It wanted a perfectly calm day for the visit to the seal-cave, and this
was long in coming. There were plenty of fine days when the sun shone
brightly and the sea was as clear as crystal; but there was generally a
pleasant breeze, and the pleasant breeze that only seemed to ripple the
water was sufficient twice over to raise good-sized waves amongst the
rocks, and to send a rush of broken water enough to upset a boat,
foaming and dashing in at the mouth of the cave.
Failing the success of this enterprise, Mr Temple, who was with them,
made Will and Josh row on to the rift in the cliff where the vein of
white spar had been found by Will; and leaving all in the boat, Dick's
father went up by himself and stayed for long enough, while his sons
were rowed to and fro fishing with more or less success.
One morning, though, as Dick was dreaming of being in the green-house at
home when the hail was pattering down, there seemed to come three or
four such sharp cracks that he awoke and jumped out of bed. The next
moment he was at the window pulling up the blind and looking out, to see
Will on the rugged pathway waiting for him to open the window.
"Seal-cave to-day," he said. "Look out to sea."
Dick looked out to sea, where there was a dense mist that seemed to wrap
everything in its folds. The luggers appeared dim--those that were near
shore--while others were completely hidden. Overhead the sky was clear,
and the sun was shining brightly, while where its light fell upon the
mist it became rosily transparent, and the masts of some of the luggers
looked double their usual size.
"Seals, Taff, seals!" cried Dick, shaking his brother's shoulder, with
the effect of making him hurriedly scramble out of bed, yawning
terribly, and gazing in an ill-used way at his brother, as he sat down
and began to rub his feet one over the other.
"Don't sit down, Taff; dress yourself. I'm going to call father."
"Shut that window first," cried Arthur; "it's so horribly cold."
"Cold! Ha! ha! Ha! ha! ha!" laughed Dick. "What a chap you are, Taff!
Here, Will, he says it's cold. Go to the pump for a pail of cold water
to warm him."
"He had better not," cried Arthur, hurriedly scuffling into his
trousers. "If he did I would never forgive him."
"I'm not going to get any water, Master Arthur," cried Will; "but make
haste down, it's such a glorious morning!"
"'Tisn't," said Arthur, whose eyes were swelled up with sleepiness.
"It's all misty and thick, and the window-sill's wet, and the roses
outside look drenched. Heigh, ho, ha, hum!" he yawned. "I shall go to
bed for half an hour longer--till the sun comes out."
"No, you sha'n't," cried Dick, seizing the pillow for a weapon of
offence. "If you do, I'll bang you out of bed again."
"If you dare to touch me," cried Arthur furiously, "I shall complain to
papa."
"And he'll laugh at you," said Dick; "and serve you right."
Arthur snatched off his lower garment with the obstinacy of a
half-asleep individual, and scrambled into bed again, dragging the
clothes up over his chest, and scowling defiantly at his brother, as if
saying, "Touch me if you dare."
"There's a stupid, obstinate, lazy old pig," cried Dick, throwing the
pillow at him and standing rubbing one ear. "Here--hi, Will!" he said,
going to the window, "come round and upstairs. Here's a seal in his
cave asleep. Come and let's tug him out."
"He had better not dare to come into my bed-room," cried Arthur,
punching the pillow thrown at him viciously, and settling down in his
place; not that he wanted more rest, but out of dislike to being
disturbed, and from a fit of morning ill-temperedness getting the upper
hand.
Just then Dick was leaning out of the window half-dressed, and with his
braces hanging down as if they were straps to haul him back in case he
leaned too far.
Arthur glanced at his brother for a moment and then shouted:
"Here, Dick, shut that window!"
Dick evidently did not hear him, and a low giggling laugh reached his
ears.
"They had better not try to play any tricks with me," said Arthur to
himself, as he lay frowning and feeling very much dissatisfied, as he
thought, with Dick, but really with himself.
Then he heard more laughing, the sound of steps in the garden, and
something thump against the wall of the house.
There was no mistake now about Arthur's wakefulness, as he lay with the
clothes drawn right above his nose; one eye glanced at the window, and
he breathed quickly with indignation as Dick drew a little on one side
to make room for Will, who had obtained the short ladder used by his
uncle to nail up his creepers, and placed it against the wall, and he
was now on the top with his jersey-covered arms resting on the
window-sill, and his sun-browned face above them looking in.
"Good-morning, sir!" he said merrily. "Want anybody to help you dress?"
"How dare you!" cried Arthur indignantly. "Go away, and shut that
window directly. It's disgraceful. We had no business to come to such
a place as this," he continued, forgetting all his good resolves, and
giving rein to his anger.
"Why, hullo! what's all this?" said Mr Temple, entering the room,
dressed for going out.
"I'm glad you've come, papa," cried Arthur, whose face was scarlet with
anger. "These boys have--"
"Oh, I say, Taff, don't be disagreeable," cried Dick. "It was all my
doing, father. Taff wouldn't get up, and Will here had come to call us,
and I told him to get up the ladder and look in, pretending that there
_was_ a seal in a cave, and Taff turned cross about it."
"Get up directly, Arthur," said Mr Temple quietly, "and make haste
down. How would to-day do to visit the seal-cave?" continued Mr
Temple, turning to Will.
"I came to tell the young gentlemen it was just the morning, sir," said
Will, who was feeling very uncomfortable. "It is as still as can be,
and the tide will suit. I should go, sir, directly after breakfast."
"And so we will," said Mr Temple. "There, finish dressing, Dick," he
said, as Will slid down the ladder and took it away. "I thought there
was to be no more of this petty anger, Arthur. You are old enough to
know better, and yet you behave like a fractious child. Don't tease
him, Dick; he can't bear it, I suppose."
Mr Temple left the room, and Dick went on hurriedly dressing, while
Arthur, flushed and uncomfortable, sat in his trousers on the edge of
the bed, his hair touzled and the pillow creases marked like a map on
his right cheek.
"Here, I say, get dressed, Taff," cried Dick, "and let's go down and
collect some sea-anemones before breakfast."
"I don't want to dress," said Arthur. "I'm always wrong. I'm a
miserable wretch, and nobody understands me. I sha'n't go to the
seal-cave to-day."
"Yes, you will," cried Dick, who was very sympathetic but very busy, for
he had suddenly awakened to the fact that he had put too much pomatum on
his hair. The result was that it looked shiny and greasy, and there was
nothing for it but to give it a good rub over with the sponge and then
towel it, which he was doing by holding the cloth over his head, and
sawing it vigorously to and fro.
"No, I shall not go," said Arthur despondently. "I shall stop at home."
"So shall I then," said Dick panting, and out of breath from his
exertions. "It's all right, Taff, I tell you. Get dressed. You'll
feel as different as can be when you've had your breakfast. That's
what's the matter with you. It makes you feel cross sometimes when you
are so precious hungry."
Arthur sat unmoved, making no effort to dress, and Dick, who was nearly
complete, wanting only his jacket, turned to him once more.
"Come on, Taff," he cried. "Get dressed, and let's find some anemones,
and put in a tub of salt-water. We can feed 'em on shrimps."
"I wish we were back in london," said Arthur bitterly.
"What! to have the fellows shouting `sweep!' and the girls beating the
mats and knocking their brooms against the area railings as you're
dressing. No, thank you. I like being here. Oh, I say, how lovely old
Mr Marion's flowers smell! Here's a lugger! Hi, Will, what boat's
that?"
"The _Grey Gull_, Thomson's boat," came up from the garden. "Been out
all night for pilchards. I'll go down and get some for bait."
"I never saw a pilchard," said Arthur, suddenly beginning to dress.
"Look sharp, then, and we'll go down and have a look. Here, I shall go
now. You can come on."
"That's always the way," said Arthur bitterly. "You never will wait for
me."
"I will now, then," cried Dick. "Look sharp;" and he went and leaned
his elbows on the window, to gaze out at the lovely opalescent mist
through which, looking huge in proportion, a brown-sailed lugger came
creeping over the steely sea, which shone and glanced wherever the sun
passed through the heavy mist. The men on the lugger looked huge, and
it was evident from the shouts from the pier and the responses that
there was some little excitement going on about the new arrival, but
what it was Dick was too distant to hear.
"Oh, do make haste, Taff!" he cried, glancing back to see with
satisfaction that his brother was now making good speed; "there's no end
of fun going on. I've never seen a pilchard yet. There's Will Marion
down there, and--oh, I say, what a shame to go down without us! There
goes father!"
Arthur's toilet proceeded by big strides now, and it was not long
before, looking a good deal more amiable, he declared himself ready, and
was in fact so ready that he raced with his brother down to the cliff--
rather a breakneck proceeding, considering the steepness of the way; but
they got down to the harbour in safety, and to Dick's delight he found
that the lugger was not yet in, the progress by means of her sweeps
having been very slow, and now for the first time he noticed that she
was extremely deep in the water.
"A be glad you've come, Master Diehard," said a voice behind them; and
there stood Josh. "_Grey Gull's_ coming in with 'bout the gashliest
take o' pilchards as never was. Say they could have filled the lugger
twice over."
The little pier was pretty well crowded, and the men were in an unwonted
state of excitement, but place was made for the boys, and they were soon
after standing gazing down into the hold of the lugger, which seemed to
be filled with silver whose dust had been scattered all over deck,
bulwarks, combings, buoys, ropes, nets, for everything was specked and
spangled with silvery scales.
"Here, boys," said Mr Temple, "this is a fresh sight for you. What do
you think of these?"
Mr Temple was standing beside Will, who had been on board the lugger
and returned with a little basket containing a dozen or two of the
little oily fish, which looked like small large-scaled herrings, but
richer and fatter and of tenderer skin.
"Wonderful bait," said Will. "We can catch no end to-night with these."
They waited to see the business begin--the said business being the rapid
unloading of the pilchards, which were borne along the pier to one of
the long low pilchard-houses to be regularly stacked somewhat after the
fashion of drying bricks, and salted ready for packing in barrels and
sending to the Mediterranean ports.
But after the first inspection the sight of baskets full of silvery
pilchard began to grow monotonous, and Dick exclaimed:
"I say, father, it must be breakfast time now."
Breakfast time it was, and after arranging to be back at the pier in an
hour, they sought the old purser's cottage, from whose open window the
extremely fragrant odour of broiled ham was floating out, ready to act
like a magnet upon the sensations of a couple of hungry lads.