George Manville Fenn

“ The next day came, and with it Bob Chowne from Ripplemouth and Bigley Uggleston from the Gap; and we three boys set off over the cliff path for a regular good roam, with the sun beating down on our backs, the grasshoppers fizzling in amongst the grass and ferns, the gulls squealing below us as they flew from rock to rock, and, far overhead now, a hawk wheeling over the brink of the cliff, or a sea-eagle rising from one of the topmost crags to seek another where there were no boys. ”

“ Let’s go home now. Stop,” he cried, starting; “don’t seem to look, but turn your head slightly towards the sea. Your eyes are better than mine. Who’s that standing on the piece of rock over yonder. Can you see?”
“No, father, not yet.”
“Look more to the north, boy. Just over the big rock that stands out of the cliff-side. There’s a man watching us.”
“Yes, I see, father,” I cried.
“Who is it?” he whispered, as he led the way along by the steep slope so that we might descend and go up the Gap by the stream side and reach the shore.
“Yes, I know, I’m sure now,” I cried. “It’s old Jonas Uggleston.” ”

“ The nest was too cleverly hidden for us to find, so, tiring of the little stream, and knowing that there was one waiting for us in the Gap where we could capture trout, we went on along the cliff path, gossiping as boys will, till we reached the great buttress of rock that formed one side of the entrance to the little ravine, and there perched ourselves upon the great fragments of rock to look down at where the little stream came rushing and sparkling from the inland hills till it nearly reached the sea at the mouth of the Gap, and then came to a sudden end. ”

“ We sat and talked and lay close to the edge to watch the waves come sweeping in more and more, till the little bay was covered and the tide rose over the outlying rock, the water sounding wild and strange as it washed, and splashed, and sighed, and sucked in amongst the stones. Then, by slow degrees, as we gazed down we found how necessary it had been for us to climb up to our perch, for the tide rose and rose, higher and higher, till it must have been seven or eight feet up the rocks below us ”

“ No matter how cautiously we approached, something would take fright. Perhaps it would be a little shore crab that betrayed itself by scuffling down amongst the corallite or sea-weed, perhaps a little fierce-looking bristly fish, which shot under a ledge of the rock all amongst the limpets, acorn barnacles, or the thousands of yellow and brown and striped snaily fellows that crawled about in company with the periwinkles and pelican’s feet. ”

“ For we have cliff slopes in places as high as that, where the edge of the moor seems to have been chopped right off, and if you are up there you can gaze down at the waves foaming over the rocks, and if you looked right out over the sea, there away to the north was Taffyland, as we boys called it, with the long rugged Welsh coast stretching right and left, sometimes dim and hazy, and sometimes standing out blue and clear with the mountains rising up in the distance fold behind fold. ”

“ The water came splashing over us always, but every now and then a great solid wave drove us together, lifting us to strike against the rocks, and then letting us fall heavily, but only to leap in again, and snatch us up as they beat, and swirled, and hissed, and dragged at us like wild creatures, and if we had not held on so tightly to poor Bigley, we must have been washed outwards from the shore. ”

“ The stars came out more and more, the wind died away, and the short dancing motion by very slow degrees subsided into a regular cradle-like rock, that, in spite of the cold, had a lulling effect upon us; and at last I seemed to be thinking of the miserable-looking mine in the Gap, and my father scolding me for going away without asking leave, and then everything seemed to be nothing, and nothing else. ”

“ He sprang to poor Bigley’s other hand, and we dragged and tugged with slow steady strain and sharp snatch, but without any effect; and every now and then, as we pulled, the waves came right up, and drove us against the rock.
“It’s of no use, boys,” said Bigley at last. “I’m fast.”
“Help!” yelled Bob Chowne with all his might; but in that great solitude his voice had no more effect than the wail of a sea-bird. There was not a soul in sight either on cliff path or the shore. Out to sea there were sails enough, small craft and goodly ships going and coming from Bristol and Cardiff ”

“ It was not to be expected that three boys fresh from school could pass that falling stream without leaping from rock to rock, and penetrating a hundred yards inland, to see if we could find a dipper’s nest, for one of the little cock-tailed blackbirds gave us a glimpse of his white collar as he dropped upon a stone, and then walked into a pool, in whose clear depths we could see him scudding about after the insects at the bottom, and seeming to fly through the water as he beat his little rounded wings using them as a fish does fins. ”

“ I said.
“Why, to have all the fun to yourselves and never send for a fellow. If it hadn’t been for the firing I shouldn’t have known anything about it. I wouldn’t have been so shabby to you.”
“Why, I didn’t think about you, Bob,” I said.
“That’s just like you, Sep Duncan. But I say, what a game!”
“I don’t see much game in it,” I said sadly. “Big’s father is in the lugger, and mine—”
“In the cutter trying to catch him,” cried Bob. “Oh, I say, what a game!”
“Look here!” said Bigley in a deep husky voice, “come down along with me, Sep, and take hold of my arm. I feel as if I wanted to fight.” ”

“ The heavens, in place of being of the soft bluish-grey that had been so pleasant when we came out, had grown black, the rain all about us was like a thick mist that shut out the sight of the cliffs, and with it the power of seeing the hissing water descend into the sea for a few yards round, we forming what seemed to be the centre of the mist. ”

“ It was so still that the lapping of the evening tide sounded quite loud, and the querulous call of a gull that swept by was quite startling.
“Well,” said my father, “can you see the boat? No no, don’t look out there, my lad, look in here close.”
“She isn’t in here close,” said Bigley quietly.
“She must be, Big,” cried Bob. “Here, let me come.”
“I see her!” cried Bigley just then. “No. Yes. There she is, sir!” he said, pointing to the east. “She’s broke adrift, and is floating yonder half a mile away towards the Gap.” ”

“ I said warmly, “if half a dozen Frenchmen were after you and firing.”
“Never, sir!” cried the doctor fiercely, as he probed the wound; “an Englishman never runs. There, I can feel it—that’s the fellow.”
“Oh, doctor!” groaned poor Bigley.
“Hurt?” said Doctor Chowne. “Ah, well! I suppose it does. And so you, an Englishman, ran away—eh?”
“English boy,” said Bigley grinding his teeth with pain, while I felt the big drops gathering on my forehead, and was wroth with the doctor for being so cool and brutal.
“English boy!—eh?” he said. “Well, but boys are the stuff of which you make young men. ”

“ But at last the hurdles and stones at the sea end of the weir were completely left by the tide, so that we could walk down, and then, as the water shallowed more and more in the triangular inclosure, we looked out eagerly for fish.
“There they are—lots of ’em!” cried Bob excitedly, for he was too much interested to be disagreeable and say unpleasant things.
“Oh, those are only little ones,” cried Bigley, as the little silvery fry kept flashing out of the surface. “They’ll all go out through the holes. You’ll see none of them will be left.” ”

“ It was a glorious sunny day, and sea and sky were beautiful, but the fierce current that set off from the point was sweeping us rapidly away, and it was only a question of how long we could keep on swimming—a quarter of an hour, half an hour, an hour—and then first one and then another must sink, unless in our efforts to save the first weak one we all went down together, and the glittering sea flowed over our heads with only a few bubbles of air to show where we had been. ”

“ It was quite true, though we at first thought that we must be under shelter of the land; the wind was sinking fast, and the waves lost their fierce foaminess. They rose and fell, and leaped against the boat, but it was with less splash and fury, and then, as the danger died away, so did our remaining strength. Bigley and I, who were now rowing, or rather dipping our oars from time to time, slowly threw them in, and the boat lay tossing up and down at the mercy of the waves; but no water dashed in over the gunwale, and Bob Chowne’s hand with the baler rested helplessly by his side. ”

“ The tide was very low, the sun up bright and high, and the water so clear that there was every rock below us so close that it seemed as if we could not go over some of them without touching.
“We’ll row out to the buoyed grapnel,” said Bigley; “make fast, and while you have your bathe I shall dive down, follow the rope, and see if I can find out how the grapnel has got fast.”
“If you can,” I said.
“Well, I’m going to try,” replied Bigley. “I don’t suppose it’s above three fathoms deep.”
“You can’t dive down three fathoms?” I said.
“Can’t I?” replied Bigley laughing. “I’m going to show you. ”

“ Old Jonas turned sharply round on him, and looked as if he were going to knock his son down, so fierce was his aspect.
“No!” he roared.
“No, father?” faltered Bigley.
“No!” said old Jonas, not quite so fiercely. “Do you think I want to spend all next week on the look-out to find you chaps when you’re washed ashore—drowned?”
“Oh, father! Just as if it was likely!”
“Haw, haw!” laughed old Jonas, and it did not seem like a laugh, but as if he were calling his son bad names. “You can manage a boat all of you, can’t you, and row and reef and steer? Get out. ”

“ It was so all round, as we plainly saw by the sea-weed that clung in the crevices, and the limpets and barnacles on the smooth places right above the heads of us boys, while every here and there at our feet we could see the common red sea creatures, which look like red jelly when the tide is down, and like daisyfied flowers when it is up. ”

“ Our mishap was soon forgotten, and we determined to have another prawning trip, for, as Bob Chowne said, there was no risk over it, if we didn’t go and stick ourselves between two stones ready for the tide to come in and drown us. “But it was an accident,” said Bigley gravely. “Oh, no, it wasn’t,” cried Bob; “an accident’s where you can’t help it—where a boat upsets, or a horse falls down, or a wheel falls off, or you slip over the edge of the cliff.” ”

“ 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. The sails began to fill, and the vessel glided silently away without a voice on board being heard, till it was so far-off that my father said:
“I think we may begin to talk, my lads, now.”
“I say, sir,” cried Bob excitedly, “weren’t those smugglers?” ”

“ But there was war in our cottage at the Bay—desperate war. Mother Bonnet coming every morning with fish and cream and chickens and fruit for her boy, as she called Bigley; and our Kicksey snorting and indignant at the intrusion, and telling old Sam that it was just as if master was too poor to pay for things. ”

“ Bob Chowne shook his head, and I began to feel chilled and oppressed by the task we had before us.
“No, I couldn’t swim so far,” cried Bob suddenly. “It would take a strong man who could keep on for hours to do that.”
“I tell you that you could do it,” cried Bigley, who seemed to be quite passionate now. “Don’t talk like that, Bob, or you’ll frighten Sep Duncan out of trying.”
“I’m not going to try,” I said gloomily. “It would be no use. I could swim to the shore but not round the point.”
“What’s the good of talking like that?” cried Bigley. “You both can swim it, and you must.” ”

“ And there we two lads sat on the shelf of rock listening to the sobbing and sighing of the tide, and staring out to sea. Sometimes we talked in a low voice about how uncomfortable some people would be about us, and Bob said it was like my luck—that I had my father with me, while his and Bigley Uggleston’s would be in a terrible way.
“And a nice row there’ll be about it,” he said dolefully. “There never was such an unlucky chap as I am.”
“And Big?”
“Oh, Big! Pooh! His father never takes any notice about him.” ”