Seven Little Australians

by Ethel Sybil Turner

  CHAPTER XII

  Swish, Swish!

  On the fourth day of Judy's residence in the loft, Martha Tomlinsonremarked to her fellow-servant and sufferer, Bridget, that shebelieved them blessed children were in a conspiracy to put her"over the river."

  Bridget's digestion was impaired that morning, and she merelyremarked that she supposed the dear little things only felt a desireto see her in her proper place.

  I should explain to you, perhaps, that "over the river" meantGladesville, which is Sydney's Colney Hatch.

  Many things had led the unhappy Martha to a belief in this conspiracy.For instance, when she went to make Pip's bed as usual one morning allthe bedclothes had gone. The white counterpane was spread smoothlyover the mattress, but there was absolutely no trace of the blankets,sheets, and pillows. She hunted in every possible and impossible place,questioned the children, and even applied to Esther, but the missingthings could not be found.

  "There's a man in corduroy trousers hanging round here every night,"Pip said, gloomily regarding his stripped bed. "I shouldn't wonder ifhe had something to do with it."

  Which suggestion was distinctly unkind, seeing the man in corduroytrousers was Martha's most ardent and favoured admirer.

  The next day the washing basin in Meg's room went, and after that achair from the nursery, and a strip of carpet from the top landing,not to mention such small things as a teapot, a spirit-lamp, cups andplates, half a horn, and a whole baking of gingerbread nuts.

  The losses preyed upon Martha, for the things seemed to disappearwhile the children were in bed; and though she suspected them, andwatched them continually, she could get no clear proof of theirguilt, nor even find any motive for them abstracting such things.

  And after the disappearance of each fresh article, Pip used to askwhether the corduroy-trousered gentleman had been to the house thenight before. And as it always happened, that he had, Martha could donothing but cast a wrathful glance at the boy and flounce from theroom.

  One night the little chess-table from the nursery was spirited away.

  Pip fell upon Martha's neck the next morning early, as she wassweeping the carpet, and affected to be dissolved in tears.

  "'We never prize the violet,'" he said, in broken tones. "Ah!Martha, Martha! we never felt what a treasure we had in you till now,when your days with us are numbered."

  "Get along with you," she said, hitting out at him with the broomhandle. "And I ain't a-goin' to leave, so don't you think it. You'dhave it your own way then too much. No; you don't get shut ofMartha Tomlinson just yet, young man."

  "But won't he be wanting you, Martha?" he said gently. "Hisfurnishing must be nearly finished now. He's not taken a saucepanyet, nor a flat-iron, I know; but there's everything else, Martha;and I don't mind telling you in confidence I'm thinking of giving youa flat-iron myself as a wedding present, so you needn't wait till hecomes for that."

  "Get out with you!" said Martha again, thrusting the broom-headright into his face, and nearly choking him with dust. "It's a limbof the old gentleman himself you are."

  Away in the loft things were getting very comfortable.

  A couple of rugs hung on the walls kept out the draught. Judy's bed,soft and warm, was in a corner; she had a chair to sit in, atable to eat at, even a basin in which to perform her ablutions.And she had company all day; and nearly always all night. Once Meghad stolen away, after fastening her bedroom door, and had shared thebed in the loft; once Nellie had gone, and the other night Pip hadtaken a couple of blankets and made himself a shakedown among the straw.They used to pay her visits at all hours of the day, creeping up thecreaking ladder one after the other, whenever they could get awayunnoticed.

  The governess had, as it happened, a fortnight's holiday, to nurse asick mother, so the girls and Bunty had no demands on their time. Pipused to go to school late and come back early, cajoling notes of excuse,whenever, possible, out of Esther. He even played the truant once, andtook a caning for it afterwards quite good-humouredly.

  Judy still looked pale and tired, and her cough was rather troublesome;but she was fast getting her high spirits back, and was enjoying heradventure immensely.

  The only drawback was the cribbed, cabined, and confined space ofthe loft.

  "You will HAVE to arrange things so that I can go for a run," she saidone morning, in a determined manner. "My legs are growing shorter,I am sure, with not exercising them. I shall have forgotten how to walkby the end of the week."

  Pip didn't think it could be done; Meg besought her to run no risks;but Bunty and Nell were eager for it.

  "Meg could talk to Father," Bunty said, "and Pip could keepteasing General till Esther would be frightened to leave the room,and then me and Judy would nick down and have a run, and get backbefore you let them go."

  Judy shook her head.

  "That would be awfully stale," she said. "If I go, I shall staydown some time. Why shouldn't we have a picnic down at the river?"

  "Oh, yes, let's!" Bunty cried, with sparkling eyes.

  "I'm sure we could manage it especially as it's Saturday, and Piphasn't to go to school," Judy continued, thinking it rapidly out."Two of you could go and get some food. Tell Martha you are allgoing for a picnic--she'll be glad enough not to have dinner toset--then you go on. Two others can watch if the coast's clearwhile I get down and across the paddocks, and once we're at thecorner of the road we're safe."

  It seemed feasible enough, and in a very short time the preparationswere all made. Pip was mounting guard at the shed, and had undertakento get Judy safely away, and Bunty had been stationed on the backveranda to keep cave and whistle three times if there was any danger.

  He was to wait for a quarter of an hour by the kitchen clock, andthen, if all was well, to bring the big billy and a bread loaf,and catch the others up on the road.

  It was slow work waiting there, and he stood on one leg, like ameditative fowl, and reviewed the events of the last few excitingdays.

  He had a depressed feeling at his heart, but why he could hardlytell. Perhaps it was the lie he had told his father, and which wasstill unconfessed, because the horse was seriously lame, and hiscourage oozed away every time he thought of that riding-whip.

  Perhaps it was the reaction after the great excitement. Or it mayhave been a rankling sense of injustice at the small glory his bravedeeds on Judy's behalf evoked from the others. They did not seem toattach any importance to them, and, indeed, laughed every time healluded to them or drew public attention to his scars. Two orthree of the scratches on his legs were really bad ones, and while hewas standing waiting he turned down his stockings and gazed at thesewith pitying eyes and something like a sob in his throat.

  "Nobody cares!" he muttered, and one of his ever-ready tears fellsplashing down on one extended bare leg. "Judy likes Pip best, andhe never climbed the cactus; Meg thinks I tell stories; and Nelliesays I'm a greedy pig--nobody cares!"

  Another great fat tear gathered and fell. "Have you taken rootthere?" a voice asked.

  His father, smoking at the open french window, had been watching him,and marvelling at his rare and exceeding quietness.

  Bunty started, guiltily, and pulled up his stockings.

  "I'm not doin' nothin'," he said aggrievedly, after a minute'spause. Bunty always lapsed into evil grammar when agitated. "Nothingat all. I'm goin' to a picnic."

  "Ah, indeed!" said the Captain. "You looked as if you weremeditating on some fresh mischief, or sorrowing over some old--whichwas it?"

  Bunty turned a little pale, but remarked again he "wasn't doin'nothin'."

  The Captain felt in a lazy, teasing mood, and his little fat, dirtyson, was the only subject near.

  "Suppose you come here and confess every bit of mischief you'vedone this week," he said gravely. "I've the whole morning tospare, and it's time I saw to your morals a little."

  Bunty approached the arm of the chair indicated, but went whiter thanever.

  "Ah, now
we're comfortable. Well, there was stealing from the pantryon Tuesday--that's one," he said, encouragingly. "Now then."

  "I n--n--never did n--nothin' else," Bunty gasped. He felt certainit was all over with him, and the cricket ball episode was discovered.He even looked nervously round to see if the riding-whip was near.Yes, there was Esther's silver-topped one flung carelessly on a chair.He found time to wish fervently Esther was a tidy woman.

  "Nothing at all, Bunty? On your word?" said his father, in animpressive tone.

  "I was p--playin' marbles," he said, in a shaking voice. "Howc--c--could I have sh--shot anything at y--y--your old horse?"

  "Horse--ah!" said his father. A light broke upon him, and his facegrew stern. "What did you throw at Mazeppa to lame him? Answer me atonce."

  Bunty gave a shuddering glance at the whip.

  "N-n-nothin'," he answered--"n--nothin' at all. My c--c--cricketb--ball was up in the st--st--stables. I was only p--p--playin'marbles." The Captain gave him a little shake.

  "Did you lame Mazeppa with the cricket ball?" he said sternly.

  "N--n--no I n--never," Bunty whispered, white to the lips. Thensemi-repentance came to him, and he added: "It just rolled out of myp--p--pocket, and M--Mazeppa was passing and h--h--hit his l-leg on it."

  "Speak the truth, or I'll thrash you within an inch of your life," theCaptain said, standing up, and seizing Esther's whip: "Now then, sir--wasit you lamed Mazeppa?"

  "Yes," said Bunty, bursting into a roar of crying, and madly dodgingthe whip.

  Then, as the strokes descended on his unhappy shoulders, he filledthe air with his familiar wail of "'Twasn't me, 'twasn't my fault!"

  "You contemptible young cur!" said his father, pausing a moment whenhis arm ached with wielding the whip. "I'll thrash this mean spiritof lying and cowardice out of you, or kill you in the attempt." Swish,swish. "What sort of a man do you think you'll make?" Swish, swish."Telling lies just to save your miserable skin!" Swish, swish,swish, swish.

  "You've killed me--oh, you've killed me! I know you have!" yelledthe wretched child, squirming all over the floor. "'Twasn't me,'twasn't my fault--hit the others some."

  Swish, swish, swish. "Do you think the others would lie socontemptibly? Philip never lied to me. Judy would cut her tongue outfirst." Swish, swish, swish. "Going to a picnic, are you? You canpicnic in your room till to-morrow's breakfast." Swish, swish, swish."Pah--get away with you!"

  Human endurance could go no further. The final swish had been actualagony to his smarting, quivering shoulders and back. He thought ofthe others, happy and heedless, out in the sunshine, trudging merrilyoff to the river, without a thought of what he was bearing, and hisvery heart seethed to burst in the hugeness of its bitterness anddespair. "Judy's home!" he said, in a choking, passionate voice."She lives in the old shed in the cow, paddock. Boo, hoo, hoo!They're keepin' it secret from you. Boo, hoo. She's gone to thepicnic, and she's run away from school."