A minute later and the boys were lying down side by side, resting upon their elbows and kicking up their heels over their backs, what time the newcomer related what had pa.s.sed down on the pier, and also what he should like to do.
The narrative seemed to afford Big Jem intense satisfaction, for he uttered a hoa.r.s.e crowing laugh from time to time and blinked his eyes, squeezing the lids very close and then opening them wide, when sundry signs of black, green and blue bruises became visible.
When the newcomer had finished his narration, Big Jem crowed more hoa.r.s.ely than ever, and indulged in what looked like an imitation of an expiring fish, for he stretched himself out flat and threw himself over from his face on to his back, beat the ground with his closed legs, and then flopped back again, over and over again, putting ten times the vigour and exertion into his acts that he had bestowed upon the hoeing, and ending by springing up, stooping to secure his hoe, and then tossing it right away to fall and lie hidden in one of the newly-hoed furrows between the potatoes.
"Do, won"t it?" cried the new arrival.
"Yes," cried Big Jem, hoa.r.s.ely. "Sarve "em both out. Come on!"
No time was lost, the two boys going off at a trot round by the back of the town and aiming for the sh.o.r.e, where by descending a very steep bit of ivy-draped and ragwort-dotted cliff they could get down to a row of black sheds used for fish-drying and the storage of nets, which lay snugly upon a shelf of the cliff.
The place was quite deserted as the boys let themselves slide down a water-formed gully, peered about a bit, and then made for one of several boats moored some fifty yards from the sandy sh.o.r.e.
More or less salt water was nothing to the Rockabie boys, and after a glance along the sh.o.r.e, followed by a sweeping of the pier, which ran out between them and the harbour, they waded a little way out till the water reached their chests, and then began to swim for the outermost boat, into which Big Jem climbed, to hold out a hand, and the next moment his comrade had followed and leaned over, dripping away, to cast loose the rope attached to the buoy, while Big Jem put an oar out over the stern and began to scull.
"Ibney allus leaves one oar in his boat," said Jem, sculling away.
"But we mustn"t go yet."
"You hold your mouth," said Big Jem. "I"ll show you. You shall see what you shall see. Here, lay hold of the rope and make a hitch round that killick. See?"
The other boy evidently did see, for he knelt down and began to edge a big oval boulder stone from where it lay in company with three more for ballast amidship, worked it right forward into the bows, and then lifted it on to the locker, when he took hold of the boat"s painter at the end furthest from the ring-bolt, to which it was secured, and fastened the hempen cord round the boulder with a nautical knot.
By the time this was done and the boy looked round for orders he caught sight of something moving at the sh.o.r.e end of the pier.
"Here comes the sailors back to their boat," he said. "They"ll see us."
"Over with the killick, then--easy. Don"t splash."
Big Jem drew in his oar, with which he had been making the boat progress by means of a fishtail movement, laid it along the thwarts, and then, as the other boy lifted the stone over the bows into the water, which it kissed without disturbance, it was let go and sank with a wavy movement, sending up a long train of glittering bubbles, running the rope out fast till bottom was reached and the boat swung from its stone anchor.
"Now, then, down with you," said Big Jem, and the next minute the two boys lay in the bottom, each with a great boulder for pillow, quite out of sight, unless their presence had been suspected, when a bit of coa.r.s.e blue-covered body might have been seen, but then only to be taken for some idle fisher making up for last night"s fishing with a nap.
Hence it was that when Tom Bodger swept the pier from where he sat in Aleck"s boat lying by the steps in the harbour, he saw nothing but the top of the pier, and his eyes fell again upon the sloop"s beautifully clean boat, which he again compared with the one he occupied, with such unfavourable effect to the latter that he muttered to himself a little, took off his jacket, rolled up his sleeves over his tattooed arms, and went in for a general clean up.
Tom was as busy as a bee and, to judge from the latter"s usually contented hum, just as much satisfied, for his efforts certainly vastly improved the aspect of Aleck"s boat; and he was still hard at work swabbing and drying and laying ropes in coils, when a remark from one of the sailors in the adjacent boat made the midshipman spring up out of a doze in the hot sunshine and give the order to "Be smart!"
In other words, to be ready to help their messmates returning with their officer, well laden with fresh stores, which soon after were handed down into the boat and stowed. Then the men took their places again, while the officers took theirs, the order was given to cast off, there was a thrust or two given by the c.o.xswain, and the boat glided from the steps, leaving Tom Bodger watching the movements, smiling, and thinking of the past.
He smiled again as the oars were poised for a minute and then at a word dropped to starboard and larboard with a splash before beginning to dip with rhythmic regularity, the midshipman seizing the lines and steering her for her run outward to the sloop.
"Well," said the midshipman, in a low voice, "what luck?"
"Pretty good," was the reply. "Not all I should like, but I"ve seen enough to say that we ought to get a dozen smart fellows easily.
There"s some game or another on I hear from a man I know--a sort of meeting of fellows from along the coast--and Brown picked up a hint or two."
"A meeting, sir?"
"Well, call it what you like. Brown thinks there"s a cargo to be run somewhere and that the men are here to make arrangements for getting it inland."
"What, right under our noses?" said the midshipman.
"Of course; that"s a far better way than right under our eyes, my lad.
Give way, lads. I want to get aboard, Mr Wrighton, to hear what the captain and the lieutenant of the cutter have to say."
The sloop"s boat pa.s.sed out between the two arms of the little harbour before Tom Bodger recommenced his polishing up in Aleck"s boat.
"A pretty cutter," he said. "There arn"t anything better worth looking at afloat than a man-o"-war"s launch or cutter well manned by a smart crew. Makes me wish I"d got my understandings again and was an AB once more. Not as I grumbles--not me. Rockabie arn"t amiss, and things has to be as they is. Here, let"s get all ship-shape afore Master Aleck comes. Wish I"d got a bit o" sand here to give them ring-bolts a rub or two. I like to see his boat look a bit smart.
"Wonder what them two"s come in for--they arn"t lying off here for nothing! Some "un"s been sending "em word there"s a cargo going to be run along the sh.o.r.e, and so they"ve come in for soft tack and wegetables. Haw! haw! haw!" he laughed, as he bent over his work.
"It"s well I know that game. Fresh wegetables for the cook, a look round to find out what"s what, and as soon as it"s dark a couple o"
well-armed boats to beat up the quarters and a dozen or so o" men pressed. I know. Well, I s"pose it"s right; the King must have men to fight his battles. They ought to volunteer; but some on "em won"t.
They don"t like going until they"re obliged, and then they do, and wouldn"t come back on no account. Strikes me there"s going to be a landing to-night. Some un must ha" let "em know. Wonder who could do it, for there"s a bit o" fun coming off to-night, I lay my legs. Eben Megg wouldn"t be here for nothing, and there"s half a dozen more hanging about.
"Well," he added, after a pause. "I"m not going to tell tales about either side. Don"t know much, and what I do know I"m going to keep to myself. Smuggling arn"t right; no more arn"t playing spy and informer-- so I stands upon my wooden pegs and looks on. They won"t take me.
Wouldn"t mind, though, if they did. There, that looks quite decent and tidy, that does, and if Master Aleck don"t say a word o" praise, why I say it"s a shame. Well done; just finished in time. Here you are, then, my lad. Got a load? Why didn"t yer let me come and carry it?
Hold hard a minute, and I"ll fetch it aboard."
For Tom Bodger had heard a step on the pier right above him as he stooped and saw the shadow of him who had made the sound cast right down upon the thwart and flooring of the boat, the maker of the shadow being evidently the bearer of some oblong object, which he carried at arm"s length above his head.
Tom was balancing himself upon his wooden legs, and in the att.i.tude of rising from his bent-down position, when he was conscious of a faint sound and an alteration in the shadow cast down, while the next instant there was a tremendous crash.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN.
A splintering crash as of a heavy ma.s.s of stone or metal striking full upon the thwart behind him, while crash again, right upon the first sound, there was a duller and more crushing noise.
"Here, hi! Hullo! Here, what in the name o" thunder! Ahoy! Help!"
Tom Bodger was standing bolt upright as he uttered these last words, fully realising what had happened as he stared down at a rugged hole in the frail planking of the bottom of the boat, up through which the water was rising like a thick, squat, dumpy fountain.
"What game d"yer call this, Master Aleck? Eh, not there? I seed his shadder. He must ha" let it fall. Went through like a sixty-four-pound shot. Master Aleck! Ahoy! Frightened yerself away, my lad? Here, quick; come and lend a hand--the boat"s going down!"
Tom Bodger talked and shouted, but he did not confine himself to words, for he saw the extent of the emergency. The boat seemed to be filling rapidly from the salt fount in the middle prior to going down. So, acting promptly, he hopped on to the next thwart, down into the water in the bottom, which came above his stumps, and then on to the next thwart forward and the locker. From here he put one peg on to the bows and swung himself on to the lowest step, where he could seize the boat"s painter, fastened to a huge rusty ring in the harbour wall.
It was not many moments" work to cast the rope loose, and then he began to haul the rope rapidly through the ring, just having time to send the boat"s head on to one of the steps under water, and hanging on with all his might, while the water rose and rose aft, till, with the bows still resting on the stone step, the after part of the boat was quite submerged.
As a rule there were fishermen hanging over the rail on the top of the cliff a couple of hundred yards or so away, men busy with trawl or seine net on the smacks and luggers, and a score or two of boys playing about somewhere on the pier; but there was, as Tom Bodger had said, something going on in the town, and as soon as those ash.o.r.e had done watching the man-o"-war"s men and seen them row off, there was a steady human current setting away from the harbour, and not a listening ear to catch the sailor"s hails and pa.s.s the word on for help, as he hung on to the boat"s rope with all his might, feeling a.s.sured that if he slacked his efforts she would glide off the slimy stone and go to the bottom.
"I arn"t got no breath to waste in hollering," he panted. "Why, there"s a good fathom and a half or two fathom o" water under her keel, and if I slack out down she"ll go. Wants a couple o" boats to back in, one on each side, and get a rope under her thwarts. They could get her ash.o.r.e then. Oh, dear! oh, dear! oh, dear! For him to leave me in charge, and then come back and find I"ve sunk her! I warn"t asleep, for I was standin" up at work, so I couldn"t ha" dreamed I heard him come, and see his shadder cast down. No; it"s all true enough. But what could he have had in his hands? I see his shadder plain, with a something held up in his hands. Paper, didn"t he say, he"d come to fetch? Well, paper"s heavy when it"s all tight up in a lump, and he must ha" pitched it down off the pier to save carrying it and to let it come plop, so as to frighten me, not thinking how heavy it was, and then as soon as he see the mischief he"d done he squirms and runs away like a bad dog with his tail between his legs. Why, I wouldn"t ha" thought it on him.
"Oh, dear! what a weight she is! If I could only get a turn o" the rope round anywhere I could hold on easy, but if I move an inch down she"ll go.
"Can"t do it!" he groaned; "it"s quite impossible. One hitch round the ring or a catch anywhere else"d do it, but I"ve got enough to do to hold on, and if I try any other manoover I shall make worse on it. It"s no good, Tommy, my lad, that there"s your job; bite yer teeth hard and hold on. Bime by it"ll be too much for yer, and she"ll begin to slide and slither; but don"t you mind, it"ll be all right--up"ll go your hands with the rope, and then in they"ll go, fingers first, into the ring.
It"s big enough to take your pretty little fists as far as yer knuckleses, and then they"ll jam and jam more, and the more they jams the tighter they"ll hold the rope till some "un comes. Take the skin off? Well, let it. Sarve it right for not being stuck tighter on to the hones. Have to grow again, that"s all. I arn"t going to let Master Aleck"s boat sink to the bottom if I die for it. But, hub, there!
Ahoy! Is everybody dead yonder up town? Why, I"d say bless him now if I could on"y set a hye on the wery wust o" them boys."