Read Online A Rope--In Case by Lillian Beckwith - Free Book Online Page B

car whisked away the dispirited speaker before the audience had finally emerged from the schoolhouse.
    â€˜Oh, my, but it’s a grand evenin’,’ said Anna Vic, looking out to sea.
    It was indeed a grand evening. An evening that had followed a day that had been warm and sunny as a day of midsummer. The sea was lazy and patched at intervals with dimpled water that betrayed the presence of shoals of ‘soo-yan’. Every few minutes we would see the dimples break into silver and would hear the lisp of water as the shoal leaped to evade the pursuit of predatory lythe. A mile or so out from the shore a rabble of gulls hovered restlessly above the sea, their bickering, protesting cries sounding thin as they reached us on the slight, sea-cooled breeze. Swinging lazily out at her mooring lay Hector’s motor boat, newly painted and refurbished in readiness for the tourists who as yet were arriving only sporadically.
    â€˜Seein’ we’re dressed,’ said Erchy (which meant that some of us were wearing shoes instead of gumboots) ‘what about a cruise?’
    â€˜Why not?’ agreed Hector. There was an immediate move to launch the dinghy.
    â€˜I’ll need to tell Katy,’ someone said.
    â€˜I’ll need to see to the hens.’
    There were so many people to be told and invited to come along; so many chores which needed to be done, that we arranged to meet at the shore in an hour’s time. Knowing I could safely stretch the hour another ten minutes I did so but when I arrived at the shore only Hector and Erchy and Janet were there, sitting on the gunwale of the dinghy awaiting passengers.
    â€˜May as well put you two out,’ said Hector and rowed us to the motor boat. We climbed aboard but Janet, whose eyes had at once begun to scan the land, suddenly seemed anxious.
    â€˜Is that no my cow there, Erchy?’ she asked, pointing, to an animal that was grazing perilously near to the steep cliff edge.
    â€˜Aye, so it is,’ Erchy confirmed.
    â€˜Then I must get to her an’ drive her away.’ Janet started to climb back into the dinghy. ‘Isn’t that the place her own mother fell over only last spring?’
    â€˜It must be in the beast’s nature,’ said Hector.
    â€˜Nature or no, I’ll need to get her away from that cliff,’ insisted Janet. The two men rowed her ashore and I was left alone on the boat. I sat in the stern, listening to the music of the sea as it caressed the boat; peering down into the clear green-grey shoaly depths. I thought of ninety year old Donald, a pious and forthright man who would rather have cut off his right hand than tell a lie, yet who insisted that once in his youth he had seen a merman in these waters. Anyone but the virtuous Donald would have described it as being a mermaid but Donald, who would never have permitted himself to look upon a naked female form—even if it was only the top half—insisted that despite its breasts the creature was male. He had been about eighteen at the time, he used to say, and had been fishing lobster creels just around the point when the merman had risen from the water about fifty yards away from the boat. It had just stayed there, watching him and Donald had stared transfixed until the creature had seemed to stretch out an arm as if beckoning him. Then Donald had taken fright. He let go of the creel and grasping the oars started to row as fast as he could for home, praying for guidance as he did so. Even I believed Donald’s story, having read that there were reports of dugongs being sighted in the past in the area.
    Once again the dinghy came alongside. This time it was full of people, a laughing happy crowd intent on enjoying the evening. The dinghy returned for another load. There was no limit to the number of passengers on an evening cruise. The law was interpreted as limiting the number of fare-paying passengers and as this was a free cruise for friends