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One day, two summers after that in which young Jobson and his friend had tumbled into the Colven, a large party of us were down at the bathing- place, indulging in what had now become a favourite summer pastime. It so happened that our party was made up entirely of boys in the two senior classes of the school the fifth and the sixth.
Altogether it is to be doubted if a real meet of real hounds to hunt real hares a cruel and not very manly sport, after all could be much more exciting than this is. "Half a minute!" sings out the whipper-in, as we spring to our feet. In another thirty seconds we are swinging along at a good pace down the slope of the warren, in the direction of Colven meadows, and the hunt has begun.
But this is anticipating. For half an hour we were busy getting our boat trim for her voyage. She was a somewhat old craft, in which for many years past we had been wont to cruise down the seaward reaches of the Colven, carrying one lug-sail, and with thwarts for two pairs of oars. She was steady on her keel, and, as far as we had been able to judge, sound in every respect, and a good sailor.
I shall recall it in the hope of deterring my readers from following my foolish example or at least of warning them of the terrible results which may ensue from a thoughtless act of wrong-doing. I have already mentioned that Parkhurst stood some two or three miles above the point at which the River Colven flows into the sea.
The speaker was Bobby Jobson, a hero of some thirteen summers, who, in company with four of us, his schoolfellows, sat on the bank of the Colven, under some willows, dabbling his shins in the clear water of the river. The summer had been tremendously hot. Cricket was out of the question, and boating equally uninviting.
I should explain that at Parkhurst we were peculiarly favoured in the matter of boating. The River Colven flowed through the town only half a mile from the school boundaries, and being at that place but a short distance from the sea, it was some fifty yards broad, a clear, deep stream, just the sort of water one would choose for rowing.
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