IV LANDLOCK BAY 193 



too bad for to shove off the little boat; If you 

 gets it on a nice greasy way. What's say? Be 

 'ee up for a bit of a pull? Ought to be summut 

 washed in down to Landlock Bay. 'Tis there, 

 right 'nuff, if nobody an't been; an' I knows 

 they an't, 'cause I was down there on foot while 

 'twas blowing two days agone. An' I got some 

 bits o' wood stored up in the cliff, what I put 

 there two or three months back, if none o' they 

 thieving hellers an't been an' walked it off for 

 me. Might so well bring that home too. You 

 be out here 'bout two this a'ternoon if you'm 

 minded an' an't got nort else on. Us'll hae some 

 sport down 'long.' 



By half-past two we were afloat. 'They'm 

 wondering where we'm off to,' remarked Benjie, 

 emptying the water out of his boots and nodding 

 towards the figures that were ranged along the 

 wall. 'Let 'em wonder! They should ha' been 

 where I was last night when 'twas raining, an' 

 blowing — an' dark. Then they'd ha' know'd. 

 Beautiful afternoon 'tis, to be sure.' 



The oily sleepy ground-swell, lifting the boat 

 as It flowed shoreward and witnessing that storms 

 had been; the absence of other boats on the 

 water; the processional sound of the breakers, 



O 



