Lazy Tour of Two Idle Apprentices | Page 8

idea of reaching the 'point,' voted for
crossing the ravine, and going on round the slope of the mountain. Mr.
Goodchild, to the great relief of his fellow-traveller, took another view
of the case, and backed Mr. Idle's proposal to descend Carrock at once,
at any hazard--the rather as the running stream was a sure guide to
follow from the mountain to the valley. Accordingly, the party
descended to the rugged and stony banks of the stream; and here again
Thomas lost ground sadly, and fell far behind his travelling
companions. Not much more than six weeks had elapsed since he had
sprained one of his ankles, and he began to feel this same ankle getting
rather weak when he found himself among the stones that were strewn
about the running water. Goodchild and the landlord were getting
farther and farther ahead of him. He saw them cross the stream and
disappear round a projection on its banks. He heard them shout the
moment after as a signal that they had halted and were waiting for him.
Answering the shout, he mended his pace, crossed the stream where
they had crossed it, and was within one step of the opposite bank, when
his foot slipped on a wet stone, his weak ankle gave a twist outwards, a
hot, rending, tearing pain ran through it at the same moment, and down
fell the idlest of the Two Idle Apprentices, crippled in an instant.
The situation was now, in plain terms, one of absolute danger. There
lay Mr. Idle writhing with pain, there was the mist as thick as ever,
there was the landlord as completely lost as the strangers whom he was
conducting, and there was the compass broken in Goodchild's pocket.
To leave the wretched Thomas on unknown ground was plainly
impossible; and to get him to walk with a badly sprained ankle seemed
equally out of the question. However, Goodchild (brought back by his
cry for help) bandaged the ankle with a pocket-handkerchief, and
assisted by the landlord, raised the crippled Apprentice to his legs,
offered him a shoulder to lean on, and exhorted him for the sake of the
whole party to try if he could walk. Thomas, assisted by the shoulder

on one side, and a stick on the other, did try, with what pain and
difficulty those only can imagine who have sprained an ankle and have
had to tread on it afterwards. At a pace adapted to the feeble hobbling
of a newly-lamed man, the lost party moved on, perfectly ignorant
whether they were on the right side of the mountain or the wrong, and
equally uncertain how long Idle would be able to contend with the pain
in his ankle, before he gave in altogether and fell down again, unable to
stir another step.
Slowly and more slowly, as the clog of crippled Thomas weighed
heavily and more heavily on the march of the expedition, the lost
travellers followed the windings of the stream, till they came to a
faintly-marked cart-track, branching off nearly at right angles, to the
left. After a little consultation it was resolved to follow this dim vestige
of a road in the hope that it might lead to some farm or cottage, at
which Idle could be left in safety. It was now getting on towards the
afternoon, and it was fast becoming more than doubtful whether the
party, delayed in their progress as they now were, might not be
overtaken by the darkness before the right route was found, and be
condemned to pass the night on the mountain, without bit or drop to
comfort them, in their wet clothes.
The cart-track grew fainter and fainter, until it was washed out
altogether by another little stream, dark, turbulent, and rapid. The
landlord suggested, judging by the colour of the water, that it must be
flowing from one of the lead mines in the neighbourhood of Carrock;
and the travellers accordingly kept by the stream for a little while, in
the hope of possibly wandering towards help in that way. After walking
forward about two hundred yards, they came upon a mine indeed, but a
mine, exhausted and abandoned; a dismal, ruinous place, with nothing
but the wreck of its works and buildings left to speak for it. Here, there
were a few sheep feeding. The landlord looked at them earnestly,
thought he recognised the marks on them--then thought he did
not--finally gave up the sheep in despair--and walked on just as
ignorant of the whereabouts of the party as ever.
The march in the dark, literally as well as metaphorically in the dark,

had now been continued for three-quarters of an hour from the time
when the crippled Apprentice had met with his accident. Mr. Idle, with
all the will