Quicksilver Part 80

This was soon unloosed after they had climbed in, dripping, and covering the cus.h.i.+ons with mud, but all that was forgotten in the delight of having found the boat.

"Now, Bob, you row softly down and I'll use the boat-hook," whispered Dexter, as he stood up in the stern, while Bob sat down, seized the oars, and laid them in the rowlocks, ready to make the first stroke, when high above them on the bank they heard a quick, rus.h.i.+ng noise, and directly after, to their horror, there stood, apparently too much dumbfounded to speak, the man they had seen a few minutes before going into the reed hut.

CHAPTER THIRTY SEVEN.

SECOND-HAND STEALING.

"Here, you, sir! stop!" he roared.

"Pull away, Bob!" whispered Dexter, for Bob had paused, half-paralysed by the nearness of the danger. But he obeyed the second command, and tugged at the oars.

"D'yer hear!" roared the man, with a furious string of oaths. "Hold hard or I'll--"

He did not say what, but made a gesture as if striking with a great force.

"Don't speak, Bob: pull hard," whispered Dexter, bending forward in the boat so as to reach the rower, and encourage him to make fresh efforts, while, for his part, he kept his eyes upon the man.

"D'yer hear what I say?" he roared again. "What d'yer mean by coming here to steal my boat?"

"'Tain't yours," cried Dexter.

"What? Didn't I buy it of yer and pay for it?"

"You came and stole it while we were asleep, you thief!" cried Dexter again.

"Say I stole yer boat and I'll drown'd yer," cried the man, forcing his way through the reeds and osiers so as to keep up with them. "If you don't take that back it'll be the worse for yer. Stop! D'yer hear?

Stop!"

Bob stopped again, for the man's aspect was alarming, and every moment he seemed as if he was about to leap from the high bank.

Fortunately for all parties he did not do this, as if he had reached the edge of the boat he must have capsized it, and if he had leaped into the bottom, he must have gone right through.

Bob did not realise all this; but he felt certain that the man would jump, and, with great drops of fear upon his forehead he kept on stopping as the man threatened, and, but for Dexter's urging, the boat would have been given up.

"I can hear yer," the man roared, with a fierce oath. "I hear yer telling him to row. Just wait till I get hold of you, my gentleman!"

"Row, Bob, row!" panted Dexter, "as soon as we're out in the river we shall be safe."

"But he'll be down upon us d'reckly," whispered Bob.

"Go on rowing, I tell you, he daren't jump."

"You won't stop, then, won't yer?" cried the man. "If yer don't stop I'll drive a hole through the bottom, and sink yer both."

"No, he won't," whispered Dexter. "Row, Bob, row! He can't reach us, and he has nothing to throw."

Bob groaned, but he went on rowing; and in his dread took the boat so near the further side that he kept striking one scull against the muddy bank, and then, in his efforts to get room to catch water, he thrust the head of the boat toward the bank where the man was stamping with fury, and raging at them to go back.

This went on for a hundred yards, and they were still far from the open river, when the man gave a shout at them and ran on, disappearing among the low growth on the bank.

"Now, Bob, he has gone," said Dexter excitedly, "pull steadily, and as hard as you can. Mind and don't run her head into the bank, or we shall be caught."

Bob looked up at him with a face full of abject fear and misery, but he was in that frame of weak-mindedness which made him ready to obey any one who spoke, and he rowed on pretty quickly.

Twice over he nearly went into the opposite bank, with the risk of getting the prow stuck fast in the clayey mud, but a drag at the left scull saved it, and they were getting rapidly on now, when all at once Dexter caught sight of their enemy at a part of the creek where it narrowed and the bank overhung a little.

The man had run on to that spot, and had lain down on his chest, so as to be as far over as he could be to preserve his balance, and he was reaching out with his hands, and a malicious look of satisfaction was in his face, as the boat was close upon him before Dexter caught sight of him, Bob of course having his back in the direction they were going.

"Look out, Bob," shouted Dexter. "Pull your right! pull your right!"

Bob was so startled that he looked up over his shoulder, saw the enemy, and tugged at the wrong oar so hard that he sent the boat right toward the overhanging bank.

"I've got yer now, have I, then?" roared the man fiercely; and as the boat drifted towards him he reached down and made a s.n.a.t.c.h with his hand at Dexter's collar.

As a matter of course the boy ducked down, and the man overbalanced himself.

For a moment it seemed as if he would come down into the boat, over which he hung, slanting down and clinging with both hands now, and glaring at them with his mouth open and his eyes starting, looking for all the world like some huge gargoyle on the top of a cathedral tower.

"Stop!" he roared; and then he literally turned over and came so nearly into the boat that he touched the stern as it pa.s.sed, and the water he raised in a tremendous splash flew all over the boys.

"Now, Bob, pull, pull, pull!" cried Dexter, stamping his foot as he looked back and saw the man rise out of the water to come splas.h.i.+ng after them for a few paces; but wading through mud and water was not the way to overtake a retreating boat, and to Dexter's horror he saw the fellow struggle to the side and begin to scramble up the bank.

Once he slipped back; but he began to clamber up again, and his head was above the edge when, in obedience to Bob's tugging at the sculls, the boat glided round one of the various curves of the little creek and shut him from their view.

"He'll drown'd us. He said he would," whimpered Bob. "Let's leave the boat and run."

"No, no!" cried Dexter; "pull hard, and we shall get out into the river, and he can't follow us."

"Yes, he can," cried Bob, blubbering now aloud. "He means it, and he'll half-kill us. Let's get out to this side and run."

"Pull! I tell you, pull!" cried Dexter furiously; and Bob pulled obediently, sending the boat along fast round the curves and bends, but not so fast but that they heard a furious rustling of the osiers and reeds, and saw the figure of the man above them on the bank.

"There, I told you so," whimpered Bob. "Let's get out t'other side."

"Row, I tell you!" roared Dexter; and to his surprise the man did not stop, but hurried on toward the mouth of the creek.

"There!" cried Bob. "He's gone for his boat, and he'll stop us, and he'll drown'd us both."

"He daren't," said Dexter stoutly, though he felt a peculiar sinking all the time.

"But he will, he will. It's no use to row."

Dexter felt desperate now, for theirs was an awkward position; and to his horror he saw that Bob was ceasing to row, and looking up at the bank on his left.

"You go on rowing," cried Dexter fiercely.