"Now," said Bob to himself, when he got down to the beach after a sharp
run across the common, "I must be as spry as possible with my swim, or
else I shall be too late for the boat, as dad said I would be, for I
really haven't got much time to spare!"
Unfortunately, however, at the very outset, poor Bob met with obstacles
that prevented this praiseworthy intention being effectively carried
out. In the first place, Dick, with whom he had always bathed in
company since their first involuntary dip together off the castle
rampart on the first evening of their arrival at Southsea, was not at
their usual trysting-place. Not only that, he was nowhere to be seen in
the neighbourhood of the shore.
"I wonder where he can be?" said Bob, continuing his soliloquy in a very
disjointed frame of mind, after looking in every direction fruitlessly,
and calling out Dick's name in vain. "I wonder where he can be? The
Captain did not say he wasn't to come with us this morning!"
At last, after wasting some precious minutes thus waiting, he began
undressing very slowly, instead of in the usual brisk manner in which he
was in the habit of peeling off his clothes, running a race with Dick to
see who would get into the water first.
Then, at length, he plunged in to take his swim in a very half-hearted
fashion, going in reluctantly and coming out in the same undecided way;
while, to make matters worse and further protract his loitering, just as
he was beginning to dress again, a nasty spiteful bloodhound, which was
prowling by the shore, made a most unprovoked attack on Rover,
necessitating his going to his rescue with a big stone--Master Bob
hopping up to the scene of action "with one shoe off and one shoe on,"
like the celebrated "John" the hero of the nursery rhyme!
Rover was not quite a match for the brute that assailed him; but with
Bob's help, not omitting the big stone, the two "routed the enemy with
great slaughter," the bloodhound fleeing away ignominiously with his
tail between his legs, and Rover raising a paean of victory in the shape
of a defiant bark as he retreated.
Still, the episode consumed a few more minutes of valuable time; so when
Bob had hopped back again to where he had left his clothes to complete
his toilet, and then raced down to the pier, it was not only past the
hour fixed for the Southampton steamer to start, but she was already
well on her way.
In fact, she was just then rounding Gillkicker Point, which juts out
from Stokes Bay, bearing away on board her, his father and mother and
Nell, besides the Captain and Mrs Gilmour; and not only that, leaving
him behind!
Bob did not know how to contain himself.
He was too manly to cry; although he felt a big lump in his throat which
made him take several short swallows without gulping anything down;
while, strangely enough, something seemed to get in his eyes, for a
moment preventing him from seeing anything seaward but assort of hazy
mist as he stood listlessly by the head of the pier, trying vainly to
discern the excursion-boat, now fast disappearing in the distance!
Presently, however, after remaining there awhile, staring at nothing,
the Captain's favourite maxim occurred to his mind-- "What's done can't
be helped"; and coming to the conclusion that there was no use in his
stopping on the pier any longer, since the steamer had left, and there
was no possibility of his being able to join the others, he determined
to bend his steps in the direction of the coastguard-station, with the
hope of finding Hellyer there to cheer his drooping spirits.
Bob's fates, though, appeared singularly unpropitious for him this
morning; for on his arriving anon at the little cabin beyond the castle,
which was the Captain's regular trysting-place, lo, and behold, a
strange man was there, who told him that Hellyer was "off duty," and it
would not be his turn "on" again until late in the afternoon. Here was
another misfortune!
But there was "balm in Gilead" in store for Bob; for, hardly had the
long face that he pulled on learning the unwelcome news of Hellyer's
absence merged again into the ordinary round contour with which his
friends were familiar, than, whom should he see coming along the beach,
only a little way off, but--who should you think? Why, Dick!
Yes, he had been into Portsmouth, he explained, to take a letter to the
Dockyard for the Captain; and now, also in pursuance of the old sailor's
orders, he was about going off to the cutter, which lay at her moorings
abreast of the coastguard-station, and only about a cable's length out,
so as to be within easy reach, so that they could haul her up on the
shingle in the event of any sudden shifting wind rendering her anchorage
unsafe.
Bob at once flew to him with open arms, so to speak; and so did Rover
too, the sagacious animal always reflecting his young master's moods,
and having turned as woebegone as a naturally cheerful dog could be
since he noticed Bob's being mopey, he had now resumed his proper tone
of bark and mien, wagging his tail at the sight of Dick and thus
reciprocating Bob's feelings.
"Hullo, Dick!" said the latter, when the young yachtsman had approached
near enough for them to speak without getting to each other. "What are
you going to do aboard?"
"To clean out the yacht ready for another trip, Master Bob. The Cap'en
told me to get her done afore he come back."
"That's jolly!" exclaimed Bob, brightening up at the prospect of some
sort or any sort of expedition in lieu of the one he had missed. "May I
come with you?"
"Ees, sure-ly, Master Bob," returned Dick. "But how comes it you bain't
a-gone wi' the Cap'en and t'others?"
Bob did not like any allusion to this delicate subject.
"I was too late," he said abruptly, changing the conversation at once.
"How are you going off to the cutter, I see she has got the dinghy
towing behind, eh?"
"P'r'aps I'm a-going to swim out to her," replied Dick, with a grin.
"What say you to that, Master Bob, hey?"
"If you do, I will too," retorted Bob; "although I've had my dip
already, and very lonesome it was. Why didn't you come down this
morning?"
"I sang out to you jist now, sir, as how I had to take a letter for the
Cap'en, who told me as he didn't think you'd have time to bathe afore
starting for the steamer."
"I thought I had--and missed it!" said Bob ruefully. "But you're not
going really to swim out to the cutter now, Dick, eh?"
"No, no, Master Bob," cried Dick, his grin expanding into a laugh. "I
were only a-joking. There's a waterman just shoving down his wherry as
will put us off to her. Hi, ahoy, there!"
"Hi, hullo!" also shouted out Bob; but the two only succeeded in
ultimately attracting the attention of old Barney the boatman, who was
rather deaf, and required a deal of hallooing before noticing any one,
by setting on Rover with a "Hi, catch him, sir!"
This rather exasperated old Barney at first. However, after some
violent explanations they were grudgingly given a passage out to the
anchored yacht, Barney grumbling at doing it for nothing!
Rover was not included in the bargain; for, he disdained adventuring his
valuable person in a small row-boat, no inducement being ever strong
enough to persuade him so to do. He was quite satisfied to swim out
after the boys had started off in the wherry, being lugged subsequently
on board the cutter by his legs and tail as soon as they fetched
alongside.
For some little time after Bob and Dick got on board, both were very
busy, Bob dipping overboard a bucket that had a "becket" of rope for a
handle, and a longer rope bent on to this with which he proceeded to
haul the bucket up again, full of sea-water, wherewith he sluiced the
decks fore and aft thoroughly; while Dick, on his part, scrubbed the
planks with a piece of "holystone," then adroitly drying them with a
mop, which he could twirl now, after a little experience, with all the
dexterity of an old salt!
When the little cutter was thus presently made "a-taunto" by their
mutual exertions, they sat down to rest for awhile, Dick sharing his
luncheon of bread-and-cheese with Bob, who, of course, had long since
consumed the slices of bread-and-butter he had brought out with him for
his breakfast.
By and by, on a gentle breeze springing up from the southward and
westward, Master Bob, boylike, suggested their slipping the _Zephyr's_
moorings and going for a little sail out into the offing.
"We needn't run very far," he said. "Say, only to the fort there and
back again, you know."
But Dick would not hear of the proposal.
"No, Master Bob, not lest the Cap'en gived orders," he remonstrated.
"Why, he'd turn me off if I did it; and, he's that kind to me as I
wouldn't like to vex him, no not for nothing!"
"He wouldn't mind me though," argued Bob. "Didn't he say the other
day--why, you heard him tell Hellyer yourself--that he'd back you and me
to manage a boat against any two boys in Portsmouth, aye, or any port on
the south coast?"
"Ees, I heerd him," reluctantly assented the other; "but that didn't
mean fur us to go out in the boat alone."
"Well, Dick, I didn't think you were a coward!" said Bob with great
contempt, angry at being thwarted. "I really didn't."
This cut the other to the heart.
"You doesn't mean that, Master Bob," he exclaimed reproachfully,
hesitating to utter his scathing reply. "Ah, you didn't say as I wer' a
coward that time as I jumped into the water arter you behind the
castle."
"Forgive me, Dick," cried Bob impulsively, "I was a beast to say such a
thing! Of course, I know you are not a coward; but, really, I'm sure
the Captain would not mind a bit our going for a sail--especially if he
knew, and he does know, about my being left behind all alone while they
all have gone off to Southampton in the steamer enjoying themselves!"
This last appeal made Dick hesitate; and, in hesitating thus, he lost
his firmness of resolution.
"Well, Master Bob, if we only goes a little ways and you promises fur to
come back afore the tide turns, I don't mind unmooring for a bit;
though, mind, Master Bob, you'll bear all the blame if the Cap'en says
anythink about it!"
"Of course I will, Dick, if he does; but I know he won't say anything.
You may make your mind easy on that score!" With these words, Bob
sprang forward on the fo'c's'le and began loosening the jib from its
fastenings; while Dick, now that his scruples were overcome, set to work
casting off the gaskets of the mainsail, the two boys then manning the
halliards with a will, and hoisting the throat of the sail well up.
The jib was then set, its sheet being slackened until Dick slipped the
buoy marking the yacht's moorings overboard; when, the tack being hauled
aft, and the mainsail peaked, the bows of the cutter paid off and she
walked away close-hauled, standing out towards "No Man's Fort," on the
starboard tack.
It was now past midday and the tide was making into the harbour; so
that, as the wind from the south-west had got rather slight, veering
round to the southwards, the cutter did not gain much of an offing,
losing in leeway nearly all she got in beating out to windward.
"I vote we let her run off a little towards the Nab," said Bob, seeing
what little progress they made towards the fort; and he, being the
steersman, put the helm up, easing off at the same time the sheet of the
mainsail; Dick, who was in the bows, attending to the jib. "It's awful
poor fun drifting like this!"
"Mind you turns back agen when the tide begins to run out!" premised
Dick. "You promised as we wasn't to go fur!"
"All right," replied Bob, "I won't forget."
But, now, a strange thing happened.
No sooner had the cutter's bows been turned to the eastwards, than
Rover, who had previously been looking very uneasy, standing up with his
hind legs on one of the thwarts and his fore-paws on the taffrail
astern, gazing anxiously behind at the land they were leaving, all at
once gave vent to a loud unearthly howl and sprang overboard.
"Hi, Rover, come back, sir!" yelled out Bob, at the pitch of his
voice--"Rover, come back!"
But, the dog, although hitherto always obedient to his young master's
call, paid no attention to it now, turning a deaf ear to all his
whistles and shouts and swimming steadily towards the shore.
"Poor Rover, he'll be drownded, sure-ly!" said Dick. "Don't 'ee think
we'd better go arter he, poor chap?"
"Not a bit of it!" replied Bob, angry at the dog's desertion, as he
thought it, putting down Rover's behaviour to some strange dislike on
his part to being in the yacht, at all events when she was moving
briskly through the water. "He has swum twice as far in the river in
London, and I won't go after him!"
Bob, however, brought the little yacht up to the wind again, watching
until Rover was seen to emerge from the sea and crawl up on the beach
again; when the cutter's head was allowed to pay off again, and within a
couple of hours or so, although neither of the boys took any note of how
the time was going, they had not only passed the Nab but were now
nearing the Ower's light-ship.
Not till then did Dick become aware how far they had reached out,
Portsmouth having long since disappeared and even the forts beginning to
show hazy to windward; while Selsea Bill loomed up on their port hand.
"Master Bob, Master Bob!" he cried in consternation, never having been
so far out before, even with the Captain. "Do 'ee know where we be
now?"
"Why, out at sea, to be sure!" said Bob, his face all aglow with delight
at gliding thus like Byron's corsair-- "O'er the glad waters of the deep
blue sea."
For his soul certainly was, for the moment, quite as "boundless" and his
"thoughts as free," from all consideration, save of the present--"Isn't
it jolly?"
"Well, I doesn't know about that," replied Dick, looking very glum.
"I'm a-thinking of the gitting back; which, wi' the tide a-setting out
from the harbour, won't be so easy, I knows!"
"Nonsense, Dick!" said Bob in his usual off-hand way, though bringing
the cutter up to the wind, so as to go about on the other tack. "You're
frightening yourself really, my boy, about nothing! The wind has got
round more to the south; so we'll be able to run back to Portsmouth in
no time. The cutter is a very good boat, so the Captain says, on a
wind!"