`` Lie here , '' says he , `` and birstle . '' That one good Scotch word , `` birstle , '' was indeed the most of the story of the day that we had now to pass . You are to remember that we lay on the bare top of a rock , like scones upon a girdle ; the sun beat upon us cruelly ; the rock grew so heated , a man could scarce endure the touch of it ; and the little patch of earth and fern , which kept cooler , was only large enough for one at a time . We took turn about to lie on the naked rock , which was indeed like the position of that saint that was martyred on a gridiron ; and it ran in my mind how strange it was , that in the same climate and at only a few days ' distance , I should have suffered so cruelly , first from cold upon my island and now from heat upon this rock . All the while we had no water , only raw brandy for a drink , which was worse than nothing ; but we kept the bottle as cool as we could , burying it in the earth , and got some relief by bathing our breasts and temples . The soldiers kept stirring all day in the bottom of the valley , now changing guard , now in patrolling parties hunting among the rocks . These lay round in so great a number , that to look for men among them was like looking for a needle in a bottle of hay ; and being so hopeless a task , it was gone about with the less care . Yet we could see the soldiers pike their bayonets among the heather , which sent a cold thrill into my vitals ; and they would sometimes hang about our rock , so that we scarce dared to breathe . It was in this way that I first heard the right English speech ; one fellow as he went by actually clapping his hand upon the sunny face of the rock on which we lay , and plucking it off again with an oath . `` I tell you it 's ` ot , '' says he ; and I was amazed at the clipping tones and the odd sing-song in which he spoke , and no less at that strange trick of dropping out the letter `` h. '' To be sure , I had heard Ransome ; but he had taken his ways from all sorts of people , and spoke so imperfectly at the best , that I set down the most of it to childishness . My surprise was all the greater to hear that manner of speaking in the mouth of a grown man ; and indeed I have never grown used to it ; nor yet altogether with the English grammar , as perhaps a very critical eye might here and there spy out even in these memoirs . The tediousness and pain of these hours upon the rock grew only the greater as the day went on ; the rock getting still the hotter and the sun fiercer . There were giddiness , and sickness , and sharp pangs like rheumatism , to be supported . I minded then , and have often minded since , on the lines in our Scotch psalm : -- `` The moon by night thee shall not smite , Nor yet the sun by day ; '' and indeed it was only by God 's blessing that we were neither of us sun-smitten . At last , about two , it was beyond men 's bearing , and there was now temptation to resist , as well as pain to thole . For the sun being now got a little into the west , there came a patch of shade on the east side of our rock , which was the side sheltered from the soldiers . `` As well one death as another , '' said Alan , and slipped over the edge and dropped on the ground on the shadowy side . I followed him at once , and instantly fell all my length , so weak was I and so giddy with that long exposure . Here , then , we lay for an hour or two , aching from head to foot , as weak as water , and lying quite naked to the eye of any soldier who should have strolled that way . None came , however , all passing by on the other side ; so that our rock continued to be our shield even in this new position .
Presently we began again to get a little strength ; and as the soldiers were now lying closer along the river-side , XXXXX proposed that we should try a start .
Alan English Ransome Scotch birstle day days gridiron night tediousness