The Parson had not yet forgotten the reception that heavy sensualist had given to his report that Fighting Fitz was riding up and down the land just outside his lines.
"_May I, sir?_"
The boy was burning at his side. Perforce the Parson began to smoulder too.
The adventure had just that smack of romance about it that tickled this man of prose. Could he have run the risk himself, he who could hardly swim to the bottom, he would have ventured it with laughing heart. Was he justified in staying the sailor-boy?
No, no, no! his heart thundered the answer at him.
There must always be a risk. And was ever risk better worth running than this one? But what a boy!
He was flaming merrily now.
"May I, sir?"
He turned to the lad, pale beside him, and smacked a hand into his.
"Kit!" he cried with gusty laughter, "you should have been a soldier!"
CHAPTER XL
THE SWIM IN THE DARK
Kit awoke with the horrors.
All was black about him, and a great hand lay on his breast.
He gripped it, gurgling.
A calm voice, already strangely familiar, rea.s.sured him.
"By your leave, sir, it"s about time for you to rouse and bitt."
It was Nelson"s old foretop-man. The moon, slanting through the window, shone on his white head and those tranquil, big-dog eyes of his.
Kit relaxed his hold.
"That you, Piper?" he sighed. "I was dreaming of Fat George. What"s the time?"
"It"s a little better"n two o"clock, sir; you"ve had a tidy sleep. The tide"s pretty near down, and the moon"s a-nigh off the water. By than you get alongside there"ll likely be a bit o" mist on the water crep up from the eastud with the sun."
The boy slipped off his clothes, shivering.
"Where"s Mr. Joy?"
"He came in from the Wish just on midnight. "No Knapp yet?" says he.
"Then I shall make a reconnaissance in force myself." "Beggin your pardon, sir," says he, don"t see the force--one man agin a score."
"Ah," says he, "you forget my lady." And he whips up his Polly, and off he pops over the gra.s.s like a lad a-courtin." The old man chuckled as he told.
"What"s Knapp up to?" trembled the boy.
"Why, sir, gone over to Lewes for the soldiers, and should ha been back hours sen."
"Wonder why he"s not?"
"Got fightin and foolin on the road, sir, I"ll lay," chuckled the old man. "Like a lamb with the heart of a lion is Knapp, sir. Frisks into trouble, and then fights out again. This is first time he"s been let out of hissalf since he went into training. So he"s all of a bubble like. Bubble or bust--that"s how Knapp feels."
Stripped, the boy stood up in the darkness.
"Got the flag, Piper?"
"Here it be, sir. How"ll you carry it?"
"So." He wound it up in a coil and tied it about his neck, scarf-like.
"Now I"m ready."
II
The old man wheeled out to the edge of the shadow of the house.
All about was black and silver in the moon. A faint breeze ruffled the sycamores upon the knoll. Stars strewed the heavens. Beyond the shingle-bank the sea glistened like satin.
It was very still, very cold, very lonely.
Kit set his teeth to prevent them chattering. The night air kissed him coldly, and the moon, white above the inky Downs, glistened on his shoulders.
"There she lays, in the Channel off the Boulder Bank," whispered the old man, pointing to the privateer, dull-black against the glitter.
"And it"s my belieft there"s not a sober man aboard of her. All stow"d away dead drunk under hatches--that"s my belieft, sir. They kep it up from dark till midnight--dancin, drummin, fightin, and all manner.
More like a cage full? wild beasties from Bedlam than a Christian ship. And for the last hour she might ha been a hulk full o corpuses."
He dropped his voice still further.
"He"s in it, sure!" jerking his thumb starward. "Made em blind to the world for His own good purpose--which is as you should lay em aboard unbeknownst and knife the blessed lot if so be it was your fancy."
The boy choked a laugh br.i.m.m.i.n.g on the edge of being. The old man"s solemnity, his profound simplicity, touched the springs of mirth within him.
"Perhaps," he panted. "I hope so."
"Ah! I"m certain sure," replied the other with firm confidence.
Faith, the most infectious quality in the world because the truest, seized the boy"s heart and lifted it.