George Manville Fenn

“ John Warren’s home was not an attractive one, being merely a hut built up of bricks of peat cut from the fen, furnished with a small window, a narrow door, and thickly thatched with reeds.
He heard them coming, and, as they approached, came and stood at the door, looking yellow, hollow of cheek, and shivering visibly.
“Here, John Warren, we’ve brought you a basket!” cried Dick. “How are you? I say, don’t you want the doctor?”
“Yah! what should I do with a doctor?” growled the man, scowling at all in turn.
“To do you good,” said Dick, laughing good-humouredly. ”

“ Hickathrift turned sharply to say something; but he could only utter a great gulp, and, turning away, he went a few yards, and leaned his head upon his arm against a willow tree, and in the bright glow of the burning building, whose gilded smoke rose up like some vast plume, they could see his shoulders heave, while his wife turned to the squire, and in a simple, homely fashion, kissed his hand.
The squire turned to stop Dick, but it was too late, for the lad had reached the wheelwright and laid his hand upon his shoulder.
“Hicky,” he said softly; “be a man!” ”

“ At last, though, just as Hickathrift was coming up good-temperedly to lend his aid, it seemed as if the donkey anticipated a tremendous blow from the long staff the wheelwright carried, for he made a plunge, Dick took tightly hold of the rein and gave it a drag, and Tom sat down on the great root, to follow Hickathrift’s example and roar with laughter, in which the men who were delving peat joined, while Dave and John Warren, men who took life in a very solemn manner, actually smiled. ”

“ Every now and then Tom uttered a sigh and Dick an impatient grunt, while at these movements Dave smiled but made no other sign, merely watching patiently. His eyes glittered, and their lids passed over them rapidly from time to time; otherwise he was as motionless as if carved out of old brown boxwood, an idea suggested by the colour of his skin.
“I say,” said Dick at last, as there were tokens in the distance of the day coming to an end with mist and fine rain, “I am getting so hungry! Got anything to eat, Dave?”
“When we’ve done, lads.”
“But haven’t we done? No birds will come to-day.” ”

“ Hi, Dave!”
Sound travels easily over water, and the decoy-man must have heard the hail, but he paid no heed, only kept on poling his punt along, thrusting down the long ash sapling, which the fen-men used as punt-pole, staff, and leaping-pole in turn; and then as the boat glided on, standing erect in her bows like some statue.
“Now, what a dried-up old yellow mummy he is!” cried Dick. “He can see us, but he’s pretending he can’t, on purpose to tease us. Look at that! He needn’t have gone behind that great reed patch. It’s to make us think he is going down to your place.” ”

“ It is very easy to make a straight line on a map, but a difficult feat to go direct from one spot to another in a bog.
Dick did not find it out, for he knew it of old, and so troubled himself very little as he plodded on under the hot afternoon sun, now on firm ground, now making some wide deviation so as to avoid a pool of black water. Then there were treacherous morass-like pieces of dark mire thinly covered with a scum-like growth, here green, there bleached in the June sunshine. ”

“ They recommenced their journey, wading on slowly over what seemed to be an interminable distance; but no sign of the dark village or of the island-farm in the fen appeared, and at last the water deepened so that a chilly feeling of despair began slowly to unnerve the squire and set him thinking that theirs was a hopeless case.
“Be ready, Dick,” he whispered, as, after a tremendous puff of wind which stopped them for the moment, he once more pressed on.
“Ready, father?” panted Dick. “What for?”
“We may have to swim directly. If it gets much deeper we cannot force our way.” ”

“ The companions ran along by the boggy field toward the farm buildings on the Toft, to seek out the old grey donkey, who was at that moment contemplatively munching some hay in a corner of the big yard, in whose stone walls, were traces of carving and pillar with groin and arch.
Now some people once started the idea that a donkey is a very stupid animal; and, like many more such theories, that one has been handed down to posterity, and believed in as a natural history fact, while donkey or ass has become a term of reproach for those not blessed with too much brain. ”

“ All this has made a man of me, and Tom Tallington is right; we must go and begin life somewhere else—where the world will not be so hard.”
“He will not be here for an hour yet,” he thought; so he employed himself very busily in putting together the few things he meant to take on his journey into that little-known place beyond the fen, where there were big towns, and people different to themselves; and as Dick packed his bundle he tried to keep back a weak tear or two which would gather as if to drop on the lavender-scented linen, that reminded him of her who had that night called him her boy. ”

“ Will you forgive me?”
“Of course I will, Mr Marston,” said Dick huskily, as he took the extended hand; “but I don’t think you ought to be so ready to think ill of me.”
“And I say the same, Mr Marston,” said Mrs Winthorpe. “My boy is wilful, and he may have been a bit mischievous, but he could not be guilty of such cowardly tricks as these.”
“No,” said Tom, with his mouth full of pork-pie; “of course he could not. Dick isn’t a coward!”
“I humbly apologise, Mrs Winthorpe,” said Marston, smiling, “and you must forgive me. A man who has been shot at has his temper spoiled.” ”

“ Many scores of fish were thrown overboard, some to turn up and float for a few minutes before they recovered their breath, as Tom called it, but for the most part they dived down at once, uninjured by what they had gone through, while their largeness fortunate friends were tossed into the basket—gilded side-striped perch, with now and then a fat-looking, small-eyed, small-scaled tench, brightly brazen at the sides, and looking as if cast in a soft kind of bronze. ”

“ He dragged the rope off, and the donkey lay perfectly motionless for a few moments, but not with his eyes closed, for he seemed to be glowering round.
“Is he dying, Hicky?” said Dick.
“Nay, lad; yow can’t kill an ass so easy. Seems aw reight. There!”
The last word was uttered as the donkey suddenly struggled up, gave himself a tremendous shake, till his ears rattled again as the bog water flew; and then stretching out his neck as if he were about to bray, he bared his teeth and made a fierce run at the wheelwright. ”

“ The boys leaped out while Dave fastened the punt to an old willow trunk, and, quite at home in the place, went on first to a rough-looking house nearly hidden among alders and willows, all of which showed traces of the flood having been right up, submerging everything to a depth of three to four feet.
“Hullo, Chip! Chip! Chip!” cried Tom, and the decoy-man’s little sharp-looking dog came bounding to them, to leap up, and fawn and whine, full of delight at seeing human faces again. ”

“ Both boys were flushed with excitement, and paid no heed to the grim smile upon their companion’s face—a smile which expanded into a grin as the line came in without the slightest resistance, and the lads looked at each other with blank dismay.
“Clap the line in the basket, Mester Dick,” said Dave; “he’s took the bait and gone.”
“Why, what a big one he must have been!” cried Tom.
“Ah, he would be a big one!” said Dave with a chuckle, as he urged the punt rapidly on; “them as gets away mostlings is.” ”

“ Then he dreamed that the sun was in his eyes as it went down in a rich glow far away over the wide expanse of water and rustling dried reed, where the starlings roosted and came and went in well-marshalled clouds, all moving as if carefully drilled to keep at an exact distance one from the other, ready to wheel and turn or swoop up or down with the greatest exactness in the world. ”

“ The squire went out to have his customary look round the farmstead before settling down for the night, and Dick followed him. The thrushes were piping; sounds of ducks feeding out in the fen came off the water, and here and there a great shadowy-looking bird could be seen flapping its way over the desolate waste, but everywhere there was the feeling of returning spring in the air, and the light was lingering well in the west, making the planet in the east look pale and wan. ”

“ Dick did it unconsciously. His eyes were fixed upon the struggling beast, but his ears were deaf to the shouts behind him. All he heard was the dismal bray enfeebled to a groan so full of despair that the lad threw the rope, and in throwing lost his balance, fell, and the next moment was struggling in the mire.
He tried to rise, but it was impossible, and as he fought and struggled for a few moments it was to find that the bog was growing thinner and that the patches about him, which looked firm, were beginning to sink. ”

“ Some un got smoking his pipe in one of they stables, and set it afire.”
“No, no; some one must have set fire to the stacks.”
“Nay!” cried Dave, staring in the lad’s face with his jaw dropped.
“Yes; that was it, and father thinks it was.”
“Not one o’ the men, lad; nay, not one o’ the men!” cried Dave.
“No, but some one who doesn’t like the drain made, and that it was done out of spite.”
Dave whisked up his pole and struck with it at the water, sending it flying in all directions, and then made a stab with it as if to strike some one in the chest and drive him under water. ”

“ That evening, after tea, the squire was seated in the orchard where the stone table had been built up under the big gnarled apple-tree, and the engineer was talking to him earnestly as Dick came up from going part of the way home with his companion.
“Shall I go away, father?” asked the lad, as he saw how serious his father looked.
“No, my boy, no. You are getting old enough now to think seriously; and this draining business will be more for you than for myself—better for your children than for you. Mr Marston has some more ugly news about the work.” ”

“ He battered cottage door after cottage door, Dick following his example, with the result that in their alarm the people came hurrying out like bees whose hive has been disturbed by a heavy blow.
There was no need to ask questions. Every man, while the women began to wail and cry, started for the Tallingtons’ farm; but they were brought up by a shout from the squire.
“What are you going to do, men?” he cried.
“The fire!”—“help!”—“water!”—rose in a confused babble.
“Back, every one of you, and get a bucket!” cried the squire. “You, Hickathrift, run into the wood-house and bring an axe.” ”

“ Look here, boys. If you want to find out anything like that, you mustn’t go splashing about among the reeds, or tug-slugging through the bog-holes, or he hears you coming, and goos and hides. You must sit down among the bushes, and wait and wait quiet, like a man does when he wants to get the ducks, and by-and-by him as did it comes along. Dessay I shall catch him one of these days, and if I do, and I’ve got my pole with me, I’ll throost him under water and half-drownd him.”
“Never mind about all that, Dave. What are you going to do to-day?” cried Dick. ”

“ Tom turned upon him savagely, but everyone in the boat was laughing, and his countenance relaxed, and he rose up and leaned over the side of the boat to wash his face, which a splash or two relieved from the pieces of bog and dead vegetation which adhered.
“I don’t mind,” he said. “Only you wouldn’t have found it a game if you’d been there.”
“Let’s get back quickly,” said Mr Marston, “or the boy will catch cold.”
“Oh, it won’t hurt me!” cried Tom. “Let’s catch the fish first. They never get cold.”
“Yes: let’s haul the net out first,” said Dick. “Tom won’t mind a ducking.” ”

“ Dick turned from him in horror, and would have hurried away, but Mr Marston caught his arm.
“Stop a moment, Dick Winthorpe,” he said. “I must have a few words with you before we part. It is plain enough that all these outrages are directed against the persons who are connected with the drainage scheme, and that their lives are in danger. Now I am one of these persons, and to gratify the petty revenge of a set of ignorant prejudiced people who cannot see the good of the work upon which we are engaged, I decline to have myself made a target. ”

“ All at once Dick started and his eyes grew more clear. It was not at the warning shout of the wheelwright, nor the yell uttered by the other men, but at the action of the sufferer in the bog. For, feeling himself surely and certainly sinking lower, the donkey made one more tremendous effort, extricating his fore-legs and beating the fluid peat with them till it grew thinner, and with neck outstretched and mouth open it sank more and more back, till head and legs only could be seen. ”