oo
Hon Rosie fell back, whooping hysterically. "Whoohah-ahahooh! Oh, I say, chaps, that was a real old hotfoot!"
oo
Down in the orchard, Gabriel Quill and Burgo Mole sat looking at each other.
"Yurr, they vermints baint chucken no more foir at us'n's?"
"Nor they aren't neither, Burgo. Hoho, your eyes are all red 'n' smoky!"
"Hurrhurr, talk about 'eeself, Gabe'l Quill. You'm gotten a sutty nose!"
Brother Hubert wandered wearily across. "Whew! Just look at the state of my pawsscorched, soiled and grubby. A fine state of affairs for an Abbey Recorder, I must say."
"Ho urr, scruffy old Hoobit. No more foirs now tho', zurr."
"Indeed. It's thanks to those hares splendid creatures."
"I'll drink t' that, Hubert. What d'you say we go to my cellars and have a small drop to drive away the heat an' dust of our night's work?"
"Burr, oi'm with 'ee, Gabe'l. Tis a tumble thurst come on oi."
"Marvelous idea. Count me in, Mr. Quill!"
The three old friends trundled off paw in paw.
oo
As Abbot Bernard watched them go, he felt Simeon pulling on his sleeve.
"I think there should be room for two more in Gabriel's cellar, Bernard."
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"Yes, they'll manage to squeeze us in somehow, -imeon."
Simeon.
Inside the Abbey, young Cockleburr had been given charge of Dibbuns' breakfast time. He mopped his brow as he chased Grubb about with a bowl of corn pudding.
"Oh, wanderin' woodpigeons, will you come an' eat this breakfast, you dreadful scoundrel!"
Grubb hid beneath the table with Bagg and Runn. "Nay, oi baint eaten no brekkist. Us'n's a-goen out t' play."
"Sister Serena said there's no more fire an' we can go out."
"I don't like corn pudden, wanna play inna orchard!"
"Fidgetin' frogs. Mother Mellus told me nobeast goes out without eatin' breakfast first, 'specially Dibbuns."
"Ho well, do 'ee sling it unner yurr an' us'n's will force et daown."
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28
Mariel and Dandin dropped silently to the bottom of the pool.
Dandin, with sword in one paw and weightstone in the other, immediately turned to face the lobster's den. He could see the big crustaceanit watched them as it lay unmoving, one great claw hanging in front, the other by its side. The lobster looked peaceful enough for the moment. Still, Dandin did not relax his vigilance for a single instant.
Mariel let go of her weightstone and tried to dislodge the tiny metal swallow, but it was lodged firmly between two slabs of rock. She chose the smaller of the two slabs and began wresting it out of the way. By this time both she and Dandin were longing for a breath of air. Struggling with the cumbersome rock, Mariel could feel the blood pounding round inside her head. She set her footpaws on the large rock and gave the smaller rock a mighty shove. Without warning it shifted, giving off an odd crumbling noise underwater. Clouds of silt and sand boiled up as it toppled to one side.
Disturbed by the noise and movement in its pool, the huge blue-black lobster came scurrying out. Dandin barely saw the monster come; he backed water, thrusting the swordpoint at its eyes. Mariel snatched at the
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swallow, but it slipped from her grasp and slid into the sand. In the confusion of disturbed cloudy water she realized that she had lost the precious object. Now the lobster had Dandin trapped up against the rock. Thinking quickly, he pushed forward, landing in between its claws. It was a clever move. He was stuck up against the hideous face of the creature, too close for it to use its cumbersome oversized nippers; they clacked across his back like giant shears, unable to bite him. But it was like being caught in a vise. Dandin was held fast in the embrace of the heavy-shelled joints. The sword was squeezed from his grip and fell to the bottom of the pool.
He shouted aloud in desperation, but the sound was only a boggle of noise, lost amid the air bubbles that escaped from his mouth. However, Mariel had heard it. Forgetting the swallow, she turned to the aid of her friend. Lungs bursting, she scrabbled about on the pool bed until her paw came in contact with the sword.
The lobster doubled up to rid itself of Dandin, and the hefty fanlike tail caught Mariel a swipe as she tried to get close. The air was now forcing itself out of the mousemaid's mouth in huge bubbles. She wondered why her friends on the surface were not attempting to haul them up. Her limbs felt like lead and her head was ringing. Blindly she struck out with the sword and pierced the lobster's back, down near its tail. Infuriated, the lobster turned, lashing out with one claw.
Instantly freed, Dandin felt himself being hauled quickly to the surface. The lobster locked on to the sword blade with its viselike pincer. Mariel felt herself being hauled up on the rope. She was now upside-down in the water, clinging grimly on to the sword, the lobster below her hanging on to the sword blade with one claw whilst trying to get at her with the other.
A large rock came splashing down onto the lobster, followed by another and another. It let go of the sword as it was battered to the pool bottom by yet more rocks.
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Mariel was pulled clear of the pool with a whoosh of spray and a rush of air, and she fell upon the sand, spitting out water and gasping for breath.
Tarquin sat her up, pushing her back and forward. Mariel's head was rising and falling as it nearly touched her footpaws, and the water gushed out as she coughed.
"Come on, old gel. Just like the village pump, wot!" Tarquin chuckled cheerfully.
Dandin was in slightly better shape, having been pulled out marginally sooner than Mariel. He sat with his back against the rocks in the sunlight as Durry fussed about him.
"Any more water t' come up, matey?"
"No, thank you, Durry. Just let me rest. I'll be all right."
They sat Mariel beside him. She wiggled a paw in her ear.
"Well, what about that little adventure, eh, and all for nothing!"
Bobbo squatted in front of her, smiling behind his glasses. "Well now, why do you say all for nothing, young mouse?"
Mariel scuffed the sand irritably. "Because we never got the swallow."
Bobbo pressed something into her paw. "Then tell me what this is!"
Mariel stared at the tiny metal bird she was holding. "But how . . . ?"
Bobbo chuckled and patted her paw. "It was Firl. I told you that the newts are very good at the swimming. He went in and got it while you and your friend Dandin battled with the creature. We could not risk pulling you up, you see. The water was too cloudy and disturbed, and we could not see what was happening. Then Firl dived in and I myself decided you needed air or you would both drown, so I said, 'Pull up, whatever is happening. Pull!' "
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Durry swelled his chest out proudly. "The rocks were my idea, missy. Me 'n' Tarquin hurtled 'em at the beas-tie as we pulled you out."
Mariel got slowly up and hugged them one by one. "What good friends you are, all of you."
Later, in the cave, they took a closer look at the little swallow. It was made of some shining blue metal which gave off strange glints in the sunlight, shaped like a fan-tailed swallow, wings spread wide as if it were flying. Dandin noticed a small hole bored through one of the wingtips.
"See this hole what d'you suppose it's for?"
"I don't know, maybe for something to fit into it."