Part 5 (1/2)
Daygo's big boots crushed soorse; for as they went along a slope the sweet aromatic scent of wild thyme floated to the boys' nostrils; and the bees, startled froht and left, with a low, hu noise, which was the treble, in Nature's music, to the soft, low bass which caht And as the boys drew in long, deep draughts of the pure, fresh air which bathed their island hoht which spoke volumes of how they were in the full tide of true enjoyhtest days
They could not have expressed what they felt--perhaps they were unconscious of the fact: that knowledge was only to cos-back of maturity; but they knew that the moor about them see upon which their eyes rested, whether it was the purple and golden-green slope, or the wondrous lights upon the ever-changing sea
”Hi! look! There goes a ,” cried Mike, as one of the brilliantly plus, and went off in its peculiar flight, the white of its breast of the purest, and the sun glancing frothy tail
”Hooray!--another--and another--and another!” cried Vince, who the next moment passed frorotesque; for he covered his lips with one hand to se square patch of drugget laboriously stitched upon the back of the solid-looking trousers to strengthen the upon the thwart of a boat, a rock, or a bush of furze, which, when so guarded against, makes a pleasantly elastic seat
But Vince's companion did not find it so easy to control his antic trousers inthe slope, their appearance seemed so comic, in conjunction with Vince's h
Vince gave him a heavy punch in the ribs, which was intended to mean: ”Now you've done it: he won't let us coo did not look round; he only shook his head and shouted:
”Won't do, young Ladle--_Ladelle_: you're thinking about the tar water, but you can't be so funny as he”
The boys exchanged glances, but did not try to explain; neither speaking till, to their surprise, the e buttress which ran out soe of the cliff and ended in a soft patch of sheep-nibbled, velvet grass, upon which lay, partly buried, a couple of long iron guns, while the ree of the cliff
”I say! where are you going?” cried Vince
”Eh? Here,” said thedown astride of one of the old cannon ”Think I was going to pitch you off?”
”No,” said Vince coolly, as he went close to the edge and looked down at the deeply-coloured purple, almost black, water at the foot of the cliff, where there was not an inch of strand ”Wouldn't much matter if you did: it's awfully deep there, and no rocks I could swim”
”Swim? Wheer?” said the man sharply ”No man could swim far there
T'reble currents and deep holes, where the tide runs into and sucks you down if it don't take you out to sea nobody's safe there”
”Might go all right in a boat,” said Vince, still gazing down, attracted by the place, where he had often watched before, and noted how the cors, and rock-doves flew in and out, disappearing beneath his feet--for the great buttress overhung the sea, and its face could only be seen by those who sailed by
”Nay, nay; no one goes in a boat along here, boy There, I'o Which o' you's got a sun-glass?”
”I have,” said Vince quickly
”Let's have it, then: save h black pipe was filled, and the convex lens held so that the sun's rays were brought to a focus on the tobacco, which dried rapidly, crisped up, and soon began to snited the whole surface, and the lass
”It's nothing a boy could do,” he said, with one of his fierce, gri at a pipe like that”
”Get out!” said Vince quickly ”I wasn't thinking about that I ondering who first found out that you could get fire frolass,” said the old fellow, ”and unscrewed the bottoht ha' fired one o' these here with a glass if you put a bit o' tinder in the touch-hole”
”Yes,” said Vince, ”if the French had come”
”Tchah!” ejaculated the uns about the island! No Frenchies couldn't ha' come and landed here
Wants some one as knows every rock to sail a sone to pieces on the rocks if they'd tried”
”Same as the old Spaniards did with the Armada,” said Vince