Chapter 5

WITH TIED WRISTS.

Alfy turned. Yes, one of the men he had heard talking beside the hedge, that morning, was leaning from the bank, and had stopped the boat.

He looked lowering and threatening.

"You don't budge an inch," growled he, "till you've told me what you have been to Squire Watkins's for."

"To borrow this boat."

"Something else as well," said the man. "What did you hear me and my mate saying this morning, and what have you told about it?"

"What right have you to ask me?" replied Alfy sturdily.

"I'll soon show you the right," exclaimed the man gruffly, at the same time raising his hand. "Now, then, out with it!"

"Out with what?" said Alfy doggedly.

Bang! Alfy felt a heavy blow on his head, which made the fire flash from his eyes, and nearly knocked him overboard; but, tingling with pain and indignation, he swept round the oar he held in his right hand, and struck the man sharply on the shoulder.

His assailant seized the oar, and a smart struggle ensued, in which the man's superior strength and position enabled him to be victorious. He wrested the oars from Alfy, and then, after cuffing him soundly, and calling him an "insolent young warmint," tied him tightly to the skiff with the boat-rope--which is commonly called the painter.

Alfy, smarting with the injustice of the attack, managed to administer a few wholesome kicks to his assailant during the struggle. Then a long, low whistle sounded, and the man hurried away, leaving the boy bound and aching in the boat.

The day was now fast wearing on, and the sun was beginning to sink in the heavens. As Alfy lay back in the boat his mind was racked with anxiety about the provisions, and his promises to take back food to the Island House. His sisters and Mansy might starve if he could not get the provisions to them. Then he shouted aloud to attract attention.

No answer came. His voice seemed borne back upon him as from an empty void. Again and again he called until he grew weary with shouting, and sickened with suspense and anxiety and disappointment. He seemed as far from his kind here as if he were alone in the deserts of Arabia.

Then he bethought him once more of self-help. "I wonder if I could free myself," he said. "I have got over several difficulties lately, perhaps I can get over this one also." He struggled upwards to a sitting position, and looked at his bonds. His wrists and ankles were tied pretty firmly, and one end of the rope was of course fastened to the boat.

"I suppose that rascal tied me up like this to give himself time to escape," said Alfy thoughtfully, as he looked down at the rope. "He thinks I know a lot about him, and will tell what I know, and he wants to get a good start. I wonder if I could undo these knots with my teeth? They crack nuts, why not untie knots? I will try."

Happily his teeth were strong and sharp--teeth which many an older person would have envied. He was plucky and persevering also, and he set to work with a will to gnaw, or unfasten, or "worry" open the tough knots which bound him.

It was a stiff job, and a tiring one too. But he kept on pluckily, and would not give up. The sun sank lower in the heavens, and the beautiful summer afternoon wore on. "Oh! how they will wonder what has become of me at home!" he sighed. "I must be quick," and he redoubled his efforts.

But he found the task too difficult. The rope was hard and tough, and time was fast passing. His teeth and jaws quite ached with the unwonted use to which he was putting them. So after thinking over another plan he changed his tactics entirely.

Though his wrists were tied, his fingers were comparatively free; he could, for instance, grasp firmly with them anything that was not very large. He had noticed that the end of the rope tethering the boat had been tied to the bough of a young willow near the water's edge. He resolved to break that bough, and then slowly work the boat along by pulling at the grass, reeds, or anything on the bank. In a short time he carried out the first part of his programme.

Compared with gnawing at the hard rope, the twisting of the supple bough backwards and forwards, until he wrested it from the parent stem, was but a light task. It was more difficult to work the boat along against the stream. Yet by patience and pluck and perseverance--the three "p's" that all young folks should seek to acquire--he managed to succeed.

"Should that man come back to trouble me," he said, "he will find me gone; that will be something. Still I do not quite see how I am to get the things for the house, tied as I am to this boat."

Pluckily he pulled at the grass and reeds, and worked the boat along. When he had gone some distance from the point where the man had fastened the boat, he shouted again, and he continued to shout at intervals. But no cry answered his own. There was no sound but the lapping of the water against the boat or the murmur of the wind.

So some time passed. Alfy was getting very weary and hungry. There seemed no chance of help coming to him, and the situation was the more vexing, as he felt that his knife in his pocket, if he could but have got it, would soon have made short work of the knots. But in the circumstances the knife might have been left at the house, for all the good it was to him.

At length he came to the place where the flood poured into the river. "Hurrah!" he cried, "this does look like making progress. Now I will try and get as near as I can to the house."

It was at times more difficult to make progress on the flood than on the stream, for there was no decided bank such as edged the river; but he took advantage where he could of anything on the brink of the water, such as a hurdle or a bush, a stile or a hedge, and pluckily kept at his work.

In the village, Mr. Daw was getting quite fidgety at Alfy's absence.

"What can have happened to the lad?" said he. "The boy would surely not be so long in finding a boat, and if he could not find one he would have been here to say so. Jones, just you put all these things in the pony cart and get as near as you can to Fairglen." Fairglen was the right and proper name of the Island House.

"He has evidently been to other shops," continued Mr. Daw. "Here's a large sirloin of beef from Smithers, and quite a cargo of bread from Deane's, and vegetables and fruit from Wilson's. Why, good gracious me! one would think they were going to stand a siege up at Fairglen. I 'spect it is as the lad says, they've got nothing at all to eat. What can be keeping the boy I can't think."

"Prap's he's tumbled into the water, please, sir, and got drownded," drawled out Jones slowly.

"Get on quickly and put these things in the cart," said his master sharply. Jones' slow ways and stupid remarks generally annoyed Mr. Daw.

In quick time the goods for the Island House were packed in the grocer's little cart, and the slow Jones seated himself in front. "Drive as near to Fairglen as you can," said his master, "and shout aloud to attract attention. Now, mind you deliver the goods quickly."

"As quickly as I can," replied Jones, a grin slowly spreading over his expansive face.

Thus it came about in time that while Alfy was slowly working his way along by the brink of the flood, the well-meaning but rather stupid Jones was staring in profound astonishment at the tub and the tin bath Alfy had left in the morning.

"Well, I never!" exclaimed Jones. "They be rum boats, they be!"

He had driven the cart up the lane as far as he could, and after tethering the horse, was now rambling beside the water.

"But how I'm to carry the meat and taters and sugars over to the house in them things I don't know!"

Then he remembered his master's injunction to shout, and he shouted accordingly. "I wish I knew where that young gent had got to!" continued Jones, and again he raised his hoarse voice, and shouted. "Why, what's that 'ere?" he exclaimed. "Is it an ecker, or is it the young gent?"

Again he shouted, as loud as he could this time, and then paused. Yes, faint and clear came an answering shout. There was no mistake this time! "Why, there he be!" exclaimed Jones in astonishment. "There he be! there he be!"

Then he began to move slowly in the direction of the shout, and called aloud again. The answer was louder and more distinct this time.

"I be getting nearer to him," chuckled Jones, "that I be!"

But when presently he came close enough to see the young boatman distinctly he stood still in complete amazement, with eyes and mouth wide open. The sapient Jones had had other things to astonish him considerably to-day, what with the flood and the tub and the bath, but this beat all. Here was Alfy tied to the boat, and labouring with bound wrists to work the skiff along.

"Don't stand staring there!" cried Alfy. "Can't you give me a hand?"

"Well I never!" exclaimed Jones. "Whatever did you tie yourself like that for?"

"Tie myself!" replied Alfy impatiently; "I didn't tie myself. Come, cut the rope quickly, and help me along."

"I ain't got no knife!"

"Oh, get mine out of my pocket, and do be quick, please."

"Well, I never did see anything like this afore!" spluttered Jones, as he tumbled into the boat. "My stars! however did you get tied up like this 'ere?"

Alfy did not vouchsafe any explanation, but gave him directions as to getting the knife quickly, and cutting the rope.

"Oh, how jolly!" he exclaimed, as he rose and stretched himself, when, after several clumsy efforts on Jones' part, he was at last made free.

"Now, can you row?" he continued briskly.

"How fur do 'ee want to go?"

"As far as a tub and a bath----"

"I see 'em!" interrupted Jones gleefully.

"Well, I want to get there, and then to hurry to Mr. Daw for some things," exclaimed Alfy.

"Things for Fairglen!" asked Jones, "'cos I got 'em, meat and taters and all!"

"Oh, that's right! Where are they?"

"In the cart, not far off."

"Well, can you row this boat, or shall we tow it along? Perhaps that will be best."

"Oh, I can pull with the rope," said Jones; "pull the boat and you too; you look tired enough."

So now, after his hard work, Alfy was able to lie back delightfully at his ease in the boat, and feel he was being drawn quickly along.

When they reached the two clumsy crafts Alfy had left in the morning he found them quite high and dry. "The flood is subsiding," he said. "Perhaps by to-morrow this time the water will all have gone!"

"P'raps it will," was Jones' reply, "and p'raps it won't. But I 'spects reservore's pretty nigh empty now."

"Oh, you've heard it's the reservoir?" exclaimed Alfy. "Do you know how the water came to flow out?"

"I heerd as how the wall looking this way suddenly bust," answered Jones, "and the water all rushed down here."

"But don't you know how the wall came to burst?" persisted Alfy.

"No-o; I can't say as how I do," replied Jones slowly, rubbing his head and knitting his brows as though deeply pondering the knotty point.

"Well, now, we must hasten on," said Alfy. "Where are those things for the house? Are they far?"

"They are in the cart in the lane."

"How can they be brought here?" asked Alfy. "Shall I help? Can't you bring the pony and cart through that gate? Let us be quick!"

"I think as how you and I must carry them here in lots," drawled slow-witted Jones. "I don't think pony and cart could come."

"Well, be sharp then!" urged Alfy, springing from the boat.

"Why, I do believe Mansy can see us from the house." And he shouted, and waved his handkerchief.

"Now, come on," cried he, "and show me where the things are."

The transferring of the goods from Mr. Daw's cart took some time, and made the youths very tired, for it was some little distance off. But Alfy was determined to start for the house as quickly as possible, and continued to urge on the slow-coach Jones; so that the task was accomplished more speedily than he had thought would be the case.

But then a new difficulty presented itself. Alfy wished to tie the tub and bath to the boat and take them back to the house, but he found that if he did so, wearied as he was, he could not row the laden boat against the flood. So he was finally obliged to take Jones with him. Even then the task was difficult, for Jones was not an expert oarsman.

At length, however, the house was reached, and with joy and gladness, shoutings and hearty congratulations, the goods were borne in through the window, and on to the table as before. Mansy and Alfy's sisters were rejoiced to see him. He had been so long away they feared some accident had befallen him; but he did not tell what had happened until Jones had gone.

For Jones had to go back, and of course he went in the boat. This was against Alfy's plan, but he could not help it. Jones could not leave the pony all night, and he could not navigate Alfy's tub. So promising to send some one with the boat in the morning, he departed.

Yet, if Alfy had known what would happen with that boat in the night he would have gone with Jones, and tired as he was, would have brought it back. But he did not know; and after a hearty supper all the inmates of the Island House retired to bed.

They had hardly passed out of their beauty sleep--_i.e._, the slumber before midnight--when, as the clocks were striking twelve, and an early chanticleer was crowing for the morn, Edie was awakened by some mysterious sounds--sounds as of something bumping against the walls of the house outside.