Bob Strong's Holidays

by John C. Hutcheson

  CHAPTER TWENTY THREE.

  A SEA-FOG.

  "Now," said Bob to himself, when he got down to the beach after a sharprun across the common, "I must be as spry as possible with my swim, orelse I shall be too late for the boat, as dad said I would be, for Ireally haven't got much time to spare!"

  Unfortunately, however, at the very outset, poor Bob met with obstaclesthat prevented this praiseworthy intention being effectively carriedout. In the first place, Dick, with whom he had always bathed incompany since their first involuntary dip together off the castlerampart on the first evening of their arrival at Southsea, was not attheir usual trysting-place. Not only that, he was nowhere to be seen inthe neighbourhood of the shore.

  "I wonder where he can be?" said Bob, continuing his soliloquy in a verydisjointed frame of mind, after looking in every direction fruitlessly,and calling out Dick's name in vain. "I wonder where he can be? TheCaptain did not say he wasn't to come with us this morning!"

  At last, after wasting some precious minutes thus waiting, he beganundressing very slowly, instead of in the usual brisk manner in which hewas in the habit of peeling off his clothes, running a race with Dick tosee who would get into the water first.

  Then, at length, he plunged in to take his swim in a very half-heartedfashion, going in reluctantly and coming out in the same undecided way;while, to make matters worse and further protract his loitering, just ashe was beginning to dress again, a nasty spiteful bloodhound, which wasprowling by the shore, made a most unprovoked attack on Rover,necessitating his going to his rescue with a big stone--Master Bobhopping 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 withBob's help, not omitting the big stone, the two "routed the enemy withgreat slaughter," the bloodhound fleeing away ignominiously with histail between his legs, and Rover raising a paean of victory in the shapeof a defiant bark as he retreated.

  Still, the episode consumed a few more minutes of valuable time; so whenBob had hopped back again to where he had left his clothes to completehis toilet, and then raced down to the pier, it was not only past thehour fixed for the Southampton steamer to start, but she was alreadywell on her way.

  In fact, she was just then rounding Gillkicker Point, which juts outfrom Stokes Bay, bearing away on board her, his father and mother andNell, besides the Captain and Mrs Gilmour; and not only that, leavinghim behind!

  Bob did not know how to contain himself.

  He was too manly to cry; although he felt a big lump in his throat whichmade him take several short swallows without gulping anything down;while, strangely enough, something seemed to get in his eyes, for amoment preventing him from seeing anything seaward but assort of hazymist as he stood listlessly by the head of the pier, trying vainly todiscern 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'tbe helped"; and coming to the conclusion that there was no use in hisstopping on the pier any longer, since the steamer had left, and therewas no possibility of his being able to join the others, he determinedto bend his steps in the direction of the coastguard-station, with thehope of finding Hellyer there to cheer his drooping spirits.

  Bob's fates, though, appeared singularly unpropitious for him thismorning; for on his arriving anon at the little cabin beyond the castle,which was the Captain's regular trysting-place, lo, and behold, astrange man was there, who told him that Hellyer was "off duty," and itwould not be his turn "on" again until late in the afternoon. Here wasanother misfortune!

  But there was "balm in Gilead" in store for Bob; for, hardly had thelong face that he pulled on learning the unwelcome news of Hellyer'sabsence merged again into the ordinary round contour with which hisfriends 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 theDockyard for the Captain; and now, also in pursuance of the old sailor'sorders, he was about going off to the cutter, which lay at her mooringsabreast 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 theshingle in the event of any sudden shifting wind rendering her anchorageunsafe.

  Bob at once flew to him with open arms, so to speak; and so did Rovertoo, the sagacious animal always reflecting his young master's moods,and having turned as woebegone as a naturally cheerful dog could besince he noticed Bob's being mopey, he had now resumed his proper toneof bark and mien, wagging his tail at the sight of Dick and thusreciprocating Bob's feelings.

  "Hullo, Dick!" said the latter, when the young yachtsman had approachednear enough for them to speak without getting to each other. "What areyou going to do aboard?"

  "To clean out the yacht ready for another trip, Master Bob. The Cap'entold me to get her done afore he come back."

  "That's jolly!" exclaimed Bob, brightening up at the prospect of somesort or any sort of expedition in lieu of the one he had missed. "May Icome with you?"

  "Ees, sure-ly, Master Bob," returned Dick. "But how comes it you bain'ta-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 dinghytowing 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 dipalready, and very lonesome it was. Why didn't you come down thismorning?"

  "I sang out to you jist now, sir, as how I had to take a letter for theCap'en, who told me as he didn't think you'd have time to bathe aforestarting for the steamer."

  "I thought I had--and missed it!" said Bob ruefully. "But you're notgoing really to swim out to the cutter now, Dick, eh?"

  "No, no, Master Bob," cried Dick, his grin expanding into a laugh. "Iwere only a-joking. There's a waterman just shoving down his wherry aswill put us off to her. Hi, ahoy, there!"

  "Hi, hullo!" also shouted out Bob; but the two only succeeded inultimately attracting the attention of old Barney the boatman, who wasrather 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 someviolent explanations they were grudgingly given a passage out to theanchored yacht, Barney grumbling at doing it for nothing!

  Rover was not included in the bargain; for, he disdained adventuring hisvaluable person in a small row-boat, no inducement being ever strongenough to persuade him so to do. He was quite satisfied to swim outafter the boys had started off in the wherry, being lugged subsequentlyon board the cutter by his legs and tail as soon as they fetchedalongside.

  For some little time after Bob and Dick got on board, both were verybusy, Bob dipping overboard a bucket that had a "becket" of rope for ahandle, and a longer rope bent on to this with which he proceeded tohaul the bucket up again, full of sea-water, wherewith he sluiced thedecks fore and aft thoroughly; while Dick, on his part, scrubbed theplanks with a piece of "holystone," then adroitly drying them with amop, which he could twirl now, after a little experience, with all thedexterity of an old salt!

  When the little cutter was thus presently made "a-taunto" by theirmutual exertions, they sat down to rest for awhile, Dick sharing hisluncheon of bread-and-cheese with Bob, who, of course, had long sinceconsumed the slices of bread-and-butter he had brought out with him forhis breakfast.

  By and by, on a gentle breeze springing up from the southward andwestward, 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 andback 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 Iwouldn't like to vex him, no not for nothing!"

  "He wouldn't mind me though," argued Bob. "Didn't he say the otherday--why, you heard him tell Hellyer yourself--that he'd back you and meto manage a boat against any two boys in Portsmouth, aye, or any port onthe south coast?"

  "Ees, I heerd him," reluctantly assented the other; "but that didn'tmean fur us to go out in the boat alone."

  "Well, Dick, I didn't think you were a coward!" said Bob with greatcontempt, 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' acoward that time as I jumped into the water arter you behind thecastle."

  "Forgive me, Dick," cried Bob impulsively, "I was a beast to say such athing! Of course, I know you are not a coward; but, really, I'm surethe Captain would not mind a bit our going for a sail--especially if heknew, and he does know, about my being left behind all alone while theyall have gone off to Southampton in the steamer enjoying themselves!"

  This last appeal made Dick hesitate; and, in hesitating thus, he losthis firmness of resolution.

  "Well, Master Bob, if we only goes a little ways and you promises fur tocome 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 saysanythink 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, Bobsprang forward on the fo'c's'le and began loosening the jib from itsfastenings; while Dick, now that his scruples were overcome, set to workcasting off the gaskets of the mainsail, the two boys then manning thehalliards with a will, and hoisting the throat of the sail well up.

  The jib was then set, its sheet being slackened until Dick slipped thebuoy marking the yacht's moorings overboard; when, the tack being hauledaft, and the mainsail peaked, the bows of the cutter paid off and shewalked away close-hauled, standing out towards "No Man's Fort," on thestarboard tack.

  It was now past midday and the tide was making into the harbour; sothat, as the wind from the south-west had got rather slight, veeringround 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, seeingwhat little progress they made towards the fort; and he, being thesteersman, put the helm up, easing off at the same time the sheet of themainsail; Dick, who was in the bows, attending to the jib. "It's awfulpoor fun drifting like this!"

  "Mind you turns back agen when the tide begins to run out!" premisedDick. "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, thanRover, who had previously been looking very uneasy, standing up with hishind legs on one of the thwarts and his fore-paws on the taffrailastern, gazing anxiously behind at the land they were leaving, all atonce gave vent to a loud unearthly howl and sprang overboard.

  "Hi, Rover, come back, sir!" yelled out Bob, at the pitch of hisvoice--"Rover, come back!"

  But, the dog, although hitherto always obedient to his young master'scall, paid no attention to it now, turning a deaf ear to all hiswhistles and shouts and swimming steadily towards the shore.

  "Poor Rover, he'll be drownded, sure-ly!" said Dick. "Don't 'ee thinkwe'd better go arter he, poor chap?"

  "Not a bit of it!" replied Bob, angry at the dog's desertion, as hethought it, putting down Rover's behaviour to some strange dislike onhis part to being in the yacht, at all events when she was movingbriskly through the water. "He has swum twice as far in the river inLondon, and I won't go after him!"

  Bob, however, brought the little yacht up to the wind again, watchinguntil Rover was seen to emerge from the sea and crawl up on the beachagain; when the cutter's head was allowed to pay off again, and within acouple of hours or so, although neither of the boys took any note of howthe time was going, they had not only passed the Nab but were nownearing 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 toshow hazy to windward; while Selsea Bill loomed up on their port hand.

  "Master Bob, Master Bob!" he cried in consternation, never having beenso far out before, even with the Captain. "Do 'ee know where we benow?"

  "Why, out at sea, to be sure!" said Bob, his face all aglow with delightat gliding thus like Byron's corsair-- "O'er the glad waters of the deepblue 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'tit 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 outfrom the harbour, won't be so easy, I knows!"

  "Nonsense, Dick!" said Bob in his usual off-hand way, though bringingthe cutter up to the wind, so as to go about on the other tack. "You'refrightening yourself really, my boy, about nothing! The wind has gotround more to the south; so we'll be able to run back to Portsmouth inno time. The cutter is a very good boat, so the Captain says, on awind!"

  However, "Man proposes and God disposes."

  The wind suddenly dropped, just as the tide turned, the ebb setting outfrom Spithead towards the east, dead against them; when, instead ofrunning in homewards "in no time," the cutter, after a time, becamebecalmed first, and then gradually began to drift out into the openChannel again.

  Dick was the first to notice this.

  "Look, Master Bob!" he cried. "We aren't making no headway at all! Idon't see we're getting any the nearer to the Nab!"

  "We will, soon," replied Bob, all hopeful. "It's only because thebreeze has dropped a bit. Before long, we'll pick it up again! Ithink, Dick, we'd better slacken off the sheets and let her bear awaymore!"

  This was done; but, still the _Zephyr_ would not move.

  She had net way enough, indeed, to answer her helm; for, her bowspointed west, and south, and east, alternately, as the tidal eddiesswayed her in this direction and that.

  "I knewed we was doin' wrong," remarked Dick presently, after a longsilence in which neither of the boys spoke a word. "It's a judgment onus!"

  "A fiddlestick!" retorted Bob. "We'll only drift about like this for ashort time; and, when the tide turns again, it will sweep us back toSpithead like one o'clock!"

  "I doesn't believe that, Master Bob," said Dick disconsolately, sittingdown on a thwart, and looking longingly at a faint speck in the distancewhich he thought was Southsea; although they were almost out of sight ofland now, the swift current carrying the boat along nearly four knots anhour. "We should ha' tuk warnin', Master Bob, by Rover. He knowed whatwer' a-coming and so he swum ashore in time, he did!"

  "Rover is a faithless creature!" cried Bob hotly. "I'll give him a goodlicking when we reach the land again, you see!"

  "When'll that be, Master Bob?"

  "Oh, some time or other before night," replied he defiantly, but Dickcould easily tell from his tone of voice that he did not speak quite sobuoyantly as before; and his already long face grew longer as the daywore on without the breeze springing up again or any change ofcircumstances.

  They did not pass a single ship near, notwithstanding that they sawseveral with all their sails set, their loftier canvas catching a fewlingering puffs of air that did not descend low enough to affect thecutter. The sight of these vessels moving, however, raised theirdrooping spirits, Bob and Dick thinking that the wind by and by wo
uldaffect them, too.

  But no breeze came; and all the while they were being carried furtherand further out to sea.

  "Hallo, there's a steamer!" sang out Bob after another protractedsilence between the pair. "I see her smoke easily. She's steeringright for us!"

  "Where?" asked Dick. "I doesn't see no steamer, Master Bob."

  "There!" said the other, pointing to a long white line on the horizon."There she is, blowing off her steam, or her funnel smoking, quiteplain!"

  "Lor', Master Bob!" ejaculated the other, after peering fixedly for amoment where his companion directed him to look. "That arn't no steamor smoke as ever I seed. It be a cloud, or fog, I knows; or summut o'that sort, sure-ly, Master Bob!"

  Bob, however, would not be persuaded of this, persisting that he wasright and Dick wrong.

  "I don't know where your eyes can be!" he said scornfully. "I'll betanything it's a steamer; or, I never saw one!"

  But ere another hour had passed over their heads, Dick was proved to bethe true prophet; he, the false!

  The low-lying bank of vapour, which originally resembled the trail ofsmoke from some passing steam-vessel on her way down Channel, graduallyspread itself out along the horizon.

  It then rose up, like a curtain, from the sea; and, stretching up itsclammy heads towards the zenith, widened over the heavens until it shutout the western sun from their gaze, making the still early afternoonseem as night.

  Creeping over the surface of the sullen water with ghostly footsteps,the mist soon shrouded the boat in its pall-like folds; impregnating thesurrounding atmosphere with moisture and making the boys believe it wasraining, though never a drop fell.

  It was only a sea-fog, that was all.

  But it was accompanied by a dampness that seemed like the hand of Death!