St. Peter's Umbrella Part 32

"Oh, that is nothing serious," said Gyuri, who at that moment was not to be put out by a shaft, nor by a hundred shafts.

"Give me your axe, and you go and hold the horses. I'll soon bring you something to fasten the shaft to, and strengthen it."

He took the axe out of the tool-box under the coachman's seat, said a few words to rea.s.sure the ladies, and then jumped the ditch by the side of the road.

There were some trees there, but they were as rare as the hairs on the head of an old man. First came a birch, then a hazelnut bush, then a black-thorn, then a bare piece of ground without any trees, and then again a few old trees. So it was rather difficult to find a suitable tree; one was too big, another too small; so Gyuri went on and on in search of one, and got so far that soon the carriage was out of sight, and only Veronica's red sunshade was to be seen in the distance, like a large mushroom. At length his eyes fell on a young birch, which grew near to a small precipice. It was too big for a seedling and too small for a tree, but well-grown and promising. All the same it must be sacrificed, and down came the axe.

But hardly had two or three blows been struck, when a voice was heard, crying out:

"Reta! Reta!" (Help! Help!)

Gyuri started and turned round. Who had called? The voice seemed quite close, but no one was visible far and near.

Again the call for help was repeated, and now it seemed to come out of the earth, and Gyuri immediately concluded it came from the precipice, and ran toward it.

"Here I am!" he called out. "Where are you and what is the matter?"

"I am down the precipice," was the answer; "help me, for G.o.d's sake!"

Gyuri looked down, and saw a figure there in a black coat, but he could not see much of it, for it would have been dangerous to have gone too near to the edge.

"How did you manage to get down there?"

"I fell in yesterday evening," answered the man in the black coat.

"What! Yesterday evening! And can't you get out?"

"It is impossible, for there is nothing to hold on to, and if I catch hold of any projecting bits, they give way, and I fall back with them."

"You are in a bad way altogether! And has no one pa.s.sed here since then?"

"No one comes this way. I was prepared for the worst when I heard the sound of blows in the neighborhood. Thank G.o.d you came! Help me if you can, good man, whoever you may be, and I will reward you!"

"I will help you of course with the greatest pleasure, but I must think first how to manage it. If I let down the trunk of a small tree could you climb up it?"

"I am very weak from want of sleep and from hunger," answered the man, his voice getting weaker from shouting.

"Poor fellow! Wait a moment!"

He had suddenly remembered the apples Mrs. Mravucsan had put in his pockets that morning.

"Hallo, there! Lookout! I am going to throw down a few apples to go on with while I think over what I am to do."

He took the apples out of his pockets, and rolled them down one after the other.

All of a sudden he remembered that Veronica's was among them. Supposing she were vexed at his giving it away!

"Have you got them?"

"Yes, thank you."

"Please don't eat the red one, it is not mine."

"Very well, I will not eat it."

"You seem to be of the better cla.s.s?"

"I am the parish priest of Glogova."

Gyuri, surprised, fell a step backward. How strange! The parish priest of Glogova! Could anything more unexpected have happened?

"I will get you out, your reverence; only wait a few minutes."

Back he ran to the carriage, which was waiting in the valley below. From this point the country round about looked like the inside of a poppy head cut in two. He did not go quite up to the carriage, but as soon as he was within speaking distance, shouted at the top of his voice to Janos:

"Take the harness off the horses, and bring it here to me; but first tie the horses to a tree."

Janos obeyed, grumbling and shaking his head. He could not make out what his master needed the harness for. He had once heard a wonderful tale of olden times, in which a certain Fatepo Gabor (tree-felling Gabor) had harnessed two bears to a cart in a forest. Could Gyuri be going to do the same?

But whatever it was wanted for, he did as his master told him, and followed him to the precipice. Here they fastened the various straps together, and let them down.

"Catch hold of them, your reverence," called out Gyuri, "and we will pull you up."

The priest did as Gyuri said, but even then it was hard work to get him up, for the ground kept giving way under his feet; however, at length they managed it.

But what a state he was in, covered with dirt and dust; on his face traces of the awful night he had pa.s.sed, sleepless and despairing, suffering the pangs of hunger. He hardly looked like a human being, and we (that is, my readers and I) who knew him years before would have looked in vain for the handsome, youthful face we remember. He was an elderly man now, with streaks of gray in his chestnut hair. Only the pleasant, amiable expression in his thin face was the same. He was surprised to see such a well-dressed young man before him--a rarity on the borders of the Glogova woods.

"How can I show you my grat.i.tude?" he exclaimed, with a certain pathos which reminded one strongly of the pulpit.

He took a few steps in the direction of the stream, intending to wash his hands and face, but he stumbled and felt a sharp pain in his back.

"I must have hurt myself last night, when I fell, I cannot walk very well."

"Lean on me, your reverence," said Gyuri. "Luckily my carriage is not far off. Janos, you go on cutting down that tree, while we walk slowly on."

They certainly did go slowly, for the priest could hardly lift his left foot, and frequently stumbled over the roots of trees. The carriage was some way off, so they had plenty of time for conversation, and every now and then they sat down to rest on the trunk of a fallen tree.

"Tell me, your reverence, how did you come to be in this part of the country late at night?"

And then the priest related how he had expected his sister home yesterday, who had gone to meet her governess. As time went on, and there were no signs of them, he began to feel anxious, and toward evening became so restless that he did as he had often done before, and walked to the borders of the little wood. He walked on and on, finding the way by keeping his eye on the hills on both sides, and listened for the sounds of wheels in the distance. All at once it occurred to him that they might have gone round by the Pribalszky mill, which was a longer but prettier way to Glogova, and Veronica, his sister, was fond of the shade there. Of course that was what they had done, and they must have arrived at home long ago while he was looking for them. So the best way was to turn back at once, and in order to get home as soon as possible, he unfortunately struck across a side path. In his haste he must have stepped too near to the edge of the precipice and had fallen in.

"My poor little sister!" he sighed. "How anxious she must be about me!"

Gyuri would have liked to turn the priest's sorrow into joy.

"We will soon rea.s.sure the young lady, and your reverence will feel all right after a night's rest. In two or three days it will seem like an amusing incident."

"But which might have ended in a horrible death if Divine Providence had not sent you to help me."