“I’m not the least afraid of catching cold,” said Johnny.  “Is he often like that, my lord?” And he made a motion with his head towards the bull.

“The gentlest creature alive; he’s like a lamb generally—­just like a lamb.  Perhaps he saw my red pocket-handkerchief.”  And Lord De Guest showed his friend that he carried such an article.  “But where should I have been if you hadn’t come up?”

“You’d have got to the gate, my lord.”

“Yes; with my feet foremost, and four men carrying me.  I’m very thirsty.  You don’t happen to carry a flask, do you?”

“No, my lord, I don’t.”

“Then we’ll make the best of our way home, and have a glass of wine there.”  And on this occasion his lordship intended that his offer should be accepted.

CHAPTER XXII

Lord De Guest at Home

The earl and John Eames, after their escape from the bull, walked up to the Manor House together.  “You can write a note to your mother, and I’ll send it by one of the boys,” said the earl.  This was his lordship’s answer when Eames declined to dine at the Manor House, because he would be expected home.

“But I’m so badly off for clothes, my lord,” pleaded Johnny.  “I tore my trousers in the hedge.”

“There will be nobody there beside us two and Dr Crofts.  The doctor will forgive you when he hears the story; and as for me, I didn’t care if you hadn’t a stitch to your back.  You’ll have company back to Guestwick, so come along.”

Eames had no further excuse to offer, and therefore did as he was bidden.  He was by no means as much at home with the earl now as during those minutes of the combat.  He would rather have gone home, being somewhat ashamed of being seen in his present tattered and bare-headed condition by the servants of the house; and moreover, his mind would sometimes revert to the scene which had taken place in the garden at Allington.  But he found himself obliged to obey the earl, and so he walked on with him through the woods.

The earl did not say very much, being tired and somewhat thoughtful.  In what little he did say he seemed to be specially hurt by the ingratitude of the bull towards himself.  “I never teased him, or annoyed him in any way.”

“I suppose they are dangerous beasts?” said Eames.

“Not a bit of it, if they’re properly treated.  It must have been my handkerchief, I suppose.  I remember that I did blow my nose.”

He hardly said a word in the way of thanks to his assistant.  “Where should I have been if you had not come to me?” he had exclaimed immediately after his deliverance; but having said that he didn’t think it necessary to say much more to Eames.  But he made himself very pleasant, and by the time he had reached the house his companion was almost glad that he had been forced to dine at the Manor House.  “And now we’ll have a drink,” said the earl.  “I don’t know how you feel, but I never was so thirsty in my life.”