Part 62 (1/2)
”Aha!” he cried ”So you sall not try to escape anythe speaker full in the face ”I say, what time do you have dinner?”
The Frenchman stared at him for a few hter
”You are a _drole de garcon_” he said ”You are again hungry?”
”I shall be by the tioing to keep us here?”
”Aha!” he said, with a shrug of the shoulders and a peculiar gesticulation with his hand, as if he were throwing soh his half-closed eyes: ”You are fatigue so soon? You vant to go soo hoo hoood capitain all zis pains to o, and you vill not help”
”Oh, I'h to help,” said Vince ”So's he; but they will be very anxious about us at home”
”Ta ta ta ta ta!” cried the captain ”Vy, you sink so mosh of your selfs Ze _bon papa_ vill say to _la o and tomble zem selfs off ze cliff;' and ze _arcon_--poor boy, it is vat I expect'”
”And instead of that,” said Vince, ”you are going to send us ho any o to be vairy busy, and it is better zat you two do not fight any more So come vis me”
”Where?” said Vince suspiciously
”Vere? Oh! you sall see, _lances, but feeling that it was hopeless to resist, they followed the captain down to where the boat was lying, just as she had returned a few o
Theher afloat, but they ran her stern on to the sand as they saw the captain co, and one of them leaped out to hold her steady
”In vis you!” said the captain sharply
”All right, Mike,” whispered Vince ”Come on, and don't see one foot on the gunwale and springing in lightly Mike followed, and then the captain; while theankle-deep in the water waited till they were seated, and then, giving the boat a good thrust out, sprang on the stern, and cli forward quickly to seize an oar, and pulling sharply with his coerly upward as soon as they were clear of the great overhanging archway, and saw the ihty rocks were at least twenty feet out of the perpendicular, leaning over towards the little bay, whose waters were running, eddying and boiling like a whirlpool as they raced along, seizing the boat's head and seeed cluster of rocks, standing just above the surface, and aed and foamed furiously
But the men knew their work One pulled hard, the other backed water, and by their united efforts the boat was forced into an eddy close under the cliff; and to their a carried in the opposite direction to that in which the
”You vill escape and climb ze cliff? No, _mes enfans_,” said the captain: ”you cannot clio avay? Aha! you sink so? No, it is not for you to e ze boat She vill capsize herself if you try”
Vince said nothing, but eagerly looked around; but it was everywhere the sa in the crater-like cove, and from their seat in the boat no entrance, no exit, was visible
”Now I take you bose and drop you ovaire-board: you sink, you go hoo home, but not to see ze _bon papa_, ze _belle maman_ It is not possible Von of o He shu von, tenty stroke, and zen he trow _les mains_ out of ze vater, and he cry for ze boat; but zere vas no boat, and he turn round upon hio down a hole in ze vater I stand and look at hiood o You like to shump in and svim? _Eh bien_, you shake ze hand, shuo? _Non? Eh bien_! I make you ze offaire”
The boys felt that it was all true, andtheain; and, as far as they could e away facing the cavern ined to be an island, were all one
The captain see with his eyes half-closed; but he atching them all the time closely, and noted their astonish at their oars with all their ht, apparently to avoid a rock, round one side of which the water was rushi+ng with tre which they had been riding suddenly curved round it Thefor the other end, and as they drew nearer the water roared and splashed up, and it appeared to both that they ht upon it by some undertow
But every foot of the place, and all its difficulties, were perfectly fa use of the uide the boat into safety, as in this case; for just as Mike seized the gunith one hand, to be prepared for the shock, and Vince clenched his fists and gave a glance to the left, the boat's prow passed the end of the detached rock, they glided into an opening like a gash cut down through the massive rock-wall, and the next minute were swept into a co cliffs, which seeht before thes fixed in the rock-face behind, a long, low three-er of the kind known as a _chasse-maree_