!Tention Part 54

"Yes, Punch--or march right into the lines of the French," said Pen bitterly.

"Oh, well, we must take our chance of that, comrade. One's as likely as the other. There's the French troops about, and there's our English lads--the lads in red as well as the boys in green. No, it's no use to be down in the mouth. We are just as likely to find one as the other.

I wonder how they are getting on up there in the old mine. Shall we be near enough to hear if there's any fighting going on?"

"Perhaps," said Pen, springing up. "But let's make for that water."

But it was farther off than it had at first appeared, and it was nearly half an hour after they had startled the browsing goats when the two weary lads threw themselves down with a sigh of content beside the mountain pool, which supplied them with delicious draughts of clear cold water as an accompaniment to the contents of the haversack which Punch's foresight had provided.

"Ah!" sighed the boy. "'Lishus, wasn't it?"

"Yes, delicious," said Pen.

"Only one thing agin it," said Punch.

"One thing against it," said Pen, looking up, "Why, it could not have been better."

"Yes," said the boy sadly. "It waren't half enough."

"Hark! Listen!" said Pen, holding up his hand.

"Guns firing!" exclaimed Punch in a whisper. "Think that's in the little valley that leads up to the old mine?"

"It's impossible to say," replied Pen. "It's firing, sure enough, and a long way off; but I can't tell whether it's being replied to or whether we are only listening to the echoes."

"Anyhow," said Punch, "it's marching orders, and I suppose we ought to get farther away."

"Yes," replied Pen with a sigh. "But how do you feel? Ready to go on now?"

"No, not a bit. I feel as if I want to take off my coat and bathe my arms in the water here, for they ache like hooray."

"Do it, then," said Pen wearily, "and I must do the same to my wound as well; and then, Punch, there's only one thing I can do more."

"What's that, comrade?"

"Get in the shade under that grey-looking old olive, and have a few hours' sleep."

"Splendour!" said Punch, taking off his coat. "Hark at the firing!"

"Yes," said Pen wearily, as he followed his comrade's example. "They may fire, but I am so done up that they can't keep me awake."

The water proved to be a delicious balm for the bruised limbs and the wound--a balm so restful and calming to the nerves that somehow the sun had long set, and the evening star was s.h.i.+ning brilliantly in the soft grey evening sky when the two sleepers, who had lain utterly unconscious for hours, started awake together, wondering what it all meant, and then prepared themselves to face the darkness of the coming night, not knowing what fate might bring; but Pen felt a strange chill run through his breast with a s.h.i.+ver as Punch exclaimed in a low, warning whisper, "I say, comrade, hear that? Wolves?"

CHAPTER THIRTY NINE.

STRUNG-UP.

"Or dogs," said Pen angrily. "What a fellow you are, Punch! Don't you think we had enough to make us low-spirited and miserable without you imagining that the first howl you hear comes from one of those horrible brutes?"

"It's all very well," said Punch with a shudder. "I have heard dogs enough in my time. Why, I used to be once close to the kennel where they kept the foxhounds, and they used to set-to and sing sometimes all at once. Then I have heard shut-up dogs howl all night, and other sorts begin to howl when it was moonlight; but I never heard a dog make a noise like that. I am sure it's wolves."

"Well, perhaps you are right, Punch; but I suppose they never attack people except in the winter-time when they are starving and the ground's covered with snow; and this is summer, and they have no reason for coming down from the mountains."

"Oh, I say," exclaimed the boy, "haven't they just!"

"Will you hold your tongue, Punch!" cried Pen angrily. "This is a nice way to prepare ourselves for a tramp over the mountains, isn't it?"

"Are we going to tramp over the mountains in the night?" said the boy rather dolefully.

"Yes, and be glad of the opportunity to get farther away from the French before morning."

"But won't it be very bad for your leg, comrade?"

"No worse than it will be for your back, Punch."

"But wouldn't it be better if we had a good rest to-night?"

"Where?" said Pen bluntly.

"In some goat-keeper's cottage. We saw goats before we came here, and there must be people who keep them."

"Perhaps so," said Pen; "but I have seen no cottages."

"We ain't looked," said Punch.

"No, and I don't think it would be very wise to look for them in the dark. Come, Punch, don't be a coward."

"I ain't one; but I can't stand going tramping about in these mountains with those horrid beasts hunting you, smelling you out and following you wherever you go."

"I don't believe they would dare to come near us if we shouted at them,"

said Pen firmly; "and we needn't be satisfied with that, for if they came near and we fired at them they would never come near us again."

"Yes, we have got the guns," said the boy; and he unslung the one he carried and began to try the charge with the ramrod. "Hadn't you better see if yours is all right too?" he said.

"Perhaps I had," was the reply, "for we might have to use them for business that had nothing to do with wolves."

As he spoke, Pen followed his comrade's example, driving the cartridge and bullet well home, and then feeling whether the powder was up in the pan.

"Oh, I say," cried the boy huskily, "there they go again! They're coming down from high up the mountains. Hadn't we better go lower down and try and find some cottage?"

"I don't think so," said Pen st.u.r.dily.

"But we might find one, you know--an empty one, just the same as we did before, when my back was so bad. Then we could shut ourselves in and laugh at the wolves if they came."

"We don't want to laugh at the wolves," said Pen jocularly. "And it might make them savage. I know I used to have a dog and I could always put him in a rage by laughing at him and calling him names."

"And now you are laughing at me. I can't help it. I am ashamed perhaps; but, knowing what I do about the wolves, and what our chaps have seen--Ugh! It's horrid! There they go again. Let's get lower down."