The Story of the White-Rock Cove Part 8

"But maybe you don't guess for whom it's intended, sir; I don't deny the making of it," said the old man.

"I think I do though," I answered, looking up at his kind, cheery face; "I think you've made it for me, George."

"Well, you're about right there, sir, and it's been a real pleasure to me the making of it, being, as it were, somewhat of a sailor's craft, it having to be driven of the wind, even though it might be said to be more for land than water."

I heard Aleck say that it belonged rather to the air than to earth or water in his opinion. Then we took to a close inspection of the eagle, which we both agreed to be splendid, and became eager for an immediate trial of its flying powers.

But here, to our surprise, old George did not at once agree. He wanted to see, he told us, whether he could not make Master Gordon's boat sail as well as mine. We could have a sailing match, and try which would go the best, if only we would get out the "Fair Alice;" and so saying he led the way to my own little boat-house, whilst we followed in speechless wonder at the absurdity of the proposition.

"As if he could set my boat to rights in a few minutes!" said Aleck to me incredulously.

"Here, Master Gordon," continued George, making pretended difficulties at the lock; "you had better open the door yourself, sir."

Aleck stooped down to do so. "Why, George!" he exclaimed, "it's as easy as possible; what _did_ you make such a fuss about? But--oh--what a beauty! Willie--Willie--look!" and so saying, he drew forth a beautifully made little vessel, about the same size as my "Fair Alice,"

but even, as I thought, more perfectly finished, and with two masts.

"A schooner-yacht," my cousin continued, triumphantly. "Oh, Willie, I like it a great deal better than even the 'Fair Alice.' Is it yours, George?" he inquired.

"No, sir," answered Groves, quickly; "guess again."

"I don't know any one else, unless it's Willie."

"Near it, but not right; try again, sir; somebody else that's not very far off."

My cousin coloured with a wild flush of delight; but though he stooped down to finger the new yacht in a sort of tender way, as if he loved it, he hesitated to make another guess, and I broke in impatiently,--

"Aleck, why are you so nonsensical as to pretend you don't see it's for you?"

"That's it indeed, Master Gordon; you'll understand what I meant about the sailing match now;" and the old sailor's face lit up afresh with kind enjoyment, as he marked the absorbing pleasure which his present was giving.

Another moment, and Aleck was almost hugging the old man: "Oh, how very, very, very kind of you to make it for me; I like it better a great deal than anything I have ever seen, better than the 'Fair Alice' even, and I did think that nicer than anything else. May I have it out on the water to-day; and couldn't we sail them both together as you said."

There was no time for answering him, as he ran on immediately into a minute individual examination of all the details of the little vessel, calling for attention and admiration in every case: "Look at the bowsprit, and then the rudder; see how delicately it moves; the royal is beautiful, and there are three flags; do look, Willie, mine will be the admiral's vessel, and I can signal to you."

I looked, but said very little, though Aleck was too much absorbed with his own enjoyment to notice this, and kept appealing to me for sympathetic interest during the whole operation of unreefing the sails and launching the yacht for a trial sail in the Cove.

Nothing certainly could look more graceful and pretty than did the little vessel, as it bent to the breeze, and steadily kept its course out towards the mouth of the Cove. Aleck clapped his hands exultingly, and ran forward to slip the rope across, as the tide was already pretty high, and still rising. Then slowly brought the treasure back again, and surveyed it at his leisure in one of the little creeks, where the shelter of the rocks prevented it from speeding off again on its journey. Frisk, too, took a great interest in the new acquisition, seeming to recognize in it an addition to his circle of friends. And George rubbed his hands, and chuckled with satisfaction, as he repeated again that Master Gordon's boat should sail on the Cove as tight and trim as the "Fair Alice" herself.

And I--yes, I must confess it, found the old miserable feelings were all back again, and vainly tried to shake off the dead weight which had settled upon me from the moment that I had clearly understood that Aleck, and not I, was to possess the new vessel.

Perhaps George detected something of what was pa.s.sing in my mind, for, when the question arose which of us boys should go up to the house to ask permission for the expedition to the White-Rock Cove, he decided at once that it should be Aleck, saying that he and I would have time for trying the kite meanwhile; and, looking back at it now, I fancy I can understand his wanting to take off my thoughts from Aleck's present, and make me think about my own.

So Aleck started off by the Zig-zag, and George and I would have set to flying the kite immediately, had not he discovered that one of the sails of our own boat had been taken up to the lodge, and that he must go and look for it first.

"I'll be back in less than a quarter of an hour, sir," he said, however, as he left; "and you can have the kite and be on the meadow ready."

I had taken up the kite in my hand, but I threw it aside again the moment George turned his back upon me, and sitting down upon the stones near the water's edge, with Frisk's fore-paws stretched across my lap, looked gloomily at the water and at Aleck's new boat. Evil feelings grew stronger and stronger within me as I looked. Though fascinated so that I could not take my eyes off it, I hated the very sight of the pretty little schooner, and wished heartily that George had never made it. And I thought about Aleck, how happy he was this morning, and how miserable I was; and I thought it unfair of him to be happier in my own home than I was; and then I wondered why George should care for him so much as to take all that trouble for him, forgetting how I had begged old George to love my cousin who was to be like my brother, and forgetting, too, that Aleck's pleasant ways had won upon the old man during the past few months, so that he had gained quite an established place in his affections.

These and countless other, but similar thoughts, chased each other through my head in a far shorter time than they take to relate, whilst dreamily I kept watching the little vessel, and mechanically taking note of its different points. The sails at first were flapping listlessly, the rocks, as I mentioned before, affording shelter from the breeze. But presently the breeze shifted a little, and this change, together with that produced by the tide, now just at its full height, moved the schooner somewhat further from the rocks; then gradually the sails filled once again, and after stopping a minute at one point, and a minute at another, as, drifted by the motion of the waves, it finally escaped from the little creek and stood steadily out into the open channel of the Cove. I sprung to my feet and followed in pursuit, running or jumping from rock to rock towards the mouth of the Cove. But the little vessel got under the lee of a projecting rock, and was stopped in its course for a while, so I sat down once more, not caring to find my way round to the other side and release it, according to my usual fashion, but finding a moody satisfaction in staring straight before me, and paying no attention to Frisk, who was flourishing about with barks, and waggings of his tail and p.r.i.c.kings of his ears, as if he thought he ought to be sent in pursuit of the new boat, and considered me deficient in public spirit for not stirring in the matter.

Then, as I steadily refused to notice him, he took to playing with the end of the rope on which the rings were fastened, which slipped on to the iron stake, as before-mentioned, and const.i.tuted our "harbour-bar;"

seeming as pleased as a kitten with a ball of worsted, when he found that he could push the ring up and move it with his paws. In fact, the stake was so very short, and the ring so light, that I could see five minutes more of such play, and probably the rope would be unfastened, and the channel clear to the open sea.

Another moment and I noticed that the little vessel was clearing out from its shelter under the rock, the wind coming down into the Cove in gusts and draughts, so that it seemed to blow every way in succession, and was now standing straight towards the mouth of the harbour.

There was a quick, sharp conflict between the strong whisper of temptation and the protesting voice of conscience, when I marked the position of the boat, and saw also, that in another moment Frisk's antics would have unfastened the barrier between it and the wide waters beyond. A quick, sharp conflict, and I came off defeated.

Hastily turning my back upon the harbour-bar, I ran to the head of the Cove without disturbing Frisk, who was so taken up with his newly found amus.e.m.e.nt, that he did not miss me; took up the kite and sped off to the meadow, which lay between the Cove and the lodge, where I was joined by the dog, two or three minutes after, panting and breathless at my having stolen a march upon him.

George, too, came a minute later from the other side into the meadow, which, although out of sight of the Cove, owing to the rise of the ground, was as good a place to wait in as any, since Aleck would have to pa.s.s through it on his way from the house.

Ralph appeared also, and through our united efforts, and to our united satisfaction, my new kite was soon soaring higher than any kite ever seen before by any member of our little party; great was my excitement in holding the string and letting it out, or taking it in as I ran from one part to another, Frisk the while dashing about wildly, and barking as though at some strange bird of which he entertained suspicions.

Old George looked as pleased as if he had been a boy of six, rather than a man of sixty, and Ralph rushed recklessly here and there and everywhere, with his head thrown back and his eyes rivetted upon the soaring kite, until, like Genius in the fable, he was suddenly prostrate through stumbling over an unnoticed stump.

"See what comes of not looking where you're going," moralized George, as he picked him up and gave him a general shaking by way of seeing that nothing had come loose in his tumble; a sentiment from which it is possible the youngster might have derived more profit, had not his elderly relative experienced a similar mishap almost immediately afterwards.

I was the only heavy-hearted one of the trio; and even I forgot my cares and anxieties in the glorious excitement of holding in the kite, which tugged and tugged at the string as if it would carry me up to the skies, rather than give in.

"I wonder what's kept Master Aleck such a time?" said old George, after we had spent nearly three-quarters of an hour kite-flying.

The load at my heart came back again in a moment as I answered hurriedly, that I did not mind Aleck's being detained, for the pleasure of flying the kite was as good as anything. And George, who inferred that the cloud he had noticed before over me had pa.s.sed away, rejoiced accordingly.

It was more than an hour from the time of his leaving, when Aleck reappeared, holding one side of a small hamper, whilst one of the men-servants held the other.

"Lots of good things for luncheon," he said, by way of explanation, as they deposited their burden on the gra.s.s. And then he proceeded to unfold how some one had been calling on his uncle and aunt, and he could not speak to them at first; and then how his uncle had told him the drive would have to be later, and more distant than they had intended; and, finally, that the game of cricket being given up, we might have our luncheon and picnic at the White-Rock Cove, returning any reasonable time in the afternoon.

"Won't it be splendid?" Aleck continued, gleefully, whilst I drew in line, and my kite slowly descended; "we shall have time for the sailing match, and madrepore hunt, and the caverns--everything!"

I a.s.sented with as much of pleasure in my tone as was at command, thinking after all how very pleasant it would be if--there came the _if_--and I scarcely dared admit to myself, how sorry I began to feel at the thought that my man[oe]uvre had probably succeeded, or how sorely the disappointment to George and my cousin would mar our happiness! If only I could know that what I had wished to happen an hour ago had not happened, then how wonderfully light my heart would feel. A sickening feeling of anxiety, such as I had not dreamt of in my little happy life before, came over me, and nervously I hurried on the winding up of my string.

"What a n.o.ble kite it is," said my cousin, "I wish I could go up upon one!"

"'If wishes were horses'--you know the old saying, Master Gordon,"

responded Groves. "I think you'd be sorry enough after getting up five hundred feet into the air, to feel that a puff of wind might tumble you over, and make the coming down a trifle quicker, and less agreeable, than the going up."

"It was the going up, and not the coming down that I meant," rejoined Aleck, "though I have heard papa say that coming down from a great height does not hurt."

"Ugh!" I e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed, "you wouldn't have me believe that. Just a little while before you came to us I had a bad fall off the table. I can tell you it hurt!"

"I've fallen, too, off a tree," answered my cousin, not to be outdone, for boys are wont to brag of their honourable scars, "and it hurt a great deal, but I mean falling from higher still. One of the sailors I talked to on board ship had fallen from a mast, and he told me that he went over and over; the first time he went over seemed quite a long time, and between that and the second time he seemed to remember almost everything he had ever cared about much in all his life, but after the second going over he never knew anything until he found himself lying in the cabin, and the doctor setting his arm, which had been broken in the fall, though he never felt it."

"I'll be bound he felt it enough when the doctor got to work upon him,"

remarked George.

"Yes; but he didn't feel it when it broke," returned Aleck, who wished to establish his point.

By this time the stately kite was lying on the gra.s.s. I lifted it up, and we started in procession for the Cove, Aleck acting train-bearer to the long tail, and winding it up as he went along; and Groves and Ralph carrying the hamper.