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As he spoke he held out the bullet he had extracted at the end of a long narrow pair of forceps; and, as Bigley looked at it with failing eyes, he turned away with a shudder and whispered to me, as I supported his head upon my arm: "I'm glad Bob Chowne isn't here to see what a miserable coward I am, Sep. Don't tell him there's a good chap!"
Steady!" shouted Bob. "Don't sink us, lad. I say, what a weight you are! Let's put him ashore, Sep. He's too big a Big for a boat like this." "Make good ballast," said Bigley, laughing good-humouredly. "Boats are always safer when they are well ballasted." "I daresay they are, but I like 'em best without Big lumps in 'em. I say, how far out shall we go?"
"He won't hurt us. He can't, because he is my father's tenant, and if he did he'd have to go." "Don't talk like that, Sep," whispered Bigley. "It's bad enough now, and it would be worse then." "I say, what chaps you two are!" cried Bob Chowne. "Why don't you talk to a fellow?" No one answered, and Bob turned sulky and went and sat on the front of the cart, where he began to whistle.
It was a wise thing to do, for it made us warmer, tired as we grew, and so we kept on change and change about for quite an hour, when I saw something which made me shout. "We're close home; there's the light." Bigley looked out in the direction I pointed, and watched for a minute before he spoke. "No," he said; "it's moving. It's a light on board a ship."
Then we thought these must be clouds too, for it seemed impossible that it could be land, and both Bigley and I said so to Bob.
"No; he gets up in a corner here so that I can only feel his slippery tail with the stick, and he won't come out." "Take hold of it with your hand and pull," said Bigley. "Oh yes, I daresay. Just as if I didn't know there's only one place where you can hold on." "Where's that?" said Bigley. "With your hand in his mouth. You come and put yours in."
Bob did not look round, but his ears seemed to twitch as the sound of our schoolmates' heavy tread came over the stones, for he lumbered along at a trot with a big maund, as we called the baskets there, in one hand, a great landing-net in the other. But as Bigley came to the edge of the pool Bob waded out and said in a low quiet voice: "Shall I carry the basket?"
"Oh, I'm sure master would say you're welcome, sir," said the rosy-faced old lady. "It's a beautiful afternoon for a row." Ten minutes after we were well afloat, and Bigley and I were pulling, making the water patter under the prow of the boat, as it rose and fell on the beautiful clear sea.
Then I wanted to wake up Bigley and Bob Chowne, to get them to start rowing again, for the sea had gone down, there was hardly a breath of wind; and, though I could see nothing, I felt that the land could not be very far away.
"Now, then, off!" The bag, which with the lead inside had been resting on the gunwale, was lowered into the water; Bigley seized it, and in an instant over he turned to go down head-first, with the line running rapidly through the block, and then all at once growing slack.
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