone off. But because Dick, in the course of un- 
 dressing, discovered that a ledge connected his 
 window with Tod's (a huge mass of clinging ivy 
 made a further connection with the ground), he had 
 to make sure if the ledge would bear by creeping 
 along it to Tod's window in his pajamas. He was 
 nearly precipitated from it by Tod's happening, at 
 the moment of his arrival, to bang the window to. 
 "Look out," said Dick, indignantly, putting his 
 hand out just in time. And Tod, having ascer- 
 tained that it was neither a ghost nor a burglar, 
 pulled him through desperately. 
 
30 The Quietness of Dick 
 
 " Whatever did you do it for? " he asked, breath- 
 ing rather fast. 
 
 "To see what it was like," Dick explained. 
 " Now I'm going back. Come and try." 
 
 But Tod declined to pay a return call, the ledge 
 looking painfully narrow and unreliable, and Dick, 
 who was really very sleepy, did not taunt him into 
 action. 
 
 " Wait till you want to, young Tod," he said, as 
 he scrambled out on to it again ; " it'll be much 
 easier then." 
 
 " I suppose it will," said Tod, doubtfully. " Do 
 take care." 
 
 " Good-night," said Dick. 
 
 And Tod followed him with anxious eyes until 
 he had wriggled in at his window, and then dreamt 
 exciting dreams until the morning. 
 
 Rain, continuous sharp showers of rain from a 
 very gray and windy sky, was what Dick saw from 
 his window when he rose, and looking over the 
 misty tops of the beeches outside the house he could 
 only just discern a gray sea in the distance. It was 
 very annoying on his first day, which should have 
 
Concerning Smugglers 31 
 
 been a day of exploration— but, as Mrs. Wilton, 
 who was very sympathetic, said at breakfast time: 
 
 " Perhaps it won't so much matter, as the Pollabys 
 — some friends of Tod's — are coming to tea this 
 afternoon, and I daresay you will be able to amuse 
 yourselves quite nicely indoors." 
 
 Tod grunted, but Dick said he was sure of it. 
 
 " There are always lots of things to do indoors," 
 he declared. 
 
 "That's what I tell Tod," said Mrs. Wilton, 
 eagerly. " Dominoes and blindman's buff, and — 
 what is the matter, Tod? " 
 
 " I wish you'd stow dominoes, mater," said Tod, 
 gruffly. " It's bad enough having those kids at all, 
 but dominoes ! " 
 
 " Well, perhaps backgammon is nicer," said Mrs. 
 Wilton, unconscious of giving offense. " I always 
 liked it best myself, I remember; and then there's 
 snap . . . no . . . grab . . . and general . . . 
 post-office, isn't it ? " 
 
 " All right," said Tod, shortly, " Dick and I can 
 see to that, if you'll make the food decent. Come 
 along, Dick." 
 
32 The Quietness of Dick 
 
 " Where are you going ? " Mrs. Wilton asked. 
 
 This was after breakfast time, and Mr. Wilton 
 had gone off with the most casual instruction to 
 Tod to see that his friend was amused. Mrs. Wilton 
 would have felt so much more secure if he could 
 have stopped and looked after the boys. But 
 though Tod — as she knew from experience — was 
 never to be trusted, Dick at that early hour in the 
 day was looking exceedingly tidy and virtuous. 
 
 " Please don't allow Tod to lead you into mis- 
 chief," she said, seeing Tod was already out of 
 hearing. " I don't think you will, and of course I 
 don't wish to stop you from enjoying yourselves." 
 
 "Thanks," said Dick, gratefully, avoiding a 
 pledge. 
 
 "And you must make yourself quite at home, 
 my dear boy." 
 
 " Thanks, awfully," said Dick, retiring slowly, as 
 a halloo from Tod reached him. 
 
 « And " 
 
 "Dick!" 
 
 Though Tod kept calling, Dick stopped politely. 
 He did not approve of Tod's ungracious treatment 
 
Concerning Smugglers 33 
 
 of his mother. It was only a phase with Tod. 
 Dick thought Mrs. Wilton jolly. She only wanted 
 to be listened to, and then you could do anything. 
 Parents are not always so convenient. 
 
 " What I wanted to say," pursued Mrs. Wilton, 
 " only Tod is always in such a hurry to go out that 
 there is no getting him to listen, was that it would 
 be so nice if you could induce Tod to be a trifle 
 more friendly to the little Pollabys. I am afraid 
 he almost hurt Augustus' feelings last time he was 
 here — and the girls— who adore their brother. The 
 little girls are so pleasant, and I'm sure Augustus 
 is not such a ... a ... I think it's a butter- 
 head that Tod calls him. I don't exactly know what 
 Tod means by a butter-head." 
 
 Dick did not know exactly either, but he sug- 
 gested, " A rotter — the kind that puts you off." 
 
 " Oh, yes, but I don't think he can be that. He 
 gets very high marks for French from his tutor — 
 indeed, Mrs. Pollaby told me that he knows all the 
 irregular verbs — I only wish Tod did. And he's 
 very kind-hearted besides, and always so -" 
 
 "Dick! Dick!" 
 
34 The Quietness of Dick 
 
 "Perhaps you'd better go," said Mrs. Wilton, 
 giving up despairingly. " Tod is always in such a 
 hurry." 
 
 So Dick departed, having made an excellent im- 
 pression, and feeling ready for anything. 
 
 "I'm not going to allow you to get into any 
 mischief, young Tod," he said, patronizingly, when 
 he had tracked Tod to the attic, which was his 
 particular work and playroom. 
 
 " Drop it ! " said Tod. " What shall we do ? " 
 
 The wind had fallen a good deal, but it was still 
 raining, and a white mist that had come up from 
 the sea was creeping inland. Dick proposed boating, 
 but Tod, who knew what the sea would be like after 
 the night's gale, stuck at that. 
 
 " What about shooting some rabbits? " said Dick. 
 
 " Can't get near enough to see them in this 
 weather," Tod replied. 
 
 " Let's go for a walk, then," Dick said. 
 
 Bumpstead, who had been consulted before break- 
 fast, had given it as his opinion that the rain was 
 going to last the whole day, so that a walk really 
 seemed to be the only feasible thing. 
 
Concerning Smugglers 35 
 
 " Especially as we shall have to stop in this after- 
 noon to amuse those girls," said Tod, as they 
 started out in mackintoshes. " They're certain to 
 come whatever the weather's like, and I don't know 
 what they'll want to do." 
 
 " Musical chairs, I suppose," said Dick, " or a 
 spelling-bee." 
 
 " Something of that sort," said Tod, gloomily. 
 He was afraid that Dick would think that he was 
 in the habit of spending his holidays in this tame 
 manner. Tod was rather a sensitive person. As 
 a matter of fact Dick was not thinking of him at 
 all. He had just got an idea, beneficently calcu- 
 lated to please not only their guests of the after- 
 noon, but also Tod and himself. 
 
 " Where are the nearest shops ? " he asked, sud- 
 denly. 
 
 " Shops ! " said Tod. " What kind ? " 
 
 " Druggists." 
 
 " There's a kind of druggist at Miclestead." 
 
 " How far? " Dick asked. 
 
 " Depends on whether you go by the cliffs or the 
 road," Tod explained. " It's sixteen or seventeen 
 
36 The Quietness of Dick 
 
 miles if you go by the cliffs, but the road's only 
 about four." 
 
 " Let's go by the road, then," said Dick. " I sup- 
 pose we can get there and back before lunch?" 
 Having Mrs. Wilton's trustful entreaty about look- 
 ing after Tod still fresh in his mind, he was 
 anxious to do all things with decorum; and Tod, 
 who could not be expected to allow for the delays 
 that Dick's companionship sometimes entailed (even 
 when Dick was in the most thoughtful frame of 
 mind), being quite certain they could get to Micle- 
 stead and back within the time, Dick proposed that 
 they should make for the village at once. 
 
 " We're on the road now," said Tod, " but what 
 do you want at a druggist's ? " 
 
 " Cough-drops," said Dick, in the tone that Tod, 
 who was accustomed frequently to embark with 
 Dick under orders, knew to mean that he would 
 have to wait and see. 
 
 Four miles is little more than an hour's walk 
 to two sturdy boys, and it is not unlikely that Dick 
 and Tod would have arrived at Miclestead in that 
 time, if Tod had not remembered a favorite spot 
 
Concerning Smugglers 37 
 
 of his on the moors, and taken Dick off the road to 
 see it. 
 
 This spot was one where some sharp rocks rose 
 up out of a sea of gorse, three miles from the 
 actual sea-cliff's edge. Far off you could see on the 
 horizon the grayness of the sea over the cliff-line, 
 but here was gorse and ling, where in fine weather 
 butterflies disported themselves, and bees went 
 humming about their work; where on a rainy day 
 like the present there was no sign of life at all, 
 and only the drip of the rain in the sodden knee- 
 deep heather. 
 
 " It's supposed," said Tod, when they got to it, 
 in a drenched condition, "that a smuggler's cave 
 from the sea runs right under here, and if you listen 
 there " — Tod indicated what looked like an extra- 
 sized rabbit's burrow — " you can hear the sea com- 
 ing in at high tide." 
 
 "There seems to be a sort of rumbling," said 
 Dick, applying his ear to it. " I should like to 
 explore it." 
 
 "The difficulty is," said Tod, "that nobody 
 knows which of the caves is the entrance. There 
 
38 The Quietness of Dick 
 
 are lots of 'em. Old Inniepether — who brings crabs 
 up to the house, you know, told me about this. 
 He says the passage communicates with a farm- 
 house further inland." 
 
 " Rather a decent sort of passage to have at- 
 tached to your house," said Dick, as they moved on. 
 " The sort of place to grow mushrooms in. You 
 could keep grass-snakes there pretty safely too. 
 Were you saying, young Tod, that there were still 
 some smugglers about here?" 
 
 Tod had mentioned the fact, and dilated on it 
 with considerable pride. 
 
 " Lieutenant Peterson believes there are. He's 
 the captain of the coastguards here, and he ought 
 to know. Of course they've been stamped out 
 almost everywhere — though not as much as people 
 think — Lieutenant Peterson says. Anyhow he sus- 
 pects some people about here." 
 
 "Who?" 
 
 " The Luggs. There are several of them. They 
 drink. Two of the brothers ran their boat on a 
 rock just outside Miclestead at the beginning of 
 this year. They were drunk when they did it. Of 
 
Concerning Smugglers 39 
 
 course it makes them very hard up. They poach 
 a lot. Pater had to sentence one of them to three 
 months for it only the other day, and the beasts 
 threatened him for it. By the way " — Tod suddenly 
 recollected an awkward injunction at an awkward 
 moment — " he said perhaps I'd better not go into 
 Miclestead by myself just at present." 
 
 "Why?" 
 
 " In case any of the Luggs were unpleasant," said 
 Tod. " At least I suppose that was why. What a 
 nuisance ! " He paused and looked at Dick side- 
 ways. Now that they were not so very far 
 from Miclestead, it was very trying to have a 
 trick like this played upon one by a treacherous 
 memory. 
 
 " I suppose we oughtn't to go," he said, vacillat- 
 ing, as Dick trudged forward. 
 
 "I thought," said Dick, "that you weren't to 
 go into Miclestead by yourself? " 
 
 " Yes— do you think," said Tod, " that if " 
 
 " If you stick close to me," said Dick, " and don't 
 try going off on your own young hook, I daresay 
 you'll be all right. That's all I mean, but I can go 
 
4-0 The Quietness of Dick 
 
 by myself if you prefer it — I don't know what we 
 
 came this tremendous way round for " 
 
 It certainly was a long way round, and they did 
 not arrive in Miclestead before twelve o'clock. 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 AN AFFRAY IN MICLESTEAD 
 
 TT was raining still, but the bursts of wind and 
 wet had given way to a thin steady drizzle which 
 made Tod feel as if he had sprung a leak and was 
 sinking, spirits foremost. Dick said it was only 
 because the rain had got through his mackintosh, 
 and declared that Miclestead was a jolly place. 
 " Where's the druggist's ? " he asked. 
 
 There was only the dismal street going down to 
 the Pool, and most of the shops were huddled to- 
 gether at the landward end of it. But the druggist, 
 as Tod explained, had set up his bottles further down 
 among the fishermen's cottages, probably because he 
 also sold tobacco to the fishermen, and needles and 
 pins and reels of cotton to the fishermen's wives. 
 So Dick and Tod proceeded down the street, and 
 small torrents of rainwater rushed along the gutters 
 
 on either side, floating heads of fish and prawns' 
 
 41 
 
42 The Quietness of Dick 
 
 scales and all sorts of rubbish in their course. When 
 they did get to the druggist's, Dick recommended 
 that Tod should stay outside; and when asked for 
 a reason, said that what he was going to buy wasn't 
 sold to everybody and would certainly not be sold 
 to anybody so young-looking as Tod. 
 
 " I shan't be more than half an hour," said Dick, 
 consolingly. 
 
 It seemed to Tod, as he paced up and down dur- 
 ing this unconscionable period, that he had never 
 seen the village so gray and forlorn. Looking down 
 toward the Pool he could see the fishing boats riding 
 in the mud, and the water toward the outlet all gray 
 and foamy at the base of the rocks that stand guard 
 there. Apparently the gale overnight had prevented 
 the men going out. They could not go out in all 
 winds, because most of them had their grounds be- 
 yond Pistol Point, where there is a race so strong 
 that, with the wind unfavorable, no sailing boat can 
 be got back again. Some of the men were under 
 their tarred shelters mending nets; others drinking 
 in the Pot and Bells — Tod could hear a good deal 
 of shouting and singing coming from under that 
 
An Affray in Miclestead 43 
 
 sign, and some of them were lounging on the 
 quay. 
 
 There were perhaps a dozen on the quay, and 
 Tod presently perceived that they were boys, for 
 after lounging there and larking among the boats, 
 they began to come up the street in a body, two of 
 them swinging a string of fish. One of them was 
 a lanky, red-haired boy with long arms and legs half 
 lost in long sea boots. 
 
 Now if twelve boys, acquaintances and hav- 
 ing nothing to do, meet one boy who does not 
 know them but is doing nothing, they may, if they 
 are polite, well-bred lads, pass by the stranger with- 
 out offering him any provocation. They may, I 
 say, if they are polite and well-bred, and the stranger 
 gives them no shadow of excuse for provoking him. 
 If they do pass by, it will be a triumph of breeding 
 over nature, fit to be written down in red letters, 
 and recited on every prize day throughout the land. 
 But if they are ordinarily rough and badly be- 
 haved, or the stranger so much as crooks his little 
 finger at them, they will no more let him alone than 
 a rhinoceros would. And there was no reason why 
 
44 The Quietness of Dick 
 
 the Miclestead fisher-boys should be particularly 
 polite. 
 
 Tod said afterwards that he gave them no pretext 
 whatever for quarreling — not even a glance. He 
 was simply walking up and down a few doors from 
 the druggist's, with his hands in his pockets, wishing 
 Dick would come out, when the red-haired youth 
 stopped opposite him and said with every intention 
 to provoke: 
 
 "Et's fat lil squire!" 
 
 Even this comment on his personal appearance — 
 which was to Tod worse than a red rag to a bull — 
 did not draw him from his discretion. 
 
 " Look at 'un," continued the red-haired lad, pre- 
 tending to admire Tod's figure. 
 
 Tod, who was conscious of not looking his thin- 
 nest in his mackintosh, felt wildly indignant; but 
 dignity seemed to require that he should make no 
 sign of having heard the remark. The fisher-boys 
 had stopped, sniggering, and one or two others at- 
 tracted by the noise came out of the dingy little 
 gray stone cottages and joined them. Tod heartily 
 wished Dick would hurry. If it had not looked 
 
An Affray in Miclestead 45 
 
 like flight, he would have gone to the druggist's and 
 routed him out. As it was, the lads were not only 
 making facetious remarks at his expense, but, finding 
 him irresponsive and unmoved, were beginning a 
 game calculated to compel his attention. This con- 
 sisted of unstringing the fish they carried and 
 throwing them to one another over Tod's head. 
 The red-haired lad, whose name appeared to be 
 Hosh, invented it, and it was he who first sent a 
 large slimy fish within an inch of Tod's nose. 
 
 Tod, starting back to avoid it, flung a furious 
 glance at his tormentors, whereupon they laughed 
 the harder, and one of them said: 
 
 " Fat lil squire doan't like it, simly. We'd better 
 be careful." 
 
 " Tiddn't but a game," the offensive Hosh called 
 back. "Look and catch, Siah." 
 
 He threw a fish deliberately at Tod's head, and 
 Tod, ducking to avoid it, came up with a flaming 
 face. 
 
 " Stop that," he said, angrily. 
 
 " Eh ? " Hosh wore a face quite vacuous. 
 
 " Catch, Hosh." 
 
46 The Quietness of Dick 
 
 A fish plumped into Tod's back, and as he turned 
 round in a fury another knocked his cap off. 
 
 " Who did that? " said Tod, revolving again, and 
 finding the same vacant face surmounted by red hair 
 in front of him, cried out : " Carrots." 
 
 "What did ee say?" 
 
 "Carrots," repeated Tod, "Carrots, you nasty 
 red-haired beast." 
 
 But his insult, instead of leading to the single 
 combat that he yearned for, only procured him a 
 general hustling from behind, and Tod gnashed his 
 teeth. 
 
 It was at this moment that Dick came out of the 
 druggist's shop. He came leisurely, with a large 
 brown paper parcel in his hand, and looked down 
 the street for Tod. What he saw was a discomfited 
 figure in a mackintosh, struggling wildly among su- 
 perior numbers. Tod would have rushed to the 
 rescue immediately if he had seen Dick in the same 
 circumstances. But Dick stepped back into the shop 
 and laying down his parcel and his mackintosh on 
 the counter, informed the druggist, that he would 
 come back for them in a minute or two. Then he 
 
An Affray in Miclestead 47 
 
 marched down the street, whistling. Hardly any 
 one observed his presence until Tod, emerging out 
 of the scuffle, cried out his name with pleasure. 
 
 "Hullo!" said Dick, as if surprised. 
 
 " These beasts — want kicking ! " gasped Tod. 
 
 " Very well," said Dick, promptly. " I'll take the 
 carroty one." 
 
 The enemy had paused to see what Dick intended 
 to do. Dick walked up to Hosh in a friendly man- 
 ner and said: "You want to fight, don't you? If 
 you'll get back, you others — Carrots and I shall have 
 some room. Stand away, Tod." 
 
 Tod stood away, and the fisher-boys, impressed 
 by Dick's ceremonial manner, also got back. 
 
 " Are you ready ? " Dick asked. 
 
 " Hit 'un," shouted the supporters of Hosh, and 
 that youth, whose arms had been revolving like a 
 windmill, while Dick spoke, struck out wildly on 
 this encouragement. Dick ducked and danced away. 
 
 " Ah'll show ee," said Hosh, boastfully, fancying 
 that these were symptoms of fear, and his compan- 
 ions shouted applause. 
 
 They pressed round in their excitement, forgetful 
 
48 The Quietness of Dick 
 
 of their late prey. Tod, uncertain how things were 
 going to end, took the opportunity to divest himself 
 of his mackintosh, which had been hatefully in the 
 way before. 
 
 " Good old Dick! " he shouted, as Dick, who was 
 a neat boxer for his weight, tapped Hosh smartly 
 on the nose witii his left. " Oh, good, Dick ! " The 
 tap had been.repeated twice before Dick's opponent 
 had recovered from his astonishment. And now 
 Hosh stood gasping and grunting, while a murmur 
 of anger and surprise went up from his friends. 
 This was not what they had expected by any means. 
 Dick's thinness and comparative want of height had 
 made them believe he would fall a ready victim. 
 Now they stood gaping and wondering what their 
 champion was going to do. Hosh hardly seemed to 
 know himself. 
 
 " Yew hit me," he said slowly, as if talking to 
 himself. " Yew hit me," he continued, quicker and 
 louder to Dick, as much as to say that if Dick could 
 deny it he had better do it at once. But Dick nodded. 
 Fancying that Hosh was anxious to parley, he had 
 dropped his hands. 
 
An Affray in Miclestead 49 
 
 " Look a' here," Hosh advanced as though he had 
 given up battle for argument until he had walked 
 right up to Dick, " look a' here — yew hit me." 
 
 " Yes," said Dick. 
 
 " Look out, Dick ! " cried Tod, suddenly appre- 
 hensive, and, just as he spoke, Hosh, without any 
 warning, delivered a sweeping blow calculated to 
 make Dick a part of the cobblestones at his feet. 
 
 "Tak that," he said. 
 
 It was only because Dick had half suspected it 
 and flung himself in under Hosh's arm like a flash 
 that he escaped being flattened. As it was, Hosh fol- 
 lowed his fist on top of him and got him round the 
 neck. For a moment they were all over the street, 
 grappling together; then Dick wriggled away and 
 with a straight left stopped another attempt to clutch 
 him. The wrestle had winded him a little and he 
 tried to keep away — a difficult matter, because the 
 ring kept getting smaller. Tod was in a shiver of 
 excitement. 
 
 " Get back, you chaps," he kept shouting, " it isn't 
 fair." 
 
 But no one gave him any attention. On the con- 
 
50 The Quietness of Dick 
 
 trary they pressed closer, and as Dick, after getting 
 in twice again, stepped back to avoid his opponent's 
 furious rush, two of the fisher-boys gave him a 
 shove forward straight under Hosh's fists. As he 
 tried to slip under, a round arm blow got him on 
 the mouth. Dick's lips went red instantly. 
 
 "Foul!" cried Tod, dancing with anxiety, but 
 his protest was drowned in cheers that greeted 
 Hosh's success. 
 
 " Hammer 'un ! " they yelled, and the inspirited 
 Hosh rushed Dick on to his backers once again and 
 landed another blow on to his mouth. 
 
 " Ah'll hammer 'un," he said, thinking his tri- 
 umph had come, and he stood over Dick, prepared 
 to give him a last smash. But Dick, though his lips 
 bled, was inwardly spritely enough. He would have 
 preferred, with so heavy an adversary, to have kept 
 away — except for occasional sallies — until the bull- 
 like rushes and windmill hits had lost something of 
 their vigor. That would have been the scientific 
 way, which always appealed to Dick. But as that 
 was impossible in a perpetually narrowing ring, 
 Dick had already changed his plans. He had 
 
An Affray in Miclestead 51 
 
 changed them even before he had received his sec- 
 ond hit. He had allowed himself to be cornered 
 purposely. He could also hit, though Hosh, only 
 having been tapped before, couldn't realize it. Nor 
 was he altogether so cornered as Hosh supposed. 
 Now (and please to consider this explanation to 
 correspond to one-third of a second in the actual 
 fight) as Hosh swung his fists for that last crushing 
 blow, Dick's head went down and forward a little 
 and his right arm went out and up hard on to the 
 point of Hosh's jaw. 
 
 "Upper cut; hurray!" shouted Tod. "You've 
 done him." 
 
 For while his opponent stood making the grimaces 
 that this stunning blow produces, Dick, thinking it 
 better to prevent further misunderstanding, had fol- 
 lowed it up with a couple more delivered at close 
 quarters. Hosh threw up his hands and reeled back. 
 He had had enough. 
 
 Dick, desirous of finishing things in the most 
 polished manner, stepped up and offered his hand. 
 
 " That's all right," he said. "Isn't it? We've 
 both had enough." 
 
52 The Quietness of Dick 
 
 " Ah'd like to kill yew," said Hosh, and with a 
 sort of screech of hatred he said to his supporters : 
 " Hammer 'un, lads." 
 
 Next moment Dick and Tod to their great dis- 
 gust had once more become the target of flying fists. 
 The whole pack was upon them now, kicking and 
 hitting and butting. It was like a scrum with the 
 gilt taken off, Tod said afterwards. For the first 
 two minutes perhaps he and Dick might be consid- 
 ered the two footballs in this unorthodox scrum. 
 At first, Dick's continued agility and Tod's stolid 
 perseverance made some impression. Dick got in 
 his upper cut again on a fresh opponent : Tod gave 
 two separate black eyes and received two himself 
 at the same moment, only as one had not yet recov- 
 ered from the blacking bestowed by the butcher's 
 boy two days previously, it hardly counted. What 
 did count for his overthrow was the fact that some 
 one got hold of his legs and pulled them from under 
 him. Dick skipping about in his own defense caught 
 sight of Tod going down heavily in a tangle. En- 
 deavoring to extricate Tod from this, Dick himself 
 was seized from behind and brought low with three 
 
An Affray in Miclestead 53 
 
 on top of him. He saw daylight through a medley 
 of plunging limbs. Then a cry went up: " Heave 
 'un into t' Pool." 
 
 What would have happened if they had been left 
 to themselves, Dick hardly knew. But just as he 
 was gathered up from the ground kicking hard, 
 there came a diversion. " What's taken t' lads, eh; 
 what's up, now ? " 
 
 The two who were carrying Dick's legs let go, 
 and Dick, feeling the ground, wrenched himself 
 away, to see a jolly-looking coastguard cuffing Tod's 
 captors. 
 
 "What's taken t' lads, eh?" this friend kept 
 saying. " What's up, eh ? " and he delivered a cuff 
 at each question, till half a dozen of the enemy were 
 blubbering and rubbing their injured parts. 
 
 " It's Machin," whispered Tod, who had taken 
 the opportunity of regaining Dick's side, " one of 
 the men from Pistol Point. Jolly lucky he turned 
 up before they chucked us into the Pool, wasn't it? " 
 
 " Saves us a lot of trouble," Dick allowed, as 
 though he had been well on the way to ducking his 
 enemies rather than to being ducked by them. Dick 
 
54 The Quietness of Dick 
 
 always kept up the impression that he had a reserve 
 scheme even when he had obviously been on his 
 beam ends. 
 
 "Why, Master Tod," said the coastguard, 
 "what's all this? Ha' yew been trying to lay out 
 all t' poor lil laads in Miclestead ? " 
 
 " They began it," Tod explained, " and then Dick 
 had a fair fight with the red-haired one — at least 
 they didn't play fair, and when Carrots got licked 
 they all set on us." 
 
 " That was it, was it? " said the coastguard, and 
 he raised his voice apparently for the edification of 
 some fishermen whose heads Tod now perceived for 
 the first time at the windows of some of the nearer 
 cottages : " What I say is — doan't ee ever expect to 
 see fair play in Miclestead. Tiddn't in the same 
 place with Luggs and Trevanneys that yew'll see 
 fair play." 
 
 This information uttered in a roar was evidently 
 not appreciated at the cottage windows. One of 
 the men with red hair, who bore a distinct resem- 
 blance to the lanky Hosh, shouted back : 
 
 " Doan't ee go to talk now and doan't ee go hit- 
 
An Affray in Miclestead 55 
 
 ting t' laads half your size, or yew'll get more than 
 yew reckon for, Mr. Coastguard." 
 
 The coastguard stepped forward outside the win- 
 dow of the cottage. 
 
 " Ef any man as is my size and as owns up to be 
 the father of they lil twoads, ud like to step outside, 
 he'll find me waitin'." 
 
 There was no response and the coastguard came 
 back with a laugh. 
 
 " Yew've given 'em fight enough in Miclestead, 
 for to-day," he said, with a wink, " an' now ef I 
 was yew I'd get along whoam with yewr friend." 
 
 " I think we'd better," said Tod, and asked what 
 the time was. 
 
 It was one o'clock. They had half an hour to do 
 four miles in if they wished to be back in anywhere 
 near time for lunch. They thanked the coastguard 
 heartily for his assistance, dropped in at the drug- 
 gist's for Dick's brown paper parcel and his mackin- 
 tosh, and started running. Dick's serenity was dis- 
 turbed by the thought that he should fail in his first 
 serious attempt not to fall below his reputation. 
 They had not much breath to discuss the chances of 
 
56 The Quietness of Dick 
 
 concealing the affray from Mrs. Wilton. One of 
 Tod's eyes was black before, as we have said, but 
 one black eye does not account for two. Dick, 
 though he had got off very lightly considering, was 
 decidedly puffy about the lips. He tried to think out 
 something about the effect of sea air upon his skin 
 which might be mentioned in a casual way as a pre- 
 text. But his imagination failed him, and in any 
 case he would have had no chance. For when they 
 got in half an hour late, their appearance attracted 
 immediate attention. 
 
 " Tod," said Mrs. Wilton, nervously, " what is 
 the matter with you ? What have you been doing? " 
 And she cast a somewhat reproachful glance at 
 Dick. 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 DICK MAKES HIMSELF AT HOME 
 
 "FORTUNE favors the brave. Probably that is 
 the reason why in spite of the battered appear- 
 ance presented by both Dick and Tod, Dick's reputa- 
 tion continued for the time being unshaken. Tod's 
 account of the entirely unprovoked attack made 
 upon him at Miclestead and of the gallant way in 
 which Dick had come to his rescue, induced Mrs. 
 Wilton to thank Dick with tears in her eyes for sav- 
 ing her son's life; and when Miss Revers suggested 
 that Tod's description of the fighting Dick did not 
 harmonize entirely with his previous descriptions of 
 Dick's pacific habits, Mrs. Wilton thought it was 
 not quite kind of that young lady. She said that the 
 quietest people might be ready to interfere for the 
 sake of a friend, and if she herself had seen dearest 
 Tod so brutally treated, she herself would not have 
 been able to refrain. It would have been better if 
 
 they had run away at once, she admitted. 
 
 57 
 
58 The Quietness of Dick 
 
 " And I have no doubt that is what Dick tried to 
 do, but of course poor Tod, after being so dread- 
 fully beaten, was probably unable to move. I shall 
 ask my husband if we can't have those horrid boys 
 put into prison." 
 
 But when Mr. Wilton came in, he said that he 
 was afraid that it could hardly be managed. He 
 was on the whole rather pleased with the boys' be- 
 havior. He pretended to be not without suspicions 
 as to their entire innocence in the matter of provo- 
 cation, but could not deny, after what he had heard 
 from Lieutenant Peterson, that the old feeling 
 against himself as magistrate which was evidently 
 prevalent in Miclestead, had probably been vented 
 on his son, whether he provoked it or not. He had 
 luckily forgotten that he had told Tod to keep clear 
 of the village, pooh-poohed Mrs. Wilton's idea that 
 they ought to have run away, and, without giving 
 any reasons, tipped them both handsomely. That 
 is how fortune favored the brave. 
 
 But fortune is also proverbially fickle. No one 
 supposed that Dick and Tod had gone to Miclestead 
 for any reason in particular, but we happen to know 
 
Dick Makes Himself at Home 59 
 
 that they had gone in order to find a druggist's 
 shop. And the reason they wanted to find a drug- 
 gist's shop was a reason of which nobody need have 
 been ashamed, since it was that they might buy 
 certain chemical goods which, mixed together, would 
 be calculated to amuse the Pollabys when they came 
 that afternoon. 
 
 Though it was an excellent reason, it ended in 
 the undoing of Dick's reputation. Everybody 
 knows that the kindliest intentions are liable to turn 
 out most unkindly through no fault of our own. At 
 least our fault is not obvious until parents and 
 guardians have pointed it out in the rough and ready 
 way they do point out faults in such cases. Dick, 
 though lucky enough as a rule in escaping the conse- 
 quences of strayed intentions, was peculiarly un- 
 lucky in having his intentions go astray: which — 
 as Major Culliemore, when he came to understand 
 Dick, said — was perhaps just as well, or Dick might 
 be considered too good for this world. 
 
 It will be remembered that Tod had been obliged 
 to contain his curiosity about Dick's purchases. He 
 had not even been allowed inside the' shop, on the 
 
60 The Quietness of Dick 
 
 ground that the druggist might decline to sell what 
 was required if he saw so youthful a person. So 
 that Tod had the satisfaction of knowing that they 
 were not cough drops. Nor were they either leeches 
 or black currant lozenges, as Tod guessed, these 
 being the only things sold by druggists that he could 
 think of. 
 
 " And it wouldn't have been bad fun to put a 
 leech on to Augustus' leg as he was grubbing tea," 
 he said. 
 
 " I rather wish I'd thought of 'em," said Dick, 
 regretful for the moment, " but it wouldn't have 
 done in your own house," he continued, on second 
 thoughts. " Hang it, young Tod, he's a guest, re- 
 member." 
 
 " I didn't invite him," said Tod. " Wouldn't if 
 I were on a desert island, except to see him jump 
 at a land crab. Still I suppose it can't be helped 
 now. What was it you bought, Dick ? " 
 
 They had retired after their late lunch to the 
 large attic which was reserved for Tod's work and 
 play, and contained, among other things, the rock- 
 ing horse of Tod's youth, now used as chopping 
 
Dick Makes Himself at Home 61 
 
 block, several model yachts which had seen, if not 
 hard service, at any rate a good deal of hard repair 
 and alteration, a lathe, a carpenter's bench, many 
 tools, mostly broken in the hours of Tod's carpenter- 
 ing zeal, the remains of some watches and a clock 
 — Tod had passed through that stage of curiosity 
 concerning the inside of timepieces which inevitably 
 results in separating the works from the cases and 
 leaving them to rust apart — fragments of a rabbit 
 hutch, the stuffed and evil-smelling remains of the 
 first prey that had fallen to Tod's gun, the same 
 being a young owl which Tod had mistaken 
 for a hare, and numerous other possessions 
 precious and despised, old and new, whole and 
 broken. 
 
 Dick was carefully unrolling his parcel, which 
 contained several smaller ones, all in brown paper, 
 when Tod put his question. 
 
 "If you'll go and get a pestle and mortar," he 
 said, " and two or three basins, and some cardboard 
 and glue and hot water, and some sticks — longish 
 ones and fairly thin — and some pieces of rag, and 
 — that'll do to begin with, though — you'll see what 
 
62 The Quietness of Dick 
 
 I've got, young Tod. I think it'll be a good deal 
 more fun than musical chairs, even for girls — be- 
 sides being educational." 
 
 Dick spoke with a serious satisfaction which 
 showed him persuaded of the beneficence of his own 
 intentions. When Tod got back, laden with the 
 articles Dick had required, he found his friend 
 poring over a handbook on chemistry. The particu- 
 lar paragraph Dick was engaged on was headed 
 " Niter," and hearing the door open, he shut the 
 book hastily. 
 
 "Oh, it's you!" he said, looking up and seeing 
 Tod. "That's all right. I thought it might 
 be " 
 
 "Who?" asked Tod. 
 
 "Nobody," said Dick, inconsequently. "I 
 thought we might make a few fireworks. That's 
 what we went to the druggist's for. It's easy 
 enough. The book gives you an idea how to make 
 them, only I haven't 'time to read it right through. 
 Think the girls'll like 'em?" 
 
 " Rather," said Tod, " except squibs, perhaps." 
 
 " That's a pity," said Dick, " they're the easiest 
 
Dick Makes Himself at Home 63 
 
 to make. We might make a few of them for our- 
 selves." 
 
 Tod thought they certainly might consider them- 
 selves in the matter of squibs. 
 
 " I suppose it will be quite safe making them in / 
 here?" he said. 
 
 " Safe as writing a French exercise," said Dick. * 
 " But of course if you'd rather not " 
 
 " I don't mind." 
 
 " Or if you think your friends would prefer to 
 play at horses?" 
 
 " I only meant that perhaps we'd better not make 
 anything too explosive," Tod ventured to explain. 
 
 " You talk as if we were going to manufacture 
 dynamite," said Dick. " But perhaps you don't 
 know the difference between that and ordinary com- 
 mon or garden gunpowder — the kind you get in 
 crackers." 
 
 To tell the truth Tod did not know the difference, 
 and Dick had only just discovered it in the chem- 
 istry book. 
 
 " That's the worst of schools," he said senten- 
 tiously. " What's the good of our learning chem- 
 
64 The Quietness of Dick 
 
 istry? Chowchow jibbers away for an hour about 
 it, and we go to sleep or do our Prep. And if he 
 does try an experiment, nothing comes off except 
 a smell that would make a monkey cry, and the 
 young Topseys get chickenpox. There's nothing 
 practical about it all. Now with this stuff — we shall 
 learn as much in an hour as we learn in two terms 
 there. I vote we make some golden rain." 
 
 " As well as squibs? " Tod asked. 
 
 " Yes, for the girls," said Dick, considerately. 
 " And some Roman candles. I don't quite know 
 how one gets them to plop regularly, but look here." 
 
 With a deftness and certainty that staggered his 
 friend Dick began to pound and ladle and chip and 
 glue and mix and mess generally, until the faint 
 odor of Tod's stuffed owl was lost in a combination 
 of more masterful perfumes. If any small doubts 
 arose in Dick's mind as to the proper proportion 
 of his compound, he never showed them. It was 
 a habit of Dick's not to allow small doubts to grow 
 into big ones by thinking about them. He pre- 
 ferred to brush them aside and go ahead. On this 
 occasion he did not even consult the book any more. 
 
Dick Makes Himself at Home 65 
 
 He informed Tod of the well-known truth that 
 many of the most valuable discoveries in chemistry 
 have been the result of accident rather than thought. 
 It seemed to Tod that if that were so, they were 
 likely to make a good many valuable discoveries. 
 However, there was no denying that the sample 
 golden rain which they tried out of the window, 
 sputtered famously when a match was applied; and 
 the rocket-cases that Dick devised out of cardboard 
 — they thought nothing of making rockets now — 
 were ingenious in the extreme. 
 
 It was in the middle of some operations calcu- 
 lated by Dick to result in catharine-wheels, that a 
 noise of a carriage driving up to the house informed 
 them that their guests were arriving. 
 
 " Drat them ! " said Dick, forgetful for the min- 
 ute that it was for their amusement that he had been 
 working so hard. 
 
 Tod was equally disgusted. 
 
 " We'll have to go down and see them," he said. 
 " Tea's going to be downstairs, and they'll eat for 
 hours." 
 
 " Never mind," said Dick, recovering his equa- 
 
66 The Quietness of Dick 
 
 nimity. " We've practically finished the things, and 
 I daresay it will amuse them to come up afterwards 
 and fill up the rest of those cases. You'd better 
 leave the windows open and wash yourself." 
 
 In spite of being washed and brushed — and not 
 because of it, as Major Culliemore once unkindly 
 suggested — Tod rarely at this period felt in his ele- 
 ment at formal tea-parties. He had a lively con- 
 tempt for girls, particularly if they were well dis- 
 posed towards him, as by some unlucky chance they 
 always were; and when he tried to conceal his feel- 
 ings towards them, by remaining silent or talking 
 about the habits of rats, Mrs. Wilton used to reduce 
 him to the depths of rage and confusion by explain- 
 ing that they mustn't mind Tod — he was so shy. 
 She was quite sure that Tod was shy, and it was 
 in vain for him to protest in private that it was 
 absurd to suppose that he could be shy of girls. 
 
 " You always behave as if you were, Tod," said 
 his mother. 
 
 And in fact Tod was not at all sorry that Dick 
 was to share with him the business of entertaining 
 the Pollabys. He explained to Dick whom they 
 
Dick Makes Himself at Home 67 
 
 consisted of, and what they were like. There were 
 three girls, Jessica, Mabel, and Margaret, all with 
 wide trustful blue eyes, straight fair hair, and very 
 thin legs in black stockings. Some people main- 
 tained that they were easy to tell apart, because 
 they went so nicely in sizes, which was all very 
 well, Tod said, when they were together and you 
 could measure them one against the other, but very 
 confusing when you got a single one by herself, 
 which Tod always avoided doing if he could help 
 it; but he couldn't always help it. They were very 
 proud of their brother Augustus, who was their only 
 brother, the eldest of the family, and the tallest by 
 an inch. He also had wide blue eyes and straight 
 hair and thin legs, but you could tell him — said 
 Tod — because he wore glasses. Augustus thought 
 Tod very rough. He had never quite got over the 
 occasion when Tod had made him put on boxing 
 gloves, and then hit him on the nose until the tears 
 came into his eyes. He could not see where the 
 fun came in, and told Tod so. He preferred recita- 
 tions. Tod repeated this anecdote to Dick, with 
 every symptom of disgust, just outside the drawing- 
 
68 The Quietness of Dick 
 
 room, and then flung open the door. " Look at 
 'em ! " he whispered. " What's he saying? " 
 
 Mrs. Wilton — as Dick perceived — was showing 
 the girls photograph albums, and Miss Revers was 
 being entertained by Augustus. 
 
 " No," Augustus was saying, in reply to a ques- 
 tion, " I don't much care for cricket, although I 
 sometimes play with my sisters. I think it is nicer 
 if you use a soft ball. My tutor says that a but- 
 terfly-net, used properly, gives as much pleasure as 
 a cricket bat, and is far more civilizing." 
 
 " Topping old brick he must be ! Butterflies are 
 jolly interesting," said Dick, advancing in the middle 
 of Augustus' speech. 
 
 Tod, who had caught Miss Revers' eye, had fallen 
 back to snigger. But Dick was all politeness and 
 hospitality. 
 
 " Do you collect ? " he rattled on. " I'm not sure 
 that I don't prefer beetles." 
 
 " Some beetles sting painfully," said Augustus, a 
 little disturbed by Dick's flow of language, but 
 pleased on the whole to find that a friend of the 
 rough and surly Tod should have so much sense. 
 
Dick Makes Himself at Home 69 
 
 " But many are interesting. I suppose you must 
 be Tod's friend Dick? Mrs. Wilton has just been 
 telling us about you. How do you do ? " 
 
 " Might be shakier," said Dick. " Hope you're 
 the same. Are those your sisters ? " 
 
 He had discerned with a strategic eye that there 
 was a certain lack of ease at the other side of the 
 room. Tod, after shaking hands gingerly with the 
 large-eyed maidens, had taken himself to the edge 
 of a distant chair, from which, by refusing to look 
 at anything but his own thumb nails, he was able to 
 resist all Mrs. Wilton's nods and beckonings to him 
 to draw in and make conversation. Jessica, Mabel, 
 and Margaret had perforce fallen back on their 
 photograph albums, since Tod, of whom they were 
 always a little afraid, would say nothing. 
 
 Mrs. Wilton, always too much bent on amusing 
 her guests to be a quite successful hostess, wore 
 an expression which indicated that Tod was beyond 
 hope, and had taken another ten years off her life; 
 and Miss Revers was good-naturedly trying to 
 throw herself into the breach and break the awful 
 silence, when Dick stepped forward. 
 
70 The Quietness of Dick 
 
 A minute later, and the conversation if not bril- 
 liant was fast and furious. No one could have told 
 how it came about, except that shyness and Dick 
 were an impossible conjunction. Dick set them all 
 at their ease. Mrs. Wilton applied herself to the 
 tea-urn. Augustus had renewed his lecture on but- 
 terflies to Miss Revers. The girls let the albums 
 sink into their laps, and rallied to Tod's friend. 
 Margaret, who was the youngest Miss Pollaby, con- 
 fided to her sisters afterwards that she thought Dick 
 the nicest boy she had ever seen, nicer even than 
 Augustus. And though the others thought this sa- 
 vored of disloyalty, they were bound to admit that 
 Dick was nice. Mabel thought it was because he 
 knew such a great deal about canaries and croquet; 
 Jessica because he reminded her of Sir Alawyn Lor- 
 raine who rescued the Lady Alicia from the turreted 
 castle of Winterness, and carried that heroine off 
 on his black steed Montboys to some delightful place 
 the name of which she had forgotten. In fact, Jes- 
 sica would certainly have rewarded Dick with golden 
 spurs and her hand, as would either of the others* 
 at least up to the end of tea-time. So ingratiating 
 
Dick Makes Himself at Home 71 
 
 did Dick make himself, that the girls were even 
 clamorous to get up to the playroom after tea, which 
 had been wont to be a haunt of dullness mixed with 
 nervous apprehension, on previous visits when Tod 
 was in solitary command. Tod used to conduct 
 them there with a superior air, and ask them if they 
 would like to look at picture-books — or what? 
 Yawning, with his hands in his pockets. Not so 
 Dick. A medieval squire, such as Jessica loved to 
 read of, could not have behaved with greater gal- 
 lantry. Dick, though his opinion of girls was un- 
 fortunately not much higher than Tod's, never let 
 it be seen by particular ones; and in other people's 
 houses he had a high notion of hospitality. He put 
 an embargo on Tod's challenge to Augustus to re- 
 new his acquaintance with the gloves, brought for- 
 ward chairs for the girls, not including the one 
 with the doubtful leg which had a habit of yielding 
 under its occupant, and so interested them in cut- 
 ting out and fitting together scraps of cardboard, 
 that they hardly noticed the dubious smells that 
 pervaded the room. 
 
 " Tod and I have been awfully busy getting these 
 
72 The Quietness of Dick 
 
 things ready for you," he said. " We thought you'd 
 probably like them : only of course we couldn't finish 
 them off neatly like you can." 
 
 " What are they ? " asked Jessica, working her 
 hardest under Dick's flattering directions. 
 
 " Golden rain," said Dick, " and catharine-wheels 
 and rockets." 
 
 The girls were not much wiser for this informa- 
 tion, not knowing that explosives went to the mak- 
 ing up of these delightful sounding products. 
 Augustus, however, became rather restive. 
 
 " Do you mean to say that this stuff is gun- 
 powder ? " he asked, shrinking away from the table 
 by the window where the fireworks had been laid 
 out as they were finished. 
 
 " Only a mild kind," said Dick; " look here." 
 
 He laid a small train along the edge of the table, 
 and applied a match. It fizzed and spluttered de- 
 lightfully in a way that could not alarm any one, 
 except Augustus, who moved towards the door. 
 
 " Do do another ! " said Margaret, longingly, and 
 the others seconded her request. 
 
 " Well," said Dick, hesitating, " there's not much 
 
Dick Makes Himself at Home 73 
 
 room in here. We ought really to go outside to let 
 them off. But I'll try one more fizz if you like. 
 Keep back a little." 
 
 He laid another train of his mixture along the 
 table, a little thicker this time. Tod applied the 
 match . . . 
 
 Mrs. Wilton was still sitting in the drawing-room 
 singing Dick's praises to her friend, when a dull 
 roar from upstairs reached them. 
 
 " I'm so thankful that Tod has got such a charm- 
 ing friend," she had been saying. . . . " Oh, what- 
 ever can that be ? " 
 
 The roar had been followed by a series of shrieks; 
 and as Mrs. Wilton rushed to the door, it opened 
 to admit Augustus. Or was it the ghost of Au- 
 gustus ? 
 
 " What is it, my dear boy, what is it ? " cried 
 Mrs. Wilton. " Where is Tod ? " 
 
 " I do— don't know," stuttered Frederick. " He's 
 blown up, I think; so are my sisters." 
 
 The fact is he had bolted from the room the 
 instant that Dick's second train (which must by 
 some mistake have been improperly mixed) had 
 
74 The Quietness of Dick 
 
 spurted furiously into the main body of the fire- 
 works which were piled near, and had slammed the 
 door behind him. The roar that had followed had 
 only come to him through the door, and had sent 
 him scuttling downstairs with a view to further 
 saving himself. 
 
 What had happened, of course, was that most of 
 the other fireworks had been fused, and had gone 
 off simultaneously, with the result that the window 
 panes had been blown out, and Dick and Tod, with 
 faces now completely blackened, had been left in 
 a room full of smoke with the shrieking girls. Dick 
 had just piloted the last of them into the passage, 
 when Mrs. Wilton, followed by most of her house- 
 hold, arrived on the scene of the disaster. 
 
 " It's all right, mater," said Tod, who was in very 
 good spirits. " Rather a shame they all went off 
 together like that when we'd taken such a fag about 
 them. I think perhaps if you've got some pepper- 
 mints or something of that sort, you'd better give 
 them to those girls. It's all right. Where are you, 
 Dick?" 
 
 To Mrs. Wilton's dismay, he charged back into 
 
Dick Makes Himself at Home 75 
 
 the smoke, whither Dick had preceded him. Dick 
 had gone partly to pour water on to the frame- 
 work of the window, which was gently smoldering, 
 but chiefly to escape from the explanations which 
 he foresaw would be required. To tell the truth, 
 he felt a little uneasy. He knew that he had done 
 his best, and had compounded the fireworks from 
 a purely unselfish desire to amuse Tod's friends; 
 but he felt at the same time that other people would 
 be slow to realize the excellence of his intentions. 
 
 And indeed when he did explain later on, that he 
 would never have ventured on a chemical experi- 
 ment of the kind if Mrs. Wilton had not urged him 
 to make himself at home, his success was only 
 partial. 
 
 Mrs. Wilton had begun to doubt whether Dick 
 was so quiet and delightful a boy as she had 
 thought. 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 AN OPPORTUNITY OFFERS ITSELF 
 
 A CONSIDERABLE and unaccustomed gloom 
 pervaded Dick's soul for several hours after 
 the events recorded in the last chapter. In spite of 
 his own unswerving conviction that he had meant 
 everything for the best, he could not convert any one 
 else to the same conviction. The explosion was 
 regarded as a proof — not of the kindness of his 
 heart, as might have been supposed — but of the de- 
 ceit fulness of his nature. Not perhaps of wilful 
 deceitfulness, but of unconscious imposture, which 
 was worse. He was not punished for what had 
 happened, scarcely even rebuked; for Mr. Wilton 
 made a point of never visiting upon a guest the 
 penalty of his transgressions. But some kinds "of 
 forbearance are worse than a hard flogging, and 
 Mrs. Wilton conveyed by her looks that she had 
 
 been mistaken in Dick. This hit Dick in a tender 
 
 76 
 
An Opportunity Offers Itself 77 
 
 place. He hated to have people mistaken in him, 
 and disappointed and dismal, and he would not have 
 vexed Mrs. Wilton for worlds. He would much 
 have preferred to have been sent to his bedroom, 
 like Tod, who was not in the least depressed by it, 
 and only wished that Augustus had been blown up 
 with the window, and the girls given a really good 
 excuse for yelling. Tod could not see how a few 
 panes of glass more or less mattered in any case. 
 Tod could see nothing, in fact, to make such a fuss 
 about. But Tod had not suffered the loss of his 
 reputation. Dick had; and he was so depressed by 
 it that he retired to bed early, and even resisted 
 Tod's offer to come and pay him a visit by way of 
 the window-ledge. 
 
 However, gloom with Dick was not a lasting com- 
 modity. Sound sleep, followed by a perception on 
 waking that the sun was shining and it was going 
 to be a fine day, dissipated the clouds of his spirits. 
 After all, he thought with Tod, nothing much had 
 happened; and any error could easily be remedied 
 by some striking good conduct. Dick liked his good 
 conduct to be striking rather than laborious or per- 
 
78 The Quietness of Dick 
 
 severing; and if it had not been Sunday, he would 
 have proposed to Tod at breakfast (in a modest but 
 audible tone) that they should devote the morning 
 to holiday work. As unfortunately it was Sunday, 
 he merely remarked what a pity it was that holiday 
 work was out of the question, and half suggested 
 getting up the Kings of Israel. But Tod struck at 
 the Kings of Israel, and as they were not easy, 
 and the start for church had to be made rather early, 
 Dick decided to let slide this chance of redeeming 
 his character. Some other was sure to offer 
 itself. 
 
 Perhaps Dick was something of an unconscious 
 impostor. His determination to retrieve his past 
 resulted in so grave and serious a bearing that Mrs. 
 Wilton was afraid that her coldness had hurt him, 
 and spent most of her time on the way to church 
 trying to cheer him up. Dick smiled bravely, but 
 continued to wear his serious and attentive face 
 throughout the service (partly as a penance, and 
 partly because he was thinking hard of a scheme for 
 catching conger-eels by luring and blowing them up 
 in the water with catharine-wheels) with the result 
 
An Opportunity Offers Itself 79 
 
 that he failed to notice two old ladies, who noticed, 
 but did not recognize him. 
 
 These two old ladies, who sat in a pew at right 
 angles to the Wiltons, and were well known to Tod 
 as having kept their severe watch upon him during 
 the sermon for more years than Tod could remem- 
 ber, had been so struck by Dick's attentive face that 
 they stopped Mrs. Wilton in the porch, as 
 people were filing out, to inquire who he might 
 be. 
 
 " A great pleasure to see such attention," mur- 
 mured the elder of the two old ladies. " A friend 
 of your son Tod, my dear Mrs. Wilton? How 
 glad you must be that Tod has such a nice com- 
 panion! What a contrast — hem! My sister and I 
 both noticed him ... we fancied we had seen him 
 before . . . but we are a little short-sighted." 
 
 " He is a very nice boy," said Mrs. Wilton, 
 warmly, " very nice, indeed. I wonder if you can 
 have met him. Dick ! " 
 
 She summoned Dick from where he was standing, 
 dreamily, at a little distance. 
 
 "Dick, I want to introduce you to some old 
 
80 The Quietness of Dick 
 
 friends." Two pince-nez were turned on Dick as he 
 came up politely, wondering what Tod's signals 
 meant; two old ladies shuddered. 
 
 " My dear Arabella, it's " 
 
 " That hateful boy, Maria." 
 
 " My dear Miss Boodeney, what do you mean ? " 
 asked Mrs. Wilton, aghast. 
 
 Dick, with the look of a young martyr, forebore 
 from offering any explanation. 
 
 " Oh, I beg your pardon," said Miss Boodeney, 
 stiffly, " Tod's friend should be free from our criti- 
 cism, of course. But a boy who brings an evil- 
 smelling beast into a public conveyance with him 
 to the extreme annoyance of the passengers is — is 
 not likely to come to a good end. My dear Maria, 
 I think we ought to be going to our carriage. Jen- 
 kinson will wonder if we are lost. Good-morning, 
 Mrs. Wilton." 
 
 They retired with unutterable dignity, leaving 
 Mrs. Wilton uncertain what sort of abandoned vil- 
 lain they had recognized in Dick. 
 
 " What can they mean? " she said. 
 
 " I'm so sorry," said Dick, meekly. " I was in 
 
An Opportunity Offers Itself 81 
 
 the train with them and Squiffy squeaked. They 
 seemed a little nervous." 
 
 " Oh, I see," said Mrs. Wilton. 
 
 With a little further explanation from Tod, she 
 did see that Dick's guilt was not so great as she had 
 imagined. But she could not help being a little un- 
 easy about him, nevertheless. Could a boy who had 
 made such a bad impression be really a safe com- 
 panion for Tod ? Could he be relied on not to lead 
 Tod into mischief? The runaway dog-cart, the 
 affray at Miclestead, and the explosion all recurred 
 to her mind, and seemed to point to Dick as their 
 fount and origin. On the whole, Dick's solemnity 
 had profited him little. 
 
 It was just as well for him that he had an ally 
 in Miss Revers, who insisted upon being amused by 
 the old ladies' recognition and awful prophecies; 
 and that Mr. Wilton brought in several friends to 
 lunch who diverted Mrs. Wilton's thoughts from 
 Dick to the raid on the poachers, which they were 
 discussing and trying to arrange for Tuesday night. 
 True, Tod, who ought to have been seen and not 
 heard with so many of his elders present, renewed 
 
82 The Quietness of Dick 
 
 her alarms by instantly assuming that Dick and he 
 were to be of the party, and mentioned a plan for 
 lassoing the wretches (obviously inspired by Dick) 
 which set Mrs. Wilton's hair on end. But she took 
 comfort in the thought that Squire Boodeney, who 
 had promised to join in the raid, was not very fond 
 of boys in any case. He did not even think very 
 highly of Tod, and if his sisters acquainted him 
 with Dick's antecedents, as they probably would, he 
 would certainly object to their company. She did 
 wish Major Culliemore and the other men would 
 not encourage them, and tried to turn the con- 
 versation. 
 
 " If only some of you would be nice and hunt 
 ferns for me instead of poachers," she said, " how 
 grateful I should be." 
 
 " What kind of ferns do you want, Kat? " asked 
 Mr. Wilton across the table. 
 
 "There are heaps," she said, "but one in par- 
 ticular is wild maidenhair. I've been wanting it for 
 years and years." 
 
 Mr. Wilton declared that it did not grow in that 
 part of the country. Some one else said they 
 
An Opportunity Offers Itself 83 
 
 thought they had seen it in one part of the cliffs, 
 but that it was very rare, and Major Culliemore 
 said he would make inquiries about it. But Dick 
 said nothing: he only gave Tod a kick under the 
 table and was annoyed because Tod in his slowness 
 of comprehension gave a muffled cry and spilt his 
 food. For here was his chance come. He would 
 get the fern and lay it as a peace offering before 
 Mrs. Wilton, who was just saying: 
 
 " I expect I shall have to go to Lieutenant Peter- 
 son before I can get it." 
 
 Dick thought not, but did not say so. When they 
 got up from the table, he went straight to the li- 
 brary and consulted the Encyclopaedia about the 
 ways and habits of wild maidenhair. A little later 
 he proposed a walk to Tod. 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 A ROCK CLIMB AND A RESCUE 
 
 TT was Miss Revers' intention to go for a walk 
 
 on the cliffs that afternoon. She meant to 
 
 secure the attendance of Dick and Tod, who in 
 
 spite of their misogynistic minds were by no means 
 
 badly disposed towards her. At least Dick had been 
 
 very gracious, considering their brief acquaintance; 
 
 and Tod for some time past had been her offhand 
 
 slave. There were a good many reasons for this, 
 
 though Tod would have been hard set to explain 
 
 them. Her being grown-up differentiated her of 
 
 course from the ordinary girl; but also it was quite 
 
 impossible to conceive of her ever having been an 
 
 ordinary girl, like the Pollabys, for instance, with 
 
 thin legs and thin nerves. She could never have been 
 
 terrified of a ferret. She handled them like one to 
 
 the manner born. And she was not in the habit of 
 
 losing her thimble or remarking on the condition 
 
 84 
 
A Rock Climb and a Rescue 85 
 
 of Tod's hair, nor was she perpetually fancying 
 that he must be lying dead somewhere. Add to 
 these qualifications, that she could beat Tod at run- 
 ning, hit two bottles to his one with a catapult, and 
 no more mind getting into mud up to her knees if 
 necessary than a young calf — and you have some 
 explanation of Tod's allegiance. Dick had remarked 
 in a discussion' about this young woman that she 
 was jolly pretty too, which is very likely the 
 truth, but it had nothing to do with Tod's appre- 
 ciation. 
 
 " I daresay," he said. " She's got a jolly good 
 wind, anyhow. I shouldn't mind marrying her if 
 I had to marry." 
 
 He had not, however, any intention of so doing. 
 It was merely a testimony to her capacities, and 
 shows that the boys would have had no objection to 
 her joining them in a walk that afternoon, if they 
 had been going for a walk. But they were not go- 
 ing for a walk, and, whatever they were going to 
 do, they had already taken their departure. So 
 that Miss Revers had to be contented with Major 
 Culliemore when he offered his escort. 
 
86 The Quietness of Dick 
 
 " If you'll accept so poor a substitute," he said. 
 
 " I expect, at any rate, that you'll be safer com- 
 pany," she said, laughing; "last time Tod took me 
 out we got into a swamp." 
 
 " Young scoundrel," said the Major. 
 
 " Oh, but it was quite a clear one, and compara- 
 tively shallow," she explained. " If Dick had been 
 leading, it would have been dirty and incredibly 
 deep." 
 
 " A quicksand, probably," said the Major, nod- 
 ding. " Dick is a double-dyed scoundrel." 
 
 " But I like him," said Miss Revers, " not more 
 than Tod, but quite as much. I do wish Mrs. Wilton 
 would not expect him to be quite so worthy. I am 
 afraid that he has an idea that a great deal is ex- 
 pected of him, and being anxious to please makes 
 all sorts of good resolutions " 
 
 " Which end in a bad reaction? " 
 
 " Yes, and make one forget how perfect his inten- 
 tions were." 
 
 " I wish I had Dick's cheek," said the Major, 
 suddenly. 
 
 He said it so suddenly and so inconsequently that 
 
A Rock Climb and a Rescue 87 
 
 Miss Revers looked at him with surprise; and there- 
 upon said in a great hurry: 
 
 " I'm sure you're much better without it." 
 
 That Major Culliemore was without it, is clear 
 from the fact that he made no attempt to contradict 
 her. They walked on in silence for a minute or two, 
 after which she asked him if he thought the boys 
 would be allowed to help catch poachers on Tuesday. 
 
 " They're longing to go," she said, " and lasso 
 them. Dick again." 
 
 Major Culliemore couldn't say if they would be 
 allowed to go. 
 
 " I shouldn't mind taking them myself," he said. 
 " But then Tod is ' Glass — this side up,' you know, 
 in his mother's opinion. And old Mr. Boodeney 
 may be coming with us. I hope he won't, personally. 
 He's the pepperiest man for his weight that I know. 
 If he does, there won't be any boys attached to the 
 expedition. He doesn't believe in boys. Besides 
 that, there are two and a half days before it comes 
 off: and if Dick has not got Tod into some scrape 
 that requires condign punishment before then, he 
 will no longer be Dick." 
 
88 The Quietness of Dick 
 
 " Do try and keep them amused," pleaded Miss 
 Revers. 
 
 " I will do anything you like to suggest," said the 
 Major, promptly. 
 
 " Then I should suggest " 
 
 Nothing could have been worse timed, in Major 
 Culliemore's opinion, than the appearance of Lieu- 
 tenant Peterson at this moment, with a telescope 
 under his arm, though it did only interrupt a sug- 
 gestion. He insisted on coming up and greeting 
 them, being evidently in a conversational mood. He 
 was out for his Sunday afternoon walk, he ex- 
 plained, which always lay along the cliffs. 
 
 " Where you get a breath of ozone, ma'm, as the 
 landsmen say. Nothing like a breath of ozone." 
 
 " I should have thought you lived in it," said Miss 
 Revers. 
 
 " Not so much as a sailor should," said the little 
 man. " I'm a landsman now myself, ma'm, with 
 nothing to do but keep an eye on what used to be 
 my home. Ten years ago " 
 
 Major Culliemore had some experience of how 
 long the Lieutenant could remain talking if he were 
 
A Rock Climb and a Rescue 89 
 
 allowed to be retrospective, so he tried a diver- 
 sion. 
 
 " Have you got any more news about the smug- 
 glers ? " he asked, knowing that a suspicion that he 
 was being pumped would shut him up. 
 
 " Why, sir, I have and I haven't," said Lieutenant 
 Peterson, " and that's where it is. And if I said 
 more, and told you what I suspected, I should be 
 exceeding my duties. Now, ma'm, can I show you 
 round my garden ? " 
 
 Perhaps the Major was properly served out for 
 his interruption, by finding himself meekly follow- 
 ing Miss Revers and Lieutenant Peterson to the 
 wind-blown plot on the edge of the cliffs, which 
 was the apple of the Lieutenant's eye. " Mostly 
 vegetables, ma'm, mostly vegetables," said the proud 
 owner as he led them round. " Utility first and 
 beauty second is a good gardener's motto — if I'm 
 allowed to say so in the presence of a lady. Not 
 that I don't keep some flowers going. There's roses. 
 Let me pick you some — they can't change for a 
 fairer place." 
 
 The Lieutenant grew gallant at hearing his gar- 
 
90 The Quietness of Dick 
 
 den praised, and Major Culliemore disgusted, but 
 Miss Revers smiled mischievously. 
 
 "By the way, Lieutenant Peterson, you will be 
 the very person to tell me — where does wild maiden- 
 hair grow? Mrs. Wilton is very anxious to get a 
 specimen for her rock garden, and she said she 
 thought you would know." 
 
 "Ah, she is a gardener," said Lieutenant Peter- 
 son, highly pleased ; " quite right, too. I don't grow 
 'em myself, but I know where they grow, and I'll 
 see if one of my men can't get a plant to-morrow. 
 The cliff's not a quarter of a mile from here. If 
 you'd like to see 'em in their native beauty, ma'm, I 
 can show 'em to you now." 
 
 Miss Revers hesitated, and Major Culliemore, 
 plucking up his courage, said he didn't think there 
 was time. 
 
 " Oh, I think there is," said Miss Revers, for 
 some unaccountable reason, " unless you're in a 
 hurry." 
 
 When asked, a long time afterwards, why she had 
 gone counter to Major Culliemore's wishes, she 
 prevaricated and said it must have been because she 
 
A Rock Climb and a Rescue 91 
 
 ha<i heard a peculiar cry from the bend in the cliffs, 
 which Lieutenant Peterson had pointed out. But, 
 as a matter of fact, it was not until they had come 
 right up to the bend that she really heard it. The 
 peculiarity about it was that it sounded familiar, 
 and yet she was standing on the edge of a cliff that 
 went down to the sea, almost sheer, and bare except 
 for a few grasses and ferns such as the Lieutenant 
 had brought them to see. 
 
 " What can it be ? " she asked curiously, as the 
 cry came again. 
 
 " Shags, ma'm, probably," said Lieutenant Peter- 
 son. " Hundreds of 'em down on those rocks. If 
 you'll come just a trifle closer you'll be able to see 
 how the ferns grow — eh, by Jove ! " 
 
 " Coo-oo-oo-eekety ! " 
 
 No cormorant ever uttered a cry exactly like this; 
 and the Lieutenant's ejaculation had startled Miss 
 Revers. Following the example of the other two, 
 she knelt down and looked over. 
 
 About thirty feet down — or rather less than two- 
 thirds up the cliff — muddy, red in the face, and 
 hatless, clinging to the short grasses and fern stalks 
 
92 The Quietness of Dick 
 
 and juttings of the rock, by hands and feet and 
 knees and teeth, was Dick, laboriously ascending 
 — to a continuous accompaniment of rattling stones 
 and earth — by a zigzag course which looked inde- 
 scribably perilous. Miss Revers' first instinct was to 
 look for Tod, but no Tod was visible, so that she 
 took a breath of relief. It was but half a breath, 
 with Dick in that position. The slant of the cliff to 
 the sea, which was a hundred feet below, was 
 scarcely to be distinguished from the perpendicular 
 — theoretically — though in fact the rocks took a 
 convex shape, sloping inland at top and bottom. 
 From where she was, the cliff seemed to end 
 abruptly long before it reached the seashore at its 
 base. 
 
 Though no one had spoken, Major Culliemore 
 held up his hand to enjoin silence. It seemed to him 
 as if the smallest noise might startle Dick from his 
 hold, and precipitate him to immediate destruction. 
 It was difficult to see how he had reached his pres- 
 ent altitude, and for a moment he seemed to have 
 stuck. Then all unconscious that he was being over- 
 lookedj he continued to ascend like a fly on a wall, 
 
A Rock Climb and a Rescue 93 
 
 gluing himself to the rock by as inapparent a grip, 
 as he moved. 
 
 " He can't possibly get here," whispered Lieu- 
 tenant Peterson, dismally. 
 
 The Major nodded to signify that the same was 
 his opinion. There was a ten-foot layer of the 
 cliff, measured from the brink, which was smooth 
 rock for fifty yards either way ; and no zigzagging , 
 would avail Dick. 
 
 " And I'm inclined to think he can't get down," 
 continued Lieutenant Peterson. 
 
 " Absolutely impossible," said the Major in a 
 similar whisper. " How soon could you get a 
 rope?" 
 
 " Please run," said Miss Revers, shuddering. 
 
 Dick by a tremendous zigzag had mounted 
 another five or six feet while they watched, and 
 at this point he paused again and repeated his 
 cry: 
 
 " Coo-oo-oo-eekety ! " 
 
 The cliff seemed to have an echo that sent it roll- 
 ing back faintly from below to the tune of sliding 
 stones. It was plain to see how completely Dick 
 
94 The Quietness of Dick 
 
 had, so to speak, burnt his boats. Hardly a foot- 
 hold but had given way behind him. 
 
 " Wonder if it's going to get easier." Dick was 
 talking aloud to himself, not too joyfully: and 
 Major Culliemore, thinking it better to run the risk 
 of startling Dick than of allowing the certain cata- 
 clysm which would follow if he tried to advance 
 much further, cried his name gently. 
 
 "Who's there?" came back sharply from Dick, 
 and they could see him trying to look up. 
 
 " All right, Dick," said the Major. " Don't look 
 up, and don't move, if you've got anything like a 
 good place there. If it feels like giving, come for- 
 ward a step; don't try to go back in any case! 
 There'll be a rope here soon." 
 
 " Shan't mind if there is," said Dick, cheerfully. 
 " Beastly place — and I almost wish I hadn't come. 
 But I'm on a piece of slate here that would do to 
 write on in a kid's school. Never knew slates were 
 such rotten things before. I suppose it's sponging 
 that makes 'em hard. But, I say, can you see Tod ? " 
 
 " Tod ! " cried Miss Revers and Major Cullie- 
 more in a breath. 
 
Dick by a Tremendous Zigzag Had Mounted Another Five or 
 Six Feet.— Page 93- 
 
A Rock Climb and a Rescue 95 
 
 " Is Tod climbing too ? " added the Major. 
 
 "Not much," said Dick. "He started, you 
 know, but he got stuck about halfway up — lost 
 his young nerves, I fancy. I've been coming on to 
 get a rope. I told him not to move till it came, as 
 he felt a bit seasick, and he's hanging on like an 
 old jelly-fish. Listen ! " 
 
 Once more he sang out his cry of : 
 
 " Coo-oo-oo-eekety ! " 
 
 A faint repetition of it came floating up again 
 from below. It was not an echo of the cliff, as they 
 had thought previously, but Tod. 
 
 " He sounds pretty fit," said Dick, unaware of the 
 glances of dismay that were being exchanged by his 
 interlocutors. " He's just over the first bulge — 
 a good way down. I should have thought you could 
 see him, but I suppose he's round the corner from 
 here. It's less crumbly, but spiklier. I wanted him 
 to try a dive when he got stuck, but he funked it. 
 Of course the tide is down, but there's quite a decent 
 pool below him in the rocks. Pretty deep too, be- 
 cause I got some prawns there." 
 
 " I daresay it was just as well he didn't," said 
 
96 The Quietness of Dick 
 
 the Major, as Dick went on to explain this heroic 
 but rejected advice. " It would take some practice, 
 you know. And," he went on talking to keep Dick 
 from moving, " what did you begin to climb for ? " 
 
 " Wild maidenhair," said Dick. 
 
 " That's what we came for," said the Major, 
 drily, " only by a safer way." 
 
 " You haven't got it," said Dick, with a grin of 
 triumph. " I have — loads — in my pockets." 
 
 Now that Dick mentioned it, they noticed that 
 his pockets were stuffed out considerably. 
 
 " It's very funny," continued Dick, " and just like 
 our luck, it's the only thing that really sticks at all. 
 Tremendous roots — I nearly came away with one. 
 Hullo!" 
 
 "What is it?" cried the Major, alarmed. 
 
 " There's another one just here," said Dick. 
 
 " Leave it alone," said the Major, sternly, 
 "you've got quite enough." 
 
 " All right," said Dick, giving up his own wishes 
 with the utmost cheerfulness. " I thought another 
 might be useful, but it doesn't much matter. I've 
 got six." 
 
A Rock Climb and a Rescue 97 
 
 Miss Revers had risen from her knees, and was 
 looking anxiously in the direction of the coastguard- 
 station. She had seen from Major Culliemore's 
 expression that he was a good deal more anxious 
 than his conversation to Dick implied. 
 
 " It's coming," she said. 
 
 " Wave to them to hurry," whispered the Major, 
 who had his eyes fixed keenly on Dick's foothold. 
 " You're all right, Dick, aren't you ? " he said. 
 
 " Yes— at least— I " 
 
 A scuffling noise followed by the drip, drip of 
 shingle made Miss Revers feel hot all over. She 
 dared not look to where Dick was flattening himself 
 against the cliff with his finger-nails dug in tighter 
 and tighter, as the stuff gave under his feet. She 
 heard the Major telling Dick to keep perfectly still, 
 and saw him snatch the rope from Lieutenant 
 Peterson, as he came up with two of his men, knot 
 the end of it round him, and then 
 
 " Slowly, sir," the Lieutenant was saying, and 
 Major Culliemore was being let down. 
 
 She held her breath till he had reached Dick, in 
 her fear that Dick would never hold on till then, 
 
98 The Quietness of Dick 
 
 and she gasped and held it again, in the fear that 
 the rope would break on the way up with its double 
 burden. 
 
 " The rope would hold ten, ma'm," said the Lieu- 
 tenant, with a kindly intuition, " Major's all right." 
 He puffed out the words as he hauled. 
 
 But it was not till they had come to the edge, 
 and over, that she really took breath again. She 
 had never held her breath so often in her life be- 
 fore. Dick was graciously thanking his rescuers. 
 
 " Awfully decent of you," he said, " I don't be- 
 lieve I could have got up that last part by myself." 
 
 "Think you could fly by yourself?" grunted 
 Lieutenant Peterson. 
 
 " Never tried," said Dick, beaming. " I daresay 
 young Tod wishes he could. I suppose we'd better 
 be getting him up now." 
 
 Lieutenant Peterson became suddenly aware that 
 his Sunday afternoon labors were not yet ended. 
 
 " Another of you ? " he gasped. 
 
 " Only young Tod," Dick explained again. 
 " And I believe we could get him from the beach 
 best if any of you have got a gun." 
 
A Rock Climb and a Rescue 99 
 
 "A gun? " repeated the astonished Lieutenant. 
 
 " You see he's lost his bright young nerves," said 
 Dick, " and he won't go up or down, and the only 
 thing to be done generally in that sort of case, is 
 to threaten to shoot him. A rook rifle would be the 
 thing. Plug a bullet near his ear and he'd come 
 down like an old porpoise." 
 
 It is well known that when your nerves have been 
 stretched to their tightest at the sight of some other 
 person's imminent peril, you are apt — when he has 
 been rescued — to suffer from a revulsion of feeling 
 which turns your pity into annoyance. Dick's pre- 
 servers had been on the verge of feeling annoyed 
 with Dick. But this happy suggestion for freeing 
 Tod from his predicament dissipated the clouds of 
 which Dick was so obligingly unaware. 
 
 " Upon my word, Dick," said Major Culliemore, 
 amid the general laughter, " it's you that deserve 
 to be shot. If Tod did come down like an old por- 
 poise, there wouldn't be enough of us here to pick 
 up the pieces. I only hope he's in a firm place." 
 
 " Oh, he's firm enough," said Dick, invincibly 
 good-natured, " he's as tight as if you'd cobbler- 
 
ioo The Quietness of Dick 
 
 waxed him. But there's the pool below, and I've 
 read " 
 
 " I daresay," said the Major, " but I'm not going 
 to leave Tod to your tender mercies. What about 
 the rope, Lieutenant Peterson? Will it reach, do 
 you think ? " 
 
 The Lieutenant thought it would, and suggested 
 that Machin, the coastguard, who had assisted Dick 
 and Tod in Miclestead, should go down this time, 
 instead of Major Culliemore, as being lighter and 
 more used to rocks, besides being suitably dressed. 
 
 " We shall want all our strength for pulling," he 
 added. 
 
 " Very well," said the Major. " The question 
 is — where is Tod?" 
 
 " This way," said Dick. " Coo-oo-oo-eekety ! 
 There he is ! I thought you could see him." 
 
 Dick had taken them considerably to the right, 
 and sure enough, far down, there was Tod, perched 
 in a niche of the cliff like some lonely sea-bird. 
 Machin, who went down, found it no easy task to 
 dislodge him. Tod's nerves, as Dick had suggested, 
 had been woefully lost, and he had so cramped his 
 
A Rock Climb and a Rescue 101 
 
 fingers with gripping the rock, that he could not let 
 go when he wanted to. There were no ferns bulging 
 in Tod's pockets. He was so much dead weight in 
 the coastguard's arms; and Major Culliemore con- 
 fessed that he would never have been able to relieve 
 the strain on the rope as Machin did, by poising — 
 Tod and all — on every jut of rock that he passed. 
 Tod seemed uncommonly glad to find himself above 
 cliff once more, and said so. 
 
 " I wouldn't do it again for anything," he frankly 
 confessed. " It was beastly. And I couldn't move. 
 Dick had broken away everything in front, and I'd 
 broken away everything behind." 
 
 He made this confession on their way home, after 
 Major Culliemore had thanked Lieutenant Peterson 
 and his men. 
 
 " I wouldn't do it again if I were paid," repeated 
 Tod. 
 
 " Well, you needn't," said Dick. " We've got the 
 ferns, and I expect your mother'll be awfully 
 pleased." 
 
 It was at this juncture that Major Culliemore 
 made a suggestion. 
 
102 The Quietness of Dick 
 
 " If I were you, Dick, I'm not so sure that I 
 should give those ferns to Mrs. Wilton. If you do, 
 she may ask where you got them from, and if you 
 tell her where you got them from, I wouldn't give 
 twopence for your chances on Tuesday." 
 
 Dick's face fell for the first time that afternoon. 
 
 " I thought she'd like 'em," he said. 
 
 " So she will," put in Miss Revers, encouragingly, 
 " but I think Major Culliemore is right. If you 
 would plant them somewhere where they wouldn't 
 be noticed for a day or two, and they came as a 
 surprise, I think she'd like them immensely." 
 
 "That's it," said the Major. "I should cut 
 straight off now and do it. A run will do Tod 
 good." 
 
 Dick accepted the Major's advice, though with 
 reluctance, and he complained of Tod on the way. 
 
 " If you hadn't behaved like a limpet," he said, 
 " and stuck so beastly tight, nobody 'd have thought 
 of any danger." 
 
 " I don't care about that," said Tod, stoutly, his 
 fear of the cliffs temporarily overcoming his belief 
 in Dick's infallibility. " I'm jolly glad I stuck." 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 THE SHOOTING OF THE WILD GOAT 
 
 TF any one was to blame for what happened on 
 Monday afternoon, it was John Bumpstead, 
 who volunteered the information that wild goats 
 were to be had for the shooting on Coney Island. 
 Dick and Tod had spent the morning in the most 
 peaceful manner practising the art of the lasso at 
 a tree stump. They were desperately anxious to 
 avoid falling into any mischief which should pre- 
 vent them from joining in the raid on the poachers 
 on Tuesday night. Mr. Wilton had not promised 
 that they should join in it, but on the other hand 
 he had not promised that they should not. Dick 
 fancied that they might be on their trial, and it was 
 with that idea in his head that he had kept Tod 
 at the lassoing all the morning. He had a firm 
 belief in the efficacy of the lasso, and had practised 
 with it before. He was pretty sure that Tod and 
 
 he would surprise the poachers. 
 
 103 
 
104 The Quietness of Dick 
 
 " You want something original for those kind of 
 chaps," he said, " they're used to cordons and that 
 sort of thing; but they won't be used to us if we 
 get a chance." 
 
 " Rather not," Tod agreed. 
 
 Still it became obvious that you cannot lasso for 
 more than a whole morning at a time, and it was to 
 try and think out something really worth doing that 
 afternoon that Dick and Tod had invaded the sta- 
 bles just before lunch. So that Bumpstead's news 
 about the wild goats seemed providential. 
 
 " Are you sure ? " asked Dick. 
 
 " Gashly sure," said Bumpstead. " There's a 
 planty of 'em, Master Dick, wild as crickets." 
 
 The boys exchanged glances. Each read in the 
 other's eyes that this was the very thing. Wild 
 goats on a rock-bound island that they had always 
 meant to explore! Was ever such luck? 
 
 " I say, Bumpstead " Dick paused. He 
 
 wanted to learn more about goats without betray- 
 ing that he and Tod meant to go shooting that very 
 day. Bumpstead might let it out, and then Mrs. 
 Wilton would be sure to say that they must not 
 
The Shooting of the Wild Goat 105 
 
 dream of such a thing, and that darling Tod would 
 be killed if they did. So he went on diplomatically : 
 " I suppose goats are cunning creatures ? " 
 
 " Nodden cunninger," said the coachman, " sav- 
 ing tigers, I wud say. Let 'un butt yew, an' yew 
 see." 
 
 "I'd rather not," said Dick. "If ever I did 
 think of going after goats, I'd make sure of my 
 shoot. Slugs, eh ? " 
 
 " Slugs? " Bumpstead ruminated over the word 
 slowly, and at last delivered himself: "There's 
 nodden woan't kill a goat, same as nodden woan't 
 kill a tiger, so be yew hit 'un fair in t' head." 
 
 Dick signaled across to Tod that they had learned 
 enough for their purpose. Once outside Tod could 
 not restrain himself. 
 
 " Hurray ! " he said. " We'll shoot a giddy goat, 
 Dick. Isn't it splendid of Bumpstead to have told 
 us?" 
 
 " Not bad," Dick agreed. " But do you think 
 your father " 
 
 " He's gone to Coney Point to inspect some asy- 
 lum there," said Tod, " and we might hail him from 
 
106 The Quietness of Dick 
 
 the boat if we saw him, but we can't wait for him. 
 I'm off, Dick, to get the guns and some grub for 
 tea. I'll bring 'em to the shrubbery, and we can 
 start directly after lunch." 
 
 " All right," said Dick, slowly. 
 
 As a matter of fact, his conscience was beginning 
 to trouble him. He had set himself sternly to the 
 task of not getting into trouble for the whole of that 
 day. Only at breakfast time, too, Mrs. Wilton had 
 asked him to keep Tod out of mischief. She said 
 she was sure she could rely on Dick — which, con- 
 sidering the events of Saturday and Sunday, was 
 saying a good deal. Dick had replied again that it 
 was awfully good of her, and that he was enjoying 
 his visit immensely. That was quite true, but las- 
 soing could grow dull, and, after all, was there 
 any harm in shooting goats ? There was no harm in 
 boating, except when the weather was bad, and 
 though Coney Island was further perhaps than they 
 were supposed to go, there were no express limits. 
 
 All lunch-time Dick looked rather like a culprit, 
 and for a moment afterwards, when Tod showed 
 him the two guns and a mixed supply of sandwiches 
 
The Shooting of the Wild Goat 107 
 
 and ammunition hidden in the shrubbery as though 
 they were the stores of some conspirators, he almost 
 decided against the expedition. 
 
 " Look here, young Tod," he began, rather 
 loftily, " your mother asked me again to keep you 
 out of mischief." 
 
 " Rats ! " said Tod, unimpressed. 
 
 " And I more or less said I'd look after you." 
 
 " Oh, dry up, Dick ! Are you going to sneak 
 about the goat-hunting?" Tod asked, shrewdly. 
 
 Dick evaded the question. 
 
 " I don't know that goat-hunting is getting into 
 mischief," he said, " unless they butt you, Tod, and 
 you're so beastly fat and slow that they're pretty 
 sure to " 
 
 "Fiddle-de-diddle!" said Tod. 
 
 " Anyhow, I've warned you." 
 
 And Dick began to move with dignity to the cove 
 where the boat was kept. 
 
 " Don't be humpy ! " said Tod, cheerily, keeping 
 pace. " You've done your duty now, and, as you 
 say, there's no harm in potting a goat. Besides, 
 it'll save the mater a jolly lot of oof in the year if 
 
108 The Quietness of Dick 
 
 we stock her with goats. She can have 'em salted 
 for the winter." 
 
 " Lot you're likely to shoot ! " said Dick, still 
 sore. 
 
 " If you don't think there are any goats," Tod 
 suggested, with an affectation of indifference, " we 
 may as well not go." 
 
 " Just as well," Dick agreed. " But at the same 
 time, young Tod, if we go, and you get butted or 
 anything, it'll be a lesson to you — to — to listen to 
 what your elders tell you." 
 
 " Rats ! " repeated Tod. " You know you're dy- 
 ing to go." 
 
 This was so true that Dick was unable to find 
 any crushing retort, and he had to busy himself get- 
 ting out the oars, while Tod stocked the sand- 
 wiches into the locker. When Tod was uppish, 
 nothing could be done but leave him to repent at 
 leisure. Something might happen — Dick little sus- 
 pected what — that would show Tod the error of his 
 ways. 
 
 In the meantime, they had a long pull before 
 them. It was still early afternoon, and the sea like 
 
The Shooting of the Wild Goat 109 
 
 a pond, but the heat was great, and the distance 
 considerable. They rowed by turns, and frater- 
 nized again over the ginger-beer which Tod had 
 stowed away with unexpected foresight. 
 
 " Four bottles finished," said Tod regretfully at 
 the end of two hours, " and only two more left. I 
 wonder if we shall ever get there." 
 
 He mopped his face and looked ahead. They 
 could see Coney Island quite plainly now. It stood 
 up from the sea, humped like the back of a camel. 
 In the distance it looked like a solitary rock with 
 a heat haze about it, round and lonely, cut off from 
 the jagged coast-line by a mile of water. As a mat- 
 ter of fact, it was as full of fissures as the mainland, 
 and at low tide there was little more than a strip 
 of water between the two, while the green rocks, 
 full of prawny pools, showed themselves like a 
 causeway. 
 
 The tide was nearly up, however, when Dick 
 and Tod arrived, both very red in the face with their 
 strenuous exertions. Only one bottle of ginger- 
 beer remained, as they ran their boat into the most 
 likely cove, and stepped out on to the island with 
 
no The Quietness of Dick 
 
 a strong feeling on them of being Robinson Crusoes. 
 They tied the boat to a spit of rock, and took out 
 their guns. 
 
 " Though I don't believe," said Tod, " that there 
 is a goat anywhere." 
 
 " Wait ! " said Dick. 
 
 All about them the sea-birds — mews and cor- 
 morants — were squalling, but the island seemed too 
 bare for other life. As they marched forward, 
 however, it appeared less barren. The ground rose 
 gradually, a coarse springy turf over parts of it, 
 here and there the gray rock peeping nakedly, and 
 what had seemed smooth tableland in the distance 
 proved to be full of dips and combs, so that Tod's 
 first feeling of disappointment began to give way to 
 an exciting anticipation of all manner of goats 
 springing up in unexpected corners. Dick declared 
 that the island would hold an army of beasts, and 
 insisted on strategic movements being observed in 
 order that no chance might be missed. It was de- 
 cided that in the event of game being espied, they 
 should concentrate their attention on the noblest of 
 the flock. 
 
The Shooting of the Wild Goat in 
 
 " I rather wish," said Tod, whose fingers were 
 trembling about the trigger — to the risk of Dick's 
 life — "I rather wish we had thought of bringing an 
 old goat-skin." 
 
 "What for?" 
 
 " To stick on and pretend we were goats." 
 
 " No need for you to pretend," said Dick. 
 
 " And then we'd simply collar them like they do 
 ostriches. Hullo! What's that?" 
 
 Tod brought his gun up to his shoulder with a 
 sporting instinct, hardly finishing his sentence. 
 
 "Where?" said Dick. 
 
 " There." 
 
 They had come some way into the interior, and 
 Tod pointed with his barrel in the direction of what 
 seemed to be a kind of tumulus, piled high with 
 stones, about a hundred yards ahead of them. At 
 one side of it something was visible, waving up and 
 down, a long white tangle of hair. 
 
 " A goat's beard ! " said Dick. 
 
 Nothing could be seen except the beard, and that 
 swung to and fro as if the goat were being rocked 
 to sleep behind the mound. A snoring noise was 
 
ii2 The Quietness of Dick 
 
 audible. Dick crouched down and began to creep 
 along towards it, beckoning to Tod to do likewise. 
 
 " We'll stalk it," he whispered. " Get within fifty 
 yards or so. Then you take a shot at the beard, 
 and be ready with a second. If it bolts across the 
 other side, I'll pot it." 
 
 " You'd better have first shot," said Tod. 
 
 " No," said Dick, magnanimously. " You spotted 
 it. Be downy, Tod, and plug when you get near 
 enough ! " 
 
 The scheme promised well, provided firstly, that 
 Tod did not miss, and secondly, that the goat re- 
 frained from running straight away under shelter 
 of the mound. 
 
 " Now ! " said Dick, kneeling to get a good aim. 
 
 Tod pulled the triggers so that both barrels went 
 off at once with a loud report, and Tod fell to the 
 ground with the recoil. But the strangest thing 
 was the behavior of the sleeping goat. Its beard 
 was jerked back in a twinkling, but, instead of bolt- 
 ing behind the mound or coming out into Dick's fire, 
 the creature gave a blood-curdling yell, rose on two 
 legs, and ran out Tod's side of the mound, leaping 
 
The Shooting of the Wild Goat 113 
 
 and shrieking in the strangest manner. And the 
 horror of it was voiced by Tod, as he sprang to his 
 feet in a sudden fear. 
 
 " It's not a goat," he said, slowly — and he looked 
 from the creature to Dick, and from Dick again 
 to the creature. 
 
 Whatever it was, it was an alarming sight. Its 
 beard was shaggy and coarse as a goat's, but there 
 the likeness ended. The thing was two-legged like 
 a man, its face invisible in a tangle of red and white 
 hair. It had no horns, and its body was clothed in 
 rags of what might have been a blanket, but was 
 now green as moss. 
 
 " A man ! " Dick's lips shaped the words. 
 
 But was it a man? Leaping up and down — now 
 with a screech, now with a yell, now with a whinny 
 — he seemed more like some fantastic, infuriated 
 beast. The noise of Tod's gun seemed to have 
 stirred his rage, for at first he did not see the boys, 
 and his bounds and yells seemed directed against 
 the sea and sky, and everything within reach. 
 
 Then quite suddenly he caught sight of them. 
 With glowing eyes and an outrageous howl, he put 
 
H4 The Quietness of Dick 
 
 down his head and came dashing towards them. 
 Tod thought that Red Indians would be mild in 
 comparison. So far his conscientiousness had kept 
 him chained to the spot in spite of his terror, but 
 now he could bear it no longer. His breath came 
 in pants. " Do you think we ought to — stop — and 
 ap — apologize for shooting him? " he gasped, look- 
 ing to Dick for decision. 
 
 For a moment Dick did not answer. With 
 knitted brows he seemed to be measuring the dis- 
 tance between them and the creek where they had 
 left the boat. It might have been a quarter of a 
 mile away, or more, and the surface was jagged and 
 uneven. Suddenly Dick jerked out: 
 
 " Come on, Tod, as hard as you can pelt ! " 
 
 He himself began to race for the creek. Tod 
 gave a gurgle in his throat and followed. He felt 
 rather less frightened now that he was relieved from 
 stopping to ask forgiveness of that curious bound- 
 ing creature behind them; but he could not desist 
 from turning his head again and again. 
 
 If the goat-man had run straight, he must have 
 been on them before now; but he went in zigzags 
 
The Shooting of the Wild Goat 115 
 
 and strange contortions and, even so, he was de- 
 creasing the distance between them, leaping along, 
 all limbs, like a windmill on stilts. Tod put his head 
 down and ran. Dick was some yards ahead, pacing 
 easily. 
 
 " Come on ! " he kept crying. " Quicker ! " 
 
 " I can't ! " said Tod, and again he looked back. 
 He must have been on a slippery spot, for at the 
 same moment he stumbled and fell, and lay there 
 sick with fright. He heard Dick calling on him 
 to get up, but he couldn't, and said so. 
 
 " I told you you'd better take the advice of your 
 elders?" said Dick, bitterly; this shamed Tod into 
 rising. He recommenced running. 
 
 " Don't look back," said Dick, beside him. " And 
 shove off as soon as you get into the boat." 
 
 For the life of him, Tod could not restrain a 
 glimpse. He saw Dick standing gun to shoulder, 
 aiming at the goat-man. The fellow had stopped, 
 and was bucking up and down furiously like a horse. 
 Then he screeched horribly, and dashed forward 
 again. Dick, too, had turned, and was sprinting 
 hard. How Tod got to the boat he did not know, 
 
1 16 The Quietness of Dick 
 
 but he got there first, and was conscious of pulling 
 at the mooring with trembling fingers as Dick came 
 tumbling aboard. Next moment Dick had out his 
 new knife with the sharp blade, and had cut the rope 
 across. 
 
 A push sent them into comparatively deep water. 
 The pursuer set up a long-drawn whine. 
 
 " Row ! " called Dick, and Tod began to row 
 wearily. Seated as he was, he could see the goat- 
 man again clearly. He had reached the waterside, 
 and stood there snarling, and tearing at his red- 
 white hair savagely. 
 
 Dick was pointing his gun again. 
 
 " Row up ! " he said. " You must row ! " 
 
 Tod closed his eyes to pull, and presently he heard 
 Dick say: 
 
 " He's coming after us. Pull, Tod ! " 
 
 The goat-man had taken a header into the sea, 
 and was following. He looked less fantastical in 
 the water, cleaving along with a powerful over-arm 
 stroke, but he was not less alarming. Suppose he 
 caught them up ! Tod bent his back and wished the 
 tide was strong and favoring, instead of so still. 
 
The Shooting of the Wild Goat 117 
 
 Dick sat and gripped his gun. Tod remembered 
 then that he had dropped his gun, and wondered 
 if he should ever require it again, or have the cour- 
 age to go back and look for it again on that ap- 
 palling island. Goats, indeed! Bumpstead ought 
 to be sacked for talking such nonsense. 
 
 Dick came across to where Tod was pulling. 
 
 " I'll change with you in a moment," he said. 
 " I was wondering whether I had better shoot him 
 or not." 
 
 "It wouldn't kill him, would it?" 
 
 " Not even if he were shot in the head," said 
 Dick, angrily. " I wish I hadn't brought you." 
 
 " You warned me not to come," said Tod. 
 
 " That was all rot," said Dick. " I wanted you 
 to come. I don't know what your mother will 
 say." 
 
 The goat-man was nearly upon them as he spoke. 
 
 " He's not coming on board," said Dick, setting 
 his teeth. " If he gets past me, hit him over the 
 head. Hit hard!" 
 
 And he clubbed his gun, as the swimmer stretched 
 a lean arm over the stern. 
 
u8 The Quietness of Dick 
 
 Tod put his hands over his eyes to shut out the 
 horror of the sight. It was all up with them, he 
 felt sure. Dick could do nothing against such odds. 
 And if Dick were passed — Tod shuddered to think 
 what that meant as he recalled the man's horrid 
 strangling fingers. If Dick were overdone, Tod 
 could do nothing. Only sit still, while the fingers 
 closed round his windpipe. Ugh! And he and 
 Dick would be found together with the sea-gulls 
 wheeling overhead. He thought of his mother's 
 grief. 
 
 But at this identical moment — according to Tod's 
 after description — there came a shout across the 
 water. Neither Dick nor the enemy appeared to 
 hear it, but Tod, looking up in an agon)-, saw that 
 it proceeded from a boat which was being pulled 
 incredibly slowly towards them. Some one — the 
 boat was too distant to make out the person — stood 
 in the stern waving. 
 
 " Help! " shouted Tod, frantically. " Help! " 
 
 He saw Dick bring the butt end of his gun down 
 on the goat-man's fingers, and the latter scuffle and 
 writhe like an eel. 
 

 He Clubbed His Gun as the Swimmer Stretched a Lean Arm 
 over the Stern. — Page 117. 
 
The Shooting of the Wild Goat 119 
 
 " Hold on ! " came in a faint cry from the other 
 boat. 
 
 It was all very well to say " Hold on," but was 
 it possible? Their own boat was rocking violently, 
 up and down, down and up, with splashes of water 
 coming over, the man clung on with all his weight, 
 snarling and grimacing, and slowly winning his 
 way. He had both arms over the side now, and 
 Dick, standing up, seemed unable to keep his bal- 
 ance. He aimed a blow at the shaggy head, missed, 
 and came too near. In a moment the man's fingers 
 had got one of Dick's ankles in their clutch, and he 
 had tossed Dick over his head into the sea, as a 
 dog tosses a biscuit. Then he began levering him- 
 self up into the boat. Never would Tod forget the 
 fright of that moment. 
 
 He sat fascinated, a ginger-beer bottle that he 
 had picked up, as the only available weapon, idle 
 in his hand. He would have given worlds to have 
 been able to follow Dick into the sea, but his legs 
 refused to work. He sat, and sat, and the goat- 
 man hauled himself into the boat, shook himself 
 like a dog, and then, with a sneering laugh, 
 
120 The Quietness of Dick 
 
 and fingers twisting and snapping, came at 
 Tod. 
 
 " Hit him, Tod, hit him ! " cried Dick, terrified at 
 seeing Tod thus spellbound. He himself, out of 
 loyalty, had swum straight for the boat again, 
 though he felt he had taken in too much water to 
 be of any use in a struggle. 
 
 " Hit him ! " he shouted. 
 
 At that, startled, as it were, into life, Tod hit 
 out with the bottle. He caught the goat-man full in 
 the face, so that he gave back with a wild-beast cry. 
 Next moment Dick, as he lay half over the side too 
 breathless to get further up, heard some one call 
 out, " Ship your oars ! " There was a bumping 
 of wood on wood, a scuffling of feet, and two men 
 leaped across from the other boat. One of them 
 was Mr. Wilton. 
 
 A little later, when the goat-man was lying, 
 bound and sullen, in the new boat, and Tod and 
 Dick, much recovered, were finishing off the last 
 bottle of ginger-beer, Mr. Wilton explained matters. 
 It appeared that the goat-man was the most danger- 
 ous lunatic in the asylum that is situated outside the 
 
The Shooting of the Wild Goat 121 
 
 small town of Coney Point. He had been missing 
 for two days, and it was for that very reason that 
 Mr. Wilton, who was one of the guardians, had 
 been sent for. After every effort had been made 
 to track him through the country-side, it had been 
 suggested by one of the keepers that the man might 
 have crossed over from the mainland when the tide 
 was down, partly by wading, partly by swimming, 
 to Coney Island. Which was exactly what had 
 happened. 
 
 " But how on earth you boys managed to put 
 yourselves precisely in the wrong place, I cannot 
 make out," Mr. Wilton ended up. " And if I hadn't 
 offered to row over with these men and look at the 
 island, there would have been an end of you by 
 now." 
 
 " We came to shoot goats," Tod tried to explain. 
 
 " Really," said Mr. Wilton, patiently, " it will be 
 safer to try sheep next time. But for your own 
 sakes, don't tell your mother, or she'll be in 
 hysterics, Dick will be packed off, and you'll be put 
 in charge of a governess, Tod." 
 
 It really looked like an accident, so Mr. Wilton 
 
122 The Quietness of Dick 
 
 said no more. But Dick and Tod took fair shares 
 of the tail-end of the sixth ginger-beer bottle sor- 
 rowfully. Their chances of being allowed to join in 
 the raid on the poachers next night seemed to be 
 trembling in the balance. 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 
 DICK REASSURES THE MAJOR 
 
 '"T^UESDA Y dawned brightly. There could be no 
 doubt about the brightness of the weather, be- 
 cause Tod got out of his bed to see, and came and 
 waked Dick in order to assure him of the fact. 
 Dick said ungratefully that the weather didn't mat- 
 ter a bit, and went to sleep again on his other side 
 until a decent hour. 
 
 What Dick meant of course was — that the bright- 
 ness of Tuesday depended on whether they were 
 going to be allowed to join the raid or not. This 
 important question was asked after breakfast. 
 
 It was incomprehensible to Dick that a man like 
 
 Mr. Wilton, who was a parent and a justice of the 
 
 peace, besides being a guardian of a lunatic asylum 
 
 amongst other things, could not know his own mind. 
 
 But so it was. He wouldn't say. He thought not — 
 
 on the whole. Dick and Tod had better be thinking 
 
 123 
 
124 The Quietness of Dick 
 
 of something else. What business of theirs was it? 
 Much better if they spent their time at Latin gram- 
 mar.. And so on . . . exasperatingly. It was 
 not, as Dick pointed out after they came away from 
 this unsatisfactory interview, as if they had kept 
 badgering him about it. A badgered man is apt to 
 retaliate. But they had been singularly careful not 
 to badger. They had merely mentioned on Sunday 
 when the subject first came up, that they would like 
 to join, and that was all — except that Tod, rather 
 foolishly, Dick now thought, had given away the 
 lassoing scheme, which ought to have been bar- 
 tered. Dick was inclined to believe that Mr. Wilton 
 and his friends meant to avail themselves of the 
 idea without recompensing its projectors. 
 
 They had retired in high dudgeon and dismal 
 uncertainty to the shade of a beech tree, with a Latin 
 dictionary, and one or two other works, in the hope 
 that these would make a good impression, and soften 
 Mr. Wilton's heart, if he saw them. And it was 
 from under the shade of this beech tree that they 
 saw Major Culliemore ride up to the house. 
 
 " We'd better go and ask him to fix it up," said 
 
Dick Reassures the Major 125 
 
 Tod, immediately. " P'raps he's come round to see 
 about it." 
 
 " Wait till he comes out of the house again," said 
 Dick, who was lying on the grass and seemed dis- 
 inclined to stir. 
 
 " But why? " asked Tod, in a tremendous hurry. 
 " Why not catch him at once ? " 
 
 " Because he'll be jolly sick if you do." 
 
 Dick made this announcement with so much cer- 
 tainty, and accompanied it with so solemn a wink, 
 that Tod, who had almost started to put his own 
 plan into action, and intercept the Major before he 
 could get into the house, stoppeti instantly. 
 
 "Why?" he demanded. "What's the matter 
 with him ? " 
 
 " Spooney," said Dick. He said this briefly, but 
 with such a continuation of his solemn and por- 
 tentous manner, that Tod was flabbergasted. He 
 said " Rats ! " indeed, in as incredulous a voice as 
 he could assume, but the fact that he sat down 
 showed that he was shaken. 
 
 "Who with?" 
 
 "Miss Revers." 
 
126 The Quietness of Dick 
 
 Tod repeated " Rats ! " in a manner that any one 
 acquainted with Tod's standpoint in these matters 
 might have taken as a reflection upon the young 
 woman. As a matter of fact, it was merely due 
 to Tod's being unable to discern any use or profit 
 in the Major's being in the state in which Dick 
 declared him to be. 
 
 " It's all rot," he began to argue hastily. " Why 
 should he ? The Major isn't a fool. He was a jolly 
 distinguished soldier, and he's hunted alligators and 
 shot tigers and " 
 
 " He's spooney," Dick repeated. " And it's Miss 
 Revers. What's more," he continued, after pausing 
 to let this sink in, " he's in such a funk of her that 
 he daren't own up." 
 
 This was heaping Pelion upon Ossa. No wonder 
 Tod, in spite of his incredulity, was staggered. 
 
 " How do you know? " he forced himself to ask. 
 
 " Because I've watched him," said Dick. " I sus- 
 pected it on Sunday, but yesterday, when we got 
 back from the island, he was here again at tea, 
 and frightfully nervous when she spoke to him. 
 And she had on some new togs, green flouncy stuff, 
 
Dick Reassures the Major [127 
 
 and he nearly fell over the coal-scuttle when he 
 handed things and he put a piece of cake in his cup 
 instead of sugar." 
 
 It was a damning indictment, even to Tod's in- 
 experience, though he said loyally enough : 
 
 " I don't see that that's anything. I daresay he 
 was thinking how to get that kingfisher's nest that 
 I told him about. I know I was." 
 
 But Dick was not accustomed to have his deduc- 
 tions questioned. He had no more desire to believe 
 ill of Major Culliemore than Tod had. The whole 
 thing was pretty sickening, but it was also beyond 
 doubt. 
 
 " Look here, young Tod," he said; " you seem to 
 think you know a jolly lot, but you don't. Of 
 course you didn't notice anything when you were 
 tucking away at parkin like an old cockroach. But 
 I did. And I know all about his being a splendid 
 shot and that; and of course it's funny in a way; 
 we shouldn't do it, of course. But when you come 
 into an estate like the Shuttle, you have to marry 
 sometime, I suppose." 
 
 " I don't see why," said Tod. 
 
128 The Quietness of Dick 
 
 " Because somebody has to be there to look after 
 the servants and linen, and see about making sand- 
 wiches when you're going out shooting. And Miss 
 Revers '11 do it much better than an old person like 
 Mrs. Chibberly, who always forgot the mustard — 
 the Maj says — and only makes enough for 
 an eider-duck when you're particularly beastly 
 hungry." 
 
 There was something to be said for matrimony 
 from this point of view, and Tod grudgingly ad- 
 mitted it. 
 
 " I suppose we shan't be expected to do anything, 
 shall we? " he asked, in some alarm. 
 
 " You needn't," said Dick. " But I'm going to 
 help him see it through. Of course he's a little shy 
 at present about getting it done, and letting every 
 one into it. So'd you be, young Tod. But it seems 
 to me that if he's really keen, he may as well pop 
 away at once. I'm going to suggest a plan now, 
 and he'll be so jolly grateful that he'll back us up 
 to-night like anything." 
 
 Major Culliemore had just appeared from the 
 house, looking as if he had found nobody in. He 
 
Dick Reassures the Major 129 
 
 was just getting on his horse again as Dick hailed 
 him. 
 
 "Coming to do some cattying?" he asked. 
 " We've got some bottles up behind the house." 
 
 " Afraid I ought to be getting back," said Major 
 Culliemore. " Why don't you walk back with me ? " 
 remembering that he had been asked to keep the 
 boys out of mischief. 
 
 " I will," assented Dick. 
 
 "Stay to lunch, eh?" said the Major. "Tod 
 coming too ? " 
 
 " No," said Dick, swiftly, " young Tod's busy." 
 
 Tod, considerably to his surprise, found himself 
 left behind, while Dick on foot, and the Major 
 on his horse, went off towards the gate and the road 
 that leads to the Shuttle. 
 
 The Major was silent, presumably because he 
 was thinking with shame upon his lovelorn con- 
 dition, and Dick was silent because he did not quite 
 see his way to open the conversation suitably. He 
 was always very careful about people's feelings, and 
 since he was conscious that he would have blushed 
 to own up to the Major's complaint himself, he 
 
130 The Quietness of Dick 
 
 began to see that it was rather a delicate matter. 
 However, he had his catapult with him, and there 
 was no particular hurry. 
 
 As it turned out in the end, it was the Major 
 himself who, after heaving a good-natured sigh 
 (Dick thought it sounded good-natured), set the 
 ball rolling in the right direction. 
 
 " You're not often in the dumps, Dick," he said, 
 enviously. 
 
 " No," said Dick, " it seems rather a waste of 
 time — in the holidays. I wonder why you are." 
 
 Indirectly the Major fell into the trap, for he 
 responded. 
 
 " Mind you never fall in love ! " 
 
 " I don't think I shall," said Dick, frankly. " You 
 see, I'm to be either an explorer or a keeper at the 
 Zoo. . . . The Small Cats' House, probably," he 
 added. 
 
 " I see," said the Major. 
 
 " One hasn't got time for everything," Dick ex- 
 plained. 
 
 "True!" 
 
 " Girls," continued Dick, working swiftly round 
 
Dick Reassures the Major 131 
 
 to the subject, " at least, most girls, are always 
 wanting you to do something — dance or fetch their 
 bracelets or tell them dates in history to catch you 
 out, though they don't know any themselves, except 
 about Little Arthur and the Magna Charta and that 
 sort of thing. And if you're at the Zoo, you 
 haven't time for it. The Small Cats are jolly deli- 
 cate, and you have to be on the spot to rub 'em down 
 if they get croup ..." 
 
 " It certainly seems," the Major agreed, " that 
 love is incompatible with zoology ..." And he 
 rode on in silence again until Dick, having in 
 imagination domesticated a lynx so that it should 
 sit with a piece of bread on its nose until he gave 
 the word of command, suddenly recollected that 
 time was being wasted. 
 
 " Are you really badly spoons ? " he said aloud. 
 
 " Eh ? " said the Major, starting. " What's that ? 
 What did you say ? " 
 
 " I was wondering," said Dick, taking careful 
 aim at a rabbit that started across the road ahead 
 of them, "if you were beastly gone on Miss 
 Revers." 
 
132 The Quietness of Dick 
 
 He shot as he spoke, and the Major frowned un- 
 observed, and then began to smile. 
 
 " I'm afraid I'm pretty dished," he said, mourn- 
 fully. 
 
 "Well, why don't you marry her, then?" Dick 
 inquired, following the missed rabbit with his eye. 
 
 " It takes two to marry," said the Major. " She 
 mightn't have me." 
 
 " Have you asked ? " said Dick, interested again 
 now that the rabbit had vanished. 
 
 " Daren't," said the Major. 
 
 For a moment Dick looked at him with pitying 
 condescension. As Tod said, it seemed absurd 
 enough to be spoons at all, but to funk in addi- 
 tion 
 
 " She doesn't give me a chance," went on the 
 Major, speaking more to himself than his com- 
 panion. 
 
 Dick snorted. 
 
 " They're like rabbits," he pronounced. 
 
 "Who are?" 
 
 " Girls." 
 
 " In what way? " asked the Major, impressed. 
 
Dick Reassures the Major 133 
 
 " Shy," returned Dick, " and curious. They'll 
 pop out of their holes time after time to look at 
 you, but as soon as they think you're going to fire, 
 they're off." 
 
 The Major looked at Dick with astonishment. 
 
 " I wish I'd begun to study them at your age," 
 he said. " But I'm an old fogey now." 
 
 He spoke whimsically, but Dick was too intent 
 on the subject to be put off by ill-timed humor. 
 
 " The thing is, if you want to get 'em out of their 
 burrows where you can pop at 'em (rabbits, I mean 
 — only it's just the same with girls) — and you 
 haven't got any ferrets — the thing is to put out 
 some turnips — what I mean," Dick explained, see- 
 ing the Major becoming mystified, " is that you can't 
 ferret girls, of course, but you can give 'em a bust. 
 I think she'd like it." 
 
 "Ask the rabbits — them — I should say — to din- 
 ner ? " said the Major, pondering. " Is that what 
 you mean ? " 
 
 " Tea," said Dick, " in the garden with straw- 
 berries and cream and ices. Chocolate eclairs are 
 not bad." 
 
134 The Quietness of Dick 
 
 " Upon my word ! " said the Major, and he 
 brightened. " It's a capital idea. I never thought 
 of it. But do you think they'd come? " 
 
 " Rather. If you make it Thursday. I know 
 there's nothing on then." 
 
 " I will," said the Major. " I'll send the invita- 
 tions out at once. You'll come of course." 
 
 "Thanks," said Dick. "I should like it. I'll 
 bring young Tod, too, if you like." 
 
 Indeed it would have been less than just if, after 
 not only inspiring the feast, but elaborating the 
 menu so as to include chocolate eclairs, which were 
 at least as popular with Tod and himself as with 
 Miss Revers, he had not been allowed to bring Tod. 
 As it was, things seemed to promise well. Dick 
 assisted the Major to work out further details of 
 the party over an excellent lunch, and felt that he 
 was not taking a mean advantage when, just before 
 he started back, he said: 
 
 " By the way, do you mind voting for us if there's 
 any bother about our going to-night ? " 
 
 " To-night? " repeated the Major, distractedly. 
 
 " The poachers, you know," said Dick. 
 
Dick Reassures the Major 135 
 
 " Oh, yes, I'd forgotten," said the Major. 
 " Right, I'll plank for you. Though I can't promise 
 you it'll be successful, if Squire Boodeney comes. 
 So you must be prepared beforehand for resigna- 
 tion." 
 
 " Perhaps he won't come," said Dick, hopefully. 
 
 " Perhaps not." 
 
 " If he does, of course," said Dick, " it'll be 
 rather a nuisance." 
 
 But he said nothing about being resigned. 
 
CHAPTER X 
 
 TOD'S POACHER 
 
 '"T^OD sat nicely balanced on the window-sill of his 
 bedroom, and spoke in an anxious whisper to 
 some one that hung and rustled in the ivy below. 
 
 "Are you all right?" 
 
 For a moment no answer came. It was a starry 
 night without wind, but the dense creeper shook 
 and snapped as if a hurricane were blowing, or a 
 thousand sparrows had taken to fluttering their 
 wings in it; there followed a suppressed cry; then 
 as Tod looked towards the flower-bed at the bottom 
 in some alarm, a dark figure slipped through the 
 lowest stems of the ivy, and Dick stood on solid 
 earth rubbing his chafed hands. 
 
 " Right O, Tod," he called, softly. " I lost hold 
 
 of that beastly old drain-pipe, and some of the ivy 
 
 seems to be giving, but it's safe enough if you hang 
 
 on to anything you see." 
 
 136 
 
Tod's Poacher 137 
 
 "Is it?" said Tod, doubtfully, for he could see 
 nothing. 
 
 " Perfectly." 
 
 Dick was quite positive of it — as usual. 
 
 " I'm heavier than you," Tod reminded him. 
 
 "Tons!" said Dick, without feeling. "You're 
 a regular old hogshead. But remember, young Tod, 
 if you funk it now, we shan't see any of the fun, 
 and that brute the Squire '11 simply have stuck us 
 in bed while he muddles the whole show." 
 
 " I'll come, then." 
 
 " Don't forget your lasso," D^k called, as he 
 saw Tod, faintly outlined in the starlight, put forth 
 a hand gingerly to get a grip of the ivy before 
 trusting himself to the perilous descent. Tod had 
 not forgotten his lasso, nor was his squarish figure 
 rendered more limber by having it wound round 
 and round him till he resembled in the middle a 
 large coil of rope. If there had been any decent 
 pretext for remaining where he was, Tod would 
 have seized it. As it was, excitement, his pledged 
 word, and a sincere desire to outwit Squire Boode- 
 ney, propelled him into the first patches of ivy. 
 
138 The Quietness of Dick 
 
 The leaves seemed to flap in his face and to mock 
 him, and he to be swinging for ever. Quite coolly 
 Dick gave directions from below. 
 
 " Keep to the right till you get to three nests 
 together — by the old pipe — you've still got hold of 
 the pipe, haven't you? " 
 
 " Yes," said Tod. " But I can't see the nests." 
 
 " Never mind," rejoined Dick. " It's too late 
 for eggs. Try coming straight down." 
 
 " It's all very well for you," began Tod. 
 
 " And don't stay too long in one place. It won't 
 bear " 
 
 " But I can't find " 
 
 In the middle of Tod's explanation, the finer ivy 
 broke away from the wall, and Tod swung out as 
 if at the end of a gibbet. 
 
 "Help!" he cried, frantically. 
 
 " Try and swing back," urged Dick. " And don't 
 yell or you'll wake every one." 
 
 Already the dog was barking in his kennel in the 
 yard. Tod, stiffened by his lasso, and helpless as 
 a fowler taken in his own net, dangled, faint at 
 heart. He had a sinking sensation inside him. 
 
Tod's Poacher 139 
 
 " Kick out and you'll go back ! " 
 
 Tod kicked out feebly and returned to the wall 
 at a slow pace. He made a nervous grab at more 
 solid ivy as he came against it, that loosened also, 
 and with a swish of leaves and rattle of dislocated 
 mortar, came rumbling to the ground. He lay 
 there blinking up at the stars, and Dick bent over 
 him. 
 
 " You haven't broken your leg, have you, Tod ? " 
 he asked, in a conspiring whisper. 
 
 " I daresay," replied Tod, who felt at rest. " I 
 can't feel either of 'em." 
 
 " I expect that's because you've got the rope fixed 
 round. It broke your fall though. It all comes 
 of being so heavy ! " 
 
 " I'm not," protested Tod, as Dick began to turn 
 him over and unwind him. " I'm " — a scientific 
 pinch from Dick started him up with a squeal — 
 " I'm all right — at least I can walk." 
 
 " Come on, then," said Dick, " or we shall be 
 late. The dogs are making a horrid row. We'll 
 go for the larch spinney first." 
 
 They moved in Indian file, as was their custom 
 
140 The Quietness of Dick 
 
 when on the warpath; and Tod, as he moved in 
 Dick's wake slowly, had time to reflect upon what 
 was before them. Dick's plan of operations was 
 simple enough. It consisted in finding out where 
 Mr. Wilton's party had stationed itself, avoiding it, 
 and standing by and noosing any poachers that 
 might break out. It was an exceedingly simple 
 plan. 
 
 But, as a matter of fact, what was before them 
 seemed likely to be mixed up a good deal with what 
 was behind them, namely, insubordination and im- 
 pertinence (on Tod's part), and direct disobedience 
 on the part of both. In short, Mr. Wilton believed 
 them both to be in bed, Tod with his door locked 
 on the outside. 
 
 What had happened was this. Mr. Wilton, being 
 still divided in his mind about the matter (chiefly 
 because Mrs. Wilton wept to think of their going, 
 and said Tod would certainly be shot by a poacher) , 
 the boys had presented themselves, ready armed 
 with lassos at nine o'clock, the hour fixed for the 
 onset, thinking to take him by storm. Major Cullie- 
 more abetted them, as he had promised Dick he 
 
Tod's Poacher 141 
 
 would. The other men made no objections, Mr. 
 Wilton wavered. Then it was that Squire Boode- 
 ney turned up and ruined everything. He was a 
 fat man likely to be very slow on his legs, Dick 
 thought, with a red face and an irascible temper. 
 Without being asked for his opinion, he said that 
 if those boys were going he was not going. No- 
 body wanted him to go, though he had brought 
 three of his own keepers with him to strengthen 
 the party. Tod's disappointment, unfortunately, 
 caused him to express this general feeling in the 
 Squire's presence. For which exposition of the 
 truth, he was promptly marched to his bedroom by 
 his father, and locked in for the night. 
 
 Mr. Wilton had forgotten the ivy, and the pos- 
 sibility of Tod in his mutinous state climbing into 
 Dick's bedroom and being incited to further mu- 
 tiny. Nor could he have guessed, as, with Major 
 Culliemore and the others, he arranged his trap 
 for the poachers, that Dick and Tod were at that 
 moment at large and advancing rapidly into the 
 center of the cordon. 
 
 It will easily be perceived that Tod, following 
 
142 The Quietness of Dick 
 
 Indian-like in Dick's wake, had plenty of things to 
 think over and to look forward to. The complexity 
 of his duties half excited and half dazed him. He 
 was bound not only to assist his father by catching 
 poachers, but also to assist himself by not being 
 caught by his father. He had also to pacify Dick, 
 who, perhaps because he was a little anxious him- 
 self, was proving a very impatient leader. 
 
 " We've got to be jolly careful not to be col- 
 lared," he kept saying, " so keep your nose on my 
 trail, young Tod." 
 
 " All right," Tod replied, nervously, " but it's 
 awfully dark." 
 
 Certainly it was not light by the paths Dick 
 elected to follow, mostly under cover. The trees 
 took strange shapes and threw distorted shadows, 
 and for a hunter and ambuscader, Tod was ab- 
 surdly possessed by the idea that hidden foes lurked 
 in every piece of brushwood. A crackle of twigs 
 or a sound of a rabbit thudding off to its burrows, 
 set him all on edge ; he could not make up his mind 
 that in the very dark places where he could hardly 
 see his own hand, other people were not likely to 
 
Tod's Poacher 143 
 
 be able to see him. It was even worse when they 
 had to cross open fields in their shimmer of silver 
 grass. He felt indescribably exposed. 
 
 " It'll be better now," said Dick, breathing a little 
 more freely himself, as they plunged into the woods 
 once more. They were nearing the Mile-end coverts, 
 which they had gathered were to be tried first, if 
 there were any sounds of poachers in that direction, 
 and they halted in an open space that was al- 
 most a glade. Or rather Dick came to a halt and 
 said: 
 
 " Do you hear anything? " 
 
 " No," said Tod, and gave an involuntary leap 
 as the crack of a gun split out in their near neigh- 
 borhood. It was followed by the dead fall of a 
 bird. 
 
 " Look ! " whispered Dick. 
 
 Through the glade they could see three men mov- 
 ing along to where the bird lay. Before they knew 
 whether these were poachers or pursuers, they 
 heard footsteps immediately behind them, and the 
 voice of some one giving directions. 
 
 " Barker, take the right ; Johns, you and Mappin 
 
144 The Quietness of Dick 
 
 keep left, and don't let 'em get through, by Gad! 
 I'm going right up to challenge 'em." 
 
 " Tak a care they doan't fire on yew, Squoire." 
 
 " Fire on me ? I should like to see the man 
 
 that " The rest was lost in the distance. But 
 
 the gruff fury and domineering of the tones were 
 unmistakable. It was Squire Boodeney, and he 
 was just in their rear. The whole line was ad- 
 vancing. 
 
 Tod's knees felt loose. The whole line was ad- 
 vancing — upon him and Dick. It was clear to him 
 that the Squire would hear their steps and take them 
 for the poachers. Why, at this very moment, he 
 and Dick were being enfiladed and would suffer 
 capture, while the real poachers, who were just 
 ahead of them, again would escape, sniggering. In 
 this dilemma Tod looked to Dick hurriedly for 
 directions. 
 
 " Snake-crawl ! " whispered Dick, going down on 
 his hands and knees. He moved serpentining, and 
 Tod followed. 
 
 Now, what Red Indians may be capable of, and 
 one understands that they are born to this kind 
 
Tod's Poacher 145 
 
 of thing, it is one thing to practise the snake- 
 crawl in broad daylight for fun on an open piece 
 of turf where you can see obstacles plainly and 
 avoid the more wriggling things, and it is another 
 in earnest in the pitch-dark in a wood which seems 
 made up of crackles — where at each forward move- 
 ment of the hands you fancy yourself touching some 
 ear-wig or scurrying cockroachy creature. This 
 difference may have accounted for Tod's clumsi- 
 ness in a manoeuver which he had studied with some 
 care. It was, he averred later, a centipede that 
 made him jump in a manner so unlike a snake. 
 The result was that a dried branch snapped like a 
 small pistol. Instantly there came a challenge : 
 
 " Hands up now and come out of that ! " 
 
 It was the Squire's voice, but Tod flattened him- 
 self in obedience to a whisper from Dick, barely 
 visible a yard ahead. 
 
 " Are you coming out, my man? " 
 
 Tod forgot that snakes should not answer, and 
 called back " No," obstinately. Just then, as luck 
 would have it, another bird must have been sighted, 
 and the poachers, ignorant of what was going on 
 
146 The Quietness of Dick 
 
 about them, and heedless of danger, fired three 
 shots in quick succession. One of them hit a bird 
 just overhead, and it flopped down not far from 
 where Tod was crouching. The idea that some 
 one had deliberately shot in his direction was too 
 much for the Squire's equanimity, and he let off 
 his gun, aiming by the sound. Tod felt his hair 
 stiffen as the shots whizzed over his head. 
 
 " Now, you rascals," shouted the Squire, " it's 
 your last chance. Are you coming out ? " 
 
 The question was hardly out of his mouth, and 
 Tod in the last state of despair, when a sudden 
 commotion occurred ahead of him and Dick. The 
 poachers had apparently become aware that they 
 were not alone. The keeper, on the right, had 
 started them off, and he was hailing the Squire. 
 
 " Thiccy way, sir, us have got 'un here." 
 
 " They're nearer me," retorted the Squire. 
 
 " No, sir, thiccy way, sir, ah think," said the 
 keeper. " You come straight ahead, sir." 
 
 The Squire bellowed indignantly, and came tram- 
 pling through the wood like a rhinoceros. The 
 boys held their breath in a fear of discovery. But 
 
Tod's Poacher 147 
 
 the Squire was evidently persuaded that he had been 
 mistaken, and went blundering past. They saw 
 him loom by under a patch of starlight and dis- 
 appear. 
 
 " You are a fathead, young Tod," said Dick, 
 indignantly, but with relief. " It was the narrowest 
 shave for being taken " 
 
 " It was so crawly," said Tod, referring to the 
 centipede. 
 
 " But what did you answer for ? " 
 
 " I forgot," said Tod, apologetically. 
 
 " Well," said Dick, " they've routed 'em out now, 
 and the question is, what are we going to do ? You 
 see the poachers are on the run, and that means 
 they'll have to get out of this wood somewhere — 
 but which way will they choose ? " 
 
 It was not easy to decide. The wood was full of 
 noises, scuffling feet, splitting twigs, and the swish 
 of the men breaking through the bushes; loud cries 
 and counter cries, all vague and confused, and then 
 again the report of a gun, whether from attackers 
 or attacked it was impossible to say. 
 
 " The Major said that none of us ought to carry 
 
148 The Quietness of Dick 
 
 guns, because it was a bad example," remarked Dick, 
 "but old Boodeney doesn't seem to mind shooting 
 much. Not that he can shoot." 
 
 " It seemed to go through my hair," said Tod. 
 
 " Served you right for yelling out," said Dick. 
 " But look here, I'm not going to be out of it all. 
 I vote we go up close and see if we can mop up 
 any of 'em, as they come out. What I think is 
 that they'll try and see who's guarding what, and 
 then charge the easiest. Your pater and the Major 
 are behind, I expect, and Mr. Cavendish and Mr. 
 Denton ought to be somewhere on the right and 
 left, but it's awfully thick to get through, and if 
 they begin running — I do hope they won't give up 
 — they'll try and get on to a track." 
 
 "What then? "asked Tod. 
 
 "Why," said Dick, "the only track through is 
 the one the Squire's gone up now, isn't it ? They'll 
 probably dodge in among the trees, and he'll prob- 
 ably miss 'em. Then if we have any luck they'll 
 come charging down this way. We'll be ready, 
 young Tod." 
 
 It does not sound a very definite plan of cam- 
 
Tod's Poacher 149 
 
 paign, when written down, and there were a good 
 many suppositions about it, but the general outline 
 was clear enough, and since Tod knew the ground 
 (they had been over most of it that afternoon) and 
 Dick knew his own mind, they had at least as much 
 chance of success as the Duke of Wellington often 
 had. 
 
 " Then we'd better get on to the track first," sug- 
 gested Tod. 
 
 " Yes, quietly," said Dick, and he gathered up 
 the coils of his lasso in a scientific manner. Tod 
 followed suit, and they groped for the track/ which 
 they had judged from the Squire's movements to be 
 close at hand, and they happened on it without 
 much difficulty. The starlight seemed a little 
 stronger here, probably because the trees no longer 
 met overhead as they had done in the thick of the 
 wood. 
 
 As the boys hurried along, the noises ahead of 
 them grew louder. Two or three shots had been 
 fired in quick succession; some one shrieked as if 
 hurt; there were loud oaths, a noise of mixed 
 wrestling; and then — quite suddenly it seemed to 
 
ij;o The Quietness of Dick 
 
 Tod — a pack of men broke out from among the 
 trees into the open spaces of the avenue, about a 
 hundred yards away. Four or five men began 
 running their hardest towards the boys. Tod 
 gulped down his emotions and listened to Dick's 
 commands. 
 
 " Get behind a tree and stay there. I'm going 
 back a little. Let the first chap go past and fix 
 the second. . . . We may get two that way . . . 
 and mind you jerk properly, when you've roped 
 him." 
 
 The commands were swift and straightforward, 
 worthy of Dick's generalship. But Tod rather 
 wished, as he threw himself behind the elm which 
 was nearest, that he were a battalion or at least a 
 company, or that he had stayed in bed, or that they 
 had waited a little further back, or that Dick instead 
 of himself were stationed as the advance-guard. 
 He could not see Dick now from where he was, 
 but knew that he would be ensconced behind another 
 tree a few yards down the avenue. 
 
 The poachers would reach him — Tod — first. 
 What was it Dick had said he was to do? To let 
 
Tod's Poacher 151 
 
 the first go by ? He would indeed . . . but . . . 
 suppose the second saw him and stopped dead ? Or 
 came at him? Or suppose they both saw him and 
 both stopped dead and both came at him? They 
 were armed with guns . . . Tod had only a rope 
 — a lasso, if you like . . . with which he had 
 once or twice succeeded in netting a tree stump, 
 which is a motionless object. A tree stump is 
 neither revengeful nor armed with a gun. 
 
 These thoughts flashed through Tod's head in the 
 course of perhaps three seconds; and peeping out 
 he saw that the men were coming up fast. His 
 heart ticked like a grandfather's clock, and his right 
 hand that held the coils of the rope shook con- 
 siderably. There were only two coming that way 
 after all — the others must have darted left and 
 right among the trees. But two were quite enough. 
 Tod could hear their fast breathing, or rather, it 
 seemed, that of the man behind, who was evidently 
 blown, for his companion was well ahead as he drew 
 level with Tod, running silently. Tod shrank back 
 into the shadows, and looked in Dick's direction to 
 try and see if Dick was all ready. It seemed almost 
 
152 The Quietness of Dick 
 
 the next moment that the other came up — a huge 
 heavy man, panting terribly, with his head down 
 like a bull's, charging for all he was worth, his gun 
 shaking in his hand. In another moment he would 
 be past, and at the thought of missing him Tod's 
 sporting instincts came to the surface. He stepped 
 out of the shadow of the tree and threw. 
 
 Never had he thrown better. The rope wound 
 out, the loop settled beautifully over the man's head 
 and dropped almost to his knees before Tod thought 
 of tightening. 
 
 " I've got him ! " yelled Tod. 
 
 A whoop from Dick at the same moment signified 
 that the success was a double one. Tod started 
 back with a jerk, and his quarry came to the ground 
 heavily. He lay there cursing. 
 
 " Rope him up," called Dick. " There's some 
 more coming my way . . . but I daresay it's our 
 lot. We've got something to show 'em." 
 
 " Rather ! " said Tod. " Hurray ! " 
 
 His excitement was so vast, that if the other lot 
 had happened to be poachers, they might have turned 
 the tables before he had noticed them. He danced 
 
The Loop Settled Beautifully over the Man's Head and 
 Dropped Almost to His Knees Before Tod Thought of 
 Tightening. — Page 152. 
 
Tod's Poacher 153 
 
 about, cheering and jerking his captive down again 
 and again as he tried to struggle to his knees, 
 until the man gave up attempting to move, and 
 lay exhausted and sullen. Dick was perform- 
 ing the same offices for his victim, a little more 
 quietly. ^ 
 
 " Hurray ! " shouted Tod again, playing like a 
 cat with a mouse. He never looked towards the 
 others whom Dick had spoken of, who seemed to 
 arrive quite suddenly, a shadowy company con- 
 sisting, as Dick saw, of Mr. Wilton, Major Cullie- 
 more, Bumpstead, and the gardener. 
 
 " Who are you ? " called Mr. Wilton, nourishing 
 a lantern, but unable to distinguish faces immedi- 
 ately. " Whoever you are," he went on, " my man, 
 it's no use struggling . . . we've " 
 
 " All right, Mr. Wilton," struck in Dick, " we've 
 got 'em." 
 
 " Coo-oo-oo-eekety ! " cried Tod, who was run- 
 ning round his prisoner in the distance. 
 
 "What the— what's this?" asked Mr. Wilton, 
 angrily. " You here, Dick ; you, Tod ? I thought I 
 left you in bed." 
 
154 The Quietness of Dick 
 
 "We've got 'em, pater," said Tod, too excited 
 to heed what his father thought. 
 
 " Lassoed 'em," Dick appended. 
 
 The Major had borrowed Mr. Wilton's lantern 
 and was flashing it on to Dick's prisoner. 
 
 " By Jove, Wilton, so they have, the young ras- 
 cals. They've got more than we have anyhow. 
 Squire Boodeney will be jealous of them. Yours is 
 a poacher, Dick, right enough. . . . I've seen you 
 before, my man. . . . One of the Trevanneys, 
 aren't you? Why have you taken to poaching, 
 eh?" 
 
 " I suppose because it's such jolly good fun," said 
 Dick, as the man declined to answer. 
 
 "P'raps," said the Major. "And Tod's got 
 another of 'em, has he? " 
 
 " Sounds like it," said Dick, and he followed the 
 Major and Mr. Wilton forward with the lantern, 
 while Bumpstead and the gardener tied his cap- 
 tive's hands. 
 
 " What's your man ? " the Major asked as he 
 came up to Tod. " Big one ? " 
 
 "Fat enough," said Tod, "I don't know who 
 
Tod's Poacher 155 
 
 he is . . . but you bet he's jolly winded and 
 sulky and " 
 
 Major Culliemore stepped forward and bent, 
 turning the lantern on the prostrate poacher. For 
 a moment he said nothing, then the others saw him 
 turn the lantern away hurriedly and double up as 
 if with pain, while a voice, not to be mistaken, 
 grumbled breathlessly: 
 
 " If you scoundrels don't let me go at once 
 I'll " 
 
 Tod had ceased from his caperings, and for quite 
 five seconds there was dead silence. Then Mr. 
 Wilton turned his back hastily and walked away. 
 Dick also sidled off, his handkerchief stuffed in his 
 mouth. 
 
 Tod, the Major, and Tod's captive gently floun- 
 dering, were left alone, and the Major said in a low, 
 stifled voice: 
 
 " Tod, you've noosed the Squire ! " 
 
 Tod did not need to be told now. . . . He saw 
 it all plainly. Squire Boodeney, in his enthusiasm, 
 must have been chasing the poacher who fell to 
 Dick's lasso, keeping up a gallant stern chase de- 
 
156 The Quietness of Dick 
 
 spite his corpulence and asthmatical tendencies. In 
 the half-light Tod had been deceived. 
 
 " I — I think I'd better go," he whispered. 
 
 " I think you had," answered the Major, and 
 again he bent double as if in pain. There was a 
 sound of some one choking in Dick's direction, and 
 Mr. Wilton was leaning against a tree. 
 
 " I'll pay you a guinea, you confounded scamps, 
 if you'll let me get up." It was the Squire who 
 made this offer in a much less ferocious voice. 
 
 Major Culliemore, seeing that the old gentleman 
 was still in the dark as to his captors, took a sudden 
 resolution. 
 
 " Bless my soul ! " he said, in affected surprise. 
 " It's Squire Boodeney." And he went on con- 
 solingly : " What a shame ! They must have tripped 
 you up. Never mind, sir, we've got one of the 
 rascals, thanks to you. I wish we had been nearer 
 to assist." 
 
 "Wish you had," grunted the Squire. "They 
 must have pegged a rope across. No bones broken 
 though, I think." 
 
 " That's lucky," said the Major. 
 
Tod's Poacher 157 
 
 " I'm exceedingly glad to hear that," chimed in 
 Mr. Wilton, leaving the support of his tree. " I 
 wonder if any of the others have had a look in." 
 
 " Let's go and see," said the Squire, sportingly. 
 
 But Dick and Tod were loping homewards, with 
 mixed feelings of exultation and fear. They had 
 captured the only poacher taken that night, but also 
 the only Squire. 
 
CHAPTER XI 
 
 MRS. WILTON HAS A QUIET DAY 
 
 " ^fOW I do really think I ought to have a quiet 
 day," said Mrs. Wilton. 
 She spoke hopefully from behind the coffee-urn 
 to Miss Revers. They were having breakfast alone 
 together, the time being the morning after the raid, 
 and the raiders themselves being still in bed. Dick 
 and Tod were having breakfast there, though not 
 in the least sleepy. They were couchant though 
 not dormant, as Dick said, and they were enjoying 
 themselves immensely in spite of the fact that they 
 were undergoing a punishment. Mrs. Wilton had, 
 at her special request, been invested with full 
 authority to punish them for their rebellious be- 
 havior of last night (Mr. Wilton being too sleepy 
 to think of a punishment, and too afflicted with 
 laughter when he remembered Tod's capture, to be 
 able to carry it out with gravity in any case) : and 
 
 breakfast in bed was the punishment she invented. 
 
 158 
 
Mrs. Wilton Has a Quiet Day 159 
 
 " I thought of making it all day in bed," she 
 went on to explain to her friend. " But that 
 wouldn't have been healthy, would it? And be- 
 sides, Dick, as a guest, mustn't really be punished, 
 though I am excessively angry with him when I 
 think what might have happened to Tod. . . . But 
 breakfasting there will keep them both still for an 
 hour or two." 
 
 Miss Revers nodded and smiled. On her way 
 down she had heard a bolster fight going on in 
 Tod's room, so that she knew that the punishment 
 was being justly appreciated. 
 
 " It must have been rather comic," she said. 
 " Poor Squire Boodeney ! Didn't he have any sus- 
 picions? " 
 
 "No," explained Mrs. Wilton; "they hurried 
 him off, you see, my dear, and he hadn't very much 
 breath left to think with. I don't suppose he would 
 suspect Tod of such a dreadful mistake, anyhow." 
 
 Miss Revers did not feel at all sure that it was 
 a mistake, though, as we know, she need not have 
 any doubts. Tod would just as soon have thought 
 of deliberately lassoing his headmaster, and he 
 
160 The Quietness of Dick 
 
 was so far sobered by his unlucky accident that 
 Mrs. Wilton's expectation of having a quiet day 
 was in some likelihood of being fulfilled. In fact, 
 he stayed in bed of his own free and idle will until 
 eleven o'clock, when Dick, who had been up an 
 hour and (after interviewing his captive of the 
 lasso in an outroom where he had been temporarily 
 incarcerated) was feeling fit for anything, came in 
 to report that Major Culliemore had just sailed 
 round in his yacht, the Pride of the Channel, and 
 that that noble craft was riding at anchor in the 
 cove. 
 
 " I suppose he's come round to see if they are 
 going to accept the invitations he and I sent out for 
 Tuesday," said Dick. 
 
 " I s'pose he has," Tod said, in a listless manner 
 that annoyed his friend. Dick disliked idleness in 
 others when he himself was bent upon busy mis- 
 chief. 
 
 " Get up, you lazy little beast," he said, filling 
 Tod's sponge with water, and hurling it at its owner. 
 " Get up, and we'll go down to the cove and do 
 some prawning." 
 
Mrs. Wilton Has a Quiet Day 161 
 
 " But there aren't any prawns in the cove," ob- 
 jected Tod, dodging the sponge in vain. 
 
 "Aren't there?" said Dick, carelessly. "Well, 
 we might take a look at the Pride, then. Get up 
 anyhow! I'm going to get that book on sailing 
 from the library while you dress. You'd better 
 come down to the cove." 
 
 When Tod arrived at the cove, at the end of 
 about four minutes (the sponge thrown by Dick 
 had saved time that might otherwise have been 
 spent upon washing — and of course he intended to 
 have a swim), he found Dick standing in thought- 
 ful contemplation of the Pride. She was certainly 
 worthy of contemplation, small ; but very graceful, 
 and she rode as calm and certain as a swan in the 
 water, with scarcely more than a bow and a curtsey 
 to the waves as they rippled into the cove. There 
 was a slight wind blowing from the land, but the 
 sea looked still enough. 
 
 " Rather jolly to have a sail," Dick suggested. 
 
 " Very," said Tod, and paused. " If only we 
 knew how to." 
 
 Dick had mentioned the joys of sailing once or 
 
1 62 The Quietness of Dick 
 
 twice during his visit, but in a manner that sug- 
 gested a great practical experience. He seemed to 
 have forgotten about this now, however. 
 
 " It's easy enough," he said, in tones that sug- 
 gested the expert yachtsman. " I've been looking 
 it up in here, it gives you all you want to know." 
 He tapped the book he was carrying, authoritatively. 
 It was a book on " How to Sail." 
 
 Tod began to waver. 
 
 " Do you really think it's easy? " he asked. 
 
 " Of course, but if you think you'd rather not 
 go, we'd better leave it." 
 
 " Was it — did you think of sailing in the Pride? " 
 
 " Don't see anything else to sail in," said Dick, 
 " but you don't seem keen." He half turned 
 away. 
 
 "Yes, I am," said Tod, promptly; "only I 
 thought — if we damaged her " 
 
 " Why should we ? " demanded Dick. 
 
 " P'raps we shouldn't." 
 
 " It would be as easy as — as skipping, to make a 
 couple of short boards out, and then bring her 
 back." 
 
Mrs. Wilton Has a Quiet Day 163 
 
 Tod was impressed by Dick's obvious mastery of 
 naval terms. 
 
 " Let's do it," said Tod. " Come on." 
 " Not if you think the Maj wouldn't like it," said 
 Dick. " I don't suppose he'll want her for some 
 time." 
 
 " He won't mind," said Tod. " Come on." 
 " There's no hurry about it," said Dick, strolling 
 along with his hands in his pockets. 
 
 But that was only to keep up the appearance of 
 gravity that made him feel sure that he was not 
 doing a forbidden thing. To set about a matter 
 soberly always exculpated Dick — to his own mind — 
 from any possible charge of being bent on mischief. 
 Once he had arrived at the water's edge, he, as well 
 as Tod, forgot to hesitate, especially as the Pride 
 was anchored in about three feet of water, with the 
 tide still coming up, so that if they meant to get 
 on board without using their boat (and there would 
 be no one to take the boat back), they must set 
 about it at once. Dick waded in up to his chest, 
 with his blazer and the book held above his head; 
 Tod followed, neck deep. The Pride's mast was 
 
164 The Quietness of Dick 
 
 stepped already, and all that was necessary was to 
 hoist her sails, up with her two anchors, and away. 
 
 Dick seated himself at the helm, told Tod to do 
 the hoisting, and, opening his book at " Cutter-rig," 
 read out directions. They were not so clearly put 
 as he had hoped, mainly because they used nautical 
 terms, which did not seem to mean what Dick had 
 always taken them to mean. 
 
 "Where's the sheet?" he asked, as Tod began, 
 out of his own head, to make the main-sail draw 
 up. "Oh, that's it, is it?" 
 
 " No," said Tod, " it isn't a sail, it's a rope that 
 you hang on to." 
 
 " Of course," said Dick, hastily. " I'd forgotten. 
 Pass it along here." 
 
 Tod, who had seen a little of the practice of the 
 thing, though he did not possess Dick's theory, 
 briskly knotted up various ropes' ends, and handed 
 the sheet to Dick. The sail, after a flap or two, 
 bellied out gloriously. 
 
 " We've got to get the anchors up now," he said. 
 " We'll both have to tug, they're heavy." 
 
 Dick abandoned the sheet and the helm, and went 
 
Mrs. Wilton Has a Quiet Day 165 
 
 to Tod's aid. The Pride of the Channel shook and 
 heaved, and the waters swirled about her keel. The 
 anchors seemed uncommonly heavy, but they came 
 up at last, and she began to glide. 
 
 " Blow ! " said Dick, suddenly recalled to his 
 duties at the helm. " How are we to get hold of 
 that string again ? " 
 
 The canvas had gone fluttering round to the 
 bows at an acute angle, while the sheet dragged in 
 the water. Tod reached after it with the boat hook, 
 Dick clinging to the helm in the meantime. He 
 had already a suspicion that sailing was not so 
 simple as he had expected. However, an invol- 
 untary turn of the tiller brought the sail flapping 
 back, and the wet sheet fell into Dick's hands. 
 
 " That's all right," he said, and turned the boat 
 to catch the wind. The waves went lippering under 
 her as the pace grew, and in a moment the Pride 
 leaned over so sharply that Tod nearly rolled out. 
 
 " I say, look out, Dick," he cried, " we ehall be 
 swamped ! " 
 
 There was a rush of water nearly level with the 
 deck as he spoke, and the Pride keeled over still 
 
1 66 The, Quietness of Dick 
 
 more, for Dick was under the impression that the 
 tauter he drew the sheet, the less the wind would 
 catch them. Tod perceived this proof of Dick's 
 inexperience, quaking. 
 
 " Ease her," he said. " Let her out, Dick ! " 
 
 Dick, interpreting the words according to his pre- 
 conceived ideas, pulled in instead — and a canful of 
 water plumped over the side immediately. 
 
 " Let the cord out ! " Tod cried, frantically, and 
 this time Dick obeyed. He turned the tiller, 
 too, so that the Pride ran before the wind, 
 straight enough, but much too fast for Tod's 
 taste. 
 
 " That was rather slick," Dick remarked. " I 
 wonder if they always go like that? " 
 
 He was still looking forward to gaining experi- 
 ence, but Tod was not. 
 
 " Let's go back," he said, in answer. 
 
 Dick was not altogether surprised at this sugges- 
 tion, though he pretended to be. 
 
 "Go back? Why?" 
 
 " Because you don't know anything about it," 
 said the uncompromising Tod. 
 
Mrs. Wilton Has a Quiet Day 167 
 
 " I never said I did," said Dick, amiably. 
 " P'raps you'd like to try? " 
 
 "No, I shouldn't!" 
 
 " Very well," said Dick, still willing to soothe. 
 " It's just as you like; we'll go back, then. I don't 
 mind. Sailing does seem a bit complicated. The 
 only thing is . . . how do we turn ? " 
 
 " You bring her round ... in the wind," said 
 Tod, in a voice he strove to make firm. 
 
 " How do* you do that ? " Dick asked. 
 
 " I don't know." 
 
 " Better look it up in the book," suggested Dick. 
 
 Tod reached for that authority with trembling 
 fingers, but the wind blew the pages whenever he 
 opened them, and Dick's experiments in coming 
 round in the light of nature nearly resulted in an 
 upset. 
 
 " Don't try," Tod cried at last. " Let's go on. 
 Perhaps some one will pick us up. Oh, Dick, look 
 where the shore is ! " 
 
 Dick took a glance behind him and saw to his 
 secret dismay that the shore had receded to an 
 incredible distance. 
 
168 The Quietness of Dick 
 
 " We'd better try one more turn," he said, coax- 
 ingly. 
 
 " Be quick, then," said Tod, clenching his teeth 
 and shutting his eyes. 
 
 Next moment he was aware of a perfect drench 
 of water in which his legs were swimming, while 
 he clung to an uphill deck with . his hands. The 
 Pride was half round and heeling horribly — an- 
 other moment and she would have been upside down. 
 But Dick, with a face considerably less pink, let 
 her go before the wind once more. They were 
 about a mile to sea and going down the channel at 
 a spanking rate. Also the wind was getting up 
 surprisingly. 
 
 Tod began to groan. 
 
 " Shut up," said Dick, exasperatedly. 
 
 " I wish we'd never come." 
 
 " What's the good of wishing ? " 
 
 Dick had read that many people were constitu- 
 tionally impervious to the effects of the sea swell. He 
 had been inclined to fancy himself as one of these, 
 but that last attempt to come round had given him a 
 sinking sensation in the stomach, which could not 
 
Mrs. Wilton Has a Quiet Day 169 
 
 be easily accounted for on that hypothesis. He was 
 the more angry with Tod, who was pale as death. 
 
 "You aren't going to be seasick, are you?" he 
 asked, scornfully. 
 
 » No— o," said Tod, " it's— it's " 
 
 Whatever it may have been, Tod bent over the 
 side in great anguish. Dick drew a. long breath as 
 he watched him. He tried not to see him, as there 
 is nothing in which example is more infectious. 
 If only Tod had been able to look up, Dick's pride 
 might have come to his assistance, but Tod looked 
 down. Presently Dick looked down also. 
 
 He clung to the sheet convulsively the while. . . . 
 
 Submission to the inevitable brings with it a cer- 
 tain sense of relief, and a few minutes later they 
 were both beginning to feel more comfortable. 
 True, the waves ran high — higher if anything — and 
 the Pride dipped and rose at them in a terrific man- 
 ner; also, home and parents and the cove were van- 
 ishing in the distance at an amazing speed, but Tod, 
 at least, was getting accustomed to the motion, and 
 there seemed somehow no immediate danger of 
 capsizing. He was the first to pick up, and he 
 
170 The Quietness of Dick 
 
 opened his eyes wide to see Dick in a constrained 
 position and looking uncommonly green. 
 
 " I didn't know you'd been s — I mean I thought 
 we were going to be drowned," he said, correcting 
 his first remark as he saw Dick's savage glance. 
 
 " Precious lot you did to avoid it," growled Dick. 
 
 " I know," said Tod, meekly. " I got in a funk. 
 I couldn't help it. But it's all right now." 
 
 " Glad you think so," said Dick, who had not re- 
 newed his self-confidence. " I don't see any par- 
 ticular fun in going to sea in a sort of canoe." 
 
 " She's decked," said Tod. 
 
 " Decked ! Wait till we get into an Atlantic 
 storm," said Dick, gloomily. " Besides, we haven't 
 any provisions." 
 
 Tod's face fell at this Job-like utterance. 
 
 " But I say, you don't think we shan't be able 
 to get back?" 
 
 " Don't know anything about it. We aren't get- 
 ting back at present, and we seem to be running 
 into a tempest." 
 
 " We ought to shorten sail," said Tod, wistfully. 
 
 " You'd better do it yourself then, as you seem 
 
Mrs. Wilton Has a Quiet Day 171 
 
 to know all about it. You needn't fall overboard," 
 Dick continued, as Tod crept forward. " I couldn't 
 save you, you know, if you did." 
 
 It was like Dick to be annoyed that Tod should 
 be hopeful when he himself was in a most dubious 
 state of spirits, but now, seeing Tod fallen into 
 the depths of despair again, and fumbling unsuc- 
 cessfully with the ropes, he began to brighten. 
 
 " Never mind, Tod," he said, generously. " The 
 whole thing's beastly silly, and it was my fault more 
 than yours. But it's no use looking like a squashed 
 snail. I'm not going to drown if I can help it, and 
 I'd just as soon not to have to carry your corpse 
 to your mother — not to mention your pater, who'll 
 be sick enough anyhow if we smash the old tub up 
 and he has to pay for it." 
 
 " He will be rather mad," sighed Tod. 
 
 " It won't matter to you if you're a fat young 
 corpse. So that you'd better squat up and think 
 of something. What does one generally do in a 
 storm?" 
 
 " Batten down the hatches," suggested Tod. 
 
 Dick sniffed. 
 
172 The Quietness of Dick 
 
 " Or run for port." 
 
 " It's no good making suggestions like a guinea- 
 pig," said Dick, severely. " If you can't monkey 
 on to anything decent, I shall try coming round 
 again." 
 
 The prospect induced by this threat terrified Tod 
 into brilliance. 
 
 " No, I say, don't do that ! " he cried. " I really 
 mean it — about running into port. You know it 
 wasn't nearly so rough as this where we started, or 
 we'd never have come. It only began to get rough 
 when we'd been blown out quite a way. I was 
 thinking if we crept in — slowly, Dick — so as to get 
 in under the cliffs, we'd find it calmer again. And 
 there are lots of coves we might try for all down 
 the coast." 
 
 " Voila, the ticket," said Dick, cheerfully. 
 " There's lots in you really, young Tod, and by 
 lunch-time — when you're hungry — you'll think of 
 something else. But we may as well begin by 
 trying to beach her." 
 
 He turned the Pride's bows on a slant course for 
 the shore. It was rather a fearsome proceeding, for 
 
Mrs. Wilton Has a Quiet Day 173 
 
 she began heeling over again, but by being manceu- 
 vered very gradually she had arrived, at the end of 
 some twenty minutes, within no very great distance 
 of land. 
 
 " It looks beastly enough," said Tod, who was 
 on the lookout; and wish. as hard as he could he 
 could not see any place that looked hospitable for 
 landing. The rocks stood up in the water far out, 
 jagged and black with froth about them where the 
 sea broke; and though it was much smoother at 
 this distance from the shore than it had been further 
 out, there was clearly no beaching to be done in 
 that archipelago of rocks unless some through 
 channel could be found to the real foreshore. 
 
 " We must have that sail down, though," said 
 Dick, as the Pride ran along the outside of the 
 ridge, " or we'll go an awful split soon. You'd 
 better have another try at it." 
 
 Tod had another try, with a better will. The 
 main difficulty was to untie the knots that he had 
 made so gleefully a little time before, but he suc- 
 ceeded much better than he thought to do. 
 
 " Can't you hurry up? " asked Dick, on a sudden. 
 
174 The Quietness of Dick 
 
 " There's a sort of channel ahead. Cut them if you 
 can't untie them." 
 
 But there was no need of cutting. Another pull 
 and the sail came down with a run. The Pride 
 danced and slowed up just in time. There was 
 enough way on her to enable Dick to turn into 
 the channel without striking anything. 
 
 " Coo-oo-oo-eekety ! " cried Tod, finding him- 
 self in slack water. 
 
 All about them the sharp rocks rose, so near that 
 they could just fend the Pride off with a boat-hook 
 on either side. Quite soon the sea-alley began to 
 narrow and wind, and Dick thought they had better 
 not proceed further till they had found out where 
 they were. 
 
 " I'm going to get out and prospect," he said. 
 " You hang on till I come back." 
 
 " All right," said Tod. " Don't be a beastly long 
 time." 
 
CHAPTER XII 
 
 THE QUIET DAY CONTINUED 
 
 TT seemed to Tod, left there in the Pride to 
 manage the complex business of keeping her 
 from swinging back to sea on the ebb of the narrow 
 channel into which they had run, and from being 
 borne on still further by the flow, and possibly 
 scraped on rocks as yet hidden from view, that Dick 
 was an unconscionably long time away. Tod had 
 no watch with him, but he was quite certain that 
 Dick must have been absent for fully a quarter of 
 an hour. And it struck Tod, who had hardly as 
 yet recovered from the fright which Dick's unex- 
 pected failure to manage the Pride had put into 
 his soul, as excessively mean of Dick to have left 
 him alone so long in that unmanageable craft. 
 
 She was in very still water, certainly; compared 
 with the tumultuous sea she had been careering 
 through, she was now in almost absurdly still water. 
 
 175 
 
176 The Quietness of Dick 
 
 But there was no saying how long it would remain 
 still. Tod tried to calculate the extent of the armis- 
 tice between himself and the sea, by concentrating 
 his mind on the state of the tide. It ought to be 
 going down; he would have liked to console himself 
 with the belief that it would continue to go down 
 for another five hours. But in his nervousness he 
 could not remember; and a minute after he had* 
 made his previous calculations, a rather larger wave 
 swelled down the channel, and he was quite certain 
 that he had been mistaken, and that the tide was 
 coming in. Suppose it were? The channel would 
 fill rapidly with waves growing larger and larger — 
 breakers, in fact — which would drive him forward 
 and drag him back helpless. The boat-hook would 
 be of no use then; the tiller would be worse than 
 useless. He would be scraped and battered to and 
 fro for a little, and then — he could picture a great 
 crested wave sweeping up behind him, high over the 
 stern, and hurling him in a smother of foam on to 
 the rocks. The idea grew so vivid that he did not 
 dare to look behind him, lest the wall of water 
 should rise before his gaze. He kept his eyes reso- 
 
The Quiet Day Continued 177 
 
 lutely ahead, and saw nothing but rocks — saws and 
 cones and slabs and domes and spear-points of rocks 
 — and he shivered every time the Pride lifted herself 
 gently on an inward-coming current. He looked 
 so resolutely at one peculiarly jagged rock ahead of 
 him, that it took him quite a long time to realize 
 that it was growing bigger and bigger out of the 
 water, and that more and more of its spikes were 
 becoming exposed. When the obvious fact did at 
 last flash over him he could have stood on his head 
 for joy. The tide was going out ! For some hours 
 at any rate the Pride could remain in the channel 
 with safety. 
 
 Still, it was mean of Dick to stay away so long. 
 If it had been possible to get any view of his 
 proceedings, Tod would have minded less. But the 
 Pride was so low in the waterway that, though the 
 rocks on both sides varied in height, Tod — even 
 when he stood up — could only see scattered crags 
 to left and to right, and in front the towering main 
 cliff, shiny black in the sun. 
 
 Perhaps Dick was already on land and trying to 
 find a way up. But why did he not come back and 
 
178 The Quietness of Dick 
 
 announce that it was possible to get ashore? He 
 might have known that dry land — real high and 
 dry mainland — was what Tod most desired after 
 his late sea-funk. To get that, he would even have 
 left the Pride alone in the channel, and chanced her 
 breaking up and his father's certain wrath, if he 
 had been quite sure that he could get there. But 
 he could not be sure until Dick came back and re- 
 ported. All that he could do was to remain, accord- 
 ing to instructions, and distract his anxieties as 
 much as possible by carefully fending the Pride off 
 with the boat-hook from all contact with the rocks. 
 
 Scarcely a scrap of paint had been rubbed so far, 
 and Dick must have been away nearly half an hour, 
 when Tod heard the first results of his reconnais- 
 sance. 
 
 It came in the form of a cry, followed by a shout. 
 Both were Dick's; but both were otherwise indis- 
 tinguishable. 
 
 "Cave!" 
 
 The shout came a second time, not very clear, but 
 sounding more like " Cave " than anything else. 
 
 Cave what? That was the question Tod put 
 
The Quiet Day Continued 179 
 
 himself in a great tumult of mind. And what had 
 the cry meant? It was different from the shout 
 and more alarming! Could it be that Dick had 
 slipped on the rocks and fallen into some deep pool, 
 sheer-sided like a well? Tod entertained and dis- 
 missed the idea at the same moment. For why 
 should Dick call " Cave" if he wanted help? And 
 why should the cry have come from somewhere 
 near the cliffs, as it seemed to have come? There 
 were hardly likely to be deep pools so far inshore. 
 Dick might have fallen on solid rock and hurt him- 
 self, of course, but something in the call convinced 
 Tod that it was not so. It was not a clear unin- 
 terrupted call, but on the other hand it was a call 
 of warning. 
 
 There it went again : 
 
 " Ca " 
 
 No — it was broken off in the middle this time. 
 What could it mean ? What could it mean ? Dick 
 must have seen some danger to Tod from an ad- 
 vancing sea. He was higher up probably and could 
 command a view. No sooner had this notion oc- 
 curred to Tod, than it convinced him, by reason of 
 
180 The Quietness of Dick 
 
 his late terrors, of being the truth ; and on the im- 
 pulse he scrambled on to the rocks from the Pride's 
 deck, boat-hook in hand, and climbed a peak. 
 
 From there he could look seaward at any rate, 
 and did. But the prospect only showed him imme- 
 diately that his idea of danger from the sea was 
 vain. For a hundred yards out or more it was 
 still as a pond ; hardly a white curl now against the 
 first rim of rocks; while, beyond the rim also, it 
 seemed as though the water had gone down con- 
 siderably in the last half -hour. 
 
 Since there was no danger from the sea, it fol- 
 lowed that there was no need to have left the Pride. 
 But having left her Tod was no longer prepared 
 to return to his duties. Taking a rapid glance into 
 the channel, he saw that that abandoned craft had 
 nosed her way forward a little and become jammed. 
 She was only just stuck, but enough — Tod thought 
 — to keep her in place unless some considerable 
 commotion should arise. Anyhow he felt himself 
 relieved from the necessity of staying by her. Tod 
 dropped the boat-hook back on deck, and started 
 to make for the shore in search of Dick. 
 
The Quiet Day Continued 181 
 
 The nature of the amphibious country he had to 
 traverse was much as Tod had expected from his 
 previous survey. Plateaus of rock, smooth or 
 broken, sloped away to shallow basins or deep 
 runnels such as that in which the Pride was jammed; 
 or they ended sheer above wider pools that were 
 open always to the sea. Then would come a ridge- 
 shaped causeway rising to some isolated and com- 
 manding peak, that held only saucersful of brine 
 in its hollows, where the tenants were anemones 
 and glimmering bull-fish. 
 
 It was Tod's endeavor to make his way over the 
 lower and more devious rocks, for his climbing 
 experiences of Sunday had not entirely faded from 
 his memory. The lower rocks had their disad- 
 vantages, of which a green weedy surface, remark- 
 ably slippery, was one; and Tod soused himself to 
 the waist more than once in the course of his clam- 
 ber. It was not these wettings, however, so much 
 as the desire to see ahead of him that caused him 
 in the end to ascend one of the peakiest places. 
 From there he could see distinctly to where the 
 real shore began. It was much less real than Tod 
 
182 The Quietness of Dick 
 
 would have liked it to be — a beach of tumbled 
 boulders, that promised no good to the Pride's keel, 
 supposing she could be forced up the channel to it. 
 But probably the channel itself was a cul-de-sac 
 ending in some pool. Tod was not sure that that 
 mattered much, for once on land he meant to re- 
 main there. The Pride could look after herself. 
 
 Tod descended from his peak, and proceeded 
 hurriedly the rest of his way to the beach of 
 boulders. Dick must be there somewhere — though 
 Tod had sung out his name several times without 
 getting any answer. The only comfort he could 
 derive from this silence was the notion — Tod's latest 
 idea — that Dick was trying on a hoax. The comfort 
 he did derive from it perhaps accounted for his 
 accepting it as completely as he did. Why he had 
 not thought of it before, instead of alarming him- 
 self unnecessarily, he could not conceive. It was 
 rather beastly of Dick — considering how Tod had 
 been left, and all the possible disasters that might 
 have ensued if the tide had been coming in instead 
 of going out — but it was exactly like Dick. Tod 
 half thought of retaliating by hiding in his turn, 
 
The Quiet Day Continued 183 
 
 and leaving Dick to find him, but for three reasons 
 he did not. 
 
 One was that he was getting uncommonly hungry, 
 and he reflected that there were probably at least 
 some biscuits in the Pride's cabin, which — if he hid 
 himself — Dick would probably find and consume. 
 (Tod thought of anticipating Dick in this matter, 
 but did not feel mean enough or energetic enough.) 
 
 The second was that it must be getting on in 
 the day, and they really had no time for jokes 
 which consisted in hiding from one another. 
 
 The third was that he had just sighted a cave. 
 
 Where a cave was, Dick would be; and Tod made 
 for the opening of it without hesitation. It was 
 at this point that Tod perceived the full force of 
 his own stupidity. " Cave " was what Dick had 
 shouted, and because he had the misfortune to be 
 a Latin scholar, Tod had deceived himself with a 
 pun. 
 
 Well, he might as well go in now and find Dick. 
 
 " Coo-oo-oo-eekety ! " 
 
 Tod gave his cry as a preliminary to entering; 
 then walked in. The sun following him shone on 
 
184 The Quietness of Dick 
 
 a sandy floor which seemed to indicate that the sea 
 washed in at high tide. The sun faded as Tod 
 advanced further — faded into twilight — then, as Tod 
 followed a wind of the cave, faded into blackness. 
 
 " It seems to go a long way in," said Tod, aloud. 
 
 Almost before the words were out of his mouth, 
 some invisible hands seized him from behind. 
 
 " Chuck it, Dick," said Tod, gaily. " Why didn't 
 you answer ? " 
 
 Some one laughed then, and Tod had a sudden 
 misgiving. " Let go," he said, beginning to 
 struggle. 
 
 But whoever held him, held tight, and though 
 Tod kicked and writhed strenuously, it was only to 
 find himself dragged down on to the wet sand for • 
 the purpose of having his hands tied. He yelled 
 exceedingly until something was also put into his 
 mouth and fastened there. Then when he was no 
 longer able to move his hands or speak, a torch 
 was lighted. 
 
CHAPTER XIII 
 
 THE QUIET DAY FURTHER 
 CONTINUED 
 
 TF when you have slipped in the dark, and fallen 
 into what you take to be the fire, some one 
 strikes a match and points out to you that it is 
 not the fire, but only the frying-pan, your relief is 
 probably so great at the prospect of not being about 
 to roast immediately, that you give over crying, 
 and become more interested than pained by the 
 burns and scalds you have in any case acquired. 
 
 Except for his ignorance of Dick's whereabouts 
 and fate, Tod had just this feeling of relief as 
 the torch suddenly sent its great flame blazing up 
 red till it changed into a blue vapor under the in- 
 visible roof of the cave. The light made him 
 blink, but it also showed him where he was and who 
 his captors were. His first idea of them, on being 
 
 seized so unexpectedly by them, in the bowels of 
 
 185 
 
1 86 The Quietness of Dick 
 
 the cliff, had been prodigiously unpleasant. The 
 choice seemed to lie between their being supernatural 
 ghoulish creatures, such as he would not have be- 
 lieved in in any other time or place, or of their 
 being — more naturally but not less disagreeably — 
 orang-outangs or baboons which had survived from 
 some prehistoric period. Orang-outangs or baboons 
 might very easily have continued to eke out an 
 underground existence in a cavern presumably un- 
 trodden by the foot of man. Or again, if the wash 
 of the virgin waves prevented the possibility of their 
 being monkeys, Tod's imagination was sufficiently 
 alert to conjure up some equivalent monsters, 
 winged or finned, and much more likely to have 
 survived than any unfortunate boy who might have 
 happened to look in even for half a minute. There- 
 fore Tod felt greatly relieved when the torch blazed 
 up and he found himself in a smuggler's cave, even 
 though it was alive — so to speak — with smugglers. 
 There were, to be exact, five smugglers — enough, 
 Tod thought, to make any cave alive. If there had 
 been any doubt about their profession — which there 
 might have been, seeing that each of the five wore 
 
The Quiet Day Further Continued 187 
 
 a strip of black stuff over the upper part of his 
 face (not a regular mask, but a make-shift piece 
 of black cotton that might have been torn from a 
 jacket's lining), the doubt would have been dissi- 
 pated at sight of the kegs piled one on top of 
 another at the farther end of the cave. Brandy! 
 Tod could smell it strong in spite of the stale odor 
 of the sea which hung about the wet walls; and 
 to Tod brandy meant either smugglers or somebody 
 ill. And as there was nobody ill there, they must 
 be smugglers. 
 
 But what had they done with Dick? There was 
 no sign of him anywhere in the cave, and a dark 
 notion crossed Tod that to prevent him crying out 
 the smugglers might have drowned him in a keg 
 of brandy like the Duke of What's-his-name. One 
 keg stood up on end ominously, and Tod was really 
 beginning to think that this might be the receptacle 
 when there came a whistle at the mouth of the cave, 
 and immediately after, a sixth smuggler came 
 in, marched up to the keg, and filled a tin 
 pannikin from it, which he drank before an- 
 nouncing : 
 
1 88 The Quietness of Dick 
 
 " There iddn't no more as I can spy, Cap' en." 
 
 Tod apprehended correctly that this man must 
 have been on the watch outside. 
 
 " Ver' well," replied the man who had been ad- 
 dressed as Cap'en. He looked just the same as all 
 the others, in his mask, except that the rest of his 
 face was cleaner, and he spoke with a foreignering 
 kind of accent. " Ver' well. And ze boat — she is 
 saf?" 
 
 " Safe enough — she is stuck in the Gutter." 
 
 " Coot," said the Captain. " We will have a 
 grog first, zen we will ask ze poy questions. Ver' 
 coot." 
 
 Tod, couched upon the wet sand, had the pleasure 
 of seeing the smugglers drink, before he was given 
 any attention. They drank so much, particularly 
 one man who seemed rather younger than the rest, 
 that Tod thought they were never going to stop. 
 They chatted and laughed and made remarks about 
 Tod's appearance — which was certainly not distin- 
 guished by ease or dignity — until the Captain be- 
 stirred himself and said: 
 
 " Tak ze gig out of ze poy's mouth." 
 
The Quiet Day Further Continued 189 
 
 Whereat Tod was rapidly ungagged by the young 
 man, and drew several delicious breaths. He could 
 not have believed how unpleasant something tied 
 across your mouth for half an hour might be. 
 
 " Now, my poy," said the Captain, " you are 
 ze son of Mistaire Wilton, is it not?" 
 
 Tod said he was, indignantly. 
 
 " And if you don't let me go jolly quick," he 
 added, "my father '11 make it hot for you." 
 
 The Captain waved his hand. 
 
 " For ze present we will be cool," he said, in a 
 soothing manner, " and we will talk togezzer 
 friendly. Me, Captain Francois, and you, Mistaire 
 Wilton's buxom leetle poy. To begin, how many 
 friends haf you come in ze leetle boat — with three, 
 hey?" 
 
 "Wish we had," said Tod. "If there'd only 
 been two besides me and Dick " 
 
 " But in effect there was only Deeck ? " 
 
 " Do you know where he is ? " Tod asked, 
 eagerly. 
 
 " Wait," said the Captain, waving his hand again 
 in an aggravating manner. " First, you shall an- 
 
190 The Quietness of Dick 
 
 swer my questions, and then I shall answer Mistaire 
 Wilton's leetle poy's. Why haf you come to visit 
 us?" 
 
 His tone was so ingratiating that Tod thought a 
 frank explanation might bring him to a proper 
 frame of mind. It was while he was giving the 
 explanation that he heard a noise — something be- 
 tween a grunt and a groan — which turned out 
 afterwards to have been a warning. 
 
 " It was an accident," he said. " We got blown 
 out in the Pride, and we put in here because it 
 seemed to be the nearest safe place." 
 
 " But ze fader see the direction zat his leetle 
 poy sailed ? " 
 
 "No, he didn't," Tod acknowledged. "Didn't 
 even know we were going out sailing, so he'll be 
 jolly anxious, you see." 
 
 Captain Francois' eyes glittered behind the black 
 as he said more soothingly than ever : 
 
 " But zen you jolly see how cool it is in ze cave 
 for several more days. Since ze fader will only 
 make it hot for ze wints and ze waves that haf 
 blowed his son away." 
 
The Quiet Day Further Continued 191 
 
 There was an approving murmur from the other 
 men, who had been listening to Tod's explanation, 
 as the Captain thus amiably scored over Tod; and 
 one of them struck in : 
 
 "Quite right, Cap'en. Wilton '11 think he's 
 drownded, as you say. And a good thing, too. 
 I say knock 'un on the head. It 'ud be paying 'un 
 out for what he and old Boodeney ha' done tew 
 Siah and what they're trying tew do tew ..." 
 
 " Noms, my friend, noms," interrupted the Cap- 
 tain. " We do not mention ze noms, remembaire. 
 And what you say of ze head-knocks is foolishness. 
 For what should we knock ze head of my buxom 
 leetle friend? He sinks we are all of us honest 
 fishermen, is it not?" He addressed himself to 
 Tod. 
 
 "No, I don't," said Tod. "I think you're 
 smugglers." 
 
 " What poys ! " said the Captain. " Ze one will 
 say nozzing, ze ozzer will say everything that comes 
 in his head." 
 
 " Have you got Dick, then? " Tod asked, implor- 
 ingly of the Captain, who, in spite of his foreign 
 
192 The Quietness of Dick 
 
 extraction, had seemed to be the humanest smuggler 
 present. The others were growling together in a 
 corner of the cave in rather a mutinous manner. 
 " You might tell me if you've got Dick." 
 
 " Deeck," repeated the Captain, suavely. " We 
 haf a poy, not buxom like my leetle friend, and ver* 
 silent, who is perhaps Deeck. Let us see him." 
 He walked over to the other side of the cave where 
 the kegs were piled, and stooped down. " It might 
 be Deeck," he said. 
 
 And in another moment he had lifted up bodily, 
 and set down opposite Tod, somebody who, in spite 
 of being tied and gagged, and wearing a look of 
 excessive disgust, was nevertheless Dick. The Cap- 
 tain proceeded slowly to ungag Dick with his own 
 hands. Tod beamed with delight. 
 
 " Hullo, Dick ! " he cried. " This is rather rats 
 for us. How did you get here ? " 
 
 " One moment," said the Captain, in his friendly 
 manner. " One moment and Deeck will speak to 
 his leetle friend, and I will speak to mine. Hey 
 presto ! " 
 
 He untied the last knot and walked off to the 
 
The Quiet Day Further Continued 193 
 
 other side where his friends were grumbling to- 
 gether. 
 
 "Of all the thundering little idiots that I ever 
 met," said Dick, " you're the biggest, young Tod." 
 
 It was not the kind of greeting that Tod had 
 expected, but he was glad to hear Dick's voice 
 again on any terms. 
 
 " Why? " he inquired, apologetically. 
 
 "Because you've given the whole show away," 
 said Dick. " I don't know why you came, to begin 
 with. I should have thought if you heard a ' Cave,' 
 you'd have known what to do by now." 
 
 " I thought you'd fallen into something," Tod 
 pleaded, " and it was beastly lonely in the Pride." 
 
 " Better take a pet lamb with you next time you 
 go sailing," said Dick. 
 
 " Well, you got caught too," said Tod, in self- 
 defense. 
 
 " Of course I did," said Dick. " I was pioneer- 
 ing. And anyhow, you needn't have been a buxom 
 little ape, and told that froggy captain everything 
 that he wanted to know, especially when I was 
 giving you tips not to all the time." 
 
194 The Quietness of Dick 
 
 " Was that you making those grunts ? " said Tod, 
 with sudden enlightenment. 
 
 " I wasn't blab-babbling, anyhow." 
 
 Tod was beginning to be afraid that Dick meant 
 to cock-fight him, which was what his attitude sug- 
 gested. And indeed the series of misfortunes that 
 had dogged Dick's footsteps that day were enough 
 to put him into a black and threatening frame of 
 mind. No one could have dreamed that by stepping 
 inside a cave he would have plunged into the very 
 middle of a band of smugglers, whose numbers 
 made resistance impossible. Nor could one have 
 told at the time that their numbers were so over- 
 whelming. Dick had not been able to tell in the 
 darkness. As a consequence he had struggled con- 
 siderably and got a good deal knocked about. He 
 was sore in body as well as in mind. And Tod's 
 capture was not atoned for by Tod's society. The 
 fact is that Dick, during the time he had lain behind 
 the kegs, like a sack of potatoes, had been devising 
 a plan of escape which depended for its success upon 
 his finding Tod waiting in the Pride, and ready to 
 put off. And until Tod's capture, the smugglers 
 
The Quiet Day Further Continued 195 
 
 had not been certain how large a party might be 
 on board. 
 
 Still, it was not the proper time for cock-fighting 
 Tod, and Dick had really snubbed him into silence, 
 in order that he might be able to hear what was 
 going on at the other end of the cave. Something 
 very like a quarrel seemed to be proceeding. Several 
 of the men seemed to be grumbling at the captain's 
 mildness. Dick caught stray words about " The 
 best cave " . . . " discovered "... and " a 
 word from they two 'ud set Peterson on them all." 
 The men were evidently natives of the countryside — 
 probably Miclestead men — but they seemed more 
 or less submissive to the Captain. Partly by humor- 
 ing them, and partly by pretending not to under- 
 stand them, he seemed to be getting his way. He 
 was not in any case talking of letting the boys go, 
 he said. 
 
 " No, no, we will keep zem," he said, " and geef 
 ze offeecious parent a fear. Zen he will offaire 
 money for rewards to us who find them. What you 
 say? They will tell of ze cave? Bah, 'tis onnly one 
 cave, and we have always ze ozzers. We will tak 
 
196 The Quietness of Dick 
 
 zem perhaps to ze dunes — to ze dunes, I say it." 
 He spoke these words more loudly than the rest, 
 and came over again to where the boys were sitting 
 on the ground. 
 
 " Ah ha, my yong friends," he said, " get hongry, 
 perhaps. Ver' well ... if you sit quiet while we 
 tak away ze bad brandies that have not paid ze 
 income tax, and throw zem in ze sea, perhaps there 
 will be something to eat in one hour. Chock," he 
 called to the young man, " you will wait with my 
 leetle friends, and when they are sleepy perhaps, 
 you shall go out and get the boat into the channel 
 farther. She is not good steecking out for all to 
 see." Then, after whispering a few words into 
 Jock's ear, he went back to the other four, who were 
 each lifting one of the small heavy-looking kegs on 
 to their shoulders. The Captain took one up also, 
 and then, quite suddenly, the torch was put out. 
 
 Except that Dick had happened to have his eye 
 on the young man just as he extinguished it, he 
 would not have known whether it had gone out of 
 itself or had been purposely doused. As it was, 
 he immediately began to wonder why it had been 
 
The Quiet Day Further Continued 197 
 
 done, and saw a mystery. If the men were going 
 out by the way they had come in — or at least by 
 the way Dick had come in — towards the sea in fact, 
 why should they put the light out ? But if they were 
 not going out that way, by what way were they 
 going? Dick, still scheming plans of escape, won- 
 dered. In the darkness that ensued, nothing was 
 discernible, but he listened eagerly. The drip, drip 
 from the roof was the loudest noise he could hear. 
 He had forgotten that the men's footsteps on the 
 sand would be practically inaudible. 
 
 At the end of a couple of minutes, the torch was 
 relighted as suddenly as it had been put out. But 
 he and Tod and the young man Jock were alone 
 in the cavern. 
 
 " How awfully noiselessly they went out," he 
 said, with an assumption of innocence. " I hardly 
 heard them go past me." 
 
 " Nor did I," said Tod, with unfeigned innocence. 
 
 " Ah, they tread pretty light," said Jock, with a 
 laugh. "Yew'd never 'a' guessed they went out 
 past yew, would ee now?" 
 
 "No, I shouldn't," said Dick, "except that of 
 
198 The Quietness of Dick 
 
 course I knew they couldn't go out any other 
 way." 
 
 Jock guffawed, and applied himself to the tin 
 pannikin and the keg with a tap in it. 
 
 " Would ee like summat t' eat ? " he asked them. 
 
 " Rather," said Dick, " if you've got anything. 
 Then we might go to sleep afterwards. I shouldn't 
 mind a sleep." 
 
 " Ah'll see," said Jock. 
 
 He went behind the pile of kegs, and fetched out 
 a loaf of bread and some cheese. 
 
 " Yew d' want your hands free if yew'r to eat. 
 Yew'll have to tak turn about." 
 
 With a carelessness that rather annoyed Dick, his 
 warder untied his hands. It was annoying to Dick 
 because the young man seemed to think that he was 
 quite harmless with his hands untied, whereas, 
 though Dick could hardly have challenged him to 
 single combat with any chance of success, he could 
 easily have escaped from him if it had not been that 
 he would have been compelled to leave Tod behind. 
 Under the circumstances Dick thought discretion de- 
 cidedly the better part of valor, and was rewarded 
 
The Quiet Day Further Continued 199 
 
 for it by the fact that when the young man, upon 
 whom the draughts from the pannikin were begin- 
 ning to tell, tied him up again, before proceeding to 
 unfasten Tod. He made the knots so insecure that 
 Dick felt pretty sure of being able to free himself 
 when he wanted to. Dick was also pretty sure of 
 one thing which would have made the young man 
 more careful if he had known of it. This was that 
 the other men had not left the cavern by its seaward 
 mouth and were not therefore in all probability just 
 outside the cave on the seashore, as Tod innocently 
 thought, and the young man innocently thought that 
 Dick thought. Dick's private opinion was that they 
 had gone by some subterranean passage inland, 
 where they could dispose of their kegs without risk 
 of detection. How long they would be absent was 
 what Dick chiefly wanted to know, but there was 
 no means of finding out. He had to leave that to 
 chance. 
 
 Accordingly he pretended to be sleepy as soon as 
 he and Tod had finished their meal, and Tod and 
 the smuggler were equally deceived. Tod promptly 
 settled himself down to sleep, and the smuggler, 
 
200 The Quietness of Dick 
 
 after helping himself once more from the keg, 
 strolled out to see after the Pride, as he had been 
 instructed. 
 
 Dick allowed three wearisome minutes to pass 
 before he kicked Tod in the ribs. 
 
 " What is it ? " said Tod, who had really begun 
 
 to doze. "If you don't let me go, my father 
 
 Hullo, Dick!" 
 
 " Turn over," said Dick, " and don't make a row. 
 You're just going to go like a young trout in half 
 a minute." 
 
 " But those men are outside, aren't they ? " said 
 Tod, as Dick untied him rapidly. 
 
 " No," said Dick, and he explained his notion of 
 where they had gone, with a certainty that convinced 
 Tod. " They may be back any minute, of course." 
 
 " I suppose it wouldn't do if we tried to follow 
 the passage, too," Tod suggested. " It would be 
 tremendously dark, and if we heard them coming 
 back, we could flatten ourselves against the wall." 
 
 " I'd like to see you flatten yourself," said Dick. 
 " You'd probably stick half-way anyhow. No, I'm 
 going back in the Pride." 
 
The Quiet Day Further Continued 201 
 
 "But there's that other brute out there," said 
 Tod. 
 
 Dick explained what his plan was. The smuggler, 
 in his opinion, would find that he could not force 
 the Pride any further up the little channel that they 
 seemed to call " the Gutter," and would get tired 
 and return for some more brandy. Then they, hav- 
 ing in the meanwhile advanced as near as they could 
 under shelter of the rocks, would take her the other 
 way, and put out to sea. Even if the young man 
 discovered them before they could get her out, Dick 
 was quite sure that he and Tod together could settle 
 him with the boat-hook, in his half-tipsy condition. 
 And his only fear was that the others might arrive 
 too soon. The plan seemed reasonable enough — ■ 
 though it was not in the end carried out in its 
 original form. When Dick and Tod, after carefully 
 extinguishing the torch in the cave (which manoeu- 
 ver of Dick's proved to be of the utmost service 
 afterwards), crept from the cavern and recon- 
 noitered from behind the nearest rock that was 
 large enough to conceal both of them, they found 
 that the smuggler had not got more than two-thirds 
 
202 The Quietness of Dick 
 
 of the way towards the Pride as yet. When he 
 did get there, at the end of about ten minutes, he 
 made Dick chafe and fume by remaining leisurely 
 on top of the rocks, and so being in a position to 
 command an extensive view instead of getting on 
 board. When he did at last disappear, Dick hurried 
 along so recklessly, that he might easily have been 
 seen, and Tod might still more easily have broken 
 his leg. The tide was much lower now, but this 
 made the going not much less difficult than before, 
 as the choice of ways led them into a complexity 
 of crevasses which Tod found it easier to fall 
 into than to fall out of. 
 
 " You go on, Dick," he kept saying, with a feel- 
 ing that it was better for him to be re-taken by the 
 smugglers than to injure himself beyond repair in 
 the endeavor to escape. But Dick refused to go 
 on, and kept Tod at it until they had come almost 
 to the Pride. 
 
 " Look out now," said Dick, as he mounted a 
 rock which commanded the Gutter. 
 
 "Why, where is he?" 
 
 Dick was on the opposite wall of rock from where 
 
The Quiet Day Further Continued 203 
 
 the smuggler had been standing, and the Pride lay 
 almost immediately below. But there was no sign 
 of the smuggler, and for a moment Dick expected 
 some ambush. 
 
 Then two things happened. The first was a 
 whistle — coming from the direction of the cave — 
 which showed that the smugglers must have got 
 back into it. The second was Dick's perception 
 of what must have become of their warder. The 
 hatch of the Pride was open, and the sound of 
 stertorous breathing came from the cabin below. 
 Without hesitation Dick dropped lightly on to the 
 deck, closed the hatch, and sat on it. 
 
 " Hurry up, Tod," he called, gently. 
 
 The whistle shrilled out from the direction of 
 the cave again, and it was exactly the whistle that 
 Tod had heard an hour before, given by the man 
 before entering the cave, as he returned from 
 watching the Pride. 
 
 " They must have come back," said Tod, breath- 
 lessly, as he dropped on board with a thud. 
 
 "Sit here," said Dick, "and sit tight." And 
 he shot the bolt of the hatch into place. 
 
204 The Quietness of Dick 
 
 He gave up his place on the hatch, and took to 
 the boat-hook. There was need for Tod to sit 
 tight, for the thud of his arrival had wakened the 
 smuggler to some consciousness of what was going 
 on, and the thumps from below were terrific. Prob- 
 ably only Dick's precaution of putting out the torch 
 had prevented the smugglers immediately finding 
 that he and Tod had gone. As it was, he had been 
 poling with might and main for two or three min- 
 utes before he saw any signs of pursuit. Then, 
 at a break in the rock wall of the channel, he caught 
 sight of one of the smugglers just scrambling down 
 the peak of one of the rocks half-way towards them. 
 Further to the left, but nearer the open sea, he had 
 a glimpse of another whom he fancied to be Captain 
 Frangois, hurrying along. The intention was ob- 
 viously to head the Pride off before she could be got 
 out of the channel, and Tod inquired if Dick could 
 do it. Dick did not know, and in any case he had 
 not breath enough to say. He poled and lost sight 
 of the smugglers, and poled and caught sight of 
 them again. The exciting part of it, both Dick and 
 Tod declared afterwards, was that neither of them 
 
The Quiet Day Further Continued 205 
 
 could judge whether they were going to win or lose. 
 Tod could not see at all, except when he stood up 
 once or twice for a minute, and most of Dick's 
 attention was taken up by his poling. Both of 
 them differed as to how far off the nearest smug- 
 gler was, when Dick, with a mighty shove, sent the 
 Pride stern-first out of the channel. 
 " I shoot you if you do not come back." 
 Both were prepared to swear to these words of 
 Captain Francois, and also to the report of a pistol, 
 fired by the same. Whether it contained a bullet 
 or where the bullet went they did not know. Dick 
 at that moment was busy humoring the sail, and 
 Tod had been shaken in his seat by an enormous 
 heave from below, and was trying the almost im- 
 possible feat of adding to his weight by concentrat- 
 ing his attention on it. The tiller was enjoying 
 complete self-control, and as the wind caught the 
 sail, the Pride almost came round and re-entered the 
 channel. Dick fell over Tod and on to the tiller 
 just in time, and ten seconds later the water was, 
 according to Tod, lippering under their keel. 
 
CHAPTER XIV 
 
 THE END OF THE QUIET DAY 
 
 TF there have ever been two persons in perfect 
 
 spirits after much tribulation, Dick and Tod 
 
 were those two persons, as they brought the Pride 
 
 to in the cove they had left six hours before. They 
 
 felt rather as if it had been six years before, that 
 
 they had put to sea. Tod thought that the return 
 
 voyage alone might be counted at a year and a half, 
 
 especially since the smuggler had wakened from 
 
 his drunken stupor, and had begun kicking and 
 
 hammering in the little cabin. Seated on the hatch, 
 
 in accordance with his skipper's commands, Tod 
 
 had felt the full force of these remonstrances. 
 
 There was a bolt on the outside of the hatch, which 
 
 they had locked at once ; but it was not very strong, 
 
 and even with Tod's weight added, the hatch had 
 
 been shifted half an inch. Tod had even begun to 
 
 doubt Dick's maxim that weight would tell in the 
 
 end. 
 
 206 
 
The End of the Quiet Day 207 
 
 Nor had his fear of the smuggler's appearing like 
 a jack-in-the-box been the only one. It had not 
 been all plain sailing in the Pride. In spite of the 
 experience Dick had gained on the outward voyage, 
 and of the comparative calm, two or three times 
 they had skimmed rocks in a fashion more befitting 
 sea-gulls than a sailing-boat. But they were back 
 at last, and Tod lifted his voice to salute the home 
 cove: 
 
 " Coo-oo-oo-eekety ! " 
 
 " Does that mean that I am at liberty to come 
 on board my own boat? " asked Major Culliemore. 
 
 He was sitting on a dry rock on the sunny side 
 of the cove, smoking a pipe serenely, and as they 
 had brought the Pride in from the side, cutting a 
 very fine corner, they had not seen him. 
 
 " Next time you go for a sail," the Major con- 
 tinued, " if you'd bear a little more out before you 
 come round, you would put a less acute strain on 
 the nerves of whoever owns the boat, and also run 
 less risk of being drowned in sight of your an- 
 cestral mansion." 
 
 " All right, Maj," Dick sang out, apologetically, 
 
208 The Quietness of Dick 
 
 and Tod expressed a hope that he had not been 
 waiting long. 
 
 " Only about five minutes, luckily for you." 
 
 " And mater doesn't know? " 
 
 "Presumably not," said the Major. 
 
 Tod waded ashore, while Dick occupied his 
 vacated seat upon the hatch. 
 
 " I was afraid she'd find out," said Tod, " and 
 that she would think we were drowned when we 
 didn't come to lunch." 
 
 But the Major explained that this was not so. 
 Miraculously enough, Mrs. Wilton, secure in her 
 expectation of a quiet day, had not even been 
 anxious, supposing that the lateness of their break- 
 fast had left them no appetite for their next 
 meal. 
 
 " Thought you were sleeping it off somewhere," 
 said the Major, " and didn't know, I suppose, that 
 you were sailors." 
 
 "We weren't," said Tod, contritely; "and I'm 
 awfully sorry we borrowed the Pride like that. 
 We only intended to go quite a short way." 
 
 " A hundred yards or so ? " 
 
The End of the Quiet Day 209 
 
 " Yes," said Tod, " but we got blown out." 
 
 " That's the worst of a wind," said the Major, 
 " and after that, I suppose the crew got down with 
 yellow fever. Why doesn't the skipper come and 
 be court-martialed ? " 
 
 " He's sitting on a smuggler," Tod explained. 
 
 " Oh, I see," said the Major. " I ought to have 
 provided more cushions. But how did you pick 
 him up? Was he marooned or anything? " 
 
 " Drunk," said Tod, and related the events of the 
 day, while Dick sat tight. 
 
 " Well," said Major Culliemore, when Tod had 
 put him in possession of the leading facts, " I sup- 
 pose when cheek and ignorance turn out so bliss- 
 fully, there's nothing for the Pride's owner to say, 
 except that he hopes that some small portions of 
 the cabin remain intact. Yes, I can hear him 
 from here. He seems quite lively still. I suppose 
 he is a smuggler, eh ? Not another Squire ? " 
 
 " He's got a mask on," said Tod. 
 
 " Then he must be a smuggler," said the Major, 
 " unless he's a bee-keeper perhaps. Anyhow, you'd 
 better go up to the house and confess your sins. 
 
210 The Quietness of Dick 
 
 Ask your father to send round and let Lieutenant 
 Peterson know." 
 
 Tod went off, and Major Culliemore ran out the 
 boat and boarded the Pride. 
 
 "How is he, Dick?" he asked. 
 
 " He's getting slacker," said Dick. " If you like 
 to take my place, I believe you could keep him down 
 till somebody comes." 
 
 " I'll try," said the Major. 
 
 " The fact is," said Dick, " I'm beastly hungry. 
 Sailing's very decent, but we didn't have much 
 lunch, and if you don't mind, I should rather like 
 to go up to the house and get some. You see, I 
 suppose Lieutenant Peterson '11 want us to go with 
 him and point out the cave." 
 
 That supposition turned out to be correct. Lieu- 
 tenant Peterson had started out in person, on re- 
 ceipt of Mr. Wilton's message, and arrived almost 
 before Tod and Dick had begun their meal. 
 Though prompt, the little coastguard was not in 
 a very credulous frame of mind. 
 
 " Smugglers, eh ? " he said, skeptically, as he was 
 ushered into the dining-room, where Tod, in the 
 
The End of the Quiet Day 211 
 
 intervals of plying his knife and fork, was fighting 
 the day's battles over again. " I hear some smug- 
 glers have slipped through our hands, Mr. Wilton, 
 and been captured by your boys, sir." 
 
 " We only got one," said Tod, striving not to be 
 vainglorious, "but you'll be able to get the rest 
 pretty easily." 
 
 " Let's hear the story first," said the Lieutenant. 
 
 Dick and Tod told it between them. 
 
 "Sounds a bit cock and bull, doesn't it?" said 
 Lieutenant Peterson when they had finished. 
 
 " Perhaps it does," said Mr. Wilton, a little stiffly. 
 " Of course, I can't answer for it." 
 
 " Nor can I," said Major Culliemore, who had 
 come in a minute or two before. " It's been grow- 
 ing a little, perhaps — Tod's part — eh, Tod? But 
 all the same, they've got some sort of proof." 
 
 "What?" 
 
 "The smuggler, to be sure," said the Major, 
 " and in a mask, too. I've just brought him up out 
 of the Pride's cabin, which will want a quart of 
 varnish before it's the same as it was. So that he's 
 quite solid and human. What's more, he bears out 
 
212 The Quietness of Dick 
 
 one of your suspicions about who does the smug- 
 gling in Miclestead — if any one does." 
 
 " One of the Lugg-Trevanney tribe? " asked the 
 Lieutenant, eagerly. " I'd like to see him then, if I 
 may." 
 
 Lieutenant Peterson did not derive much from 
 his inspection of the smuggler, who had relapsed 
 into a stupid, sulky state, and would say nothing, 
 but on the other hand the Lieutenant lost a good 
 deal of his skepticism. 
 
 " No good wasting time over that fellow," he 
 said. " I'll go back and row round with some of 
 my men, if you'll let one of the lads pilot us." 
 
 But here Mrs. Wilton had her say — Tod was 
 not to be taken for any more adventures that day. 
 He was tired and sleepy and precious, and she 
 was sure that Dick had better not go either. 
 
 However, she gave in finally to Dick's going, upon 
 the understanding that Major Culliemore would go 
 with him and look after him; and in no very long 
 time, Dick found himself voyaging down the coast 
 again in a stout and safe boat, pulled by three pairs 
 of oars. 
 
The End of the Quiet Day 213 
 
 It was curious how like one rocky part of the 
 coast seemed to another; and if the sea had been 
 up, Dick was not at all sure that he could have 
 piloted them to the cove where he had spent the 
 afternoon. Once or twice he thought they had 
 arrived when they had not, but in the end he sighted 
 the channel where they had run the Pride in, be- 
 yond all doubt. The tide was a good deal lower 
 now, but that was all, and as the men hooked the 
 boat along between the rocks, Dick felt a pleasant 
 thrill of excitement running through him at the 
 prospect of turning the tables on his recently 
 successful enemies. If only they would be there, 
 and would make a fight of it! The coast- 
 guards had their cutlasses with them, and seemed 
 to be looking forward to a fray as much as 
 Dick. 
 
 Lieutenant Peterson gave the word for silence 
 just as the man in the bows announced that it was 
 impossible to get the boat any further along the 
 channel. 
 
 "Well, then," said the Lieutenant, regretfully, 
 " there's no chance of surprising them. Machin 
 
214 The Quietness of Dick 
 
 and Johns, you'd better stay by the boat, and the 
 rest of us will go forward." 
 
 " This way," said Dick. 
 
 The water was still deep in the pools and gullies 
 of the rocks. Such a drenched and dripping crew 
 as arrived at the mouth of the cave, not a single 
 one of them dry from the waist down, must have 
 amused the smugglers, had any of them been on 
 the lookout. But not a sign of a smuggler was 
 visible. Lieutenant Peterson formed up his men, 
 had two torches lit, and marched in. 
 
 " Nothing here," he grunted. 
 
 "What?" said Dick, sharply. He had been 
 ordered to the rear, and now as he got into the 
 main body of the cave, he rubbed his eyes. There 
 was no smuggler present, and of the pile of forty 
 or fifty kegs behind which he had lain that after- 
 noon, not one remained. 
 
 "See anything?" asked Lieutenant Peterson. 
 
 " No, I don't," said Dick. 
 
 " I don't either," said the Lieutenant. 
 
 " They must have carried them off along a pas- 
 sage," said Dick. 
 
The End of the Quiet Day 215 
 
 " Which passage ? " 
 
 That was precisely the question which Dick could 
 not answer. He had been so sure that there was a 
 passage, that the idea of its being called in question 
 had never presented itself to him. And yet there 
 was no sign of it to be found. Though the coast- 
 guards flashed their torches on to every part of the 
 walls, nowhere could anything resembling the en- 
 trance to a subterranean passage be found. The 
 cave was large, larger even than Dick had supposed, 
 but every side and corner of it seemed to be blind 
 and solid rock. Dick ran about tapping everywhere, 
 in hopes that some hollow sound would prove him 
 to be in the right; but the only hollow sound he 
 heard was the sound of Lieutenant Peterson mut- 
 tering sarcastically that in his opinion the thing was 
 a hoax. 
 
 " I'm sure Dick doesn't mean it as such," said 
 Major Culliemore. " He's too circumstantial, and 
 besides where did they get the man from ? He may 
 be wrong about there being another way out under 
 the cliff, but that's after all a detail. I'm persuaded 
 the kegs were here." 
 
2i 6 The Quietness of Dick 
 
 " I'm not," said the Lieutenant, obstinately. 
 
 " Perhaps you wouldn't mind taking a sniff here 
 then," said Dick, politely. 
 
 " Brandy, sure enough," said the Lieutenant, 
 after he had sniffed at the place Dick indicated. 
 " I withdraw, sir, I withdraw. Where there's been 
 brandy spilt, there have been rascals. You're right. 
 But they're off with it, sink 'em; they must have 
 got up the cliff." 
 
 " There's no way up," said Dick, slightly molli- 
 fied. " I looked for one before I came in here." 
 
 " Not easy to find, I daresay," said Lieutenant 
 Peterson, still obstinate. " And I doubt if we shall 
 be able to find it at this time of night. Tide coming 
 in soon, too. But you may lay, that's the way of 
 it . . . they're off up the cliff ... or else by 
 boat. Had a boat in the channel we tried up, I'll 
 wager." 
 
 Nothing Dick could say would persuade him to 
 waste any more time, as he expressed it, in trying 
 to find the passage into the cliff, of the existence of 
 which Dick was certain. He dispersed his men to 
 look for a track up the face of the cliff, and when 
 
The End of the Quiet Day 217 
 
 none was to be found, decided that his theory of 
 the smugglers having possessed a boat in the channel 
 was the correct one. Since that theory left them 
 no excuse for remaining in the cove, and the rising 
 tide moreover was beginning to make the channel 
 look ugly, he gave orders for a return at about 
 eight o'clock, and presently they were pulling back 
 again to Pistol Point. 
 
 It was all very flat and unsuccessful ; and Dick, as 
 he swung in one of the hammocks that Lieutenant 
 Peterson insisted upon providing for him and Major 
 Culliemore at the Station, decided that coastguards 
 had no enterprise, and that on the morrow Tod and 
 he would set off on their own hook again and make 
 some discoveries. 
 
CHAPTER XV 
 
 DISAPPEARANCE OF TOI> 
 
 TN the meantime, Tod had arranged that in the 
 event of Dick's stopping the night at the coast- 
 guard station, he himself should walk over there in 
 the morning to learn the latest news. He was natu- 
 rally disappointed at being condemned to inactivity 
 while Dick led the coastguards, so to speak, on 
 what promised to be an exciting expedition. But 
 the most ardent warriors have been compelled ere 
 now to bow their crested heads to a mother's solici- 
 tude : and on the occasion when those warriors have 
 had a good meal and felt unusually sleepy to boot, 
 it is probable that they have not altogether regretted 
 the necessity. 
 
 So it was with Tod. Gentle sleep curbed his 
 chafing spirit, and not until Thursday's sun was well 
 on its way in the heavens did he awake — and awake 
 
 to the fact that he was beastly curious to know 
 
 218 
 
Disappearance of Tod 219 
 
 what had happened overnight. A hasty bath, a 
 tumble into clothes, two glasses of milk, a pocketful 
 of biscuits, prepared him for the road. He set off 
 according to Bumpstead's testimony (Bumpstead 
 being the only person about at the time), whistling 
 and without a hat. Bumpstead only brought out 
 this last piece of information after Dick had spent 
 many fruitless hours searching for Tod's hat, which, 
 as every one knows, is the best thing to be looked 
 for in cases of disappearance, unless one is pretty 
 certain that the disappearance is due to fire, when 
 boots are better. When Dick reproached Bump- 
 stead, Bumpstead said that if Master Dick had 
 looked for Master Tod's hat in the hall, he would 
 probably have seen it. But this is not the point. 
 
 Tod, then, set off hatless and whistling, in the 
 direction of Pistol Point. There was another wit- 
 ness to this fact, namely Machin, from the coast- 
 guard station, who met Tod on the way, and gave 
 him all the available news. Tod learnt that the ex- 
 pedition had been a failure instead of a glorious 
 achievement — owing apparently to the cave not run- 
 ning back subterraneously, as he and Dick had sup- 
 
220 The Quietness of Dick 
 
 posed — and that Lieutenant Peterson was inclined 
 to renew his skeptical attitude. 
 
 " Cos he didn't find nobbut a smell," explained 
 Machin. 
 
 " But if there was a smell, there must have been 
 brandy before," Tod argued. 
 
 " Ah," said Machin, " but a smell's a smell, Mas- 
 ter Tod, and et aren't no more of itself. Yew can't 
 tak a smell along of yew and plump et down at the 
 station and write off to headquarters to say how as 
 yew've takken fifty kegs o' smell as hasn't paid 
 duty." 
 
 " Of course not." 
 
 " 'Sides which," added Machin, " once t' sea 
 d' come up into t' cave there won't be even t' smell." 
 
 " There will if there's really an inside passage," 
 said Tod. 
 
 " Ah, ef," said Machin, " but who's tew find et? " 
 
 And after mentioning that the Lieutenant might 
 possibly lead another expedition to the cave, when 
 the tide had gone down sufficiently, he went on, 
 leaving Tod to feel flatter even than Dick had felt. 
 
 It was this feeling that diverted Tod from his first 
 
Disappearance of Tod 221 
 
 intention of going straight up to the Point and — 
 in the end — put him in the way of the organ- 
 grinder. For while he thought what a shame it was 
 that nothing practical should come from his and 
 Dick's painful labors of the day before, and that 
 their grand subterranean discovery should be 
 flouted, a sudden resolution came into his head. It 
 was no less than to substantiate the discovery on his 
 own account. How this was to be done, Tod was 
 not sure. He did not in any case mean to miss 
 going with the coastguards, if they made a second 
 start for the cave. But it was early still, and there 
 was time to do one thing, and that was to find out 
 if the sea really came up inland under the moors as 
 far as the island of rocks which old Innepether had 
 once pointed out to him. Tod was sure that he 
 had heard the roar of it then, but that was a long 
 time ago. If it did come up, he ought to be able 
 to hear it again, for the tide was just about high. 
 
 Tod set out for the island of rocks. 
 
 He was certainly still hatless, and probably still 
 whistling, when he met the organ-grinder, though 
 no one witnessed the encounter. Tod says that the 
 
222 The Quietness of Dick 
 
 man, who was long and lean and walnut-colored, 
 with a twirling mustache — just like an Italian — 
 started playing his barrel organ as soon as he saw 
 him, and grimacing under his greasy squash hat 
 in the professional Italian manner, and joking 
 nasally with his monkey. He did it all very natu- 
 rally; and though it was a most unusual thing to see 
 an organ-grinder crossing the moor-path, Tod main- 
 tains that nobody would have supposed him to be 
 anything but an Italian organ-grinder. Tod's own 
 idea was that the man was tramping from Micle- 
 stead to Berry town, or to one of the seaside places 
 further up the coast, where they entertain Londoners 
 in the season, and have niggers on the beach to keep 
 the Londoners from feeling lonely. But Tod would 
 not have stopped if it had not been for the monkey. 
 The monkey reminded him of somebody, and he 
 stopped to think who it could be. Tod having 
 stopped and stared at the monkey, and the monkey 
 having offered to shake hands, Tod felt bound to 
 give it some coppers. 
 
 It was a jolly little beast, and Tod said so to the 
 beaming but nasal Italian. 
 
Disappearance of Tod 223 
 
 " Haf . . . a-nozzer — yong — more shakee-hand 
 zan dees . . . for zale ..." 
 
 This was what the Italian said, and Tod under- 
 stood the gibberish to mean that the man had an- 
 other and still more pleasing monkey for sale. 
 
 " Commong ? " said Tod, feeling in his pockets. 
 
 " Tre — four-shilling . . . an' six ..." 
 
 Now three and six or even four and six is not an 
 extravagant price to pay for a monkey in this 
 country, and Tod decided to close with the offer, 
 provided the monkey showed no signs of being in 
 a decline or otherwise fraudulent. Tod had four 
 and six, and produced it. 
 
 " Where's the monkey ? " he asked. 
 
 " Mai vife . . . brongs eet. She ees offer-thar," 
 the Italian pointed behind him to where at no great 
 distance the moorland dips down into a moorland 
 of sand known (or not known, for it is a desolate 
 place) as Simmering Dunes. " Note far," added 
 the man, as Tod hesitated. The desire to possess 
 a monkey overcame Tod's previous resolve to press 
 forward immediately upon his other business. 
 
 " All right," he said, " if it's only four and six, 
 
224 The Quietness of Dick 
 
 and riot far off, I'll say done — done-o. Comprenny ? 
 But scuttle along like a brick, because I'm in a 
 hurry." 
 
 The Italian shifted his one-legged organ on to 
 his shoulder, with the most obsequious of smiles, and 
 scuttled. Tod scuttled beside him,- feeding the 
 monkey with bits of biscuits. 
 
 In a very short time, any one who had been 
 watching would have seen Tod and the organ- 
 grinder and the monkey disappear among the dunes. 
 Nobody was watching. Dick, who might have been 
 on an ordinary occasion, was sitting in the coast- 
 guard station, kicking his heels until Lieutenant 
 Peterson should find time to start again for the cave, 
 and wondering why Tod did not come. 
 
CHAPTER XVI 
 
 DICK ON THE TRAIL 
 
 ' I "'HE mysterious disappearance of a young and 
 
 only son, as Dick remarked to Major Cullie- 
 
 more on Saturday morning, is not all toffy drops. 
 
 " It's prodigiously unpleasant," said the Major, 
 who, apart from his natural anxiety as a friend of 
 the family, was prevented by the general gloom 
 of the Manor House from carrying on some busi- 
 ness on which he had set his heart. " No news, I 
 suppose? " he went on. 
 
 "No," said Dick. "We went all over Micle- 
 stead with the police yesterday, and Lieutenant 
 Peterson's been sending his men about the cliffs — 
 bottom, you know, in case young Tod should have 
 walked over, which is rot, unless he was sleep- 
 walking — and into most of the caves round. But 
 there's no news. Except that the London detective's 
 
 coming down some time to-day." 
 
 225 
 
226 The Quietness of Dick 
 
 " Hope we shall hear of something then," said 
 Major Culliemore. 
 
 " Hope so," said Dick, cheerfully. " Your tea '11 
 be rather off on Tuesday, if he doesn't turn up. 
 But I expect he will." 
 
 Dick expected Tod's ultimate return with such 
 an unchanging optimism that Mrs. Wilton clung to 
 him more than to any one else in this distressful 
 period. Even the most hopeful of the others could 
 not help showing a little anxiety on this, the third 
 day of Tod's absence, but Dick neither showed nor 
 felt any. He entirely pooh-poohed the coastguard's 
 theory that Tod had somehow precipitated himself 
 from the cliffs, and stuck to his own theory that 
 Tod had been kidnapped. And in spite of the fact 
 that there was no particular reason why Dick's 
 opinion should be trusted, Mrs. Wilton found con- 
 solation in it. 
 
 " If only you'd been with Tod ! " she said re- 
 peatedly. "And how foolish it was of me before 
 to think that it was you who got Tod into mischief." 
 
 " I'm afraid I did once or twice," said Dick, never 
 slow to admit his faults on a suitable occasion, " but 
 
Dick on the Trail 227 
 
 not into any real harm, you know. But I jolly well 
 wish I had been with him, all the same. I expect 
 he's having a splendid time . . . except for 
 worrying about you, of course." 
 
 " You're quite sure that those wicked wretches 
 have got him?" asked Mrs. Wilton, just for the 
 sake of hearing Dick say again that he was quite 
 sure. 
 
 " Honor bright," said Dick. " Tod makes a 
 decent young hostage, which is what they wanted; 
 and they're sure to fatten him up till we spot them." 
 
 " I do hope that Mr. Reech will find him soon," 
 sighed Mrs. Wilton. 
 
 " Sure to," said Dick. " It's a perfectly simple 
 case for a London detective. I could find him 
 myself in a day or two, only of course it takes a 
 little practice." 
 
 Dick had not been entirely without practice so 
 far. He had hunted for Tod's hat for hours, until 
 in fact it had been pointed out in the hall; he had 
 also tried to discover Tod by his footprints, un- 
 successfully by reason of a heavy shower of rain 
 in the night. Then he had tried to put Topper, the 
 
228 The Quietness of Dick 
 
 bull-dog, known to be devoted to Tod, upon the 
 disappearer's tracks. The method Dick employed 
 was to get out two of Tod's waistcoats and show 
 them to Topper as a preliminary to following the 
 trail. Topper unfortunately had turned out a fail- 
 ure. He had been so much interested in the waist- 
 coats that, instead of trying to scent out their owner, 
 he tore one into small pieces in about two minutes, 
 and got his front legs so entangled in the armholes 
 of the others that he nearly broke them, and con- 
 ceived such a terror for the garment that, when 
 released, he fled from it with his tail between his 
 legs, to his kennel, and refused to budge for the 
 rest of the day. 
 
 Dick had been reduced to the commonplace ex- 
 pedient of disguising himself — as a gipsy — with in- 
 tent to hang about in likely places (if there were 
 any likely places) and overhear conversations that 
 any conspirators might be holding about Tod. He 
 spent an hour and a half in disguising himself, and 
 was creeping out at the back of the house, when 
 by ill chance he happened to meet Bumpstead. 
 
 " What ever be wrang wi' yew, Master Dick ? " 
 
Dick on the Trail 229 
 
 said the coachman, in amaze. " Yew have been 
 a-muddying o' yewrself." 
 
 " Stow it ! " said Dick, with all the ferocity of 
 his counterfeit blood. But he retired to the house 
 nevertheless. Of course Bumpstead had had the ad- 
 vantage of seeming him come out, but Dick had 
 to acknowledge that if so slow-witted a person could 
 pierce his disguise, no one else was very likely to 
 be taken in by it, unless it were somebody that did 
 not know him by sight. And if he was not known 
 by sight, there was no particular object in disguising 
 himself. 
 
 These attempts to discover Tod had been made on 
 Friday, and Dick had also gone the rounds with the 
 police and the coastguards, so that this morning he 
 felt comfortably fatigued. He was not in the least 
 cast down, and continued to scout the notion that 
 anything had happened to Tod. But he was suffi- 
 ciently baffled for the time being to realize that other 
 methods than those of the day before must be 
 resorted to. He would gladly have tried a notion 
 which had come to him in bed that morning, but 
 when he broached it at breakfast no one had sup- 
 
230 The Quietness of Dick 
 
 ported him. It was to apply the thumb-screws to 
 the smuggler he and Tod had captured, until he 
 confessed (a) whether there was a subterranean 
 passage leading in from the smugglers' cavern, (b) 
 whether Tod had been decoyed into it and was at 
 present incarcerated there. No one, unfortunately, 
 except he, and perhaps Mrs. Wilton, still believed in 
 the existence of the passage, as the coastguards had 
 tried a second time to find it and failed, so that even 
 apart from the fact — which Mr. Wilton pointed out 
 — that the use of thumb-screws was unlikely to be 
 encouraged by the police, in whose hands the smug- 
 gler now was, the notion suffered from the draw- 
 back of provoking no enthusiasm. Otherwise, Dick 
 would have supplemented it with a scheme he had 
 for discovering the entrance to the passage by 
 means of dynamite. Even Major Culliemore, to 
 whom he mentioned the scheme, displayed a want 
 of enterprise in taking it up. He said that 
 perhaps they had better wait until the detective 
 arrived. And the detective was to arrive that 
 evening. 
 
 It was perhaps the jealousy of the amateur for 
 
Dick on the Trail 231 
 
 the professional which made Dick unwilling to wait. 
 No one who feels within himself the capacity for 
 carrying something through likes the idea of being 
 superseded by somebody else, no matter how expert 
 in his profession that somebody else may be. Dick 
 had this feeling very strong, and he was not going 
 to sit still. At the same time he recognized that 
 it was no good rushing into further disguises, or 
 making a fool of himself just before the detective 
 arrived. If active measures (namely, thumb-screws 
 and dynamite) were to be denied him, he must 
 accomplish his ends by some other means. What 
 would the most famous detective of his day have 
 done? Dick went to the library and came back 
 with the knowledge that the best detective of his 
 day would have retired to a solitary place with a 
 pound of shag and a violin, and remained there 
 until he had forged out of his brain a chain of 
 evidence with every link intact. Then with his 
 friend thexloctor, he would have hunted down the 
 miscreant. Dick half thought of stopping Dr. 
 Gibbens who had just called to see how Mrs. Wilton 
 was getting on, but gave up the idea when he saw 
 
232 The Quietness of Dick 
 
 the doctor. He supposed that it was having a large 
 practice that made Dr. Gibbens look unsociable. 
 
 There remained the shag and the violin. 
 
 Dick, however, was no adept at the violin. He 
 was compelled to take some lessons once, before he 
 was old enough to know how to make his teacher 
 despair. And he knew that the violin would be 
 the last thing to compose his spirits. Nor was a 
 pound of shag exactly to his mind. His experience 
 of shag was based on observations of Tod, who 
 had experimented with it one half-holiday at school, 
 Dick having paid the tobacconist, and Tod, so to 
 speak, the piper. It was a rememberable occasion. 
 Tod, being in an uppish frame of mind, had insisted 
 on smoking his pipe to the bottom, after which 
 he was unable to conceal his emotions, particularly 
 during tea-time. By a stroke of luck, the matron 
 had suspected him of having whooping cough, and 
 had had him isolated instantly. The suspicion saved 
 them; but Dick could still recall how he waited 
 outside the infirmary, in his anxiety lest Tod should 
 become delirious and give the show away. Tod, 
 however, though faint, had been faithful ; and Dick's 
 
Dick on the Trail 233 
 
 anxiety was mistaken for friendship, and so the 
 crisis had passed. 
 
 Setting aside shag then, Dick had no objection 
 to observing detective conventions, and smoking a 
 pipe of ordinary tobacco, and seizing the oppor- 
 tunity, he retired to the hayloft with a pipe of 
 Mr. Wilton's very ordinary tobacco; and any one 
 who had visited that retreat during the next hour 
 and a half might have seen Dick squatting in a 
 correct attitude enveloped in a fine cloud of 
 smoke. 
 
 In the end the tobacco proved itself of service, 
 for it gave Dick a headache, and that in turn drove 
 him to take a walk instead of sitting quiet until 
 the detective arrived. 
 
 Without any definite plan in his head, he made 
 for the cliffs, and finding himself refreshed, pushed 
 on until he had come to the island of rocks, for 
 which Tod was supposed to have been making when 
 he disappeared. Dick had almost fancied before 
 he came to it, that he might find Tod there after 
 all — asleep behind one of the rocks which the 
 searchers had overlooked, or comjpg from one of 
 
234 The Quietness of Dick 
 
 the rabbit burrows red in the face, having found 
 the subterranean passage and got stuck in it. 
 
 The half expected, however, did not happen. A 
 rabbit ran out of one of the burrows, but not Tod — 
 which was perhaps more in accordance with the 
 laws of natural history. 
 
 Something happened, nevertheless; and this was, 
 that, while Dick poked among the rocks, he heard 
 some one coming along towards them whistling 
 tunelessly to himself, and peeping out he recognized 
 Hosh, the red-haired lad with whom he had had 
 the battle at Miclestead. Hosh was carrying a 
 basket. 
 
 Ordinarily Dick would not have thought twice 
 about seeing a fisher-boy carrying a basket; but 
 being on the trail, he perceived things with a new 
 significance. A basket is not an unusual thing to 
 carry, and fish are often carried in a basket, and 
 fisher-boys frequently carry fish, but where do they 
 carry fish to ? Not — as a rule — to a solitary moor, 
 to be laid down on a solitary rock and abandoned. 
 
 Yet this was what Hosh did with his basket. 
 And after putting it down, he walked off in the 
 
Dick on the Trail 235 
 
 same direction as that from which he had come, 
 still whistling to himself. The conclusion — even 
 to the most elementary detective — was obvious. 
 Somebody was coming for that basket, and Dick 
 decided to wait and see who that somebody was. 
 He was rewarded at the end of about half an hour, 
 by seeing a man coming from inland towards him. 
 The man came very slowly, limping somewhat, and 
 looking about him as if he did not know exactly 
 where he was, and now and again he stopped and 
 propped himself on what Dick perceived to be a 
 one-legged barrel-organ. He came so slowly, and 
 apparently with such uncertainty, that Dick doubted 
 for a long time if he were the man for whom the 
 basket was intended. In fact, the man walked right 
 past the rock on which the basket had been set, 
 and seemed to be going on towards Miclestead. 
 In another minute Dick would have got up from 
 his hiding place and gone to make friends with the 
 monkey, which he now saw the organ-grinder had 
 with him. But just as he was rising, the organ- 
 grinder stopped, looked about him as if to admire 
 the view, and strolled back very leisurely to the 
 
236 The Quietness of Dick 
 
 rocks. Seeing the basket there, he pointed it out 
 with great surprise to the monkey, then — with con- 
 siderable swiftness — stooped, picked it up, and 
 walked off none so limpingly, inland again, in the 
 direction of the Simmering Dunes. 
 
 It was not until then that it flashed across Dick 
 that he had seen the organ-grinder before some- 
 where, in fact in the smugglers' cave; also that he 
 had heard the Dunes mentioned in the same place. 
 But for the certainty that he would be seen on the 
 open moors, he would have followed the organ- 
 grinder to see where he was going. As it was, he 
 lay there and watched him disappear among the 
 sand-hills; and then got up and hurried back to 
 the Manor House. 
 
CHAPTER XVII 
 
 THE PROFESSIONAL DETECTIVE 
 
 * I V HE detective had arrived when Dick got back 
 from his walk. So the parlor-maid told Dick 
 as soon as he got in, though a new and shiny top-hat 
 in the hall would have been sufficient proof of the 
 fact to such a fellow-craftsman as Dick felt himself 
 to be. 
 
 " Such an ordinary looking person as he is too, 
 Master Dick," added Mary, in tones indicative of 
 disappointment. " I thought he was the piano- 
 tuner." 
 
 All the servants had been looking forward 
 anxiously and curiously to the gentleman who was 
 to discover Tod and to restore him to the bosom 
 of the Manor House once more. 
 
 " Perhaps he's disguised," Dick suggested. 
 
 " I wouldn't go to take such a ordinary disguise 
 
 myself," said Mary, not much consoled. " Nor 
 
 237 
 
238 The Quietness of Dick 
 
 I wouldn't put silly questions to the men and the 
 maids, as if they'd got Master Tod hid somewhere 
 in a bandbox." 
 
 " It's to put you off the scent," Dick explained. 
 " We — I mean — they have to do it." 
 
 " Well," said Mary, " it don't make you popular- 
 like. There — I was to ask you to step into the 
 library as soon as you come back." 
 
 It is clear that Dick had no idle prejudices as 
 to what a detective ought to look like. But it 
 cannot be denied that as he saw Mr. Danvers Reech 
 in the library, he suffered a pang of disappointment. 
 It is discouraging to find a long-expected profes- 
 sional sleuth-hound no more striking in personal 
 appearance than a piano-tuner. He was much less 
 striking than a piano-tuner. His hair was greased, 
 and he had on stylish ready-made clothes. Dick's 
 sensitive nostrils also detected a penny-in-the-slot 
 perfume. Mr. Reech's cockney accent — as he said 
 in a patronizing way that he supposed that this was 
 the young gentleman's friend, was it? — completed 
 the unfavorable impression. 
 
 " Yes, this was the friend I was telling you 
 
The Professional Detective 239 
 
 about," said Mr. Wilton, " and I know he will be 
 able to answer any questions you like to put." 
 
 " Rather," said Dick, who was bubbling over 
 with valuable information, and not at all prepared 
 to answer questions. " But I think I'd better begin 
 by giving you a clue I've just got. It's " 
 
 " Suppose," said Mr. Reech, with an insufferable 
 geniality, " you was to tell me one or two things 
 I want to know first. We'll have the clues after- 
 wards, dozens of 'em." 
 
 " But it's about " 
 
 " You found one of his boots upside down in 
 the pantry, eh ? " said Mr. Reech, " or saw his foot- 
 prints in the flower-beds ? Bless you, I know ! We 
 have hundreds of clues given us every time. The 
 housemaid has her clue, and the butler has his clue. 
 But I like to know where I am." 
 
 " Yes, you must let Mr. Reech set his own way 
 about it, Dick," said Mr. Wilton. 
 
 " Certainly," said Dick, politely. He was not 
 going to waste his information on a person like 
 this, and he was sustained during the next half-hour 
 by a determination that had come to him to outwit 
 
240 The Quietness of Dick 
 
 this scented professional, and bring about Tod's 
 rescue on his own account. The man might get 
 hundreds of clues from butlers and housemaids, but 
 if he couldn't distinguish them from Dick's, he must 
 be a fool. 
 
 "What was your friend's habits, now?" began 
 the detective, encouragingly, now that he had got 
 his point. 
 
 Dick contained his soul, and tried to give a suit- 
 able answer to a foolish question. 
 
 " Pretty ordinary, I think," he said. " He wasn't 
 very fond of work." 
 
 " Like hide-and-seek better, I daresay," said Mr. 
 Reech. 
 
 " I never heard of it," said Dick, with studied 
 politeness. " Tod may have liked hide-and-seek, 
 but he couldn't very well play it by himself, could 
 he?" 
 
 " Ah, I see, it was more parlor games he played. 
 Spilikins, eh ? " 
 
 " He preferred making toffy," said Dick. 
 
 " Wasn't the kind of lad as would run away to 
 sea?" 
 
The Professional Detective 241 
 
 " Not as a general rule," Dick thought. 
 
 " Or go shooting off pistols by himself some- 
 where?" 
 
 "No," said Dick. 
 
 " You never know what a boy '11 be up to," said 
 the detective, turning to Mr. Wilton, aware perhaps 
 of a want of sympathy in Dick's face. " I used to 
 play all sorts of games when I was a young lad — 
 used to invent 'em — and the larkier they were the 
 more I liked 'em. Why, I remember cutting my 
 hand once with a old knife in a wood where I was 
 playin' red injun by myself, and faintin', and not 
 bein' picked up for four mortal hours. Your friend 
 didn't go in for climbing the rocks hereabouts much, 
 eh ? " He had turned sharply upon Dick as he put 
 the question. 
 
 Dick smiled, glad to be able to reply in the nega- 
 tive, and show the detective at fault once more. 
 
 " He wasn't at all keen ... in fact ... he 
 was in a beastly funk of rocks." 
 
 "Had a fright lately?" 
 
 Dick was bound to admit that Tod had had a 
 fright lately, and. an account of it was wormed out 
 
242 The Quietness of Dick 
 
 of him by the obnoxious Mr. Reech — rather cleverly, 
 Dick thought afterwards, though he chafed during 
 it, knowing it to be all waste of time. The man 
 made a note of the place where they had got the 
 wild maidenhair, too — in a shiny little pocket-book 
 — and Dick saw Mr. Wilton look anxious. The 
 detective certainly seemed to hold the opinion that 
 Tod had fallen from the cliffs somewhere. But 
 how any one could trust the man's opinion, Dick 
 could not imagine. 
 
 " Now if you'll take me a walk round, Mr. 
 Wilton," said Mr. Reech, after he had put Dick a 
 few more questions, " I'll be able to find my bear- 
 ings. By the way, Mr. Dick, we may as well have 
 the little clue you were bursting with before we 
 
 go." 
 
 He had stopped in the doorway for this last piece 
 of patronage, and Dick could have thrown the near- 
 est ink-bottle at him. 
 
 " I hardly like to trouble you with it," he said, 
 shortly. " It was only an idea of mine, I daresay 
 there's nothing in it." 
 
 "Let's have it though," said the detective. 
 
The Professional Detective 243 
 
 " We're often able to make somethin' out of the 
 smallest bits of news. Somethin' that the people 
 themselves haven't even thought of." 
 
 If Mr. Wilton had not been present, Dick would 
 have refused to answer. As it was, he could not do 
 anything but give an account of what he had seen 
 and inferred. The savor seemed to have vanished 
 from it as the detective listened pompously. 
 
 " That's the clue, is it ? " he said, when Dick had 
 done. " Wonderful what a lot of those Italians 
 go grindin' about the country. Nice little critturs, 
 monkeys, ain't they ? I remember keepin' a monkey 
 when I was a lad." 
 
 He was still telling his reminiscences to Mr. 
 Wilton as he went out of the room, little thinking 
 that by his treatment of Dick he had lost his most 
 valuable ally. Dick was the only person who did 
 know it, and the knowledge was his only consola- 
 tion. But at all costs he must be the one to find 
 Tod now. 
 
CHAPTER XVIII 
 
 THE WATCH ON THE DUNES 
 
 A LITTLE wind had begun to blow at sunset 
 among the Simmering Dunes. The sea-pop- 
 pies were already shaking; the reeds that grew in 
 rank patches up and between the sand-hills would 
 soon be relaxing their stiffness; and Dick, lying 
 propped on his elbows on the top of a little hillock, 
 which gave a bird's-ey* view of the dunes, had to 
 screw up his eyes against the grains of hot sand 
 which came flicking against him. 
 
 Up to now, Dick thought he had about as much 
 experience of sand as it is possible to have. He had 
 lain in it like a turtle from dewy morn till windy 
 eve, and he had sand in his pockets and in his 
 boots, in his hair and his ears and his mouth and 
 his neck, in the sandwiches which he had brought 
 for lunch, and in the cold tea that he had sipped 
 
 at various intervals. Now the wind was driving it 
 
 244 
 
The Watch on the Dunes 245 
 
 into his eyes — abominable, hot, infinitesimal grains 
 of sand, such as even a turtle would not tolerate — 
 and it was half-blinding him just at the moment 
 when there was beginning to be a strange commo- 
 tion in one of the largest patches of reeds — one 
 that lay not a hundred yards from Dick's conning 
 tower of sand. 
 
 Dick had somehow fixed on that patch from the 
 first. But for the belief that it would show him 
 something presently, he would have abandoned the 
 search half a dozen times, as the sun had grown 
 hotter and hotter. What did he expect to see ? He 
 hardly knew; he had been unable to tell the detective 
 yesterday, when he had been asked to explain his 
 clue. A chance organ-grinder, the reappearance of 
 Hosh, and a dim recollection of Captain Frangois 
 having spoken of dunes in the cave: this was all 
 the explanation Dick could offer for the belief that 
 the dunes held the key to the mystery of Tod's dis- 
 appearance. He would not admit to himself that 
 his belief was stronger because Mr. Reech had pooh- 
 poohed the idea. But, as a matter-of-fact, he had 
 to believe it now out of mere self-respect. 
 
246 The Quietness of Dick 
 
 Accordingly, Dick had started out early after 
 breakfast (it was Sunday morning, but somehow 
 no one was going to church) with his sandwiches 
 and his cold tea, his lasso, a revolver borrowed 
 from Mr. Wilton's armory — Dick in his hurry for- 
 got to get Mr. Wilton's permission — and a supply 
 of cartridges for the same. He told no one of his 
 intention, because everybody else was of the opinion 
 that was now universally regarded as Mr. Reech's, 
 namely, that there was nothing to be discovered of 
 Tod except his remains. All the shore was to be 
 re-searched at low tide, and most of Lieutenant 
 Peterson's men were to assist. So Dick gathered 
 from Bumpstead, who was so gloomy that he had 
 gone to the stable to do a little polishing of bits and 
 things, preparatory to starting out on the gruesome 
 search. 
 
 " You don't believe such nonsense, do you ? " 
 said Dick, with scorn. 
 
 " Tiddn't that I wish tew," said . Bumpstead. 
 " But it dew seem as if it had happened to Master 
 Tod same as it happened to Mrs. Chirk's mother's 
 uncle. Nobbut a bit o' salt fish and a gooseberry 
 
The Watch on the Dunes 247 
 
 pie was what he had afore he went out one arter- 
 noon as hearty a man as yew would wish to see, 
 and the best for growing apples of anny ah knows 
 this-away ... an' they found him in a pool 
 among the rocks like, with one o' his boots off and 
 one on . . . and nobbody to say how he coom 
 there." 
 
 Dick couldn't see the connection at all, and said 
 so. But nothing he could say prevented Bumpstead 
 from holding the belief that Tod had followed in 
 the melancholy steps of Mrs. Chirk's mother's uncle, 
 and Dick turned away in disgust. Even Major 
 Culliemore, whom Dick met on his way out, seemed 
 to have gone over to the popular view, and was 
 going to assist in the search. 
 
 " Do you believe it too ? " asked Dick. 
 
 " Don't know," said the Major, dismally. " But 
 Mr. Reech is in command, and those are his 
 marching orders. It's his profession, Dick, you 
 know." 
 
 Dick's opinion was that there was a full-blooded 
 idiot in the detective profession, but he said nothing. 
 Nor did he invite Major Culliemore's co-opera- 
 
248 The Quietness of Dick 
 
 tion in his own masterly scheme. He was going 
 to find Tod alone and unaided. He allowed the 
 Major to suppose that he was going to assist in the 
 search, and slipped away. 
 
 Nobody knew where Dick had gone to, nor knew 
 that he had endured all day in the sands, like a 
 young turtle about to be hatched. Up to sun-down 
 his scheme had made little progress. The only sat- 
 isfaction he had had was to know that if, as he 
 supposed, some person or persons were hidden in 
 the dunes and would be wanting to come out at any 
 time, they would not be prevented from doing so 
 by the idea that any one was watching them. He 
 was at least as well concealed as they were, and in 
 an admirable position for keeping watch — a position 
 he had obtained only by crawling more cautiously 
 than a snail through what had seemed infinite 
 leagues of sand. He knew that he was well con- 
 cealed, for he had twice had company within a few 
 feet of him. The first time, it was two coastguards 
 who had passed just below him, talking of what 
 parts of the foreshore had still to be searched for 
 traces of Tod. 
 
The Watch on the Dunes 249 
 
 The second time, it was an elderly white-haired 
 artist who had evidently strayed on to the dunes 
 in search of something to paint, and been struck 
 by the scenery: for he had set up his easel under 
 a great white umbrella, and daubed away labori- 
 ously until the heat grew too much for him. Dick 
 did not think much of the picture, and was glad 
 when the old man tottered away on gouty feet, and 
 left the dunes to himself and whoever else lay 
 concealed in them. 
 
 It must have been nearly three hours after this 
 that Dick first noticed the strange commotion in 
 the great patch of reeds which grew in the little 
 valley below him, and up the sides of the sand-hill 
 opposite. Dick could see other patches of reeds 
 growing along other valleys and hills of the dunes, 
 but this particular patch was the deepest and densest. 
 It had attracted Dick's notice for that reason, and 
 by comparing it now with the others, he could see 
 that the commotion in the middle of it was unusual. 
 In spite of the wind, the reeds elsewhere had barely 
 swayed, but here, for the last two or three minutes, 
 there had been a continual rustling. More exactly, 
 
250 The Quietness of Dick 
 
 it was a continuous rustling, growing, as it were, 
 from place to place. 
 
 It must be the wind surely, and yet ... a 
 minute later Dick was certain that it was not the 
 wind, but something which was creeping through 
 the reeds. Dick could see the wake left by its body 
 clearly now — a wake not straight ahead, like a 
 rabbit's run, but zig-zag, so that, looking at it from 
 a little distance, no one would have thought the 
 dark lines to be really a track, unless, like Dick, 
 they could follow it in the making. 
 
 Dick had not seen the start, but whatever was 
 making the track had squirmed its way now for 
 fifty yards or more, and was coming to the outside 
 extremity of the patch. Another two yards, and 
 ... a man got up slowly from his hands and 
 knees, shook himself and, after looking about him, 
 walked off quickly in the direction of the cliffs. 
 Not before Dick, lynx-eyed, in spite of the blowing 
 sand, had recognized the organ-grinder who had 
 carried off the basket brought by Hosh. He had 
 not the barrel-organ with him, nor yet the monkey, 
 but he was the same man beyond doubt. And 
 
The Watch on the Dunes 251 
 
 unless Dick were mistaken (which he might very 
 well be) he was the foreign-speaking Captain of 
 the smugglers' cave. His face wore just the kind 
 of grin that Dick had imagined it wearing, and, 
 as he passed by only a few feet separating him from 
 Dick, a lasso very nearly circled about his un- 
 conscious head. If he had looked up, Dick would 
 not have been able to restrain his hand; but he 
 walked on, following the dips between the mounds, 
 and before Dick was quite certain that he had 
 done well to let him go, he was beyond reach. 
 
 It was Dick's burning curiosity to inspect the 
 hiding place among the reeds which really carried 
 the day. He had no doubt whatever now that Tod 
 was concealed there, though whether it was a pit 
 in the sand or an entrance perhaps to the passage 
 of which he and Tod had been so sure, there was 
 no means of knowing. He would know in a minute, 
 however, he thought, and was just getting up 
 cautiously to creep down towards the reeds when — 
 to his complete indignation — the old gray-headed 
 gentleman who had apparently gone off with a 
 sunstroke hours ago in the opposite direction, came 
 
252 The Quietness of Dick 
 
 trotting back again. He had his easel and his stool 
 tied together in one hand, and in the other his white 
 umbrella, which he used as a stick. A more harm- 
 less old man could not be imagined, nor one more 
 completely in Dick's way. For instead of con- 
 tinuing his hobble until he should have placed 
 himself out of sight and hearing, he stopped just 
 beside the patch of reeds which Dick was longing 
 to enter, and began examining them inquisitively, 
 making a telescope of one hand, as artists do, and 
 taking little measurements with the handle of his 
 umbrella. Dick, chafing and kicking in the sand, 
 had to suppose that he thought the reeds picturesque, 
 and was trying to make a picture of them in his 
 mind's eye. Or had he noticed the man's trail 
 among them, and was he wondering what sort of 
 animal made it? Now he was down on his hands 
 and knees peering at the broken reeds; then he 
 would get up again, and tap his head as if to make 
 the brains inside work less foolishly, while Dick 
 suffered all the jealousies of an explorer who, after 
 enduring dangers and privations, has come within 
 a stone's throw of some undiscovered place, only 
 
The Watch on the Dunes 253 
 
 to find some irresponsible strayed tourist sitting 
 on the spot, perplexed because he can't find a com- 
 fortable hotel. So overwhelming was the provoca- 
 tion that Dick found himself almost unconsciously 
 progressing until he was close to the old gentleman 
 and liable to be discovered by a turn of a head. 
 At this moment of suspense, the old man, incredibly 
 inquisitive, popped down again on his hands and 
 knees, and began crawling slowly in the trail of the 
 broken reeds. Another minute, and he would have 
 interrupted Dick's scheme, raised the alarm in the 
 invisible hiding place, and ruined everything. But 
 Dick was too quick for him. Meaning afterwards 
 to expostulate with him and apologize if necessary,, 
 but meanwhile to stop him at all costs, he cast his 
 lasso at the old gentleman as he crawled forward. 
 But Dick struck too soon, and the rope, as he 
 tugged it, tightened — not about the old gentleman's 
 neck — but about his snowy beard which instantly 
 came away. At precisely the same instant, there 
 wheeled round upon Dick with a velocity which 
 no gouty old gentleman could attain to, a smooth- 
 shaven person with a revolver in his right hand. 
 
254 The Quietness of Dick 
 
 " Drop that," he said, with a sort of steady snarl, 
 " or " 
 
 But at that point Dick and Mr. Danvers Reech 
 arrived at a mutual recognition. 
 
 " I'm blest ! " said Mr. Reech. 
 
 " It's you ! " replied Dick, wonderingly. " I 
 thought you were looking for Tod under the cliffs." 
 
 The detective gave a good-natured grin, and 
 made a motion to Dick to flatten himself beside 
 him among the reeds. 
 
 " We'll have to talk in a whisper, my boy," he 
 said. " No, that was a game of mine about the 
 cliffs. I calculated you were pretty right in your 
 story yesterday, and if I'd known you were as 
 smart as you seem to be, I'd have got you to help 
 me, though I like working alone as a rule." 
 
 " So do I," said Dick, who was not altogether 
 pleased at having his scheme filched from him 
 unbeknown. 
 
 " Worst of that is that the two star artists get 
 mixed up. To think of me being nearly roped by 
 a young lad like you. Why, I didn't even know 
 you were there ! " 
 
The Watch on the Dunes 255 
 
 " I didn't know you were," Dick confessed, rather 
 flattered. 
 
 " If you had, I'd have been a bigger fool than 
 I've been for a long time," said Mr. Reech. " But 
 we haven't got time for chattin' now." 
 
 Dick nodded. 
 
 " I was just going to see where he came from." 
 
 " I was goin' to look in," said Mr. Reech, 
 thoughtfully. " I dunno about goin' in, though. 
 There may be more of 'em. Got a revolver too, 
 have you? Suppose you'd have shot me in another 
 minute, eh? Well, a surprise is a surprise — that's 
 true. We'll see. . . . You stick close behind me ! " 
 
 And having ejaculated these remarks in a whis- 
 per, he began to follow the track in the reeds in a 
 cunning way which made Dick wonder more than 
 ever how he had thought of him as a tottery old 
 gentleman or even as a cockney beast. He had a 
 new respect for the detective, and gave up the lead 
 willingly, being quite as pleased as otherwise not 
 to be by himself. It gave him a snaky feeling to 
 be crawling along in so secret a fashion among 
 those giant rustling reeds. 
 
CHAPTER XIX 
 
 THE BURIED SHIP 
 
 A BURIED ship may be full of romance and ad- 
 venture, but, as Tod soon discovered, it may 
 also be both dull and depressing. To begin with, 
 an oil lamp, cheap and badly trimmed, had been 
 his sole illumination for the last three days, except 
 during the few minutes each day on semi-parole, 
 when he had been taken out by the organ-grinder 
 (who, of course, was Captain Frangois of the cave) 
 at the end of a rope, just as if he had been a second 
 monkey. The second monkey, which was to have 
 changed hands for the moderate sum of four and 
 six, was — equally of course — a figment of Captain 
 Frangois' imagination. 
 
 " I sharge more nor four-an'-six for you, my 
 poy," he said, when he had safely secured Tod 
 for the second time. " Since you are moch more 
 
 trouble zan ze monkey. Zen perhaps we get your 
 
 256 
 
The Buried Ship 257 
 
 leetle friend to join you, and he is also more nor 
 four-an'-six." 
 
 So Tod had the pleasure of looking forward to 
 - Dick's company, which was to be his as soon as 
 Dick should be captured. But in the meanwhile he 
 was the only prisoner. Under other circumstances, 
 he would have taken interest in that quaint hiding 
 place under the reeds. For it was nothing else 
 than a ship — a whole ship buried from deck to keel 
 in the sand, with the reeds sprouting overhead. 
 Tod wondered a good deal what period she be- 
 longed to, or what unlucky captain had sailed her 
 to that strange anchorage. He remembered having 
 heard or read that long ago — hundreds of years 
 back — the dunes had been the sea-shore, or even 
 the sea-bottom, where flat-fish skippered up and 
 down, and ships went sailing on the tops of the 
 water. Slowly the tides had fallen back until the 
 sea-bottom grew into sea-shore, and the sea-shore 
 grew back into inland dunes out of reach and sight 
 and hearing of the sea. Some time during that 
 long recession, the ship must have come ashore. Tod 
 thought perhaps she might have been a galleon, 
 
258 The Quietness of Dick 
 
 and her captain a stiff Don come from cruising 
 on the Spanish Main to take part in the great 
 Armada, with his gyves and fetters on board ready 
 for the English seamen, as his comrades were. 
 And perhaps, when he had been whipped like his 
 comrades, he had come blundering round the coast 
 until he found himself in a sudden squall, drifting 
 helplessly with the land on his lea, having made 
 the last great blunder. Or it might be that she 
 was some Dutch bark, laden with spice and Dutch- 
 men who had lost their reckoning for once, and 
 had sailed up the channel and ashore, instead of 
 coming to the port of Rotterdam. A dark night 
 and a fair wind and all sails set . . . then . . . 
 perhaps, suddenly a bump, and the Dutch bark 
 of Tod's imagination had run her square bows clean 
 out of the sea, and the Dutchmen had waked to 
 find themselves high and dry on the English, sands. 
 Tod, to while away the time, imagined a dozen 
 pictures of the ship's nationality and adventures, 
 but only this much was certain — onto the dunes 
 she had come at last, to be dry-docked for ever 
 by reason of the retiring sea. Whether she had 
 
The Buried Ship 259 
 
 been buried slowly, with the sand blowing over 
 her grain by grain; or whether she had plowed 
 her way into the heart of it once and for all; or 
 whether again she had 'lain on the beach waiting 
 for the tide, and some sand-storm got up and silted 
 over her in an hour, no one could tell Tod. Cap- 
 tain Francois knew nothing about her, except that 
 one of his men had discovered her a couple of 
 years ago by the merest accident. The discovery 
 had been kept a secret, because it had seemed that 
 the ship might prove useful as a hiding place. 
 
 " As indeed it is useful to conceal my leetle 
 friend," said Captain Francois, facetiously, and 
 would say no more. But Tod judged from scraps 
 of conversation which he overheard, that the police 
 were making visitations in Miclestead, and that the 
 coastguards were on the lookout. 
 
 It was very strange to Tod to be living in a 
 buried ship a mile or more from the sea, but when 
 the strangeness had worn off, it also became very 
 dull. I have said that the ship was complete — and 
 so it appeared to be, but as a matter of fact, the 
 hold was the only part inhabited by the smugglers. 
 
260 The Quietness of Dick 
 
 The entrance to it, as Dick and the detective had 
 just discovered, was by a door which had been 
 made in the ship's side, just below what must 
 have been her water-line, where the reeds grew 
 thickest and tallest. Except for this opening, the 
 ship's hold was sandproof, which the upper parts 
 of her were not. But it was frowsy beyond words, 
 which was to be expected, seeing that the evil- 
 smelling lamp burned there all day and all night, 
 and, besides Captain Francois and Tod, four other 
 men made it their lodging. 
 
 Tod supposed them to be smugglers he had seen 
 in the cave. They made no effort to disguise them- 
 selves now, and talked and drank and played cards 
 and cursed their luck freely. It was from that 
 Tod learnt about the vigilance of the police and 
 coastguards, which was — they said — the cause of 
 their confinement in the ship. Captain Francois 
 was the only one to go out by day, and he usually re- 
 turned with provisions. The others only went out 
 by night, and they usually returned with fresh grum- 
 blings. Their grumblings were particularly loud 
 when they learnt by some means that their com- 
 
The Buried Ship 261 
 
 panion Jock had been handed over to the police. 
 There had been a plan whereby Tod was to have 
 been returned in exchange for Jock and certain 
 promises; and two of the men began again to talk 
 of doing him some damage to spite Mr. Wilton. 
 But Captain Francois would not hear of it. Tod 
 was worth money, he said, and for the time being 
 the argument prevailed. 
 
 The uncertainty as to how long it would prevail 
 seemed, however, to oppress Captain Francois as 
 well as Tod, and it was owing to this uncertainty 
 that he had gone out an hour before. Tod was 
 not quite sure, but he fancied that Captain Francois 
 had gone out to try and make some arrangements 
 about his ransom. Perhaps he was even now in- 
 terviewing Mr. Wilton in his own house — demand- 
 ing a sum of money with threats. The Captain 
 was capable, as Tod knew, of any audacity, in- 
 cluding that of cutting off Tod's ears if the ransom 
 he demanded were withheld. 
 
 Nevertheless, Tod, as he sat there, while the four 
 men played cards on the top of a packing-case, 
 wished that the Captain would return. For the 
 
262 The Quietness of Dick 
 
 men would discuss Tod between their games, and 
 it was a subject of which, as they treated it, Tod 
 was heartily tired and not a little afraid. If only 
 the Captain would return, they would probably 
 quiet down. Suppose he returned with Dick! Tod 
 could not help feeling a selfish desire to have Dick's 
 company once more, even if it was as a fellow- 
 prisoner. Tod would almost have given his ears 
 for a sight of Dick. 
 
 For the last three minutes he might have had a 
 sight of Dick, if only he had looked in the right 
 direction. When he did look casually, he saw a 
 look of such portentous warning on Dick's face, that 
 instead of shouting, he only gasped. Dick there- 
 upon grinned. 
 
 " Coo-oo-oo-eekety ! " 
 
 Tod, Mr. Danvers Reech, and the four smug- 
 glers jumped in their skins as Dick's cry — from 
 Dick standing in the doorway — went sounding into 
 the hold. It was the last thing any one of them 
 had expected, and it upset the plans of each. The 
 . detective, after a sharp survey of the hiding place 
 which showed the smuggler's superior forces, had 
 
The Buried Ship 263 
 
 just beckoned to Dick to return. Tod had re- 
 lapsed into listlessness, and the four smugglers, who 
 sat round an old packing-case at their cards, be- 
 tween Tod and the door, were playing the last round 
 of an exciting game. They had all, in short, reck- 
 oned without Dick, and Dick, not reckoning at 
 all, had caused the fat to be in the fire. 
 
 There was no drawing back now, as the detective 
 saw. The five occupants of the hold got to their 
 feet simultaneously, and in another minute there 
 would be a scuffle — in which event (the same being 
 one among many, which Dick had not considered) 
 the more numerous party was likely to prevail. The 
 only thing which could prevent it was bluff. 
 
 " I'm going to step in," he whispered to Dick, 
 whose fingers, as he knelt at the door, tingled round 
 his revolver. " Don't go shootin' inside. . . . 
 Let it off outside if they show themselves nasty. 
 Just keep the door," he continued in a loud voice, 
 " there's only four of 'em to our dozen. All right, 
 Mr. Wilton, I'll step in and see to 'em ! " 
 
 It was in less than a minute from the time Dick 
 gave his cry, that Mr. Danvers Reech stepped coolly 
 
264 The Quietness of Dick 
 
 into the hold, as if he had a whole posse of con- 
 stables to support him. " Instead," as he explained 
 afterwards to Mr. Wilton with more warmth than 
 justice, " of one young gentleman simply shaking 
 to put a bullet into somebody's shins — and mine 
 as soon as anybody's." 
 
 Dick's answer to this charge was a reference to 
 the facts. 
 
 The detective stepped briskly into the hold and 
 into the middle of the astonished men. 
 
 " It's no good trying to get away," he explained, 
 affably, producing a pair of hand-cuffs. " I'm a 
 detective, and I've got a warrant for your arrest. 
 The door's held . . . quietly now." 
 
 He had slipped hand-cuffs on to one of the men, 
 before the fellow could do more than gasp, and 
 held out another pair invitingly to a second. 
 
 " Ah'm gwoan to see who's to the door first," 
 said this one, with an oath. Mr. Reech's revolver 
 was in his other hand instantly. 
 
 " I don't want to hurt you," he said. " Better 
 keep cool." 
 
 The man held his hands out at this . . . but 
 
The Buried Ship 265 
 
 as Mr. Reech was slipping his second pair of hand- 
 cuffs over them, he drew back quickly. At the 
 same time the other two made a rush for the door. 
 If Dick had been simply shaking with excitement, 
 they would have got through. But whatever Dick's 
 state may have been, the first man ran straight 
 into an elegant noose trap and, being brought up 
 short like a rabbit, sprawled forward his full length 
 in the reeds, and lay there, while the second hit 
 out wildly as he came, got Dick on the nose, and 
 by a lucky chance got a bullet from Dick's revolver, 
 which went off, Dick allowed unexpectedly, in the 
 fleshy part of the leg. He also flopped down with 
 a howl at that, and Dick dropped his revolver with 
 a sigh of relief. It is a weapon that requires more 
 practice than Dick had made with it. . . . He 
 preferred the lasso . . . which he held tightly. 
 
 After this, things went smoothly enough with 
 the rescuing force. Tod rose to action, and wound 
 himself about the legs of Mr. Reech's second and 
 recalcitrant smuggler, with the result that the man 
 gave in, and was fastened up in no time, and they 
 were at leisure to go outside, where they found 
 
266 The Quietness of Dick 
 
 Dick regarding his bag with considerable pride. 
 
 " Lucky I gave that yell when I did, wasn't it ? " 
 he observed to the detective. 
 
 " Lucky ! " said Mr. Reech, divided between 
 wrath and admiration. "Well, p'raps you might 
 call it luck. You never happened to run down any 
 first-class burglar when you was in your cradle, 
 did you? Well, never mind ... I expect you 
 and Master Tod here had better slip home now." 
 
 " We may as well take these chaps with us," said 
 Dick. "Don't you think so?" 
 
 " Jest as you like," said Mr. Reech, shrugging 
 his shoulders. " I'd feel safer somehow if you left 
 me alone with 'em. But you run it jest as you 
 like." 
 
 And in the end, finding that Dick's victim could 
 walk, they all set out together. 
 
CHAPTER XX 
 
 TOD AS PICADOR 
 
 /~\F the tears, cheers, rejoicings, compliments, 
 hysterics, and I-told-you-so's that greeted the 
 return of Dick, Tod, and Mr. Danvers Reech — 
 not to mention the four smugglers who walked 
 between with gyves upon their wrists, there is no 
 room to tell. It is enough to say that no one could 
 deny Dick's credit in the matter, and Mrs. Wilton, 
 who could not quite understand what Mr. Reech 
 had to do with it — after the way in which he had 
 set every one searching the bottom of the cliffs — 
 " as if dearest Tod was a corpse " — was fully per- 
 suaded that Dick had managed the whole thing 
 single-handed, including the capture of the four 
 smugglers. She said that she owed Tod's life to 
 Dick, and that Tod would for ever be grateful 
 to his friend. Major Culliemore, on the other hand, 
 
 said enigmatically that Dick owed eight or nine 
 
 267 
 
268 The Quietness of Dick 
 
 lives to Tod. Nevertheless, Major Culliemore was 
 not ungrateful to Dick himself, and the reason was 
 that — contrary to expectations — his garden-party 
 was likely to be a success. He came over on Mon- 
 day specially to remind Mrs. Wilton that she was 
 coming to it, and though Mrs. Wilton was rather 
 indignant with him for his remark about Dick, she 
 could not very well refuse. 
 
 " Besides," she said to Miss Revers, " it will help 
 us to forget about these organ-grinders and smug- 
 glers, and people, which I'm sure will be the best 
 thing for us. I dreamt I was kidnapped myself 
 last night, by a smuggler, and brought up to play 
 the organ with a little red coat on, just like a 
 monkey, my dear." 
 
 " We'd certainly better go in that case," said 
 Miss Revers, and so it was decided. 
 
 Monday was really the quietest day of Dick's 
 visit, possibly because Dick was content to rest upon 
 his laurels, and Tod was not willing to go out 
 of his way to earn any. Dick did indeed suggest 
 making a little expedition in search of Captain 
 Francois, whom the County police were not likely 
 
Tod as Picador 269 ' 
 
 to find, he thought. But Tod thought it was not 
 good enough. 
 
 " I've had enough of him," he said. " He's a 
 cunning beast, and if he thinks we're trying to get 
 at him, he'll probably have me on again." 
 
 Dick did not press the matter, as he had other 
 things on his mind — things which might have made 
 Major Culliemore tremble in his shoes if he had had 
 any idea of them. It was in connection with these, 
 that Dick took a solitary walk on Monday after- 
 noon, and purchased a book which happened to take 
 his fancy as he strolled through one of the villages 
 near; and it was in the same connection that he 
 suggested after lunch on Tuesday, that Tod and he 
 should walk over to Major Culliemore's garden- 
 party instead of driving. Mrs. Wilton was very 
 anxious for them to drive, but Tod, perceiving that 
 Dick had something of moment to communicate, 
 said that he was afraid their collars would get 
 untidy if they were all squashed up in the carriage, 
 and Mrs. Wilton had to be content with finding her 
 son so tidily-minded. 
 
 "Why did you want to walk?" Tod inquired, 
 
270 The Quietness of Dick 
 
 as soon as they were well on the road. His collar 
 was already a little ruffled, owing to the unsuc- 
 cessful chase of a hedgehog through some brambles. 
 
 " Because we've got to arrange things," said 
 Dick. 
 
 "What things?" 
 
 Dick produced from his pocket the book he had 
 bought the day before — a paper-covered novelette, 
 on the outside of which there was a picture of 
 two gentlemen facing each other with what might 
 have been carving knifes, while between them a 
 lady in a stiff attitude, indicative of faintness, 
 clutched at a table with the tip of her little 
 finger. 
 
 "What is it?" asked Tod. 
 
 " It's a romance," said Dick, " about a chap. It's 
 called ' The Love of Frederick d'Arcy.' It's a bit 
 stuffy, but I wanted to find out about spoonies. 
 Listen" (and he read), "'Mr. d'Arcy,' she cried, 
 her coal-black eyes glowing in her cheeks of ala- 
 baster, ' do not request me to inflict the anguish 
 of a refusal upon you. I have vowed to wed with 
 none but a hero, one who is strong and fearless, and 
 
Tod as Picador 271 
 
 has faced death with set teeth. Have you faced 
 death with set teeth, Frederick?' " 
 
 " Which is Frederick ? " asked Tod, examining 
 the cover. 
 
 " The one with a mustache. He killed the other 
 man finally with a chopper. You see, he was so 
 jolly smitten with . . . with . . . (Dick searched 
 the book for the heroine's name) with Amandalina 
 that he had to do something fairly beefy. Then 
 she married him." 
 
 "Oh!" said Tod. 
 
 He was not interested in Amandalina, and that 
 sort of thing disgusted him more than it did Dick, 
 whom all things filled with curiosity. 
 
 " I don't see why you got it now," he observed. 
 
 "Of course you don't," said Dick, incensed. 
 " Of course you don't see that Miss Revers doesn't 
 see that the Maj has shot all the things he has — 
 the Maj doesn't talk about his crocodiles, and he 
 was rather unlucky to miss those smugglers alto- 
 gether. Your mother didn't mean it, but she sort 
 of insinuated that he wasn't as good as me or old 
 Reech, just because he didn't rescue a buxom little 
 
272 The Quietness of Dick 
 
 lump like you. So that Miss Revers probably thinks 
 him rather a ninny. I'm going to show her he 
 isn't." 
 
 " But how ? " said Tod, interested. 
 
 " Wait and see," said Dick. 
 
 For the rest of the way, he took silent, thought- 
 ful shots at birds on telegraph wires with his cata- 
 pult, and missed, and Tod had to be contented with 
 the knowledge that a great scheme was being elab- 
 orated. Dick was considerably the cleaner of the 
 two when they did arrive at the Shuttle; but at 
 such an open-air affair clothes hardly mattered, as 
 Tod explained, when in spite of his efforts to keep 
 in the background, his mother caught sight of him. 
 
 " And you can't be bandboxy after a long walk," 
 he explained. 
 
 " But, Tod dear, I wanted you to drive." 
 
 " Oh, I know," said Tod. " But if you'd seen 
 that hedgehog, you'd have wanted to chivvy him 
 yourself, mater. I can't stop just now." 
 
 And Tod fled in time to avoid shaking hands 
 with several ladies who were mustering on the 
 lawn, and were all very anxious to see the boy 
 
Tod as Picador 273 
 
 who had been captured by smugglers. They were 
 equally anxious to see the boy who had captured 
 the smugglers, but Dick was not on show that 
 afternoon. So Mrs. Wilton had to relate the ad- 
 ventures all by herself, including her dreams before 
 and after, and hugely enjoyed herself. Dick merely 
 thought it was a pity that Major Culliemore had 
 invited so many unnecessary people, except that the 
 food was in proportion. 
 
 " You'd better feed while you can, young 
 Tod," he said. " We haven't got much time to 
 waste." 
 
 Beginning, however, as they did while the other 
 guests were still scattered over the lawn or walking 
 about the home fields, Dick and Tod managed to 
 do full justice to the food, Tod perhaps having 
 slightly the advantage, because Dick would keep 
 reconnoitering, albeit with his mouth full. Tod 
 was at his seventh ice, when Dick came back from 
 one of these excursions, and hastily pocketed a 
 handful of cakes. 
 
 "We shall need some pemmican," he explained. 
 " But it's all right. They're going in that direction 
 
274 The Quietness of Dick 
 
 by themselves. I thought we should have to lure 
 them." 
 
 "Who — what direction?" said Tod, following 
 suit. 
 
 " The Maj and Miss Revers. The small field." 
 
 "What small field?" 
 
 " Where the bull is," said Dick, triumphantly. 
 
 "What, then?" asked Tod. "I do wish you'd 
 tell, Dick." 
 
 Dick threw him a glance of gratified superiority, 
 and drew from his bulging pocket two bright red 
 handkerchiefs. 
 
 " It's an idea je prong from that book," he said. 
 " I'd have told you before, only you were so jolly 
 cunning on your own. As you've knuckled, I'll tell 
 you. When they've got near where the gate is, 
 we'll picador the old bull out, and then the Maj 
 can win glory." 
 
 Tod's face presented a series of impressions in 
 which deference to Dick's advanced intelligence, 
 delight in the thought of an escapade, and finally 
 a kind of doubt were conspicuous. 
 
 "But suppose he tossed 'em?" he said. "I 
 
Tod as Picador 275 
 
 heard the Maj saying the bull was an awfully 
 savage brute." 
 
 "As if the Maj couldn't manage a bull," said 
 Dick, scornfully. " Come along, young Tod." 
 
 Meanwhile Major Culliemore, unconscious of his 
 impending glory, escorted Miss Revers in the very 
 direction which Dick had desired. Miss Revers 
 had on the green flouncy stuff which Dick had 
 noted, and the Major was wrapped in many pleasant 
 thoughts. 
 
 " Dick is a genius," he said once. 
 
 Miss Revers nodded. 
 
 " But the Small Cats' House will never hold 
 him," she said. " Rabbits, indeed ! " 
 
 " Ask me a date ! " said the Major. ..." Hullo 
 — excuse me half a minute. One of the men must 
 have forgotten to shut the gate. I don't want the 
 bull to come charging into my guests." 
 
 He had hardly uttered the words, when sev- 
 eral shouts, followed by a shrill yell, became 
 audible. 
 
 "What on earth can be the matter?" he ex- 
 claimed, starting forward. 
 
276 The Quietness of Dick 
 
 "Don't go," said Miss Revers. 
 
 " But " 
 
 They were in the field leading to that in which 
 the bull was confined, and still some hundred yards 
 from the gate. And the Major's speech was cut 
 short by a sudden revelation. Through the gate, at 
 flying speed, came Tod, pale and panting, a red 
 pocket-handkerchief tied on to a stick in his hand, 
 while close behind, stopping occasionally to dig up 
 the turf with its horns, came the bull. A little to 
 the rear, valiantly trying to distract the bull's atten- 
 tion to himself, ran Dick, also armed with a red 
 flag. But the bull paid no attention to Dick. He 
 had marked out Tod for his prey, and Tod he 
 pursued. And the bull was irate, seeing that he 
 had been fetched by outrageous lures from the 
 opposite end of the field. So far Dick's scheme had 
 been successful. But he had reckoned without a 
 bull's capacity for rage. He had meant that Tod 
 and himself should gracefully retire when the bull 
 was through the gate, but the bull meant otherwise. 
 And despite Tod's speed and Dick's yellings, and 
 the bull's own pausing to dig viciously at the earth, 
 
Tod as Picador 277 
 
 the beast was gaining fast. Tod had cleared about 
 five yards ahead. 
 
 All this the Major and Miss Revers per- 
 ceived in a second, and the Major spoke very 
 sharply. 
 
 " Go back to the tre«s, Betty, as fast as you 
 can!" 
 
 She went obediently, just turning to see that 
 Major Culliemore was advancing towards the 
 heated Tod. Never had Tod run so fast before. 
 He was not, to begin with, in the best of condition 
 for a race, being heavy with chocolate eclairs, but 
 cold fear ran at his heels, and he sped forward 
 like a whirlwind. 
 
 " Come on, Tod," called the Major, encourag- 
 ingly. " Right up to me. Then turn to the left — 
 sharp ! " 
 
 Tod was barely twenty yards away from the 
 Major now, and not more than three from the bull. 
 His eyes were starting out of his head with fright, 
 and it seemed exceedingly doubtful if he quite 
 grasped what he was told. He ran on, however, 
 and Major Culliemore repeated his directions, still 
 
278 The Quietness of Dick 
 
 advancing. Tod seemed to give a nod of compre- 
 hension. 
 
 " Keep away, Dick ! " the Major called next, and 
 at that Dick gave in. He, too, was almost beside 
 himself for Tod's safety, and his heart was going 
 like a hammer. It seemed almost impossible that 
 Tod should evade the bull's horns, so close they 
 were now. And what, after all, could Major Cullie- 
 more do, standing there braced, like a wicket-keeper 
 waiting for a ball? Some one — Dick felt — would 
 be killed. 
 
 And then — all in a gasp, as it were, and wink 
 of the eye, Tod had reached the Major, had leaped 
 aside, and the bull, charging madly and blindly, 
 had been caught by the horns and thrown. It came 
 down, a blundering bulk, on its right flank, with 
 the Major kneeling on its head. 
 
 Tod was lying near, completely winded. 
 
 " Call some of the men," cried the Major to 
 Dick, " with ropes." 
 
 But Dick was gazing in fascination and horror 
 at the tail of the bull, as it lashed to and fro, and 
 heard nothing, and Major Culliemore might have 
 
Tod as Picador 279 
 
 wasted his strength, if Miss Revers had not come 
 up at that moment. 
 
 " There are some men coming," she said, and . 
 the Major frowned her back until they arrived. 
 
 " Mayn't be able to hold on," he explained. " Ah ! " 
 
 Three men had just arrived in good time. Even 
 then there was no small struggling before the ropes 
 were tied, and the bull led away, sullen but impotent. 
 
 Thereupon the Major turned to Dick. 
 
 " How did it happen? " he said. 
 
 Dick blushed, feeling smaller than was his custom. 
 
 " We thought — at least, I thought — it wasn't 
 Tod's fault " 
 
 " I messed it, Dick," gurgled Tod, faithful as 
 usual, but with less control of his lungs. 
 
 " But it was my idea," said Dick, in haste, and 
 he stammered and stuttered and got through the 
 story at last, the Major looking more severe than 
 Dick had ever seen him. But it must have been 
 put on partly, for he suddenly caught Miss Revers' 
 eye and unfurrowed his brows. 
 
 "Dick, Dick!" he said, laughing. "What will 
 you end in? Well — it doesn't matter. You've got 
 
280 The Quietness of Dick 
 
 to congratulate me, and I've got to thank you. 
 The feed did it . . ." 
 
 " What? " said Dick, enlightened. " Did you? " 
 He glanced at Miss Revers, and she was a little 
 pink and looking very nice. 
 
 " Yes," said the Major. " Before the bull turned 
 up." 
 
 "Oh!" said Dick, crushed. 
 
 " But I think I did like the bull turning up," said 
 Miss Revers, kindly, " though you ought not to 
 have done it, and that idea of yours about the tea 
 was splendid." 
 
 " It was a jolly good feed, wasn't it?" said Dick, 
 brightening again. " I thought you'd like it. I'm 
 sorry about the bull, of course, but I knew the 
 Maj could tackle it all right, and it was funny 
 to see young Tod sprint." 
 
 "Was it!" said Tod, indignantly. "It's all 
 very well " 
 
 " As it's ended well," Major Culliemore inter- 
 rupted. " But you needn't punch each other's heads 
 over it. Why not go and refresh? I believe there 
 are a few eclairs left." 
 
CHAPTER XXI 
 
 DICK FINISHES UP 
 
 r\ICK'S fortnight was up. So were the holi- 
 days, or at least they would be in a couple 
 of days, and it was Mrs. Wilton's wish that 
 Dick and Tod should journey back to school 
 together. 
 
 " I shall feel it safer," she said for the tenth time, 
 as farewells were being exchanged. " For what 
 with that dreadful organ-grinding captain being 
 still uncaught, and the ill-feeling in Miclestead, I 
 shouldn't have an easy moment if Tod was stay- 
 ing on." 
 
 Lieutenant Peterson had just been round to con- 
 fess that Dick had been right, and he himself 
 wrong — about the underground passage from the 
 smugglers' cave. He had made another expedition 
 to the cave on the previous afternoon, while Dick 
 
 and Tod were engaged in consummating Major 
 
 281 
 
282 The Quietness of Dick 
 
 Culliemore's happiness, and, rather to his annoy- 
 ance, had discovered another entrance which seemed 
 to lead inland. Moreover, he and his men had 
 followed along the passage, and had distinctly- 
 heard some one (conjectured to be Captain Fran- 
 cois, who had not been seen since he left the ship 
 in the dunes) flying before them in the dark. 
 Whoever it was had made good his escape long 
 before the Lieutenant and his men came to the upper 
 air again, half a mile inland, on the banks of a chalk 
 stream thickly overgrown. So that the ringleader 
 had escaped, and Lieutenant Peterson had felt 
 obliged to apologize to Dick and Tod separately, 
 in a manful way. 
 
 " I have written to Mr. Turvey," continued Mrs. 
 Wilton, " to say that I think he ought to be proud 
 to have you at school, and that you've been as good 
 as gold." 
 
 "Who has been as good as gold?" inquired 
 Major Culliemore, who had ridden up a few min- 
 utes before. 
 
 "Dick," said Mrs. Wilton. 
 
 " I should have said quicksilver," said the 
 
Dick Finishes Up 283 
 
 Major, who had, however, come over specially to 
 give Dick a small parting token of his gratitude. 
 It consisted of a sheath-knife, beautifully sharp and 
 large. 
 
 " I thought it might do for skinning any of the 
 Small Cats that might die under your care. If 
 you'll take my word for it being sharp, Tod's thumb 
 will be more likely to remain on." 
 
 Tod, in a spirit of pure unselfishness, was trying 
 the edge for Dick. 
 
 " And you'll promise not to practise with that 
 revolver at school," said Mr. Wilton, who had 
 made a present of the one Dick had borrowed, to 
 that unblushing borrower. 
 
 Dick promised again faithfully, and bestowed the 
 sheath-knife inside his waistcoat, where the revolver 
 already was. A pair of handcuffs, the parting 
 gift of Mr. Danvers Reech, with whom Dick had 
 become very friendly, and under whose skilful 
 tuition he had learnt in about ten minutes to put 
 on the handcuffs with a celerity which would have 
 astonished the most practised burglar, and certainly 
 astonished Tod, who played the part for the time 
 
284 The Quietness of Dick 
 
 being, was in his coat pocket ready for emergencies. 
 
 " You'd better be off now," said Mr. Wilton, as 
 the mare began to fuss outside, " and mind, Dick, 
 Bumpstead's to drive all the way." 
 
 Once more Dick said that he had never enjoyed 
 a visit so much in his life, and a few minutes later 
 he and Tod were driving along the same road which 
 they had passed at such lightning speed a fortnight 
 before. Except that Squiffy, who had been offered 
 an asylum by Mrs. Wilton, was not with them, 
 everything seemed the same. The very same child 
 hung at the gate of Mrs. Chirk's cottage as they 
 went by, and Dick sung out to it to give Mrs. 
 Chirk his and Bumpstead's love. After that their 
 pace was noticeably increased, and they reached the 
 station in plenty of time to see the train come in, 
 and secure an empty smoking carriage — this being 
 Dick's precaution, lest the Misses Boodeney should 
 be traveling by the same train. 
 
 " I don't think," said Tod, who was sitting back 
 in his seat as the train puffed out, " that I so much 
 mind going back to Topsey's this term. It's all 
 very well for you here, because you scored oyer 
 
Dick Finishes Up 285 
 
 those beasts. But I didn't, and I'm pretty sick of 
 tons of ladies coming to call and asking how I feel 
 after being kidnapped, as if I'd been stolen by 
 gipsies, in a perambulator." 
 
 " Cheer up," said Dick, " you might score still. 
 Captain Francois is still trotting about somewhere 
 and you might spot him some day and run him 
 down. P'raps you'll find he's become French mas- 
 ter at Topsey's, and you could denounce him while 
 he's correcting * French exercises." 
 
 It seemed hardly likely, however. And it may 
 be said at once that Captain Frangois never taught 
 French at Ripley House School. Dick and Tod had 
 forgotten all about him by the time they had been 
 in the train an hour. The train became rather 
 full, and in spite of Dick's pretending that his com- 
 panion was suffering from measles, their carriage 
 was also invaded. Dick managed, by inspecting his 
 revolver rather carefully, and lending Tod the 
 sheath-knife, to make the passengers feel that 
 the carriage was not as safe as it might be, 
 with the result that at the next station the latter 
 called the guard in, and that official decided in 
 
286 The Quietness of Dick 
 
 favor of the majority, and invited Dick and Tod, 
 though they looked innocent enough by that time, 
 to change their carriage. 
 
 "All right," said Dick, politely. "We should 
 certainly prefer an empty one." 
 
 But it seemed that was not possible, and the train 
 being already behindtime, the guard hastily thrust 
 them into the emptiest he could find, which was 
 one containing two passengers. One of these was 
 a sallow-looking old lady with a market basket on 
 the seat beside her, and the other a young farmer 
 of lively demeanor with whom Dick presently be- 
 gan to discuss farming and such things. Tod did 
 not follow the conversation. He had got the seat 
 opposite the old lady, and almost from the moment 
 of entering the carriage, something about her had 
 fascinated him. She seemed familiar to him and 
 yet unfamiliar, and what was funnier, she seemed 
 asleep and yet not asleep. Once when tired of look- 
 ing at her Tod was half -asleep himself, it suddenly 
 seemed to him that she was looking at him quite 
 intently, but when he sat up to make sure, her 
 eyes were closed, and she was almost snoring. 
 
Dick Finishes Up 287 
 
 Afterwards Tod said it was the snoring that re- 
 minded him, but at the time he did nothing but 
 pretend to go to sleep himself. 
 
 Dick said afterwards that he had been quite 
 positive that young Tod was asleep, and that the 
 latter quite startled him by sidling up suddenly — 
 just after the train had entered that long tunnel 
 which takes three minutes to go through — and whis- 
 pering that he wanted the loan of the handcuffs for 
 a moment. 
 
 " What for ? " began Dick, and got nudged into 
 silence. He could just hear Tod whisper that he'd 
 tell him in a jiffy — honor bright. At that Dick 
 handed them over, and Tod crept back again, leav- 
 ing Dick to wonder what was going to happen. 
 Apparently nothing was going to happen, for when 
 the train came out of the tunnel, there was Tod 
 absolutely fast asleep. Tod's capacities in that 
 direction were so considerable that there was nothing 
 very astonishing about that, though it was distinctly 
 a pretty slippy effort, and might have won a prize 
 in a quick-sleep competition. Between his snores 
 and the old woman's, there wasn't much to choose ; 
 
288 The Quietness of Dick 
 
 except that hers were louder, age and experience, 
 as Dick put it to himself, telling in her favor. She 
 had enormous hands, and they jiggled in her lap 
 like a jelly when the train bumped a bit. Dick was 
 watching them, and not Tod, when all in a moment 
 that sleeper had made a spring and handcuffed one 
 of them. 
 
 " Help ! " shouted Tod. " It's Captain Francois." 
 And while Dick still sat glued to his seat with the 
 celerity of it all, the Captain had returned from 
 the land of Nod with an awful swear to find both 
 hands braceleted, and had risen and fallen upon 
 Tod. At that Dick's wits collected, and he fell upon 
 the Captain, calling to the young farmer to lend 
 a hand and catch a smuggler. There were some 
 nasty moments on the floor of the carriage, par- 
 ticularly for Tod, who was underneath, before the 
 farmer had decided that it was not merely a boy's 
 joke, but something serious, and lent a hand. The 
 Captain's violence perhaps helped to persuade him 
 more than anything else: he saw that it must be 
 a man in woman's clothing, and that of itself was 
 suspicious. 
 
Dick Finishes Up 289 
 
 " Well, you needn't go to kill them anyhow," 
 he said to the Captain, when he had pulled him 
 off his half -asphyxiated captor. 
 
 "They have done this to me. Take them off, 
 I say," roared Captain Francois. 
 
 "Don't! This is a smuggler," said Dick, ear- 
 nestly. " It's young Tod's just revenge. We're 
 not kidding . . . honor bright. If you take the 
 handcuffs off, he'll murder us. Wait till we get 
 to the next station." 
 
 " Awright," said the farmer, doubtfully ; and in- 
 terposed impartially between the boys and the Cap- 
 tain until the station was reached, in spite of all 
 the Captain's oaths and threats. 
 
 When the train drew up, the guard was aston- 
 ished to see the two lads whom he had had to re- 
 move from the other carriage, step out and, together 
 with the young farmer, drag after them a dishev- 
 eled old lady. There were handcuffs upon the old 
 lady's wrists, and the slighter of the two boys 
 announced : 
 
 " She's a smuggler. It's all right, her name's 
 Captain Francois. You telegraph to Miclestead 
 
290 The Quietness of Dick 
 
 to Mr. Wilton, J. P., and see if she isn't. Young 
 Tod got him." 
 
 And when the bewildered guard, who had sum- 
 moned the station master, who, after listening to 
 the evidence, summoned a policeman, who began 
 to march off with the party of three to the police 
 station, turned to his train once more, he heard, 
 as the train went on, the stouter of the two boys 
 giving vent to a peculiar cry — something like that 
 of a cock crowing : 
 
 " Coo-oo-oo-eekety ! " 
 
 THE END 
 
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 send, from time to time, information about their new books. 
 
 Henry Holt and Company, 34 N Y W York**