CHAPTER XV.
TOADY LION PLAYS A FIRST LONE HAND.
Sir Toady Lion had played a lone hand.
We left him sitting behind the hedge, secure as the gods above theturmoil of battle. But he could not be content to stay there. Hethought of Richard Coeur-de-Lion, his great namesake and hero; andthough he wanted to do nothing rash, he was resolved to justify theginger-beer label Victoria Cross which he wore so proudly on hisbreast. So he waited till the forces of the town had swept those ofWindy Standard from the field. He saw on the edge of the wood HughJohn, resisting manfully to the death, and striking out in alldirections. But Toady Lion knew that he had no clear call to such veryactive exertions.
Cautiously he returned through his hole in the hedge, and crawlinground the opposite side of the Black Sheds, he entered the door whichPeter Greg had forced with his cudgel, before he had been interruptedby the arrival of the enemy. Toady Lion ran through a slippery byre inwhich calves had been standing, and came to an inner division with alow door and a causewayed floor like a pig-pen. He opened this gate bykicking up the hasp with the toe of his boot, and found himself atonce in the inmost sanctuary.
And there, right before him, with a calf's halter of rope about hisneck, all healthy and alive, was Donald, his own dear, black, pet lambDonald, who gave a little bleat of pure delight upon seeing him, andpulled vigorously at the rope to get loose.
"Quiet now, Donald! Or they will come back. Stand still, 'oo horridlittle beast 'oo, till I get the rope off!"
And so, easing the noose gradually, Toady Lion slipped it overDonald's head and he was free.
Then, very cautiously, his deliverer put his head round the door tosee that the coast was clear. Not a soul was to be seen anywhere onthe pastures; so Toady Lion slid out and made for the gap in thehedge, sure that Donald would follow him. Donald did follow, but, asluck would have it, no sooner was he through than Caesar, who had beenscraping for imaginary rabbits at the other side of the field, camebarking and rushing about over the grass like a runaway tractionengine.
Now Donald hated big dogs--they rugged and tugged his wool so; as soontherefore as he saw Caesar he took down the lea towards the island ashard as he could go. He thundered across the wooden bridge, breakingthrough the fleeing forces of Windy Standard, which were scatteredathwart the castle island. He sprinted over the short turf by theorchard, Caesar lying off thirty yards on his flank. At the shallows bythe stepping-stones Donald sheepfully took the water, and was not longin swimming to the other side, the Edam being hardly deep enoughanywhere at this point to take him off his feet. In a minute more hewas delightedly nuzzling his wet nose into the hand of JanetSheepshanks, on the terrace of Windy Standard House.
"Wi beast, whaur hae ye come frae?--I declare I am _that_ glad to seeye!"
But had she known the price which had been paid for Donald's liberty,her rejoicing would quickly have given place to sorrow. It wasmid-afternoon on the day of battle and defeat when Toady Lionstraggled home, so wet and dirty that he could only be slapped, bathedand sent to bed--which, in the absence of his father, was felt to bean utterly inadequate punishment.
Prissy had long ago fled home with a terrible tale of battle, murder,and sudden death. But she knew nothing of her brother Hugh John,though she had nerved herself to go back to the Black Sheds, sufferinggrinding agonies of fear and apprehension the while, as also ofreproach for deserting him in his hour of need. Mike and Peter werequietly at work in the stable, in momentary dread of being called uponto give evidence.
The Carters, Sammy and Cissy, had run straight home, and were at thatmoment undoubtedly smelling of arnica and slimy with vaseline.But there was no trace of the Commander-in-Chief anywhere.General-Field-Marshal Napoleon Smith had vanished from the face of theearth.
"OH, THE BONNY LADDIE!"]
Tea-time came and went. He had been known to be absent from tea.Supper-time arrived and overpassed, and then the whole house grewanxious. Ten o'clock came, and in the clear northern twilight all thehousehold were scattered over the countryside seeking for him.Midnight, and no Hugh John! Where could he be? Drowned in the EdamWater--killed by a chance blow in the great battle--or simply hidingfrom fear of punishment and afraid to venture home? It must have beensome stranger entirely unacquainted with General Napoleon Smith whoadvocated the last explanation. The inmates of Windy Standardcherished no such foolish hopes.
The sun rose soon after two on as glorious a summer morning as evershone upon the hills of the Border. As his beams overshot BrownGattonside to the east they fell on Janet Sheepshanks. Her decentwhite cap was green-moulded with the moss of the woods; the drip ofwaterside caves had grimed it, the cobwebs of murky outhousesfestooned it. Her abundant grey hair hung down in untended witchlocks. She had not shut an eye nor lain down all night.
Now she leaned her head on her hands and sobbed aloud.
"Oh, the bonny laddie! Whatever will I say to his faither when hecomes hame? His auldest son and the aipple o' his e'e! My certie, ifthe ill-set loon were to come up the road the noo, I wad thresh thevery skin aff his banes! To think that he should bide awa' like this.Oh, the dear, dear lamb that he is; and will thae auld e'en never mairrest on his bonnie face? Cauld, cauld noo it looks up frae the bottomo' some pool in the Edam Water!"
And Janet Sheepshanks, like one of the mothers in Ramah, lifted up hervoice and wept with the weeping which will not be comforted; foroft-times bairns' play brings that which is not bairns' play to thosewho love them.