disappeared again.
“Oh!” I cried. “What shall I do?” Looking wildly about, my eyes fell on a tree branch of considerable size lying some distance off beside its parent tree. “Help me, help me,” I screamed as I began to drag the heavy, cumbersome thing towards the mine shaft. “Oh, will no one come?”
No one did come, for they were out of earshot. The baleful shriek of the stone circle drowned out my pleas for assistance; the old gods were seemingly hungry for a blood sacrifice. At last I managed to half-pull and half-roll the limb to the edge. I had learned by Mr. Fredericks’s mistake and did not approach closer than six feet until I had pushed the tree limb, first with my hands and then by sitting on the ground and kicking with my feet, into a position athwart the mine. Supported on two banks, it spanned a portion of the water.
A hand appeared above the water and grasped the branch. A head surfaced—it was Mr. Fredericks’s—and then another. Alexander! Both sputtered and coughed; both were indubitably alive.
“Fido!” I cried in despair. “My Fido!”
But my cry of grief was unnecessary, for there he was, crawling up onto Mr. Fredericks’s shoulder, attempting to bark with his lungs half full of water. Weeping with joy I fell to my knees.
Still, work was yet to be done and no one to do it but myself. From a supine position and placing most of my weight on the branch, I slowly and cautiously crept out until I could touch the sodden group. Fido got his claws on the branch and sprang up onto my back and hence onto the shore. He had pushed off with such vigor from Mr. Fredericks’s shoulder, however, that the remaining two were submerged again, tho’ briefly.
Coughing (Alexander) and cursing (Mr. Fredericks), they reappeared and, after catching their breaths, Mr. Fredericks proposed handing Alexander off to me. I reached out my arms for him. By rolling painfully on my side over the tree bough with the child in my arms, I at length deposited him on firm earth.
Alexander vomited up a good deal of water, and afterward we lay, panting, for some long moments.
“My apologies for interrupting your meditations, madam, but I am still awaiting my extraction from this pit, where, I might add, I find myself as a result of going to the rescue of your brother and dog.”
Even while behaving like a hero, Mr. Fredericks’s manners were detestable.
I gripped Alexander to my breast again and rolled some few feet further away from the mine shaft. This time he was recovered enough to complain that I was crushing him, but I paid no mind. I sat him down on a boulder and fetched his clothing.
“Put those on,” I ordered. “And if you, or Fido,” I fixed them both with my eye, “stir so much as an inch until I tell you that you may do so, you will be instantly turned to stone.”
I then turned my attention back to Mr. Fredericks.
“How long can you hold on, sir?” I enquired. “I fear I have not the strength to pull you out unaided.”
A loud, aggrieved sigh could be heard issuing from the pool.
“Oh, I imagine I can hang on as long as need be. Why you couldn’t pay enough attention to the lad to prevent this from occurring, I don’t know. However, if you will take these boots from me—they are confoundedly heavy. I feel as though they’re dragging me down to Hades.”
There came a great deal of thrashing around in the water as Mr. Fredericks struggled to get his boots off one-handed. I soon found myself receiving first one and then another large, waterlogged Hessian.
“Be careful of those,” Mr. Fredericks instructed, having thrust the second boot square into my face. “They cost a monstrous sum of money. No, don’t throw them, you’ll scratch the leather.”
“Mr. Fredericks, I cannot imagine how you can worry about scratching the leather on a pair of boots at a moment like this!”
“I tell you they were dashed expensive,” he said. “Boring brought me to this little shop on Bond
“Oh!” I cried. “What shall I do?” Looking wildly about, my eyes fell on a tree branch of considerable size lying some distance off beside its parent tree. “Help me, help me,” I screamed as I began to drag the heavy, cumbersome thing towards the mine shaft. “Oh, will no one come?”
No one did come, for they were out of earshot. The baleful shriek of the stone circle drowned out my pleas for assistance; the old gods were seemingly hungry for a blood sacrifice. At last I managed to half-pull and half-roll the limb to the edge. I had learned by Mr. Fredericks’s mistake and did not approach closer than six feet until I had pushed the tree limb, first with my hands and then by sitting on the ground and kicking with my feet, into a position athwart the mine. Supported on two banks, it spanned a portion of the water.
A hand appeared above the water and grasped the branch. A head surfaced—it was Mr. Fredericks’s—and then another. Alexander! Both sputtered and coughed; both were indubitably alive.
“Fido!” I cried in despair. “My Fido!”
But my cry of grief was unnecessary, for there he was, crawling up onto Mr. Fredericks’s shoulder, attempting to bark with his lungs half full of water. Weeping with joy I fell to my knees.
Still, work was yet to be done and no one to do it but myself. From a supine position and placing most of my weight on the branch, I slowly and cautiously crept out until I could touch the sodden group. Fido got his claws on the branch and sprang up onto my back and hence onto the shore. He had pushed off with such vigor from Mr. Fredericks’s shoulder, however, that the remaining two were submerged again, tho’ briefly.
Coughing (Alexander) and cursing (Mr. Fredericks), they reappeared and, after catching their breaths, Mr. Fredericks proposed handing Alexander off to me. I reached out my arms for him. By rolling painfully on my side over the tree bough with the child in my arms, I at length deposited him on firm earth.
Alexander vomited up a good deal of water, and afterward we lay, panting, for some long moments.
“My apologies for interrupting your meditations, madam, but I am still awaiting my extraction from this pit, where, I might add, I find myself as a result of going to the rescue of your brother and dog.”
Even while behaving like a hero, Mr. Fredericks’s manners were detestable.
I gripped Alexander to my breast again and rolled some few feet further away from the mine shaft. This time he was recovered enough to complain that I was crushing him, but I paid no mind. I sat him down on a boulder and fetched his clothing.
“Put those on,” I ordered. “And if you, or Fido,” I fixed them both with my eye, “stir so much as an inch until I tell you that you may do so, you will be instantly turned to stone.”
I then turned my attention back to Mr. Fredericks.
“How long can you hold on, sir?” I enquired. “I fear I have not the strength to pull you out unaided.”
A loud, aggrieved sigh could be heard issuing from the pool.
“Oh, I imagine I can hang on as long as need be. Why you couldn’t pay enough attention to the lad to prevent this from occurring, I don’t know. However, if you will take these boots from me—they are confoundedly heavy. I feel as though they’re dragging me down to Hades.”
There came a great deal of thrashing around in the water as Mr. Fredericks struggled to get his boots off one-handed. I soon found myself receiving first one and then another large, waterlogged Hessian.
“Be careful of those,” Mr. Fredericks instructed, having thrust the second boot square into my face. “They cost a monstrous sum of money. No, don’t throw them, you’ll scratch the leather.”
“Mr. Fredericks, I cannot imagine how you can worry about scratching the leather on a pair of boots at a moment like this!”
“I tell you they were dashed expensive,” he said. “Boring brought me to this little shop on Bond
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