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Updated: June 19, 2025
Only one who has measured the strength of the surf against the smallest craft, may comprehend the magnitude of their labour. "Aleck's crew ahead with the tracking-line," shouted Garth. The line is always kept coiled and ready, hanging on the bow. Aleck seized it, and followed by three others, ran ahead along the beach, paying it out.
The next morning one of the first things that saluted Aleck's eyes on making his way up to the look-out on the cliff, was the sloop-of-war about a couple of miles out, sailing very slowly along, followed at a short distance by the Revenue cutter, and the lad had not been watching five minutes before he became aware of the fact that Ness Dunning's work in the garden was at a standstill, that individual being laid flat upon his chest watching the vessels' movements through a piece of pipe.
"Nay, nay," said the big fisherman, as a low, angry murmur arose, and ignoring the allusion to the fish debris lying about, "we don't want no press-gangs meddling here." "Yes, you do," said the sailor, angrily, as he applied a blue cotton neckerchief he had snatched off and shaken out, alternately to a cut on Aleck's forehead and to his swollen nose, which was bleeding freely.
Help!" came from his right, and with the boat rocking from side to side he felt about along the gunwale till his hand came in contact with Aleck's fingers, clinging desperately to the edge of the boat. "Got yer," said Tom, gripping the lad's wrist and hanging over the side to speak. "Can't yer hold on while I get an oar out and move her a bit furder away?" "No. Help me in," said Aleck, huskily.
When in Ithaca on his way home the fun-loving Rover had purchased an imitation rabbit, made of thin rubber. This rabbit had a small rubber hose attached, and by blowing into the hose the rabbit could be blown up to life size or larger. Leading the way to Aleck's room, Tom got out the colored man's coat and placed the rubber rabbit in the middle of the back, between the cloth and the lining.
I liked his father, and in reply to an inquiry of his relative, as to Aleck's capacity, I told him 'his son would doubtless succeed as a farmer, for he was industrious; but he had not sense enough to make a lawyer. He thanked me; and Aleck left the office, and, profiting by my advice, went to the plough, and has made a fortune, and a very respectable position for himself; but from that day forward, not a member of the family has ever been my friend.
"Hole in her bottom?" said the friendly fisherman who had presented the brill, in answer to Aleck's application, "and want her brought ashore? Sewerly, my lad, sewerly."
"I don't think he will ever trouble you," was Aleck's reply. "At any rate, he will never make you go to sea again against your will. But if anything does happen to you after the warning we have given him, we'll blame him for it, whether he is guilty or not, and some night you will see his buildings going up in smoke. Is there any one on the road who will be likely to see me if I come out?
Tom was as busy as a bee and, to judge from the latter's usually contented hum, just as much satisfied, for his efforts certainly vastly improved the aspect of Aleck's boat; and he was still hard at work swabbing and drying and laying ropes in coils, when a remark from one of the sailors in the adjacent boat made the midshipman spring up out of a doze in the hot sunshine and give the order to "Be smart!"
It was rather a distorted smile on Aleck's lips, as, after undressing, he fell fast asleep, but it was a very happy one all the same, and so thought Captain Lawrence as he stole into the room in the grey dawn to see if his nephew was sleeping free from fever and pain, and then stole out again without making a sound.
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