"My poor boat!" cried Aleck, in agony. "But, there, it"s of no use to cry after spilt milk. What"s to be done?"
"Well, I"ve thought it out, sir, and seems to me that what"s best to be done is to make her fast between two big boats, run her up on to the beach, get two or three of the fisher lads to turn her over, and then see what I can do with a bit o" thin plank. Patch her up and pitch up the bit where I claps the plaster on, and I dessay she"ll be watertight enough for you to run home in. I can mend her up proper when we get her back in the creek."
"How long would it take to put on the patch?"
"I can"t say till I sees the hole, sir, but I might get it done by to-night."
"By to-night? How am I to get back in the dark?"
"Oh, I dessay we could steer clear o" the rocks, sir."
"We? No, thank you, sir. I don"t want a man with me whom I can"t trust."
Tom took his hat off and had a good rub before looking wistfully up in his young employer"s face.
"Say, Master Aleck, arn"t you a bit hard on a man?" he said.
"No, not half so hard as you deserve. You told me an abominable lie."
"Nay, sir. I see your shadow just as you were going to throw down that there lump o" paper."
"You--did--not, sir!" cried Aleck, fiercely.
"Well, then, it must ha" been somebody else"s, sir; that"s all I can say."
"Whose, pray?" cried Aleck. "Who would dare to do such a thing as that?
Stop!" he cried, as a sudden idea flashed through his brain. "I saw two lads in a boat sculling away from the pier as hard as they could go."
"You see that, Master Aleck?"
"Yes, when I came down from High Street."
"Where was they going, sir?" cried the man, staring hard.
"Towards the curing sheds."
"Could you see who they was, sir?"
"No; they seemed to be two big lads, just about the same as the rest."
"Where was they going from?" asked Tom, excitedly.
"From the pier; there was nowhere else they could be coming from. They wouldn"t have been fishing at this time of day."
"Look here, Master Aleck, you mean it, don"t you? It wasn"t you as pitched something down?"
"Look here, Tom, do you want to put me in a pa.s.sion?"
"No, sir, course I don"t."
"Then don"t ask such idiotic questions. Of course I didn"t."
"Then it was one of they chaps, Master Aleck."
"Well, it does look like it now, Tom. But, nonsense! It must have been very heavy to go through the boat."
"It weer, sir."
"But why should anyone do that? You don"t think that a boy would have been guilty of such a bit of mischief as that?"
"What, Master Aleck?" cried the sailor, bursting into a loud guffaw.
"Why, there arn"t anything they Rockabie boys wouldn"t do. Why, they"re himps, sir--reg"lar himps; and mischief arn"t half bad enough a word for what they"d do."
"Oh, but this is too bad. Why, the--the--"
"Stone, I should say it were, sir. Bet a halfpenny as it was a ballast cobble as was hev down."
"But it might have come down on you and killed you."
"Shouldn"t wonder, sir."
"But you have no one with such a spite against you as to make him do that?"
"Haven"t I, Master Aleck? Why, bless your innocence, there"s dozens as would! I"d bet another halfpenny as that young beauty as I brought down with my stick this mornin" felt quite sore enough to come and drop a stone on my head. "Sides, they"ve got a spite agen you, too, my lad, and like as not Big Jem would try to sarve you out by making a hole through your boat for leathering him as you did a fortnit ago."
"Tom!"
"Ah, you may shout "Tom!" till you"re as hoa.r.s.e as a bull, Master Aleck, but that seems to be about the bearings of it; and now I think more on it, that"s about the course I means to steer. Two on "em, you says as you saw?"
"Yes, two biggish lads."
"Sculling hard?"
"Yes, the one who stood up in the boat was working the oar as hard as he could."
"Which means as he was in a hurry, sir."
"It did seem like it, Tom."
"On a hot day like this here, sir. Boys, too, as wouldn"t work a scull if they warn"t obliged. Why, they"d been and done it, and was cutting away as hard as they could."
"It does look likely, Tom."
"That"s it, sir. We"ve got the bearings of it now. It were Big Jem and young Redcap, warn"t it?"
"One of the boys had on a red cap, Tom. I remember now."
"Then don"t you wherrit your head no more about it, Master Aleck. It was them two as did it, and I shall put it down to their account."