CHAPTER TWENTY THREE.
A SEA-FOG.
"Now," said Bob to himself, when he got down to the beach after a sharp run across the common, "I must be as spry as possible with my swim, or else I shall be too late for the boat, as dad said I would be, for I really haven't got much time to spare!" Unfortunately, however, at the very outset, poor Bob met with obstacles that prevented this praiseworthy intention being effectively carried out.

In the first place, Dick, with whom he had always bathed in company since their first involuntary dip together off the castle rampart on the first evening of their arrival at Southsea, was not at their usual trysting-place.

Not only that, he was nowhere to be seen in the neighbourhood of the shore.
"I wonder where he can be ?" said Bob, continuing his soliloquy in a very disjointed frame of mind, after looking in every direction fruitlessly, and calling out Dick's name in vain.

"I wonder where he can be?
The Captain did not say he wasn't to come with us this morning!" At last, after wasting some precious minutes thus waiting, he began undressing very slowly, instead of in the usual brisk manner in which he was in the habit of peeling off his clothes, running a race with Dick to see who would get into the water first.
Then, at length, he plunged in to take his swim in a very half-hearted fashion, going in reluctantly and coming out in the same undecided way; while, to make matters worse and further protract his loitering, just as he was beginning to dress again, a nasty spiteful bloodhound, which was prowling by the shore, made a most unprovoked attack on Rover, necessitating his going to his rescue with a big stone--Master Bob hopping up to the scene of action "with one shoe off and one shoe on," like the celebrated "John" the hero of the nursery rhyme! Rover was not quite a match for the brute that assailed him; but with Bob's help, not omitting the big stone, the two "routed the enemy with great slaughter," the bloodhound fleeing away ignominiously with his tail between his legs, and Rover raising a paean of victory in the shape of a defiant bark as he retreated.
Still, the episode consumed a few more minutes of valuable time; so when Bob had hopped back again to where he had left his clothes to complete his toilet, and then raced down to the pier, it was not only past the hour fixed for the Southampton steamer to start, but she was already well on her way.
In fact, she was just then rounding Gillkicker Point, which juts out from Stokes Bay, bearing away on board her, his father and mother and Nell, besides the Captain and Mrs Gilmour; and not only that, leaving him behind! Bob did not know how to contain himself.
He was too manly to cry; although he felt a big lump in his throat which made him take several short swallows without gulping anything down; while, strangely enough, something seemed to get in his eyes, for a moment preventing him from seeing anything seaward but assort of hazy mist as he stood listlessly by the head of the pier, trying vainly to discern the excursion-boat, now fast disappearing in the distance! Presently, however, after remaining there awhile, staring at nothing, the Captain's favourite maxim occurred to his mind-- "What's done can't be helped"; and coming to the conclusion that there was no use in his stopping on the pier any longer, since the steamer had left, and there was no possibility of his being able to join the others, he determined to bend his steps in the direction of the coastguard-station, with the hope of finding Hellyer there to cheer his drooping spirits.
Bob's fates, though, appeared singularly unpropitious for him this morning; for on his arriving anon at the little cabin beyond the castle, which was the Captain's regular trysting-place, lo, and behold, a strange man was there, who told him that Hellyer was "off duty," and it would not be his turn "on" again until late in the afternoon.

Here was another misfortune! But there was "balm in Gilead" in store for Bob; for, hardly had the long face that he pulled on learning the unwelcome news of Hellyer's absence merged again into the ordinary round contour with which his friends were familiar, than, whom should he see coming along the beach, only a little way off, but--who should you think?
Why, Dick! Yes, he had been into Portsmouth, he explained, to take a letter to the Dockyard for the Captain; and now, also in pursuance of the old sailor's orders, he was about going off to the cutter, which lay at her moorings abreast of the coastguard-station, and only about a cable's length out, so as to be within easy reach, so that they could haul her up on the shingle in the event of any sudden shifting wind rendering her anchorage unsafe.
Bob at once flew to him with open arms, so to speak; and so did Rover too, the sagacious animal always reflecting his young master's moods, and having turned as woebegone as a naturally cheerful dog could be since he noticed Bob's being mopey, he had now resumed his proper tone of bark and mien, wagging his tail at the sight of Dick and thus reciprocating Bob's feelings.
"Hullo, Dick!" said the latter, when the young yachtsman had approached near enough for them to speak without getting to each other.