“No,” said Panton; “the wave must have swept along here and spread off a little to the south, clearing the forest away to the edge of the lagoon. Yonder’s the still water; I can just catch the gleam of it and the long roll of the breakers farther away. Hah it’s nice here. How fresh the sea air smells!”
“Salt,” said Drew, quietly.
“Any objection to me and Billy Wriggs going and having a dip, sir?” said Smith, respectfully.
“Yes—now,” said Panton. “Mr Lane may be back directly, and we had better keep together; perhaps we shall all go down to the sea when he joins us.”
“Thank-ye, sir, all the same,” said the sailor—“whether we gets what we wants and whether we doesn’t,” he added to himself; as he walked away. Then aloud,—“Billy, my lad, it aren’t no go, and we’ve got to stop dirty till we all goes down to the sea together. So let’s you and me, matey, begin to look for cooriosities. How do we know as we mayn’t find dymons and precious stones, pearls, and silver and gold, all a-lying about waiting to be picked up and put in your pockets.”
“Gammon! I wants a bit o’ pig-tail, matey,” replied Wriggs. “Let’s go along here to that there bit o’ stone, where we can sit down and talk without their hearin’ on us. Come on.”
He led the way, and, in a few yards, the beautiful lagoon, hidden before by an irregularity, lay spread out before them like a sheet of blue and silver, spreading for miles along the western shore.
“Smell the mussels now, my lad?” cried Wriggs triumphantly.
“Hysters, I tells yer!” cried Smith, excitedly, as, with a leap like a panther, he sprang right upon his messmate’s back, sending him down heavily upon his breast with Smith lying flat upon him.
Wriggs screwed his head round to look in his companion’s face, which was only a few inches away.