Chapter 10

________________________________________________
_ CHAPTER TEN.

Aleck ran his boat close in behind the cutter after lowering the sail so close that it touched the midshipman's dignity.

"Hi, you, sir!" he shouted. "Mind where you're going with that boat."

"All right," replied Aleck, coolly enough. "I won't sink you."

"Hang his insolence!" muttered the middy; and as Tom lowered himself from the post and then went, rock-hopper fashion, down the steps and boarded the boat, the young officer gave Aleck a supercilious stare up and down, taking in his rough every-day clothes and swelling himself out a little in his smart blue well-fitting uniform.

Aleck felt nettled, drew himself up, and returned the stare before making a similar inspection of the young naval officer.

"Whose boat's that, boy?" said the latter, haughtily.

"Mine," was Aleck's prompt reply. "What ship's that, middy--I don't mean the cutter, of course?"

"Well, of all the insolence--" began the lad. "Do you know, sir, that you mustn't address one of the King's officers like that?"

"No, I didn't know it," said Aleck, coolly. "I thought you were only a midshipman. Are you the captain?"

"Why, con--"

"Look out!" cried Aleck, giving the speaker a sharp push which nearly sent him backward but saved him from receiving a wet dockfish full on the cheek, the unpleasantly foul object whizzing between the lads' heads, followed by a roar of laughter from a group of the young ruffians on the pier.

"How dare you lay your hands upon a King's officer!" cried the midshipman, furiously.

Aleck shrugged his shoulders and laughed.

"Look out!" he cried. "Here come two or three more," and he dogged aside, while the middy was compelled, metaphorically, to come down from his dignified perch and duck down nearly double to escape the missiles which flew over him.

"Do you see now?" said Aleck, merrily.

"Oh! Ah! Yes! Of course! The insolent young scoundrels! Here, half a dozen of you jump ashore and catch that big boy with the ragged red cap. I'll have him aboard to be flogged."

Six of the boat's crew sprang out on to the steps, but there was no prospect of their catching the principal offender, who uttered a derisive yell and started off to run at a rate which would have soon placed him beyond the reach of the sailors; and he knew it, too, as he turned and made a gesture of contempt, which produced a roar of delight from the other boys who stood looking on.

"After him!" yelled the middy to his men, as he stood stamping one foot in his excitement; and then turning to Aleck: "If the cat don't scratch his back for this my name's not Wrighton."

The communication was made in quite a friendly, confidential way, which brought a response from Aleck:

"He'll be too quick for them. The young dogs are as quick as congers."

"You wait and you'll see. I'll make an example of him."

All this passed quickly enough, while the boy in the red cap, feeling quite confident in his powers of flight, turned again to jeer and shout at the sailors, whom he derided with impudent remarks about their fatness of person, weight of leg, and stupidity generally, till he judged it dangerous to wait any longer, when he went off like a clockwork mouse, skimming over the stones, and from the first strides beginning to leave the sailors behind.

"I told you so," said Aleck. "There he goes. I can run fast, but I couldn't catch him. Ha, ha, ha! Bravo, Tom!" he cried. "Look at that sailor!"

For meanwhile Tom Bodger, stick in hand, had made his way back on to the pier, and just as the boy was going his fastest something followed him faster, in the shape of the wooden-legged sailor's well-aimed cudgel, which spun over the surface of the pier, thrown with all the power of Tom's strong arm, and the next instant it seemed to be tangled up with the boy's legs, when down he went, kicking, yelling, and struggling to get up.

"Hi! Oh, my! Help, help!" he yelled at his comrades; but they only stood staring, while the foremost sailors passed on so as to block the way of escape, and the next instant the offender was hemmed in by a half circle of pursuers, who formed an arc, the chord being the edge of the pier, beneath which was the deep, clear water.

"There," cried the middy, triumphantly. "Got him!" Then to his men: "Bring the young brute here."

Meanwhile, as the boy lay yelping and howling in a very dog-like fashion, the laughing sailors began to close in, and then suddenly made a dart to seize their quarry, but only to stand gazing down into the harbour.

For, in pain before from the contact of the stick and his heavy fall, but in agony now from the dread of being caught, the boy kept up the dog-like character of his actions by going on all fours over two or three yards, and then, as hands were outstretched to seize him, he leaped right off the pier edge, to plunge with a tremendous splash ten feet below, the deep water closing instantly over his head.

"He's gone, sir," said one of the sailors, turning to his officer.

"Well, can't I see he has gone, you stupid, cutter-fingered swab?" cried the middy. "Here, back into the boat and round to the other side of the pier. You'll easily catch him then."

"Not they," said Aleck, quietly; "didn't I tell you he was as quick and slippery as a conger?"

"Look sharp! Be smart, men," cried the middy, angrily.

"What's the good of tiring the lads for nothing?" said Aleck, as the men began to scramble into the cutter. "It will take them nearly ten minutes to get round to where he went off."

"Would it?"

"Of course."

"But, I say," said the middy, anxiously, "mightn't he be drowned?"

"Just about as likely as that dogfish he threw at you. Come and look!"

Aleck led the way up the steps, followed by the young officer, and then as they crossed the pier they came in sight directly of the boy, swimming easily, side stroke, for a group of rocks which formed the starting-point of the pier curve, and beyond which were several places where the boy could land.

"He'll be ashore before we could get near him," said Aleck.

"What! Shall I have to let him go?" cried the middy.

"Of course! He got a tremendous crack on the legs from Tom Bodger's stick--he was nearly frightened to death; and he has had a thorough ducking. Isn't that enough?"

"Well, it will have to be," said the middy, in a disappointed tone. "I meant him to be treed up and flogged."

Aleck looked at him in rather an amused fashion.

"Well, what are you staring at?" said the middy, importantly.

"I was only wondering whether you would be able to order the boy to be flogged."

"Well--er--that is," said the midshipman, flushing a little; "I--er-- said I should give him--er--report it to the captain, who would give the orders on my statement. It's the same thing, you know, as if I gave the flogging. 'I'll give a man a flogging' doesn't, of course, mean that I, as an officer, should give it with my own hands. See?"

"Yes, I see," said Aleck, quietly.

"Sit fast there," cried the middy to his men, as he began to descend the steps. "Let the young scoundrel go."

Just then Aleck glanced round and saw that the officer who had gone ashore was returning, followed by the man who had accompanied him, and he turned to Bodger, who stood waiting for orders, before descending again to the boat. _

Read next: Chapter 11

Read previous: Chapter 9

Table of content of Lost Middy: Being the Secret of the Smugglers' Gap


GO TO TOP OF SCREEN

Post your review
Your review will be placed after the table of content of this book