Luckily even in that moment of agony I kept still, and another peep showed the men were now wandering about rather aimlessly.

Perhaps after all they did not know of our nearness?
Then they took to horseplay, as idle soldiers will even in Mars, pelting each other with bits of wood and dead fish, and thereon I breathed again.
Nearer they came and nearer, my heart beating fast as they strolled amongst the boats until they were actually "larking" round the one next to ours.

A minute or two of this, and another footstep crunched on the pebbles, a quick, nervous one, which my instinct told me was that of our returning friend.
"Hullo old sprat-catcher! Going for a sail ?" called out a soldier, and I knew that the group were all round our boat, Heru trembling so violently in my breast that I thought she would make the vessel shake.
"Yes," said the man gruffly.
"Let's go with him," cried several voices.

"Here, old dried haddock, will you take us if we help haul your nets for you ?" "No, I won't.

Your ugly faces would frighten all the fish out of the sea." "And yours, you old chunk of dried mahogany, is meant to attract them no doubt." "Let's tie him to a post and go fishing in his boat ourselves," some one suggested.