Aleck ran his boat close in behind the cutter after lowering the sail so
close that it touched the midshipman'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 fashion, 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 ship'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
midshipman. 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
midshipman, 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 ashore 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 principal 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 passed 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 passed 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
fashion, 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?"
"Just about as likely as that dogfish he threw at you. Come and look!"
Aleck led the way up the steps, followed by the young officer, and then
as they crossed the pier they came in sight directly of the boy,
swimming easily, side stroke, for a group of rocks which formed the
starting-point of the pier curve, and beyond which were several places
where the boy could land.
"He'll be ashore before we could get near him," said Aleck.
"What! Shall I have to let him go?" cried the middy.
"Of course! He got a tremendous crack on the legs from Tom Bodger's
stick--he was nearly frightened to death; and he has had a thorough
ducking. Isn't that enough?"
"Well, it will have to be," said the middy, in a disappointed tone. "I
meant him to be treed up and flogged."
Aleck looked at him in rather an amused fashion.
"Well, what are you staring at?" said the middy, importantly.
"I was only wondering whether you would be able to order the boy to be
flogged."
"Well--er--that is," said the midshipman, flushing a little; "I--er--
said I should give him--er--report it to the captain, who would give the
orders on my statement. It's the same thing, you know, as if I gave the
flogging. `I'll give a man a flogging' doesn't, of course, mean that I,
as an officer, should give it with my own hands. See?"
"Yes, I see," said Aleck, quietly.
"Sit fast there," cried the middy to his men, as he began to descend the
steps. "Let the young scoundrel go."
Just then Aleck glanced round and saw that the officer who had gone
ashore was returning, followed by the man who had accompanied him, and
he turned to Bodger, who stood waiting for orders, before descending
again to the boat.