The Lost Middy Part 19

Bodger went on netting away, watching the boat out of the corner of one eye as it was rowed smartly up to the harbour steps, where the oars were turned up; and leaving the youth with him in charge of the boat's crew, the officer sprang out with one of the men and hurried up the steps, gave a supercilious glance at the crippled sailor, who touched his hat, and then went along towards the town.

"Yes, that's it," said the sailor to himself. "Having a look round.

There'll be a gang landed to-night as sure as my name's Bodger."

The thinker made a few more meshes and then had a glance down on the boat and her crew, his eyes dwelling longest upon the young officer, who had taken out a small gla.s.s, through which he began to examine the town.

"Middy," said Bodger. "Smart-looking lad too. What's their game now?"

he continued, as the boys drew closer together. "They'll be up to some game or another directly. Shying old fish at that youngster's uniform, or some game or another. Strikes me that if they do they'll find that they've caught a tartar. Just what they'd like to do--shy half a dozen old bakes' tails at his blue and white jacket. I might say a word to him and save it, but if I did I should be saving them young monkeys too, and--look at that now!--if that arn't Master Aleck's boat coming round the pynte! They sees it too--bless 'em! Now they'll be arter him, safe. That'll save the middy, but it won't save Master Aleck. Strikes me I'd better put my netting away and clear the decks for action."

Tom Bodger's clearing for action consisted in turning himself aside so that he could drag a neatly-folded duck bag off the fender, and stuffing his partly-made net and twine, with stirrup, mesh, and needle, inside before tying up the neck with a piece of yarn.

But his eyes were busy the while, and he watched all that went on, Aleck's boat running in fast, the boys whispering together, their leader sending off a couple towards the town end of the pier, and eliciting the mental remark from the sailor:

"Going arter Big Jem for twopence. Are we going to have another fight?

Well, if we are he arn't going to tackle two on 'em, for I'm going to see fair with my stick and the crew o' that cutter to look on to form a ring."

By the time he had thought out this observation it was time for him to carefully ascend to the top of one of the great mooring-posts, the flattest-topped one by preference. How it was done was a puzzle, and it drew forth the observations of the cutter's crew, while the mids.h.i.+pman in charge shouted "Bravo!" But somehow or other, by the use of his hands and a peculiar hop, Tom Bodger brought himself up perpendicularly upon the top of the post, steadied himself with his stick, and then held his head aloft.

That was enough. Aleck was near enough in to recognise the figure and comprehend the signal, which in Tom's code read:

"Right and ready, my lad. Steer for here."

CHAPTER TEN.

Aleck ran his boat close in behind the cutter after lowering the sail so close that it touched the mids.h.i.+pman'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 fas.h.i.+on, 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 s.h.i.+p'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 mids.h.i.+pman. 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 mids.h.i.+pman, 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 ash.o.r.e 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 princ.i.p.al 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 pa.s.sed 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 pa.s.sed 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 fas.h.i.+on, 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?"