It thus happened that the two Northbourne boys were separated, as they each discovered when the day wore on. Worse still: they found, to their dismay, that they had been entrapped1 artfully. A couple of useful boys were desperately2 needed, as a fever had been hanging about the show, breaking out at fitful intervals3, and the chief victims had been the boy-helpers, who, one after another, dropped off, some to hospitals, others to die, like rats in the holes that were all the homes they knew.
The welcome accorded to Alick and Ned was thus explained. The showwoman was secretly overjoyed to give the strangers a lift on their journey. But before the first day closed in the pair of adventurers found out what real hard work meant. Even Ned Dempster, accustomed to the dilatory5, easy-going life of sea-fishing, knew nothing indeed of the drudgery6 and hustling7 and flurry of such everyday work as he had stepped into, unawares, among the rough caravan8 folk.
Alick, of course, was thunderstruck and stupefied to find himself at everybody's rude beck and call. And to have his awkward, bewildered movements hurried on by hard cuffs9 and violent language was an unpleasantly new experience for a Carnegy to endure. His indignant attempts at rebelling were treated with loud jeers10, and by savage11 threats of a horse-whipping. The latter menace was carried out before the week was over, on the unhappy boy obstinately12 refusing to clean out the animals' cages, to fetch and carry the food for birds and beasts, and to perform a hundred other distasteful offices.
'I'll teach ye; I'll conduct your education, young sir!' shouted the ring-master. 'And here's the lesson-book!' he sneered13, flourishing a cruel-looking whip.
Stunned14 and crushed, Alick had asked repeatedly to see Ned, and also entreated15 to be permitted to leave the show at once. His requests were, of course, harshly refused. In addition, he was sternly warned that if he attempted to escape he would be horse-whipped again, and next-door to death.
'They're a catch for us, them two!' the brutal16 ring-master remarked to his wife, as he and she sat at their supper after the performance was over one evening. 'That tallest youngster's a swell17 as has run away from 'ome, judging from his looks and clothes. He's just what we've bin18 wantin' for a long time back. The fust thing to do is to break that 'igh speerit of his, and then we'll set to work to train him to show off with the leopards19. That would draw famous with the public.'
'Not with the leopards! Not with them beasts! They're the worst and the fiercest in the show. 'Tis next-door to impossible to tame a leopard20. I won't 'ave it, I tell you, so there!' the woman broke in, with a high-pitched voice.
'Well, well, we're not going to 'ave words about it!' The first speaker yielded; for his wife, the widow of the former proprietor21, was the real owner of the circus. 'We needn't say no more about the leopards—for a bit. But I'll tell you what. 'Ee can do tricks with little Mike, the new pony22, and the monkeys. We'll make up a sort of little performance a-purpose for 'im and them. I must invent a little somethink that would be taking.'
'I 'ope 'ee won't catch the fever, like the rest on 'em, that's all!' muttered the mistress, shaking her head doubtfully.
That, however, was just what Alick Carnegy managed to do. After some weeks' slaving and knocking about at the hands of the ring-master, such as fairly stunned him, he fell sick. At once the poor, gaunt, dirty lad, whom Northbourne would have refused to recognise as the smart Alick Carnegy, always trig and trim, was hustled23 off to the squalid room of an old Whitechapel crone who, for the five shillings in the pocket of his torn coat, agreed to nurse him through his trouble. If he had the luck to live through it, the show-folk intended to have him back. If he died—well, there was the parish ready to bury him.
Ned, on the other hand, was by no means in such evil plight24. He was still in the division of the show moving from one suburb to another, so he had, at least, fresh air to breathe. True, he had brought on himself one brutal thrashing by running away from the show on the first opportunity. He was easily enough traced to the Docks, where he had sped, hoping against hope to find Alick loitering there. Instead, he was captured by the ring-master himself, who had been informed of the boy's flight, and who thought it quite worth his while to look up such an intelligent, hard-working little chap as Ned. The truth was, Ned had made himself far too useful among the animals to be thus let slip. All this time the dejected lad had been purposely kept in ignorance of the whereabouts of his companion. It was only by pure accident that he at last heard of Alick's collapse25 and speedy removal from the show—to die, for what anyone cared. One of the showmen had been despatched from the head-quarters of the establishment on an errand, and, knocking up against Ned, exclaimed—
'Hilloa! You ain't got the fever yet, then? Your chum has distanced you; for he's down with it.' Then the man told Ned that Alick was lying 'as ill as ill' in the house of an old crone who once belonged to the show herself.
It was a relief to hear even that much of his companion; it was better than the mystery of silence. But Ned's panic was pretty severe when he thought of Alick's perilous26 and deserted27 condition. A rush of mingled28 feelings came over the Northbourne lad. He felt as the prodigal29 son must have felt in the far country.
Yes, it was exactly like the Bible story which 'Miss Theedory' seemed to like best. At least, she told it to her class-boys more often than any other, and Ned, listening to her, had grown to realise the unhappy youth's condition in that far-off land where he had 'wasted his substance in riotous30 living,' and to sympathise cordially with him when he 'came to himself.'
But Ned, hustled, driven, sworn at, from morning to night, could now, in those scanty31 moments allowed him to swallow his rough food, or before his tired eyes closed in sleep, still more vividly32 picture the prodigal's desolation and despair.
Then he remembered the outcome of that despair: the unhappy youth in the parable33 suddenly determined34 to arise and go to his father, to confess, with bitter remorse35, his own mad wrong-doings. Would it not be well for himself to arise and return to Northbourne, and to confess the terrible folly36 of which he and Alick had been guilty? Again and again Ned imagined himself so doing. But the cruel whip which he had already tasted was another side to the question. No, he dare not again attempt to escape! He writhed37 still when he recollected38 the stinging lashes39 of the long, serpent-like whip. At last came an inspiration. He could, and he would, write to the captain at the Bunk40, entreating41 him to come and rescue his son, and also Ned himself. This resolve, however, was a work of no small difficulty. To procure42 an envelope and a postage-stamp were next door to impossible for the lad who was watched so keenly. Fortunately, some body coming out of the performance one evening, in pity for his unhappy looks, threw Ned a penny. A day or so after, when sweeping43 out the ring, he found in the sawdust an envelope unwritten upon, and tolerably clean. It was a prize: and that evening, when the public were shrieking44 with laughter over the capers45 of a clown arm-in-arm with a tame bear, followed by a couple of monkeys skilfully46 mimicking47 their very strut48, Ned was behind one of the vans scribbling49 with pencil a few frantic50, ill-spelt words that, when the crumpled51 envelope arrived at the Bunk, were wept over and laughed over in tumultuous joy. The penny thrown him went for a stamp; the letter was pushed, with trembling haste, into a letter-box, and Ned had returned to his post among the squalid back-scenes of the gay performance before anybody had time to miss him.
His heart beat in mad throbs52, so that the boy was scarce able to sleep a wink53 that night. Hopes and fears jostled themselves in his excited brain. If the postman, old 'Uncle Dan,' who trudged54 from Brattlesby town every day at noon with the Northbourne post-bag, only safely delivered the letter Ned had posted, all would be well. With the captain himself to the fore4, every difficulty must, and would, be swept away. Then—— But with a sobbing55 catch in his breath Ned put aside the after. He was too weak from misery56 and ill-usage to finish the blissful result. So, over and over, he murmured, 'I have sinned against heaven and before thee!' until that refrain of all true penitence57 lulled58 him to sleep.
'Alick is found! My boy is alive!' The captain had been able to utter no more as he pushed the crumpled wisp of a letter into a thin hand eagerly outstretched to receive it. The tears were running unheeded down the old man's cheeks.
'Oh, father!' There was a glad cry. 'God is good indeed! He has heard our prayers.'
It was Theo—or was it Theo's ghost?—who sat by the open window drinking in the sea breezes she was still too weak to go out of doors and meet. Yes, Theo was, day by day, coming back to her old sweet self, after a long spell of illness. There was only weakness left to fight—weakness and anxiety about Alick. As long as possible the fact of Alick having run away from home was kept from the prostrate59 girl. But in the end it abruptly60 leaked out, and nearly pushed her back through the gates of death.
Every means that the captain knew of had been set in motion to find the pair of runaways61. But the searchers were checkmated at the outset by failing to find the boys at the Docks. The police in the end convinced themselves and the captain that the pair had stolen on board some foreign vessel62 on the eve of its departure, and, as stowaways63, were already far off on the deep.
But which of the many hundreds of ships that had set sail since might the boys possibly be aboard? Again and again had the half-distracted father asked himself the maddening question as he paced the busy Docks. He would return then to Northbourne, where his other beloved child lay in jeopardy64 of her young life. Through the anxious night-watches by her bed, the old sailor pictured his boy on board some barque ploughing the seas, the stormy winds roaring through the rigging, the decks wet and slippery, the rough sailors cuffing65 and jostling the unwelcome intruders who had stolen their passages.
None knew better than the captain what the boys who had hidden themselves in some dark corner of an outward-bound vessel would be called upon to endure, when discovered; none knew better than he the hourly dangers to which they would be exposed in the perils66 of the deep—the risks of foundering67, of collision, of tempests.
As the days wore on, and no word came of the runaways, the old sailor's heart sank to the lowest depths.
'Father, we must trust him to God; it's all we can do,' a low, weak voice whispered; and the old man took heart again. He would trust his boy to that—
'Eternal Father, strong to save,
Whose arm hath bound the restless wave.'
Perhaps of all mankind a sailor has experienced most signal proofs of the omnipotence68 of God. Throughout the daily dangers they are exposed to is the underlying69, as well as the overruling, sense of the Almighty70 Power that holds the heavens in the hollow of His hand.
The captain knew that his girl was right. What he and she had to do was simply trust Alick to his Father in heaven.
Then came Ned's missive with its startling news.
'You will go, father, and fetch him home?'
'Yes, yes! If I can find him. Please God I may!'
That same day the captain started for London, and with him went Philip Price, who insisted on joining in the search for the hapless Alick. The young tutor had proved himself a very friend in need in 'the day of trouble' that had befallen the Bunk. What more natural then that he should persist in helping71 the captain in what would be a ticklish72 piece of work, as both men knew?
Before the two set out, Philip Price brought his mother over from Brattlesby to establish her in Theo's sick-room. It was not the widow's first visit to the Bunk. The woman who never had a daughter of her own found in the serious, gentle Theo a realisation of those dream-daughters who had never been in real life.
And Theo, on her part, welcomed the quiet, soft-spoken widow—another bit of Philip Price, so similar were mother and son. It was a relief to the overwrought girl to restfully watch the household reins73 gathered up in other and abler hands than her own. As for the widow, she grew alert and brisk; so good is a little wholesome74 activity for others.
'We must have no fretting75, no repining, dear Miss Carnegy,' she persisted cheerfully. 'Your young brother is sure to be found. The captain can't fail, now he has got my Philip to aid him in the search!'
The widow's text for every sermon was 'my Philip'; and it was one of which Theo Carnegy never tired, to judge by her intent listening to the subject-matter it produced.
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1
entrapped
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| v.使陷入圈套，使入陷阱( entrap的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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2
desperately
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| adv.极度渴望地，绝望地，孤注一掷地 | |
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intervals
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| n.[军事]间隔( interval的名词复数 )；间隔时间；[数学]区间；（戏剧、电影或音乐会的）幕间休息 | |
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fore
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| adv.在前面；adj.先前的；在前部的；n.前部 | |
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dilatory
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| adj.迟缓的，不慌不忙的 | |
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drudgery
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| n.苦工，重活，单调乏味的工作 | |
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hustling
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| 催促（hustle的现在分词形式） | |
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caravan
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| n.大蓬车；活动房屋 | |
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cuffs
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| n.袖口( cuff的名词复数 )v.掌打，拳打( cuff的第三人称单数 ) | |
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jeers
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| n.操纵帆桁下部（使其上下的）索具；嘲讽( jeer的名词复数 )v.嘲笑( jeer的第三人称单数 ) | |
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savage
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| adj.野蛮的；凶恶的，残暴的；n.未开化的人 | |
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12
obstinately
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| ad.固执地，顽固地 | |
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13
sneered
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| 讥笑，冷笑( sneer的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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stunned
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| adj. 震惊的，惊讶的 动词stun的过去式和过去分词 | |
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entreated
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| 恳求，乞求( entreat的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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brutal
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| adj.残忍的，野蛮的，不讲理的 | |
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swell
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| vi.膨胀，肿胀；增长，增强 | |
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bin
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| n.箱柜；vt.放入箱内；[计算机] DOS文件名:二进制目标文件 | |
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19
leopards
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| n.豹( leopard的名词复数 )；本性难移 | |
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leopard
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| n.豹 | |
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proprietor
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| n.所有人；业主；经营者 | |
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pony
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| adj.小型的；n.小马 | |
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hustled
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| 催促（hustle的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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plight
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| n.困境，境况，誓约，艰难；vt.宣誓，保证，约定 | |
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collapse
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| vi.累倒；昏倒；倒塌；塌陷 | |
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perilous
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| adj.危险的，冒险的 | |
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deserted
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| adj.荒芜的，荒废的，无人的，被遗弃的 | |
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28
mingled
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| 混合，混入( mingle的过去式和过去分词 )； 混进，与…交往[联系] | |
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prodigal
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| adj.浪费的，挥霍的，放荡的 | |
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30
riotous
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| adj.骚乱的；狂欢的 | |
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31
scanty
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| adj.缺乏的，仅有的，节省的，狭小的，不够的 | |
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vividly
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| adv.清楚地，鲜明地，生动地 | |
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parable
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| n.寓言，比喻 | |
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determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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remorse
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| n.痛恨，悔恨，自责 | |
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folly
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| n.愚笨，愚蠢，蠢事，蠢行，傻话 | |
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37
writhed
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| （因极度痛苦而）扭动或翻滚( writhe的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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recollected
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| adj.冷静的；镇定的；被回忆起的；沉思默想的v.记起，想起( recollect的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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39
lashes
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| n.鞭挞( lash的名词复数 )；鞭子；突然猛烈的一击；急速挥动v.鞭打( lash的第三人称单数 )；煽动；紧系；怒斥 | |
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40
bunk
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| n.(车、船等倚壁而设的)铺位；废话 | |
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41
entreating
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| 恳求，乞求( entreat的现在分词 ) | |
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42
procure
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| vt.获得，取得，促成；vi.拉皮条 | |
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43
sweeping
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| adj.范围广大的，一扫无遗的 | |
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44
shrieking
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| v.尖叫( shriek的现在分词 ) | |
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45
capers
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| n.开玩笑( caper的名词复数 )；刺山柑v.跳跃，雀跃( caper的第三人称单数 ) | |
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46
skilfully
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| adv. (美skillfully)熟练地 | |
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47
mimicking
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| v.（尤指为了逗乐而）模仿( mimic的现在分词 )；酷似 | |
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48
strut
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| v.肿胀，鼓起；大摇大摆地走；炫耀；支撑；撑开；n.高视阔步；支柱，撑杆 | |
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49
scribbling
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| n.乱涂[写]胡[乱]写的文章[作品]v.潦草的书写( scribble的现在分词 )；乱画；草草地写；匆匆记下 | |
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50
frantic
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| adj.狂乱的，错乱的，激昂的 | |
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51
crumpled
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| adj. 弯扭的, 变皱的 动词crumple的过去式和过去分词形式 | |
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52
throbs
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| 体内的跳动( throb的名词复数 ) | |
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53
wink
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| n.眨眼，使眼色，瞬间；v.眨眼，使眼色，闪烁 | |
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54
trudged
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| vt.& vi.跋涉，吃力地走（trudge的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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55
sobbing
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| <主方>Ⅰ adj.湿透的 | |
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56
misery
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| n.痛苦，苦恼，苦难；悲惨的境遇，贫苦 | |
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57
penitence
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| n.忏悔，赎罪；悔过 | |
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58
lulled
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| vt.使镇静，使安静（lull的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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prostrate
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| v.拜倒，平卧，衰竭；adj.拜倒的，平卧的，衰竭的 | |
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abruptly
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| adv.突然地，出其不意地 | |
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61
runaways
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| （轻而易举的）胜利( runaway的名词复数 ) | |
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62
vessel
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| n.船舶；容器，器皿；管，导管，血管 | |
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63
stowaways
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| n.偷乘船[飞机]者( stowaway的名词复数 ) | |
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64
jeopardy
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| n.危险；危难 | |
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65
cuffing
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| v.掌打，拳打( cuff的现在分词 )；袖口状白血球聚集 | |
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66
perils
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| 极大危险( peril的名词复数 )； 危险的事（或环境） | |
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67
foundering
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| v.创始人( founder的现在分词 ) | |
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68
omnipotence
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| n.全能，万能，无限威力 | |
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underlying
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| adj.在下面的，含蓄的，潜在的 | |
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almighty
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| adj.全能的，万能的；很大的，很强的 | |
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71
helping
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| n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的 | |
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72
ticklish
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| adj.怕痒的；问题棘手的；adv.怕痒地；n.怕痒，小心处理 | |
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73
reins
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| 感情，激情； 缰( rein的名词复数 )； 控制手段； 掌管； （成人带着幼儿走路以防其走失时用的）保护带 | |
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74
wholesome
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| adj.适合；卫生的；有益健康的；显示身心健康的 | |
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fretting
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| n. 微振磨损 adj. 烦躁的, 焦虑的 | |
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