The Lost Middy: Being the Secret of the Smugglers' Gap, Page 2

  CHAPTER TWO.

  "My word! How she does go!" cried Aleck, a short time later. For hehad stepped the mast, hooked on the little rudder, and hoisted the sail,the latter filling at once with the breeze which, coming from the sea,struck the bold perpendicular rock face and glanced off again, to catchthe boat right astern. One minute it was racing along almost on an evenkeel; then, like a young horse, it seemed to take the bit in its teethas it careened over more and more and made the water foam beneath thebows.

  Away to Aleck's left was the dazzling stretch of ocean, to his right thecliffs with the stack rocks and a glimpse of the whitewashed group ofcottages locally known as Eilygugg, from their overlooking the greatisolated, skittle-like, inaccessible stack rocks chosen by those ratherrare birds the little auks for their nesting-place year after year.

  On and on sped the boat past the precipitous cliffs, which, with thepromontory-like point ahead, were the destruction of many a brave vesselin the stormy times; and an inexperienced watcher from the shore wouldoften have suffered from that peculiar sensation known as having theheart in the mouth on seeing the boat careen over before some extrastrong puff of wind, till it seemed as if the next moment the sail wouldbe flat on the water while the little vessel filled and went down.

  But many years of teaching by the fishermen and Tom Bodger, thewooden-legged old man-o'-war's man of Rockabie, had made Aleck, youngthough he was, an expert manager of a fore and aft sailing boat, and theboy sat fast, rudder in one hand, sheet in the other, ready at the rightmoment to ease off the rope and by a dexterous touch at the rudder tolessen the pressure upon the canvas so that the boat rose again andraced onward till the great promontory ahead was passed. In due timethe land sheltered the young navigator, and he glided swiftly into thelittle harbour of the fishing town, whose roughly-formed pier curvedround like a crescent moon to protect the little fleet of fishing-boats,whose crews leaned over the cliff rail masticating tobacco and gazingout to sea, as they rested from the past night's labour, and talked in alow monotonous growl about the wind and the prospects of the night tocome.

  Rockabie was a prolific place, as far as boys were concerned. Therewere doubtless girls to balance them, but the girls were busy at home,while the boys swarmed upon the pier, where they led a charmed life; forthough one of them was crowded, or scuffled, or pushed off every dayinto deep water, when quarrelling, playing, or getting into someone'sway when the fish were landed, they seemed as if formed of cork orbladder and wind instead of flesh and blood, for they always came upagain, to be pulled out by the rope thrown, or hooked out by a hitcher,if they did not swim round to the rough steps or to the shore. Not onewas ever known to be drowned--that was the fate of the full-grown whowent out in smack or lugger to sea.

  The sight of Aleck Donne's boat coming round the point caused a rush onthe part of the boys down to the pier and drew the attention of thefishermen up on the cliff as well. But these latter did not stir, onlygrowled out something about the cap'n's boat from the Den. One man onlymade the comment that the sail wanted "tannin' agen," and that was all.

  But the boys were interested and busy as they swarmed to the edge of theunprotected pier, along which they sat and stood as closely as theupright puffins in their white waistcoats standing in rows along theledges that towered up above the point. For everybody knew everybodythere for miles round, and every boat as well.

  There was a good deal of grinning and chattering going on as the boatneared, especially from one old fisherman who lived inside a huge pairof very stiff trousers, these coming right up to his arm-pits, so thatonly a very short pair of braces, a scrap of blue shirt, and a woollennight-cap were required to complete his costume.

  This gentleman smiled, grunted, placed a fresh bit of black tobacco inhis cheek, and took notice of the fact that several of the boys had madea rush to the edge of the water by the harbour and come back loaded withdecaying fish--scraps of skate, trimmings, especially the tails, heads,and offal--to take their places again, standing behind their sittingcompanions.

  Someone else saw the action too, and began to descend from the cliff bythe long slope whose water end was close to the shore end of the pier.

  This personage would have been a tall, broad-shouldered man had he beenall there; but he was not, for he had left his legs in the West Indies,off the coast of Martinique, when a big round shot from a French batterycame skipping over the water and cut them off, as the ship's surgeonsaid, almost as cleanly as he could have done with the knife and saw heused on the poor fellow after the action was over, the fort taken, andthe Frenchmen put to flight.

  The result was that Thomas Bodger came back after some months to hisnative village, quite cured, in the best of health, and wearing a pairof the shortest wooden legs ever worn by crippled man--his pegs, as theboys of Rockabie called them, though he dignified them himself by thename of toes. As to his looks, he was a fine-looking man to just belowhis hips, and there he had been razed, as he called it to Aleck Donne,while the most peculiar thing about him as he toddled along was what atfirst sight looked like a prop, which extended from just beneath hishead nearly to the ground, as if to enable him to stand, tripod-fashion,steadily on a windy day. But it was nothing of the sort, being only hispigtail carefully bound with ribbon, and the thickest and longestpigtail in the "Ryal Navee."

  Tom Bodger, or--as he was generally known by the Rockabie boys--Dumpus,trotted down the slope in a wonderful way, for how he managed to keephis balance over the rough cobbles and on the storm-worn granite stonesof the pier was a marvel of equilibrium. But keep upright he did,solely by being always in motion; and he was not long in elbowing hisway through the crowd of boys, many of whom overtopped him, and plantinghimself at the top of the pier steps, where from old experience he knewthat Aleck would land.

  As soon as he was there he delivered himself of an observation.

  "Look here," he growled, in a deep, angry voice, "I've been marking o'you youngsters with my hye, and I gives you doo warning, the fust one onyer as shies any o' that orfull at young Master Donne, or inter hislittle boat, I marks with what isn't my hye, but this here bit ofwell-tarred rope's-end as I've got hitched inside my jacket; so lookout."

  "Yah!" came in a derisive chorus, as the sailor showed the truthfulnessof his assertion by drawing out about eighteen inches of stoutish brownrope, drawing it through his left hand and putting it back.

  "Yah!" shouted one of the most daring. "Yer can't ketch us. Yah!"

  "Not ketch ye, you young swab? Not in a starn chase, p'raps, but I'vegot a good mem'ry and I can heave-to till yer comes within reach, andthen--well, I'm sorry for you, my lad. I know yer;--Davvy, Davvy."

  The boy looked uncomfortable, and furtively dropped an unpleasantsmelling quid which he had picked up as a weapon of offence, and veryoffensive it was; but another lad appropriated it instantly and sniffedat it, smiling widely afterwards as if approving hugely of the vileodour. Probably familiarity had begotten contempt, for none of hiscompanions moved away.

  Meanwhile Aleck had run his boat close in and lowered his sail. Then,as he rose up, boat-hook in hand, he was greeted with a jeering chorusof shouts, for no other reason than that he was a so-called stranger whodid not live there and was well dressed, and belonged to a better class.

  Aleck was accustomed to the reception, and gave the little crowd acontemptuous look, before turning to the squat figure beginning todescend the steps, to where the boy stood ten feet below.

  "What cheer, Tom!" he cried.

  "What cheer-ho, Master Aleck!" returned the sailor. "Hearty, my lad,hearty." Then, turning to the boys, he growled out, "Now, then, youheered. So just mind; whether it's fish fresh or fish foul. The one asshies gets my mark."

  The voices of the boys rose in a curious way, making a highly pitchedjeering snarl, while a number of unpleasant missiles that were heldready were fingered and held behind backs, but from a disinclination tobecome the victim of the sailor's marking, no lad was venturesome enoughto start th
e shower intended to greet the newcomer. It was held inabeyance for the moment, and then became impossible, for peg, peg, peg,peg, Tom Bodger descended the steps till he was level with the gunwaleof Aleck's boat, upon which one extremity was carefully planted, andcareful aim taken at the first thwart. The sailor was about to swinghimself in, when Aleck held out his hand--

  "Catch hold!" he cried.

  "Tchah! I don't want to ketch hold o' nothing," grumbled the man."Stand aside."

  As he spoke he spun half round as upon a peg, the second wooden leglightly touched the thwart, and the next moment, when it seemed as ifthe poor fellow's wooden appendages must go through the frail bottom ofthe boat, they came down with a light _tip-tap_, and he was standing uplooking smilingly in the young navigator's face.

  "Come along tidy quick, my lad?" he said.

  "Yes, the wind was lovely. Look here, Tom; I'm going shopping--to getsome hooks and things. Mind that young rabble does not throw anythingaboard."

  "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 bea 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 likethis."

  "And he'll pay you; and you're to get one of the fishermen to pick youup and bring you back."

  "Tchah! I don't want no picking up. It's on'y about six mile acrossfrom here to the Den, and I can do that easy enough if yer give metime."

  "Do as you like, but uncle will pay for the ride."

  "And I shall put the money in my pocket and toddle back," said thesailor, chuckling; "do me more good than riding. You look sharp and getback. I'll give her a swab out while you're gone, and we'll take a goodreach out to where the bass are playing off the point, and get a few. Isee you've brought some sand eels."

  "So we will, Tom. I should like to take home a few bass."

  "So you shall, my lad," said the sailor, who had stumped forward to thefore-locker to get out a big sponge; and he was rolling up his sleevesover a pair of big, brown, muscular arms ornamented with blue mermaids,initials, a ship in full sail, and a pair of crossed cutlassessurmounted by a crown, as Aleck stepped lightly upon the gunwale, sprangthence on to the steps, and went up, to run the gauntlet of the littlecrowd of boys, who greeted him with something like a tempest of hootsand 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 hispockets, and smiled more broadly as he heard from below a growling shoutof warning from the sailor announcing what he would do if the boysdidn't mind, the result being that they followed the well-grown lad at alittle distance all along the pier, throwing after him not bad fish andfragments, which would, if well-aimed, have sullied the lad's clothes,but what an Irishman would have called dirty words, mingled with threatsabout what they would give him one of these fine days. The feud washigh between the Rockabie boys and the bright active young lad from theDen, for no further reason than has already been stated, and the dislikehad increased greatly during the past year, though it had neverculminated in any encounter worse than the throwing of foul missilesafter the boat when it was pushed off for home.

  Perhaps it was something in the air which made the Rockabie boys morepugnacious and their threats more dire. Possibly they may have feltmore deeply stung by the contempt of Aleck, who strode carelessly alongthe rough stone pier, whistling softly, with his hands in his pockets,till he reached the slope and began to ascend towards where thefishermen leaned in a row over the rail, just as if after a soakingnight they had hung themselves out in the sun to dry.

  And now it was that the boys hung back and Aleck felt that he couldafford to pay no heed to the young scrubs who followed him, for therewere plenty of hearty hails and friendly smiles to greet him from therough 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 nicebrill. I'll put him in your boat."

  And directly after a big broad fellow detached himself from the rail tosidle up with: "Say, Master Aleck, would you mind asking the cap'n tolet me have another little bottle o' them iles he gives me for myshowther? 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 alittle more over the rail and growled at the boys who were following thevisitor, to "be off," and to "get out of that; now," with the resultthat they still followed the lad and watched him, flattening their nosesagainst the panes of the fishing-tackle shop window, and following himagain 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 toretrace his steps to the harbour.

  So far every movement had been followed by cutting remarks expressive ofthe 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 therewas nothing more than petty annoyance till the quarry was on his wayback to where he would be under the protection of the redoubtableDumpus, who did not scruple about "letting 'em have it," to use his ownwords, it being very unpleasant whatever shape it took. But now thepack began to rouse up and show its rage under the calm, careless,defiant contempt with which it was being treated. Words, epithets, andallusions grew more malicious, caustic, and insulting, and, theseproducing no effect by the time the top of the slope was reached, boldertactics were commenced, the boys closing round and starting a kind ofhorse-play in which one charged another, to give him a thrust so as todrive him--quite willing--against the retiring visitor.

  This was delightful; the mirth it excited grew more boisterous, and thecovert attacks more general.

  But Aleck was on the alert and avoided several, till a more vigorous onewas 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 ahoarse 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 hiscoarse laugh to an end by delivering a stinging blow on the ear whichdrove him sidewise, and made him stand shaking his head and thrustinghis finger inside his ear, as if to try and get rid of a peculiarbuzzing sound which affected him strangely.

  There was a roar, and the boy who had been thrust against Aleck sprangat him to inflict condign punishment upon the stranger who had dared tostrike his companion.

  The attack was vigorous enough, but the attacker was unlucky, for he metAleck's bony fist on his way before he could use his own. Then heclapped his open hands to his nose and stood staring in wonder, andseemed to be trying to find out whether his nose had been flattened onhis face.

  There was an ominous silence then, during which Aleck turned and walkedon down the slope in a quiet leisurely way, scorning to run, and evenslackening his pace to be on his guard as he reached the bottom of theslope, 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-inring, with the two lads who had tested the force of his blows eager toobtain revenge, incited thereto by a score or two of voices urging themto "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, tobe just, it was from no cowardly spirit, but from each being urged by asheer vindictive desire to be first to obtain revenge for his blow.Hence they were mastered by pa
ssion and came on recklessly against onewho was still perfectly cool and able to avoid the bigger fellow'sassault while he gave the other a back-handed blow which sent himreeling away quite satisfied for the present and leaving the odds, so tospeak, more even in the continuation of the encounter.

  Aleck was well on the alert, and, feeling that he was utterlyout-matched, he aimed at getting as far as the steps, where he wouldhave Tom Bodger for an ally, and the attack would come to an end; but hewas soon aware of the fact that to retire was impossible, hedged in ashe was by an excited ring of boys, and there was nothing for him but tofight his way back slowly and cautiously. So he kept his head, coollyresisting the attack of the big fellow with whom he was engaged,guarding himself from blows to the best of his ability, and payinglittle heed to the torrent of abuse which accompanied the blows the bigfisher lad tried to shower upon him, and always backing away a fewyards, as he could, nearer to the way down to his boat.

  By this time the word was passed along the top of the cliff that therewas a fight on, and the fishermen began slowly to take themselves offthe rail and descend the slope to see the fun, as they called it. Theydid not hurry themselves in the least, so that there was plenty of timefor the encounter to progress, with Aleck still calm and cool, wardingoff the blows struck at him most skilfully, and mastering his desire toretaliate 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 abusegrew more foul, and Aleck more cool and contemptuous, till all at oncehis adversary yelled out something which was received with acclamationsby the excited ring who surrounded the pair, while it went through Alecklike some poisoned barb. He saw fire for the moment, and his teethgritted together, as caution and the practice and skill he had displayedwere no more, for, to use a schoolboy phrase, his monkey was up and hemeant fighting--he meant to use his fists to the best effect in tryingto knock the vile slanderous words, uttered against the man he loved andvenerated, down the utterer's throat, while his rage against those whocrowded around, yelling with delight, took the form of back strokes withhis 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 wasprincipally directed, and the fellow realised at once that all that hadgone before, on the part of the stranger from the Den, was mere sparringand self-defence. Aleck meant fighting now, and he fought, showeringdown such volleys of blows that, at the end of a couple of minutes, inspite of a brave defence and the planting of nasty cracks about hisadversary's unguarded face, the big lad was being knocked here andthere, up, down, and round about, till the shouts and cries about himlowered into a dull, dead hum. The pier stones reeled and rose and sankand seemed to imitate the waves that floated in, and when at last, inutter despair, he locked Aleck in his arms and tried to throw him, hereceived such a stunning blow between the eyes that he loosened hisgrasp to shake his head, which the next moment was knocked steady andinert, the big fellow going down all of a heap, and the back of his bigbullet skull striking the pier stones with a heavy resounding bump.