Priscilla's Spies

some extent sacrificed his dignity in his confidential talk with Priscilla the day before. He had committed himself to the bath-chair and the boating exp

They were also likely, he thought, to impress Priscilla. The white flannel coat, bound round its edges with crimson silk, was at Hailey-bury part of a uniform set apart for the sole use of members of the first eleven who had actually got their colours. The crimson sash round his waist was a badge of the same high office. Small boys, who played cricket on the house pit

She met him in the breakfast room before e

Frank," she said,

he must make some reply to Priscilla. It was impossible to

with elaborate carelessness. "I hop

ht Sylvia Courtney's summer Sunday hat was swankey; but it's simply

olours,"

dark yellow. I have t

than Frank expected. The front-wheel-bound to its place with string, not

rs, I'll give it a rub-over with my pocket-handcher. But I don't think that'll be m

wn in the chair. He got out his cigarette case and aske

o the smell, I hope

hocked. That's rather the sort she is-but it seemed to me to have a nasty taste. You

id pace, Priscilla moving in a kind of jaunty canter. When they reached the gate Frank's cigarette had gone out. There was a pause while he lit it again

d Priscilla, "hav

How much d

ich ought to be enough unless you wa

o drink? We said at breakfast

, "nor we won't for tea. L

she'd expect us. If we st

n flavoured soda. It's less sticky than regular lemonade. Stone ginger beer is bet

ut," said Frank, "I'll ha

opence if we bring back the bottles. That will lea

to be on the sea for the whole day. He saw, besides, an opportunity of asserting once for all his

root. Of course they're rather dull, but then you get very few of the better sorts. Take macar

y if he did it at all, passed half a crown

acaroons by all means if you lik

half-crown without an

ongues are in glass jars which you can break with a stone or a rowlock. The lids are supposed to come off quite easily if you jab a knife through them, but they don't really. All that happens is a sort of fizz of air and t

ome distance along the road without sp

have both, for it would be a pity to miss the chance of one and fourpence worth of macaroons. I don't remember ever

en you'll be able to get the peaches too if you want them. I

salmon, but he knew that superiority to such forms of food was one of the marks of a grown man. He hoped, by speaking slightingly of the Californian peaches, to impress Priscilla with the id

nder if Brannigan got some kind of fit when we spend all tha

is change. She stopped the bath-chair at the door of Brannigan's shop. The men of leisure who sat on the window sills stared curiously

eak a word to Peter Walsh and then do the shopping. P

that Peter Walsh felt quite certain t

e Tortois

ortoise. Go and get

ld your da be pleased with me if I sent

riscilla, "are going out f

k. He was apparently far from satisf

our honour, and without you'd be used to her or the like of her-but sure if you're satisfied-but what it is, the master

o sat on the window sills of Brannigan's shop, battered sea dogs every one of them, had their eyes fixed on him. It would be deeply humiliating to have to own up before them that he knew nothing about boats. Sir Lucius's order applied, very properly, to Priscilla who was a child. Peter Wa

he said, "will be

mpudent loafers on the window sills and to reduce Peter Walsh to prompt submis

water-logged punt. In this he ferried himself out to the Tortoise. Priscilla bounded into Brannigan's shop. The sea dogs on t

said one of them, "and what there

flood," said another. "With the weather

laden with parcels which she pl

hought I might as well get a mixture. The cocoanut creams are lighter, so one gets more of them for the money. Tongue. I told him not to put paper on the tongue. I always think brown paper is rather a nuisance in a boat. It gets so soppy when it's the least wet. There's no use having more of it than we can help. Peaches. He hadn't any of the small one

t to have it reduced to the condition of a coarse toothed saw

ding it, because things like tin-openers generally drop overboard and then of course he wouldn't get it back. But he'll hardly be able to refuse it I o

d the bath-chair and made remarks about his appearance. He tried to buy them off with macaroons, but the plan failed, as a similar one did in the case

ure and didn't care whether I left him the safety pin or not. The only trouble was that he couldn't find one. He said that he had a gross of them somewhere,

paused in his work now and then to cast a glance ashore at Frank.

nd get the foresail on her.

of vigour. He slipped the mooring rope and ran the Tortoise

morning on the flood tide and he was telling me he

ng to him?" s

of gravel and he couldn't be wasting his time. But the young fellow was in Flanagan's old

tween them I don't see that we're much further

g gentleman was as simple and innocent as a child a

t be sure

glad enough to be interfering with the people and maybe taking the land away from them. You'd never know who might be at such wor

Mr. Mannix down into the boat. He has a sprained a

he slip was nearly as slimy as when Priscilla fell on it the day befo

the centre-board case," said Priscilla. "W

he east, but you'll have to jibe her at the

ross to Rossmore and then go into the bay beyond."

s, that you're thinking

bawn; but I may go there all the same if I've

iss," said Peter, "you'll no

why

g that it's alive with rats, such rats nobody ever

se," said

might be a shoal of mackerel, and you think there'd be no end

ory of yours for the young man in Flanagan's boat

. Priscilla paid out the main sheet and let the boom sw

said, "that they're terrible fierce

vy hookers at the quay side, left buoy after buoy behind her, bobbed cheerfully through a