United States or Singapore ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
I was so glad, for Bigley's sake, that my heart gave quite a heavy throb; and, unless I was very much deceived, I heard my father draw a long breath like a sigh of relief. As we gazed at the sails and the dark hull in the increasing light, everything looked so strange and indistinct that it seemed impossible for it all to be real.
Big shook his head. "Father has it in the lugger," he said; "but let's climb up all the same." We knew the ways of the great headland better than the people, and were about to start upon our climb when Mother Bonnet came up and caught Bigley's arm. "Think they'll get away, Master Big?" she whispered with her face mottled with white blotches. "I'm sure of it," he cried triumphantly.
"Sit up and bale, Bob!" shouted Bigley. "Do you hear? Take the pannikin and bale." Bob did not move, and Bigley shouted to him again. "Take the pannikin and bale. Do you hear me? Take the pannikin and bale." "I can't," moaned Bob. "I can't. Let me lie here and die." Dark as it was I could just make out Bigley's actions, for I was in the fore part of the boat, and he before me. "Bale, I say!
I don't care for sword drill." "Bigley's coming too," I said; "and we're going through it all." "It's stupid work standing all in a row swinging your arms about like windmills, chopping nothing, and poking at the air, and pretending that someone's trying to stab you. I wouldn't mind if it was real fighting, but yours is all sham."
To our great satisfaction the crab was still inside alive and uninjured; but we found no more relics of our expedition. The other baskets were gone with the eel and prawns, and the third net was wanting. I must except, though, one of Bigley's shoes, which had been cast up four hundred yards from the rock pool, and lay at high-water mark in a heap of sea-weed, battered wreck-wood and shells.
Another wave and another came over us, and though I kept on waving my handkerchief at times, there seemed to be no hope of help from the lugger. So in a fit of despair, after a glance towards the shore, I began to follow Bigley's example and undress, feeling that it was forced upon me, and that I must make an effort and swim for my life.
"Hark at old cock Solomon, who knows everything." "I don't care what you say," I replied. "I'm sure this is how they've got away." "Well, let's hear," said Bob, and Bigley's eyes flashed with eagerness. "Why, they haven't got away at all," I said. "They wouldn't dare to go down Channel after getting the cargo out of the cave, for fear of meeting the cutter just at daybreak."
"Why, they had to get fifteen or sixteen wounded men away," I cried, and then winced. "And serve 'em right," said the doctor. "Here, Bob!" Bang, bang! "What's that?" "Bigley's signal; and by the way, doctor, the poor lad is wounded too. Come along and see." "No, I'll go," said the doctor. "You are not fit." "But I'm going all the same," cried my father; and I saw them go off along the cliff path.
Bigley's countenance brightened at this, and seizing it directly he gave the word, declaring that he was all right; and away he went once more, and came up again so quickly that we felt there was something wrong. "What's the matter?" I cried. "Haul up and see," was his reply; and as the men hauled, everyone held his breath till the basket came up slowly and heavily to the surface.
We all sat down with our legs in the hole, following Bigley's example as he set himself to watch the coming of his father's boat, which was growing plainer now every minute, and trying, by spreading all the sail she could, to reach the Gap. "I wonder how long she'll be?" said Bob, sitting there with his chin upon his hands. "About an hour," replied Bigley. "What! Coming that little way?
Word Of The Day