Vince

“ It may be too dark for them to see us if we lie close and don’t make a sound. And look,” he said joyfully: “we really are close to the sea now, for we’re going due south.”
“Due south it is,” assented Vince, as if he were standing at a wheel steering. “Yes, I suppose you’re right, for I can hear the sound of surf. Listen.”
“Yes, I can hear,” replied Mike; “but it sounds smothered-like.”
“Rocks between us, perhaps. Now then: only whispers, mind!—close to the ear. Don’t let’s lose our chance of getting away by telling them where we are. I say!” ”

“ Vince laughed.
“Ay, that’s what’s the matter with him, young gentleman. A man who can’t ketch lobsters and sell ’em like a Christian, but must take ’em home, and byle ’em, and then sit and eat till you can see his eyes standing out of his head like the fish he wolfs, desarves to be ill. Well, I must be off and see what luck I’ve had.”
“Come on, Mike,” cried Vince, springing up—an order which his companion obeyed with alacrity. ”

“ I say, what a lot he does know!”
“No wonder,” said Vince, who was parting the heather and peering down beneath: “he’s always reading. I wish he was fonder of coming out in a boat and fishing or sailing.”
“So do I,” said Mike. “We’d make him do the rowing. Makes us work hard enough.”
“I don’t see why he shouldn’t help us,” continued Vince. “Father says a man ought to look after his body as well as his brains, so as always to be healthy and strong.” ”

“ Not to have anozaire kick at notre bon Joseph, eh?”
“No, not even to serve Joe Daygo out,” said Vince. “An old wretch! But he deserves it.”
“And faith of a gentlemans, on your word of honneur, you vould not tell vere ze contraband is kept?”
“On our honour, as gentlemen, we would not: would we, Mike?”
“No,” was the eager reply.
“I believe you bose,” said the captain. “But you could not keep your vort. It is impossible.”
“But we would,” said Vince.
“You vould try, mon garçon, but you vould be oblige to tell. Listen—von vort for all. I have faith in you bose, but no, it cannot be. ”

“ The “light” was a sort of wooden shutter, which took the place of an ordinary cabin window, and as soon as he had drawn it wide open the soft night air entered in a delicious puff.
“Hah! that’s better,” sighed Vince. “Come here and breathe, Ladle, old chap. It’s of no use to smother ourselves if we are miserable. ”

“ That’s been owing two years.”
“When my ship comes in, father,” cried Vince, laughing.
“But, I say, don’t send me to a big school, father. I like being here so much.”
“Yes: to waste the golden moments of boyhood, sir.”
“But I don’t, father,” cried Vince. “I really do work hard at everything Mr Deane sets me, and get it all done before I go out. He never finds fault.”
“Bah! You’re getting too big to think of going out to play with Mike Ladelle.” ”

“ Vince staggered as he stepped out on to the granite stones to make the boat fast, and Mike was in little better condition; but by degrees the suffocating sensation which oppressed them grew less painful, and they slowly and laboriously carried oars, spars and sail up to their place of stowage. ”

“ Then Vince returned to the boat, thrust down his hand and drew out his jersey, Mike taking hold of one end to help him wring it out.
They had neither of them spoken for some time; but at last Vince said: “We shall have to pay old Joe for the mending of the boat.”
“I say, Vince,” said Mike, in a low, husky tone, “oughtn’t we to be thinking about something else? It was very near, wasn’t it?”
“Yes,” said Vince, with a passionate outburst, “I was thinking of something else;” and he threw himself down upon a huge piece of wave-worn granite and hid his face on his arm. ”

“ I’m tired, and don’t want to do it, but it’s the best way.”
“But it will take so long,” cried Vince.
“It’ll take longer if we’re going on walking we don’t know where,” said Mike ominously.
“Oh, come, I say, don’t go on like that,” cried Vince. “Fellows who are mates ought to try and cheer one another up, and you’re doing nothing but cheer one down.”
“I must speak the truth,” said Mike gloomily.
“Here! do leave off! Why, you’re as bad as that old raven out over the Scraw—all croak, croak, croak!” ”

“ That Vince’s good friends may have something that’s rare;
Another thing early the Ladies to please,
He grows in the garden the sweetest of peas,
And if in the spring there are nice cooling showers,
The same time will send them the choisest of flowers,
The garden most people from Norwich invite,
As that is his pride and daily delight;
There are seats and good harbours your time to invite,
When smoaking your pipe to afford you delight,
The house tho’ not gaudy is always kept clean,
Or at least I do say as mostly is seen ”

“ Vince stood listening to the murmur of voices coming out of the opening above them.
“Ever so far back yet,” he whispered; and he dropped upon his knees and opened the tinder-box and the lanthorn, which he had placed before him on the sand.
“No, no; don’t do that,” protested Mike, who was half wild with alarm.
“Can’t help it: we must have a light,” said Vince; and the cavern began to echo strangely with the nicking of the flint and steel.
“Then come in the other cavern,” said Mike, as he stood holding the club and cudgel. ”

“ Been on the cliffs?”
“Yes,” said Vince. “Come on, Mike: it’s tea-time.”
The boys walked on in silence for some moments, and then Vince spoke.
“I say, Mike, do you think he’s watching us?”
“No,” said Mike shortly. “You fancy he is, because you’ve got some cock-and-bull notion that he don’t want us to go to the Scraw.”
“Perhaps so,” said Vince thoughtfully; “but I can’t help it. I do think so.”
“Well, suppose he does; he said what was right: it is a horribly dangerous place, and all the people keep away from it because they’ve got ideas like his.” ”

“ What nonsense!”
“It isn’t nonsense,” said Vince. “That man will do anything sooner than have it known where his hiding-place is; and he won’t kill us—he dares not on account of his men; but he’ll get us out of the way so that we shan’t be able to tell.”
“Oh, I won’t believe it!” cried Mike angrily. “Such a thing couldn’t be done.”
“But it has been done over and over again,” said Vince: “I’ve read of it. They used to sell men and boys to sea-captains to take out to the plantations; and once they were there, they had no chance given them of getting back for years and years.” ”

“ I say, oughtn’t we to go there again?”
“You want to open some of those packages,” said Vince, as he reached his head a little way over the side of the cliff to gaze down at an enormous roller that came plunging through the outlying rocks a couple of hundred feet below. “Well, what of that?”
“Phew! My!” cried Vince, drawing back breathlessly and wiping the blinding spray from his face. “You can’t do that, Ladle. I believe you might try to jump down there and find you couldn’t. The wind would pitch you up again and throw you over into the fields.”
“Shouldn’t like to try it,” said Mike drily. ”

“ He had said a few words to one of the men, who went up into the back of the cavern while the other waited; and Vince noted that there was a splashing sound round the corner of the buttress which supported one side of the great arch, so that he was not surprised directly after to see the prow of a boat appear, to be run in and beached upon the sand.
Vince looked up inquiringly when the smuggling captain came and stood before him; but the man did not speak—he only glared down, apparently with the idea that he was frightening the lads horribly. ”

“ My thoughts go rushing along like the water.”
“Don’t talk so loud, Mike,” said Vince, after a pause, “or we shall be heard. But we must have left them a long way behind, or else they’ve covered over their lanthorn so as to come upon us by surprise.”
“Think they are near us, then?”
“Must be, because the tide would carry them along as fast as it does us; and they have the advantage of knowing the way. Oh! I do wish we could get out in the open sea; and then, once we were clear of the rocks, we’d show them what the boat could do. ”

“ Vince did not speak for a few moments, but gazed from the sail to the surface of the smooth sea and back again two or three times.
“’Tisn’t the sail that carries us along so,” he said at last; “she only just fills, and hardly pulls at the sheet at all. Ladle, old chap, we’re in a current that’s carding us along at a tremendous rate.”
Mike looked at him in alarm, but Vince went on coolly.
“There’s nothing to mind, so long as we keep a sharp look-out for rocks. The old boat would crush up like an egg if she went on one now. ”

“ They walked up to the pile of kegs, and Vince took one down, to find that it was peculiar in shape and hooped with wood.
“Empty,” he said; “it’s light as can be.”
“Try another,” said Mike; and Vince put the one he held down, and tried one after another—at least a dozen.
“The stuff has all run out or evaporated,” he said. “Hark here!”
He tapped the end of one with his knuckles, but, instead of giving forth a hollow sound, the top sounded dead and dull.
“They’re not empty,” he said, giving one a shake: “they must be packed full of something light. ”

“ This place is stifling.”
“Try,” said Vince. “That’s right. Again! Better. Now take a long pull. How are you now?”
“Oh, better—better,” said Mike eagerly.
“Breathe again.”
“Yes, yes; I am breathing better and better. Then the air is coming now?”
“Yes,” said Vince drily; “the air is coming fast, and the light can’t be very long. There—it’s all right, Ladle; we shan’t hurt now. But I don’t know how we’re going to manage when the tide falls, for we shan’t dare to go out.”
“No,” said Mike, whose spirits sank again at these words, “we shan’t dare to go out. ”

“ Vince would have liked to decline, so strong was his desire to study the key to the entrance of the secret little port; but to refuse to go down was impossible, and he preceded his host through the cabin-hatch, where a swinging lamp was burning and the deadlights were closed so that not a gleam could escape. The tureen steamed on the table, they were in no danger, and healthy young appetite prevailed, for the soup was good even if the biscuits were flinty and hard. ”

“ You always want to be off after something. Why can’t you keep to one purpose at a time, as Mr Deane says, so as to master it?”
“Hark at old Ladle beginning to lay down the law,” cried Vince merrily. “You’re just as bad. I say, shall we stop about here this afternoon? Look at that gull—how it seems to watch us.”
Vince threw back his head to gaze up at the beautiful, white-breasted bird, which was keeping them company, and sailing about here and there some twenty feet overhead, watching them all the time.
“Bother the gull!” said Mike. “Let’s go on and speak to old Joe about the boat.” ”

“ I wish we’d had some more of old Jarks’ dinner, and then gone to sleep quietly in our bunks. We couldn’t have been so badly off as we are now.”
“Then why did you propose for us to escape?”
“Because I thought we ought to try,” said Vince sharply, as he suddenly changed his tone. “There, it’s of no use to talk, Mike. We’re in for it, and I’m not going to give up like a coward. I don’t know where we are, and you don’t; but we’re in one of those whirls that go round and round when the tide’s running up or down, and we can’t be any worse off than we are now, for there are no rocks, seemingly.” ”

“ Mike was lying with his face close to the bulkhead, and of course with his back to their visitor and his features in the shade; but Vince’s was the harder task, for he had assumed his attitude as being the most sleep-like, and to give better effect to his piece of acting, he had opened his mouth, and went on breathing rather heavily, while the fact of his having his boots off, and one foot sticking out over the bunk side, helped materially over the bit of deception. ”

“ Vince frowned, but made no reply.
“Zere, valk down to ze boat vis me. Say you vill not run avay.”
“No: I mean to escape,” said Vince.
“Bah! It is sillee. You cannot, mon garçon. Come, ze parole d’honneur. Be a man.”
Vince glanced at Mike, who gave him an imploring look, which seemed to say: “Pray give it.”
“Yais,” said the captain, smiling: “Parole d’honneur. If you try to run il faut shooter zis time.”
“Parole d’honneur for to-day,” said Vince. “After to-day I shall try to escape.”
“It is bon—good,” said the captain, laughing. “After to-day—yais. Zere, valk you down to ze boat. ”

“ Yes, they’re all right.”
“What do you mean?” said Mike. “I meant they haven’t eaten any part of you, have they?”
“Don’t talk stuff,” said Mike, rather pettishly. “How could we be so foolish as to go to sleep?”
“No foolishness about it,” said Vince quietly. “We were tired, and it was dark, and we dropped off. I say, I’m hungry. Think we’ve been to sleep long?”
“I don’t know. Perhaps. There’s only one way to find out: go to the mouth of the hole.”
“Yes—that’s the only way,” said Vince; “and now the use of the candle comes in. I don’t know, though: it seems a pity to light the last bit. ”

“ It’s worse than carrying a hammer. I’m quite sore.”
Mike laughed, and again more heartily upon seeing Vince begin to secure the grapnel with a sea-going knot to the length of rope.
“Let those laugh that lose,” cried Vince sententiously; “they are sure to who win.”
“Enough to make any one laugh,” cried Mike. “What are you going to bait with?” ”

“ But at the end of some minutes Vince only uttered a grunt and threw himself backward, to lie with his hands under his head.
“I can’t make anything of it, Ladle,” he said impatiently; “and I’m not going to bother. It looked horribly dangerous when we were in it yesterday, but it only seems beautiful to-day.”
“Yes,” said Mike; “it’s because we’re so far off, and things are so much bigger than they look. But it was dangerous enough without having the boat leak.”
“Horribly,” said Vince. “I wonder we ever got back. ”