"It answered; it brought the right fellows to the front."
"And shut the wrong fellows hopelessly out?"
"I hope not. Many of them are only fools. They think it"s plucky to defy the powers that be, and quite forget it"s pluckier to defy themselves."
"That"s a neat way of putting it, old man!"
"There"s a big bite this time!" said the Hermit.
So there was--three fish on two hooks, and it was some time before the diversion was disposed of.
"It"s a pity every one can"t be made to see he"s his own worst enemy; it would simplify matters awfully. If a youngster got it into his head that it wanted more pluck to go against himself than all the Templeton rules put together, we should get some surprises!"
"No chance of that, I"m afraid, while there are fellows like Pledge, who make it a business to drag youngsters down."
"You may say so. I should say there"s not a youngster in Templeton in greater peril at this moment than Pledge"s f.a.g, and the worst of it is there is no one to help him."
d.i.c.k suddenly felt his sofa uncomfortable. The boards underneath cramped him; the sun, too, for some reason or other, became too hot, and the breeze fidgeted him; the last sandwich he had eaten had had too much mustard in it; he was getting f.a.gged of fishing.
Although the talk of the two seniors had not been intended for his ears, it had been impossible for him to avoid overhearing it, even if he had tried, which he had not, and the Hermit"s last words had stung him to the quick and spoilt his enjoyment.
"What"s the matter, youngster?" asked Cresswell. "Getting sea-sick?"
"No," replied d.i.c.k, trying to compose himself.
"What do you say to a header?"
d.i.c.k was stripped in half a minute. Anything for a change. And what change more delightful than a plunge in the lovely green sea?
The seniors smiled at his hurry, as they proceeded in a more leisurely fashion to follow his example.
"Don"t wait for us; over you go," said Cresswell, "and tell old Neptune we are coming."
d.i.c.k waited for no further invitation, and sprang from the gunwale.
They watched the spreading circles that tracked his dive, and marked the white shining streak as it darted past, under the water.
"He"ll be a shark, before long," said Cresswell. "Look at the distance he"s dived."
"He has to thank the tide for part of this, though," said Freckleton, looking at his watch. "Why, it"s--"
An exclamation from Cresswell stopped him. d.i.c.k had reappeared, but he was twenty yards at least astern of the boat, and drifting back every moment.
At first he did not seem to be aware of it; but, treading water, waved one hand exultantly to celebrate his long dive.
But when he began to swim, leisurely at first, but harder presently, he suddenly realised his position, and saw that instead of making way back to the boat, he was losing distance at every stroke.
Some of my readers may have been in a similar position, and know the horror of helplessness which, for a moment, comes over the swimmer at such a time. d.i.c.k was not given to panic, still less fear, but, for all that, the minute which ensued was one of the most terrible in his life.
At certain times of the tide, the current between the Sprit Rock and the long Fiddle-Sandbank rushed like a mill-race. The boys knew this; they had been reminded of it at starting. But the morning had pa.s.sed so quickly that, until d.i.c.k had taken his header, and they saw him swept astern, it had never occurred to one of them that it could possibly be three o"clock. Freckleton was the first to see the danger, and almost as soon as d.i.c.k appeared above water, he flung off his coat and boots, and saying to Cresswell, "Come quick with the boat," plunged into the water.
He was soon at d.i.c.k"s side; not to support him, for the boy was able to do that for himself, but to encourage him to keep cool, and not waste his strength in endeavouring to stem the tide. And d.i.c.k had sense enough to take the advice, and tread water quietly till the boat should come.
It seemed a long time coming. The anchor was fast in the bottom, and it wanted all Cresswell"s strength to get it up. Indeed he would have been tempted to simplify matters by cutting the cord, had he had a knife at hand.
By the time it was free, the boys were almost a quarter of a mile away, and getting weary. But once free, their suspense was not prolonged.
Cresswell bore quickly down upon them, and picked them up; and rarely did three friends breathe more freely than when they all stood once more on the floor of their boat.
There was no speech-making or wringing of hands, no bragging, no compliments. They knew one another too well for that, and dressed in silence, much as if the adventure had been an ordinary incident of an ordinary bathe.
"It strikes me," said Cresswell, who still had the oars out, "it will take us all our time to get back. Are you ready to take an oar, old man?"
Short as the time had been--indeed the whole incident had not occupied much more than five minutes--the boat was about a mile below her old moorings, and still in the rush of the current.
It was little the two rowers could do to keep her head up, much less to make any way; and finally it became clear that if they were to get back to Templeton at all that day, they must either anchor where they were, for six hours, with the risk of their rope not holding in the Race, or else let the current take them out to the open, and then make a long row back outside the Sprit, and clear of the Fiddle Bank.
They decided on the latter, and somewhat gloomily rested on their oars, and watched the backward sweep of the boat on the tide seaward.
The square tower of Templeton had become a mere speck on the coast-line, before they felt the tide under them relax, and knew they were out of the Race.
Then they manned their oars, and began their long pull home.
Fortunately the water still remained quiet, and the breeze did not freshen. But after about a mile had been made, and the Sprit Rock seemed only midway between them and the sh.o.r.e, a peril still more serious overtook them. The sky became overcast, and a sea mist, springing from nowhere, came down on the breeze, blotting out first the horizon, then the rock, and finally the coast, and leaving them virtually blindfolded in mid-ocean.
"We may as well anchor, and wait till it clears," said Cresswell.
"I think we might go on slowly," said Freckleton. "If we keep the breeze on our left, and d.i.c.k looks sharp out in front, we are bound to come either on the Sprit or the sh.o.r.e. Try it for a bit."
So they tried; rowing gingerly, and steering by the breeze on their cheeks, while d.i.c.k, ahead, strained his eyes into the soaking mist.
They may have made another mile, and still the mist wrapped them round.
They had no idea where, they were. They might be close to the Rock, or they might have drifted down the coast, or they might be coming on to the Race again.
Still, anything seemed better than lying idle, and they paddled steadily on, hoping against hope for a single glimpse of daylight through the veil.
Suddenly d.i.c.k held his hand above his head, and shouted--
"Easy! Hold hard!"
And they could just see a dark object ahead on the water.
It couldn"t be the rock, for it was too small; and they could hardly imagine it to be part of the pier, or a boat on the beach.
They shouted; and, in a moment, an answer came, "Ahoy, there!" and they knew they had come upon a fishing-boat at anchor.
"It"s one of the fleet, waiting to get in. We"d better go alongside, and wait with them," said Freckleton.
So d.i.c.k shouted to say they were coming, and they rowed carefully alongside.
The first sight that met d.i.c.k"s astonished eyes, as he reached across to seize the gunwale of the friendly boat, was Tom White, sitting comfortably smoking in the stern.