"The Osprey?" repeated the sailor. "She lay over there a few days ago." And he pointed over to where a crowd of masts stood out clear against the sky.
So the boat was turned in the direction indicated, and the boatman rowed away, grumbling, with his passenger feeling very uncomfortable. After a time these other vessels were reached, and again the Osprey was asked for, but no one knew anything about her at all here.
"The next time you come out on a fool's errand don't ask Tom Higgins to go with you," said the surly boatman at last, turning his boat towards the shore, and giving up further search for the vessel. "I shall want a crown of you, young man," he went on.
"Then it's no good going back until we do find the Osprey," said Eric in a fright. "I haven't got so much money as that, but if we find the ship, I can get it, I daresay."
Under this stimulus, the boatman made a detour round the harbour, which occupied nearly an hour; but, alas, there was no Osprey to be seen, and the man was more ill-tempered than ever before the shore was again reached, for the wild goose chase would expose him to the ridicule of his rivals, which would be as hard to bear as the loss of the money itself to a man like Higgins.
"How much money have you got?" he demanded, as Eric was stepping out of the boat.
The lad put his hand into his pocket and drew out a shilling and a few coppers. "That is all I have got, but I will bring you the rest the next time I come to Boston," said Eric, now wishing he had never left the horses, and feeling a wild desire to get back and see that they were all right.
"Where do you live?" asked the man.
"At Consett's Farm," replied Eric.
"Never heard of it before. I don't believe a word you say about this; you've just come out for a spree, and to get an hour or two on the water without paying for it. It ain't the first trick that's been played on me by you Britishers, but I don't mean to put up with this, I can tell you. You pay me a crown before you land, or I shall have you taken to the lock-up till you do pay."