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diff --git a/19043-h/19043-h.htm b/19043-h/19043-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2612f7a --- /dev/null +++ b/19043-h/19043-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,11303 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" +"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> +<head> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=utf-8" /> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css" /> +<title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Terrible Twins, by Edgar Jepson</title> + +<style type="text/css"> + +body { margin-left: 20%; + margin-right: 20%; + text-align: justify; } + +h1, h2, h3, h4, h5 {text-align: center; font-style: normal; font-weight: +normal; line-height: 1.5; margin-top: .5em; margin-bottom: .5em;} + +h1 {font-size: 300%; + margin-top: 0.6em; + margin-bottom: 0.6em; + letter-spacing: 0.12em; + word-spacing: 0.2em; + text-indent: 0em;} +h2 {font-size: 150%; margin-top: 2em; margin-bottom: 1em;} +h3 {font-size: 130%; margin-top: 1em;} +h4 {font-size: 120%;} +h5 {font-size: 110%;} + +.no-break {page-break-before: avoid;} /* for epubs */ + +div.chapter {page-break-before: always; margin-top: 4em;} + +hr {width: 80%; margin-top: 2em; margin-bottom: 2em;} + +p {text-indent: 1em; + margin-top: 0.25em; + margin-bottom: 0.25em; } + +p.poem {text-indent: 0%; + margin-left: 10%; + font-size: 90%; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-bottom: 1em; } + +div.fig { display:block; + margin:0 auto; + text-align:center; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-bottom: 1em;} + +p.caption {font-weight: bold; + text-align: center; } + +a:link {color:blue; text-decoration:none} +a:visited {color:blue; text-decoration:none} +a:hover {color:red} + +</style> + +</head> + +<body> + +<div style='text-align:center; font-size:1.2em; font-weight:bold'>The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Terrible Twins, by Edgar Jepson</div> +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and +most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions +whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms +of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online +at <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>. If you +are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the +country where you are located before using this eBook. +</div> +<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Title: The Terrible Twins</div> +<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Author: Edgar Jepson</div> +<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Illustrator: Hanson Booth</div> +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Release Date: August 14, 2006 [eBook #19043]<br /> +[Most recently updated: May 26, 2021]</div> +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Language: English</div> +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Character set encoding: UTF-8</div> +<div style='display:block; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Produced by: Al Haines</div> +<div style='margin-top:2em; margin-bottom:4em'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE TERRIBLE TWINS ***</div> + +<h1>The Terrible Twins</h1> + +<h2 class="no-break">by Edgar Jepson</h2> + +<h3>Author of<br /> +The Admirable Tinker, Pollyooly, etc.</h3> + +<h3>WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY<br /> +HANSON BOOTH</h3> + +<h4>INDIANAPOLIS<br /> +THE BOBBS-MERRILL COMPANY<br /> +PUBLISHERS</h4> + +<h5>COPYRIGHT 1913<br /> +THE BOBBS-MERRILL COMPANY</h5> + +<hr /> + +<h2>Contents</h2> + +<table summary="" style=""> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap01">CHAPTER I. AND CAPTAIN BASTER</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap02">CHAPTER II. GUARDIAN ANGELS</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap03">CHAPTER III. AND THE CATS' HOME</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap04">CHAPTER IV. AND THE VISIT OF INSPECTION</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap05">CHAPTER V. AND THE SACRED BIRD</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap06">CHAPTER VI. AND THE LANDED PROPRIETOR</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap07">CHAPTER VII. AND PRINGLE'S POND</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap08">CHAPTER VIII. AND THE MUTTLE DEEPING PEACHES</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap09">CHAPTER IX. AND THE CAUSE OF FREEDOM</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap10">CHAPTER X. AND THE ENTERTAINMENT OF ROYALTY</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap11">CHAPTER XI. AND THE UNREST CURE</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap12">CHAPTER XII. AND THE MUTTLE DEEPING FISHING</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap13">CHAPTER XIII. AND AN APOLOGY</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#chap14">CHAPTER XIV. AND THE SOUND OF WEDDING BELLS</a></td> +</tr> + +</table> + +<div class="fig" style="width:100%;"> +<a name="img-front"></a> +<img src="images/img-front.jpg" width="565" height="417" alt="[Illustration: ]" /> +<p class="caption">“Cats for the cats’ home!” said Sir +Maurice Falconer.</p> +</div> + +<h2>ILLUSTRATIONS</h2> + +<table summary="" style=""> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#img-front">“Cats for the cats’ home!” said Sir Maurice Falconer.</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#img-194">“This is different,” she said.</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#img-229">We are avenged.</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#img-232">She was almost sorry when they came at last to the foot of the knoll.</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#img-280">The Archduke bellowed, “Zerbst! Zerbst! Zerbst!”</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#img-312">Sir James turned and found himself looking into the deep brown eyes of a very pretty woman.</a></td> +</tr> + +</table> +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2>THE TERRIBLE TWINS</h2> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap01"></a> CHAPTER I<br /> +AND CAPTAIN BASTER</h2> + +<p> +For all that their voices rang high and hot, the Twins were really discussing +the question who had hit Stubb’s bull-terrier with the greatest number of +stones, in the most amicable spirit. It was indeed a nice question and hard to +decide since both of them could throw stones quicker, straighter and harder +than any one of their size and weight for miles and miles round; and they had +thrown some fifty at the bull-terrier before they had convinced that dense, but +irritated, quadruped that his master’s interests did not really demand +his presence in the orchard; and of these some thirty had hit him. Violet +Anastasia Dangerfield, who always took the most favorable view of her +experience, claimed twenty hits out of a possible thirty; Hyacinth Wolfram +Dangerfield, in a very proper spirit, had at once claimed the same number; and +both of them were defending their claims with loud vehemence, because if you +were not loudly vehement, your claim lapsed. +</p> + +<p> +Suddenly Hyacinth Wolfram, as usual, closed the discussion; he said firmly, +“I tell you what: we both hit that dog the same number of times.” +</p> + +<p> +So saying, he swung round the rude calico bag, bulging with booty, which hung +from his shoulders, and took from it two Ribston pippins. +</p> + +<p> +“Perhaps we did,” said Anastasia amiably. They went swiftly down +the road, munching in a peaceful silence. +</p> + +<p> +It had been an odd whim of nature to make the Twins so utterly unlike. No +stranger ever took Violet Anastasia Dangerfield, so dark-eyed, dark-haired, +dark-skinned, of so rich a coloring, so changeful and piquant a face, for the +cousin, much less for the twin-sister, of Hyacinth Wolfram Dangerfield, so +fair-skinned, fair-haired, blue-eyed, on whose firmly chiseled features rested +so perpetual, so contrasting a serenity. But it was a whim of man, of their +wicked uncle Sir Maurice Falconer, that had robbed them of their pretty names. +He had named Violet “Erebus” because, he said, +</p> + +<p class="poem"> +She walks in beauty like the night Of cloudless climes and starry spheres: +</p> + +<p> +and he had forthwith named Hyacinth the “Terror” because, he said, +the ill-fated Sir John Franklin had made the Terror the eternal companion of +Erebus. +</p> + +<p> +Erebus and the Terror they became. Even their mother never called them by their +proper pretty names save in moments of the severest displeasure. +</p> + +<p> +“They’re good apples,” said the Terror presently, as he threw +away the core of his third and took two more from the bag. +</p> + +<p> +“They are,” said Erebus in a grateful tone—“worth all +the trouble we had with that dog.” +</p> + +<p> +“We’d have cleared him out of the orchard in half the time, if +we’d had our catapults and bullets. It was hard luck being made to +promise never to use catapults again,” said the Terror sadly. +</p> + +<p> +“All that fuss about a little lead from the silly old belfry +gutter!” said Erebus bitterly. could easily have put slates in the place +of the sheet of lead we took,” said the Terror with equal bitterness. +</p> + +<p> +“Why can’t they leave us alone? It quite spoils the country not to +have catapults,” said Erebus, gazing with mournful eyes on the rich +autumn scene through which they moved. +</p> + +<p> +The Twins had several grievances against their elders; but the loss of their +catapults was the bitterest. They had used those weapons to enrich the simple +diet which was all their mother’s slender means allowed them; on +fortunate days they had enriched it in defiance of the game laws. Keepers and +farmers had made no secret of their suspicions that this was the case: but the +careful Twins never afforded them the pleasure of adducing evidence in support +of those suspicions. Then a heavy thunderstorm revealed the fact that they had +removed a sheet of lead, which they had regarded as otiose, from the belfry +gutter, to cast it into bullets for their catapults; a consensus of the public +opinion of Little Deeping had demanded that they should be deprived of them; +and their mother, yielding to the +</p> + +<p> +“As if belfries wanted lead gutters. They could easily have put slates in +the place of the sheet of lead we took,” said the Terror with equal +bitterness. +</p> + +<p> +“Why can’t they leave us alone? It quite spoils the country not to +have catapults,” said Erebus, gazing with mournful eyes on the rich +autumn scene through which they moved. +</p> + +<p> +The Twins had several grievances against their elders; but the loss of their +catapults was the bitterest. They had used those weapons to enrich the simple +diet which was all their mother’s slender means allowed them; on +fortunate days they had enriched it in defiance of the game laws. Keepers and +farmers had made no secret of their suspicions that this was the case: but the +careful Twins never afforded them the pleasure of adducing evidence in support +of those suspicions. Then a heavy thunderstorm revealed the fact that they had +removed a sheet of lead, which they had regarded as otiose, from the belfry +gutter, to cast it into bullets for their catapults; a consensus of the public +opinion of Little Deeping had demanded that they should be deprived of them; +and their mother, yielding to the demand, had forbidden them to use them any +longer. +</p> + +<p> +The Twins always obeyed their mother; but they resented bitterly the action of +Little Deeping. It was, indeed, an ungrateful place, since their exploits +afforded its old ladies much of the carping conversation they loved. In a +bitter and vindictive spirit the Twins set themselves to become the finest +stone-throwers who ever graced a countryside; and since they had every natural +aptitude in the way of muscle and keenness of eye, they were well on their way +to realize their ambition. There may, indeed, have been northern boys of +thirteen who could outthrow the Terror, but not a girl in England could throw a +stone straighter or harder than Erebus. +</p> + +<p> +They came to a gate opening on to Little Deeping common; Erebus vaulted it +gracefully; the Terror, hampered by the bag of booty, climbed over it (for the +Twins it was always simpler to vault or climb over a gate than to unlatch it +and walk through) and took their way along a narrow path through the gorse and +bracken. They had gone some fifty yards, when from among the bracken on their +right a voice cried: “Bang-g-g! Bang-g-g!” +</p> + +<p> +The Twins fell to the earth and lay still; and Wiggins came out of the gorse, +his wooden rifle on his shoulder, a smile of proud triumph on his richly +freckled face. He stood over the fallen Twins; and his smile of triumph changed +to a scowl of fiendish ferocity. +</p> + +<p> +“Ha! Ha! Shot through the heads!” he cried. “Their bones will +bleach in the pathless forest while their scalps hang in the wigwam of Red Bear +the terror of the Cherokees!” +</p> + +<p> +Then he scalped the Twins with a formidable but wooden knife. Then he took from +his knickerbockers pocket a tattered and dirty note-book, an inconceivable +note-book (it was the only thing to curb the exuberant imagination of Erebus) +made an entry in it, and said in a tone of lively satisfaction: +“You’re only one game ahead.” +</p> + +<p> +“I thought we were three,” said Erebus, rising. +</p> + +<p> +“They’re down in the book,” said Wiggins; firmly; and his +bright blue eyes were very stern. +</p> + +<p> +“Well, we shall have to spend a whole afternoon getting well ahead of you +again,” said Erebus, shaking out her dark curls. +</p> + +<p> +Wiggins waged a deadly war with the Twins. He ambushed and scalped them; they +ambushed and scalped him. Seeing that they had already passed their thirteenth +birthday, it was a great condescension on their part to play with a boy of ten; +and they felt it. But Wiggins was a favored friend; and the game filled +intervals between sterner deeds. +</p> + +<p> +The Terror handed Wiggins an apple; and the three of them moved swiftly on +across the common. Wiggins was one of those who spurn the earth. Now and again, +for obscure but profound reasons, he would suddenly spring into the air and +proceed by leaps and bounds. +</p> + +<p> +Once when he slowed down to let them overtake him, he said, “The game +isn’t really fair; you’re two to one.” +</p> + +<p> +“You keep very level,” said the Terror politely. +</p> + +<p> +“Yes; it’s my superior astuteness,” said Wiggins sedately. +</p> + +<p> +“Goodness! What words you use!” said Erebus in a somewhat jealous +tone. +</p> + +<p> +“It’s being so much with my father; you see, he has a European +reputation,” Wiggins explained. +</p> + +<p> +“Yes, everybody says that. But what is a European reputation?” said +Erebus in a captious tone. +</p> + +<p> +“Everybody in Europe knows him,” said Wiggins; and he spurned the +earth. +</p> + +<p> +They called him Wiggins because his name was Rupert. It seemed to them a name +both affected and ostentatious. Besides, crop it as you might, his hair +<i>would</i> assume the appearance of a mop. +</p> + +<p> +They came out of the narrow path into a broader rutted cart-track to see two +figures coming toward them, eighty yards away. +</p> + +<p> +“It’s Mum,” said Erebus. +</p> + +<p> +Quick as thought the Terror dropped behind her, slipped off the bag of booty, +and thrust it into a gorse-bush. +</p> + +<p> +“And—and—it’s the Cruncher with her!” cried +Erebus in a tone in which disgust outrang surprise. +</p> + +<p> +“Of all the sickening things! The Cruncher!” cried the Terror, +echoing her disgust. “What’s he come down again for?” +</p> + +<p> +They paused; then went on their way with gloomy faces to meet the approaching +pair. +</p> + +<p> +The gentleman whom they called the “Cruncher,” and who from their +tones of disgust had so plainly failed to win their young hearts was Captain +Baster of the Twenty-fourth Hussars; and they called him the Cruncher on +account of the vigor with which he plied his large, white, prominent teeth. +</p> + +<p> +They had not gone five yards when Wiggins said in a tone of superiority: +“<i>I</i> know why he’s come down.” +</p> + +<p> +“Why?” said the Terror quickly. +</p> + +<p> +“He’s come down to marry your mother,” said Wiggins. +</p> + +<p> +“What?” cried the Twins with one voice, one look of blank +consternation; and they stopped short. +</p> + +<p> +“How dare you say a silly thing like that?” cried Erebus fiercely. +</p> + +<p> +“<i>I</i> didn’t say it,” protested Wiggins. “Mrs. +Blenkinsop said it.” +</p> + +<p> +“That silly old gossip!” cried Erebus. +</p> + +<p> +“And Mrs. Morton said it, too,” said Wiggins. “They came to +tea yesterday and talked about it. I was there: there was a plum cake—one +of those rich ones from Springer’s at Rowington. And they said it would +be such a good thing for both of you because he’s so awfully rich: the +Terror would go to Eton; and you’d go to a good school and get a proper +bringing-up and grow up a lady, after all—” +</p> + +<p> +“I wouldn’t go! I should hate it!” cried Erebus. +</p> + +<p> +“Yes; they said you wouldn’t like wholesome discipline,” said +the faithful reporter. “And they didn’t seem to think your mother +would like it either—marrying the Cruncher.” +</p> + +<p> +“Like it? She wouldn’t dream of it—a bounder like +that!” said the Terror. +</p> + +<p> +“I don’t know—I don’t know—if she thought it +would be good for us—she’d do anything for us—you know she +would!” cried Erebus, wringing her hands in anxious fear. +</p> + +<p> +The Terror thrust his hands into his pockets; his square chin stuck out in +dogged resolution; a deep frown furrowed his brow; and his face was flushed. +</p> + +<p> +“This must be stopped,” he said through his set teeth. +</p> + +<p> +“But how?” said Erebus. +</p> + +<p> +“We’ll find a way. It’s war!” said the Terror darkly. +</p> + +<p> +Wiggins spurned the earth joyfully: “I’m on your side,” he +said. “I’m a trusty ally. He called me Freckles.” +</p> + +<p> +“Come on,” said the Terror. “We’d better face +him.” +</p> + +<p> +They walked firmly to meet the detested enemy. As they drew near, the +Terror’s face recovered its flawless serenity; but Erebus was scowling +still. +</p> + +<p> +From twenty yards away Captain Baster greeted them in a rich hearty voice: +“How’s Terebus and the Error; and how’s Freckles?” he +cried, and laughed heartily at his own delightful humor. +</p> + +<p> +The Twins greeted him with a cold, almost murderous politeness; Wiggins shook +hands with Mrs. Dangerfield very warmly and left out Captain Baster. +</p> + +<p> +“I’m always pleased to see you with the Twins, Wiggins,” said +Mrs. Dangerfield with her delightful smile. “I know you keep them out of +mischief.” +</p> + +<p> +“It’s generally all over before I come,” said Wiggins +somewhat glumly; and of a sudden it occurred to him to spurn the earth. +</p> + +<p> +“I’ve not had that kiss yet, Terebus. I’m going to have it +this time I’m here,” said Captain Baster playfully; and he laughed +his rich laugh. +</p> + +<p> +“Are you?” said Erebus through her clenched teeth; and she gazed at +him with the eyes of hate. +</p> + +<p> +They turned; and Mrs. Dangerfield said, “You’ll come to tea with +us, Wiggins?” +</p> + +<p> +“Thank you very much,” said Wiggins; and he spurned the earth. As +he alighted on it once more, he added. “Tea at other people’s +houses is so much nicer than at home. Don’t you think so, Terror?” +</p> + +<p> +“I always eat more—somehow,” said the Terror with a grave +smile. +</p> + +<p> +They walked slowly across the common, a protecting twin on either side of Mrs. +Dangerfield; and Captain Baster, in the strong facetious vein, enlivened the +walk with his delightful humor. The gallant officer was the very climax of the +florid, a stout, high-colored, black-eyed, glossy-haired young man of +twenty-eight, with a large tip-tilted nose, neatly rounded off in a little knob +forever shiny. The son of the famous pickle millionaire, he had enjoyed every +advantage which great wealth can bestow, and was now enjoying heartily a brave +career in a crack regiment. The crack regiment, cold, phlegmatic, +unappreciative, was not enjoying it. To his brother officers he was known as +Pallybaster, a name he had won for himself by his frequent remark, +“I’m a very pally man.” It was very true: it was difficult, +indeed, for any one whom he thought might be useful to him, to avoid his +friendship, for, in addition to all the advantages which great wealth bestows, +he enjoyed an uncommonly thick skin, an armor-plate impenetrable to snubs. +</p> + +<p> +All the way to Colet House, he maintained a gay facetious flow of personal talk +that made Erebus grind her teeth, now and again suffused the face of Wiggins +with a flush of mortification that dimmed his freckles, and wrinkled Mrs. +Dangerfield’s white brow in a distressful frown. The Terror, serene, +impassive, showed no sign of hearing him; his mind was hard at work on this +very serious problem with which he had been so suddenly confronted. More than +once Erebus countered a witticism with a sharp retort, but with none sharp +enough to pierce the rhinocerine hide of the gallant officer. Once this +unbidden but humorous guest was under their roof, the laws of hospitality +denied her even this relief. She could only treat him with a steely civility. +The steeliness did not check the easy flow of his wit. +</p> + +<p> +He looked oddly out of his place in the drawing-room of Colet House; he was too +new for it. The old, worn, faded, carefully polished furniture, for the most +part of the late eighteenth or early nineteenth century, seemed abashed in the +presence of his floridness. It seemed to demand the setting of spacious, +ornately glittering hotels. Mrs. Dangerfield liked him less in her own +drawing-room than anywhere. When her eyes rested on him in it, she was troubled +by a curious feeling that only by some marvelous intervention of providence had +he escaped calling in a bright plaid satin tie. +</p> + +<p> +The fact that he was not in his proper frame, though he was not unconscious of +it, did not trouble Captain Baster. Indeed, he took some credit to himself for +being so little contemptuous of the shabby furniture. In a high good humor he +went on shining and shining all through tea; and though at the end of it his +luster was for a while dimmed by the discovery that he had left his +cigarette-case at the inn and there were no cigarettes in the house, he was +presently shining again. Then the Twins and Wiggins rose and retired firmly +into the garden. +</p> + +<p> +They came out into the calm autumn evening with their souls seething. +</p> + +<p> +“He’s a pig—and a beast! We can’t let Mum marry him! We +<i>must</i> stop it!” cried Erebus. +</p> + +<p> +“It’s all very well to say ‘must.’ But you know what +Mum is: if she thinks a thing is for our good, do it she will,” said the +Terror gloomily. +</p> + +<p> +“And she never consults us—never!” cried Erebus. +</p> + +<p> +“Only when she’s a bit doubtful,” said the Terror. +</p> + +<p> +“Then she’s not doubtful now. She hasn’t said a word to us +about it,” said Erebus. +</p> + +<p> +“That’s what looks so bad. It looks as if she’d made up her +mind already; and if she has, it’s no use talking to her,” said the +Terror yet more gloomily. +</p> + +<p> +They were silent; and the bright eyes of Wiggins moved expectantly backward and +forward from one to the other. He preserved a decorous sympathetic silence. +</p> + +<p> +“No, it’s no good talking to Mum,” said Erebus presently in a +despairing tone. +</p> + +<p> +“Well, we must leave her out of it and just squash the Cruncher +ourselves,” said the Terror. +</p> + +<p> +“But you can’t squash the Cruncher!” cried Erebus. +</p> + +<p> +“Why not? We’ve squashed other people, haven’t we?” +said the Terror sharply. +</p> + +<p> +“Never any one so thick-skinned as him,” said Erebus. +</p> + +<p> +The Terror frowned deeply again: “We can always try,” he said +coldly. “And look here: I’ve been thinking all tea-time: if +stepchildren don’t like stepfathers, there’s no reason why +stepfathers should like stepchildren.” +</p> + +<p> +“The Cruncher likes us, though it’s no fault of ours,” said +Erebus. +</p> + +<p> +“That’s just it; he doesn’t really know us. If he saw the +kind of stepchildren he was in for, it might choke him off,” said the +Terror. +</p> + +<p> +“But he can’t even see we hate him,” objected Erebus. +</p> + +<p> +“No, and if he did, he wouldn’t mind, he’d think it a joke. +My idea isn’t to show him how we feel, but to show him what we can do, if +we give our minds to it,” said the Terror in a somewhat sinister tone. +</p> + +<p> +Erebus gazed at him, taking in his meaning. Then a dazzling smile illumined her +charming face; and she cried: “Oh, yes! Let’s give him socks! +Let’s begin at once!” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes: I’ll help! I’m a trusty ally!” cried Wiggins; and +he spurned the earth joyfully at the thought. +</p> + +<p> +They were silent a while, their faces grave and intent, cudgeling their brains +for some signal exploit with which to open hostilities. +</p> + +<p> +Presently Wiggins said: “You might make him an apple-pie bed. +They’re very annoying when you’re sleepy.” +</p> + +<p> +He spoke with an air of experience. +</p> + +<p> +“What’s an apple-pie bed?” said Erebus scornfully. +</p> + +<p> +Wiggins hung his head, abashed. +</p> + +<p> +“It’s a beginning, anyhow,” said the Terror in an approving +tone; and he added with the air of a philosopher: “Little things, and big +things, they all count.” +</p> + +<p> +“I was trying to think how to break his leg; but I can’t,” +said Erebus bitterly. +</p> + +<p> +“By Jove! That cigarette-case! Come on!” cried the Terror; and he +led the way swiftly out of the garden and took the path to Little Deeping. +</p> + +<p> +“Where are we going?” said Erebus. +</p> + +<p> +“We’re going to make him that apple-pie bed. There’s nothing +like making a beginning. We shall think of heaps of other things. If we +don’t worry about them, they’ll occur to us. They always do,” +said the Terror, at once practical and philosophical. +</p> + +<p> +They walked briskly down to The Plough, the one inn of Little Deeping, where, +as usual, Captain Baster was staying, and went in through the front door which +stood open. At the sound of their footsteps in her hall the stout but +good-humored landlady came bustling out of the bar to learn what they wanted. +</p> + +<p> +“Good afternoon, Mrs. Pittaway,” said the Terror politely. +“We’ve come for Captain Baster’s cigarette-case. He’s +left it somewhere in his room.” +</p> + +<p> +At the thought of handling the shining cigarette-case Mrs. Pittaway rubbed her +hands on her apron; then the look of favor with which her eyes had rested on +the fair guileless face of the Terror, changed to a frown; and she said: +“Bother the thing! It’s sure to be stuck somewhere out of sight. +And the bar full, too.” +</p> + +<p> +“Don’t you trouble; I’ll get it. I know the bedroom,” +said the Terror with ready amiability; and he started to mount the stairs. +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, thank you, sir,” said Mrs. Pittaway, bustling back to the bar. +</p> + +<p> +Erebus and Wiggins dashed lightly up the stairs after the Terror. In less than +two minutes the deft hands of the Twins had dealt with the bed; and their +intelligent eyes were eagerly scanning the hapless unprotected bedroom. Erebus +sprang to the shaving-brush on the mantelpiece and thrust it under the +mattress. The Terror locked Captain Baster’s portmanteau; and as he +placed the keys beside the shaving-brush, he said coldly: +</p> + +<p> +“That’ll teach him not to be so careless.” +</p> + +<p> +Erebus giggled; then she took the water-jug and filled one of Captain +Baster’s inviting dress-boots with water. Wiggins rocked with laughter. +</p> + +<p> +“Don’t stand giggling there! Why don’t you do +something?” said Erebus sharply. +</p> + +<p> +Wiggins looked thoughtful; then he said: “A clothes-brush in bed is very +annoying when you stick your foot against it.” +</p> + +<p> +He stepped toward the dressing-table; but the Terror was before him. He took +the clothes-brush and set it firmly, bristles outward, against the bottom of +the folded sheet of the apple-pie bed, where one or the other of Captain +Baster’s feet was sure to find it. The Terror did not care which foot was +successful. +</p> + +<p> +Then inspiration failed them; the Terror took the cigarette-case from the +dressing-table; they came quietly down the stairs and out of the inn. +</p> + +<p> +As they turned up the street the Terror said with modest if somewhat vengeful +triumph: “There! you see things <i>do</i> occur to us.” Then with +his usual scrupulous fairness he added: “But it was Wiggins who set us +going.” +</p> + +<p> +“I’m an ally; and he called me Freckles,” said Wiggins +vengefully; and once more he spurned the earth. +</p> + +<p> +On their way home, half-way up the lane, where the trees arched most thickly +overhead, they came to a patch of deepish mud which was too sheltered to have +dried after the heavy rain of the day before. +</p> + +<p> +“Mind the mud, Wiggins,” said Erebus, mindful of his carelessness +in the matter. +</p> + +<p> +Wiggins walked gingerly along the side of it and said: “It wouldn’t +be a nice place to fall down in, would it?” +</p> + +<p> +The Terror went on a few paces, stopped short, laughed a hard, sinister little +laugh, and said: “Wiggins, you’re a treasure!” +</p> + +<p> +“What is it? What is it now?” said Erebus quickly. +</p> + +<p> +“A little job of my own. It wouldn’t do for you and Wiggins to have +a hand in it, he’ll swear so,” said the Terror. +</p> + +<p> +“Who’ll swear?” said Erebus. +</p> + +<p> +“The Cruncher. And you’re a girl and Wiggins is too young to hear +such language,” said the Terror. +</p> + +<p> +“Rubbish!” said Erebus sharply. “Tell us what it is.” +</p> + +<p> +The Terror shook his head. +</p> + +<p> +“It’s a beastly shame! I ought to help—I always do,” +cried Erebus in a bitterly aggrieved tone. +</p> + +<p> +The Terror shook his head. +</p> + +<p> +“All right,” said Erebus. “Who wants to help in a stupid +thing like that? But all the same you’ll go and make a silly mull of it +without me—you always do.” +</p> + +<p> +“You jolly well wait and see,” said the Terror with calm +confidence. +</p> + +<p> +Erebus was still muttering darkly about piggishness when they reached the +house. +</p> + +<p> +They went into the drawing-room in a body and found Captain Baster still +talking to their mother, in the middle, indeed, of a long story illustrating +his prowess in a game of polo, on two three-hundred-guinea and one +three-hundred-and-fifty-guinea ponies. He laid great stress on the prices he +had paid for them. +</p> + +<p> +When it came to an end, the Terror gave him his cigarette-case. +</p> + +<p> +Mrs. Dangerfield observed this example of the thoughtfulness of her offspring +with an air of doubtful surprise. +</p> + +<p> +Captain Baster took the cigarette-case and said with hearty jocularity: +“Thank you, Error—thank you. But why didn’t you bring it to +me, Terebus? Then you’d have earned that kiss I’m going to give +you.” +</p> + +<p> +Erebus gazed at him with murderous eyes, and said in a sinister tone: +“Oh, I helped to get it.” +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap02"></a> CHAPTER II<br /> +GUARDIAN ANGELS</h2> + +<p> +At seven o’clock Captain Baster took his leave to dine at his inn. Of his +own accord he promised faithfully to return at nine sharp. He left the house a +proud and happy man, for he knew that he had been shining before Mrs. +Dangerfield with uncommon brilliance. +</p> + +<p> +He was not by any means blind to her charm and beauty, for though she was four +years older than he, she contrived never to look less than two years younger, +and that without any aid from the cosmetic arts. But he chiefly saw in her an +admirable ladder to those social heights to which his ardent soul aspired to +climb. She had but to return to the polite world from which the loss of her +husband and her straightened circumstances had removed her, to find herself a +popular woman with a host of friends in the exalted circles Captain Baster +burned to adorn. Yet it must not for a moment be supposed that he was proposing +a mercenary marriage for her; he was sure that she loved him, for he felt +rather than knew that with women he was irresistible. +</p> + +<p> +It was not love, however, that knitted Mrs. Dangerfield’s brow in a +troubled frown as she dressed; nor was it love that caused her to select to +wear that evening one of her oldest and dowdiest gowns, a gown with which she +had never been truly pleased. The troubled air did not leave her face during +dinner; and it seemed to affect the Twins, for they, too, were gloomy. They +were pleased, indeed, with the beginning of the campaign, but still very +doubtful of success in the end. Where their interests were concerned their +mother was of a firmness indeed hard to move. +</p> + +<p> +Moreover, she kept looking at them in an odd considering fashion that disturbed +them, especially at the Terror. Erebus in a pretty light frock of her +mother’s days of prosperity, which had been cut down and fitted to her, +was a sight to brighten any one’s eyes; but the sleeves of the dark coat +which the Terror wore on Sundays and on gala evenings, bared a length of wrist +distressing to a mother’s eye. +</p> + +<p> +The fine high spirits of Captain Baster were somewhat dashed by his failure to +find his keys and open his portmanteau, since he would be unable to ravish Mrs. +Dangerfield’s eye that evening by his distinguished appearance in the +unstained evening dress of an English gentleman. After a long hunt for the +mislaid keys, in which the harried staff of The Plough took part, he made up +his mind that he must appear before her, with all apologies, in the tweed suit +he was wearing. It was a bitter thought, for in a tweed suit he could not +really feel a conquering hero after eight o’clock at night. +</p> + +<p> +Then he put his foot into a dress-boot full of cold water. It was a good +water-tight boot; and it had faithfully retained all of the water its lining +had not soaked up. The gallant officer said a good deal about its retentive +properties to the mute boot. +</p> + +<p> +At dinner be learned from Mrs. Pittaway that the obliging Terror had himself +fetched the cigarette-case from his bedroom. A flash of intuition connected the +Terror with the watered boot; and he begged her, with loud acerbity, never +again to let any one—any one!!—enter his bedroom. Mrs. Pittaway +objected that slops could not be emptied, or beds made without human +intervention. He begged her, not perhaps unreasonably, not to talk like a fool; +and she liked him none the better for his directness. +</p> + +<p> +Food always soothed him; and he rose from his dinner in better spirits. As he +rose from it, the Terror, standing among the overarching trees which made the +muddy patch in the lane so dark, was drawing a clothes-line tight. It ran +through the hedge that hid him to the hedge on the other side of the lane. +There it was fastened to a stout stake; and he was fastening it to the lowest +rail of a post and rails. At its tightest it rose a foot above the roadway just +at the beginning of the mud-patch. It was at its tightest. +</p> + +<p> +Heartened by his dinner and two extra whiskies and sodas, Captain Baster set +out for Colet House at a brisk pace. As he moved through the bracing autumn +air, his spirits rose yet higher; that night—that very night he would +crown Mrs. Dangerfield’s devotion with his avowal of an answering +passion. He pressed forward swiftly like a conqueror; and like a conqueror he +whistled. Then he found the clothes-line, suddenly, pitched forward and fell, +not heavily, for the mud was thick, but sprawling. He rose, oozy and dripping, +took a long breath, and the welkin shuddered as it rang. +</p> + +<p> +The Terror did not shudder; he was going home like the wind. +</p> + +<p> +Having sent Erebus to bed at a few minutes to nine Mrs. Dangerfield waited +restlessly for her tardy guest, her charming face still set in a troubled +frown. Her woman’s instinct assured her that Captain Baster would propose +that night; and she dreaded it. Two or three times she rose and walked up and +down the room; and when she saw her deep, dark, troubled eyes in the two old, +almost giltless round mirrors, they did not please her as they usually did. +Those eyes were one of the sources from which had sprung Captain Baster’s +attraction to her. +</p> + +<p> +But there were the Twins; she longed to do so many useful, needful things for +them; and marriage with Captain Baster was the way of doing them. She told +herself that he would make an excellent stepfather and husband; that under his +unfortunate manner were a good heart and sterling qualities. She assured +herself that she had the power to draw them out; once he was her husband, she +would change him. But still she was ill at ease. Perhaps, in her heart of +hearts, she was doubtful of her power to make a silk purse out of rhinoceros +hide. +</p> + +<p> +When at last a note came from The Plough to say that he was unfortunately +prevented from coming that evening, but would come next morning to take her for +a walk, she was filled with so extravagant a relief that it frightened her. She +sat down and wrote out a telegram to her brother, rang for old Sarah, their +trusty hard-working maid, and bade her tell the Terror, who had slipped quietly +upstairs to bed at one minute to nine, to send it off in the morning. She did +not wish to take the chance of not waking and despatching it as early as +possible. She must have advice; and Sir Maurice Falconer was not only a shrewd +man of the world, but he would also advise her with the keenest regard for her +interests. She tried not to hope that he would find marriage with Captain +Baster incompatible with them. +</p> + +<p> +Captain Baster awoke in less than his usual cheerfulness. He thought for a +while of the Terror and boots and mud with a gloomy unamiability. Then he rose +and betook himself to his toilet. In the middle of it he missed his +shaving-brush. He hunted for it furiously; he could have sworn that he had +taken it out of his portmanteau. He did swear, but not to any definite fact. +There was nothing for it: he must expose his tender chin to the cruel razor of +a village barber. +</p> + +<p> +Then he disliked the look of his tweed suit; all traces of mud had not vanished +from it. In one short night it had lost its pristine freshness. This and the +ordeal before his chin made his breakfast gloomy; and soon after it he entered +the barber’s shop with the air of one who has abandoned hope. Later he +came out of it with his roving black eye full of tears of genuine feeling; his +scraped chin was smarting cruelly and unattractive in patches—red +patches. At the door the breathless, excited and triumphant maid of the inn +accosted him with the news that she had just found his keys and his +shaving-brush under the mattress of his bed. He looked round the village of +Little Deeping blankly; it suddenly seemed to him a squalid place. +</p> + +<p> +None the less it was a comforting thought that he would not be put to the +expense of having his portmanteau broken open and fitted with a new lock, for +his great wealth had never weakened the essential thriftiness of his soul. Half +an hour later, in changed tweeds but with unchanged chin, he took his way to +Colet House, thinking with great unkindness of his future stepson. As he drew +near it he saw that that stepson was awaiting him at the garden gate; nearer +still he saw that he was awaiting him with an air of ineffable serenity. +</p> + +<p> +The Terror politely opened the gate for him, and with a kind smile asked him if +he had slept well. +</p> + +<p> +The red blood of the Basters boiled in the captain’s veins, and he said +somewhat thickly: “Look here, my lad, I don’t want any more of your +tricks! You play another on me, and I’ll give you the soundest licking +you ever had in your life!” +</p> + +<p> +The serenity on the Terror’s face broke up into an expression of the +deepest pain: “Whatever’s the matter?” he said in a tone of +amazement. “I thought you loved a joke. You said you +did—yesterday—at tea.” +</p> + +<p> +“You try it on again!” said Captain Baster. +</p> + +<p> +“Now, whatever has put your back up?” said the Terror in a tone of +even greater amazement. “Was it the apple-pie bed, or the lost keys, or +the water in the boot, or the clothes-line across the road?” +</p> + +<p> +It was well that the Terror could spring with a cat’s swiftness: Captain +Baster’s boot missed him by a hair’s breadth. +</p> + +<p> +The Terror ran round the house, in at the back door and up to the bedroom of +Erebus. +</p> + +<p> +“Waxy?” he cried joyously. “He’s black in the face! I +told him he said he loved a joke.” +</p> + +<p> +Erebus only growled deep down in her throat. She was bitterly aggrieved that +she had not had a hand in Captain Baster’s downfall the night before. The +Terror had awakened her to tell her joyfully of his glorious exploit and of the +shuddering welkin. +</p> + +<p> +He paid no heed to the rumbling of her discontent; he said: “Now, you +quite understand. You’ll stick to them like a leech. You won’t give +him any chance of talking to Mum alone. It’s most important.” +</p> + +<p> +“I understand. But what’s that? Anybody could do it,” she +said in a tone of extreme bitterness. “It’s you that’s +getting all the real fun.” +</p> + +<p> +“But you’ll be able to make yourself beastly disagreeable, if +you’re careful,” said the Terror. +</p> + +<p> +“Of course, I shall. But what’s that? I tell you what it is: +I’m going to have my proper share of the real fun. The first chance I +get, I’m going to stone him—so there!” said Erebus fiercely. +</p> + +<p> +“All right. But it doesn’t seem quite the thing for a girl to +do,” said the Terror in a judicial tone. +</p> + +<p> +“Rats!” said Erebus. +</p> + +<p> +It was well that Mrs. Dangerfield kept Captain Baster waiting; it gave the +purple tinge, which was heightening his floridness somewhat painfully, time to +fade. When she did come to him, he was further annoyed by the fact that Erebus +came too, and with a truculent air announced her intention of accompanying +them. Mrs. Dangerfield was surprised; Erebus seldom showed any taste for such a +gentle occupation. Also she was relieved; she did not want Captain Baster to +propose before she had taken counsel with her brother. +</p> + +<p> +Captain Baster started in a gloomy frame of mind; he did not try to hide from +himself the fact that Mrs. Dangerfield had lost some of her charm: she was the +mother of the Terror. He found, too, that his instinctive distaste for the +company of Erebus was not ungrounded. She was a nuisance; she would talk about +wet boots; the subject seemed to fascinate her. Then, when at last he recovered +his spirits, grew once more humorous, and even rose to the proposing point, +there was no getting rid of her. She was impervious to hints; she refused, +somewhat pertly, to pause and gather the luscious blackberries. How could a man +be his humorous self in these circumstances? He felt that his humor was growing +strained, losing its delightful lightness. +</p> + +<p> +Then the accident: it was entirely Erebus’ own fault (he could swear it) +that he tripped over her foot and pitched among those infernal brambles. Her +howls of anguish were all humbug: he had not hurt her ankle (he could swear +it); there was not a tear. The moment he offered, furiously, to carry her, she +walked without a vestige of a limp. +</p> + +<p> +Mrs. Dangerfield had no right to look vexed with him; if one brought up +one’s children like that—well. Certainly she was losing her charm; +she was the mother of Erebus also. +</p> + +<p> +His doubt, whether the mother of such children was the right kind of wife for +him, had grown very serious indeed, when, as they drew near Colet House, a +slim, tall young man of an extreme elegance and distinction came through the +garden gate to meet them. +</p> + +<p> +With a cry of “Uncle Maurice!” the crippled Erebus dashed to meet +him with the light bounds of an antelope. Captain Baster could hardly believe +his eyes; he knew the young man by sight, by name and by repute. It was Sir +Maurice Falconer, a man he longed to boast his friend. With his aid a man might +climb to the highest social peaks. +</p> + +<p> +When Mrs. Dangerfield introduced him as her brother (he had never dreamed it) +he could not believe his good fortune. But why had he not learned this splendid +fact before? Why had he been kept in the dark? He did not reflect that he had +been so continuously busy making confidences about himself, his possessions and +his exploits to her that he had given her the smallest opportunities of telling +him anything about herself. +</p> + +<p> +But he was not one to lose a golden opportunity; he set about making up for +lost time with a will; and never had he so thoroughly demonstrated his right to +the name of Pallybaster. His friendliness was overwhelming. Before the end of +lunch he had invited Sir Maurice to dine with him at his mess, to dine with him +at two of his clubs, to shoot with him, to ride a horse of his in the +forthcoming regimental steeplechases, to go with him on a yachting cruise in +the Mediterranean. +</p> + +<p> +All through the afternoon his friendliness grew and grew. He could not bear +that any one else should have a word with Sir Maurice. The Twins were +intolerable with their interruptions, their claims on their uncle’s +attention. They disgusted Captain Baster: when he became their stepfather, it +would be his first task to see that they learned a respectful silence in the +presence of their elders. +</p> + +<p> +He never gave a thought to his proposal; he sought no occasion to make it. +Captain Baster’s love was of his life a thing apart, but his social +aspirations were the chief fact of his existence. Besides, there was no haste; +he knew that Mrs. Dangerfield was awaiting his avowal with a passionate +eagerness; any time would do for that. But he must seize the fleeting hour and +bind Sir Maurice to himself by the bond of the warmest friendship. +</p> + +<p> +Again and again he wondered how Sir Maurice could give his attention to the +interrupting exacting Twins, when he had a man of the world, humorous, knowing, +wealthy, to talk to. He tried to make opportunities for him to escape from +them; Sir Maurice missed those opportunities; he did not seem to see them. In +truth Captain Baster was a little disappointed in Sir Maurice: he did not find +him frankly responsive: polite—yes; indeed, politeness could go no +further. But he lacked warmth. After all he had not pinned him down to the +definite acceptance of a single invitation. +</p> + +<p> +When, at seven o’clock, he tore himself away with the hearty assurance +that he would be back at nine sharp, he was not sure that he had made a bosom +friend. He felt that the friendship might need clenching. +</p> + +<p> +As the front door shut behind him, Sir Maurice wiped his brow with the air of +one who has paused from exhausting toil: “I feel sticky—positively +sticky,” he said. “Oh, Erebus, you do have gummy friends! I thought +we should never get rid of him. I thought he’d stuck himself to us for +the rest of our natural lives.” +</p> + +<p> +Mrs. Dangerfield smiled; and the Terror said in a tone of deep meaning: +“That’s what he’s up to.” +</p> + +<p> +“He’s not a friend of mine!” cried Erebus hotly. +</p> + +<p> +“We call him the Cruncher—because of his teeth,” said the +Terror. +</p> + +<p> +“Then beware, Erebus—beware! You are young and possibly +savory,” said Sir Maurice. +</p> + +<p> +“You children had better go and get ready for dinner,” said Mrs. +Dangerfield. +</p> + +<p> +The Twins went to the door. On the threshold Erebus turned and said: +“It’s Mum he wants to crunch up—not me.” +</p> + +<p> +The bolt shot, she fled through the door. +</p> + +<p> +Sir Maurice looked at his sister and said softly: +</p> + +<p> +“Oho! I see—heroism. That was what you wanted to consult me +about.” Then he laid his hand on her shoulder affectionately and added: +“It won’t do, Anne—it won’t do at all. I am convinced +of it.” +</p> + +<p> +“Do you think so?” said Mrs. Dangerfield in a tone in which +disappointment and relief were very nicely blended. +</p> + +<p> +“Think? I’m sure of it,” said Sir Maurice in a tone of +complete conviction. +</p> + +<p> +“But the children; he could do so much for the children,” pleaded +Mrs. Dangerfield. +</p> + +<p> +“He could, but he wouldn’t. That kind of bounder never does any one +any good but himself. No, no; the children are right in calling him the +Cruncher. He would just crunch you up; and it is a thousand times better for +them to have an uncrunched mother than all the money that ever came out of +pickles.” +</p> + +<p> +“Well, you know best. You do understand these things,” said Mrs. +Dangerfield; and she sighed. +</p> + +<p> +“I do understand Basters,” said Sir Maurice in a confident tone. +</p> + +<p> +Mrs. Dangerfield ran up-stairs to dress, on the light feet of a girl; a weight +oppressive, indeed, had been lifted from her spirit. +</p> + +<p> +Dinner was a very bright and lively meal, though now and again a grave +thoughtfulness clouded the spirits of Erebus. Once Sir Maurice asked her the +cause of it. She only shook her head. +</p> + +<p> +Captain Baster ate his dinner in a sizzling excitement: he knew that he had +made a splendid first impression; he was burning to deepen it. But on his eager +way back to Colet House, he walked warily, feeling before him with his stick +for clotheslines. He came out of the dark lane into the broad turf road, which +runs across the common to the house, with a strong sense of relief and became +once more his hearty care-free self. +</p> + +<p> +There was not enough light to display the jaunty air with which he walked in +all its perfection; but there seemed to be light enough for more serious +matters, for a stone struck him on the thigh with considerable force. He had +barely finished the jump of pained surprise with which he greeted it, when +another stone whizzed viciously past his head; then a third struck him on the +shoulder. +</p> + +<p> +With the appalling roar of a bull of Bashan the gallant officer dashed in the +direction whence, he judged, the stones came. He was just in time to stop a +singularly hard stone with his marble brow. Then he found a gorse-bush (by +tripping over a root) a gorse-bush which seemed unwilling to release him from +its stimulating, not to say prickly, embrace. As he wallowed in it another +stone found him, his ankle-bone. +</p> + +<p> +He wrenched himself from the embrace of the gorse-bush, found his feet and +realized that there was only one thing to do. He tore along the turf road to +Colet House as hard as he could pelt. A stone struck the garden gate as he +opened it. He did not pause to ring; he opened the front door, plunged heavily +across the hall into the drawing-room. The Terror formed the center of a +domestic scene; he was playing draughts with his Uncle Maurice. +</p> + +<p> +Captain Baster glared at him with unbelieving eyes and gasped: “I—I +made sure it was that young whelp!” +</p> + +<p> +This sudden violent entry of a bold but disheveled hussar produced a natural +confusion; Mrs. Dangerfield, Sir Maurice and the Terror sprang to their feet, +asking with one voice what had befallen him. +</p> + +<p> +Captain Baster sank heavily on to a chair and instantly sprang up from it with +a howl as he chanced on several tokens of the gorse-bush’s clinging +affection. +</p> + +<p> +“I’ve been stoned—stoned by some hulking scoundrels on the +common!” he cried; and he displayed the considerable bump rising on his +marble brow. +</p> + +<p> +Mrs. Dangerfield was full of concern and sympathy; Sir Maurice was cool, +interested but cool; he did not blaze up into the passionate indignation of a +bosom friend. +</p> + +<p> +“How many of them were there?” said the Terror. +</p> + +<p> +“From the number of stones they threw I should think there were a +dozen,” said Captain Baster; and he panted still. +</p> + +<p> +The Terror looked puzzled. +</p> + +<p> +“I know—I know what it is!” cried Mrs. Dangerfield with an +illuminating flash of womanly intuition. “You’ve been humorous with +some of the villagers!” +</p> + +<p> +“No, no! I haven’t joked with a single one of them!” cried +Captain Baster. “But I’ll teach the scoundrels a lesson! I’ll +put the police on them tomorrow morning. I’ll send for a detective from +London. I’ll prosecute them.” +</p> + +<p> +Then Erebus entered, her piquant face all aglow: “I couldn’t find +your handkerchief anywhere, Mum. It took me ever such a time,” she said, +giving it to her. +</p> + +<p> +The puzzled air faded from the Terror’s face; and he said in a tone of +deep meaning: “Have you been running to find it? You’re quite out +of breath.” +</p> + +<p> +For a moment a horrid suspicion filled the mind of Captain Baster.… But +no: it was impossible—a child in whose veins flowed some of the bluest +blood in England. Besides, her slender arms could never have thrown the stones +as straight and hard as that. +</p> + +<p> +On the other hand Sir Maurice appeared to have lost for once his superb +self-possession; he was staring at his beautiful niece with his mouth slightly +open. He muttered; something about finding his handkerchief, and stumbled out +of the room. They heard a door bang up-stairs; then, through the ceiling, they +heard a curious drumming sound. It occurred to the Terror that it might be the +heels of Sir Maurice on the floor. +</p> + +<p> +Mrs. Dangerfield rang for old Sarah and instructed her to pull the gorse +prickles out of Captain Baster’s clothes. She had nearly finished when +Sir Maurice returned. He carried a handkerchief in his hand, and he had +recovered his superb self-possession; but he seemed somewhat exhausted. +</p> + +<p> +Captain Baster was somewhat excessive in the part of the wounded hero; and for +a while he continued to talk ferociously of the vengeance he would wreak on the +scoundrelly villagers. But after a while he forgot his pricks and bruises to +bask in the presence of Sir Maurice; and he plied him with unflagging +friendliness for the rest of the evening. +</p> + +<p> +The Twins were allowed to sit up till ten o’clock since their Uncle +Maurice was staying with them; and since the Terror was full of admiration and +approval of Erebus’ strenuous endeavor to instil into Captain Baster the +perils and drawbacks of stepfatherhood, he brushed out her abundant hair for +her, an office he sometimes performed when she was in high favor with him. As +he did it she related gleefully the stoning of their enemy. +</p> + +<p> +When she had done, he said warmly: “It was ripping. But the nuisance is: +he doesn’t know it was you who did it, and so it’s rather +wasted.” +</p> + +<p> +“Don’t you worry: I’ll let him know sometime +to-morrow,” said Erebus firmly. +</p> + +<p> +“Yes; but he’s awfully waxy: suppose he prosecutes you?” said +the Terror doubtfully. +</p> + +<p> +Erebus considered the point; then she said: “I don’t think +he’d do that; he’d look so silly being stoned by a girl. Anyhow, +I’ll chance it.” +</p> + +<p> +“All right,” said the Terror. “It’s worth chancing it +to put him off marrying mother. And of course Uncle Maurice is here. +He’ll see nothing serious happens.” +</p> + +<p> +“Of course he will,” said Erebus. +</p> + +<p> +It must have been that the unflagging friendliness of Captain Baster had +weighed on their uncle’s mind, for Erebus, coming softly on him from +behind as he leaned over the garden gate after breakfast, heard him singing to +himself, and paused to listen to his song. +</p> + +<p> +It went: +</p> + +<p class="poem"> +“<i>Where did his colonel dig him up,<br /> + So young, so fair, so +sweet,<br /> +With his shining nose, and his square, square toes?<br /> + Was it Wapping or Basinghall +Street?</i>” +</p> + +<p> +He was so pleased with the effort that he sang it over to himself, softly, +twice with an air of deep satisfaction; and twice the moving but silent lips of +Erebus repeated it. +</p> + +<p> +He was silent; and she said: “Oh, uncle! It’s splendid!” +</p> + +<p> +Sir Maurice started and turned sharply: “You tell any one, little +pitcher, and I’ll pull your long ears,” he said amiably. +</p> + +<p> +Erebus made no rash promises; she gazed at him with inscrutable eyes; then +nodding toward a figure striding swiftly over the common, she said: “Here +he comes.” +</p> + +<p> +Sir Maurice gained the threshold of the front door in two bounds, paused and +cried: “I’m going back to bed! Tell him I’m in bed!” +</p> + +<p> +He vanished, slamming the door behind him. +</p> + +<p> +Captain Baster asked for Sir Maurice cheerfully; and his face fell when Erebus +told him that he had gone back to bed. Mrs. Dangerfield, informed of her +brother’s shrinking, had to be very firm with his new friend to induce +him to go for a walk with her and Erebus. He showed an inclination to linger +about the house till his sun should rise. +</p> + +<p> +Then he tried to shorten the walk; but in this matter too Mrs. Dangerfield was +firm. She did not bring him back till half past twelve, only to learn that Sir +Maurice was very busy writing letters in his bedroom. Captain Baster hoped for +an invitation to lunch (he hinted as much) but he was disappointed. In the end +he returned to The Plough, chafing furiously; he felt that his morning had been +barren. +</p> + +<p> +He was soon back at Colet House, but too late; Sir Maurice had started on a +walk with the Terror. Captain Baster said cheerily that he would overtake them, +and set out briskly to do so. He walked hard enough to compass that end; and it +is probable that he would have had a much better chance of succeeding, had not +Erebus sent him eastward whereas Sir Maurice and the Terror had gone westward. +</p> + +<p> +Captain Baster returned to Colet House in time for tea; and his heart swelled +big within him to learn that Mrs. Dangerfield had invited some friends to meet +him and her brother. Here was his chance to shine, to show Sir Maurice his +social mettle. +</p> + +<p> +He could have wished that the party had been larger. They were only a dozen all +told: Mr. Carruthers, the squire of Little Deeping, the vicar and his wife, the +higher mathematician, father of Wiggins, Mrs. Blenkinsop and Mrs. Morton, and +Wiggins himself, who had spent most of the afternoon with Erebus. Captain +Baster would have preferred thirty or forty, but none the less he fell to work +with a will. +</p> + +<p> +Mrs. Dangerfield had taken advantage of the Indian summer afternoon to have tea +in the garden; and it gave him room to expand. He was soon the life and soul of +the gathering. He was humorous with the vicar about the church, and with the +squire about the dulling effect of the country on the intelligence. He tried to +be humorous with Mr. Carrington, the higher mathematician, whom he took to have +retired from some profession or business. This was so signal a failure that he +dropped humor and became important, telling them of his flat in town and his +country-house, their size and their expensive furniture; he told them about his +motor-cars, his exploits at regimental cricket, at polo and at golf. +</p> + +<p> +He patronized every one with a splendid affability, every one except Sir +Maurice; and him he addressed, with a flattering air of perfect equality, as +“Maurice, old boy,” or “Maurice, old chap,” or plain +“Maurice.” He did shine; his agreeable exertions threw him into a +warm perspiration; his nose shone especially; and they all hated him. +</p> + +<p> +The Twins were busy handing round tea-cups and cakes, but they were aware that +their mother’s tea-party was a failure. As a rule her little parties were +so pleasant with their atmosphere of friendliness; and her guests went away +pleased with themselves, her and one another. The Terror was keenly alive to +the effect of Captain Baster; and a faint persistent frown troubled his +serenity. Erebus was more dimly aware that her enemy was spoiling the party. +Only Sir Maurice and Mr. Carrington really enjoyed the humorist; and Sir +Maurice’s enjoyment was mingled with vexation. +</p> + +<p> +Every one had finished their tea; and they were listening to Captain Baster in +a dull aggravation and blank silence, when he came to the end of his panegyric +on his possessions and accomplishments, and remembered his grievance. Forthwith +he related at length the affair of the night before: how he had been stoned by +a dozen hulking scoundrels on the common. When he came to the end of it, he +looked round for sympathy. +</p> + +<p> +His audience wore a strained rather than sympathetic air, all of them except +the higher mathematician who had turned away and was coughing violently. +</p> + +<p> +The vicar broke the silence; he said: “Er—er—yes; most +extraordinary. But I don’t think it could have been the villagers. +They’re—er—very peaceful people.” +</p> + +<p> +“It must have been some rowdies from Rowington,” said the squire in +the loud tone of a man trying to persuade his hearers that he believed what he +said. +</p> + +<p> +Erebus rose and walked to the gravel path; their eyes fixed in an incredulous +unwinking stare. +</p> + +<p> +She picked up three pebbles from the path, choosing them with some care. The +first pebble hit the weathercock, which rose above the right gable of the +house, plumb in the middle; the second missed its tail by a couple of inches; +the third hit its tail, and the weathercock spun round as if a vigorous gale +were devoting itself to its tail only. +</p> + +<p> +“That’s where I meant to hit it the first time,” said Erebus +with a little explanatory wave of her hand; and she returned to her seat. +</p> + +<p> +The silence that fell was oppressive. Captain Baster gazed earnestly at Erebus, +his roving black eyes fixed in an incredulous unwinking stare. +</p> + +<p> +“That shows you the danger of jumping to hasty conclusions,” said +the higher mathematician in his clear agreeable voice. “I made sure it +was the Terror.” +</p> + +<p> +“So did I,” said the vicar. +</p> + +<p> +“I’d have bet on it,” said the squire. +</p> + +<p> +The silence fell again. Mechanically Captain Baster rubbed the blue bump on his +marble brow. +</p> + +<p> +Erebus broke the silence; she said: “Has any one heard Wiggins’ new +song?” +</p> + +<p> +The squire, hastily and thoughtlessly, cried: “No! Let’s hear +it!” +</p> + +<p> +“Come on, Wiggins!” cried the vicar heartily. +</p> + +<p> +They felt that the situation was saved. +</p> + +<p> +Sir Maurice did not share their relief; he knew what was coming, knew it in the +depths of his horror-stricken heart. He ground his teeth softly and glared at +the piquant and glowing face of his niece as if he could have borne the +earth’s suddenly opening and swallowing her up. +</p> + +<p> +The blushing Wiggins held back a little, and kicked his left foot with his +right. Then pushed forward by the eager Terror, to whom Erebus had chanted the +song before lunch, he stepped forward and in his dear shrill treble, sang, +slightly out of tune: +</p> + +<p class="poem"> +“<i>Where did his colonel dig him up,<br /> + So young, so fair, so +sweet,<br /> +With his shining nose, and his square, square toes?<br /> + Was it Wapping or Basinghall +Street?</i>” +</p> + +<p> +As he sang Wiggins looked artlessly at Captain Baster; as he finished everybody +was looking at Captain Baster’s boots; his feet required them +square-toed. +</p> + +<p> +Captain Baster’s face was a rich rose-pink; he, glared round the frozen +circle now trying hard not to look at his boots; he saw the faces melt into +irrepressible smiles; he looked to Sir Maurice, the man he had made his bosom +friend, for an indignant outburst; Sir Maurice was smiling, too. +</p> + +<p> +Captain Baster snorted fiercely; then he swelled with splendid dignity, and +said loudly, but thickly, “I refuse! Yes, I refuse to mix in a society +where children are brought up as hooligans yes: as hooligans!” +</p> + +<p> +He turned on his heel, strode to the gate, and turned and bellowed, +“Hooligans!” +</p> + +<p> +He flung himself through the gate and strode violently across the common. +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, Wiggins! How could you?” cried Mrs. Dangerfield in a tone of +horror. +</p> + +<p> +“It wasn’t Wiggins! It was me! I taught him. He didn’t +understand,” said Erebus loyally. +</p> + +<p> +“I did understand—quite. But why did he call me Freckles?” +said Wiggins in a vengeful tone. “Nobody can help having freckles.” +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap03"></a> CHAPTER III<br /> +AND THE CATS’ HOME</h2> + +<p> +They watched the retreating figure of Captain Baster till it was lost to sight +among the gorse, in silence. They were glad at his going, but sorry at the +manner of it, since Mrs. Dangerfield looked distressed and vexed. +</p> + +<p> +Then the vicar said: “There is a good deal to be said for the point of +view of Wiggins, Mrs. Dangerfield. After all, Captain Baster was the original +aggressor.” +</p> + +<p> +“Nevertheless I must apologize for my son’s exploding such an +uncommonly violent bomb at a quiet garden party,” said the higher +mathematician. “I suspect he underrated its effect.” +</p> + +<p> +His tone was apologetic, but there was no excess of contrition in it. +</p> + +<p> +“What I think is that Captain Baster’s notion of humor is catching; +and that it affected Erebus and Wiggins,” said Sir Maurice amiably. +“And if we start apologizing, there will be no end to it. I should have +to come in myself as the maker of the bomb who carelessly left it lying +about.” +</p> + +<p> +“It was certainly a happy effort,” said the vicar, smiling. Then he +changed the subject firmly, saying: “We’re going to London next +week; perhaps you could recommend a play to us to go to, Sir Maurice.” +</p> + +<p> +A faint ripple of grateful relaxation ran round the circle and presently it was +clear that in taking himself off Captain Baster had lifted a wet blanket of +quite uncommon thickness from the party. They were talking easily and freely; +and Mrs. Dangerfield and Sir Maurice were seeing to it that every one, even +Mrs. Blenkinsop and Mrs. Morton, were getting their little chances of shining. +The Twins and Wiggins slipped away; and their elders talked the more at their +ease for their going. In the end the little gathering which Captain Baster had +so nearly crushed, broke up in the best of spirits, all the guests in a state +of amiable satisfaction with Mrs. Dangerfield, themselves and one another. +</p> + +<p> +After they had gone Sir Maurice and Mrs. Dangerfield discussed the exploits of +Erebus; and he did his best to abate her distress at the two onslaughts his +violent niece had made on a guest. The Terror was also doing his best in the +matter: with unbending firmness he prevented Erebus, eager to enjoy her +uncle’s society, from returning to the house till it was time to dress +for dinner. He wished to give his mother time to get over the worst of her +annoyance. +</p> + +<p> +Thanks to their efforts Mrs. Dangerfield did not rebuke her violent daughter +with any great severity. But even so, Erebus did not receive these milder +rebukes in the proper meek spirit. Unlike the philosophic Terror, who for the +most part accepted his mother’s just rebukes, after a doubtful exploit, +with a disarming sorrowful air, Erebus must always make out a case for herself; +and she did so now. +</p> + +<p> +Displaying an injured air, she took the ground that Captain Baster was not +really a guest on the previous evening, since he was making a descent on the +house uninvited, and therefore he did not come within the sphere of the laws of +hospitality. +</p> + +<p> +“Besides he never behaved like a guest,” she went on in a bitterly +aggrieved tone. “He was always making himself objectionable to every +one—especially to me. And if he was always trying to score off me, +I’d a perfect right to score off him. And anyhow, I wasn’t going to +let him marry you without doing everything I could to stop it. He’d be a +perfectly beastly stepfather—you know he would.” +</p> + +<p> +This was an aspect of the matter Mrs. Dangerfield had no desire to discuss; and +flushing a little, she contented herself with closing the discussion by telling +Erebus not to do it again. She knew that however bitterly Erebus might protest +against a just rebuke, she would take it sufficiently to heart. She was sure +that she would not stone another guest. +</p> + +<p> +With the departure of Captain Baster peace settled on Colet House; and Sir +Maurice enjoyed very much his three days’ stay. The Twins, though they +were in that condition of subdued vivacity into which they always fell after a +signal exploit that came to their mother’s notice, were very pleasant +companions; and the peaceful life and early hours of Little Deeping were +grateful after the London whirl. Also he had many talks with his sister on the +matter of settling down in life, a course of action she frequently urged on +him. +</p> + +<p> +When he went the Twins felt a certain dulness. It was not acute boredom; they +were preserved from that by the fact that the Terror went every morning to +study the classics with the vicar, and Erebus learned English and French with +her mother. Their afternoon leisure, therefore, rarely palled on them. +</p> + +<p> +One afternoon, as they came out of the house after lunch, Erebus suggested that +they should begin by ambushing Wiggins. They went, therefore, toward Mr. +Carrington’s house which stood nearly a mile away on the outskirts of +Little Deeping, and watched it from the edge of the common. They saw their prey +in the garden; and he tried their patience by staying there for nearly a +quarter of an hour. +</p> + +<p> +Then he came briskly up the road to the common. Their eyes began to shine with +the expectation of immediate triumph, when, thirty yards from the +common’s edge, in a sudden access of caution, he bolted for covert and +disappeared in the gorse sixty yards away on their left. They fell noiselessly +back, going as quickly as concealment permitted, to cut him off. They were +successful. They caught him crossing an open space, yelled “Bang!” +together; and in accordance with the rules of the game Wiggins fell to the +ground. +</p> + +<p> +They scalped him with yells of such a piercing triumph that the immemorial oaks +for a quarter of a mile round emptied themselves hastily of the wood-pigeons +feeding on their acorns. +</p> + +<p> +Wiggins rose gloomily, gloomily took from his knickerbockers pocket his +tattered and grimy notebook, gloomily made an entry in it, and gloomily said: +“That makes you two games ahead.” Then he spurned the earth and +added: “I’m going to have a bicycle.” +</p> + +<p> +The Twins looked at each other darkly; Erebus scowled, and a faint frown broke +the ineffable serenity of the Terror’s face. +</p> + +<p> +“There’ll be no living with Wiggins now, he’ll be so +cocky,” said Erebus bitterly. +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, no; he won’t,” said the Terror. “But we ought to +have bicycles, too. We want them badly. We never get really far from the +village. We always get stopped on the way—rats, or something.” And +his guileless, dreamy blue eyes swept the distant autumn hills with a look of +yearning. +</p> + +<p> +“There are orchards over there where they don’t know us,” +said Erebus wistfully. +</p> + +<p> +“We <i>must</i> have bicycles. I’ve been thinking so for a long +time,” said the Terror. +</p> + +<p> +“We must have the moon!” said Erebus with cold scorn. +</p> + +<p> +“Bicycles aren’t so far away,” said the Terror sagely. +</p> + +<p> +They moved swiftly across the common. Erebus poured forth a long monotonous +complaint about the lack of bicycles, which, for them, made this Cosmic All a +mere time-honored cheat. With ears impervious to his sister’s vain +lament, the Terror strode on serenely thoughtful, pondering this pressing +problem. Now and again, for obscure but profound reasons, Wiggins spurned the +earth and proceeded by leaps and bounds. +</p> + +<p> +Possibly it was the monotonous plaint of his sister which caused the Terror to +say: “I’ve got a penny. We’ll go and get some +bull’s-eyes.” +</p> + +<p> +At any rate the monotonous plaint ceased. +</p> + +<p> +They had returned on their steps across the common, and were nearing the +village, when they met three small boys. One of them carried a kitten. +</p> + +<p> +Erebus stopped short. “What are you going to do with that kitten, Billy +Beck?” she said. +</p> + +<p> +“We be goin’ to drown ’im in the pond,” said Billy Beck +in the important tones of an executioner. +</p> + +<p> +Erebus sprang; and the kitten was in her hands. “You’re not going +to do anything of the sort, you little beast!” she said. +</p> + +<p> +The round red face of Billy Beck flushed redder with rage and disappointment, +and he howled: +</p> + +<p> +“Gimme my kitty! Mother says she won’t ’ave ’im about +the ’ouse, an’ I could drown ’im.” +</p> + +<p> +“You won’t have him,” said Erebus. +</p> + +<p> +Billy Beck and his little brothers, robbed of their simple joy, burst into +blubbering roar of “It’s ourn! It ain’t yourn! It’s +ourn!” +</p> + +<p> +“It isn’t! A kitten isn’t any one’s to drown!” +cried Erebus. +</p> + +<p> +The Terror gazed at Erebus and Billy Beck with judicial eyes, the cold +personification of human justice. Erebus edged away from him ready to fly, +should human justice intervene actively. The Terror put his hand in his pocket +and fumbled. He drew out a penny, and looked at it earnestly. He was weighing +the respective merits of justice and bull’s-eyes. +</p> + +<p> +“Here’s a penny for your kitten. You can buy bull’s-eyes with +it,” he said with a sigh, and held out the coin. +</p> + +<p> +A sudden greed sparkled in Billy Beck’s tearful eyes. +“’E’s worth more’n a penny—a kitty like +’im!” he blubbered. +</p> + +<p> +“Not to drown. It’s all you’ll get,” said the Terror +curtly. He tossed the penny to Billy’s feet, turned on his heel and went +back across the common away from the village. Some of the brightness faded out +of the faces of Erebus and Wiggins. +</p> + +<p> +“I wouldn’t have given him a penny. He was only going to drown the +kitten,” said Erebus in a grudging tone. +</p> + +<p> +“It was his kitten. We couldn’t take it without paying for +it,” said the Terror coldly. +</p> + +<p> +Erebus followed him, cuddling the kitten and talking to it as she went. +</p> + +<p> +Presently Wiggins spurned the earth and said, “There ought to be a home +for kittens nobody wants—and puppies.” +</p> + +<p> +The Terror stopped short, and said: “By Jove! There’s Aunt +Amelia!” +</p> + +<p> +Erebus burst into a bitter complaint of the stinginess of Aunt Amelia, who had +more money than all the rest of the family put together, and yet never rained +postal orders on deserving nieces and nephews, but spent it all on horrid +cats’ homes. +</p> + +<p> +“That’s just it,” said the Terror in a tone of considerable +animation. “Come along; I want you to write a letter.” +</p> + +<p> +“I’m not going to write any disgusting letter!” cried Erebus +hotly. +</p> + +<p> +“Then you’re not going to get any bicycle. Come on. I’ll look +out the words in the dictionary, and Wiggins can help because, seeing so much +of his father, he’s got into the way of using grammar. It’ll be +useful. Come on!” +</p> + +<p> +They came on, Wiggins, as always, deeply impressed by the importance of being a +helper of the Twins, for they were in their fourteenth year, and only ten brief +wet summers had passed over his own tousled head, Erebus clamoring to have her +suddenly aroused curiosity gratified. Practise had made the Terror’s ears +impervious at will to his sister’s questions, which were frequent and +innumerable. Without a word of explanation he led the way home; without a word +he set her down at the dining-room table with paper and ink before her, and sat +down himself on the opposite side of it, a dictionary in his hand and Wiggins +by his side. +</p> + +<p> +Then he said coldly: “Now don’t make any blots, or you’ll +have to do it all over again.” +</p> + +<p> +“I never make blots! It’s you that makes blots!” cried +Erebus, ruffled. “Mr. Etheridge says I write ever so much better than you +do. Ever so much better.” +</p> + +<p> +“That’s why you’re writing the letter and not me,” said +the Terror coldly. “Fire away: ‘My dear Aunt Amelia’—I +say, Wiggins, what’s the proper words for ‘awfully +keen’?” +</p> + +<p> +“‘Keen’ is ‘interested’—I don’t know +how many ‘r’s’ there are in +‘interested’—and ‘awfully’ is an awfully +difficult word,” said Wiggins, pondering. +</p> + +<p> +The Terror looked up “interested” in the dictionary with a +laborious painfulness, and announced triumphantly that there was but a single +“r” in it; then he said, “What’s the right word for +‘awfully,’ Wiggins? Buck up!” +</p> + +<p> +“‘Tremendously,’” said Wiggins with the air of a +successful Columbus. +</p> + +<p> +“That’s it,” said the Terror. “‘My dear Aunt +Amelia: I have often heard that you are tremendously interested in cats’ +homes’”— +</p> + +<p> +“I should think you had!” said Erebus. +</p> + +<p> +“Now don’t jabber, please; just stick to the writing,” said +the Terror. “I’ve got to make this letter a corker; and how can I +think if you jabber?” +</p> + +<p> +Erebus made a hideous grimace and bent to her task. +</p> + +<p> +“‘Little Deeping wants a cats’ home awfully’—no: +‘tremendously.’ I like that word ‘tremendously’; it +means something,” said the Terror. +</p> + +<p> +“You’re jabbering yourself now,” said Erebus unpleasantly. +</p> + +<p> +Ruffling his fair hair in the agony of composition, the Terror continued: +“‘The quantity of kittens that are drowned is +horrible’—that ought to fetch her; kittens are so much nicer than +cats—‘and I have been thinking’—Oughtn’t you to +put in some stops?” +</p> + +<p> +“I’m putting in stops—lots,” said Erebus +contemptuously. +</p> + +<p> +“‘I have been thinking—that if you wanted to have a +cats’ home here’—What’s the right word for +‘running a thing,’ Wiggins?” +</p> + +<p> +Wiggins frowned deeply; a number of his freckles seemed to run into one +another. +</p> + +<p> +“There is a word ‘overseer’—slaves have them,” he +said cautiously. +</p> + +<p> +The Terror sought that word painfully in the dictionary, spelled it out, and +continued: “‘I could overseer it for you. I have got my eye on a +building which would suit us tremendously well. But these things cost money, +and it would not be any use starting with less than thirty pounds’— +</p> + +<p> +“Thirty pounds! My goodness!” cried Erebus; and her eyes opened +wide. +</p> + +<p> +“We may as well go the whole hog,” said the Terror philosophically. +“Go on: ‘Or else just as the cats get to be happy and feel it was a +real home—’ What’s the word for ‘bust up,’ +Wiggins?” +</p> + +<p> +“Burst up,” said Wiggins without hesitation. +</p> + +<p> +“No, no; not the grammar—the right word! Oh, I know; ‘go +bankrupt’—‘it might go bankrupt. So it you would like to have +a cats’ home here and send me some money, I will start it at once. Your +affectionate nephew, Hyacinth Wolfram Dangerfield.’ There!” said +the Terror with a sigh of relief. +</p> + +<p> +“But you’ve left me out altogether,” said Erebus in a +suddenly aggrieved tone. +</p> + +<p> +“I should jolly well think I had! You know that ever since you stayed +with Aunt Amelia, and taught her parrot to say ‘Dam,’ she +won’t have anything to do with you,” said the Terror firmly. +</p> + +<p> +“There’s no pleasing some people,” said Erebus mournfully. +“When I went there the silly old parrot couldn’t say a thing; and +when I came away, he could say ‘Dam! Dam! Dam!’ from morning till +night without making a mistake.” +</p> + +<p> +“It’s a word people don’t like,” said the Terror. +</p> + +<p> +“Well, I and the parrot meant a dam in a river. I told Aunt Amelia +so,” said Erebus firmly. +</p> + +<p> +“She might not believe you; she doesn’t know how truthfully +we’ve been brought up,” said the Terror. “Go on; sign my name +to the letter.” +</p> + +<p> +“That’s forgery. You ought to sign your name yourself,” said +Erebus. +</p> + +<p> +“No; you write my name better than I do; and it will go better with the +rest of the letter. Sign away,” said the Terror firmly. +</p> + +<p> +Erebus signed away, and then she said: “But what good’s the money +going to be to us, if we’ve got to spend it on a silly old cats’ +home? It only means a lot of trouble.” +</p> + +<p> +The guilelessness deepened and deepened on the Terror’s face. +“Well, you see, there aren’t many cats in Little Deeping—not +enough to fill a cats’ home decently,” he said slowly. “We +should have to have bicycles to collect them—from Great Deeping, and +Muttle Deeping, and farther off.” +</p> + +<p> +Erebus gasped; and the light of understanding illumined her charming face, as +she cried in a tone of awe not untinctured with admiration: “Well, you do +think of things!” +</p> + +<p> +“I have to,” said the Terror. “If I didn’t we should +never have a single thing.” +</p> + +<p> +The Terror procured a stamp from Mrs. Dangerfield. He did not tell her of the +splendid scheme he was promoting; he only said that he had thought he would +write to Aunt Amelia. Mrs. Dangerfield was pleased with him for his thought: +she wished him to stand well with his great-aunt, since she was a rich woman +without children of her own. She did not, indeed, suggest that the letter +should be shown to her, though she suspected that it contained some artless +request. She thought it better that the Terror should write to his great-aunt +to make requests rather than not write at all. +</p> + +<p> +The letter posted, the Twins resumed the somewhat jerky tenor of their lives. +Erebus was full of speculations about the changes in their lives those bicycles +would bring about; she would pause in the very middle of some important +enterprise to discuss the rides they would take on them, the orchards that +those machines would bring within their reach. But the Terror would have none +of it; his calm philosophic mind forbade him to discuss his chickens before +they were hatched. +</p> + +<p> +Since her philanthropy was confined entirely to cats, it is not remarkable that +philanthropy, and not intelligence, was the chief characteristic of Lady +Ryehampton. As the purport of her great-nephew’s letter slowly penetrated +her mind, a broad and beaming smile of gratification spread slowly over her +large round face; and as she handed the letter to Miss Hendersyde, her +companion, she cried in unctuous tones: “The dear boy! So young, but +already enthusiastic about great things!” +</p> + +<p> +Miss Hendersyde looked at her employer patiently; she foresaw that she was +going to have to struggle with her to save her from being once more victimized. +She had come to suspect anything that stirred Lady Ryehampton to a noble +phrase. Her eyes brightened with humorous appreciation as she read the letter +of Erebus; and when she came to the end of it she opened her mouth to point out +that Little Deeping was one of the last places in England to need a cats’ +home. Then she bethought herself of the whole situation, shut her mouth with a +little click, and her face went blank. +</p> + +<p> +Then she breathed a short silent prayer for forgiveness, smiled and said +warmly: “It’s really wonderful. You must have inspired him with +that enthusiasm yourself.” +</p> + +<p> +“I suppose I must,” said Lady Ryehampton with an air of +satisfaction. “And I must be careful not to discourage him.” +</p> + +<p> +Miss Hendersyde thought of the Terror’s face, his charming sympathetic +manners, and his darned knickerbockers. It was only right that some of Lady +Ryehampton’s money should go to him; indeed that money ought to be +educating him at a good school. It was monstrous that the great bulk of it +should be spent on cats; cats were all very well but human beings came first. +And the Terror was such an attractive human being. +</p> + +<p> +“Yes, it is a dreadful thing to discourage enthusiasm,” she said +gravely. +</p> + +<p> +Lady Ryehampton proceeded to discuss the question whether a cats’ home +could be properly started with thirty pounds, whether she had not better send +fifty. Miss Hendersyde made her conscience quite comfortable by compromising: +she said that she thought thirty was enough to begin with; that if more were +needful, Lady Ryehampton could give it later. Lady Ryehampton accepted the +suggestion. +</p> + +<p> +Having set her employer’s hand to the plow, Miss Hendersyde saw to it +that she did not draw it back. Lady Ryehampton would spend money on cats, but +she could not be hurried in the spending of it. But Miss Hendersyde kept +referring to the Terror’s enterprise all that day and the next morning, +with the result that on the next afternoon Lady Ryehampton signed the check for +thirty pounds. At Miss Hendersyde’s suggestion she drew the money in +cash; and Miss Hendersyde turned it into postal orders, for there is no bank at +Little Deeping. +</p> + +<p> +On the third morning the registered letter reached Colet House. The excited +Erebus, who had been watching for the postman, received it from him, signed the +receipt with trembling fingers, and dashed off with the precious packet to the +Terror in the orchard. +</p> + +<p> +The Terror took it from her with flawless serenity and opened it slowly. +</p> + +<p> +But as he counted the postal orders, a faint flush covered his face; and he +said in a somewhat breathless tone: “Thirty pounds—well!” +</p> + +<p> +Erebus executed a short but Bacchic dance which she invented on the spur of +that marvelous moment. +</p> + +<p> +“It’s splendid—splendid!” she cried. “It’s +the best thing you ever thought of!” +</p> + +<p> +The Terror put the postal orders back into the envelope, and put the envelope +into the breast pocket of his coat. A frown of the most thoughtful +consideration furrowed his brow. Then he said firmly: “The first thing, +to do is to get the bicycles. If once we’ve got them, no one will take +them away from us.” +</p> + +<p> +“Of course they won’t,” said Erebus, with eager acceptance of +his idea. +</p> + +<p> +The breakfast-bell rang; and they went into the house, Erebus spurning the +earth as she went, in the very manner of Wiggins. +</p> + +<p> +In the middle of breakfast the Terror said in a casual tone and with a casual +air, as if he was not greatly eager for the boon: “May we have the +cow-house for our very own, Mum?” +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, Terror! Surely you don’t want to keep ferrets!” cried +Mrs. Dangerfield, who lived in fear of the Terror’s developing that +inevitable boyish taste. +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, no; but if we had the cow-house to do what we liked with, I think we +could make a little pocket-money out of it.” +</p> + +<p> +“I am afraid you’re growing terribly mercenary,” said his +mother; then she added with a sigh: “But I don’t wonder at it, +seeing how hard up you always are. You can have the cow-house. It’s right +at the end of the paddock—well away from the house—so that I +don’t see that you can do any harm with it whatever you do. But how are +you going to make pocket-money out of it?” +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, I haven’t got it all worked out yet,” said the Terror +quickly. “But we’ll tell you all about it when we have. Thanks ever +so much for the cow-house.” +</p> + +<p> +For the rest of breakfast he left the conversation to Erebus. +</p> + +<p> +The Terror was blessed with a masterly prudence uncommon indeed in a boy of his +years. He changed but one of the six postal orders at Little Deeping—that +would make talk enough—and then, having begged a holiday from the vicar, +he took the train to Rowington, their market town, ten miles away, taking +Erebus with him. There he changed three more postal orders; and then the Twins +took their way to the bicycle shop, with hearts that beat high. +</p> + +<p> +The Terror set about the purchase in a very careful leisurely way which, in any +one else, would have exasperated the highly strung Erebus to the very limits of +endurance; but where the Terror was concerned she had long ago learned the +futility of exasperation. He began by an exhaustive examination of every make +of bicycle in the shop; and he made it with a thoroughness that worried the +eager bicycle-seller, one of those smart young men who pamper a chin’s +passion for receding by letting a straggly beard try to cover it, till his +nerves were all on edge. Then the Terror, drawing a handful of sovereigns out +of his pocket and gazing at them lovingly, seemed unable to make up his mind +whether to buy two bicycles or one; and the bearded but chinless young man +perspired with his eloquent efforts to demonstrate the advantage of buying two. +He was quite weary when the persuaded Terror proceeded to develop the point +that there must be a considerable reduction in price to the buyer of two +bicycles. Then he made his offer: he would give fourteen pounds for two +eight-pound-ten bicycles. His serenity was quite unruffled by the +seller’s furious protests. Then the real struggle began. The Terror came +out of it with two bicycles, two lamps, two bells and two baskets of a size to +hold a cat; the seller came out of it with fifteen pounds; and the triumphant +Twins wheeled their machines out of the shop. +</p> + +<p> +The Terror stood still and looked thoughtfully up and down High Street. Then he +said: “We’ve saved the cats’ home quite two pounds.” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes,” said Erebus. +</p> + +<p> +“And it’s made me awfully hungry and thirsty doing it,” said +the Terror. +</p> + +<p> +“It must have—arguing like that,” said Erebus quickly; and +her eyes brightened as she caught his drift. +</p> + +<p> +“Well, I think the home ought to pay for refreshment. It’s a long +ride home,” said the Terror. +</p> + +<p> +“Of course it ought,” said Erebus with decision. +</p> + +<p> +Without more ado they wheeled their bicycles down the street to a +confectioner’s shop, propped them up carefully against the curb, and +entered the shop with an important moneyed air. +</p> + +<p> +At the end of his fourth jam tart the Terror said: “Of course overseers +have a salary.” +</p> + +<p> +“Of course they do,” said Erebus. +</p> + +<p> +“That settles the matter of pocket-money,” said the Terror. +“We’ll have sixpence a week each.” +</p> + +<p> +“Only sixpence?” said Erebus in a tone of the liveliest surprise. +</p> + +<p> +“Well, you see, there are the bicycles. I don’t think we can make +it more than sixpence. And I tell you what: we shall have to keep accounts. +I’ll buy an account-book. You’re very good at +arithmetic—you’ll like keeping accounts,” said the Terror +suavely. +</p> + +<p> +Since her mouth was full of luscious jam tart, Erebus did not feel that it +would be delicate at that moment to protest. Therefore on leaving the shop the +Terror bought an account-book. His distrust of literature prevented him from +paying more than a penny for it. From the stationer’s he went to an +ironmonger’s and bought a saw, a brace, a gimlet, a screw-driver and two +gross of screws—his tool-box had long needed refilling. Then they mounted +their machines proudly (they had learned to ride on the machines of +acquaintances) and rode home. After their visit to the confectioner’s +they rode rather sluggishly. +</p> + +<p> +They were not hungry, far from it, at the moment; but half-way home the Terror +turned out of the main road into the lanes, and they paused at a quiet orchard, +in a lovely unguarded spot, and filled the cat-basket on Erebus’ bicycle +with excellent apples. The tools had been packed into the Terror’s +basket. They did not disturb the farmer’s wife at the busy dinner-hour; +the Terror threw the apples over the orchard hedge to Erebus. +</p> + +<p> +As he remembered his bicycle he said dreamily: “I shouldn’t wonder +if these bicycles didn’t pay for themselves in time.” +</p> + +<p> +“I said there were orchards out here where they didn’t know +us,” said Erebus, biting into a Ribston pippin. +</p> + +<p> +They reached home in time for lunch and locked away their bicycles in the +cow-house. At lunch they were reticent about their triumphs of the morning. +</p> + +<p> +After lunch they went to the cow-house and took measurements. It had long been +unoccupied by cows and needed little cleaning. It was quite suitable to their +purpose, a brick building with a slate roof and of a size to hold two cows. The +measurements made, they went, with an important moneyed air, down to the +village carpenter, the only timber merchant in the neighborhood, and bought +planks from him. There was some discussion before his idea about the price of +planks and that of the Terror were in exact accord; and as he took the money he +said, with some ruefulness, that he was a believer in small profits and quick +returns. Since immediate delivery was part of the bargain, he forthwith put the +planks on a hand-cart and wheeled them up to Colet House. The Twins, eager to +be at work, helped him. +</p> + +<p> +For the rest of the day the Terror applied his indisputable constructive genius +to the creation of cat-hutches. That evening Erebus wrote his warm letter of +thanks to Lady Ryehampton. +</p> + +<p> +The next morning, with a womanly disregard of obligation, Erebus proposed that +they should forthwith mount their bicycles and sally forth on a splendid foray. +The Terror would not hear of it. +</p> + +<p> +“No,” he said firmly. “We’re going to get the +cats’ home finished before we use those bicycles at all. Then nobody can +complain.” +</p> + +<p> +He lost no time setting to work on it, and worked till it was time to go down +to the vicarage for his morning’s lessons with the vicar. He set to work +again as soon as he returned; he worked all the afternoon; and he saw to it +that Erebus worked, too. +</p> + +<p> +In the middle of the afternoon Wiggins came. He had spent a fruitless hour +lying in wait on the common to scalp the Twins as they sallied forth into the +world, and then had come to see what had kept them within their borders. He was +deeply impressed by the sight of the bicycles, but not greatly surprised: his +estimation of the powers of his friends was too high for any of their exploits +to surprise him greatly. But he was somewhat aggrieved that they should have +obtained their bicycles before he had obtained his. None the less he helped +them construct the cats’ home with enthusiasm. +</p> + +<p> +For three strenuous days they persisted in their untiring effort. So much +sustained carpentering was hard on their hands; many small pieces were chipped +out of them. But their spirits never flagged; and by sunset on the third day +they had constructed accommodation for thirty cats. It may be that the wooden +bars of the hutches were not all of the same breadth, but at any rate they were +all of the same thickness: and it would be a slim cat, indeed, that would +squirm through them. +</p> + +<p> +At sunset on the third day the exultant trio gazed round the transformed +cow-house with shining triumphant eyes; then Erebus said firmly: “What we +want now is cats.” +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap04"></a> CHAPTER IV<br /> +AND THE VISIT OF INSPECTION</h2> + + +<p> +Cats did not immediately flow in, though the Twins, riding round the +countryside on their bicycles, spread the information that they were willing to +afford a home to such of those necessary animals as their owners no longer +needed. They had, indeed, one offer of a cat suffering from the mange; but the +Terror rejected it, saying coldly to its owner that theirs was a home, not a +hospital. +</p> + +<p> +The impatient Erebus was somewhat vexed with him for rejecting it: she pointed +out that even a mangy cat was a beginning. +</p> + +<p> +Slowly they grew annoyed that the home on which they had lavished such +strenuous labor remained empty; and at last the Terror said: “Look here: +I’m going to begin with kittens.” +</p> + +<p> +“How will you get kittens, if you can’t get cats? Everybody likes +kittens. It’s only when they grow up and stop playing that they +don’t want them,” said Erebus with her coldest scorn. +</p> + +<p> +“I’m going to buy them,” said the Terror firmly. +“I’m going to give threepence each for kittens that can just lap. +We don’t want kittens that can’t lap. They’d be too much +trouble.” +</p> + +<p> +“That’s a good idea,” said Erebus, brightening. +</p> + +<p> +“It’ll stop them drowning kittens all right. The only thing +I’m not sure about is the accounts.” +</p> + +<p> +“You’re always bothering about those silly old accounts!” +said Erebus sharply. +</p> + +<p> +She resented having had to enter in their penny ledger the items of their +expenditure with conspicuous neatness under his critical eye. +</p> + +<p> +“Well, I don’t think the kittens ought to go down in the accounts. +Aunt Amelia is so used to cats’ homes that are given their cats. +She’s told me all about it: how people write and ask for their cats to be +taken in.” +</p> + +<p> +“<i>I</i> don’t want them to go down. It makes all the less +accounts to keep,” said Erebus readily. +</p> + +<p> +“Well, that’s settled,” said the Terror cheerfully. +</p> + +<p> +Once more the Twins rode round the countryside, spreading abroad the tidings of +their munificent offer of threepence a head for kittens who could just lap. +</p> + +<p> +But kittens did not immediately flow in; and the complaints of the impatient +Erebus grew louder and louder. There was no doubt that she loved a grievance; +and even more she loved making no secret of that grievance to those about her. +Since she could only discuss this grievance with the Terror and Wiggins, they +heard enough about it. Indeed, her complaints were at last no small factor in +her patient brother’s resolve to take action; and he called her and +Wiggins to a council. +</p> + +<p> +He opened the discussion by saying: “We’ve got to have kittens, or +cats. We can’t have any pocket-money for ‘overseering’ till +there’s something to overseer.” +</p> + +<p> +“And that splendid cats’ home we’ve made stopping empty all +the time,” said Erebus in her most bitterly aggrieved tone. +</p> + +<p> +“I don’t mind that. I’m sick of hearing about it,” said +the Terror coldly. “But I do want pocket-money; and besides, Aunt Amelia +will soon be wanting to know what’s happening to the home; and +she’ll make a fuss if there aren’t any cats in it. So we must have +cats.” +</p> + +<p> +“Well, I tell you what it is: we must take cats. There are cats all over +the country; and when we’re out bicycling, a good way from home, we could +easily pick up one or two at a time and bring them back with us. We ought to be +able to get four a day, counting kittens; and in eight days the home would be +full and two over.” +</p> + +<p> +“And we should be prosecuted for stealing them,” said the Terror +coldly. +</p> + +<p> +“But they’d be ever so much better off in the home, properly looked +after and fed,” protested Erebus. +</p> + +<p> +“That wouldn’t make any difference. No; it’s no good trying +to get them that way,” said the Terror in a tone of finality. +</p> + +<p> +“Well, they won’t come of themselves,” said Erebus. +</p> + +<p> +“They would with valerian,” said Wiggins. +</p> + +<p> +“Who’s Valerian?” said Erebus. +</p> + +<p> +“It isn’t a who. It’s a drug at the chemist’s,” +said Wiggins. “I’ve been talking to my father about cats a good +deal lately, and he says if you put valerian on a rag and drag it along the +ground, cats will follow it for miles.” +</p> + +<p> +“Your father seems to know everything—such a lot of useful things +as well as higher mathematics,” said the Terror. +</p> + +<p> +“That’s why he has a European reputation,” said Wiggins; and +he spurned the earth. +</p> + +<p> +That afternoon the Twins bicycled into Rowington and bought a bottle of the +enchanting drug. Just before they reached the village, on their way home, the +Terror produced a rag with a piece of string tied to it, poured some valerian +on it and trailed it after his bicycle through the village to his garden gate. +</p> + +<p> +The result demonstrated the accuracy of the scientific knowledge of the father +of Wiggins. All that evening and far into the night twelve cats fought +clamorously round the house of the Dangerfields. +</p> + +<p> +The next day the Terror turned the cats’ home into a cat-trap. He cut a +hole in the bottom of its door large enough to admit a cat and fitted it with a +hanging flap which a cat would readily push open from the outside, but lacked +the intelligence to raise from the inside. He was late finishing it, and went +from it to his dinner. +</p> + +<p> +They had just come to the end of the simple meal when they heard a ring at the +back door; and old Sarah came in to say that Polly Cotteril had come from the +village with some kittens. The Twins excused themselves politely to their +mother, and hurried to the kitchen to find that Polly had brought no less than +five small kittens in a basket. +</p> + +<p> +Forthwith the Terror filled a saucer with milk and applied the lapping test. +Four of the kittens lapped the milk somewhat feebly, but they lapped. The fifth +would not lap. It only mewed. Therefore the Terror took only four of the +kittens, giving Polly a shilling for them. The fifth he returned to her, +bidding her bring it back when it could lap. +</p> + +<p> +They took the four kittens down to the cats’ home; and since they were so +small, they put them in one hutch for warmth, with a saucer of milk to satisfy +their hunger during the night. +</p> + +<p> +“Now we’ve got these kittens, we needn’t bother about getting +cats,” said the Terror as they returned to the house. “And +I’m glad it is kittens and not cats. Kittens eat less.” +</p> + +<p> +“Then you’ve had all the trouble of making that little door for +nothing,” said Erebus. +</p> + +<p> +“It’s an emergency exit—like the theaters have—only +it’s an entrance,” said the Terror. “But thank goodness, +we’ve begun at last; now we can have salaries for +‘overseering’.” +</p> + +<p> +During the course of the next week they added seven more small kittens to their +stock; and it seemed good to the Terror to inform Lady Ryehampton that the home +was already constructed and in process of occupation. Accordingly Erebus wrote +a letter, by no means devoid of enthusiasm, informing her that it already held +eleven inmates, “saved from the awful death of drowning.” Lady +Ryehampton replied promptly in a spirit of warm gratification that they had +been so quick starting it. +</p> + +<p> +But with eleven inmates in the home the Twins presently found themselves +grappling earnestly with the food problem and the account-book. +</p> + +<p> +The Terror was not unfitted for financial operations. Till they were six years +old the Twins had lived luxuriously at Dangerfield Hall, in Monmouth, with toys +beyond the dreams of Alnaschar. Then their father had fallen into the hands of +a firm of gambling stock-brokers, had along with them lost nearly all his +money, and presently died, leaving Mrs. Dangerfield with a very small income +indeed. All the while since his death it had been a hard struggle to make both +ends meet; and the Twins had had many a lesson in learning to do without the +desires of their hearts. +</p> + +<p> +But their desires were strong; the wits of the Terror were not weak; and taking +one month with another the Twins had as much pocket-money as the bulk of the +children of the well-to-do. But it did not come in the way of a regular +allowance; it had to be obtained by diplomacy or work; and the processes of +getting it had given the Terror the liveliest interest in financial matters. He +was resolved that the cats’ home and the wages of +“overseering” should last as long as possible. +</p> + +<p> +But it soon grew clear to him that, with milk at threepence halfpenny a quart, +the kittens would soon drink themselves out of house and home. +</p> + +<p> +He discussed the matter with Erebus and Wiggins; and they agreed with him that +milk spelled ruin. But they could see no way of reducing the price of milk; and +they were sure that it was the necessary food for growing kittens. +</p> + +<p> +Their faces were somewhat gloomy at the end of the discussion; and a heavy +silence had fallen on them. Then of a sudden the face of the Terror brightened; +and he said with a touch of triumph in his tone: “I’ve got it; +we’ll feed them on skim-milk.” +</p> + +<p> +“They feed pigs on skim-milk, not kittens,” said Erebus scornfully. +</p> + +<p> +That was indeed the practise at Little Deeping. Butter-making was its chief +industry; and the skim-milk went to the pigs. +</p> + +<p> +“If it fattens pigs, it will fatten kittens,” said the Terror +firmly. +</p> + +<p> +“But how can we get it? They don’t sell it about here,” said +Erebus. “And you know what they are: if Granfeytner didn’t sell +skim-milk, nobody’s going to sell skim-milk to-day.” +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, yes: old Stubbs will sell it,” said the Terror confidently. +</p> + +<p> +“Old Stubbs! But he hates us worse than any one!” cried Erebus. +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, yes; he doesn’t like us. But he’s awfully keen on money; +every one says so. And he won’t care whose money he gets so long as he +gets it. Come on; we’ll go and talk to him about it,” said the +Terror. +</p> + +<p> +The Twins went firmly across the common to the house of farmer Stubbs and +knocked resolutely. The maid, who was well aware that her master and the Twins +were not on friendly terms, admitted them with some hesitation. The Twins had +never entered the farmer’s house before, though they had often entered +his orchard; and they felt slightly uncomfortable. They found the parlor into +which they were shown uncommonly musty. +</p> + +<p> +Presently Mr. Stubbs came to them, pulling doubtfully at the Newgate fringe +that ran bristling under his chin, with a look of deep suspicion in his small, +ferrety, red-rimmed eyes. Even when he learned that they had come on business, +his face did not brighten till the Terror incidentally dropped a sovereign on +the floor and talked of cash payments. Then his face shone; he made the +admission, cautiously, that he might be induced to sell skim-milk; and then +they came to the discussion of prices. Mr. Stubbs wanted to see skim-milk in +quarts; the Terror could only see it in pails; and this difference of point of +view nearly brought the negotiations to an abrupt end twice. But the +Terror’s suavity prevented a complete break; and in the end they struck a +bargain that he should have as much skim-milk as he required at threepence +halfpenny the pailful. +</p> + +<p> +In the course of the next fortnight they admitted twelve more kittens to the +home; and the Terror had yet another idea. Milk alone seemed an insufficient +diet for them; and he approached the village baker on the matter of stale +bread. There were more negotiations; and in the end the Terror made a contract +with the baker for a supply of it at nearly his own price. Now he fed the +kittens on bread and milk; they throve on it; and it went further than plain +milk. +</p> + +<p> +The Twins enjoyed but little leisure. They had been busy filling certain +shelves, which they had fixed up above the cat-hutches, with the best apples +the more peaceful and sparsely populated parts of the countryside afforded. But +what spare time he had the Terror devoted to a great feat of painting. He +painted in white letters on a black board:— +</p> + +<h3>LADY RYEHAMPTON’S CATS’ HOME</h3> + +<p> +The letters varied somewhat in size, and they were not everything that could be +desired in the matter of shape; but both Erebus and Wiggins agreed that it was +extraordinarily effective, and that if ever their aunt saw it she would be +deeply gratified. +</p> + +<p> +With this final open advertisement of their enterprise ready to be fixed up, +they felt that the time had come to take their mother formally into their +confidence. She had learned of the formation of the cats’ home from old +Sarah; and several of her neighbors had talked to her about it, and seemed +surprised by her inability to give them details about its ultimate scope and +purpose, for it had excited the interest of the neighborhood and was a frequent +matter of discussion for fully a week. She had explained to them that she never +interfered with the Twins when they were engaged in any harmless employment, +and that she was only too pleased that they had found a harmless employment +that filled as much of their time as did the cats’ home. Moreover, the +Terror had told her that they did not wish her to see it till it had been +brought to its finished state and was in thorough working order. Therefore she +had no idea of its size or of the cost of its construction. Like every one else +she supposed it to be a ramshackle affair of makeshifts constructed from old +planks and hen-coops. +</p> + +<p> +Moreover she had not learned that the Twins possessed bicycles, for they were +judicious in their use. They were careful to sally forth when she was taking +her siesta after lunch; they went across the common and came back across the +common and their neighbors saw them riding very little. +</p> + +<p> +When at last she was invited to come to see their finished work, she accepted +the invitation with becoming delight, and made her inspection of the home with +a becoming seriousness and a growing surprise. She expressed her admiration of +its convenience, its cleanliness, and the extensive scale on which it was being +run. She agreed with the Terror that to have saved so many kittens from the +awful death of drowning was a great work. But she asked no questions, not even +how it was that the cats’ home was fragrant with the scent of hidden +apples. She knew that an explanation, probably of an admirable plausibility, +was about to be given her. +</p> + +<p> +Then at the end of her inspection, the Terror said carelessly: “The +bicycles are for bringing kittens from a distance, of course.” +</p> + +<p> +“What? Are those your bicycles?” cried Mrs. Dangerfield. “But +wherever did you get the money from to buy them?” +</p> + +<p> +“Aunt Amelia found the money,” said the Terror. “You know +she’s very keen—tremendously interested in cats’ homes. She +thinks we are doing a great work, as well as you.” +</p> + +<p> +Mrs. Dangerfield’s beautiful eyes were very wide open; and she said +rather breathlessly: “You got money out of your Aunt Amelia for a +cats’ home in Little Deeping?” +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, yes,” said the Terror carelessly. +</p> + +<p> +Mrs. Dangerfield turned away hastily to hide her working face: she <i>must</i> +not laugh at their great-aunt before the Twins. She bit her tongue with a +firmness that filled her eyes with tears. It was painful; but it enabled her to +complete her inspection with the required gravity. +</p> + +<p> +The Terror fixed up the board above the door of the home; and it awoke a fresh +interest among their neighbors in their enterprise. Several of them, including +the squire and the vicar, made visits of inspection to it; and Wiggins brought +his father. All of them expressed an admiration of the institution and of the +methods on which it was conducted. To one another they expressed an unfavorable +opinion of the intelligence of Lady Ryehampton. +</p> + +<p> +The home was now working quite smoothly; and with a clear conscience the Twins +drew their salary for “overseering.” It provided them with many of +the less expensive desires of their hearts. Now and again Erebus, mindful of +the fact that they had still a little more than ten pounds left out of the +original thirty, urged that it should be raised to a shilling a week. But the +Terror would not consent: he said their salaries for “overseeing” +would naturally be much higher, and that they would have charged for their work +in constructing the home, if it had not been for the bicycles. As it was, they +were bound to work off the price of the bicycles. Besides, he added with a +philosophical air, six-pence a week for a year was much better than a shilling +a week for six months. +</p> + +<p> +Lady Ryehampton was duly informed that the home now contained twenty-three +inmates; and the children of Great Deeping, Muttle (probably a corruption of +Middle) Deeping, and Little Deeping were informed that for the time being the +home was full. Erebus clamored to have its full complement of thirty kittens +made up; but the Terror maintained very firmly his contention that twenty-three +was quite enough. Everything was working smoothly. Then one evening just before +dinner there came a loud ringing at the front-door bell. +</p> + +<p> +It was so loud and so importunate that with one accord the Twins dashed for the +door; and Erebus opened it. On the steps stood their Uncle Maurice; and he wore +a harried air. +</p> + +<p> +“Why, it’s Uncle Maurice!” cried Erebus springing upon him +and embracing him warmly. +</p> + +<p> +“It’s Uncle Maurice, mother!” cried the Terror. +</p> + +<p> +“It may be your Uncle Maurice, but I can tell you he’s by no means +sure of it himself! Is it my head or my heels I’m standing on?” +said Sir Maurice faintly, and he wiped his burning brow. +</p> + +<p> +On his words there came up the steps the porter of Little Deeping station, +laden with wicker baskets. From the baskets came the sound of mewing. +</p> + +<p> +“Whatever is it?” cried Mrs. Dangerfield, kissing her brother. +</p> + +<p> +“Cats for the cats’ home!” said Sir Maurice Falconer. +</p> + +<p> +He waved his startled kinsfolk aside while the baskets were ranged in a neat +row on the floor of the hall, then he paid the porter, feebly, and shut the +door after him with an air of exhaustion. He leaned back against it and said: +</p> + +<p> +“I had a sudden message—Aunt Amelia is going to pay a surprise +visit to this inf—this cats’ home these little friends are +pretending to run for her. I saw that there was no time to lose—there +must be a cats’ home with cats in it—or she’d cut them both +out of her will. I bought cats—all over London—they’ve been +with me ever since—yowling—they yowled in the taxi—all over +London—they traveled down as far as Rowington with me and an old +gentleman—a high-spirited old gentleman—yowling—not only the +cats but the old gentleman, too—-and they traveled from Rowington to +Little Deeping with me and two maiden ladies—timid maiden +ladies!—yowling! But come on: we’ve got to make a cats’ home +at once!” And he picked up one of the plaintive baskets with the air of a +man desperately resolved to act on the instant or perish. +</p> + +<p> +“But we’ve got a cats’ home—only it’s full of +kittens,” said Erebus gently. +</p> + +<p> +“Good heavens! Do you mean to say I’ve gone through this nightmare +for nothing?” cried Sir Maurice, dropping the basket. +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, no; it was awfully good of you!” said the Terror with swift +politeness. “The cats will come in awfully useful.” +</p> + +<p> +“They’ll make the home look so much more natural. All kittens +isn’t natural,” said Erebus. +</p> + +<p> +“And they’ll be such a pleasant surprise for Aunt Amelia. She was +only expecting kittens,” said the Terror. +</p> + +<p> +“What?” howled Sir Maurice. “Do you mean to say I’ve +parleyed for hours with a high-spirited gentleman and two—two—timid +maiden ladies, just to give your Aunt Amelia a pleasant surprise?” +</p> + +<p> +He sank into a chair and wiped his beaded brow feebly. “I ought to have +had more confidence in you,” he said faintly. “I ought to know your +powers by now. And I did. I know well that any people who have dealings with +you are likely to get a surprise; but I thought your Aunt Amelia was going to +get it; and I’ve got it myself.” +</p> + +<p> +“But you didn’t think that we would humbug Aunt Amelia?” said +the Terror in a pained tone and with the most virtuous air. +</p> + +<p> +“Gracious, no!” cried Sir Maurice. “I only thought that you +might possibly induce her to humbug herself.” +</p> + +<p> +The Twins looked at him doubtfully: there seemed to them more in his words than +met the ear. +</p> + +<p> +“You must be wanting your dinner dreadfully,” said Mrs. +Dangerfield. “And I’m afraid there’s very little for you. But +I’ll make you an omelette.” +</p> + +<p> +“I can not dine amid this yowling,” said Sir Maurice firmly, waving +his hand over the vocal baskets. “These animals must be placed out of +hearing, or I shan’t be able to eat a morsel.” +</p> + +<p> +“We’ll put them in the cats’ home,” said the Terror +quickly. “I’ll just put on a pair of thick gloves. Wiggins’ +father—he’s a higher mathematician, you know, and understands all +this kind of thing—says that hydrophobia is very rare among cats. But +it’s just as well to be careful with these London ones.” +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, lord, I never thought of that,” said Sir Maurice with a +shudder. “I’ve been risking my life as well!” +</p> + +<p> +The Terror put on the gloves and lighted a lantern. He and Erebus helped carry +the cats down to the home; and he put them into hutches. Their uncle was much +impressed by the arrangement of the home. +</p> + +<p> +The cats disposed of, Sir Maurice at last recovered his wonted +self-possession—a self-possession as admirable as the serenity of the +Terror, but not so durable. At dinner he reduced his appreciative kinsfolk to +the last exhaustion by his entertaining account of his parleying with his +excited fellow travelers. He could now view it with an impartial mind. After +dinner he accompanied the Terror to the cats’ home and helped him feed +the newcomers with scraps. The rest of the evening passed peacefully and +pleasantly. +</p> + +<p> +If the Twins had a weakness, it was that their desire for thoroughness +sometimes caused them to overdo things; and it was on the way to bed that the +brilliant idea flashed into the mind of Erebus. +</p> + +<p> +She stopped short on the stairs, and with an air of inspiration said: “We +ought to have more cats.” +</p> + +<p> +The Terror stopped short too, pondering the suggestion; then he said: “By +Jove, yes. This would be a good time to work that valerian dodge. And it would +mean that we should have to use our bicycles again for the good of the home. +The more we can say that we’ve used them for it, the less any one can +grumble about them.” +</p> + +<p> +“Most cats are shut up now,” said Erebus. +</p> + +<p> +“Yes; we must catch the morning cats. They get out quite early—when +people start out to work,” said the Terror. +</p> + +<p> +Among the possessions of the Twins was an American clock fitted with an alarm. +The Terror set it for half past five. At that hour it awoke him with extreme +difficulty. He awoke Erebus with extreme difficulty. Five minutes later they +were munching bread and butter in the kitchen to stay themselves against the +cold of the bitter November morning; then they sallied forth, equipped with +rags, string and the bottle of valerian. +</p> + +<p> +They bicycled to Muttle Deeping. There the Terror poured valerian on one of the +rags and tied it to the bicycle of Erebus. Forthwith she started to trail it to +the cats’ home. He rode on to Great Deeping and trailed a rag from there +through Little Deeping to the cats’ home. When he reached it he found +Erebus’ bicycle in its corner; and when, after strengthening the trail +through the little hanging door with a rag freshly wetted with the drug, he +returned to the house, he found that she was already in bed again. He made +haste back to bed himself. +</p> + +<p> +It had been their intention to go down to the home before breakfast and put the +cats they had attracted to it into hutches. But they slept on till breakfast +was ready; and the fragrance of the coffee and bacon lured them straight into +the dining-room. After all, as Erebus told the hesitating Terror, there was +plenty of time to deal with the new cats, for Aunt Amelia could not reach +Little Deeping before eleven o’clock. They could not escape from the +home. The Twins therefore devoted their most careful attention to their +breakfast with their minds quite at ease. +</p> + +<p> +Then there came a ring at the front door; and still their minds were at ease, +for they took it that it was a note or a message from a neighbor. Then Sarah +threw open the dining-room door, said “Please, ma’am, it’s +Lady Ryehampton”; and their Aunt Amelia stood, large, round and +formidable, on the threshold. Behind her stood Miss Hendersyde looking very +anxious. +</p> + +<p> +There was a heavy frown on Lady Ryehampton’s stern face; and when they +rose to welcome her, she greeted them with severe stiffness. To Erebus, the +instructor of parrots, she gave only one finger. +</p> + +<p> +Then in deep portentous tones she said: “I came down to pay a surprise +visit to your cats’ home. I always do. It’s the only way I can make +sure that the poor dear things are receiving proper treatment.” The frown +on her face grew rhadamanthine. “And last night I saw your Uncle Maurice +at the station—he did not see me—with cats, London cats, in +baskets. On the labels of two of the baskets I read the names of well-known +London cat-dealers. I do not support a cats’ home at Little Deeping for +London cats bought at London dealers. Why have they been brought here?” +</p> + +<p> +Sir Maurice opened his mouth to explain; but the Terror was before him: +</p> + +<p> +“It was Uncle Maurice’s idea,” he said. “He +didn’t think that there ought only to be kittens in a cats’ home. +We didn’t mind ourselves; and of course, if he puts cats in it, +he’ll have to subscribe to the home. What we have started it for was +kittens—to save them from the awful death of drowning. We wrote and told +you. And we’ve saved quite a lot.” +</p> + +<p> +His limpid blue eyes were wells of candor. +</p> + +<p> +Lady Ryehampton uttered a short snort; and her eyes flashed. +</p> + +<p> +“Do you mean to tell me that your Uncle Maurice is fond enough of cats to +bring them all the way from London to a cats’ home at Deeping? He hates +cats, and always has!” she said fiercely. +</p> + +<p> +“Of course, I hate cats,” said Sir Maurice with cold severity. +“But I hate children’s being brought up to be careless a great deal +more. A cats’ home is not a cats’ home unless it has cats in it; +and you’ve been encouraging these children to grow up careless by calling +a kittens’ home a cats’ home. If you will interfere in their +up-bringing, you have no right to do your best to get them into careless +ways.” +</p> + +<p> +Taken aback at suddenly finding herself on the defensive Lady Ryehampton +blinked at him somewhat owlishly: “That’s all very well,” she +said in a less severe tone. “But is there a kittens’ home at +all—a kittens’ home with kittens in it? That’s what I want to +know.” +</p> + +<p> +“But we wrote and told you how many kittens we had in the cats’ +home. You don’t think we’d deceive you, Aunt Amelia?” said +the Terror in a deeply injured tone and with a deeply injured air. +</p> + +<p> +“There! I told you that if he said he had kittens in it, there would +be,” said Miss Hendersyde with an air of relief. +</p> + +<p> +“Of course there’s a cats’ home with kittens in it!” +said Mrs. Dangerfield with some heat. “The Terror wouldn’t lie to +you!” +</p> + +<p> +“Hyacinth is incapable of deceit!” cried Sir Maurice splendidly. +</p> + +<p> +The Terror did his best to look incapable of deceit; and it was a very good +best. +</p> + +<p> +In some confusion Lady Ryehampton began to stammer: “Well, of +c-c-c-course, if there’s a c-c-cats’ home—but Sir +Maurice’s senseless interference—” +</p> + +<p> +“Senseless interference! Do you call saving children from careless habits +senseless interference?” cried Sir Maurice indignantly. +</p> + +<p> +“You had no business to interfere without consulting me,” said Lady +Ryehampton. Then, with a return of suspicion, she said: “But I want to +see this cats’ home—now!” +</p> + +<p> +“I’ll take you at once,” said the Terror quickly, and +politely he opened the door. +</p> + +<p> +They all went, Mrs. Dangerfield snatching a hooded cloak, Sir Maurice his hat +and coat from pegs in the hall as they went through it. When they came into the +paddock their ears became aware of a distant high-pitched din; and the farther +they went down it the louder and more horrible grew the din. +</p> + +<p> +Over the broad round face of Lady Ryehampton spread an expression of suspicious +bewilderment; Mrs. Dangerfield’s beautiful eyes were wide open in an +anxious wonder; the piquant face of Erebus was set in a defiant scowl; and Sir +Maurice looked almost as anxious as Mrs. Dangerfield. Only the Terror was +serene. +</p> + +<p> +“Surely those brutes I brought haven’t got out of their +cages,” said Sir Maurice. +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, no; those must be visiting cats,” said the Terror calmly. +</p> + +<p> +“Visiting cats?” said Lady Ryehampton and Sir Maurice together. +</p> + +<p> +“Yes: we encourage the cats about here to come to the home so that if +ever they are left homeless they will know where to come,” said the +Terror, looking at Lady Ryehampton with eyes that were limpid wells of +guilelessness. +</p> + +<p> +“Now that’s a very clever idea!” she exclaimed. “I must +tell the managers of my other homes about it and see whether they can’t +do it, too. But what are these cats doing?” +</p> + +<p> +“It sounds as if they were quarreling,” said the Terror calmly. +</p> + +<p> +It did sound as if they were quarreling; at the door of the home the din was +ear-splitting, excruciating, fiendish. It was as if the voices of all the cats +in the county were raised in one piercing battle-song. +</p> + +<p> +The Terror bade his kinsfolk stand clear; then he threw open the +door—wide. Cats did not come out.… A large ball of cats came out, +gyrating swiftly in a haze of flying fur. Ten yards from the door it dissolved +into its component parts, and some thirty cats tore, yelling, to the four +quarters of the heavens. +</p> + +<p> +After that stupendous battle-song the air seemed thick with silence. +</p> + +<p> +The Terror broke it; he said in a tone of doubting sadness: “I sometimes +think it sets a bad example to the kittens.” +</p> + +<p> +Sir Maurice turned livid in the grip of some powerful emotion. He walked +hurriedly round to the back of the home to conceal it from human ken. There +with his handkerchief stuffed into his mouth, he leaned against the wall, and +shook and rocked and kicked the irresponsive bricks feebly. +</p> + +<p> +But the serene Terror firmly ushered Lady Ryehampton into the home with an air +of modest pride. A little dazed, she entered upon a scene of perfect, if +highly-scented, peace. Twenty-three kittens and eight cats sat staring +earnestly through bars of their hutches in a dead stillness. Their eyes were +very bright. By a kindly provision of nature they had been able, in the +darkness, to follow the fortunes of that vociferous fray. +</p> + +<p> +In three minutes Lady Ryehampton had forgotten the battle-song. She was +charmed, lost in admiration of the home, of the fatness and healthiness of the +blinking kittens, the neatness and the cleanliness. She gushed enthusiastic +approbation. “To think,” she cried, “that you have done this +yourself! A boy of thirteen!” +</p> + +<p> +“Erebus did quite as much as I did,” said the Terror quickly. +</p> + +<p> +“And Wiggins helped a lot. He’s a friend of ours,” said +Erebus no less quickly. +</p> + +<p> +Lady Ryehampton’s face softened to Erebus—to Erebus, the instructor +of parrots. +</p> + +<p> +Sir Maurice joined them. His eyes were red and moist, as if they had but now +been full of tears. +</p> + +<p> +“It’s a very creditable piece of work,” he said in a tone of +warm approval. +</p> + +<p> +Lady Ryehampton looked round the home once more; and her face fell. She said +uneasily: “But you must be heavily in debt.” +</p> + +<p> +“In debt?” said the Terror. “Oh, no; we couldn’t be. +Mother would hate us to be in debt.” +</p> + +<p> +“I thought—a cats’ home—oh, but I <i>am</i> glad I +brought my check-book with me!” cried Lady Ryehampton. +</p> + +<p> +She could not understand why Sir Maurice uttered a short sharp howl. She did +not know that the Terror dug him sharply in the ribs as Erebus kicked him +joyfully on the ankle-bone; that they had simultaneously realized that the +future of the home, the wages of “overseering,” were secure. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap05"></a> CHAPTER V<br /> +AND THE SACRED BIRD</h2> + + +<p> +Lady Ryehampton did not easily tear herself away from the home; and the Terror +did all he could to foster her interest in it. The crowning effect was the +feeding of the kittens, which was indeed a very pretty sight, since +twenty-three kittens could not feed together without many pauses to gambol and +play. The only thing about the home which was not quite to the liking of Lady +Ryehampton was the board over the door. She liked it as an advertisement of her +philanthropy; but she did not like its form; she preferred her name in +straighter letters, all of them of the same size. At the same time she did not +like to hurt the feelings of the Terror by showing lack of appreciation of his +handiwork. +</p> + +<p> +Then she had a happy thought, and said: “By the way, I think that the +board over the door ought to be uniform—the same as the boards over the +entrances of my other cats’ homes. The lettering of them is always in +gold.” +</p> + +<p> +“All right. I’ll get some gold paint, and paint them over,” +said the Terror readily, anxious to humor in every way this dispenser of +salaries. +</p> + +<p> +“No, no, I can’t give you the trouble of doing it all over +again,” said Lady Ryehampton quickly. “I’ll have a board +made, and painted in London—exactly like the board of my cats’ home +at Tysleworth—and sent down to you to fix up.” +</p> + +<p> +“Thanks very much,” said the Terror. “It will save me a great +deal of trouble. Painting isn’t nearly so easy as it looks.” +</p> + +<p> +Lady Ryehampton breathed a sigh of satisfaction. She invited them all to lunch +at The Plough, where she had stayed the night; and Mrs. Pittaway racked her +brains and strained all the resources of her simple establishment to make the +lunch worthy of its giver. As she told her neighbors later, nobody knew what it +was to have a lady of title in the house. The Twins enjoyed the lunch very much +indeed; and even Erebus was very quiet for two hours after it. +</p> + +<p> +Lady Ryehampton came to tea at Colet House; she paid a last gloating visit to +the cats’ home, wrote a check for ten pounds payable to the Terror, and +in a state of the liveliest satisfaction, took the train to London. +</p> + +<p> +Sir Maurice stayed till a later train, for he had no great desire to travel +with Lady Ryehampton. Besides, the question what was to be done with the eight +cats he had brought with him, remained to be settled. He felt that he could not +saddle the Twins with their care and up-keep, since only his unfounded distrust +had brought them to the cats’ home. At the same time he could not bring +himself to travel with them any more. +</p> + +<p> +They discussed the matter. Erebus was inclined to keep the cats, declaring that +it would be so nice to grow their own kittens. The Terror, looking at the +question from the cold monetary point of view, wished to be relieved of them. +In the end it was decided that Sir Maurice should make terms with one of the +dealers from whom he had bought them, and that the Twins should forward them to +that dealer. +</p> + +<p> +The next day the Twins discussed what should be done with this unexpected ten +pounds which Lady Ryehampton had bestowed on the home. Erebus was for at once +increasing their salaries to three shillings a week. The cautious Terror would +only raise them to ninepence each. Then, keeping rather more than four pounds +for current expenses, he put fifteen pounds in the Post-Office Savings Bank. He +thought it a wise thing to do: it prevented any chance of their spending a +large sum on some sudden overwhelming impulse. +</p> + +<p> +Then for some time their lives moved in a smooth uneventful groove. The cats +were despatched to the London dealer; the neatly painted board came from Lady +Ryehampton and was fixed up in the place of the Terror’s handiwork; they +did their lessons in the morning; they rode out, along with Wiggins who now had +his bicycle, in the afternoons. +</p> + +<p> +Then came December; and early in the month they began to consider the important +matter of their mother’s Christmas present. +</p> + +<p> +One morning they were down at the home, giving the kittens their breakfasts and +discussing it gravely. The kittens were indulging in engaging gambols before +falling into the sleep of repletion which always followed their meals; but the +Twins saw them with unsmiling eyes, for the graver matter wholly filled their +minds. They could see their way to saving up seven or eight shillings for that +present; and so large a sum must be expended with judgment. It must procure +something not only useful but also attractive. +</p> + +<p> +They had discussed at some length the respective advantages and attractions of +a hair-brush and a tortoise-shell comb to set in the hair, when Erebus, +frowning thoughtfully, said: “I know what she really wants though.” +</p> + +<p> +“What’s that?” said the Terror sharply. +</p> + +<p> +“It’s one of those fur stoles in the window of Barker’s at +Rowington,” said Erebus. “I heard her sigh when she looked at it. +She used to have beautiful furs once—when father was alive. But she sold +them—to get things for us, I suppose. Uncle Maurice told me so—at +least I got it out of him.” +</p> + +<p> +The Terror was frowning thoughtfully, too; and he said in a tone of decision: +“How much is that stole?” +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, it’s no good thinking about it—it’s three +guineas,” said Erebus quickly. +</p> + +<p> +“That’s a mort o’ money, as old Stubbs says,” said the +Terror; and the frown deepened on his brow. +</p> + +<p> +“I wonder if we could get it?” said Erebus, and a faint hopefulness +dawned in her eyes as she looked at his pondering face. “I should like +to. It must be hard on Mum not to have nice things—much harder than for +us, because we’ve never had them—at least, we had them when we were +small, but we never got used to them. So we’ve forgotten.” +</p> + +<p> +“No, we’re all right as long as we have useful things,” said +the Terror, without relaxing his thoughtful frown. “But you’re +right about Mum—she must be different. I’ve got to think this +out.” +</p> + +<p> +“Three guineas is such a lot to think out,” said Erebus +despondently. +</p> + +<p> +“I thought out thirty pounds not so very long ago,” said the Terror +firmly. “And if you come to think of it, Mum’s stole is really more +important than bicycles and a cats’ home, though not so useful.” +</p> + +<p> +“But it’s different—we <i>had</i> to have bicycles—you +said so,” said Erebus eagerly. +</p> + +<p> +“Well, we’ve got to have this stole,” said the Terror in a +tone of finality; and the matter settled, his brow smoothed to its wonted +serenity. +</p> + +<p> +“But how?” said Erebus eagerly. +</p> + +<p> +“Things will occur to us. They always do,” said the Terror with a +careless confidence. +</p> + +<p> +They began to put the kittens into their hutches. Half-way through the +operation the Terror paused: +</p> + +<p> +“I wonder if we could sell any of these kittens? Does any one ever buy +kittens?” +</p> + +<p> +“We did; we gave threepence each for these,” said Erebus. +</p> + +<p> +“Ah, but we had to buy something in the way of cats for the home. We +should never have bought a kitten but for that. We shouldn’t have dreamt +of doing such a thing.” +</p> + +<p> +“I should buy kittens if I were rich and hadn’t got any,” +said Erebus in a tone of decision. +</p> + +<p> +“You would, would you? That’s just what I wanted to know: girls +will buy kittens,” said the Terror in a tone of satisfaction. +“Well, we’ll sell these.” +</p> + +<p> +“But we can’t empty the home,” said Erebus. +</p> + +<p> +“We wouldn’t. We’d buy fresh ones, just able to lap, for +threepence each, and sell these at a shilling. We might make nearly a sovereign +that way.” +</p> + +<p> +“So we should—a whole sovereign!” cried Erebus; then she +added in a somewhat envious tone: “You do think of things.” +</p> + +<p> +“I have to. Where should we be, if I didn’t?” said the +Terror. +</p> + +<p> +“But who are we going to sell them to? Everybody round here has +cats.” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes, they have,” said the Terror, frowning again. “Well, we +shall have to sell them somewhere else.” +</p> + +<p> +They put the sleepy kittens back in their hutches, and walked back to the +house, pondering. The Terror collected the books for his morning’s work +slowly, still thoughtful. +</p> + +<p> +As he was leaving the house he said: “Look here; the place for us to sell +them is Rowington. The people round here sell most of their things at +Rowington—butter and eggs and poultry and rabbits.” +</p> + +<p> +“And Ellen would sell them for us—in the market,” said Erebus +quickly. +</p> + +<p> +“Of course she would! You see, you think of things, too!” cried the +Terror; and he went off to his lessons with an almost cheerful air. +</p> + +<p> +After lunch they rode to Great Deeping to discuss with Ellen the matter of +selling their kittens. She had been their nurse for the first four years of +their stay at Colet House; and she had left them to marry a small farmer. She +had an affection for them, especially for the Terror; and she had not lost +touch with them. She welcomed them warmly, ushered them into her little parlor, +brought in a decanter of elderberry wine and a cake. When she had helped them +to cake and poured out their wine, the Terror broached the matter that had +brought them to her house. +</p> + +<p> +Ellen’s mind ran firmly and unswerving in the groove of butter and eggs +and poultry, which she carried every market-day to Rowington in her pony-cart. +She laughed consumedly at the Terror’s belief that any one would want to +buy kittens. But unmoved by her open incredulity, he was very patient with her +and persuaded her to try, at any rate, to sell their kittens at her stall in +Rowington market. Ellen consented to make the attempt, for she had always found +it difficult to resist the Terror when he had set his mind on a thing, and she +was eager to oblige him; but she held out no hopes of success. +</p> + +<p> +The Terror came away content, since he had gained his end, and did not share +her despondency. Erebus, on the other hand, infected by Ellen’s +pessimism, rode in a gloomy depression. +</p> + +<p> +Presently her face brightened; and with an air of inspiration she said: +“I tell you what: even if we don’t sell those kittens, we can +always buy the stole. There’s all that cats’ home money in the +bank. We can take as much of it as we want, and pay it back by degrees.” +</p> + +<p> +“No, we can’t,” said the Terror firmly. “We’re +not going to use that money for anything but the cats’ home. I promised +Mum I wouldn’t. Besides, she’d like the stole ever so much better +if we’d really earned it ourselves.” +</p> + +<p> +“But we shan’t,” said Erebus gloomily. “If we sold all +the kittens, it will only make twenty-three shillings.” +</p> + +<p> +“Then we must find something else to sell,” said the Terror with +decision. +</p> + +<p> +His mind was running on this line, when a quarter of a mile from Little Deeping +they came upon Tom Cobb leaning over a gate surveying a field of mangel-wurzel +with vacant amiability. +</p> + +<p> +Tom Cobb was the one villager they respected; and he and they were very good +friends. Carping souls often said that Tom Cobb had never done an honest +day’s work in his life. Yet he was the smartest man in the village, the +most neatly dressed, always with money in his pocket. +</p> + +<p> +It was common knowledge that his fortunate state arose from his constitutional +disability to observe those admirable laws which have been passed for the +protection of the English pheasants from all dangers save the small shot of +those who have them fed. Tom Cobb waged war, a war of varying fortunes against +the sacred bird. Sometimes for a whole season he would sell the victims of the +carnage of the war with never a check to his ardor. In another season some +prying gamekeeper would surprise him glutting his thirst for blood and gold, +and an infuriated bench of magistrates would fine him. The fine was always +paid. Tom Cobb was one of those thrifty souls who lay up money against a rainy +day. +</p> + +<p> +He turned at the sound of their coming; and he and the Twins greeted one +another with smiles of mutual respect. They rode on a few yards; and then the +Terror said, “By Jove!” stopped, slipped off his bicycle, and +wheeled it back to the gate. Erebus followed him more slowly. +</p> + +<p> +“I’ve been wondering if you’d do me a favor, Tom,” said +the Terror. “I’ve always wanted to know how to make a snare. +I’ll give you half-a-crown if you’ll teach me.” +</p> + +<p> +Tom Cobb’s clear blue eyes sparkled at the thought of half-a-crown, but +he hesitated. He knew the Twins; he knew that with them a little knowledge was +a dangerous thing—for others. He foresaw trouble for the sacred bird; he +foresaw trouble for his natural foes, the gamekeepers. He did not foresee +trouble for the Twins; he knew them. And very distinctly he saw half-a-crown. +</p> + +<p> +He grinned and said slowly, “Yes, Master Terror, I’ll be very +’appy to teach you ’ow to make a snare.” +</p> + +<p> +“Thank you. I’ll come around to-morrow afternoon, about two,” +said the Terror gratefully. +</p> + +<p> +“It <i>will</i> be nice to know how to make snares!” cried Erebus +happily as they rode on. “I wonder we never thought of it before.” +</p> + +<p> +“We didn’t want a fur stole before,” said the Terror. +</p> + +<p> +The next afternoon Erebus in vain entreated him to take her with him to Tom +Cobb’s cottage to share the lesson in the art of making snares. But the +Terror would not. Often he was indulgent; often he was firm. To-day he was +firm. +</p> + +<p> +He returned from his lesson with a serene face, but he said rather sadly: +“I’ve still a lot to learn. But come on: I’ve got to buy +something in Rowington.” +</p> + +<p> +They rode swiftly into Rowington, for the next day was market-day, and they had +to get the kittens ready for Ellen to sell. At Rowington the Terror bought +copper wire at an ironmonger’s; and he was very careful to buy it of a +certain thickness. +</p> + +<p> +They rode home swiftly, and at once selected six kittens for the experiment. +Much to the surprise and disgust of those kittens, they washed them thoroughly +in the kitchen. They dried them, and decided to keep them in its warmth till +the next morning. +</p> + +<p> +After the washing of the kittens, they betook themselves to the making of +snares. Erebus, ever sanguine, supposed that they would make snares at once. +The Terror had no such expectation; and it was a long while before he got one +at all to his liking. +</p> + +<p> +Remembering Tom Cobb’s instructions, he washed it, and then put on gloves +before setting it in the hole in the hedge through which the rabbits from the +common were wont to enter their garden to eat the cabbages. He was up betimes +next morning, found a rabbit in the snare, and thrilled with joy. The fur stole +had come within the range of possibility. +</p> + +<p> +Before breakfast they made the toilet of the six chosen kittens, brushing them +with the Terror’s hair-brush till their fur was of a sleekness it had +never known before. Then Erebus adorned the neck of each with a bow of blue +ribbon. Knowing the ways of kittens, she sewed on the bows, and sewed them on +firmly. It could not be doubted that they looked much finer than ordinary +unwashed kittens. Directly after breakfast, the Twins put three in the basket +of either of their bicycles, rode over to Rowington and handed them over to +Ellen. +</p> + +<p> +They would have liked to stay to see what luck she had with them but they had +to return to their lessons. After lunch they made three more snares; and the +Terror found that the fingers of Erebus were, if anything, more deft at +snare-making than his own. +</p> + +<p> +It was late in the afternoon when they reached Rowington again; and when they +came to Ellen’s stall, they found to their joy that the basket which had +held the six kittens was empty. +</p> + +<p> +Ellen greeted them with a smile of the liveliest satisfaction, and said: +“Well, Master Terror, you were right, and I was wrong. I’ve sold +them kitties—every one—and I’ve had two more ordered. It was +when the ladies from the Hill came marketing that they went.” +</p> + +<p> +She opened her purse, took out six shillings, and held them out to the Terror. +</p> + +<p> +“Five,” said the Terror. “I must pay you a shilling for +selling them. It’s what they call commission.” +</p> + +<p> +“No, sir; I don’t want any commission,” said Ellen firmly. +“As long as those kitties were there, I sold more butter and eggs and +fowls than any one else in the market. I haven’t had such a good day not +ever before. And I’ll be glad to sell as many kitties as you can bring +me.” +</p> + +<p> +The Terror pressed her to accept the shilling, but she remained firm. The Twins +rode joyfully home with six shillings. +</p> + +<p> +That night the Terror set his four snares in the hedge of the garden about the +common. He caught three rabbits. +</p> + +<p> +The next morning he was silent and very thoughtful as he helped feed the +kittens and change the bay in the hutches. +</p> + +<p> +At last he said rather sadly: “It’s sometimes rather awkward being +a Dangerfield.” +</p> + +<p> +“Why?” said Erebus surprised. +</p> + +<p> +“Those rabbits,” said the Terror. “I want to sell them. But +it’s no good going into Rowington and trying to sell them to a poulterer. +Even if he wanted rabbits—which he mightn’t—he’d only +give me sixpence each for them. But if I were to sell them myself <i>here</i>, +I could get eightpence, or perhaps ninepence each for them. But, you see, a +Dangerfield can’t go about selling things. Uncle Maurice said I had the +makings of a millionaire in me, but a Dangerfield couldn’t go into +business. It’s the family tradition not to. That’s what he +said.” +</p> + +<p> +“Perhaps he was only rotting,” said Erebus hopefully. +</p> + +<p> +“No, he wasn’t. I asked Mum, and she said it was the family +tradition, too. I expect that’s why we’re all so hard up.” +</p> + +<p> +“But the squire sells things,” said Erebus quickly. “And you +can’t say he isn’t a gentleman, though the Anstruthers aren’t +so old as the Dangerfields.” +</p> + +<p> +“Of course, he does. He sells some of his game,” said the Terror, +in a tone of great relief. “Game must be all right, and we can easily +count rabbits as game.” +</p> + +<p> +Forthwith he proceeded to count rabbits as game; they put the four they had +caught into the baskets of their bicycles and rode out on a tour of the +neighborhood. The Terror went to the back doors of their well-to-do neighbors +and offered his rabbits to their cooks with the gratifying result that in less +than an hour he had sold all four of them at eightpence each. +</p> + +<p> +They rode home in triumph: the fur stole was moving toward them. They had +already eight shillings and eightpence out of the sixty-three shillings. +</p> + +<p> +It was sometimes said of the Twins by the carping that they never knew when to +stop; but in this case it was not their fault that they went on. It was the +fault of the rabbit market. At the fifteenth rabbit, when they had but eighteen +shillings and eightpence toward the stole, the bottom fell out of it. For the +time the desire of Little Deeping to eat rabbits was sated. +</p> + +<p> +It was also the fault of the insidious cook of Mrs. Blenkinsop, who, after +refusing to buy the fifteenth rabbit, said: “Now, if you was to bring me +a nice fat pheasant twice a week, it would be a very different thing, Master +Dangerfield.” +</p> + +<p> +The Terror looked at her thoughtfully; then he said: “And how much would +you pay for pheasants?” +</p> + +<p> +The cook made a silent appeal to those processes of mental arithmetic she had +learned in her village school, saw her way to a profit of threepence, perhaps +ninepence, on each bird, and said: “Two and threepence each, sir.” +</p> + +<p> +The Terror looked at her again thoughtfully, considering her offer. He saw her +profit of threepence, perhaps ninepence, and said: “All right, I’ll +bring you two or three a week. But you’ll have to pay cash.” +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, yes, sir. Of course, sir,” said the cook. +</p> + +<p> +“Do you know any one else who’d buy pheasants?” he said. +</p> + +<p> +“Well, there’s Mr. Carrington’s cook,” said the cook +slowly. “She has the management of the housekeeping money like I do. I +think she might buy pheasants from you. Mr. Carrington’s very partial to +game.” +</p> + +<p> +“Right,” said the Terror. “And thank you for telling +me.” +</p> + +<p> +He rode straight to the house of Mr. Carrington, and broached the matter to his +cook, to whom he had already sold rabbits. He made a direct offer to her of two +pheasants a week at two and threepence each. After a vain attempt to beat him +down to two shillings, she accepted it. +</p> + +<p> +He rode home in a pleasant glow of triumph: the snares which caught rabbits +would catch pheasants. At first he was for catching those pheasants by himself. +Snaring rabbits was a harmless enterprise; snaring pheasants was poaching; and +poaching was not a girl’s work. Then he came to the conclusion that he +would need the help of Erebus and must tell her. +</p> + +<p> +When he revealed to her this vision of a new Eldorado, she said: “But +where are you going to get pheasants from?” +</p> + +<p> +“Woods,” said the Terror, embracing the horizon in a sweeping +gesture. +</p> + +<p> +Erebus looked round the horizon with greedy eyes; they sparkled fiercely. +</p> + +<p> +“The only thing is, we don’t know nearly enough about snaring +pheasants. And I don’t like to ask Tom Cobb: he might talk about it; and +that wouldn’t do at all,” said the Terror. +</p> + +<p> +“But there’s nobody else to ask.” +</p> + +<p> +“I don’t know about that. There’s Wiggins’ father. He +knows a lot of useful things besides higher mathematics. The only thing is, we +must do it in such a way that he doesn’t see we’re trying to get +anything out of him.” +</p> + +<p> +“Well, I should think we could do that. He’s really quite +simple,” said Erebus. +</p> + +<p> +“As long as <i>you</i> understand what I’m driving at,” said +the Terror. +</p> + +<p> +That evening they prepared eight more kittens for sale at Rowington market, and +carried them into Rowington directly after breakfast next morning. Ellen told +them, with some indignation, that two rival poultry-sellers had both brought +three kittens to sell. The Twins at once went to inspect them, and came back +with the cheering assurance that those kittens were not a patch on those she +was selling. They were right, for Ellen sold all the eight before a rival sold +one; and the joyful Twins carried home eight more shillings toward the stole. +</p> + +<p> +On the next three afternoons they rode forth with the intention of coming upon +Mr. Carrington by seeming accident; but it was not till the third afternoon +that they came upon him and Wiggins, walking briskly, about three miles from +Little Deeping. +</p> + +<p> +The Twins, as a rule, were wont to shun Mr. Carrington. They had a great +respect for his attainments, but a much greater for his humor. In Erebus, this +respect often took the form of wriggling in his presence. She did not know what +he might say about her next. He was, therefore, somewhat surprised when they +slipped off their bicycles and joined him. He wondered what they wanted. +</p> + +<p> +Apparently, they were merely in a gregarious mood, yearning for the society of +their fellow creatures; but in about three minutes the talk was running on +pheasants. Mr. Carrington did not like pheasants, except from the point of view +of eating; and he dwelt at length on the devastation the sacred bird was +working in the English countryside: villages were being emptied and let fall to +ruin that it might live undisturbed; the song-birds were being killed off to +give it the woods to itself. +</p> + +<p> +It seemed but a natural step from the pheasant to the poacher; he was not aware +that he took it at the prompting of the Terror; and he bewailed the degeneracy +of the British rustic, his slow reversion to the type of neolithic man, owing +to the fact that the towns drained the villages of all the intelligent. The +skilful poacher who harried the sacred bird was fast becoming extinct. +</p> + +<p> +Then, at last, he came to the important matter of the wiles of the poacher; and +the thirsty ears of the Terror drank in his golden words. He discussed the +methods of the gang of poachers and the single poacher with intelligent relish +and more sympathy than was perhaps wise to display in the presence of the +young. The Terror came from that talk with a firm belief in the efficacy of +raisins. +</p> + +<p> +The next afternoon the Twins rode into Rowington and bought a pound of raisins +at the leading grocer’s. They might well have bought them at Little +Deeping, encouraging local enterprise; but they thought Rowington safer. They +always took every possible precaution at the beginning of an enterprise. They +did not ride straight home. Three miles out of Rowington was a small clump of +trees on a hill. At the foot of the hill, a hundred yards below the clump, lay +Great Deeping wood, acre upon acre. It had lately passed, along with the rest +of the Great Deeping estate, into the hands of Mr. D’Arcy Rosenheimer, a +pudding-faced, but stanch young Briton of the old Pomeranian strain. He was not +loved in the county, even by landed proprietors of less modern stocks, for, +though he cherished the laudable ambition of having the finest pheasant shoot +in England, and was on the way to realize it, he did not invite his neighbors +to help shoot them. His friends came wholly from The Polite World which so +adorns the illustrated weeklies. +</p> + +<p> +It was in the deep December dusk that the Twins’ came to the clump on the +hill. The Terror lifted their bicycles over the gate and set them behind the +hedge. He removed the pound of raisins from his bicycle basket to his pocket, +and leaving Erebus to keep watch, he stole down the hedge to the clump, crawled +through a gap into it, and walked through it. One pheasant scuttled out of it, +down the hedgerow to the wood below. The occurrence pleased him. He crawled out +of the clump on the farther side, and proceeded to lay a train of raisins down +the ditch of the hedge to the wood. He did not lay it right down to the wood +lest some inquisitive gamekeeper might espy it. Then he returned with fine, red +Indian caution to Erebus. They rode home well content. +</p> + +<p> +Next evening, with another bag of raisins, they sought the clump again. Again +the Terror laid a trail of raisins along the ditch from the wood to the clump. +But this evening he set a snare in the hedge of the clump. Just above the end +of the ditch. Later he took from that snare a plump but sacred bird. Later +still he sold it to the cook of Mrs. Blenkinsop for two and threepence. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap06"></a> CHAPTER VI<br /> +AND THE LANDED PROPRIETOR</h2> + + +<p> +On reaching home the Terror displayed the two shillings and threepence to +Erebus with an unusual air of triumph; as a rule he showed himself serenely +unmoved alike in victory and defeat. +</p> + +<p> +“That’s all right,” said Erebus cheerfully. “That +makes—that makes twenty-eight and eleven-pence. We <i>are</i> getting +on.” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes; it’s twenty-eight and eleven-pence now,” said the +Terror quickly. “But you don’t seem to see that when we’ve +got the stole for Mum these pheasants will still be going on.” +</p> + +<p> +“Of course they will!” cried Erebus; and her eyes shone very +brightly indeed at the joyful thought. +</p> + +<p> +The next day the Terror obtained some sandwiches from Sarah after breakfast; +and as soon as his lessons were over he rode hard to the clump above Great +Deeping wood. He reached it at the hour when gamekeepers are at their dinner, +and was able to make a thorough examination of it. He found it full of pheasant +runs, and chose the two likeliest places for his snares. He did not set them +then and there; a keeper on his afternoon round might see them. He came again +in the evening with Erebus, laid trails of raisins and set them then. Later he +sold a pheasant to the cook of Mrs. Blenkinsop and one to the cook of Mr. +Carrington. +</p> + +<p> +During the next fortnight they sold eight more pheasants and eight more +kittens. They found themselves in the happy position of needing only six +shillings more to make up the price of the fur stole. +</p> + +<p> +But it had been impossible for the Twins to remain content with the clump of +trees above Great Deeping wood. They had laid a trail of raisins and set a +snare in the wood itself, in the nearest corner of it on the valley road which +divides the wood into two nearly equal parts. +</p> + +<p> +On the next afternoon they had ridden into Rowington with Wiggins; and since +the roads were heavy they did not go back the shortest way over Great Deeping +hill, but took the longer level road along the valley. The afternoon was still +young, and for December, uncommonly clear and bright. But as they rode through +the wood, the Terror decided that instead of returning to it in the favoring +dusk he might as well examine the snare in the corner now, and save himself +another journey. It was a risk no experienced poacher would have taken; but old +heads, alas! do not grow on young shoulders. +</p> + +<p> +He dismounted about the middle of the wood, informed the other two of his +purpose (to the surprise of Wiggins who had not been informed of his +friends’ latest exploits) and made his dispositions. When they came to +the corner of the wood, Erebus rode on up the road to keep a lookout ahead. The +Terror slipped off his bicycle, and so did Wiggins. Wiggins held the two +bicycles. The Terror listened. The wood was very still in its winter silence. +He slipped through the hedge into it, and presently came back bringing with him +a very nice young pheasant indeed. He put it into the basket of his bicycle, +and mounted. +</p> + +<p> +They had barely started when a keeper sprang out of the hedge, thirty yards +ahead, and came running toward them, shouting in a very daunting fashion as he +came. There was neither time nor room to turn. They rode on; and the keeper +made for the Terror. The Terror swerved; and the keeper swerved. Wiggins ran +bang into the keeper; and they came to the ground together as the Terror shot +ahead, pedaling as hard as he could. +</p> + +<p> +He caught up Erebus, and his cry of “Keeper!” set her racing beside +him; but both of them kept looking back for Wiggins; and presently, when no +Wiggins appeared, with one accord they slowed down, stopped and dismounted. +</p> + +<p> +“The keeper’s got him. This is a mess!” said the Terror, who +was panting a little from their spurt. +</p> + +<p> +“If only it had been one of us!” cried Erebus. “Whatever are +we to do?” +</p> + +<p> +“If that beastly keeper hadn’t seen me with the pheasant, I’d +get Wiggins away, somehow,” said the Terror. “But, as it is, +it’s me they really want; and I’d get fined to a dead certainty. +Come on, let’s go back and see what’s happened to him. You scout on +ahead. Nobody knows you’re in it.” +</p> + +<p> +“All right,” said Erebus; and she mounted briskly. +</p> + +<p> +She rode back through the wood slowly, her keen eyes straining for a sign of an +ambush. The Terror followed her at a distance of sixty yards, ready to jump +off, turn his machine, and fly should she give the alarm. They got no sight of +Wiggins till they came, just beyond the end of the wood, to the lodges of Great +Deeping Park; then, half-way up the drive, they saw the keeper and his prey. +The keeper held Wiggins with his left hand and wheeled the captured bicycle +with his right. The Twins dismounted. Even at that distance they could see the +deep dejection of their friend. +</p> + +<p> +“There’s not really any reason for him to be frightened. He was +never in the wood at all; and he never touched the pheasant,” said the +Terror. +</p> + +<p> +“What does that matter? He <i>will</i> be frightened out of his life; +he’s so young,” cried Erebus in a tone of acute distress, gazing +after their receding friend with very anxious eyes. “He’s not like +us; he won’t cheek the keeper all the way like we should.” +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, Wiggins has plenty of pluck,” said the Terror in a reassuring +tone. +</p> + +<p> +“But he won’t understand he’s all right. He’s only ten. +And there’s no saying how that beastly foreigner who shoots nightingales +will bully him,” cried Erebus with unabated anxiety. +</p> + +<p> +This was her womanly irrational conception of a Pomeranian Briton. +</p> + +<p> +“Well, the sooner we go and fetch his father the sooner he’ll be +out of it,” said the Terror, making as if to mount his bicycle. +</p> + +<p> +“No, no! That won’t do at all!” cried Erebus fiercely. +“We’ve got to rescue him now—at once. We got him into the +mess; and we’ve got to get him out of it. You’ve got to find a +way.” +</p> + +<p> +“It’s all very well,” said the Terror, frowning deeply; and +he took off his cap to wrestle more manfully with the problem. +</p> + +<p> +Erebus faced him, frowning even more deeply. +</p> + +<p> +Never had the Twins been so hopelessly at a loss. +</p> + +<p> +Then the Terror said in his gloomiest tone: “I can’t see what we +can do.” +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, I’m going to get him out of it somehow!” cried Erebus in +a furious desperation. +</p> + +<p> +With that she mounted her bicycle and rode swiftly up the drive. +</p> + +<p> +The Terror mounted, started after her, and stopped at the end of fifty yards. +It had occurred to him that, after all, he was the only poacher of the three, +the only one in real danger. As he leaned on his machine, watching his +vanishing sister, he ground his teeth. For all his natural serenity, inaction +was in the highest degree repugnant to him. +</p> + +<p> +Erebus reached Great Deeping Court but a few minutes after Wiggins and the +keeper. She was about to ride on round the house, thinking that the keeper +would, as befitted his station, enter it by the back door, when she saw +Wiggins’ bicycle standing against one of the pillars of the great porch. +In a natural elation at having captured a poacher, and eager to display his +prize without delay, the keeper had gone straight into the great hall. +</p> + +<p> +Erebus dismounted and stood considering for perhaps half a minute; then she +moved Wiggins’ bicycle so that it was right to his hand if he came out, +set her own bicycle against another of the pillars, but out of sight lest he +should take it by mistake, walked up the steps, hammered the knocker firmly, +and rang the bell. The moment the door opened she stepped quickly past the +footman into the hall. The keeper sat on a chair facing her, and on a chair +beside him sat Wiggins looking white and woebegone. +</p> + +<p> +Erebus gazed at them with angry sparkling eyes, then she said sharply: +“What are you doing with my little brother?” +</p> + +<p> +She adopted Wiggins with this suddenness in order to strengthen her position. +</p> + +<p> +The keeper opened his eyes in some surprise at her uncompromising tone, but he +said triumphantly: +</p> + +<p> +“I caught ’im poachin’—” +</p> + +<p> +“Stand up! What do you mean by speaking to me sitting down?” cried +Erebus in her most imperative tone. +</p> + +<p> +The keeper stood up with uncommon quickness and a sudden sheepish air: +“’E was poachin’,” he said sulkily. +</p> + +<p> +“He was not! A little boy like that!” cried Erebus scornfully. +</p> + +<p> +“Anyways, ’e was aidin’ an’ abettin’, an’ +I’ve brought ’im to Mr. D’Arcy Rosynimer an’ it’s +for ’im to say,” said the keeper stubbornly. +</p> + +<p> +There came a faint click from the beautiful lips of Erebus, the gentle click by +which the Twins called each other to attention. At the sound Wiggins, his face +faintly flushed with hope, braced himself. Erebus measured the distance with +the eye of an expert, just as there came into the farther end of the hall that +large, flabby, pudding-faced young Pomeranian Briton, Mr. D’Arcy +Rosenheimer. +</p> + +<p> +“Where’s the boacher?” he roared in an eager, angry voice, +reverting in his emotion to the ancestral “b.” +</p> + +<p> +As the keeper turned to him Erebus sprang to the door and threw it wide. +</p> + +<p> +“Bolt, Wiggins!” she cried. +</p> + +<p> +Wiggins bolted for the door; the keeper grabbed at him and missed; the footman +grabbed, and grabbed the interposing Erebus. She slammed the door behind the +vanished Wiggins. +</p> + +<p> +Mr. D’Arcy Rosenheimer dashed heavily down the hall with a thick howl. +Erebus set her back against the door. He caught her by the left arm to sling +her out of the way. It was a silly arm to choose, for she caught him a slap on +his truly Pomeranian expanse of cheek with the full swing of her right, a slap +that rang through the great hall like the crack of a whip-lash. Mr. +D’Arcy Rosenheimer was large but tender. He howled again, and thumped at +Erebus with big flabby fists. She caught the first blow on an uncommonly acute +elbow. The second never fell, for the footman caught him by the collar and +swung him round. +</p> + +<p> +“It’s not for the likes of you to ’it Henglish young +ladies!” he cried with patriotic indignation. +</p> + +<p> +Mr. D’Arcy Rosenheimer gasped and gurgled; then he howled furiously, +“Ged out of my house! Now—at once—ged out!” +</p> + +<p> +“And pleased I shall be to go—when I’ve bin paid my wages. +It’s a month to-morrow since I gave notice, anyhow. I’ve had enough +of furriners,” said the footman with cold exultation. +</p> + +<p> +“Go—go—ged oud!” roared Mr. D’Arcy Rosenheimer. +</p> + +<p> +“When I’ve bin paid my wages,” said the footman coldly. +</p> + +<p> +Erebus waited to hear no more. She turned the latch, slipped through the door, +and slammed it behind her. To her dismay she saw a big motorcar coming round +the corner of the house. She mounted quickly and raced down the drive. Wiggins +was already out of sight. +</p> + +<p> +Just outside the lodge gates she found the Terror waiting for her. +</p> + +<p> +“I’ve sent Wiggins on!” he shouted as she passed. +</p> + +<p> +“Come on! Come on!” she shrieked back. “The beastly +foreigner’s got a motor-car!” +</p> + +<p> +He caught her up in a quarter of a mile; and she told him that the car had been +ready to start. They caught up Wiggins a mile and a half down the road; and all +three of them sat down to ride all they knew. They were fully eight miles from +home, and the car could go three miles to their one on that good road. The +Twins alone would have made a longer race of it; but the pace was set by the +weaker Wiggins. They had gone little more than three miles when they heard the +honk of the car as it came rapidly round a corner perhaps half a mile behind +them. +</p> + +<p> +“Go on, Terror!” cried Erebus. “You’re the one that +matters! You did the poaching! I’ll look after Wiggins! He’ll be +all right with me.” +</p> + +<p> +For perhaps fifty yards the Terror hesitated; then the wisdom of the advice +sank in, and he shot ahead. Erebus kept behind Wiggins; and they rode on. The +car was overhauling them rapidly, but not so rapidly as it would have done had +not Mr. D’Arcy Rosenheimer, who lacked the courage of his famous +grenadier ancestors, been in it. He was howling at his straining chauffeur to +go slower. +</p> + +<p> +Nevertheless at the end of a mile and a half the car was less than fifty yards +behind them; and then a figure came into sight swinging briskly along. +</p> + +<p> +“It’s your father!” gasped Erebus. +</p> + +<p> +It was, indeed, the higher mathematician. +</p> + +<p> +As they reached him, they flung themselves off their bicycles; and Erebus +cried: “Wiggins hasn’t been poaching at all! It was the +Terror!” +</p> + +<p> +“Was it, indeed?” said Mr. Carrington calmly. +</p> + +<p> +On his words the car was on them; and as it came to a dead stop Mr. +D’Arcy Rosenheimer tumbled clumsily out of it. +</p> + +<p> +“I’ve got you, you liddle devil!” he bellowed triumphantly, +but quite incorrectly; and he rushed at Wiggins who stepped discreetly behind +his father. +</p> + +<p> +“What’s the matter?” said Mr. Carrington. +</p> + +<p> +The excited young Pomeranian Briton, taking in his age and size at a single +glance, shoved him aside with splendid violence. Mr. Carrington seemed to step +lightly backward and forward in one movement; his left arm shot out; and there +befell Mr. D’Arcy Rosenheimer what, in the technical terms affected by +the fancy, is described as “an uppercut on the point which put him to +sleep.” He fell as falls a sack of potatoes, and lay like a log. +</p> + +<p> +The keeper had just disengaged himself from the car and hurried forward. +</p> + +<p> +“Do you want some too, my good man?” said Mr. Carrington in his +most agreeable tone, keeping his guard rather low. +</p> + +<p> +The keeper stopped short and looked down, with a satisfaction he made no effort +to hide, at the body of his stricken employer which lay between them. +</p> + +<p> +“I can’t say as I do, sir,” he said civilly; and he backed +away. +</p> + +<p> +“Then perhaps you’ll be good enough to tell me the name of this +hulking young blackguard who assaults quiet elderly gentlemen, taking +constitutionals, in this most unprovoked and wanton fashion,” said the +higher mathematician in the same agreeable tone. +</p> + +<p> +“Assaults?—’Im assault?—Yes, sir; it’s Mr. +D’Arcy Rosenheimer, of Great Deeping Court, sir,” said the keeper +respectfully. +</p> + +<p> +“Then tell Mr. D’Arcy Rosenheimer, when he recovers the few wits he +looks to have, with my compliments, that he will some time this evening be +summoned for assault. Good afternoon,” said Mr. Carrington, and he turned +on his heel. +</p> + +<p> +The keeper and the chauffeur stooped over the body of their young employer. Mr. +Carrington did not so much as turn his head. He put his walking-stick under his +arm, and rubbed the knuckles of his left hand with rueful tenderness. None the +less he looked pleased; it was gratifying to a slight man of his sedentary +habit to have knocked down such a large, round Pomeranian Briton with such +exquisite neatness. Wheeling their bicycles, Erebus and Wiggins walked beside +him with a proud air. They felt that they shone with his reflected glory. It +was a delightful sensation. +</p> + +<p> +They had gone some forty yards, when Erebus said in a hushed, awed, yet +gratified tone: “Have you killed him, Mr. Carrington?” +</p> + +<p> +“No, my child. I am not a pork-butcher,” said Mr. Carrington +amiably. +</p> + +<p> +“He <i>looked</i> as if he was dead,” said Erebus; and there was a +faint ring of disappointment in her tone. +</p> + +<p> +“In a short time the young man will come to himself; and let us hope that +it will be a better and wiser self,” said Mr. Carrington. “But what +was it all about? What did that truculent young ruffian want with +Rupert?” +</p> + +<p> +Erebus paused, looking earnestly round to the horizon for inspiration; then she +dashed at the awkward subject with commendable glibness: “It was a +pheasant in Great Deeping wood,” she said. “The Terror found it, I +suppose. I had gone on, and I didn’t see that part. But it was Wiggins +the keeper caught. Of course—” +</p> + +<p> +“I beg your pardon; but I should like that point a little clearer,” +broke in Mr. Carrington. “Had you ridden on too, Rupert? Or did you see +what happened?” +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, yes; I was there,” said Wiggins readily. “And the Terror +found the pheasant in the wood and put it in his bicycle basket. And we had +just got on our bicycles when the keeper came out of the wood, and I ran into +him; and he collared me and took me up to the Court. I wasn’t really +frightened—at least, not much.” +</p> + +<p> +“The keeper had no right to touch him,” Erebus broke in glibly. +“Wiggins never touched the pheasant; he didn’t even go into the +wood; and when I went into the hall, the hall of the Court, I found him and the +keeper sitting there, and I let Wiggins out, of course, and then that horrid +Mr. D’Arcy Rosenheimer who shoots nightingales, caught hold of me by the +arm ever so roughly, and I slapped him just once. I should think that the mark +is still there “—her speed of speech slackened to a slower vengeful +gratification and then quickened again—“and he began to thump me +and the footman interfered, and I came away, and they came after us in the car, +and you saw what happened—at least you did it.” +</p> + +<p> +She stopped somewhat breathless. +</p> + +<p> +“Lucidity itself,” said Mr. Carrington. “But let us have the +matter of the pheasant clear. Was the Terror exploring the wood on the chance +of finding a pheasant, or had he reason to expect that a pheasant would be +there ready to be brought home?” +</p> + +<p> +Erebus blushed faintly, looked round the horizon somewhat aimlessly, and said, +“Well, there was a snare, you know.” +</p> + +<p> +Mr. Carrington chuckled and said: “I thought so. I thought we should come +to that snare in time. Did you know there was a snare, Rupert?” +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, no, he didn’t know anything about it!” Erebus broke in +quickly. “We should never have thought of letting him into anything so +dangerous! He’s so young!” +</p> + +<p> +“I shall be eleven in a fortnight!” said Wiggins with some heat. +</p> + +<p> +“You see, we wanted a fur stole at Barker’s in Rowington for a +Christmas present for mother; and pheasants were the only way we could think of +getting it,” said Erebus in a confidential tone. +</p> + +<p> +“Light! Light at last!” cried Mr. Carrington; and he laughed +gently. “Well, every one has been assaulted except the poacher; +exquisitely Pomeranian! But it’s just as well that they have, or that +ingenious brother of yours would be in a fine mess. As it is, I think we can go +on teaching our young Pomeranian not to be so high-spirited.” He chuckled +again. +</p> + +<p> +He walked on briskly; and on the way to Little Deeping, he drew from Erebus the +full story of their poaching. When they reached the village he did not go to +his own house, but stopped at the garden gate of Mr. Tupping, the lawyer who +had sold his practise at Rowington and had retired to Little Deeping. At his +gate Mr. Carrington bade Erebus good afternoon and told her to tell the Terror +not to thrust himself on the notice of any of Mr. D’Arcy +Rosenheimer’s keepers who might be sent out to hunt for the real culprit. +He would better keep quiet. +</p> + +<p> +Erebus mounted her bicycle and rode quickly home. She found the Terror in the +cats’ home, awaiting her impatiently. +</p> + +<p> +“Well, did Wiggins get away all right?” he cried. “I passed +Mr. Carrington; and I thought he’d see that they didn’t carry him +off again.” +</p> + +<p> +Erebus told him in terms of the warmest admiration how firmly Mr. Carrington +had dealt with the Pomeranian foe. +</p> + +<p> +“By Jove! That was ripping! I do wish I’d been there!” said +the Terror. “He only hit him once, you say?” +</p> + +<p> +“Only once. And he told me to tell you to lie low in case Mr. +Rosenheimer’s keepers are out hunting for you,” said Erebus. +</p> + +<p> +“I am lying low,” said the Terror. “And I’ve got rid of +that pheasant. I sold it to Mr. Carrington’s cook as I came through the +village. I thought it was better out of the way.” +</p> + +<p> +“Then that’s all right. We only want about another +half-crown,” said Erebus. +</p> + +<p> +Mr. Carrington found Mr. Tupping at home; and he could not have gone to a +better man, for though the lawyer had given up active practise, he still +retained the work of a few old clients in whom he took a friendly interest; and +among them was Mrs. Dangerfield. +</p> + +<p> +He was eager to prevent the Terror from being prosecuted for poaching not only +because the scandal would annoy her deeply but also because she could so ill +afford the expense of the case. He readily fell in with the view of Mr. +Carrington that they had better take the offensive, and that the violent +behavior of Mr. D’Arcy Rosenheimer had given them the weapons. +</p> + +<p> +The result of their council was that not later than seven o’clock that +evening Mr. D’Arcy Rosenheimer was served by the constable of Little +Deeping with a summons for an assault on Violet Anastasia Dangerfield, and with +another summons for an assault on Bertram Carrington, F. R. S.; and in the +course of the next twenty minutes his keeper was served with a summons for an +assault on Rupert Carrington. +</p> + +<p> +Though on recovering consciousness he had sent the keeper to scour the +neighborhood for Wiggins and the Terror, Mr. D’Arcy Rosenheimer was in a +chastened shaken mood, owing to the fact that he had been “put to sleep +by an uppercut on the point.” He made haste to despatch a car into +Rowington to bring the lawyer who managed his local business. +</p> + +<p> +The lawyer knew his client’s unpopularity in the county, and advised him +earnestly to try to hush these matters up. He declared that however Pomeranian +one might be by extraction and in spirit, no bench of English magistrates would +take a favorable view of an assault by a big young man on a middle-aged higher +mathematician of European reputation, or on Miss Violet Anastasia Dangerfield, +aged thirteen, gallantly rescuing that higher mathematician’s little boy +from wrongful arrest and detention. +</p> + +<p> +Mr. D’Arcy Rosenheimer held his aching head with both hands, protested +that they had done all the effective assaulting, and protested his devotion to +the sacred bird beloved of the English magistracy. But he perceived clearly +enough that he had let that devotion carry him too far, and that a Bench which +never profited by it, so far as to shoot the particular sacred birds on which +it was lavished, would not be deeply touched by it. Therefore he instructed the +lawyer to use every effort to settle the matter out of court. +</p> + +<p> +The lawyer dined with him lavishly, and then had, himself driven over to Little +Deeping in the car, to Mr. Carrington’s house. He found Mr. Carrington +uncommonly bitter against his client; and he did his best to placate him by +urging that the assault had been met with a promptitude which had robbed it of +its violence, and that he could well afford to be generous to a man whom he had +so neatly put to sleep with an uppercut on the point. +</p> + +<p> +Mr. Carrington held out for a while; but in the background, behind the more +prominent figures in the affair, lurked the Terror with a veritable poached +pheasant; and at last he made terms. The summonses should be withdrawn on +condition that nothing more was heard about that poached pheasant and that Mr. +D’Arcy Rosenheimer contributed fifty guineas to the funds of the Deeping +Cottage Hospital. The lawyer accepted the terms readily; and his client made no +objection to complying with them. +</p> + +<p> +The matter was at an end by noon of the next day; and Mr. Carrington sent for +the Terror and talked to him very seriously about this poaching. He did not +profess to consider it an enormity; he dwelt at length on the extreme annoyance +his mother would feel if he were caught and prosecuted. In the end he gave him +the choice of giving his word to snare no more pheasants, or of having his +mother informed that he was poaching. The Terror gave his word to snare no more +pheasants the more readily since if Mrs. Dangerfield were informed of his +poaching, she would forbid him to set another snare for anything. Besides, he +had been somewhat shaken by his narrow escape the day before. Only he pointed +out that he could not be quite sure of never snaring a pheasant, for pheasants +went everywhere. Mr. Carrington admitted this fact and said that it would be +enough if he refrained from setting his snares on ground sacred to the sacred +bird. If pheasants wandered into them on unpreserved ground, it was their own +fault. Thanks therefore to the firmness of her friends Mrs. Dangerfield never +learned of the Terror’s narrow escape. +</p> + +<p> +The Twins bore the loss of income from the sacred bird with even minds, since +the sum needed for the fur stole was so nearly complete. They turned their +attention to the habits of the hare, and snared one in the hedge of the +farthest meadow of farmer Stubbs. Mrs. Blenkinsop’s cook paid them +half-a-crown for it; and the three guineas were complete. +</p> + +<p> +Though it wanted a full week to Christmas, the Terror lost no time making the +purchase. As he told Erebus, they would get the choice of more stoles if they +bought it before the Christmas rush. Accordingly on the afternoon after the +sale of the hare they rode into Rowington to buy it. +</p> + +<p> +It was an uncommonly cold afternoon, for a bitter east wind was blowing hard; +and when they dismounted at the door of Barker’s shop, Erebus gazed +wistfully across the road at the appetizing window of Springer, the +confectioner, and said sadly: +</p> + +<p> +“It’s a pity it isn’t Saturday and we had our +‘overseering’ salary. We might have gone to Springer’s and +had a jolly good blow-out for once.” +</p> + +<p> +The Terror gazed at Springer’s window thoughtfully, and said: “Yes, +it is a pity. We ought to have remembered it was Christmas-time and paid +ourselves in advance.” +</p> + +<p> +He followed Erebus into the shop with a thoughtful air, and seemed somewhat +absent-minded during her examination of the stoles. She was very thorough in +it; and both of them were nearly sure that she had chosen the very best of +them. The girl who was serving them made out the bill; and the Terror drew the +little bag which held the three guineas (since it was all in silver they had +been able to find no purse of a capacity to hold it), emptied its contents on +the counter, and counted them slowly. +</p> + +<p> +He had nearly finished, and the girl had nearly wrapped up the stole when a +flash of inspiration brightened his face; and he said firmly: “I shall +want five per cent. discount for cash.” +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, we don’t do that sort of thing here,” said the girl +quickly. “This is such an old-established establishment.” +</p> + +<p> +“I can’t help that. I must have discount for cash,” said the +Terror yet more firmly. +</p> + +<p> +The girl hesitated; then she called Mr. Barker who, acting as his own +shop-walker, was strolling up and down with great dignity. Mr. Barker came and +she put the matter to him. +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, no, sir; I’m afraid we couldn’t think of it. +Barker’s is too old established a house to connive at these sharp modern +ways of doing business,” said Mr. Barker with a very impressive air. +</p> + +<p> +The Terror looked at him with a cold thoughtful eye: “All right,” +he said. “You can put the stole down to me—Master Hyacinth +Dangerfield, Colet House, Little Deeping.” +</p> + +<p> +He began to shovel the money back into the bag. +</p> + +<p> +An expression of deep pain spread over the mobile face of Mr. Barker as the +coins began to disappear; and he said quickly: “I’m afraid we +can’t do that, sir. Our terms are cash—strictly cash.” +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, no, they’re not. My mother has had an account here for the +last six years,” said the Terror icily; and the last of the coins went +into the bag. +</p> + +<p> +Mr. Barker held out a quivering hand, and with an air and in a tone of warm +geniality he cried: “Oh, that alters the case altogether! In the case of +the son of an old customer like Mrs. Dangerfield we’re delighted to +deduct five per cent. discount for cash—delighted. Make out the bill for +three pounds, Miss Perkins.” +</p> + +<p> +Miss Perkins made out the bill for three pounds; and Erebus bore away the stole +tenderly. +</p> + +<p> +As the triumphant Terror came out of the shop, he jingled the brave three +shillings discount in his pocket and said: “Now for +Springer’s!” +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap07"></a> CHAPTER VII<br /> +AND PRINGLE’S POND</h2> + + +<p> +Mrs. Dangerfield was indeed delighted with the stole, for she had an almost +extravagant fondness for furs; and it was long since she had had any. She +wondered how the Twins had saved and collected the money it had cost; she knew +that it had not been drawn from the cats’ home fund, since the Terror had +promised her that none of that money should be diverted from its proper +purpose; and she was the more grateful to them for the thought and labor they +must have devoted to acquiring it. On the whole she thought it wiser not to +inquire how the money had been raised. +</p> + +<p> +The Twins, as always, enjoyed an exceedingly pleasant Christmas. It was the one +week in the year when Little Deeping flung off its quietude and gently +rollicked. There was a dearth of children, young men and maidens among their +Little Deeping friends; and the Twins and Wiggins were in request as the +lighter element in the Christmas gatherings. Thanks to the Terror, the three of +them took this brightening function with considerable seriousness: each of them +learned by heart a humorous piece of literature, generally verse, for reciting; +and they performed two charades in a very painstaking fashion. They had but +little dramatic talent; but they derived a certain grave satisfaction from the +discharge of this enlivening social duty; and their efforts were always well +received. +</p> + +<p> +It was, as usual, a green and muggy Christmas. The weather broke about the +middle of January; and there came hard frosts and a heavy snow-storm. The Twins +made a glorious forty-foot slide on the common in front of Colet House; and +they constructed also an excellent toboggan on which they rushed down the hill +into the village street. These were but light pleasures. They watched the ponds +with the most careful interest; eager, should they bear, not to miss an +hour’s skating. Wiggins shared their pleasures and their interest; and +Mr. Carrington, meeting the Terror on his way to his lessons at the vicarage, +drew from him a promise that he would not let his ardent son take any risk +whatever. +</p> + +<p> +The ice thickened slowly on the ponds; then came another hard frost; and the +Twins made up their minds that it must surely bear. They ate their breakfast in +a great excitement; and as the Terror gathered together his books for his +morning’s work they made their plans. +</p> + +<p> +He had strapped his books together; and as he caught up one of the two pairs of +brightly polished skates that lay on the table, he said: “Then +that’s settled. I’ll meet you at Pringle’s pond as soon after +half past twelve as I can get there; but you’d better not go on it before +I come.” +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, it’ll bear all right; it nearly bore yesterday,” said +Erebus impatiently. +</p> + +<p> +“Well, Wiggins isn’t to go on it before I come. You’ll do as +you like of course—as usual—and if you fall in, it’ll be your +own lookout. But he’s to wait till I come. If the ice does bear, it +won’t bear any too well; and I’m responsible for Wiggins. I +promised Mr. Carrington to look after him,” said the Terror in tones of +stern gravity. +</p> + +<p> +Erebus tossed her head and said in a somewhat rebellious tone: “As if I +couldn’t take care of him just as well as you. I’m as old as +you.” +</p> + +<p> +“Perhaps,” said the Terror doubtfully. “But you are a girl; +there’s no getting over it; and it does make a difference.” +</p> + +<p> +Erebus turned and scowled at him as he moved toward the door; and she scowled +at the door after he had gone through it and shut it firmly behind him. She +hated to be reminded that she was a girl. The reminder rankled at intervals +during her lessons; and twice Mrs. Dangerfield asked her what was distressing +her that she scowled so fiercely. +</p> + +<p> +At noon her lessons came to an end; and in less than three minutes she was +ready to go skating. She set out briskly across the common, and found Wiggins +waiting for her at his father’s garden-gate. He joined her in a fine +enthusiasm for the ice and talked of the certainty of its bearing with the most +hopeful confidence. She displayed an equal confidence; and they took their +brisk way across the white meadows. More than usual Wiggins spurned the earth +and advanced by leaps and bounds. His blue eyes were shining very brightly in +the cold winter sunlight. +</p> + +<p> +In ten minutes they came to Pringle’s pond. The wind had swept the ice +fairly clear of snow; and it looked smooth and very tempting. Also it looked +quite thick and strong. Erebus stepped on to it gingerly, found that it bore +her, and tested it with some care. She even jumped up and down on it. It +cracked, but it did not break; and she told herself that ice always cracks, +more or less. She set about putting on her skates; and the joyful Wiggins, all +fear of disappointment allayed, followed her example. +</p> + +<p> +When presently he stood upright in them ready to take the ice, she looked at +him doubtfully, then tossed her head impatiently. No; she would not tell him +that the Terror had charged her not to let him skate till he came.… She +could look after him quite as well as the Terror.… She had tested the ice +thoroughly.… It was perfectly safe. +</p> + +<p> +Wiggins slid down the bank on to the ice; and she followed him. The ice cracked +somewhat noisily at their weight, and at intervals it cracked again. Erebus +paid no heed to its cracking beyond telling Wiggins not to go far from the +edge. She skated round and across the pond several times, then settled down to +make a figure of eight, resolved to have it scored deeply in the ice before the +Terror came. Wiggins skated about the pond. +</p> + +<p> +She had been at work some time and had got so far with her figure of eight that +it was already distinctly marked, when there was a crash and a shrill cry from +Wiggins. She turned sharply to see the water welling up out of a dark +triangular hole on the other side of the pond, where a row of pollard willows +had screened the ice from the full keenness of the wind. +</p> + +<p> +Wiggins was in that hole under the water. +</p> + +<p> +She screamed and dashed toward it. She had nearly reached it when his head came +up above the surface; and he clutched at the ice. Two more steps and a loud +crack gave her pause. It flashed on her that if she went near it, she would +merely widen the hole and be helpless in the water herself. +</p> + +<p> +“Hold on! Hold on!” she cried as she stopped ten yards from the +hole; and then she sent a shrill piercing scream from all her lungs ringing +through the still winter air. +</p> + +<p> +She screamed again and yet again. Wiggins’ face rose above the edge of +the ice; and he gasped and spluttered. Then she sank down gently, at full +length, face downward on the ice, and squirmed slowly, spread out so as to +distribute her weight over as wide a surface as possible, toward the hole. Half +a minute’s cautious squirming brought her hands to the edge of it; and +with a sob of relief she grasped his wrists. The ice bent under her weight, but +it did not break. The icy water, welling out over it, began to drench her arms +and chest. +</p> + +<p> +Very gently she tried to draw Wiggins out over the ice; but she could not. She +could get no grip on it with her toes to drag from. +</p> + +<p> +Wiggins’ little face, two feet from her own, was very white; and his +teeth chattered. +</p> + +<p> +She set her teeth and strove to find a hold for her slipping toes. She could +not. +</p> + +<p> +“C-c-can’t you p-p-pull m-m-me out?” chattered Wiggins. +</p> + +<p> +“No, not yet,” she said hoarsely. “But it’s all right. +The Terror will be here in a minute.” +</p> + +<p> +She raised her head as high as she could and screamed again. +</p> + +<p> +She listened with all her ears for an answer. A bird squeaked shrilly on the +other side of the field; there was no other sound. Wiggins’ white face +was now bluish round the mouth; and his eyes were full of fear. Again she +kicked about for a grip, in vain. +</p> + +<p> +“It’s d-d-dreadfully c-c-cold,” said Wiggins in a very faint +voice; he began to sob; and his eyes looked very dully into hers. +</p> + +<p> +She knew that it was dreadfully cold; her drenched arms and chest were +dreadfully cold; and he was in that icy water to his shoulders. +</p> + +<p> +“Try to stick it out! Don’t give in! It’s only a minute or +two longer! The Terror <i>must</i> come!” she cried fiercely. +</p> + +<p> +His eyes gazed at her piteously; and she began to sob without feeling ashamed +of it. Then his eyes filled with that dreadful look of hopeless bewildered +distress of a very sick child; and they rolled in their sockets scanning the +cold sky in desperate appeal. +</p> + +<p> +They terrified Erebus beyond words. She screamed, and then she screamed and +screamed. Wiggins’ face was a mere white blur through her blinding tears +of terror. +</p> + +<p> +She knew nothing till her ankles were firmly gripped; and the Terror cried +loudly: “Stop that row!” +</p> + +<p> +She felt him tug at her ankles but not nearly strongly enough to stir her and +Wiggins. He, too, could get no hold on the ice with his toes. +</p> + +<p> +Then he cried: “Squirm round to the left. I’ll help you.” +</p> + +<p> +He made his meaning clearer by tugging her ankles toward the left; and she +squirmed in that direction as fast as she dared over the bending ice. +</p> + +<p> +In less than half a minute the Terror got his feet among the roots of a willow, +gripped them with his toes, and with a strong and steady pull began to draw +them toward the bank. The ice creaked as Wiggins’ chest came over the +edge of the hole; but it did not break; and his body once flat on the ice, the +Terror hauled them to the side of the pond easily. He dragged Erebus, still by +the ankles, half up the bank to get most of her weight off the ice. Then he +stepped down on to it and picked up Wiggins. Erebus’ stiff fingers still +grasped his wrists; and they did not open easily to let them go. +</p> + +<p> +The Terror took one look at the deathly faintly-breathing Wiggins; then he +pulled off his woolen gloves, drew his knife from his pocket, opened the blade +with his teeth for quickness’ sake, tossed it to Erebus and cried: +“Cut off his skates! Pull off his boots and stockings!” +</p> + +<p> +Then with swift deft fingers he stripped off Wiggins’ coat, jersey and +waistcoat, pulled on his gloves, caught up a handful of snow and began to rub +his chest violently. In the spring the Twins had attended a course of the St. +John’s Ambulance Society lectures, and among other things had learned how +to treat those dying from exposure. The Terror was the quicker dealing with +Wiggins since he had so often been the subject on which he and Erebus had +practised many kinds of first-aid. +</p> + +<p> +He rubbed hard till the skin reddened with the blood flowing back into it. +Erebus with feeble fumbling fingers (she was almost spent with cold and terror) +cut the straps of his skates and the laces of his boots, pulled them off, +pulled off his stockings, and rubbed feebly at his legs. The Terror turned +Wiggins over and rubbed his back violently till the blood reddened that. +Wiggins uttered a little gasping grunt. +</p> + +<p> +Forthwith the Terror pulled off his own coat and jersey and put them on +Wiggins; then he pulled off Wiggins’ knickerbockers and rubbed his thighs +till they reddened; then he pulled off his stockings and pulled them on +Wiggins’ legs. The stockings came well up his thighs; and the +Terror’s coat and jersey came well down them. Wiggins was completely +covered. But the Terror was not satisfied; he called on Erebus for her +stockings and pulled them on Wiggins over his own; then he took her jacket and +tied it round Wiggins’ waist by the sleeves. +</p> + +<p> +Wiggins was much less blue; and the whiteness of his cheeks was no longer a +dead waxen color. He opened his eyes twice and shut them feebly. +</p> + +<p> +The Terror shook him, and shouted: “Come on, old chap! Make an effort! We +want to get you home!” +</p> + +<p> +With that he raised him on to his feet, put his own cap well over +Wiggins’ cold wet head, slipped an arm round him under his shoulder, bade +Erebus support him in like manner on the other side; and they set off toward +the village half carrying, half dragging him along. They went slowly for +Wiggins’ feet dragged feebly and almost helplessly along. Their arms +round him helped warm him. It would have taken them a long time to haul him all +the way to his home; but fortunately soon after they came out of +Pringle’s meadows on to the road, Jakes, the Great Deeping butcher, who +supplies also Little Deeping and Muttle Deeping with meat, came clattering +along in his cart. Wiggins was quickly hauled into it; and the three of them +were at Mr. Carrington’s in about four minutes. +</p> + +<p> +As they hauled Wiggins along the garden path, the Terror, said to Erebus: +“You bolt home as hard as you can go. You must be awfully wet and cold; +and if you don’t want to be laid up, the sooner you take some quinine and +get to bed the better.” +</p> + +<p> +As soon therefore as she had helped Wiggins over the threshold she ran home as +quickly as her legs, still stiff and cold, would carry her. +</p> + +<p> +The arrival of the barelegged Terror in his waistcoat, bearing Wiggins as a +half-animate bundle, set Mr. Carrington’s house in an uproar. The Terror, +as the expert in first-aid, took command of the cook and housemaid and Mr. +Carrington himself. Wiggins was carried into the hot kitchen and rolled in a +blanket with a hot water bottle at his feet. The cook was for two blankets and +two hot water bottles; but the expert Terror insisted with a firmness there was +no bending that heat must be restored slowly. As Wiggins warmed he gave him +warm brandy and water with a teaspoon. In ten minutes Wiggins was quite +animate, able to talk faintly, trying not to cry with the pain of returning +circulation. +</p> + +<p> +The Terror sent the cook and housemaid to get the sheets off his bed and warm +the blankets. In another five minute’s Mr. Carrington carried Wiggins up +to it, and gave him a dose of ammoniated quinine. Presently he fell asleep. +</p> + +<p> +The Terror had taken his coat off Wiggins; but he was still without stockings +and a jersey. He borrowed stockings and a sweater from Mr. Carrington, and now +that the business of seeing after Wiggins was over, he told him how he had come +to the pond to find Wiggins in the water and Erebus spread out on the ice, +holding him back from sinking. He was careful not to tell him that he had +forbidden Erebus to let Wiggins go on the ice; and when Mr. Carrington began to +thank him for saving him, he insisted on giving all the credit to Erebus. +</p> + +<p> +Mr. Carrington made him also take a dose of ammoniated quinine, and then +further fortified him with cake and very agreeable port wine. On his way home +the Terror went briskly round by Pringle’s pond and picked up the skates +and garments that had been left there. When he reached home he found that +Erebus was in bed. She seemed little the worse for lying with her arms and +chest in that icy water, keeping Wiggins afloat; and when she learned that +Wiggins also seemed none the worse and was sleeping peacefully, she ate her +lunch with a fair appetite. +</p> + +<p> +The Terror did not point out that all the trouble had sprung from her disregard +for his instructions; he only said: “I just told Mr. Carrington that +Wiggins was already in the water when I got to the pond.” +</p> + +<p> +“That was awfully decent of you,” said Erebus after a pause in +which she had gathered the full bearing of his reticence. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap08"></a> CHAPTER VIII<br /> +AND THE MUTTLE DEEPING PEACHES</h2> + + +<p> +The dreadful fright she had suffered did not throw a cloud over the spirit of +Erebus for as long as might have been expected. She was as quick as any one to +realize that all’s well that ends well; and Wiggins escaped lightly, with +a couple of days in bed. The adventure, however, induced a change in her +attitude to him; she was far less condescending with him than she had been; +indeed she seemed to have acquired something of a proprietary interest in him +and was uncommonly solicitous for his welfare. To such a point did this +solicitude go that more than once he remonstrated bitterly with her for fussing +about him. +</p> + +<p> +During the rest of the winter, the spring and the early summer, their lives +followed an even tenor: they did their lessons; they played their games; then +tended the inmates of the cats’ home, selling them as they grew big, and +replacing the sold with threepenny kittens just able to lap. +</p> + +<p> +In the spring they fished the free water of the Whittle, the little +trout-stream that runs through the estate of the Morgans of Muttle Deeping +Grange. The free water runs for rather more than half a mile on the Little +Deeping side of Muttle Deeping; and the Twins fished it with an assiduity and a +skill which set the villagers grumbling that they left no fish for any one +else. Also the Twins tried to get leave to fish Sir James Morgan’s +preserved water, higher up the stream. But Mr. Hilton, the agent of the estate, +was very firm in his refusal to give them leave: for no reason that the Twins +could see, since Sir James was absent, shooting big game in Africa. They +resented the refusal bitterly; it seemed to them a wanton waste of the stream. +It was some consolation to them to make a well-judged raid one early morning on +the strawberry-beds in one of the walled gardens of Muttle Deeping Grange. +</p> + +<p> +About the middle of June the Terror went to London on a visit to their Aunt +Amelia. Sir Maurice Falconer and Miss Hendersyde saw to it that it was not the +unbroken series of visits to cats’ homes Lady Ryehampton had arranged for +him; and he enjoyed it very much. On his return he was able to assure the +interested Erebus that their aunt’s parrot still said “dam” +with a perfectly accurate, but monotonous iteration. +</p> + +<p> +Soon after his return the news was spread abroad that Sir James Morgan had let +Muttle Deeping Grange. In the life of the Deeping villages the mere letting of +Muttle Deeping Grange was no unimportant event, but the inhabitants of Great +Deeping, Muttle Deeping (possibly a corruption of Middle Deeping), and Little +Deeping were stirred to the very depths of their being when the news came that +it had been let to a German princess. The women, at any rate, awaited her +coming with the liveliest interest and curiosity, emotions dashed some way from +their fine height when they learned that Princess Elizabeth, of Cassel-Nassau, +was only twelve years and seven months old. +</p> + +<p> +The Twins did not share the excited curiosity of their neighbors. Resenting +deeply the fact that the tenant of Muttle Deeping was a <i>German</i> princess, +they assumed an attitude of cold aloofness in the matter, and refused to be +interested or impressed. Erebus was more resentful than the Terror; and it is +to be suspected that the high patriotic spirit she displayed in the matter was +in some degree owing to the fact that Mrs. Blenkinsop, who came one afternoon +to tea, gushing information about the grandfathers, grandmothers, parents, +uncles, cousins and aunts of the princess, ended by saying, with meaning, +“And what a model she will be to the little girls of the +neighborhood!” +</p> + +<p> +Erebus told the Terror that things were indeed come to a pretty pass when it +was suggested to an English girl, a Dangerfield, too, that she should model +herself on a German. +</p> + +<p> +“I don’t suppose it would really make any difference who you +modeled yourself on,” said the Terror, desirous rather of being frank +than grammatical. +</p> + +<p> +When presently the princess came to the Grange, the lively curiosity of her +neighbors was gratified by but imperfect visions of her. She did not, as they +had expected, attend any of the three churches, for she had brought with her +her own Lutheran pastor. They only saw her on her afternoon drives, a stiff +little figure, thickly veiled against the sun, sitting bolt upright in the +victoria beside the crimson baroness (crimson in face; she wore black) in whose +charge she had come to England. +</p> + +<p> +They learned presently that the princess had come to Muttle Deeping for her +health; that she was delicate and her doctors feared lest she should develop +consumption; they hoped that a few weeks in the excellent Deeping air would +strengthen her. The news abated a little the cold hostility of Erebus; but the +Twins paid but little attention to their young neighbor. +</p> + +<p> +Their mother was finding the summer trying; she was sleeping badly, and her +appetite was poor. Doctor Arbuthnot put her on a light diet; and in particular +he ordered her to eat plenty of fruit. It was not the best season for fruit: +strawberries were over and raspberries were coming to an end. Mrs. Dangerfield +made shift to do with bananas. The Twins were annoyed that this was the best +that could be done to carry out the doctor’s orders; but there seemed no +help for it. +</p> + +<p> +It was in the afternoon, a sweltering afternoon, after the doctor’s visit +that, as the Twins, bent on an aimless ride, were lazily wheeling their +bicycles out of the cats’ home, a sudden gleam came into the eyes of the +Terror; and he said: +</p> + +<p> +“I’ve got an idea!” +</p> + +<p> +An answering light gleamed in the eyes of Erebus; and she cried joyfully; +“Thank goodness! I was beginning to get afraid that nothing was ever +going to occur to us again. I thought it was the hot weather. What is +it?” +</p> + +<p> +“Those Germans,” said the Terror darkly. “Now that +they’ve got the Grange, why shouldn’t we make a raid on the +peach-garden. They say the Grange peaches are better than any hothouse ones; +and Watkins told me they ripen uncommon early. They’re probably ripe +now.” +</p> + +<p> +“That’s a splendid idea! It will just teach those Germans!” +cried Erebus; and her piquant face was bright with the sterling spirit of the +patriot. Then after a pause she added reluctantly: “But if the princess +is an invalid, perhaps she ought to have all the peaches herself.” +</p> + +<p> +“She couldn’t want all of them. Why we couldn’t. There are +hundreds,” said the Terror quickly. “And they’re the very +thing for Mum. Bananas are all very well in their way; but they’re not +like real fruit.” +</p> + +<p> +“Of course; Mum <i>must</i> have them,” said Erebus with decision. +“But how are we going to get into the peach-garden? The door in the wall +only opens on the inside.” +</p> + +<p> +“We’re not. I’ve worked it out. Now you just hurry up and get +some big leaves to put the peaches in. Mum will like them ever so much better +with the bloom on, though it doesn’t really make any difference to the +taste.” +</p> + +<p> +Erebus ran into the kitchen-garden and gathered big soft leaves of different +kinds. When she came back she found the Terror tying the landing-net they had +borrowed from the vicar for their trout-fishing, to the backbone of his +bicycle. She put the leaves into her bicycle basket, and they rode briskly to +Muttle Deeping. +</p> + +<p> +The Twins knew all the approaches to Muttle Deeping Grange well since they had +spent several days in careful scouting before they had made their raid earlier +in the summer on its strawberry beds. A screen of trees runs down from the home +wood along the walls of the gardens; and the Twins, after coming from the road +in the shelter of the home wood, came down the wall behind that screen of +trees. +</p> + +<p> +About the middle of the peach-garden the Terror climbed on to a low bough, +raised his head with slow caution above the wall, and surveyed the garden. It +was empty and silent, save for a curious snoring sound that disquieted him +little, since he ascribed it to some distant pig. +</p> + +<p> +He stepped on to a higher branch, leaned over the wall, and surveyed the golden +burden of the tree beneath him. The ready Erebus handed the landing-net up to +him. He chose his peach, the ripest he could see; slipped the net under it, +flicked it, lifted the peach in it over the wall, and lowered it down to +Erebus, who made haste to roll it in a leaf and lay it gently in her bicycle +basket. The Terror netted another and another and another. +</p> + +<p> +The garden was not as empty as he believed. On a garden chair in the little +lawn in the middle of it sat the Princess Elizabeth hidden from him by the +thick wall of a pear tree, and in a chair beside her, sat, or rather sprawled, +her guardian, the Baroness Frederica Von Aschersleben, who was following +faithfully the doctor’s instructions that her little charge should spend +her time in the open air, but was doing her best to bring it about that the +practise should do her as little good as possible by choosing the sultriest and +most airless spot on the estate because it was so admirably adapted to her own +comfortable sleeping. +</p> + +<p> +The baroness added nothing to the old-world charm of the garden. Her eyes were +shut, her mouth was open, her face was most painfully crimson, and from her +short, but extremely tip-tilted nose, came the sound of snoring which the +Terror had ascribed to some distant pig. +</p> + +<p> +The princess was warmly—very warmly—dressed for the sweltering +afternoon and sweltering spot; little beads of sweat stood on her brow; the +story-book she had been trying to read lay face downward in her lap; and she +was looking round the simmering garden with a look of intolerable discomfort +and boredom on her pretty pale face. +</p> + +<p> +Then a moving object came into the range of her vision, just beyond the end-of +the wall of pear tree—a moving object against the garden wall. She could +not see clearly what it was; but it seemed to her that a peach rose and +vanished over the top of the wall. She stared at the part of the wall whence it +had risen; and in a few seconds another peach seemed to rise and disappear. +</p> + +<p> +This curious behavior of English peaches so roused her curiosity that, in spite +of the heat, she rose and walked quietly to the end of the wall of pear-tree. +As she came beyond it, she saw, leaning over the wall, a fair-haired boy. Even +as she saw him something rose and vanished over the wall far too swiftly for +her to see that it was a landing-net. +</p> + +<p> +Surprise did not rob the Terror of his politeness; he smiled amicably, raised +his cap and said in his most agreeable tone: “How do you do?” +</p> + +<p> +He did not know how much the princess had seen, and he was not going to make +admission of guilt by a hasty and perhaps needless flight, provoke pursuit and +risk his peaches. +</p> + +<p> +“How do you do?” said the princess a little haughtily, hesitating. +“What are you doing up there?” +</p> + +<p> +“I’m looking at the garden,” said the Terror truthfully, but +not quite accurately; for he was looking much more at the princess. +</p> + +<p> +She gazed at him; her brow knitted in a little perplexed frown. She thought +that he had been taking the peaches; but she was not sure; and his serene +guileless face and limpid blue eyes gave the suspicion the lie. She thought +that he looked a nice boy. +</p> + +<p> +He gazed at her with growing interest and approval—as much approval as +one could give to a girl. The Princess Elizabeth had beautiful gray eyes; and +though her pale cheeks were a little hollow, and the line from the cheek-bone +to the corner of the chin was so straight that it made her face almost +triangular, it was a pretty face. She looked fragile; and he felt sorry for +her. +</p> + +<p> +“This garden’s very hot,” he said. “It’s like +holding one’s face over an oven.” +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, it is,” said the princess, with impatient weariness. +</p> + +<p> +“Yet there’s quite a decent little breeze blowing over the top of +the walls,” said the Terror. +</p> + +<p> +The princess sighed, and they gazed at each other with curious examining eyes. +Certainly he looked a nice boy. +</p> + +<p> +“I tell you what: come out into the wood. I know an awfully cool place. +You’d find it very refreshing,” said the Terror in the tone of one +who has of a sudden been happily inspired. +</p> + +<p> +The princess looked back along the wall of pear tree irresolutely at the +sleeping baroness. The sight of that richly crimson face made the garden feel +hotter than ever. +</p> + +<p> +“Do come. My sister’s here, and it will be very jolly in the +wood—the three of us,” said the Terror in his most persuasive tone. +</p> + +<p> +The princess hesitated, and again she looked back at the sleeping but +unbeautiful baroness; then she said with a truly German frankness: +</p> + +<p> +“Are you well-born?” +</p> + +<p> +The Terror smiled a little haughtily in his turn and said slowly: “Well, +from what Mrs. Blenkinsop said, the Dangerfields were barons in the Weald +before they were any Hohenzollerns. And they did very well at Crécy and +Agincourt, too,” he added pensively. +</p> + +<p> +The princess seemed reassured; but she still hesitated. +</p> + +<p> +“Suppose the baroness were to wake?” she said. +</p> + +<p> +A light of understanding brightened the Terror’s face: “Oh, is that +the baroness snoring? I thought it was a pig,” he said frankly. +“She won’t wake for another hour. Nobody snoring like that +could.” +</p> + +<p> +The assurance seemed to disperse the last doubts of the princess. She cast one +more look back at her crimson Argus, and said: “Very goot; I will +coom.” +</p> + +<p> +She walked to the door lower down the garden wall. When she came through it, +she found the Twins wheeling their bicycles toward it. The Terror, in a very +dignified fashion, introduced Erebus to her as Violet Anastasia Dangerfield, +and himself as Hyacinth Wolfram Dangerfield. He gave their full and so +little-used names because he felt that, in the case of a princess, etiquette +demanded it. Then they moved along the screen of trees, up the side of the +garden wall toward the wood. +</p> + +<p> +The Twins shortened their strides to suit the pace of the princess, which was +uncommonly slow. She kept looking from one to the other with curious, rather +timid, pleased eyes. She saw the landing-net that Erebus had fastened to the +backbone of the Terror’s bicycle; but she saw no connection between it +and the vanishing peaches. +</p> + +<p> +They passed straight from the screen of trees through a gap into the home wood, +a gap of a size to let them carry their bicycles through without difficulty, +took a narrow, little used path into the depths of the wood, and moved down it +in single file. +</p> + +<p> +“I expect you never found this path,” said the Terror to the +princess who was following closely on the back wheel of his bicycle. +</p> + +<p> +“No, I haf not found it. I haf never been in this wood till now,” +said the princess. +</p> + +<p> +“You haven’t been in this wood! But it’s the home +wood—the jolliest part of the estate,” cried the Terror in the +liveliest surprise. “And there are two paths straight into it from the +gardens.” +</p> + +<p> +“But I stay always in the gardens,” said the princess sedately. +“The Baroness Von Aschersleben does not walk mooch; and she will not that +I go out of sight of her.” +</p> + +<p> +“But you must get awfully slack, sticking in the gardens all the +time,” said Erebus. +</p> + +<p> +“Slack? What is slack?” said the princess. +</p> + +<p> +“She means feeble,” said the Terror. “But all the same those +gardens are big enough; there’s plenty of room to run about in +them.” +</p> + +<p> +“But I do not run. It is not dignified. The Baroness Von Aschersleben +would be shocked,” said the princess with a somewhat prim air. +</p> + +<p> +“No wonder you’re delicate,” said Erebus, politely trying to +keep a touch of contempt out of her tone, and failing. +</p> + +<p> +“One can not help being delicate,” said the princess. +</p> + +<p> +“I don’t know,” said the Terror doubtfully. “If +you’re in the open air a lot and do run about, you don’t +<i>keep</i> delicate. Wiggins used to be delicate, but he isn’t +now.” +</p> + +<p> +“Who is Wiggins?” said the princess. +</p> + +<p> +“He’s a friend of ours—not so old as we are—quite a +little boy,” said Erebus in a patronizing tone which Wiggins, had he been +present, would have resented with extreme bitterness. “Besides, Doctor +Arbuthnot told Mrs. Blenkinsop that if you were always in the open air, playing +with children of your own age, you’d soon get strong.” +</p> + +<p> +“That’s what I’ve come to England for,” said the +princess. +</p> + +<p> +“I don’t think there’s much chance of your getting strong in +that peach-garden. It didn’t feel to me like the open air at all,” +said the Terror firmly. +</p> + +<p> +“But it is the open air,” said the princess. +</p> + +<p> +They came out of the narrow path they had been following into a broader one, +and presently they turned aside from that at the foot of a steep and pathless +bank. The Twins started up it as if it were neither here nor there to them; as, +indeed, it was not. +</p> + +<p> +But the princess stopped short, and said in a tone of dismay: +</p> + +<p> +“Am I to climb this?” +</p> + +<p> +The Terror stopped, looked at her dismayed face, set his bicycle against the +trunk of a tree, and said: +</p> + +<p> +“I’ll help you up.” +</p> + +<p> +With that, dismissing etiquette from his mind, he slipped his arm round the +slender waist of the princess, and firmly hauled her to the top of the bank. He +relieved her of most of the effort needed to mount it; but none the less she +reached the top panting a little. +</p> + +<p> +“You certainly aren’t in very good training,” he said rather +sadly. +</p> + +<p> +“Training? What is training?” said the princess. +</p> + +<p> +“It’s being fit,” said Erebus in a faintly superior tone. +</p> + +<p> +“And what is being fit?” said the princess. +</p> + +<p> +“It’s being strong—and well—and able to run miles and +miles,” said Erebus raising her voice to make her meaning clearer. +</p> + +<p> +“You needn’t shout at her,” said the Terror. +</p> + +<p> +“I’m trying to make her understand,” said Erebus firmly. +</p> + +<p> +“But I do understand—when it is not the slang you are using. I know +English quite well,” said the princess. +</p> + +<p> +“You certainly speak it awfully well,” said the Terror politely. +</p> + +<p> +He went down the bank and hauled up his bicycle. They went a little deeper into +the wood and reached their goal, the banks of a small pool. +</p> + +<p> +They sat down in a row, and the princess looked at its cool water, in the cool +green shade of the tall trees, with refreshed eyes. +</p> + +<p> +“This <i>is</i> different,” she said with a faint little sigh of +pleasure. +</p> + +<div class="fig" style="width:100%;"> +<a name="img-194"></a> +<img src="images/img-194.jpg" width="417" height="611" alt="[Illustration: ]" /> +<p class="caption">“This is different,” she said.</p> +</div> + +<p> +“Yes; this is the real open air,” said the Terror. +</p> + +<p> +“But I do get lots of open air,” protested the princess. +“Why, I sleep with my window open—at least that much.” She +held out her two forefingers some six inches apart. “The baroness did not +like it. She said it was very dangerous and would give me the chills. But +Doctor Arbuthnot said that it must be open. I think I sleep better.” +</p> + +<p> +“We have our bedroom windows as wide open as they’ll go; and then +they’re not wide enough in this hot weather,” said Erebus in the +tone of superiority that was beginning to sound galling. +</p> + +<p> +“I think if you took off your hat and jacket, you’d be cooler +still,” said the Terror rather quickly. +</p> + +<p> +The princess hesitated a moment; then obediently she took off her hat and +jacket, and breathed another soft sigh of pleasure. She had quite lost her air +of discomfort and boredom. Her eyes were shining brightly; and her pale cheeks +were a little flushed with the excitement of her situation. +</p> + +<p> +It is by no means improbable that the Twins, as well-brought-up children, were +aware that it is not etiquette to speak to royal personages unless they first +speak to you. If they were, they did not let that knowledge stand in the way of +the gratification of their healthy curiosity. It may be they felt that in the +free green wood the etiquette of courts was out of place. At any rate they did +not let it trammel them; and since their healthy curiosity was of the liveliest +kind they submitted the princess to searching, even exhaustive, interrogation +about the life of a royal child at a German court. +</p> + +<p> +They questioned her about the hour she rose, the breakfast she ate, the lessons +she learned, the walks she took, the lunch she ate, the games she played, her +afternoon occupations, her dolls, her pets, her tea, her occupations after tea, +her dinner, her occupations after dinner, the hour she went to bed. +</p> + +<p> +There seemed nothing impertinent in their curiosity to the princess; it was +only natural that every detail of the life of a person of her importance should +be of the greatest interest to less fortunate mortals. She was not even annoyed +by their carelessness of etiquette in not waiting to be spoken to before they +asked a question. Indeed she enjoyed answering their questions very much, for +it was seldom that any one displayed such a genuine interest in her; it was +seldom, indeed, that she found herself on intimate human terms with any of her +fellow creatures. She had neither brothers nor sisters; and she had never had +any really sympathetic playmates. The children of Cassel-Nassau were always +awed and stiff in her society; their minds were harassed by the fear lest they +should be guilty of some appalling breach of etiquette. The manner of the +Twins, therefore, was a pleasant change for her. They were polite, but quite +unconstrained; and the obsequious people by whom she had always been surrounded +had never displayed that engaging quality, save when, like the baroness, they +were safely asleep in her presence. +</p> + +<p> +But her account of her glories did not have the effect on her new friends she +looked for. As she exposed more and more of the trammeling net of etiquette in +which from her rising to her going to bed she was enmeshed, their faces did not +fill with the envy she would have found so natural on them; they grew gloomy. +</p> + +<p> +At the end of the interrogation Erebus heaved a great sigh, and said with +heart-felt conviction: +</p> + +<p> +“Well, thank goodness, I’m not a princess! It must be perfectly +awful!” +</p> + +<p> +“It must be nearly as bad to be a prince,” said the Terror in the +gloomy tone of one who has lost a dear illusion. +</p> + +<p> +The princess could not believe her ears; she stared at the Twins with parted +lips and amazed incredulous eyes. Their words had given her the shock of her +short lifetime. As far as memory carried her back, she had been assured, +frequently and solemnly, that to be a princess, a German princess, a +Hohenzollern princess, was the most glorious and delightful lot a female human +being could enjoy, only a little less glorious and delightful than the lot of a +German prince. +</p> + +<p> +“B-b-but it’s sp-p-plendid to be a princess! Everybody says +so!” she stammered. +</p> + +<p> +“They were humbugging you. You’ve just made it quite clear that +it’s horrid in every kind of way. Why, you can’t do any single +thing you want to. There’s always somebody messing about you to see that +you don’t,” said Erebus with cold decision. +</p> + +<p> +“B-b-but one is a <i>p-p-princess</i>,” stammered the princess, +with something of the wild look of one beneath whose feet the firm earth has +suddenly given way. +</p> + +<p> +The Terror perceived her distress; and he set about soothing it. +</p> + +<p> +“You’re forgetting the food,” he said quickly to Erebus. +“I don’t suppose she ever has to eat cold mutton; and I expect she +can have all the sweets and ices she wants.” +</p> + +<p> +“Of course,” said the princess; and then she went on quickly: +“B-b-but it isn’t what you have to eat that makes it +so—so—so important being a princess. It’s—” +</p> + +<p> +“But it’s awfully important what you have to eat!” cried the +Terror. +</p> + +<p> +“I should jolly well think so!” cried Erebus. +</p> + +<p> +The princess tried hard to get back to the moral sublimities of her exalted +station; but the Twins would not have it. They kept her firmly to the broad +human questions of German cookery and sweets. The princess, used to having +information poured into her by many elderly but bespectacled gentlemen and +ladies, was presently again enjoying her new part of dispenser of information. +Her cheeks were faintly flushed; and her eyes were sparkling in an animated +face. +</p> + +<p> +In these interrogations and discussions the time had slipped away unheeded by +the interested trio. The crimson baroness had awakened, missed her little +charge, and waddled off into the house in search of her. A slow search of the +house and gardens revealed the fact that she was not in them. As soon as this +was clear the baroness fell into a panic and insisted that the whole household +should sally forth in search of her. +</p> + +<p> +The princess was earnestly engaged in an effort to make quite dear to the Twins +the exact nature of one of the obscure kinds of German tartlet, a kind, indeed, +only found in the principality of Cassel-Nassau, where the keen ears of the +Terror caught the sound of a distant voice calling out. +</p> + +<p> +He rose sharply to his feet and said: “Listen! There’s some one +calling. I expect they’ve missed you and you’ll have to be getting +back.” +</p> + +<p> +The princess rose reluctantly. Then her face clouded; and she said in a tone of +faint dismay: “Oh, dear! How annoyed the baroness will be!” +</p> + +<p> +“You take a great deal too much notice of that baroness,” said +Erebus. +</p> + +<p> +“But I have to; she’s my—my <i>gouvernante</i>,” said +the princess. +</p> + +<p> +“I don’t see what good it is being a princess, if you do just what +baronesses tell you all the time,” said Erebus coldly. +</p> + +<p> +The princess looked at her rather helplessly; she had never thought of +rebelling. +</p> + +<p> +“I don’t think I should tell her that you’ve been with us. +She mightn’t think we were good for you. Some people round here +don’t seem to understand us,” said the Terror suavely. +</p> + +<p> +The princess looked from one to the other, hesitating with puckered brow; and +then, with a touch of appeal in her tone, she said, “Are you coming +to-morrow?” +</p> + +<p> +The Twins looked at each other doubtfully. They had no plans for the morrow; +but they had hopes that Fortune would find them some more exciting occupation +than discussing Germany with one of its inhabitants. +</p> + +<p> +At their hesitation the princess’ face fell woefully; and the appeal in +it touched the Terror’s heart. +</p> + +<p> +“We should like to come very much,” he said. +</p> + +<p> +The face of the princess brightened; and her grateful eyes shone on him. +</p> + +<p> +“I don’t think I shall be able to come,” said Erebus with the +important air of one burdened with many affairs. +</p> + +<p> +The face of the princess did not fall again; she said: “But if your +brother comes?” +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, I’ll come, anyhow,” said the Terror. +</p> + +<p> +The voice called again from the wood below, louder. +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, it isn’t the baroness. It’s Miss Lambart,” said +the princess in a tone of relief. +</p> + +<p> +“You take too much notice of that baroness,” said Erebus again +firmly. “Who is Miss Lambart?” +</p> + +<p> +“She’s my English lady-in-waiting. I always have one when I’m +in England, of course. I like her. She tries to amuse me. But the baroness +doesn’t like her,” said the princess, and she sighed. +</p> + +<p> +“Come along, I’ll help you down the bank and take you pretty close +to Miss Lambart. It wouldn’t do for her to know of this place. It’s +our secret lair,” said the Terror. +</p> + +<p> +“I see,” said the princess. +</p> + +<p> +They walked briskly to the edge of the steep bank; and he half carried her down +it; and he led her through the wood toward the drive from which Miss Lambart +had called. As they went he adjured her to confine herself to the simple if +incomplete statement that she had been walking in the wood. His last words to +her, as they stood on the edge of the drive, were: +</p> + +<p> +“Don’t you stand so much nonsense from that baroness.” +</p> + +<p> +Miss Lambart called again; the princess stepped into the drive and found her +thirty yards away. The Terror slipped noiselessly away through the undergrowth. +</p> + +<p> +Miss Lambart turned at the sound of the princess’ footsteps, and said: +“Oh, here you are, Highness. We’ve all been hunting for you. The +baroness thought you were lost.” +</p> + +<p> +“I thought I would walk in the wood,” said the princess demurely. +</p> + +<p> +“It certainly seems to have done you good. You’re looking brighter +and fresher than you’ve looked since you’ve been down here.” +</p> + +<p> +“The wood is real open air,” said the princess. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap09"></a> CHAPTER IX<br /> +AND THE CAUSE OF FREEDOM</h2> + + +<p> +The Terror returned to Erebus and found her stretched at her ease, eating a +peach. +</p> + +<p> +“I should have liked one a good deal sooner,” he said, as he took +one from the basket. “But I didn’t like to say anything about them. +She mightn’t have understood.” +</p> + +<p> +“It wouldn’t have mattered if she hadn’t,” said Erebus +somewhat truculently. +</p> + +<p> +She was feeling some slight resentment that their new acquaintance had so +plainly preferred the Terror to her. +</p> + +<p> +“She’s not a bad kid,” said the Terror thoughtfully. +</p> + +<p> +“She’s awfully feeble. Why, you had to carry her up this bit of a +bank. She’s not any use to us,” said Erebus in a tone of contempt. +“In fact, if we were to have much to do with her, I expect we should find +her a perfect nuisance.” +</p> + +<p> +“Perhaps. Still we may as well amuse her a bit. She seems to be having a +rotten time with that old red baroness and all that etiquette,” said the +Terror in a kindly tone. +</p> + +<p> +“She needn’t stand it, if she doesn’t like it. I +shouldn’t,” said Erebus coldly; then her face brightened, and she +added: “I tell you what though: it would be rather fun to teach her to +jump on that old red baroness.” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes,” said the Terror doubtfully. “But I expect she’d +take a lot of teaching. I don’t think she’s the kind of kid to do +much jumping on people.” +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, you never know. We can always try,” said Erebus cheerfully. +</p> + +<p> +“Yes,” said the Terror. +</p> + +<p> +Warmed by this noble resolve, they moved quietly out of the wood. It was not so +difficult a matter as it may sound to move, even encumbered by bicycles, about +the home wood, for it was not so carefully preserved as the woods farther away +from the Grange; indeed, the keepers paid but little attention to it. The Twins +moved out of it safely and returned home with easy minds: it did not occur to +either of them that they had been treating a princess with singular firmness. +Nor were they at all troubled about the acquisition of the peaches since some +curious mental kink prevented them from perceiving that the law of meum and +tuum applied to fruit. +</p> + +<p> +Mrs. Dangerfield was presented with only two peaches at tea that afternoon; and +she took it that the Twins had ridden into Rowington and bought them for her +there. When two more were forthcoming for her dessert after dinner, she +reproached them gently for spending so much of their salary for +“overseering” on her. The Twins said nothing. It was only when two +more peaches came up on her breakfast tray that she began to suspect that they +had come by the ways of warfare and not of trade. Then, having already eaten +four of them, it was a little late to inquire and protest. Moreover, if there +had been a crime, the Twins had admitted her to a full share in it by letting +her eat the fruit of it. Plainly it was once more an occasion for saying +nothing. +</p> + +<p> +On the next afternoon Erebus set out with the Terror to Muttle Deeping home +wood early enough; but owing to the matter of a young rabbit who met them on +their way, they kept the princess waiting twenty minutes. This was, indeed, a +new experience to her; but she did not complain to them of this unheard-of +breach of etiquette. She was doubtful how the complaint would be received at +any rate by Erebus. +</p> + +<p> +They betook themselves at once to the cool and shady pool; and since the +sensation was no longer new and startling, the princess found it rather +pleasant to be hauled up the bank by the Terror. There was something very +satisfactory in his strength. Again they settled themselves comfortably on the +bank of the pool. +</p> + +<p> +They were in the strongest contrast to one another. Beside the clear golden tan +of the Terror and the deeper gipsy-like brown of Erebus the pale face of the +princess looked waxen. The blue linen blouse, short serge skirt and bare head +and legs of Erebus and the blue linen shirt, serge knickerbockers and bare head +and legs of the Terror gave them an air not only of coolness but also of a +workmanlike freedom of limb. In her woolen blouse, brown serge jacket and +skirt, woolen stockings and heavily-trimmed drooping hat the poor little +princess looked a swaddled sweltering doll melting in the heat. +</p> + +<p> +She needed no pressing to take off her jacket and hat; and was pleased by the +Terror’s observing that it was just silly to wear a hat at all when one +had such thick hair as she. But she was some time acting on Erebus’ +suggestion that she should also pull off her stockings and be more comfortable +still. +</p> + +<p> +At last she pulled them off, and for once comfortable, she began to tell of the +fuss the excited baroness had made the day before about her having gone alone +into such a fearful and dangerous place as the home wood. +</p> + +<p> +“I tell you what: you’ve spoilt that baroness,” said the +Terror when she came to the end of her tale; and he spoke with firm conviction. +</p> + +<p> +“But she’s my <i>gouvernante</i>. I have to do as she bids,” +protested the princess. +</p> + +<p> +“That’s all rubbish. You’re the princess; and other people +ought to do what you tell them; and no old baroness should make you do any +silly thing you don’t want to. She wouldn’t me,” said Erebus +with even greater conviction than the Terror had shown. +</p> + +<p> +“I don’t think she would,” said the princess with a faint +sigh; and she looked at Erebus with envious eyes. “But when she starts +making a fuss and gets so red and excited, she—she—rather frightens +me.” +</p> + +<p> +“It would take a lot more than that to frighten me,” said Erebus +with a very cold ferocity. +</p> + +<p> +“I rather like people like that. I think they look so funny when +they’re really red and excited,” said the Terror gently. “But +what you’ve got to do is to stand up to her.” +</p> + +<p> +“Stand up to her?” said the princess, puzzled by the idiom. +</p> + +<p> +“Tell her that you don’t care what she says,” said the +Terror. +</p> + +<p> +“Cheek her,” said Erebus. +</p> + +<p> +“I couldn’t. It would be too difficult,” said the princess, +shaking her head. +</p> + +<p> +“Of course it isn’t easy at first; but you’ll be surprised to +find how soon you’ll get used to shutting her up,” said the Terror. +“But I don’t believe in cheeking her unless she gets very noisy. I +believe in being quite polite but not giving way.” +</p> + +<p> +“She is very noisy,” said the princess. +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, then you’ll have to shout at her. It’s the only way. But +mind you only have rows when you’re in the right about something,” +said the Terror. “Then she’ll soon learn to leave you alone. +It’s no good having a row when you’re in the wrong.” +</p> + +<p> +“I think it’s best always to have a row,” said Erebus with an +air of wide experience. +</p> + +<p> +“Well, it isn’t—at least it wouldn’t be for the +princess—she’s not like you,” said the Terror quickly. +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, no: not always—only when one is in the right. I see +that,” said the princess. “But what should I have a row +about?” +</p> + +<p> +The Twins puckered their brows as they cudgeled their brains for a pretext for +an honest row. +</p> + +<p> +Presently the Terror said: “Why don’t you make them let you have +some one to play with? It’s silly being as dull as you are. What’s +the good of being a princess, if you haven’t any friends?” +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, yes!” cried the princess; and her cheeks flushed, and her eyes +sparkled. “It would be nice! You and Erebus could come to tea with me and +sooper and loonch often and again!” +</p> + +<p> +The Twins looked at each other with eyes full of a sudden dismay. It was not in +their scheme of things as they should be that they should go to the Grange in +the immaculate morning dress of an English boy and girl, and spend stiff hours +in the presence of a crimson baroness. +</p> + +<p> +“That wouldn’t do at all,” said the Terror quickly. +“You had better not tell them anything at all about us. They +wouldn’t let us come to the Grange; and they’d stop you coming +here. It’s ever so much nicer meeting secretly like this.” +</p> + +<p> +“But it would be very nice to meet at the Grange as well as here,” +said the princess, who felt strongly that she could not have enough of this +good thing. +</p> + +<p> +“It couldn’t be done. They wouldn’t have us at the +Grange,” said Erebus, supporting the Terror. +</p> + +<p> +“But why not?” said the princess in surprise. +</p> + +<p> +“The people about here don’t understand us,” said the Terror +somewhat sadly. “They’d think we should be bad for you.” +</p> + +<p> +“But it is not so! You are ever so good to me!” cried the princess +hotly. +</p> + +<p> +“It’s no good. You couldn’t make grown-ups see that—you +know what they are. No; you’d much better leave it alone, and sit tight +and meet us here,” said the Terror. +</p> + +<p> +The princess sat thoughtful and frowning for a little while; then she sighed +and said: “Well, I will do what you say. You know more about it.” +</p> + +<p> +“That’s all right,” said the Terror, greatly relieved. +</p> + +<p> +There was a short silence; then he said thoughtfully: “I tell you what: +it would be a good thing if you were to get some muscle on you. Suppose we +taught you some exercises. You could practise them at home; and soon +you’d be able to do things when you were with us.” +</p> + +<p> +“What things?” said the princess. +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, you’d be able to run—and jump. Why we might even be able +to teach you to climb,” said the Terror with a touch of enthusiasm in his +tone as the loftier heights of philanthropy loomed upon his inner vision. +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, that would be nice!” cried the princess. Forthwith the Twins +set about teaching her some of the exercises which go to the making of muscle; +and the princess was a painstaking pupil. In spite of the seeds of revolt they +had sown in her heart, she was eager to get back to the peach-garden before the +baroness should awake, or at any rate before she should have satisfied herself +that her charge was not in the house or about the gardens. The Terror therefore +conducted her down the screen of trees to the door in the wall. She had left it +unlatched; and he pushed it open gently. There was no sound of snoring: the +baroness had awoke and left the garden. +</p> + +<p> +“I expect she is still looking for me in the house,” said the +princess calmly. “They’d be shouting if she weren’t.” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes. I say; do you want <i>all</i> these peaches?” said the +Terror, looking round the loaded walls. +</p> + +<p> +“Me? No. I have a peach for breakfast and another for lunch. But I +don’t care for peaches much. It’s the way the baroness eats them, I +think—the juice roonning down, you know. And she eats six or seven +always.” +</p> + +<p> +“That woman’s a pig. I thought she looked like one,” said the +Terror with conviction. “But if you don’t want them all, may I have +some for my mother? The doctor has ordered her fruit; and she’s very fond +of peaches.” +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, yes; take some for your mother and yourself and Erebus. Take them +all,” said the princess with quick generosity. +</p> + +<p> +“Thank you; but a dozen will be heaps,” said the Terror. +</p> + +<p> +The princess helped him gather them and lay them in a large cabbage-leaf; and +then they bade each other good-by at the garden-gate. +</p> + +<p> +The Twins returned home in triumph with the golden spoil. But when she was +provided with two peaches for seven meals in succession, Mrs. Dangerfield could +no longer eat them with a mind at ease, and she asked the Twins how they came +by them. They assured her that they had been given to them by a friend but that +the name of the donor must remain a secret. She knew that they would not lie to +her; and thinking it likely that they came from either the squire or the vicar, +both of whom took an uncommonly lively interest in her, judging from the fact +that either of them had asked her to marry him more than once, she went on +eating the peaches with a clear conscience. +</p> + +<p> +The next afternoon the Twins devoted themselves to strengthening the +princess’ spirit with no less ardor than they devoted themselves to +strengthening her body. They adjured her again and again to thrust off the yoke +of the baroness. The last pregnant words of Erebus to her were: “You just +call her an old red pig, and see.” +</p> + +<p> +Their efforts in the cause of freedom bore fruit no later than that very +evening. The princess was dining with the Baroness Von Aschersleben and Miss +Lambart; and the baroness, who was exceedingly jealous of Miss Lambart, had +interrupted her several times in her talk with the princess; and she had done +it rudely. The princess, who wanted to hear Miss Lambart talk, was annoyed. +They had reached dessert; and Miss Lambart was congratulating her on the +improvement in her appetite since she had just made an excellent meal, and said +that it must be the air of Muttle Deeping. The baroness uttered a loud and +contemptuous snort, and filled her plate with peaches. The princess looked at +her with an expression of great dislike. The baroness gobbled up one peach with +a rapidity almost inconceivable in a human being, and very noisily, and was +midway through the second when the princess spoke. +</p> + +<p> +“I want some children to play with,” she said. +</p> + +<p> +Briskly and with the sound of a loud unpleasant sob the baroness gulped down +the other half of the peach, and briskly she said: “Zere are no children +in zis country, your Royal Highness.” +</p> + +<p> +It was the custom for the princess to speak and hear only English in England. +</p> + +<p> +“But I see plenty of children when I drive,” said the princess. +</p> + +<p> +“Zey are nod children; zey are nod ’igh an’ well-born,” +said the baroness in rasping tones. +</p> + +<p> +“Then you must find some high and well-born children for me to play +with,” said the princess. +</p> + +<p> +“Moost? Moost?” cried the baroness in a high voice. “Bud eed +ees whad I know ees goot for you.” +</p> + +<p> +“They’re good for me,” said the princess firmly. “And +you must find them.” +</p> + +<p> +The baroness was taken aback by this so sudden and unexpected display of +firmness in her little charge; her face darkened to a yet richer crimson; and +she cried in a loud blustering voice: “Bud eed ees eembossible whad your +royal highness ask! Zere are no ’igh an’ well-born children +’ere. Zey are een Loondon.” +</p> + +<p> +“Well, you must send for some,” said the princess, who, having +taken the first step, was finding it pleasant to be firm. +</p> + +<p> +“Moost? Moost? I do nod know whad ees ’appen to you, your Royal +Highness. I say eed ees eembossible!” shouted the baroness; and she +banged on the table with her fist. +</p> + +<p> +“But surely her highness’ request is a very natural one, Baroness; +and there must be some nice children in the neighborhood if we were to look for +them. Besides, Doctor Arbuthnot said that she ought to have children of her own +age to play with,” said Miss Lambart who had been pitying the lonely +child and seized eagerly on this chance of helping her to the companionship she +needed. +</p> + +<p> +“Do nod indervere, Englanderin!” bellowed the baroness; and her +crimson was enriched with streaks of purple. “I am in ze charge of +’er royal highness; and I zay zat she does not wiz zese children +blay.” +</p> + +<p> +The fine gray eyes of the princess were burning with a somber glow. She was +angry, and her mind was teeming with the instructions of her young mentors, +especially with the more violent instructions of Erebus. +</p> + +<p> +She gazed straight into the sparkling but blood-shot eyes of the raging +baroness, and said in a somewhat uncertain voice but clearly enough: +</p> + +<p> +“Old—red—peeg.” +</p> + +<p> +Miss Lambart started in her chair; the baroness uttered a gasping grunt; she +blinked; she could not believe her ears. +</p> + +<p> +“But whad—but whad—” she said faintly. +</p> + +<p> +“Old—red—peeg,” said the princess, somewhat pleased +with the effect of the words, and desirous of deepening it. +</p> + +<p> +“Bud whad ees eed zat ’appen?” muttered the bewildered +baroness. +</p> + +<p> +“If you do not find me children quickly, I shall write to my father that +you do not as the English doctor bids; and you were ordered to do everything +what the English doctor bids,” said the princess in a sinister tone. +“Then you will go back to Cassel-Nassau and the Baroness Hochfelden will +be my <i>gouvernante</i>.” +</p> + +<p> +The baroness ground her teeth, but she trembled; it might easily happen, if the +letter of the princess found the grand duke of Cassel-Nassau in the wrong mood, +that she would lose this comfortable well-paid post, and the hated Baroness +Hochfelden take it. +</p> + +<p> +“Bud zere are no ’igh an’ well-born children, your Royal +Highness,” she said in a far gentler, apologetic voice. +</p> + +<p> +The princess frowned at her and said: “Mees Lambart will find them. Is it +not, Mees Lambart?” +</p> + +<p> +“I shall be charmed to try, Highness,” said Miss Lambart readily. +</p> + +<p> +“Do nod indervere! I veel zose childen vind myzelf!” snapped the +baroness. +</p> + +<p> +The princess rose, still quivering a little from the conflict, but glowing with +the joy of victory. At the door she paused to say: +</p> + +<p> +“And I want them soon—at once.” +</p> + +<p> +Then, though the baroness had many times forbidden her to tempt the night air, +she went firmly out into the garden. The next morning at breakfast she again +demanded children to play with. +</p> + +<p> +Accordingly when Doctor Arbuthnot paid his visit that morning, the baroness +asked him what children in the neighborhood could be invited to come to play +with the princess. She only stipulated that they should be high and well-born. +</p> + +<p> +“Well, of course the proper children to play with her would be the +Twins—Mrs. Dangerfield’s boy and girl. They’re high and +well-born enough. But I doubt that they could be induced to play with a little +girl. They’re independent young people. Besides, I’m not at all +sure that they would be quite the playmates for a quiet princess. It would +hardly do to expose an impressionable child like the princess to +such—er—er ardent spirits. You might have her developing a spirit +of freedom; and you wouldn’t like that.” +</p> + +<p> +“<i>Mein Gott</i>, no!” said the baroness with warm conviction. +</p> + +<p> +“Then there’s Wiggins—Rupert Carrington. He’s younger +and quieter but active enough. He’d soon teach her to run about.” +</p> + +<p> +“But is he well-born?” said the careful baroness. +</p> + +<p> +“Well-born? He’s a <i>Carrington</i>,” said Doctor Arbuthnot +with an impressive air that concealed well his utter ignorance of the ancestry +of the higher mathematician. +</p> + +<p> +The baroness accepted Wiggins gloomily. When the princess, who had hoped for +the Twins, heard that he had been chosen, she accepted him with resignation. +Doctor Arbuthnot undertook to arrange the matter. +</p> + +<p> +The disappointed princess informed the Twins of the election of Wiggins; and +they cheered her by reporting favorably on the qualifications of their friend, +though Erebus said somewhat sadly: +</p> + +<p> +“Of course, he’ll insist on being an Indian chief and scalping you; +he always does. But you mustn’t mind that.” +</p> + +<p> +The princess thought that she would not mind it; it would at any rate be a +change from listening monotonously to the snores of the baroness. +</p> + +<p> +The Twins found it much more difficult to comfort and cheer their fair-haired, +freckled, but infuriated friend. Not only was his reluctance to don the +immaculate morning dress of an English young gentleman for the delectation of +foreign princesses every whit as sincere as their own, but he felt the +invitation to play with a little girl far more insulting than they would have +done. They did their best to soothe him and make things pleasant for the +princess, pointing out to him the richness of the teas he would assuredly +enjoy, and impressing on him the fact that he would be performing a noble +charitable action. +</p> + +<p> +“Yes; that’s all very well,” said Wiggins gloomily. +“But I’ve been seeing ever such a little of you lately in the +afternoons; and now I shall see less than ever.” +</p> + +<p> +Naturally, he was at first somewhat stiff with the princess; but the stiffness +did not last; they became very good active friends; and he scalped her with +gratifying frequency. In this way it came about that, in the matter of play, +the princess led a double life. She spent the early part of the afternoon in +the wood with the Twins; and from tea till the dressing-bell for dinner rang +she enjoyed the society of Wiggins. She told no one of her friendship with the +Twins; and Wiggins was surprised by her eagerness to hear everything about them +he could tell. Between them she was beginning to acquire cheerfulness and +muscle; and she was losing her air of delicacy, but not at a rate that +satisfied the exigent Terror. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap10"></a> CHAPTER X<br /> +AND THE ENTERTAINMENT OF ROYALTY</h2> + + +<p> +The time had come for the Twins to take their annual change of air. They took +that change at but a short distance from their home, since the cost of a visit +to the sea was more than their mother could afford. They were allowed to encamp +for ten days, if the weather were fine, in the dry sandstone caves of Deeping +Knoll, which rises in the middle of Little Deeping wood, the property of Mr. +Anstruther. +</p> + +<p> +Kind-hearted as the Twins were, they felt that to make the journey from the +knoll to Muttle Deeping home wood was beyond the bounds of philanthropy; and +they broke the news to the princess as gently as they could. She was so deeply +grieved to learn that she was no longer going to enjoy their society that, in +spite of the fact that she had been made well aware that they despised and +abhorred tears, she was presently weeping. She was ashamed; but she could not +help it. The compassionate Twins compromised; they promised her that they would +try to come every third afternoon; and with that she had to be content. +</p> + +<p> +None the less on the eve of their departure she was deploring bitterly the fact +that she would not see them on the morrow, when the Terror was magnificently +inspired. +</p> + +<p> +“Look here: why shouldn’t you come with us into camp?” he +said eagerly. “A week of it would buck you up more than a month at the +Grange. You really do get open air camping out at the knoll.” +</p> + +<p> +The face of the princess flushed and brightened at the splendid thought. Then +it fell; and she said: “They’d never let me—never.” +</p> + +<p> +“But you’d never ask them,” said the Terror. +“You’d just slip away and come with us. We’ve kept our +knowing you so dark that they’d never dream you were with us in the knoll +caves.” +</p> + +<p> +The princess was charmed, even dazzled, by the glorious prospect. She had come +to feel strongly that by far the best part of her life was the afternoons she +spent with the Twins in the wood; whole days with them would be beyond the +delight of dreams. But to her unadventured soul the difficulties seemed beyond +all surmounting. The Twins, however, were used to surmounting difficulties, and +at once they began surmounting these. +</p> + +<p> +“The difficult thing is not to get you there, but to keep you +there,” said the Terror thoughtfully. “You see, I’ve got to +go down every day for milk and things, and they’re sure to ask me if +I’ve seen anything of you. Of course, I can’t lie about it; and +then they’ll not only take you away, but they’ll probably turn us +out of the caves.” +</p> + +<p> +“That’s the drawback,” said Erebus. +</p> + +<p> +The Twins gazed round the wood seeking enlightenment. A deep frown furrowed the +Terror’s brow; and he said: “If only you weren’t a princess +they wouldn’t make half such a fuss hunting for you, and I might never be +asked anything about you.” +</p> + +<p> +“I should have to come to the camp incognita, of course,” said the +princess. +</p> + +<p> +The Terror looked puzzled for a moment; then his face cleared into a glorious +smile, and he cried: +</p> + +<p> +“By Jove! Of course you would! I never thought of that! Why, you’d +be some one else and not the princess at all! We shouldn’t know where the +princess was if we were asked.” +</p> + +<p> +“Of course we shouldn’t!” said Erebus, perceiving the +advantage of this ignorance. +</p> + +<p> +“I generally am the Baroness von Zwettel when I travel,” said the +princess. +</p> + +<p> +The Terror considered the matter, again frowning thoughtfully: “I suppose +you have to have a title. But I think an English one would be best here: Lady +Rowington now. No one would ever ask us where Lady Rowington is, because there +isn’t any Lady Rowington.” +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, yes: Lady Rowington—I would wish an English title,” said +the princess readily. +</p> + +<p> +“If we could only think of some way of making them think that she’d +been stolen by gipsies, it would be safer still,” said Erebus. +</p> + +<p> +“Gipsies don’t steal children nowadays,” said the Terror; and +he paused considering. Then he added, “I tell you what though: Nihilists +would—at least they’d steal a princess. Are there any Nihilists in +Cassel-Nassau?” +</p> + +<p> +“I never heard of any,” said the princess. “There are +thousands of Socialists.” +</p> + +<p> +“Socialists will do,” said the Terror cheerfully. +</p> + +<p> +They were quick in deciding that the princess should not join them till the +second night of their stay in camp, to give them time to have everything in +order. Then they discussed her needs. She could not bring away with her any +clothes, or it would be plain that she had not been stolen. She must share the +wardrobe of Erebus. +</p> + +<p> +“But, no. I have money,” said the princess, thrusting her hand into +her pocket. “Will you not buy me clothes?” +</p> + +<p> +She drew out a little gold chain purse with five sovereigns in it, and handed +it to the Terror. He and Erebus examined it with warm admiration, for it was +indeed a pretty purse. +</p> + +<p> +“We should have had to buy you a bathing-dress, anyhow. There’s a +pool just under the knoll,” said the Terror. “How much shall we +want, Erebus?” +</p> + +<p> +“You’d better have two pounds and be on the safe side,” said +Erebus. +</p> + +<p> +The Terror transferred two sovereigns from the purse of the princess to his +own. Then he arranged that she should meet him outside the door of the +peach-garden at nine o’clock, or thereabouts at night. He would wait half +an hour that she might not have to hurry and perhaps arouse the suspicion that +she had gone of her own free will. He made several suggestions about the manner +of her escape. +</p> + +<p> +When she left them, they rode straight to Rowington and set about purchasing +her outfit. They bought a short serge skirt, two linen shirts, a blue jersey +against the evening chill, a cap, sandals, stockings, underclothing and a +bathing-dress. They carried the parcels home on their bicycles. When she saw +them on their arrival Mrs. Dangerfield supposed that they were parts of their +own equipment. +</p> + +<p> +That evening the Terror worked hard at his ingenious device for throwing the +searchers off the scent. It was: +</p> + +<div class="fig" style="width:100%;"> +<a name="img-229"></a> +<img src="images/img-229.jpg" width="261" height="137" alt="[Illustration: ]" /> +<p class="caption">“We are avenged.<br /> +A Desparate Socialist”</p> +</div> + +<p> +He went to bed much pleased with his handiwork. +</p> + +<p> +They spent a busy morning carrying their camping outfit to Deeping Knoll. The +last two hundred yards of path to it was very narrow so that they transported +their belongings to the entrance to it in Tom Cobb’s donkey-cart, and +carried them up to the knoll on their backs. +</p> + +<p> +In other years their outfit had been larger, for their mother had encamped with +them. This year she had not cared for the effort; and she had also felt that +ten days’ holiday out of the strenuous atmosphere which spread itself +round the Twins, would be restful and pleasant. She was sure that they might +quite safely be trusted to encamp by themselves on Deeping Knoll. Not only were +they of approved readiness and resource; but buried in the heart of that wood, +they were as safe from the intrusion of evil-doers as on some desert South Sea +isle. She was somewhat surprised by the Terror’s readiness to take as +many blankets as she suggested. In other years he had been disposed to grumble +at the number she thought necessary. +</p> + +<p> +The Twins had carried their outfit to the knoll by lunch-time; and they +lunched, or rather dined, with a very good appetite. Then they began to arrange +their belongings, which they had piled in a heap as they brought them up, in +their proper caves. With a break of an hour for a bath this occupied them till +tea-time. After tea they bathed again and then set about collecting fuel from +the wood. They were too tired to spend much time on cooking their supper; and +soon after it, rolled in their blankets on beds of bracken, they were sleeping +like logs. They were up betimes, bathing. +</p> + +<p> +This day was far less strenuous than the day before. They spent most of it in +the pool or on its bank. In the afternoon Wiggins came and did not leave them +till seven. Soon after eight o’clock the Terror set out to keep his tryst +with the princess. He took with him the Socialist manifesto and pinned it to +the post of a wicket gate opening from the gardens into the park on the +opposite side of the Grange to Deeping Knoll. Then he came round to the door in +the peach-garden wall two or three minutes before the clock over the stables +struck nine. +</p> + +<p> +He had not long to wait; he heard the gentle footfall of the princess on the +garden path, the door opened, and she came through it. He shook hands with her +warmly; and as they went up the screen of trees she told him how she had bidden +the baroness and Miss Lambart good night, gone to her bedroom, ruffled the bed, +locked the door, and slipped, unseen, down the stairs and out of the house. He +praised her skill; and she found his praise very grateful. +</p> + +<p> +The path to the knoll lay all the way through the dark woods; and the princess +found them daunting. They were full of strange noises, many of them +eery-sounding; and in the dimness strange terrifying shapes seemed to move. The +Terror was not long discovering her fear, and forthwith put his arm round her +waist and kept it there wherever the path was broad enough to allow it. When +she quivered to some woodland sound, he told her what it was and eased her +mind. +</p> + +<p> +She was not strong enough in spite of her exercises and the active games with +Wiggins, to make the whole of the journey over that rough ground at a stretch; +and twice when he felt her flagging they sat down and rested. The princess was +no longer frightened; she still thrilled to the eeriness of the woods, but she +felt quite safe with the Terror. When they rested she snuggled up against him, +stared before her into the dark, and thought of all the heroes wandering +through the forests of Grimm, with the sense of adventure very strong on her. +She was almost sorry when they came at last to the foot of the knoll and saw +its top red in the glow of the fire Erebus was keeping bright. +</p> + +<div class="fig" style="width:100%;"> +<a name="img-232"></a> +<img src="images/img-232.jpg" width="425" height="619" alt="[Illustration: ]" /> +<p class="caption">She was almost sorry when they came at last to the foot of +the knoll.</p> +</div> + +<p> +Also Erebus had hot cocoa ready for them; and after her tiring journey the +princess found it grateful indeed. They sat for a while in a row before the +glowing fire, talking of the Hartz Mountains, which the princess had visited. +But soon the yawns which she could not repress showed her hosts how sleepy she +was, and the Terror suggested that she should go to bed. +</p> + +<p> +With true courtesy, the Twins had given her the best sleeping-cave to herself, +but she displayed such a terrified reluctance to sleep in it alone, that her +couch of bracken and her blankets were moved into the cave of Erebus. After the +journey and the excitement she was not long falling into a dreamless sleep. +</p> + +<p> +When she awoke next morning, she found the Terror gone to fetch milk. Erebus +conducted her down to the pool for her morning bath. The princess did not like +it (she had had no experience of cold baths) but under the eye of Erebus she +could not shrink; and in she went. She came out shivering, but Erebus helped +rub her to a warm glow, and she came to breakfast with such an appetite as she +had never before in her life enjoyed. +</p> + +<p> +The knoll was indeed the ideal camping-ground for the romantic; the caves with +which it was honeycombed lent themselves to a score of games of adventure; and +the princess soon found that she had been called to an active life. It began +directly after breakfast with dish-washing; after that she was breathless for +an hour in two excited games both of which meant running through the caves and +round and over the knoll as hard as you could run and at short intervals +yelling as loud as you could yell. After this they put on their bathing-dresses +and disported themselves in the pool till it was time to set about the serious +business of cooking the dinner, which they took soon after one o’clock. +</p> + +<p> +The Terror kept a careful and protective eye on the princess, helping her, for +the most part vigorously, to cover the ground at the required speed. Also he +turned her out of the pool, to dry and dress, a full half-hour before he and +Erebus left it. After dinner the princess was so sleepy that she could hardly +keep her eyes open; and the Terror insisted that she should lie down for an +hour. She protested that she did not want to rest, that she did not want to +lose a moment of this glorious life; but presently she yielded and was soon +asleep. +</p> + +<p> +They were expecting Wiggins in the afternoon. But he could be admitted safely +into the secret, since, once he knew that the princess had become Lady +Rowington, he would be able with sufficient truthfulness to profess an entire +ignorance of her whereabouts. Also he would be very useful, for he could bring +them word if suspicion had fallen on them. +</p> + +<p> +At about half past two he arrived, bringing a great tale of the excitement of +the countryside at the kidnaping of the princess. So far its simple-minded +inhabitants and the suite of the princess were content with the socialist +explanation of her disappearance; and three counties round were being searched +by active policemen on bicycles for some one who had seen a suspicious +motor-car containing Socialists and a princess. It was the general belief that +she had been chloroformed and abducted through her bedroom window. +</p> + +<p> +With admirable gravity the Twins discussed with Wiggins the probabilities of +their success and of the recovery of the princess, the routes by which the +Socialists might have carried her off, and the towns in which the lair to which +they had taken her might be. At the end of half an hour of it the princess came +out of her cave, her eyes, very bright with sleep, blinking in the sunlight. +</p> + +<p> +Wiggins cried out in surprise; and the Twins laughed joyfully. +</p> + +<p> +Wiggins greeted the princess politely; and then he said reproachfully: +“You might have told me that she was coming here.” +</p> + +<p> +“You ought to have known as soon as you heard she was missing,” +said Erebus sternly. +</p> + +<p> +“So I should, if I’d known you knew her at all,” said +Wiggins. +</p> + +<p> +“That’s what nobody knows,” said Erebus triumphantly. +</p> + +<p> +“And look here: she’s here incognita,” said the Terror. +“She’s taken the traveling name of Lady Rowington; and she’s +not the princess at all. So if you’re asked if the princess is here, you +can truthfully say she isn’t.” +</p> + +<p> +“Of course—I see. This is a go!” said Wiggins cheerfully; and +he spurned the earth. +</p> + +<p> +“The only chance of her being found is for somebody to come up when +we’re not expecting them and see her,” said the Terror. “So +I’m going to block the path with thorn-bushes; and any one who comes up +it will shout to us. But there’s no need to do that yet; nobody will +think about us for a day or two.” +</p> + +<p> +“No; of course they won’t. I didn’t,” said Wiggins. +</p> + +<p> +The active life persisted throughout that day and the days that followed. It +kept the princess always beside the Terror. Always he was using his greater +strength to help her lead it at the required speed. Never in the history of the +courts of Europe has a princess been so hauled, shoved, dragged, jerked, towed +and lugged over rough ground. On the second morning she awoke so stiff that she +could hardly move; but by the fifth evening she could give forth an +ear-piercing yell that would have done credit to Erebus herself. +</p> + +<p> +All her life the princess had been starved of affection; her mother had died +when she was in her cradle; her father had been immersed in his pleasures; no +one had been truly fond of her; and she had been truly fond of no one. It is +hardly too much to say that she was coming to adore the Terror. Even at their +most violent and thrilling moments his care for her never relaxed. He rubbed +the ache out of her bruises; he plastered her scratches. He saw to it that she +came out of the pool the moment that she looked chill. He picked out for her +the tidbits at their meals. He even brushed out her hair, for the thick golden +mass was quite beyond the management of the princess; and Erebus firmly refused +to play the lady’s-maid. Since the Terror was one of those who enjoy +doing most things which they are called upon to do, he presently forgot the +unmanliness of the occupation, and began to take pleasure in handling the +silken strands. +</p> + +<p> +It was on the fifth day, after a bath, when he was brushing out her hair in the +sun on the top of the knoll that he received the severe shock. Heaven knows +that the princess was not a demonstrative child; indeed, she had never had the +chance. But he had just finished his task and was surveying the shining result +with satisfaction, when, of a sudden, without any warning, she threw her arms +round his neck and kissed him. +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, you <i>are</i> nice!” she said. +</p> + +<p> +The Terror’s ineffable serenity was for once scattered to the winds. He +flushed and gazed round the wood with horror-stricken eyes: if any one should +have seen it! +</p> + +<p> +The princess marked his trouble, and said in a tone of distress: +“Don’t you like for me to kiss you?” +</p> + +<p> +The Terror swallowed the lump of horror in his throat, and said, faintly but +gallantly: “Yes—oh, rather.” +</p> + +<p> +“Then kiss me,” said the princess simply, snuggling closer to him. +</p> + +<p> +The despairing eyes of the Terror swept the woods; then he kissed her gingerly. +</p> + +<p> +“I <i>am</i> fond of you, you know,” said the princess in a frankly +proprietary tone. +</p> + +<p> +The Terror’s scattered wits at last worked. He rose to his feet, and said +quickly: +</p> + +<p> +“Yes; let’s be getting to the others.” +</p> + +<p> +The princess rose obediently. +</p> + +<p> +But the ice was broken; and the kisses of the princess, if not frequent, were, +at any rate, not rare. The Terror at first endured them; then he came rather to +like them. But he strictly enjoined discretion on her; it would never do for +Erebus to learn that she kissed him. The princess had no desire that Erebus, or +any one else for that matter, should learn; but discretion and kisses have no +natural affinity; and, without their knowing it, Wiggins became aware of the +practise. +</p> + +<p> +He had always observed that the Twins had no secrets from each other; and he +never dreamed that he was letting an uncommonly awkward cat out of a bag when +during a lull in the strenuous life, he said to Erebus: +</p> + +<p> +“I suppose the Terror’s in love with the princess, kissing her like +that. I think it’s awfully silly.” And he spurned the earth. +</p> + +<p> +Erebus grabbed his arm and cried fiercely: “He never does!” +</p> + +<p> +Wiggins looked at her in some surprise; her face was one dusky flush; and her +eyes were flashing. He had seen her angry often enough, but never so angry as +this; and he saw plainly that he had committed a grievous indiscretion. +</p> + +<p> +“Perhaps she kissed him,” he said quickly. +</p> + +<p> +“He’d never let her!” cried Erebus fiercely. +</p> + +<p> +“Perhaps they didn’t,” said Wiggins readily. +</p> + +<p> +“You know they did!” cried Erebus yet more fiercely. +</p> + +<p> +“I may have made a mistake. It’s quite easy to make a mistake about +that kind of thing,” said Wiggins. +</p> + +<p> +Erebus would not have it, and very fiercely she dragged piecemeal from his +reluctant lips the story of the surprised idyl. He had seen the princess with +an arm round the Terror’s neck, and they had kissed. +</p> + +<p> +With clenched fists and blazing eyes Erebus, taking the line of the least +resistance, sought the princess. She found her lying back drowsily against a +sunny bank. +</p> + +<p> +Erebus came to an abrupt stop before her and cried fiercely: “Princess or +no princess, you shan’t kiss the Terror!” +</p> + +<p> +The drowsiness fled; and the princess sat up. Her gray eyes darkened and +sparkled. She had never made a face in her life; it is not improbable, seeing +how sheltered a life she had led, that she was ignorant that faces were made; +but quite naturally she made a hideous face at Erebus, and said: +</p> + +<p> +“I shall!” +</p> + +<p> +“If you do, I’ll smack you!” cried Erebus; and she ground her +teeth. +</p> + +<p> +For all her Hohenzollern blood, the princess was a timid child; but by a +gracious provision of nature even the timidest female will fight in the matter +of a male. She met Erebus’ blazing eyes squarely and said confidently: +</p> + +<p> +“He won’t let you. And if you do he’ll smack you—much +harder!” +</p> + +<p> +Had the princess been standing up, Erebus would have smacked her then and +there. But she was sitting safely down; and the Queensberry rules only permit +you to strike any one standing up. Erebus forgot them, stooped to strike, +remembered them, straightened herself, and with a really pantherous growl +dashed away in search of the Terror. +</p> + +<p> +She found him examining and strengthening the barrier of thorns; and she cried: +</p> + +<p> +“I know all about your kissing the princess! I never heard of such silly +babyishness!” +</p> + +<p> +It was very seldom, indeed, that the Terror showed himself sensible to the +emotions of his sister; but on this occasion he blushed faintly as he said: +</p> + +<p> +“Well, what harm is there in it?” +</p> + +<p> +“It’s babyish! It’s what mollycoddles do! It’s girlish! +It’s—” +</p> + +<p> +The Terror of a sudden turned brazen; he said loudly and firmly: +</p> + +<p> +“You mind your own business! It isn’t babyish at all! She’s +asked me to marry her; and when we’re grown up I’m going +to—so there!” +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap11"></a> CHAPTER XI<br /> +AND THE UNREST CURE</h2> + + +<p> +Erebus knew her brother well; she perceived that she was confronted by what she +called his obstinacy; and though his brazen-faced admission had raised her to +the very height of amazement and horror, she uttered no protest. She knew that +protest would be vain, that against his obstinacy she was helpless. She wrung +her hands and turned aside into the wood, overwhelmed by his defection from one +of their loftiest ideals. +</p> + +<p> +Then followed a period of strain. She assumed an attitude of very haughty +contempt toward the errant pair, devoted herself to Wiggins, and let them +coldly alone. From this attitude Wiggins was the chief sufferer: the Terror had +the princess and the princess had the Terror; Erebus enjoyed her display of +haughty contempt, but Wiggins missed the strenuous life, the rushing games, in +which you yelled so heartily. As often as he could he stole away from the +haughty Erebus and joined the errant pair. It is to be feared that the princess +found the kisses sweeter for the ban Erebus had laid on them. +</p> + +<p> +No one in the Deepings suspected that the missing princess was on Deeping +Knoll. There had been sporadic outbursts of suspicion that the Twins had had a +hand in her disappearance. But no one had any reason to suppose that they and +the princess had even been acquainted. Doctor Arbuthnot, indeed, questioned +both Wiggins and the Terror; but they were mindful of the fact that Lady +Rowington (they were always very careful to address her as Lady Rowington) and +not the princess, was at the knoll, and were thus able to assure him with +sufficient truthfulness that they could not tell him where the princess was. +The bursts of suspicion therefore were brief. +</p> + +<p> +But there was one man in England in whom suspicion had not died down. Suspicion +is, indeed, hardly the word for the feeling of Sir Maurice Falconer in the +matter. When he first read in his <i>Morning Post</i> of the disappearance of +the Princess Elizabeth of Cassel-Nassau from Muttle Deeping Grange he said +confidently to himself: “The Twins again!” and to that conviction +his mind clung. +</p> + +<p> +It was greatly strengthened by a study of the reproduction of the Socialist +manifesto on the front page of an enterprising halfpenny paper. He told himself +that Socialists are an educated, even over-educated folk, and if one of them +did set himself to draw a skull and cross-bones, the drawing would be, if not +exquisite, at any rate accurate and unsmudged; that it was highly improbable +that a Socialist would spell desperate with two “a’s” in an +important document without being corrected by a confederate. On the other hand +the drawing of the skull and cross-bones seemed to him to display a skill to +which the immature genius of the Terror might easily have attained, while he +could readily conceive that he would spell desperate with two +“a’s” in any document. +</p> + +<p> +But Sir Maurice was not a man to interfere lightly in the pleasures of his +relations; and he would not have interfered at all had it not been for the +international situation produced by the disappearance of the princess. As it +was he was so busy with lunches, race meetings, dinners, theater parties, +dances and suppers that he was compelled to postpone intervention till the +sixth day, when every Socialist organ and organization from San Francisco +eastward to Japan was loudly disavowing any connection with the crime, the +newspapers of England and Germany were snarling and howling and roaring and +bellowing at one another, and the Foreign Office and the German Chancellery +were wiring frequent, carefully coded appeals to each other to invent some +plausible excuse for not mobilizing their armies and fleets. Even then Sir +Maurice, who knew too well the value of German press opinion, would not have +interfered, had not the extremely active wife of a cabinet minister consulted +him about the easiest way for her to sell twenty thousand pounds’ worth +of consols. He disliked the lady so strongly that after telling her how she +could best compass her design, he felt that the time had come to ease the +international situation. +</p> + +<p> +With this end in view he went down to Little Deeping. His conviction that the +Twins were responsible for the disappearance of the princess became certitude +when he learned from Mrs. Dangerfield that they were encamped on Deeping Knoll, +and had been there since the day before that disappearance. But he kept that +certitude to himself, since it was his habit to do things in the pleasantest +way possible. +</p> + +<p> +He forthwith set out across the fields and walked through the home wood and +park to Muttle Deeping Grange. He gave his card to the butler and told him to +take it straight to Miss Lambart, with whom he was on terms of friendship +rather than of acquaintance; and in less than three minutes she came to him in +the drawing-room. +</p> + +<p> +She was looking anxious and worried; and as they shook hands he said: “Is +this business worrying you?” +</p> + +<p> +“It is rather. You see, though the Baroness Von Aschersleben was in +charge of the princess, I am partly responsible. Besides, since I’m +English, they keep coming to me to have all the steps that are being taken +explained; and they want the same explanation over and over again. Since the +archduke came it has been very trying. I think that he is more of an imbecile +than any royalty I ever met.” +</p> + +<p> +“I’m sorry to hear that they’ve been worrying you like this. +If I’d known, I’d have come down and stopped it earlier,” +said Sir Maurice in a tone of lively self-reproach. +</p> + +<p> +“Stop it? Why, what can you do?” cried Miss Lambart, opening her +eyes wide in her surprise. +</p> + +<p> +“Well, I have a strong belief that I could lead you to your missing +princess. But it’s only a belief, mind. So don’t be too +hopeful.” +</p> + +<p> +Miss Lambart’s pretty face flushed with sudden hope: +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, if you could!” she cried. +</p> + +<p> +“Put on your strongest pair of shoes, for I think that it will be rough +going part of the way, and order a motor-car, or carriage; if you can, for the +easier part; and we’ll put my belief to the test,” said Sir Maurice +briskly. +</p> + +<p> +Miss Lambart frowned, and said in a doubtful tone: “I shan’t be +able to get a carriage or car without a tiresome fuss. They’re very +unpleasant people, you know. Could we take the baroness with us? She’ll +<i>have</i> to be carried in something.” +</p> + +<p> +“Is she very fat?” +</p> + +<p> +“Very.” +</p> + +<p> +“Then she’d never get to the place I have in mind,” said Sir +Maurice. +</p> + +<p> +“Is it very far? Couldn’t we walk to it?” +</p> + +<p> +“It’s about three miles,” said Sir Maurice. +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, that’s nothing—at least not for me. But you?” said +Miss Lambart, who had an utterly erroneous belief that Sir Maurice was +something of a weakling. +</p> + +<p> +“I can manage it. Your companionship will stimulate my flagging +limbs,” said Sir Maurice. “Indeed, a real country walk on a warm +and pleasant afternoon will be an experience I haven’t enjoyed for +years.” +</p> + +<p> +Miss Lambart was not long getting ready; and they set out across the park +toward the knoll which rose, a rounded green lump, above the surface of the +distant wood. Sir Maurice had once walked to it with the Twins; and he thought +that his memory of the walk helped by a few inquiries of people they met would +take him to it on a fairly straight course. It was certainly very pleasant to +be walking with such a charming companion through such a charming country. +</p> + +<p> +As soon as they were free of the gardens Miss Lambart said eagerly: +“Where are we going to? Where do you think the princess is?” +</p> + +<p> +“You’ve been here a month. Haven’t you heard of the +Dangerfield twins?” said Sir Maurice. +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, yes; we were trying to find children to play with the princess; and +Doctor Arbuthnot mentioned them. But he said that they were not the kind of +children for her, though they were the only high and well-born ones the +baroness was clamoring for, in the neighborhood. He seemed to think that they +would make her rebellious.” +</p> + +<p> +“Then the princess didn’t know them?” said Sir Maurice +quickly. +</p> + +<p> +“No.” +</p> + +<p> +“I wonder,” said Sir Maurice skeptically. +</p> + +<p> +“We found a little boy called Rupert Carrington to play with her—a +very nice little boy,” said Miss Lambart. +</p> + +<p> +“Wiggins! The Twins’ greatest friend! Well, I’ll be +shot!” cried Sir Maurice; and he laughed. +</p> + +<p> +“But do you mean to say that you think that these children have something +to do with the princess’ disappearance? How old are they?” said +Miss Lambart in an incredulous tone, for fixed very firmly in her mind was the +belief that the princess had been carried off by the Socialists and foreigners. +</p> + +<p> +“I never know whether they are thirteen or fourteen. But I do know that +nothing out of the common happens in the Deepings without their having a hand +in it. I have the honor to be their uncle,” said Sir Maurice. +</p> + +<p> +“But they’d never be able to persuade her to run away with them. +She’s a timid child; and she has been coddled and cosseted all her life +till she is delicate to fragility,” Miss Lambart protested. +</p> + +<p> +“If it came to a matter of persuasion, my nephew would persuade the +hind-leg, or perhaps even the fore-leg, off a horse,” said Sir Maurice in +a tone of deep conviction. “But it would not necessarily be a matter of +persuasion.” +</p> + +<p> +“But what else could it be—children of thirteen or fourteen!” +cried Miss Lambart. +</p> + +<p> +“I assure you that it might quite easily have been force,” said Sir +Maurice seriously. “My nephew and niece are encamped on Deeping Knoll. It +is honeycombed with dry sand-stone caves for the most part communicating with +one another. I can conceive of nothing more likely than that the idea of being +brigands occurred to one or other of them; and they proceeded to kidnap the +princess to hold her for ransom. They might lure her to some distance from the +Grange before they had recourse to force.” +</p> + +<p> +“It sounds incredible—children,” said Miss Lambart. +</p> + +<p> +“Well, we shall see,” said Sir Maurice cheerfully. Then he added in +a more doubtful tone; “If only we can take them by surprise, which +won’t be so easy as it sounds.” +</p> + +<p> +Miss Lambart feared that they were on a wild goose chase. But it was a very +pleasant wild goose chase; she was very well content to be walking with him +through this pleasant sunny land. When presently he turned the talk to matters +more personal to her, she liked it better still. He was very sympathetic: he +sympathized with her in her annoyance at having had to waste so much of the +summer on this tiresome <i>corvée</i> of acting as lady-in-waiting on the +little princess; for, thanks to the domineering jealousy of the baroness, it +had been a tiresome <i>corvée</i> indeed, instead of the pleasant occupation it +might have been. He sympathized with her in her vexation that she had been +prevented by that jealousy from improving the health or spirits of the +princess. +</p> + +<p> +He was warmly indignant when she told him of the behavior of the baroness and +the archduke during the last few days. The baroness had tried to lay the blame +of the disappearance of the princess on her; and the archduke, a vast, +sun-shaped, billowy mass of fat, infuriated at having been torn from the summer +ease of his Schloss to dash to England, had been very rude indeed. She was much +pleased by the warmth of Sir Maurice’s indignation; but she protested +against his making any attempt to punish them, for she did not see how he could +do it, without harming himself. But she agreed with him that neither the grand +duke, nor the baroness deserved any consideration at her hands. +</p> + +<p> +Their unfailing flow of talk shortened the way; and they soon were in the broad +aisle of the wood from which the narrow, thorn-blocked path led to the knoll. +Sir Maurice recognized the path; but he did not take it. He knew that the Twins +were far too capable not to have it guarded, if the princess were indeed with +them. He led the way into the wood on the right of it, and slowly, clearing the +way for her carefully, seeing to it that she did not get scratched, or her +frock get torn, he brought her in a circuit round to the very back of the +knoll. +</p> + +<p> +They made the passage in silence, careful not to tread on a twig, Sir Maurice +walking a few feet in front, and all the while peering earnestly ahead through +the branches. Now and again a loud yell came from the knoll; and once a chorus +of yells. Finding that her coldness (the Terror frankly called it sulking) had +no effect whatever on her insensible brother or the insensible princess, Erebus +had put it aside; and the strenuous life was once more in full swing. +</p> + +<p> +Once after an uncommonly shrill and piercing yell Miss Lambart said in an +astonished whisper: +</p> + +<p> +“That was awfully like the princess’ voice.” +</p> + +<p> +“I thought you said she was delicate,” said Sir Maurice. +</p> + +<p> +“So she was,” said Miss Lambart firmly. +</p> + +<p> +Thanks to the careful noiselessness of their approach, they came unseen and +unheard to the screen of a clump of hazels at the foot of the knoll, from which +they could see the entrance of five caves in its face. They waited, watching +it. +</p> + +<p> +It was silent; there was no sign of life; and Sir Maurice was beginning to +wonder whether they had, after all, been espied by his keen-eyed kin, when a +little girl, with a great plait of very fair hair hanging down her back, came +swiftly out of one of the bottom caves and slipped into a clump of bushes to +the right of it. +</p> + +<p> +“The princess!” said Miss Lambart; and she was for stepping +forward, but Sir Maurice caught her wrist and checked her. +</p> + +<p> +Almost on the instant an amazingly disheveled Wiggins appeared stealing in a +crouching attitude toward the entrance to the cave. +</p> + +<p> +“That nice little boy, Rupert Carrington,” said Sir Maurice. +</p> + +<p> +Wiggins had almost gained the entrance to the cave when, with an ear-piercing +yell, the princess sprang upon him and locked her arms round his neck; they +swayed, yelling in anything but unison, and came to the ground. +</p> + +<p> +“Delicate to fragility,” muttered Sir Maurice. +</p> + +<p> +“Whatever has she been doing to herself?” said Miss Lambart +faintly, gazing at her battling yelling charge with amazed eyes. +</p> + +<p> +“You don’t know the Twins,” said Sir Maurice. +</p> + +<p> +On his words Erebus came flying down the face of the knoll at a breakneck pace, +yelling as she came, and flung herself upon the battling pair. As far as the +spectators could judge she and the princess were rending Wiggins limb from +limb; and they all three yelled their shrillest. Then with a yell the Terror +leaped upon them from the cave and they were all four rolling on the ground +while the aching welkin rang. +</p> + +<p> +Suddenly the tangle of whirling limbs was dissolved as Erebus and Wiggins tore +themselves free, gained their feet and fled. The princess and the Terror sat +up, panting, flushed and disheveled. The princess wriggled close to the Terror, +snuggled against him, and put an arm round his neck. +</p> + +<p> +“It was splendid!” she cried, and kissed him. +</p> + +<p> +Unaware of the watching eyes, he submitted to the embrace with a very good +grace. +</p> + +<p> +“Well, I never!” said Miss Lambart. +</p> + +<p> +“These delicate children,” said Sir Maurice. “But it’s +certainly a delightful place for lovers. I’m so glad we’ve found +it.” +</p> + +<p> +He was looking earnestly at Miss Lambart; and she felt that she was flushing. +</p> + +<p> +“Come along!” she said quickly. +</p> + +<p> +They came out of their clump, about fifteen yards from their quarry. +</p> + +<p> +The quick-eyed Terror saw them first. He did not stir; but a curious, short, +sharp cry came from his throat. It seemed to loose a spring in the princess. +She shot to her feet and stood prepared to fly, frowning. The Terror rose more +slowly. +</p> + +<p> +“Good afternoon, Highness. I’ve come to take you back to the +Grange,” said Miss Lambart. +</p> + +<p> +“I’m not going,” said the princess firmly. +</p> + +<p> +“I’m afraid you must. Your father is there; and he wants +you,” said Miss Lambart. +</p> + +<p> +“No,” said the princess yet more firmly; and she took a step +sidewise toward the mouth of the cave. +</p> + +<p> +The Terror nodded amiably to his uncle and put his hands in his pockets; he +wore the detached air of a spectator. +</p> + +<p> +“But if you don’t come of yourself, we shall have to carry +you,” said Miss Lambart sternly. +</p> + +<p> +The Terror intervened; he said in his most agreeable tone: “I don’t +see how you can. You can’t touch a princess you know. It would be +<i>lèse-majesté</i>. She’s told me all about it.” +</p> + +<p> +The perplexity spread from the face of Miss Lambart to the face of Sir Maurice +Falconer; he smiled appreciatively. But he said: “Oh, come; this +won’t do, Terror, don’t you know! Her highness will <i>have</i> to +come.” +</p> + +<p> +“I don’t see how you’re going to get her. The only person who +could use force is the prince himself, and I don’t think he could be got +up to the knoll. He’s too heavy. I’ve seen him. And if you did get +him up, I don’t really think he’d ever find her in these +caves,” said the Terror in the dispassionate tone of one discussing an +entirely impersonal matter. +</p> + +<p> +“Anyhow, I’m not going,” said the princess with even greater +firmness. +</p> + +<p> +Miss Lambart and Sir Maurice gazed at each other in an equal perplexity. +</p> + +<p> +“You see, there isn’t any real reason why she shouldn’t stay +here,” said the Terror. “She came to England to improve her health; +and she’s improving it ever so much faster here than she did at the +Grange. You can <i>see</i> how improved it is. She eats nearly as much as +Erebus.” +</p> + +<p> +“She has certainly changed,” said Miss Lambart in a tart tone which +showed exactly how little she found it a change for the better. +</p> + +<p> +“The Twins have a transforming effect on the young,” said Sir +Maurice in a tone of resignation. +</p> + +<p> +“I am much better,” said the princess. “I’m getting +quite strong, and I can run ever so fast.” +</p> + +<p> +She stretched out a tanning leg and surveyed it with an air of satisfaction. +</p> + +<p> +“But it’s nonsense!” said Miss Lambart. +</p> + +<p> +“But what can you <i>do</i>?” said the Terror gently. +</p> + +<p> +“I’ll chance the <i>lèse-majesté</i>!” cried Miss Lambart; +and she sprang swiftly forward. +</p> + +<p> +The princess bolted into the cave and up it. Miss Lambart followed swiftly. The +cave ended in a dim passage, ten feet down, the passage forked into three +dimmer passages. Miss Lambart stopped short and tried to hear from which of +them came the sound of the footfalls of the retiring princess. It came from +none of the three; the floor of the eaves was covered with sound-deadening +sand. Miss Lambart walked back to the entrance of the cave. +</p> + +<p> +“She has escaped,” she said in a tone of resignation. +</p> + +<p> +“Well, I really don’t see any reason for you to put yourself about +for the sake of that disagreeable crew at the Grange. You have done more than +you were called on to do in finding her. You can leave the catching of her to +them. There’s nothing to worry about: it’s quite clear that this +camping-out is doing her a world of good,” said Sir Maurice in a +comforting tone. +</p> + +<p> +“Yes; there is that,” said Miss Lambart. +</p> + +<p> +“Let me introduce my nephew. Hyacinth Dangerfield—better, much +better, known as the Terror—to you,” Said Sir Maurice. +</p> + +<p> +The Terror shook hands with her, and said: “How do you do? I’ve +been wanting to know you: the princess—I mean Lady Rowington—likes +you ever so much.” +</p> + +<p> +Miss Lambart was appeased. +</p> + +<p> +“Perhaps you could give us some tea? We want it badly,” said Sir +Maurice. +</p> + +<p> +“Yes, I can. We only drink milk and cocoa, of course. But we have some +tea, for Mum walked up to have tea with us yesterday,” said the Terror. +</p> + +<p> +“I take it that she saw nothing of the princess,” said Sir Maurice. +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, no; she didn’t see Lady Rowington. You must remember that +she’s Lady Rowington here, and not the princess at all,” said the +Terror. +</p> + +<p> +“Oh? I see now how it was that when you were asked at home, you knew +nothing about the princess,” said Sir Maurice quickly. +</p> + +<p> +“Yes; that was how,” said the Terror blandly. +</p> + +<p> +They had not long to wait for their tea, for the Twins had had their kettle on +the fire for some time. Sir Maurice and Miss Lambart enjoyed the picnic +greatly. On his suggestion an armistice was proclaimed. Miss Lambart agreed to +make no further attempt to capture the princess; and she came out of hiding and +took her tea with them. +</p> + +<p> +Miss Lambart was, indeed, pleased with, at any rate, the physical change in the +princess, induced by her short stay at the knoll: she was a browner, brighter, +stronger child. Plainly, too, she was a more determined child; and while, for +her own part, Miss Lambart approved of that change also, she was quite sure +that it would not be approved by the princess’ kinsfolk and train. But +she was somewhat distressed that the legs of the princess should be marred by +so many and such deep scratches. She had none of the experienced Twins’ +quickness to see and dodge thorns. She took Miss Lambart’s sympathy +lightly enough; indeed she seemed to regard those scratches as scars gained in +honorable warfare. +</p> + +<p> +Miss Lambart saw plainly that the billowy archduke would have no little +difficulty in recovering her from this fastness; and since she was assured that +this green wood life was the very thing the princess needed, she was resolved +to give him no help herself. She was pleased to learn that she was in no way +responsible for the princess’ acquaintance with the Twins; that she had +made their acquaintance and cultivated their society while the careless +baroness slept in the peach-garden. +</p> + +<p> +At half past five Sir Maurice and Miss Lambart took their leave of their +entertainers and set out through the wood. They had not gone a hundred yards +before a splendid yelling informed them that the strenuous life had again +begun. +</p> + +<p> +Miss Lambart had supposed that they would return straight to Muttle Deeping +Grange with the news of their great discovery. But she found that Sir Maurice +had formed other plans. They were both agreed that no consideration was owing +to the billowy archduke. His manners deprived him of any right to it. +Accordingly, he took her to Little Deeping post-office, and with many appeals +to her for suggestions and help wrote two long telegrams. The first was to the +editor of the Morning Post, the second was to the prime minister. In both he +set forth his discovery of the princess happily encamped with young friends in +a wood, and her reasons for running away to them. The postmistress despatched +them as he wrote them, that they might reach London and ease the international +situation at once. Since both the editor and the prime minister were on +friendly and familiar terms with him, there was no fear that the telegrams +would fail of their effect. +</p> + +<p> +Then he took Miss Lambart to Colet House, to make the acquaintance of Mrs. +Dangerfield, and to inform her how nearly the Twins had plunged Europe into +Armageddon. Mrs. Dangerfield received the news with unruffled calm. She showed +no surprise at all; she only said that she had found it very strange that a +princess should vanish at Muttle Deeping and the Twins have no hand in it. She +perceived at once that the princess had quite prevented any disclosure by +assuming the name of Lady Rowington. +</p> + +<p> +Miss Lambart found her very charming and attractive, and was in no haste to +leave such pleasant companionship for the dull and unpleasant atmosphere of +Muttle Deeping Grange. It was past seven therefore when the Little Deeping fly +brought her to it; and she went to the archduke with her news. +</p> + +<p> +She found him in the condition of nervous excitement into which he always fell +before meals, too excited, indeed, to listen to her with sufficient attention +to understand her at the first telling of her news. He was some time +understanding it, and longer believing it. It annoyed him greatly. He was +taking considerable pleasure in standing on a pedestal before the eyes of +Europe as the bereaved Hohenzollern sire. His first, and accurate, feeling was +that Europe would laugh consumedly when it learned the truth of the matter. His +second feeling was that his noble kinsman, who had been saying wonderful, +stirring things about the Terror’s manifesto and the stolen princess, +would be furiously angry with him. +</p> + +<p> +He began to rave himself, fortunately in his own tongue of which Miss Lambart +was ignorant. Then when he grew cooler and paler his oft-repeated phrase was: +“Eet must be ’ushed!” +</p> + +<p> +Miss Lambart did not tell him that Sir Maurice had taken every care that the +affair should not be hushed up. She did not wish every blow to strike him at +once. Then the dinner-bell rang; and in heavy haste he rolled off to the +dining-room. +</p> + +<p> +Miss Lambart was betaking herself to her bedroom to dress, when the +archduke’s equerry, the young mustached Count Zerbst came running up the +stairs, bidding her in the name of his master come to dinner at once, as she +was. She took no heed of the command, dressed at her ease, and came down just +as the archduke, perspiring freely after his struggle with the +hors-d’oeuvres, soup and fish, was plunging upon his first entrée. +</p> + +<p> +He ate it with great emphasis; and as he ate it he questioned her about the +place where his daughter was encamped and the friends she was encamped with. +Miss Lambart described the knoll and its position as clearly as she could, and +of the Twins she said as little as possible. Then he asked her with +considerable acerbity why she had not exercised her authority and brought the +princess back with her. +</p> + +<p> +Miss Lambart said that she had no authority over the princess; and that if she +had had it, the princess would have disregarded it wholly, and that it was +impossible to haul a recalcitrant Hohenzollern through miles of wood by force, +since the persons of Hohenzollerns were sacrosanct. +</p> + +<p> +The archduke said that the only thing to do was to go himself and summon home +his truant child. Miss Lambart objected that it would mean hewing expensively a +path through the wood wide enough to permit his passage, and it was improbable +that the owner of the wood would allow it. Thereupon the baroness volunteered +to go. Miss Lambart with infinite pleasure explained that for her too an +expensive path must be hewn, and went on to declare that if they reached the +knoll, there was not the slightest chance of their finding the princess in its +caves. +</p> + +<p> +The archduke frowned and grunted fiercely in his perplexity. Then he struck the +table and cried: +</p> + +<p> +“Count Zerbst shall do eet! To-morrow morning! You shall ’eem lead +to ze wood. ’E shall breeng ’er.” +</p> + +<p> +Miss Lambart protested that to wander in the Deeping woods with a German count +would hardly be proper. +</p> + +<p> +“Brobare? What ees ‘brobare’?” said the archduke. +</p> + +<p> +“<i>Convenable</i>,” said Miss Lambart. +</p> + +<p> +The archduke protested that such considerations must not be allowed to militate +against his being set free to return to Cassel-Nassau at the earliest possible +moment. Miss Lambart said that they must. In the end it was decided that a +motor-car should be procured from Rowington and that Miss Lambart should guide +the archduke and the count to the entrance of the path to the knoll, the count +should convey to the princess her father’s command to return to the +Grange, and if she should refuse to obey, he should haul her by force to the +car. +</p> + +<p> +Miss Lambart made no secret of her strong conviction that he would never set +eyes, much less hands, on the princess. Count Zerbst’s smooth pink face +flushed rose-pink all round his fierce little mustache, which in some +inexplicable, but unfortunate, fashion accentuated the extraordinary +insignificance of his nose; his small eyes sparkled; and he muttered fiercely +something about “sdradegy.” He looked at Miss Lambart very +unamiably. He felt that she was not impressed by him as were the maidens of +Cassel-Nassau; and he resented it. He resolved to capture the princess at any +cost. +</p> + +<p> +The archduke fumed furiously to find, next morning in the <i>Morning Post</i> +the true story of his daughter’s disappearance; and he was fuming still +when the car came from Rowington. It was a powerful car and a weight-carrier; +Miss Lambart, who had telephoned for it, had been careful to demand a +weight-carrier. With immense fuss the archduke disposed himself in the back of +the tonneau which he filled with billowy curves. The moment he was settled in +it Miss Lambart sprang to the seat beside the driver, and insisted on keeping +it that she might the more easily direct his course. +</p> + +<p> +They were not long reaching the wood; and the chauffeur raised no objection to +taking the car up the broad turfed aisle from which ran the path to the knoll. +At the entrance of it the count stepped out of the car; and the archduke gave +him his final instructions with the air of a Roman father; he was to bring the +princess in any fashion, but he was to bring her at once. +</p> + +<p> +In a last generous outburst he cried: “Pooll ’er by the ear! Bud +breeng ’er.” +</p> + +<p> +The count said that he would, and entered the path with a resolute and martial +air. Miss Lambart was not impressed by it. She thought that in his +tight-fitting clothes of military cut and his apparently tighter-fitting patent +leather boots he looked uncommonly out of place under the green wood trees. She +remembered how lightly the Twins and the princess went; and she had the poorest +expectation of his getting near any of them. Also, as they had come up the +aisle of the woods she had been assailed by a late but serious doubt, whether a +weight-carrying motor-car was quite the right kind of vehicle in which to +approach the lair of the Twins with hostile intent. Its powerful, +loud-throbbing engine had seemed to her to advertise their advent with all the +competence of a trumpet. +</p> + +<p> +Her doubt was well-grounded. The quick ears of Erebus were the first to catch +its throbbing note, and that while it was still two hundred yards from the +entrance of the path to the knoll. Ever since the departure of Miss Lambart and +Sir Maurice the Twins had been making ready against invasion, conveying their +provisions and belongings to the secret caves. +</p> + +<p> +The secret caves had not been secret before the coming of the Twins to the +knoll. They were high up on the outer face of it, airy and well lighted by two +inaccessible holes under an overhanging ledge. But the entrance to them was by +a narrow shaft which rose sharply from a cave in the heart of the knoll. On +this shaft the Twins had spent their best pains for two and a half wet days the +year before; and they had reduced some seven or eight feet of it to a passage +fifteen inches high and eighteen inches broad. The opening into this passage +could, naturally, be closed very easily; and then, in the dim light, it was +hard indeed to distinguish it from the wall of the cave. It had been a somewhat +difficult task to get their blankets and provisions through so narrow a +passage; but it had been finished soon after breakfast. +</p> + +<p> +They were on the alert for invaders; and as soon as they were quite sure that +the keen ears of Erebus had made no mistake and that a car was coming up the +board aisle, the princess and the Terror squirmed their way up to the secret +caves; and Erebus closed the passage behind them, and with small chunks filled +in the interstices between the larger pieces of stone so that it looked more +than ever a part of the wall of the cave. Then she betook herself to a point of +vantage among the bushes on the face of the knoll, from which she could watch +the entrance of the path and the coming of the invaders. +</p> + +<p> +The archduke, lying back at his ease in the car, and smoking an excellent +cigar, spoke with assurance of catching the one-fifteen train from Rowington to +London and the night boat from Dover to Calais. Miss Lambart wasted no breath +encouraging him in an expectation based on the efforts of Count Zerbst on the +knoll. She stepped out of the car and strolled up and down on the pleasant +turf. Presently she saw a figure coming down the aisle from the direction of +Little Deeping; when it came nearer, with considerable pleasure she recognized +Sir Maurice. +</p> + +<p> +When he came to them she presented him to the archduke as the discoverer of his +daughter’s hiding-place. The archduke, mindful of the fact that Sir +Maurice had given the true story of the disappearance to the world, received +him ungraciously. Miss Lambart at once told Sir Maurice of the errand of Count +Zerbst and of her very small expectation that anything would come of it. Sir +Maurice agreed with her; and the fuming archduke assured them that the count +was the most promising soldier in the army of Cassel-Nassau. Then Sir Maurice +suggested that they should go to the knoll and help the count. Miss Lambart +assented readily; and they set out at once. They skirted the barriers of thorns +in the path and came to the knoll. It was quiet and seemed utterly deserted. +</p> + +<p> +They called loudly to the count several times; but he did not answer. Miss +Lambart suggested that he was searching the caves and that they should find him +and help him search them; they plunged into the caves and began to hunt for +him. They did not find the count; neither did they find the princess nor the +Twins. They shouted to him many times as they traversed the caves; but they had +no answer. +</p> + +<p> +This was not unnatural, seeing that he left the knoll just before they reached +it. He had mounted the side of it, calling loudly to the princess. He had gone +through half a dozen caves, calling loudly to the princess. No answer had come +to his calling. He had kept coming out of the labyrinth on to the side of the +knoll. At one of these exits, to his great joy, he had seen the figure of a +little girl, dressed in the short serge skirt and blue jersey he had been told +the princess was wearing, slipping through the bushes at the foot of the knoll. +With a loud shout he had dashed down it in pursuit and plunged after her into +the wood. Her sunbonnet was still in sight ahead among the bushes, and by great +good fortune he succeeded in keeping it in sight. Once, indeed, when he thought +that he had lost it for good and all, it suddenly reappeared ahead of him; and +he was able to take up the chase again. But he did not catch her. Indeed he did +not lessen the distance between them to an extent appreciable by the naked eye. +For a delicate princess she was running with uncommon speed and endurance. +Considering his dress and boots and the roughness of the going, he, too, was +running with uncommon speed and endurance. It was true that his face was a very +bright red and that his so lately stiff, tall, white collar lay limply gray +round his neck. But he was not near enough to his quarry to be mortified by +seeing that she was but faintly flushed by her efforts and hardly perspiring at +all. All the while he was buoyed up by the assurance that he would catch her in +the course of the next hundred yards. +</p> + +<p> +Then his quarry left the wood, by an exceedingly small gap, and ran down a +field path toward the village of Little Deeping. By the time the count was +through the gap she had a lead of a hundred yards. To his joy, in the open +country, on the smoother path, he made up the lost ground quickly. When they +reached the common, he was a bare forty yards behind her. He was not surprised +when in despair she left the path and bolted into the refuge of an old house +that stood beside it. +</p> + +<p> +Mopping his hot wet brow he walked up the garden path with a victorious air, +and knocked firmly on the door. Sarah opened it; and he demanded the instant +surrender of the princess. Sarah heard him with an exasperating air of blank +bewilderment. He repeated his demand more firmly and loudly. +</p> + +<p> +Sarah called to Mrs. Dangerfield: “Please, mum: ’ere’s a +furrin gentleman asking for a princess. I expect as it’s that there +missing one.” +</p> + +<p> +“Do nod mock! She ’ees ’ere!” cried the count fiercely. +</p> + +<p> +Then Mrs. Dangerfield came out of the dining-room where she had been arranging +flowers, and came to the door. +</p> + +<p> +“The princess is not here,” she said gently. +</p> + +<p> +“But I haf zeen ’er! She haf now ad once coom! She +’ides!” cried the count. +</p> + +<p> +At that moment Erebus came down the hall airily swinging her sunbonnet by its +strings. The eyes of the count opened wide; so did his mouth. +</p> + +<p> +“I expect he means me. At least he’s run after me all the way from +the knoll here,” said Erebus in a clear quiet voice. +</p> + +<p> +The count’s eyes returned to their sockets; and he had a sudden outburst +of fluent German. He did not think that any of his hearers could understand +that portion of his native tongue he was using; he hoped they could not; he +could not help it if they did. +</p> + +<p> +Mrs. Dangerfield looked from him to Erebus thoughtfully. She did not suppose +for a moment that it was mere accident that had caused the count to take so +much violent exercise on such a hot day. She was sorry for him. He looked so +fierce and young and inexperienced to fall foul of the Twins. +</p> + +<p> +Erebus caught her mother’s thoughtful eye. At once she cried resentfully: +“How could I possibly tell it was the sunbonnet which made him think I +was the princess? He never asked me who I was. He just shouted once and ran +after me. I was hurrying home to get some salad oil and get back to the knoll +by lunch.” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes, you would run all the way,” said Mrs. Dangerfield patiently. +</p> + +<p> +“Well, you’d have run, too, Mum, with a foreigner running after +you! Just look at that mustache! It would frighten anybody!” cried Erebus +in the tone of one deeply aggrieved by unjust injurious suspicions. +</p> + +<p> +“Yes, I see,” said her mother with undiminished patience. +</p> + +<p> +She invited the count to come in and rest and get cool; and she allayed his +fine thirst with a long and very grateful whisky and soda. He explained to her +at length, three times, how he had come to mistake Erebus for the flying +princess, for he was exceedingly anxious not to appear foolish in the eyes of +such a pretty woman. Erebus left them together; she made a point of taking a +small bottle of salad oil to the knoll. They had no use for salad oil indeed; +but it had been an after-thought, and she owed it to her conscience to take it. +That would be the safe course. +</p> + +<p> +In the meantime the archduke was sitting impatiently in the car, looking +frequently at his watch. He had expected the count to return with the princess +in, at the longest, a quarter of an hour. Then he had expected Miss Lambart and +Sir Maurice to return with the count and the princess in, at the longest, a +quarter of an hour. None of them returned. The princess was sitting on a heap +of bracken in the highest of the secret caves, and the Terror was taking +advantage of this enforced quiet retirement to brush out her hair. The count +sat drinking whisky and soda and explained to Mrs. Dangerfield that he had not +really been deceived by the sunbonnet and that he was very pleased that he had +been deceived by it, since it had given him the pleasure of her acquaintance. +Miss Lambart and Sir Maurice sat on a bank and talked seriously about +everything and certain other things, but chiefly about themselves and each +other. +</p> + +<p> +So the world wagged as the archduke saw the golden minutes which lay between +him and the one-fifteen slipping away while his daughter remained uncaught. He +chafed and fumed. His vexation grew even more keen when he came to the end of +his cigar and found that the thoughtless count had borne away the case. He +appealed to the chauffeur for advice; but the chauffeur, a native of Rowington +and ignorant of Beaumarchais, could give him none. +</p> + +<p> +At half past twelve the archduke rose to his full height in the car, bellowed: +“Zerbst! Zerbst! Zerbst!” and sank down again panting with the +effort. +</p> + +<div class="fig" style="width:100%;"> +<a name="img-280"></a> +<img src="images/img-280.jpg" width="393" height="530" alt="[Illustration: ]" /> +<p class="caption">The archduke bellowed: “Zerbst! Zerbst! Zerbst!”</p> +</div> + +<p> +The chauffeur looked at him with compassionate eyes. The archduke’s +bellow, for all his huge round bulk, was but a thin and reedy cry. No answer +came to it; no one came from the path to the knoll. +</p> + +<p> +“P’raps if I was to give him a call, your Grace,” said the +chauffeur, somewhat complacent at displaying his knowledge of the right way to +address an archduke. +</p> + +<p> +“Yes, shout!” said the archduke quickly. +</p> + +<p> +The chauffeur rose to his full height in the car and bellowed: “Zerbst! +Zerbst! Zerbst!” +</p> + +<p> +No answer came to the call; no one came from the path to the knoll. +</p> + +<p> +In three minutes the archduke was grinding his teeth in a black fury. +</p> + +<p> +Then with an air of inspiration he cried: “I shout—you +shout—all ad vonce!” +</p> + +<p> +“Every little ’elps,” said the chauffeur politely. +</p> + +<p> +With that they both rose to their full height in the car and together bellowed: +“Zerbst! Zerbst! Zerbst!” +</p> + +<p> +No answer came to it; no one came from the path to the knoll. +</p> + +<p> +On his sunny bank on the side of the knoll Sir Maurice said carelessly: +“He seems to be growing impatient.” +</p> + +<p> +“He isn’t calling us. And it’s no use our going back without +either the princess or the count,” said Miss Lambart quickly. +</p> + +<p> +“Not the slightest,” said Sir Maurice; and he drew her closer, if +that were possible, to him and kissed her. +</p> + +<p> +To this point had their cooperation in the search for the princess and their +discussion of everything and certain other things ripened their earlier +friendship. They, or rather Sir Maurice, had even been discussing the matter of +being married at an early date. +</p> + +<p> +“I don’t think I shall let you go back to the Grange at all. They +don’t treat you decently, you know—not even for royalties,” +he went on. +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, it wouldn’t do not to go back—at any rate for +to-night—though, of course, there’s no point in my staying longer, +since the princess isn’t there,” said Miss Lambart. +</p> + +<p> +“You don’t know: perhaps Zerbst has caught her by now and is +hauling her to her circular sire,” said Sir Maurice. “The Twins can +not be successful all the time.” +</p> + +<p> +“We ought to go and search those caves thoroughly,” said Miss +Lambart. +</p> + +<p> +“That wouldn’t be the slightest use,” said Sir Maurice in a +tone of complete certainty. “If the princess is in the caves, she is not +in an accessible one. But as a matter of fact she is quite as likely, or even +likelier, to be at the Grange. The Twins are quite intelligent enough to hide +princesses in the last place you would be likely to look for them. It’s +no use our worrying ourselves about her; besides, we’re very comfortable +here. Why not stay just as we are?” +</p> + +<p> +They stayed there. +</p> + +<p> +But the archduke’s impatience was slowly rising to a fury as the minutes +that separated him from the one-fifteen slipped away. At ten minutes to one he +was seized by a sudden fresh fear lest the searchers should be so long +returning as to make him late for lunch; and at once he despatched the +chauffeur to find them and bring them without delay. +</p> + +<p> +The chauffeur made no haste about it. He had heard of the caves on Deeping +Knoll and had always been curious to see them. Besides, he made it a point of +honor not to smoke on duty; he had not had a pipe in his mouth since eleven +o’clock; and he felt now off duty. He explored half a dozen caves +thoroughly before he came upon Miss Lambart and Sir Maurice and gave them the +archduke’s message. They joined him in his search for Count Zerbst, going +through the caves and calling to him loudly. +</p> + +<p> +The one-fifteen had gone; and the hour of lunch was perilously near. The face +of the archduke was dark with the dread that he would be late for it. There was +a terrifying but sympathetic throbbing not far from his solar plexus. +</p> + +<p> +Every two or three minutes he rose to his full height in the car and bellowed: +“Zerbst! Zerbst! Zerbst!” +</p> + +<p> +Still no answer came to the call; no one came from the path to the knoll. +</p> + +<p> +Then at the very moment at which on more fortunate days he was wont to sink +heavily, with his mouth watering, into a large chair before a gloriously spread +German table, he heard the sound of voices; and the chauffeur, Miss Lambart and +Sir Maurice came out of the path to the knoll. +</p> + +<p> +They told the duke that they had neither seen nor heard anything of the +princess, her hosts, or Count Zerbst. The archduke cursed his equerry wheezily +but in the German tongue, and bade the chauffeur get into the car and drive to +the Grange as fast as petrol could take him. +</p> + +<p> +Sir Maurice bade Miss Lambart good-by, saluted the archduke, and the car went +bumping down the turfed aisle. Once in the road the chauffeur, anxious to make +trial at an early moment of the archducal hospitality, let her rip. But half a +mile down the road, they came upon a slow-going, limping wayfarer. It was Count +Zerbst. After a long discussion with Mrs. Dangerfield he had decided that since +Erebus had slipped away back to the knoll, it would be impossible for him to +find his way to it unguided; and he had set out for Muttle Deeping Grange. In +the course of his chase of Erebus and his walk back his patent leather boots +had found him out with great severity; and he was indeed footsore. He stepped +into the grateful car with a deep sigh of relief. +</p> + +<p> +A depressed party gathered round the luncheon table; Miss Lambart alone was +cheerful. The archduke had been much shaken by his terrors and disappointments +of the morning. Count Zerbst had acquired a deep respect for the intelligence +of the young friends of the princess; and he had learned from Mrs. Dangerfield, +who had discussed the matter with Sir Maurice, that since her stay at the knoll +was doing the princess good, and was certainly better for her than life with +the crimson baroness at the Grange, she was not going to annoy and discourage +her charitable offspring by interfering in their good work for trivial social +reasons. The baroness was bitterly angry at their failure to recover her lost +charge. +</p> + +<p> +They discussed the further measures to be taken, the archduke and the baroness +with asperity, Count Zerbst gloomily. He made no secret of the fact that he +believed that, if he dressed for the chase and took to the woods, he would in +the end find and capture the princess, but it might take a week or ten days. +The archduke cried shame upon a strategist of his ability that he should be +baffled by children for a week or ten days. Count Zerbst said sulkily that it +was not the children who would baffle him, but the caves and the woods they +were using. At last they began to discuss the measure of summoning to their aid +the local police; and for some time debated whether it was worth the risk of +the ridicule it might bring upon them. +</p> + +<p> +Miss Lambart had listened to them with distrait ears since she had something +more pleasant to give her mind to. But at last she said with some impatience: +“Why can’t the princess stay where she is? That open-air life, day +and night, is doing her a world of good. She is eating lots of good food and +taking ten times as much exercise as ever she took in her life before.” +</p> + +<p> +“Eembossible! Shall I live in a cave?” cried the baroness. +</p> + +<p> +“It doesn’t matter at all where you live. It is the princess we are +considering,” said Miss Lambart unkindly, for she had come quite to the +end of her patience with the baroness. +</p> + +<p> +“Drue!” said the archduke quickly. +</p> + +<p> +“Shall eet zen be zat ze princess live ze life of a beast in a +gave?” cried the baroness. +</p> + +<p> +“She isn’t,” said Miss Lambart shortly. “In fact +she’s leading a far better and healthier and more intelligent life than +she does here. The doctor’s orders were never properly carried +out.” +</p> + +<p> +“Ees zat zo?” said the archduke, frowning at the baroness. +</p> + +<p> +“Eengleesh doctors! What zey know? Modern!” cried the baroness +scornfully. +</p> + +<p> +In loud and angry German the archduke fell furiously upon the baroness, +upbraiding her for her disobedience of his orders. The baroness defended +herself loudly, alleging that the princess would by now be dying of a galloping +consumption had she had all the air and water the doctors had ordered her. But +the archduke stormed on. At last he had some one on whom he could vent his +anger with an excellent show of reason; and he vented it. +</p> + +<p> +Presently, for the sake of Miss Lambart’s counsel in the matter, they +returned to the English tongue and discussed seriously the matter of the +princess remaining at the knoll. They found many objections to it, and the +chief of them was that it was not safe for three children to be encamped by +themselves in the heart of a wood. +</p> + +<p> +Miss Lambart grew tired of assuring them that the Twins were more efficient +persons than nine Germans out of ten; and at last she said: +</p> + +<p> +“Well, Highness, to set your fears quite at rest, I will go and stay at +the knoll myself. Then you can go back to Cassel-Nassau with your mind at ease; +and I will undertake that the princess comes to you in better health than if +she had stayed on here.” +</p> + +<p> +“Bud ’ow would she be zafer wiz a young woman, ignorant +and—” cried the baroness, furious at this attempt to usurp her +authority. +</p> + +<p> +“Goot!” cried the archduke cutting her short; and his face beamed +at the thought of escaping forthwith to his home. “Eet shall be zo! And +ze baroness shall go alzo to Cassel-Nassau zo zoon az I zend a lady who do as +ze doctors zay.” +</p> + +<p> +So it was settled; and Miss Lambart was busy for an hour collecting provisions, +arranging that fresh provisions should be brought to the path to the knoll +every morning and preparing and packing the fewest possible number of garments +she would need during her stay. +</p> + +<p> +Then she bade the relieved archduke good-by; and set out in the Rowington car +to the knoll. Not far from the park gates she met Sir Maurice strolling toward +the Grange, and took him with her. At the entrance of the path to the knoll +they took the baskets of provisions and Miss Lambart’s trunk from the +car, and dismissed it. Then they went to the knoll. +</p> + +<p> +It was silent; there were no signs of the presence of man about it. But after +Sir Maurice had shouted three times that they came in peace-bearing terms, +Erebus and Wiggins came out of one of the caves above them and heard the news. +She made haste to bear it to the Terror and the princess who received it with +joy. They had already been cooped up long enough in the secret caves and were +eager to plunge once more into the strenuous life. They welcomed Miss Lambart +warmly; and the princess was indeed pleased to have her fears removed and her +position at the knoll secure. +</p> + +<p> +They made Miss Lambart one of themselves and admitted her to a full share of +the strenuous life. She played her part in it manfully. Even Erebus, who was +inclined to carp at female attainments, was forced to admit that as a brigand, +an outlaw, or a pirate she often shone. +</p> + +<p> +But Sir Maurice, who was naturally a frequent visitor, never caught her engaged +in the strenuous life. Indeed, on his arrival she disappeared; and always spent +some minutes after his arrival removing traces of the speed at which she had +been living it, and on cooling down to life on the lower place. Both of them +found the knoll a delightful place for lovers. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap12"></a> CHAPTER XII<br /> +AND THE MUTTLE DEEPING FISHING</h2> + + +<p> +Since the strenuous life was found to be so strengthening to the princess, the +Twins stayed in camp a week longer than had been in the beginning arranged. +Thrown into such intimate relations with Miss Lambart, it was only natural that +they should grow very friendly with her. It was therefore a bitter blow to +Erebus to find that she was not only engaged to their Uncle Maurice but also +about to be married to him in the course of the next few weeks. She grumbled +about it to the Terror and did not hesitate to assert that his bad example in +the matter of the princess had put the idea of love-making into these older +heads. Then, in a heart to heart talk, she strove earnestly with Miss Lambart, +making every effort to convince her that love and marriage were very silly +things, quite unworthy of those who led the strenuous life. She failed. Then +she tried to persuade Sir Maurice of that plain fact, and failed again. He +declared that it was his first duty, as an uncle, to be married before his +nephew, and that if he were not quick about it the Terror would certainly +anticipate him. Erebus carried his defense to the Terror with an air of bitter +triumph; and there was a touch of disgusted misanthropy in her manner for +several days. The princess on the other hand found the engagement the most +natural and satisfactory thing in the world. Her only complaint was that she +and the Terror were not old enough to be married on the same day as Miss +Lambart. +</p> + +<p> +Probably Miss Lambart and Sir Maurice enjoyed the life at the knoll even more +than the children, for the felicity of lovers is the highest felicity, and the +knoll is the ideal place for them. Sir Maurice arrived at it not so very much +later, considering his urban habit, than sunrise; and he did not leave it till +long after sunset. But the pleasantest days will come to an end; and the camp +was broken up, since the archduke’s tenancy of the Grange expired, and +the princess must return to Germany. She was bitterly grieved at parting with +the Terror, and assured him that she would certainly come to England the next +summer, or even earlier, perhaps at Christmas, to see him again. It seemed not +unlikely that after her short but impressive association with the Twins she +would have her way about it. Nevertheless, in spite of her exhaustive +experience of the strenuous life, and of the firm ideals of those who led it, +at their parting she cried in the most unaffected fashion. +</p> + +<p> +Soon after her departure from the Grange the Twins learned that Sir James +Morgan, its owner, had returned from Africa, where he had for years been +hunting big game, and proposed to live at Muttle Deeping, at any rate for a +while. It had always been their keen desire to fish the Grange water, for it +had been carefully preserved and little fished all the years Sir James had been +wandering about the world. But Mr. Hilton, the steward of the Grange estate, +had always refused their request. He believed that their presence would be good +neither for the stream, the fish, nor the estate. +</p> + +<p> +But now that they were no longer dealing with an underling whom they felt to be +prejudiced, but with the owner himself, they thought that they might be able to +compass their desire. Also they felt that the sooner they made the attempt to +do so the better: Sir James might hear unfavorable accounts of them, if they +gave him time to consort freely with his neighbors. Therefore, with the help of +their literary mainstay, Wiggins, they composed a honeyed letter to him, asking +leave to fish the Grange water. Sir James consulted Mr. Hilton about the +letter, received an account of the Twins from him which made him loath indeed +to give them leave; and since he had used a pen so little for so many years +that it had become distasteful to him to use it at all, he left their honeyed +missive unanswered. +</p> + +<p> +The Twins waited patiently for an answer for several days. Then it was slowly +borne in upon them that Sir James did not mean to answer their letter at all; +and they grew very angry indeed. Their anger was in close proportion to the +pains they had spent on the letter. The name of Sir James was added to the list +of proscribed persons they carried in their retentive minds. +</p> + +<p> +It did not seem likely that they would get any chance of punishing him for the +affront he had put on them. Scorching, in his feverish, Central African way, +along the road to Rowington in a very powerful motor-car, he looked well beyond +their reach. But Fortune favors the industrious who watch their chances; and +one evening Erebus came bicycling swiftly up to the cats’ home, and +cried: +</p> + +<p> +“As I came over Long Ridge I saw Sir James Morgan poaching old +Glazebrook’s water!” +</p> + +<p> +The Terror did not cease from carefully considering the kitten in his hands, +for he was making a selection to send to Rowington market. +</p> + +<p> +“Are you sure?” he said calmly. “It’s a long way from +the ridge to the stream.” +</p> + +<p> +“Not for my eyes!” said Erebus with some measure of impatience in +her tone. “I’m quite sure that it was Sir James; and I’m +quite sure that it was old Glazebrook’s meadow. Lend me your +handkerchief.” +</p> + +<p> +The handkerchief that the Terror lent her might have easily been of a less +pronounced gray; but Erebus mopped her beaded brow with it in a perfect +content. She had ridden home as fast as she could ride with her interesting +news. +</p> + +<p> +“I wish I’d seen him too,” said the Terror thoughtfully. +</p> + +<p> +“It’s quite enough for me to have seen him!” said Erebus with +some heat. +</p> + +<p> +“It would be better if we’d both seen him,” said the Terror +firmly. +</p> + +<p> +“It’s such beastly cheek his poaching himself after taking no +notice of our letter!” said Erebus indignantly. +</p> + +<p> +“Yes, it is,” said the Terror. +</p> + +<p> +She went on to set forth the enormity of the conduct of their neighbor at +considerable length. The Terror said nothing; he did not look to be listening +to her. In truth he was considering what advantage might be drawn from Sir +James’ transgression. +</p> + +<p> +At last he said: “The first thing to do is for both of us to catch him +poaching.” +</p> + +<p> +Erebus protested; but the Terror carried his point, with the result that two +evenings later they were in the wood above the trout-stream, stretched at full +length in the bracken, peering through the hedge of the wood at Sir James +Morgan so patiently and vainly fishing the stream below. +</p> + +<p> +“He’ll soon be at the boundary fence,” said the Terror in a +hushed voice of quiet satisfaction. +</p> + +<p> +“If only he goes on catching nothing on this side of it!” said +Erebus who kept wriggling in a nervous impatience. +</p> + +<p> +“It’s on the other side of it they’re rising,” said the +Terror in a calmly hopeful tone. +</p> + +<p> +Sir James, unconscious of those eagerly gazing eyes, made vain cast after vain +cast. He was a big game hunter; he had given but little time and pains to this +milder sport; and he came to the fence at which his water ceased and that of +Mr. Glazebrook began, with his basket still empty of trout. He looked longingly +at his neighbor’s water; as the Terror had said, the trout in it were +rising freely. Then the watchers saw him shrug his shoulders and turn back. +</p> + +<p> +“He’s not going to poach, after all!” cried Erebus in a tone +of acute disappointment. +</p> + +<p> +“Look here: are you really quite sure you saw him poaching at all? Long +Ridge is a good way off,” said the Terror looking across to it. +</p> + +<p> +“I did. I tell you he was half-way down old Glazebrook’s +meadow,” said Erebus firmly. +</p> + +<p> +“It’s very disappointing,” said the Terror, frowning at the +disobliging fisherman; then he added with philosophic calm: “Well, it +can’t be helped; we’ve got to go on watching him every evening till +he does. If he’s poached once, he’ll poach again.” +</p> + +<p> +“Look!” said Erebus, gripping his arm. +</p> + +<p> +Sir James had stopped fishing and was walking back to the boundary fence. He +stood for a while beside the gap in it, hesitating, scanning the little valley +down which the stream ran, with his keen hunter’s eyes. It is to be +feared that he had been too long used to the high-handed methods that prevail +in the ends of the earth where big game dwell, to have a proper sense of the +sanctity of his neighbor’s fish. Moreover, Mr. Glazebrook was guilty of +the practise of netting his water and sending the trout, alive in cans, to a +London restaurant. Sir James felt strongly that it was his duty as a sportsman +to give them the chance of making a sportsmanlike end. +</p> + +<p> +But Mr. Glazebrook was an uncommonly disagreeable man; and since Glazebrook +farm marched with the western meadows of the Morgans, the Morgans and the +Glazebrooks had been at loggerheads for at least fifty years. Assuredly the +farmer would prosecute Sir James, if he caught him poaching. +</p> + +<p> +Yet the valley and the meadows down the stream were empty of human beings; and +as for the wood, there would be no one but his own keeper in the wood. +Doubtless that keeper would, from the abstract point of view, regard poaching +with abhorrence. But he would perceive that his master was doing a real +kindness to the Glazebrook trout by giving them that chance of making a +sportsman-like end. At any rate the keeper would hold his tongue. +</p> + +<p> +Sir James climbed through the gap. +</p> + +<p> +The Twins breathed a simultaneous sigh of relief; and Erebus said in a tone of +triumph: “Well, he’s gone and done it now.” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes, we’ve got him all right,” said the Terror in a tone of +calm thankfulness. +</p> + +<p> +Fortune favored the unscrupulous; and in the next forty minutes Sir James +caught three good fish. +</p> + +<p> +He had just landed the third when the keen eyes of Erebus espied a figure +coming up the bank of the stream two meadows away. +</p> + +<p> +“Look! There’s old Glazebrook! He’ll catch him! Won’t +it be fun?” she cried, wriggling in her joy. +</p> + +<p> +The Terror gazed thoughtfully at the approaching figure; then he said: +“Yes: it would be fun. There’d be no end of a row. But it +wouldn’t be any use to us. I’m going to warn him.” +</p> + +<p> +With that he sent a clear cry of “Cave!” ringing down the stream. +</p> + +<p> +In ten seconds Sir James was back on his own land. +</p> + +<p> +The Twins crawled through the bracken to a narrow path, went swiftly and +noiselessly down it, and through a little gate on to the high road. +</p> + +<p> +As he set foot on it the Terror said with cold vindictiveness: +“We’ll teach him not to answer our letters.” +</p> + +<p> +He climbed over a gate into a meadow on the other side of the road, took their +bicycles one after the other from behind the hedge, and lifted them over the +gate. They reached home in time for dinner. +</p> + +<p> +During the meal Mrs. Dangerfield asked how they had been spending the time +since tea; and the Terror said, quite truthfully, that they had been for a +bicycle ride. She did not press him to be more particular in his account of +their doings, though from Erebus’ air of subdued excitement and +expectancy she was aware that some important enterprise was in hand; she had no +desire to put any strain on the Terror’s uncommon power of polite +evasion. +</p> + +<p> +She was not at all surprised when, at nine o’clock, she went out into the +garden and called to them that it was bedtime, to find that they were not +within hearing. She told herself that she would be lucky if she got them to bed +by ten. But she would have been surprised, indeed, had she seen them, half an +hour earlier, slip out of the back door, in a condition of exemplary tidiness, +dressed in their Sunday best. +</p> + +<p> +They wheeled their bicycles out of the cats’ home quietly, mounted, rode +quickly down the road till they were out of hearing of the house, and then +slackened their pace in order to reach their destination cool and tidy. They +timed their arrival with such nicety that as they dismounted before the door of +Deeping Hall, Sir James Morgan, in the content inspired by an excellent dinner, +was settling himself comfortably in an easy chair in his smoking-room. +</p> + +<p> +They mounted the steps of the Court without a tremor: they were not only +assured of the justice of their cause, they were assured that it would prevail. +A landed proprietor who preserves his pheasants and his fish with the usual +strictness, <i>can not</i> allow himself to be prosecuted for poaching. +</p> + +<p> +The Terror rang the bell firmly; and Mawley, the butler, surprised at the +coming of visitors at so late an hour, opened the door himself. +</p> + +<p> +“Good evening, Mr. Mawley, we want to see Sir James on important +business,” said the Terror with a truly businesslike air. +</p> + +<p> +Mawley had come to the Grange in the train of the Princess Elizabeth; and since +he found the Deeping air uncommonly bracing, he had permitted Sir James to keep +him on at the Grange after her return to Cassel-Nassau. He had made the +acquaintance of the Twins during the last days of her stay, after the camp had +been broken up, and had formed a high opinion of their ability and their +manners. Moreover, of a very susceptible nature, he had a warm admiration of +Mrs. Dangerfield whom he saw every Sunday at Little Deeping church. +</p> + +<p> +None the less he looked at them doubtfully, and said in a reproachful tone: +“It’s very late, Master Terror. You can’t expect Sir James to +see people at this hour.” +</p> + +<p> +“I know it’s late; but the business is important—very +important,” said the Terror firmly. +</p> + +<p> +Mawley hesitated. His admiration of Mrs. Dangerfield made him desirous of +obliging her children. Then he said: +</p> + +<p> +“If you’ll sit down a minute, I’ll tell Sir James that +you’re here.” +</p> + +<p> +“Thank you,” said the Terror; and he and Erebus came into the great +hall, sat down on a couch covered by a large bearskin, and gazed round them at +the arms and armor with appreciative eyes. +</p> + +<p> +Mawley found Sir James lighting a big cigar; and told him that Master and Miss +Dangerfield wished to see him on business. +</p> + +<p> +“Oh? They’re the two children who wrote and asked me for leave to +fish. But Hilton told me that they were the most mischievous little devils in +the county, so I took no notice of their letter,” said Sir James. +</p> + +<p> +“Well, being your steward, Sir James, Mr. Hilton would be bound to tell +you so. But it’s my belief that, having the name for it, a lot of +mischief is put down to them which they never do. And after all they’re +Dangerfields, Sir James; and you couldn’t expect them to behave like +ordinary children,” said Mawley in the tone and manner of a persuasive +diplomat. +</p> + +<p> +“Well, I don’t see myself giving them leave to fish,” said +Sir James. “There are none too many fish in the stream as it is; and a +couple of noisy children won’t make those easier to catch. But I may as +well tell them so myself; so you may bring them here.” +</p> + +<p> +Mawley fetched the Twins and ushered them into the smoking-room. They entered +it with the self-possessed air of persons quite sure of themselves, and greeted +Sir James politely. +</p> + +<p> +He was somewhat taken aback by their appearance and air, for his steward had +somehow given him the impression that they were thick, red-faced and +robustious. He felt that these pleasant-looking young gentlefolk could never +have really earned their unfortunate reputation. There must be a mistake +somewhere. +</p> + +<p> +The Twins were, on their part also, far more favorably impressed by him than +they had looked to be; his lean tanned face, with the rather large arched nose, +the thin-lipped melancholy mouth, not at all hidden by the small clipped +mustache, and his keen eyes, almost as blue as those of the Terror, pleased +them. He looked an uncommonly dependable baronet. +</p> + +<p> +“Well, and what is this important matter you wished to see me +about?” he said in a more indulgent tone than he had expected to use. +</p> + +<p> +“We saw you in Glazebrook’s meadow this +afternoon—poaching,” said the Terror in a gentle, almost +deprecatory tone. +</p> + +<p> +Sir James sat rather more upright in his chair, with a sudden sense of +discomfort. He had not connected this visit with his transgression. +</p> + +<p> +“And you caught three fish,” said Erebus in a sterner voice. +</p> + +<p> +“Oh? Then it was one of you who called ‘Cave!’ from the +wood?” said Sir James. +</p> + +<p> +“Yes; we didn’t want old Glazebrook to catch you,” said the +Terror. +</p> + +<p> +“Oh—er—thanks,” said Sir James in a tone of discomfort. +</p> + +<p> +“That wouldn’t have been any use to us,” said the Terror. +</p> + +<p> +“Of use to you?” said Sir James. +</p> + +<p> +“Yes; if he’d caught you, there wouldn’t be any reason why we +should fish your water,” said the Terror. +</p> + +<p> +Sir James looked puzzled: +</p> + +<p> +“But is there any reason now?” he said. +</p> + +<p> +“Yes. You see, you were poaching,” said the Terror in a very gentle +explanatory voice. +</p> + +<p> +“And you caught three fish,” said Erebus in something of the manner +of a chorus in an Athenian tragedy. +</p> + +<p> +Sir James sat bolt upright with a sudden air of astonished enlightenment: +</p> + +<p> +“Well, I’m—hanged if it isn’t blackmail!” he +cried. +</p> + +<p> +“Blackmail?” said the Terror in a tone of pleasant animation. +“Why, that’s what the Scotch reavers used to do! I never knew +exactly what it was.” +</p> + +<p> +“And we’re doing it. That is nice,” said Erebus, almost +preening herself. +</p> + +<p> +“But this is disgraceful! If you’d been village children—but +gentlefolk!” cried Sir James with considerable heat. +</p> + +<p> +“Well, the Douglases were gentlefolk; and they blackmailed,” said +the Terror in a tone of sweet reason. +</p> + +<p> +“Poaching’s a misdemeanor; blackmailing’s a kind of +stealing,” said Erebus virtuously, forgetting for the moment her +mother’s fur stole. +</p> + +<p> +“Poaching’s a misdemeanor; blackmailing’s a felony,” +said Sir James loftily. +</p> + +<p> +The distinction was lost on the Twins; and Erebus said with conviction: +“Poaching’s worse.” +</p> + +<p> +Sir James hated to be beaten; and he looked from one to the other with very +angry eyes. The Twins wore a cold imperturbable air. Their appearance no longer +pleased him. +</p> + +<p> +“It’s your own fault entirely,” said the Terror coldly. +“If you’d been civil and answered our letter, even refusing, we +shouldn’t have bothered about you. But you didn’t take any notice +of it—” +</p> + +<p> +“And it was beastly cheek,” said Erebus. +</p> + +<p> +“You couldn’t expect us to stand that kind of thing. So we kept an +eye on you and caught you poaching,” said the Terror. +</p> + +<p> +“Without any excuse for it. You’ve plenty of fishing of your +own,” said Erebus severely. +</p> + +<p> +“And if I don’t give you leave to fish my water, you’re going +to sneak to the police, are you?” said Sir James in a tone of angry +disgust. +</p> + +<p> +The Terror flushed and with a very cold dignity said: “We aren’t +going to do anything of the kind; and we don’t want any leave to fish +your water at all. We’re just going to fish it; and if you go sneaking to +the police and prosecuting us, then after you’ve started it you’ll +get prosecuted yourself by old Glazebrook. That’s what we came to +say.” +</p> + +<p> +“And that’ll teach you to be polite and answer people next time +they write to you,” said Erebus in a tone of cold triumph. +</p> + +<p> +On her words they rose; and while Sir James was struggling furiously to find +words suitable to their tender years, they bade him a polite good night, and +left the room. +</p> + +<p> +Their departure was a relief; Sir James rose hastily to his feet and expressed +his feelings without difficulty. Then he began to laugh. It was rather on the +wrong side of his face; and the knowledge that he had been worsted in his own +smoking-room, and that by two children, rankled. He was not used to being +worsted, even in the heart of Africa, by much more ferocious creatures. But +after sleeping on the matter, he perceived yet more clearly that they had him, +as he phrased it, in a cleft stick; and he told his head-keeper that the +Dangerfield children were allowed to fish his water. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap13"></a> CHAPTER XIII<br /> +AND AN APOLOGY</h2> + + +<p> +The vindication of their dignity filled the Twins with a cold undated triumph; +but they enjoyed the liveliest satisfaction in being able to fish in +well-stocked water, because the trout tempted their mother’s faint +appetite. +</p> + +<p> +She had grown stronger during the summer. She was not, indeed, definitely ill; +she was not even definitely weak. But, a woman of spirit and intelligence, she +was suffering from the wearisome emptiness of her life in the country. It was +sapping her strength and energy; in it she would grow old long before her time. +The Twins had been used to find her livelier and more spirited, keenly +interested in their doings; and the change troubled them. Doctor Arbuthnot +prescribed a tonic for her; and now and again, as in the matter of the peaches +and now of the trout, they set themselves to procure some delicacy for her. But +she made no real improvement; and the empty country life was poisoning the +springs of her being. +</p> + +<p> +Sir James had expected to be annoyed frequently by the sight and sound of the +Twins on the bank of the stream. To his pleased surprise he neither saw nor +heard them. For the most part they fished in the early morning and brought +their catch home to tempt their mother’s appetite at breakfast. But if +they did fish in the evening, one or the other acted as scout, watching Sir +James’ movements; and they kept out of his sight. They had gained their +end; and their natural delicacy assured them that the sight of them could not +be pleasant to Sir James. As the Terror phrased it: +</p> + +<p> +“He must be pretty sick at getting a lesson; and there’s no point +in rubbing it in.” +</p> + +<p> +Then one evening (by no fault of theirs) he came upon them. Erebus was playing +a big trout; and she had no thought of abandoning it to spare Sir James’ +feelings. Besides, if she had had such a thought, it was impracticable, since +Mrs. Dangerfield had come with them. +</p> + +<p> +He watched Erebus play her fish for two or three minutes; then it snapped the +gut and was gone. +</p> + +<p> +“Evidently you’re no so good at fishing as blackmailing,” +said Sir James in a nasty carping tone, for the fact that they had worsted him +still rankled in his heart. +</p> + +<p> +“I catch more fish than you do, anyhow!” said Erebus with some +heat; and she cast an uneasy glance over his shoulder. +</p> + +<p> +Sir James turned to see what she had glanced at and found himself looking into +the deep brown eyes of a very pretty woman. +</p> + +<div class="fig" style="width:100%;"> +<a name="img-312"></a> +<img src="images/img-312.jpg" width="425" height="557" alt="[Illustration: ]" /> +<p class="caption">Sir James turned and found himself looking into the deep +brown eyes of a very pretty woman.</p> +</div> + +<p> +He had not seen her when he had come out of the bushes on to the scene of the +struggle; he had been too deeply interested in it to remove his eyes from it; +and she had watched it from behind him. +</p> + +<p> +“This is Sir James Morgan, mother,” said the Terror quickly. +</p> + +<p> +Sir James raised his cap; Mrs. Dangerfield bowed, and said gratefully: +“It was very good of you to give my children leave to fish.” +</p> + +<p> +“Oh—ah—yes—n-n-not at all,” stammered Sir James, +blushing faintly. +</p> + +<p> +He was unused to women and found her presence confusing. +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, but it was,” said Mrs. Dangerfield. “And I’m +seeing that they don’t take an unfair advantage of your kindness, for +they told me that, thanks to Mr. Glazebrook’s netting his part of it, +there are none too many fish in the stream.” +</p> + +<p> +“It’s very good of you. B-b-but I don’t mind how many they +catch,” said Sir James. +</p> + +<p> +He shuffled his feet and gazed rather wildly round him, for he wished to remove +himself swiftly from her disturbing presence. Yet he did not wish to; he found +her voice as charming as her eyes. +</p> + +<p> +Mrs. Dangerfield laughed gently, and said: “You would, if I let them +catch as many as they’d like to.” +</p> + +<p> +“Are they as good fishermen as that?” said Sir James. +</p> + +<p> +“Well, they’ve been fishing ever since they could handle a rod. +They are supposed to empty the free water by Little Deeping Village every +spring. So I limit them to three fish a day,” said Mrs. Dangerfield; and +there was a ring of motherly pride in her voice which pleased him. +</p> + +<p> +“It’s very good of you,” said Sir James. He hesitated, +shuffled his feet again, took a step to go; then looking rather earnestly at +Mrs. Dangerfield, he added in a rather uncertain voice: “I should like to +stay and see how they do it. I might pick up a wrinkle or two.” +</p> + +<p> +“Of course. Why, it’s your stream,” she said. +</p> + +<p> +He stayed, but he paid far more attention to Mrs. Dangerfield than to the +fishing. Besides her charming eyes and delightful voice, her air of fragility +made a strong appeal to his vigorous robustness. His first discomfort sternly +vanquished, its place was taken by the keenest desire to remain in her +presence. He not only stayed with them till the Twins had caught their three +fish, but he walked nearly to Colet House with them, and at last bade them +good-by with an air of the deepest reluctance. It can hardly be doubted that he +had been smitten by an emotional lightning-stroke, as the French put it, or, as +we more gently phrase it, that he had fallen in love at first sight. +</p> + +<p> +As he walked back to the Grange he was regretting that he had not received the +social advances of his neighbors with greater warmth. If, instead of staying +firmly at home, he had been moving about among them, he would have met Mrs. +Dangerfield earlier and by now be in a fortunate condition of meeting her +often. It did not for a moment enter his mind that if he had met her stiffly in +a drawing-room he might easily have failed to fall in love with her at all. He +cudgeled his brains to find some way of meeting her again and meeting her +often. He was to meet her quite soon without any effort on his part. +</p> + +<p> +It is possible that Mrs. Dangerfield had observed that Sir James had been +smitten by that emotional <i>coup de foudre</i>, for she was walking with a +much brisker step and there was a warmer color in her cheeks. +</p> + +<p> +After he had bidden them good-by and had turned back to the Grange, she said in +a really cheerful tone: +</p> + +<p> +“I expect Sir James finds it rather dull at the Grange after the exciting +life he had in Africa.” +</p> + +<p> +“Rather!”, said the Twins with one quickly assenting voice. +</p> + +<p> +She had not missed Sir James’ sentence about the superiority of +Erebus’ blackmailing to her fishing. But she knew the Twins far too well +to ask them for an explanation of it before him. None the less it clung to her +mind. +</p> + +<p> +At supper therefore she said: “What did Sir James mean by calling you a +blackmailer, Erebus?” +</p> + +<p> +The Terror knew from her tone that she was resolved to have the explanation; +and he said suavely: +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, it was about the fishing.” +</p> + +<p> +“How—about the fishing?” said Mrs. Dangerfield quickly. +</p> + +<p> +“Well, he didn’t want to give us leave. In fact he never answered +our letter asking for it,” said the Terror. +</p> + +<p> +“And of course we couldn’t stand that; and we had to make +him,” said Erebus sternly. +</p> + +<p> +“Make him? How did you make him?” said Mrs. Dangerfield. +</p> + +<p> +The Terror told her. +</p> + +<p> +Mrs. Dangerfield looked surprised and annoyed, but much less surprised and +annoyed than the ordinary mother would have looked on learning that her +offspring had blackmailed a complete stranger. She felt chiefly annoyed by the +fact that the complete stranger they had chosen to blackmail should be Sir +James. +</p> + +<p> +“Then you did blackmail him,” she said in a tone of dismay. +</p> + +<p> +“He seemed to think that we were—like the Douglases used to,” +said the Terror in an amiable tone. +</p> + +<p> +“But surely you knew that blackmailing is very wrong—very wrong, +indeed,” said Mrs. Dangerfield. +</p> + +<p> +“Well, he <i>did</i> seem to think so,” said the Terror. “But +we thought he was prejudiced; and we didn’t take much notice of +him.” +</p> + +<p> +“And we couldn’t possibly let him take no notice of our letter, +Mum—it was such a polite letter—and not take it out of him,” +said Erebus. +</p> + +<p> +“And it hasn’t done any harm, you know. We wanted those trout ever +so much more than he did,” said the Terror. +</p> + +<p> +Mrs. Dangerfield said nothing for a while; and her frown deepened as she +pondered how to deal with the affair. She was still chiefly annoyed that Sir +James should have been the victim. The Twins gazed at her with a sympathetic +gravity which by no means meant that they were burdened by a sense of +wrong-doing. They were merely sorry that she was annoyed. +</p> + +<p> +“Well, there’s nothing for it: you’ll have to apologize to +Sir James—both of you,” she said at last. +</p> + +<p> +“Apologize to him! But he never answered our letter!” cried Erebus. +</p> + +<p> +The Terror hesitated a moment, opened his mouth to speak, shut it, opened it +again and said in a soothing tone: “All right, Mum; we’ll +apologize.” +</p> + +<p> +“I’ll take you to the Grange to-morrow afternoon to do it,” +said Mrs. Dangerfield, for she thought that unless she were present the Twins +would surely contrive to repeat the offense in the apology and compel Sir James +to invite them to continue to fish. +</p> + +<p> +There had been some such intention in the Terror’s mind, for his face +fell: an apology in the presence of his mother would have to be a real apology. +But he said amiably: “All right; just as you like, Mum.” +</p> + +<p> +Erebus scowled very darkly, and muttered fierce things under her breath. After +supper, without moving him at all, she reproached the Terror bitterly for not +refusing firmly. +</p> + +<p> +The next afternoon therefore the three of them walked, by a foot-path across +the fields, to the Grange. Surprise and extreme pleasure were mingled with the +respect with which Mawley ushered them into the drawing-room; and he almost ran +to apprise Sir James of their coming. +</p> + +<p> +Sir James was at the moment wondering very anxiously whether he would find Mrs. +Dangerfield on the bank of the stream that evening watching her children fish. +His night’s rest had trebled his interest in her and his desire to see +more, a great deal more, of her. The appeal to him of her frail and delicate +beauty was stronger than ever. +</p> + +<p> +At dinner the night before he had questioned Mawley, with a careless enough +air, about her, and had learned that Mr. Dangerfield had been dead seven years, +that she had a very small income, and was hard put to it to make both ends +meet. His compassion had been deeply stirred; she was so plainly a creature who +deserved the smoothest path in life. He wished that he could now, at once, see +his way to help her to that smoothest path; and he was resolved to find that +way as soon as he possibly could. +</p> + +<p> +When Mawley told him that she was in his drawing-room, he could scarcely +believe his joyful ears. He had to put a constraint on himself to walk to its +door in a decorous fashion fit for Mawley’s eyes, and not dash to it at +full speed. He entered the room with his eyes shining very brightly. +</p> + +<p> +Mrs. Dangerfield greeted him coldly, even a little haughtily. She was looking +grave and ill at ease. +</p> + +<p> +“I’ve come about a rather unpleasant matter, Sir James,” she +said as they shook hands. “I find that these children have been +blackmailing you; and I’ve brought them to apologize. I—I’m +exceedingly distressed about it.” +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, there’s no need to be—no need at all. It was rather a +joke,” Sir James protested quickly. +</p> + +<p> +“But blackmailing isn’t a joke—though of course they +didn’t realize what a serious thing it is—” +</p> + +<p> +“It was the Douglases doing it,” broke in the Terror in an +explanatory tone. +</p> + +<p> +“I don’t think you ought to have given way to them, Sir +James,” said Mrs. Dangerfield severely. +</p> + +<p> +“But I hadn’t any choice, I assure you. They had me in a cleft +stick,” protested Sir James. +</p> + +<p> +“Well then you ought to have come straight to me,” said Mrs. +Dangerfield. +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, but really—a little fishing—what is a little fishing? I +couldn’t come bothering you about a thing like that,” protested Sir +James. +</p> + +<p> +“But it isn’t a little thing if you get it like that,” said +Mrs. Dangerfield. “Anyhow, it’s going to stop; and they’re +going to apologize.” +</p> + +<p> +She turned to them; and as if at a signal the Twins said with one voice: +</p> + +<p> +“I apologize for blackmailing you, Sir James.” +</p> + +<p> +The Terror spoke with an amiable nonchalance; the words came very stiffly from +the lips of Erebus, and she wore a lowering air. +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, not at all—not at all—don’t mention it. Besides, I +owe you an apology for not answering your letter,” said Sir James in all +the discomfort of a man receiving something that is not his due. Then he heaved +a sigh of relief and added: “Well, that’s all right. And now I hope +you’ll do all the fishing you want to.” +</p> + +<p> +“Certainly not; I can’t allow them to fish your water any +more,” said Mrs. Dangerfield sternly. +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, but really,” said Sir James with a harried air. +</p> + +<p> +“No,” said Mrs. Dangerfield; and she held out her hand. +</p> + +<p> +“But you’ll have some tea—after that hot walk!” cried +Sir James. +</p> + +<p> +“No, thank you, I must be getting home,” said Mrs. Dangerfield +firmly. +</p> + +<p> +Sir James did not press her to stay; he saw that her mind was made up. +</p> + +<p> +He opened the door of the drawing-room, and they filed out. As Erebus passed +out, she turned and made a hideous grimace at him. She was desirous that he +should not overrate her apology. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="chap14"></a> CHAPTER XIV<br /> +AND THE SOUND OF WEDDING BELLS</h2> + + +<p> +Sir James came through the hall with them, carelessly taking his cap from the +horn of an antelope on the wall as he passed it. He came down the steps, along +the gardens to the side gate, and through it into the park, talking to Mrs. +Dangerfield of the changes he had found in the gardens of the Grange after his +last five years of big game shooting about the world. +</p> + +<p> +Mrs. Dangerfield had not liked her errand; and she was in no mood for +companionship. But she could not drive him from her side on his own land. They +walked slowly; the Twins forged ahead. When Sir James and Mrs. Dangerfield came +out of the park, the Twins were out of sight. Mere politeness demanded that he +should walk the rest of the way with her. +</p> + +<p> +When the Twins were out of the hearing of their mother and Sir James, the +Terror said: +</p> + +<p> +“Well, he was quite decent about it. It made him much more uncomfortable +than we were. I suppose it was because we’re more used to Mum.” +</p> + +<p> +“What did the silly idiot want to give us away at all for?” said +the unappeased Erebus. +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, well; he didn’t mean to. It was an accident, you know,” +said the Terror. +</p> + +<p> +His provident mind foresaw advantages to be attained from a closer intimacy +with Sir James. +</p> + +<p> +“Accident! People shouldn’t have accidents like that!” said +Erebus in a tone of bitter scorn. +</p> + +<p> +When he and Mrs. Dangerfield came out of the park, Sir James diplomatically +fell to lauding the Twins to the skies, their beauty, their grace and their +intelligence. The diplomacy was not natural (he was no diplomat) but +accidental: the Twins were the only subject he could at the moment think of. He +could not have found a quicker way to Mrs. Dangerfield’s approval. She +had been disposed to dislike him for having been blackmailed by them; his +praise of them softened her heart. Discussing them, they came right to the gate +of Colet House; and it was only natural that she should invite him to tea. He +accepted with alacrity. At tea he changed the subject: they talked about her. +</p> + +<p> +He came home yet more interested in her, resolved yet more firmly to see more +of her. With a natural simplicity he used his skill in woodcraft to compass his +end, and availed himself of the covert afforded by the common to watch Colet +House. Thanks to this simple device he was able to meet or overtake Mrs. +Dangerfield, somewhere in the first half-mile of her afternoon walk. +</p> + +<p> +They grew intimate quickly, thanks chiefly to his simple directness; and he +found that his first impression that he wanted her more than he had ever wanted +anything in his life, more even than he had wanted, in his enthusiastic youth, +to shoot a black rhinoceros, was right. He had been making arrangements for +another shooting expedition; but he perceived now very clearly, indeed, that it +was his immediate duty to settle down in life, provide the Hall with a +mistress, and do his duty by his estate and his neighbors. +</p> + +<p> +He had had no experience of women; but his hunting had developed his instinct +and he perceived that he must proceed very warily indeed, that to bring Mrs. +Dangerfield over the boundary-line of friendship into the land of romance was +the most difficult enterprise he had ever dreamed of. But he had a stout heart, +the hunter’s pertinacity, and a burning resolve to succeed. +</p> + +<p> +He wanted all the help he could get; and he saw that the Twins would be useful +friends in the matter. But did they chance on him walking with their mother, or +at tea with her, they held politely but gloomily aloof. He must abate their +hostility. +</p> + +<p> +He contrived, therefore, to meet them on the common as they were starting one +afternoon on an expedition, greeted them cheerfully, stopped and said: +“I’m awfully sorry I gave you away the other day. But I never saw +your mother till I’d done it.” +</p> + +<p> +“Don’t mention it,” said the Terror with cold graciousness. +</p> + +<p> +“So you ought to be,” said Erebus. +</p> + +<p> +“It’s a pity you should lose your fishing. If I’d known how +good you both were at it, I should have given you leave when I got your +letter,” said Sir James hypocritically. “But I was misinformed +about you.” +</p> + +<p> +“It’s worse that mother should lose the trout. She does hate +butcher’s meat so, and it is so difficult to get her to eat +properly,” said Erebus in a somewhat mollified tone. +</p> + +<p> +“It’s like that, is it?” said Sir James quickly; and an +expression of deep concern filled his face. +</p> + +<p> +“Yes, and she did eat those trout,” said Erebus plaintively. +</p> + +<p> +Sir James knitted his brow in frowning thought; and the Twins watched him with +little hope in their faces. Of a sudden his brow grew smooth; and he said: +</p> + +<p> +“Look here: you mayn’t fish my water; but there’s no reason +why you shouldn’t fish Glazebrook’s. <i>I</i> think that a man who +nets his water loses all rights.” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes, he does,” said the Terror firmly. +</p> + +<p> +“Well, with one watching while the other fishes, it ought to be safe +enough; and I’ll stand the racket if you get prosecuted and fined. I want +to take it out of that fellow Glazebrook—he’s not a +sportsman.” +</p> + +<p> +The Terror’s face had brightened; but he said: “But how should we +account for the fish we took home?” +</p> + +<p> +“You can reckon them presents from me. They would +be—practically—if I’m going to pay the fines,” said Sir +James. +</p> + +<p> +The eyes of both the Twins danced: this was a fashion of dealing tenderly with +exactitude which appealed to them. The Terror himself could not have been more +tender with it. +</p> + +<p> +“That’s a ripping idea!” said Erebus in a tone of the warmest +approval. +</p> + +<p> +The peace was thus concluded. +</p> + +<p> +Having thus abated their hostility, Sir James spared no pains to win their good +will. He gave the Terror a rook-rifle and Erebus boxes of chocolate. If he +chanced on them when motoring in the afternoon he would carry them off, +bicycles and all, in his car and regale them with sumptuous teas at the Grange; +and at Colet House he entertained them with stories of the African forest which +thrilled Mrs. Dangerfield even more than they thrilled them. But he won their +hearts most by his sympathy with them in the matter of their mother’s +appetite, and by joining them in little plots to obtain delicacies for her. +</p> + +<p> +Having discovered how grateful it was to her, he lost no opportunity of taking +the short cut to her heart by praising them. He laid himself out to be useful +to her, to entertain and amuse her, trying to make for himself as large as +possible a place in her life. She was not long discovering that he was in love +with her; and the discovery came as a very pleasant shock. None of the +neighbors, much less Captain Baster, who, during her stay at Colet House, had +asked her to marry them, had attracted her so strongly as did Sir James. Even +as her delicacy made the strongest appeal to his vigorous robustness, so his +vigorous robustness made the strongest appeal to her delicacy. +</p> + +<p> +But Little Deeping is a censorious place; and its gossips are the keener for +having so few chances of plying their active tongues. When no less than four +ladies had on four several occasions met Sir James and Mrs. Dangerfield walking +together along the lanes, those tongues began to wag. +</p> + +<p> +Then old Mrs. Blenkinsop, the childless widow of a Common Councilman of London, +one morning met the Twins in the village. They greeted her politely and made to +escape. But she was in the mood, her most constant mood, to babble. She stopped +them, and with a knowing air, and even more offensive smile, said: +</p> + +<p> +“So, young people, we’re going to hear the sound of wedding bells +very soon in Little Deeping, are we?” +</p> + +<p> +Erebus merely scowled at her, for more than once she had talked about them; but +the Terror, in a tone of somewhat perfunctory politeness, said: +</p> + +<p> +“Are we?” +</p> + +<p> +“I should have thought you would have known all about it,” she said +with a cackling little giggle. “Mind you tell me as soon as you’re +told: I want to be one of the first to congratulate your dear mother.” +</p> + +<p> +“What do you mean?” snapped the Terror with a disconcerting +suddenness; and his eyes shone very bright and threatening in a steady glare +into her own. +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, nothing—nothing!” cried Mrs. Blenkinsop, flustered by +his sternness. “Only seeing Sir James so much with your mother—But +there—there’s probably nothing in it—the Morgans always were +rovers—one foot at sea and one on shore—I dare say he’ll be +in the middle of Africa before the week is out. Good morning—good +morning.” +</p> + +<p> +With that she sprang, more lightly than she had sprung for years, into the +grocer’s shop. +</p> + +<p> +The Twins looked after her with uneasy eyes, frowning. Then Erebus said: +“Silly old idiot!” +</p> + +<p> +The Terror said nothing; he walked on frowning. At last he broke out: +“This won’t do! We can’t have these old idiots gossiping +about Mum. And it’s a beastly nuisance: Sir James was making things so +much more cheerful for her.” +</p> + +<p> +“But you don’t think there’s anything in what the old cat +said? It would be perfectly horrid to have a stepfather!” cried Erebus in +a panic. +</p> + +<p> +The Terror walked on, frowning in deep thought. +</p> + +<p> +“<i>Do</i> you think there’s anything in it?” cried Erebus. +</p> + +<p> +“I dare say there is. Sir James is always about with Mum; and he’s +always very civil to us—people aren’t generally,” said the +Terror. +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, but we must stop it! We must stop it at once!” cried Erebus. +</p> + +<p> +“Why must we?” +</p> + +<p> +“It would be perfectly beastly having a step-father, I tell you!” +cried Erebus fiercely. +</p> + +<p> +“It isn’t altogether what we like—there’s Mum,” +said the Terror. “She does have a rotten time of it—always being +hard up and never going anywhere. And, after all, we shouldn’t mind Sir +James when we got used to him.” +</p> + +<p> +“But we should! And look how we stopped the Cruncher!” +</p> + +<p> +“Sir James isn’t like the Cruncher—at all,” said the +Terror. +</p> + +<p> +“All stepfathers are alike; and they’re beastly!” cried +Erebus. +</p> + +<p> +“Now, it’s no good your getting yourself obstinate about it,” +said the Terror firmly. “That won’t be of any use at all, if +they’ve made up their minds. But what’s bothering me is what that +old cat meant by saying that the Morgans were rovers.” +</p> + +<p> +Erebus’ frown deepened as she knitted her brow over the cryptic utterance +of Mrs. Blenkinsop. Then she said in a tone of considerable relief: +</p> + +<p> +“She must have meant that he wasn’t really in earnest about +marrying Mum.” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes, that’s what she did mean,” growled the Terror. +“And she’ll go about telling everybody that he’s only +fooling.” +</p> + +<p> +“But I don’t think he is. I don’t think he would,” said +Erebus quickly. +</p> + +<p> +“No more do I,” said the Terror. +</p> + +<p> +They walked nearly fifty yards in silence. Then the Terror’s face cleared +and brightened; and he said cheerfully: +</p> + +<p> +“I know the thing to do! I’ll go and ask him his intentions. +That’s what people said old Hawley ought to have done when the +Cut—you know: that fellow from Rowington—was fooling about with +Miss Hawley.” +</p> + +<p> +“All right, we’ll go and ask him,” said Erebus with equal +cheerfulness. +</p> + +<p> +“No, no, you can’t go. I must go alone,” said the Terror +quickly. “It’s the kind of thing the men of the family always +do—people said so about Miss Hawley—and I’m the only man of +the family about. If Uncle Maurice were in London and not in Vienna, we might +send for him to do it.” +</p> + +<p> +Erebus burst into bitter complaint. She alleged that the restrictions which +were applied to the ordinary girl should by no means be applied to her, since +she was not ordinary; that since they cooperated in everything else they ought +to cooperate in this; that he was much more successful in those exploits in +which they did cooperate, than in those which he performed alone. +</p> + +<p> +“It’s no good talking like that: it isn’t the thing to +do,” said the Terror with very cold severity. “You know what Mrs. +Morton said about Miss Hawley and the Cut—that the men of the family did +it.” +</p> + +<p> +“You’re only a boy; and I’m as old as you!” snapped +Erebus. +</p> + +<p> +“Well, when there isn’t a man to do a thing, a boy does it. So +it’s no use you’re making a fuss,” said the Terror in a tone +of finality. +</p> + +<p> +Erebus protested that the upshot of his going alone would be that Sir James +would presently be their detested stepfather; but he went alone, early in the +afternoon. +</p> + +<p> +He was now on such familiar terms at the Grange that Mawley took him straight +to the smoking-room, where his master was smoking a cigar over his after-lunch +coffee. Sir James welcomed him warmly, for he was beginning to learn that the +Terror was quite good company, in the country, and poured him out a cup of +coffee. +</p> + +<p> +The Terror put sugar and cream into it and forthwith, since a simple matter of +this kind did not seem to him to call for the exercise of his usual diplomacy, +said with firm directness: “I’ve come to ask your intentions, +sir.” +</p> + +<p> +“My intentions?” said Sir James, not taking him. +</p> + +<p> +“Yes. You see some of the old cats who live about here are saying that +you’re only fooling,” said the Terror. +</p> + +<p> +“The deuce they are!” cried Sir James sharply with a sudden and +angry comprehension. +</p> + +<p> +“Yes. So of course the thing to do was to ask your intentions,” +said the Terror firmly. +</p> + +<p> +“Of course—of course,” said Sir James. +</p> + +<p> +He looked at the Terror; and in spite of his anger his eyes twinkled. Then he +added gravely: “My intentions are not only extremely serious but +they’re extremely immediate. I’d marry your mother to-morrow if +she’d let me.” +</p> + +<p> +“That’s all right,” said the Terror with a faint sigh of +relief. “Of course I knew you were all right. Only, it was the thing to +do, with these silly old idiots talking.” +</p> + +<p> +“Quite so—quite so,” said Sir James. +</p> + +<p> +There was a pause; and Sir James looked again at the Terror tranquilly drinking +his coffee, in a somewhat appealing fashion, for he had been suffering badly +from all the doubts and fears of the lover; and the Terror’s serenity was +soothing. +</p> + +<p> +Then with a sudden craving for comfort and reassurance, he said: “Do you +think your mother would marry me?” +</p> + +<p> +“I haven’t the slightest idea; women are so funny,” said the +Terror with a sage air. +</p> + +<p> +Sir James pulled at his mustache. Then the compulsion to have some one’s +opinion of his chances, even if it was only a small boy’s, came on him +strongly; and he said: +</p> + +<p> +“I wish I knew what to do. As it is we’re very good friends; and if +I asked her to marry me, I might spoil that.” +</p> + +<p> +The Terror considered the point for a minute or two; then he said: “I +don’t think you would. Mum’s very sensible, though she is so +pretty.” +</p> + +<p> +Sir James frowned deeply in his utter perplexity; then he said: +“I’ll risk it!” +</p> + +<p> +He rang the bell and ordered his car. He talked to the Terror jerkily and +somewhat incoherently till it came; and the Terror observed his perturbation +with considerable interest. It seemed to him very curious in a hard-bitten +hunter of big game. They started and in the two level miles to Little Deeping +Sir James changed his car’s speeds nine times. +</p> + +<p> +As they came very slowly up to Colet House, the Terror said with an air of +detachment: “I should think, you know, Mum could be rushed.” +</p> + +<p> +He had definitely made up his mind that it would be a good thing for her. +</p> + +<p> +“If I only could!” said Sir James in a tone of feverish doubt. +</p> + +<p> +Mrs. Dangerfield was mending a rent in a frock of Erebus when he entered the +drawing-room; and at the first glance she knew, with a thrill half of pleasure, +half of apprehension, why he had come. +</p> + +<p> +At the sight of her Sir James felt his tremulous courage oozing out of him; but +with what was left of it he blurted out desperately: +</p> + +<p> +“Look here, Anne, dear, I want you to marry me!” +</p> + +<p> +“Oh!” said Mrs. Dangerfield, rising quickly. +</p> + +<p> +“Yes, I want it more than ever I wanted anything in my life!” +</p> + +<p> +Mrs. Dangerfield’s face was one flush; and she cried: “B-b-but +it’s out of the question. I—I’m old enough to be your +mother!” +</p> + +<p> +“Now how?—I’m three years and seven months older than +you,” said Sir James, taken aback. +</p> + +<p> +“I shall be an old woman while you’re still quite young!” she +protested. +</p> + +<p> +“You won’t ever be old! You’re not the kind!” cried Sir +James with some heat; and then with sudden understanding: “If +that’s your only reason, why, that settles it!” +</p> + +<p> +With that he picked her up and kissed her four times. +</p> + +<p> +When he set her down and held her at arm’s length, gazing at her with +devouring eyes, she gasped somewhat faintly: “Oh, James, you +are—ever so much more—impetuous—than I thought. You gave +me—no time.” +</p> + +<p> +“Thank goodness, I took the Terror’s tip!” said Sir James. +</p> + +<h3>THE END</h3> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div style='display:block; margin-top:4em'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE TERRIBLE TWINS ***</div> +<div style='text-align:left'> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +Updated editions will replace the previous one—the old editions will +be renamed. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright +law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, +so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United +States without permission and without paying copyright +royalties. Special rules, set forth in the General Terms of Use part +of this license, apply to copying and distributing Project +Gutenberg™ electronic works to protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG™ +concept and trademark. 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