Chapter 14

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_ CHAPTER FOURTEEN.

It was quite a minute before Tom Bodger opened his eyes again, to lie staring blankly up at the dazzling blue sky. He looked, for a mahogany and red sun-tanned individual, particularly unwholesome and strange with his fixity of expression, and in his anxiety Aleck forbore to speak to him, but watched for the complete return of his senses, wondering the while that so sturdy a fellow could be affected in a way which he had always understood was peculiar to women.

After staring straight upward for some little time the man began to blink, as if the intense light troubled him. Then his eyes began to roll slowly round, taking a wider and wider circle, till at last they included Aleck in their field of view and remained fixed, staring at him wonderingly.

Aleck's lips parted to ask the natural question, "How are you now?" But before he could utter a word Tom frowned and said, severely:

"What are you up to, my lad?"

"It's what are you up to, Tom? Here, how are you now?"

"Quite well, thankye, Master Aleck. How are you? But, here," he cried, changing his manner, "what does it all mean? Why, what--when-- wh-wh-what--ah, I know now, Master Aleck! I say, don't tell me the boat's gone down!"

As he spoke he rose quickly into a sitting position and stared down through the opening where the steps began, uttered a sigh of content, and then said:

"I was afraid you hadn't made them knots fast."

"Oh, they're all right. But has your faintness gone off?"

"Yes, sir, that's gone."

"To think of a big sturdy fellow fainting dead away!"

"Ah, 'tis rum, sir, arn't it? All comes o' having no legs and feet. I never knew what it was till I lost 'em, as I telled yer."

"Well, you're better now. But, I say, Tom, how did you manage to get the boat full of water like this?"

"Oh, come, Master Aleck," cried Tom, indignantly. "I like that! How come you to chuck that great lump o' paper down and make that great hole in her bottom?"

"I do what?" cried Aleck. "Here, wait a bit and rest. You haven't quite come to yet."

"Me, sir? I'm right as a trivet," cried Tom; and to prove it he turned quickly over on his face propped himself up on his hands, with his elbows well bent, and then gave a sharp downward thrust which threw him up so that he stood well balanced once more upon his stout wooden legs.

"That's right," said Aleck, after a glance at the half-submerged boat. "Now, then, how did you manage it?"

"Me manage it, sir? Oh, that's how I allus gets up when I'm down."

"No, no, no," cried Aleck, impatiently. "I mean about the boat. Did some other boat foul her?"

"No-o-o!" cried Tom. "You chucked that great lump of paper down and it went through the bottom."

"Paper? What, the paper I went to fetch?"

"Ay, sir."

The lad went and picked up a small parcel he had dropped on the pier and held it up in the man's sight as he gazed wonderingly at him again, and then said, very severely:

"Look here, Tom, you are mad, or have you been--you know?"

Aleck turned his hand into a drinking vessel and imitated the act of drinking.

"No-o-o-o!" cried Tom, indignantly. "Haven't had a drop of anything but water for a week."

"Then how did you get my boat half full of water?"

"I didn't, sir. You came and chucked that heavy lump of paper down, and it broke the middle thwart, being a weak 'un, because of the hole through for the boat's mast, and went on down through the bottom."

"What! I did nothing of the sort, sir."

"Oh, Master Aleck! Why, I seed yer shadow come right over me with yer hands up holding the lump o' paper, and afore I could straighten myself up down it come, and went right through the bottom."

"You don't mean to tell me that there's a hole right through the bottom of my beautiful Seagull?" cried Aleck, wildly.

"Why, how could she have got full o' water if you hadn't chucked that down? I would ha' come up and fetched it, sir. That comes o' your being so rannish."

"How dare you!" cried Aleck, passionately. "I tell you I did nothing of the sort."

"What's the good o' telling an out-an'-outer about it, Master Aleck, sir, when I see yer quite plain; leastwise, I see yer shadow when yer come to the edge."

"You saw nothing of the sort," cried Aleck, fiercely. "You scoundrel! You've been sailing her about while I've been up the town, and run her on a rock. I did trust you, Tom, and now you try to hoodwink me with a miserable story that wouldn't deceive a child. Tell me the truth at once, sir, or never again do you sail with me."

"I won't," growled Tom, sturdily.

"What! You won't tell me the truth?"

"I didn't say I wouldn't tell you the truth, Master Aleck. I mean I won't say as I took her out and run her on a rock."

"But you did, sir."

"Tell yer I didn't, Master Aleck; she've been tied up ever since you went away, and I've given her a thorough clean up."

"And started a plank or two by jumping down upon her with your wooden legs."

"Nay, I wouldn't be such a fool, sir. Of course if I did I should go through."

"I'd have forgiven you the accident," said Aleck, sternly, "but I can't forgive the lie."

Tom stared up at his young employer, and took off his hat to give his head a thorough good scratch, before saying, quietly:

"Say, Master Aleck, you says to me just now with a sign like as I'd been having a drop o' rum. Well, I arn't; but, you'll scuse me, sir, have you happened to call and see anyone as has given you some cake and wine as was rather too strong for a hot sunny day like this?"

"No!" roared Aleck, in a thorough passion now. "Such insolence! Say again that I threw a weight of paper and broke a hole through her."

"Well, sir, I see your shadder."

"You did not, for I've not been back till just now."

"Then it was somebody else's, sir."

"Somebody else's, sir!" cried Aleck, scornfully. "Own at once that you had an accident with her."

"Me say that?" cried Tom, waxing angry in turn. "I won't. I'd do a deal for you, Master Aleck, and if I'd stove in the boat I'd up and say so; but I arn't a-going to tell an out-an'-out wunner like that to screen you when you've had an accident. Why, if I did you'd never trust me again."

"I never will trust you again, sir. But, there, what's to be done? How am I to get back to the Den? Would a plug of oakum keep the water out?"

"Would a plug o' my grandmother keep the water out?" growled Tom, scornfully. "Why, she couldn't keep it out if we set her in it. I jest got one peep, and then the water hid it, but there's a hole pretty nigh big enough for you to go through."

"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 passion?"

"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 hoarse 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."

"But we ought to be sure."

"Sure, sir? Why, we are sure, and they'll have to take it."

"Take _it_? Take what?"

"Physic, sir. Never you mind about it any more; you leave it to me. It's physic as they've got to take when the time comes; and all I've got to say is as I hopes they'll like it."

"Well, never mind that now, Tom. What about my boat?"

"Oh, I'll see about her at once. I'll stop and take care of her while you go up to the houses on the cliff yonder, and you says as you have had an accident with your boat and you wants Joney to come with a couple o' mates to help. They'll come fast enough."

"Very well. Let's have a look first, though."

They stepped to the edge of the pier and looked down into the disabled boat, while the water being still and as clear as crystal, they could see through the broken thwart and the splintered jagged hole through the bottom.

Aleck drew a deep breath like a sigh, and Tom nodded his head sagely:

"Stone as big a killick, Master Aleck; that's what did that. Precious big 'un too. Now, then, you be off and get they chaps here while I chews it over a bit about how I'm to manage; but I tell yer this--it's going to be dark afore I gets that done. What d'yer say about walking over to the Den to tell the captain what's happened?"

"I say no, Tom. I'm going to stay here and help you. You won't mind sailing over with me in the dark?"

"Not me, sir, and you needn't wherrit about what to do wi' me. I shall spread a sail over the boat when we've got her moored back in the creek, and creep under and sleep like a top. You'll give me a mug o' milk and a bit o' bacon in the morning afore I start back?"

"Of course, of course, Tom. There, I'll run off at once."

"Hold hard a moment, Master Aleck. Mebbe you'll see them two beauties."

"I shouldn't wonder, Tom."

"Looking as innercent as a pair o' babbies, sir," said Tom, with a knowing wink. "Then what you've got to do, sir, is look innercent too. You arn't going to suspeck them for a minute, cause they wouldn't do such a thing. We're a-going to wait till the right time comes."

"And we're quite sure, Tom?"

"That's it, Master Aleck; and then--physic."

Aleck laughed, in spite of the trouble he was in, for Tom's face was a study of mysterious humour and conspiracy of the most solemn nature. The next minute the lad was going an easy dog-trot along the pier towards the town. _

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