Chapter XIII: Part 13

We didn’t get to Upton Overy till ten o’clock at night, and I was so jolly excited, and so fearfully proud of being with the Captain, that I couldn’t feel tired; and when we ran into the station they fired off fog signals, and there were flags all over the place. Old Puddock, the station master, opened the door, and Mrs. Puddock "bobbed" behind him, and I caught sight of my mother under a lamp, and forgot all about my bags and parcels, and rushed across to her.

"Blucher" nearly went off his head with joy, and chased Mr. Puddock’s cat till it turned round and faced him, and then he forgot about it. I do believe that everyone in Upton Overy was waiting outside, and there were more flags in the streets, and a triumphal arch, and Mrs. Lester was waiting in one of the carriages. Everyone was cheering like mad, and the fishermen had taken the horses out of the carriage and were going to pull the Captain up to The House.

My mother and I slipped away—I’d asked Puddock to send up my things—and got home, and it was grand being back again, though my father was very worried, and hardly cheered up when he saw me. My mother had told me how miserable he was, and that I must be very quiet and not talk too much or too loudly, so that rather took the gilt off the gingerbread.

Even when I showed them the white ensign with the bullet holes in it, and told them all about it, he only said that it was a shame to send a child like me away on such a job, and said it was time to be going to bed, and he was thankful that I wasn’t a cripple for life after having my arm smashed.

"He’ll be all right to-morrow," my mother told me, and I showed her my arm, and the places where the bullet had gone through it, and moved my fingers, and picked up heavy things to show her that it really was quite strong, and that I should not have to leave the Service and simply stay at home and be an expense to them, and we just hugged each other, and I went to bed presently.

I was up again very early in the morning, and ran down to the beach to see all my chums in the fishing boats, and they "bucked me up" splendidly. They all crowded round, and had heard about everything—everything—and they told me all the news, and that Ned the Poacher was in prison, and his wife and children had gone to the workhouse, and that old Gurridge was coming back at the end of the week and wanted to see me, and I slipped back in time to prevent my mother worrying about where I’d gone, and after breakfast I rushed up to The House.

The Captain was there in his old shooting suit, with a gun over his shoulder, and "Blucher" was careering all over the flower beds, and not stopping when he was told to. "Umph! I’ll shoot that dog if he don’t come to heel when I tell him," the Captain grunted, and I ran off and managed to catch him. I knew jolly well that old "Blucher" might have destroyed every flower in the place if he wanted to, for anything the Captain would have done to him.

"What became of you, Dick, last night? The missus waited for you and your mother till we couldn’t wait any longer. Umph! Must go down and see her and the Parson after lunch."

I very much hoped that he wouldn’t, because I was afraid my father would say something to him about sending me away in charge of that junk. I told him about Ned the Poacher and his wife.

"Umph! Serve the beggar right; we’ll see what we can do about his missus and the kids. Umph! Go in and see the girls, and then come along with ’Blucher’. I’m going after rabbits."

I’d brought a Chinese embroidered skirt for Nan, and she simply loved it, and I couldn’t get away, and didn’t want to, and presently the Captain began bellowing "that he couldn’t wait till Domesday", and Nan said, "I’ll come too", and we raced each other round to the stables to get "Blucher’s" chain, and off we went.

It was awfully ripping, and "Blucher" gave us no end of a time, pulling us about whenever the Captain fired his gun.

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[Transcriber’s note: the source book had running headings on its
odd-numbered pages. In this etext, those headings have been
combined into an introductory paragraph at the start of each
chapter.]