“Don’t you think now it would have been better for you to have slept?” said Brack.
“I think,” I retorted hotly as the power of speech came rushing back to me, “that you had better take me back to the yacht; and I know that I will see you punished for assault for this.”
A sound like laughter issued from his throat, but his expression did not change.
“Assault?” he repeated. “Ha! You forget that you are out of the land of courts now, Pity. Assault! Ha! Why, Pitt, that will be like a maiden’s kiss compared to what’s going to happen in the next half hour. Sit down; you’re in that oar’s way. Put him down, Garvin.”
Garvin obediently kicked me back of the knee-joints and I dropped with a noisy clatter to the bottom of the boat.
“—— you!” swore Brack in a loud whisper. “If you make another noise like that I’ll have you dumped overboard. You’ve made us late. Now just you lay still and nice where you are, Pitt; we’re having no noise on this excursion.”
I sat silent. I was half dazed from the blow on the head and by my situation, and for the next few minutes I observed what was taking place as one who is less than half awake. By this time we had come to the head of the bay and were entering the mouth of a small river which rambled crookedly down through a gap in the hills.
“More juice in your strokes, men,” whispered Brack. “It’s a strong current, and we haven’t much farther to go.”
His words stimulated the men. Their fierce eyes grew fiercer, and they bent to their oars with all their might. Most of them were panting from excitement and exertion.
“We’ll land here,” said Brack presently. “No noise, men.”