Three Boys Part 27

They played again, and he was worse still; while, after the fourth game, he threw down his cue pettishly.

"It's of no use for me to play you. Why, you're a regular out-and-outer."

"Nonsense! These strokes are easy enough. Let me show you. Look at the things you can do that I can't."

"You show me how to make those strokes, and I'll show you everything I know."

"I'll show you without making you promise that," said Max good-humouredly; and the rest of the evening was spent over the board, which they only quitted to say "good-night" and retire to their rooms; but Kenneth did not go to his until he had been to the butler's pantry, and then to the kitchen, which was empty, the servants having retired for the night, after banking up the fire with peat, which would go on smouldering and glowing for the rest of the night, and only want stirring in the morning to burst into a blaze.

There was something very suspicious in Kenneth's movements as he crossed the kitchen in the faint glow, and a great tom-cat glowered at him as he stole away to the fireside and watched.

At one moment it seemed as if Kenneth was going to the larder to make a raid upon the provisions, but he stopped short of that door, and stood listening, and started violently as a sudden sound smote his ear.

It was the start of one troubled with a guilty conscience, for the sound was only a sharp tack made by the great clock, preliminary to its striking eleven.

"How stupid!" muttered Kenneth; and then he started again, for he heard a door close rather loudly.

"Father!" he muttered, and he ran to the entry and listened again, before going cautiously to the fire, where he suddenly made two or three s.n.a.t.c.hes of a very suspicious character, and hurried out of the kitchen along a stone pa.s.sage. Then all was silent about the place, save the lapping and splashing of the water among the rocks outside.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN.

AN UNCOMFORTABLE BREAKFAST.

That same night Max fell fast asleep as soon as he was in bed, for never in his career had he used his muscles so much in one day.

His rest was dreamless, but he awoke as the turret clock struck six, and lay thinking.

It was a glorious morning, for his window was illumined by the sunshine, and he felt warm and comfortable, but all the same he shivered.

For a troublesome thought had come to him, and he lay quite sleepless now, listening for Kenneth's step, feeling quite certain that before many minutes had pa.s.sed the lad would be hammering at his door, and summoning him to come down and bathe.

He shuddered at the idea, for the thought of what he had pa.s.sed through--the climb down to the cavern with its crystal cold water, the weed-hung rocks, and the plunge, and the way in which he had been given his first lesson in swimming--brought out the perspiration in a cold dew upon his brow.

"I will not go again," he said to himself. "One ought to be half a fish to live in a place like this."

The banging of a door and footsteps were heard.

"Here he comes!" muttered Max, and by an involuntary action he caught hold of the bedclothes and drew them tightly up to his chin.

No Kenneth.

The sun shone brightly, and he could picture the dazzling sheen of the waves as they rippled and flashed. He could picture, too, the golden-brown seaweed and the creamy-drab barnacles on the rocks which had felt so rough and strange to his bare feet.

Then a reaction set in. It was so cowardly to refuse to go, and Kenneth and Scood would laugh at him, while to his sensitive nature the jeering would be more painful than the venturing into the water.

"But," he argued to himself, "there is no danger in being laughed at, and, on the other hand, they might get me out--they are so reckless--and drown me."

He shuddered, and then he felt ashamed. He wanted to be as brave as the other lads, and he felt that he must seem to them a miserable coward.

"I'm down here, and with the chance of learning all these out-door sports, and I shall try. I will not be so cowardly, and when Kenneth comes I'll go down and bathe, and try to master all this horrid fright."

As soon as he had bravely come to this determination he felt better, though all of a tremor the while, and his agitation increased as from time to time he heard a sound which his excited imagination told him was the coming of Kenneth.

But he did not spring out of bed and begin to dress, so as to be ready when Kenneth came, but lay feeling now uncomfortably hot as he recalled his previous experience in the water, and his terrible--as he termed it--adventure over the fishing, and his being hooked out by Tavish, but all the time he could not help a half suspicion taking root, that, had he been a quick, active lad, accustomed to such things, he would not have been swept off the rock, and, even if he had been, he would have struggled to some shallow place and recovered himself.

"I will try!" he said aloud. "I'll show him that if I am a coward, I am going to master it, and then perhaps they will not tease me and laugh at me so much."

Kenneth did not come, and, in spite of his determination, the boy could not help feeling relieved, as he lay thinking of what a long time it seemed since he came down there, and what adventures he had gone through.

Then there were footsteps, and a bang outside the door.

Kenneth at last!

No; the steps were not like his, and they were going away. It was some one who had brought his boots.

Max lay and thought again about the people he had met,--about The Mackhai, and his haughty, distant manner. He did not seem to like his visitor, and yet he was very polite.

"Perhaps he doesn't like my father," thought Max sadly. "Perhaps--"

Perhaps it was being more at ease after his determination to master his cowardice:

Perhaps it was from the feeling of relief at the non-appearance of Kenneth:

Perhaps it was from having undergone so much exertion on the previous day:

Perhaps it was from the bed being so warm and comfortable:

Be all this as it may, Max Blande, instead of getting up, dropped off fast asleep.

"Max! I say, Max, do you know what time it is?"

Max started up in bed, and had hard work to collect his thoughts, as his name was called again, and there was a loud knocking at the door.

"Yes, yes; coming!" cried the boy, leaping out of bed, and hurrying on his dressing-gown.

"Open the door."

"Yes; I'm coming!"

Max opened the door, and Kenneth rushed in.

"Come, old lazy-bones!" he cried; "look sharp! It's a quarter to nine, and the dad will look dirks and daggers if we keep him waiting."

"I--I'm very sorry," said Max. "I--I dropped off to sleep again. I thought you would come and call me to bathe."

"What was the use? See what a fuss you made yesterday!"