“Why didn’t you wake me?” Roger was asking.
“Ask the skipper.”
The mainsail was set, and the jib was going up.
“Harden in that starboard jib sheet, now you’re here,” said John.
“You’d have got away a lot better if I’d been there to help,” said Roger, as he hauled in on the jib sheet. “I can manage,” he added as Captain Flint coming aft gave him a hand.
“Not too hard.”
Dick and Dorothea were watching the harbour. A lamp flickered like a dying match and went out. They were looking for the white blur of a fast motor cruiser coming after them. Nothing was moving.
“Sodden with sleep,” murmured Dorothea, “the villain little knew that his prey had slipped his evil clutch….”
“But have we?” said Dick.
Titty’s face showed white at the companion. She did not say a word. She looked astern, then forward, shivered with the sudden cold, and then sat on the top step, pushing the Sea Bear on her way with all the will-power she had.
“Let me out,” said Peggy, and Titty made room for her to pass. “And Susan’s sent your woolly for you. You’re to put it on. Susan’s just coming. She stopped to start a Primus.”
“Good for Susan,” said Captain Flint. “But why aren’t all you idiots in your bunks?”
“I like that,” said Roger. “You and Nancy and John sneaking all the fun for yourselves.”
“Your turn’s coming,” said Captain Flint. “Once we’ve rounded the Head we’ll be close-hauled for that cove, and we’ll give her the help of the engine.”
“You ought to have used the engine coming out of harbour,” said Roger. “We’ve got plenty of petrol now.”
“And told the Pterodactyl just what we were doing,” said John.
“I forgot that,” said Roger. “Sorry.”
“Have we done him?” asked Dick.
“Can’t tell yet,” said Captain Flint. “If he doesn’t come out before we round the Head, we’ve a goodish chance. But even that’s not a certainty, because that thing of his can go at such a lick. We can’t say we’ve done him until we’re tucked away out of sight.”
“What’ll we do if he comes out and sees us?”
“Carry on out to sea. Go and have a look at Cape Wrath. Lead him a dance anyhow. Don’t you worry. We won’t show him the way to your birds.”
There was never a moment when someone was not looking back towards the harbour as the sky brightened in the east and the Sea Bear, with every sail drawing, rushed on her way towards the light. The lighthouses no longer flashed. Sunrise was coming nearer every minute. They could see sheep and cows moving on the southern slopes of the Head. “If he comes out now, he’ll be able to see us,” said Dick.
“There’s no sign of him yet,” said Dorothea.
A smell of coffee drifted from the companion way.
“The egg-collector’ll be pretty bad-tempered at breakfast,” said Roger, glancing down into the cabin.
“You hungry already?” said Captain Flint with a grin.
“Porridge,” Susan called from below.
“Get along down to it, all of you,” said Captain Flint. “No work on deck till we clear the Head.”
Roger took particular care to be the last to go, lingering to look at the compass when everybody else but the skipper had gone below.
“Go on, Roger. Tuck in, and then get ready with your engine.”
“Aye, aye, Sir,” said Roger gratefully, and bolted down after the others.
Susan brought up a bowl of porridge for the steersman.
“They ought to be asleep, you know. Roger and Titty, anyhow.”
“There’s always a time to break every rule that was ever made,” said Captain Flint.
“Oh well,” said Susan, “they can sleep all the rest of the day.”
“We can’t expect them to sleep now,” said Captain Flint, looking anxiously over his shoulder.
Down in the cabin of the Sea Bear there was a new feeling among the crew, a feeling that had not been there when they had been merely cruising from one good harbour or anchorage to another. There is a tremendous difference between just going somewhere and having an enemy to dodge.
“I don’t care what anybody says,” said Nancy, finishing her porridge. “I’m jolly grateful to that beastly egg-collector. All right, Dick, I know what you’re thinking. But I am. Just look what he’s done for us. But for him we’d be on our way home. And now anything may happen. Nothing any of us could have said would have made Uncle Jim change his mind. Three cheers for the Pterodactyl!”
“He may be starting after us already,” said Dick.
“We’ll dodge him all right,” said Nancy.
“What does he want?” said Susan. “I don’t see why it matters so much to him.”
“He wants the eggs and the birds,” said Dick.
“It’s more than that,” said Nancy. “Much more. He wants to be able to make everybody think it’s his discovery, not Dick’s. That’s what made Uncle Jim see red.”
“I thought it was his offering all that money,” said Susan.
“That only showed Uncle Jim how important it was.”
“It isn’t that that matters,” said Dick. “I mean, so long as somebody proves that they really do nest. Only he would prove it by killing them and a photograph would do just as well.”
“Who found them? You did. Not the bird-man of the Pterodactyl. The bird-man of the Sea Bear. And the Sea Bear’s going to be famous for ever, not that beastly motor boat.”
“We can’t let the birds be killed,” said Titty.
“They aren’t going to be,” said Dick. “Only whatever happens, we’ve got to get our photographs without his seeing where we go to get them … No thank you. I don’t want any more. I’m going up on deck.”
“He’s gulped his breakfast,” said Dorothea, as Dick disappeared up the companion. “But it’s no good saying anything. Father’s just the same.”
“It’s three cheers for Dick as well as for the Pterodactyl,” said Nancy. “But for him none of this would be happening. We’ll be having another look at your Gaels.”
“We’ll keep out of their way,” said Titty. “We don’t want to be stalked again.”
“We’ll be seeing my Pict-house,” said Roger.
“Buck up with your grub,” said Nancy. “I heard Uncle Jim say we’d be using the engine.”
“I’m ready,” said Roger. “At least I will be as soon as he is. But it’s silly to starve if you don’t have to. Please pass the marmalade, John.”
They came on deck again to find the harbour out of sight. They were rounding the Head. There were hints of sunshine on the tops of the hills inland. Dick was putting Captain Flint’s big binoculars back in their case.
“She’s not out yet,” he said.
“So far, so good,” said Captain Flint. “But the sun’ll be up in a minute or two. Somebody’s sure to wake up soon, and the first thing he’ll do will be to look across at our buoy.”
“And see the buoy all by itself,” said Dorothea. “And no Sea Bear.”
“Five minutes after that he’ll be coming hell for leather.”
“Won’t you go down now and have the rest of your breakfast?” said Susan. “It’s all ready.”
“In a minute,” said Captain Flint. “Come on Roger. Let’s see what the engine can do to help. Keep her as she’s going, John.”
Captain Flint and Roger disappeared below. Sunshine crept lower on the Head. A golden glitter spread over the sea from the east.
“Go it, old Sea Bear,” said Titty.
Throb … throb … throb. The engine was starting. Captain Flint and Roger came on deck once more. Roger looked over the side not so much to see how fast she was moving as to see how much faster she would be moving when Captain Flint gave him the word.
“Full ahead!”
It was as if somebody had given a sudden push behind.
Chug … chug … chug … With
sails drawing and the engine going full out, the old pilot boat fairly surged through the water.
“Seven knots at least,” said John. “She’s never gone faster.”
Dick wiped his spectacles and looked astern.
“Do go down and have the rest of your breakfast,” said Susan to the skipper.
“All right. All right. Must just see what course she’ll lay close-hauled with the engine running. Now then, Nancy. Let’s have your weight on the mainsheet. Bring her to the wind, John.”
Everybody who could get hold of the rope hauled in on the mainsheet, bringing the boom inboard. Nancy, Susan, Peggy and Captain Flint hauled in on jib and staysail sheets.
“That’s it, John. Close-hauled. Keep the sails just full.” He looked forward across the wide bay north of the Head towards the coast they had left the day before. “She’ll all but lay the course. Wouldn’t do without the engine. Nothing we can do now but keep her at it. All right, Susan. Leave her to you, John.”
He went below while, with John at the tiller, the Sea Bear rushed across the bay towards those distant cliffs and hills. This was a very different passage from the long struggle through the calms and paltry winds of yesterday. Instead of having the tide against them for six hopeless hours, they had the ebb with them part of the way, and the passage was over before the flood had gathered strength against them. Instead of calms and a wind that was no wind at all, they had a sturdy north-west breeze that, coming off the land, did not raise a sea to stop her. Instead of having all but empty petrol tanks, they could let the engine run at full throttle. They were doing in a couple of hours what had taken them ten going the other way. It was as if the Sea Bear knew that everything depended on their getting tucked away in the cove and hidden by cliffs and rocks before the Pterodactyl came round the Head and sighted their white sails.
On and on she rushed, crashing through the little waves, leaving a foaming white wake far astern. This was Roger’s moment. He spoke to no one, but kept coming on deck, looking over the side, to see that all was well with the water spurting from the exhaust, and dropping down below again to use his oil can and feel the bearings with a greasy hand.
But for two smudges of smoke far to the north, they still had the sea and the morning to themselves when Captain Flint came up on deck again. The Head was far astern. The early sunshine was showing them the places they had left never thinking they would see them again.
“That’s the hill with my Pict-house,” Roger was saying.
“The Gael’s castle is behind the ridge beyond it,” said Dorothea.
“She won’t point up for our inlet,” said John.
“Right,” said Captain Flint. “We’re near enough now. We’ll have those sails down.”
“But she’ll go slower,” groaned Titty.
“Gummock,” said Nancy. “It’s because he doesn’t want to tack.”
“Not so much that,” said Captain Flint. “But we’re near enough now to give him a hint of where we’re going. If he comes round the Head now he’ll see our sails with the sun on them. He’ll never spot us without them. All hands to lower sail. We’ll want you, John. Peggy at the tiller. Take no notice of us. Head her straight for the opening as soon as we have the sails down.”
Down came the headsails, down came the mainsail. The crew flung themselves at the job of putting on the gaskets to keep the sails from blowing about. The Sea Bear was closing fast with the shore.
“I’ll take over, Peggy,” said Captain Flint. “It had better be me to put her on a rock if anybody does.”
The Sea Bear slid in under the cliff. Everybody took a last anxious look astern.
“We’ve done him!” said Captain Flint. “How’s that, Dick? Now for your birds. You’ve a clear field.”
“Except for the Gaels,” said Titty.
“There’s no dogmudgeon to watch us come back,” said Nancy, almost as if she were sorry for it, glancing at the rock from which the tall Gael, who had not answered their cheerful waving hands, had watched them put to sea.
“What’s the matter, Dot?”
Dorothea was putting away the big binoculars. “I thought I saw something for a moment,” she said. “But I can’t have if nobody else saw it. It was probably a breaking wave. Anyway it was miles away.”
“Don’t you worry,” said Captain Flint. “We’ve done him. Go slow with the engine, Roger. We’ll put her where she was before.”
“There’s the place where we scrubbed her,” said Peggy.
The Sea Bear crept on. John and Nancy were busy with anchors on the foredeck. The engine coughed and was silent. The anchor went down. The dinghy was put over the side, and Captain Flint rowed away with the kedge at the end of its warp. Twenty-four hours after they had left it, as they thought for ever, the Sea Bear was moored again exactly in her old place.
The tide had turned and was coming in and the Sea Bear lay with her head towards the sea.
“There’s only one thing,” said Nancy. “Anybody looking in could see her, and if the old Dactyl comes nosing after us …”
“She’d have to come close in shore to see us here,” said John.
“We got clear away,” said Captain Flint. “He’s probably given it up as a bad job. Anyhow we can’t hide her any better, unless we put her under water, and Mac wouldn’t thank us for that.”
Roger suddenly pointed out between the cliff and the rocky spit that divided Scrubbers’ Bay from the narrower inlet to the south of it. Far out at sea, a long white splash, like the furrow of foam cut by a great bird coming down on the water, was moving fast. Captain Flint grabbed the binoculars.
“Spoke too soon,” he said. “He hasn’t lost much time.”
“He knew which way to go because of meeting us at sea that day,” said Dick in despair.
“We’re done,” said Titty.
“Cornered with no escape,” said Dorothea.
“He hasn’t seen us yet,” said Peggy.
“Can’t miss us,” said Nancy. “He’ll turn in any moment.”
“Rubbish,” said Captain Flint. “He’s far enough out, and he’s not stopping.”
“Gone,” said John, as the cliff hid that flashing furrow and they could see nothing beyond it but empty glittering sea.
“Lucky he’s in such a tearing hurry,” said Captain Flint.
“Pretty narrow squeak,” said Nancy.
“Good enough,” said Captain Flint. “He can go to the North Pole and welcome, if his petrol holds out.”
“All the better if he doesn’t,” said Roger.
“He’ll drift for ever in the Polar ice, a frozen ship with frozen men, until the albatrosses pick the corpses clean,” said Dorothea.
The moment of gloom had passed.
“I’m going up to my Pict-house,” said Roger. “I’ll be able to see from up there. It’s a splendid coastguard station. And we wasted it the other day. I’ll watch him out of sight, and keep a look-out so that we know if he comes back.”
“Let him rip,” said Captain Flint. “If he thinks he’ll find us at sea, he’s got plenty of room to go hunting for us. But go and watch if you want to. Look here, Dick, I’m not an egg-collector, but I’d like to have a squint at your birds. I’d like to know what all the fuss is about.”
“We’ll all come,” said Nancy.
“Not me,” said Roger. “I’m going up to the Pict-house. Somebody’s got to be sentinel.”
CHAPTER XIV
“I’VE GOT TO HAVE A HIDE”
A MIRACLE HAD happened. For the first time not Nancy, nor John, nor even Captain Flint was the leader of the expedition. It was Dick who knew about birds; it was Dick’s discovery that had brought them back to Scrubbers’ Bay, it was Dick, the humble Ship’s Naturalist, for whose directions everybody was waiting….
Everybody but Roger, who was in a desperate hurry to be off, to climb the hill and to be alone in his Pict-house, a coastguard station, looking out over the sea. “The old Dactyl will be out of sight if you don’t le
t me get ashore quick,” he was saying.
“Oh put him ashore, somebody,” said Captain Flint. “And bring the dinghy back. Dick, you said you’d be wanting the folding boat, didn’t you?”
“What about rations?” said Roger.
“You’ve had breakfast,” said John.
“You don’t want me to stop watching and come down again for grub,” said Roger.
“Feed the young cormorant and be quit of him,” said Nancy. “Dick. Are you going to take the photographs right away?”
“Peggy’s making his sandwiches,” said Susan.
“Here they are,” said Peggy, coming up with a paper packet and a bottle of lemonade. “Come on, Roger. I’ll put you ashore.”
“Thank goodness,” said Nancy, as the dinghy moved off towards the little bay where the Sea Bear had been scrubbed. Roger, complete with telescope and stores, waved cheerfully from the stern.
“Keep an eye on my Pict-house,” he called. “I’ll signal as soon as I get there.”
Nobody answered. Aboard the Sea Bear everybody was lending a hand in making the folding boat ready to take the water.
The folding boat was made of wood and canvas. When not in use, its canvas sides collapsed like Captain Flint’s accordion. When opened, it made a sort of coracle with pointed bow and stern, and the thwarts that fitted across it kept it from folding up again.
“It’s not much use for more than one,” said Nancy. “Two at a pinch. John and I tried and when we took Peggy as well, we nearly put the gunwales under.”
“Dick’ll be all right in it by himself,” said Captain Flint. “You won’t be wanting a passenger, will you? Or not more than one?”
“No,” said Dick. “The fewer people go near those birds the better. I’m only going because I’ve got to.”
Peggy came rowing back in the dinghy just as the folding boat was being lowered into the water.
“Got rid of him?” said Nancy cheerfully.
“He’s nearly at the top of the hill,” said Peggy.
“He’s close to our Pict-house now,” said Titty. “There he is, just climbing on the top.”