The Lost Middy Part 24

"It's what are you up to, Tom? Here, how are you now?"

"Quite well, thankye, Master Aleck. How are you? But, here," he cried, changing his manner, "what does it all mean? Why, what--when-- wh-wh-what--ah, I know now, Master Aleck! I say, don't tell me the boat's gone down!"

As he spoke he rose quickly into a sitting position and stared down through the opening where the steps began, uttered a sigh of content, and then said:

"I was afraid you hadn't made them knots fast."

"Oh, they're all right. But has your faintness gone off?"

"Yes, sir, that's gone."

"To think of a big st.u.r.dy fellow fainting dead away!"

"Ah, 'tis rum, sir, arn't it? All comes o' having no legs and feet. I never knew what it was till I lost 'em, as I telled yer."

"Well, you're better now. But, I say, Tom, how did you manage to get the boat full of water like this?"

"Oh, come, Master Aleck," cried Tom, indignantly. "I like that! How come you to chuck that great lump o' paper down and make that great hole in her bottom?"

"I do what?" cried Aleck. "Here, wait a bit and rest. You haven't quite come to yet."

"Me, sir? I'm right as a trivet," cried Tom; and to prove it he turned quickly over on his face propped himself up on his hands, with his elbows well bent, and then gave a sharp downward thrust which threw him up so that he stood well balanced once more upon his stout wooden legs.

"That's right," said Aleck, after a glance at the half-submerged boat.

"Now, then, how did you manage it?"

"Me manage it, sir? Oh, that's how I allus gets up when I'm down."

"No, no, no," cried Aleck, impatiently. "I mean about the boat. Did some other boat foul her?"

"No-o-o!" cried Tom. "You chucked that great lump of paper down and it went through the bottom."

"Paper? What, the paper I went to fetch?"

"Ay, sir."

The lad went and picked up a small parcel he had dropped on the pier and held it up in the man's sight as he gazed wonderingly at him again, and then said, very severely:

"Look here, Tom, you are mad, or have you been--you know?"

Aleck turned his hand into a drinking vessel and imitated the act of drinking.

"No-o-o-o!" cried Tom, indignantly. "Haven't had a drop of anything but water for a week."

"Then how did you get my boat half full of water?"

"I didn't, sir. You came and chucked that heavy lump of paper down, and it broke the middle thwart, being a weak 'un, because of the hole through for the boat's mast, and went on down through the bottom."

"What! I did nothing of the sort, sir."

"Oh, Master Aleck! Why, I seed yer shadow come right over me with yer hands up holding the lump o' paper, and afore I could straighten myself up down it come, and went right through the bottom."

"You don't mean to tell me that there's a hole right through the bottom of my beautiful Seagull?" cried Aleck, wildly.

"Why, how could she have got full o' water if you hadn't chucked that down? I would ha' come up and fetched it, sir. That comes o' your being so rannish."

"How dare you!" cried Aleck, pa.s.sionately. "I tell you I did nothing of the sort."

"What's the good o' telling an out-an'-outer about it, Master Aleck, sir, when I see yer quite plain; leastwise, I see yer shadow when yer come to the edge."

"You saw nothing of the sort," cried Aleck, fiercely. "You scoundrel!

You've been sailing her about while I've been up the town, and run her on a rock. I did trust you, Tom, and now you try to hoodwink me with a miserable story that wouldn't deceive a child. Tell me the truth at once, sir, or never again do you sail with me."

"I won't," growled Tom, st.u.r.dily.

"What! You won't tell me the truth?"

"I didn't say I wouldn't tell you the truth, Master Aleck. I mean I won't say as I took her out and run her on a rock."

"But you did, sir."

"Tell yer I didn't, Master Aleck; she've been tied up ever since you went away, and I've given her a thorough clean up."

"And started a plank or two by jumping down upon her with your wooden legs."

"Nay, I wouldn't be such a fool, sir. Of course if I did I should go through."

"I'd have forgiven you the accident," said Aleck, sternly, "but I can't forgive the lie."

Tom stared up at his young employer, and took off his hat to give his head a thorough good scratch, before saying, quietly:

"Say, Master Aleck, you says to me just now with a sign like as I'd been having a drop o' rum. Well, I arn't; but, you'll scuse me, sir, have you happened to call and see anyone as has given you some cake and wine as was rather too strong for a hot sunny day like this?"

"No!" roared Aleck, in a thorough pa.s.sion now. "Such insolence! Say again that I threw a weight of paper and broke a hole through her."

"Well, sir, I see your shadder."

"You did not, for I've not been back till just now."

"Then it was somebody else's, sir."

"Somebody else's, sir!" cried Aleck, scornfully. "Own at once that you had an accident with her."

"Me say that?" cried Tom, waxing angry in turn. "I won't. I'd do a deal for you, Master Aleck, and if I'd stove in the boat I'd up and say so; but I arn't a-going to tell an out-an'-out wunner like that to screen you when you've had an accident. Why, if I did you'd never trust me again."

"I never will trust you again, sir. But, there, what's to be done? How am I to get back to the Den? Would a plug of oak.u.m keep the water out?"

"Would a plug o' my grandmother keep the water out?" growled Tom, scornfully. "Why, she couldn't keep it out if we set her in it. I jest got one peep, and then the water hid it, but there's a hole pretty nigh big enough for you to go through."