Every now and then, too, he would rub his hands together as if in eager
expectation, and would chuckle to himself as he glanced seaward. Of his
own accord he gave orders to Sooka to get both the surf-boats ready for
launching, and to make the boys put on their newest loin-cloths; and
then, when everything was in readiness, he asked Bransome if he was
going off to the steamer.
"I fear I must," said Bransome; "but I--I don't like the look of those
cursed rollers."
At this Jackson laughed, and said something about "being afraid of very
little."
"The beach is perfectly good," he added; "Sooka knows, and Sooka is the
oldest patrao on the Point."
And Sooka, who was standing by, made a low obeisance to the agent, and
said that "the beach lived for well," which was his way of expressing in
English that the sea was not heavy.
At that moment a gun was fired from the steamer as a signal to be quick,
and Bransome said, "I will go, but not in that black blackguard's boat;
it need not come," and he went down to the beach.
It was one of Jackson's rules that when a boat went through the surf
there should be some one to watch it, so I walked to the end of the
Point to see the agent put off.
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