Chapter 20

"FROM THE HANDS OF MY KINSFOLK."

"What on earth has become of that duffer?" said Tom Holtum, when the _Laulie_ arrived at the geo and no Yaspard appeared either on land or sea.

"We are a little before our time," Harry remarked; "but I don't see his boat anywhere along the voe--that is, as far as one can see in the Dim and along such a twisting twirligig of a voe as this."

"I vote we land and have a nap," said Bill; but no one seconded him, as they expected the Viking and his followers to appear at any moment.

These did not put in an appearance, however; and after waiting a long hour Tom said, "Look here, boys, something unforeseen has stopped him--and it's something serious too. I expect the old man has smelt a rat, or Yaspard has had qualms of conscience."

"He'd have come and told us if _that_ were it," said Harry promptly.

"Anyway," Tom replied, "he hasn't come; and it does not look as if he were coming, and we can't sit here all night doing nothing. So I vote we proceed without Sir Viking."

"He would not like it; and it is his quest, you know," Harry laughingly made answer.

"_His_ quest, but remember it is also _my_ what-you-call-am--little game. Mind you I discovered the seal for myself, and I meant the job of taking her to be our job. Father said it might have been better if Yaspard had less to do with it. On the whole, boys, I don't think we can do better than start and reconnoitre, and take whatever chance comes our way."

The others agreed, and, thinking it best not to venture up the voe, they decided to moor their boat at some safe place on the other side of Boden and nearer Trullyabister. "So said so done" was the way of those lads, and about the time when Yaspard and Fred were falling asleep, thoroughly tired out, the Mitchells, Tom, and Gloy were stealthily creeping up the hill to the old Ha'-hoose.

"We must be careful and spry," quoth Tom, "for the ogre 'walks' like a ghost o' nights, as I know to my cost." Yaspard had described the ruins to them, and they knew all about the passage leading to the haunted room. _His_ plan for liberating the captives had been their plan, since no better could be; but they were not provided with the tools he meant to bring, and could not therefore carry out the programme as at first arranged.

But those boys were not often at their wits' end, and whatever substitutes for sacks, saws, and shovels suggested themselves as available were carried with them from the boat. These substitutes consisted of a piece of sail-cloth and some bits of hard wood, an owzkerry[1] and the boat-hook. They also brought away some stout rope, and a knife which had helped to end the career of many an aspiring fish. They were not without hope of finding a spade lying "handy" somewhere in the vicinity of the house; so that, on the whole, the young marauders were not so badly off for the sinews of war.

They met with no adventure by the way, nor saw they the least sign to indicate that either of the night-roving inhabitants of Trullyabister were awake. Near the peat-stack they found a spade and a large stout keschie, which they appropriated, as Harry suggested it would make a handy cradle for the baby seal. They stole into the ruined and roofless apartment as Yaspard and the Harrisons had done, and listened for sounds from the prisoners; but all was quiet. There was plenty of daylight by that time, so that they did not have to grope their way about.

"Of course the first thing," whispered Harry, "is to make sure they are _there_, so I'll mount as the Viking did."

He clambered up to the window and took a good look in. It was a pity he did not take as good a look _out_, and then he might have noticed--at a window close by, the window of Mr. Neeven's study--the eyes of that ogre himself watching the boys with grave intentness. But Harry, all unaware of such espionage, came down from the window, and reported Mrs. Sealkie asleep beside her baby in a corner made comfortable with straw and bits of carpet. To work then went the lads, one with a spade, another with a knife; and when these two were tired, the others took their place, so that the job was rapidly accomplished.

Their plan was to remove the lowest board which blocked the way to the passage, and to dig from under it a sufficient amount of earth to enable a boy to enter--or a seal to come out.

They meant, _after_ capturing the captive, to hack the board and scrape the earth, so that any one would suppose that the seal had gnawed and clawed her own way to freedom; and they thought it a very clever plan indeed, saying that Yaspard, with whom it originated, was the great inventor and general of the age.

The seal did not sleep while this was going on so near her; but she had partaken of a late and large supper, and did not "fash" beyond now and then whining in a melancholy voice, which stimulated the young heroes to further efforts, and helped to cover the noise they made.

Before long they were satisfied that the opening was wide enough to allow them to enter crawling. "The first one that goes in will have to watch his head," said Bill, "for I've heard that seals are very fierce when they have young ones around."

"_This_ seal is Trullya, and she will know us. Anyway, she never was a crosspatch, and I'll go first," replied Harry the wise and brave. "And I don't see," he added, "that any one else need go in there. I'll try and persuade her ladyship to inspect this aperture, and take a 'constitutional' down the passage."

But Tom wasn't going to let another eclipse him in valour, particularly as this quest was his, so, before Harry had done speaking, Tom ducked and soon wriggled himself through the opening. Harry followed, after cautioning Bill and Gloy to go out of the passage and keep watch, to give the alarm in case Mr. Neeven or fule-Tammy should come upon the scene.

The sealkie was neither alarmed nor disturbed by her visitors. She had evidently returned to her tame confiding ways, and allowed the boys to come close to her. When Harry spoke to her by name, using also some soft notes which Fred had taught Trullya to understand as a call to meals, she responded in her plaintive voice, which left no doubt of her identity; but when Tom attempted to touch the baby she uttered a sharp bark and glared at him in a manner that showed she was by no means prepared to allow their overtures to go a step further.

"What shall we do if she won't come out?" asked Tom; "we couldn't muffle her _here_, could we?"

"You go along, and leave madame to me," replied Harry; and Tom made his exit.

Harry had "a way" with animals, and he soon managed to persuade Trullya to leave her couch. Then the baby, restless and curious as small persons are, crept to the opening and peeped out. The mother followed, and finding the barriers against which she had daily fretted removed, waddled slowly into the passage, followed by her young one.

Harry hastily tumbled the earth and broken bits of wood about the opening, and followed the sealkie into the large room, where he found her looking amazedly at the three boys stationed at spots where they thought she might escape.

Tom had taken up the piece of sail-cloth, and he was preparing to throw it over the seal when all were startled by the sound of a loud cough not far away.

"Gracious!" one exclaimed in a horrified whisper.

"He's coming!" said another.

The cough was repeated, and the person who coughed was nearer. Moreover, footsteps were heard! These sounds proceeded from the north side of the house, and the four boys promptly and silently evacuated the ruin over the south wall.

"Run for the peat-stack," Harry whispered; and when they were crouching behind it he said briefly, "It's all up. That was Mr. Neeven. We must creep round to the knowes, and then make tracks for our boat."

Setting the example, he started for the knowes, crawling over the ground like a Red Indian on the war-trail, and followed by his companions. If they reached the knowes unobserved they might hope to get off in safety, for those little hillocks intercepted the view from Trullyabister, preventing any one there from seeing across the hill which the Lunda boys had to cross.

But when they reached the knowes Mr. Neeven suddenly appeared from behind them, saying sternly, "What is this? What! Tom Holtum, who calls himself a gentleman!"

They were beautifully caught, and rose from their reptile position shamefaced and discomfited. Tom, whose audacity frequently stood them in better stead than Harry's self-possession, was the first to face the very awkward situation.

"We didn't mean any harm, sir," he said. "We only came to take Fred Garson's pet sealkie."

"Indeed! and where may Fred Garson's pet sealkie be?"

"She was in the haunted room--goodness knows where she may be by this time," was the very cool answer of Master Tom.

"Are you aware, young gentleman, that breaking into a house is a burglarious offence, for which you are liable to imprisonment with hard labour during a term of years?"

That was a terrible speech; but a sudden break in the speaker's voice, and a mirthful look which he could not repress, were noted by Harry, who took them as hopeful signs; so, plucking up courage, he replied--

"You know what is fair and right as well as we do, sir; and I put it to you--were we doing a bad thing in trying to recover our friend's property in a quiet way? He might have sued Mr. Adiesen in the law courts, and made no end of a row."

"Always supposing, my lad," Mr. Neeven interrupted, "that the seal could be proved to be his."

"I can prove it easily," Harry answered confidently. "She answered to the old call Fred used; and besides that, Isabel made a sketch of her. Every mark on her skin is in the picture."

"And more," said Tom; "the sealkie was caught on Fred's property, where no person had business to be without _his_ leave."

"That, too, is a point open to question. But what _I_ have to do with is this disgraceful burglary. I believe it is admitted that you had less business in Trullyabister than Mr. Adiesen had in Havnholme."

There was no denying that truth, and the boys hung their heads.

"Follow me," said the ogre. "First you shall show _me_ if the animal recognises your call, and after that I'll tell you what I mean to do with you."

The whole party returned to the ruins; but when they got there they were just in time to see Trullya and her baby flopping over some crags near the back of the house, which was situated only a little way from the sea on _both_ sides.

The boys were about to start in pursuit, but Mr. Neeven stopped them.

"Let her go to her own," he said almost gently. And in a few minutes the seal reached the ocean and was free once more.

[1] "Owzkerry," scoop for baling water.