Whereupon Macey burst into a roar of laughter, and Vane smiled.
Distin, who was exceedingly nervous and excited, looked up sharply, ignored Macey, and addressed Vane.
“Idiot!” he cried. “I suppose you never had an accident in rowing.”
“Lots,” said Vane, with his face flushing, but he kept his temper.
“Perhaps you had better take the oar yourself.”
“Try the other way, Mr Distin, sir,” cried the miller, in his big, bluff voice; and, looking up, they could see his big, jolly face at a little trap-like window high up in the mill.
“Eh! Oh, thank you,” said Distin, in a hurried, nervous way, and, rising in his seat, he was in the act of turning round to sit down with his back to Gilmore, when a fresh roar of laughter from Macey showed him that the miller was having a grin at his expense.
Just then the little window shut with a sharp clap, and Distin hesitated, and glanced at the shore as if, had it been closer, he would have leaped out of the boat, and walked off. But they were a good boat’s length distant, and he sat down again with an angry scowl on his face, and began to pull.
“In for a row again,” said Gilmore to himself. “Why cannot a fellow bear a bit of banter like that!”
To make things go more easily, Gilmore reversed the regular order of rowing, and took his time, as well as he could, from Distin, and the boat went on, the latter tugging viciously at the scull he held. The consequence was, that, as there was no rudder and the river was not straight, there was a tendency on the part of the boat to run its nose into the bank, in spite of all that Gilmore could do to prevent it; and at last Macey seized the boat-hook, and put it over the stern.