Her stern swung slowly around into view, and within two minutes she was fetching away from them on the port tack, her sails hauled closer and closer as she went.

Already the schooner was preparing to follow suit.
"Snug down, boys! We must be out of this in half an hour." And sure enough, by the time Taffy gained the cliff by the old light-house, the sky had darkened, and a stiff breeze from the north-west, crossing the tide, was beginning to work up a nasty sea around the rock and lop it from time to time over the masonry and the platforms where half an hour before his men had been standing.
The two vessels had disappeared in the weather; and as Taffy stared in their direction a spit of rain--the first--took him viciously in the face.
He turned his back to it and hurried homeward.

As he passed the light-house door old Pezzack called out to him: "Hi! wait a bit! Would 'ee mind seein' Joey home?
I dunno what his mother sent him over here for, not I.

He'll get hisself leakin'." Joey came hobbling out, and put his right hand in Taffy's with the fist doubled.
"What's that in your hand ?" Joey looked up shyly.

"You won't tell ?" "Not if it's a secret." The child opened his palm and disclosed a bright half-crown piece.
"Where on earth did you get that ?" "The soldier gave it to me." "The soldier?
nonsense! What tale are you making up ?" "Well, he had a red coat, so he _must_ be a soldier.