"Yes, the wind was lovely. Look here, Tom; I"m going shopping--to get some hooks and things. Mind that young rabble does not throw anything aboard."
"All right, my lad; but I should just like to see one of "em try."
"I shouldn"t," cried Aleck. "But, look here; uncle says as there"ll be a good deal of wind dead ahead, and I shall have to tack back again, you"re to come with me."
"Course I should," said the sailor, gruffly. "Wants two a day like this."
"And he"ll pay you; and you"re to get one of the fishermen to pick you up and bring you back."
"Tchah! I don"t want no picking up. It"s on"y about six mile across from here to the Den, and I can do that easy enough if yer give me time."
"Do as you like, but uncle will pay for the ride."
"And I shall put the money in my pocket and toddle back," said the sailor, chuckling; "do me more good than riding. You look sharp and get back. I"ll give her a swab out while you"re gone, and we"ll take a good reach out to where the ba.s.s are playing off the point, and get a few. I see you"ve brought some sand eels."
"So we will, Tom. I should like to take home a few ba.s.s."
"So you shall, my lad," said the sailor, who had stumped forward to the fore-locker to get out a big sponge; and he was rolling up his sleeves over a pair of big, brown, muscular arms ornamented with blue mermaids, initials, a ship in full sail, and a pair of crossed cutla.s.ses surmounted by a crown, as Aleck stepped lightly upon the gunwale, sprang thence on to the steps, and went up, to run the gauntlet of the little crowd of boys, who greeted him with something like a tempest of hoots and jeers.
But the lads fell back as, with a smile full of the contempt he felt, Aleck pressed forward, marched through them with his hands in his pockets, and smiled more broadly as he heard from below a growling shout of warning from the sailor announcing what he would do if the boys didn"t mind, the result being that they followed the well-grown lad at a little distance all along the pier, throwing after him not bad fish and fragments, which would, if well-aimed, have sullied the lad"s clothes, but what an Irishman would have called dirty words, mingled with threats about what they would give him one of these fine days. The feud was high between the Rockabie boys and the bright active young lad from the Den, for no further reason than has already been stated, and the dislike had increased greatly during the past year, though it had never culminated in any encounter worse than the throwing of foul missiles after the boat when it was pushed off for home.
Perhaps it was something in the air which made the Rockabie boys more pugnacious and their threats more dire. Possibly they may have felt more deeply stung by the contempt of Aleck, who strode carelessly along the rough stone pier, whistling softly, with his hands in his pockets, till he reached the slope and began to ascend towards where the fishermen leaned in a row over the rail, just as if after a soaking night they had hung themselves out in the sun to dry.
And now it was that the boys hung back and Aleck felt that he could afford to pay no heed to the young scrubs who followed him, for there were plenty of hearty hails and friendly smiles to greet him from the rough seamen.
"Morn", Master Aleck."
"Morn", sir. How"s the cap"n?" from another.
Then: "Like a flat fish to take back with you, master? I"ve got a nice brill. I"ll put him in your boat."
And directly after a big broad fellow detached himself from the rail to sidle up with: "Say, Master Aleck, would you mind asking the cap"n to let me have another little bottle o" them iles he gives me for my showther? It"s getting bad again."
"You shall have it, Joney," cried Aleck.
"Thankye, sir. No hurry, sir. Just put the bottle in yer pocket nex"
time you come over, and that"ll do."
Aleck went on up town, as it was called,--and the men hung themselves a little more over the rail and growled at the boys who were following the visitor, to "be off," and to "get out of that; now," with the result that they still followed the lad and watched him, flattening their noses against the panes of the fishing-tackle shop window, and following him again when he came out to visit one or two other places of business, till all the lad"s self-set commissions were executed, and he turned to retrace his steps to the harbour.
So far every movement had been followed by cutting remarks expressive of the contempt in which the visitor was held. There had been threats, too, of how he would be served one of these times. Remarks were made, too, on his personal appearance and the cut of his clothes, but there was nothing more than petty annoyance till the quarry was on his way back to where he would be under the protection of the redoubtable Dumpus, who did not scruple about "letting "em have it," to use his own words, it being very unpleasant whatever shape it took. But now the pack began to rouse up and show its rage under the calm, careless, defiant contempt with which it was being treated. Words, epithets, and allusions grew more malicious, caustic, and insulting, and, these producing no effect by the time the top of the slope was reached, bolder tactics were commenced, the boys closing round and starting a kind of horse-play in which one charged another, to give him a thrust so as to drive him--quite willing--against the retiring visitor.
This was delightful; the mirth it excited grew more boisterous, and the covert attacks more general.
But Aleck was on the alert and avoided several, till a more vigorous one was attempted by the biggest lad present, a great, hulking, stupid, hobbledehoy of a fellow, who drove a companion against Aleck"s shoulder, making him stagger for a moment, while the aggressor burst out into a hoa.r.s.e laugh which was chorussed by the little crowd, and then stopped.
The spring which set Aleck"s machinery in motion had been touched, making him wheel round from the boy who had been driven against him, make a spring at the great, grinning, prime aggressor, and bring his coa.r.s.e laugh to an end by delivering a stinging blow on the ear which drove him sidewise, and made him stand shaking his head and thrusting his finger inside his ear, as if to try and get rid of a peculiar buzzing sound which affected him strangely.
There was a roar, and the boy who had been thrust against Aleck sprang at him to inflict condign punishment upon the stranger who had dared to strike his companion.
The attack was vigorous enough, but the attacker was unlucky, for he met Aleck"s bony fist on his way before he could use his own. Then he clapped his open hands to his nose and stood staring in wonder, and seemed to be trying to find out whether his nose had been flattened on his face.
There was an ominous silence then, during which Aleck turned and walked on down the slope in a quiet leisurely way, scorning to run, and even slackening his pace to be on his guard as he reached the bottom of the slope, for by that time the boys had recovered from their astonishment, and were in full pursuit.
In another minute Aleck was surrounded by a roughly-formed crowding-in ring, with the two lads who had tested the force of his blows eager to obtain revenge, incited thereto by a score or two of voices urging them to "give it him," "pay him," "let him have it," and the like.
The two biggest lads of the party then came on at Aleck at once; but, to be just, it was from no cowardly spirit, but from each being urged by a sheer vindictive desire to be first to obtain revenge for his blow.
Hence they were mastered by pa.s.sion and came on recklessly against one who was still perfectly cool and able to avoid the bigger fellow"s a.s.sault while he gave the other a back-handed blow which sent him reeling away quite satisfied for the present and leaving the odds, so to speak, more even in the continuation of the encounter.
Aleck was well on the alert, and, feeling that he was utterly out-matched, he aimed at getting as far as the steps, where he would have Tom Bodger for an ally, and the attack would come to an end; but he was soon aware of the fact that to retire was impossible, hedged in as he was by an excited ring of boys, and there was nothing for him but to fight his way back slowly and cautiously. So he kept his head, coolly resisting the attack of the big fellow with whom he was engaged, guarding himself from blows to the best of his ability, and paying little heed to the torrent of abuse which accompanied the blows the big fisher lad tried to shower upon him, and always backing away a few yards, as he could, nearer to the way down to his boat.
By this time the word was pa.s.sed along the top of the cliff that there was a fight on, and the fishermen began slowly to take themselves off the rail and descend the slope to see the fun, as they called it. They did not hurry themselves in the least, so that there was plenty of time for the encounter to progress, with Aleck still calm and cool, warding off the blows struck at him most skilfully, and mastering his desire to retaliate when he could have delivered others with masterly effect.
But a change was coming on.
Enraged by his inability to close with his skilful, active adversary, the big lad made more and more use of his tongue, the torrent of abuse grew more foul, and Aleck more cool and contemptuous, till all at once his adversary yelled out something which was received with acclamations by the excited ring who surrounded the pair, while it went through Aleck like some poisoned barb. He saw fire for the moment, and his teeth gritted together, as caution and the practice and skill he had displayed were no more, for, to use a schoolboy phrase, his monkey was up and he meant fighting--he meant to use his fists to the best effect in trying to knock the vile slanderous words, uttered against the man he loved and venerated, down the utterer"s throat, while his rage against those who crowded around, yelling with delight, took the form of back strokes with his elbow and more than one sharp blow at some intruding head.
But it was against the lout who had spoken that the fire of his rage was princ.i.p.ally directed, and the fellow realised at once that all that had gone before, on the part of the stranger from the Den, was mere sparring and self-defence. Aleck meant fighting now, and he fought, showering down such volleys of blows that, at the end of a couple of minutes, in spite of a brave defence and the planting of nasty cracks about his adversary"s unguarded face, the big lad was being knocked here and there, up, down, and round about, till the shouts and cries about him lowered into a dull, dead hum. The pier stones reeled and rose and sank and seemed to imitate the waves that floated in, and when at last, in utter despair, he locked Aleck in his arms and tried to throw him, he received such a stunning blow between the eyes that he loosened his grasp to shake his head, which the next moment was knocked steady and inert, the big fellow going down all of a heap, and the back of his big bullet skull striking the pier stones with a heavy resounding b.u.mp.
CHAPTER THREE.
In his excitement it seemed to Aleck that the real fight was now about to begin, for the little mob of boys uttered an angry yell upon seeing their champion"s downfall, and were crowding in. But he was wrong, for a gruff voice was heard from the fishermen, who had at last bestirred themselves to see more of what they called the fun, and another deep-toned voice, accompanying the pattering of two wooden legs, came from the direction of the steps.
"Here, that"ll do, you dogs!" cried the first voice, and--
"Stand fast, Master Aleck, I"m a-coming," cried the other.
The effect on the boys was magical, and they gave way in all directions before the big fisherman who had asked for the "iles" for his shoulders, a medicament he did not seem to require, for his joints worked easily as he threw out his arms with a mowing action, right and left, and with a force that would have laid the inimical lads down in swathes if they had not got out of the way.
"Well done, young Aleck Donne," he cried. "Licked Big Jem, have yer?
Hansum too. Do him good. Get up--d"yer hear--before I give yer my boot! I see yer leading the lot on arter the young gent, like a school o" dogfish. Hullo, Tom, you was nigher. Why didn"t yer come up and help the young gen"leman afore?"
""Cause I didn"t know what was going on, matey," cried the sailor. "Why didn"t yer hail me, Master Aleck?"
"Because I didn"t want to be helped," cried the boy, huskily, his voice quivering with indignation. "A set of cowards!"
"So they are, Master Aleck," cried the sailor, joining in the lad"s indignation. "On"y wish I"d knowed. I"d ha" come up with the boat-hook."
"Never mind; it arn"t wanted," said the big fisherman. "Young Mr Donne"s given him a pretty good dressing down, and if this here pack arn"t off while their shoes are good we"ll let him give it to a few more."
"I want to know what their fathers is about," growled the sailor. "I never see such a set. They"re allus up to some mischief."
"Ay, ay, that"s a true word," cried another fisherman.
"That"s so," growled the sailor, who, as he spoke, kept on brushing Aleck down and using his forearm as a brush to remove the dust and _debris_ from the champion"s jacket.
"Pity he didn"t leather another couple of "em," cried the big fisherman.