"Well! what about the lugger?"
"Rush her now! Here"s our chance!"
The Parson turned calm eyes upon the other"s splendid ones.
"Aye, lad, aye," he said, with the crushing calm a man wields so mightily. "But give the Gentleman his due, he"s not quite such a fool as you"d make him out. He knows our aim as well as he knows his own.
We"ve got to get to Nelson. There"s only one way left--the lugger. If he"s left that way open it"s as plain as the nose on your face it"s because he wants us to take it."
Ugh, these men! the boy worshipped the man"s courage and scorned his caution. He throbbed for the relief of action. Only let him be doing!
anything, anything in the world was better than standing here to watch Nelson sweep doom-wards.
"And suppose," he flashed, "suppose the Gentleman makes away in his lugger now! what shall we do? Twiddle our thumbs and whistle, till the soldiers come, I suppose! And then," with the crude irony of fifteen, "then perhaps, if we"re very brave, and the Gentleman has got _well_ away to sea, we"ll take a little stroll with a strong escort to the top of Beachy Head to see Nelson strung up to his own yard-arm!"
The boy"s fiery insults left the other cold.
"You"re young, my boy, offensively young," he said. "A bad fault, but one you may hope to grow out of. One thing I"m sure of. You do your friend a great injustice. He won"t leave that despatch-bag in our hands till he"s forced to at the point of the steel."
"But what can we _do_?" blazed the boy--"do, do, do! There"s Nelson!" with flashing forefinger. "Here are we. He won"t come to us.
We _must_ get to him. There"s only one way--the lugger. It may be a poor chance, still if it"s the only one! O, sir, sir! surely it"s better to die attempting something, than stand and _rot_ to death here!"
The words poured forth in a white-hot torrent, shaking him.
Anybody in the world but the practical Englishman would have been moved.
He only grunted.
"I wish I knew what was going on behind that shingle-bank," he grumbled, half to himself.
The boy"s soul quenched, only to flame forth again.
"I"ll be your eyes, sir!"
The Parson shook a dubious head.
"Oh let me! O do! sir! sir!"
He was hopping, trembling at the other"s side.
The Parson with his slow and chewing mind was digesting the situation.
Beneath his calm, he was mad to know what was going on behind the shingle-bank. If he went himself, who would be left in garrison?--the old story.
Yet if he sent Kit?
Twice already he had let the boy go forth alone, and each time had barely plucked him from the jaws of death. Could he send him forth a third time to face what G.o.d should send?
Could he?
He locked his jaws.
Duty, duty, duty! a hard mistress for those who serve her, but the only one for an Englishman.
His mind made up, true man that he was, he wasted no time in excusing himself to himself or to others.
Somewhat grey about the jaws, he swung about.
"Very well," shortly. "Just a peep--no more, mind!"
CHAPTER LXIV
RUMBLINGS OF THUNDER
The boy slid down the ladder into the gloom of the kitchen.
There was no familiar silver head at its wonted place of watch by the loop-hole.
"Piper!"
"Sir!"
The old foretop-man was sitting beside the trapdoor, peering down into the blackness of the cellar, and listening intently.
"That you, Master Kit? Would you step this way, sir? There keeps on a kind of a rumbling like in the drain--a"most as though the gentlemen be running a cargo. I ca"ant justly make it out."
The boy came to his side and listened. True, there was a m.u.f.fled noise of rolling in the drain, and dull banging against the door. Well, they might bang till they were blue: they would make as much impression on that door as the breeze on Beachy Head.
The old man looked up and saw the lad beside him in shirt-sleeves.
"Hullo, sir! what"s forrad then?"
"I"m going to take a little trot over to the shingle-bank to have a look round," said the boy, shivering. "I want you to stand by the door to let me out and in."
The old man rolled up his sleeves, s.n.a.t.c.hed his cutla.s.s from the corner, whetted it with the easy grace of a bird whetting its beak, and spat on his hands.
"Then it"s stand by to repel boarders! Rithe away, sir, when you are."
The Parson peered down.
"All"s quiet," he whispered. "Ready, Kit?"
"Yes, sir."
The boy stood up pale in the gloom.
"Then ease those bolts away. Gently, Piper!"