"Now we are three to one," he said to the steersman, "so you must do as we tell you."
The man was a coward at heart, though a bully by nature, so he dared make no objection.
Meanwhile the yacht sheered off, but not soon enough to avoid just touching the end of the shoal, and getting a bump, which threw the people on her deck down, and gave them a fright. They passed on without so much as shouting "thank you."
They now steered for the shore, Frank retaining the stretcher in his hand, in case of an attack. The man whom he had stunned soon came to himself, and growled and swore horribly, but dared not do more. When they landed Frank said, "Now you are a pair of blackguards, and I shall not pay you anything;" and followed by his companions he turned away. Before he had gone many steps, however, he turned back and said, while he pitched them half-a-crown: "There, that's for plaster!"
CHAPTER XV.
Animals which never die.—A Wonderful Tip to his Tail.—Thunderstorm.—Swan's Nest.—Bearded Tit.—Reed-wrens and Cuckoo.
The next day they sailed down the Waveney, until they came to Haddiscoe, and then, instead of continuing down to Breydon Water, they went along the New Cut, a wide channel which unites the Waveney with the Yare, joining the latter at Reedham. They found the channel of the Yare very much broader than the Bure or the Waveney; and as they had a favourable breeze for the greater part of the way, and there was plenty of room to tack in the reaches where it was against them, they made rapid progress.
As they sailed quietly along, Dick lay on the roof of the cabin reading a number of Science Gossip which they had bought at Lowestoft. Presently he cried out,—
"Do you know that there are animals which never die?"