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diff --git a/21089.txt b/21089.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..430e01b --- /dev/null +++ b/21089.txt @@ -0,0 +1,9590 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Young Tom Bowling, by J.C. Hutcheson + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Young Tom Bowling + The Boys of the British Navy + +Author: J.C. Hutcheson + +Illustrator: John B. Greene + +Release Date: April 15, 2007 [EBook #21089] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK YOUNG TOM BOWLING *** + + + + +Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England + + + + +Young Tom Bowling +The Boys of the British Navy + +By J.C. Hutcheson +________________________________________________________________________ +This book fills a gap about just how boy seamen were trained at the end +of the nineteenth century. From first to last it is very credible, and +also very readable. It was not very easy to transcribe, because the +boys we meet come from a variety of country places, and hence have a +variety of dialects. In particular one of the boys has a strong Irish +brogue, and another has an equally strong west Hampshire accent. It is +this boy, `Ugly', that comes to a very sad and noble end. + +Our hero, Tom, is trained for a little over a year in "Saint Vincent", +after which he moves on to various postings in the Fleet. There is an +interesting period during which he is serving in a vessel that is taking +part in the British efforts to capture and punish slave-traders on the +African east coast. + +It all rings true to me, because your reviewer has been in the Royal +Navy himself, and knows the way the Navy works. +________________________________________________________________________ +YOUNG TOM BOWLING +THE BOYS OF THE BRITISH NAVY + +BY J.C. HUTCHESON + + + +CHAPTER ONE. + +FATHER AND I "ARGUE THE POINT." + +"Hullo, father!" I sang out, when we had got a little way out from the +pontoon and opened the mouth of the harbour, noticing, as I looked over +my shoulder to see how we were steering, a string of flags being run up +aboard the old _Saint Vincent_. "They're signalling away like mad this +morning all over the shop! First, atop of the dockyard semaphore; and +then the flagship and the old _Victory_, both of 'em, blaze out in +bunting; while now the _Saint Vincent_ joins in at the game of `follow- +my-leader.' I wonder what's up?" + +"Lor' bless you, Tom!" rejoined father, still steadily tugging on at his +stroke oar as we pursued our course towards the middle of the stream, so +that we might take advantage of the last of the flood, and allow the +gradually slackening tide, which was nearly at the turn, to drift us +down alongside the old _Victory_, whither we were bound to pick up a +fare for the shore--"nothing in pertickler's up anyways uncommon that I +sees, sonny; and as for the buntin' that you're making sich a fuss +about, why, they've hauled all that down, and pretty near unbent all the +signal flags, too, and stowed 'em away in their lockers by this time!" + +"But, father," I persisted, "they don't always go on like this for +nothing, I know!" + +"In coorse they don't, stoopid!" said he, giving the water an angry +splash as he reached forwards, the blade of his oar sending up a tidy +sprinkle across my face. "Why, where's your wits, Tom, this mornin'?" + +"Where you put them, father," I replied with a laugh; "you know I'm your +son, and mother says I'm `a chip of the old block' whenever she's a bit +put out with me." + +"None o' your imporence, Tom," said he, laughing too; for he and I were +the best of friends, and I don't think we ever had a serious difference +about anything since first I was able to toddle down to the Hard, a +little mite of four or five, to see him put off in his wherry, and +sometimes go out for a sail with him on the sly when mother wasn't +watching us, up to the time, as now, when I could help him with an oar. +"None o' your imporence, you young jackanapes. But touching that there +signallin', I'm surprised, sonny, you don't know by this time that when +the commander-in-chief up at Admiralty House, in the dockyard, wishes +for to communicate to some ship out at Spithead, he telegraphs from his +office to the semaphore, which h'ists his orders, and then every ship in +port's bound to repeat the signal till the craft he means it for runs up +her answering pennant, for to show us how she's took the signal in and +underconstubled it." + +"Oh yes, father, I know that," said I, leading him on purposely. "But +what is the signal they've been so busy about this morning? I can't +make it out at all." + +Father snorted indignantly. + +"Tom Bowling, junior, I'm right down ashamed on you for a son o' mine!" +he said, digging away at his oar savagely, as if trying to dredge up +some of the silt from the bottom of the harbour. "You, turned fifteen +year old, and been back'ard and forrud 'twixt Hardway and the Gosport +shore for a matter of five years or more, and not for to know and read a +common signal like that, which you must 'a seed run up at the semaphore +or on board the _Dook_ a hundred times at least. Lor'! I'm jest +'shamed of you, that's what I be!" + +"But that ain't telling me, father," I retorted, "what _is_ the signal. +You needn't make such a blooming mystery of it, like that chap we saw +t'other night at the theayeter!" + +In return for my `cheek' he splashed the water over me again. + +"Well, if you don't know it, sonny, which I can hardly believe on, and +wants for to know to improve your mind, which needs a lot of +improvement, as I knows, that theer signal, Tom, was that cruiser we saw +out at Spithead yesterday a-trying her speed at the measured mile, the +_Mercury_, I thinks she is, axin' the port-admiral if she might have her +sailin' orders; and look there, sonny, the `affirmative' 's now run up +at the mizzen aboard the _Dook_, over yonder!" + +"Yes, father," said I, playing him artfully, like the wily old fish he +was, with an object which you will soon learn--"and what does that +mean?" + +"What does that mean? You blessed young h'ignoramus! Why, Tommy, your +brains be all wool-gathered this mornin'! Can't you see that old Sir +Ommaney is tellin' the cruiser to `carry on' as soon as she likes, and +bid adoo to Spithead when she's weighed her anchor? See, too, sonny, +the old _Vict'ry_ and the _Saint Vincent_ be now a-repeatin' the signal +arter the _Dook_, the same as they did that first h'ist, jest now!" + +"That is, father," said I innocently like--"the port-admiral gives that +cruiser outside permission to go to sea?" + +"Aye, Tom," he answered, without suspecting what my inquiry was leading +up to--"that's just it. You've reckoned it up to a nicety, my hearty." + +Now came the opportunity for which I had been waiting. + +"The old port-admiral may be a martinet, as they say, in the dockyard," +I said; "but he's a kinder chap than you are, father." + +"The admiral kinder than me, sonny," he repeated, in a surprised +tone--"why, how's that, Tom?" + +"Because he gives leave when he's asked for a fellow to go to sea." + +We were just then about midway between the _Saint Vincent_ and the old +_Victory_; and, startled by my thus unexpectedly broaching my masked +battery, father dropped his oar and let the wherry drift along the +almost motionless tideway towards the stern of Nelson's whilom flagship, +which was slowly swinging round nearer us on the bosom of the stream, +thus showing that the ebb was setting in, or, rather, out. + +"You owdacious young monkey!" he cried, slewing his head round on his +shoulders, even as the old _Victory's_ hull slewed with the tide, so +that he could look me full in the face. "So, my joker, that's the +little rig you're a-tryin' to try on with me, Master Tommy, is it?" + +"It ain't no rig, father," said I sturdily, sticking to my guns, now +that the cat was out of the bag. "I can't see why you won't let me go +to sea. I'm sure I've asked you often enough." + +"Aye; and I'm sure I've had to refuse you jest as often." + +"Why, father?" + +"For your own good, sonny." + +"I can't see it, father," I rejoined. "Look at them _Saint Vincent_ +boys in that cutter a-crossing our bows now. How jolly they all seems +working at their proper calling, just as I'd like to be!" + +"Aye, mebbe," said father, in his sententious way, cocking his eye as +the cutter sped on its way towards the training-ship. "But jest you +look at me, Tom, and see what forty years' sailorin', man and boy, have +done for one o' the same kidney as them boys, jolly though they seems +now. Poor young beggars, they all has their troubles afore 'em!" + +"Most of us have our troubles, father," I replied to this bit of moral +philosophy of his, speaking just in his own manner. "So our old parson +said on Sunday last, when mother and Jenny and I went to church. We are +all bound to have them, he said, whether on sea or on land; and I can't +say as how a sailor has the worst chance." + +"Ship my rullocks, Tom, can't ye? Jest you look at me!" + +"Why, father?" I asked. "What's the use of that?" + +"None o' your imporence, Master Tommy; jest you look at me!" + +"All right, father," said I. "I am a-looking at you now!" + +"Very good, Tom--one dog one bone! Well, what d'ye see?" + +"I see a brave sailor and a gallant defender of his country," I +answered, giving the bow oar I was pulling a vicious dig into the water +as I spoke, like as if I were tackling one of the Queen's enemies; "I +see a man who has got no cause to be ashamed of his past life, though he +might be getting on in years--you are that, father, you know; and one +who has won his medal with four clasps for hard fighting. In real wars, +mind you, not your twopenny ha'penny Bombardment of Alexandria +business!--aye, I see one who ought to wear the Victoria Cross if he had +his rights. That's what I see, father." + +"Bosh, Tom, none o' your flummery," said he, grinning as he always does +at the mention of the Egyptian affair which they made such a fuss about, +just when I was a little nipper learning to run about, and that old men- +o'-warsmen thought all the more ridiculous from its contrast to Admiral +Hornby's rushing the British fleet through the Dardanelles, and stopping +the Russians in their march to victory at the very gates of +Constantinople, shortly before, in the days of `old Dizzy'--which was +really a deed to boast of, if any one wanted to talk of the British Lion +showing his teeth and waggling his tail, as he did when he `meant +business' in the good old days of Nelson! Aye, that _was_ `something +like,' father says; and worth all the `bronze stars' in the Khedive's +collection of leather medals! "None o' your flummery, Tom; you only +wants to put me off my course, you rascal, so as to make me forget what +I were a-talking about. But I don't forget, sonny! Look at me, I says, +and see what I've come to, with my forty year o' sailorin' all about the +world an' furrin parts--a poor rhumenaticky chap as is half a cripple, +forced to eke out his miserable pension of a bob an' a tanner a day by +pulling a rotten old tub of a boat back'ards and forruds, up and down +Porchm'uth Harbo'r, a-tryin' to gain an honest livin', an' jest only +arnin' bread an' cheese at that!" + +"Oh, father!" said I. "How about that rabbit smothered in onions we had +yesterday for dinner, and the `tidy little sum' you told me you and +mother had in the Savings Bank? Besides that, we've bought the freehold +of our little house at Bonfire Corner, I know, father, and there's the +bird-shop and all the stock!" + +"You knows too much, Master Tom, I'm a-thinking," he rejoined, +scratching his head again, as he always did, as now, when he was in a +quandary about anything, especially when any one had got the better of +him in an argument, or, as he said, `weathered' on him, and he wasn't +quite prepared with an answer, reaching over the sternsheets of the +wherry and dipping the blade of his oar, ready to make a stroke. "But, +look out, my lad! I think we'd better be a-going alongside now. Ain't +that a jolly there, signalling to us from the entry-port o' the old +_Victory_?" + +"Aye, father," said I, for I had seen the marine holding up his hand to +summon us before he spoke. "The court-martial must be over sooner than +was expected." + +"Not a bit of it, Tom," he replied, as he and I bent our backs and made +the boat spin along towards the old flagship, fetching the gangway at +the foot of the accommodation ladder on the starboard side in half a +dozen strokes. "The ship's corporal told me it'd last all day. It's +only them lawyer chaps wanting to get ashore to their lunch, that's all. +Those landsharks be as hungry arter their vittles as they is for their +fees, Tom; they be rare hands, them lawyers, for keeping their weather +eyes open, and is all on the look-out for whatsomedever they can pick +up. They be all fur grabbin' an' grabbin', that they be, or I'm a +Dutchman!" + +"Really, father?" I said innocently, as I stood up in the bows of the +wherry and hung on by a boathook to one of the ringbolts in the side of +the old three-decker that towered up above our heads, waiting to help in +a couple of gentlemen who came hurrying down the accommodation ladder to +take passage with us. "Why, I thought you and mother wanted me to go +into a lawyer's office and become one of those very same sort of chaps!" + +"I'd rayther see you an honest sailor, like your father an' grandfather +afore you," he answered, with some heat, unthinkingly; and then, +catching my eye, he grinned, recognising how seriously he had committed +himself by this rash utterance after his previous advice respecting the +unsatisfactory character of the vocation he now extolled, and he +muttered under his breath while lending his arm to assist the gentlemen +to pass astern on their jumping into the boat. "Ship my rullocks, you +young rascal! Don't you sit there grinning and winking at me, like a +Cheshire cat eatin' green cheese, thinkin' no doubt you've got to +win'ard of me; though, I'm blest, sonny, if I didn't nearly slip my +painter then!" + +The rudder of the wherry being shipped, one of the gentlemen took the +yoke lines as he sat down in the sternsheets facing father, handling +them in a manner that showed he was no novice. + +"Hullo!" he exclaimed presently, looking steadily at father, as he +steered us aslant the tide so as not to check the way of the boat, while +making straight for the pontoon across the stream, which was now running +out, like a regular good coxswain. "Aren't you Tom Bowling?" + +"Aye, aye, sir, that's my rating," said father, looking at him in his +turn. "But I can't say as how I can place your honour;--though, ship my +rullocks, if it ain't young Mister Mordaunt; `Gentleman Jack' we used to +call you on the lower deck aboard the old _Blazer_--beg pardon for +taking the liberty, sir!" + +"Yes, I'm that same, Bowling, only grown a bit since then in stature and +likewise in years; for none of us can manage to work a traverse on old +Father Time and grow younger," said the other, laughing lightheartedly +and showing his white teeth as he stretched out his hand to father in +the most cordial way, like a real gentleman, as if he were a friend and +fellow-sailor. "I'm very glad to see you again--aye, and looking so +hale and hearty, too, old shipmate!" + +"So am I to see you, sir," rejoined father, resting on his oar, while +the two exchanged a good grip of their fists; I also stopping pulling, +of course, and grinning in sympathy. "Why, I were only talking about +you last pension day to Bill Murphy--You remembers Bill; don't you, sir? +He wer' cap'en of the foretop in the _Blazer_ with us, Mr Mordaunt--a +little chap with ginger hair." + +"Oh yes, I recollect Murphy well enough. He was a mad Irishman, always +full of fun and mischief," rejoined the other, smiling at the +remembrance of some joke in which the chap of whom they spoke had part. +"But you must put a handle to my name, Bowling; I'm posted now." + +"Beg pardon, cap'en, I didn't know it, in course, or wouldn't have +forgot my manners," said father, raising his hand in salute; and then, +gripping the loom of his oar, he started a long steady stroke towards +the pontoon at the foot of the railway jetty, on the Portsea shore, +abreast of the old _Victory_; I following suit, of course. "You won't +mind an old seaman, sir, 'gratulatin' you, sir, on getting your step so +young? Ship my rullocks, why, it do seem but t'other day when you were +a mite of a middy along o' me!" + +"Time flies, my man; and if youth were the only bar to our promotion +we'd soon be all admirals of the fleet," said the other, laughing again. +"Why, it's more than twenty years ago, Bowling, since we were in the +old _Blazer_ together." + +"Aye, I knows that, Cap'en Mordaunt," replied father, in his dry way; +"an' I knows, too, that there's many a youngster o' yer own standing as +ain't got further than liftenant yet, sir! It's only the smart officers +like yerself that gits promoted." + +"Well, well, we won't argue about that, Bowling; `kissing,' you know, +sometimes `goes by favour,'" said father's old friend, smiling; and +then, to turn the current of conversation from this rather personal +theme, Captain Mordaunt, as I afterwards found out for myself when I +sailed with him, being of a singularly modest and retiring disposition, +he abruptly asked, "This your son, eh?" + +"Yes, sir--Cap'en Mordaunt, I means, sir," replied father. "I've got +one darter as is older; but he's my only son." + +"How old is he now?" + +"Fifteen years an' ten months," said father, after careful consideration +and much counting on his fingers. "He'll be sixteen next April, on +`Primrose Day,' as they call it." + +"Another Tom Bowling, eh?" + +"Yes, sir," said father. "He's `young Tom,' an' I'm the `old un' now!" + +"Humph! He's a fine grown young chip for his age. What are you going +to make of him? He ought to be a sailor and serving the Queen by now, +like his father before him!" + +Father `hummed' and `hawed,' not knowing what to answer to this; while I +burned all over with joy at having so potent an advocate coming to my +aid in this unexpected way. + +Captain Mordaunt saw this: though anybody could have seen it from one +glance at my face; for if I grinned `like a Cheshire cat eating green +cheese' on ordinary occasions, as father used to say, why, I must have +looked now as if I had bolted all the cheese in one lump, and it had +stuck in my throat, keeping my mouth open on the stretch! + +So, noticing this, father's old friend put the question to me point- +blank. + +"I think, youngster, you've pretty well made up your mind already in the +matter, if I'm not very much mistaken," said he to me, as I unshipped my +oar and stood up in the bow of the wherry, ready to fend her off from +the pontoon as we ran up alongside, right under the stern of one of the +Ryde steamers that was just backing out from the railway pier above us. +"You'd like to go to sea, young Tom, I'm sure, eh?" + +"There's nothing I should like better, sir," I answered glibly enough, +catching hold of one of the piles of the pier with my boathook and +bringing up the wherry easily to the landing-stage. "I only wish you'd +coax my father, sir, to let me be a sailor!" + +"Now, Bowling, my old friend," said this new ally of mine, who, it +struck me, would turn out to be a very important factor in this decision +anent my future destiny, "the matter rests entirely with you. `Toby or +not Toby,' as Hamlet says in the play. Is your son, young Tom here, to +go to sea or not?" + +Father took off his hat with his right hand and scratched his head +deliberately and deliberatively with his left, `humming' and `hawing' +over this crucial question. + +"Well, sir--Cap'en Mordaunt that is, begging your pardon, sir, ag'in," +said he--"as you goes on to make sich a favour on it, sir, we'll see +about it, sir." + +"See about it?--Stuff and nonsense, Bowling, my man, that won't do for +me!" exclaimed the other, as, resting his hand lightly on my shoulder as +he crossed the thwarts, he stepped out of the wherry on to the landing- +stage. "I tell you what it is, young Tom must go to sea, my man--aye, +and to-morrow too!" + +"Lor' sakes, you're just the same, sir, as you were aboard the old +_Blazer_ twenty years ago!" said father, breaking into a regular horse- +laugh, which he never did except something particularly funny tickled +his fancy. "You allers gave your orders sharp as a youngster, and some +of us used for to call you `Commander Jack' sometimes. Lor', I +remembers it all as if it wer' but yesterday!" + +"All right, Bowling, I'm glad your memory is so good," replied Captain +Mordaunt, standing on the pontoon and looking down at us, with a smile +on his cheery, handsome face. "You will remember, too, that my word was +always as good as any bond, and when I say a thing I mean a thing! I'm +stopping for a day or two at the Keppel's Head, and if you'll come over +there this evening after dinner, or send young Tom, should you like that +better than a glass of grog, why, I will give you a letter for him to +take on board the _Saint Vincent_ to the commander, who's an old friend +of mine like yourself, and we'll have young Tom entered on the books of +the training-ship in a brace of shakes!" + +"Thank you kindly, sir," said father, raising his hand to his cap again +in salute as the captain turned to leave us. "You're very good, sir, +for to h'interest yourself, sir, in this yere young scamp of a son o' +mine, sir!" + +"Not a bit of it, Bowling, not a bit of it," rejoined the other +cheerily, as he chucked father a sovereign for his fare ashore, and told +him to be sure to come up to the Keppel's Head on the Hard and see him +in the evening for the letter of introduction for me. "It's a shame +that such a likely young fellow should not be allowed to follow in his +father's footsteps and turn out as brave and handy a sailor as himself. +He's a born seaman, every inch of him, Bowling, and a regular chip of +the old block!" + + + +CHAPTER TWO. + +"A CHIP OF THE OLD BLOCK!" + +"Oh!" exclaimed mother, when an hour or so later father set about +explaining the matter of our meeting Captain Mordaunt, and his promise +of sending me aboard the _Saint Vincent_ to be trained for the service. +"You just go and tell that to the marines! Don't you try on any of your +old yarns with me!" + +"I ain't a-tryin' on nothing, old woman," protested father, after a vain +attempt to continue his dinner, bolting a piece of potato, which stuck +in his throat and set him coughing. "I'm a-tellin' you the honest +truth, Sarah, that I be!" + +"Well, and suppose it is true," retorted mother, giving him a slap on +the back to send the obstructive potato down, "p'raps you'll tell me, +Tom Bowling, how Jenny and I are a-going to get along without young Tom? +Who's going to look after the birds in the mornin's, I'd like to know-- +with twelve dozen fresh canaries a-comin' from Norwich the day arter to- +morrow, too?" + +"Oh, we'll manage all right, mother," put in my sister Jenny, with a +merry laugh. "You'll make Tom conceited if you let him think we cannot +get along without him!" + +She was a bright, fairy-like little creature, with beautiful hazel eyes, +and a wealth of brown hair on her tiny head that was a veritable crown +of glory, reaching below her waist, and looking like a tangle of gold +when the sun played upon it; and, somehow or other, she was the life and +light of our home, always having a kind word for everybody, and ever +acting as the peacemaker when any little difference arose between father +and mother, as sometimes happens in most family circles. + +Father and I when out together in the wherry, talking over home matters, +would often wonder where Jenny could have come from, she was so +different to all of us; mother being a big stout woman, with dark hair +and eyes; while father `belonged to Pharaoh's lean kine,' as the country +folks say, being tall, and thin, and wiry, with as little flesh on his +bones as a scaffolding pole. In this respect, I may add, he was said to +resemble all the Bowlings ever mentioned in history, up to the time of +our remote ancestor, the celebrated Tom Bowling of Dibdin's song, who +`went aloft' more than a hundred years ago. + +Aye, she was a pretty little girl was my sister Jenny, though but a mere +slip of a thing to me, who almost stood a head and shoulders over her, +and she, the mite, quite a year my elder; but, what is more to the +purpose, she was as good as she was pretty, taking all the cares of the +household off mother's hands and winding her, aye and father too, round +her tiny fingers in whatever way she pleased when the fancy took her. + +I used to like best seeing her, however, amongst the birds. + +We lived in a queer little double-fronted, old-fashioned cottage near +Bonfire Corner. This is close up against the dockyard wall, and not far +from the Marlborough Gate, you must know, if you be a stranger to the +old town of Portsmouth and that labyrinth of narrow streets lying to the +north of Hardway and the harbour. Yes, a labyrinth of rectangular rows, +arranged in parallel lines and all precisely alike, of twin two-storied, +russet-bricked houses of the same size and pattern, all looking as if +they had been turned out of a mould, and all of them having little +projecting circular bay-windows of wood, mostly English live oak, or +teak from the Eastern Indies. All were painted green alike, and +furnished with diamond panes, or bottle glass with bull's-eye centres, +of the last century; and all, likewise, had similarly retreating +doorways, sheltered by timber pent-houses to keep off the rain, access +to them being gained by three or four perpendicular steps, so as to +avoid flooding from the rivers of mud that covered the cobblestone +roadway in wet weather, overflowing the narrow gutters, and narrower +flagging along the side that did duty for a pavement. + +Attached to our cottage was an out-house which ran flush along the side +of Beacon Street, fencing off our bit of a garden from the road and an +adjacent tenement; and this out-house, mother, who was of an inventive +nature, with a strong proclivity for money-making, had converted into a +shop for the sale of all sorts of birds, both foreign and native born, +and pigeons, in addition to sundry specimens of the rarer species of +poultry. + +Mother said she had been forced into the trade from the necessity of her +having to do `something for a living' after grandfather's death, on +account of her having us two children to keep, as well as herself, on +only the allotment pay of father, who was away at sea at the time; but, +in a weak moment she once confessed she had started the bird-keeping +business more for the sake of having her hands employed than anything +else, she not being partial to needlework, like most west-country women, +while she was particularly fond of birds! + +Not only that, she was certainly accustomed to their feathery ways, and +learned in the art of their breeding and bringing up, even from the +nest; for Jenny and I could bear witness to having seen her often enough +poking pap with a stick down the outstretched throats of gaping young +blackbirds and thrushes as soon as they had sufficiently developed beaks +to open, and coddling up shivering little canaries and larklets in +flannel before the fire when their proper parents would not attend to +their infantile needs--mother tenderly feeding them with the point of a +camel's-hair brush dipped in egg paste and weak wine and water before +they were old enough even to `peep' or flutter their nascent little +wings. + +Bye-and-bye, when my sister got big enough, she took charge of all this +part of the business, and saved mother a world of trouble, as she +thankfully acknowledged, without being a bit jealous of her greater +success with the fledgelings; for Jenny handled the little things as +tenderly as if she were a canary herself, and was so fortunate in her +treatment of them, medical and otherwise, that she never lost even the +most delicate of her bird baby patients, nursing them through their +various ailments, and rearing them triumphantly up to the full +perfection of their plumage and song. + +You should only have seen her amongst them of a morning when I had the +job of cleaning out their cages, while Jenny gave them all fresh food +and water! + +They did not pay much attention to me, save to flutter a bit as I moved +them about, and especially when I put my hand between the bars of their +little wooden prisons; but with Jenny the case was very different. + +"Bless you!" as father would say, every one of them knew her and +recognised her as a friend and fellow-comrade, for she would sing to +them sometimes like a lark, which always set them all on the twitter; +goldfinches, linnets, and bullfinches, of which mother kept a large +stock, hopping about their cages trying by every means in their power to +attract her notice on her entering the shop and coming near them; while +the lemon-crested cockatoo, who was christened `Ally Sloper,' on account +of his fine flow of language, and a habit he had of ruffling up the +feathers round his neck when spoken to, making him look as if he had a +particularly high and stiff collar on, would shriek out `Say-rah!' which +was mother's name, just as if father were shouting for her to come +downstairs in a sort of `reef topsails' on a stormy night sort of voice. + +Our pet thrush `Jack' also liked her better than any of us, though he +was tame enough to eat out of my hand, giving me a friendly nip with his +sharp beak occasionally, just to show what he could do if he had a mind +to and was not socially disposed. + +But he never nipped Jenny's little fingers--not he! + +On the contrary, he used to dance with delight if she only uttered his +name in a whisper, chuckling first to express his great pleasure at the +sight of her, and then breaking into a regular roulade that wound up +with the call `Jenny! Jenny!' or something which we all thought sounded +uncommonly like it; for he used to keep it up for a good spell if she +went away without speaking to him, or even failed to put in an +appearance to wish him "good morning." + +Avast there, however. + +I'm afraid I am making a long circumbendibus from my original yarn; but, +as mother says of father, it runs in the blood, all the Bowlings having +their jaw tackle well abreast, and not knowing when to stop when once +they begin; so, being a `chip of the old block' and a Bowling all over +in my love of talking and love for the sea, I hope you will excuse me +and let me start afresh again. + +I was saying when I went off my course on this tangent about the birds, +that little Jenny stepped in just as father and mother were getting to +loggerheads about my going on board the _Saint Vincent_, the old lady +saying she couldn't possibly spare me, and that he, to put it mildly, +was not a very sensible person to think so lightly of losing my services +in the wherry just when I was beginning, as she pointed out to him, to +be of some use to him. + +"But it's no good my talking," she cried at the end of a long harangue, +to which father politely listened, with his knife and fork expectantly +in hand, and his dinner getting colder and colder on the plate before +him. "It's just like you Bowlings all over! You're all headstrong and +foolish, and always bent on having your own way, in spite of all the +good advice one gives you!" + +"All right, Sarah," said father, in his quiet way, bowing, wise man that +he was, before the storm. "All right." + +"No, it's nothing of the sort," retorted mother. "It's all wrong!" + +At that moment a happy diversion was made by the lemon-crested cockatoo, +who, by reason of his highly respectable deportment and polished +manners, had been made free of our parlour, and could hop in and out +from the shop when the mood seized him, through a small trapdoor or +porthole, originally constructed for a window, and which served `Ally +Sloper' as a means of intercommunication between the two apartments, the +wily bird being easily able to unlatch at pleasure the swing door of his +cage. + +"I'll wring your neck!" he screamed in his hoarse, sepulchral voice; +"I'll wring your neck! Say-rah! Say-rah!" + +This, of course, made us all laugh, even mother joining in, though the +joke was certainly against her; and taking advantage of the opportunity +thus afforded of `throwing oil on the troubled waters,' little Jenny +went on to speak of the advantages to be gained by my going to sea and +earning my living as a gallant seaman in the service of my country, +pointing out to mother how I had always hankered after father's +profession, and that she was sure I would never be contented in any +shore billet, and might possibly go to the bad if I had my inclinations +thwarted! + +"Who knows, too," she added, as a clincher to her argument, "whether Tom +may not rise to be a leftennant, ay, and even an admiral, through this +good Captain Mordaunt's introduction!" + +"Right you are, my lass, bless you!" chimed in father, rising up +enthusiastically from his seat and tossing off the glass of beer he held +in his hand. "So he will too, you'll see, or I'm a Dutchman. Hurrah, +Sarah, here's good luck to the boy and speedy promotion!" + +"'Oo-ray, Say-rah!" screamed `Ally Sloper,' the cockatoo, in cordial +appreciation, apparently, of this sentiment. "'Ip, 'ip, 'oo-ray!" + +That settled the matter. + +So, early the following morning, after an affectionate hug from mother +and a kiss from Jenny, who came to the corner to see the last of me, I +started off for the _Saint Vincent_ with father, who rowed me aboard +himself, I being the very first fare he had for the day, though, of +course, as you can imagine, he did not earn much by the job. + +However, it pleased father at any rate; and, as soon as he had landed me +safe and sound at the foot of the accommodation ladder on the port side +of the old ship, which lay broadside on, almost on the mud abreast of +Haslar Creek, the tide being out, he handed me a big official letter +which Captain Mordaunt had given him overnight, as he had promised, +recommending me to the commander of the training-vessel, and enclosing +certificates of my birth and character. + +"There, sonny, them's yer papers," said he, thus laconically wishing me +good-bye, sheering off out of the way of an approaching galley from the +shore whose sternsheets were chock-full of big quartern loaves of bread, +and then laying on his oars as I skipped up the ladder. "You jest give +that there letter to the cap'en when you sees him, and good luck to you, +my lad!" + +I waved my hand in reply as he sculled away, all alone now in the +wherry, towards the flagship to try and pick up some stray passenger for +Gosport or Hardway; and the next instant I had gained the top of the +accommodation ladder, and was standing within the entry-port leading on +to the middle deck. + +"Hullo!" cried a bluejacket stationed at the gangway, who, I noticed, +had a red stripe on his arm, and subsequently learnt was one of the +ship's corporals, who serve as police always aboard a man-of-war. "What +do you want here, boy?" + +"I've come to join the ship, sir," said I to him respectfully, seeing +that he was some one in authority, and having been taught by father to +be deferential to everybody, especially those who were my superiors, +respect to rank and station being the very essence of the discipline of +the service. "Got a letter for the cap'en." + +"Give it here, my lad," said the man more civilly to me, calling to a +marine close by. "I'll have the letter passed off to him at once; and +you'd best step into the office there and wait till the master-at-arms +can see you." + +So saying, he pointed to a large open sort of cabin, with glass sides to +it, immediately adjoining the entry-port, where I found a couple of boys +of about my own age, and who had evidently come aboard on a similar +errand. + +One of these was a red-haired, short, thickset fellow, with an ugly, +bulldog sort of a face, whose beetle-brows met over a pair of ferrety +eyes, giving him a most forbidding appearance, and I did not like the +look of him at all. + +The other was a poor ragged chap, without any shoes to his feet; but he +had a jaunty devil-me-care air, and such a pleasant smile and merry +twinkle about the corners of his mouth, that I could not help taking a +fancy to him, at once hoping that we might be chums. + +However, I did not have much time for reflection anent either of them; +for hardly had we taken stock of each other, when a stoutish middle-aged +man, dressed in a tight-fitting monkey-jacket, ornamented with the +letters `NP' on the collar, and a row of bright crown-and-anchor buttons +down the front, besides having a gold badge bearing the same device over +the mohair band of his blue peaked cap, appeared at the doorway of the +cabin, or `police office,' as the place is properly called, where we +three boys were waiting anxiously to learn our fate. + +"Ha, humph! A nice lot of raw material to be licked into shape!" +observed this gentleman, whose uniform denoted that he was the master- +at-arms, or head of the ship's police. He was evidently cogitating +within himself as to our respective and collective capabilities, for he +eyed us critically the while as we stood before him, hats off and mute +as mice. "Hi, my lads! I fancy I know what you're after this fine +morning. You want to join the service, I can see, eh?" + +"Yes, sir," the three of us shouted in three different keys--"yes, sir-- +yes, sir!" + +"Keep your hair on, lads," he said, amused at our eagerness. "Got your +papers all right, eh?" + +To this the ugly chap, as well as the one to whom I had taken a liking, +responded by handing over to the master-at-arms certain official +documents representing their certificate of birth to show they were of +the proper age, and a declaration of their parents that they were +joining Her Majesty's Service with their full consent and goodwill. + +When it came to my turn, though, I had absolutely nothing to show. + +"Hullo!" exclaimed the master-at-arms. "Where are your papers, young +'un?" + +I was about to explain; but the ship's corporal who had first spoken to +me at the entry-port and taken on to the captain the letter from Captain +Mordaunt which father had handed to me, saved all further trouble. + +"Here are Tom Bowling's certificates, sir," said he, giving the couple +of sheets of foolscap in question to his superior officer. "The cap'en +says they're all right, and he's to be entered if he passes the +schoolmaster and is medically fit." + +"That's all right, then, Mister Bowling," said the master-at-arms to me, +with a mock bow. "Hullo, though, Bowling--Bowling? It strikes me I've +heard that name before, my lad. Father in the service, eh?" + +"He _has_ served in the navy, sir," I replied. "But he's a pensioner +now, and works as a waterman up and down the harbour." + +"Ah, I thought so! He and I were old shipmates together out in the +Ashantee War on the West Coast, and I recollect him well. You are very +like him, too, I can see now from the cut of your jib, youngster! +You're a regular chip of the old block." + +"So everybody says, sir," I said with a grin. "I only hope, sir, I will +turn out as good a sailor!" + +"Only act up to that wish, my boy, and you'll do! I say, corporal, take +these three lads down to the schoolmaster and see what he makes of +them." + +With that, giving me a friendly nod, the master-at-arms dismissed us, +and the ship's corporal conducted us down the nearest hatchway to the +lower deck. + +At the other end of this we three neophytes were ushered into a large +apartment, fitted with rows of desks and benches, arranged in parallel +lines, which gave it the appearance of an ordinary schoolroom ashore; +the only difference being that there was a harmonium on one side, and a +cottage piano on the other, while a large circular band-stand stood in +between the two in the centre. + +Here one of the assistant-masters took charge of us, placing `Ugly' and +`Rattlebrains,' as I had mentally christened my two companions, along +with myself at a table in a corner of the room, away from the rest of +the boys, some three hundred odd in number, who were all busy at their +lessons. + +No great obstacle to our joining the service was put in our way by the +examination which we underwent; for, after being asked to spell a few +easy words, tested as to our arithmetic with a sum in simple addition, +and the multiplication table as far as six times six, besides being +given a short sentence from some reader to write from dictation, the +head schoolmaster filled up a form, which he attached to our papers, +notifying that we were sufficiently educated to become _Saint Vincent_ +boys. + +Our ordeal was thus ended. + +The three of us were then escorted back again to the police office on +the middle deck, where our papers were again handed to the master-at- +arms to show that the regulations had been complied with. + +This functionary did not seem at all surprised at our reappearance. + +"Ha, Bowling, so you've passed your schooling all right, my lad, eh?" he +said to me. "I thought you'd manage to pull through, somehow or other; +and you, too, young shaver--you with that fine pair of flesh-coloured +stockings on, I mean! I can't quite make out your name here from the +writing. It looks like `Damerum,' or `Dunekin,' or `Donkeyvan,' or +something of that sort! What do you call yourself, my lad, when you're +at home, eh?" + +"Donovan, sor," promptly answered my friend the ragged boy without any +covering to his feet, whom, of course, he was addressing. "Me name's +Mick Donovan, sor." + +"An Irishman, eh?" + +"No, sor; Oi'm an Oitalian, yer honour." + +The master-at-arms burst out laughing, for really the devil-me-care +chap's brogue was strong enough to have hung a kettle full of potatoes +on it. Even the ship's corporal could not help smiling, though in the +presence of his superior officer. + +"Nonsense, boy, don't you try to gammon me," cried the master-at-arms, +as soon as he was able to speak. "An Italian from the county Cork, I'm +thinking!" + +"Oi'm that same, yer honour," protested the other, as grave as a judge. +"Me fayther came over here harvestin' last summer, sor, an' turned +organ-grinder; an' now, sure, he's an Oitalian." + +"Was it him that signed this paper?" asked the master-at-arms, when he +was able to control his speech again after a second burst of merriment +at the Irish boy's droll way of expressing himself, and comical look. +"I s'pose it's his new foreign style of writing and spelling that +prevented my making out your name at first?" + +"Sure, sor, he wanted the praste fur to soign it," said the other in his +racy brogue. "But Father Maloney said he'd be persecuted for bigummy if +he did it, an' he'd have fur to do it himsilf; an' so, bad cess to it, +fayther stuck the ind of his dhudeen in the ink-bottle, I'll take me +oath, sor, an' soigned his name thare, sor, jist whare ye say it, wid +his own hand, as Oi'm a livin' sinner!" + +"Well, well, Donovan, that's enough. I'll take your word for it," said +the master-at-arms, anxious to get rid of him, feeling his gravity +giving way again. "But you'll first have to pass your medical +examination, my lad, before you can join the ship. Corporal, take all +three of them to the doctor in the sick-bay, at once!" + +With that, the lot of us started off, in company with the corporal. + + + +CHAPTER THREE. + +I BECOME AN "UNCLOTHED BOY!" + +"Look sharp, my lads!" sang out after us the master-at-arms, or "Jaunty" +as he is always called on board ship. "The sick-bay's away there forrud +on the starboard side; and if you're spry and pass the doctor soon, +before the bugle sounds for `cooks to their messes,' why, you'll be able +to eat your first meal at Her Majesty's expense, my lads, afore you're a +day older." + +"Faith an' sure," rejoined our ragged comrade Mick Donovan innocently +enough, as we hurried along the middle deck towards the fore part of the +ship, under the tutelage of the corporal, "I'll pass the gintleman aisy +an' civilly if he ounly comes foreninst me an' gives me a chance, +begorrah, to go by him!" + +The corporal sniggered at this audibly, not being any longer in the +presence of his superior officer the master-at-arms, and therefore not +now bound in the interests of discipline to repress his emotions; and, +in another minute, pushing aside a red curtain that hung in front of the +open door of a cabin on the starboard side, forward of the galley, where +there was an appetising smell of cookery going on that made my friend +Mick sniff approvingly and wink at me, our conductor led the three of us +into the doctor's quarters, or hospital of the ship, nautically styled +the sick-bay. + +Here, the sick-berth steward, distinguished by a red-cross badge within +a circlet of gold on his arm, took us in tow, the corporal handing him +our papers, which he in turn handed to the doctor, who was in the usual +undress uniform of an officer, a thin line of red braid interlarded +between the rows of gold lace on the cuff of his tunic sleeve betokening +his special medical rank. + +This gentleman was seated at a writing-table in a larger cabin +amidships, opening out of the first apartment; and here I noticed there +were a couple of hospital cots rigged up at the farther end, for the +treatment, no doubt, of any urgent cases, such as a fall from aloft or +other mishap which might happen on board the ship, prior to the removal +of the patients to Haslar, which lay within convenient reach up the +creek opposite. + +The doctor looked up on our entrance from what seemed suspiciously like +a copy of one of the daily journals, which he had been apparently +studying with great interest; but, of course, I might have been +mistaken. + +He was a pleasant, easy-going gentleman, I thought; and when I spoke +about him subsequently to father, he said he was probably like most of +the `sawbones' he had met with in his time in the Navy--"chaps as +wouldn't let their sense of duty ever fret their minds too much!" + +I could not help seeing now, that, though the steward held out our +papers to him, he did not take the trouble to stretch out his hand for +them; allowing the man to lay them on the table before him when he was +tired of holding them out. + +"Oh, that you, Trimmens?" he said languidly, as if he were too tired +almost to get out the sentence, though he had a nice, agreeable voice. +"What! You don't mean to say you've brought in another batch of boys to +be examined?" + +"Yes, sir," replied the sick-berth steward, opening his mouth, and +closing it again with a sort of snap, and uttering the two words as one. +"Three of 'em now, sir!" + +"Why, that makes the fourth lot this morning!" exclaimed the other +plaintively. "The ship'll be chock-full if they keep on coming in like +this. Only at the beginning of the month, too!" + +"Yes, sir," agreed the steward. "Shall I make a start with 'em, sir?" + +"Oh yes, carry on, Trimmens," said the doctor, looking at his watch, and +then sitting bolt upright in his chair with more alertness than he had +yet displayed. "But, by Jove, you must look sharp! It's close on lunch +time, and we haven't much time to spare." + +"Yes, sir," answered the sick-berth steward in the same snappy, +mechanical way; and then, turning to us, he said, "Which of ye came +first, boys?" + +"Me, zur," replied `Ugly,' stepping forwards. "I were first aboard this +mornin'; an', by rights, I comes first." + +"Boys have no rights in the Navy, or wrongs either if they behave +themselves properly," observed the doctor, giving my joker a `snop' for +his bumptiousness. "What's your name?" + +"Reeks," replied `Ugly,' a bit abashed. "My name be Moses Reeks, zur." + +"Leeks?" + +"No-a, zur, Reeks. We spells it with a `har,' double `he,' and a `k' +and a `hess,' zur." + +"Oh, all right, Reeks; but it looks uncommonly like Leeks on your paper +here; and I thought you were a Welshman," said the doctor, smiling at +his queer Hampshire pronunciation; for some of the chaps down our way +speak just as badly as the cockneys in the east end of London, +especially those coming from the country part beyond Cosham and Fareham. +"Now, strip off your clothes to the waist, Reeks, and you, Trimmens, +just take his chest measurement, please. You need not take off your +trousers, boy!" + +He added this caution in the nick of time, for `Ugly' appeared about to +peel off everything, to his naked pelt! + +The sick-berth steward then proceeded to put a tape-measure round his +body, just under the armpits, compassing his chest. + +"He's just the regulation, sir," he said, after inspecting the measure. +"Thirty-one inches, sir, exactly." + +The doctor looked at Reeks's papers again. + +"Ah, yes, all right, his age is under sixteen, I see," said he. "Just +test his height, Trimmens." + +The sick-bay steward took Reeks to the bulkhead opposite, where was a +standard for measurement, the same as they keep in barrack-rooms. + +"He's five feet two, sir," he called out--"to a h'inch, sir." + +"All right, that'll do," said the doctor. "I don't think Mr Reeks will +grow much more, though; he's too thickset. Get me my stethoscope, +Trimmens, and I'll sound his lungs and heart." + +The doctor's examination appeared satisfactory, for he made a note on +`Ugly's' papers; and he was then made to hop across the cabin on each +foot alternately and swing from a hook suspended to the deck above with +either hand; after which his sight was tested, to see whether he could +distinguish colours at a distance, besides being made pick out variously +formed letters placed six feet or so away from him. The ordeal was +completed with an inquiry as to the state of his bowels! + +"You'll do all right," said the doctor, signing his papers to show he +had complied with the requirements of the service. "Next boy!" + +This, of course, was Mick Donovan, who gave out his name clearly enough; +but, on the order being given him to strip, he seemed somewhat abashed, +as if reluctant to comply with this request. + +The doctor, very kindly, I thought, seemed to anticipate the poor lad's +reason for hesitating. + +"Never mind, my boy, if your shore toggery is a bit seedy," he said. +"You'll soon be blooming out in a bran-new sailor's rig, and be as good +as anybody!" + +At this, Mick slipped off his ragged jacket at once, dragging an even +more tattered shirt over his head. But I noticed though, and so did the +doctor too, who had pretty sharp eyes of his own in spite of his +somewhat indolent demeanour, that, if poor Mick's garment was ragged, as +indeed it was--aye, and `holy' enough to have served his patriot saint, +Saint Patrick, for a vestment--the shirt, or rather the remnant of the +article, was scrupulously clean. The Irish boy's skin also appeared +much more accustomed to soap and water than that of the ugly Reeks, who, +I saw, regarded my new friend with contempt, though he seemed to me a +very dirty fellow, if outwardly better dressed. + +However, in spite of his dilapidated raiment, Mick passed all the +medical tests; though he had a narrow squeak in regard to the dimensions +of his chest, failing in the proper measurement for his age by just an +eighth of an inch. + +"Faith, sor, I'll fill out soon enough whin I git outside ov a good male +or two," pleaded the defaulter, on the sick-berth steward noting the +deficiency. "An' sure, yer anner, if Oi arn't broad enough in the +chist, I make up for it by being taller for me age--Bedad, Oi'm that, +sor!" + +The doctor seemed tickled by this unanswerable piece of logic. + +"We'll see about that, Paddy," he said. "Trimmens, measure his height!" + +"Five feet five, sir," ejaculated the steward, after adjusting the +sliding roll of the standard and reading the index. "That's three +h'inches over the h'average, sir, for his age, I think, sir." + +"Very good, that'll do; I'll pass you, Donovan," said the doctor, +wheeling round his chair and facing Mick. "But, mind, you'll have to +fill out, my boy." + +"Faith, I will that same, sor; and thank you kindly, sor, for your +goodness to a poor misfortenate gossoon:" replied the other, all full of +gratitude. "Your honour won't know me, bedad, in a wake's toime if I +ownly git enough praties an' mate!" + +The doctor laughed outright at this; whereat, the somewhat demure sick- +berth steward smiled grimly, allowing himself this slight indulgence +amid the stormy austerities of duty, the only departure from the gravity +he had all along displayed. + +As for me, I was on the broad grin the whole period of my examination. + +This lasted from the time I unbuttoned my braces till I threw them over +my shoulders again, my grin expanding as I passed each test with flying +colours, and broadening all over my face to express my inward joy. For, +thank God, I proved to be not only `sound in mind and limb,' but taller +and broader-chested than most lads of my age. While as for my sight-- + +"By Jove, Trimmens," observed the doctor, "I think he could pretty +nearly see through that bulkhead and the Bill of Portland beyond! He +has eyes like gimlets!" + +"Yes, sir!" + +With that, the sick-berth steward, hailing the ship's corporal, who had +been waiting all the while at the entrance to the doctor's sanctum, +handed him our papers; and the three of us were then escorted to the +paymaster's office, aft there, to undergo our last ordeal. + +Here, each of us had to sign a document, binding us to serve Her Majesty +for a period of twelve years after we should have attained the age of +eighteen. + +A number was thereupon given to Reeks and Donovan, as well as myself, +and these numbers entered in the ship's books against all three of our +names; the one apportioned to me being 2799, which I looked upon as a +happy omen, there being always luck in the odd figures. + +Then, finally, one of the clerks noted down in turn the respective +colours of our hair and eyes, asking also if we had any special markings +on any part of our several persons; so that the authorities would be +able to identify us should we `cut and run' at any time, and try to +leave the service before we worked out our allotted spell of twelve +years as bluejackets "under the flag." + +"Now, lads," said the corporal, as we emerged from the ship's office, as +the paymaster's domain is styled, after going through all these +formalities, "you're entered on the ship's books and you've signed the +watch bill, and can call yourselves _Saint Vincent_ boys at last!" + +"Be the powers, sor," exclaimed Mick Donovan, at once executing a caper +which had some remote resemblance to an Irish jig, "it's deloighted Oi +am at that same! Oi fale so glad, alannah, Oi could dance for joy, +loike the piper that played before Moses!" + +"What d'you mean?" retorted Reeks, thinking he was taking liberties with +his name. "We don't have no Irish pipers or pigs in this country!" + +"Faith an' sure," retorted Mike, "that's bekase ye don't want 'em, avic. +Ye've got so many pigs, me darlint, amongst ye, bedad, ov yer own, +sure, an' not fur off, nayther, I'm a-thinkin'!" + +Before `Ugly' could make any reply to this sharp home-thrust, a bugle +rang out loudly throughout the ship fore and aft, putting a stop to the +interesting conversation. + +"Look sharp, lads!" cried the corporal, hurrying us on to where we had +left the master-at-arms. "There's `cooks to their messes,' and you're +just in time for dinner." + +"Dinner, faith!" ejaculated Mick Donovan. "Oi'm the boy for ye, +begorrah. Where shall we go, sor, for to git it? Sure, the docther, +God bless him! Towld me Oi wor to fill mesilf out; an' the sooner I sit +about it, the betther, Oi'm afther thinkin'!" + +"Come along with me and you'll be all right," said the corporal kindly. +"You novices will mess here on the middle deck, along with us police, +till you pass your bag and hammock drill and get your uniforms. You're +only what they calls `unclothed boys' at present, my lads!" + +So saying, he led the way to the aftermost mess on the port side of the +ship. + +Its number was `52,' near at hand to the office of the ship's police, +and adjoining the entry-port where we had come on board that morning, +and on reaching it we were directed to seat ourselves at the table, one +of the oldsters being `told off' to look after us, and supply our wants +as soon as the boatswain's pipe was heard; when some six hundred and +fifty odd boys came tumbling down the hatchways from `divisions' on the +upper deck, diving below, to their dinners on the lower. + +"You're in luck, my lads," said patronisingly the first-class boy, with +a double stripe on his arm, who had been deputed to fetch our food, we +having no cook or captain of our mess appointed yet. "Not many gits +sich a chance on first j'ining!" + +"Why?" asked I--"how's that?" + +"It's pay-day to-day, being Thursday; and so you'll have roast mutton +and gammy duff for dinner, let alone your pay, mate." + +"I don't fancy any of us will get fat on our pay," said I, with a grin, +in response to his chaff. "But, what's `gammy duff'--I never heard tell +of such a thing before?" + +"Plum puddin', with raisins in it, stoopid," he quickly sang out, we +darting off, on catching sight of our friend the ship's corporal, who +just then popped his head out of the office to see how we were getting +on. "I means a puddin', Johnny Green, with as many `gammies' as the +boys don't `sneak' when the cook's working up the duff!" + + + +CHAPTER FOUR. + +I AM "CUT DOWN IN MY PRIME." + +After dinner, which, by the way, my friend Mick Donovan appeared to +enjoy mightily, not having had a decent meal for more than a month past, +as he confessed to me afterwards, the bugle loudly sounded the +`assembly,' when all the boys below came rushing up the hatchway near +us, trooping onwards by the ladder above to the upper deck. They +jostled and shoved past each other, I thought, as if Old Nick were after +them, none wishing to occupy the unenviable position of last man, or +rather boy. + +There wore eight other new boys in addition to us three, the latest of +the novices, who had joined the ship that morning; and, although we all +rose up from the mess-table, where we had very satisfactorily polished +off our dinners in company, the lot of us hung together about the spot, +not knowing what to do, or where we should go. + +We were, besides, pretty well confused with all the bustle and hurry, +and scurry catch-me-who-can business, going on around us. + +It seemed, indeed, to bewilder even `Ugly,' free and easy chap as he +appeared to be. + +Our friend the master-at-arms, however, solved the difficulty for us +before we were many minutes older, as you will see. + +"Ha, my lads!" said he, advancing towards us from the office with the +glass windows, through which he could overhaul all that was going on on +deck, and where he probably had been enjoying his own meal on the quiet; +"got through your dinners, eh?" + +"Yes, sir," we shouted in chorus, Mick Donovan adding a very appropriate +grace, which most of us had forgotten. "Thanks be to God, yer 'anner!" + +"Ah, I needn't have asked the question," said the `Jaunty' to this, +glancing meaningly at the empty plates that littered the table, not a +scrap or a crumb being left by any of us. "But now, my lads, you must +set to work to pay for your grub. Here, look sharp and clear up! We +always have things shipshape aboard here, and the sooner you learn your +duties the better." + +The same first-class boy who had previously got our dinners for us from +the cook's galley, and who, you may remember, had tried a `barney' on me +when he brought them, happening to be passing by at the time again, the +master-at-arms hailed him. + +"Where are you going, my joker?" said he. "You seem to be having a good +time of it!" + +"Jist goin' a message fur the bosun," stammered he. "He sent me to ax +the gunner, sir, fur a copy o' the mornin' paper." + +"That's a bouncer," rejoined the `Jaunty,' who, no doubt, was up to such +tricks. "Why, you're going away from the gunner's cabin and not towards +it, as you very well know. You just stop here and show these new boys +how to clean up the mess-table." + +"Yes, sir," replied the boy very humbly; and then a grin came over his +face as he looked at the empty plates, like as the master-at-arms had +done previously, asking demurely, "Shall I show 'em where to chuck the +scraps, sir?" + +"Yes, if you can find them," answered the `Jaunty' shortly. "It strikes +me, Larrikins, you'll soon be on short allowance yourself if you don't +keep a better hold on your tongue! Let me see these mess-tables all +cleared up before I come back from the wardroom, or you'll smell powder +before Six Bells, I promise you, and shan't go ashore to-day." + +This threat had the effect of sobering down our lively friend, who then +put us in the way of what we were to do; and, all of us lending willing +hands, we soon had the place as trim as it was before we had sat down to +our dinners. + +After this, taking the dirty plates back to the galley, we washed all of +them up in a bucket of water and restored them to their proper racks, +returning to the entry-port just as the master-at-arms came sauntering +back along the deck from the officers' quarters aft. + +"Ha, done that job all right, I see," said he in an approving tone. +"Now, let me see what we can find for you, to keep your hands out of +mischief. Corporal, have they told off any hands yet to clear the +bilge?" + +"Yes, sir," replied one of the ship's corporals who had just come up the +forward hatchway from the lower deck. "I jest heered the bosun givin' +orders for a gang to go down on the orlop deck." + +"Then, take th's lot of new boys with you and show them the way down. +They're almost enough to man the pumps all by themselves!" + +"Aye, aye, sir," responded the corporal, turning to retrace his steps +down the hatchway which he had just ascended. "Come along, my lads, +follow me!" + +Down we all trooped accordingly, on to the lower deck, where we saw a +number of the boys, who had been dismissed from quarters, busy at their +various instruction drills; which we, unhappy `unclothed' ones, could +not participate in till we had been clad in uniform and become part and +parcel of the ship's company. + +Giving these the go-by, and also passing the schoolroom, leaving that +astern on our starboard hand, we descended yet lower to the orlop deck, +the lowest in the ship, being just above the hold where lies the +ballast, and the water-tanks are stowed, as well as spare gear. + +Here, some twenty other boys, under the superintendence of one of the +petty officers, were working away at the cranks of the Downton pumps +with the energy of so many convicts on the treadmill; clink-clanking at +such a rate, that one could hear the suck of the pumps and the rush of +the water through the pipes, ending with a sort of gurgle at the end of +the stroke! + +In the `dim religious light' produced by a couple of ship's lanterns +hung at the head of the hatchways, widely apart, not very much could be +seen of the interior, save the broad substantial deck beams and curved +knees at the sides; but I noticed that the faces of two or three of the +boys nearest one of these lights were streaming with perspiration, which +showed that the work was "taking it out of them." + +"Tail on here!" shouted out the petty officer, who seemed a rather +grumpy individual, on our coming down to join the gang. "We don't want +no idlers here!" + +With that, Mick Donovan and I gripped the handle of one of the cranks, +two others of the new boys facing us; and we soon all found our places, +clink-clanking away like the rest had done before we joined in. Indeed, +we couldn't stop once we had started, but had to `sling on' whether we +liked it or not, the handles of the pumps keeping up their up and down +motion through the action of the others; so that if we had let go, we +should have got either a tidy crack under the chin, or else been tumbled +over on the deck. + +After half-an-hour's experience of this exhilarating labour, the petty +officer sang out, "Spell ho!" and we left off the job, the pumps having +sucked dry, and the bilge being thus clear for the day. + +We then returned up the two hatchways to the middle deck above, the boy +messenger Larrikins being sent down by the direction of the master-at- +arms to fetch us to be measured for our uniforms, the tailor having come +aboard. + +The `snip' did not take long over his business; for he and his +assistant, after putting their tapes round us, and punching `Ugly,' who +would stoop, to make him really stand upright, promised that we should +all have our new clothes by the following Saturday. + +"Hurrah!" said one of the novices near me. "I'll then be able to go +home and see mother again!" + +"G-a-a, cry babby!" jeered `Ugly.' "Yer oughter 'a bin tied to yer +mother's aprun string!" + +"Begorrah!" interposed Mick Donovan, "that's more'n ye could be afther! +I doesn't think ye're afther havin' a moother at all. Faith, ye're too +ugly fur inny one to own ye, save the divvle; an' he'd be a born fool +fur his pains if he did." + +A laugh went round amongst us, which was only quenched by the master-at- +arms singing out "Silence there!" and then; the lot of us were taken by +Larrikins to the ship's steward, who served out to each of us a hammock +and a pair of blankets, part of the outfit to which all second-class +boys are entitled on joining the Navy, when a grateful country makes +them a present of six guineas to furnish themselves with a rig-out! + +Mind you, though, this sum is not allowed to be spent at the sucking +seaman's own discretion, but is laid out for him in a wardrobe of the +most approved nautical type, suited alike to his wants and the +requirements of the service. + +The afternoon, through these means, passed away so quickly, that though +I was once or twice near the entry-port on the starboard side, close by +to which the tailor had measured us, I declare I never once thought of +looking out over the waterway to see what had become of father and his +wherry; albeit, from the tide having ebbed, my outlook was now much more +circumscribed than when I had come afloat in the morning, it seeming but +a stone's throw to Point; while on the port side of the ship one could +almost have walked ashore, the mud flats of Haslar Creek being out in +all their glory, and stretching up almost to the old _Saint Vincent's_ +rudder-post! + +On account of its being Thursday, a lot of the boys were allowed ashore; +and in the quiet that generally reigned, the majority of the others +being occupied drilling below, the middle and upper decks were +comparatively deserted, and things apparently at a standstill. + +At Eight Bells, however, all this was altered, the boys scuttling about +to their respective messes to supper, or what we call `tea' time ashore. + +This meal was as fairly nourishing as the dinner that was served out, +each boy having ten ounces of bread, an ounce of sugar, and one-eighth +of an ounce of tea, to his own cheek. + +Tea, you must know, is styled `plew' on board, in the slang of the +training-ship; possibly, through some association with the `sky blue' +known in the boarding-schools of shore folk. + +Larrikins was put by the master-at-arms to `show us the ropes' in +getting our supplies from the galley for this supper, as previously; and +amused himself considerably at our expense, chaffing some of the new +chaps about their not having "smelt such a thing as tea before," so he +hinted. + +"I s'pose now," he said to Mick Donovan, whose queer description of +himself had already got wind through the ship. I'm afraid from the +corporal who took us to the sick-bay having `split' upon him, "in your +country you'd eat them tea leaves, instead o' wettin' on 'em, stooed in +ile, same as the I-talians cook everything I'm told, hey?" + +"Faith, if I had ye in the ould counthry," answered back Mick, not for a +moment nonplussed, "I'd soon show ye how an Oitalian of the raal sort, +loike me fayther, sor, lives! Bedad, it's praties an' crame we hev fur +tay, sure, ivvery day in the wake!" + +This created a good deal of noisy merriment as we sat round the mess- +table near the entry-port, causing the sharp-eared, lynx-eyed `Jaunty' +to spot the offender from his convenient post of observation hard by. + +"Be quiet there, Paddy!" he sang out, poking his head above the window- +sill. "Do you think you're in your own mud cabin in the wilds of +Connemara? As for you, Larrikins, I have warned you before, and you had +better keep your weather eye open, my joker!" + +We were all as quiet as lambs in an instant, not a sound being heard +above the clatter of the cups and saucers, and the gulps made by `Ugly' +in swallowing his tea, that individual being as piggish in his habits as +he was in his appearance; and, presently, this clatter was increased by +our collecting the mess-traps after finishing our meal, when the same +process of cleaning up was effected as before, everything being left as +tidy in and around the vicinity of Mess Number 52 as we had found it +when first installed there. + +From Six to Eight Bells, in the second dog-watch, the boys, I found, +were allowed to skylark about the upper deck and aloft, playing `follow +my leader' up and down the rigging, without any interference or +interruption from the officers and instructors, save when it seemed to +them the larking might degenerate into horseplay. + +Then, it was put a slop to, so far as the particular incident was +concerned, in a twinkle. + +Not being in uniform, I kept aloof from these mad pranks, sticking close +to Mick Donovan, who I saw was ashamed of his ragged clothes, being +afraid of the boys jeering him, like Larrikins. + +That worthy soon picked us out, though; aye, in spite of our sheltering +under the lee of the bridge, and being almost concealed in the evening +gloom. + +"S'pose yer afeerd o' clim'in' riggin'?" + +"Divvle a bit!" replied Mick in a moment. "Oi'd cloimb in a jiffey; +ounly the jintleman downstairs, faith, tould us all we wasn't." + +This allusion to the `Jaunty' silenced the incorrigible Larrikins for +the nonce; though he sniggered at Mick saying `downstairs' instead of +below, as most landsmen do when new to board-ship life. + +The next moment, however, Master Larrikins was at it again, trying to +`take a rise out of me,' Mick having thus discouraged his advances in +that direction. + +"You'll be havin' orful times when yer goes aloft," he said, in a sort +of awesome tone meant to frighten me. "I've bin up theer on the main +crosstrees when yer jist couldn't 'old yer 'air on yer 'ead, let alone +'oldin' on with one 'and fur yerself and t'other for the Navy." + +"Stow that," said I, laughing in his face. "Why, I've been up to the +main truck of a line-o'-battle ship before to-day and am not afraid of +climbing! I'm not strange to the sea, my smart chap, let me tell you. +My father, though he's a waterman now, is an old sailor, and has taught +me pretty well all he learnt." + +"Aye, aye, that's right enuff; but 'earin of it an' a-seein' it's two +different things. You jist wait till yer gets to sea and ain't a-plying +bark'ards and forruds in Porchmouth 'arbour. My stars, won't yer be +flummuxed then." + +"Don't you believe it," I retorted. "I've been to sea, I tell you, +before to-day." + +"Oh aye, that's right enuff; but there's goin' to sea, an' goin' to sea. +Lor! Yer 'aven't ever bin out in the _Martin_ brig, have yer, now?" + +"No, of course not," I replied. "I've only just joined the service, I +tell you." + +"Ah, you jist wait then," said he, taking this observation of mine for a +fresh lead. "I wer' out once, I tells yer, in the brig when the sea wos +mountings 'igh, an' the wind--Lor'! Yer shood 'a 'errd it blow! It +took the mizzen to's'le right clean out of 'er; an' there wos four on us +at the wheel, ay, 'sides old Jellybelly." + +"Why," I exclaimed, "who is he?" + +"The quarter-master, in course," rejoined Larrikins indignantly. "Where +wos yer raised not fur to know that afore? He allers goes by that name +aboard ship, as everybody knows." + +He was proceeding to tell me some thrilling and highly adventurous +experiences he had had in the Channel and off the Isle of Wight, out on +the autumn cruise in the training-brig, when the bugle sounded, and the +boys all mustered at quarters before turning in for the night. + +Staying on the upper deck for a time, Mick Donovan and I witnessed the +mad race which presently took place on the order being given to sling +hammocks; each boy scurrying to the nettings and hurrying below, hammock +under arm, to rig up the same in the billet allotted to him on the lower +deck. + +Ere long, the idea struck both Mick and myself, almost simultaneously, +that it was high time for us to think of our sleeping accommodation for +the night; and so, we hurried down at the tail end of the crowd of other +fellows, to seek the aid of our old friend the master-at-arms, the `Deus +ex machina' of our hopes and fears. + +Our new hammocks had been left in the police office of the ship under +his immediate eye; so, on ascertaining the doubt that harassed our minds +anent the night-lodging question, the `Jaunty,' as heretofore, solved +the difficulty at once by saying that we were to sling our hammocks on +the middle deck, adjacent to the mess-place where we had dined and +supped so sumptuously. Just then, as luck would have it, Larrikins, our +old cicerone, came up abreast of where we were standing. + +"Hi there!" sang out the master-at-arms. "Come and show these boys how +to sling their hammocks." + +"Yes, sir," replied Larrikins, with a scrape and a touch of his cap. +"Werry good, sir." + +So saying, he set about knotting the lanyard of Irish Mick's hammock; +and, after slinging it from the hooks in the deck beams, over the mess- +table where the famished lad had enjoyed such a rare `tuck out' that +day, Larrikins went on to explain how the blankets should be `tucked in' +to the frail structure and wrapped round the occupant, so as to prevent +him from tumbling out, which Larrikins declared, almost with tears in +his eyes, he should deeply regret were such a catastrophe to occur. + +"Lor'," he asseverated, "I'd never forgive myself--strike me silly if I +would!" + +"Faith an' sure, is it ai'ther expectin' me now for to schlape in that +thare outlandish consarn yez are?" exclaimed Mick, to whom a hammock was +an entire novelty. "It's jokin', faith, ye are entirely, sure!" + +However, after, like `vaulting ambition,' overleaping himself when +trying to jump into his unaccustomed bed-place, falling, equally +unceremoniously, `on t'other side,' Mick succeeded in ensconcing himself +very comfortably in his hammock. + +Now came my turn, my friend Larrikins being even more obsequious in his +aid to me than to Mick. + +The result amply justified his solicitude, for, although I managed to +jump in all right, and even to go to sleep presently soundly enough, +wearied out with all the excitement of the day, I was in the midst of a +terrible dream, in which I thought I was at sea in the _Martin_ brig, in +a fearful tempest, with the waters overwhelming us, and the vessel on +the point of foundering, when I was awakened by a crash that seemed to +resound through the ship, and then I'm sure I saw more stars than were +ever seen by mortal in the bright blue firmament of heaven! + +I had been `cut down,' as the nautical phrase goes. + + + +CHAPTER FIVE. + +BOXING THE COMPASS. + +Sudden as had been my downfall, I was sufficiently awake, after the +first momentary giddiness caused by the sharp crack with which my head +came against the deck had passed away, to have a shrewd idea as to who +had brought about my sad calamity; the giggling and whispering, that +went on around, in the semi-darkness, telling me, had I needed any such +assurance, that my fall was due to no accident. + +"Hullo, my joker!" I sang out, recognising the voice of Larrikins as I +fumbled about amongst the blankets and loose hammock cloth, feeling very +much as if I were tightly tied up in a sack, part of the lanyard having +taken a round turn round my neck. "I say, you first-class boy, there! +You with the mug on you like a vegetable marrow! Wait till to-morrow +morning and I'll serve you out for this--see if I don't!" + +"Lor', yer doesn't mean fur to say as how ye've gone a downer?" cried my +tormentor, in a tone of great commiseration, lending a hand to extricate +me from the folds of the blankets. "I never seed a chap go down so +suddink. Lor'! Yer must hev made a slippery hitch when yer fastened up +the end on yer lanyard to the hook. Lor', I am that orful sorry!" + +"Oh yes," said I, shaking myself free from the last of my encumbrances +and standing up erect, "you can just tell that to the marines!" + +I was not, however, at all out of temper, having learnt long since from +my father, even were I not fond of a bit of practical-joking myself, not +to take umbrage at the skylarking of any of my comrades on board ship +where no malice was really intended. As he told me, the more a fellow +shows he's `riled,' the more his shipmates ever will tease him. + +"If you want to have a happy life at sea, Tom," said he, "you must +always bear everything good-humouredly--everything; aye, should you +tumble from aloft and risk losing the number of your mess into the +bargain!" + +Hearing the row and the sound of our talking after `lights out!' had +been called, one of the ship's corporals came up with a lantern to see +what was the matter; and he at once spotted Master Larrikins. + +"Hi, young feller!" said he to that arch-conspirator; "what are you +doing here? How's it you haven't turned in on the lower deck, in your +proper billet?" + +"The master-at-arms told me, sir, as how I wer fur to see as these +novices wos slung their hammicks propingly," replied Larrikins glibly. +"An' I wer jist a-seein' to do it, sir." + +"Aye, and a precious fine way you have done it, too!" rejoined the +ship's corporal, whose face I could clearly see by the light of his own +lantern had a broad and beaming grin on it, as he proceeded to inspect +the lashings now of my hammock, the foot-end of which was still attached +to its hook in the deck beam. "Why, you've been and activally gone and +triced the poor beggar up with a bit of spunyarn. No wonder he come +down all standing on his cocoanut!" + +The other fellows near me had wakened up by this, and there was a good +snigger all round; until the ship's corporal, having rigged up my +hammock again in the way it should have been rightly done at first, with +a double turn of the lanyard round the hook, shoved me in and kindly +tucked my blankets round me, before going off to complete his rounds; +telling us, as he disappeared forwards in the darkness, that if we did +not "keep quiet for the rest of the night we'd each get `four dozen' on +the quarter-deck next day, besides being spread-eagled in the weather +rigging as a caution to all novices about to join the ship!" + +This warning, uttered in a deep, sepulchral voice, no doubt awed most of +the new boys, but it only made me laugh to myself, as I was pretty well +up to such `barney'; and, with little dread of any penalties in store-- +though for that matter there was not much that could be said against me, +for I certainly had not tried the strength or the softness of the ship's +planks of my own free-will--I cuddled into my hammock and went to sleep +as soundly as if I were in my own old bed at home, in spite of the +snoring and choking noises made in his dreams by that ugly chap Moses +Reeks, who occupied the next hammock to mine. + +"Whe-e-e-e-e! Who-e-o-e-o! Whe-eep!" + +So the boatswain's whistle rang out through the ship with a shrill +iteration that pierced my ears in the fresh and chilly air next morning, +awaking me, if possible, in even yet more startling fashion than +Larrikins' successful trick of the previous evening. + +"Whee-e-ah! Whee-e-ah!" + +There it was again; and, should this not be sufficient to disturb the +slumbers of heavy sleepers, the sharp boatswain's pipe was supplemented +by the hoarse shouts of his `mates' up and down the hatchways far and +near, a very legion of voices! + +"Rouse out! Rouse out! Rouse out! Show a leg." + +I really thought the nor'-east wind had brought up a great haul with the +flood-tide, and that innumerable costers were calling out some strange +fish in the streets round Bonfire Corner; while our white cockatoo, +`Ally Sloper,' was having a bit of fun with himself and mother by +imitating the cry! + +Presently, though, a rough shake of my hammock and the hail of one of +the boatswain's mates close by me told a different tale. + +"Here, out of this, my lad!" said he, giving a twist to the swinging +concern that landed me on the deck in a twinkling. "You can't stop +there snoozing any longer! Don't you see the sun is scorching your eyes +out?" + +He had a good deal of imagination, had that man; for it would have +puzzled the `Philadelphia lawyer,' whom father was so fond of quoting, +to have discovered the ghost of a ray of sunlight this cold, foggy, +February morning at Four Bells! + +The rest of the novices--there being, as you know, ten other `unclothed' +boys besides myself--had been roughly aroused in like fashion; and to a +by-stander all of us must have looked a forlorn lot of shivering +creatures, adrift there on the cheerless deck in the half light of early +day, not knowing what to do with ourselves until somebody told us what +to do and bearing, I fancy, a strikingly strong resemblance to a flock +of lambs in some strange pasture deserted by their dams! + +I make a mistake there, however, for the muttered growling exclamations +I heard uttered by one of the warrant-officers, who came past where we +stood clustered together, certainly sounded uncommonly like the name of +the lambs' mothers I have just mentioned, showing that its `eidolon' +remained. + +The observation made by this officer, who, to my surprise, I +subsequently found was the boatswain, brought our old police friend, the +master-at-arms, on the scene. + +"Here, boys," said he to us, "you must bestir yourselves, and not stand +star-gazing there, like so many country bumpkins at a fair! Tom +Bowling, if you're the son of your father, you ought to know that you've +got to unsling your hammock when the `lash up and stow' is sounded! And +you, too, my Irish-Italian friend over there, roll up your hammock, my +lad!" + +"Sure, an' is it manin' me yez afther?" inquired Mick Donovan, +unhitching the lanyard of his hammock from the hook above in a brace of +shakes. "Faith, it's makin' a rowly-powly puddin' of it I will, sor, +entirely!" + +The `Jaunty' grinned at Mick's naive remark, but soon mastered the +difficulty of teaching us by passing the job on to other hands. + +"Ah, perhaps you'd better `go through the ropes,' my lads, properly, and +begin at once at your `bag and hammock drill,' as all new boys should; +though sometimes, they wait till they get uniforms first," said he, +hailing, as he spoke, one of the first-class boys standing by the police +office, detailed to act as messengers, like our friend Larrikins. "Boy, +there! See if you can find one of the instructors handy, and tell him, +with my compliments, I should like to see him for a minute!" + +"Yes, sir," replied this chap, saluting. "I seed Mister Saunders by the +fore-hatchway jist now." + +"He'll do," said the master-at-arms. "Carry on, my lad. Look sharp!" + +The next instant, back came the boy with one of the instructors in his +wake, a stalwart seaman, dressed in the usual bluejacket rig, with a +petty officer's badge. + +"These boys here, Mr Saunders," said the master-at-arms, pointing us +out with a collective sweep of his long brawny arm, "are all novices, +who came aboard yesterday, and don't know what to do with themselves +till they join the ship's company. Hadn't they better pass their `bag +and hammock' while waiting for their rig, instead of loafing about here? +Mr Gadgett, the bo'sun, was complaining just now of their taking up +all the fairway of the deck, and told me I must get rid of them from +here somehow or the other!" + +"All right," responded the seaman-instructor to this suggestion of the +master-at-arms; and, turning to us, he said, "Take up your hammocks, my +lads, and follow me down to the lower deck. You'll have a practical +lesson in seeing how your shipmates do it, lads. We're just in time!" + +We were, barely so; for, as we passed down the hatchway from the middle +deck to the lower region he had previously indicated, it was hard work +for us to shove by the surging crowd of boys who were hurrying up, each +with his hammock neatly made up and lashed in the regulation form, to be +stowed in the nettings on top of the bulwarks amidships the upper deck, +according to nautical routine. + +Some, however, were slower at the work, and, taking stock of these, in +obedience to the instructor's orders, I got a very fair notion of how +the thing was done; the more especially, as father had shown me the way +he used to lash up his hammock in the old days when he was at sea, by +the aid of a biscuit bag and a piece of string. + +But our instructor was not satisfied by our now having mere ocular +demonstration and doing nothing further; not he. On the contrary, he +took us up to make another requisition on the ship's steward for our +regular kit, which was promptly served out to us; and all the morning, +after a good breakfast, which made Mick Donovan open his eyes wider than +ordinarily and stare like a stockfish, consisting as it did of cold salt +pork and bread, with some splendid hot cocoa, that was more like +chocolate, and such as he had never tasted before, we were kept hard at +it till the `assembly' was bugled out before dinner--going through the +details of `bag and hammock drill' seriatim, from the initiatory stage +of plaiting the ends of the `nettles' to lashing it up with the +specified number of turns. + +We new boys returned to Number 52 Mess on the middle deck for dinner, +when `cooks to their messes' was sounded. + +Our meal this day, it being a Friday, was of a different kind, though +quite as substantial as we had experienced on the previous day; a well- +piled plate of beef and potatoes being allotted to each of us by the +presiding genius of the galley, the sight of which viands made our +mouths water. + +"Lor', it ain't much to holler about!" exclaimed the fastidious +Larrikins, on Mick rubbing his hands at seeing those appetising viands; +while `Ugly' cried out joyously, on noticing his mealy mass of potatoes, +"Them's the raal jockeys fur I," thus paraphrasing the remark of a once +celebrated millionaire possessed of much lucre but boasting of little +conversational power, when at a state banquet, "Why, we only calls this +aboard `two spuds and a Jonah!'" + +"I can see the `spuds' all right," said I; "but where's the Jonah?" + +"That be the bone, silly!" + +With which withering rejoinder, Larrikins left us to enjoy ourselves +with the food he contemned; though he probably went away to make a +hearty dinner off the same at his own mess on the deck below, where his +division "hung out." + +Nothing further of any note occurred during the afternoon to mar the +harmony or vary the monotony of our `bag and hammock drill,' at which we +were religiously kept up to the time to leave off work; when we enjoyed +again our tea-supper, and skylarked afterwards till it was time to `turn +in,' which we managed to do now more comfortably as well as +expeditiously than on the night before; while, I may add, my dreams +happily were not disturbed by any storms and thunder-claps of that imp +Larrikins' contrivance. + +The next day, Saturday, it was a case of `wash and scrub decks,' and +wash and scrub everything, I think, from early morning till dewy eve. + +A very `dewy' eve it was, too, if dampness made it so; but if one did +feel wet and miserable, as I confess I was, the remembrance it brought +back to my mind of my mother's house-cleaning at home being almost too +vivid to be pleasant, still, everybody on board had the satisfaction of +knowing that the ship was as smart as holystone and sand could make her, +from upper deck to keelson, I verily believe! + +I was none the less miserable, either, the following morning, when all +the boys were rigged out in their best and inspected by the captain; for +the tailor, true to the character of all `snips' since the days when +Adam started in that line with his fig-leaf costume, never sent on +board, as he promised, the uniforms of us unfortunate novices, so we +could neither make a decent appearance with the rest of our comrades, +nor have permission to go ashore--`unclothed' scarecrows, as some of us +were, would have seemed queer fish to come from a well-ordered ship. + +On Monday, however, all things were made right in this respect; and, +having satisfactorily passed `bag and hammock drill,' the test of our +novitiate, I and my fellow-unfortunates became not only clad like our +fellows, but were enrolled amongst the rest of the second-class boys, +and appointed to our proper place in the ship. + +My number being 2799, through some occult system of nautical numeration, +I was detailed to the `Third,' or second starboard, division of the +ship's company; so I joined mess Number 38, which was on the port side +on the lower deck, the first one aft of the schoolroom. + +I also proceeded a day or two after, being thenceforth regarded as a +neophyte no longer, to take part in all the regular drills of the ship, +and one morning, subsequent to breakfast, underwent that rudimentary +stage of seamanship styled `boxing the compass'--though I might have +really told the painstaking instructor, who painfully and ploddingly +laboured to instil the cardinal points into my head as if I were an +ignoramus, that I not only knew the `lubber's point' probably as well as +he did, but could, on a pinch, have conned the ship in and out of +Portsmouth Harbour! + +This `boxing the compass' business, though, brought me to loggerheads +with that brute `Ugly' somehow or other, strangely enough. + +I don't know how it was, but from the moment, I believe, I first cast +eyes on his singularly unprepossessing face, Moses Reeks had been my +special antipathy! + +It was not so much that he said anything to me or of me, as from the +fact of his always `putting it on' poor Mick Donovan, for whom I +entertained as great a liking as I disliked the other. + +`Ugly' was always snarling at my chum, and ever giving him a chance kick +or blow, should he be able to do so unobserved and without being +directly taxed with it; though, of course, he would deny it if observed +by any of the other boys, being an unmitigated liar, in addition to +having a sour and vindictive disposition. + +That very morning I noticed him deliberately stamp on poor Mick's bare +toes with all the weight of his big heavy foot, as we were coming down +the hatchway from early `divisions'; and when I spoke to him about it he +said coldly he "hadn't done nuthin' of the sort!" + +I knew this was an untruth; but I bided my time, judiciously watching +for an opportunity to pay him out. + +This came sooner than I expected; for during our compass lesson I +managed to get him into a fog about the points which the instructor was +explaining, drawing down on my joker the wrath and outspoken opprobrium +of that officer. + +`Ugly' noted this, and in his turn bided his time. + +The watch was dismissed, and the `stand by' had been bugled before +quarters, preparatory to our being dispersed for dinner; when `Ugly' +nudged me as we passed up the hatchway together, coming much closer to +me than I liked, the very touch of the unclean brute being obnoxious to +me. + +"Wot d'yer mean by comin' the barney over me and a-makin' that codger of +a kinstructor bullyrag me afore all the t'other chaps fur?" + +"What do you mean, Reeks?" said I, in reply to this, returning his nudge +with a good dig from the bony knob of my elbow in his ribs, and knocking +the wind pretty well-nigh out of him. "You jumped on poor Mick +Donovan's bare foot this morning, and now you try to shove me!" + +"Oh!" he exclaimed, as we emerged on the upper deck, where our division +had by now already partly assembled on the starboard side, forward; +"that be it, mister?" + +"Yes," said I, as I slipped into my place near Mick, "that's it!" + +After `divisions,' when the other boys were rushing down below to their +messes to dinner, the bugle-call for which was braying out its cheerful +sounds, I stopped behind on the upper deck, as did "Ugly." + +"Sure an' what are ye stoppin' fur, Tom, mabouchal?" said Mick to me in +surprise. "Begorrah, I can smill the mate alriddy, an', faith, the +praties, too! I can say their smilin' faces bickonin' to me an' sayin', +`Coom an' ate me!'" + +"I'm not coming yet," I replied, in a more serious tone than Mick +evidently expected. "I've got some business with this chap here." + +`Ugly' overheard me, as I intended he should. + +"Hay," said he, "did yer speak to Oi?" + +"Hay is meant for horses and asses," I answered drily, with a grin; "and +if you be one of them latter, as I think, and so does Mick here I know, +why, I did refer to you!" + +"Want ter fight?" + +"Yes," I said, launching out my fist straight towards his bullet head +and giving him a cropper on the mouth that sent him tumbling backwards +on the deck, all of a heap; "I do." + +`Ugly' rose slowly to his feet, his face streaming with blood; and he +was just about making a rush at me like a mad bull at a gate, while I +put myself in a posture of defence in proper pugilistic fashion, when an +interruption, though but of a temporary character, came to these +proceedings. + +The ubiquitous Larrikins was the intervener. + +"Lor', you be green 'uns!" he cried, sinking his voice to a cautious +pitch. "Don't you fight here; why, the `crushers' will nab yer afore +yer can strike a blow comfortably! If fight yer must, coom up here on +the fo'c's'le, and then you can fight away theer to yer 'art's content, +without nobody not a-hinterfeerin' with yer!" + + + +CHAPTER SIX. + +A KNOTTY POINT! + +I led the way towards the forecastle of the old ship, where the high +bulwarks, I saw, would screen us well from observation; although the +place, of course, was on the open deck, and visible from aloft, had +anybody been there on the look-out, anxious to take a peep at us. + +In the old days, indeed, had this rencontre between `Ugly' and me then +took place, we might have fought in an enclosed arena; for the _Saint +Vincent_, I have been told, when she was first built, was fitted with a +poop and topgallant-forecastle, and went to sea with them, but Admiral +Sir Charles Napier, who was then commodore of the Channel Squadron, and +hoisted his broad pennant in her, found the ship so top-heavy when under +his command that he reported her to be unseaworthy on his return to +Spithead with the fleet, the result of which was that she lost her poop +and topgallant-forecastle; hence `Ugly' and I had now to fight under the +eye of the circling seagulls, always on the wing, screeching round the +old training-ship in their plaintive fashion, and diving ever and anon +into the tideway to pick up scraps that were chucked overboard by our +comrades, more sensible than us, down below at their dinners! + +The deck was quite clear, the only person visible being the captain of +the afterguard, who was taking a snooze on a pile of canvas and old +sails that were stowed in a heap close by the main bitts; so, acting +under the chaperonage of Larrikins, who officiated as bottle-holder, +`Ugly' and I stood up, facing each other with our fists doubled, ready +for action, in a nice little open space that seemed to have been left +especially for the purpose between the heel of the bowsprit and the +knight-heads. + +One of the other first-class boys had stopped up to see the fun in +addition to Larrikins, and he now offered himself as second to `Ugly,' +while Mick, of course, he being really the main cause of the quarrel, +naturally came forward as mine. + +"Now, gents," cried Larrikins, seeing my antagonist and myself were duly +prepared, "yer can bergin the puffomince as soon as yer likes!" + +Before waiting even for this mandate, `Ugly' made that mad-bull rush at +me which he had contemplated in the first instance at the commencement +of hostilities; but having had some considerable previous experience in +the use of those weapons of attack and defence alike, with which a +beneficent nature has so thoughtfully provided menfolk, from many a +rough and tumble fight on Common Hard with the mudlarks and other idle +scamps frequenting that place, who used to be always playing pranks with +father's wherry, trying to steal anything they could lay hold of, should +we leave her for a minute alone, I had no difficulty in avoiding the +onslaught of my opponent. + +I kept my right hand well up on guard, across my chest; and, my left +fist being extended, I caught my gentleman a pretty tidy blow under the +chin that floored him as quickly as before. + +"Bedad, Tom, ye had him there!" cried Mick, dancing round me in ecstasy, +while `Ugly's' second was picking him up. "Jist giv' him a onener in +his bread-basket, me jewel, an' ye'll finish him!" + +This was not so easy a matter, however, as my chum supposed; Moses Reeks +being of that bulldog nature, as his looks testified, that would not +give in until thoroughly licked. + +"Steady there," cautioned his second, trying his best to prevent him +from continuing his foolish mode of plunging attack; but the pig-headed +chap would persist in continually rushing in on my guard, and getting +knocked down as regularly, time after time, without his having a chance +of landing a blow at me, his fists ever whirling about aimlessly, and +being easily avoided by myself. "Keep yer bloomin' dukes out straight +in front of yer, silly! 'It 'im in the heye, I tell yer! Wy, yer +lettin' 'im 'ave hit hall 'is own way!" + +"Blatheration!" cried Mick, my champion, quite as energetically, in +counter encouragement to me. "Go for him, Tom; go straight for him +agin! Faith, me jewel, you'll lave him soon so as how his blessed own +mother, bad cess to her, wouldn't know him, sure as me name now's Mick +Donovan!" + +Urged on in this fashion on either side, we went at it hammer and tongs, +`Ugly' getting more cautious from his repeated familiarity with the deck +planking, and fighting more scientifically after the first two or three +rounds. + +The consequence of this was that he got in one or two nasty blows with +his sledge-hammer fists on the side of my head, which made my ears ache, +besides giving me a fine black eye on the port side. + +He could not manage to land me a facer, however, straight out, try all +that he could; and presently, on my feeling particularly `riled' by a +backhanded clout he succeeded in landing on my cheek, I drew out my +left, and, driving it home forwards with all my strength, let him have +it straight on the nose. + +"Faith, ye tapped his claret for him that time, mabouchal; it's stramin' +out all over the dick." + +Hardly had my chum made this observation, so highly expressive of his +unconcealed delight, ere `Ugly,' wiping away the blood from his face +with the sleeve of his jumper, and clutching hold of the lanyard round +his neck, to the end of which his knife was attached, made a spring at +me from the knee of his second, where he had sat dazed for half a +moment, giving vent to a cry that was more like the howl of a wild +animal than anything else. + +I put up my hands mechanically, though I had hardly then imagined he +would have come so soon at me again; intending, however, more to guard +his attack than hit him any blow, for I really thought he had received +quite enough punishment already. + +But he beat down my guard as easily as if my arms really had been made +of pipeclay, and then I felt a stinging sensation through one of these +and my left side, just as if I had run foul of a jelly-fish when +swimming off the `Hot Walls,' as I have done sometimes when bathing. + +"Begorrah, the thafe's stabbed ye!" exclaimed Mick, putting his arms +round me as I fell back. "Whare now is ye hoort, Tom, alannah?" + +"Oh, it's nothing," I said with a laugh, as soon as I got back my +breath, which had been knocked out of me by the rush `Ugly' made, the +knife having only grazed my ribs, while it had given an ugly gash to my +arm; though, probably, had I not guarded the blow, the sharp weapon with +which my antagonist had only been supplied, like the rest of us, that +very morning, would as likely as not have `settled my hash,' as father +used to say. "Pray don't make a fuss of it, Mick, or any of you +fellows. It will all rub off when it's dry!" + +Larrikins and the other first-class boy had meanwhile collared `Ugly' +and taken the knife from him, to prevent his doing any further mischief +with it; and, as fighting was prohibited on board, and they might +possibly have been brought up on the quarter-deck as accomplices, should +the affair get wind and come to the notice of the ship's police, the +two, who no doubt were old and tried hands at the game, thought it best +to take my advice and `keep the matter dark,' as they said. + +"I doesn't like that yere knifin', though," said Master Larrikins, when +Mick had bound up my arm with his handkerchief, taking it off his neck +for the purpose; and we had all turned to sneak below out of observation +before `quarters' should be sounded and the fellows come tumbling up +from dinner, `Ugly' concealing his battered face by dragging down his +cap over his eyes, and pulling up his collar as if he had toothache, +which no doubt was not very far from the truth. "Don't yer try on that +yere bloomin' game agin, you Reeks, I tell yer, my joker, or else yer +'ad better git yer coffin ready afore yer comes aboard this ship. Lor'! +W'y, if the `Jaunty' or `Jimmy the One' knowed it, yer'd be strung up +at the yard-arm this very minnit!" + +The incident, however, passed off without notice from the authorities; +although the news of our encounter, with its almost tragic finale, got +about amongst the boys, most of the well-conducted of whom gave `Ugly' a +wide berth in consequence, the poor beggar being shunned thenceforth by +all but the ne'er-do-wells of the ship, that is, until the circumstance +became gradually buried in the past through the pressure of more +prominent events. + +We managed, combatants and seconds alike, not forgetting the director- +in-chief of the fight, Master Larrikins, to reach the sanctuary of the +lower deck unseen by any of the ship's corporals, or `crushers,' as +Larrikins facetiously called them. + +Not only this; through that wily individual's artful manoeuvring and +pathetic appeal to the gods of the cook's galley, we also contrived to +get some dinner, which, indeed, was particularly grateful to all of us +after our exertions. + +The meal this day, being a Wednesday, consisted, for a change, of salt +pork and pea-soup; `pea doo and bolliky,' as it is styled in _Saint +Vincent_ slang. + +"Faith, it smills good," exclaimed Mick, with a loud and prolonged sniff +of enjoyment, on the friendly Larrikins anon placing a bowl of the +steaming compound under his nose on the mess-table. "A'most as good as +tay, begorrah!" + +"Ga-a!" cried our caterer. "Only a Paddy wud say that!" + +"Bedad, I don't say much differ," said Mick, after quickly gulping down +the contents of his bowl with great gusto and much apparent inward +satisfaction. "Pay-soup an' tay soup--sure, they bees as loike as two +pays!" This certainly seemed a very logical deduction; but, before we +could argue the point out, or indeed laugh at Mick's Irish way of +putting it, the bugle sounded again for `divisions.' + +As we all scrambled up the after-hatch, the ship's corporal, Brown, who +had helped me to sling my hammock again after I had been cut down the +first night I was on board, a very decent man altogether, stopped +`Ugly,' who was on his way up ahead of me. + +"Hallo!" he said. "What's the matter with your face, boy?" + +"I dunno," replied my late antagonist, trying vainly to hide the effects +of my fists with the sleeve of his blue jumper. "S'pose I run agin +summat a-comin' downstairs jest now!" + +The sun, though, streaming down through the open hatchway, handicapped +all the yokel's attempts of concealment; and Mr Brown looked at him +with a quizzical expression on his face and a comical twinkle in his eye +that spoke a volume without words! + +"It strikes me, young man," he said, with his broad good-humoured grin, +"that theer `summat' you knocked against must have been moving round you +pretty smart! Bless me, if it ain't fetched you one on your booby hatch +and another on the conk, and bottled up your peepers as well! What's +your name, boy?" + +"Mo--ses," drawled out `Ugly' slowly, the poor beggar having a +difficulty in speaking, caused by the blow I first gave him on the +mouth, which accentuated his provincial pronunciation, "Re--eeks, zur." + +"Oh!" ejaculated ship's corporal Brown. "Then, Mr Moses Reeks, you'd +better go to the sick-bay and see the doctor." + +`Ugly' backed down the hatchway to comply with this order, as we were +just then ascending from the middle deck; and, from his withdrawing his +intervening figure, I became disclosed to view. + +My arm, which had swollen up, and necessitated my putting it in a sling, +at once attracted the observation of the corporal. + +"I say, youngster," he said, arresting my footsteps in like fashion, +"why are you bandaged up? What the--ah, what does this hanky-panky +mean?" + +"I--I--I," I stammered, not knowing what to reply to this, as I did not +like to tell him a barefaced lie in cold blood offhand-- "I've hurt my +arm, sir." + +"A-ah!" breathed out Mr Brown significantly; adding, after a pause, +"You're Tom Bowling, ain't you?" + +"Yes, sir," I said; "that's my name." + +"Well, it strikes me, Thomas Bowling," said he drily, in the chaffy sort +of way he adopted sometimes when hauling any of us `over the coals' for +some offence, performing his duty ever of guardian of the peace as +lightly as he could make it, "there's some sort o' circumbendibus +between this here arm of yourn and the spoilt face of that there joker +I've jist sent to the sick-bay. Thomas Bowling, Esquire, I fancy you'd +better foller him there, my boy." + +Of course, I obeyed this command, a ship corporal's word, whether +jocular or not, being as good as an order and regarded as law on board +the training-ship. + +Nothing was said, though, to either of us regarding our recent fight, +nor any embarrassing questions asked, when we reached the sick-bay. +Trimmens, the sick-berth steward, on the contrary, never moved a muscle +of his mahogany face when `Ugly' said that he had knocked his head +against the hatchway, and I told a `banger' by volunteering the +statement that I had broken a plate on the mess-table, and one of the +pieces had run into my arm. The wound in my side, which was really only +a scratch, I never mentioned to any one, not even to Mick, who thought, +and to this day knows nothing to the contrary, I believe, that I had +guarded off `Ugly's' thrust, and had been only stabbed in the arm. + +Our injuries not being sufficiently serious to put either of us in the +sick-list, `Ugly' and I were sent back, after being lotioned and +`dressed' by Trimmens, to rejoin our division, then at their +`instruction drill' on the lower deck, and engaged making what are known +to those learned in the arts of the sea as `bends and hitches.' + +To explain these properly to a landsman, I would say, for the sake of +easier comprehension, that the theory of a `bend' is based on the good- +natured truism contained in the old adage, `One good turn deserves +another'; while a second proverb, `Safe bind, safe find,' will equally +justify the existence of the `hitch'; but if the inquirer be not +satisfied with either of these definitions or explanations, whichever +term he may choose to apply to them, I can only advise him to follow +Captain Cuttle's injunction and `overhaul his Church catechism.' + +To drop joking, all of us new hands were taught our work as well as +sailors could teach us, which was so effectually done that what we once +learnt we never forgot; this work being to treat ropes and rigging as if +they were reasoning and responsible beings, and to be capable of making +fast or letting loose, whensoever it so pleased us, anything under the +sun, from knotting a reef point to parbuckling a cask--a dodge by which, +I believe, Admiral Rodney, or Abercromby, or some other hero, during the +times of the wars, contrived to drag one of his ship's guns to the top +of a lofty mountain guarding the entrance to Castries, the harbour of +Saint Lucia, which was by this means captured from its French +possessors, and is now numbered with the rest of our West Indian +colonies. + +This, however, is a `knotty' point. + + + +CHAPTER SEVEN. + +I `GO ALOFT,' LIKE MY ANCESTOR! + +"Tom," said Mick to me, on my telling him this, when we were dismissed +anon from instruction drill and were going up on the upper deck during +the `break-off,' for a brief breath of fresh air before proceeding below +again to our tea, "wer that theer yarn thrue, sure, ye wos afther +tellin' me?" + +He spoke earnestly, and I replied to him in the same tone. "It's true +enough, Mick, that one of our officers did manage to parbuckle a gun up +to the top of a high rock, or, rather, mountain, which commanded the +land defences of Castries, the principal town of Saint Lucia in the West +Indies! I've heard father speak about it many a time," said I. "But, +'pon my word, Mick, I can't precisely recollect if it was the gallant +Rodney or Sir Ralph Abercromby; for both of 'em were busy in those parts +at the time, and pretty well made their mark too! All I can say is, +though, that through this dodge they took the Frenchies unawares and +gave them a dressing as British sailors have always done when we've been +at loggerheads with them furrin chaps!" + +Mick Donovan scratched his head, in the same solemn way father used to +do, as if trying to rub in this valuable piece of historical +information. + +"Faith," said he, "I can't underconstubble it at all, at all!" + +There our conversation came to an abrupt close; the bugle summoning us +to supper, and Mick being extremely particular, I found, never to be +late at meal-times if he could possibly help it! + +The next morning, after the usual routine of lashing up and stowing our +hammocks in the nettings, on the completion of our breakfast, it was the +turn of the second division of the starboard watch, to which we +belonged, as I have already detailed, to go to school in the big room on +the lower deck aft, where we had passed our original initiatory +examination before signing our papers. + +The boys were given very fair play in respect of their nautical +education, taking each department of their instruction turn and turn +about in regular order. + +For instance, if the port watch attended school from Three Bells to +Seven Bells in the forenoon--that is, in shore time, from half-past nine +to half-past eleven o'clock in the morning--the starboard watch would be +engaged in seamanship or gunnery instruction; while, in the afternoon +their respective avocations would be reversed, the `starbowlines' going +to their books, and the port watch occupying themselves with the other +drills. + +This day, as I have said, we went to school after inspection and prayers +by the chaplain on the upper deck, which, I should have mentioned, was +the usual routine every morning when breakfast was finished and the +mess-tables and decks below swept clean and made tidy. + +I remember one of the schoolmasters impressed me very much during a +geography lesson, by showing us on the globe how extensive our national +possessions were, and how it became us as British sailors to maintain +our rights on every land and sea where the Union Jack of Old England had +ever once floated. + +I declare I can recollect his very words. + +"The sun, my boys," he said very impressively, "never sets on Her +Majesty's dominions!" + +When school was over, and the bugle, that ever-sounding bugle, rang out +the call for `divisions' presently, we all bustled up, of course, to the +upper deck, and, whether it was from the schoolmaster's observation or +what, I'm sure I can't say, I was struck by the wonderful lot of fine +fellows we had on board the training-ship: all wearing the same smart +bluejacket uniform, men and boys alike, and all ready, I believe, even +us youngsters who had but just joined the service, to go anywhere and do +anything for the sake of the Queen--God bless her!--aye, and to battle +likewise for the old flag and the old country that has had the command +of the seas for a thousand years--so father says! + +Why, there were over a hundred and eighty officers and men, besides some +seven hundred odd boys present at muster. + +Just fancy! + +Yes; and though the men serve all the time of the ordinary three years' +commission of the ship, the boys are ever coming and going, forty-five +or thereabouts, all fresh ones, being entered every month on the books; +while as many, probably, are drafted during the same interim to the +guardship, for service with the fleet in all parts of the world! + +Bear in mind, too, that the _Saint Vincent_ is only one of some six or +seven regular training-ships stationed at the principal ports round the +kingdom, for the especial purpose of licking boys into shape for Her +Majesty's Service; and that these aspirants for naval fame and glory +number altogether ten thousand, such being really the quota of young +boy-sailors provided for in the Admiralty estimates and added to the +Navy every year. + +Thinking thus, I rather lagged behind my comrades in going up the +hatchway, only just succeeding in the nick of time in getting into my +proper place forward on the starboard side of the ship as befitted my +station; and where, being ahead of the line, I had a good view, while +the inspection lasted, of the scene of my fight with `Ugly.' + +The boys were all drawn up in two long double rows facing each other, +the ranks stretching away from where Mick and I stood near the knight- +heads, to right abaft the mainmast; the first and third divisions, which +together comprised the starboard watch, being on the right-hand side of +the deck looking towards the bows, while the port watch was on the left, +of equal strength and similarly stretched out--the watch stripes on the +right or left arm, as the case might be, telling any chap who might +chance to lose his latitude to which side he properly belonged. + +I had already, of course, seen the imposing display which this muster of +the boys on the upper deck invariably presented; but never before had I +taken such stock of its various details. + +However, before I could come to any conclusion in the matter, revolving, +as I did, more things than I have yet spoken of in my busy brain, which +seemed `all wool-gathered' this morning, as father would have said had +he been there and seen me star-gazing all round the compass, the boy- +bugler on the bridge, who "had a purty foine chake of his own," as Mick +observed to me on noticing his puffed-out mouth, blew a resonant blast. + +It was the `disperse.' + +Hi, presto! + +As if by magic, the imposing array of `sucking bluejackets' whom I had +just been gazing upon with a sort of personal admiration from the fact +of my being one of their number, an admiration which was tempered by a +slight feeling of awe of the discipline that controlled them, melted +away almost noiselessly, like those Arabs who `folded their tents' +according to the poem, the boys being all in their bare feet, and their +patter along the deck and down the hatchways not making any sound above +a faint shuffling; and soon this was drowned by the eldritch screeching +of our friends the seagulls circling round on the wing in their wonted +manner, and poising themselves anon in mid-air above the ship, looking +down to see whether it was dinner-time yet aboard, and there was a +chance of any stray scraps being chucked over the side from the +`gashing-tub,' or waste butt in which the refuse of our meals was thrown +on the lower deck. + +The new boys of both watches were told to stand by, by one of the +seaman-instructors; and so, instead of racing down below with our older +comrades, Mick and I, with the other nine who had lately joined, +remained on the fore part of the deck. + +"These boys, sir," said the instructor, touching respectfully his cap as +he advanced towards the officer of the watch, who stood on the quarter- +deck, a thin grey-haired old chap, whom I subsequently learnt was the +gunner, though I never had the pleasure of seeing him before, "haven't +been over the masthead yet, sir." + +"All right," replied the gentleman addressed, saluting the instructor in +his turn; the politeness and courteous deference paid on board all ships +belonging to Her Majesty's Service from one officer to another, be his +rank high or low, being one of the best lessons in manners that man or +boy could have afloat or ashore, especially the latter. "Carry on!" + +Permission, accordingly, being granted for the ordeal to which we were +about to be subjected, the smart seaman-instructor came back to where we +were drawn up in single file forwards. + +"Now, my lads," he said, "you haven't any of you passed through your sea +baptism yet, I think. Ever been up aloft, eh?" + +He had stopped in front of `Ugly,' whose face yet bore traces of our +recent combat, although the cuts on his lip and nose had healed up; and, +indeed, I couldn't well boast, for one of my eyes had a singularly +picturesque greeny-yellowy look still about it. + +"Hoi?" exclaimed `Ugly,' in his yokel fashion. "I dunno wot yer means, +zur." + +"Well, I'll soon tell you," rejoined the instructor. "I mean, have you +ever been over the masthead?" + +"No-a," said `Ugly,' staring sheepishly at him; and then, as he followed +his questioner's eye, on it glancing up aloft, he added, "Doos yer mean +oop there, zur?" + +"Aye." + +"No-a, zur." + +"Then, you'll have to go up now," said the instructor, in a tone that +showed he intended to be obeyed. "Lads, attention!" + +We all drew ourselves up, `Ugly' included, as rigid and woodeny as those +strange figures that are supposed to represent the patriarchs Shem, Ham, +and Japheth seen in the Noah's arks of our childhood. + +"Boys," cried the instructor in a louder key, pointing as he spoke, "you +see the mainmast there?" + +We signified assent as well as we were able to do without losing our +rigidity or speaking, which latter is strictly against rules when an +officer is giving any order, except when an answer is specially +demanded. + +Noticing, however, that we all looked in the right direction, the +seaman-instructor was satisfied with this reply; but really there was no +reason why he should not be so, for if we had not seen the tall spar +that he pointed out we must all have been blind! + +At all events, he was satisfied; and that is all that concerns us at +present. + +"Now, boys," he continued, "you've got to go over the top of that there +masthead, climbing right up the rigging on the port side, and coming +down to starboard. Let me see which of you will be first to get over +the crosstrees, and woe betide the last! Away you go, now, the lot o' +ye! 'Way aloft!" + +It was child's play to me; for, as I told Larrikins the first day I was +on board, when he was trying to `pull my leg' with his yarns of the +mountainous seas he met in the Channel cruising in the _Martin_, +`shinning up the rigging' was no novelty to me. + +Before you could say `Jack Robinson' I had quickly sprung into the lee +rigging; and, clambering up the ratlines and then outward by the futtock +shrouds, I gained the top long ere half the rest had started. + +"Well done, my lad; I see you have been on board a ship before!" cried +out the instructor, as I at once proceeded now to climb up to the +crosstrees and over the head of the mast. "Look alive, you other chaps! +That boy there will have done the job while you are thinking about it. +Stir your stumps!" + +`Ugly' was the last of the lot; and, as I came down on the weather or +starboard side of the ship, the wind then blowing from the nor'ard and +eastward, he was just trying to creep through `the lubber's hole' into +the top. + +"No you don't," shouted up the instructor after him. "You must climb +out by the futtock shrouds, as every proper sailor does." + +Seeing, however, that poor `Ugly' was quite in a fog, he turned to me as +I stepped down from the chains and stood up in front of him, touching my +cap to report myself as having accomplished my task. + +"I say, my boy," said he, "what's your name?" + +Of course I had to reply to this, and so I told him-- + +"Tom Bowling, sir." + +"Ha!" he exclaimed, apparently surprised. "Any relation of that chap in +the song who `went aloft and did his duty'?" + +I grinned. + +"Yes, sir, I believe so," I said. "Father says as how our family is +descended from him." + +"I can quite believe it," observed the instructor kindly, with a +pleasant smile on his face. "At all events, a sailor's blood runs in +your veins, my lad; and, as you're such a good climber and know your way +up the ratlines, just go up now and show that lubber of a greenhorn how +to get up the futtock shrouds without tumbling, and so over the +masthead." + +Accordingly, I raced aloft the second time and soon fetched up to +`Ugly,' who, in a mortal funk, was trying to step out from the lower +rigging on to the futtock shrouds, which, I may explain for the benefit +of those who have not been to sea, stretch out laterally from the mast, +and not in towards it, like the ordinary standing rigging below. + +In spite of his difficulty, however, the surly brute now accepted my +help with a very ill grace; muttering under his breath to himself some +very unfriendly wishes in my respect, as, with some difficulty, I lugged +him up into the top, almost by the scruff of his neck. + +The rest of the journey up and down was easy enough; and `Ugly,' +rendered bold by having crossed his goal, the crosstrees, disdaining any +further help from me, now started, after he had arrived in the top, +again on the return voyage to climb down the shrouds by himself. + +But hardly had he got his foot over the side of the top than his courage +failed him; and I, looking up, on account of feeling the rigging shake, +for I had gone down in advance from his telling me he `didn't want no +help from sich a cove as me,' saw that he was trembling like an aspen +leaf, while his face was as pale as death. + +"Hold on," I cried, "I'll be up with you in half a minute, and lend you +a hand!" + +I don't know whether he heard me or not as I scrambled up hastily +towards him; but the next instant, losing his grip of the rope he was +hanging on to somehow or other, he fell back on top of me, uttering a +wild yell that was almost a scream, and which could have been heard +ashore at Gosport! + + + +CHAPTER EIGHT. + +"THE SWEETS OF FRIENDSHIP." + +"How did you manage it, my boy?" panted out the instructor, out of +breath by his rapid climb up the rigging to my aid, as I held on +desperately to the shrouds, against which I pressed the body of my +unconscious shipmate with my own, to prevent him from falling. "Lord! +My lad, I thought you were both gone! Thank God, you saved him!" + +But I could not tell him then, or after, how I contrived to catch `Ugly' +when he let go his hold; and to this very day, though it is pretty +nearly six years or more agone, and many things have happened since even +stranger, too, I put down the spontaneous act that prompted me to +stretch out my hand in the nick of time and grip him by his waistbelt +before it was too late, to the interposition of Providence--an +intervention, indeed, not only on his behalf, but on my own, as +subsequent events proved, though I will speak of this when the proper +time comes. + +The instructor, even in his hurry aloft to our assistance, had managed +to snatch up on the way a coil of half-inch; and with this he now +proceeded, breathing heavily the while from his exertions, to secure +`Ugly' temporarily to the ratlines until a whip could be rigged for +sending down the still insensible fellow to the deck below. + +This was a great relief to me, for it was as much as I could do to +support his body, although, as I've said, I pressed him against the +rigging, the chap weighing over ten stone at least, I should think, as +he was a thickset yokel and inclined to be corpulent. + +It all happened in a moment, though I seem to take so long telling about +it; for, almost before the instructor could take a double turn with his +half-inch round `Ugly's' body and the rigging, half-a-dozen seamen, who +had been hailed by the officer of the watch, the grey-haired gunner, had +footed it up the ratlines and were in the top fixing a whip and +purchase, to which one of the hammocks had been attached. + +In this impromptu cradle `Ugly' was let down very carefully and taken to +the sick-bay, where, as I was afterwards told, Mr Trimmens the sick- +berth steward being my informant, it required the application of the +galvanic battery to bring him to, the fright he had undergone, and +consequent shock to his system, having been so great! + +"You saved his life, though, my lad, let me tell you," said the +instructor to me, when we had followed the rescued boy down, and were +again on the safe footing of the deck. "Why, Tom Bowling, that chap +ought to be your friend for life after this." + +I could not help shrugging my shoulders, with a grin `on the left side +of my mouth,' as sailors say; for, of course, I could not very well +explain matters anent our recent fight. + +The instructor looked at me inquiringly; and, seeing he expected some +sort of a reply from me, I said, "He'll have to change very much, sir. +He and I haven't been very friendly up to now, sir." + +"Ah!" rejoined the instructor, "that don't count, my boy. The dearest +friend I have in the world at the present time was once my bitterest +enemy. He and I fell out about some trifle or other on joining the same +ship and never spoke a single word to each other throughout the whole +commission, though we were up the Straits at the time, and saw some +queer rigs there, I can tell you. We've often laughed over it together +since, and thought what fools we were." + +"I don't think, sir," said I, "that Moses Reeks and I will ever be +friends, so far as I can see." + +"Well, time will tell," observed my good-natured adviser, who was a man +like father, I saw, one always anxious to make the best of everything. +"None of us ever know what will happen in this life, especially with +sailor folk; and though you may think it difficult to `make a silk purse +out of a sow's ear,' for I can see, my lad, with half an eye that that +unfortunate yokel is of a different stamp to you, still I've known +stranger things occur. I wouldn't mind betting, if I ever did such a +thing, that one day you and he will be the fastest chums." + +"Perhaps, sir," I answered, in a very doubting manner; and I couldn't +help adding, as I turned to go below to my dinner, if there should be +any left for me, the other fellows having pretty well done by this time, +"Some day, as father says, pigs may fly, sir!" + +The instructor laughed. + +"Your father, Tom Bowling," said he, giving me a friendly pat on the +shoulder as I went down the after-hatchway, "must be a knowing hand; and +I think, my lad, you take after him." + +It being `pea doo and bolliky' day, my fast friend Mick, who, from his +highly developed instincts in the grub line, had been elected cook of +our mess on the lower deck, had saved me a good basin of soup and hunch +of bread, with which I managed to assuage the cravings of my appetite, +this having been accentuated not only by my long wait but by my exercise +aloft. + +"Begorrah, Tom," said he, as he watched me tucking into the stuff with +great complacency, while the rest of the fellows were cleaning up the +mess-table and generally making things snug, "it's as good as aitin' +onesilf fur to say how ye git outside that pay-soup. An ould play- +acting chap I onst sayd a-swallerin' knoives an' sich loike onnatural +stuff, worn't a patch on ye, me hearty!" + +I had, however, to make short work of my meal, for the `assembly' just +then sounded; and, after our usual parade again on deck, according to +the routine, a part of our division went ashore to a large field between +Blockhouse Fort and Haslar on the Gosport side of the water, belonging +to the _Saint Vincent_, and which is used for drilling the boys in +marching and small-arm instruction. + +Some of the remainder of us were put to signalling on the upper deck, +carrying on highly interesting dialogues with small flags that were +waved to and fro between the bows and stern of the ship; but the major +part of the division--I, much to my delight, being one of the number-- +practised all the afternoon at boat-pulling. In this my experience with +father's wherry during the last three or four years stood me in good +stead; though I had some little difficulty at first in mastering the +usual man-o'-war stroke with the long ash oars in the heavy launch which +we pulled, the boat being double-banked. + +The next day was the most exciting I had passed since I had been on +board the ship, now over a week. + +To begin with, it was `pay-day,' the whole ship's company marching up to +the paymaster in turn at the temporary office he had rigged up _al +fresco_, as Mick's `Oitalian' friends would say, on the upper deck, and +receiving each his weekly pay; the boys being allowed, those of the +first-class a shilling, and those of the second sixpence, for pocket- +money, the balance being saved up to their account or else forwarded to +their parents. + +Much amusement was caused amongst us as we received the respective coins +to which we were entitled, each holding out his cap for them; for a +sailor, you know, puts everything in his cap. Pocketing our coin as we +went below, Mick created the greatest fun of all as he spit on his and +spun it in the air. "Hooray!" he cried out, against the regulations, +though, fortunately for himself, not too loud, as he skated down the +hatchway. "Begorrah, it's the foorst money Oi iver arnt in me loif! +Faith, Tom mabouchal, we'll spind it togither an' hev a rig'ler +jollification ashore!" + +The bugle sounded `cooks to their messes' as Mick was saying this; and +so off he hurried to the galley on the fore part of the middle deck when +we had got down the hatchway, I following after him. + +On passing the entry-port, however, my old friend the master-at-arms +hailed me. + +"Hi, Tom Bowling!" he called out, beckoning me into the office; "I hope +you haven't been getting into any row?" + +"Not that I know of, sir," said I, flabbergasted by his question. "Why, +sir?" + +"Because the captain left word he wants to speak to you," he replied. +"You must go up again on the main-deck to his quarters aft." + +Thoroughly frightened at this, I proceeded as he had directed me; and, +on reaching the door of the captain's cabin, the marine sentry standing +outside passed on my name and I was ushered in. + +Cap in hand and in a state of much trepidation, I went along the gangway +with him; and `bringing up' opposite an open door, I rapped at this with +my heart in my mouth. + +"Hallo!" cried a voice within. "Who's there?" + +"T-t-t," I stammered-- "T-T'm Bowling, sir." + +"Oh!" exclaimed the same voice, in a softer and more kindly tone than at +first, when, I confess, it sounded rather gruff and peremptory. "Come +in, Tom Bowling." + +With this, I went into what seemed to my eye, expecting, as I did, +something very different on board ship, one of the grandest apartments I +had ever seen; with sofas and pictures, and big looking-glasses, besides +a piano at the end, just like a drawing-room. Why, the Queen herself +couldn't have had a finer place to live in! + +The captain, who, of course, was the owner of the voice that had +previously spoken, I saw was a nice, pleasant-faced, good-looking +officer, looking every inch a sailor, and a smart one too! + +He was sitting in a comfortable easy-chair that was fitted with gimbals, +like the compass card in a binnacle, or some other appliance which +permitted the occupant to shift round as he pleased without moving the +seat; as my commanding officer did now, in order to face me. + +"Don't be afraid, my lad," he said kindly, seeing, no doubt, how nervous +I looked. "I've only sent for you to let you know that I have been told +of your exceedingly courageous conduct just now in saving your shipmate +from a terrible death. I'm glad to see that you are bearing out by your +behaviour the strong recommendation Captain Mordaunt, who is an old +friend of mine, sent me when you came to join the service." + +I declare you could have knocked me down with a feather on his saying +this, the revulsion of feeling being so great; for I had expected +something totally different, so I hardly knew what to say. + +"Th-a-ank you, sir," I at last managed to get out. "I--I--I am very +much obliged to you, sir." + +"No obligation at all, my lad," he said, smiling. "I am only giving you +your due, for I think you have really behaved in a very plucky manner, +and deserve all that I have said, and more. I must tell you, though, I +have heard something else also about you, Tom Bowling, which, perhaps, I +might have been inclined to speak about, for I don't like any fighting +or ill-feeling between the boys under my command here; but, after what +has occurred, I shall not take any notice of what I might have heard to +your detriment. Besides, I believe you were not particularly in fault, +all things considered." + +Fancy! He must have been told of the fight between `Ugly' and me. + +My face, no doubt, expressed the thoughts that passed through my mind; +and, as I could see from a mirror opposite me, I appeared, as father +used to say, "like a cat looking nine ways for Sunday!" + +The captain, though, evidently wished to set me at my ease. + +"Never mind, my boy," he said reassuringly. "We'll let bygones be +bygones; and, as you have so nobly condoned the offence of fighting with +your shipmate by subsequently saving his life, I feel more inclined to +reward than punish you. Have you been allowed ashore yet to see your +parents since you joined?" + +"No, sir," I replied. "I didn't have my uniform rig last Sunday, sir." + +"Well, then, my boy, you may go and see them this afternoon if you like, +when you've finished your dinner. I will give you leave till Eight +Bells." + +So saying, he scribbled on a piece of paper and handed it to me. + +This was a pass, permitting me to be absent from the ship until the time +specified on it. + +Noticing, as I thanked him for his kindness, that I did not appear +perfectly satisfied, he glanced at me scrutinisingly. His eye was like +a gimlet, and seemed to penetrate my inmost thoughts; for, I declare, he +guessed the feeling that was uppermost in my mind. + +"Would you like, my lad," he said, smiling again, "to take a chum with +you ashore?" + +"Why, sir," I exclaimed, "that was the very thing I was thinking of!" + +"Ha!" said he, "I fancied that was what was on your mind. Who is your +chum?" + +"Mick Donovan, sir," I replied; "he's an Irish lad who joined the ship +the same time as me." + +"All right; Mick Donovan shall go with you," said he. "Hand me back +your pass." + +This I did; whereupon he bracketed Mick's name with mine and returned me +the paper. + +"You may go now," he said kindly, seeing the rush of joy that must have +been reflected on my face, filling, as it did, my heart, though I +hesitated to leave without his permission, albeit anxious to communicate +the good news to Mick. "Stop, Tom, here's half-a-crown for you and your +chum to enjoy yourselves with." + +He put the money into my hand as he spoke, extracting it from his pocket +for the purpose; and, I recollect, it was a nice new bright half-crown +piece, which, though it was `melted' very soon, will never pass out of +my remembrance as quickly as it did from my possession! + +Of course I thanked him before leaving; and, in going below, I halted at +the police office, to tell the master-at-arms the result of my interview +with our chief, whereat he appeared much satisfied, though he cautioned +me to continue to be a good boy and not outstay my leave. + +Making my way from thence below, it didn't take me long to fetch up +alongside Mick, who almost exploded with delight on my informing him we +were to go ashore together. He pitched the piece of `gammy duff' he was +carving on his plate, which, by the way, was as hard as a brickbat, with +the raisins or `gammies' which it contained barely at signal distance +apart, right up above his head to the deck beam, where it caught on to +one of the hooks and remained a fixture. + +"Bedad, Tom, ye're an anjul if ivver ther wor one," he cried, capering +about as if he were mad. "We'll hev a splindid toime of it entoirely. +Faith, Oi'll go and git me hair cut, to look like a jintlemin, afore I +says yer sisther an' yer fayther and moother!" + +"I think I'll do the same, Mick," said I. "They haven't seen me in my +bluejacket rig yet, and I want to look as smart as I can too!" + +Accordingly, the two of us had recourse to the ship's barber, who +cropped us both so close that it would have puzzled anybody to have +caught hold of what hair was left on the heads of either, aye even +between his thumb and forefinger. + +As a boat was leaving the ship early in the afternoon, we went in her; +when, being landed at Point, we soon found our way to Bonfire Corner, I, +of course, acting as the navigator. + +Dear me, no one ever saw such a homecoming in their life before as that +of mine that day! + +Jenny, who was dusting a mat at the door, rushed frantically into my +arms, mat and all, my little sister hugging me as if we had really been +parted for years, instead of only for the short spell of time that had +elapsed since our separation; and my mother, who was not so +demonstrative, was quite as glad, I know, to see me; while as for +father, who was having a spell-off in the backyard with his pipe, he +beamed all over at the sight of me in my uniform. + +"Lor', Tom!" he ejaculated, on my taking him unawares, with his head +leaning back and the long churchwarden he was smoking dropping out of +his mouth, for he had just started, with his eyes closed, for a `lay off +the land,' as he styled taking a snooze. "Ye're the very h'image of +what I wer' when I wer' your age--though not quite so good-looking I'm +a-thinking!" + +He said this in joke, for he and I were in the habit when in the wherry +together of carrying on in that way and chaffing each other; but mother, +who had followed me up, with Jenny behind her and Mick Donovan keeping +close company in her wake, took poor father up with a round turn! + +"What do you know what you were like at his age?" she cried. "Judging +by your present figurehead, you couldn't have been much to boast of!" + +"Couldn't I?" rejoined father. "I tell you what, Sarah, there wer' a +lot more gals 'sides you as wos a-runnin' arter me when I was a +youngster and first jined the sarvice!" Hearing my mother's name +mentioned, old `Ally Sloper' at once struck up a screech, hopping +through from the shop to join us. + +"Say-rah, Say-rah!" he screamed, ruffling up the lemon crest on the top +of his head, and spreading out the feathers round his neck that made him +look as if he wore high collars. "I'll wring your neck!" + +I thought Mick Donovan would have died of laughing on hearing the +cockatoo speak so funnily, his mirth being so contagious that we all +followed suit; and, what with the screeching and screaming of the other +birds, which seemed to take `Ally Sloper's' cry for a signal and chimed +in, you never heard such a row in your life. + +"Bedad, Oi'm kilt entoirely!" exclaimed Mick, when he had well-nigh +laughed himself black in the face. "Oi nivver heerd such a baste in me +loife fur talkin', to bay sure!" + +That made us all begin the concert over again; and I really think we +kept on laughing and then stopping, only to break out again, until +mother spread the table for tea, just to "shut our mouths," as she said. + +Both she and father were really pleased to see Mick, whom they had +welcomed as my chum in the first instance, but presently began to like +for his own sake after his being but a very short time in their +presence--he was such a jolly chap all round! + +My sister, however, seemed a bit shy with him, as indeed Mick appeared +to be with her, the two hardly exchanging a word; though I noticed that +when Jack, the thrush, commenced calling out in his soft way, "Jenny! +Jenny!" Mick flushed up like a boiled lobster. + +"Faith," he exclaimed, "that's a foine burd, an' a purty burd too; an', +begorrah, he spakes the purtiest name I ivver heerd tell on in me +loife." + +He looked at Jenny as he said this; when, she too coloured up. + +I couldn't tell you all that occurred that happy day, for the moments +flew by like winking; and bye-and-bye we had to set sail again for our +ship, laden with all sorts of good things to help out our diet on board, +especially an enormous pot of jam, which mother said would last us for +tea till we were able to come ashore again for another supply. + +Father came with us down to Hardway, offering to put us on board in his +wherry; and, though it was a longer voyage thence back to the ship than +from Point, the tide being fortunately in our favour, we reached the +_Saint Vincent_ in good time, going up the accommodation ladder on the +port side, which, as you know, is devoted to the use of the lower deck +portion of the crew, just as Eight Bells struck. + +"Ha, my lads," cried the `Jaunty,' who stood by the entry-port, "you've +just saved your bacon!" + +The other fellows were just coming down from skylarking; and, going +below with the lot, we found time before turning in--Mick having +declared that he was "hungry enuf to ate an illiphant"--to sample the +stock of grub mother had so thoughtfully provided us with. + +The sight of the big jam-pot, however, presently attracted a crowd of +sympathisers around us, whose affability and kindly attentions, nay, +even respectful demeanour, was something wonderful. + +Mick and I never knew till then what dear friends we had aboard; any boy +with whom we might have exchanged a chance word appearing as delighted +to see us again as if we had risen from the dead. + +Amongst these, Larrikins was prominent. + +"Lor', Tom Bowling," he whispered to me, as he sidled up near, "yer +knows I tuk a fancy to yer when I see'd yer first." + +"So you did, my joker," said I, of course seeing through his `little +game,' as well as that of `Ginger,' the other first-class boy who had +been told off to attend to us novices, and had, it may be remembered, +acted as `Ugly's' second. "You cut me down when I was in my hammock the +first night I was aboard. That was a strong proof of your friendship +towards me, eh, Larrikins?" + +"Ah, Tom, that were only a little joke, don-cher-no," he replied, with a +grin and a wink of the most expressive character, "Lor', yer don't bear +no mallerce, I knows!" + +What could I say? + +He was not half a bad fellow either; and so, having experienced many a +little kindness from him as a new hand, in spite of his strong +propensity for practical-joking at my expense, which I do not believe he +could have possibly resisted under any circumstances, I passed the word +to Mick to make him free of the jam-pot. + +So, too, with the rest of those that hung round us, sailors and sailor- +boys generally being generous alike by nature and inclination; and the +end of it was, that the supply which mother thought would have lasted +Mick and me till we saw her again, vanished the same night! + + + +CHAPTER NINE. + +I BECOME A "FIRST-CLASS BOY." + +Our life aboard after this passed very evenly, though not uneventfully; +for there was hardly a day that something did not occur as interesting +as it was novel to our previous experience. + +Talk of a sailor's life being dull! Why, it's full of incident, full of +interest, full of adventure; and even on board a harbour ship, like the +_Saint Vincent_, I tell you, there is sport to be had afloat as well as +ashore! + +We had a rat-hunt once, some three or four weeks after I joined the +ship. + +The captain's dog, a fine cock-eared fox-terrier named `Gyp,' with the +most wonderful eyes, and a nose that worked with excitement as quickly +as his short-cropped tail, which was docked to half an inch and was ever +on the wag, got into the habit of coming forward on the forecastle +whenever he was let out of his master's cabin, in the most unaccountable +manner. + +Now `Gyp,' you must know, was a rather particular dog in his way, +keeping to his own station when below; while, should he be taken up on +the quarter-deck by the captain, or accompany any of the other officers +there, he would never, as a rule, advance farther towards the fore part +of the ship than the main-hatchway. + +All of a sudden, however, master `Gyp' takes it into his head to make +free of the forecastle, and associate with such of the lower deck men +who might chance to be there. + +This, of course, was derogatory to his dignity as a captain's dog; but, +although remonstrated with by his master's valet, who had charge of him +when the captain did not take him ashore--aye, and even whipped for thus +straying forwards--`Gyp' would persist in his unseemly predilection for +low life, utterly regardless of his proper rank as an officer, with a +collar and badge. This article was of gold lace, and became him well, +contrasting favourably with his black-and-tan head and soft white coat, +which latter was guiltless of spot or blemish. + +The fact was, I had better acknowledge it at once so as to preserve the +poor animal's character, which was, and is, so far as I know up to the +present, as spotless as his coat, never having had a slur cast upon it, +save in this one respect, that `Gyp,' as the master-at-arms said, in his +funny way, "smelt a mice." + +Not only that, `Gyp' smelt rats; and, what is more, he managed to nab +one very cleverly as the rodent was leisurely hopping up the hatchway in +the most free and easy manner from below, with a piece of cheese in its +mouth which the beggar had appropriated from the steward's pantry, or +from the mess of some Johnny below! + +This happened in the afternoon, just after inspection on the upper deck +and when the divisions were dispersing to their respective drills, for I +was going below with some of the other chaps at the time to man the +pumps on the orlop deck, the second time I had been put to this job +since I had come on board, and I can't say I liked it! + +Now, whether `Gyp' carried the rat he had captured cosily to the +captain's quarters, or through some one taking the tale aft, I'm sure I +can't say; but, while the working party of us boys told off to clear the +bilge were pumping away for dear life, and looking out for old +Jellybelly, who was superintending our task, to sing out `spell ho!' to +give us breathing time, down comes a lot of the officers after their +lunch, with the captain at the head of them, accompanied by Master +`Gyp,' who, somehow or other, didn't need anybody to show him the way, +though he hadn't been below in the ship there to my knowledge before, +his nose being as good as a compass, and pointing out where he thought +his services might be required. + +"I hear, Tarbolt," said the captain, addressing old Jellybelly by his +proper name, "you have rats aboard here?" + +"Aye, aye, sir," replied the quarter-master, drawing himself up sharp +from the act of touching up with his cane one of the boys a little way +from me, whom he fancied wasn't putting sufficient elbow grease into his +work. "I believe, sir, as how the ship reg'lerly swarms with 'em. They +wore working away, sir, last night at some of the b'ys' hammicks; and +one of 'em yelled out that they was nibblin' their toes!" + +"Oh!" cried the captain, "we must put a stop to that. My dog here is a +good ratter, and I think he'll be able to polish off a few for you. +Where do you think, Tarbolt, the brutes hang out?" + +"Away forrard, sir, under some o' that spare gear thet's stowed there, +sir; and likewise down in the bilge amongst the ballast and dunnage." + +"Very good; shove your lantern, Tarbolt, over here," said the captain, +edging forwards as he spoke, with `Gyp' and the rest of the officers a- +following him. "Boys, you can stand off for a bit from your pumping and +come and see the fun." + +We didn't need any further invitation, being only too glad to let go of +the beastly crank-handles; not to speak of the interest we took in the +anticipated enjoyable sport. + +"Hi, `Gyp,' rats!" shouted the captain, when we all came up to a pile of +old casks and sails in the fore peak. "Go for 'em, good dog!" + +The wardroom steward and the captain's valet had come down in the rear +of the officers, each of them provided with a lantern; and so, what with +the lights we already had with us, the place was sufficiently +illuminated for all to see the whole proceedings, which, needless to +say, we witnessed with the utmost delight, Mick, who was alongside of +me, staring open-mouthed, his face one broad grin from ear to ear. + +"Begorrah!" he whispered to me. "Sure, it bates Bannagher, an's a'most +as good as what Oi've heerd tell of Donnybrook Fair, in the ould toimes, +from me fayther!" + +All we could see of `Gyp' for some little time was a portion of his +stern quarters, with his little butt-end of a tail wagging away at high- +pressure speed, just like the escapement of a clock from which the +pendulum has been temporarily taken, so that it has for the moment no +check on its action. + +Then, all at once, with a low growl, and every individual hair on his +white coat standing erect, his whole body the while quivering with +excitement, `Gyp' plunged forwards and disappeared into darkness, only +to reappear an instant later with an enormous rat, which he had gripped +in the small of the back, the vicious beast trying to worm itself round +so as to tackle his nose. + +`Gyp,' however, knew a trick worth two of that, and, as he emerged into +the open again, chucked the rat up aloft in the air, almost to the deck +beams, and then, pouncing on it as the brute fell back under his +expectant jaws, the terrier severed its head from its body with one +snap! + +Another and another, and yet another, he served in like fashion, +ferreting in amongst the dunnage, and then coming out again with a fresh +victim each time; until, presently, finding their retreat `too warm' for +them, the rats sallied out in a crowd, skating over the deck and +climbing up the bulkheads to get out of the way of their relentless +enemy. The lot of us then coming to the aid of `Gyp,' the captain and +all catching up anything handy to have a shy at them, the family of +rodents that had been having such a gay old time below for so long +without interference, was soon exterminated; after which the dog and his +master, with the other officers, returned to the main-deck, while we +resumed our work at the pumps all the more heartily from the bit of play +we had had, old Jellybelly never once grumbling again till we had done. + +We had a good rise out of the old quarter-master the very same evening, +though, which was rather ill-natured on our part. + +He was on duty at the gangway, when one of the new chaps, who, like +Larrikins, had a great bent for practical skylarking, went to him with a +smug face, as innocent as you please. + +"I say, sir," said he, in a tone of the deepest sympathy, "don't you +feel werry tired, sir, a-standing theer so long?" + +"Aye, my son," replies old Jellybelly, thinking to himself, no doubt, +that the chap showed wonderful good feeling for a boy; he regarding them +all as a rule, not without reason probably, as imps of mischief. "It is +rather tiring sometimes. I feels it in my bones and all down my legs." + +"Then, sir," rejoined the young demon, who only wanted to draw him out +and laugh at him, "why doesn't yer sit down on the rail, sir?" + +Of course, this would have been almost a penal offence for the quarter- +master to have done, he being on duty at an appointed station; and the +remark he made as his tormentor made off with a laugh, which was joined +in by all the adjacent boys, was a caution. + +Mick, not long after this, had Mr Brown, the ship's corporal, nicely +too. + +He crammed his bag and a lot of other things into his blanket, which he +rolled up so as to represent a sort of lay figure, stowing this into his +hammock at turning-in time, just before the `out lights' sounded. + +Keeping as grave as a judge, Mick then went up to the corporal. + +"If y' playse, sor," said he, "some gossoon or t'other, sor, has bin an' +gone an' got into me hammick, sor, bad cess to him!" + +"Oh, has he, Paddy," replied Mr Brown, switching his cane, and then +drawing it as he gripped it with his right hand carefully through his +left, as if feeling whether it had the right sort of edge on it or no. +"I'll soon make him shift his billet, my boy." + +We, of course, were all in the joke, and watched Mr Brown with great +glee as he stole stealthily up to Mick's hammock and let fly a shower of +blows on the supposed intruder's body, accompanying the caning with some +pertinent remarks of a very forcible nature anent the offender's want of +manners and unneighbourliness towards a brother shipmate; whereupon we +all burst into a regular guffaw, and Mick sought refuge in flight on the +exposure of his little plot before Mr Brown could pay him out. + +The corporal, though, took it in very good part, and did not bear my +chum any subsequent ill-will for thus taking him in; albeit, he was wary +enough to be on his guard against Mick hoaxing him a second time. + +Jokes like these came as little interludes, so to speak, to `ease the +wheels' of our duties, which, however, were to me, at all events, more +of a pleasure than so many tasks; that is, after I had gone through the +initiatory instructions and drills, and was able to hold my own with the +smartest of my shipmates. + +I cannot say, though, that I cared much for the schooling, seven months +of which every second-class boy on board the _Saint Vincent_ has to +undergo before he can gain the first rank. + +Equally as certainly, however, I must allow that the teaching I gained, +watch and watch about, in that big schoolroom astern on the lower deck +turned out of considerable assistance to me, not only in my subsequent +experience afloat in the navy, especially when serving abroad, but +ashore too; for I there learnt the art of learning things, which is the +great secret of education to man or boy, though we youngsters do not +realise this when we have the chance of getting hold of it. + +But it was the seamanship instruction that I went in for with the +greatest zest; and, from knotting and splicing up to compass, and helm, +and signalling, I don't think I fell far short of what Captain Mordaunt +said when he persuaded father to let me go to sea and join the training- +ship--that I was a born sailor and a regular `chip of the old block.' + +In connection with this, I may state, that of all the practical lessons +I learnt in sailoring on board the _Saint Vincent_, the going aloft for +sail-drill used to please me best. + +Every morning at eight o'clock we used to go up the rigging and practise +loosing and furling the sails, crossing the royal-yards, and making all +things snug before coming down on deck to our usual divisional +instruction. + +On Mondays the whole forenoon was devoted to these evolutions, the sails +being set one after the other, topsails, topgallants, royals, and even +stu'nsails sometimes, besides the courses and headsails below; until, +often, the whole ship was piled with canvas as if she were fetching down +Channel on a cruise, her spars quivering with the strain frequently, +when we had the wind abeam from the southward and east'ard, and every +rope as taut as a bar of iron! + +We used to work our way from the lower yards to the dignity of the upper +by rotation more than through any special smartness and activity; and I +know I was as pleased as Punch when it came to my turn to be an `upper- +yard boy.' + +I was never so happy as when aloft; and many a time up there of a +morning have I gazed out to seaward, looking over Southsea beach and the +boats clustered in the fairway, that seemed but little dots from the +height where I was, to the open stretch of water beyond Spithead and +Saint Helens, that seemed to draw my heart to it like a magnet, making +me long to leave my present stay at home surroundings and sail away and +away on the boundless deep. + +This desire of mine was gratified in part after I had been serving for +nine months as a second-class boy, and passed satisfactorily through all +my drills and instructions; when Mick and I got promoted. + +Strangely enough, my chum the Irish lad proved himself, landsman though +he had been before and never having even smelt the sea prior to his +coming to Portsmouth, quite as expert as myself after a short stay +aboard the training-ship; though I had been associated with ships and +seafaring folk from the time I drew my first breath, and indeed, like +all the Bowlings, as I told you at the beginning of my yarn, was born +with the taste for `the briny,' the feeling being inherent to my blood. + +It strikes me, though, that my sister Jenny had something to do with +this. + +Mick heard her say the first day when I first took him home with me to +visit father and mother at Bonfire Corner, that she loved sailors, and +wondered how any young fellow could possibly care for anything else, +when he had a chance of going afloat and serving his Queen and country, +and fighting the battles of Old England. + +The remark was a chance one; but, though Mick must have heard Jenny say +a good many other things, for he was often at our house afterwards, +being generally in the habit of accompanying me home when I had leave to +go, he never forgot those words and somehow or other seemed to strive +his best to reach Jenny's ideal. + +So, you see, smart seaman though I fancied myself to be even at that +early age, I had to look out lest I should be supplanted by my own chum; +for no sooner did I get the start of him in one thing than he would +fetch alongside of me and be working ahead before I well knew where I +was, the `owdacious young beggar,' as father dubbed him, becoming +actually a `royal-yard boy' the following week to myself, while both of +us, as I have said, were made first-class boys together. + +Unfortunately, this was during the winter months; and, as the training- +brig _Martin_, which is attached to the _Saint Vincent_ as a sea-going +tender in order to cruise about in the Channel to give the boys +practical experience of their profession--like a frolicsome chick +hanging round a broody old hen that won't leave her nest--does not go +out of harbour till the spring, Mick and I were unable for some time to +take advantage of the grand privilege of our rise and really go to sea. + +We thought the blissful period would never come. + +But `it's a long lane that knows no turning'; and, winter ebbing away +into the flood of spring anon, we, with some ninety and nine other +youngsters of the same standing, set sail one fine April morning from +Portsmouth Harbour, the _Martin_ slipping her buoy abreast of Blockhouse +Fort, and standing out into the Solent under easy canvas, with a fair +wind from the nor'-east. + +A hundred boys are always taken at a time for a month's cruise in the +brig, the lot being accompanied by some of the smartest seamen belonging +to the complement of the mother training-ship, so that they have every +opportunity of picking up now the nautical knowledge necessary to make +them worth their salt, in reference both to seamanship and gunnery. + +We had a pretty fair knock-about time in the Channel, running down to +Plymouth and back, having a `sojer's wind,' one that was fair both ways, +out and home again; and, though, from this fact, we necessarily made an +easy passage of it, some of the boys were woefully seasick, many of them +never having been at sea before. + +Notably among these was Mick. + +"Bedad!" moaned he, leaning over the side with his dark face turned to +pale green that seemed a faint reflection of the water below, into which +he looked apparently with the deepest interest as he sacrificed his +dearly loved dinner to Neptune, paying the sea-god his dues, "Oi fale, +Tom me darlint, as if Oi'd brought up iverythink, faith, since furst Oi +jined the ship, an' me boots, begorrah, same in the back of me hid! +Wurrah, wurrah, why did Oi ivver come to say? Och, Tom mabouchal, kill +me at onst, and be done with it!" + +I could not help laughing at him, he presented such a contrast to the +buoyant lad of my ordinary acquaintance; though, of course, I tried to +sympathise with my woe-begone chum. + +But ere long something occurred which made him, and the others in a like +predicament, forget their seasickness in a hurry, all of us having to be +as spry as we could. + +The _Martin_ took the ground! + +I'll tell you how this happened. + +We had run up Channel, as I have told you, with a fair wind from the +start; but, on our reaching the westernmost end of the Isle of Wight, +this turned against us, so that after passing through the Needles we had +to beat up the Solent in the teeth of a stiff sou'-easter. + +This, of course, gave us plenty of exercise in tacking; and the constant +going aloft, with the brig rolling and a choppy sea under her, had +overset the equilibrium of poor Mick's stomach. + +We had tacked and `reached' in this way for some time, making short +boards between the Hampshire coast and the Island opposite; when, in +going about off the Brambles, through one of the uncertain currents +which infest Southampton Water taking her on the slant as we shivered +our headsails to come up to the wind, the brig missed stays and struck +on the edge of the shoal. + + + +CHAPTER TEN. + +"UNDER FIRE!" + +"Look alive, my lads!" shouted out our tall commander, as we stumbled +about the deck of the brig, the shock as her keel touched ground +knocking us off our pins and making the poor seasick chaps who were +holding their heads over the side pull them in pretty promptly. "Watch, +furl sails! 'Way aloft!" + +The sheets and halliards were let go in a twinkling before we left the +deck and the topsails dropped on the caps, as well as the jib downhaul +manned and the spanker brailed up, so as to prevent our being forced +farther upon the shoal; and, while we were shinning up the rigging, the +clewlines and buntlines were hauled by the watch below, which got in all +the slack of the sails preparatory to our passing the gaskets when we +got aloft, thus enabling us to furl all the canvas, and make everything +snug in less time than I take to tell of it. + +In the meanwhile our commander made himself busy in other ways, the +cutter being lowered and a party of seamen and boys sent in her with a +kedge to drop astern and try to warp off; the port bower anchor being +dropped at the same time, and a spring set on the cable, which was +buoyed so that we could slip it in a moment in the event of her suddenly +floating. + +A `distant signal' was also hoisted at the main, consisting of a square +flag on top with a ball below, which meant that we were aground and +wanted assistance, to let the men on watch at the Hurst Castle signal- +station know what was up with us; and, in addition, our smart commanding +officer put on a party of boys at the pumps, to see whether the brig +might not have strained her timbers and sprung a leak, through working +about on the nasty sand bottom of the Brambles. + +This latter precaution, however, proved a useless one; for the gang of +eager lads working away with a will at the crank-handles of the pumps, +soon cleared the little amount of water that was in the bilge, and the +shaft sucked dry. + +"Ther' ain't a drop in her," reported Mr Tarbolt, the quarter-master, +`old Jellybelly,' as we called him amongst ourselves. "I don't think, +sir, as how she's made a h'inch since we passed the Needles and last +cleared ship." + +"Very good, quarter-master," said the commander; "you can stop pumping." + +The chaps who had gone off in the cutter had been equally spry with +their job, bending on a stout hemp hawser through the ring of the kedge +anchor, which they dropped some half a cable's length from the brig, +bringing back the other end aboard, where it was put round the capstan +on the forecastle. + +This was at once manned, there being no want of volunteers, every one of +us wanting to have a turn at the capstan bars, even before Mr Gadgett, +the gunner, who was on duty forward, gave the word. + +But it was a case of `yo heave' and `paul' in vain, the hemp cable +coming home as taut as possible, and then surging off the capstan +without moving the poor little _Martin_ a hair's-breadth from her sandy +bed. + +"We must get out the stream anchor, Mr Gadgett," sang out the +commander. "Look alive there and rig out the davits, and send some +hands into the cutter to stow the anchor properly when we lower it +down!" + +This was done, the heavy stream anchor, which was always kept ready on +the forecastle in case of any such emergency, being eased down by means +of its shank painter and the fish tackle until it rested comfortably +across the sternsheets of the boat; while another stout hawser +accompanying it, was coiled round the whole interior of the boat on top +of the thwarts. + +The cutter then pulled off to about the same distance at which the kedge +had been dropped, though more on the quarter of the brig than dead aft; +and, the end of the second hawser being brought aboard like the first, +all hands set to work with a cheery song, as we had no drum and fife +band with us in the brig--for, though not strictly according to naval +discipline, the commander permitted the licence so as to make the +fellows move round all the smarter. + +"Yo--ho, my lads!" bawled out old Jellybelly, quite in his element, I +believe, as he liked to hear his own voice. "Round she comes! Heave +and paul with a yo--heave--ho!" + +"By jingo, she's moving!" Mr Gadgett quivered out, more excited than I +had ever seen the grey-haired gunner before. "Another turn or two, my +lads, and she'll be afloat!" + +His excitement communicated itself to the commander aft, who was looking +over the stern and anxiously watching the water, to see if our rudder, +which was kept amidships, made any ripple on the surface; though, wide +awake, our officer was keeping a keen eye, too, on the manilla hawser +attached to the stream anchor, which was in such a ticklish state of +tension from the strain that it was singing out like a fiddle-string. + +"Hurrah!" he cried a moment after. "She _is_ moving, Mr Gadgett. +Stand by there, furrud, to veer off the cable of the port bower!" + +Tramp, tramp, went the fellows round the capstan; turn by turn, in came +the slack of the warp; and then in another five minutes or so, with a +harsh grating sound as her keel slid off a rocky bit of the shoal on +which she had rested, the gallant little _Martin_ was afloat again! + +Almost at the same instant as the dancing motion of her hull told us +that the brig had been restored to her native element, the commander, +wishing to get away as soon as he could from the dangerous neighbourhood +of the Brambles, gave an order to the boatswain's mate standing near +him, who instantly put his whistle to his lips and blew a shrill call +whose import we all well knew. + +"Watch, make sail!" then shouted the commander, rubbing his hands with +much satisfaction. "Topmen, aloft and loose the topsails! Let go your +topsail halliards! Man the head sheets!" + +While these directions were being carried out, the port bower was +weighed; when the jib being hoisted and the topsails dropped and sheeted +home, the brig paid off on the starboard tack, picking up the kedge and +stream anchor as soon as we fetched over them in rounding-to. + +The cutter, which had remained alongside ready for further use if +required, was then hoisted up to the davits; and the _Martin_, spreading +her wings again properly, made off towards Cowes just as one of the +Government tugs, which had been despatched to our assistance from the +dockyard on the receipt of a telegraphic message from Hurst Castle +telling of our mishap, came round the corner of Stokes Bay, puffing away +at a fine rate, and throwing up a cloud of black smoke that spoilt the +beauty of the landscape, and shut out everything to leeward from view. + +"Begorrah!" said Mick, from whom the fine fuss and fright and flurry had +banished all traces of his previous illness, making him as right as +ninepence again, "they're jist in toime to be too late, sure!" + +Our commander exchanged signals with the people on the tug, however, +telling them that their services were not required, though thanking them +for the help they would have rendered us; and the wind, which had been +shifting about to all parts of the compass while we had been ashore on +the sand ledge, now veering to the south'ard and west'ard, we bore away +before it with squared yards up the Solent towards Spithead, where we +anchored for the night, almost in the fairway, abreast of Southsea +Castle. + +Next morning we came into harbour, when a dockyard diver was sent down +to see if the brig had sustained any damage from her pranks of the +previous day; but, all being found staunch and sound below, only the +copper on her keel having received a little extra polish, we were +ordered to go out again into the Channel and continue our cruise. + +The most noteworthy feature of this, excepting, of course, the setting +and reefing and taking in sail on board a moving vessel, instead of +practising all these merely in dumb-show as had been our wont in a +stationary ship like the _Saint Vincent_, was the exercise we had with +the old-fashioned little muzzle-loading truck guns, which were mounted +on wooden carriages of the sort only seen in the old _Victory_ nowadays, +with which the _Martin_ was provided. + +It was great fun. + +The boys in turn detailed to act as crews of the guns used to be +numbered off in regular fashion, according to the custom of the service, +just as if they were grown men and working on board a ship going into +action. + +Number 1, who was the captain of the gun, stood in the rear; Number 2, +on the right of the former, but clear of the recoil, as if to teach one +that prominent and distinguished positions have their drawbacks as well +as their advantages; Number 3 stood close up to the ship's side, by the +breeching of the gun on the left; and Number 4 occupied a similar post +on the right, while Numbers 5 and 6 stood in the rear of 3 and 4, and so +on. + +Through the energetic instructions of Mr Gadgett, who was a most +painstaking officer, and spared no trouble to teach us our duties +properly, we had learnt when ashore on our drill-ground at Haslar to +master all the necessary manipulation of our `little barkers,' as the +gunner used to call them, learning how to cast them loose from their +lashings, run them back for loading, and prepare them for firing, all in +similar dumb-show fashion to our sail-drill experiences in the old ship; +and now, when we were able to load with real powder and shot, and make +Mr Gadgett's `barkers' bark in earnest, the interest of our gunnery +drill was increased tenfold. + +It was splendid work; and from the first order, `Cast loose!' to the +last, `Fire!' it was exciting to the last degree, all of us sponging, +loading, and running out the little guns in the highest of spirits, as +if we were fighting the Battle of Trafalgar over again, and throwing +shot and shell into any number of French and Spanish three-deckers +alongside! + +We had hard work sometimes to check ourselves from uttering a wild cheer +when the order was given to pull the trigger and the gun went off with a +grand `Bang!' sending a cloud of white smoke inboard from its muzzle as +its fiery iron messenger leaped forwards and splashed into the sea, +either ahead or abeam as the case might be, throwing up a tall column of +water on its first plunge that was like a sort of fountain, while it +skipped onward, playing `ducks and drakes' on the top of the waves, +until it sank out of sight in the distance, its energy exhausted. + +We often used to rig out a target, made up out of an old rum puncheon, +fixed on a raft of spars, which we fired at as at a mark, making very +good practice, too, after a bit. + +Mick soon became one of our best shots, Mr Gadgett complimenting him on +having the sharpest eye on board the brig, my chum often, when acting as +Number 1, who you must know invariably sights the gun, succeeding in +smashing our improvised target all to pieces. + +"How is it, Donovan," asked the gunner on one of these occasions, "you +have such a steady aim? Why, boy, you haven't been at it very long. +Your eye is like a hawk, by jingo!" + +Mick scratched his head in father's way, puzzled to explain his keenness +of vision. + +"Faith, sor," he said at length, "it moost 'a bin tryin' to say if I +could say any thin' good turn up afore I jined the sarvice, sure; whin +me fayther wor a blissid Oitalian organ-grinder an' none of us had +nothin' to ate, bedad!" + +"By jingo!" exclaimed Mr Gadgett, smiling for once, for I never +previously saw the slightest change of muscle on his thin, weather- +beaten, grey-whiskered face, "you'll do!" + +Before we came back again from this cruise, we had a bout of bad weather +while knocking about in the Channel, which brought back to my mind the +yarn Larrikins told the first evening I passed on board the _Saint +Vincent_, in order to distract my attention while he was rigging up my +hammock so that it would come down by the run--of seas that were +`mountings 'igh,' and winds that blew the `'air off 'is 'ead!' + +I took at the time, it may be recollected, Master Larrikins' tale with a +very good pinch of the proverbial salt, believing he only intended to +`pull my leg'; but when on the present occasion the brig began to labour +heavily and the green seas, rolling over from the open sea beyond +Ushant, the wind having come on to blow a regular stiff sou'-wester, +topped our bulwarks and made a clean sweep of the deck, I thought +possibly the old joker Larrikins, who had left the training-ship long +ere this and was serving as an ordinary seaman on a foreign station, +might not have been `stretching' to such an extent as I had at the time +imagined. + +The little brig, however, was a staunch sea boat, having braved much +worse weather than we now experienced; and, being well handled by our +commander, who was a sailor every inch of him, we ran before the gale +round the easternmost end of the Isle of Wight and snugly brought up +under the lee of Saint Helens, where we dropped both our anchors, +remaining in this sheltered roadstead until the weather broke, when we +returned to Portsmouth. + +So far, everything had gone well with me since I entered on board the +_Saint Vincent_, for I had never got into any trouble beyond a slight +scrape or two; but tow the Fates, as if to condone the previous good +fortune with which they had favoured me, all at once did me a very bad +turn, getting me into sad disgrace. + +Serious as the matter was, no doubt, in the eyes of the authorities, it +was not, however, such a very terrible crime in itself, though it got me +into the bad books of the captain, who had been so friendly disposed +towards me that he often used to let me take his dog `Gyp' for a walk +when I went ashore. + +The fact was, to confess my sin outright, I committed a breach of one of +the strictest regulations of the training service. + +I was caught smoking. + +But, I had better tell you all about it from the first to the last, and +then, you'll be able to judge for yourself of the heinousness of my +offence. + + + +CHAPTER ELEVEN. + +I GET INTO DISGRACE. + +After that first cruise of mine in the little _Martin_, I was at home +one Saturday afternoon, having had permission from the captain--being +what they call `a local boy,' my parents residing in Portsmouth--to +remain ashore till Sunday evening at sunset. It was now summer-time, +and I was sitting in our back garden, which was more extensive than +might have been expected from the surroundings of Bonfire Corner, the +house, as I have said, being an old-fashioned one and father having +bought the freehold for a mere song in the days when property in Portsea +did not fetch such a high price as at present. The pink and white +blossoms of the apple-trees, of which we had a tidy number round the +garden, had dropped off long ere now and the fruit was beginning to +form; but there were plenty of roses still out, and all sorts of old- +fashioned flowers, filling the air with fragrance. + +I was enjoying myself to rights under the shade of an ancient mulberry- +tree, which must have been planted in the time of Queen Elizabeth I +should think, judging by its gnarled trunk and huge twisted branches. + +Some of these hung rather low, and Jenny had brought out Jack our thrush +and suspended his cage along with those of our piping bullfinch and some +of the canaries, just above a rustic table, having an old armchair that +had seen its better days, in front of it, which was father's favourite +seat when at home and the weather was not too bad to go out of doors. + +Here was his pipe and tobacco-jar, just as he left them in the morning, +it being his habit to take a whiff there after breakfast prior to +shouldering his oars, which he always brought back to the cottage of a +night for safety's sake, and starting off to his wherry for the day. + +I felt rather lonesome, for Mick had not been able to get leave to come +ashore with me, and Jenny was too busy helping mother house-cleaning to +spare much time for a chat after the first greetings had passed on my +arriving at the house; so, looking at father's pipe and tobacco-jar, the +thought came into my head--probably suggested by that wily old Serpent, +who, the parson says, is always on the watch to put evil thoughts into +empty minds--"Why shouldn't I learn to smoke?" + +I don't think I would have carried this thought into action had it not +been for `Ally Sloper,' our cockatoo, who just then came hopping down +the garden-path from the scullery, where he had been having a rare +carrying-on with the cat, the rum bird as soon as he caught sight of me +flying up on the table and catching hold of the end of father's +favourite churchwarden with his claw. + +"Say-rah!" he shouted out in the very tones of father's voice, so that I +could almost fancy he were there sitting alongside of me. "Blest if I +don't have a pipe!" + +That settled the matter. + +The next moment I had taken the pipe from `Ally Sloper's' reluctant +claw; and, filling it carefully, poking down the tobacco with the end of +my finger just as father used to do, I struck a match and started +smoking. + +I can't say I absolutely liked it at first, the strong narcotic, bitter +taste of the tobacco, combined with the smell, making me feel rather +giddy; while a gulp of smoke which went the wrong way caused me to +cough. + +But, I stuck at it all the same, feeling that now at last I was on the +highroad to being a man, just like those able-bodied seamen belonging to +our ship who used to enjoy `blowing their cloud,' as they called it, of +an evening on board the _Saint Vincent_ when work was done for the day. + +My complacency, too, was heightened by Jenny coming out presently, and +the admiration she expressed at my dignified attitude under the +mulberry-tree, leaning back in father's armchair, and smoking his very +own churchwarden. + +"Good gracious me, Tom!" she exclaimed; Jack the thrush calling out +"Jenny! Jenny! Jenny!" at sight of her, as he always did. "Why, +you're just like daddy!" + +This made me feel proud, I can tell you; though old `Ally Sloper' didn't +appear to like my performance, for I was amusing myself by puffing the +smoke in his face, making him put up his lemon crest and spread out his +collar-like feathers, screaming for mother like mad. + +I had `crossed the Rubicon,' however; and, ever after this, when at home +of an afternoon, sometimes with Mick, who, of course, imitated me, +sometimes without him on those occasions when he did not get permission +to go ashore, I used to have a whiff at father's pipe on the sly-- +without his knowledge though, you bet! + +By this means, I soon became a regular smoker; and, content no longer +with an occasional draw at father's churchwarden, I bought a fine briar- +root pipe for myself out of my pocket-money, which was increased by my +becoming a first-class boy now to a shilling a week. + +This pipe I carried about with me, in company with an old brass tobacco- +box I found in the mud one day at Point, stowed carefully away with all +my other portable gear in my cap, according to the custom of the +service. + +I got so bold at last, that even on board the training-ship I would take +a stray whiff of a while, when I got into some snug corner on deck where +I thought I would be unobserved; though my chum Mick, who didn't take +kindly to the habit like myself, often cautioned me about the risk I ran +in being caught. + +"Faith, Tom, me bhoy," he would say to me, "Oi can't say howivver ye can +go fur to do it, sure, a gossoon loike yersilf who's got a carrackter +fur to loose; aye, an' fur sich a dirthy, nasty thing as thit, a- +spillin' the tasthe ov good ghrub, so thit ye can't tell whither ye're +aitin' spuds or pay doo. Ef it wor a chap loike that `Ugly' now, the +sulky baste ez wouldn't hev a koind wurrd fur ye, loike a Christian, +since ye saved his rascally loife last year, begorrah, Oi could say the +sinse ov it; but, fur a chap loike yersilf, Tom, fur to do it, with +ivverythin' to loose, Oi'm ashamed on ye!" + +Mick's remonstrances, however, were all in vain; for, as mother +frequently accused father of being, I was `obstinate like all the +Bowlings,' and once I had set my mind on a thing I'm sorry to say +nothing would turn me from it. + +The first time I was caught thus smoking on board against the rules, I +was let off with only a caution; Mr Brown, the ship's corporal, who had +always continued my friend, not bringing my offence to the notice of the +authorities. + +"Don't let it occur again, though, Tom Bowling," said he to me, with a +pinch of the ear, on seeing me once having a whiff behind the windlass +bitts; "for, let me tell you, if you're nabbed by me or any one else at +it again, as I must inform the master-at-arms, though I know he won't +let it go further now, you'll be brought up on the quarter-deck and +receive punishment." + +The ship's corporal's advice, however, went through one deaf ear and out +of the other, like my chum's remonstrance; and one fine day I was +`brought up all standing' in the very act of committing the same +offence. + +Unfortunately for me, my captor on this occasion was a new corporal who +had just been promoted to the police force of the ship, a young seaman +whose good conduct had earned him the post, and who wished, of course, +to show himself especially smart. + +Unthinking of my approaching doom, I was smoking away one evening +between the lights, never dreaming for a moment that any one was near or +noticing me, when all at once a hand gripped the back of my neck and +slewed my head round. + +"Ha, my joker," cried Nemesis, in the shape of this young corporal, who +I saw was surrounded by a small crowd of my grinning shipmates, "I've +caught you this time!" + +He had, with a vengeance; for not only had he seized me `flagrante +delicto,' as the captain said to me subsequently, he being a Latin +scholar, the meaning of which was, I suppose, that I had the delicious +fragrance of the 'baccy about me, but Smithers, the corporal, wrenched +the pipe that was the cause of all the mischief from my hand, as I +hastily removed it from my mouth and attempted to conceal it. + +He reported me in due course to `Jimmy the One,' our first lieutenant, +who in due course put me in the black list; and I was brought up the +next day on the quarter-deck before the captain, when we all mustered +for `divisions' on the upper deck. + +The commanding officer spoke to me kindly, saying he was sorry to see me +in such a position; but, all the same, the offence being one which he +said he could not possibly excuse, as he was determined to stop the +pernicious habit of smoking, which, if indulged in by young boys, would +ruin their constitutions for life, he sentenced me to have six strokes, +the usual penalty. + +Accordingly, `the horse' kept for the purpose, a sort of rough and round +wooden structure with four posts for legs, similar to those saddle- +blocks seen in harness shops, was rigged, and one of the gunner's mates +gave me the allotted number of administrations of the cane that I had +earned. + +The boys on board the _Saint Vincent_ in their slang called this +stroking business `stroniky'; and they have a rude rhyme anent it, which +embodies likewise what they catalogue as the hardships of the service-- + + "Pea doo and bolliky, + Hard work and stroniky, + Who wouldn't join the Navy!" + +I bore my punishment unflinchingly, for, really I knew I deserved it; +but, although the gunner's mate did not spare his arm and the cuts he +gave me with his cane stung sharply, sharper than the pain I felt +physically was the consciousness that I had lost my good character! + +My leave, too, was stopped, so that I did not get home for a month; not +that I cared about this much, for, to tell the truth, I hardly liked to +face father and Jenny till the recollection of my punishment had become +somewhat deadened by time and the chaff of my messmates. + +They did not attach the disgrace that I did to my experience of +`stroniky.' + +On the contrary, many anecdotes were told anent it after turning in that +evening, the time when we indulged in yarning amongst ourselves after +`lights out' was sounded, and all was darkness on the lower deck. + +One story told was that of a young Scotchman, who, with the +characteristic thoughtfulness of his race, while blubbering, and yelling +out `Mudder--Mudder--Mudder--Mudder!' throughout the operation, yet +calculated accurately the duration of his ordeal, shouting in the most +matter-of-fact voice when given the last stroke, `That's sax!' + +If not so particular as this Scotch lad in respect of numbering the +strokes I received, their effect was much more lasting in my case; for, +adopting Mick's advice rather late in the day, I threw overboard the +remaining stock of tobacco and pipes I had stowed in my `ditty box' +below and abjured smoking so long as I remained in the training-ship, +not resuming the habit until some years later when I was grown up and +was on active service abroad. + +My good character, too, returned to me after a time; and I may say, +without boasting, I never lost it again while I remained on board the +_Saint Vincent_, keeping steady and trying to do my duty through good +report and ill until I left the ship. + +A couple of months later on, also, I became also restored to the +captain's favour in rather a funny fashion. + +I was out in the _Martin_ during her last cruise for the year, it having +got to be late in the autumn, and approaching the time for her to be +dismantled and lay up for the winter. + +We had run down to Plymouth as usual, and were on our way back up +Channel, beating against strong headwinds, when the weather got thick, +as on our former cruise, and it came on to blow pretty stiff, the sea +getting up and the brig having such a bad time of it that it took four +of us at the wheel, besides old Jellybelly the quarter-master, to keep +her on her course. + +As luck would have it, `Gyp' the captain's dog had come with us for the +trip, his master being away on leave, and the commander of the _Martin_, +who had volunteered to take charge of him during the captain's absence, +thinking it best to keep him under his own eye. + +`Gyp' was very partial to me, as might be imagined from the fact of my +having been so long in the habit of taking him ashore with me; and, +consequently, during our cruise he attached himself with that strong +bias for which his breed is proverbial to my humble self, preferring, +when allowed the opportunity, to share my quarters even to enjoying the +luxuries of the wardroom of the brig aft. + +His keen eye ever watched my movements when on deck and a word or look +from me was sufficient to set his stumpy tail wagging as if it would +never stop; while he would lick my bare feet in a most affectionate +manner should I ever pass near him and give him the chance, showing me +his `bad leg,' if the slightest hint to that effect were given, by +holding up one of his hind limbs and stretching it out in a most +extraordinary manner, the captain's valet having taught him this trick +when he was a puppy and `Gyp' never having forgotten it though he had +arrived at maturer years. + +Nor, likewise, had he forgotten the art of balancing a biscuit on his +nose and not dropping it or offering in any way to masticate the same, +however much his feelings might be inclined thereto, without the +permissive order, `Now you may have it,' being uttered. + +`Gyp,' I am afraid, was not a born sailor like myself and family. + +No ancestral fox-terrier of his race could possibly, I fancy, have `gone +aloft' like the original head of our house; for, though he liked being +at sea well enough in fine weather, he got in the dumps when it came on +to blow, his apology for a tail becoming so limp that what there was of +it drooped and lost its wag, so, that being left in the lurch through +his rudder not answering the helm, he stumbled about the deck like any +young Johnny Raw just come afloat. + +Rolling and labouring, heeling over gunwales under sometimes, the +_Martin_ managed to reach Spithead in the teeth of a stormy south- +easter, which was sending the surf over Southsea Castle as the big +rollers coming in from the offing broke against the pile-protected +rampart below; and, we were just going to anchor in our usual berth +under the lee of the Spit, `Gyp' standing as well as he could with his +rickety sea-legs by the taffrail. + +He was watching me coming down from aloft, where I had gone with some of +the other boys of the starboard watch to furl the mizzen-topsail, +waiting, poor fellow, to greet me with a sniff of welcome; when, in the +excitement of my near approach, he wagged his tail somewhat incautiously +and, thereby losing his footing, the affectionate animal fell overboard. + + + +CHAPTER TWELVE. + +"DRAFTED." + +Shouting out without thinking as loud as I could, "Man overboard!" I +plunged into the tideway after him; and, before `Gyp' knew where he was +or had time to shake the water out of his eyes and ears after rising +from his unexpected plunge, breasting the choppy seas with his quick- +working paws and paddling all round in a circle in his flurry, I had +struck out after him, gripping him by the collar in half a dozen +strokes. + +Poor old chap, he whined and licked my face as I came alongside him, his +wistful eyes saying as plainly as dog could speak, "Thank God, Tom, +you've come to help me," or something to that effect. + +I was a good swimmer, having won the long-distance prize in our summer +sports off Haslar Creek; but, I now found the task of battling with the +big billows brought in by the south-easter, which were all the rougher +from the cross tide setting against them, none too easy, wind and sea- +going one way and the tide another. + +I could hardly make a stroke towards the beach, which I aimed for at +first, the undercurrent pulling me back and sweeping me out seaward; +while, the rough water, smacking against my face, bothered me and +palsied my every effort. + +They had let go the life-buoy, of course, on board the brig when I sang +out before jumping off from the taffrail; but the buoy was more +difficult to reach than the shore, the wind catching it up and tossing +it from wave crest to wave crest till it was cast up on top of one of +the piles in front of the Castle far ahead. + +Treading water to regain my breath after a futile struggle of some +minutes' duration, and holding poor `Gyp's' head well up so that he +should not be drowned by the spent seas that broke against us, I +squinted round to see what they were doing on board the _Martin_ in the +way of trying to pick us up. + +A boat, I saw, was being lowered to leeward; but, the brig was such a +long way off now that I was afraid they wouldn't be in time to save us. + +I must look for assistance in another direction. + +In an instant, an old yarn of father's came back to my mind, one wherein +he used to tell of having once been run down by a steamer when out +trawling and having had to pass the night within the Spit Buoy. + +Why, I must be close on it now! + +Yes, that was the sound of the bell hung from within the cage-like +framework surrounding the buoy, which is moored on the edge of the shoal +skirting the fairway leading into Portsmouth Harbour. + +The broken water was rocking it to and fro; and, with every lurch the +buoy made, this bell gave out a doleful knell as if ringing away the +passing soul of some dead sailor gone to his last account. + +Perchance it was tolling for `Gyp' and me! + +This thought flashed through me for a second; but the next second I +dismissed it as a craven fear, my courage returning to me. + +I set my teeth, determined to fight it out to the end, when, if need be, +I should die bravely. + +"Hurrah, `Gyp,' whilst there's life there's hope!" I shouted, as much +to encourage the poor dog as myself, turning on my side and cuddling him +well up on my chest with my right arm to keep his head out of the water, +while I struck out with all my strength with my left towards the buoy, +now within a stone's throw, the tide gradually sweeping us near it in +spite of the wind and sea. "There's no reason why the Spit Buoy +shouldn't rescue us, the same as it did father!" + +I believe `Gyp' understood what I said, for I declare I felt his little +stump tail wag against my arm, and he licked my cheek that was nearest, +being otherwise too exhausted to give expression to his emotion by bark +or whine. + +We did it too. + +After a stiff swim, though but such a short distance, I clutched hold of +a becket attached to the side of the buoy; and then, drawing myself up +out of the water, I landed `Gyp' inside our refuge, climbing in after +him myself. + +The lifeboat from the _Martin_, which was manned by four stout seamen, +the commander himself coming in her as coxswain, meanwhile was making +for us, the course of the cutter being directed by signals from the +brig, where the signalman on duty had probably kept his glass on me from +the moment I jumped overboard and rose to the surface; and, presently, +after a long pull and a hard one too, the boat came up to the buoy and +took us off. + +`By the Lord Harry!' as father used to exclaim sometimes when he was +excited, you should have only heard the cheer that greeted us when the +cutter got back to the brig, which had now dropped her anchor; the boys +and older hands also, who were just on their way down from aloft after +furling the sails, manning the rigging, and giving out a wild and hearty +`Hooray' that might have been heard in the dockyard. + +The commander complimented me on the quarter-deck, saying that my action +was a plucky one to jump overboard as I did, whether to save man or dog; +and then ordering the steward to fetch me a stiff glass of hot brandy- +and-water, he told me to go below and turn in to my hammock. + +`Gyp,' however, would not leave me; and, as he insisted on joining +company with me in my hammock, I made him go shares with the brandy-and- +water as well, though I can't say that he took his portion with as much +satisfaction. + +His master, on coming to hear of the occurrence when he returned from +leave, was, I need hardly say, delighted that `Gyp' had been saved from +a watery grave. + +He extolled, indeed, my really unpremeditated action in much higher +terms than it actually deserved; for, really, I did it, as I have said +before, without thinking. + +However, be that as it may, the captain, commending me on my good +conduct generally since I had been attached to the training-ship under +his command, passed over in the most honourable way that unfortunate +smoking episode of mine, and promised to `keep his eye on me.' + +This, I may add, he did in a much more satisfactory manner than that +smart chap, ship's corporal Smithers; but, of this, you will learn anon. + +My days in the _Saint Vincent_, you must know, were now drawing to a +close. + +Nine months of second-class boy instruction and four months as a first- +class boy had pretty well taken me through the ordinary routine of the +training-ship; the last two months of my stay on board being mainly +devoted to a _resume_ of the various studies constituting seamanship +which I had already gone through, as well as a grand rehearsal of gun +practice and rifle drill and of the sword exercise. + +In this latter all the boys took the keenest delight, cutting and +slashing at one another with a go and gusto worthy of all admiration. + +We pointed, guarded, and parried, with a nimbleness and correctness that +excited the praise of our instructor; but when we got to what was called +`general practice,' and learnt cuts `One' and `Two,' with an extra +`Point,' before our teacher sang out `Guard!' our enthusiasm knew no +bounds, and all of us would fancy ourselves to be bluejackets in action, +boarding a pirate or leading a storming-party and killing hecatombs of +enemies on the war-path, our weapons mowing them down with every sweep! + +Sometimes our sword-play got us into scrapes, when two boys matched +against each other by the instructor allowed their zeal to overcome +their discretion; for, occasionally, they would lose their tempers when +over the single-sticks and give one another such spiteful blows that the +instructor would have to interfere and separate them by force of arms. + +In the majority of cases, however, the scratches we received were more +the result of accident than of malice intent; and the little +embroilments that happened when sword-play degenerated into horseplay +were not, as a rule, worth mentioning. + +On one occasion, though, my chum Mick nearly had his nose carved off in +an encounter with a comrade, though luckily his opponent did not succeed +in spoiling Mick's beauty. + +This would have been a pity; for, really, he was a very good-looking +chap, and I am sure my sister Jenny, though she wouldn't confess it, +would have been sorry if anything had occurred to mar his comely face. + +It happened thus. When skylarking together on the upper deck one +evening, Mick and another fellow caught up a couple of cutlasses that +had been left inadvertently lying about the deck, and they commenced +pointing and cutting and slashing at one another with the keen-edged +weapons, just as if they had been mere basket-hilted single-sticks, a +rap from which would have done no damage beyond a bruise. + +They were going it in fine style, when all at once Mick's foot slipped; +and, missing his guard as his opponent made a vicious cut `one' at him, +he received this on his chest, the cutlass cutting through his jumper +and flannel and making a slight wound across his breastbone. + +Had his head not been thrown backwards as he slipped, poor Mick would +have had the most striking feature of his merry countenance sliced off +as dexterously as if it had been a carrot! + +The last seven weeks of my experiences of the old ship, which I had +begun to look upon as much my home as the little cottage at Bonfire +Corner, were devoted to practice with the big guns that are used in +modern ships of war; and these, I may add, are so unlike the old twenty- +four and thirty-two and sixty-four pounders that had been used in our +early training, that any drill with them would have failed to have been +of much assistance to us in getting the cross-cannon badge on our +sleeve. + +So, for these seven weeks, all of us first-class boys who were near the +end of our term had to go to the _Excellent_ every day to go through a +course of gunnery; and were sent out to sea in sections in the _Blazer_ +or _Handy_, or some other gunboat attached to the gunnery school, so as +to gain some sort of preliminary insight into the ways of the big +breech-loading guns used in the armour-clads of to-day, as well as being +made acquainted with their lesser satellites quick-firing and machine- +guns. + +We did not leave our old ship altogether yet, though; for we used to +take our dinners with us when we went away from her of a morning, +returning back to the _Saint Vincent_ of a night to sleep, when we would +retail all of our experiences to our comrades who had remained behind. + +At last the day came, a day I shall remember all my life, when Mick and +I, for we both went away together even as we had joined on the same day, +left the _Saint Vincent_ for good and all. + +One forenoon, just before `cooks to their messes' sounded, and prior to +our dispersing after the usual assembly for `divisions' on the upper +deck, the captain ordered Mick and myself, with some half a dozen other +first-class boys belonging to the starboard watch and a like number from +the port, to step out of the ranks; when, telling us we were drafted to +the guardship for service with the fleet, he addressed a few kindly +words of advice to us as to our future conduct and then dismissed us to +our dinner, telling us we were to pack up our gear and leave the ship +early in the afternoon. + +He sent for me soon after I had disposed of the `two spuds and a Jonah,' +which composed the meal of the day, and on my going to his cabin he +spoke to me very nicely, saying that I might write to him should I ever +need help in getting on in the service, and that he would always, as he +had previously promised, `keep an eye on me'! + +"Faith," said Mick, on my telling him this, "it'll be moighty onplisint +fur ye, Tom, me bhoy; thet gimblet oye ov his sames to go roight thro' +an' thro' me, begorrah, if he ivver onst looks at me sure!" + + + +CHAPTER THIRTEEN. + +I GO TO SEA. + +I did not mind Mick's chaff, though. The captain had been a good friend +to me while I had been on board, and I parted with him with as much +regret as I felt when I said `good-bye' to `Gyp.' + +Our meal that day was what we called aboard ship a `stamp and go,' all +of us who were drafted being too excited to think much of eating--all of +us, that is, excepting Mick! + +He, as I have mentioned more than once previously, was a chap who was +particularly partial to his grub, this being probably owing to the +circumstance that he had experienced hard fare in his earlier days +before he joined the _Saint Vincent_; but I can answer for this, that he +endeavoured to the best of his ability, after that period, to make up +for any shortcomings he had suffered from before! + +"Begorrah, Tom," he answered me very philosophically, when I told him to +hurry up, "ther's no knowin' whin, sure, ayther on us'll git another +good square male; an', faith, the bo'sun towld me onst no will-app'inted +shep ivver goes to say widout havin' her proper regulation stores an' +purvisions aboord!" + +This was after I had my interview with the captain, of course; and I +only tell it to show what sort of a fellow my chum was. + +When we had packed our bags and come up on the middle deck to leave the +ship in one of the cutters, which was to land us at the King's Stairs in +the dockyard, the master-at-arms, who stood by the entry-port with Mr +Brown the ship's corporal, wished us both a cordial farewell. + +"Now, keep your hair on straight, Tom Bowling," said the former to me, +giving me a good grip of his fist, for he was a very hearty sort of man. +"I have had my eye on you while you have been aboard here; and I quite +believe you'll turn out the right sort and work your way up to your +warrant, if you only keep straight, long before I am laid on the shelf, +my boy!" + +"Faith, Tom," whispered Mick to me in an aside that was quite loud +enough for the `Jaunty' to catch his remark, "ivverybody, sure, 's +kapin' ther' oye on ye; an' ef all the jokers go on loike thet, ye'll be +havin' what ye're moother called t'other day, bedad, a' 'tack ov `oye- +strikes,' if ye don't look out sharp!" + +"Ah, my h'Italian friend!" said the master-at-arms, who overheard him, +with a broad grin on his face, which was reflected on that of Mr Brown; +"so you're going to leave us too, eh! Well, as some writing chap says +somewhere or t'other in some book I've read, we could have better spared +a better boy than you, Paddy. You've been a good lad too, in spite of +your larks; and I hope you'll get on well in the service, like your chum +Tom Bowling here. Stick to him, and he'll keep you straight." + +So saying, he shook hands with Mick the same as he had done with me, Mr +Brown following suit in an equally hearty fashion; and shouldering our +bags, we all went down the accommodation ladder and took our seats in +the cutter. + +Just as we were shoving off, Mick spied old Jellybelly on duty at the +gangway, and he could not help giving him a parting shot. + +"Good luck to ye, Mr Tarbolt, an' more power to yer elber, sor," he +cried out with much effusion. "Be jabers, Oi'll kape me oye out fur to +say ef Oi can pick up a roight-down comfable arm-cheer fur ye to take a +sate whin ye gits toired, sure, a-standin' whin ye're on the watch!" + +There was a subdued titter from all the other fellows, both them in the +boat and the rest who were out on the booms and standing by the entry- +port, and old Jellybelly shook his fist in a threatening manner at Mick; +but the smile on his face showed that he took the old joke in good part. + +The last I saw of the old ship as we rowed away up the harbour was a row +of grinning faces looking in our direction, and the lines being triced +up fore and aft with the hammock-cloths and clothes of the boys hung out +to dry, Tuesday, the day we left, being `washing-day' with us on board. + +I had experienced a happy time altogether on board her; and, when I come +to look back now, the wonder to me, I'm sure, is that every boy who can +possibly get permission from his people does not join the service, +considering all the advantages he gets on donning the bluejacket rig. + +Just consider. + +Instead of living higgledy-piggledy in some close room with half a dozen +others, as many poor boys have to do, and little or nothing to eat and +that only at haphazard, while in the majority of cases his clothing will +be none of the best, being more holey than pious; the same boy on +entering the _Saint Vincent_ finds himself at once well fed, well +clothed, and with clean and roomy quarters to breathe in! + +There is the discipline, to be sure, and that's where the shoe pinches +with the free Arab of the slums; but, in addition to the discipline, it +should be recollected there is also the instruction in various things +that nine boys out of ten look upon rather as pleasurable games than so +many tasks. + +Besides this, they have real games in their play-hours aboard and in the +recreation-ground at Haslar; and, besides, are allowed ashore once a +week at least, to see their friends and relatives, if these live in the +neighbourhood, having pocket-money given them to enjoy themselves with-- +more than they can say they ever had in their life on land. + +Then there are the `sports' which the _Saint Vincent_ boys have every +year at midsummer, before the breaking-up for their holidays, when +swimming races, boat races, egg-and-spoon races, and all sorts of +jollities are all the go. + +But, there I am again, hauling my jawing tackle aboard according to the +old Bowling family propensity, anent which mother used always to rate +father; so, I must belay! + +Pulling steadily away from the old ship on the stream which was running +up the harbour, making this appear one vast lake up to Fareham Creek +under the base of the Portsdown hills, a lake whereon floated long lines +of old hulks of the past, interspersed with many a specimen of the newer +models of the present ships of the Navy, the cutter at last landed us at +the foot of the King's Stairs; when, unshipping our bags and shouldering +them again, we crossed the dockyard in single file, under charge of a +petty officer, making for the guardship to which we had been drafted, +which was lying alongside the North Wall, not far from the _Excellent_. + +Our tramp was a most fatiguing one over the rough pigs of iron ballast +arranged like cobble-stones, which some chap must have had put down in +order to benefit his bootmaker, the pilgrimage of folk anxious to see +the yard being rather trying on shoe-leather. + +We felt it all the more from having been accustomed to go in our bare +feet on board the training-ship, and boots in themselves being irksome, +without the hard road we had to travel adding to the penance. + +Ascending the ladder-way that led up from the jetty to the deck of the +old _Asia_, the guardship, we were soon allotted our billets; and +quickly settled down to the routine of the ship, which, of course, was +very different to that of the _Saint Vincent_. + +However, we did not very long remain here; for, it being now getting on +well in the month of July, and several new ships having been ordered to +be commissioned for the Naval Manoeuvres, Mick and I, good luck still +attending us and keeping us always in company, were told off to join a +smart cruiser attached to one of the squadrons, in which we presently +sailed for Bantry Bay. + +Here my chum found himself once more in his native land, and under a sky +as blue as that of Italy, to which country he had originally claimed to +belong, in spite of the strong `brogue' that readily betrayed his +kinship to the inhabitants when we went ashore at Glengariff. + +Mick's complaint now was that he could not find any one rejoicing in his +name; for every one he and I met, strolling along from Castletown to +Waterfall, the landing-place at the foot of Hungry Mountain, half round +the bay, was either a Sullivan or an O'Brien--not a single Donovan being +to be met with for love or money. + +"Begorrah, I can't make it out at all, at all!" said my chum to me, +after making inquiries at the various little shebeens on our way and +chatting almost with every one of the groups of country people we +passed, who all seemed mightily pleased at the sight of us bluejackets, +most of them offering us hospitality in the shape of cups of milk at the +corner of nearly every country lane, where some pretty colleen would +stand, clad in her picturesque red cape and with stockingless feet, +wishful to give thirsty folk a drink. "Me fayther s'id, faith, as how +the Donovans wor kings ov Cark at one toime, Tom!" + +"Why," I rejoined, giving him a twister, "you told the `Jaunty' when you +came aboard the _Saint Vincent_ that time to join, that your father was +an `Oitalian!'" + +"Stow thet, Tom," said he with a grin, digging me in the ribs, much to +the amusement of one of the Irish girls who was near us, at whom Mick +winked. "Sure, thet wor ownly me joke. Th'room pogue, ma colleen +ogue?" + +The girl near, to whom he addressed the latter part of his speech, which +sounded like Greek to me, blushed and laughed, turning away shyly. + +"Hullo!" I exclaimed. "What does that mean, Mick?" + +"Faith, it manes `Give me a kiss, me purty gurl,' Tom," he answered, +bursting into a roar of laughter. "It's a quishton ye'll foind moighty +convanient to axe some-toimes whin ye're in these parts, mabouchal; an' +Oi'd advise ye to larn the languish ez soon ez ye can." + +We remained at Bantry, coaling and preparing for action, for about a +week, at the end of which time, `war' being declared between the rival +fleets engaged in the Manoeuvres, we filed out of the bay in single +column line ahead and started off for the fray; the fleet I was with +having some exciting episodes in the chops of the Channel during the +time the mimic campaign lasted, in chasing and capturing the ships of +the `enemy,' our cruiser being a very fast vessel and easily able to +overhaul most of their craft hand over hand. + +It was good fun too--almost like real fighting; and we got so eager at +the game, that, on one occasion when we put into Plymouth Sound and +found one of the ships belonging to the other side there, our fellows +nearly had a row with the men belonging to her. + +This shows how very thoroughly we entered into the sport. + +It was the end of August when we came back from the Manoeuvres; and by +the time we had paid off the cruiser, which, with the other ships +specially commissioned for the purpose, was relegated to the reserve +basin until she should be wanted to relieve some other vessel abroad, +more than another month had elapsed before our rejoining the guardship. + +But no sooner had we done this than we had to make another move. + +The Training Squadron was under refit for its winter cruise, and a +number of boys being required to fill up the complements of the ships +composing it, one fine morning, just when Mick and myself began to feel +at home again on board the old _Asia_, we were paraded on deck with a +number of others and `told off' to join the _Active_. + +She was the commodore's ship of the squadron, and the very one we had +longed to be appointed to, her commander being a smart seaman well known +in the service, and a friend of father's old friend Captain Mordaunt. + +The latter, as luck would have it, had come to see us the previous +Sunday, when I happened to be home and had promised me to put in a good +word for me in the event of my being appointed to the ship. + +By a strange coincidence, Mick and I had been that very day talking of +this while we were engaged cleaning some rusty rifles on the main-deck, +which job one of the petty officers had put us at, from his seeing my +chum and me star-gazing about, with nothing to do. + +"Be jabers!" said Mick, sighting his rifle and pretending to take aim at +the swab as he went off after imposing this extra task on us, though he +waited until the officious gentleman's back was turned, as may be taken +for granted, "Oi wud loike to spot thet chap roight in the bull's-eye, +bad cess to him! Och, but wait till we're aboord the _Active_, Tom, +an', sure, we'll hev no more of straight-backed jokers loike him to dale +with!" + +"Don't count your chickens before they're hatched, Mick," said I. +"We're not appointed to her yet." + +"Blatheration!" exclaimed my chum, smacking the butt of his rifle on the +deck and making the petty officer who was on the other side of the +hatchway jump round in a jiffy, looking marline-spikes in our direction. +"Ye jist say, now, if we don't join her! Sure, I dramed ov her last +noight, alannah. Oi'd dropped off into a swate shlape afther thet chap +made sich a row toomblin' out ov his hammick thet wor next moine, bein' +three sheets an' more, faith, in the woind whin he come off from shore; +an' I dramed ez how, Tom, we two wor aboord the _Active_, which Oi wor +lookin' over ounly yisterday whin Oi come by Pitch-House Jetty, where +she's lyin' preparin' for say. Yis, we wor aboord her roight enuf; an' +Oi heerd the bo'sun poipe to `make sail,' an' the order guv 'way aloft, +lay out on the yards an' loose tops'ls. Thin Oi thinks ez how Oi'm +ashore, ez will ez aboord; an' Oi says the _Active_ a-sailin' out o' +harbour, ez nate ez ye plaize wid all her upper sails an' flyin' jib, +an' fore-topmast stays'l set!" + +"I don't think you're likely to see that, Mick," said I, laughing. "It +may do well enough in a dream; but I've heard father say that no ship +has ever worked out of harbour under sail alone for the last forty years +or more!" + +"Begorrah, just ye wait an' say," rejoined he. "Oi hed a paice ov +shamrock, which I tuk out ov the fairy ring, sure, at Glasnevin, under +me hid last noight whin Oi wor shlapin', an' me drame's bound fur to +come thrue!" + +Strangely enough, so it turned out, too. + +A week after we joined her, all things being ready and her preparation +for sea being complete, the _Active_ cast off the hawsers mooring her to +the bollards on the jetty; and then, disdaining the assistance of any of +the harbour tugs, the commodore sent the men aloft to make sail, and +took her out to Spithead under her canvas alone, conning the ship +himself from his station aft. + +I may say I assisted at the operation, being one of the hands who went +aloft to set the mizzen-royal; and, I may add, that father told me when +I came home on the termination of our cruise, at the end of the ensuing +spring, our exploit was the talk of the town for months afterwards! + + + +CHAPTER FOURTEEN. + +"IN THE BAY OF BISCAY, O!" + +"Tom," said Mick to me, when we came down from the yards, by which time +the ship was abreast of Southsea Pier on her way out in the fairway, +"Oi'm afther settin' oop, faith, fur a conjirer, now me drame's coom +roight!" + +"You're more than a conjurer, Mick," I replied to this, laughing. +"You're a prophet!" + +"Begorrah!" he rejoined with his usual grin, "it ain't mooch profit +Oi'll git oot ov it, me darlint, or yersilf ayther, fur thet matther-- +aboot ez mooch, faith, ez Pat O'Connor got whin he shaved his pig!" + +The squadron remained but a couple of days at anchor at Spithead; +proceeding thence to Portland, whence, the _Calypso_ and _Ruby_, ships +belonging to the eastern division, having joined us, we all set sail in +company for our cruise, bound for the West Indies. + +Passing down Channel, through those `chops' which our late cruiser had +so watchfully guarded during the Manoeuvres, we gave Ushant a wide berth +and entered the celebrated Bay of Biscay; the subject of a song as +popular with us sailors as that of which my great-great-great-ancestor, +Tom Bowling of pious and historic memory, was the hero. + +Now, at last, I could say that I really was at sea! + +A good many of my shipmates had no necessity, however, to do this; for +they _felt_ it--especially crossing the Bay! + +The weather was dirty, as it usually is in this region. + +This occurs through the influence of the Gulf Stream, which, after being +wooed by the incurving and more hospitable coast of France, suddenly +finds itself violently repulsed by the projecting Spanish peninsula; +when, naturally angry, the current, like some folk who, on their not +being able to vent their spleen on the people who may offend them, `pass +it on' to the nearest, tries to `make it warm' for such unfortunate +mariners as may cross its turbid bosom! + +It is always rough there, and the winds as uncertain as a lady's smile; +and, I may say that on this occasion both Boreas and Neptune seemed to +have arranged to render our passage over this special broken-water +domain of theirs as disagreeable as possible. + +We were well handled, our commanding officer being, as I have already +said, one of the smartest sailors in the service; but, notwithstanding +this, the _Active_ had very bad weather of it, while those of our +consorts whom we could see in the distance appeared to experience worse. + +The ship plunged and rolled to such an extent that it was almost +impossible to go up and down the hatchways carrying anything; for a chap +wanted more hands than he possessed to hold on with, let alone dunnage! + +We boys had, as might be expected, most of the dirty work to do; and it +was our task, when dinner was finished below, to help clear up the +messes, and take the `gashing-tubs,' in which the refuse of all our +meals was thrown, up above to the upper deck and pitch the contents over +the side, it being impossible for us to open any of the ports on the +lower deck, from the heavy rolling seas that came toppling inboard every +now and again. + +The job was not a nice one, nor an easy one either; and the second day +we were knocking about in the Bay an accident happened while we were at +it that nearly settled the hash of one of us, making him more fit to go +into the `gashing-tub' himself than to handle it! + +Four of us were trying to hoist our burden up the slippery ladder, which +was rendered all the more slippery by the water washing down in a +cataract every time a roller came over the forecastle and filled the +waist of the corvette; not to speak of the rolling of the ship from port +to starboard, and from starboard to port, varied by an occasional lift +up in mid-air atop of some huge billow, and a dive down the next moment +into the hollow of the waves, as if we were going down to Davy Jones's +locker. + +Mick, who was the leading member of our quartet, on the top step of the +ladder, was holding on like grim death to the side-rope with one hand, +and stretching out the other towards Finlayson, a new boy whom we had +not seen before till we joined the _Active_, he having been drafted from +the _Boscawen_ at Portland; and who, in turn, had hold of the tub and +was clutching Mick's hand to steady himself. + +"Pull away, ye divvle!" cried Mick. "One more stip, begorrah, an' we'll +be landid on the dick!" + +"Shove up, you fellers below there!" shouted Finlayson, in response to +this, to myself and another boy who had come forwards from the after +part of the mess-deck to our assistance, but whose face I had not seen, +from the fact of my back being turned to him. "Shove up, carn't you! +This chap atop here an' me is bearin' all the weight on it!" + +"That's all very well," I growled, for the tub was slipping back on me, +though I was holding it with both hands and shoving my knees into the +steps of the ladder to keep myself steady. "Pull away, you beggar, your +self! Aye, and you too, Mick, aloft there! I shall tumble back if you +don't take the weight of the tub off me!" + +"Begorrah, Tom, me hearty, ye shan't git kilt wid that there gashing- +tub!" cried Mick, squinting down the hatchway and seeing my predicament. +"Pull away, ye young divvle--it's you, ye new boy, I'm afther manin'-- +pull away wid a will! Tom, why, sure, don't ye make thet chap alongside +ye put his shoulder to it properly? He ain't workin' at all, at all, +bad cess to him, who ivver he is, fur I can't say him at all, at all!" + +"Whoi, I be a-shuvvin' and a-shuvvin' all the time," rejoined a voice +whose accents were strangely familiar to me. "You pull yerself, +maister, and stop hollerin' at Oi!" + +I turned; and there, much to my astonishment, at the foot of the ladder +was `Ugly,' of whose being on board the same ship I was ignorant up to +that moment, he being in the starboard watch and I in the port, and the +necessities of the service not having brought us together before, though +how I'd never seen him even casually at Portsmouth or at Portland I +can't account for. + +Unfortunately, the curiosity that made me turn round brought about the +mishap to which I have alluded, nearly making Tom Bowling, junior, your +present informant, lose the number of his mess. + +`Ugly,' as much surprised as myself at our strange meeting, started back +on seeing me. + +He had really, in spite of all that Mick said, been doing his part to +assist me; and now, from his loosing his hold of the tub, which he had +been trying to shove upwards on the one side the same as I did on the +other, while the other two fellows above us pulled, the beastly thing +came sliding back a step on me; and, as I was not holding on to +anything, and the ship lurched at the moment, making Mick and Finlayson +both let go at the same time, I tumbled incontinently backwards on to +the lower deck, with the gashing-tub on top of me! + +My good providence, however, still watched over me; for, as I fell, a +big wave, coming splosh right over the side into the waist, poured down +bodily through the hatchway, floating away the tub and flooding the +lower deck. + +This probably saved my life, as had the heavy tub fallen really on top +of me I should have been squashed into a jelly. + +"Faith, I belaive ye've ez many loives ez a cat," cried Mick, making +little, in proper sailor fashion, of my peril; and then, dropping his +voice so that the others shouldn't hear him, he added, "Whisht, Tom-- +faith it's thet nasty baste `Ugly' thet done it; an', sure, he's done it +a-purpos!" + +"No, Mick, I don't believe that," I whispered, in my turn, picking +myself up with the aid of my suspicious chum, who proceeded to help me +in clearing away the remains of the garbage from the tub which had been +emptied into my jumper. "The fellow started back at sight of me, and I +don't think he meant to leave go of the gashing-tub as he did." + +"Begorrah!" cried Mick indignantly, "why didn't he stop and say so loike +a man, insted ov snakin' away loike a cur?" + +I cast my eyes about me and saw, truly enough, that `Ugly' had +disappeared. + + + +CHAPTER FIFTEEN. + +COMEDY TO TRAGEDY. + +"Hullo, my lads! This won't do, this won't do!" shouted out a petty +officer just then, as he came tacking about the deck and trying to make +a straight course for the hatchway. "There'd be a fine row if Number +One came along here and saw that theer mess on the deck!" + +"Faith, we couldn't hilp it, row or no row," said Mick, whose temper was +a little bit heated from the recollection of `Ugly's' conduct, and the +fright he really had experienced on my account in spite of his trying to +treat it as a joke. "Sure, sor, the toob toombled down atop ov this +poor bhoy here, an' a'most made gammy duff ov him!" + +"Well, well, p'raps y'll have better luck next time," replied the man +jokingly; and, turning to me, he said in a kindly way, "A miss is as +good as a mile, my lad; but, accident or no accident, you'll have to +clear up that mess there, or there'll be ructions aboard, I can tell +you!" + +"All roight, sor," said Mick, as he clutched hold of a swab which we had +brought with us, in case of such an emergency. "Oi'll make it roight, +sure, in a brace ov shakes, sor." + +I, too, bore a hand with another swab, as did Finlayson; and we soon +made the place all shipshape again, another wave, which washed down the +hatchway when we had finished, putting a polish on our work. + +Nothing further was seen of `Ugly,' however, either by Mick or myself, +the ill-tempered brute evidently keeping out of our way; and it was not +till late in the afternoon that I saw him again aft, when both watches +were called to treble-reef the topsails, and we boys belonging to the +ship had to go aloft to take in the mizzen. + +We had not weathered Finisterre yet, though we had been bucketing about +in the Bay now for over three days; the wind, which had been blowing in +strong squalls from the north'ard and west'ard, suddenly backing to the +south-east and coming on to blow harder than ever. + +The sea got up also in a corresponding degree, its huge billows, as they +rolled onward propelled by the gale, rearing themselves up in mid-air +till they seemed sometimes to be level with the top of our mainmast, +surpassing in height even those which my old friend Larrikins had +described as `mountings 'igh.' + +I had seen already in my trips in the _Martin_ up and down Channel what +I fancied at the time to be rough weather; but, never in my life +previously had I ever seen such a scene of grandeur as the ocean +presented that stormy afternoon! + +Far and wide, it seethed and boiled like a huge cauldron, its surface +covered with foam as white as snow, which the dark setting of inky +clouds along the horizon brought out in whiter relief. + +Above, masses of ragged wrack scudded aimlessly across the sky, whose +leaden hue was cheerless and grim, save where, in the west, the sun went +down suddenly in a wrath of crimson majesty, the darkness of night +descending on the scene as if a curtain of _crepe_, had been let down +the moment after he vanished beneath the waste of angry waters, +unlightened by a single ray of his customary after-glow. + +Apparently the tempest-loving demons of the deep were only waiting for +the shades of night in order to carry on their revels with the greater +`go' at our expense; for no sooner had the evening closed in than the +gale increased in force, and the sea waxed even angrier, so that by Four +Bells in the first watch, that is at ten o'clock, in landsman's +parlance, the ship had to lie-to under storm staysails--pitching and +plunging bows under, and taking in some of the huge rollers occasionally +over her forecastle, that swept down into the waist to such an extent +that it was as much as the scuppers could do to get rid of the water as +she rolled. + +Fortunately, we did not get any of this below, the hatches having been +battened down early in the afternoon, subsequently to our mishap with +the `gashing-tub'; but, although this saved us some wet, it was far from +pleasant on our mess-deck, the steam from the wet clothes of the fellows +belonging to the watch just relieved, and the smell of the bilge from +the place being shut up, making it resemble towards morning something +like what I have read of an African slaver's hold being in the middle +latitudes. + +When day broke, I found, on turning out of my hammock, our ship riding a +little easier, the rolling having abated considerably; and, on going on +deck shortly afterwards, though there was no order as usual to `lash up +and stow,' the weather being too rough for that, the reason for this +change for the better, so far as the uneasy motion was concerned, became +apparent enough. + +The commodore had ordered a storm jib to be set, as well as the after- +trysail, which was about the size of a good old-fashioned pocket- +handkerchief; and, instead of laying-to as we had been when I turned in +close on midnight, the ship was now running before the south-easter and +making good progress, too, out of the neighbourhood of the treacherous +Bay. + +By breakfast-time we were making so much better weather of it that we +were able to open the hatches, and the windsails were rigged up to let +down some fresh air below, which enabled us to have a better meal than +we expected; so our hot cocoa and bread possessed an additional relish, +not only from this circumstance, but also from the fact of our not +having enjoyed anything hot since the previous day at dinner, the galley +fires having been swamped out just before tea-time, thus forcing us to +turn in supperless. + +Later on, as the gale slackened, we set our topsails close-reefed, and +more `fore-and-aft' sail; and, when the sun had got above our foreyard, +the commodore ordered the topgallant-masts to be sent up, these having +been housed when it came on to blow heavily. Our topgallants were +consequently set above our close-reefed topsails, which some of the +young seamen on board appeared to think a most extraordinary proceeding; +but one of the quarter-masters, who was an old hand, said he had often +seen it done when sailing "under old Fitzroy on the Pacific station," +when their ship would be bowling along under this sail before a stiff +nor'-easter, in the run down from Vancouver to Callao, past the +inhospitable Californian coast. + +At noon that day, the navigating officer, who took the sun on the poop, +surrounded by a lot of the young midshipmen we had on board for +instruction during the training cruise, like us boys on the lower deck +each in our respective billet, gave out that we were in latitude 44 +degrees 10 minutes north, and longitude 10 degrees 15 minutes west, thus +showing that we were well to the westward of the ill-omened Cape +Finisterre and now safely out of the Bay of Biscay! + +The navigator also told our commanding officer, in the usual stereotyped +nautical formula, that it was twelve o'clock. + +"All right," replied the commodore. "Make it so!" + +Accordingly, the sentry on the forecastle struck Eight Bells, and the +men were piped down to dinner; the boatswain's mates sounding their +shrill calls through the ship as the echo of the last stroke of the +clapper on the side of the ship's bell ceased to reverberate in the +noisy air, which was filled with the creaking of the blocks aloft and +the hum of the wind, the sea breaking against our counter alongside in a +sullen fashion as if old Neptune were disappointed at letting us slip +out of his clutches! + +At One Bell, half-an-hour later, when the grog was served out to the +men--we boys, of course, having none of this, nor wanting it either--a +rather amusing incident occurred. + +Some of the chaps on board, though passed for ordinary seamen, were +`green hands'; and the older sailors that leavened the company, used to +crack jokes on these and `pull their legs' pretty considerably, until +the green ones got too knowing to be taken in. + +One fellow we had with us in the starboard watch, however, seemed to be +so naturally `raw' that nothing served to `salt' him; and he was the +butt not only of his own mess, but of the whole ship's company. + +On this occasion Harris, a leading seaman, took a fine rise out of him. + +"Say, Joblins," he called out, as he was going to light his pipe to have +a smoke forwards, we boys having set out the spittoons for the men along +the `'tween decks,' "got your grog all right, old ship?" + +"Oh ay," answered the other. "I'se droonk un." + +"But I means yer second 'lowance." + +"Hay?" said Mr Johnny Raw, his eyes beginning to visibly brighten. +"What fur be that?" + +"Yer second 'lowance," repeated the joker Harris. "All the noo hands +can git it if they axes fur it." + +"Now, yer bean't a-joking?" + +"No," declared Harris unblushingly, winking to the others around. +"Joking--why should I, man?" + +The greenhorn grew quite excited at the prospect of another tot of grog +after his pipe. + +"Say, shipmate," said he, rising from the bench at the mess-table where +he had been sitting having a whiff, "tell us wot I shall do fur to get +un?" + +"Take hold on that `spud-net' there," said Harris, pointing to the net +in which the potatoes had been boiled for the mess, the other fellows +near turning their backs so that Joblins couldn't see them laugh as he +proceeded to carry out the joker's suggestion. "Ah, ye've got it all +right, then? Now, Joblins, ye can take that to the upper deck, where +they're now sarvin' out the grog for the port watch, and tell the +`Jaunty' that yer come fur yer second 'lowance." + +Would you believe it? + +Well, whether you do so or not, all I have to say is that the innocent +yokel actually went up on deck with the potato-net in his hand, holding +it out in front of him as he took his station beside those standing +round the grog-tub. + +"Hullo!" exclaimed the ship's steward, who acts as master of the +ceremonies in this daily allowance of drink to the ship's company, +assisted by one of the corporals, and sometimes even by the master-at- +arms himself, the purveyor of the grog recognising him as having +previously received his quota. "What do you want here? You've had your +'lowance already!" + +Joblins, however, was reluctant to give up the chance of getting an +additional supply without a struggle for it, so, he would not accept +this rebuff. + +"They sez below, sir," explained he, still holding out the spud-net +straight in front of him, "as how I wer to tell yer, sir, as I wur a noo +hand, an' yer would give I a second 'lowance." + +"Oh, you're a new hand are you?" + +"Ay," replied Joblins, in a very satisfied tone, thinking the matter was +now satisfactorily settled. "That I be, sir." + +"I thought so," said the ship's steward drily. "What are you going to +put the grog in if I gave it to you?" + +Joblins did not reply in words, but held out the net. + +"Well," exclaimed the steward, with a grin on his face that was +reflected in that of every one standing by, "I've heard of green hands +and greenhorns before; but of all the raw johnnies I ever saw on board +ship you take the cake!" + +Strange to say, such was his denseness, that even then, the yokel could +not see the point of the joke and the steward had to order him away. + +"Now, clear out of this," he cried, getting a bit angry when his laugh +was out. "Don't you see, you fool, if you can see anything at all, that +the rum would run out of the net like water out of a sieve? Be off with +you!" + +Then at last the poor chap recognised the fact that Harris had been +`taking him in,' and darted down the ladder with the obvious intention +of `taking it out' of his tormentor; but the shout of merriment with +which he was received when he got forward amongst the men again, stopped +his saying anything, and the watch being just then called, his anger had +time to evaporate before he had any further chance of calling his +tormentor to account. + +The weather continuing on the mend, the commodore gave orders to the +officer of the watch, soon after dinner, to shape a course for Madeira, +that being the appointed rendezvous of the squadron in the event of +their parting company at any time in this first part of our cruise; for +we had seen nothing of any of them since the beginning of the gale, the +little _Ruby_ being the last we had sighted shortly before our being +forced to lie-to. + +During the afternoon, however, the horizon clearing to the nor'ard and a +gleam of sunshine lighting up the sea, a distant sail was seen hull down +on our lee quarter. + +"Signalman," hailed the officer of the watch, "what do you make her out +to be?" + +"Can't say yet, sir," replied the man, with the glass screwed to his +eye, squinting to leeward. "She's too fur off, sir." + +After a short pause the officer repeated his question. + +"Make her out yet, Jones?" + +"No, sir," replied the signalman; "but she's rising now, sir, an' I +thinks she's closing us." + +"Ay." + +Another short interval elapsed; and then, being down in the waist, right +under the break of the poop, the quarter-master having set me to work +flemishing down the slack ends of some of the sheets that he did not +think were tidily arranged, I heard the signalman mumble some +exclamation or other which he could not get out properly from his +excitement. + +"What is it, you say?" said the officer of the watch, who had gone to +the binnacle to look at the compass and did not quite catch what the man +said. "Speak distinctly, my man. I can't hear you!" + +"It's the _Ruby_, sir!" shouted out the signalman, in a voice that could +be heard, I believe, at the distance by which our consort was separated +from us, making the officer of the watch, Lieutenant Robinson, jump off +the deck, he having come up quite close in the meantime. "I knows her +by the clew on her tops'l." + +"All right, my man," blurted out the lieutenant, who was a crusty, ill- +tempered, sour sort of chap, one always speaking to the men as if he had +a bad liver and who couldn't look a chap square in the eye if he stood +up before him, having underhung brows and a nasty way of looking from +under them. "You needn't roar at me like a grampus, Jones. I've a +great mind to put you in the list for disrespectful conduct to your +superior officer! What did you say?" + +"The _Ruby_, sir," repeated the signalman, as tenderly now as a sucking +dove. "It's the gallant little _Ruby_ sure enough, sir." + +The irate lieutenant did not appear, though, to share the enthusiasm of +Jones; and I afterwards heard that he had some grudge against the `boss' +of the _Ruby_, as indeed he had against most people with whom he came in +contact; and I don't think many were sorry when he left the service +subsequently to our cruise, starting in some line of civil life where +his uncivil demeanour has probably gained him as many friends as he got +afloat! + +"I don't want any of your opinions, my man," said he; "and, if you talk +of gallantry, I don't think she has stuck to us as she might have done +in the gale. Probably, though, she couldn't help this; for she's a +wretched tub and has the misfortune of having a nincompoop for a +commander besides!" + +Luckily for the sour-tempered chap, whom I had time to reckon up since I +had been on board the corvette, the commodore did not hear what he said, +or he would most probably, officer of the watch though he might be, have +given him a `dressing down' before us all. + +The fact of our having sighted the _Ruby_ had already been communicated +by one of the midshipmen to our chief, who was down in his cabin having +a rest, never having left the deck either day or night, I believe, since +the gale overtook us; and, as soon as we got within signalling distance, +he ordered the yeoman at the signal halliards to make our number. + +Although the weather was becoming finer, as I have said, the wind was +still gusty and chopping about between the east and nor'-east quadrants; +and, hardly had our pennant been run up to the mizzen truck than the +`fly' of the flag got foul of the halliards. + +"Hi, boy!" cried Lieutenant Robinson, wishing to be very smart, now the +commodore was on deck. "'Way aloft there and free that flag!" + +I thought he spoke to me, and jumped towards the weather shrouds to obey +the order, but as I got into the rigging I saw `Ugly' was before me. + +He was in the chains and on his way up to the top before the lieutenant +spoke, and naturally he had first addressed him. + +`Ugly,' however, was so sluggish in his movements through the corvette +rolling a bit and the ratlines being none too steady, that Lieutenant +Robinson grew impatient. + +"Here, you boy!" he roared at me even louder than Jones had spoken to +him shortly before. "See if you can't teach that lubber how to climb +aloft and free a flag when he is told, without taking a month of Sundays +over the job!" + +Almost before he had spoken I had sprung into the rigging after `Ugly'; +and by the time the lieutenant's last word was uttered I was more than +half-way up to the top, overhauling `Ugly' at the crosstrees. + +From thence, he and I proceeded upward, he on one side of the mast, I on +the other, and neither speaking a word as we shinned up the `Jacob's +ladder.' + +So we climbed up to the cap of the topgallant-mast in company; but, as +far apart as the poles, though so close together. + +Then, each of us set about in his own fashion, without minding the +other, to disentangle the fly of the pennant, which had been whipped by +the wind round the halliards till it had formed itself into half a dozen +granny's knots. + +We were holding on to the royal lift and brace, both of us, each with +one hand while with the other we tried to unloose the closely knotted +bunting, our faces almost touching each other, and still without ever +saying a word; when, all at once, through some one having neglected his +duty when the topgallant-mast was sent aloft after the gale, the ends of +the lift and brace slipped off the jack, to which they had been only +loosely secured, leaving `Ugly' and I suspended in the air partly by the +signal halliards and partly by the flag, which latter parted with a +ripping sound that I hear now in my ears as I speak of it. Aye, and as +I always shall hear it, I believe! + +I heard also at the time, confused cries and orders from below, singing +out I know not what. + +My companion's face was close to mine as we swung from the feeble cord +and more fragile stuff that interposed between us and eternity; a fall +to the deck beneath or into the sea meaning death in one way or the +other, either by drowning or by a more cruel fate. + +I could see into his very soul, I think, at that awful moment, and he +into mine! + +It all occurred in an instant, recollect! + +But in that instant `Ugly' had time to break the silence that had +existed between us since our fight on the forecastle of the _Saint +Vincent_ and my rescue of him aboard the same ship later on. + +He spoke to me, at last, now. + +"To-am Bowlin'," whispered he hoarsely, "two chaps can't hang on yere +fur long. I'll give oop fur 'ee, me lad. Here goes!" + + + +CHAPTER SIXTEEN. + +"HIS LAST MUSTER!" + +On that, the noble fellow, who thus unselfishly sacrificed his life for +mine, fell with a whiz through the air that seemed to send the wind up +into my face, down to the deck below. + +Cannoning against the rigging on the port side, he was caught up in the +belly of the mizzen-top sail, which slightly stopped the impetus of his +descent, but, the concussion broke his spine, and when I, pale, +trembling, and almost as lifeless as he, coming down from aloft, I +hardly know how, reached his side, the doctor, who was bending over him +and applying stimulants, said he had only a few moments longer to live. + +The chaplain, too, was there, having been hastily summoned from his +duties of instructing the young middies in the wardroom; as also was the +commodore, with a graver face on him than I had ever seen before. + +I don't know whether he heard my step, or the cry I ejaculated when the +doctor spoke of his approaching end. + +Whatever it was, something made my dying shipmate open his eyes just +then, his glance wandering round the circle of those near. + +"What is it, my poor lad?" asked the chaplain kindly, stooping down, so +as to hear better any request he might make. "Is there anything you +would like done or said for you?" + +He was thinking, good man, no doubt, of offering up a prayer. + +But the mind of Moses Reeks--to call him by his right name, and drop the +somewhat opprobrious sobriquet by which I have hitherto styled the poor +fellow, and by which, indeed, he was always known on board--was still +bent on things terrestrial; though, possibly, his motive might have been +as high and had as divine a source as anything the chaplain might have +intended to say! + +His eyes lighted on me and their wandering ceased. + +"Coom here, lad," he whispered very faintly, so very faintly that his +lips seemed to give out no sound at all. "Coom here!" + +I heard, though, and went to his side, listening earnestly, for I could +not speak. + +He did not notice this, however, making up, with his slowly ebbing +senses, what he wished himself to say. + +"To-am Bowlin'," he faltered out in lisping accents with his failing +breath, "ye've done Oi a toorn wanst, lad, an' I wer an oongrateful cur +to 'ee, thet Oi wer, ez Oi didn't warnt fur to be a-beholden to yer; but +you a' me, To-am, be naow quits, lad!" + +As he thus spoke, a smile irradiated his rough-hewn features, making +them look positively beautiful; and, with the last word he uttered, his +spirit fled, with a sigh that was stifled in its birth. + +The commodore uncovered his head in the presence of Death--the superior +officer of even one flying the broad pennant and the personal +representative of her Majesty wherever the broad red cross of Saint +George, borne on that oblong flag, may float. + +At that moment the ship's bugler forwards sounded the `assembly.' + +"Peace to his spirit, poor boy," said our chief solemnly. "He's gone to +his last muster!" + +It was Two Bells in the first dog-watch before the _Ruby_ closed with us +sufficiently to speak with us; when she reported that she had parted +with the other ships of the squadron even before she had lost sight of +us at the commencement of the gale, not seeing anything of them since. + +Her commander also informed the commodore that they had lost two men +overboard while reefing topsails in a squall, the sea running so high +that it was impossible to lower a boat to save them. + +We, in our turn, told of poor `Ugly's' heroic end: and, as it was +approaching sunset, his body was sewn up in his hammock, with a shot +fastened to the feet, and committed to the deep. + +All hands were present while the chaplain read the funeral service on +the quarter-deck: and, as the grating on which the poor fellow's remains +rested, covered for the moment with the Union Jack, was canted through +the port and its lifeless burden went below with a splash, to its last +resting-place until the sea shall give up its dead, the waning sun +dipped below the horizon. + +We then squared yards and bore away straight for Madeira, with the +_Ruby_ keeping company on our lee beam; the wind having sobered down now +to a good ten-knot breeze, and the weather all that one could wish, +getting warmer with every hour of south latitude that we made. + +Everybody was jolly that evening as we bowled along before the spanking +breeze, fresh sail being set every watch, until the corvette was +presently clothed in canvas from truck to keelson, the commodore wishing +to take every advantage of the fair wind we had; but, though all the +rest, sailor-like, were laughing and joking on the mess-deck forwards, I +could not so soon forget the poor chap who had gone, his noble self- +sacrifice being ever in my mind. + +It was strange that reserved, unforgiving, and yet not unforgetful +temperament of his! + +I saw now, when too late, that he had not been quite oblivious of my +having saved him that time on board the _Saint Vincent_ when he so +nearly tumbled from aloft. He had not been ungrateful, as Mick and I +thought him, evidently. + +On the contrary, the obligation he believed himself to be under to me +had so weighed upon him that he was too proud to speak until he had +cleared it off, so, he apparently fancied, to be able to treat with me +on level terms. + +Mick Donovan had not been on deck when the tragic occurrence happened; +but he was almost as much impressed as myself when I told him of our +shipmate's last words. + +"Begorrah, Tom," cried he, wiping his eye with the sleeve of his jumper, +"Oi wudn't 'a belaved it, sure, if ye hadn't towld me, mabouchal, wid +yer own potato trap! Faith, the poor chap samed quoite a t'other sort. +Sure, Tom, me darlint, as he's bin an' gone an' saved the noomber ov yer +mess, be the powers, Oi'll spake to Father O'Flannagan whin I git back +to Porchmouth an' ax him fur to say a mass, sure, fur the poor beggar, +so that his sowl may rest in paice. May the saints protict him!" + +Three days afterwards, without any further adventure, we anchored in +Funchal Roads. + +Here the squadron remained a week, the other ships having joined us when +within a day's sail of Madeira; and, as we were going to make such a +comparatively long stay, the men were granted leave to go ashore, watch +and watch in turn. + +Just before we left, the commodore gave a grand picnic to all the +officers at the Grande Curral, when I had the luck of accompanying the +party that went from our ship, a piece of good fortune shared by Mick, +my chum. + +This Curral, a name which means, I'm told, in the Spanish language a +`sheepfold,' is an immense valley, completely surrounded by hills, that +lies a few miles to the north-west of Funchal, the capital of the +island. + +The hills encircling the natural plateau of the Curral are literally +perpendicular, being in no part less than a thousand feet high; while +round a part of the cliffs there is a narrow road leading to the `garden +houses' of the rich folk having business premises in the town, and a +number of plantations, which is cut out of the solid rock and is about +ten or twelve feet high. + +As the picnic party went along over this road, the view presented to our +eyes on looking down below was that of an unfathomable abyss, filled up +by a mass of clouds and vapours, all rolling about in constant motion, +and tumbling the one on top of another. + +Mick and I were each aboard a mule and enjoyed ourselves to rights, +racing against one another all the way; though we took precious good +care to keep in the rear of our officers, amongst whom was Lieutenant +Robinson, whose liver must have been particularly out of sorts that +morning, for he was in a grumpier and more fault-finding mood than +usual. + +He did catch sight of us once as we were turning a sharp point in the +road round a projection of a cliff; but, through the fortunate +circumstance of the mule which the lieutenant was riding happening to +bolt at the moment, the joker had too much to do in taking care of his +own valuable carcass to have much time to growl at us. + +The lieutenant, though, did not forget the incident: for, on Mick +chancing to trip over one of his legs as he sat on the grass while +handing him a plate of salad, the pleasant gentleman called him as many +names as some of the watermen at Point are in the habit of using when +they are put out of temper by being cheated of a fare. + +"Bedad, Tom," whispered Mick to me, when he got out of range of the +lieutenant's grapeshot, and we were having a feed ourselves in a quiet +corner, "Oi wush thet blissid ould baist he wor roidin' hed run away wid +him, sure, over the cliff an' made an ind ov the spalpeen! Faith, it +isn't mesilf thet wud cry me oyes out, or wear mournin' fur him!" + +On leaving Madeira, which we did with much regret, the people being very +hospitable and most good-naturedly disposed towards all sailors, +especially to British bluejackets, we fetched a compass for Teneriffe, +where we arrived some three or four days afterwards; the commodore +occupying the additional time in exercising the ships under his command, +and matching them one against another. + +In sailing on a wind the _Active_, I'm glad to say, beat all the rest of +the squadron; though, in running before the wind, the little _Ruby_ +weathered on us and the _Volage_, our sister ship, ran us pretty close. + +When nearing Teneriffe and close in to the African coast, we saw a +splendid tight in the sea, between a big black whale on the one side, +and a `thrasher' or fox-shark on the other, aided by a swordfish, with +which latter he had just apparently struck up an alliance offensive and +defensive for the time. + +The thrasher, which has a back as elastic as an india-rubber ball, would +jump clean out of the water and give the whale a whack in the ribs that +must have taken all the elasticity out of him; and then, on the poor +leviathan of the deep fluking his tail to dive so as to escape from his +aerial antagonist, his chum the swordfish would tickle up the whale from +below by sending a yard or two of his long saw-like snout into his +tenderest part. + +Presently, as we luffed up to see the end of the fun, the sea in the +vicinity of the fray became tinged with blood, the colour of carmine, +showing that somebody at all events was having a bad time of it. + +"By the powers, it bates Bannagher," cried Mick, who was watching the +fight alongside of me on the upper deck, springing up on to the hammock +nettings in his excitement to see the finish, unthinking of the breach +of discipline he was committing. "Go it, ye cripples. Sure, Tom, the +little wun'll win--what d'ye call him?" + +"He's a thrasher," I replied, jumping up, too, on the top of the +nettings. "A sort of shark, I think. Father has one stuffed at home, +stowed away somewhere, that looks like that chap. If so, he's a fox- +shark." + +"A fox-shark, begorrah!" repeated Mick, with a grin. "Faith, Tom, he's +goin' fur thet ould whale theer ez if he wor not ownly a fox, sure, but +a pack of hounds as will, alannah!" + +"Hi, there, you boys," roared out a voice at this juncture, which we had +little difficulty in recognising as belonging to Lieutenant Robinson, +who was again officer of the watch this afternoon, his turn of duty +having once more come round. "Get off that netting at once and go +below, both of you. Master-at-arms, take those boys' names down and put +them in the report, and bring them up on the deck after `divisions' to- +morrow!" + +The `Jaunty,' who was standing below the break of the poop, looked up at +the scowling lieutenant, saluting him. + +"Very good, sir," said he, with another touch of his hat, in recognition +of the authority of the speaker. "I will see to it, sir." + +But, a `Deus ex machina,' or `God from the bathing-machine,' as our old +captain of the _Saint Vincent_ would have said in his Latin lingo, just +then intervened on our behalf. + +Mick Donovan and I were sneaking down the main hatch, like a pair of +whipped dogs with their tails between their legs--though I must say we +were more chagrined at losing the best part of the fight going on in the +water, which was rapidly approaching a climax, than dismayed at having +incurred the displeasure of the lieutenant--when, if you please, we +heard somebody shout out something behind us, and the master-at-arms, +who had followed in our wake, called out to us to stop. + +"Belay there, you boys," he shouted down the hatchway. "Ye're to return +on deck!" + +In obedience to this order, we ascended the ladder-way again, retracing +our steps at an even slower pace than we had gone down at; for we both +expected, the same thought having flashed across our minds when the +`Jaunty' hailed us, that Lieutenant Robinson had, on more mature +consideration, fancied he had let us off too lightly for the heinous +offence we had committed, and had ordered us to be brought back to give +us `four dozen' apiece at least, there and then! + +The result, however, was very different to our sad anticipations; for +when we reached the deck the old commodore was standing by the poop +rail, close to the ladder on the port side leading down from thence into +the waist of the ship. + + + +CHAPTER SEVENTEEN. + +A STUDY IN BLACK AND WHITE. + +"Lieutenant Robinson," said he to our persecutor, who looked ill at ease +as he stood before him, the sextant which he had snatched up in a hurry +to calculate the angle of distance of the whale and its antagonists now +hanging listlessly in his hand, "be good enough, sir, to tell those boys +that they may remain on the upper deck and look over the side, but that +they must not stand on the hammock nettings. I like discipline to be +preserved on board the ship I may have the honour to command, but I +never allow any unnecessary severity being shown to the men or boys of +the ship's company!" + +Much against his will, the lieutenant, thus rebuked on the quarter-deck +in the presence not only of his own brother-officers, but in that of all +of us on the deck below as well, had now to `eat humble pie' and give us +the commodore's message; and, though Mick and I could not repress a grin +on his bowing to us with mock politeness, we could see from the look in +his underhung eyes that he intended to pay us out bye-and-bye when he +had the chance for having been obliged to beg our pardon, as he had to +do almost then. + +Unhappily, though, the permission for us to look over the side again +came too late; for the thrasher and the swordfish had been too much for +the poor whale, whose huge lifeless body was now floating away to +leeward, half a cable's length astern of the ship, surrounded by an eddy +of bloody water, while its assailants had both disappeared. + +"Begorrah," cried Mick, much disgusted at this, "sure, we're jist in +toime to be too late!" + +In our passage from Madeira to the Canary Islands we steered south by +west, in order to avoid the Salvages. + +These are a number of rocky islets, named the `Great Piton,' the `Little +Piton,' and `Ilha Grande,' lying in latitude 30 degrees 8 minutes north, +and longitude 15 degrees 55 minutes west. The largest island is covered +with bushes, amongst which thousands of sea-fowl make their nests; and, +from the fact of its not being seen until a ship be close in to it, when +these very birds tell of its propinquity, by darkening the air almost as +they rise, it is a great danger to mariners. + +A little farther to the eastward is Lanzarote, which is very +mountainous, possessing a volcano of its own, where a violent eruption +took place not very long ago, when a stream of lava from two hundred to +three hundred yards broad spread out into the sea like a river, the +floating pumice-stone being picked up by passing vessels miles away. + +For this piece of information I am indebted to the navigating officer, +who happened to be telling one of the young midshipmen all about the +place as I was attending to a job the boatswain had set me to aft. + +I also heard him tell the same young gentleman a queer yarn about a +buried treasure which is supposed to be concealed near a little cove on +the southern extremity of the island, called `Janubio.' The story goes +that, in the beginning of the century--I think the navigator said it was +in the year 1804, but I am not quite certain--the crew of a South +American Spanish treasure ship, bound to Cadiz from Lima with produce +and which had besides over two millions of dollars in chests aboard, +mutinied, and murdered their captain and officers; the rascals then +making off in the long boat with this treasure towards an island, which, +from the description given, must have been either Lanzarote or one of +the Salvages. + +On this island, whichever it was, the dollars were carried ashore and +buried above high-water mark in a snug little bay to the south; the +mutineers, according to the prevailing superstition of such gentry, +burying the body of their murdered captain on top of the treasure, so +that his ghost might prevent any unprivileged intruders from meddling +with their cache. + +The navigator said, just as I was going down below after finishing my +job, that this tale was told to an English sailor by one of the +surviving mutineers; and he added that the Admiralty were so much +impressed by its appearance of truth that Admiral Hercules Robinson, the +grandfather, I believe, of our present High Commissioner at the Cape of +Good Hope, was actually sent out to make a search for the treasure when +in command of HMS _Prometheus_, in 1813. + +We coaled at Teneriffe, putting into the harbour of Santa Cruz for this +purpose; and Mick and I were much struck by the fact of the black ladies +who carried the baskets of coal on their heads along the jetty from the +shore to the ship, doing the job, too, in first-rate style and as good +as any gang of wharfingers at home, all of them wearing the most +expansive crinolines, which, with their thin dresses and black +stockings, of nature's own provision, had a very comical effect! + +"Faith!" exclaimed Mick, after watching these dusky belles with much +interest for some time, the lot of them chattering and laughing away, +showing their teeth, which a dentist would have given something to +possess for his showcase, "Oi'd loike Father O'Flannagan jist for to say +thim quare craychurs, Tom, me hearty, if ownly to say him toorn oop the +whoites ov his oyes. Bedad, he'd be afther sprinklin' 'em wid howly +wather an' exorcisin' on 'em, ez if he'd sayn the divvle, sure!" + +Jones the signalman, who was standing near when Mick said this, laughed. + +"Your old priest would have his work cut out for him in more ways than +that," said he, with a very significant wink to one of the other hands, +"if he'd only go to Grand Canary instead of Teneriffe!" + +The name he mentioned at once made Mick cock his ear. + +"Grand Canary," repeated my chum after the signalman, with a puzzled +look on his face. "Ain't thet the place, Tom, whare thim yaller burds +yer sisther Jenny has, sure, at home comes from? She s'id they wor +canaries, Oi'd take me davy!" + +"Of course, they are, Mick," said I, in reply to this. "Why, mother +must have a hundred of them in the shop at this very minute, besides +those little ones she brought up herself which Jenny used to act as +nurse to!" + +"Och, sure, Oi rimimber thim will enuff," answered Mick, with a +melancholy look on his face, as if his mind had turned back from Santa +Cruz to Bonfire Corner all of a sudden and to our little house there. +"An' thet little chap ov a canary thet had a crist on the top ov his +hid, loike a crown, sure, thet yer sisther Jenny used fur to make so +much ov--the little darlint!" + +Whether this term of endearment of his was meant by Mick to apply to +Jenny or the bird, I can't say; but I could see clearly enough in what +direction his thoughts were concentrated. + +"Begorrah, Tom," he said after a pause, during which his eyes were +apparently fixed on the celebrated `Peak' for which Teneriffe is better +known in the present day than on account of its canaries; for it is over +four hundred years since these little songsters were first discovered by +the Spaniards and imported into Europe, so that any novelty that might +have been attached to them has long since disappeared, "Oi'll git some +ov the purty craychurs fur yer sisther if we're 'lowed ashore afore we +lave." + +"I don't think you will be able to do that," said the signalman, who had +remained alongside of us looking at the darkeys passing to and fro on +the jetty below, from which a gangway of planks led through one of the +midship ports to the coal-bunkers. "We're not likely to stop here after +we've coaled ship." + +Mr Jones was mistaken, however; for we remained at Santa Cruz some +four-and-twenty hours longer, so that Mick and I had the opportunity of +landing with the wardroom steward the next morning, when he went to buy +some fresh milk and other things for the officers' mess. + +We then, during a short walk we had in the vicinity of the town, saw +numbers of canaries flitting about amid the trees, just like you see +sparrows at home; and it seemed very strange, to me especially, +accustomed as I was to mother's bird-shop and its live stock, that the +little things should be uncaged and roaming about there free, at their +own will and pleasure! + +The birds, though, did not have anything like the bright plumage of +those bred in captivity at home; and I would have backed, so far as +their looks went, a splendid little chap Jenny had called `Tubby,' +against the lot of them; while `Corry,' another canary of a more +reflective character and retiring disposition than the first, could have +afforded a dust of the golden hue of his feathers to make his +Teneriffean cousins more presentable without being much less yellow +himself--their hue, so far as Mick and I noticed, being more of a dingy +white than chrome. + +As to bringing any of them to England, however, that we found an +impossibility; for there were so many young midshipmen and other +youngsters aboard the various ships of the squadron, that if all of them +had been free to take birds into their cabins, the ships would have been +so many floating aviaries! + +So, to prevent this, the commodore had issued strict orders that no pets +of any description were to be taken on board by any one. + +"I s'pose, though, my corns don't count," observed the wardroom steward, +as we were stepping into the boat on our return to the ship and one of +his assistants trod on his foot. "I've a favourite one on my starboard +toe, Smith, as might be called a pet o' mine; and, by jingo, you lubber, +you just then made marmalade of it. You wait till we get aboard and +I'll put you on short rations! See if I don't!" + +Later on in the afternoon the squadron sailed for Barbados, starting off +out of Santa Cruz harbour before a spanking ten-knot breeze in line of +single column ahead, the old _Active_ leading and showing her heels to +our less speedy consorts. + +This was early in the month of December, the weather being beautiful and +balmy, as it continued all the time we were bowling across the Atlantic +on our way to our goal, the West Indies; and, as we enjoyed the warmth +of the southern latitudes through which our good ship ploughed her way, +Mick and I could not help contrasting our surroundings with those of the +poor folk at home shivering in all the dreariness of an English mid- +winter, when, if it isn't freezing or snowing or hailing, it is bound to +be raining--a cold, raw, nasty sort of rain--and damp and foggy and +dirty, at all events, such being the pleasurable conditions of our +delightful climate usually at that time of year! + +With us, now, things were very different! + +A blue sky above, unflecked by a single cloud, was reflected in a sea +that was yet more blue, its hue turning to azure as we approached +farther west in the tropics; until, on reaching the confines of the +Caribbean Sea, the colour of the water verged into that of the purest +ultramarine. + +Day after day the scene was ever the same--blue sky above, blue sea +below; while a bright sun shone down, ever lighting up both sky and sea +with a sort of opal glow and lending warmth to the buoyant, +exhilarating, champagne air. + +Under these circumstances, washing decks every morning used to be a +positive pleasure to everybody on board, as we careered about in our +bare feet with our trousers rolled up above the knee, when the cold +water, instead of being `moighty onpleasint,' as Mick would have said, +was gratifying in the extreme. + +Such of the officers, too, who had not been on duty keeping the middle +watch, used to turn out in their oldest pyjamas, accompanied by most of +the midshipmen, when we were at this task and have a regular sluice down +on the forecastle; some of them catching hold of the hose and playing it +on each other in turn, skylarking and making no end of fun. + +Our drills, of course, went on all the time in the usual clockwork +fashion observed on board ship, `quarters' and `divisions' and all the +rest; all of the men and boys belonging to the ship's company being +polished up quite as smartly as the brasswork and drilled to the highest +state of efficiency. + +It was not all work, though, on board the _Active_; for our commodore, +taut disciplinarian as he was and as anxious to lick us all into shape +as he was to make the ships of his squadron manoeuvre handily, +exercising them at all hours both of day and night to this end, did not +forget the old adage that a bow should not always be bent. + +No, he always allowed us plenty of time for relaxation and enjoyment, +besides permitting us to fish overboard, which some commanders would not +have allowed. + +This was rare sport, I can tell you, the bonetta, a fish common to the +tropics and eating uncommonly well when fried, biting freely at a piece +of white bunting or any other attractive object attached to a hook, as +did the many-hued dolphin, and many a hearty supper did we have on the +lower deck through the kindly aid of these beneficent denizens of the +deep. + +One of the foretopmen who hailed from Newfoundland was an expert with +the harpoon, spearing with that weapon as many dolphins as he liked; +these beggars being in the habit of plying to and fro under the +corvette's cutwater as she sailed onward, delighting apparently in +showing us the dexterity with which they could wheel about and leap +athwart the ship's course as they pleased, keeping up with her or going +ahead according to their bent. + +We saw lots of flying-fish also; and they, when we had the chance of +catching the few that came aboard, were even better fare for hungry +sailor-boys of an evening than the dolphins and bonetta. + +These latter used to hunt the poor flying-fish like a pack of hounds +after some prey on land, the fish leaping out of the sea and making +short flights by the aid of the membraneous fins they have, which they +extended like wings, flying for some twenty yards or so till exhaustion +compelled their return to their native element--a characteristic feature +that has gained the `flying-fish' its name. + +Unfortunately for the poor beggars, however, they have an enemy aloft as +well as one below; and, when they leave the water to escape the bonetta, +they fall into the clutches of the sea-hawks that hover over the surface +on the watch for them; and so, thus situated `between two stools,' as it +were, `their lot,' like that of the `Bobby' in the song, being `not a +happy one!' + +Amid such varied changes of life and scene, our three weeks' voyage from +Teneriffe to Barbados passed quickly and pleasantly enough, all hands +being surprised one fine morning when we cast anchor in Carlisle Bay, +the harbour of `Little England,' as the Barbadians proudly style their +happy island, which is of the same size and shape nearly as the Isle of +Wight and is the gem of the Antilles! + +Here we had a rare time of it for a week, it being Christmastide, and +the inhabitants, who are English to the backbone, black, mongrel, and +copper-coloured, as well as white, keeping up that festival with like +enthusiasm to what we do at home. + +As at Madeira, the ship's company were allowed leave to go on shore, +watch and watch in turn: so, belonging as we both did to the starboard +division, Mick and I were amongst those who had the first go-off. + +I recollect, as if it were but yesterday, our landing alongside the +jetty on the carenage, right in front of one of Da Costa's big +warehouses, whose green jalousies relieved the effect of the staring +white building under the hot West Indian sun; the glare of which, cast +back by the rippling translucent water that laved the stone jetty, +through which one could see the little fishes gliding about as clearly +as in the Brighton Aquarium, almost blinded us with its intensity. + +There were a lot of negro women hanging round the wharf in front of Da +Costa's place, all of whom had big baskets, either balanced on their +heads or put down on the ground by their side, which were filled with +huge melons and pine-apples and bananas, besides many other tropical +fruits the names of which are unknown to me. + +Of course, we made for these at once; and there was a lot of chaffering +and bargaining between our fellows and the negresses, who were all +laughing and showing their white teeth, trying their best to wheedle the +`man-o'-war buckras' to buy their luscious wares at double the price, +probably, such would fetch in open market from regular customers in +Bridgetown. + +Presently, we all got skylarking and pitching the fruit about; when a +big mulatto, who was along with one of the fruit-sellers--her husband +most likely and doing nothing just as likely, like most of his colour, +for the household of which he was the head, save to collect the money +his better half in every respect earned--seemed very much aggrieved at +some damage Mick did to a bunch of ripe bananas, claiming a `bit' or +fourpence as compensation. + +Mick, who, you must know, had grown a strapping fellow by now, took the +tawny-complexioned gentleman's demand very good-humouredly. + +"All roight, ould Patchwork," he called out, with a laugh. "Thare's a +shellin' fur ye, which is more, bedad, than yer howl sthock-in-thrade is +worth! Changee fur changee, black dog fur whoite moonkey, sure, as my +ould fayther used fur to say!" + +Whatever mollifying effect the sight of the silver coin might have +produced on the mulatto's mind was entirely swamped by Mick's +unfortunate quotation from his paternal archives. + +"Say, you sailor buckra, who dat you call one black dog, hi!" said he, +coming up to my chum in a threatening manner, brandishing his arms and +working his head about like a teetotum in a fit. "I'se no niggah slabe, +you white trash! I'se free 'Badian born, an' 'low no man make joke ob +me!" + +Mick roused up in a minute. + +"Faith, ye oogly yaller-faced raskil," he cried, putting up his fists in +the scientific way we had learnt from long practice on board with the +gloves under our gymnasium instructor, "Oi'll knock ye into the middle +of nixt Soonday wake, ef ye don't kape a civil toongue in yer hid an' +put yer owld dhrumsticks behint ye!" + +Instead of acting on Mick's advice, however, the mulatto, screaming with +rage, and his whole face distorted with passion, made a wild rush at +him, trying to butt him in the stomach. + + + +CHAPTER EIGHTEEN. + +"REEF TOPSAILS!" + +"A ring! A ring! Form a ring, all you Actives!" shouted out Mr Jones +the signalman, who had come ashore with us, wishing to see the battle +between our representative and the darkey conducted in regular shipshape +fashion, in accordance with the rules observed in polite pugilistic +circles at home. "Form a ring, my lads, and let 'em fight it out fair. +If any of them blooming niggers tries to h'interfere, boys, you jest +fetch 'em a crack on the shins with yer dancing pumps; it's no good +trying to hit 'em on their nobs, as they're made of the same stuff of +the cocoa-nuts, and you might hit at 'em till doomsday without ever +their feelin' on it, jist the same as if ye were hammerin' at the +watertight bulkhead forrud!" + +No sooner said than done. + +With the help of the other bluejackets who had come ashore with us in +the second cutter, the ring which the signalman suggested was at once +formed, our chaps artfully manoeuvring so as to shut out all the black +and coloured gentry who instantly flocked to the scene of action, the +news of the fight having got abroad in some mysterious way or other. + +Before this had been done, however, Mick Donovan received and repulsed +the mulatto's first onslaught in a highly satisfactory manner for our +side. + +Lifting his left knee suddenly as the infuriated beggar rushed in upon +him in catapult fashion, with his body doubled and his head bent low, +Mick at the same time, with all the force of his good right arm, struck +downwards at the darkey's exposed ear, which was about the size of a +small plate, catching him thus between his knee and fist like a piece of +iron a blacksmith might be at work on at the forge beaten flat between +hammer and anvil. + +Result--down dropped the mulatto as if he were a felled ox! + +"Hooray!" yelled out all the Actives; while there was a groan and a rush +from the surrounding compatriots of Mick's opponent to pick up their +champion. "Give the bloomin' nigger fits, me boy! You've pretty nearly +done for him already." + +But, the mulatto was not by any means settled yet. + +Encouraged by his sympathising backers, of whom we allowed some five or +six to enter the ring, wishing to play fair and not to have it all to +ourselves, the mulatto shook himself as if he had just come out of the +water; and, standing up in a proper manner now, he faced Mick, who +smilingly beckoned him to come on. + +"Hit 'im in de eyeball, Bim!" cried one of the dark ladies, who indeed +was the cause of the fray, as generally is the case, I have been told, +when menfolk fall out. "Yah, yah! Mash um face fo' um, de imperent +man-o'-war buckra!" + +"Go it, Mick!" cried we. "Land him one in his bloomin' bread-basket!" + +A very pretty bit of sparring now ensued, the two being well matched; +for, though the mulatto was the taller and had the longer reach of arm, +Mick had a better guard, holding his right well out across his chest, +and dodging in his left every now and then, keeping moving about on his +pins as lightly as an opera-dancer. + +Once `Mr Bim' got in a roundabout blow that landed on Mick's left +cheek, which drew blood, and sent him all of a stagger into the corner +where the signalman and I stood officiating as bottle-holders. + +This raised a wild yell of excited enthusiasm from all the assembled +darkeys, both ladies and gentlemen alike. + +"Golly, dat fetch um, Bim!" they shouted. "Gib um goss, Bim! 'Badian +too brabe; um beat all de buckra sailor trash in de whole world, you +bet!" + +"Stow that, you ugly black devil!" interposed one of our men, fetching +the mulatto's partisan a crack on the shins with the cutter's boathook, +which he held in his hand, he being bowman and left in charge of the +boat. "You just keep out o' the ring if ye know what's good for you!" + +"By gosh!" cried the poor nigger, hopping about on one leg and rubbing +his shin, writhing with pain at being thus assaulted on his tenderest +point; grabbing up some missile or other from the roadway, whither he +retreated, "I'se crack yo' tam skull wid um rockstone, fo' suah!" + +Mick did not `come up smiling' as he advanced to meet his foe after the +knock-down blow he had received; but, from the look on his face, with +his lips tight set and his eyes fixed on the mulatto, I could see he +`meant business.' + +He did. + +Parrying another wild whirl of `Mr Bim's' arms, which he swung out +right and left, Mick dropped his; and with a step forward he grasped the +mulatto round the waist, when, going down on one knee, he sent him +flying over his shoulder completely outside the ring. + +Fortunately for the poor beggar, his head went plump into one of the +baskets of fruit, squashing its contents together into the semblance of +jam, which probably saved the mulatto's life; for, had he fallen +headlong on the stone jetty, his cranium would most likely have +resembled the bananas and ripe melons in the black lady's basket that he +had spoilt, and his neck, as likely as not, broken. As it was, `Mr +Bim' had enough of it, coming up quite dazed when he recovered his +senses; then retiring from the combat without a single further word, +either of apology or of defiance. + +His compatriots bore no malice to Mick or ourselves, as might have been +expected from their champion having got the worst of it. + +On the contrary, they raised a cheer when we turned to leave the scene +of action, accompanying us into the town, and dancing round us in their +amusing way, and making quite a triumphal procession of our progress up +Roebuck Street. + +"Golly, Sambo!" one of them shouted out to another of their number, who +evidently was the local poet of the party. "You makee singsong ob de +lilly buckra sailor!" + +Thereupon, the poet, who was clearly a man of vivid imagination and +spontaneous genius, at once struck up a doggerel rhyme; all of them +taking up the chorus as they marched along on either side of us:-- + + "Man ob war buckra, man ob war buckra, + Jus' come ashore, jus' come ashore, + Jus' come ashore! + + "'Badian gen'leman, 'Badian gen'leman, + He make um roar, he make um roar, + He make um roar! + + "Man ob war buckra an' 'Badian gen'leman, + Dey hab a shindy, dey hab a shindy, + Dey hab a shindy! + + "'Badian gen'leman, he mash um mout'; + Man ob war buckra, um bash um snout; + Golly, yah, yah, + Um bash um snout!" + +"Begorrah!" exclaimed Mick, none the worse for the fray, beyond a slight +cut on his port cheek, which had been caused by the scrape of the +mulatto's long nails and not by his fist, as he burst into a roar of +laughter on the darkeys bringing out this impromptu musical account of +the recent fight--in which all hands joined, making most of the passers- +by we met on our route to one of the hotels recommended by Mr Jones, +who had been to Bridgetown before, look round to see what was the +matter--"it bates Bannagher an' Donnybrook Fair all rowled into one, +sure!" + +It need hardly be said after this, that, on our presently reaching the +favourite hostelry of our guide, the signalman, we stood treat to all +the darkeys; and then, having had enough of their somewhat too marked +attentions, we parted company, with the most friendly feelings on both +sides. + +The people altogether received us very kindly, all sorts of festivities +being held in our honour, officers and men alike having balls and +dinners and picnics and cricket-matches all got up especially for their +pleasure; so that our fortnight's stay at Barbados was one long holiday +from the first day to the last, for, if we did not happen to be ashore, +parties of ladies and gentlemen used to come off to see the ship and be +entertained in their turn. + +We sailed from our anchorage, near the lighthouse at Needham Point to +the north-east of the bay, somewhere in the second week of January, +making first for Tobago, which lies more to the southward of the +Windward Islands. After this we visited Trinidad and most of the other +colonies, calling also at the French possessions of Guadaloupe and +Martinique, before returning for a final look in at Barbados on our way +home again to England. + +After leaving Carlisle Bay for the second time, the squadron made for +Bermuda, the commodore hoping to pick up the light westerly winds which +are to be met with at this season of the year hereabouts; but, when to +the south of the thirtieth parallel, we encountered a terrific gale from +the north-west, which was as child's play in comparison to the one we +experienced in the Bay of Biscay. + +Up to then we had experienced very fair weather, being able to carry all +our upper sail and stun'sails as well; but, all at once, without any +warning, save that the heavens suddenly darkened overhead, obscuring the +sun, and the barometer began to fall, as I heard the navigating officer +say to the commodore, whom he passed on his way on deck from the +wardroom below, a storm broke over us! + +The next moment, the whistles of the boatswain's mates were ringing +through the ship, with the customary hoarse hail down the hatchways-- + +"Watch, shorten sail!" + +Then, as we tumbled up to our stations, it became a case of let go and +clew up. + +"Topmen, aloft!" sang out the commodore from the break of the poop, in +sharp, piercing accents that rose above the whistle of the wind through +the rigging and the dull roar of the sea, which had assumed now a leaden +appearance, instead of the bright blue which it boasted the moment +before, while its surface began to work into short choppy waves that +tossed their crests like horses champing the bit. "Take in the +to'gallants and royals!" + +Up we all raced aloft; but no sooner had these sails been furled and we +reached the deck than the commodore was at us again. + +"Watch, reef tops'ls!" he shouted even louder than before. "Away +aloft--take in one reef!" + +Mick and I scrambled up, almost out of breath, into the mizzen-top; +which we hardly reached before we heard the commodore give the next +order necessary to enable us to take in the reef-- + +"Weather tops'l braces, round in! Lower the tops'ls!" + +Next followed our own especial order-- + +"Trice up and lay out!" + +In obedience to this, we made our way out on the foot-ropes, Mick +securing the weather earring, when we began knotting the points and +reefing in earnest; after which, the topsail halliards were manned below +and the yards run up again. + +The wind now shifted from the northward to the north-east, coming on to +blow pretty hard; so the courses were clewed up and furled and the jib +hauled down, the ship presently running under her close-reefed topsails +and fore-topmast staysail. + +By Six Bells, however, the storm had increased to such an extent, that, +after trying what treble-reefing would do, we had to take in our +topsails altogether, laying-to under storm staysails and easy steam, the +engine-fires had been lit and the screw lowered on the first break of +the storm, so as to keep the ship-head to wind and provide for any +eventuality that might come. + +The sea at this time was a terrible sight, the big billows racing madly +past us and jostling each other, tossing their spray and spent water +right over the main-yard; while, anon, the corvette would be lifted +bodily up on top of what seemed a high mountain, from whence we viewed +the wide stretch of broken waves extending as far as the eye could +reach; anon, plunging us down into a deep dark watery abyss, as if she +were going to founder! + +We rolled so, that preventer stays were rigged to make sure of our masts +and the guns were secured with double lashings round the breech; while +lifelines were rove fore and aft to assist us in keeping our footing +along the deck. + +So far, we had been all alone; the other ships of the squadron having +parted company early in the afternoon, each making shift as best she +could for herself. + +Not a sail was in sight anywhere on the horizon. + +But, presently, careering onwards before the heavy storm clouds ahead, +out of which she emerged all in a moment like some spirit of the deep, a +large full-rigged ship appeared, bearing down upon us at the rate of +twenty knots an hour, I should think, judging by the way she rapidly +rose out of the water. It looked as if she were going to run us down. + +"Sail ahead!" roared out the lookout-man forwards, his voice borne back +inboard by the wind and seeming all the louder in consequence. "She's +a-coming down end on to us, sir!" + +The commodore aft, however, had seen our peril, even before the lookout- +man spoke; and almost at the same instant that his words of warning +reached our ears--the while the hands on deck stared with horror at the +surging ship, nearing us now closer and closer as we looked at her--the +gallant, ready-witted sailor had taken effective measures to avoid the +imminent danger threatening us. + + + +CHAPTER NINETEEN. + +"SAIL HO!" + +"Stand by, the watch forrud!" he sang out, in a voice of thunder, +putting his hands to his mouth so as to form a speaking-trumpet, as he +leant against the poop rail, and pitching his key so high that his order +triumphed over the noise of both wind and sea. "Man the jib halliards! +Hoist away!" + +In the meantime the engine-room bell had been rung and rapid directions +given to go astern full speed, our screw being down and steam got up +long since, as I have already mentioned, so as to be prepared for a +similar emergency. + +"Hard up with the helm!" now shouted the commodore, who seemed to have +taken the management of the ship for the moment entirely in his own +hands; and then, looking forwards, he roared again to us on the +forecastle, "Haul taut your jib sheet!" + +The sail served its turn, with the backing of the screw, to make the +corvette's head pay off as we wore ship; but the strength of the nor'- +east gale was such, that hardly had we made the sheet fast, ere the jib +blew clean away from its lacing, with the sound of a gun going off, +while a big wave came over our weather side at the same time, and nearly +washed every man-jack off the forecastle, beside flooding the waist, the +sea rushing down in a torrent below through the after-hatchway which had +not been battened down as yet. + +It was a ticklish operation wearing with such a wind and sea on, and +might have been attended with even worse peril than happened; for, if +caught in the trough of some wave, broadside on, we might have capsized, +instead of merely taking a hundred tons of water or so on board, which +we could have very well dispensed with. + +However, it was our only chance of getting out of the way of the +approaching vessel--at least so our old commodore deemed, and he ought +to have been, and was too, the best judge. + +And the ship! + +None of us for a second or two thought of looking for her, the men all +rushing to their stations, and the port watch having been called on +deck, as well as us chaps belonging to the starboard division, who were +already there, in case of our broaching-to and our masts going by the +board--which everybody believed, I think, barring the commodore, would +have occurred. + +Now, therefore, on our succeeding in paying off so handsomely without +any serious mishap, the _Active_ scudding and running before the wind +like a racehorse under her bare poles, so to speak, the scraps of storm +staysails we carried being not worth taking into account, the eyes of +every one were turned at once to windward to see what had become of the +stranger vessel. + +She had completely disappeared! + +Whether she had luffed up too suddenly on seeing the danger of a +collision between us, or had gone down all standing as she careered +onward, no one will ever know; for, though lookouts were sent aloft and +the horizon scanned in every direction, not a single trace of her was to +be seen anywhere in sight, albeit the billowy surface of the tempest- +tossed sea was so white with foam that any dark object would at once +have been distinguished on its tumid bosom. + +Not a trace was to be seen of the fine ship, which a moment ago was +riding the waters like a thing of life, even if impelled to run before +the fury of the gale--either astern of us, or ahead; or on our starboard +beam, as she should have been by rights if matters had turned out +differently; nor yet to port. + +No, not a trace of her anywhere! + +All of us seemed, really, to feel as if we had lost somebody or +something; and when, presently, the watch was piped down, we all went +below with saddened hearts. + +"Oi wondther now," said Mick, when we were having our supper at our +messing-place aft on the lower deck a little later on, "if thet theer +vissil wor a raal ship, Tom, or a banshee?" + +A man at the mess-table next ours heard his remark and burst out +laughing. + +"I've heard tell o' the Flying Dutchman being seen in stormy weather +when going round the Cape," he said, speaking across the table in our +direction; "but I can't say as how I ever heard before of a banshee +adrift on the wide Atlantic Ocean!" + +"Bedad, Oi say no rayson agin it," replied Mick, standing up for the +superstitions of his country like a man. "Faith, a banshee can go ony +whare he loikes." + +"Ay?" said the other interrogatively. "What is a banshee, my lad?" + +"Begorrah," answered Mick, crossing himself, "thet's more'n ony one +knows, may the saints presairve us fur mintionin' on 'em! They'll be +sperrits, Oi thinks, if Oi don't misremimber, ez can take ony shape they +plaizes!" + +"Oh, spirits?" exclaimed the other man chaffingly, thinking he was going +to pull Mick's leg a bit. "What sort o' spirits, my lad--is it rum, or +gin, or whisky, now, you mean?" + +Mick did not reflect a bit, but came out pat with his answer. + +"Faith!" said he drily, setting the table in a roar as he winked from +one to the other of the mess opposite, though this wink of his was +hardly necessary, the habits and character of his questioner being very +well known throughout the ship, "it's a rum tasthe ye'd foind thim +sperrits, Oi'm afther thinkin', Misther Sharp! Bedad, yer gin wud be ez +hot ez ginger; an' it's preshus little toime ye'd hev fur tournin' down +the whisky, ez ye did, faith, the t'other day, whin ye wor brought up +'fore Noomber One on the quarther-deck, sure, fur goin' to shlape on the +watch! Begorrah, if ye don't look out sharp, Misther Sharp, ye'll hev +the divvle whiskin' ye off wid his tail, sure, fur thet same whisky +ye're talkin' of!" + +"Well, well, my joker," said Sharp good-humouredly, joining in the laugh +of the rest of the chaps, though it was against himself; "I'm sorry I +hurt your feelings about that Irish banshee of yours!" + +This turned the merriment of the mess towards Mick again; but he came up +to the scratch as `smilingly' as he did in his fight with the mulatto at +Barbados. + +"Bedad," said he unflinchingly, "the banshees, sure, the saints +presairve the good people from harmin' us! Can take virry good care ov +thimselves; but, faith, if ye'd ivver sane wun, ye'd spake more +rispictfully ov thim, sure!" + +"Tell us," inquired Joblins, the `green hand,' you may recollect, who +went on deck to fetch his second lot of grog with a spud-net and who, +though he had been made a bit sharper since then by the chaff and jokes +of his messmates, was still not by any means bright, "did yer ever see +one o' them ghostesses?" + +"Hev Oi ivver sane wun?" repeated Mick, in a tone of intense scorn. +"Begorrah, Oi hev sane hoondreds!" + +"Lor'!" exclaimed the simpleton, evidently impressed by this bold +assertion of my chum, "tell us, mate, wot they's like." + +This was enough for Mick. + +"Ye won't be froightened, sure," he began, in a very solemn tone, the +more to impress the anxious listener, "if Oi'm afther tillin' ye the +whole thruth, now?" + +"Frightened! No," replied Joblins defiantly, but looking nervous all +the same. "I ain't so soon frightened as that, Mick!" + +"All roight, me joker," said Mick. "Oi ownly thort ez how Oi'd not take +ye onywheres, ye know; but, faith, ez Oi say ye're so brave a chap, +Oi'll now carry on an' till ye all about a raal banshee Oi saw t'other +noight." + +Joblins moved uneasily on his seat. + +"What!" he cried. "Yer doan't mean aboard this yere ship?" + +"Ay, faith," said Mick coolly; "it wor aboord this virry ship, +begorrah!" + +"Lor'!" stammered out `greeny,' whose face we could see was quite pale +from the light of the ship's lantern near, it having got dark now on the +lower deck through the closing in of the evening early, we being still +in tropical latitudes. "I thort them things only came on land." + +"That's where you're wrong, Joblins," put in Harris, his old tormentor, +backing up Mick most effectively in his attempt at taking a rise out of +the yokel. "Spirits aboard ship is pertic'lerly partial to water, as +every one knows!" + +Passing by this ironical allusion of Harris to the current belief of all +hands anent the watering of the men's grog by the steward, which was +received with much favour by those standing round, Mick went on as +gravely as a judge. + +"Yis, sor, it wor aboord this viry ship thet Oi sayd me last spirrit, +sure," said he. "Lit me say--it moost hev bin a wake, ay, or mebbe +t'wor longer agone than thet. Oi wor a-coomin' oop the forepake afther +dark, jist ez it mebbe now. Ye knows the forepake, Joblins?" + +"Ye-e-es," stuttered out `greeny,' his jaw dropping with fright, and his +mouth open as big as a teacup. "I--I--I knows the forepeak, mate." + +"Will, thin," continued Mick, "ez Oi came out on dick oop the fore- +hatchway, be the powers, I says, sure, a tirrible big black thing roight +foreninst me, wid its long arrums stritched oot on ayther soide; an' +whin Oi looked oop fur to say if the onairthly craychur hed ony hid on +him--" + +"Lor'!" cried Joblins, interrupting him at this thrilling point, all +agog with excitement; "what did you see, mate?" + +"Faith," replied my chum, with a grin, "the poor craychur hed no hid at +all, at all, sure! Begorrah, all he hed, sure, wor a spud-net, same as +ye titched yer sicond 'lowance ov grog t'other day wid, Misther Joblins; +an' this wor stuck atop ov wun ov the min's oilskins thet he'd hoong oot +fur to dhry in the fore rigging. Thet wor the spirrit I sayd." + +The roar of the boatswain's mate calling `all hands' to make sail, at +this juncture drowned the general laugh that went round the mess at poor +Joblins' expense; and, exchanging the warm atmosphere of the lower deck +for the boisterous weather above, we were soon engaged in the more +arduous task of pulling ropes than other people's legs! + +We had run some distance scudding before the gale; and, as the +navigating officer thought that we were now pretty well beyond the risk +of experiencing any further ill effects from the stormy nor'-easter, the +commodore made up his mind to utilise it and proceed on our voyage home. + +So setting our topsails double-reefed again and bracing round the yards +on a bowline, we shaped a course for the Azores or Western Islands; and +getting into calmer latitudes ere morning, were able to make all plain +sail again. + +On the second day after this we had an awful thunderstorm, in which the +lightning flashed from all points of the compass, and heaven's artillery +pealed as if the sky was bursting asunder. + +This was followed by a deluge of rain, which washed our decks cleaner +than they had been since we left our home port, though the first +lieutenant was pretty sharp about seeing them scrubbed and washed down +daily. + +The same afternoon, when it had cleared up again, the sun coming out and +the waves calming down, our lookout-man aloft in the foretop sighted +something in the distance. + +"Sail ho!" he cried, "on our lee bow." + +Every eye was cocked as we peered over the bulwarks, and every ear +strained to catch what followed. + +"Where away?" hailed the commodore, who was walking up and down aft, +taking a constitutional after his lunch, I suppose. "What do you make +it out to be?" + +"A boat adrift, sir, I think," replied the lookout-man, stopping to have +another good look at the object. "It's well away on our lee bow, sir, +and we're passing it abeam now." + +"Very good, my man," said the commodore; and, turning to the officer of +the watch, he added, "Square the yards, Mr Osborne, and we'll run down +and see what it is." + +This order was soon carried out; when, with our sticks braced round to +the brisk breeze, which had shifted to the westward since the thunder- +storm, we were soon bowling down before it, our sails bellied out to +their utmost in the direction indicated by the lookout-man in the +foretop, who was now aided by the eyes of half a dozen midshipmen or +more, all eagerly scanning the horizon ahead with all sorts of +telescopes and binoculars. + +"Lookout-man!" hailed the commodore after a bit, "how does the boat bear +now?" + +"Dead on the weather bow, sir," returned the man the next instant. +"We're about a couple o' mile off her, sir." + +The commodore then addressed the quarter-master aft. + +"Luff up!" he cried--"half a point will do; and, Mr Osborne, take a +pull at your lee braces. That will do--steady!" + +The ship having good way upon her, we soon overhauled the drifting boat, +which we could make out presently quite clearly from the deck. + +Nearer and nearer we approached it, until we could look down right into +it and see a number of figures, all of whom, however, were motionless. + +"Begorrah!" cried Mick, who stood near me in the fore-chains, ready with +a rope to chuck down into the little craft as we surged alongside it, as +indeed were several others also, like prepared, forwards; "they've bin +havin' a divvle ov a row, or foightin', or somethin', sure; fur Tom, +look thare, me bhoy--can't ye say some soords or a pair of cutlashes or +somethin' like 'em oonder the afther-thwart theer?" + + + +CHAPTER TWENTY. + +"JOCKO." + +"I believe I do, Mick," I said, squinting down as eagerly as himself +into the boat, near to which the ship was gradually sidling up, her way +having been checked by her being brought up to the wind and the maintop- +sail backed. "They are very quiet, poor chaps. I wonder if they are +all dead?" + +The same thought seemed to have occurred to the old commodore; for, as I +said this, in pursuance of some order he must have given to that +effect--for nobody does a thing on board a man-o'-war without the +previous command of his superior officer--the boatswain hailed the +little craft. + +"Boat ahoy!" he shouted, with his lungs of brass and voice of a bull. +"Ahoy! Ahoy-oy!" + +No answer came, nor was there any movement amongst the boat's occupants, +who were lying pell-mell along the thwarts and on the bottom boards in +her sternsheets. + +"Poor fellows, they must be all dead!" exclaimed the commodore, almost +in my own words. "Mr Osborne, get a boat ready to send off and +overhaul her!" + +The officer of the watch, however, had already made preparations to this +end, the first cutter's crew having been piped and the men standing +ready by the davits to lower her into the water, with the gripes cast +off and the falls cleared. + +"All ready there, coxsun, eh?" he cried; and then, without waiting for +any answer, he sang out, "Lower away!" + +Down glided the cutter into the water as the hands inboard eased off the +falls; and, her crew having dropped their oars, the next minute she was +pulling out towards the boat, which was now only some twenty yards or so +off the ship, abreast of our mizzen-chains. + +Of course, we could see from the ship all that went on as the cutter +sheered up to the derelict craft. The bowman was standing up with his +boathook ready to hook on when he got near enough, and Mr Osborne, the +`first luff,' standing up likewise astern to inspect the better the boat +and its motionless occupants, he himself having gone away in the cutter, +seeing how anxious the commodore seemed in the matter, instead of +sending a young midshipman as usual. + +Something strange must have happened, for, as our boat touched the +other, we could hear a startled cry from Mr Osborne, followed by a sort +of suppressed groan from the cutter's crew. + +This reached the commodore's ear. "Cutter, ahoy!" he hailed. "Any one +alive?" + +"No, sir," came back the reply from Mr Osborne, in a sad tone. "All +are dead--and a fearful death too!" + +"Why," called out the commodore eagerly, as curious as all of us were, +"what's the matter?" + +"Struck by lightning, I think, sir," answered Mr Osborne, who held his +handkerchief to his face and spoke in a stifled voice, after bending +down and looking over into the sternsheets of the derelict. "Can't say +exactly, sir. They're in an awful state!" + +"Ho, bad job!" muttered the commodore aft, on the poop, as if talking to +himself; and then in a louder key he sang out, "You'd better bring the +boat alongside and let the doctor see them!" + +Thereupon the bowman hitching the cutter's painter to the stem of the +other boat which projected above the gunwale, and letting out the slack +of the rope so as the boat should not come too close, Mr Osborne giving +some order to that effect, they took her in tow, and in a few strokes +were alongside the ship again. + +When they came up, there was no reason for any one to ask why the first +lieutenant had held his handkerchief to his face. + +The stench was abominable! + +The doctor, who was ready and waiting at the ship's side, at once went +down by the commodore's orders and examined the dead men, who we now saw +were five in number, though they smelt like five hundred. + +"Bedad, Tom," said Mick to me, as we looked down over the side, holding +our noses--as, indeed, everybody on board was doing, every man-jack in +the ship, I think, being on deck, from the old commodore down to the +youngest middy and ship's boy--"Oi nivver smilt a shmell loike thet +since me faither an' Oi wor at Clontarf whin they opened the graveyard +theer, and toorned the owld coffins out wid the bones rattlin' aboot in +thim jist loike pays in a pannikin, sure, whin we're goin' fur to make +pay-soup, or pay doo, ez we used fur to call it aboard the owld _Saint +Vincent_!" + +Mr Osborne meanwhile had come up the side; and from where Mick and I +were standing, by the mizzen-chains, I could hear distinctly every word +he said, though I missed the first part, from Mick Donovan speaking to +me at the moment, and he was in the middle of a sentence when I began to +take in his words. + +"--Must have been a terrible scrimmage, sir. One of the cutlasses seems +covered with dry blood right up to the hilt; while the two dead chaps +between the thwarts are cut about and carved in all directions. The lot +of them, no doubt, were at it hammer and tongs when the flash came." + +"Begorrah," whispered Mick in my ear, in comment on this statement, "it +wor jist loike the two Kilkenny cats, sure, who fought till thaire wor +ownly theer tails lift, sure!" + +The commodore, however, took a graver view of the matter. + +"It must have been awfully sudden, Mr Osborne," he said; "and you think +they were runaways or mutineers?" + +"I'm sure of it," replied `Number One' significantly. "There are a lot +of gold coins and dollars scattered about in the bottom of the boat, +besides an open bundle containing a collection of watches and other +jewellery; and, from the greasy pack of cards lying alongside these, I +fancy they must have been playing for the plunder and quarrelled about +the division of it!" + +"Then the lightning came and settled the thing for good and all," said +the commodore solemnly, sinking his voice to an impressive tone. "It +was the judgment of God!" + +The doctor, after a very brief stay in the boat, came up the side again +and made his report to our chief. + +"All of them must have been killed instanter by the one flash of +lightning, which seems to have gone all over the boat, zigzagging in a +most curious manner," said he. "The electric fluid, sir, has actually +fused the blade of one of the cutlasses, and melted down the dollars and +doubloons, which the poor devils must have been gambling with, all into +a solid mass in the bottom of the boat!" + +"Indeed!" + +"Yes, sir," affirmed the doctor, in answer to this exclamation from the +commodore. "But the lightning, sir, has done something more wonderful +than that, which I would not have believed unless I had seen it myself. +I pulled open the shirt of one of the dead men, and there, on his +breast, was a perfect photograph, as if done in Indian ink, of a ship in +full sail, like the one which nearly collided with us the other day and +afterwards foundered!" + +"Pooh!" cried the commodore incredulously. "It is probably a tattoo +mark, the same as all sailors like to deface their bodies with." + +"Oh no, sir," persisted Doctor Mopson. "It's a real photograph printed +by the flash of lightning. I've seen too many tattoo marks in my time +while examining fellows in the sick-bay not to recognise them. This is +plainly done by the electric fluid--you can see it for yourself, sir!" + +"Thanks," said the commodore drily, walking to the other side of the +deck and putting his silk handkerchief to his face, a very unpleasant +whiff from the boat, which was still alongside, coming inboard. "I'll +take your word for it, doctor, as you say it is so. I wonder if those +fellows really belonged to that unfortunate ship?" + +"Not unlikely, sir," said Mr Osborne, thinking the commodore, who had +soliloquised aloud, according to his habit, had addressed the question +to him. "The vessel did not seem to have a man on board her as far as I +could see. Perhaps these dead beggars here plundered her and abandoned +her after murdering their captain and officers!" + +"Perhaps so," agreed our chief; "but, in any case, whether they have met +with their just deserts or not--and for my part I am inclined to believe +the former--we must give them Christian burial. I think, Mr Osborne, +you had better let their boat be their coffin." + +"By far the best plan, sir," put in the doctor, on the commodore looking +towards him. "The lightning has so decomposed the corpses that it would +be impossible to handle them, and it would be detrimental to the health +of those touching them, too." + +This decided the commodore, who thereupon gave orders that some pigs of +ballast should be put within the boat, and that it should be afterwards +boarded over with a few rough planks. + +This, Mr Chips the carpenter, with the aid of his mates, quickly +accomplished; and then the boat, with its ghastly contents now happily +concealed from view, was drawn up half out of the water, suspended from +one of the davits, and holes bored in the bottom. + +When all was ready, the `assembly' was sounded, and we all stood +bareheaded along the deck, drawn up as at `divisions,' while the +chaplain read a brief funeral service; and, on the conclusion of this, +the painter that held up the boat being severed, the coffin-craft sank +slowly below the surface to the fathomless abysses of one of the deepest +parts of the Atlantic--for I heard the navigating officer tell Mr +Osborne that soundings had been got here showing a depth of over four +miles. + +The funeral finished, the hands were piped down; and then, our yards +being squared again, we bore away once more for the Azores, reaching +Saint Michael's a few days later, in company with the rest of the +squadron. + +This island, like the majority of the Azores, is of volcanic origin; +and, looking at it from the sea, even when near in, it is not a very +picturesque object, the conical hills and extinct craters giving it a +monotonous, if mountainous, aspect. + +We anchored off Ponta Delgado, about three-quarters of a mile off shore, +in twenty-five fathom water, and, as we stopped there a couple of days, +we were allowed short leave, each watch in turn, to land and see the +sights. + +These, beyond the flowers, which were beautiful from the effects of the +volcanic soil, did not amount to much; and as the inhabitants are all +Portuguese, whom we did not tackle to much, the ladies all wearing long +cloaks with cowl-like hoods, the same as monks, which prevented us from +seeing their faces, I can't say we enjoyed our visit to the town as +greatly as we thought we would when we put off from the ship. + +We obtained one acquisition here to our company however, which pleased +all hands. + +This was a little black wiry monkey that originally came from the +Spanish Main, I believe, being landed at Ponta Delgado by some passing +ship; and which Doctor Mopson brought on board, from "motives of +humanity," as he said, having seen its Portugee owner ill-treating it, +and, besides, on account of his being "long desirous of dissecting this +specimen of the simian family," as I heard him tell that brute +Lieutenant Robinson, who I saw enjoyed the prospect of seeing the poor +little thing cut up. + +The doctor, though, had only spoken in joke, he being a most good- +hearted chap who would not have hurt a fly, except inadvertently, should +he happen to have to treat the animal professionally; so, instead of +being dissected, `Jocko,' as he was christened, was made free of the +ship, and presently became a prime favourite with all on board. + +He was certainly a clever little chap, performing all sorts of tricks, +and being up to all sorts of mischief. + +"Begorrah," as Mick said, "he can do ivv'rythin' save spake; an' thet +the artful joker won't do, faith, bekase he thinks, sure, we'll make him +wurrk!" + +One day on our passage home to England, `Jocko' got into as great +disgrace as I did that time when I was `caught in the act,' smoking, on +board the _Saint Vincent_. + +Master monkey, if you please, managed to get into the chaplain's cabin +through the scuttle, the door being locked on purpose to prevent his +intrusion. + +It was on a Saturday when this occurred, a day the Reverend Mr Tibbits +devoted to composing his usual Sunday sermon, which lay on his desk +neatly written out on the usual official foolscap; the worthy gentleman +having just completed his task of attending to our spiritual needs on +the morrow, and being then engaged in recruiting his own inner man, +after his arduous labours, with lunch in the wardroom mess. + +Hence, the chaplain's temporal necessity was Jocko's opportunity. + +Seeing the fine field open for the exercise of his ingenious +imagination, Jocko set to work as speedily as possible, to see what +havoc he could make in the short time the sagacious animal knew he had +at his disposal; and he seized hold in some way or other of a big quart +bottle of ink which the chaplain kept for a reserve stock on top of the +bookcase at the side--at least so it was thought afterwards, no one, of +course, having seen him do it. + +This, with an artistic idea of effect, the monkey poured liberally, not +only over the sermon and other papers that lay on the table, but on the +reverend gentleman's sheets as well, Jocko probably thinking a black +colour would be more suitable and in keeping with the clerical garments +that hung from some clothes-pegs adjacent. + +Next, Mr Jocko appropriated the chaplain's Bible, and `diligently +searched the Scriptures' for some time, with great care tearing out +those leaves, and there were many, containing passages which +particularly struck his fancy. + +A large prayer-book, whose type or binding offended him in some way or +other, he took up with his paws and very carefully dropped through the +scuttle, to refresh the souls of the fishes below. + +What mischief he might have done further, no one knows; for at that +moment the chaplain opened the door and interrupted Jocko at his +devotional exercises. + +From the yell he gave out, as the wardroom steward subsequently +detailed, the Reverend Mr Tibbits must have believed His Satanic +Majesty was in possession of his cabin; and, on his realising the +character of his visitor properly, ere he could clutch hold of Jocko, +who was then chattering away in high glee and making hideous faces, his +invariable habit when he expected punishment after some evil deed as +now, the agile monkey, gripping a portion of the ink-sodden sermon in +one paw, and the chaplain's black velvet skull-cap in the other, +vanished through the open scuttle by which he had obtained admittance, +proceeding up the side as nimbly as one of the foretopmen to the +crosstrees aloft, where he put on the skull-cap and very possibly +pondered over all that he had done. + +He had reason to; for a fiat of banishment from the wardroom and its +approaches was the sequel to his escapade, in addition to a severe +thrashing after he was caught, which it took the watch the whole +afternoon to effect, Jocko playing a fine game of `follow my leader' up +the shrouds and down the stays, from one end of the ship to the other, +until, tired out at last, he surrendered and took his flogging, like a +monkey if not like a man. + +Exiled from aft the main-hatchway, Mr Jocko took up his quarters with +the boatswain, who offered to assume charge of him when Doctor Mopson +gave him up as a bad job and the other officers repudiated him; and, +being now able to associate with us forward more freely, he quickly +learnt all manner of new tricks, using a glass, for instance, as well as +a signalman, and another sort of glass, especially if it contained grog, +as expertly as Joblins did, when he had the chance. + +On our voyage home from the Azores he afforded rare fun to all of us, +the men dressing him up in regular sailor rig, and the carpenter's mate +carving a rifle and sword-bayonet for him out of a bit of wood that was +handy. + +With this, Jocko used to take his place with the starboard watch when we +beat to quarters, and the men would come hurrying up on deck hastily +with their weapons each to his station. + +You should only have seen him sight his rifle and pretend to aim at an +imaginary enemy; while at the order to `repel boarders' he would drop +down in a half-sitting posture, looking as comical as possible, holding +his sword-bayonet at the charge. + +On these occasions he would always range himself by the side of Mick, +whom he selected in preference to all the rest of the ship's company as +his chosen associate. + +The boatswain noticed this; and one day in the early part of April, as +we were coming up Channel on our return from our cruise and nearing +Spithead, being just abreast of the projecting headland of Dunose on the +south side of the Isle of Wight, Mr Blockley comes up to Mick as he and +I and Jocko were standing on the forecastle. + + + +CHAPTER TWENTY ONE. + +I BECOME AN "ORDINARY SEAMAN." + +"Tell us, Donovan," said he--"now, what would you do with that monkey, +supposing I make him over to you?" + +"Faith," replied Mick, not knowing whether the boatswain was trying to +take a rise out of him or not, "Oi wudn't ate him, sor." + +"I suppose not," said Mr Blockley, grinning, as Mick did, in sympathy. +"But would you take care of him, my lad, if I give the monkey to you?" + +"An' is it whither Oi'll take care ov him ye're afther axin' me?" said +my chum, taking hold of Jocko as he spoke. "Begorrah, ye jist coom to +me arrums, ye little baiste, and show Misther Blockley how fond yez are +ov me, ye divvle!" + +Jocko, who had been standing in front of: the pair at the time on the +forecastle in the position of `present arms,' holding his little wooden +rifle as correctly as the smartest drilled marine, at once dropped this +on the deck, and sprang, not into Mick's arms, but on to his left +shoulder, where he chattered and grimaced away, no doubt telling his +chosen friend in the choicest monkey language how much he loved him. + +This was proof to Mr Blockley of the affection that existed between the +two; so, without further demur, he made over all right and title he +might possess in Jocko to Mick. + +"But, you're sure, my lad, you'll take good care of him," he said. "I +wouldn't like any harm to come to the poor little beggar. The doctor +gave him to me on the understanding that he would be well looked after, +and on the same conditions I trust him now to you." + +"Faith, sor, ye couldn't do botther," replied Mick, caressing Jocko with +much satisfaction, evidently proud to be his real owner. "Sure, an' if +Oi've got to go to say ag'in an' can't look afther the baiste mesilf, +it's some 'un ilse Oi'll be afther givin' him to thet'll say to him aven +betther nor mesilf!" + +"And who's that?" inquired the boatswain, with a laugh, noticing a flush +come over Mick's face. "You know I'm interested in the monkey and have +a sort of right to ask." + +Mick looked `nine ways for Sunday,' to use his own favourite expression. + +"Bedad, sor," he at length replied sheepishly, "it's Jenny, sor." + +"But," persisted Mr Blockley, smelling a rat, "who's Jenny?" + +"Tom's sisther, sure." + +"O-o-oh!" + +Not being certain exactly as to the meaning of Mr Blockley's +ejaculation, Mick went on to explain further. + +"Yis, sor, she's the sisther, sure, ov me fri'nd Tom Bowlin' here, sor," +he said, pointing me out by a punch in the ribs that nearly knocked all +the breath out of me. "An', sure, she's moighty fond ov burrds!" + +Mr Blockley laughed. + +"From that, I suppose, Paddy," he said, as soon as he could speak, "you +put Jocko here in the same boat as the birds?" + +"Begorrah, Oi do, sor," replied Mick, with a broad grin, as he cuddled +the monkey up to him in his arms; Jocko taking off Mick's cap the while, +and carefully scattering its motley contents to the winds. "Oi call +him, sure, a Saint Michael's canary, faith, sor!" + +"You'll do," said Mr Blockley, laughing again as he went away to attend +to his duties, in seeing the chain cables got up from below, and ranged +along the lower deck in preparation for our anchoring anon. "Let alone +an Irishman for having the last word!" + +Having a good breeze with us from the southward and westward, we soon +rounded Saint Helen's point, off the east end of the island; and making +a wide reach in towards the Warner lightship, we brought up at Spithead +at Four Bells, comfortably. + +Just before we anchored, Mr Osborne, the first lieutenant, sent for +Mick and myself, the marine who passed the word forward for us, saying +that `Number One' wanted to see us in the wardroom. + +Wondering what was up, my chum and I proceeded aft, where we found Mr +Osborne seated at the table, having just had lunch, as the cloth showed. + +`Number One,' who had evidently enjoyed his meal, being in a genial +mood, as indeed, to give him his due, he usually was, did not keep us +long in suspense. + +"Ha, my lads," he said, on the sentry ushering us up to where he sat, +"you've given in your names, I believe, to pass for ordinary seamen, +eh?" + +The cat was out of the bag at once, and mightily we felt relieved at +that. + +I could not help smiling as I answered Mr Osborne in the affirmative; +while, as for Mick, his "Yis, sor," was rolled out with an emphasis that +made `Number One' laugh outright. + +"I hear very good reports of both of you, my lads--of you Bowling in +particular," he said, looking at some papers before him, which he signed +and handed over to the marine sentry, telling him to send them on to the +ship's office; "and, as you are now both eighteen, the proper age to be +entered on the books as `ordinary seamen,' and have shown your aptitude +for the service during the six months you have been aboard this ship, I +pass you, my lads, so you may now look upon yourselves as `boys' no +longer!" + +Thanking the lieutenant, we left the wardroom, as may be supposed, +decorously enough; but we had no sooner got out on the dock without than +Mick executed a wild caper, which made the sentry grin. + +"Bedad, Tom," he said, loud enough for the marine to hear, "me fayther +allers s'id Oi'd be a man afore me moother; an', faith, Oi'm thet now, +plaize the pigs!" + +It was certainly a most unexpected denouement to the ordeal we had +expected when sending in our names, both of us thinking we would have +had to pass some stiff grind in seamanship and other naval acquirements, +similar to the examinations we used to undergo on board the old _Saint +Vincent_; and as we now were rated really as seamen, with the pay of one +shilling and threepence a day, instead of sevenpence, besides having all +the dirty work of the ship taken off our hands, Mick and I considered +ourselves in clover, as you may readily imagine! + +The _Active_ and _Volage_, the two Portsmouth ships of the Training +Squadron, went into harbour early the very next morning, laying +alongside the dockyard as before, to refit for their summer cruise; and, +later on, when we were moored in our old berth at the Pitch-House jetty +and things made right on board, we got leave with the rest of the +starboard watch to go ashore, Mick, of course, going home with me, and +Jocko equally, of course, forming one of the company. + +On our reaching Bonfire Corner, Mick was in a fix about Jocko, +apparently, eyeing him when we got near the door of father's cottage, +and then looking at me with a puzzled expression on his face, the monkey +saving him the trouble of scratching his head, which Mick had got into +the habit of doing whenever he was in a quandary, by most affectionately +performing the operation for him. + +"Hullo, old chap," said I, "what's up?" + +"Faith, Tom, Oi'm onaisy in me moind, sure, about Jocko," he replied. +"Oi don't want yer sisther to be afther sayin' him at foorst. Sure, Oi +want to take her be surprise, alannah." + +"Well," said I, "that needn't trouble you, Mick. Let's put the little +beggar over the garden wall." + +"But, s'posin' onywun's theer?" + +"You needn't be afraid of that," said I. "Mother and Jenny will be just +having tea about this time, most likely, in the kitchen; and, if +father's at home and not out in his wherry, he'll be taking a caulk in +his old seat under the mulberry-tree." + +"Begorrah, thin," cried Mick, in high glee at my now giving him this +information, "we'll put the little baiste roight over the wall forninst +whare he's a-sottin'; an', faith, if Jocko says him, he'll rouse him oop +fast enuff, an' thin yer fayther'll think he's the divvle, sure, jist ez +the chaplin did aboard the ship t'other day whin Jocko got into his +cabin an' carried on `Meg's divarshuns'!" + +"The very thing," I said, entering into the joke and anticipating +father's astonishment. "Sling him over by that apple-tree, and then +nobody will be able to see how he got in." + +Mick at once carried out my suggestion. + +The apple-tree, which had all its pretty pink and white blossoms out in +full bloom, ran up close to the side of the wall, one branch indeed +projecting over it, though at too great a height for the street boys to +get at the fruit, having to content themselves instead with shying +stones at what they were unable to reach. + +Clambering up the face of the rough old brick wall like a cat, Mick +carefully let down Jocko on the other side at this point, telling him in +a whispered word of command that he was on `sentry go' and mustn't stir +till the order was given to `relieve guard.' + +Jocko evidently understood him clearly; for, although I expected he +would have climbed back again on Mick's shoulder almost as soon as he +put him down, the intelligent animal remained in the garden. + +All things therefore working together as we wished, Mick and I now +proceeded up to the front door and knocked. + +Unfortunately, father had seen the _Active_ coming in and "blown the +gaff" on us; and so, instead of our taking them by surprise, we found +them on the lookout and all ready to receive us. + +Little Jenny, who had grown considerably since I had last seen her, and +was all the prettier, too, as Mick, I noticed, observed as well as +myself, of course opened the door for us; and coming up the passage +behind her was mother and father, with the cockatoo `Ally Sloper' +bringing up the roar of the procession, all of them laughing and +talking, and saying, all in one breath and at the same time, how glad +they were to see me and Mick again, old `Ally Sloper' screaming out +louder than the lot, "I'll wring your neck! I'll wring your neck!" We +did have a tea. + +To look at the table, one would have thought we had been starved all the +time we were afloat, and that mother wished us to make up what leeway we +had lost in the grub line by stowing our holds now as full as we could +possibly manage. + +Bless you, there was a dish of ham and eggs got ready by Jenny in a +jiffy, sufficient to have served round the whole of our mess; while, as +for the bread and butter, cut thin so as to make one want to eat the +more, with marmalade and cakes and the jam, there was plenty, I think, +for our whole ship's company! + +Mick and I ate and ate, I pressed by mother, and he unable to resist +Jenny's hospitable solicitude, until neither of us felt inclined to +rise; when, just at the end of the feast--Mick and I being only just +able then to make signs showing our inability to stow any more, speech +having failed us--a most terrible bobbery broke out in the back garden, +the cockatoo yelling like mad, and every other bird, I believe, in the +shop joining in a demoniac chorus and lending emphasis to his screams. + +"Ship my rullocks!" cried father, jumping up from his seat and making +for the scullery door, with mother and Jenny after him. "It's that +dratted old tom-cat of Bill Squeers come prowling arter the birds again, +I knows. I've sworn I'll pison him some day; and, by the Lord, too, I +will, if he's bin and gone and meddled with `Ally Sloper'!" + +"Aye, Thomas Bowling, just you stick to that," said mother, spurring him +on to instant vengeance, fearing that father's loudly expressed +animosity to our namesake the cat would evaporate, as it invariably did, +after the cause of the commotion had made off. "The nasty beast nearly +frightened one of Jenny's canaries to death the other day; but I gave +him one with my broom-handle which made him scoot, I can tell you, the +brute not having come back into the garden again, as I knows of, till +to-day!" + +So saying, mother disappeared, with her potent broomstick, behind the +hedge of evergreens that shut off the backyard from our garden, in the +wake of father and Jenny, who, being more speedy in their movements, +were already out of sight. + +Mick looked at me, and I looked at Mick; and then the two of us burst +into a roar of laughter as we followed up the chase to see the end of +it. + +We arrived just in time. + +Jocko, who, as may be supposed, was the originator of all the row, had +got up into the mulberry-tree, the cockatoo's own especial domain, and, +chattering and making faces at the bird, had clutched hold of one of his +legs in his hand-like paw, trying to pull him from his perch. + +This `Ally Sloper' resisted with all his might and main, hanging from a +branch of the tree with the claw that was free, while he pecked and bit +the monkey with his nut-cracker beak, making Jocko wince and snarl and +pull all the harder to get him into his clutches, the cockatoo screaming +like mad, as I have said, all the while! + +"Lor'!" exclaimed mother, holding up her hands at this sight, just as we +came up, "it ain't Squeers's cat after all! How ever did that there +monkey get here?" + +"It must have broken loose from some place near," said Jenny. "The +milkman told me this morning that Smith, the fancier, had one the other +day which crammed a lot of cinders down the baby's throat and nearly +killed it, and that Mr Smith was obliged to get rid of it." + +"Then, this can't be that chap," said father, sitting down in his old +armchair under the tree and looking up at Jocko, who had released `Ally +Sloper' on our approach and gone up aloft in one of the topmost +branches. "I'd bet 'arf-a-crown now, Sarah, as how them two youngsters +here could tell us summat o' the monkey if they likes!" + +He had a sharp eye, had father, and had caught Mick winking at me. + +So, there being now no longer any need, or indeed chance, of +concealment, especially with Jenny's eyes fixed on him, Mick thought it +best to make a clean breast of it at once. + +"Coom down out o' thet, ye divvle. 'Tenshin, Jocko!" cried he, patting +his shoulder, to which his friend the monkey at once jumped from the +tree; and then, turning to my sister, he said, with a roguish look in +his black eyes, "Oi've brought ye a little prisint, Miss Jenny, ez Oi +hopes ez how ye'll be afther acceptin'." + +Jenny smiled. + +"What," said she--"a monkey?" + +"No, Miss Jenny," replied Mick, grinning, while Jocko chattered in +sympathetic glee. "He ain't a monkey at all, at all. Sure, he's what I +calls a Saint Michael's canary!" + +This was a settler for all of them; father leaning back in his chair and +holding his sides, while mother and Jenny enjoyed the joke as much as we +could both wish, `Ally Sloper' adding to the merriment of us all by +shrieking out at intervals alternately, "Say-rah! Say-rah!" and "Blest +if I don't have a smoke!" in father's very own voice. + +On returning to the _Active_ after our leave was up, Mick and I were +sent to the guardship, or depot, having to leave our old ship through +getting our new rating as ordinary seamen, we having been drafted to her +as `boys'; for, being no longer held to be such, we, of course, had no +`local habitation or name,' according to the saying, on board her. + +We did not have much of a stay at home, however, all the same, Mick +getting appointed within the next fortnight to the flagship on the Cape +station, when he and I parted for the first time since we became chums, +more than two years previously, on our joining the _Saint Vincent_ +together. + +A sailor's life, though, is made up of partings, not only with one +another, but with the old folks at home as well, and sometimes with +certain persons even dearer than these; so, wringing my hand in his +hearty grip and leaving a tender farewell for Jenny, whom he was unable +to see before going away, she being on a visit to a cousin of ours who +lived at Chichester, Mick and I said good-bye to one another. Really, I +envied his luck of getting the chance of seeing active service so soon! + +I did not have to envy him long; for, a week later, I was turned over to +the _Mermaid_, a new second-class cruiser just commissioned to join the +eastern division of the Mediterranean Fleet, to take the place for the +time of one of the smaller ships belonging to the squadron, under refit +at Malta, our orders being then to proceed to the Red Sea, where it was +expected that Osman Digna would be making matters warm in and about +Suakin later on in the year. + +Some three days subsequently to my going on board her, with a complete +new rig-out, bag, baggage, and all, the _Mermaid_ sailed for the +Straits; if sailing it can be called in a ship going by steam alone, and +which had not a royal-yard to cross, or any other spars to speak of +aloft for that matter, the cruiser being rigged to carry fore-and-aft +sail in case of emergency should her engines break down. + +It might be thought from this that my early training in a sailing-ship +was thrown away, there being no longer any necessity for me to display +my activity in racing up the rigging and running out on a yard to reef +topsails. + +The contrary, however, was the case; and I've found, even during my +short experience afloat--ay, and in spite of the ridiculous assertions +of some shore folk, who know about as much of life in the navy as they +do to club-haul a ship off a lee shore--that the men who have learnt to +hold on by the skin of their teeth in a heavy gale, from the aptitude +they have gained in the old-fashioned class of ships, are the handiest +and the readiest at a pinch in the new! + +Of course, though, I only found out this afterwards; as on first joining +the _Mermaid_ the ship was as strange to me as I, sore at parting with +Mick, felt myself a complete stranger to all on board. + +So I thought, at least. + +But I was mistaken. + + + +CHAPTER TWENTY TWO. + +AN OLD ACQUAINTANCE. + +"Hullo!" exclaimed a voice that seemed very familiar to me, on my +getting down to the mess-deck below with my bag, when I had got my +number, and been told off to my watch and division. "Who'd ha' thought +o' meeting yer here?" + +The speaker was a broad-shouldered chap, with a lot of hair all over his +face, and I did not recognise him for the moment. + +"You've got the advantage of me, mate," said I civilly, not wishing to +hurt his feelings if he had made a mistake in addressing me, as I +believed he had. "I can't place you." + +"Lor', carn't yer?" replied the chap, with a broad grin stealing over +his face. "I fancies, Tom Bowlin', I hed th' adwantage on yer onst, an' +placed yer too, that time I cut yer down in yer hammick aboard the +_Saint Vincent_, hey, old ship?" + +It was Larrikins. + +Needless to say how glad I was to meet him again, or what yarns we had +to tell each other of what had happened to us respectively since last we +met. + +He was the same frolicsome, good-tempered chap that he had been on board +the training-ship, I found, after a very few minutes' talk; but his love +of practical-joking had been sobered down a bit within due bounds, and, +on the whole, he was very much improved in every way. + +"I s'pose ye've never bin aboard a hooker like this afore," he said to +me presently, after we had made an end of exchanging reminiscences, +noticing that I was all at loggerheads in finding my way below. "It's +them bloomin' watertight compartments as does it; but come along o' me, +Tom, and I'll show yez the ropes." + +So saying, he took me over the ship, pointing out how the _Mermaid_ had +a steel-protected deck running fore and aft, that sheltered her engines +and boilers beneath; the space in beneath this and the bottom of the +vessel being subdivided by a series of vertical iron bulkheads, +completely shutting off the various `flats,' or lower decks, from each +other. + +An arrangement so complex naturally necessitated a fellow having to +climb up one hatchway and go down another before he could speak to his +chum in the next flat, thus causing one to go through `sich a getting +upstairs' like that mentioned in the celebrated negro ballad. The +difference of the deck plan of a modern cruiser, as compared with that +of my old ship the _Active_, was not the only thing I had to learn on +being drafted to the _Mermaid_; for the drills were quite as strange to +me at first as her complicated build inboard. + +The stokers, of course, had to see to driving her through the water, +that being their special duty, under the superintendence of the +engineers; so, as this job was taken out of the hands of us bluejackets, +and there was nothing for us to do in the way of setting and taking in +sail, the executive officers managed to find other work for us to keep +our minds from mischief when we were aboard. + +One of these tasks was `collision mat' drill; when we would be tumbled +up on deck to rig out a roll of oakum that was plaited into the +semblance of a gigantic doormat, right over the side, dragging it by +means of guys and springs under our forefoot, to fill up some imaginary +hole that had been knocked into us by too friendly a craft passing by +and running athwart our hawse! + +Another favourite drill in vogue with the johnnies of our new regime was +that of `closing watertight doors.' + +The signal for this being about to be carried out was the blowing of a +particularly excruciating sort of foghorn at some unexpected hour of the +day or night--it used to be in every watch on the _Mermaid_; and at the +sound of this melodious instrument, which was most likely selected by +the authorities in recollection of the story of Joshua and his trumpet, +the `walls,' or, rather, bulkheads, of the ship did not `come down,' but +were run up! + +By this means every compartment throughout the ship was isolated and all +communication cut off between the various flats. + +The officers were shut into their wardroom; the engineers and stokers in +their own special domain; and the men forward, perhaps, on their mess- +deck; until the officer of the watch had made the rounds and those in +charge of the respective watertight doors had affirmed the fact, from +personal supervision, that all these were closed, when, this gratifying +intelligence was communicated to the captain, and he gave the order to +open them again. + +In addition to these exercises, there was the old `fire quarters' drill, +to which I was accustomed; and `man and arm ship,' when all of us +hurried to our stations on the main-deck batteries--those who formed +part, that is, of the crews of the several guns of different types we +had aboard; while the rest of us lined the sides of the upper deck, +prepared to pepper away with our rifles at any approaching foe, and +repel, with our sword-bayonets at the `charge,' all possible boarders. + +We had about a week's cruising in the Channel, to knock us into shape as +well as test our machinery, the _Mermaid_ being a new vessel and not +long delivered over from the contractors; but, Captain Hankey being a +smart officer, besides being ably seconded by his subordinates, this was +so satisfactorily achieved, as regards both ship and men, that ere we +reached old Gib, whose couching lion-head facing out to sea reminded me +strongly of the more familiar Bill of Portland, any one inspecting us +would really have thought the _Mermaid_ an old stager and that our raw +company had been working together for months, instead of only a week or +two! + +`Old Hankey Pankey,' though, as he was called on the lower deck--sailors +having always a nickname for their officers, whether they like them or +dislike them--possessed the rare art of managing those under his command +to such a degree that he would have turned out a likely enough crew from +much worse material; while he `got to win'ard' of the engineers so +cleverly that they never grumbled at any orders he gave--unlike those +gentry in general--thus enabling us to pile on steam and make the +passage out from England in far less time than we expected, there being +no complaints from the stokehold of `leaking tubes' and `priming' +boilers necessitating our having to `slow down.' + +After passing through the Gut of Gibraltar, we made for Malta; which +place seems to have such a magnetic attraction for our men-of-war, both +homeward and outward bound, that none by any chance ever gives it the +go-by, there being always some little defect to `make good,' or +despatches to wait for, or letters to post, or something that obliges +them to cast anchor in Valetta harbour, if they are only allowed to +remain an hour or two! + +We fortunately stopped here for three days; and, though the men +generally were not given leave ashore, Larrikins and I, being both in +the first cutter, we had the chance of landing more than once. + +We had a bit of fun, too, on one of these occasions when going up the +Nix Mangiare stairs, leading up from the place where the men-of-war +boats put in to the town above. + +These stairs are so named, it may be explained for the benefit of those +who have not been there, from being the haunt of a number of beggars who +frequent the steep ascent, demanding alms of all bluejackets and others +that may chance to pass up or down, their whining plea being that they +have nothing to eat-- "Nix mangiare, buono Johnny, nix mangiare!" + +We had already been accosted by three or four of these chaps, to each of +whom we had given a trifle, moved by their poverty-stricken appearance +and Maltese whine; when, on reaching the top of the steps, an old +fellow, who from his venerable look seemed above that sort of thing, +repeated a like request to his compeers lower down the stairs, holding +out the palm of a lean clawlike hand resembling one of Jocko's paws. + +"No, no, that won't wash," said Larrikins, in a chaffy way, catching +hold of a fine-looking malacca cane the old fellow was leaning on, and +which seemed more fit for a grand seignior than a beggar. "None of your +bono johnnies with me, you old reprobate. Yer oughter be ashamed on +yerself, yer ought, axing fur charity from poor sailors like we--you +with this fine walkin'-stick here, good enough for `old Hankey Pankey' +hisself!" + +With that, Larrikins, wrenching the malacca from the unwilling hands of +the old fellow, gave it a shake in the air as if he were going to apply +it to the shoulders of its owner. + +"By jingo," I cried out, "there's something chinking in it that sounds +like money, Larry!" + +"Lor', it is money, Tom," exclaimed Larrikins, at once giving the stick +a good bash against the side of the wall. "The thunderin' old cheat of +a Maltese scoundrel is a regular take-in, askin' on us fur to help him +and he a-rollin' in gold all the time, the blessed old miser!" + +This statement was true enough; for, as the malacca cane came against +the stonework, the head of it flew off, and from the hollow cavity +within that was then disclosed there rolled out, if you please, a string +of gold pieces some twenty at least in number--the result, probably, of +this respectable mendicant's very industrious beggary since he had taken +to the trade, the old rascal carrying his horde about with him for +safety's sake. + +He now burst into tears at his secret wealth being thus brought to +light; judging, no doubt, from what he knew of the morals of his own +countrymen, that Larrikins and I were going to appropriate it to our own +use. + +But, Larrikins and I were English sailors--not any of your Maltese +riffraff; and so, picking up the scattered gold, we gave it back to the +old impostor, the suspicious scoundrel counting each piece as we dropped +it into his hands to make sure that we did not purloin any. + +"Take that, yer old joker," said Larrikins, as we left the scene of the +incident, tendering the old gentleman a parting kick. "That's some +interest, old Bono Johnny, to stick inter yer ditty box along o' yer +shiners!" + +We had no further adventure at Malta, beyond finding out that most of +the shopkeepers and other chaps with whom we dealt during our short stay +were as great cheats as our beggar friend of the Nix Mangiare stairs. + +Before leaving the port, however, to proceed up the Levant, we heard a +piece of news that gave some of us much satisfaction. + +This was, that, instead of the _Mermaid_ having to act for some months +as jackal to the eastern division of the fleet, as had been intended +when we were commissioned, we were now ordered to pass up the +Mediterranean and proceed on through to the Red Sea, the cruiser which +we had been hurriedly despatched to relieve on account of her condenser +being cracked, having had her damages made good in the dockyard, the +_Merlin_ indeed lying out in French Creek all ready to return to her +station within forty-eight hours of our arrival at Valetta. + +So, on the third morning, a lot of signalling went on between our ship +and the flagstaff ashore at the naval station, the upshot being that we +were ordered to sail early in the afternoon; when, steam being got up +and the anchor weighed, we bade adieu to the island, leaving Saint Elmo +Point on our port hand and shaping a course eastward. + +When we were nearing Alexandria, we had a bit of a `Levanter,' which +delayed our progress for half a day, during which time we had to slow +down our engines and keep under easy steam, head to sea; but, after +that, the weather was as fine as we could wish, and we got through the +Canal without a hitch, not a single vessel blocking us, even after +passing the Bitter Lakes, a very unusual thing at this period of the +year, when the China clippers crowd the narrow waterway and cause +repeated stoppages as a rule to ships outward bound. + +On emerging from the Canal, at Suez, we made the best of our way down +the Red Sea to Suakin, where we found despatches from the senior officer +of the East African station, to which we were attached, directing us to +join him off the island of Socotra; and that if we did not come across +him there we were to cruise along the coast between Ras Hafim and Obbia, +where it was reported the Somali Arabs were getting busy with the advent +of the south-west monsoon, and carting cargoes of slaves over to Oman +and the Persian Gulf--that is, when they saw a chance and none of our +men-of-war were on the spot to stop them! + +In obedience to these instructions, therefore, we steamed steadily +onwards through the Straits of Bab-el-Mandeb, and, making a wide stretch +across the Gulf of Aden to take advantage of the current, steered +straight for our appointed rendezvous. + +Here, finding no one to meet us, nor hearing any news of import to alter +our programme, Captain Hankey hauled up for Cape Guardafui, intending +then to beat down the Somali coast as he had been directed. + +Seeing the funnels of a steamer awash off Binna, we put in nearer to the +shore, the steam cutter being piped away to examine the wreck, which was +too close in to the rocks for the _Mermaid_ to approach her with safety. + +There was no trace of any one living on board, though she had evidently +been only recently abandoned, various articles lying about on the deck +aft, which was clear of the water, that would not have remained long +aboard had she been stranded for any length of time. + +She was clean gutted, however, almost every single movable thing of any +value having been stripped from her. + +"Ha!" I heard Captain Hankey say to our first lieutenant, both of them +coming in the cutter to inspect the steamer. "Those Somali Arabs have +been here, Gresham." + +"Not a doubt of it, sir," replied Mr Gresham. "Those beggars are the +biggest thieves, I believe, in the world; and murderous rascals, too. I +recollect, sir, when I was out here in the old _Vampire_, we had many a +tussle with them, for they fight like wild cats!" + +"Aye, they do that," said the captain. "I shouldn't be surprised if +some of their dhows are knocking about here now!" + +"Nor I, sir," agreed the other. "Oliver, of the _Magpie_, whom I saw at +Suakin, told me there was a rumour of the Somalis running cargoes of +arms, which they pick up somewhere in the German protectorate, to supply +Osman Digna's forces for a fresh campaign that has been planned by the +Arabs against us along the whole coast." + +"That may be," said Captain Hankey; "but the beggars who have been at +work here wore only on the lookout for loot, I think--though, perhaps, +they may have murdered the crew and passengers of this vessel, too, for +all we know. However, to make matters sure, we'll look out for them!" + +"Aye, aye, sir, that will prevent any mistakes," said Mr Gresham, with +a laugh. "I don't think any Arab dhow, whether belonging to the Somalis +or otherwise, can escape the _Mermaid_, should one heave in sight!" + +There being nothing that we could do for the steamer, which would have +to be `written off as a loss' by the underwriters at Lloyd's, the +captain gave the signal for the cutter to return to our ship; and then, +making a good offing, so as to put the Arabs off their guard, we banked +our fires, except under one boiler, keeping the screw just revolving so +as to maintain our position abreast of Binna, well out of sight of the +land. + +A strict watch was maintained, though, all the same, lookouts being +stationed in our military tops as well as on the forecastle; and, in the +early morning, long before sunrise, the steam pinnace and first and +second cutters were lowered alongside, and provisioned ready for action. + +Captain Hankey had kept his eyes open to some purpose when he inspected +the steamer, for he had seen a lot of things that had been stripped off +the vessel put together in a heap under the bridge, as if her plunderers +intended returning for them, not having been able to carry them away at +their last trip; and, albeit he did not draw the attention of our first +lieutenant to this, to my knowledge, when talking to him, no doubt, from +the preparations he made, `old Hankey Pankey' drew his own conclusions. + +His judgment was not at fault. + +Hardly had the first flush of dawn tinted the yellow eastern sky with +its rosy light, heralding the glowing heat of day, ere one of the men +stationed in the tops hailed the deck. + +"There's something moving away off on our weather bow," sang out the +man, shoving his head over the side of the top. "I can't make it out +exactly, sir; there's a haze on the water ahead." + +The second lieutenant, who was acting as officer of the watch, being an +easy-going sort of chap and rather sleepy from being up pacing to and +fro on the bridge since midnight, did not pay much attention to this +intelligence. + +"All right, lookout-man," he hailed back, after a portentous yawn. +"It's probably the morning breeze blowing the fog off the land that you +see. Tell me, a-a-ah! When you are able to make it out more clearly, +a-a-ah!" + +And, he almost yawned himself out of his boots as he gave utterance to +the last word. + + + +CHAPTER TWENTY THREE. + +BOARDING THE SLAVE DHOW. + +"On deck, there!" shouted out the lookout-man again, almost before the +sound of Lieutenant Dabchick's last yawn had died away in the distance, +like a groan or its echo. "There's a whole fleet o' dhows a-creeping up +under the lee of the land and running before the wind to the north'ard, +sir!" + +This stopped Mr Dabchick's yawns and made him open his sleepy eyes +pretty wide, I can tell you! + +"A fleet of dhows, lookout-man!" he cried, fully awake at last, not only +in his own person, but as regarded the responsibility attaching to him +should he unhappily let our prey escape and so foil his captain's +carefully arranged plan. "Are you certain, Adams?" + +"Not a doubt of it, sir," replied the captain of the foretop, in an +assured tone that expressed his confidence in his own statement. +"They're Arab dhows sure enough, sir. One--two--three; and, ay, there +is two more on 'em jist rounding the p'int--that makes five on 'em, sir, +all bearing to the north as fast as they can go, with slack sheets and +the breeze dead astern, which they are bringing up with them. They're +right off our weather beam, now, sir." + +"The devil!" ejaculated Lieutenant Dabchick, in his flurry using a +stronger expression than he would probably have done had `old Hankey +Pankey' been on the quarter-deck, rushing into the chart-house on the +bridge and snatching up a telescope, which he brought to bear on the +horizon in the direction indicated by Adams in the foretop above, whose +point of vantage, of course, gave him a wider range of view. "On our +weather beam, you say?" + +"Ay, ay, sir," roared back the lookout; "they're right abreast of our +forrud funnel now, sir." + +Mr Dabchick's hand shook so much from excitement that he could not hold +the glass steady; so, propping it up athwart the stanchion at the +weather end of the bridge, and sprawling out his legs to give him a good +purchase, he worked the telescope about till he at last spotted the +objects Adams had seen. + +"By the Lord Harry!" exclaimed the lieutenant, "you are right, Adams. I +must send down and tell the captain at once." + +With that, he hailed the midshipman of the watch and despatched him with +the news to Captain Hankey's cabin aft; while at the same time he rang +the engine-room gong, and shouted down through the voice-tube to tell +them below to `stand by,' as probably we would want steam up in a very +short time; directing also the coxswains of the boats alongside to make +ready, as well as passing the word forward for the boatswain's mates and +the drummer and bugler to be handy when wanted. + +This done, all his orders having been issued and executed in less time +than I take to tell of it, Mr Dabchick resumed his interrupted, if +monotonous, task of walking up and down the bridge; stopping whenever he +had to slew round, at the end of his promenade, to take another squint +at the dhows, and warning Adams, though that worthy needed no such +injunction, to `keep his eye on them.' + +Mr Dabchick had just sung out this for the second time on getting back +to the weather end of the bridge, when Captain Hankey, accompanied by +Mr Gresham and a lot of the other officers, rushed on deck, some of +them half dressed and buckling on their gear as they came hurrying +along. + +`Old Hankey Pankey' made straight for the bridge, the first lieutenant +close at his heels. + +"Ha, Mr Dabchick," cried the captain, as he skated up the iron ladder +leading from the deck below to the chart-house, taking three steps at +each bound, "so you've sighted those beggars at last, eh?" + +"Yes, sir," said the second lieutenant, smiling, and rubbing his hands, +having put down his telescope on top of the movable slab on the bridge +the navigator had for spreading out his charts; Mr Dabchick assuming an +air of great complacency, as if it were entirely through his exertions +the dhows had been seen or were there at all--"I think you'll find 'em +there to win'ard all right, sir." + +`Old Hankey Pankey' caught up the telescope that Mr Dabchick had just +deposited on the slab, putting it to his eye. + +"Yes, they are dhows sure enough, Gresham," he said to the first +lieutenant, after a brief inspection of the craft, which were stealing +past us under the loom of the land far away to the westward. "No doubt, +they are the very rascals who plundered the wreck we saw yesterday, and +as likely as not murdered all the people on board! They are making for +the same spot again, too, to pick up the rest of the loot they have not +yet taken off; but we'll stop their little game. Bugler, sound the +`assembly'! Drummer, beat to `quarters'!" + +The blare of bugle and beat of drum rang through the ship, mingled with +the hiss and roar of the steam rushing up the funnels; the captain, as +he sang out his orders to those on deck, mechanically, from force of +habit, putting his hand on the engine-room telegraph to prepare the +`greasers' in the flat below, and rapidly shouting down the voice-tube, +as soon as the electric bell on the bridge gave a responsive tinkle, +that they were to `get up steam' as quickly as possible. + +But, there was no fear of our alarming the enemy with the noise of our +preparations, not even when the boatswain's mates added their quota to +the din after the bugle was sounded. They were too far off, and, +besides, we were to leeward, and twice the row we made could not have +reached their ears. + +All of our fellows below belonging to the port watch came tumbling up +the hatchways in a jiffy on hearing the `assembly,' clutching up their +rifles and sword-bayonets from the arm-racks on the lower deck; while we +of the starboard, who were already up from having the middle watch, +proceeded at a break-neck pace to fetch ours. + +Then the gunner took his keys from their appointed place outside the +door of the captain's cabin and went below to open the magazines in the +flat appropriated to their combustible contents, in company with a +working party to attend to the ammunition hoists; while the marine +artillerymen and crews of the main-deck battery and upper-deck machine- +guns hurried to their stations under charge of "Gunnery Jack," the +lieutenant whose special function was to see to our little barkers. + +A minute later, when those whose duties did not take them elsewhere were +ranged along the upper deck, Captain Hankey, who had gone down to his +cabin in the meantime and buckled on his sword to be in proper fighting +rig, came back on the bridge, where he remained in conversation with Mr +Gresham until the `orderly' midshipman--I don't mean to say that the +others were disorderly, but only just wish to specify those who were +told off to carry messages from the various parts of the ship, when at +`quarters,' to the captain, they acting, so to speak, as his aides-de- +camp on board--returned to say all was as it should be. + +"Now then, Gresham," said `old Hankey Pankey,' drawing himself up to his +full height, and looking every inch what he was, an officer and a +gentleman--ay, and a sailor too, as plucky as they make them--"I think +we'd better begin, or those beggars will get too far ahead, and a stern +chase, you know, is a long chase. Bugler, sound `man and arm boats'!" + +The boy, a young marine, who did this part of our musical business, +puffed out his cheeks, inflating his lungs the while, and blew a blast +that seemed to make the air shake; the boatswain's mates, who always act +on such occasions like the chorus at the opera, screeching with their +whistles fore and aft up and down the hatchways, repeating with an +exasperating repetition the same order little Joey the bugler had +already given; while, all the officers who had charge of the respective +boats stood up at the gangways to inspect the crews of these as they +went down the side to take their places on the thwarts, so as to see +they were all properly equipped. + +"Mr Gresham," said Captain Hankey to the first lieutenant, "I should +like you to go in the steam pinnace and work away to win'ard towards Ras +Hafim--you know the place we marked on the chart last night above +Binna?" + +"Very good, sir," replied Mr Gresham, taking up a revolver and box of +cartridges he had brought on deck with him, and going towards the after +gangway, abreast of which the steam pinnace was lying, buzzing away like +a little wasp alongside; the intimation on the part of our captain that +he would `like' a thing being done being quite equivalent to a command +to do it! "You mean, sir, that queer-shaped headland some twenty miles +down the coast?" + +"Yes, we passed it when we came back from the wreck," replied `old +Hankey Pankey,' pointing with his hand away to windward. "You will then +cut off the retreat of the dhows, while we head them off farther up the +coast." + +"Very good, sir," said Mr Gresham, accepting this as a final dismissal. +"I will attend to your orders, sir. By George, those Arabs will have +to be precious sharp if they manage to steal back past us to their +haunts!" + +So saying, Mr Gresham went down the side, without any further palaver; +and, when he was seated in the sternsheets, the pinnace went off in a +bee-line to the sou'-west in the teeth of the monsoon, which was +beginning to blow now pretty briskly. + +The first cutter was then piped away, Larrikins and I being the two +first to jump aboard her when the bowman laid hold of her painter and +drew her up alongside. + +Lieutenant Dabchick came with us in command, as soon as she was fully +manned and armed, an ammunition-chest being lowered down with a supply +of `pills and pepper' for the little nine-pounder boat-gun we carried in +our bows; when, we sheered away from the ship's side and lay on our +oars, and the second cutter hauled up alongside to receive her crew and +equipment like ourselves. + +This did not take long in doing--the whaler being also manned and the +senior midshipman sent in charge of her, with the boatswain to check his +rashness; and then, the three of us, first cutter, second cutter and +whaler, were all taken in tow by the _Mermaid_, which went off full +speed ahead after the Arab dhows that were now only some five miles off +us, the cruiser shaping a slanting course so as to prevent them from +making for the wide stretch of open water that lay to the north'ard, +should they try to escape in that way. + +Their retreat to the port whence they had sailed was cut off by the +pinnace; and, as their only refuge now when we overhauled them would be +the rock-bound coast lying between Binna and Ras Hafim, they were, as I +heard Mr Dabchick say to the coxswain, `between the devil and the deep +sea!' + +The reckless beggars, too, were so busy looking out in the direction of +the stranded steamer for which they were making, that somehow or other +they did not catch sight of us until they were nearly within easy range +of our six-inch breechloaders; the leading dhow, which was what the +Arabs call a `batilla,' and carried two large lugs or lateen sails on +wide yards, besides a sort of square jib forwards, rigged out on a +bowsprit like a spritsail boom, caught sight of us as we luffed up to +let fly at her. + +For a second or two they seemed all of a heap, like a covey of +frightened partridges; and then, getting their tacks aboard as smartly +as if they were English seamen and not rascally Somali Arabs, they +hauled their wind and made in for the shore, thinking, no doubt, `Old +Nick' was after them. + +They were not far out in this surmise, if such should have crossed their +minds, as they very quickly found out. + +The _Mermaid_ yawed off her course, swirling us round in her wake as our +tow-rope slackened and then grew taut again, all in an instant; and, +then, bang belched out one of our big hundred-pounder quick-firing guns +that we carried on the upper deck fore and aft, pitching a shell that +burst right over the rearmost dhow. + +This made them quicken their movements if possible; while `old Hankey +Pankey,' seeing we were a trifle short in our range, steamed on after +them so that they might have the full benefit of all our battery--the +water now churning up over the gunwale of the cutter as she dragged us +on astern of her, the bow of the boat high in air, while we were all the +more depressed aft from having the other boats behind us. + +On flew the dhows, on raced the _Mermaid_, flopping her tail as +represented by the boats in tow, for we did wag about pretty +considerably, as one of our men who was half a Yankee said; until, +presently, on the water showing signs of shoaling, the _Mermaid_ brought +up broadside on and began pitching shot and shell as fast as the men +could work her batteries at the dhows, which were now well inshore and +almost on the rocks--which latter seemed to jut out from this coast in +the most shapeless, uncanny fashion, like the solitary tusk or two still +possessed by some nearly toothless old hag. + +`Bang, smash, boom!' went our guns, the fire bursting forth from the +ship's side in the centre of puff-balls of smoke, accompanied by the +hurtling sound of the shot through the air, and the dull intonation the +shell gave out after the first report, when these missiles discharged +their contents around their target. `Bang, smash, boom!' + +It must have been pretty lively for the Arabs: too warm after a bit to +be pleasant! + +So `old Hankey Pankey' appeared to think; and, when our guns had fired +about a couple of rounds each all round, the bugle sounded the `cease +fire,' and he came aft and hailed us. + +"Mr Dabchick," he called out, "I'm going to cast you off, and you will +pull straight for the shore and capture those dhows as best you can, +while I will cover your advance with the guns of the ship. Recollect, +you are in command of the expedition and that Mr Doyle in the cutter, +and Mr Chisholm in the whaler, are under your orders; so, you can do as +you think best when you get alongside them. I would divide my forces, +Dabchick, if I were you; but, you must exercise your own judgment when +the time comes!" + +"Aye, aye, sir," replied the lieutenant, as heartily as if he had just +been told he was made `first luff' of the flagship--for, though sleepy +sometimes when on watch of a night, he was a plucky little chap, with a +lot of go in him; and then, as our painter was sent adrift and the slack +hauled in by the bowmen, he sang out to us, "Oars! Off we go, my lads!" + +This was the signal for a ringing cheer from all hands in our boat, as +well as from those in the second cutter and whaler, which had been +likewise cast off from the tow-rope; while `old Hankey Pankey' himself +jumped up into the rigging of the _Mermaid_ as we started away, and led +a return cheer from the ship as the three of us raced in line abreast +towards the dhows inshore. + +The sun was now well up in the sky, and it was blazing hot over our +heads, but I don't think a man of us minded this, as we pulled away, +like Britons, and as lightheartedly as some of us used to do in the old +days when we belonged to the _Saint Vincent_, and were struggling our +best to be the first boat at our summer breaking-up sports so as to win +the Admiralty medal! + +But, there was something more than a medal at stake now, aye, or a money +prize either; for we were battling, as we all well knew, mere lads +though most of us were, for our Queen--God bless her!--and that country +whose flag waves over every sea, and on whose dominions, stretching from +east to west all round the globe, the sun never sets! + +Nearer and nearer we got into the coast, all hands pulling with a will; +Larrikins, who was stroke, giving the fellows a touch of his old style +when he rowed in the captain's gig of the training-ship; the whaler, +with the middy in command, running us hard, though, and the second +cutter labouring up astern. + +As we approached the dhows, however, Mr Dabchick ordered us to pull +easy, singing out to the other boats to spread out to leeward and make +for the batilla, which had remained behind like a watchdog guarding the +smaller craft, while we attacked her in the bows. + +The breeze was now dying away, the wind blowing off shore; and the +Somalis, seeing this, triced up their lateen sails, turning round like +rats driven up into a corner and facing us, at bay. + +Captain Hankey, who had been pitching shot and shell into them from the +moment of our casting off from the _Mermaid_, some of the missiles +describing beautiful curves over our heads as we pulled in, now ceased +firing, for fear of hitting us as well as the foe; and so, the Arabs +were able to concentrate all their energies towards resisting us, the +batilla sending some round shot in our direction from an old brass +carronade she had mounted on her high forecastle, one of which, skipping +along the water as if it were playing ducks and drakes, shaved off three +of our oar-blades on the starboard side. + +This did not stop us, though. + +"Shift over, bow and the next man," shouted out Mr Dabchick. "Now, all +together, pull away, my lads, and let us go for them!" + +The cheer that we gave on starting away from the _Mermaid_ was nothing +to what our chaps roared out now from their lusty throats; as, making +the water boil with the blades of our oars, we rowed hand over fist +right at the batilla's bows, the second cutter making for her stern +while the whaler, by Mr Dabchick's directions, pulled athwart the hawse +of a smaller dhow that had stayed her flight landwards and was coming +back, apparently, to the assistance of her big consort. + +`Crash!' came the stem of our boat against the side of the batilla at +the same time that her old carronade, which had been loaded this time +with bullets and scrap iron like a shell, and having its muzzle +depressed, went off, right in our faces, with a `Bang!' + +One of the fellows forward, the bowman on the port side of the cutter, +poor chap, tumbled backward overboard, uttering a wild shriek as he +fell; but otherwise the discharge did not do us much damage, and in +another second we seemed all scrambling up into the dhow and were at it +hammer and tongs. + +It was my first fight and I can't forget it. + +Every single incident that occurred stands out as clearly before me now +as if I were going over it all again! + +We had, of course, all loaded up with ball-cartridge and fixed the +sword-bayonets to our rifles before we got up to the Arabs; and, by the +orders of our commander, we gave them a volley at close quarters as we +boarded. + +But, after this, I don't think any one thought of loading or firing +again, save one or two of the fellows astern and the coxswain of the +boat, being too busy guarding the slashes the Somalis made at us with +their long scimitar-like swords that were curved like reaping-hooks, and +the blows they dealt us with their unwieldy matchlocks, which they used +in club fashion. + +It was a terrible struggle trying to climb the high overhanging sides of +the batilla in the face of such tooth and nail opposition, the beggars +fighting, as Mr Gresham had said, like veritable wild cats! + +We were beaten back into the cutter twice, after some half a dozen of us +had been wounded, some desperately; and then the second cutter, which +could not manage to board her astern, coming up to our help and sheering +in alongside us, our gallant leader Mr Dabchick determined on one grand +final rush. + + + +CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR. + +WE NEARLY LOSE THE CUTTER! + +"Larrikins," said I, whispering in his ear, as we stood up together just +in the rear of Mr Dabchick, balancing myself on one of the thwarts +forward, being about to make another spring for the side of the big +dhow, while Larry shoved a cartridge hastily into the breech of his +rifle, and was in the act of taking a pot shot at a chap who seemed to +be the skipper of the batilla and had a nose on him like the beak of a +Brazilian parrot, "little Dabby means business!" He did. + +Hardly had I said this to my chum, making him miss his aim, I am sorry +to say, at the Arab beggar, who made a cut at me the next minute and +would have sliced off my starboard fin if I had not drawn back rather +hurriedly, ere our lieutenant sprang on to the back of Jones, the other +bowman, and then jumped right clean amongst the mass of Arabs in the +bows of the dhow. + +"Come on, my lads!" he cried, in the middle of his jump; "follow me!" + +This was enough for us. + +Without an instant's reflection I imitated Dabby, using Jones's back as +a scaling-ladder, as did half a dozen other fellows; until the poor +beggar was pretty nearly trodden flat into the bottom of the boat. + +`Whiz!' went the matchlock balls of the Arabs past our ears; `whir-r-ir' +sliced away their scimitars right and left in the air, with the +regularity of so many flails at work on a barn-floor; but we did not +mind them a bit, for the `phit--phit--phit!' of the bullets from our +Martini rifles pattered amongst the bronze-coloured rascals like hail, +deadening the whiz of their longer-barrelled weapons, while ever and +anon the Maxim of the second cutter grunted out a fusillade of grape, +making a noise like that of an old man with a bad cough on a winter's +night going up to bed in the cold. + +"Ship my rowlocks!" as father would have said had he been there, but the +Maxim made some of those blessed Arabs cough, I can tell you; ay, and +put a goodish few to bed too! + +"Lor'," cried Larrikins, who was fighting like a bulldog by my side, "I +never did see, blame me Tom, sich a bloomin' scrimmage in me life as +this yere!" + +It was all that, it being a case of give and take all round, for the +Somalis made a rare stand. + +They went their best for Dabby, seeing that he was our leader; but the +plucky little chap, with his sword in one hand and a revolver in the +other, stood amongst them as brave as you please, cutting at this one, +peppering at that, and guarding in some miraculous way a hundred blows +aimed at him from every side. + +Don't think, though, that we left our officer to battle against the +Arabs single-handed. + +Not we. + +I do not say it in any boasting sense, will you please recollect, for I +am sure that no one who knows me would accuse me of being a braggart; +but, as I am telling of events that really happened, I must speak the +truth, and so to do this I am obliged to say that I was one of the first +to spring to Mr Dabchick's side after he boarded the dhow, Larrikins +coming next with a mad leap that nearly scrunched my toes off, and then +the coxswain of the cutter and the rest of the chaps. + +Striking out with our cutlasses, we soon cleared a circle round the +lieutenant; and then, forming up like a breastwork in front of him, we +rushed at the remaining Somalis in the bows, hurling over into the sea, +with the impetus of our charge, those whom we did not cut down outright, +or settle with a thrust from our straight-edged blades. + +The crew of our other boat had meanwhile climbed aboard amidships, where +they soon despatched the rest of the Arabs holding out there, a well- +aimed shot from the rifle of Larrikins potting the green-turbaned chief +of the gang. + +With his fall, all opposition now ceased, and we took possession of our +prize; some twenty odd Somalis only remaining in our hands as prisoners, +the others having been all slain in open combat, or drowned when they +tumbled over the side. + +We had not escaped scatheless either, for we lost three men in our boat, +besides Bartlett the bowman, and had five wounded, the coxswain +seriously; while Larrikins had a bullet through the fleshy part of his +forearm, and I received a knock on the knee from a friendly Arab which +made me limp for more than a month afterwards. + +The second cutter, however, came off the worst, Mr Doyle, our junior +lieutenant, having been shot through the lungs with a jagged matchlock +ball in the desperate hand-to-hand fighting that ensued on her first +attack, which the Somalis repulsed, twelve more men of her complement, +besides, being either killed or wounded. + +Poor Mr Doyle died shortly after we effected the capture of the +batilla; but, being a quiet, inoffensive sort of man, I don't think his +loss affected any one very much, while Mr Chisholm the middy, who was +made an acting sub-lieutenant in his place--such is the fortune of war-- +was the reverse of sad when he came up to us presently in the whaler, +towing the smaller dhow, which he had very pluckily captured to his own +cheek. + +The rest of the Somali craft had been run ashore on the rocks to escape +our clutches, reminding me of my old chum Mick one day, when we were +walking along the Gosport ramparts and it was raining, proceeding +carefully to take off his clothes and go into the water, to `kape +himself dhry,' as he explained to me in his Irish way. + +So now the Arabs had knocked their dhows to pieces to save them; but the +men who manned them, as well as the poor slaves with which the majority +of them had been crammed, we found, on pulling inshore to examine them +later on, had all got safely beyond our reach, far away amid the khors +of the desert coast of the barren and inhospitable Nogal country. + +To make matters certain that they should not be able to get the dhows +afloat again in the event of their returning, as well as to revenge +ourselves at being prevented from towing these off ourselves, so that we +might obtain the usual bounty given by the Zanzibar prize court for +their capture, we set fire to every single one of them, burning the lot +to the water's edge. + +The whaler assisted us at this job, the second cutter being sent back to +the ship by Mr Dabchick to convey all our wounded comrades thither for +medical treatment, as well as the body of Mr Doyle, and that of another +poor fellow who had not gone overboard; we ourselves not yet returning +to the _Mermaid_, not rejoining her until our task was done, late in the +afternoon. + +We buried the lieutenant and bluejacket who had fallen, at sunset; after +which, hoisting in all our boats, the cruiser put on steam and made for +Ras Hafim, picking up, when nearly abreast of the headland, just before +dark, the steam pinnace--all the chaps aboard of which, from Mr Gresham +downwards, getting quite angry when we told them of the little piece of +business we had been engaged on up the coast, our shipmates being riled +at having been left out in the cold and not sharing in our fun. + +Fun they thought it; but, if they had gone through the job of scrubbing +down the thwarts and bottom boards of the cutter after the fray, as +Larrikins and I had to do, mopping up the blood and gore, which was more +than an inch deep, the fighting would not have seemed so jolly as their +imaginations pictured it. + +Seeing nothing of our senior officer after picking up the pinnace, we +proceeded down the coast in the direction of Zanzibar, running across +him at last when near Mombassa. + +This was lucky for us; for, as soon as Captain Hankey had communicated +with the flagship, he received fresh instructions that he was to keep +guard on the district lying between Pemba on the south and Witu on the +north; and, as Mombassa was about midway between the two points, we +were, so to speak, in the very centre of our cruising ground. + +For the next few months, though, our work was not very lively, all of us +belonging to the boats being now engaged on patrol duty and separated +for weeks sometimes from our comrades on board the ship. + +The first and second cutters, the launch, and the steam pinnace were +each provisioned and sent away to scout along the coast independently of +each other, watching for dhows and any suspicious craft we might see +making from the mainland for the islands, having orders to capture or +destroy such as we found carrying slaves; the _Mermaid_, our foster- +mother, giving us a look-up in turn at our respective stations, to see +how we were getting on, and supply us with any stores we might need in +the grub and water line. + +It was a dreary task. + +Sometimes for days we would not sight a sail; and, keeping out to sea, +so as to avoid observation from the shore, there was nothing to be seen +that could distract one's attention but the wide-stretching steel-blue +surface of the limitless Indian Ocean, and the eternal coppery sky +overhead, with never a cloud to shade us from the ever-blazing sun. + +The south-west monsoon was in full swing, and the weather, consequently, +was cooler than usual--that was one comfort; but, the irksomeness of our +life was almost unbearable, and we all longed for something to happen, +no matter what, to break the monotony of our perpetual patrol. + +Of course, we did come across some dhows, one in particular, a large +`bagala,' a craft with a high square stern, and a prow like a goose- +neck; while her poop resembled that of a Chinese junk, being only a +trifle clumsier--if possible. + +We overhauled this hooker between Zanzibar and Pemba; and, as she was +making for the latter island, where cloves are grown and a large number +of slaves employed in their cultivation, the trade being the most +important on the coast, we naturally thought we were going to make a big +haul and get no end of bounty for the capture of the dhow. + +But, as luck would have it, when we boarded her, not a single nigger was +aboard, nor was there any sign about her to show that she was fitted out +for the contraband business, there being no second bamboo deck betwixt +her hold and the upper one, which the slavers always have; and, though +we rummaged her fore and aft, we could not tumble upon the special stock +of rice and barricoes of water, which are always carried for the +accommodation of the ebony passengers, if they have any. + +No, all was in order; her `reis,' or skipper, a swarthy Arab, with the +most diabolical expression I ever saw on human face, showing us his +clearance paper, which had the stamp of the British Consulate, and +described that he was bound on a trading voyage to Muscat. + +So we had to let him pass, the old rascal of a `reis' grinning over her +stern at us as the bagala made off, running before the wind; the hook- +nosed Arab looking as pleased as Punch, and yet having a sort of sly, +malicious twinkle in his eye, like that `Old Nick' probably puts on +`when he catches a churchwarden robbing a till,' as Larrikins said. + +No wonder the old slave-dealer sniggered to himself; for we heard +afterwards that he put in at Pangani the same night, after we were out +of sight, beating down to the southward, and succeeded in running a +cargo of the usual sort, the proceeds of the trip enabling him to retire +from business and set up as a holy man for the rest of his life. + +Beyond boarding this dhow, though we saw some others at a distance which +we were unable to forereach on, the beggars being too handy on a wind, +we did not have a single exciting incident for the three months or more +that we were detached from our ship; and all of us, as I have said, were +longing for something to wake us up. + +This `something' came at last. + +Ay; and in a most unexpected fashion, too! + +It was getting near the time for the _Mermaid_ to come and relieve us, +and we were making for our rendezvous at Bagamoyo, to the south of +Zanzibar, for her to pick us up. + +The south-west monsoon having slackened down a good deal within the last +few days, though the month of August, when it usually blows with its +greatest force, we were able to work well to windward; and we were +rapidly closing on Bagamoyo, when the sea began to get up in a very +strange manner, and the sky, which had been cloudless, as customary, +since the morning, became clouded with masses of fleeting vapour that +presently banked themselves on the horizon to the north. + +"I say, Draper," said Mr Chisholm, who, since his promotion, had been +appointed to the cutter, turning round to our coxswain, "what do you +think of the weather?" + +"Think, sir?" rejoined Draper, who had served on the East African +station before joining the _Mermaid_, and `knew the ropes,' as the +saying goes. "I don't think about it at all, sir." + +"Well, well," said Mr Chisholm, who was a jocular sort of young fellow +and never hard on a man, besides which he knew Draper's crusty way, +"tell us what you know, then." + +"Very good, sir," replied our old shellback of a coxswain. "Then, I +knows, sir, the monsoon's on the shift, and we're agoin' to have a blow +from the nor'ard afore dark." + +"What do you advise our doing, coxen?" + +"Adwise, sir?" repeated Draper, as usual, after Mr Chisholm, his habit +always when asked a question. "If I was you, sir, I'd up stick and run +for it, sir, to the nearest port." + +"The nearest port on our lee is Zanzibar," said Mr Chisholm. "I +suppose you mean to loo'ard, Draper?" + +"Aye, aye, sir, I means to loo'ard." + +"Then you advise our putting up the helm and running for Zanzibar?" + +"Aye." + +The cutter was rigged with a dipping lug and a spritsail; so, no sooner +had crusty old Draper given his laconic answer to Mr Chisholm, than the +latter sang out to Larrikins, who was in the bows. + +"Look out there forrud!" he cried. "Stand by to dip!" + +This is considered one of the smartest things in boat-sailing, the men +having to be specially stationed for the purpose; but, as we had been +living in the cutter now for three months, and had experience of her +under any and every change of wind and sail, the operation did not +occasion much difficulty to us. + +Larrikins, who was bowman, pressed out the fore part of the lug as soon +as the yard was half lowered, while two other hands gathered the sheet +of the sail forwards, and passed it round the mast as soon as Draper had +put the helm up; when I and another chap who was aft with me, unhooked +the sheet to port and then rehooked it to the starboard side, which was +to windward now on the cutter's head coming round, as she went off on +the other tack. + +Gathering way in a minute or two as we eased off the sheet of the lug, +the cutter went ahead at a great pace, making much better weather of it +running before the wind, as was the case now, than she had lately, +before we came about, when beating up to Bagamoyo; skimming over the +broken surface of the sea, her bows and the deadwood of her keel +forwards being clean out of the water sometimes as she jumped from wave +to wave, and sending the spray she threw up as she came down bash on the +top of some billow, right inboard, wetting us to the skin, and leaving a +wake behind her like a millrace. + +We were steering almost due north now; and, looking ahead under the +leech of the lugsail, I could see that the clouds we had observed before +banked up on the horizon had crept up towards the zenith, spreading out +laterally on either side, until half of the heavens was obscured. + +Then, all of a sudden, the wind dropped, as if done with a turn of the +hand. + +"Look out there for your sheet!" cried old Draper, in a warning tone, +assuming the direction of affairs and taking command of the boat +unconsciously in the emergency, over the head of his officer, Mr +Chisholm. "Let go your sheet, I say!" + +Bouncer the seaman, who sat on the after thwart and had charge of this, +bungled about the job, having taken a turn with the end of the rope +round the cleat, instead of holding it in his fist as he should have +done; and the coxswain's harsh repetition of the order in such an +imperative tone seemed to flurry him, making him all the slower. + +"Hang it all, man!" shouted Mr Chisholm, taking up the cry, "let go the +sheet at once!" + +Seeing what a fog Bouncer was in, besides which the sail was just then +beginning to bulge back as the wind headed us, the boat rocking for an +instant and then canting over as if she was going to capsize, I drew my +knife and rushed to where he sat in the bottom of the boat, struggling +with the sheet! + + + +CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE. + +THE ARAB STRONGHOLD. + +At that moment the wind lulled for an instant, and I was just able to +make a slash with the sharp edge of my knife across the rope, severing +it instanter, and thus saving poor bungling Bouncer all further trouble; +when, a terrific gust came, this time right astern, carrying sail and +mast and all, the latter snapping off like a carrot close to the thwart +where it was stepped, over the heads of all in the boat forwards, high +in air--just as if the lot were the remnants of a big kite that had +parted its supporting string, the sail ultimately disappearing in the +distance, swallowed up by the angry waves. + +These latter were now boiling up round the cutter on every side, our +little pigmy of a craft seeming lost in the seething caldron of broken +water; but, she was buoyant as a cork, and, although half rilled, +breasted the billows in fine style and running before wind and sea at a +tearing rate with not a rag of sail on her now, nor an oar, save one Mr +Chisholm and I rigged out over the stern by Draper's direction, this +being better to steer her by than the rudder, which we then unshipped. + +It was a good job for us that our old coxswain had got wounded, and that +Draper had taken his place just then temporarily while Hoskins was on +the sick-list; for, though Draper was the oldest petty officer on board +the ship--his promotion to a higher grade having been delayed, I +believe, through his natural crustiness of temper, which he really could +not help--there was no doubt that he knew the East Coast of Africa well, +and the management of a boat the better of the two, especially in a +stormy sea. + +Ay, and it was stormy now! + +Far as the eye could reach, the mad waves dashed and clashed against +each other as they raced along, borne onward before the blast; throwing +up their white crests, all lashed into foam, in showers of spray and +spindrift that fell back over us in the boat, wetting us to the skin and +blinding those that had to face it. + +The horizon, too--what we could see of it, that is, through the spray-- +was covered with a mass of inky clouds, almost blue-black in hue, that +covered by degrees the whole of the heavens, with the exception of a +round spot right overhead that looked like a gigantic eye. + +Mr Chisholm, who, young though he was, had the sight of a hawk, spotted +this at once. + +"Hullo, Draper!" he cried, pointing aloft. "What's that up there-- +anything more brewing up for us, d'ye think?" + +The coxswain, who had all his work cut out to keep the boat from being +swamped by the heavy following seas that came rolling up astern of us, +threatening every minute to engulf the cutter and carry her down bodily +below, gave an uneasy squint in the direction whither the young officer +pointed his finger. + +"Lord-sakes, sir," he exclaimed, shaking his head in a very grave way, +"that be a h'ox-eye!" + +"Ox-eye!" Mr Chisholm repeated after him in a quizzing tone, with a +grin on his face. "I've heard of ox-tongues before--those tinned ones +ain't bad eating sometimes for lunch on a pinch; but an ox-eye--what is +that, Draper?" + +"Nothin' to larf about," grunted out our crusty coxswain, bracing his +body against the loom of the oar with which he was steering and slewing +the boat's head aside to avoid a cross sea that nearly broke at that +very moment over our bows. "If ye'd be'n as long on this coast as me, +sir, ye'd know when ye seed one o' them things up there--it means, `Look +out!' Ay, by the Lord too, we must look out now! Stand by there--all +hands lie down in the bottom of the boat; it's yer only chance, if ye +values yer lives!" + +"Down, men!" Mr Chisholm cried, endorsing Draper's words of warning +with his command. "Do as the coxswain tells you--down for your lives!" + +Our chaps who were seated on the thwarts forwards and amidships at once +scrambled down on the bottom boards, while we in the sternsheets, +including Mr Chisholm himself, squatted on the grating, only old Draper +sitting up still at his post aft with both hands holding the loom of the +steering oar in a firm grip. + +"Bend yer heads," muttered this worthy the next moment; "it's a-comin' +now!" + +As the words passed his lips and we all bowed down below the level of +the gunwale, the roar of the sea seemed hushed in the dead stillness +that ensued; and then, with a wild shriek that sounded like the moaning +of some lost soul from the bottomless pit, the wind, which had been +gathering up all its strength in the interim, burst upon us, burying the +cutter's bows as it struck her right under water. + +Bouncer, frightened out of his life, made a movement to rise as he lay +alongside me on the stern grating; but old Draper gave him a kick in the +ribs with the toe of his heavy boot. + +"Lie still, you beggar!" he cried, bringing, with a tremendous pull of +his arms, the oar-rudder hard over. "The boat's rightin' all right. +We've seed the wust on it if yer'll only bide still!" + +Fortunately, we had a weather cloth over the bow, which prevented the +sea from pouring in and swamping us when the cutter dipped under; while, +as all of us remained quiet and our dead weight was more towards the +stern than forwards, the boat's natural buoyancy prevailed and she rose +up like a cork. + +The worst might have been over, as Draper had said; still, we were not +`out of the wood' yet, gust after gust assailing us, and the waves +racing up madly astern, when, dividing, they would tower up on either +side of our frail craft, threatening destruction for the moment ere they +rolled onward again--we, all the while, fleeing before the fury of the +storm we knew not whither, powerless alike to shape a course or guide +our boat. + +All that our skilful coxswain could do was to prevent the cutter from +shipping a sea, no matter how the wind took us, or whether we ran with +the billows or athwart them, as sometimes happened from the sudden shift +of the gale, at whose beck and call we were; for, one moment going north +or west into the open sea, the next recklessly careering eastwards, +right in upon the rocks of the mainland, or dashing south amongst the +mazy little islands and islets round and about Zanzibar, where our +plight would be as perilous. + +We had been boxing the compass like this for some four or five hours, +without the weather showing any signs of a mend, it being now late in +the afternoon; and our head turned towards Bagamoyo again for about the +fifth time that day since we began our circling experiences, when, just +as it was beginning to grow darker, though there had not been much light +about since noon, a ship hove in sight. + +She was dead ahead of us, riding out the gale under steam. + +The smoke of her funnels was trailing away to leeward and so mixing up +with the clouds that were banked on the horizon that old Draper, who was +looking out as well as steering, for he would not allow any of us to sit +on the thwarts, said he could not tell `t'other from which.' + +Presently, however, as we surged onwards, carried down upon her at the +rate of twelve knots or more, Draper could distinguish the smoke from +the clouds; ay, and the ship herself. + +"By the Lord!" he cried, looking at Mr Chisholm, his face all aglow and +his voice heartier than I ever heard him speak before, "it's the +_Mermaid_, sir." + +"The _Mermaid_, coxswain!" ejaculated Mr Chisholm, at once jumping to +his feet and taking a sight himself, shading his eyes with his hand. +"Yes, it is the _Mermaid_, hurrah!" + +"Steady there, sir," said Draper, warningly putting his hand on the +young officer's arm; "we ain't aboard her yet, sir; and if yer don't +keep cool, sir, beggin' yer pardon, sir, it's precious little we'll see +of her this night, or ever ag'en, fur that matter!" + +"But, how shall we get alongside?" + +"Keep cool, sir. I'll tell 'ee when the time comes," rejoined the +coxswain, in a soothing tone that took off the impertinence of his thus +speaking to his officer. "You leave it to me, sir, and I'll find a way, +if man can do it, to get alongside our old hooker; 'sides them aboard +'ll be on the lookout, too, and between the pair on us we ought fur to +manage it comf'ably!" + +While `old crusty' was laying down the law in this fashion, though +continuing to mind his steering as smartly as he had done all along, the +cutter was nearing the cruiser every instant, the wind taking her along +in a series of mad leaps and bounds through the water and over the +water, jumping from the top of one wave to that of another, and +sometimes almost in mid-air, until we seemed about to hop on board the +_Mermaid_, all standing like some of those flying-fish I have seen in +the tropics, or else smash ourselves all to pieces against her iron +hull. + +But, in the nick of time, when only some twenty or thirty yards off her +sharp ram bow, which would have cut into the cutter as easily as a knife +goes into butter in summer-time, Draper gave a tug to his steering oar; +and, Captain Hankey `making a lee' for us by porting his helm, we glided +into comparatively calm water under the cruiser's starboard counter. + +A dozen ropes were thrown to us from men already stationed in the +rigging for the purpose, a dozen hands and more held out to help us up +the side; and almost before any of us well knew where we were, there we +stood, safe and sound on the deck of our old ship again, the cutter +being then hoisted up to the davits. + +Draper, who had saved her and us, was the last man to leave her, when +the falls were secured and the gripes put round the boat again. + +After this exciting episode, nothing very notable occurred during our +stay on this part of the coast for the next twelve months, beyond my +being made `able seaman.' + +I passed for this grade very satisfactorily, I am glad to say; but, it +would not be fair for me to omit mentioning that it was mainly through +my old friend Larrikins that I was able to get off with flying colours. +My old chum coached me up in the knotting and splicing of wire rope, of +which art he was a proficient, his father being a working smith, and +Larrikins himself having been intended originally for that trade, before +the superior attractions of the sea weaned him from the paternal +handicraft. + +In the following year, however, matters became a trifle livelier on the +East coast. + +The Somali, from the constant blockade we kept up along their territory +with our boats and cruisers, from Cape Guardafui down to the Equator, +thus putting a stop to their slave-dealings, capturing as we did all +their dhows and blocking all outlets from the coast, determined on +retaliatory measures; so, mustering all their forces and calling up the +assistance of the slave-dealers of the interior, they began to attack +various points of the British protectorate. + +Possibly, had the Arabs only us to deal with, things might not have got +to this pass; but, very unluckily for this country, the Germans, who +have long been jealous of our colonial enterprise and commercial success +in Africa as elsewhere, took it into their heads, not long since, to +extend their trade on the eastern seaboard. + +The ideas of Meinherr Von Sourkrout and his warlike Kaiser in respect of +the colonisation of this part of the Dark Continent, like those of our +French cousins on the West Coast, differ much from the more peaceful +plan pursued by England for several generations past--a plan that has +worked wonderfully well in the building up of our Empire, and the spread +of our manufactures over every land and sea! + +Meinherr Sourkrout's method for extending trade, that is, according to +the experience of us bluejackets of the British Navy who have served on +the East African station, has been to shoot down the natives wherever +the flag of his Fatherland has ever been stuck up; and, when the men of +the negro tribes, objecting to such friendly advances, have bolted into +the bush, Meinherr, imitating the example of his great countryman +Marshal Haynau, took to flogging their wives and womenfolk in order to +coax the black gentlemen back. + +The darkeys, somehow or other, didn't tackle to this treatment; and, the +Germans having thus roused them up to the south of our protectorate, +where, unfortunately for us, Meinherr Von Sourkrout and his domineering +compatriots have a territory far too close to our own, the natives, +being of the opinion that we were in sympathy with their oppressors, +joined hands with the Somalis in their advance on our trading posts +along the coast--they did not touch those belonging to the Germans, for +the very good reason that these have none! + +I heard Mr Gresham explaining all this one day to Dabby when they were +both sitting in the captain's gig, to which I had been shifted since my +promotion to able seaman; for I was pulling stroke at the time, the boat +taking them ashore to a grand dinner-party given by the British Consul +to the Sultan or some other `big pot' at Zanzibar, off which port the +_Mermaid_ was then lying. + +I wondered what led to this queer talk, as none of us on board had heard +anything on the lower deck about any row being imminent; for, of course, +sick of our stagnant life for the last few months, as all of us were, +the inkling of any fight being in the air would have been as welcome to +us as the `flowers of May.' + +Still I kept my ears open all the same; and when, the next morning, I +met the captain's steward returning from the galley with a cup of early +cocoa for `old Hankey Pankey,' and he told me that he thought we were +going to be busy soon, the `old man' having directed him to take out his +sword and pistols, and give them to his marine servant to be cleaned up, +I began, as `Gyp' did that time on board the _Saint Vincent_, `to smell +a rat.' + +A little later on, my impressions became confirmed; for, just as we were +piped down to breakfast after `wash and scrub decks,' and I was telling +Larrikins, who sat alongside me at the mess-table, what I had heard, the +engine-room gong sounded, and the word was passed to get up steam as +quickly as possible. + +`Old Hankey Pankey' did not waste time when he had once got his orders; +and some couple of hours after we had weighed anchor and were rapidly +leaving Zanzibar, with its rows of square stone houses, built with flat +roofs in the eastern style, that front the beautiful curving bay, whose +white sandy beach is washed by water so clear that you can see the +bottom at six fathoms, and which is backed, beyond the warehouses and +mansions of the merchants, by the bright greenery of palm trees and +dates and other rich tropical growths, the beautiful foliage of which +contrasts vividly with the intense whiteness of the buildings and +adjacent shore, offering quite a relief to the eye from the glaring sun +and coppery sky overhead. + +"Say, Tom," said Larrikins to me presently, as the two of us, with a lot +of the other hands, were polishing up the brasswork of the machine-guns +on the upper deck, "d'yer know where we're bound in such a hurry?" + +"No, Larry," I replied. "Somewhere up the coast, though, I 'spect from +what I told you down below." + +Larrikins chuckled to himself. + +"Ye'r a fine chap, Tom, to give a fellow h'infumation," he said with a +snigger. "I could 'a told you as much meself. Why, carn't I see with +'arf a h'eye we're steerin' to the north'ard up the coast, with the +munsoon a-blowin' right in our teeth and the sun on our starb'rd 'and!" + +I laughed, too, at the sharp wag's rejoinder. + +"Well, Larry," I said at last, after polishing up the ratchet of the +Nordenfeldt I was working at to my personal satisfaction, hoping to have +the aiming of it bye-and-bye, "I can't tell you any more than that we +are bound up the coast, and are likely to have a brush with the Arabs +along there somewhere; but where that somewhere is, my joker, I'm hanged +if I know!" + +"I can tell you, mate," put in a man who was rubbing up the gun at the +end of the bridge hard by where we were standing. "We're off for +Mombassa again. I heard `old Square toes,' the navigator, tell Mr +Chisholm just now. He said we were agoin' to meet the _Merlin_ there, +and purseed further up the coast together." + +"Oh!" said Larry, "that means business, Tom." + +"Ay," said I, "it does, my hearty, and to tell the truth, Larry, I'm +jolly glad of it." + +So were all hands on board, when the news spread through the ship; and, +on our reaching Mombassa late in the afternoon of the same day, steaming +fifteen knots all the way, pretty nearly our full speed when the +stokehold was not `closed up,' we found the _Merlin_ there before us, as +the man on deck had told Larry and me in the morning. + +This made assurance a certainty, every man-jack of the crew being cock- +a-hoop with excitement, when, after a lot of signalling between the two +cruisers, and the _Merlin's_ gig bringing her captain alongside, he +being junior to `old Hankey Pankey,' the two of us sailed off in company +just before sunset. + +Our destination was Malindi, at the mouth of the Sabaki river, where it +was reported the Somalis had made an inroad into the British +protectorate, and burnt one of the out stations of the East African +Company, slaughtering all the whites and natives employed by the +traders. + +This place was only some sixty miles to the northward of Mombassa; and +all the arrangements for our landing having been completed, and `old +Hankey Pankey' settled his plan of operations with Captain Oliver of the +_Merlin_, we did not hurry on the passage to Malindi, timing ourselves +to arrive about daybreak, casting anchor in front of the town, as near +in as we could get without shoaling our water, at Six Bells in the +morning watch to the minute. + +During our run up the coast from Mombassa, the first lieutenant and Mr +Dabchick saw to our boats being got ready, and the bluejackets and +marines, who were detailed for service with the expedition, mustered on +deck in all their `war paint,' and told off to the respective craft in +which they were to go ashore; and by Eight Bells, after a hurried +breakfast, which none of us much cared to eat, we were all so full of +enthusiasm at the prospect of action, we shoved off from the _Mermaid_-- +all in dead silence, though, so that no inkling of our coming might +reach the ears of the Arabs before we were upon them. + +The boats of the _Merlin_ left their ship at the same time as we did +ours; the two lots making for the land in two columns abreast, `old +Hankey Pankey' leading our line in the launch, with the first and second +cutters and the whaler trailing on behind, while Captain Oliver led +those of the _Merlin_. + +On reaching the shore, the sea being fortunately very quiet, though the +north-east monsoon was now blowing, we waded up the sandy beach without +any difficulty; and, leaving our flotilla under charge of the boat- +keepers, a couple of hands in each craft to look after them so as to +prevent their grounding in the event of the wind getting up, when the +surf might be dangerous, we united our forces and marched in a body +inland. + +Avoiding the town of Malindi, our object being to surprise a stockade, +where the Somalis were reported to have established themselves, some +five miles off in the bush, in the rear of the outposts of the settlers, +we shaped a course south by west under the guidance of one of the +natives, who had been sent to us by one of the principal merchants of +the place on hearing of our landing, so as to make our way easy for us, +steering by compass in the jungle ashore being very different to what it +is on the open sea. + +The rascal, who was evidently a Somali spy sent by his astute comrades +to watch our movements, made our way very easy indeed; for he took us +directly in front of the stockade we had intended surprising, instead of +showing us a by-path leading to the rear of the fortification, from +which we could have outflanked the defence. + +`Old Hankey Pankey,' who led our fighting force of bluejackets and +marines, which mustered in officers and men altogether some two hundred +strong, was flabbergasted as he gaily marched in front of the column on +our being received by a hail of bullets and buckshot, which decimated +our ranks as we suddenly debouched from a rough, tangled undergrowth of +scrub and dwarf plantain trees. + +Amidst these we could hardly see an inch before us; and then, we found +ourselves in front of a high palisade, made of the trunks of heavy trees +lashed together with lianas and rattan creepers that were as strong as +wire rope. This was loopholed for musketry, and from thence a murderous +fire of innumerable weapons was directed at our devoted heads. + +Plucky as a lion, however, the captain rallied us; and, dividing the +column into three portions, taking command of the middle division +himself, while Captain Oliver of the _Merlin_, and Lieutenant Dabchick +of our ship, headed the two others, we advanced with a cheer to storm +the stockade, `old Hankey Pankey' aiming for its front face, and the +other sections of our force for the flanks of the fortification. + +Talk of fighting, it was a case of `pull baker, pull devil!' then! + +We numbered two hundred, as I have said, but the Somalis must have +mustered two thousand at least, if they had a man there. + +Twice we advanced to the attack, twice we were forced to fall back +before the withering flight of bullets that met us face to face from +every hole and corner of that infernal stockade; though Captain Hankey +bravely walked right up to the timber work till he almost touched it, a +revolver in either hand, which he fired alternately at the beggars! + +But, the captain got a big matchlock ball through both his legs, the +missile having been discharged at him as he turned sideways, with a +"Follow me, lads!" to cheer us on. + +He was not licked yet, though; for, as Larrikins stooped over him to +lift him up, `old Hankey Pankey' got his arm round his neck and climbed +up on to him pick-a-back, Larry highly delighted at the job, he and the +captain then advancing again to the assault. + +In the meantime, Mr Dabchick had brought up one of our little nine- +pounder boat-guns which had stuck in the rear and blew in part of the +palisading on the left of the stockade, when he and a lot of us made a +desperate charge to storm the entrenchment. + +Poor little Dabby, though, was shot dead while entering the breach the +shell of our nine-pounder had made in the outer palisade that protected +the Arab defences; and then, finding a second fence composed of similar +baulks of timber in front of us, as strong as that we had surmounted, +and that the fire of the Somalis increased the nearer we got to them, +our chaps, staggered by the fall of poor Dabby, I must confess it, all +at once began to cut and run! + + + +CHAPTER TWENTY SIX. + +BABOON VALLEY. + +"Stand by!" roared `old Hankey Pankey' from his perch on the top of +Larry's shoulders, noticing our hasty retreat from the left of the +stockade, our fellows indeed rushing back in their scurrying flight into +the midst of the centre column and mixing it up into irretrievable +confusion. "Steady there! Face round, my men, stand firm!" + +Just at that moment, though, when starting forwards again, with the +captain still pick-a-back on his shoulders, Larrikins stumbled over a +dead Arab that lay in front of him, and down came he with `old Hankey +Pankey' all in a heap together, with a couple of Somalis, at whom they +were going full butt. + +This second catastrophe broke up our ranks, some of the chaps--only a +few, though, I am proud to say--bolting into the bush; but Mr Chisholm, +who was leading the rear division, waved his sword in the air, and cried +out for volunteers to rescue our captain. + +At once, the whole lot of us that were left followed him up to the +front, where Larrikins and `old Hankey Pankey'--the latter of whom of +course could not rise of his own accord, by reason of the injury to his +legs--were fighting as only Englishmen can fight amidst a perfect horde +of Arabs, who had poured out from the stockade on seeing us retreat. + +"Hurrah, boys!" cried Larry, as we came up at the double, firing away +with our rifles right and left, and digging our sword-bayonets, till +they were dyed red with blood, into the body of every Somali who barred +our onward progress to the help of our comrade and the captain. "Give +it to the bloomin' beggars hot!" + +We did not need the advice, however, as the Arabs themselves could have +borne testimony to, for with a wild rush, that carried everything and +everybody before it, we drove our foe back into their stronghold, and +recovered `old Hankey Pankey,' who was at once hoisted triumphantly up +by a couple of marines. These gallant fellows, I should add, to give +all honour to the corps, stood stauncher even than we bluejackets did +that day; for, not a man turned his back on the foe until the captain +gave the word. + +This `old Hankey Pankey' was forced to do, much against the grain, a +moment or two later on, Captain Oliver having been driven off from the +right attack, thus leaving both our flanks now exposed as well as our +front to the fire of the Somalis, who once more rushed out from the +stockade upon us. + +"We must retire, my lads," cried the captain in a hoarse voice, the +words coming out with almost a sob. "But no hurry! Fall back by +sections, each wheeling and firing in turn. The company will now +retire! Quick march! Halt! Front!--fire!" + +He suited the action to the word himself as he said this, discharging +both his revolvers point-blank at two of the Arabs, who were leading on +the gang in hot pursuit of us, tumbling them over like ninepins. + +We had retreated in this fashion for about a mile or so, changing front +continually and facing the Somalis, who pressed us hard every inch of +the way; until, coming to an open space on the main road that had been +cut in a sort of zigzag through the bush from Malindi up to Uganda, the +captain determined to make a stand here and teach our pursuers a lesson, +the more particularly as we now had with us all our little nine-pounder +boat-guns. + +These, with the exception of one, that only got up at the last moment +when too late, we had been unable to drag along with us for the attack +on the stockade, the path we had traversed through the bush in the first +instance under the leadership of our treacherous guide having almost +been impassable for ourselves, let alone guns. + +Accordingly, with a rapid order to Mr Shrapnell, or `Gunnery Jack,' who +had accompanied the column from the ship, but had remained behind with +his little battery of field-pieces on their becoming bogged in the bush, +trying all he could to extricate them so as to get up with the column, +he being anxious, of course, to take his part in the fighting, we formed +square in the open. + +The thirty odd marines we had with us were drawn up two deep in front, +they being the oldest and most seasoned men of our force; while we +bluejackets were quickly echeloned along the sides and rear of the +square, at each corner of which was stationed one of the nine-pounders. + +Our Maxim gun, which had become jammed at its first discharge when using +it against the stockade but had now been made serviceable again, was +placed right in the centre of our front line, so as to fire over the +heads of the rank kneeling. + +"Now, men," shouted out Captain Hankey, who had dismounted from the +shoulders of the `jollies' who had been carrying him in the place of +Larrikins since the latter's tumble, and was now seated on the stump of +an old tree in the middle of the clearing, surrounded by us all and +commanding a view of every part of the square, "aim low, and don't waste +a shot; but, wait till I give the word!" + +The Arabs, who had checked their advance on seeing us halt, hesitating +as if waiting to learn what we were up to, now began to press forward +again, their ugly bronze faces, of a Jewish cut, peering at us out of +the bush on either side; while a large number came out into the open +with a rush, making for the front of the square and firing their queer +long muskets, as well as hurling their jereeds, or short spears, right +into our faces as they charged. + +Every one of us, I can tell you, gripped his Martini rifle as if he +would dig his nails into its steel barrel, sighting it for point-blank +range and aiming low, as the captain had told us, to catch the beggars +full in the bread-basket as they came up, yelling and waving their +weapons about, thinking, no doubt, to frighten us. + +But, though we might have faltered after our third repulse at the +stockade, we were not frightened now; nor did a man of us wish to fall +back, even if he had the chance. + +We were only waiting for `old Hankey Pankey' to give the word. + +He did not delay this long. + +"Steady, my lads!" he cried, in a warning voice, after a quick glance +round the square to see that we had made all proper preparations to give +our friends the Somalis a hospitable reception. "Are you ready, Mr +Shrapnell?" + +"Aye, aye, sir," replied `Gunnery Jack' instanter, "all ready!" + +"Then, we'll blaze away and let the beggars have it all together," +yelled out `old Hankey Pankey,' raising himself up in some wonderful +sort of way on the top of the tree stump, for he could not stand on his +legs; and, taking off his cap and waving it round his head thrice, he +gave out the words, "One--two--three, Fire!" + +Like a thunderclap, sharp, sudden, and rolling through the air with a +concussion that shook the very ground under our feet, a murderous volley +belched forth from our square, mowing down the Arabs as with the swath +of a mower's scythe, the mass of on-rushing, howling, swarthy Somalis +sinking down to the ground, overborne by the avalanche of shot and shell +we hurled at them; for, the rifles of us men, the guns of Mr +Shrapnell's battery, the revolvers of the officers, and the Maxim, all +spoke at once and together. + +Aye, so they did; and, though varied in tone, from the musical `Ping!' +of our Martinis to the crackling grunt of the quick-firing weapon, whose +irritable cough could be heard above the deep boom of the nine-pounders +which echoed through the woods, all spoke the same word--Death! + +We had no need to give them a second volley, the fearful effects of our +first having so intimidated the few survivors we could see in the +distance, that these incontinently fled back into the bush, leaving us +now to pursue our retreat to the coast without any further molestation +on their part. + +But, albeit conquerors in this our last stand, the victory came too late +to cheer us; and it was with greatly saddened hearts and drooping faces, +thus offering a strongly marked contrast to the bright enthusiasm with +which we all had started up country in the morning, we now slowly +retraced our way to the shore, to the south of Malindi. + +Out of the two hundred bluejackets and marines who had landed from the +_Mermaid_ and _Merlin_ at break of day, but half that number returned on +board their respective ships at nightfall, when the sun sank over the +hills to the westward like a ball of fire, crimsoning the heavens to the +hue of the blood that had been spilt! + +On reaching the _Mermaid_ the surgeon had Captain Hankey carried down to +his cabin at once, as he was now becoming faint with exhaustion; though, +I believe, the mortification he felt at the Arabs having licked us gave +him more pain than the damage done to his legs by the ball of the +matchlock, which had taken him athwartship through the fleshy part of +his understandings--breaking no bones, but crippling him all the same. + +The surgeon, however, could not keep him quiet long below; for no sooner +had his wounds been dressed than he insisted on being brought up on deck +again, when he had the hands all mustered aft and spoke a few +sympathising words to us anent the events of the day. He expressed his +sorrow at the loss of so many good men and true, and added that, though +defeated for the time, we would shortly have `a go at the Arabs' again, +and nail the Union Jack of old England yet on top of the Somali +stronghold. + +"Three cheers now, my lads!" he called out at the end of his harangue, +which was interspersed with a lot of `ahem'-ing and `haw'-ing, `old +Hankey Pankey' not being much of a speaker--"three cheers for the old +flag that has never been licked yet in the long-run!" + +If you could have only heard the shout that went up from the lusty +throats of the chaps standing round me and Larrikins, you would not have +thought we had just been beaten off by those black devils nor had to +mourn so many jolly shipmates whom we would never see again in this +life! + +But, sailors can't afford to waste any time in `crying over spilt milk'; +it would be a poor lookout for them, aye, and for our country too, if +they did! + +`Old Hankey Pankey' was of a like opinion. + +So no sooner had the echo of our ringing cheer died away amidst the +hills beyond Malindi, now purpling with the shades of evening, ere, +turning round as well as he could with his bandaged limbs, still sitting +in the easy-chair in which he had been brought up from below, he hailed +the signalman and told him to make the _Merlin's_ number, calling Mr +Gresham at the same time to his side, the two of them confabulating +together. + +Presently, in response to another signal from us, Captain Oliver came on +board, when he joined in the talk going on between `old Hankey Pankey' +and Mr Gresham for a bit and then returned to his own ship; the +_Merlin_ shortly afterwards slipping her moorings and making off at full +speed to the southwards. + +"I tell 'ee wot, Tom," said Larrikins to me on our going down to the +lower deck just then, the `disperse' having sounded, and it being our +watch below, "she's gone h'off fur to tell the h'admiral o' the bloomin' +mess we've made on it!" + +This we found was the case next morning when the captain's steward came +forwards as usual; this worthy being better than a newspaper to all of +us, for he used to tell us of things before they occurred, and truly +enough too, instead of waiting for events to happen and then garbling +them, as some prints I have seen do! + +Two or three days later the _Merlin_, which reported having had a long +chase after the senior officer, going almost as far as Zanzibar and back +to Mombassa before she picked him up, returned to Malindi, in company +with the _Bullfinch_, another small cruiser attached to the East African +squadron. + +Captain Oliver also brought orders from our chief, that parties of +bluejackets were to be landed to protect Malindi from any hostile attack +of the Arabs, while he with the admiral and all the force on the station +were busy preparing an expedition on a grand scale, to drive the Somalis +altogether out of the British protectorate, and so prevent any further +attempt on their part to invade the country for some time to come. + +These instructions were acted on immediately by `old Hankey Pankey' to +the letter, parties of seamen and marines from each ship in turn landing +and patrolling the outskirts of the settlement, in front of which our +little fleet of three vessels was anchored; and so we `marked time,' so +to speak, for the next few months, waiting for the ships belonging to +the West African squadron to come up with the admiral himself, as not +until then would we be able to resume active operations against the foe, +whose defeat of us before their stockade at Wooromoloo we were burning +to avenge. + +"Lor', Tom," said Larrikins to me, expressing the current feeling of all +on board the _Mermaid_, "I'd die happy, s'help me, if I could only pot +that there bloomin' Arab thief Abdalah, him we see'd shoot poor little +Dabby. They told us, Tom, you reck'lect t'other day over in the nigger +town there when we was on sentry go, him were the chief of the gang, and +were boastin' o' killin' our h'officers and makin' all on us cut and +run. Lor', I'd give a year's pay to settle that there beggar's hash!" + +At last one morning, when we were pretty well tired of this forced +inaction, a despatch boat came up from Mombassa, bringing orders from +the admiral, who had arrived there in his flagship, accompanied by +several gunboats and other vessels, nearly all the crews of which had +been landed. + +The admiral informed our captain that he was about to proceed inland +through the province of Teita with this formidable column; and that he, +`old Hankey Pankey,' was to assemble as strong a force as he could +muster from the ships under his command and with a second column thus +formed he was to start from Malindi and work in a south-westerly +direction, when the two bodies would meet, completely hemming in the +Arabs. + +`Old Hankey Pankey' got us all ashore the same afternoon the admiral's +orders came; and, early the next morning, nearly four hundred strong +now, just double our former strength, we marched off up country towards +the scene of our defeat at the hands of the Somali chieftain Abdalah, on +the occasion of our previous trip inland. + +When we got near his stockade, though, which, it need hardly be stated, +we approached with considerable caution this time, the old bird had +flown, having crossed the Sabaki River before our approach and gone to +join the rest of the Somalis at Teita, whom the admiral was now busy +encompassing. + +Our way, therefore, so far, was clear; and, breasting the hills +manfully, we proceeded along the route marked out for us, our hopes high +and our spirits buoyant at the chance of now turning the tables on the +old miscreant who had previously beguiled us. + +The country a little way from the coast began to get beautifully wooded: +while a series of undulating plateaus were planted by the natives with +plantains and sugar-canes, besides various vegetables whose names none +of us knew. + +Farther up the mountains some of the trees were tall and spreading, +unlike anything, I thought, that ever grew in Africa; for I recognised a +mountain-ash and a sort of oak, while the juniper-tree perfumed the air +with its aromatic smell. + +I have good cause to remember these same junipers! On our way up the +heights, Larrikins and I, who were scouting in advance, on either side +of the front of the column, met a native, who told us in the bastard +jargon of the coast called the Swahili language that some big animals, +which he said were bigger than us and covered with long hair, were in a +valley on our right; and that, if we valued our lives, so at least +Larrikins told me, he having picked up some of the lingo from a negro +woman at Malindi, we had better make a detour so as to avoid this place. + +"Nonsense," said I. "The rascal, perhaps, is another spy like that chap +who led us into the stockade trap! I ain't going out of the straight +road the cap'en laid down for us to steer. He said the column was to go +west sou'-west by compass, and west sou'-west, Larry, I'm going!" + +So saying, off I bore in the direction I had indicated, keeping to the +right of the main column, which was following the bank of the Sabaki +River. + +Trudging along steadily, Larry just keeping in sight of me, so as to +hold touch with the column, I came, a little way farther on, upon a most +beautiful grove of camphor and juniper-trees, that seemed cut out of a +gorge in the Kilima-Njaro mountains. + +The smell was so overpoweringly sweet and delicious, after the toil of +our long march and the arid wastes through which we had drearily toiled, +knee-deep in hot sand that had burnt the soles of our feet through our +boots, that I really could not help halting for a moment to inhale the +soft perfumed air, which seemed to me like a breath from the portals of +Paradise! + +Leaning against one of the trees, a fine juniper it was, I had just +taken off my cap to wipe the perspiration that was rolling down my face +like rain, it having been a stiff climb upwards from the undulating +country below, besides having to battle, too, with the brushwood most of +the way, and the creepers that hung down from the branches, making some +of the places through which we passed perfect jungles of massed +vegetation, when, all of a sudden, a big hairy hand clutched me round +the throat and I felt myself drawn up into the tree. + + + +CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN. + +A REGULAR SCRIMMAGE! + +I believe the delicious perfume that permeated the air had almost lulled +me to sleep for the moment, when I was rudely roused up by feeling the +grip on my throat. "Belay that, Larry," cried I, fancying that my +practical-joking friend had stolen a march on me, thinking to catch me +napping, speaking without even taking the trouble to open my eyes. "A +lark's a lark, old chap: but you needn't squeeze my throat so beastly +hard, Larry!" + +The pressure of his fingers, as I thought, continuing and absolutely +causing me considerable pain, as well as throttling me, while I felt +myself drawn up, as I have stated, into the lower branches of the tree +against which I had been leaning, I quickly opened my eyes. + +Heavens, I was horrified! + +The hand that I fancied was the hand of Larry and which he had clasped +round my neck in joke, was one of the great hairy paws of a huge baboon, +who, with his grinning face shoved close to mine, was trying his best to +choke me in grim earnest; while, getting a purchase with the other paw +on to a projecting limb of the juniper-tree, he was slowly hoisting me +aloft. + +His grip was so strong that I felt powerless in his grasp; but, all the +same, I was not going to give in to a brute of a monkey without making a +fight for it! + +So, feeling for the lanyard of my knife, I drew this out of its sheath +and gave Jocko's elder brother a slash across his wrist that must have +tickled him up a bit, the blood from the beast's paw shooting over my +face in a stream, while he let go his hold of me. + +Hardly had I reached the ground, however, touching mother earth again +with a jerk that nearly dislocated my ankles, besides making me fall +sideways all a-sprawl, than the baboon, giving vent to a vicious snarl, +caught hold of my left leg with both his paws, just as a dog might seize +a bone, and bit me savagely with his tusk-like teeth. + +Fortunately, all of us were in full marching rig with gaiters on, and +this protection prevented the baboon's teeth from penetrating far into +my flesh, though he made his mark on my unfortunate calf. + +Then, on my prodding him in one of his hind legs, which I clutched in my +turn, thinking such a procedure only fair play, the beast dropped the +gaiter he was busy gnawing up, and made at me with a howl, endeavouring +to clutch me again in his hairy hug. + +But, dropping on one knee, I gave him an upper cut with my doubled fist +right under the brute's chin, which prevented this movement; and the +next moment, falling back, when I jumped on top of him, he and I were +rolling over and over, locked together, the baboon and I, in each +other's arms, and engaged in one of the biggest rough-and-tumble fights +I ever had the pleasure of participating in! + +The big brute, though, was so strong and muscular that he got the better +of me after a bit, tearing all the clothes off me with the long nails he +had at the ends of his toes and human-like fingers, besides biting me in +the most savage fashion wherever he saw an opening. + +I thought my last hour had come. + +But, help was at hand. + +As I gasped and struggled frantically with the ferocious monster, +feeling my strength ebbing away so fast that I had hardly power enough +to protect my face from the brute's cruel claws, I heard a hoarse shout +and a rapid footstep near me crunching on the ground. + +Then. + +`Bang!' came, the report of a rifle close to my ear, and the baboon's +bloody body fell back on top of me, the beast having been shot as dead +as a herring. + +"Lor', Tom," exclaimed Larrikins, hauling away the carcass of the +baboon, which I subsequently learnt was a species of the mandrill, +common in the north-eastern and central parts of Africa, "I wer' only in +the nick o' time! Why didn't yer call out, chummy?" + +"How could I, Larry?" said I, after he had put his water-bottle to my +mouth and brought me round a bit, so that I was able to sit up and +speak. "The beast had me round the neck and I couldn't have shouted or +even whispered to save my life." + +"Well, ye wouldn't 'a saved it, me joker, if I hadn't missed yer all of +a suddink," replied Larrikins, grinning; for I believe he could not have +helped laughing, his disposition was so humorous, if a fellow had told +him his father was dead! "I wer' a-wondering where yer wer', Tom, when +I see'd a troop of big black monkeys makin' fur this very grove where we +is. Wonderin' if they was them beasts that Swahili chap told us on, I +follered 'em up; and then, all at onst, I see'd ye, Tom, a-strugglin' +with that beast theer, and I comes up at the double and puts my rifle +inter his ear and blows his bloomin' brains out, jest as ye was well- +nigh spent, me joker." + +"Thank you, Larry," said I; "you've saved my life." + +"All right," he replied jokingly, pulling me up and rubbing me down, +helping to arrange my tattered jumper and trousers, which that devil of +a baboon had nearly torn to pieces; his bites, luckily for me, not being +as bad as they had seemed, now that the blood was rubbed off. "I hopes, +Tom, ye'll remember me in yer will when ye're dead, me joker!" + +"I will do better than that," said I, as we both moved off to join some +of the other bluejackets scouting away behind us, who had come up during +the stoppage of our march through the wild country. "I will remember +you, Larry, as long as I live!" + +The surgeon accompanying our column presently came up to me and neatly +strapped up the cuts which the baboon had inflicted on me with his +teeth. He wanted me to retire to the rear and stop with the baggage +guard; but, I would have none of that, no, not I! + +"I would rather go on, sir, if you will allow me," said I. "Now that I +have rested and you have put that stuff on the wounds, I feel all right +again, sir; and I don't want to be left out of the fighting and lose the +chance of paying out those Arab beggars for a few scratches like these. +Why, sir, chaps that don't know me would say that I was a coward!" + +"Very good, my lad," said the surgeon good-humouredly, for he was a rare +good fellow, and a prime favourite with all on board the _Mermaid_; "you +can go on with the column if you like. We want such men as you in the +battle front; and, I think, we generally have them, too!" I therefore +resumed my place in the ranks, though let off scouting duty, as was +Larry, the two of us being now relieved by fresh hands from amongst the +bluejackets; and so, I now marched along with the column, which pursued +its way onward steadily inland, steering the same west south-west +course, until we had travelled some fifteen miles away from our base. + +We halted for the night on a beautiful grassy plain, covered with red +and white clover, with thistles and dog-roses and dandelions intermixed, +such as one might see on the outskirts of many an English wood in the +south; while, there we were in the heart of Africa, so to speak! + +Shortly after we encamped here, a runner brought news from the admiral +to our captain, telling him that the other column had reached the +position assigned to it in the original plan of operations and that they +were now within good striking distance of the Arabs, who, the chief +wrote word, were massed in the vicinity of Arabuku, which after +executing our long detour we also were near. + +All our preparations being thus complete, `old Hankey Pankey' arranged +for us to break camp at four o'clock the next morning, and move off to +where the Somalis and their allies were said by the natives to be +intrenched in strong force, so as to take them in the rear while the +admiral made a front attack. + +No bugle, though, sounded to rouse us when day broke in the African +forest and the rosy light of dawn came peeping through the trees, +brightening the green sheen of their leaves and making the dewdrops +glisten on the clover, the scene reminding me more of home than anything +I had seen since I left Spithead. + +But, neither I nor any one else had much time for such reflections that +morning as we silently paraded before `old Hankey Pankey' and the other +officers; and, after a careful inspection of our arms, we started in a +bee-line for Arabuku, the men massed four deep, with the guns in the +centre of our column and flanking parties on the right and left, `old +Hankey Pankey,' of course, let him alone for that, leading the van. + +At five o'clock, just as the old sun appeared in full splendour above +the tops of the hills on our left, a halt was ordered by the captain, +the word being passed quietly along the ranks from front to rear. + +I was on the right flank, close to `old Hankey Pankey' as he brought us +up in this sudden fashion, so I heard every word he said to Mr Gresham, +who marched by his side; though, for that matter, I almost guessed what +was coming, from the captain wheeling round abruptly and stopping the +sort of half trot at which he had been going along, the poor gentleman +never having quite recovered the use of his legs after the matchlock +ball had ventilated them. + +"I think this was about the spot, Gresham, eh?" said he to the first +lieutenant. "The admiral said we were to proceed four miles due south +from our encampment at Kilili, or whatever else that place was called by +our Swahili guide." + +"Yes, sir," replied Mr Gresham. "I think we have about covered that +distance by now; and our course has been true by compass, I know." + +"Yes, yes," said `old Hankey Pankey,' as if thinking over the +matter--"yes. Got the rockets ready, Mr--ahem--Shrapnell?" + +"Aye, aye, sir," replied `Gunnery Jack,' who had come up from his guns, +on the halt being cried, to see whether the captain might not have any +special orders for him. "They're close at hand, sir." + +"The signal rockets, I mean." + +"Yes, sir, I'm speaking of the signal rockets," replied Mr Shrapnell, +with never a movement on his face, but looking grave as a judge. "I +thought you'd want them, sir, so I brought them along with me. Adams +here, sir, has them in his charge. The other rockets with the tube for +firing them are with the guns in the centre of the main column." + +"That's right, Mr Shrapnell; tell Adams to get one of the signals ready +for sending up at once, for I expect to see the admiral's every minute," +said `old Hankey Pankey'; adding, as `Gunnery Jack' stepped back to +prepare the signal rocket with Adams, "That chap thinks himself very +smart with his rocket and tube, as if I didn't know the real difference +between the two! It's just like those gunnery fellows. They think +nobody can be as sharp as themselves; but Mr Shrapnell will find +himself too sharp for himself as well as for me some day, if he doesn't +look out!" + +Almost as he said this, we could hear the `whis-s-ish' of a rocket going +up in the distance, the sound seeming to come from a point in the bush +about a mile or so ahead of us; and then, the bright blue and red +globules of fire that followed the burst of the warning signal were seen +the very next moment, high in the air above the trees in front, slowly +sinking as their light died away out of sight. + +"Stand by there!" shouted `old Hankey Pankey' to Adams, who had our +return signal rocket all ready, slung on to a handspike for a stick. +"Here's my cigar, set fire to it with that." + +He handed him as he thus spoke the manilla which he had been smoking +throughout our march, as if he were going to some picnic and probably +feeling quite as jovial as if he had been; and, Adams at once setting +light to the end of the rocket, it soared aloft like its compeer the +moment before, with a whish and a rush that must have scared all the +stray baboons within earshot of its flight. + +Then we heard tom-toms beating close by, and the clash of brass or some +other metal that had a ring like cymbals. + +"They're waking up," cried `old Hankey Pankey' to Mr Gresham, with a +pleased smile on his face. "The column will now advance. Close your +ranks, men. Keep steady. Forward!" + +We had hardly taken a dozen paces, advancing in the same formation as +before, when we heard the roar of guns in front and steady volleys of +rifle-fire, whose sound clearly betokened that it emanated from weapons +similar to our own. + +"By George, we'll be too late!" cried `old Hankey Pankey,' hobbling +onwards at a fine rate for a moment, and then slewing round to give some +fresh order to those following up behind. "Come on, men--come on at the +double. Spread out your flanks, Mr Gresham! Spread out your flanks, +d'ye hear? Tell Mr Shrapnell to bring up the guns. Spread out there, +men--spread out in skirmishing order, to cover your front! Hang it, +come on, my lads--come on, or we'll be too late!" + +Captain Oliver of the _Merlin_ was running us cheek by jowl with his +contingent on the left and Commander Jellaby of the _Bullfinch_ trying +to outstrip him on our right; so, we had hard work to keep our place in +line ahead. + +But `old Hankey Pankey' was not going to let any one, junior or senior +in the service, beat him for first place when fighting was on; and no +one who had known how terribly he had been wounded, the muscles of his +legs having become shrunk after the holes made by the matchlock ball had +closed up, would have dreamt him capable of going the pace he did now. + +"Forward, men--forward!" he yelled out spasmodically, as he hobbled on +like the wind in front, taking long hops at intervals over any +obstruction that lay in his path. "_Mermaids_ to the front! You're not +going to let us be licked, men, by any other ship on the station!" + +How he got out the words between his leaps, and bounds, and hops, I am +sure I cannot tell; but, get them out he did, though he must have been +pretty well pumped out already by his exertions, and his breath nearly +all spent. + +But, we hardly needed the stimulus to prompt us to action; for in barely +another half minute we burst out of the bush, going at the double and +spread out in a half circle, so as to catch all stragglers who might +have vainly hoped to escape in our direction, for we were right in the +rear of the Arab town. + +This was already all ablaze from the rockets and bursting shells of the +admiral's brigade, the straw-thatched houses as they looked, though they +were really covered with dry plantain and banana leaves, burning up like +so many fierce bonfires in our front, and right and left; while the +sharp rattle of musketry and loud banging of the guns of the first +division was mixed up with the platoon-like reports from the matchlocks +of the Somalis, who were urging on their somewhat reluctant allies, the +slave-traders of the interior, with hoarse yells and shrill screams, +bolstering up their courage likewise by the beating of innumerable gongs +and clashing cymbals, the consensus of sound making din enough to have +wakened up all the dead dervishes of the desert for generations past, +and caused them, had they come to life, to have proclaimed a `Jehad' or +holy war against us, and thus roused up all the fanaticism of all those +of the Moslem race yet left alive! + +Such was our grand rush, however, coming as it did on top of the +cleverly planned combined attack of the admiral's columns in front of +the town, thus taking the Arabs between two fires, that even Saladin +would not have saved them. + +Hundreds of them were shot down behind their stockades, which I must say +they defended gallantly to the last; while those who were not potted by +our bullets, were `put out of action' by the bayonets of us bluejackets, +who carried their intrenchments by storm. + +So far, I was only one of the crowd, loading and firing my Martini as I +advanced or halted on the word of command being given by `old Hankey +Pankey'; who, plucky as a lion, was in the forefront all through, his +uniform cap tumbled off and his face all blackened with powder, +`potting' this chap with the revolver that he held in his left hand, or +sticking another Somali through the gizzard with his sword, which was +always thrust out straight before him as he went onward, and always `at +the point.' + +But, now, I had a little diversion on my own account. + +"Left turn!" shouted our company leader Mr Chisholm, whose sharp eye +detected through the smoke a body of the Arabs attacking an officer and +a detached party of our men who had escaladed the fortifications on the +right of the town; and seeing that they were hard pressed, though making +a gallant stand of it against heavy odds, our officer quickly called +out, "Double! Charge, my lads!" + +By George! We did charge; and then, the bronze-coloured beggars, who +had thought to make an easy prey of our before isolated comrades, turned +savagely to receive us, a whole horde of them! + +Larrikins, who was next me, got his right arm transfixed by one of their +light spears or jereeds, a lot of which came whistling through the air +into our ranks like a flight of sparrows. + +This made Larry drop his rifle like a hot potato; but, nothing daunted, +he kept alongside of me all the same, drawing his cutlass as we raced +along together. + +"Lor', Tom, that wer' a nipper, that wer'!" he cried, with a grin on his +face, as if the wound were rather a joke than otherwise. "But I'm +jiggered if I don't pay out the joker who skewered me then!" + +At that moment a couple of the Arabs made at the pair of us; and I had +quite enough to do to guard off the shower of cuts one of them delivered +round my devoted head, his curved scimitar whirling about me in all +directions and the sunlight from above making it flash so that it +dazzled my eyes. + +However, a lucky drive with my sword-bayonet through the rascal's throat +stopped his little game; for the swarthy Arab dropped his scimitar +instanter, with a gurgle of rage and an upward roll of his eyes, "like a +dying duck in a thunder-storm," as father used to say, tumbling down all +of a heap as dead as mutton. + +Hardly had I done with him when, strange to say, I heard the bark of a +dog. + +This was very unusual, all Mahometans hating dogs and believing them to +be possessed of the Devil. + +Besides, somehow or other, I seemed to recognise the bark as familiar to +me; for, believe me, the voices of dogs and their respective expressions +of grief or joy, though sounding the same to alien ears, are as distinct +to such as are accustomed to hear them frequently as the voices of human +beings of our acquaintance or any individual. + +Before I had time to think, however, though my senses were all on the +alert from hearing the dog's bark, I saw that the naval officer whom we +had rushed up to help at Mr Chisholm's instigation, was engaged in a +fierce hand-to-hand fight with two Arabs, one of whom, a tall, lean +Somali, with a peculiar sort of turban round his head, unlike any of +those sported by the rest of the gang, I was certain was no less a +personage than the man, or `sheik' as he was called, Abdalah, the leader +of the Somalis. + +As I noted this, the officer fell; but, ere the big Arab, who drew back +a long spear that he wielded, could give him the fatal thrust he +intended, I was upon him. + +Clubbing my rifle, I dealt a vicious blow at the savage brute's head +which shivered the spear wherewith he tried to guard it. + +The rascal, though, was not discomfited; for, clutching hold of a tulwar +he carried loosely in a sash of the old dressing-gown-like garment he +wore, he almost slashed my nose off, the barrel of my Martini only just +preventing me from losing all my good looks! + +The shock sent me on my knees; and then, seeing a sword lying on the +ground in front of me, I gripped hold of this more by instinct than +anything else, and I rose to my feet again as quick as lightning. + +Quick as I was, however, the brute of an Arab was quicker; and, aiming a +terrible slashing cut at me with the tulwar, which had it landed would +have decapitated me as clean as a whistle, and the last word of my +history been told for good and all--aye, but for a wonderful +interposition just as I thought my end had come. + +With a piercing yelp, that was succeeded by a deep, savage growl, a +white dog bounded up from the ground beside the officer, who had not yet +recovered from the effects of the blow that had struck him down. + +Would you believe it, this dog was `Gyp'! + +Making a jump which no one could have imagined a dog of his size capable +of doing, he clutched the Arab chief by the throat as he slashed at me, +making him stumble back, thus causing the cut that would otherwise have +sliced off my head like a carrot to be wasted in the air. + +As the big murdering rascal stumbled back, I thrust forth my arm holding +the officer's sword and sent the blade right through the beggar's +stomach up to the hilt. + +"Be the powers, me joker," cried a voice behind me, as sheik and `Gyp' +and I all fell together on the ground in one batch, "ye did that well, +alannah! Begorrah, it wor roight in his bri'd-basket, sure!" + +"My goodness!" I exclaimed, recognising a voice that sounded as +familiar to my ears as the bark of `Gyp' just now. "Who's that?" + + + +CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT. + +WARM GREETINGS. + +"Tom, don't ye know me, owld chappie?" cried Mick, for, of course, it +was him; though, what with my deadly struggle and rescue by `Gyp,' whom +I thought thousands of miles away, besides the fact of my old chum +coming so unexpectedly on the scene, I felt perfectly bewildered, +thinking that I must be in a dream. "Begorrah, ye're starin' at me, +sure, ez if I wor a ghost or a banshee, bedad!" + +"Really, Mick," said I, when I could at length speak and was convinced +that it was himself in proper person and no phantom of my imagination, +gripping his fist in a hearty grasp that expressed more than I could say +and which he understood better than all the words in the world, "you +don't mean to say it's you! How did you come here?" + +"Faith, on the sowl of me fat," he answered, with his jolly laugh, +speaking in that racy brogue which sounded like music, it being so long +since I had heard it. "Sure, Oi've marched oop from the coast the same +ez yersilf, alannah!" + +"But," said I, still wondering at the unlooked-for sight of him there +all of a sudden like that, "I thought you were on the West Coast, +cruising about the Bight of Benin, or up the Niger, or somewhere +thereabouts?" + +"So I wor," he replied, with a grin at the stupefied look on my face; +"but you forgits, Tom, our squadron's coom round here with the admiral +to give ye a hilping hand, sure, in yer shindy with these blissid Arab +thayves here. So, faith, Oi've coom along with the rest in the owld +_Grampus_, bedad. But, Oi'm lookin' for our cap'en now. Have you sayn +him, Tom, at all--he wor in the thick of the foightin' jist now summat +about heres?" + +"Your cap'en," said I, trying to repress `Gyp's' frantic joy at seeing +me again; the faithful animal, who had stuck to the Arab chief with a +tenacious grip, only releasing him when he was assured of his not being +likely to trouble any of us any more, now coming up to me and springing +up, trying to lick my face as he yelped and whined with delight. "Who +is your cap'en?" + +"Why, Tom, I thought you knowed," he replied, looking from me down at +`Gyp,' whose stumpy tail, and every hair on his white coat as well, +seemed on the wag, his excited affections only finding outlet in this +way. "Faith, he's Cap'en Sackville, to be sure, be all the powers!" + +"What--" + +"Yis," said Mick Donovan before I could get any further, answering my +unasked question; "the same ez we lied aboord with us in the owld _Saint +Vincent_." + +I was dumbfounded. + +"What an ass I am!" I jerked out, shaking off poor `Gyp,' and +proceeding to where the officer lay on the ground a little way from us, +stretched out face downwards. "I ought to have known it was him from +seeing the dog!" + +"Aye, sure, it is him thrue enuff," said Mick, stooping down and raising +up the prostrate figure in his arms. "Them murdering thayves hev kilt +the poor cap'en entoirely!" + +Mick's dead man, however, did a most extraordinary thing for one who was +supposed to have departed this life. + +He first sneezed, and then opened his eyes. + +Next he spoke. + +"Where am I? Ah, yes, I recollect," he faltered out slowly, his wits +beginning to work, and his memory coming back to him; when, all of a +sudden, catching sight of my face as I loosened his collar and sprinkled +some water from my bottle over his head to bring him to, he uttered a +quick cry. "Ah, it's you, Tom Bowling--I remember you quite well. I +thought it was, my lad, before I lost my consciousness. It is you, +then, whom I have to thank for saving my life just now?" + +"How--why," I stammered, not knowing well what to say--"what, sir?" + +"Oh yes, Bowling; you can't get out of it," he said in a firmer voice, +and the old pleasant smile I recollect when he gave me that half-crown +in his cabin on board the old training-ship that I spoke of at the +beginning of my yarn. "I saw you quite plainly, my lad, as you rushed +up to my succour when those Arabs nearly settled me. There were two of +them attacking me at the same time, one before and one behind, and if +you had not come up I think they'd have settled me." + +"I hope, sir," said I, as Mick and I raised him up between us into a +sitting posture--`Gyp' watching the operation with a most intense +interest and pleasure, his little black muzzle working, and his short +tail wagging all the time--"I do hope you are not seriously hurt, sir?" + +Captain Sackville drew a deep breath and shook himself. + +"No," he said--"no bones broken, I think; but, I have got a bullet +through one shoulder, I believe, for I can't lift my right hand--that's +how I came to drop my sword, which I see you have, Bowling." + +"Yes, sir," said I quietly, glancing to where the Somali chief was +doubled up. "I paid off your score against that beggar over there with +it, sir." + +"Indeed!" said Captain Sackville, trying to rise up on his legs, but +falling back with a groan. "O-o-oh! I think that fellow gave me a bad +thrust in the chest just before I dropped it; but, I declare I forgot +all about it!" + +Mick and I at once tore open his tunic and shirt, when we found a deep +wound on his right side, from which the captain must have lost a good +deal of blood, his clothing being quite saturated; but the wound was not +bleeding much now and we bound it up with our two silk handkerchiefs, +winding them round his body, which relieved him so much that he was able +to stand up on his feet. + +The battle between our forces and the foe was now pretty nigh over, and +the combatants had long since swept past us; pursuers and pursued having +alike disappeared in the bush surrounding the native town or lost to +sight amid the smoking ruins, where some little desultory skirmishing +was still going on. + +Presently, however, a grand hurrah went up on the left, where the +Somalis had made their last stand. + +It was a cheer such as British bluejackets alone can give; and then we +saw the Union Jack run up on the top of a big bungalow in the centre of +the town, the only hut or building that had escaped destruction in the +general conflagration. + +"It's all over, my lads," said Captain Sackville on hearing and seeing +this. "I think we had better see about joining the main column, and +pick up any stragglers we may see in want of assistance by the way." + +But we came across none in any need of help, save such offices as the +dead require, along our route to the front; for, wherever we noticed any +groups of bodies together, all alike, whether bluejacket or Arab, were +stone dead. + +Bullet and knife and sword had each and all had a busy day of it! + +After burying the dead with all the honours of war, the corpse of the +Arab chief I had killed with Captain Sackville's sword being identified +formally as that of the notorious Abdalah, as I had thought, our columns +returned to the coast in triumph with the proud consciousness of having +cleared the country of all the invading Somalis. + +The bluejackets and marines belonging to the admiral's division then +rejoined their ships at Mombassa; while our contingent, led still by +`old Hankey Pankey,' who was none the worse for the fray, retraced their +steps through Teita and the `baboon valley'--where, I may add, I met no +second mishap--to Malindi. + +We again went on board the _Mermaid_; and, to cut a long story short, +the captain, who was very pleased with what he had seen of me during the +campaign, besides my having a good word put in by Captain Sackville, +promoted me to `leading seaman' the very next day. + +Naturally, I was very sorry to part company with Mick so soon after our +long separation; but, as I have said before, a sailor's life is made up +of partings. + +Here besides, as things turned out, no great period elapsed ere we hove +in sight of each other again; aye, under circumstances, too, that have +caused us to become closer companions than ever, as indeed we are now. + +I will tell you how this was. + +Not many months after our smashing up the Arabs and driving the Somalis +out of the British protectorate back to their own inhospitable country, +the _Mermaid's_ commission expired; when, instead of the cruiser going +home to be paid off, a new crew was sent out to us from England, she +still remaining on the station, in accordance with the routine at +present in vogue. + +The old _Dromedary_, that brought out our relief, which has cruised more +thousands of miles, I believe, on such fetching and carrying work than +have ever been covered by the oldest ship in the Navy, took us back home +in her; and she called in at Simons Bay, en route, to fill up with +supernumeraries and other paid-off crews from ships belonging to the +Cape station. + +Amongst those that came on board here were the officers and men of the +_Grampus_, including none others than Captain Sackville, who had quite +recovered from his wounds, Mick Donovan, and `Gyp.' + +I need hardly say what a jolly passage home we all had; Larrikins and +Mick and I, with some other old shipmates of the _Saint Vincent_, +yarning all the way from morning till night, not much work being wanted +of us as we had fine weather throughout; while `Gyp,' who still retained +his affection for me, exhibited his old bias for lower deck company and +could not be kept away from the fo'c's'le where we were. + +Captain Sackville, of course, noticed this, but he was not a bit angry +at it; and, on our leaving the old _Dromedary_ at Portsmouth, where we +finally arrived safe and sound after a pretty speedy passage for such an +old tub, he gladdened my heart when saying farewell by making me a +present of `Gyp.' + +"Begorrah," as Mick related to Larrikins subsequently, when we returned +to the depot, after our customary payoff leave ashore, "ye nivver sayd +sich a coomin' home, sure, ez Tom hed, an' me too, bedad, whin we got up +to the owld cottage at Bonfoire Corner. Sure, there wor Tom's faither +a-sottin' in the garden in his owld armchair under the mulberry-tree, +faith, afther Miss Jenny resayved us at the door--" + +"Ah," interposed Larrikins at this point, with a knowing wink. "But, +what o' Tom's sister? Yer ain't told us about her at all, chummy. Did +she give ye a kiss, now?" + +"Git away wid ye," cried Mick, giving him a dig in his ribs, and +grinning the while all over his face at the recollection of something +about which I might have told a tale if I had liked, before proceeding +to go on with his story of the warm reception we had met with. + +"Well, thin, Tom's fayther wor a-sottin' in the armchair, ez I wor a- +sayin' whin you put me off me coorse, Larry, ye baste. Tom wor goin' on +ahid, wid `Gyp' a-kapin' behoind him, an' Oi, sure, behoind him agin wid +Miss Jenny, whin the monkey Jocko, who wor alongside of Tom's fayther, +catches sight of `Gyp,' and makes for the to'-gallant crosstrees ov the +mulberry-tree, faith. Now, Larry, ye moost rimimber the owld cockatoo +`Ally Sloper' wor alriddy oop there aloft; an' whin the burrd says Jocko +makin' fur him, he oop stick, or rayther oop wid his crist an' flies +down roight atop ov Tom's hid, shraykin' out, `Say-rah, Say-rah!' as +loud as the divvle could bawl. `Gyp' on this starts barkin' loike mad +at the blissid cockatoo; whin down cooms Masther Jocko fur to have his +share in the foight. Begorrah, ye nivver sayd sich a rumpus in yer +loife, Larry, 'specially whin Tom's fayther got overturned in his +armchair an' Misthress Bowlin' came out fur to say wot all the row was +about; whoile Miss Jenny an' Tom an' me, sure, wor all a-dyin' wid +larfin', bedad!" + +I may add, in conclusion, that Mick and I went from the depot to the +_Excellent_, to go through a regular course of gunnery, preparatory to +our aspiring to the grade of `petty officer'; and I hope, as my old +friend the `Jaunty' of the _Saint Vincent_ prophesied, to rise bye-and- +bye to the rank of `warrant.' + +It is a pity, though, that no chance is yet afforded in our service in +the present day, as used to be the case in the past, when many an +admiral `crept through the hawsehole,' as the saying was, for +respectable young fellows of good education and bright abilities to look +any higher; but, it is to be hoped that the day will come, as father's +old friend Captain Mordaunt said only the other day when talking to us +both under the old mulberry-tree in our garden, when this state of +things will be changed, and a boy who enters the service as I did on +board one of our training-ships, will, as Bonaparte said the conscript +carried a field-marshal's baton in his knapsack, keep snugly stowed away +an admiral's cocked hat in his ditty box! + +However, be that as it may, and whether I ever rise to quarter-deck rank +or not, I have not a single regret at having ever joined the Navy; for, +no one glories more than I in serving our Queen and country under the +grand old flag that floats supreme over every sea where ship may sail. +Aye, and my proud boast is that I am still `Young Tom Bowling,' my dear +old father being yet alive; and that I am one of `the Boys of the +British Navy.' + +THE END. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Young Tom Bowling, by J.C. 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