In the King's Name Part 14

He placed one hand to the side of his face and shouted with all his might, and as he ceased--

"Haw-w! hee-haw! hee-haw! hee-haw! hee-haw! haw-haw! haw-haw-wk!" came from a short distance, as if in answer to his hail, followed directly by half a dozen lively kicks.

"Sweet, intelligent beast!" cried Hilary. "What, are you hungry too?

Surely they have not left us to starve, my gentle friend in misfortune."

Growing too hungry and impatient to be interested any longer by the beauty of the scene, Hilary shouted again several times, but without obtaining an answer. He startled some pigeons, though, from somewhere upon the roof, and they circled round a few times before settling down again, and beginning to sing, "Koo-coo-coo-cooo! koo-coo-coo-cooo!" over and over again.

He leaped down, went to the door, and hammered and kicked and shouted till his toes were tender and his throat hoa.r.s.e; but in answer to his kicks came hollow echoes, and to his shouts the donkey's brays, and at last he threw himself sulkily down upon the straw.

"I'm not going to stop here and be starved to death," he exclaimed angrily; "there's no one in the place, that's my opinion, and they've stuffed me in here while they get out of the country."

He jumped up in a fury and went and kicked at the door again, but the mocking echoes were the only response, and, tired of that, he shouted through the keyhole, ran, jumped, and clambered to the window, as he took out his knife, opened it, and began to dig at the stonework to loosen the bars, when the donkey brayed once more.

"Be quiet, will you," roared Hilary, "or I'll kill you, and eat you afterwards."

As he said this he burst out laughing at the ludicrous situation, and this did him good, for he felt that it would be best to be patient.

So there he sat, listening for some sound to indicate the presence of a human being, but hearing nothing, longing intensely the while for some breakfast; and just as he was conjuring up visions of a country-house meal, with hot bread, delicious b.u.t.ter, and yellow cream, he detected in the distance the cooking of home-made bacon, and as if to add poignancy to the keen edge of his hunger, a hen began loudly to announce that somewhere or other there was a new-laid egg.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN.

BREAKFAST UNDER DIFFICULTIES.

"Well, this beats everything I've had to do with," said Hilary, as the hours glided by, and he began to suffer acutely. Visions of delicious country breakfasts, for which he had longed, had now given place to the humblest of desires, for he felt as if he would have given anything for the most mouldy, weevilly biscuit that ever came out of a dirty bag in a purser's locker. He had fasted before now, but never to such an extent as this, and he sat upon his straw heap at last, chewing pieces to try and relieve his pain.

He had worked at the iron bars for a time, but had now given it up, finding that he would be knifeless long before he could loosen a single bar; besides, that gnawing hunger mastered everything else, and in place of the active the pa.s.sive state had set in: with a feeling of obstinate annoyance against his captors he had determined to sit still and starve.

The probabilities are that Hilary's obstinate determination would have lasted about an hour; but he was not called upon to carry it out, for just about noon, as he guessed, he fancied he heard a voice, and jumping up he ran to the window and listened.

Yes, there was no mistake about it. Some one was singing, and it was in sweet girlish tones.

"Ahoy! I say there!" shouted Hilary at the invisible singer, who seemed to be right away on the other side of the garden; and the singing stopped on the instant. "Is any one there?"

There was not a sound now, and he was about to cry out once more when he caught a glimpse of a lady's dress, and a little slight figure came cautiously through the trees, looking wonderingly about.

"Hurrah!" shouted Hilary, thrusting out his arm and waving his hand, "Addy! Addy! Here!"

The figure came closer, showing the pleasant face and bright wondering eyes of Sir Henry Norland's daughter, who came timidly on towards the building where Hilary was confined.

"Don't you know me, Addy?" he cried.

"Hilary! you here?"

"Yes, for the present; and I've been kicking and shouting for hours. Am I to be starved to death?"

"Oh, Hilary!" she cried.

"Well, it seems like it. I haven't had a morsel since yesterday morning. Get me something, there's a dear girl--bread, meat, tea, coffee, anything, if it's only oats or barley."

"Wait a minute," cried the girl, turning to go.

"You mustn't be longer, or I shall be dead," shouted Hilary as she ran off; and then, dropping from the window, the young fellow executed a figure out of the dance of delight invented for such occasions by Dame Nature to aid young people in getting rid of their exuberance, stopped short, pulled out a pocket-comb, and carefully touched up his hair, relieving it from a number of sc.r.a.ps of straw and chaff in the process.

"A nice Tom o' Bedlam I must have looked," he said to himself. "No wonder she didn't know me."

"Hil! Hil!"

"Ahoy!" he shouted, scrambling up to the window and slipping down again, to try the next time more carefully and on regaining the window-sill there was the bright, eager-looking girl beneath, with a jug of milk and a great piece of bread.

"This was all I could get now, Hil," she said, her eyes sparkling with pleasure.

"All!" he cried. "New bread and new milk! Oh, Addy, it's lovely!

There's nothing I like better for breakfast, and our cow on board won't milk and our oven won't bake. Give us hold: I'm ravenous for the feast."

Hilary reached one arm down and Adela Norland reached one arm up, but when they had strained to the utmost a good six feet intervened between Hilary's hand and the slice of bread.

"Oh, I say, how tantalising!" he cried, giving a shake at the bars.

"Make haste, Addy, and do something. Isn't there a ladder?"

"No," she said, shaking her head. "I'll get a chair."

"Two chairs wouldn't do it," cried Hilary, who, sailor-like, was pretty ready at ideas. "Here, I know. Get a long stick; put the bread and milk down first."

She placed the jug on the ground, and was about to run off.

"Cover your handkerchief over them first," cried Hilary, "or I can't bear to sit and look at them."

"I won't be a minute," cried the girl; and she ran off, leaving the young sailor in the position of that mythical gentleman Tantalus, waiting her return.

The minute had reached two when a peculiar grunting noise was heard, and, to Hilary's horror, an exceedingly pendulous, narrow-backed pig came snuffing and rooting into sight, turning over stones with its huge pointed snout, investigating clods of earth, pus.h.i.+ng aside pieces of wood, and all the while making an ill-used grunting squeaking noise, as if protesting against the long period that had elapsed since it was fed.

"Well, of all the ugly, hungry-looking brutes I ever saw," said Hilary, as he gazed down at the pig, "you are about the worst. Why, you are not fit to cut up and salt for a s.h.i.+p's company, which is saying a deal.

Umph! indeed! Get out you ugly--Oh, murder! the brute's coming at my breakfast! Addy, Addy, quick! Yah! Pst! Get out! Ciss! Swine!

Co-chon! Boo! Bah-h-h! Oh, if I'd only got something to throw at the wretch! Quick, Addy, quick!"

His sufferings were bad enough before, but now they were agonising, for, treating the loud objurgations of the prisoner with the greatest contempt, after raising its snout sidewise and gazing up at him with one little eye full of porcine wisdom, and flapping one of its ears the while, the pig came to the conclusion that Hilary could only throw words at it such as would not injure its pachydermatous hide, and then with a contemptuous grunt it came on.

Nearer and nearer to the breakfast came the pig, twiddling its miserable little tail about, investigating here and turning over there; and more frantic grew the prisoner. He abused that unfortunate pig with every sentence, phrase, and term he could remember or invent, but the animal paid not the slightest heed.

"Au, you thick-skinned beast," he cried; "if I were only down there with a stick!"

But he was not down there with a stick, and the pig evidently knew, though as yet he did not know of the breakfast lying on the ground so invitingly close, or it would have disappeared at once. Still, there was no doubt that before many minutes had pa.s.sed it would be gone if Adela did not return, and at last Hilary pulled off a shoe, and as the animal came now in a straight line for the bread, he took careful aim and hit the intruder on the nose.

The pig uttered an angry squeal, and jumped back; but as the shoe lay motionless, it concluded that it was probably something thrown it to eat, and in this belief it approached the foot-guard, turned it over, thrust its nose right inside, and lifted it up, flung it off its snout, and proceeded to taste the leather, when, to Hilary's horror, the bread met the ugly little pink eyes.