The nets were soon mended and the slack places hauled up taut, while the
_Teal's_ crew sauntered about the deck, waiting patiently for the next
attack, and compared notes about the slight injuries they had received.
Meanwhile the skipper and mate were anxiously on the alert for what
might happen next.
"I want to know what they mean, Burgess," the lads heard the skipper
say. "They'll never put up with such a rebuff as this."
"Oh, I don't know," growled Burgess. "The officers wouldn't, of course,
but they'll never get those swabs to face us for another bout."
"What do you think, then? That they will go back for fresh boats'
crews?"
"That's somewhere about it, or some stinkpots to heave aboard, or maybe,
if they have got one, for a barge or pinnace with a boat's gun."
"Possibly," said the skipper, and Poole gave Fitz a nudge with his elbow
as if to ask, Did you hear that?--a quite unnecessary performance, for
Fitz had drunk in every word.
"Yes," continued the skipper; "they'll be after something or another.
Don Cousin is bound to take us by some means, and we must be on the
look-out for a surprise. Can we wait till dark and slip out to sea
again?"
"No," said the mate abruptly; "I want broad daylight for anything like
that. I couldn't take the schooner a quarter of a mile in the dark
without getting her on the rocks."
"I suppose not," said the skipper; "and I suppose it's no use to try and
get higher up the stream?"
"Not a bit," replied the mate. "The boats would follow us anywhere. I
am very sorry. I've brought you into a regular trap, and there's only
one way out, and the gunboat's sitting on it. But under the
circumstances there was nothing else to be done. How I do hate these
tea-kettles! But one must look the plain truth in the face. They can
go anywhere, and we, who depend upon our sails, can't."
"That's all true enough," said the skipper, "but it doesn't better our
position. What I want to know is, how things are going on lower down.
Now, if you lads, or one of you," he continued, turning to the boys,
"could shin up that high cliff yonder you could see the boats and the
gunboat too, and make signals to us so that we might know what to
expect."
"All right, father," said Poole sharply, and he glanced at Fitz as he
spoke; "have me landed in the dinghy, and I'll go up and see."
Fitz looked at the speaker, and his eyes said, "All right, I'll come
with you;" but the skipper made no answer for a time, but stood shading
his eyes and sweeping the face of the cliff, before dropping his hand
and saying--
"How would you do it, my lad?"
"Oh, by climbing up, father, a bit at a time, getting hold of the bushes
and hauling oneself up sometimes."
"Ah," said the skipper quietly. "You would be very clever if you did.
It might be managed for a little way up, but all that upper part isn't
perpendicular; it hangs right over towards us. Impossible, my lad.
Nothing could get up there but a bird or a fly. We must give up that
idea. Burgess, you will have to lower a boat and let her drift down to
the headland there, stern on, and with the men ready to pull for their
lives, as you may be fired at. When you get to the head you must let
her slide along close under the bushes till you get a sight of the boats
and see what they're doing."
"Right," said the mate. "Now?"
"Yes; the sooner the better."
Poole glanced at Fitz, and then started to speak to his father; but
before he could open his lips there was an emphatic--
"No! You would only be in the way, my lads. I want four strong men to
row, and one in the stern to look out; and that one is Mr Burgess."
"Very well, father," said the lad quietly, but he looked his
disappointment at Fitz, whose vexation was plainly marked on his
countenance, as he mentally said, "Oh, bother! He might have let us
go."
Things were done promptly on board the _Teal_, and in a few moments the
cutter was lowered down with its little crew after the netting had been
cast loose and raised; and then they watched her glide down with the
stream, stern on, with the rowers balancing their oars, the stroke
dipping his now and then to keep her head to stream, and the mate
standing with his back to them till the headland was reached, when he
knelt down, caught at the overhanging bushes and water-plants, and let
the boat drift close in and on and on without making a sign, till she
disappeared.
Just then Fitz heaved a sigh.
"What's the matter, old chap?" said Poole.
"Oh, we shall have nothing to do but wait now, perhaps for hours, for I
expect the enemy has gone right back to the gunboat, and waiting is a
thing I do thoroughly hate. Eh? Is that you, Camel?"
"Andy Cawmell it is, sir. A'm thenking that it would be joost a good
time for a wee bit food. Ah've been watching Mr Burnett here, and the
puir laddie looks quite white and faint. Would you mind telling the
skipper that I've got a wee bit hot dinner a' ready? and if he will gi'e
the word I'll have it in the cabin in less time than Duncan Made-Hose
took his pinch of sneeshin."
"Well done, Camel!" cried Poole, who darted to his father, leaving the
cook blinking and smiling at Fitz, who looked at him in admiration.
"Why, Camel," he said, "you are a deal too clever for a ship's cook, and
I don't know what I owe you for all you have done for me."
"Oh, joost naething at all, laddie."
"Nothing! I want to make you a big present when I can."
"You do, laddie? Vairy weel, and I'll tell you what I'd like. Ye'll
just gi'e me one of them quarter-poond tins of Glasgie sneeshin."
"Snuff!" said Poole contemptuously. "Ay, laddie; snuff, as ye call it.
Nay, don't turn your nose up at sneeshin. Ye should turn it down.
Thenk of what it is to a man condemned to get naething but a bit of
dirty black pigtail tobaccy that he has to chew like the lads do in
their barbarous way. Ye'll mind that: a four-ounce tin of the rale
Glasgie."
"Oh, but--"
"Nay, nay, laddie. That'll make us square. Now then, what's the young
skipper got to say?"
"The sooner the better, Camel, for he's half-starved; but you are to
keep a bit hot for Mr Burgess."
"Ou, ay," said the Camel, smiling. "I never forget the mate. He wadna
let me if I would."
The two lads watched anxiously for the return of the boat, but in vain,
and then, in answer to the summons, went reluctantly below as far as
their minds were concerned, but with wondrous willingness on the part of
their bodies, to join the skipper over a capital meal, which was hastily
discussed, and then the trio went on deck to where the men were keeping
watch, and ordered them to go below.
"Get your dinner, lads, as quickly as you can, and then come up again.
We'll keep watch until you do."
They took their places aft at once, and the watch began, lasting till,
headed by the boatswain, the men hurried up again, looking inquiringly
in the faces of those they relieved; but they looked in vain, for
nothing had been seen of the cutter, and quite an hour had passed when
she came round the bend, being rowed swiftly, for the mate to hail the
skipper and make the announcement--
"They have gone right back to the gunboat, and I waited till they were
run up to the davits, and then came back. Is there anything we can have
to eat?"