"Ransome, Arthur - Swallows and Amazons 05 - Coot Club 1.0" - читать интересную книгу автора (Ransome Arthur)

'There's a good place for mooring,' said Starboard, pointing to a little bay.
'Easy!' shouted Tom. 'Casting off the tow-rope!'
Splash! The end of the tow-rope fell in the water, and Joe in the Death and Glory, was hauling it in, hand over hand. The Teasel slid slowly on in dead smooth water. Tom seemed to be everywhere at once, getting ready anchors and warps.
'Will that do?' called Starboard, as the Teasel slid alongside a low grassy bank.
Tom jumped from the foredeck. Starboard jumped from the counter. Dick, Dorothea and the Admiral were, for the moment, passengers only. The Teasel was moving no longer. A moment later she was moored in her new berth.
'Well done everybody,' said the Admiral.
'Even William,' said Dorothea. 'At least he didn't bark and he easily might have.'
'Narrow squeak that were,' said Joe. Bill and Pete were too much out of breath even to speak. They grinned and wiped their foreheads and blinked the sweat out of their eyes.
And then there was the sound of oars from among the trees, and there was Port with the Titmouse.
'Well done, Port!' everybody shouted at once.
Port looked happily over her shoulder, steadied the Titmouse with her oars and stopped rowing.
'I knew they'd be looking down the dyke if I turned in,' she said. 'So I dropped a few of Ginty's swan feathers under the other bank and picked them up again one by one. The Hullabaloos nearly swamped me, they came so near to see what it was I was getting. Water-lilies in April I expect they thought.'
'They'd have seen us for certain if they hadn't been looking at you,' said Tom.
'It's the most gorgeous lake,' said Dorothea. 'It's full of good hiding-places. Anybody could be an outlaw hidden in here for weeks and weeks while people were hunting for him outside.'
'You could, you know,' said Starboard. 'Those Hullabaloos can't be about for ever, and we could bring supplies.'
'It's a good idea,' said Port. 'They're sure to catch you if you just hang about Horning.'
'You'll have disappeared, just like the Teasel,' said Dorothea.
Tom looked from one to the other. All this romance was rather puzzling. He had got into trouble with some unpleasant people who had hired the Margoletta. He had to keep out of their way because if they caught him it would be hard to prevent his father, the doctor, from being dragged in. It was most unlucky, just when the Titmouse was ready for distant voyaging. But somehow this Dorothea, and even Port and Starboard, who were Norfolk Coots and usually as practical as himself, were talking of his misfortune as if it were some kind of exciting story.
'If they did come in here to look for him,' said Dorothea, 'he could hide among the reeds like a water buffalo, with only his nose above water."
'Jolly cold,' said Tom.
'Tell you what,' said Joe. 'They can't come up this way without they come by Ludham, or by Acle or by Potter Heigham, and we know chaps in all them places. We'll tell 'em to telephone to Dad's yard, to give us a warning if that lot come through. Then we'll know where they be.'
'But we don't know where they are now,' said Tom. 'They may be close to. They may have stopped just round the corner.'
'Urn,' said Starboard. 'It wouldn't do to run right into them.'
'I must get home, anyhow, and tell Mother what I'm going to do,' said Tom.
'Look here,' said Starboard. 'We've got to get back early. We'll take a passage with the Death and Glories, and tell Aunty you'll be late. Then you can dodge back home when it's beginning to get dark.'
'Much the best plan,' said Mrs Barrable. And presently the Death and Glory, with Port and Starboard pulling an oar apiece and the three small Coots taking turns in the steering, disappeared behind the trees. Tom waited in the Titmouse, tied alongside the Teasel, fitting hinges to locker doors, with Dick and Dorothea watching and passing him screws at the right moment.
At the first hoot of an owl over the marshes he said 'Good night' to his new friends. By dusk all yachts and cruisers on the Bure are tied up or hurriedly looking for moorings for the night. But the bye-laws say nothing about little boats, and though there was still no wind, he hoped to get home not too dreadfully late for supper.
'Do you think he'll come back?' asked Dick.
'He simply couldn't find a better place to lurk,' said Dorothea.
'He's got a very nice dyke,' said Mrs Barrable, 'without stirring from his own home. We shan't see him again tonight. I expect he'll try to get here tomorrow before the Hullabaloos wake up in the morning.'
But last thing, when they had done their washing up after supper, and Mrs Barrable had tired of telling them what the Broads had been like in the wild old days of forty years ago, and it had long been dark, and Dick and Dorothea climbed out on the counter, to stand there and watch the stars, and to listen to the night noises in the reed-beds, they caught sight of a pale glimmer away under the trees where the dyke divided.
'He's back,' said Dick.
'Far away, at the edge of the marshes,' said Dorothea, more to herself than to Dick, 'the watchers saw the glimmer of the outlaw's lonely light.'

CHAPTER IO
LYING LOW
First Day
Dick and Dorothea in the little forecabin of the Teasel slept until a Primus stove in the well burst into a sudden roar as Mrs Barrable set it going to boil the breakfast coffee. They hurried out to feel the side-decks wet with dew and cold to their bare feet, but their first glance across the water towards the other side of the Straits showed them that Tom in the Titmouse had long ago begun his day. The awning of the little boat had been turned back at the stern, and they could see the outlaw himself leaning out and washing up a plate. 'Won't he be coming here for breakfast?' asked Dorothea. 'He must have had his ages ago,' said Mrs Barrable. 'He was scrubbing his face when I first looked out. Hurry up and scrub yours and then, as soon as you've had something to eat, you can row across and ask him where we get fresh milk. I've opened a tin for now.'
Half an hour later, when they had stowed the Teasel's awning, and Mrs Barrable was setting up her easel in the well to paint a picture of the Broad, Dick and Dorothea began their first lesson in sailing. There could not have been a better day for it. Sunshine, a crisp air, and a wind not strong enough to be dangerous, but quite strong enough to send the Titmouse flying through the water so that any mistake in the steering showed at once. They beat up to the staithe, took the milk-can to the farm, brought it back filled, went to the little shop and post office and sent off postcards to Mr and Mrs Callum. One sentence was the same on both cards: 'We have begun to learn to sail.'
Up and down they sailed in the sunshine, first one and then the other at the tiller, while Tom held the mainsheet so that nothing could really go wrong. They very soon stopped catching their breaths every time a harder puff of wind sent the Titmouse heeling over, and Tom said they would do all right as soon as they had learnt that when you are steering you must think of nothing else. He said this after Dick had had a long turn at the tiller. Dick was careful enough when there was nothing to look at, but keen as he was on being able to sail, the sight of a bird was too much for him, and as Ranworth is full of birds of all kinds, the Titmouse, with Dick at the tiller, had sailed a very wriggly course.
But it was not much better with Dorothea. Her mind, too, kept slipping away. She was sailing, yes, and all of a tremble lest she should do something wrong, but she could not help thinking of the outlaw and the Margoletta, and of the Admiral quietly painting in the well of the Teasel, but at the same time ready to give warning of approaching Hullabaloos. How would it be to make a real sentinel's post in one of the taller trees at the outer end of the Straits? What would happen if suddenly, now, this minute, the Margoletta, full of enemies, were to come roaring out into the Broad? 'The boy outlaw leapt overboard and swam for the reeds, bullet after bullet splashing in the water round his head ...'
'Look out, Dot, we'll be aground.'
And there was the boy outlaw close beside her, grabbing at the tiller. The Titmouse spun round only just in time, and they felt the centre-board move stickily in the mud and then break free again.
Half-way through the morning Port and Starboard came rowing out of the Straits with two bits of urgent news, one that the first of No. 7's eggs had hatched, and the other that while Tom had been busy teaching Dick and Dorothea how to sail, other people had been doing their best for Tom. Far and wide, it seemed, the alarm had been given, and all over the Broads the outlaw's friends were alert and on the watch.
'It's all fixed up,' said Starboard. 'Joe's taken Bill's bike and gone down to Acle to fix up with a boy there to keep a look-out. Bill's gone up to Potter Heigham on the bus (Coot Club funds, of course), and Pete's got a lift into Wroxham to see what he can find out at Rodley's about how long that lot are going to have the Margoletta.'

Second Day
Dick wrote in his notebook, 'Found two coots' nests in a reed-bed close to Ranworth Staithe. Watched crested grebes fishing. What I thought was a foghorn last night and the night before was a bittern. There was no fog, and Tom heard it, too, and told me.'
Port and Starboard came in their rowing-boat to spend the whole day. Dick and Dorothea were taken out by turns first in Titmouse and then in the rowing-boat, and made to sail and row by themselves, with the elder Coots as mere passengers to tell them what they did wrong. William went hunting, ashore. Mrs Barrable painted a picture. Port and Starboard and Dorothea did the day's cooking.
In the afternoon the Death and Glory came rowing through the Straits with the news that the Margoletta had been seen going through Yarmouth to the south the day before. That made everybody feel a good deal more comfortable. All six Coots came to tea in the Teasel. Joe brought his white rat, and Dorothea made herself stroke it. They had tea in the Teasel, William and the white rat as far from each other as possible, William at the forward end of the cabin and the white rat with Joe at the after end of the well. The Death and Glory hoisted her patched and ragged old sail, and Dick and Dorothea went sailing in her, while the Admiral and the three elder Coots held a conference. It was decided that next day, while the twins could be there to help, they should set sail on the Teasel and try her on the Broad before venturing out into the river.