Part 6 (1/2)

A flight of wild duck crossed our bows at so necks and flapping wings I happened to be steering while Davies verified our course below; but I called hian about our chances of sport

Davies was gloomy over them

'Those fellows at Satrup were rather doubtful,' he said 'There are plenty of ducks, but IThe whole country's so very civilized; it's not _wild_ enough, is it?'

He looked atbut wild in one sense, but there seeh spots for ducks The shore ere passing appeared to be bordered by lonely n showed behind If it were not for the beautiful places we had seen, andvagueness would have nettled htequip

'Bad weather is ant for ducks,' he said; 'but I' place for the those Frisian islands--' His tone was ti an to dawn on h a sentence or two about 'wildness' and 'nobody to interfere with you,' and then I broke in: 'You surely don't want to leave the Baltic?'

'Why not?' said he, staring into the co it, man!' I returned, tartly, 'here we are in October, the suone to pieces We're alone in a cockle-shell boat, at a ti up for the winter Luckily, we seeround, with a wide choice of safe fiords and a good prospect of ducks, if we choose to take a little trouble about theht of the torn leaf in the log-book) 'in a long voyage to those forbidding haunts of yours in the North Sea'

'It's not very long,' said Davies, doggedly 'Part of it's canal, and the rest is quite safe if you're careful There's plenty of sheltered water, and it's not really necessary--'

'What's it all for?' I interrupted, i here yet You've no notion, have you, of getting the boat back to England this autuain his vagueness jarred on me; there seemed to be some bar between us, invisible and insur it in a shabby little yacht, utterly out ofto ma Like swift poison the old h me All I had learnt and seen slipped ahat I had suffered reht have put a precipitate end to our cruise, but he anticipatedsuch a selfish brute I don't knohat I was thinking about You're a brick to join me in this sort of life, and I'm afraid I'm an infernally bad host Of course this is just the place to cruise I forgot about the scenery, and all that Let's ask about the ducks here As you say, we're sure to get sport if orry and push a bit We must be nearly there now--yes, there's the entrance Take the helazed over the land froma and thanked Providence I had not spoken; for no one could have resisted his frank outburst of good nature Yet it occurred tothe conditions of our life, our intirowth I had no clue yet as to where his idiosyncrasies began and his self ended, and he, I sure towards me Otherwise I should have pressed him further now, for I felt convinced that there was some mystery in his behaviour which I had not yet accounted for However, light was soon to break

I could see no sign of the entrance he had spoken of, and no wonder, for it is only eighty yards wide, though it leads to a fiord thirtyin a tuly disclosed itself, stealing betweento a mere, as at Ekken We anchored close to the roup of vessels of a type that afterwards grew very fa like those that ply in the Thah-sterned craft of about fifty tons, ketch-rigged, and fitted with lee-boards, very light spars, and a long tip-tilted bowsprit (For the future I shall call then of life was a solitary white house--the pilot's house, the chart told us--close to the northern point of entrance After tea we called on the pilot Patriarchally installed before a roaring stove, in the corandchildren, we found a rotund and rubicund person, who greeted us with a hoarse roar of welcoed, when he saw us, to the funniest broken English, spoken with intense relish and pride We explained ourselves and our h the hospitable interruptions caused by beer and the strains of a hugein honour of our arrival Needless to say, I was read like a book at once, and fell into the part of listener

'Yes, yes,' he said, 'all right There is plenty ducks, but first ill drink a glass beer; then ill shi+ft your shi+p, captain--she lies not good there' (Davies started up in a panic, but aved back to his beer) 'Then ill drink together another glass beer; then ill talk of ducks--no, then ill kill ducks--that is better Then ill have plenty glasses beer'

This was an unexpected cliramme was fully carried out After the beer our host was packed briskly by his daughter into an araiters, coats, andof his face visible but a pair of twinkling eyes Thus equipped, he led the way out of doors, and roared for Hans and his gun, till a great gawky youth, with high cheek-bones and a downy beard, caether we repaired to the quay, where the pilot stood, looking like a genial ball of worsted, and bawled hoarse directions while we shi+fted the 'Dulcibella' to a berth on the farther shore close to the other vessels We returned with our guns, and the interval for refreshain, crossed a stretch of bog-land, and took up strategic posts round a stagnant pond Hans had been sent to drive, and the result was a fine mallard and three ducks It was true that all fell to the pilot's gun, perhaps owing to Hans' filial instinct and his parent's canny egotis his own lair, or perhaps it was chance; but the shooting-party was none the less a triumphal success It was celebrated with beer and y knee, discoursed exuberantly on the glories of his country and the Elysian content of his life 'There is plenty beer, plenty meat, plenty money, plenty ducks,' summed up his survey

It h he had fits and starts of vivacity, see at the feet of so expansive an oracle It was I who elicited most of the practical information--details of ti, with some shrewd hints as to the kind of people to conciliate Whatever he thought of me, I warmed with sympathy towards the pilot, for he assuht us , andon 'so little a shi+p' e could live on land with beer and music handy I was tempted to raise the North Sea question, just to watch Davies under the thunder of rebukes which would follow But I refrained fro so well The Frisian Islands were an extravagant absurdity now I did not even refer to the eternal friendshi+p with the good pilot and his faht--or rather I should say that I turned in, for I left hi a voluht I felt somehow that his bunk was e

VII The Missing Page

I WOKE (on 1st October) with that dispiriting sensation that a hitch has occurred in a settled plan It was explained when I went on deck, and I found the 'Dulcibella' wrapped in a fog, silent, clahostly hull of a galliot at anchor near us She ht, for there had been nothing so close the evening before; and I remembered thatchain and gruff voices

'This looks pretty hopeless for to-day,' I said, with a shi+ver, to Davies, as laying the breakfast

'Well, we can't do anything till this fog lifts,' he answered, with a good deal of resignation Breakfast was a cheerless meal The damp penetrated to the very cabin, whose roof and walls wept a fine dew I had dreaded a bathe, and yet ht made the tablecloth look dirtier than it naturally was, and all the accessorieswith the bacon, and the lack of egg-cups was not in the least hu, in his su up, when there was a sound of a step on deck, two sea-boots appeared on the ladder, and, before we could wonder who the visitor was, a littletowards us in the cabin door, srizzled beard

'Well met, captain,' he said, quietly, in German 'Where are you bound to this ti up The two stooping figures, young and old, beamed at one another like father and son

'Where have you come from? Have some coffee How's the 'Johannes'? Was that you that cahted to see you!' (I spare the reader his uncouth lingo) The little ed in and seated on the opposite sofa to me