bit where I claps the plaster on, and I dessay she'll be watertight
enough for you to run home in. I can mend her up proper when we get her
back in the creek."

"How long would it take to put on the patch?"

"I can't say till I sees the hole, sir, but I might get it done by
to-night."

"By to-night? How am I to get back in the dark?"

"Oh, I dessay we could steer clear o' the rocks, sir."

"We? No, thank you, sir. I don't want a man with me whom I can't
trust."

Tom took his hat off and had a good rub before looking wistfully up in
his young employer's face.

"Say, Master Aleck, arn't you a bit hard on a man?" he said.

"No, not half so hard as you deserve. You told me an abominable lie."

"Nay, sir. I see your shadow just as you were going to throw down that
there lump o' paper."

"You--did--not, sir!" cried Aleck, fiercely.

"Well, then, it must ha' been somebody else's, sir; that's all I can
say."

"Whose, pray?" cried Aleck. "Who would dare to do such a thing as that?
Stop!" he cried, as a sudden idea flashed through his brain. "I saw
two lads in a boat sculling away from the pier as hard as they could
go."

"You see that, Master Aleck?"

"Yes, when I came down from High Street."

"Where was they going, sir?" cried the man, staring hard.

"Towards the curing sheds."

"Could you see who they was, sir?"

"No; they seemed to be two big lads, just about the same as the rest."

"Where was they going from?" asked Tom, excitedly.

"From the pier; there was nowhere else they could be coming from. They
wouldn't have been fishing at this time of day."

"Look here, Master Aleck, you mean it, don't you? It wasn't you as
pitched something down?"

"Look here, Tom, do you want to put me in a passion?"

"No, sir, course I don't."

"Then don't ask such idiotic questions. Of course I didn't."

"Then it was one of they chaps, Master Aleck."

"Well, it does look like it now, Tom. But, nonsense! It must have been
very heavy to go through the boat."

"It weer, sir."

"But why should anyone do that? You don't think that a boy would have
been guilty of such a bit of mischief as that?"

"What, Master Aleck?" cried the sailor, bursting into a loud guffaw.
"Why, there arn't anything they Rockabie boys wouldn't do. Why, they're
himps, sir--reg'lar himps; and mischief arn't half bad enough a word for
what they'd do."

"Oh, but this is too bad. Why, the--the--"

"Stone, I should say it we