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The water in the bottle had been reduced too low by vaporism, and the bottle burst suddenly, with a loud report. That report was followed by a piteous wail. Hazel turned pale at this fatal blow. But recovering himself, he said, "That is unfortunate; but it was a good servant while it lasted. Give me the baler; and, Miss Rolleston, can you lend me a thimble?"
It's wonderful filling at the price." The man laughed, and emptied the baler. "'Tarn't bad, mate," he said, as he leaned over the side to refill the tin. "Bad? I should think not. I feel like a noo man." "And you looks it, too, matey," said the other grinning. "I shouldn't ha' knowed you with that boiled duff fizz-mahogany o' yourn. How much bigger's it going to get?"
Now I could not understand all that when I was so young, but I've often thought about it since, and seemed to read it all, and how nature was making him beg for water for his parched tongue, while his education forced upon him the desire to fight me as a cruel enemy. "There," I said, going a little nearer, pushing the baler close to his hands, and drawing back.
I ejaculated, as I looked down into the baler, "why, it looks like a dose of rhubarb." "Well, it do, sir, a little; but you're a spyling of it a deal by looking at it first. You shut your eyes, sir, as I said; me and my mates thought as it's good strong water with a deal o' what some people calls nootriment in it." "None for me, thank you," I said, handing back the tin.
This done, I took stock of my prize, and found that I had come into possession of a twenty-eight-foot gig, in a perfectly sound and undamaged condition, equipped with four sixteen-foot ash oars, a mast and sails, rowlocks, bottom-boards, stretchers, rudder and yoke, baler, boat-hook, and priceless treasure, under the circumstances two breakers of fresh water securely lashed to the bottom-boards to serve as ballast.
"There, I'm not going to hurt you," I said, stretching out my hand for the baler, and getting it, meaning to go and fill it once more; and as I returned I saw that he was watching me so wildly that I walked up, with him shrinking away as far as he could go, and offered the tin to him again. He took it in the same shrinking way, evidently expecting a blow, and drank heavily once more.
"It is a hopeful sign," said my father, and he took the baler, poured out all but a few drops of water, added some spirit, and placed it to the man's lips, with the result that he managed to drink a little, and then lay perfectly still, gazing at my father with a strange look which I know now was one full of vindictive hate, for the poor wretch must have read all this attention to mean an attempt to keep him alive for more ill-treatment, or until he was sold.
"Hah!" ejaculated Tom Fillot, when, after holding down his face close to the water, and drinking for some time like a horse, he sat up with a tin baler in his hands, sipping from the full vessel, enjoying himself, and making comments for his comrades to hear. He had tried to smile, but the effort consequent upon the state of his swollen face was too painful, and he gave that up.
But a cow she seemed, and a cow she was found to be; and when the old woman began to milk her, every pitcher and pan, even to the baler, was soon filled with the most delicious milk. The old man troubled his head in vain as to how she came there, and sallied forth to seek for his lost net.
He now dipped his baler into the stream and found it pure and tolerably cool. He followed the bend of the stream; it evaded the slope and took him by its own milder descent to the sands. Over these it flowed smooth as glass into the sea. Hazel ran to Welch to tell him all he had discovered, and to give him his first water from the island.
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