Chapter 19. Having It Out With The Enemy

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_ CHAPTER NINETEEN. HAVING IT OUT WITH THE ENEMY

The two boys were very quiet the next morning, on meeting, and their tutor rubbed his hands with satisfaction twice in the course of their lesson.

"Now, that is what I like," he said; "and how much happier you must feel when you have given your minds thoroughly to the work we have in hand!"

That was the only time during the study hours that anything approaching a smile appeared on Vince's face; but he did cock his eye in a peculiar way at Mike, only to receive a frown in return.

At last the lessons were over, and the boys went out into the garden, strolled into the small shrubbery and patch of woodland which helped to shelter the house from the western gales, and then, marvellous to relate, instead of running off to get rid of some of their pent-up vitality, they sat down upon a prostrate tree-trunk, which had been left for the purpose, and Vince began to rub his shins, bending up and down in a peculiar seesaw fashion.

"I am stiff and tired this morning as can be," he said.

"Oh! I'm worse," said Mike. "I feel just as if I were going to be ill. Haven't caught horrible colds through kneeling in the water so long, have we?"

"Oh no; it's only being tired out from what we did. I say, feel disposed to have another try to find the way in?"

"No," said Mike shortly: "I wouldn't go through what we did yesterday for all the smugglers' caves in the world."

"Well, I don't think I would!" said Vince thoughtfully. "I'm sure I wouldn't. I don't want all the smugglers' caves in the world. But it was risky! Every time I went to sleep last night I began dreaming that the boat was sinking from under me, and then I started up, fancying I must have cried out."

"I got dreaming about it all, too," said Mike, with a shudder. "It was very horrible!"

They sat thinking for some time, and then Vince tried to rouse himself.

"Come on," he said.

"No; I want to sit still."

"But you might walk half-way home with me."

"No," said Mike; "I feel too tired and dull to stir. Besides, if I come half-way with you, I shall have as far to walk back as you have to go. That's doing as much as you do. I'll come with you as far as the corner."

"Come on, then," said Vince; and they started, after groaning as they rose. "I feel stiff all over," sighed Vince, "and as if my head wouldn't go."

They parted at the corner, with the understanding that they were to meet as usual after dinner, and at the appointed time Vince came along the roadside to where Mike lay stretched upon the soft turf.

But there was not the slightest disposition shown for any fresh adventure, and the only idea which found favour with both was that they should stroll as far as the cliff known to them as Brown Corner, and sit down to go over the seascape with their eyes, and try and make out their course on the previous afternoon.

Half an hour later they had reached the edge of the cliff, sat down with their legs dangling over the side, and searched the sea for the rocks they had threaded and for signs of the swift current.

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. Won't try it again, then?" he added, after awhile.

"No, I won't," cried Mike, more emphatically than he had spoken that day.

"Well, I don't think I will, Ladle; only I feel as if I had been beaten."

"So do I: as sore all over as sore."

"Tchah! I don't mean that kind of beating: beaten when I meant to win and sail right into the cove in front of the caves. I say, it wasn't worth taking old Joe's boat for and making a hole in the bottom."

"No; and we haven't said a single word about it yet."

"Felt too tired. I don't care. He'll kick up a row, and say there's ten times as much damage done to it as there really is, and it's next to nothing. Five shillings would more than pay for it. I'll pay part: I've got two-and-fourpence-halfpenny at home; but it's a bother, for I wanted to send and buy some more fishing tackle. Mine's getting very old."

"Well, I'll pay all," said Mike. "I've got six shillings saved up."

"No, that won't be fair," said Vince; "I want to pay as near half as I can."

"Well, but you want to buy some hooks and lines, and I shall use those as much as I like."

"Of course," said Vince, as Mike followed his example and let himself sink back on the soft turf, to lie gazing up at the blue sky overhead; "but it won't be the same. I helped poke the hole in the boat, and I mean to pay half. I tell you what: we'll pay for the damage together, and then you'll have enough left to pay for the fishing lines, and I can use them."

"Well, won't that be just the same?"

"No; of course not," said Vince. "The lines will be yours, and you won't be able to bounce about, some day when you're in an ill-temper, and say you were obliged to pay for mending the boat."

"Very well; have it that way," said Mike.

"And we ought to go over and see the old man, and tell him what we did."

"He doesn't want any telling. He has found it out long enough ago. There was the sail rolled up anyhow, too. I was too much fagged to put it straight. When shall we go and see him?"

"I dunno. I don't want to move, and I don't want to have to tell him. He'll be as savage as can be."

The boys lay perfectly still now, without speaking or moving; and the gulls came up from below, to see what was the meaning of four legs hanging over the cliff in a row, and then became more puzzled apparently on finding two bodies lying there at the edge; consequently they sailed about to and fro, with their grey backs shining as they wheeled round and gazed inquiringly down, till one, bolder than the rest, alighted about a dozen yards away.

"Keep your eyes shut, Ladle," said Vince. "Birds are coming to peck 'em out."

"They'd better not," said Mike.

"I say, couldn't we train some gulls, and harness them to a sort of chair, and make them fly with us off the cliff? They could do it if they'd only fly together. I wonder how many it would take."

"Bother the old gulls! Don't talk nonsense. When shall we go and see the old man?"

"Must do it, I suppose," said Vince. "Yes, we ought to: it's so mean to sneak out of it, else we might send him the five shillings. I hate having to go and own to it, but we must, Ladle. Let's take the dose now."

"Do what?" said Mike lazily.

"Go and take it, just as if it was salts and senna."

"Ugh!"

"Best way, and get it over. We've got to do it, and we may as well have it done."

"Yes."

"But I say, when are you going to the cave again? Not to-day?"

"No."

"To-morrow?"

"No."

"Next day?"

"Well, p'r'aps. See how I feel."

"Ready?"

"What for?"

"To go and see old Joe Daygo."

"Haven't got the money with me now."

"We'll go and fetch it, and then go to him."

Mike grunted.

"There, it's of no use to hang back, Ladle; we've got it to do, so let's get it done."

"Yes; you keep on saying we've got it to do, but you don't jump up to go and do it."

"I'm quite ready," said Vince; "and I'll jump up if you will. Now then, ready?"

"Don't bother."

"But we must go, Ladle."

"Well, I know that; but I haven't got the money, and it's so far to fetch it, and I ache all over, and I don't want to see old Joe to-day, and--"

"There, you're shirking the job," interrupted Vince.

"No, I'm not, for I want to get it over."

"Then don't stop smelling the stuff; hold your nose, tip it up, and you shall have a bit of sugar to eat after it if you're a good boy."

"Oh, Cinder, how I should like to punch your head!"

"No, you wouldn't. Come on and take your physic."

"I won't till I like. So there."

"'Cowardy, cowardy, custard, Ate his father's mustard,'" said Vince. "I say, I don't see that there was anything cowardly in eating his father's mustard. It was plucky. See how hot it must have been; but I suppose he had plenty of beef and vegetables with it. He must have had, because, if he hadn't, it would have made him sick."

"What, mustard would?" said Mike, who was quite ready to discuss anything not relating to the visit to old Daygo.

"Yes; mustard would."

"Nonsense. How do you know?"

"Father says so, and he knows all about those sort of things, including salts and senna. So now, then, old Ladle, you've got to get up and come and take your dose."

"Then I shan't take it to-day."

"And have old Joe come to us! Why, it would be disgraceful. You've got to come."

"Have I?" grumbled Mike; "then I shan't."

"'Day, young gen'lemen!"

Mike leaped to his feet in horror, and Vince pulled himself up in a sitting position, to stare wonderingly at the old fellow, who had come silently up over the yielding turf.

"You?" said Mike: "you've come?"

"Nay, I arn't, so don't you two get thinking anything o' the sort. I won't let you have it to go out alone."

"You--you won't let us have it to go out alone?" faltered Vince.

"That's it, my lad," said the old man.

"Then he hasn't found out yet," thought Vince; and he exchanged glances with Mike, who looked ready to dash off.

"Why, yer jumped up as if yer thought I was going to pitch yer off the cliff, Master Ladelle. Been asleep?"

"No, of course not," said Mike; and he looked at Vince, whose lips moved as if he were saying--"I'm going to tell him now."

"Might just as well have said 'yes' to you, though," grumbled Daygo.

"Just as well," assented Vince.

"Nice sort o' condition she's in now. One streak o' board nearly out. Cost me a good four or five shilling to get it mended, for I can't do it quite as I should like."

Four or five shillings! Just the amount Vince had thought would be enough.

"If I'd let you have it," continued the old man, "that wouldn't ha' happened. But I know: they can't cheat me. I'm a-goin' over to Jemmy Carnach to have it out with him, and first time I meets the young 'un I'm going to make him sore. See this here?"

Daygo showed his teeth in a very unpleasant grin, and drew a piece of tarry rope, about two feet long, from out of his great trousers, the said piece having had a lodging somewhere about his breast.

"Do you think Lobster--" began Vince.

"Ay, that's it: lobster," said Daygo. "Lobster it is: Jemmy Carnach would sell himself for lobster, but he arn't a-going to set his pots in my ground and go out to 'zamine 'em with my boat. I don't wish him no harm, but it would ha' been a good job if she'd sunk with him and his young cub. They're no good to the Crag--not a bit. Ay, I wish she'd sunk wi' 'em, only the boat's useful, and I should ha' had to get another."

Old Daygo ceased speaking, and after giving the rope a fierce swish through the air, as if he were hitting at Lobster's back, he put the end inside the top of his trousers, just beneath his chin, and gradually worked it down out of sight.

Vince coughed, and he was about to begin, after looking inquiringly at Mike, who shook his head, and turned it away. But Vince somehow felt as if it would be better to wait till the whole of the rope had disappeared, and Daygo had given himself a shake to make it lie comfortably. Then his lips parted; but the old man checked him by saying,--

"On'y wait till I meet young Jemmy. I've on'y got to slip my hand in here, and it's waiting for him. Yes, young gen'lemen, I'm a-going to make that chap sore as sore as sore."

"No, you're not, Joe," said Vince firmly.

"What? But I just am, my lad. If I don't lay that there piece on to his back, and make him lie down and holloa, my name arn't Daygo."

"But you are not going to thrash him, Joe," said Vince.

"Who'll stop it?"

"I will," said Vince. "It wasn't Jemmy Carnach and his boy."

"Eh? Oh yes, it was. Lobstering they were arter. I know."

"No, you do not, Joe. They didn't take it."

"What!" cried the old man. "Then who did?"

"Mike Ladelle and I."

"You did!" cried the old man, staring. "Why, I told you I wouldn't let you have it, and saw you both go home."

"But we didn't go home," said Vince. "We went and hid in the rocks, and watched till you'd gone away, and then we crept down to the boat and got her out."

"You did--you two did?" cried the old man; and his hand went into the top of his trousers.

"Yes," said Vince desperately, "and we had a long sail."

"Well!" growled the old man,--"well! And I thought it was him!"

"We're very sorry we scraped a rock, and made her leak."

"Made her leak!" roared the old man: "why, she's spyled, and I shall have to get a new boat."

"No, she isn't, Joe: you said it would cost four or five shillings to mend the hole."

"Eh? Did I?"

"Yes, you did; and Mike and I will give you five shillings to get it done."

The old man thrust out his great gnarled hand at once for the money.

"We haven't got it here, Joe," said Vince; "but we'll bring it to you to-night. Eh, Mike?"

"Yes; after tea."

"Honour?"

"Yes: honour."

"Honour bright--gen'leman's honour?"

"Yes," said Vince emphatically.

"Let him say it too," growled Daygo.

"Honour bright, Joe," said Mike.

"Oh, very well, then; I s'pose I must say no more about it," grumbled the old man; "but I'm disappynted--that I am. I thought it were they Carnachs, and I'd made up my mind to give it the young 'un and make him sore. It's such a pity, too. I cut them two feet o' rope off a ring a-purpose to lay it on to him. I owe him ever so much, and it seemed to be such a chance."

"Save it for next time, Joe," said Vince, as Mike looked on rather uneasily, for the old man kept on playing with the end of the rope.

"Eh? Save it for next time?" he said thoughtfully. "Well, I might do that, for the young 'un's sure to give me a chance, and then it won't be wasted. Yes, I'll hang it up over the fireplace at home, ready agen it's wanted. But you two'll bring me that five shilling to-night?"

"Yes, of course."

"Ay, course you will," said the old man slowly.

"There's one thing I likes in a gen'leman. Some chaps says they'll do something, or as they'll pay yer, and they swear it, and then most times they don't; but if a gen'leman says he'll do anything, there yer are, yer knows he'll do it--without a bit of swearing too. But, haw--haw-- haw--haw!"

The boys stared, for the old man burst out into a tremendous roar of laughter, and kept on lifting one leg and stamping it down.

"Why, what are you laughing at?" said Mike, gaining courage now that the trouble was so amicably settled.

"What am I laughin' at?" roared the old fellow, stamping again: "why, at you two! Comes to me and wants to borrow my boat, and boasts and brags and holloas about as to how you knows everything. We can sail her, says you; we knows how to manage a boat as well as you do, and, haw, haw, haw! you helps yourselves and goes out, and brings her back with a hole in her bottom. Here! where did you go?"

"Oh, along where you took us," said Vince quickly.

"And which rock did you run on?"

"Oh, I don't know what rock it was, only that it was just under water."

"'Course not. Says to me, says you, that you knows all the rocks as well 's me, and goes and runs her on one on 'em fust time."

"Well, it was an accident, Joe."

"Ay, my lads, it were an accident; but you've got to think yourselves very lucky as she didn't founder. Did you have to bale?"

"Yes, all the way home, as hard as ever we could go."

"Ay, you would, with a hole in her like that. Well, I arn't got no time to stand a-talking to you two here; but I just tells you both this: that there boat, as soon as she's mended and fresh pitched, 'll be a-wearing a great big padlock at her stem and another at her starn.--I shall be at home all evening waitin' fer that five shilling."

He gave them both a peculiar wink, stood for a few moments shading his eyes and looking out to sea, and then, giving his head a solemn shake, he went off without another word.

"Feel better, Mike?" said Vince, as soon as the old man was out of hearing.

"Better? Ever so much. I'm glad we've got it over. I say, Cinder, nothing like tipping off your dose of physic at once."

"But I had to take it," cried Vince. "You wouldn't do your share."

That evening after tea they kept their word. Vince handed Mike his two-and-fourpence-halfpenny, and Mike gave him the five shillings which he was to pay.

They found the old man standing outside his cottage, with his old spy-glass under his arm, waiting for them, and apparently he had been filling up the time by watching three or four vessels out in the offing.

"Let's have a look, Joe," said Vince, as soon as the business was over and the money lodged in a pocket, access to which was obtained by the old man throwing himself to the left nearly off his balance, and crooking his arm high up till he could get his fingers into the opening.

The telescope was handed rather reluctantly, and Vince focussed it to suit his sight as he brought it to bear on one of the vessels.

"Brig, isn't she, Joe?" said Vince.

"Ay, my lad; looks like a collier."

"Schooner," said Vince; and then, running the glass along the horizon, he took a long look at a small, smart-looking vessel in full sail, her canvas being bright in the evening glow.

"Why, she's a cutter!" said Vince, rather excitedly: "Revenue cutter."

"Nay, nay, my lad, only a yawrt."

"I don't think she is, Joe; I believe it's a king's ship."

"Tchah! what would she be doing yonder?"

"I don't know," said Vince.

"Done with my glass?" growled the old man.

"Directly," replied Vince; and he swept the sea again.

"Hullo!" he said suddenly: "Frenchman."

"Eh? Where?" said Daygo quickly.

"Right away, miles off the North Point."

The old man took the glass, altered the focus again, and took a long, searching look.

"Bah!" he exclaimed; "that's not a Frenchman, my lads," and he closed the glass with a smart crack. "I say, lookye here."

He led the way to the door, grinning tremendously, and pointed in to where, hanging over the fireplace, was the piece of well-tarred rope, hanging by a loop made of fishing line.

"Ready when wanted--eh?"

The boys laughed and went off soon after towards home.

"Five shillings worse off," said Mike, when they parted for the night; "but I'm glad we got out of all that so easily.--I say, Cinder!"

"Well?"

"It would have been rather awkward if he'd taken it the other way and been in a rage."

"Very," said Vince, before whose eyes the two feet of rope seemed to loom out of the evening gloom.

"And it would have been all your fault."

"Yes," said Vince shortly. "Good-night: I want to get home."

They parted, and as he walked back Vince could not help thinking a good deal about the previous afternoon's experience, and he shook his head more than once before beginning to think of the cavern. _

Read next: Chapter 20. Fresh Pulls From The Magnet

Read previous: Chapter 18. A Risky Trip

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