'Twas likely Elzevir had something of the same thoughts, for he spoke
again, forgetting perhaps that I was man now, and no longer boy, and
using a name he had not used for years. 'Johnnie,' he said, 'I am cold
and sore downhearted. In ten minutes we shall be in the surf. Go down to
the spirit locker, drink thyself, and bring me up a bottle here. We
shall both need a young man's strength, and I have not got it any more.'
I did as he bid me, and found the locker though the cabin was all awash,
and having drunk myself, took him the bottle back. 'Twas good Hollands
enough, being from the captain's own store, but nothing to the old Ararat
milk of the Why Not? Elzevir took a pull at it, and then flung the bottle
away. 'Tis sound liquor,' he laughed, '"and good for autumn chills", as
Ratsey would have said.'
We were very near the white fringe now, and the waves followed us higher
and more curling. Then there was a sickly wan glow that spread itself
through the watery air in front of us, and I knew that they were burning
a blue light on the beach. They would all be there waiting for us,
though we could not see them, and they did not know that there were only
two men that they were signalling to, and those two Moonfleet born. They
burn that light in Moonfleet Bay just where a little streak of clay
crops out beneath the pebbles, and if a vessel can make that spot she
gets a softer bottom.
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