To my mind, that's half the fun of being a
sojer; the pay's small and the life's hard, and you keep ungodly
hours; but 'tis a consolation to sit out here 'pon a rock and know
you'm a man of blood and breaking every mother's son of the Ten
Commandments wi' the Lord's leave."
"What's _that_!" Gunner Oke gripped the Sergeant's arm of a sudden
and leaned forward, straining his ears.
Someone was crossing the track towards them with wary footsteps,
picking his way upon the light shingle by the water's edge.
Presently a voice, hoarse and low, spoke up to them out of the
darkness.
"Hist, there! Silence in the ranks!" The speaker was Captain Pond
himself. "A man can hear that old fool Spettigew's cackle half-way
across the Cove. They're coming, I tell you!"
"Where, Cap'n? Where?"
"Bare half-a-mile t'other side of Downend Point. Is the first rocket
ready?"
"Ay, ay, Cap'n."
"And the flint and steel?"
"Here, between my knees: and Oke beside me, ready with the fuse.
Got the fuse, Oke?"
"If--if you p-please, sir--"
"What's wrong?"
"If you p-please, sir, I've chewed up the fuse by mistake!"
"_What_'s he saying?"
"I got it m-mixed up, sir, here in the d-dead darkness with my quid
o' baccy--and I th-think I'm goin' to be sick."
"'Tis the very right hand o' Providence, then, that I brought a spare
one," spoke up Pengelly. "Here, Un' Issy--_you_ take hold--"
"Everything must follow in order, mind," Captain Pond commanded.
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