“Well, I’ve thought it out, sir, and seems to me that what’s best to be done is to make her fast between two big boats, run her up on to the beach, get two or three of the fisher lads to turn her over, and then see what I can do with a bit o’ thin plank. Patch her up and pitch up the bit where I claps the plaster on, and I dessay she’ll be watertight enough for you to run home in. I can mend her up proper when we get her back in the creek.”
“How long would it take to put on the patch?”
“I can’t say till I sees the hole, sir, but I might get it done by to-night.”
“By to-night? How am I to get back in the dark?”
“Oh, I dessay we could steer clear o’ the rocks, sir.”
“We? No, thank you, sir. I don’t want a man with me whom I can’t trust.”
Tom took his hat off and had a good rub before looking wistfully up in his young employer’s face.
“Say, Master Aleck, arn’t you a bit hard on a man?” he said.
“No, not half so hard as you deserve. You told me an abominable lie.”
“Nay, sir. I see your shadow just as you were going to throw down that there lump o’ paper.”