“Now, I think,” said Drake, “that our boat-race was the best fun of all.”
“I don’t,” Alf answered, “though we had a good time then, I know; but what is there to compare with the cruise and shipwreck?—the excitement lasted so long and came out all right.”
“Yes, it came out all right, but there was only a tight squeak that it did not go all wrong. I tell you what, fellows, I was horribly frightened that night, before we struck on Boatswain’s Reef,” said Harry.
Each of us but Walter added, “So was I.”
“Walter, now you were frightened, too. Own now!” continued Harry.
“No, I was not, really!” answered Walter. “Somehow I never feel afraid on the water; and I think it must be because I was born at sea, you know, when our father and mother were returning from the West Indies. Now if I had been behind a pair of runaway horses, instead of aboard a good boat, I might have got shaky, I daresay.”
“Well, my opinion is,” said I, “that just the best time of all was finding the smugglers’ cave; but I am afraid that, after we are gone, they may come down hard on Clump and Juno, and when we have—”
Walter interrupted me with “Nonsense, those fellows will know enough to keep hid or give the cape a wide berth after this. But talking about the good times we have had, I have enjoyed our shooting best of all, and so has Ugly, I’ll bet—haven’t you, Ugly?”
To which our bright little dog answered as well as he could by barking an assent, and jumping before us to wag his tail energetically.
“Hallo!” Harry exclaimed, stopping, as he spoke, to look off to sea; “there’s a rakish-looking lugger—don’t you see?—just there, to the south-east, near Bass Rocks. I wonder what she is after.”