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

Different people in different places woke next morning thinking of what had happened on the river the day before.
Dick and Dorothea, sleeping their first night in the Teasel, were waked by a farm-boy who came alongside with a can of fresh milk. Mrs Barrable was up already, and they heard her tell the boy that she was not quite sure if they would want milk tomorrow, but that they would let him know at the farm if they were still there.
'But I thought she said the Teasel wasn't going to move,' whispered Dick.
'I know,' said Dorothea.
And then, after breakfast, Mrs Barrable had taken the dinghy and rowed away upstream with William.
'Can we come, too?' Dick asked, eager to have another try with oars.
'Not this time,' said Mrs Barrable. 'You and Dot can tidy the boat up, and you'll find lots of birds to look at in the marsh and among those swallows. Put your sea-boots on if you go ashore. I'll be back as soon as I can.'
Tom, sleeping in the Titmouse, was waked very early by hearing a boat brushing through the reeds at the mouth of the dyke. He bobbed up at once to listen and hit his head against a thwart. Was it the enemy coming to look for him? But, of course, it was only the Death and Glories coming to ask what in the end Tom had done about No. 7. He told them and saw that, as boatbuilders' sons, they were a good deal shocked.
'Cast 'em adrift?' said Joe. 'Did you oughter 'a done that?'
'Couldn't do anything else,' said Tom.
'But how didn't they cotch ye?'
Tom told, briefly, how he had had to make a submarine of the Dreadnought. Of that they thoroughly approved.
'Gee whizz!' said Joe.
'That were a real good 'un,' said Bill.
'Prime,' said Pete.
They wanted there and then to go down the river to have another look at No. 7, but Tom thought better not, and they decided to look at a few upstream nests instead.
'And look here,' said Tom, as the Death and Glory went off out of the dyke. 'Try to find out, if you can, how long those people are going to have the Margoletta. I'll have to keep out of the way till they've gone.'
He went into the house for breakfast. What was the good of cooking in the Titmouse if he could not safely take her down the river?
Tom poured out the whole story.
'It's a pity it's happened, of course,' said his father. 'But I don't really see what else you could have done. They'll have forgotten about it themselves this morning, unless their livers are badly out of order.' But Tom thought otherwise. His father had not heard the anger in their voices when they were talking to the old lady of the Teasel. The only real hope was that those people would presently be giving up the Margoletta. A week was the usual time for which people hired a boat. He would have to keep out of sight until they were gone.
As soon as breakfast was over Tom went back to his ship, and was hard at work in her when he heard two short blasts on a whistle and two longer ones, from among the bushes on the farther side of the dyke.
The twins.
'Hullo!' said Tom gravely.
'What's the matter?' said Port.
'Couldn't you get them to move?' said Starboard. 'Is No. 7 done after all?'
'Is that why you didn't come and tell us last night?'
'No. 7's all right,' said Tom. 'At least, it was when I came home. And it was pretty dark before I got back. But things went wrong a bit. It was the Margoletta on the top of No. 7, and I set her adrift...'
'Good,' said Starboard.
'I couldn't think of anything else to do,' said Tom. 'And the worst of it is they saw me. One chap had field-glasses. And then although I went down river, they thought I was one of the Death and Glories. So I've got the whole Coot Club in a mess.'
'The Death and Glories'll be all right,' said Starboard.
'Anyway, it isn't your fault,' said Port. 'One of us would have had to do it.'
'But how did you get away?' said Starboard.
'I forgot to tell you about a couple of kids I met in the train. Well, they're in the Teasel, you know, where that pug's usually hanging about, and there's an old lady in the Teasel with them ..." And then he told of how he had boarded the Teasel and used her mud-weight, and sunk the Dreadnought, and hid in the rushes, and how, after the Hullabaloos had been sent off down the river, he had gone back aboard the Teasel by invitation.
And at that moment he gave a sudden start and listened. There was the sharp, impatient bark of a small dog, close behind the house. It sounded almost as if it came from the river. Tom had too lately lain in the reeds face to face with William not to know that voice again.
Without another word he crept round the side of the house and peered out through the willows. The others followed him on tiptoe. Yes. Tied to one of the small white mooring posts at the edge of the lawn was a dinghy, and in it, alone, a pug.
'She must be here,' whispered Tom, and they slipped quietly back to the shed.
'Come to complain?' said Starboard.
'She was awfully decent yesterday,' said Tom.
And then Mrs Barrable and Mrs Dudgeon came round the corner of the house together.
'Well, Tom,' said his mother, 'you seem to have made some friends last night as well as some enemies. Mrs Barrable has a plan to suggest.'
'How do you do?' said Tom, dusting the sawdust off before shaking hands.
'And these,' said Mrs Dudgeon, 'are Nell and Bess.'
'Port and Starboard,' said Mrs Barrable. 'We saw you racing yesterday and we all hoped you would win.'
'It wasn't Daddy's fault we didn't,' said Starboard. 'If the river'd been a wee bit wider nothing could have saved them.'
At that moment there was a determined and rather indignant yelp from 'our baby' somewhere upstairs in the house.
'Is he all right?' said Tom.
'Perhaps you'd like to talk it over with them,' said Mrs Dudgeon.
'You run away, my dear,' said Mrs Barrable, just as if Mrs Dudgeon was herself only a little girl.
Tom's mother laughed. She did not seem to mind. She shook hands with Mrs Barrable and was gone.
'And is that the Titmouse?' asked Mrs Barrable, looking along the dyke. 'You do keep her smart.'