Adventure and adventurers -- Juvenile fiction; Christian life -- Juvenile fiction; England -- Juvenile fiction
Where was he? Not on the hard floor of Pummy’s cage, but on something
much harder--like iron. Was he in the wagon in which they carried the
things for setting up the show? Something had happened to him, and his
mother was taking him with her! But in that case he would be lying
softer! _She_ would not have given him a bed so full of aches!
What would they think at the bank? What would little Ann think if he
came to her no more?
He could not be in a caravan; the motion was much too smooth and
pleasant for that!
He put his hand to his face: what was it wet on his cheek? It did not
feel nice; it felt like blood! Had he had a blow on the head? Was that
what gave him this headache? He felt his head all over, but could find
no hurt.
Why was he lying like a log, wondering and wondering, instead of
getting up and seeing what it all meant? It must be the darkness and
the headache that kept him down! The place was very close! He
_must_ get out of it!
He tried to get on his feet, but as he rose, his head struck
something, and he dropped back. He got again on his knees and groped
about. On all sides he was closed in. But he was not shut in a dungeon
of stone. He seemed to be in a great wooden box--small enough to be a
box, much too large for a coffin. Could it be one of the oubliettes in
the roof of the doge’s palace at Venice? He laughed at the idea, for
the motion continued, the gentle earthquake that seemed trying to rock
him to sleep: the doge’s palace could hardly be afloat on the grand
canal!
What could it all mean? What would little Ann do without him? She
would not cry: she never cried--at least, he had never seen her cry!
but that would not make it easier for her!
What had become of Abdiel? Had Glum Gunn got him? Then the wet on his
face was Abdiel’s blood--shed in his defence, perhaps, when his
enemies were taking him away!
Fears and anxieties, such as he had never known before, began to crowd
upon him--not for himself; he was not made to think of himself, either
first or second. Something dreadful might be going on that he could
not prevent! He had never been so miserable. It was high time to do
something--to ask the great one somewhere, he did not know where, who
could somehow, he did not know how, hear the thoughts that were not
words, to do what ought to be done for little Ann, and Abdiel, and
Pummy! He prayed in his heart, lay still, and fell fast asleep.
He came to himself again, in the act of drawing a deep breath of cool,
delicious air. He was no longer shut in the dark, stifling box. He was
coming alive! A comforting wind blew all about him. It was like a live
thing putting its own life into him. But his eyelids were heavy; he
was unable to open them.
All at once they opened of themselves.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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