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And so the boys found, for they decidedly got the worst of it. Soon after, growing bolder, some of the most daring began to make approaches to snatch at the net or the ball of water-cord, but they gained nothing by that. For Tom Bodger never went out without his stick, a weapon he used for offence as well as defence, and there was not a boy there in Rockabie who did not know how hard he could hit.
A boat was lowered from each, and the lad's glass was powerful enough to enable him to make out the faces of the officers in the stern-sheets, one of whom was the midshipman who had charge of the boat at Rockabie pier.
Men-of-war going into Rockabie harbour! That news was sufficient to upset all Aleck's arrangements. He forgot all about the lesson he was going to give the gardener, and rushed indoors, to hurry upstairs and rap sharply at his uncle's study, and, getting no answer he threw open the door to cross the room and seize the glass from where it hung by its sling.
"That you're a set of smugglers, and, worse still, wreckers when you get a chance, and don't stop at robbery or murder. One of the fishermen I won't say his name said you were a regular gang of pirates." "The Rockabie fishermen are a set o' soft-headed fools," snarled the man. "But what do I care for all they say?
The result was that Thomas Bodger came back after some months to his native village, quite cured, in the best of health, and wearing a pair of the shortest wooden legs ever worn by crippled man his pegs, as the boys of Rockabie called them, though he dignified them himself by the name of toes.
Aleck had fully determined to avoid the boys of Rockabie that morning, and he was half disposed to hug himself with the idea that after the thrashing Big Jem had received they would interfere with him no more.
I can feel it in my old wound; and it will not be safe for a boy like you alone to try and run that boat home round the point." "Oh, uncle, you treat me as if I were a little boy!" "So you are; and too light-headed." "It's such a beautiful morning for a sail, uncle." "Do just as well to watch the sea from the cliffs, and the carrier can bring what you want from Rockabie next time he goes."
Then he was asleep, dreaming of nothing, till about midnight, when his brain became active and he fancied that he was back in the darkness by the unlaunched boat at Rockabie, growing wildly excited as he listened to the shouting and scuffling up one of the narrow lanes, followed by firing and what seemed to be either an order or a cry for help.
But it was nothing of the sort, being only his pigtail carefully bound with ribbon, and the thickest and longest pigtail 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 keep his balance over the rough cobbles and on the storm-worn granite stones of the pier was a marvel of equilibrium.
"But you did not walk over from Rockabie this morning, my man?" said the middy. "Not walk over, sir? Oh, yes, I did." "You must be very tired?" "Not me, sir. My legs never get tired; and yet the queerest thing about it is that they allus feel stiff." "Don't talk any more, Tom," said Aleck. "I want to get to business. Now, then, don't you think we might get out now?"
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