Brownsmith's Boy Part 72

"'No, no,' says he. 'If we do we shall smother them.'

"'That boy, then, you sot to look out--send him down.'

"'Go and bring him,' says the ganger; 'and--oh, we have no rope. Bring the reins; they're strong and new.'

"Five minutes after, the boy was up with us, and he said he'd go down if we'd put the reins round him like a rope, and so we did, and after we'd torn some furze away he got into the hole feet first, and wriggled himself down till only his head was out.

"'Goes down all sidewise,' he says, 'and then turns round.'

"'Will you go, my lad? The dog's down there, and we'll hold on to the reins, and have you out in a minute, if you shout.'

"'And 'spose the sand falls?'

"'Why, we've got the reins to trace you by, and we'll dig you out in a jiffy,' I says.

"'All right!' he says, and he shuffled himself down and went out of sight, and he kept on saying, 'all right! all right!' and then all at once, quickly, 'I've slipped,' he says, as if frightened. 'There's no bottom. I'm over a big hole.'

"Just then, my lad, the rein had tightened, but we held on.

"'Pull me up!' he says, and we pulled hard, and strained the reins a good deal, and at last he come up, looking hot and scared.

"'I couldn't touch bottom,' he says, 'and the dog began to bark loudly.'

"'I see,' says the ganger, 'the dog slipped there, and can't get out.

We must have a rope; you, Ike, take the reins, and drive down to the village and get a stout cart-rope. Bring two.'

"The landlord of the inn had just come up, and he said he'd got plenty, and he'd go with me, and so he did, and in a quarter of an hour we'd been down and driven back with two good strong new ropes.

"There was no more digging going on, it was no use; but while we'd been gone they'd chopped away the furze, cutting through it with spades, so that the hole, which was a big crack, was all clear.

"'Now, then,' says Old Brownsmith's brother, 'go down again, my boy.

With this stout rope round we can take care of you,' but the boy shook his head, he'd been too much scared last time.

"'Who'll go?' says the ganger. 'A sovereign for the man who goes down and fetches them up.'

"The chaps talked together, but no one moved.

"'It'll cave in,' says one of 'em.

"'You must cut a way down, Ike,' says the ganger. 'I'm too stout, or I'd go down myself.'

"'Nay,' I says, 'if they're down there, and you get digging, you'll bury 'em. P'r'aps I could squeedge myself down. Let's try.'

"So they ties the rope round me, and I lets myself into the hole, which was all sand, and roots to hold it a bit together.

"'It's a tight fit,' I says, as I wriggled myself down with my face to the ganger, but I soon found that wouldn't do, and I dragged myself out again and took off my boots, tightened my strap, and went down the other way.

"That was better, but it was a tight job going all round a corner like a zigger-me-zag, as you calls it, or a furnace chimney; and as I scrouged down with my eyes shut, and the sand and stones scuttling down after me, I began to wonder how I was going to get up again.

"'Here!' I shouts, 'I shall want two ropes. See if you can reach down the other.'

"I put up my hand as far as I could reach, and the thin boy put a loop round his foot and come down, shutting out the light, till he could reach my hand, and I got hold of the second rope, and went scuttling farther, till all at once I found it like the boy had said--my legs was hanging and kicking about.

"'Here's in for it now,' I says to myself; and I wondered whether I should be buried; but I shouts out, 'Lower away,' and I let myself slide, and then there was a rush of falling sand and I was half smothered as I swung about, but they lowered down, and directly after I touched bottom with my feet, and Juno was jumping about me and barking like mad.

"'Found 'em?' I heard the ganger shout from up in daylight, and I began to feel about for you; and, Lor'! there has been times when I've longed for a match, when I've wanted a pipe o' tobacco; but nothing like what I longed then, so as to see where I was, for it was as black as pitch.

"But I felt about with the dog barking, and followed to where she was, and feeling about, I got hold of you two boys cuddled up together as if you was asleep, and nearly covered up with sand.

"I puts my hands to my mouth, and I yells out as loud as I could: 'I've got 'em!' and there came back a 'Hooray!' sounding hollow and strange like, and then I s'pose it was the sand had got in my eyes so as they began to water like anything.

"But I knelt down trembling all over, for I was afraid you was both dead, and I can't a-bear touching dead boys. I never did touch none, but I can't a-bear touching of 'em all the same.

"Then I felt something jump up in my throat, as if I'd swallowed a new potato, only upside down like, other way on, you know, the tater coming up and not going down for when I got feeling you about you was both warm.

"'Out o' the way, dog,' I says, for she kept licking of you both, and I feels to find out which was you, and soon found that out, because Shock had such a rough head; and then I says to myself, 'Which shall I send up first?'

"I did think o' sending Shock, so as to make him open the hole a bit more; but I thought p'raps the top'd fall in with sending the first one up, and you was more use than Shock, so I made the rope, as was loose, fast round your chest, and then I shouts to 'em as I lifted you up.

"'Haul steady,' I shouts, and as the rope tightened hoisted you more and more, till you went up and up, and I was shoving your legs, then your feet, and then you was dragged away from me, and I was knocked down flat by 'bout hunderd ton o' sand coming on my head. I didn't weigh it, so p'r'aps there warn't so much.

"I was made half stupid; but I heerd them cheering, and I knowed they'd got you out, for they shouted down the hole for the next, and I had to drag the rope I had out of the sand before I fastened it round Shock, who give a bit of a groan as soon as I touched him, and I wished I'd heerd you groan too.

"'Haul away,' I shouted, and I walked right up a heap of sand, as they hauled at Shock, and as soon as they'd dragged him away from me, and he was going up, I jumped back, expecting some more sand to fall, and so it did, as they hauled, whole barrowfuls of it.

"Then come some more shouting, and Old Brownsmith's brother roared down the hole:--

"'All right. Safe up.'

"'All right, is it?' I says, scratching the sand out o' my head, 'and how's me and the dog to come?'

"They seemed to have thought of that, for the ganger shouts down the crooked hole--'How are we to get down the rope to you?'

"'I d'know,' I says; and I stood there in the dark thinking and listening to the buzzing voices, and wondering what to do.

"'Wonder how nigh I am to the hole,' I says to myself; and I walked up quite a heap o' sand and tried if I could touch anything, but I couldn't.

"Then I thought of the dog.

"'Hi, Juno!' I says, and she whined and come to me, and I took hold of her.

"'Here, you try if you can't get out, old gal,' I says; and I believe as she understood me as I lifted her up and helped her scramble up, and somehow I got her right with her stomach on my head. Then I lifted her shoulders up as high as I could reach, as I stood on the heap o' sand, and she got her legs on my head, and my! how she did scratch, and then the sand began to come down, and I knowed she could reach the top. Next moment she'd got one of her hind paws on my hand as I reached up high, and then there was a rush and scramble, and I heard another shouting of 'Hooray!' while the sand come down so that I had to get right as far away as I could.

"'What shall we do now?' says the ganger, shouting to me:--

"'Send the dog down again with the two ropes round her.'

"'Right!' he says; and then in a minute there was a scuffling and more rus.h.i.+ng, and Juno come down with a run, to begin barking loudly as she fell on the soft sand.