Menhardoc Part 28

He could furnish a stranger with boat or yacht to purchase or on hire.

"Mornin', sir!" sang out Josh. "Mornin', Master Richard, sir! None the worse for last night's work, eh?"

"No, I'm all right, Josh," said d.i.c.k. "Good-morning, Will! I say, you lost all the fish and the tackle last night, didn't you?"

"We lost all the fish, sir; but the tackle was all right; a bit tangled up, that's all."

"Oars is the worst of it," said Josh, "only they was old uns. Will and me's got a good pair, though, from up at Pentreath's. Game out of a French lugger as was wrecked."

"I want to have a look round at some of the old mine-shafts, my man,"

said Mr Temple. "Who can you tell me of as a good guide?"

"Josh, sir," said Will.

"Will, sir," said Josh.

"Josh knows all of them for three or four miles round."

"Not half so well as Will, sir. He's always 'vestigatin' of 'em," cried Josh.

"You, my lad?" said Mr Temple, turning sharply on Will, whose brown face grew red.

"Yes, sir; I have a look at them sometimes."

"Prospecting, eh?" said Mr Temple, smiling.

"We could both go if you like, sir," said Josh. "We could row you to Blee Vor, and to Oldman's Wheal and Blackbay Consols and Dynan Reor, and take you over the cliff to Revack and Rendullow and Saint Grant's."

"Why, d.i.c.k," said Mr Temple, "we have hit upon the right guides. When will you be at liberty, my lad?"

"Any time, sir, you like. We ain't going out with, our boots for the next few days."

"Not going out with your boots?" said d.i.c.k.

"Boots, not boots," said Josh, grinning. "I don't mean boots as you put on your foots, but boots that you sail in--luggers, like this."

"Oh! I see," said d.i.c.k.

"A mussy me!" muttered Josh. "The ignoramusness of these here London folk, to _be_ sure."

"Could you row me and--say, my two sons--to one of the old mining shafts after breakfast this morning?"

"Think your uncle would mind, Will?" said Josh.

"No," replied Will.

"Of course you will charge me for the hire of the boat," said Mr Temple; "and here, my son ought to pay his share of the damage you met with last night;" and he slipped half a sovereign in d.i.c.k's hand--a coin he was about to transfer to Josh, but this worthy waved him off.

"No, no!" he said; "give it to young Will here. It ain't my boot, and they warn't my oars; and very bad ones they were."

"Here, Will, take it," said d.i.c.k.

"What for? No, I sha'n't take it," said Will. "The old oars were good for nothing, and we should have cut them up to burn next week. Give Josh a shilling to make himself a new gaff, and buy a shilling's worth of snooding and hooks for yourself. Uncle Abram wouldn't like me to take anything, I'm sure."

Mr Temple did not press the matter, but making a final appointment for the boat to be ready, he returned with d.i.c.k to the inn, where they had hardly entered the sitting-room with its table invitingly spread for breakfast, when Arthur came down, red-eyed, ill-used looking, and yawning.

"Oh, you're down first," he said. "Is breakfast ready? I've got such a bad headache."

"Then you had better go and lie down again, my boy," said his father; "nothing like bed for a headache."

"Oh, but it will be better when I have had some breakfast. It often aches like this when I come down first."

"Try getting up a little earlier, Arthur," said Mr Temple. "There, sit down."

The coffee and some hot fried fish were brought in just then, and Arthur forgot his headache, while d.i.c.k seemed almost ravenous, his father laughing at the state of his healthy young appet.i.te, which treated slices of bread and b.u.t.ter in a wonderfully mechanical manner.

"Your walk seems to have sharpened you, d.i.c.k," he said.

"Oh, yes, I was so hungry."

"Have you been for a walk?" said Arthur, with his mouth full, and one finger on an awkward starchy point of his carefully spread collar.

"Walk? Yes. We've been down to the harbour."

"Making arrangements for a boat to take us to two or three of the old mines."

"You won't go in a boat again--after that accident?" said Arthur, staring.

"Oh, yes! Such accidents are common at the sea-side, and people do not heed them," said Mr Temple. "I'm sorry you will not be well enough to come, Arthur."

d.i.c.k looked across the table at him and laughed, emphasising the laugh by giving his brother a kick on the leg; while Arthur frowned and went on with his breakfast, clinging a little to a fancied or very slight headache, feeling that it would be a capital excuse for not going in the boat, and yet disposed to throw over the idea at once, for he was, in spite of a few shrinking sensations, exceedingly anxious to go.

"Oh, by the way, d.i.c.k," continued Mr Temple, "I am just going to say a few words more to you before letting the matter drop; and I say them for your brother to hear as well."

d.i.c.k felt what was coming, and after a quick glance at Arthur, he hung his head.

"I am taking your word about that cigar-case and its contents, and I sincerely hope that you will always keep your promise in mind. A boy at your age should not even dream of using tobacco. You hear what I am saying, Arthur?"

"Yes, papa," said the latter, who was scarlet.

"Bear it in mind, then, too. I found d.i.c.k with a cigar-case in his pocket this morning. I don't ask whether you were aware of it, for I do not want to say more about the matter than to express my entire disapproval of my boys indulging in such a habit."

"Now if Taff's half a fellow he'll speak up and say it was his cigar-case," thought d.i.c.k.

But Arthur remained silently intent upon his coffee, while Mr Temple dismissed the subject, and looked smilingly at his boys as the meal progressed.

"Ten minutes, and I shall be ready to start, d.i.c.k," said Mr Temple, rising from the table.

"I--I think I'm well enough to go, papa," said Arthur.