“That’s the most likely thing,” O’Neill said. “We must be in position long before that. A good thing it’s a warm night: still, we shall have to lie still for a good while, and you’d better dress warmly, all of you.” He looked at his watch. “Nine o’clock, and time we began to get ready. There are crowbars in the old shed Con used as a garage, boys; I noticed them this morning. I’m going after bottles for the petrol.”
He stood up, looking at the three young faces. They were all eager; but it was as though a living light glowed in his own dark eyes. He held his gallant head high, the twisted body forgotten.
“I’d like to say ‘Thank you,’ only I don’t know how,” he said. “If you hadn’t come, this wouldn’t have happened; and now, whatever comes, I’ll always have it to remember that just once in my life I had a chance of a man’s job.” His light stride carried him quickly across the beach.
CHAPTER XVI
THE FIGHT IN THE DAWN
“The fighting man shall from the sun
Take warmth, and life from the glowing earth;
Speed with the light-foot winds to run.
And with the trees to newer birth;
And find, when fighting shall be done,
Great rest, and fulness after dearth.”