Page:Moonfleet - John Meade Falkner.pdf/161



stood for a moment holding one another's hands; then Ratsey spoke. "John, these two months have changed thee from boy to man. Thou wast a child when I turned that morning as we went up Hoar Head with the pack-horses, and looked back on thee and Elzevir below, and Maskew lying on the ground. 'Twas a sorry business, and has broken up the finest gang that ever ran a cargo, besides driving thee and Elzevir to hide in caves and dens of the earth. Thou shouldst have come with us that morn; not have stayed behind. The work was too rough for boys: the skipper should have piped the reefing hands."

It was true enough, or seemed to me true then, for I felt much cast down; but only said, "Nay, Master Ratsey, where Master Block stays, there I must stay too, and where he goes I follow."

Then, I sat down upon the bed in the corner, feeling my leg begin to ache; and the storm, which had lulled for a few minutes, came up again all the fiercer, with wilder gusts and showers of spray and rain driving