Quicksilver: The Boy With No Skid to His Wheel
Page 19
CHAPTER NINETEEN.
MASTER EDDY "HOLLERS WAHOO!"
"What is the meaning of this!" cried Sir James furiously.
Dexter was speechless, and he shrank back staring.
Edgar was ready with an answer. "He's knocking me about, pa. He hasdone nothing but knock me about ever since he came."
"Oh!" cried Dexter in a voice full of indignant astonishment. "Ididn't. He begun it, and I didn't, indeed."
"Silence, sir!" cried Sir James, in his severest magisterial tones."How dare you tell me such a falsehood? I saw you ill-using my son asyou held him down."
"Why, he had got hold of my hand!" cried Dexter indignantly.
"Got hold of your hand, sir? How dare you? How dare you, sir, I say?I've a great mind to--"
Sir James did not finish his speech, but made a gesture with thewalking-cane he carried; and just then there was a loud hystericalshriek.
For Lady Danby had realised the fact that something was wrong from thepart of the garden where she was promenading, parasol in hand, and shecame now panting up, in the full belief that some accident had happenedto her darling, and that he was drowned.
"Eddy, Eddy!" she cried, as she came up; and then as soon as she caughtsight of his anything but pleasant-looking countenance, she shriekedagain wildly, and flung herself upon her knees beside him. "What is it?What is it, my darling?" she sobbed, as she caught him to her heart.
"That horrid boy! Knocking me about," he cried, stopping his howling soas to deliver the words emphatically; and then looking at his stainedhands, and bursting into a howl of far greater power than before.
"The wretch! The wretch!" cried Lady Danby. "I always knew it. He haskilled my darling."
At this dire announcement Edgar shook himself free from his mother'sembrace, looked at his hands again, and then in the extremity of horror,threw himself flat upon his back, and shrieked and kicked.
"O my darling, my darling!" cried Lady Danby.
"He isn't hurt much," cried Dexter indignantly.
"How dare you, sir!" roared Sir James.
"He's killed; he's killed!" cried Lady Danby, clasping her hands, androcking herself to and fro as she gazed at the shrieking boy, who onlywanted a cold sponge and a towel to set him right.
"Ow!" yelled Edgar, as he appreciated the sympathy of his mother, butbelieved the very worst of his unfortunate condition. The lady now bentover him, said that he was killed, and of course she must have known.
Edgar had never read _Uncle Remus_. All this was before the period whenthat book appeared; but his conduct might very well be taken as a typeof that of the celebrated Brer Fox when Brer Rabbit was in doubt as towhether he was really dead or only practising a ruse, and proceeded totest his truth by saying, as he saw him stretched out--
"Brer Fox look like he dead, but he don't do like he dead. Dead fokeshists up de behime leg, en hollers _wahoo_!"
Edgar, according to Brer Rabbit's ideas, was very dead indeed, for hekept on "histing up de behime leg, en hollering _wahoo_!" with the fullpower of his lungs.
By this time the alarm had spread, and there was the sound of steps upona gravel walk, which resulted in the appearance of the superciliousfootman.
"Carry Master Edgar up to the house," said Sir James, in his severestmagisterial tones.
"Carefully--very carefully," wailed her ladyship piteously; and shelooked and spoke as if she feared that as soon as the boy was touched hewould tumble all to pieces.
Dexter looked on, with his eyes turning here and there, like those ofsome captured wild animal which fears danger; and as he looked he caughtsight of the footman gazing at him with a peculiar grin upon hiscountenance, which seemed to be quite friendly, and indicated that theman rather enjoyed the plight in which his young master was plunged.
Master Edgar howled again as he was raised, and directly after began toindulge in what the plantation negroes used to call "playing 'possum"--that is to say, he suddenly became limp and inert, closing his eyes, andletting his head roll about, as if there were no more bone left in hisbody, while his mother wrung her hands, and tried then to hold the headsteady, as the footman prepared to move toward the house.
"Now, sir," said Sir James sternly, "come here. We will have a fewwords about this in my library."
Accustomed for years past to obey, Dexter took a step forward toaccompany the stern-looking man before him to the house; but such apanorama of troublous scenes rose before his mind's eye directly, thathe stopped short, gave one hasty glance round, and then, as Sir Jamesstretched forth his hand, he made one bound which landed him in a clumpof hollyhocks and dahlias; another which took him on to the grass; andthen, with a rush, he dashed into a clump of rhododendrons, went throughthem, and ran as hard as he could go toward the house.
For a few moments Sir James was too much astounded to speak. This wassomething new. He was accustomed to order, and to be obeyed.
He had ordered Dexter to come to him, and for answer the boy had dashedaway.
As soon as Sir James could recover his breath, taken away in hisastonishment, he began to shout--
"Stop, sir! Do you hear? How dare you?"
If a hundred Sir Jameses had been shouting it would not have stayedDexter, for he had only one idea in his head just then, and that was toget away.
"Put down Master Edgar, and go and fetch that boy back."
"Carefully! Oh, pray, put him down carefully," cried Lady Danbypassionately.
Just then Master Edgar uttered a fresh cry, and his mother wailedloudly.
"No, never mind," cried Sir James, "carry him up to the house; I willfetch that young rascal."
He strode off angrily, evidently believing in his own mind that hereally was going to fetch Dexter back; but by that time the boy hadreached the house, ran round by the side, dashed down the main street,and was soon after approaching the bridge over the river, beyond whichlay the Union and the schools.