of corse even a kid can get a good idea sometimes, and maine, who i was fagging for, said afterwards that the idea was alright. whether young bailey or me thort of it first i don’t know, but maine lent me a book about coarseers and buckeneers and such like people, and he said it was a great life, though not much followed in present times. he was no good for a coarseer himself, becorse the sea always made him dredfully bad, and, besides, he was going to be a bushranger some day, being an australian and well up in it. but he said that drake and raleigh and many other men in our english history were buckeneers of the dedliest sort and had made england what it was; so me and bailey thort a lot about it and wished a good deal we could begin that sort of life. bailey said that in the books he’d 227read, if a boy began young, he was generally a super cargo and went on getting grater and grater slowly; but i thort boys began as cabin-boys and got grater very quickly by resquing people. but bailey said that was only in books, and that nobody got on quickly at sea owing to the compettitishun. he did not much think there were any buckeneers left, but maine said there were, cheefly off the coast of africa, and that daring and dedly deeds were done in the mediterranan to this day. he said the lawlessness there was awful, and that nobodi knew what went on along the north side of africa in little bays and inletts there not marked on maps.
when bailey herd that, he took more interest in it and wished he had been born the son of a pirit insted of a doctor, because he said we should have come eesily to it if our fathers had been in that corse of life; but when i told maine, he sed that the best and most splendid pirits had had to overcome grate dificultees in their youth, and that it was the pirit who began as a meer boy at school who often made the gratest name.
bailey sed he was a pirit at heart, and i 228sed i was to; but not untell we red a butiful book by stevenson could we see any way to be one reelly. then we saw that we must go away from merivale in secret--in fact, we must fly; and bailey sed it would have to be by night to avoid capture, and maine sed it was so. but it was a tremendous thing to do, and i asked bailey about his mother, and bailey sed his mother would blub a good deal at first, but she would live to be proud of him when his name was wringing through england. and i felt the same in a way, becorse, though i have got no mother to blub, i have got an uncle, who is my gardian, and he is a lawer and a conservitive who has tried to get into parleyment and failed.
then me and bailey talked it out when chaps were asleep in our dormitory, and the thing was what we should reelly and truly be, becorse there were coarseers and buckeneers and pirits, and they all had their own pekuliar ways. so we asked maine which was best, and he sed “buckeneers.” he didn’t seem to know exacktly what a coarseer was; but he told us all about pirits, and 229he sed they kill womin and childrin, and bailey said he’d rather be a docter, like his father, than do that, and i said the same. but a buckeneer is very diferent, being like raleigh and drake; and a buckeneer may have his name wringing through england, but a pirit never has, being rather a beast reelly. maine sed it was like this: a pirit always thinks of himself, and nobody else; but the best sort of buckeneer thinks of himself, of corse, but thinks of his country to; and after he has replennished his coffers he makes his soverein a present of islands, and so on, which are gennerally called after him, so that his name may never be forgottun. and bailey sed that was the sort he wanted to be, and i sed so to.
we thanked maine a good deal, and he sed it was a big idea for such kids as us to get, and hoped we were made of the right stuff, and promised not to say a word to a soul. and we finally desided to try it, and bailey sed we must have a plan of ackshun; so we made one.
he said we must run away and work gradully by night to the coast and go to 230plymouth, and get into the docks, and find a ship bound for the north coste of africa. i asked him what next, and he sed, very truly, that that was enuff to begin with, and that by the time we had done that much manny adventures would have fallen to our lot, and we might alredy be in the way to become buckeneers. and i sed i hoped we should make freends at sea; but he sed the fewer freends we made the better buckeneers we should probbably be, because it is not a life where you can make freends safely. in fact, no reel buckeneer would trust his own brother a yard. and i sed that we must trust one annuther at any rate. and bailey sed, as far as that went, he supposed we must; but he sed it relluctantly.
the thing was then to save up for the diferent weppons. maine sed we shouldn’t want arms, and that money was all we should require till we got down south; but bailey felt sure we must at leest have pistells, becorse in books the man armed to the teath is never mollested if people know, but the unarmed man often looses his life for want of a weppon. we had one shilling 231pocket-money a week each, and bailey getting a birthday, very fortunately, made a whole pound by it after we had been saving for three weeks. so between us we suddinly had one pound six shillings, and bailey sed it was share and share alike for the present, and always would be unless some dedly hatred sprang up between us. and i sed it never would; but he sed it might, and if it did, it would probabbly be about a girl if books were true. and i larfed, becorse we both have a grate contemp for all girls.
well, things went alright, and on a half-holiday we managed to get to merivale and buy pistells. they were five shillings and sixpence each, and the man didn’t seem to much like selling them; but we got them, and amunition--fifty rounds each. and bailey sed that would be enough. maine sed they were very good pistells for close work, but advised us never to use them unless in soar straights. and we sed we wouldn’t.
it was the day of the menaggeree at merivale that me and bailey finally took the grate step of going. we had collected 232a lot of food, and studdied geography so as to get to plymouth, and we arranged that we should travel by night and hide by day in the hart of impennetrable woods, which we did. after the menaggeree, at a certain point on the way home, we slipped it round a corner, and thompson didn’t see us, and in a breef time we were at the edge of merivale woods, free.
“to-night,” bailey sed, “we will get across this forest and do eight or ten miles along the high-road, and so reach oakshott woods at dawn. they are on the edge of the moor and quite impennetrable.”
so we got well into merivale woods first and made a lair of braken under a fir-tree. and we cut off some of the fir-tree bark and licked the sap, which is very nourishing and feeding, because we wanted to save our food as much as possible. but we had each a cold sorsage and a drink of water. and then night came on, and i felt, for the first time, that we had done a tremendous deed.
“we’re fairly started,” i sed to bailey. “it’s just call over at merivale now.”
233and he sed, “yes; if the fellows in the upper third could only see us!”
i sed, “it’s a small begenning.”
and he sed, “it is; but if things go rite, and we are made of the propper stuff for buckeneers, we’ll make england wring yet.”
then it began to rain rather hard, and i found that a wood isn’t really a dry place by night if it rains, and bailey lighted a match, and sed it was nearly nine.
“that’ll mean ‘lights out’ at merivale,” he sed; “but for us it’ll mean the begenning of the night.”
i sneazed just about then, becorse water from the fir-tree was dropping down my neck rather fast, and bailey sed if i was going to get annything the matter with me i had better go back at once, becorse no buckeneer ever had a cold, being men of steel and iron. and i sed a sneaze was nothing.
then we started very corsiously through the wood, and bailey cocked his pistell, and i asked him kindly to walk in front, feeling a curious sensashun when he walked behind 234me with his pistell cocked. i told him, and he sed it was fear, but i sed it was kaution.
sometimes he whispered, “cave!” and we sunk down and got fritefully dripping in the wet, but nothing happened, and we were getting well on through the wood when bailey sed, “cave!” again, and this time, when we had sunk down, we distinkly herd a footstep, and bailey sed it was our first adventure, and i sed i wished it had come by daylight, becorse it wants grate practise to face adventures in the dark at first.
anyway the noise got nearer and got louder, and bailey and me both cocked our pistells, and he sed, “reserve your fire to close range,” and i sed, “yes.” then he sed, “i see the thing. it’s bigger than a beast you would expect in an english wood”; and i sed, “i have got a sort of fealing it is something out of the menaggerie”; and he sed, “then it will be a real adventure, and i wish we were up trees.”
but it was to late, and something went quite close. i sore a red spark, and bailey sed, “fire!” which we did. at leest my 235pistell went off with fereful effect; but bailey’s didn’t, and he sed afterwards that he’d make the pistell man biterly rew the day he sold him a treecherous weppon.
but after i fired we herd a human voice, and it sed, “hell!” then it sed other fearful words, which bailey sed we ought to remember because they were buckeneering words curiously enuff. and then the man dashed towards us, which showed i had not slain him, or even hit him in a vittle spot; and we fled, and soon we found that we had distanced him, though we had a squeek for it.
“he was a keeper,” sed bailey, “and he will think we were poachers, and raise a hue-and-cry. we must keep on and get into oakshott woods, or we shall very likely have to yield to supereer force.”
after this eksitement i got a curious feeling in my stomach, and telling bailey, he sed it was either hunger or fear. and i sed it was hunger; but bailey sed, seeing what a hevy meal we had made with sorsage and bred and turpentine juice only two hours before, that it was fear.
236i sed if he thought so he’d better go on without me, as i hadn’t taken to this corse of life to be cheeked by him. and he sed he was leeder of the gang, and i was the gang, and the first thing was to lern to obey orders. and then i got rather cross with bailey, and asked him who he thort he was to give me orders, and reminded him my pistell could go off anyway, which was more than his could. this worried him a good deal, becorse, of course, the man whose pistell went off had the best of it. then he sed that it was no good having a quarrel between ourselves while we were not yet out of danger. he also said that he beleeved we might venture to take one hour’s sleep to strengthen us before getting on to oakshott, and i sed, “yes,” but thought that one of us ought to watch while the other slept. bailey said he would watch first, and he sed also that we might get to the woodman’s hut in the middle of merivale woods if we kept on past a ded fir-tree with its stem white, becorse all the bark was off, which we did, becorse the moon was now shining very britely, and the rain had 237stopped. the cold was also friteful, and my teath chattered once or twice, but i broke sticks and things to attract bailey, becorse if he had herd my teath he would have sed it was fear again.
once a bough jumped back and hit bailey a friteful smack in the face, and i was glad, and he sed he rather thort his eye was done for; and he sed it didn’t much matter if it was, so long as he had one good eye to see with, becorse most buckeneers lost an eye sooner or later, though generally with a stroak from a cutlass.
we found the hut, and there was some dry fern in it, and we lighted a candle-end we had, and took off our boots, and wrung out our socks, and each had half a currant dumpling. then bailey looked at his watch and sed i might turn in for half an hour. then he would wake me and turn in for half an hour himself. he went on gard with another candle-end, and advised me to draw my pistell and sleep with it cocked under my head. but i sed i never herd of such a dangerous thing as that being done, and kept my pistell reddy cocked near my 238hand. i didn’t fall off to sleep, as i expected, owing to anxiaty as to our fate, but i shut my eyes and thort a good deal, and after my eyes had been shut some time i opened one a little and was grately surprised to see bailey coming towards me steelthily. he had his pistell in his hand, and first i had a horrible thort he wanted to kill me, so that he mite have all our food and money; and then i felt sure he was coming to change pistells, so that he might have the one that went off. this made me get in a friteful wax with him, becorse i saw he was very unreliable and not reely as much of a chum as i had thort. so i waited untill i saw him stretch out his hand for my pistell, and then i leapt at his throat in a very ferocious way, that much surprized him. i also sed “hell!” like the keeper had.
it must have been a solumn site by the lite of the candle-end when we began to fight tooth-and-nail for the pistell which could go off. we were both desperet, and it was reelly a battle to deside which should be the leeder of the enterprise and which should be merely the gang. then, while we 239wresled and straned every nerve, a curious thing happened, for we fell against the candle-end, stuck on the top of a stick, and the candle-end fell against the side of the hut, and the hut, being made of wood, with walls of dried heather, was very inflameable and cort fire almost immediately.
and then bailey sed we must aggree to settle our dispute later on and fli at once. so we each took our own pistell, and were just going to leave the scene, when, to our grate horror, we herd voices, and among them the voices of browne and mainwaring, who were, of corse, house-masters at merivale.
exhorsted though we were, me and bailey made a terrible effort to escape, and i think we mite have done so even then, but, oweing to the moon and two other men who were with mainwaring, we could not reach an impennetrable part of the wood, and finally mainwaring cort me, and a man cort bailey, and they dragged us into the light of the blazing ruins of the hut, and we found out that browne and mainwaring had come after us, like beestly blood-hounds, and had 240met the keeper, who told them he had been fired upon, and then the unfortunate burning of the hut had directed their steps towards us. and it’s a lesson in a way, showing what risks it is for buckeneers to fall out among themselves at kritikal moments.
of corse we had to walk back merely as prisoners of mainwaring, but bailey told me not to answer questions and rather let them cut our tongues out than know the truth. so they didn’t get anything out of us, and when we got back, at two o’clock in the morning, dunston was up to meet us; and by that time, what with cold and bruises and the failure of the skeem, i wasn’t equal to defying dunston, and merely sed we wanted to change our corse of life for something different, and had started to do so. and i also sed that burning the hut was an axsident which might have happened to anybody. and bailey sed the same.
then doctor dunston sent for the matron, and we had brandy-and-water and a hot bath, which was very refreshing to me, but bailey sed biterly when he was in it that he 241had thought that morning never to have had a bath again. he also sed we should be put in sepperate bedrooms that night, and that if either of us got an opportunety to eskape, it was his duty to reskue the other. but i sed i didn’t want to eskape, being fritefully sleepy and exhorsted, and i sed that if he eskaped he needn’t trubble to reskue me, becorse if i returned again to being a buckeneer it certinnly wouldn’t be with him.
i didn’t see any more of him until next day; then we were taken in like prisinners of war before the school, and doctor dunston lecktured upon us as if we were beests of pray, and he sed that a corse of falty literatuer was to blame for our running away, and sed that the school liberary must be reformed. but he never knew the grate truth, becorse he sed we were onley running away to sea becorse of the fascenation of the ocean to the british karacter, when reely it was to be buckeneers and the terrer of the mediterranan.
maine showed us all the points we had done wrong afterwards, and he sed the way 242we had fought for the best pistell was very interesting to him and a grate warning not to trust in your fellow-creetures. and, after he had lecktured upon us, doctor dunston flogged me and bailey in publick, which showed the stuff we were made of, becorse, though bailey gets very red when flogged, he has never been known to shedd a tear; and i get very white, curiously enuff; but i have never been known to shedd a tear either.
