human
All right, my lad?
gpt
Ye-es!
human
Then you wait a bit and get your wind, my lad.--Joe Cross! Ahoy!
gpt
Right ho! came from below.
human
Where's the boy?
gpt
Here, Joe--here!
human
Hah-h-h!
gpt
Now then, what about you, matey?
human
Well, I dunno yet, my lad; I'm just going to try and shape it round. I want to know where some of the others are, and whether if I let go I couldn't manage to make a scramble and swim so as to join a mate.
gpt
No, no, no! came in chorus.
human
Don't try it, lad. Aren't you safe where you are?
gpt
Well, I don't know about being safe, replied the sailor.
human
Mebbe I could hold on, but here's the water up to my chesty; and don't make a row, or you'll be letting some of those crocs know where I am. Look here, Mr Rodd, sir; are you all right?
gpt
Yes, Joe; I can sit here as long as I like.--That is, he added to himself,
human
Well, that's a comfort, sir. And what about you, Harry Briggs?
gpt
Well, I'm all right, mate; only a bit wet.
human
Wet! You should feel me! cried Cross, quite jocularly.
gpt
How about the rest on you?
human
Oh, we are up aloft here in the dark, mate, said one of the men.
gpt
I dunno as we should hurt so long as we didn't fall asleep.
human
Oh, I wouldn't do that, mates, said Cross.
gpt
You might catch cold. You hang yourselves out as wide as you can, so as to get dry.
human
But look here, Joe Cross, shouted Rodd, who was rapidly recovering his spirits,
gpt
Oh yes, sir, I can climb up easy enough, only it don't seem to me as there's anything to climb.
human
But doesn't the branch you are sitting on go right up to the tree?
gpt
No, sir; it goes right down into it, and I'm sitting in a sort of fork, like a dicky bird as has been picking out a handy place for its nest.
human
Then what are you going to try to do?
gpt
Nothing, sir, but think.
human
Think?
gpt
Yes, sir--about what I'm going to say to the skipper if ever we gets back.
human
Why, what can you say?
gpt
That's what I want to know, sir. I know what he'll say to me. He'll say, Look here, my lad, you were coxswain; I want to know what you have done with my gig.
human
Ah, the boat! said Rodd.
gpt
Do any of you know what's become of the boat?
human
I don't,
gpt
Oh, she's half-way to South Ameriky by this time, sir, said Joe,
human
Never mind about the boat, Joe.
gpt
Well, sir, if you talk like that, I don't. But it's the skipper who will mind.
human
It's nothing to do with him, Joe. It's uncle's boat; and it wasn't your fault.
gpt
Thank you, sir. That's a bit comforting like, and warms one up a bit; but if it's all the same to you I'd raither not talk quite so much, for I don't know as crocs can hear, but if they can it mightn't be pleasant. Well, my lads, just another word; we have got to make the best of it and wait for daylight, and I suppose by that time the tide will have gone right down, and some on you will be getting dry.