Very little more was said, and the preparations were soon finished, with
the rest of the crew looking on in silence. It seemed to be an
understood thing, after a few words had passed with the selected men,
that there was to be no palaver, as they termed it.
As for Fitz and Poole, they had nothing to do but think, and naturally
they thought a great deal, especially when the night came on, with the
watching party who had been sent below to the mouth of the river back
with the announcement that the gunboat was in its old place, the boats
all up to the davits, and not a sign of anything going on. But far from
taking this as a token of safety, the skipper and mate made their
arrangements to give the enemy a warm welcome if they should attack, and
also despatched a couple of men in the dinghy to make fast just off the
edge of the first bend and keep watch there, trusting well to their ears
for the first warning of any boat that might be coming up.
The two lads stole away into their favourite place for consultations as
soon as it was dark, to have what they called a quiet chat over their
plans.
"I don't see that we could do any more," said Fitz, "but we must keep
talking about it. The time goes so horribly slowly. Generally speaking
when you are expecting anything it goes so fast; now it crawls as if the
time would never be here."
"Well, that's queer," said Poole. "Ever since I knew that we were going
it has seemed to gallop."
"Well, whether it gallops or whether it crawls it can't be very long
before it's time to start. I say, how do you feel?"
"Horrible," said Poole. "It makes me think that I must be a bit of a
coward, for I want to shirk the responsibility and be under somebody's
command. My part seems to be too much for a fellow like me to
undertake. You don't feel like that, of course."
Fitz sat there in the darkness for a few minutes without speaking. Then
after heaving a deep sigh--
"I say," he whispered, "shall you think me a coward if I say I feel just
like that?"
"No. Feeling as I do, of course I can't."
"Well, that's just how I am," said Fitz. "Sometimes I feel as if I were
quite a man, but now it's as if I was never so young before, and that it
is too much for chaps like us to understand such a thing."
"Then if we are both like that," said Poole sadly, "I suppose we ought
to be honest and go straight to the dad and tell him that we don't feel
up to it. What do you say?"
"What!" cried Fitz. "Go and tell him coolly that we are a pair of
cowardly boys, for him and Mr Burgess to laugh at, and the men--for
they'd be sure to hear--to think of us always afterwards as a pair of
curs? I'd go and be killed first! And so would you; so don't tell me
you wouldn't."
"Not going to," said Poole. "I'll only own up that I'm afraid of the
job; but as we've proposed it, and it would be doing so much good if we
were to succeed, I mean to go splash at it and carry it through to the
end. You will too, won't you?"
"Yes, of course."
There was a slight rustling sound then, caused by the two lads reaching
towards one another and joining hands in a long firm grip.
"Hah!" exclaimed Fitz, with a long-drawn expiration of the breath. "I'm
glad I've got that off my mind. I feel better now."
"Same here. Now, what shall we do next? Go and talk to old Butters and
tell him what we want him to do?"
"No," cried Fitz excitedly. "You forget that we are in command. We've
no business to do anything till the time comes, and then give the men
their orders sharp and short, as if we were two skippers."
"Ah, yes," said Poole, "that's right. That's what I want to do, only it
seems all so new."
"I tell you what, though," said Fitz. "We shall be going for hours and
hours without getting anything, and that'll make us done up and weak. I
vote that as we are to do as we like, we go and stir up the Camel and
tell him to send us in a nice meal to the cabin."
"But it isn't long since we had something," suggested Poole.
"Yes, but neither of us could eat nor enjoy it. I couldn't, and I was
watching you; but I feel that I could eat now, so come on. It'll help
to pass the time, and make us fit to do anything."
"All right," said Poole, and they fetched Andy from where he was sitting
forward talking in whispers with his messmates, told him what they
wanted, and ordered him to prepare a sort of tea-supper for the little
crew of the gig.
The Camel was ready enough, and within half-an-hour the two lads were
doing what Poole termed stowing cargo, the said cargo consisting of
rashers of prime fried ham, cold bread-cake, hot coffee and preserved
milk.
They did good justice to the meal too, and before they had ended the
skipper came down to them, looked on for a minute or two, and then
nodded his satisfaction.
"That looks well, my lads," he said. "It's business-like, and as if
your hearts were so much in your work that you didn't feel disposed to
shirk it. It makes me comfortable, for I was getting a little nervous
about you, I must own."
The boys exchanged glances, but said nothing.
"Here, don't mind me," continued the skipper. "Make a good hearty meal,
and I'll talk to you as you eat."
"About our going and what we are about to do, father?" said Poole.
"Well, my boy, yes, of course."
"I wish you wouldn't, father. It's too late now to be planning and
altering, and that sort of thing."
"Yes, please, Captain Reed," cried Fitz excitedly. "It's like lessons
at school. We ought to know what we've got to do by now, and learning
at the last minute won't do a bit of good. If we succeed we succeed,
and if we fail we fail."
"Do you know what a big writer said, my boy, when one of his characters
was going off upon an expedition?"
"No, sir," said Fitz.
"Good luck to you, perhaps," said Poole, laughing, though the laugh was
not cheery.
"No, my lad," said the skipper. "I have not been much of a reader, and
I'm not very good at remembering wise people's sayings, but he said to
the young fellow when he talked as you did about failing, `In the bright
lexicon of youth there is no such word as fail,' which I suppose was a
fine way of saying, Go and do what you have got to do, and never think
of not succeeding. You're not going to fail. You mustn't. There's too
much hanging to it, my boys; and now I quite agree with you that we'll
let things go as they are."