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diff --git a/21097.txt b/21097.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..fb1b4d5 --- /dev/null +++ b/21097.txt @@ -0,0 +1,3199 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Tom Finch's Monkey, by John 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: Tom Finch's Monkey + and How he Dined with the Admiral + +Author: John C. Hutcheson + +Illustrator: Anonymous + +Release Date: April 16, 2007 [EBook #21097] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TOM FINCH'S MONKEY *** + + + + +Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England + + + + +Tom Finch's Monkey, and how he dined with the Admiral +and other yarns. + +by John C. Hutcheson +________________________________________________________________ +This is quite a short book, containing five short late Victorian +stories. + +The first of these concerns a monkey on board ship, which was dressed up +as an officer, and as such introduced to a visiting Admiral, who invites +all the officers to dinner, stressing that he hoped to entertain the one +who didn't speak much. + +The second story is an informative one about icebergs. + +The third concerns a yachting cruise in the Aegean Sea, among the Greek +Islands, in which they save the live of a Greek. There is an encounter +with bandits, from which they are surprisingly released without further +harm. Why would that be, I wonder. + +The fourth concerns a "sighting of a sea-serpent of extraordinary +dimensions", by HMS Daedalus in 1848. + +And the fifth is a story about the curious events at a cricket match. +________________________________________________________________ +TOM FINCH'S MONKEY, AND HOW HE DINED WITH THE ADMIRAL +AND OTHER YARNS. + +BY JOHN C. HUTCHESON + + + +CHAPTER ONE. + +AND HOW HE DINED WITH THE ADMIRAL. + +We were cruising off Callao on the Pacific station when it all happened, +and I daresay there are a good many others who will recollect all about +it as well as myself. But to explain the matter properly I must go back +a little in my dates; for, instead of Callao at the commencement of my +yarn, you must read Calabar. + +You see, I was in the _Porpoise_ at the time, a small old-fashioned, +paddle-wheel steamer that had been ordered across from the West Coast of +Africa by "my lords" of the Admiralty to reinforce our squadron in South +American waters on account of a war breaking out between Chili and Peru. +Being a "sub" on board of her, and consequently subject to the +authorities that be, when the _Porpoise_ was obliged to abandon the +fragrant mangrove swamps at the mouth of the Congo river, where we had +been enjoying ourselves for over a twelvemonth amidst the delights of a +deadly miasma that brought on perpetual low fever, and as constant a +consumption of quinine and bottled beer to counteract its effects, I was +of course forced to accompany her across the Atlantic and round the Horn +to her allotted destination. + +Thence "this plain unvarnished tale," which is as clear as mud in a +ditch, although you needn't believe it if you don't like--there is no +compulsion required to make hungry people eat roast mutton! + +Tom Finch, the lieutenant in command of the _Porpoise_, who had got his +promotion through the death vacancy of his senior at Cape Coast Castle-- +he was just ahead of me on the roster, luckily for him--was one of the +jolliest fellows I ever sailed with or under, since I entered the +service; and I'm sure I've known a few "swabs" in my time! + +Unlike some junior officers I could name, when suddenly intrusted with +the reins of power, there was nothing of the martinet about Tom, even on +the first day he assumed his new rank, when a little extra pomposity +might have been excusable. But no, he gave himself no airs or graces +whatever. + +He was the same Tom Finch who had chaffed and larked and talked +confidence with me in the gunroom, now that he trod the quarter-deck "in +all his war paint," as I told him somewhat impudently, the "skipper" of +HMS _Porpoise_, "paddle sloop, 6 guns," as she was described in the +_Navy List_--the same unaffected, jovial, good-natured sailor whom +everybody liked, men and messmates alike. His only weakness was a love +for practical joking, which he would carry out sometimes, perhaps, to a +rather ticklish extent--for his own good, that is, as he never knowingly +did anyone else an injury by it. + +"What will you do with your monkey?" I said, when the mail brought in +our orders from the commodore on the West Coast for us to sail for Monte +Video at once, and there await our further instructions--which would be +sent on from England; "what will you do with him when we go?" + +"Take him with me of course," answered Tom; "why shouldn't I?" + +"Well, I don't see any reason against it certainly," I replied; "now +that you are captain of the ship, and can do as you please without +asking anybody's leave." + +"Poor Griffin," said Tom, "he _did_ object to Jocko's society; that was +the reason I always used to keep the dear fellow ashore; however, as you +say, Gerald, I am my own master and can do as I like now. You don't +think the crew dislike my monkey, do you?" he added eagerly. + +He was such a kind-hearted obliging chap, that if he thought that even +the loblolly boy objected to the presence of Jocko on board, he would +have banished him from the ship for ever, especially from the very fact +of his being the commander and having no one to dispute his authority. + +"Oh dear, no, certainly not," I replied at once, with "effusion," as the +French say in their idiom. "The men like him better than you do, if +that is possible; and I don't know what they would do without him, I +only thought the change of climate might be deleterious to his health, +that's all!" + +"Deleterious indeed, Gerald! wherever did you pick up such a fine word? +I suppose you have been interviewing old Jalap about your liver, eh, you +hypochondriacal young donkey! Why, Monte Video is a regular paradise +for the monkey tribe, and Jocko will be in his element there!" + +"But I don't suppose we'll stop there, Tom; didn't you say that you +thought it probable that we would have to go round Cape Horn and join +the squadron at Callao?" + +I may here explain that while on the quarter-deck, I invariably +addressed Tom Finch as "Sir," for was he not my commanding officer? +But, while below, or when off duty, he insisted on my retaining my old +custom of calling him by his Christian name, the same as when we were +together in the gunroom, and he only a "sub." + +"And if we _do_ go round the Horn, what then, Mr Sub-lieutenant +Follett?" said he. + +"Won't Jocko find it cold: you know it's winter time there now?" + +"And can't I have him clothed like a Christian, stupid, and keep him by +the fire, or in the cook's cabin, where he will be so warm, that he'll +fancy himself in his native clime?" + +"Oh, yes," said I, "I quite forgot that his dearest friend next to you +was Pompey!" alluding to the ship's cook, a sable African, who came very +probably from the same locality as the monkey; the two being very much +alike, not only in the colour of their complexions, but in their +features and facial development. + +"Yes," said Tom reflectively, "Pompey will take care he doesn't freeze. +He could not be fonder of him than his own brother would be; he might, +indeed, _be_ his relative, if Darwin's theory should prove to be true! +However, I must see about getting Jocko rigged out properly in a decent +sailor's suit so that he may get accustomed to the clothing before we +come to the cold latitudes. I daresay my marine, who is a smart fellow, +can manage to cut down a guernsey frock and a pair of canvas or serge +trousers to fit the brute: I will give an order on the paymaster for +them at once and Smith can set to work on them without delay;" and he +bustled out of his cabin to carry his intentions into effect. + +Not being intimately acquainted with even the rudimentary elements of +natural history, I cannot say to what order or genus of the monkey +family Jocko belonged; but, roughly speaking, I think he was a specimen +of chimpanzee or small gorilla, as he had no tail, and when he walked +erect, which was his favourite position, he looked uncommonly like the +"superior animal." + +Tom Finch had shot the monkey's mother in the bush when on a hunting +excursion up the interior of the country, which he indulged in on first +coming to the coast; and having captured and nursed the youngster with +the utmost solicitude, Jocko repaid his master's attention by learning +so many tricks and imitating the deportment, of those with whom he was +brought in contact so carefully, that he was now, at the time of which I +speak, such a thoroughly educated and well-bred monkey as to be "um +purfit genelman," as Pompey, the cook, said--one "fit to shine in any +circle," especially on ship-board, where he was an endless source of +amusement to us all, from the lieutenant-commander down to the loblolly +boy aforesaid. + +Pursuant to Tom Finch's directions and the exertions of his marine +servant Smith, before we left the mouth of the Congo our friend Jocko +was decorously habited in a smart seafaring costume; and, long ere we +had crossed the Atlantic and arrived at Monte Video, the intelligent +animal had got so habituated to his new rig that the difficulty would +have been to persuade him to go about once more in his former unclothed +state--and yet some sceptics say that monkeys aren't human! You should +only have seen him walking up and down the quarter-deck, or on the +bridge by Tom's side, he looked for all the world like a juvenile +"reefer!" + +It was in the cabin, however, that Jocko's acquirements came out in the +strongest relief. Tom had taught him to sit at table and use a spoon or +fork in helping himself from his plate as naturally as possible; and, as +for drinking, you should only have seen him pour out a tumbler of +bottled stout, for which he had an inordinate relish, and tossing it +down his throat, give a sigh of the deepest satisfaction when he had +finished it, when, replacing his glass on the table, he would lean back +in his chair as if overcome by the exertion. + +Before he had been clothed in sailor fashion, Jocko used to be very fond +of skylarking with the men forward, stealing their mess utensils and +scampering up and down the rigging to evade pursuit when his +mischievousness had been found out; but, after that period, he seemed to +become possessed of a wonderful amount of dignity which made him give up +his wild frolicsomeness, and leave off his previous habits, for he never +went to the forecastle again, but restricted himself to the officers' +quarters aft. This he did, too, in spite of the coaxings of the crew, +who were very fond of him, and the fact of Tom often kicking him out of +his cabin, where he would take possession of his sofa whenever he had +the chance, wrapping himself in Tom's boat-cloak and reclining +gracefully on the cushions. One of Jocko's chief amusements also was in +watching the machinery when in motion; and he would spend hours in +looking down at it through the engine-room hatch. + +Once, when the skylight was up, he had a narrow squeak for his life; +for, carried away by his excitement, in trying to put his hands--paws I +should say--on the revolving shaft, he tumbled through; and, but for the +chief engineer seeing him in time and stopping the engines, which were +just then going slow, poor Jocko would have come to grief. + +This accident, however, never broke him of the habit of inspecting the +machinery. It had a sort of weird attraction for him which he could not +resist. Possibly, he might have been a sort of incubating Watt or +Brunel, who knows? But, alas, he never became sufficiently developed or +"evolved" from his quadrumanous condition to answer the question in +person, as the engines which were his hobby in the end compassed his +untimely death! + +Those paddle-wheel steamers that were built for the navy some forty +years ago, although designed for capturing Cuban slavers, were certainly +not remarkable for their speed, and the _Porpoise_ was no exception to +her class; so, what with her naturally slow rate of progression through +the water, and the strict Admiralty circular limiting the consumption of +coal even on special service like ours, we did not make a very rapid +passage across the south Atlantic to Monte Video. This place is +charmingly situated on the estuary of the Rio de la Plata, and very +appropriately named; for it can be seen far away off, for miles at sea, +and itself commands magnificent views of its own beautiful harbour and +the surrounding inland scenery. + +Here despatches awaited us, as Tom Finch had previously been informed at +Cape Coast Castle would be the case, ordering the _Porpoise_ to proceed +immediately to the Pacific and join the admiral on that station at +Callao; and, accordingly, after one of the briefest of stays at a port +which I have always longed since to have a more extended +acquaintanceship with, we up anchor and paddled away to our assigned +rendezvous--not by way of the "Horn," which we did not go round, as I +had imagined we would, for it was far too stormy; but, through the +Straits of Magellan, which are easy enough of passage to a steamer, +independent almost of winds and currents, although somewhat perilous to +sailing vessels, especially during the winter months. + +Jocko seemed to feel the cold as soon as we began to run down towards +Terra del Fuego, and had some additional garments placed round him; but +true to what he evidently thought was his new and proper position, he +would not take up his quarters with his "old friend and brother," +Pompey, in the cook's caboose, preferring to shiver in Tom's cabin till +he almost turned blue. + +"Bress dat Massa Jocko!" Pompey would say after a vain attempt to coax +him to share his hospitality. "I can't make he out nohow! Guess he +tinks himself buckra ossifer and bery fine genelman, now de captin take +um into cabin, sure; but, he no rale genelman to turn up nose at um ole +frens! No, sah, I no spik to him no more!" and the negro cook would +retire with ill-suppressed anger, which was all the more amusing to us +from its having been occasioned by a monkey! + +On our getting round into the Pacific, and sighting the coast towards +Valparaiso, where we had to stop and coal once more, the _Porpoise_ not +having much storage room in her old bunkers, Jocko got more on friendly +terms with the thermometer, making faces and jabbering away in his +lingo, which unfortunately no one but himself could understand, just as +if he were still in his native clime on the African continent. + +Occasionally, too, as if his spirits carried him away on his restoration +to warmer latitudes, he would indulge in one of his old skylarking bouts +with the crew, and even made advances to Pompey in his caboose, which +that worthy, in spite of his indignation at the manner in which he had +been treated by Jocko when he assumed the dignity of the _toga virilis_, +was only too glad to welcome and reciprocate; but, after one of these +unusual unbendings, the monkey grew even more dignified and +inapproachable than before, except to Tom and myself, who could do +anything with him, and he then confined himself exclusively to the cabin +and quarter-deck. + +At Valparaiso we got further despatches hurrying us up to the Peruvian +coast, where the admiral much wanted to use us as a despatch vessel; so, +taking in as much coal as our old tub, the _Porpoise_, could cram into +her, we started for Callao, steaming hard day and night all this time-- +but it took us no less than ten days to reach our port at last. + +The admiral's ship was in the offing as we entered the harbour; and, +without the slightest warning or time for preparation after we had made +our muster, the old gentleman signalled, much to Tom's discomposure, +that he was coming on board of us for inspection at once. + +"A pretty kettle of fish!" exclaimed Tom; "just as if he couldn't give a +fellow time to paint up a bit and look tidy after sweltering all the +pitch off her for eighteen months on the coast, and scuttling across the +Atlantic as if the deuce were after us, and not a day allowed us to +overhaul and make the old ship look presentable--why, it's too bad!" + +"You needn't grumble, sir," said I--we were both on the quarter-deck +now, and the _friend_ had, of course, to yield to the _office_--"I'm +sure the admiral won't be able to find much fault with the _Porpoise_, +even if he were predetermined to do so, as she's in apple-pie order!" + +And so she was; while her crew, who almost worshipped Tom and would have +followed him to a man anywhere, were in the highest state of discipline +and health, the African fever having disappeared almost as soon as we +lost sight of the pestilential West Coast and got into blue water. + +"Do you think so, Follett?" he said more calmly. + +"Certainly," I answered, "I would back her against any other vessel on +the station for being in the highest state of efficiency." + +"I'm glad you think so, Gerald," he said to me aside, so that the +middies who went to man the side ropes for the admiral at the gangway +could not hear him. "You know these big guns are always sharp on a +fellow who holds a first command; and, as I have no interest to back me +up at the Admiralty board, I don't want a bad report to go in against +me, and a black mark be set before my name for ever!" + +"Don't you fear, Tom," said I cheerfully, "you'll pass muster with +flying colours!" + +Well, the admiral came on board and the inspection turned out just as I +expected. + +Not only was the gallant chief satisfied with the condition of the +_Porpoise_; but, after having mustered the men at quarters, and having +them exercised at gun-drill and cutlasses, he was so pleased that he +publicly complimented Tom Finch on the state of his ship and crew, +saying that they were not only creditable to him, but to the service +generally. + +So far, so good. + +When the admiral, however, descended presently to Tom's cabin to sign +papers, and perhaps to give a look around him, too, to see how such an +efficient officer comported himself when "at home" so to speak, Tom's +evil genius placed Master Jocko in the way. + +There he was, seated on the sofa, dressed up in some nondescript sort of +uniform with which the youngsters had invested him during Tom's absence +on deck--the young imps were always up to some of their larks--and being +of a kindred disposition himself, Tom was never hard on them for their +tricks. + +The monkey had on a blue coat and trousers with a red sash across his +chest and a Turkish fez on his head, which gave him the appearance of +one of the many Chilian field marshals, and generals, and colonels whom +we had seen at Valparaiso, his wizened, dried-up face adding to the +delusion. + +As luck would have it, too, what should Jocko do, as the admiral and Tom +entered the cabin, but rise from the sofa; and taking off the cap from +his head with one of his paws, while the other was laid deferentially on +his chest, he made a most polite bow, in the manner he had always been +used to do, when either of us greeted him on coming in. + +"Who's this gentleman?" said the admiral pleasantly, taking off _his_ +cocked hat likewise, and returning the salute--"I suppose someone you've +given a passage to on the way, eh?" + +Tom was at his wit's end, as he told me afterwards, for the moment; but +his native "nous" came to the rescue, and, combined with his love of a +practical joke, suggested a loophole of escape. + +"Oh, sir," said he, "this is one of the aides-de-camp of the Chilian +generalissimo, a Senor Carrambo, who begged me to land him at Callao on +some urgent private business. Of course, I know, sir, of the +hostilities between his native state and Peru, and that as a neutral I +ought not to offer any means of communication between the two powers; +but, sir, as you see for yourself, he's a very harmless sort of fellow, +and--" + +"Hush!" said the admiral, apparently shocked at Tom's speaking out in +such an off-hand way his opinion of the foreign gentleman, as he took +Jocko to be. + +"Oh, bless you," went on Tom, forgetting for the moment to whom he was +speaking--"he cannot understand a word of English, and I can't make out +a single word of his Chilian Spanish--but he's very polite." + +"So I see," replied the admiral affably, as master Jocko made another +obeisance at this juncture; "pray ask him to accompany you on board the +flagship with me to dinner. Tell him I shall feel honoured by his +company, as indeed I shall be by yours." + +To say he was thunderstruck at the admiral's request would not convey +the slightest idea of Tom's mental condition when he found himself in +such a dilemma. He could have bitten off his tongue for its having got +him into such a scrape, by telling the fib about the monkey in the first +instance; but it was too late now, for the admiral had turned to leave +the cabin, and the marine was at the door, besides others, who would +hear any explanation he might make. + +Tom determined, therefore, with a courage that was almost heroic, to +carry the thing through to the bitter end--giving me a pathetic wink to +instruct everybody to "keep the thing dark" on board--for none knew +about Jocko excepting our ship's company. + +Furtively shoving the fez down over the monkey's head, so that it almost +concealed its features, he threw the boat-cloak that rested on the sofa +around him; and, taking hold of his paw, marched in the admiral's wake +to the gangway, and thence down into the chief's barge alongside, where +the admiral and he and Jocko took their seats in state in the stern- +sheets and were rowed off to the flagship--our crew manning the rigging +as they left and giving three hearty cheers! + +"I like to see that proof of affection in your men," said the admiral, +as he witnessed this unofficial performance. "They are proud of their +commander, and, I am sure, you have a crew to be proud of!" + +Tom bowed in acknowledgment of the compliment. He knew well enough what +had occasioned the enthusiasm of the blue-jackets, and bit his lips to +restrain his laughter, which so suffocated him that he felt he would +burst if he had to keep it in much longer! + +All he could do now was to brazen out the imposture, and he huddled the +boat-cloak round Jocko so as to conceal his form. + +"Poor Senor Carrambo is suffering fearfully from the ague," he said in +explanation to the admiral of this little attention on his part--"I'm +afraid he should not have ventured out of the cabin." + +"A good glass of sherry will soon warm him," said the admiral smiling, +"and I think I shall be able to offer him one." + +"He's rather partial to bottled ale or stout," suggested Tom, "and he +may possibly prefer that." + +"Rather a queer taste for a Spaniard," said the admiral, as the barge +reached the side of the flagship; "but I think I can also gratify on +board my ship this predilection of Senor--" + +"Carrambo," prompted Tom. + +"Yes, Carrambo," added the admiral as he mounted the accommodation +ladder of the flagship--Tom Finch with Jocko on his arm following in his +wake, as before, amidst the mutual salutes of the admiral and the +officers, to the state cabin of the chief. + +Seated at the dinner-table, to which all were summoned with all proper +ceremony to the exhilarating tune of the "Roast beef of old England," +Jocko, who had a chair alongside of Tom, behaved with the utmost +decorum. + +He indeed appeared to eat little but bread, biscuit, tart, and fruit; +but, beyond a grimace, which must have caused the admiral to reflect +that of all the ugly persons he ever beheld in his life, this Chilian +officer was certainly the ugliest, nothing particularly happened, and +the dinner passed off without an exposure. + +Tom, the admiral observed, frequently helped "the generalissimo's aide- +de-camp," especially in pouring out his wine, which he limited in a +marked degree; but the jocular lieutenant-commander passed this off by +saying that his distinguished friend--whom he exchanged a word with +occasionally, of some outlandish language, a mixture of Spanish and High +Dutch, with a sprinkling of the Chinese tongue--was in the most feeble +health and acting under the doctor's directions regarding his diet:-- +that was the reason also, he explained, of his remaining cloaked and +with his head-covering on at the admiral's table, for which he craved a +thousand pardons! + +After dinner, Tom would have given worlds to have beaten a retreat to +his own ship, as several officers came into the saloon while coffee was +handed round, and he dreaded each moment that Jocko would disgrace +himself and the bubble would burst; but no, there the admiral, would +keep him, talking all the time, and directing most of his attention +towards the pseudo "Senor Carrambo," for whose benefit Tom had to +translate, or pretend to translate, what was said. + +Tom said he never got so punished for a joke in his life before, and he +took very good care not to let his sense of the ridiculous put him in +such a plight again, as for more than two mortal hours he suffered all +the tortures of a condemned criminal; as he said, he would rather have +been shot at once! + +But when the admiral shook hands with him on his departure, Tom felt +worst of all. + +"Good-bye, lieutenant," said the admiral, "and thanks for your +introduction to `Senor Carrambo.' I admired the condition and +discipline of your ship to-day, Mr Finch, and, in forming my opinion of +your character I must say that you carry out a joke better than anyone I +ever met. _But you should remember, lieutenant, that those who have the +end of the laugh, enjoy the joke best_. Good-night, I shall communicate +with you to-morrow!" + +Poor Tom! after believing that the admiral had suspected nothing up to +the last moment, to be thus undeceived. + +It was heartrending! + +Gone was his commission, he thought, at one fell blow, with all the +pleasant dreams of promotion that had flashed across his brain after the +admiral's encomiums on him that afternoon; and he would have to think +himself very lucky if he were not tried by court-martial and dismissed +the service with disgrace. + +It was paying dearly for a practical joke, played off on the spur of the +moment, truly! + +When he reached the _Porpoise_ he felt so disgusted that he kicked poor +Jocko, boat-cloak, fez and all, down the main hatch, gruffly ordered his +gig to be triced up to the davits, and went below to brood over his +anticipated disgrace in the solitude of his own cabin, where I presently +found him. + +After a great deal of persuasion, I got him to indite a letter of +apology to the admiral, detailing all Jocko's perfections, and how he +had been constantly an inmate of his cabin; while assuring him that the +passing off the monkey as a "foreigner" had not been a planned thing, +but was only the result of an accident and his own unaccountable love of +fun, although the falsehood he had been guilty of was most +reprehensible. + +Indeed, as I made him observe, if it had not been for the admiral +himself suggesting the imposture, he, Tom, would never have dreamt of +it; but, he concluded, he would regret it all his life, for he had not +only told a lie, but the whole matter appeared like a deliberately +contemplated insult to his superior officer. + +This letter Tom, still acting under my advice, sent off immediately to +the flagship, as it was yet not late, and within half an hour he +received an answer which made him dance an Indian war-dance of delight +around the cabin table, where he and I were awaiting the news that was +to make or mar poor Tom's future life. + +The admiral's ran thus:-- + + "Flag, at sea, July, 18---. + + "Dear Commander, + + "I accept your apology, and forgive the joke which I enjoyed, I + believe, more than you did, having discovered Master Jocko's identity + from the first moment when he took his Turkish fez off to salute me in + the cabin, on my entering--you young rascal! I would not have missed + for a hundred pounds the agony you were in all the time you were + sitting at my table, and, I really think, I had the best of the joke! + + "Come and breakfast with me and I will tell you the reason _why I + address you as_ above--I suppose he never told you, but your father + was one of my dearest friends. + + "Yours, with best compliments to `Senor Carrambo,' + + "Anson." + +"By George, Tom," said I when we had both perused this letter, "you are +in luck! He doesn't call you _Commander_ for nothing!" + +"No, I suppose not," said he, "at all events, Gerald, he's a trump! I +recollect my old father saying something once about asking him to put in +a good word for me; but, I daresay he forgot all about it: but I am none +the worse for it now, eh?" + +"No," said I, "thanks to Jocko!" + +The next day Tom Finch had his commission made out by the admiral's +secretary as commander of the _Blanche_, while I was promoted to his +place in the _Porpoise_, owing to the good word he put in for me when he +breakfasted with the jolly old chief; and we both of us were busy enough +the next few months on the station, protecting British interests and +stopping would-be privateers from having such a festive time as they +expected during the period that hostilities lasted between the two rival +South American republics at the time of which I speak; then wars between +Chili and Peru, and the rest of these very independent states, being of +as periodic occurrence of the yellow fever in the Gulf of Mexico! + +Poor Jocko, as I hinted at before, came finally to grief in a very sad +way. + +We were chasing a suspicious looking blockade-runner, a short time after +he had his remarkable invitation to dine with the admiral; our engines +were moving a little more rapidly than usual; and, Jocko, who was +perched on the skylight above, was looking at them with the most intense +interest. + +All at once, the platform on which he was resting slipped, and the +talented monkey fell into the engine-room, in the midst of the +machinery--there was one sharp agonised squeak, and the last page of +poor Jocko's history was marked with the word _Finis_. + + + +CHAPTER TWO. + +ESCAPE OF THE "CRANKY JANE." + +A STORY ABOUT AN ICEBERG. + +One day, some three years ago or so, I chanced to be down at Sheerness +dockyard, and, while there, utilised my time by inspecting the various +vessels scattered about this naval repository. Some of the specimens +exhibited all the latest "improvements" in marine architecture, being +built to develop every destructive property--huge floating citadels and +infernal machines; while others were old, and now useless, types of the +past "wooden walls of old England," ships that once had braved the +perils of the main in all the panoply of their spreading canvas, and +whose broadsides had thundered at Trafalgar, making music in the ears of +the immortal Nelson and his compeers. + +Amongst the different craft that caught my eye--old hulks, placidly +resting their weary timbers on the muddy bosom of the Medway, +dismantled, dismasted, and having pent-houses like the roofs of barns +over their upper decks in lieu of awnings; armour-plated cruisers, in +the First Class Steam Reserve, ready to be commissioned at a moment's +notice; and ships in various degrees of construction, on the building +slips and in dry dock--was a vessel which seemed to be undergoing the +operation of "padding her hull," if the phrase be admissible as +explaining what I noticed about her, the planking, from which the copper +sheathing had been previously stripped, being doubled, apparently, and +protected in weak places by additional beams and braces being fixed to +the sides. Of course, I may be all wrong in this, but it was what +seemed to me to be the case. + +On inquiry I learnt that the vessel was the _Alert_, which it may be +recollected was one of the two ships in the Arctic expedition commanded +by Sir George Nares. I wondered why so many workmen were busy about +her, hammering, sawing, planing, riveting, fitting and boring holes with +giant gimlets, so I asked the reason for this unwonted activity, when it +might have been reasonably supposed that the vessel had played her part +in the service, and might have been allowed to pass the remainder of her +days afloat, in an honourable retreat up the estuary on which the +dockyard stands. + +But, no. + +I was informed that the _Alert_ had yet many more days of Arctic +experience in store for her, our government having placed her at the +disposal of the United States authorities to take part in the relief of +Lieutenant Greeley's Polar expedition.--I may here mention in +parenthesis that the vessel subsequently successfully performed the task +committed to her substantial frame; and it was mainly by means of the +stores deposited by her in a _cache_ in Smith Sound that the survivors +of the expedition were enabled to be transported home again in safety.-- +I, really, only mention the vessel's name on account of the man who told +me about her--a gentleman who entered into conversation with me about +the cold regions of the north generally, and of the escapes of ships +from icebergs in particular. + +He was a seafaring man. I could see that at a glance, although he was +not one I should have thought who had donned her majesty's uniform, for +he lacked that dapper look that the blue-jackets of the service are +usually distinguished by; but he was a veritable old salt, or "shell- +back," none the less, sniffing of the ocean all over, and having his +face seamed with those little venous streaks of pink (as if he indulged +in a dab of rouge on the sly occasionally) which variegate the tanned +countenances of men exposed to all the rigours of the elements, and who +encounter with an equal mind the freezing blast of the frozen sea or the +blazing sun of Africa. + +I told this worthy that once, when on a voyage in one of the Inman line +of steamers from Halifax to Liverpool, I had gone--or rather the vessel +had, to be more correct--perilously near an iceberg, when my nautical +friend proceeded to give vent to his own exposition of the "glacial +theory," saying that a lot of nonsense was written about the ice in the +Arctic regions by people who never went beyond their own firesides at +home and had never seen an iceberg. It made him mad, he said, to read +it! + +"I daresay you've read a lot of rubbish on the subject?" said the old +gentleman, getting excited about the matter, as if he only wanted a good +start to be off and away on his hobby. + +"I daresay I have," I replied. + +"Well, what with all the fiction that has been written and the fabulous +stories told of the Arctic and its belongings, the `green hand' who +makes the voyage for the first time is full of expectations concerning +all the wonderful sights he's going to see in `the perennial realms of +ice and snow'--that's the phrase the newspaper chaps always use-- +expectations which are bound to be disappointed,--and why?" + +"I'm sure I can't tell!" said I. + +"Because the things that he fancies he's going to see don't really +exist, nor never yet did in spite of what book-learned people may say! +The voyager who goes north for the first time is bound, let us say for +illustration, for Baffin's Bay; and, from what he has learnt beforehand, +bears and walruses, seals and sea-lions, whale blubber and the Esquimaux +who eat it, all occupy some considerable share of his imagination. But, +above all these, the first thing that he looks forward to see are the +icebergs, or floating mountains of ice, which are so especially the +creation of the cold regions, to which he is sailing. These icebergs, +sir, form the staple background of every Arctic view, without which none +would be deemed for a moment complete. Their gigantic peaks and jagged +precipices are familiar to most, in a score of pictures and engravings +drawn by artists who were never beyond the Lizard Lights; and really, I +believe that if one was sketched that wasn't at least a thousand feet +high or more, and didn't have a polar bear perched on top and a full +rigged ship sailing right underneath it, why, the generality of people +would think it wasn't a bit like the real thing!" + +"And what is the `real thing' like?" I asked with some curiosity. + +"There you have me," said the old sailor, who had from his speech +evidently received a good education; and if once "before the mast" had +now certainly risen to something much higher. "To men whose minds have +been wrought up to such a pitch of fancy and expectation, the first +sight of a real iceberg is a complete take-down to their imagination. +Your ship is pitching about, say, in the cross seas near the mouth of +Davis Strait, preparatory to entering within the smooth water of the +Arctic circle, when in the far distance your eye catches sight of a lump +of ice, looking, as it rises and falls sluggishly in the trough of the +sea, not unlike a hencoop covered with snow, after it had been pitched +overboard by some passing ship, or like a gigantic lump of foam tossed +on the crest of a wave. If the day is sunless, the reflection of light +which gives it that glistening appearance, so remarkable as the midnight +sun glances among an array of these objects, is wanting to add dignity +to the contour of what it is a rude dissipation of life's young dream to +learn is an iceberg--though on a very small scale. It is simply a wave- +worn straggler from the fleet which will soon be met sailing southward +out of the Greenland fjords. The warm waters of the Atlantic will in +the course of a few days be too much for it. The sun will be at work on +it; it will get undermined by the wash of the breakers, until, being +top-heavy, it will speedily capsize. Then the war between the ice and +the elements will begin afresh, until the once stately ice-mountain will +become the `bergy bit,' as whalers call the slowly-lessening mass of +crumbling, spongy ice, until it finally disappears in the waters; but +only to rise again in the form of vapour, which the cold of the north +will convert into snow, the parent of that inland ice about the polar +regions which forms the source of subsequent icebergs afresh--the +process being always going on, never ending!" + +"Why, you are quite a philosopher," I observed. + +"A bit of a one, sir," said the old gentleman with a smile. "Those who +go down to the sea in ships, you know, see wonders in the deep! But, to +continue what I was telling you about the icebergs. As your ship +proceeds further north they become more numerous and of larger +dimensions, until, as you pass the entrance of some of those great +fjords, or inlets, which intersect the Greenland coast-line, they pour +out in such numbers that the wary mariner is thankful for the continuous +daylight and summer seas that enable him so easily to avoid these +floating rocks. Here are several broken-up ones floating about in the +Waigat, a narrow strait between the island of Disco and the mainland of +Greenland, and in close vicinity to several fjords noted for sending big +bergs adrift in the channel way to float southward. These are the `ice- +mountains' of the fancy artist. One ashore close into the land, and yet +not stranded or on account of its depth in the water getting into any +very shallow soundings, you may see in your mind's eye, as I've seen +them scores of times in reality. It presents to your notice a dull +white mass of untransparent ice--not transparent, with objects to be +seen through it on the other side, as I have noticed in more than one +picture of the North Pole taken by an artist on the spot! This mass is +generally jagged at the top with saw-like edges, and it doesn't so very +much resemble those Gothic cathedral spires as Arctic writers try to +make out. Still, on the whole, the shape of this monster floating mass +of ice is very striking to those seeing it for the first time; and when +you come to look at it more closely, its size and general character lose +nothing by having the details ciphered down, as a Yankee skipper would +say." + +"Are the icebergs very big?" I inquired. + +"Well," said the old gentleman, quite pleased at being asked for +information on the subject, and evidently wishing to convert me to his +own practical way of thinking in opposition to Arctic fiction-mongers, +"they may sometimes be seen of a hundred and fifty feet high, +occasionally reaching to a couple of hundred, while sometimes I've seen +an iceberg that towered up more than double that height; but the +majority of them do not exceed a hundred feet at most. The colour, as +I've said, is not emerald green, as most folks think--that is, not +unless it is seen under what science-folks call the prismatic action of +light--but a dull white that is almost opaque. The sides are, +generally, dripping with the little streams of water formed by the +melting of the ice, and glistening in the rays of the sun; but a dull +white is the principal colour of the mass. Its base is broader than its +summit, and is here and there hollowed into little caverns by the action +of the waves. The pinnacles seen in the pictures of the illustrated +papers I've spoken of are not very plain. Indeed, both the one we are +supposing and the other bergs, that are always, like the `birds of a +feather' of the proverb, to be seen close together, are flattened on the +top; and if here and there worn into fantastic shapes by the weather, +they mostly go back to a shape which may be roughly described as broader +at the base than the top; otherwise the berg would speedily capsize. +When this happens, they go over with a tremendous splash, rocking and +churning up the sea for miles round, and sending wave circles spreading +and widening out as from the whirlpool in the centre, in the same way as +when a child pitches a stone into a pond. + +"On some of the bergs are masses of earth, gravel and stone, proving +that they must lately have been connected with the land; for owing to +the old bergs becoming undermined by the waves, they soon turn over, and +so of course send _their_ load to the bottom. An examination of the +sides of the ice-mass also shows to the eye some other peculiarities. +The greater part of the ice is white and thoroughly full of air-bubbles, +which lie in very thin lines parallel to each other; but throughout the +white ice there are numerous slight cracks or streaks, of an intensely +blue and transparent ice, which, on being exposed to heat, before +melting, I've been told by the surgeon of the ship I was in, dissolve +into large angular grains. These blue cracks cross and cross over again +in the mass of the berg, and may possibly be water which has melted and +been frozen again either on the surface of the berg, or in its crevasses +or cracks, when it was a part of the glacier from which it first came. +But, besides the blue ice, in some icebergs may be seen a kind of +conglomerate of ice-blocks of various sizes, the spaces between them +being filled up with snow or crumbled ice. This conglomerate exists +usually in cracks, though it is found also in layers, and even forms +large masses of the larger bergs, mixed up with stones and earthy +lumps." + +"Did you ever have any adventure amongst the icebergs?" I asked the old +gentleman at this juncture, thinking I had quite enough of the +scientific aspect of the subject, and dreading lest he might dive +further into the original composition of ice. + +"Not in the Arctic Ocean," he replied; "but once, when I was only a +common sailor before the mast and aboard a vessel in the Australian +trade, I came across icebergs in the southern latitudes which were +mighty perilous; and one of these bergs was, by the way, bigger than any +I ever saw in northern seas." + +"Tell me all about it," I said, glad to get him on to a regular sea +yarn. + +The old gentleman was nothing loth; and I noticed that the moment he +began to speak of his old experiences as a merchant seaman, he dropped +the somewhat affected phraseology in which he had previously been +expounding his theories for my information concerning the polar regions +and the formation of icebergs--thenceforth speaking much more naturally +in the ordinary vernacular of Jack tars. + +"I suppose it's forty years ago, more or less," he began, "since I +shipped in the brig _Jane_, John Jiggins master, bound from London to +Melbourne with an assorted cargo. + +"She was a decent-sized brig enough, and handy to manage when she had +plenty of sea-room, and a wind right aft; but on a bowline, or when the +wind was on the quarter, and there was a bit of a sea on, she kept such +a stiff weather-helm, and was such a downright cranky vessel, never +bending down to a breeze or lifting to the swell, that it was no wonder +that as soon as the hands got used to her ways, and tumbled to her +contrary points--and she was that contrary sometimes as to remind you of +a woman's temper on washing days, most ladies then being not +particularly pleasant, and feeling more inclined to drive a man mad, +rather than to coax and wheedle him--as soon as we all got used to her +ways, I say, we christened her the `_Cranky Jane_,' and that she was +more or less, barring when she had a fair wind, with an easy sea and +everything agreeable for her, as I said before. + +"Old Cap'en Jiggins, however, wasn't of our way of thinking. + +"He was the part owner as well as master of the vessel; and loved the +old brig--the `Janey' he called her, the old fool!--like the very apple +of his eye, always praising her up to the nines and not allowing anybody +to say a word against her sea-going qualities. + +"Sometimes, when the man at the wheel would be swearing at the lubberly +craft in a silent way, so that you could see he was suffocating himself +with passion and ready to burst himself, for the way in which she would +fall off, or bowse up into the wind's eye, and try to go her own way, +like a horse that gets the bit between his teeth and sets his ears back, +then you'd hear old Jiggins a-talking to himself about the blessed old +tub. + +"`That's it, my beauty! Look how she rides, the darling, like a duck! +What a clipper she is, to be sure; so easy to handle! a child could +steer her with a piece of thread!' + +"When, p'raps it took all one man's strength, and perhaps two, to bring +up the beast a single point to the wind! + +"In spite of Cap'en Jiggins' praise, I never sailed in such an out-and- +out obstinate craft as that identical _Cranky Jane_. She seemed to have +been laid down on the lines and constructed, plank by plank, especially +to spile a man's temper! Somehow or other, with the very lightest of +breezes--except, as I've said before, we had the wind right dead aft--we +could never get her to lay to her course and keep it. She was always +falling off and breaking away in every way but the right one, and +wanting to go just in the very opposite direction, to what we did; +exactly like Paddy's pig when he's taking it to market, and he has to +whisper in its ear that he's going to Cork, when he really wants to meet +the dealer at Bandon! + +"This peculiarity of the brig, of course, very naturally set the men +against her; as, although what is usually called a `dry ship'--that is, +the hands could sleep comfortably in the forecastle, instead of being +drenched through day and night, by the seas she took in over the bows, +as is the case in some clippers I've sailed in--she was so dreadfully +hard to steer that a man's trick at the wheel was like going on the +treadmill! And yet, that very peculiarity and contrariness that made us +cuss and swear too, only induced Captain Jiggins to say occasionally +when she was most outrageous wide in her yawing, `Pretty dear!' or some +such trash--this very peculiarity, I say, saved all our lives from the +most dreadful fate, and brought us home safe to England after +encountering one of the most deadly perils of the deep. Curious, isn't +it? But I'll tell you all about it. Here goes for the yarn. + +"We had done the voyage out in pretty fair time from London to Port +Philip; for, most of the way, the wind was fair and almost dead aft from +the meridian of the Cape of Good Hope, down in the `roaring forties,' +till we got to the Heads. Consequently, the brig couldn't help herself +but go straight onward, when the trades were shoving her along and while +nobody wanted her to tack, or beat up, or otherwise perform any of those +delicate little points of seamanship which a true sailor likes to see +his ship go through, almost against his own interest, sometimes, as far +as hard work is concerned in reefing and furling and taking in sail, or +piling on the canvas and `letting her rip.' So long as nothing of this +sort was wanted from her the brig was as easy-going as you could wish +and all probably that Cap'en Jiggins thought her; but, you had only just +to try to get her to sail up in the wind's eye or run with the breeze a +bit ahead of the beam, and you'd soon have seen for yourself how +cantankerous she could be! + +"No, it was all plain sailing to Port Philip Heads; and even after we +had unloaded our home cargo, and went round, first to Sydney, and +afterwards to the Fiji Islands--I shan't forget Suva Suva Bay in a +hurry, I can tell you. So far, everything went serene; for, no matter +where we wanted to go--and you see, the skipper wasn't tied to any +especial port to seek a cargo, but being part owner, could please +himself by going to the best market; which, being a shrewd man, with his +head screwed on straight, you can bet he did!--no matter where we wanted +to go, as I say, the wind seemed to favour us, for it was always right +astern, and everything set below and aloft, and the wind blowing us +there beautifully right before it all the way--just as the old _Jane_ +liked it, sweet and not too strong! + +"So far, going out to Australia, and looking in at Sydney and Fiji and +the islands for cargo, and loading up choke-full with just everything +that our skipper counted at the highest freight, with no dead weight to +break the brig's back--so far, everything went `high-falutin'' as the +Yanks say; but when we came to leave Polynesia--it ought to be +christened Magnesia, I consider, for it contains a bigger continent, +with a larger number of islands than Europe--and shape a course +homewards to the white cliffs of Old Albion, that we longed to see again +after our long absence, for we were away good two years in all, the +cap'en thinking nothing of time, being his own charterer, so long as he +got a good cargo from port to port, and we were engaged on a trading +voyage, and not merely out and home again directly--then it was that the +_Cranky Jane_ came out in her true colours, and made us love her--oh +yes! just as the skipper did--over the left! + +"Why, sir, she was that aggravating, that, as Bill the boatswain and I +agreed, we should have liked to run her ashore on the very first land we +came to, beach her and chop her up there and then for firewood; and we +wouldn't have been content till we had burned up the very last fragment +of her obstinate old hull! + +"After leaving Suva Suva Bay, Fiji, where we filled up the last +remaining space in the _Cranky Jane's_ hold with copra--which is a lot +of cocoa-nuts smashed up so as to stow easy, out of which they make oil +at home for moderator lamps--we went south further than I ever went +before in any ship. Captain Jiggins, as I heard him explaining to the +first officer when I was taking my trick at the wheel, and blessing the +brig as usual for her stiff helm, intended making the quickest passage +that ever was made, he said, by striking down into them outlandish +latitudes before he steered east and made the Horn; and I suppose he +knew what he was about, as he was as good a navigator as ever handled a +sextant. _He_ called it great circle sailing; but _I_ called it queer- +sailing; and so did most of the hands, barring Bill the boatswain, who +said the captain was right; but anyways, right or wrong, it led us into +an ugly corner, as you shall hear. + +"Well, we went down the latitudes like one o'clock, the brig, running +free before the north-east monsoon as if she were sailing for a wager in +a barge-race on the Thames; and the weather as fine as you please, warm +and sunny--too much so, sometimes--so that a man hadn't to do a stroke +of work on board, save to take his turn at the wheel. Watch on deck, +and watch below, we had nothing to do but loll about, with a stray pull +at a brace here and a sheet there, or else walk into our grub and then +turn into our bunks; for Cap'en Jiggins was the proper sort of skipper. +None of your making work for him when there was nothing to do; but when +the hands were wanted, why he did expect them to look alive, and have no +skulking--small blame to him, say I, for one! + +"We had run down below the parallel of Cape Horn, pretty considerable I +should think, when we at last had to ask the old brig to bear up +eastwards to lie her proper course; and then you should have seen the +tricks she played--confound her! Why, we had to treat her as gingerly +as if she were a yacht rounding a mark-boat to make her bear up a point +or go to the wind; although I'll give her the credit of saying, if she +were cranky--and she was that, and no mistake--she made no leeway, which +was a blessing at all events. + +"It was some days after we had altered our course to East South East, +with as much more easterly as we could get out of her--and that wasn't +much, try all we could, with as much fore and aft sail as we could get +on her--when the weather began to change, and the wind, which had been +steadily blowing from the north-east, chopped round a bit more ahead, +the sea getting up, and a stray squall coming now and again, which made +us more alert trimming the sails, and taking in and letting out canvas +as occasion arose. It was no use, however, trying to drive the brig to +the eastward any longer with this wind shifting about, humour her as we +might; so the skipper altered her course again more to the south, +although we were then as far down as we ought to have gone. + +"`The darling,' says he to the first officer when he gave the order to +lay her head South South East, `she's a little playful with the heavy +cargo we've got on board, and wants to keep warm as long as she can! +Let her run a hundred miles or so more south, and then we'll fetch up to +the Horn, and be able to spin along like winking, just as the beautiful +creature wants!' + +"Well! it did make us mad to hear the old man talk like this about the +clumsy old tub; but of course we couldn't help ourselves, so we only +grinned, and said to each other,--`Catch us coming again in the _Cranky +Jane_ when once we're safe ashore!' + +"Would you believe it? The blessed brig, although the new course she +was on brought the wind aft instead of on her beam, she was that +spiteful over it, that, as it was blowing much stronger than it had +been, it took two of us to keep her head from deviating from her proper +track, and we had hard work to prevent her from breaking off more than +she did. + +"The wind came on towards the afternoon to blow harder and harder; and +by nightfall--you know it gets dark as soon as the sun goes down in +those latitudes--we had to shorten sail so much that the _Cranky Jane_ +was staggering along at the rate of nearly fourteen knots an hour with +reefed top-sails and jib and main-sail besides the stay-sails. + +"The weather got wilder and wilder as time went on, the heavens quite +dark overhead, except an occasional glint of a star which didn't know +whether he ought to show or not; but still, although we were pretty far +below the equator, the night was warm and even sultry, so that we +expected a hurricane, or cyclone, or something of that sort, for it was +quite unnatural to feel as if in the tropics when fifty degrees south! + +"The cap'en, I know, thought it would blow by and by, for before he +turned in he caused even the reefed top-sails and stay-sails to be taken +in, and left her snug for the night, with only a close-reefed main-sail +and the jib on her. + +"`Keep a good look-out, Mr Stanchion,' says he to the chief officer, as +he went down the companion-ladder to his cabin, `and call me if there's +the slightest change.' + +"`Ay, ay, sir,' says Mr Stanchion; and so the skipper goes below with a +cheerful good-night, in spite of the weather looking dirty and squalls +being handy before morning. + +"Now, as luck would have it--as some folks say, although others put it +down to something more than luck--Mr Stanchion wasn't like one of those +jolly, devil-may-care, slap-dash sort of officers, that your regular +shell-backs like best. He was a silent, quiet, reflective man, who +looked and spoke as if butter wouldn't melt in his mouth; and yet he +thought deeper and further than your dash-and-go gentlemen, who act on +the spur of the moment without cogitating. + +"As soon as the skipper had turned in, he did a thing which perhaps not +one officer in a hundred would have done in his place, considering we +were on the open ocean out of the track of passing vessels, and that it +wasn't much darker than it is on most nights when there's no moon, and +the sky is cloudy. + +"What do you think it was? Why, he put a man on the look-out on the +forecastle, just as if we were going up channel, or in a crowded sea- +way! The skipper had meant him to look-out himself, but another +wouldn't be amiss, he said. + +"Providentially, too, the very man whom he accidentally selected was the +very best person he could have placed as look-out, if he had picked the +whole crew over from the captain downward; although the mate did not +know this when he sang out to him to go on the forecastle. + +"This was Pat O'Brien--`Paddy,' as all the hands called him--an +Irishman, of course, as you would judge from his name, who had been in +one of the Arctic expeditions, which we were speaking of just now. He +went out with Sir Leopold McClintock I think; but all I know is, that he +once was up a whole winter in the Polar Sea, and there had got laid on +his back with scurvy, besides having his toes frost-bitten, as he +frequently told us when yarning amongst the crew of an evening. + +"Generally speaking, he was a careless, happy-go-lucky fellow, and one +might have wondered that Mr Stanchion called him from out the watch +that had just came on deck; but, as I said before, the mate could not +possibly have made a better selection, as it turned out afterwards. + +"Pat O'Brien was a comic chap, full of fun, and always making jokes; so +that as soon as he opened his mouth almost to say anything the other +fellows would laugh, for they knew that some lark was coming. + +"`Be jabers,' says Pat, as he goes forward in obedience to the chief +officer's order, `it's a nice pleasant look-out I'll have all by +meeself! while you're coilin' the ropes here, I'll be thinkin' of my +colleen there!' and he went out on the foc'sl. + +"By and by we could hear him muttering to himself. `Wurrah, wurrah! +Holy mother, can't you let me be aisy!' he sang out presently aloud as +if he was suffering from something, or in pain. + +"`Look-out, ahoy!' hails Mr Stanchion from aft; `what's the matter +ahead--what are you making all that row about?' + +"`Sure an' it's my poor feet, save yer honour, that are hurting of me, +they feels the frost terrible!' + +"The first mate naturally thought Master Paddy was trying to play off +one of his capers on him--for it wouldn't be the first time he tried the +game on; so this answer got up his temper, making him shout back an +answer to the Irishman that would tell him he wasn't going to catch him +napping. + +"`Nonsense, man,' he calls out--`frost? Why, you are dreaming! The +thermometer is up to over sixty degrees, and it's warm enough almost for +the tropics.' + +"The hands, of course, thought too that Pat was only joking in his usual +way and endeavouring to make fun of Mr Stanchion; and they waited to +hear what would come next from the Irishman, knowing that he was not +easily shut up when once he had made up his mind for anything. However, +they soon could tell from the tone of voice in which Pat spoke again +that he wasn't joking this time, or else he was acting very well in +carrying out his joke on the mate; for as we were laughing about his +`poor feet,' which was a slang term in those days, Paddy calls out again +in reply to the mate:-- + +"`Faix,' says he, `it's ne'er a lie I'm telling, yer honour. Be jabers! +my feet feel as if they were in the ice now, and frost-bitten all over!' + +"Another officer in Mr Stanchion's place would, as likely as not, have +consigned poor Pat to a warmer locality in order to warm his limbs +there; but Mr Stanchion, as I've said, was a man of a different stamp, +and a reflective one, too; and the words of the Irishman made him think +of something he had read once of a frost-bitten limb having been +discovered by a well-known meteorologist to be an unfailing weather- +token of the approach of cold. Instead, therefore, of angrily telling +Pat to hold his tongue and look-out as he ought, Mr Stanchion went +forward and joined him; we on deck, of course, being on the look-out at +once. + +"Presently, we could see the chief officer and the Irishman on the +forecastle, peering out together over the ship's bows as if looking for +something. + +"`I'm certain, sir,' I heard Pat say earnestly, `we're near ice whenever +my feet feels the cold, yer honour; and there, be jabers, there's the +ice-blink, as they calls it in the Arctic seas, and we're amongst the +icebergs, as sure as you live!' + +"At the same moment, the atmosphere lightened up with a whitish blue +light--somewhat like pale moonshine--and Mr Stanchion shouted out at +the top of his voice, louder than we ever dreamt he could speak--`Hard +a-starboard! Down with the helm for your life!' + +"Bill, the boatswain, and I, who were together at the wheel, jammed down +the spokes with all our strength; but the blessed brig wouldn't come up +to the wind as we wanted her. She wouldn't, although we both almost +hung on the wheel and wrenched it off the deck. `Hard up with the helm, +men, do you hear?' again sings out the chief officer, rushing aft as he +spoke. `Hard up, men! all our lives are at stake!' + +"And the brig wouldn't come up, try all we could. Bill and I could have +screamed with rage; but in another minute we were laughing with joy. + +"The light got clear; and there, to our horror, just where we wanted the +dear old brig to go--and she wouldn't go, like a sensible creature, +although we cursed her for not obeying the helm--was an enormous iceberg +rising out of the depths of the ocean, and towering above the masts of +the poor _Jane_, which I feel loth to call `cranky' any longer--as high +almost as the eyes could see, like the cliffs at Dover, only a hundred +yards higher, without exaggeration! If the brig had come up to the +wind, as Mr Stanchion sang out for us to make her, why, two minutes +after, she would have struck full into the iceberg, and running, as she +was, good fourteen knots and more under her jib and main-sail, her bows +would have stoved in, and we'd all have been in Davy Jones's locker +before we could have said Jack Robinson! + +"As it was, we weren't out of danger by any means. There were icebergs +to the right of us; icebergs astern of us, by which we had passed +probably when Pat first complained of feeling the cold; icebergs ahead +of us, through which we would have gingerly to make our way, for we had +no option with the gale that was blowing but to keep the same course we +were on, as to lie to amidst all that ice would be more dangerous even +than moving on; and the big, enormous berg we had just escaped was on +our left, or port side properly speaking--looking, for all the world, +like a curving range of cliffs on some rock-bound coast, as it spread +out more than five or six miles in length. It was certainly the biggest +iceberg I ever saw in my life, beating to nothing all that I afterwards +noticed in the Arctic seas when I went north in the _Polaris_; and +perhaps that is the reason why all the ice mounds I saw there became so +dwarfed by comparison that they looked quite insignificant. + +"Pat kept on the forecastle, looking out and directing the course of the +vessel, as the cap'en, who had just come on deck, roused by the noise, +thought the Irishman's experience in the Arctic seas would make him more +useful even than himself in coursing the ship. + +"The skipper was right as usual; and Pat had soon a chance of showing +that his choice had not been misplaced. + +"`Kape her away! kape her away!' Pat shouted out in a minute or two +after the cap'en had come on deck `The top of the berg is loosenin', yer +honour; and sure it's falling on us it will be in a brace of shakes! +Kape her away, or, be jabers, it's lost we'll be for sartin!' + +"The old brig, although she wouldn't come up to the wind when we wanted +her, and thus saved our lives by disobeying orders, now answered her +helm promptly without any demur, and dashed away from the mass of ice +before the gale at, I should be ashamed to say what speed. + +"Bless the old _Cranky Jane_! How could we ever have reviled her and +despised her? She seemed almost as if she had human intelligence and a +kind of foresight. + +"We only just weathered the berg when the summit toppled over with a +crash, missing the after-part of the brig by a very few yards, and +churning up the sea far around with a sort of creamy surf, that dashed +over our decks, and swept us fore and aft. + +"It was a marvellous escape, and only second to that we had just before +had in avoiding running on to the same gigantic mass of floating ice, +which had probably come up from the Antarctic regions for the summer +season--at least, that was Pat O'Brien's explanation for our meeting +with it there. + +"All that night and next morning we were passing through bergs of every +size, big and little, although none were so large as the one which had +been so risky to us--bergs that in their splendid architecture and +magnificence, with fantastic peaks and fine pinnacles, that glittered in +the rising sun with all the colours of the rainbow, flashing out rays +and lights of violet and purple, topaz blue and emerald green, blush +rose and pink and red, mingled with shades of crimson and gleams of +gold, with a frosting over all of silver and bright white light--Those +who haven't seen an iceberg at sea at sunrise have no idea of the depth +and breadth of beauty in nature, though I, one who has served his time +before the mast, says so. But, avast with such flummery and wordage!" + +"Good gracious me!" I exclaimed, aghast at the old gentleman turning +round so completely from the statement he had made when we first entered +into conversation. "I thought you said just now that all icebergs were +a dull white without any other colour, save a streak of blue sometimes +running through them like a vein; and yet, here you are painting them in +all the varied tints of the rainbow!" + +He was not a bit put out, however, by this accusation of inconsistency. + +"This was how they looked at sunrise, which, like a brilliant sunset, as +you know, makes a very great difference in the appearance of objects, +causing even the most common things to look brilliant, and dignifying +the common so as to make it look sublime! But, with your permission," +added the old gentleman courteously, "I will finish my story of the +brig's escape. + +"After we passed all the ice, the wind came round, as the captain said +it would, right favourable for our course; and the _Cranky Jane_ behaved +like a good one. We made all our easting on one tack, and passed the +Cape still a good distance to the south, but in as good a latitude as we +could have passed it in for the weather we had, which was first-rate. + +"And when we began to mount northwards again, towards the little island +which we all prize so much, although it is but a little spot on the map +of Europe, why, the wind changed too, still almost due aft as the dear +old _Cranky Jane_ liked, much to the delight and joy of everybody on +board, especially the skipper, who exclaimed, as he rubbed his hands +together in joy, and walked up and down the poop,--`Bless the darling, +she's a walker! And I wouldn't swop her for the best clipper in the +China trade!' + +"We had a good land-fall all right, entering the Channel shortly after +sighting the Lizard, making the quickest passage ever known for a +sailing brig from Fiji; and, in spite of all the dear old craft's +shortcomings and temper and weather-helm, myself and the rest of the +crew, including of course Pat O'Brien and his `poor feet,' were willing, +even after all the perils we had passed through, and the dangers we had +escaped, every mother's son of us, with Captain Jiggins' permission, and +the chief officer's favour, to sign articles, and ship for another +voyage in the old _Cranky Jane_; and, what is more, we did too, sticking +to the brig till she went to pieces off Cape Lewis to the south of New +Zealand in her last voyage out. That's all!" + +So saying, the old gentleman, bowing to me politely, took his departure +from Sheerness dockyard, which I also left soon afterwards, pleased with +all that I had seen and more than glad of having visited the place if +only for the chance it afforded me of hearing his yarn. + + + +CHAPTER THREE. + +THE GREEK BANDIT. + +A REMINISCENCE OF A YACHTING CRUISE IN THE AEGEAN SEA. + +Some few years ago, when I was a youngster, I had what was then the +great desire of my heart gratified by being allowed to accompany a party +on a yachting cruise to the Mediterranean. + +How I enjoyed myself, and how tragically our cruise nearly terminated, I +will now proceed to tell. + +There were six of us in all on board the yacht. There was dad, one; +Captain Buncombe, two; Mr Joe Moynham, three; Bob, four; myself, +Charley, five; and dog Rollo, six--though I think, by rights, I ought to +have counted Rollo first, as he was the best of us all, and certainly +thought the least of himself--brave, fine, black, curly old fellow that +he was! + +Just as you fellows in England were having the nastiest part of the +winter, when there is no skating or snowballing, and only drenching rain +and easterly winds, that bring colds and coughs and mumps, we were +enjoying the loveliest of blue skies and jolly warm weather, that made +swimming in the sea a luxury, and ices after dinner seem like a taste of +nectar. We did enjoy ourselves; and had a splendid cruise up the old +Mediterranean, going everywhere and seeing everything that was to be +seen. Oh, it was jolly! The yacht stopped at Gibraltar, where we +climbed the rock and saw the monkeys that lived in the caverns on the +top; at Malta, where we went up the "Nothing to Eat" stairs mentioned in +_Midshipman Easy_: and then, sailing up the Levant, the _Moonshine_--she +was eighty tons, and the crack of the RYS--was laid up at anchor for a +long time at Alexandria, while we went ashore, going through the Suez +Canal, across the desert to Cairo, and thence to the pyramids, after +which we started for Greece. + +You must know, before we get any further, that Bob and I didn't want to +go anywhere near Greece at all! We had good reasons for this dislike. +There were dad and Captain Buncombe--who was what people call an +archaeologist, fond of grubbing up old stones and skeletons, and digging +like an old mole amongst ruins--continually talking all day long about +Marathon and Hymettus, the Parthenon and Chersonese, the Acropolis, and +Theseus and Odysseus and all the rest of them, bothering our lives out +with questions about Homer and the _Iliad_, and all such stuff; so, I +put it to you candidly, whether it wasn't almost as bad as being back +again at school, making a fellow feel small who was shaky in his Greek +and had a bad memory for history? + +However, we had scarcely anchored in the Piraeus when some events +happened which drove the classics out of the heads of our elders; and I +may say that thenceforth we heard no more about the ancients. + +There had been a sharp squall shortly before, in which we had been +amused by seeing the smart little zebeques, with their snowy white +lateen sails, flying before the wind like a flock of small birds +frightened by a hawk; and the _Moonshine_ was just coming up to the wind +in order to let go her anchor, when Bob and I, who were close together +on the forecastle, watching the men preparing for running out and +bitting the cable, saw, almost at the same moment, a man's head in the +water right in front of the yacht's forefoot; then--it all happened as +suddenly as a flash of lightning--his hands were thrown up as if in +entreaty, although we heard no cry, and he disappeared. + +"Man overboard!" sang out one of the crew, who was pulling away at the +jib down-haul in order to stow the sail, the halliards having been cast +loose, "Man overboard!" in a voice which rang through the vessel fore +and aft, and attracted everybody's attention. + +"Hi! Rollo, good dog!" cried out Bob, turning round sharp to where the +brave old fellow had been lying on the deck not a moment before, +flopping his tail lazily, and with his great red tongue lolling out, as +though he laughed cheerily at everything going on around him. + +"Hi! Rollo!" said I too, in almost the same breath with Bob. "Fetch +him out, good dog!" and I turned round also. + +But the dog was gone. + +Bob and I were "nonplussed." We had both seen Rollo there not--why, not +a second before. And now he was gone. + +However, we soon discovered the noble fellow and the cause of his +absence. + +The cry of "Man overboard!" had startled everybody, so that the anchor +had not been let go; and the steersman's attention, naturally, having +been taken up, the yacht had paid off again instead of bringing up, and +her head had swung; consequently, what had been ahead of us just before +was now astern, and we were quite confused as to our bearings. + +While we were looking in perplexity in every direction but the right +one, Captain Buncombe, who was at the wheel, and perhaps anxious to +atone for his carelessness in letting the _Moonshine_ swing round, +shouted out "Bravo!" waving his hat like a madman. Of course all our +several pairs of eyes were turned on him at once. + +"There he is--there he is--the brave old fellow!" cried the captain, +letting go the helm in his eagerness, and pointing with his hat--waving +hand to the water under the stern. "Look aft, you duffers! Where are +your eyes? Bravo, Rollo! good dog! Hold up, old fellow! I'm coming to +help you!" and with these words, before you could say "Jack Robinson," +Captain Buncombe had thrown off his coat, pitched away the hat he had +been waving, jumped over the taffrail of the yacht into the bosom of the +blue Aegean Sea, and was rapidly swimming to where we could see dear old +Rollo's black head and splashing paws as he supported a man in the +yacht's wake, and tried to drag him towards us in the _Moonshine_. + +We gave a "Hooray!" which you might have heard at Charing Cross if you +had been listening! + +Captain Buncombe and Rollo, with their burden, were so near the yacht +that there was no necessity for lowering the gig as we had hastened to +do; and in a very little time we hauled them on board--Rollo jumping +about in the highest spirits, as if he had been just having a quiet lark +on his own account; but the rescued person was limp and insensible, +though he presently came to by the aid of hot-water bottles and +blankets. The _Moonshine_ then made another start, and succeeded better +in anchoring in a respectable fashion, as she had always been accustomed +to do. + +The man was a handsome young fellow, with black hair and piercing eyes-- +a Greek, he told us in French which he spoke fluently--although he had +not that treacherous cast of countenance which most of his countrymen +possess. He was profuse in the thanks which he bestowed broadcast for +our saving him from drowning, although Rollo had really all the credit +of it. His name was Stephanos Pericles, he said, and he was crossing to +Salamis, when the squall came on, and his boat was upset. He had been +dragged under water by the boat and almost suffocated before he could +get to the surface, being quite exhausted when the dog gripped him. For +Rollo had seen him before any of us, and had not waited for our +directions as to what to do. + +"I'm a soldier," he said, proudly tapping his chest, and looking round +at dad and the captain, and Mr Moynham. "I've eaten your bread,"--he +had dinner with us after he had got all right again, and we had settled +down into that general routine in which our meals were attended to with +the strictest punctuality--"and I shall never forget you have saved my +life. By that bread I have eaten, I will repay you, I swear!" + +Then turning to Bob and I, who were sitting on each side of him, and +Rollo, who stuck close to him, as if under the idea that having saved +him he was now his property--"And much thanks to you, little Englishmen, +and your dogs I vill nevare forget, no nevare!" + +He couldn't speak English as well as French. The evening had closed +now, so Captain Buncombe told the crew to get the boat ready, and the +Greek with many more fervent expressions of gratitude, was rowed ashore. + +The next morning we had landed and after pottering about the port +proceeded up to Athens, which much disappointed all of us, especially +dad and the captain. It had a garish and stucco-like appearance; while +the people looked as if they were costumed for a fancy ball, being not +apparently at home in their national dress, picturesque though it was. +It was quite nightmarish for Bob and me to read the names on the shop +fronts in the streets, and see the newspapers printed in the old Greek +characters. Fancy "Modiste," and "Perruquier," as they will have the +French terms spelt, in the letters sacred to Euripides and Xenophon. It +seemed like walking in a dream! + +We had inspected Athens, as I've said, and visited the plain of +Marathon, which was offered by the Greeks to Lord Byron for sixteen +thousand piastres, or about eight hundred pounds--alas for glory!--and +returned on board the yacht for dinner again, when we were told that a +messenger had been off in our absence and left a parcel for us. What do +you think it contained? Guess. + +Well, there was a splendid shawl, worth more than a hundred guineas, for +Captain Buncombe, and a handsome jewelled pipe for dad; while Mr Joe +Moynham had a case of Greek wines for his special self! + +Bob and I were not forgotten either. He had a fine gun, with the stock +inlaid with ivory, and carved beautifully; and I, a yataghan, decorated +with a jewelled hilt, that was even more valuable than dad's pipe. +Rollo was presented with a grand gold collar, which Mr Joe Moynham said +was like the one that Malachi, one of the Irish kings, wore in the days +of Brian Boru; and, if you please, a lot of little purses, each +containing a handsome present, were sent also in the parcel--a good big +one, you may be sure--for distribution amongst the crew. It was +princely gratitude, wasn't it, in spite of the slighting way in which +Mr Moynham had spoken of the modern Greeks and their ways? However, he +had to "take it all back," as he said, when he drank the health of +Monsieur Pericles--who seemed, by the way, to be much better off than +his illustrious ancestor, and whom we put down as the Sultan Haroun el +Raschid in disguise--in a glass of the very wine that he had sent on +board the yacht. + +But that wasn't the end of it all, by any means:-- why, I am only just +coming to my real story now. + +Time rolled on--when I say "time," of course, I only mean hours and days +as we mean, not years and centuries as the ancients calculated the lapse +of time--and we managed to see everything that sight-seers see in the +city of Minerva. + +Having nothing else to look at close at hand, therefore, we determined +to go on our travels, like Ulysses; not amongst the islands, which we +had already visited, but towards the mountains, Captain Buncombe having +made a vow ere he left England to see the ruins of Thebes, after which, +he said, he would have no further object in life, and would perform the +Japanese feat of the "happy despatch!" + +We had horses, and mules, and donkeys for the journey; that is, dad and +the captain rode horses, there were mules for our traps and food, which +we had to take along with us, thanks to the hospitality of the regions +we were going to, while the donkeys were for Bob and me and Mr Moynham. +That gentleman, who would be very positive when he liked, declared that +no earthly consideration should compel him to mount the Bucephalus that +was provided for him. He said that a horse was expressly stated by King +David to be "a vain thing to save a man," and so why should he go +against that ruling? + +The first part of our journey went off as jolly as possible: the way was +good; the scenery--although I confess I didn't trouble my head very much +about it--though dad and the captain were in raptures with it-- +magnificent; the halts, just at the right time, although all in classic +places, whose names Bob and I hated the sound of; the food was first- +rate, and Mr Moynham so funny, that he nearly made me roll off my +donkey every now and then with laughter. But towards evening, when we +were all ascending a steep hill, with rocks and thick shrubbery on each +side of it, through a narrow defile, a harsh voice suddenly exclaimed +through the gloom, something that sounded like the Greek imperative +Statheets! _Stop_! and then again another monosyllable, which we +certainly understood better, "Halt!" A gun was also fired off at the +same time; and, by the flash of the discharge we could see several long +gleaming rifle barrels peering out from the bushes on either side of the +way. + +"Brigands!" ejaculated the guides together, tumbling prostrate on the +ground pell-mell, as if they had been swept down. + +"Fascia a terra! Ventre a terre!" shouted out the same hoarse voice +again, and a volley was fired over our heads. + +"Pleasant!" said Mr Moynham, throwing himself down with his face to the +ground like the cowardly guides. "But I suppose we'd better do as these +gentry require, or else they'll be hitting us under the fifth +buttonhole; and, what would become of us then?" + +"Fascia a terra!" repeated the leader of the brigands, emerging from a +clump of shrubbery at the head of the pass, motioning his arms violently +at dad and the captain, who were inclined to show fight at first; but +discretion proved the better part of valour, and they both dropped the +pistols they had hurriedly drawn from their pockets, seeing that the +rifle barrels covered them, sinking down prone on the earth like the +rest of us. + +Rollo, however, poor brave old fellow, made one dash at the ruffian as +he threatened dad; and, seizing him by the throat, dashed him to the +ground. + +Poor fellow, the next moment he had a stiletto jammed into him, which +made him sink down bleeding, with a faint howl, to which Bob and I +responded with a cry, as if we felt the blow ourselves! + +The moment dad and Captain Buncombe heard Rollo's howl and our cry, they +jumped up again like lightning, and began hitting out right and left at +the brigands who now surrounded us; and Mr Moynham was not behind, I +can tell you! He butted one big chap right in the pit of the stomach, +and sent him tumbling down the defile, his body rattling against the +stones, and he swearing like mad all the time. Bob and I scrambled at +them as best we could, catching hold of their legs and tripping them up; +but they were too many for us, for the cowardly guides did not stir hand +or foot to help us, but lay stretched like logs along the ground, +although they were unbound. We were certain that they were in league +with the robbers; and so, without doubt, they were, for, if they had +only assisted us, now that their assailants had dropped their firearms, +and were engaged in a regular rough-and-tumble fight, we could have +mastered them, I'm sure, as, counting Bob and myself in, we were nearly +man for man as many as they were. + +The struggle did not last long, although dad and the captain held out +bravely to the last, flooring the brigands one after another, and +knocking them down as if they had been nine-pins. They were presently +tied securely, with their arms behind them, and menaced with death if +they stirred, by a brawny ruffian touching each of their heads with a +pistol barrel. As for Bob and me, they did not think it necessary to +tie us. + +"Well, this is a delightful ending to our picnic," said Mr Moynham in +lugubrious tones, as we all lay on the ground, with the exception of the +guides, who appeared to mingle freely with the robbers, who were grouped +in picturesque attitudes around us, leaning on their carbines. "I +wonder what's their little game?" + +The leader presently gave an order, and our seniors were then each +lifted on to a horse or mule, and tied securely there. + +"At all events," said Mr Moynham, who kept up his spirits still +wonderfully, "we sha'n't fall off, that's one comfort, and so we'll have +the less bruises after the scrimmage!" + +Although the chief brigand scowled at me, he allowed me to lift poor +Rollo, who was not dead as I had feared, and I bandaged his neck where +the wound was with my handkerchief, and took him up in front of me. + +The leader then spoke vehemently in his own language to one of the +treacherous guides, who approached dad as if to speak. + +"Away, scoundrel!" said dad, wrathfully. "Don't speak to me; I would +kill you if I were free, for leading us into this ambush!" + +The man, however, urged again by the chief, who raised his pistol +ominously at dad, approached him once more. + +"The Albanian chief says that if twenty thousand piastres apiece, or one +hundred thousand piastres in all, are not paid for you by sunset here +to-morrow evening, you shall all be shot in cold blood, and your doom be +on your own heads." + +"Tell your chief, or thief, or whatever ruffian he is, that none of us +will pay a penny. Our friends at Athens will miss us, and you'll have +the palikari after you all in hot haste if I'm not back to-night safe." + +"The English lord forgets that he left word that he might remain for two +days on the mountains, and his friends will not think him missing before +to-morrow night: at that time, the English lord and his friends, and the +little lords, will be all dead men if the ransom be not paid." + +"What on earth shall I do, Buncombe?" asked dad of the captain. "Shall +I write an order on my bankers for the money to be sent? One hundred +thousand piastres will be about five thousand pounds--I don't know +whether my credit will be good for that amount?" + +"Your credit and mine will be sufficient," Captain Buncombe said; "one +can't trifle with these fellows, for the villains keep their word, I'm +told." + +The guide again spoke by the chief's order to dad, as if the tenor of +the captain's words were understood. + +"The Albanian chief declares that if the ransom be not paid by sunset +to-morrow at latest, every one of you shall be shot, and your heads cut +off and sent back to Athens in token of your fate." + +"Ugh!" said Mr Moynham, shuddering; "I certainly have been a Tory +throughout all my life, but I should not like to follow Charles the +First's example." + +"I declare it's disgraceful," said Captain Buncombe; "I'll apply to the +ambassador. This brigandage is the curse of Greece. I'll--" + +"That won't help us now," said dad. "I suppose we must write for the +ransom, although under protests; for, however much we have to pay, we +must remember that our lives are in jeopardy; and that's the main +consideration." + +The advice was good; so, a joint letter was despatched to certain +influential friends, as well as dad's banker at Athens, urging that the +ransom should be sent in a certain way, to be handed over, as the +brigand chief arranged, as we were given up, so that there should be no +treachery on either side. The false guides then went off cheerfully +down hill towards the plains, whilst our cavalcade, encompassed by the +brigands, moved towards those mountain fastnesses, "where they resided +when they were at home," as Mr Moynham said. + +Up and down hill and dale, we seemed in the darkness to be penetrating +miles into the country; until, at last, passing, as well as we could see +from the gloom, which was almost impenetrable, through a narrow glen +between steep peaks, we suddenly turned a corner of a projecting rock, +and found ourselves on an elevated plateau on the top of the mountains, +where a strange scene awaited us. A number of ruddy watch-fires were +burning with red and smoky light, and around these sat, reclined, or +moved about, in a variety of active employments, a number of dark forms, +most of which were robust Arnauts, clad in their national dress, which +in the distance is not unlike that seen among Highlandmen, consisting as +it does of a snowy white kilt, green velvet jacket, and bright-coloured +scarf wound round the waist. Here and there, the glare from the +firelight was reflected from the barrels of guns, rifles, and +matchlocks, which the owners were cleaning or examining; while, before +several of the fires cooking operations were going on. Kids, whole +sheep, and pieces of raw flesh, were being slowly broiled, hanging from +bits of stick stuck in the ground, or suspended by pieces of string +attached to the branches of the overhanging trees that encircled the +plateau. This added to the "effect" of the scene. + +"Quite operatic, and better than old Drury," I heard Mr Moynham say; +but we were all too depressed and uncomfortable from our constrained +attitudes to feel inclined to appreciate the picturesque, the brigands +having taken us off the horses, and flung us down on the ground, having +this time bound even Bob and myself; indeed, they treated us with even +less attention than they would have bestowed on anything eatable, +judging by the care they evinced in their cuisine, although they did not +offer us anything either to eat or drink, much to Mr Moynham's great +chagrin especially, nor did they give us the slightest covering to +protect us from the night air when the waning watch-fires told us that +bedtime--save the mark--had arrived. I suppose they thought that it did +not much matter if we did catch cold, considering that we were going to +be shot within twenty-four hours! + +Tired out with fatigue, we finally sank to rest in the same place where +we were first pitched down, not awaking till late the next morning, when +we found most of the brigands had departed--to look-out for other +"welcome guests" like ourselves, I suppose! Only three were left to +guard us, but they were quite enough, considering that we were tied up +fast, and couldn't move if we wished. + +How slowly that day dragged out! We thought it would never end. They +gave us some hard coarse dry bread to eat and water to drink, nothing +else; and the hours dragged themselves slowly along, as if they would +never end. + +Our hopes gradually sank, as the sun declined in the heavens, for we +watched the progress of the glowing orb with almost the devoted zeal of +the followers of Zoroaster. + +At last, just as it was within half an hour of sunset as nearly as we +could calculate, we heard a tumult as of many voices in the ravine +leading to the plateau; and, presently, the man whom we had conceived to +be the leader of the brigands advanced towards us, in company with his +band, now largely reinforced by others. At a word from him our bonds +were untied, and we were assisted to our feet, on which we could not +stand firmly for some little time, on account of the want of circulation +of our blood during the long time we had been in such constrained +attitudes. + +The guide who had previously acted the part of interpreter after +betraying us--although, by the way, he told us before he left us that he +belonged to the band, and thus, perhaps, had only acted honourably +according to his creed--then translated what the leader had to say. + +Our ransom had been paid, and we were free to go down the mountains. +The horses, mules, and everything belonging to us would be restored, and +a trusty guide--the speaker, of course--would put us in the direct route +to Athens, but as near the city as possible; and, finally, the chief +begged that we would excuse the rough treatment to which we had been +subjected, as he had a great regard for us! + +"It was all very well to dissemble his love," quoted Mr Moynham; +"but,--why did he kick us down-stairs?" + +"The chief!--which chief, or thief?" said dad sternly. He did not feel +particularly pleased with the Arnauts or their leader. "I've had enough +of the scoundrels already, and the sooner I lose sight of them the +better! What do you mean by the chief?" + +"He means me!" said a gorgeous individual, all green velvet jacket, and +gold braid, and red sash, with a cap set rakishly on the side of his +head, in the front of which glittered a diamond of surpassing +brilliancy. + +We had noticed this individual before, but not especially, and he had +been rather hidden by the figure of the man we looked upon as the +leader: now he stepped forward, and we could see his face plainly, as we +recognised the voice. + +Who do you think it was? + +Why, Stephanos Pericles, the man whom we had saved from drowning, and +who had sent us those handsome presents! + +"Why have we met with this treatment at your hands?" said papa, puzzled +at the Greek's behaviour. + +"You have nothing to complain of," said Stephanos, with an air of +courteous nobility which exasperated the captain to that degree that I +saw him clenching and unclenching his fists, and dancing about, as Mr +Moynham said afterwards, "like a hen on a hot griddle." + +"My dear sir, you have nothing really to complain of," said the Greek. +"You saved my life, I admit, and I think I politely expressed my +obligations at the time. In return I now present you with five lives, +independently of that of the dog, which, I am sorry to see, has been +hurt." + +"But the ransom?" said dad. + +"Oh, I'm sorry I had to insist on that," said Stephanos, placidly; "but +it is one of our rules to enforce such in all cases, and I'm sorry that +I could not let you off, although my friendship yearned to set you free +without it. You must really please excuse the treatment you have met +with. If I had known who honoured me with their company, I'm sure you +would have had no reason to be dissatisfied with my hospitality. The +_next_ time you favour me with your presence, my lord--" + +"The next time you catch me here, or anywhere else on Greek ground," +laughed my father in a hearty "Ho! ho!" in which all of us joined, "you +may cut me up into kabobs and cook and eat me, and welcome; for I know +I'll then deserve it!" + +We got back safe aboard the _Moonshine_ all right, setting sail from the +Piraeus next day; but it was a good trick of the brigand chief, wasn't +it--though I can't say much for his gratitude after all, spite of those +magnificent presents, which there was little reason to wonder at his +offering us, considering the easy manner in which he got his money? + +The cut in Rollo's neck healed soon, and he is now as right as ever he +was, excepting a slight scar which tells where the stiletto or dagger +went, and he wears still the collar of gold that Stephanos Pericles +presented him with. As for the rest of our party, all of us got home +safe with the _Moonshine_, which is now fitting out at Ryde for the +coming regatta, where I hope she'll come off as successfully in carrying +off prizes as "THE GREEK BANDIT." + + + +CHAPTER FOUR. + +JIM NEWMAN'S YARN: OR, A SIGHT OF THE SEA SERPENT. + +"Was you ever up the Niger, sir?" + +"Why, of course not, Jim! you know that I've never been on the African +station, or any other for that matter. But why do you ask the +question?" + +"Don't know 'xactly, sir. P'raps that blessed sea-fog reminds me of it, +somehow or other--though there's little likeness, as far as that goes, +between the west coast and Portsmouth, is there, sir?" + +"I don't suppose there is," I said; "but what puts the Niger, of all +places in the world, in your head at the present moment?" + +"Ah, that'd tell a tale, sir," he answered, cocking his left eye in a +knowing manner, and giving the quid in his mouth a turn. "Ah, that'd +tell a tale, sir!" + +Jim Newman, an old man-of-war's man--now retired from the navy, and who +eked out his pension by letting boats for hire to summer visitors--was +leaning against an old coal barge that formed his "office," drawn up +high and dry on the beach, midway between Southsea Castle and Portsmouth +Harbour, and gazing out steadily across the channel of the Solent, to +the Isle of Wight beyond. He and I were old friends of long standing, +and I was never so happy as when I could persuade him--albeit it did not +need much persuasion--to open the storehouse of his memory, and spin a +yarn about his old experiences afloat in the whilom wooden walls of +England, when crack frigates were the rage instead of screw steamers +with armour-plates. We had been talking of all sorts of service +gossip--the war, the weather, what not--when he suddenly asked me the +question about the great African river that has given poor Sambo "a +local habitation and a name." + +Although the gushing tears of April had hardly washed away the traces of +the wild March winds, the weather had suddenly become almost tropical in +its heat. There was not the slightest breath of air stirring, and the +sea lay lazily asleep, only throbbing now and then with a faint +spasmodic motion, which barely stirred the shingle on the shore, much +less plashed on the beach; while a thick, heavy white mist was steadily +creeping up from the sea, shutting out, first the island, and then the +roadstead at Spithead from view, and overlapping the whole landscape in +thick woolly folds, moist yet warm. Jim had said that the sea-fog, +coming as it did, was a sign of heat, and that we should have a regular +old-fashioned hot summer, unlike those of recent years. + +"Ah, sir," he repeated, "I could tell a tale about that deadly Niger +river, and the Gaboon, and the whole treacherous coast, if I liked, from +Lagos down to the Congo--ay, I could! It was that 'ere sea-fog that put +Afriker into my head, Master Charles; I know that blessed white mist, a- +rising up like a curtain, well, I do! The `white man's shroud,' the +niggers used to call it--and many a poor beggar it has sarved to shroud, +too, in that killing climate, confound it!" + +"Well, Jim, tell us about the Niger to begin with," said I, so as to +bring him up to the scratch without delay; for, when Jim once got on the +moralising or sentimental tack, he generally ended by getting angry with +everybody and everything around him; and when he got angry, there was an +end to his stories for that day at least. + +"All right, your honour," said the old fellow, calming down at once into +his usual serenity again, and giving his quid another shift as he braced +himself well up against the old barge, on the half-deck of which I was +seated with my legs dangling down--"All right, your honour! If it's a +yarn you're after, why I had best weigh anchor at once and make an +offing, or else we shan't be able to see a handspike afore us!" + +"Heave ahead, Jim!" said I impatiently; "you are as long as a three- +decker in getting under way!" + +With this encouragement, he cleared his throat with his customary +hoarse, choking sort of cough, like an old raven, and commenced his +narrative without any further demur. + +"It's more'n twenty years now since I left the service--ay, thirty years +would be more like it; and almost my very last cruise was on the West +African station. I had four years of it, and I recollect it well; for, +before I left the blessed, murdering coast, with its poisonous lagoons +covered with thick green slime, and sickly smells, and burning sands, I +seed a sight there that I shall never forget as long as I live, and +which would make me recklect Afrikey well enough if nothing else would!" + +"That's right, Jim, fire away!" said I, settling myself comfortably on +my seat to enjoy the yarn. "What was it that you saw?" + +"Steady! Let her go easy, your honour; I'm a-coming to that soon +enough. It was in the old _Amphitrite_ I was at the time--she's broken- +up and burnt for firewood long ago, poor old thing!--and we was a-lying +in the Bight of Benin, alongside of a slaver which we had captured the +day before off Whydah. She was a Brazilian schooner with nearly five +hundred wretched creatures on board, so closely packed that you could +not find space enough to put your foot fairly on her deck in any place. +The slaves had only been a night on board her; but the stench was so +awful, from so many unfortunate niggers being squeezed so tightly +together like herrings in a barrel, and under a hot sun too, that we +were longing to send the schooner away to Sierra Leone, and get rid of +the horrid smell, which was worse than the swamps ashore! Well, I was +in the morning watch after we had towed in the slaver to the Bights, +having carried away her foremast with a round shot in making her bring +to, and was just going forward to turn in as the next watch came on +deck, when who should hail me but my mate, Gil Saul, coming in from the +bowsprit, where he had been on the look-out--it was him as was my +pardner here when I first started as a shore hand in letting out boats, +but he lost the number of his mess long ago like our old ship the +_Amphitrite_. + +"As he came up to me his face was as white as your shirt, and he was +trembling all over as if he was going to have a fit of the fever and +ague. + +"`Lor', Gil Saul,' sez I, `what's come over you, mate? are you going on +the sick list, or what?' + +"`Hush, Jim,' sez he, quite terror-stricken. `Don't speak like that; +I've seen a ghost, and I knows I shall be a dead man afore the day's +out!' + +"With that I burst into a larf. + +"`Bless your eyes, Gil,' sez I, `tell that to the marines, my bo'! you +can't get over me on that tack. You won't find any respectable ghosts +leaving dear old England for the sake of this dirty, sweltering west +coast, which no Christian would come to from choice, let alone a ghost!' + +"`But, Jim,' he sez, leaning his hand on my arm to detain me as I was +going down below, `this wasn't a h'English ghost as I sees just now. It +was the most outlandish foreign reptile you ever see. A long, big, +black snake like a crocodile, only twice the length of the old corvette; +with a head like a bird, and eyes as big and fiery as our side-lights. +It was a terrible creature, Jim, and its eyes flamed out like lightning, +and it snorted like a horse as it swam by the ship. I've had a warning, +old shipmate, and I'll be a dead man before to-morrow morning, I know!' + +"The poor chap shook with fright as he spoke, though he was as brave a +man as we had aboard; so I knew that he had been drinking and was in a +state of delirium tremendibus, or else he was sickening for the African +fever, which those who once have never forget. I therefore tried to +pacify him and explain away his fancy. + +"`That's a good un, Gil Saul,' I sez. `Don't you let none of the other +hands hear what you've told me, that you've seen the great sea sarpint, +or you'll never get the end of it.' + +"Gil got angry at this, forgetting his fright in his passion at my +doubting his word like. + +"`But it was the sea sarpint, I tells you, or its own brother if it +wasn't. Didn't I see it with my own eyes, and I was as wide awake as +you are, and not caulking?' + +"`The sea sarpint!' I repeated scornfully, laughing again in a way that +made Gil wild. `Who ever heard tell of such a thing, except in a Yankee +yarn?' + +"`And why shouldn't there be a big snake in the sea the same as there +are big snakes on land like the Bow constreetar, as is read of in books +of history, Jim Newman? Some folks are so cocksure, that they won't +believe nothing but what they sees for themselves. I wonder who at +home, now, would credit that there are some monkeys here in Afrikey that +are bigger than a man and walk upright; and you yourself, Jim, have told +me that when you were in Australy you seed rabbits that were more than +ten foot high when they stood on their hind-legs, and that could jump a +hundred yards at one leap.' + +"`So I have, Gil Saul,' sez I, a bit nettled at what he said, and the +way he said it, `and what I says I stick to. I have seen at Port Philip +kangaroos, which are just like big rabbits with upright ears, as big as +I've said; and I've seen 'em, too, jump more than twice the distance any +horse could.' + +"`And why then,' sez he, argumentifying on to me like a shot, `and why +then shouldn't there be such a thing as the sea sarpint?' + +"This flummuxed me a bit, for I couldn't find an answer handy, so I axed +him another question to get out of my quandary. + +"`But why, Gil, did you say you had seed a ghost, when it was a +sarpint?' + +"This time _he_ was bothered for a moment. + +"`Because, Jim,' sez he, after a while, `it appeared so awful to me when +I saw it coming out of the white mist with its glaring red eyes and +terrible beak. It was a ghost I feels, if it wasn't the sea sarpint; +and whether or no it bodes no good to the man wot sees it, I know. I'm +a doomed man.' + +"I couldn't shake him from that belief, though I thought the whole thing +was fancy on his part, and I turned into my hammock soon after we got +below, without a thought more about the matter--it didn't stop my caulk, +I know. But, ah! that was only in the early morning. Before the day +was done, as Gil had said, that conversation was recalled to me in a +terrible way--ah, a terrible way!" the old sailor repeated impressively, +taking off his tarpaulin hat, and wiping his forehead with his +handkerchief, as if the recollection of the past awed him even now. He +looked so serious that I could not laugh, inclined as I was to ridicule +any such story as that of the fabled sea serpent, which one looks for +periodically as a transatlantic myth to crop up in dull seasons in the +columns of American newspapers. + +"And did you see it too?" I asked; "and Gil Saul's prophecy turns out +true?" + +"You shall hear," he answered gravely; "I'm not spinning a yarn, as you +call it, Master Charles; I'm telling you the truth." + +"Go on, Jim," said I, to reassure him. "I'm listening, all attention." + +"At eight bells that day, another man-of-war come in, bringing an empty +slaver she had taken before she had shipped her cargo. In this vessel +we were able to separate some of the poor wretches packed on board our +Brazilian schooner, and so send them comfortably on to Sierra Leone, +which was what we were waiting to do, as I've told you already; and now +being free to go cruising again, we hove up anchor and made our way down +the coast to watch for another slaver which we had heard news of by the +man-o'-war that came in to relieve us. + +"We had a spanking breeze all day, for a wonder, as it generally fails +at noon; but towards the evening, when we had made some eighty miles or +so from the Bights, it fell suddenly dead calm, as if the wind had been +shut off slap without warning. It was bright before, but the moment the +calm came a thick white mist rose around the vessel, just like that +which came just now from seaward, and has hidden the island and Spithead +from view; you see how it's reminded me now of the west coast and the +Niger river, Master Charles, don't you?" + +"Ay," said I, "Jim, I see what you were driving at." + +"Those thick mists," he continued, "always rise on the shores of Afrikey +in the early mornings--just as there was a thick one when Gil had seen +his ghost, as he said--and they comes up again when the sun sets; but +you never sees 'em when the sun's a-shining bright as it was that +arternoon. It was the rummiest weather I ever see. By and by, the mist +lifted a bit, and then there were clumps of fog dancing about on the +surface of the sea, which was oily and calm, just like patches of trees +on a lawn. Sometimes these fog curtains would come down and settle +round the ship, so that you couldn't see to the t'other side of the deck +for a minute, and they brought a fearful bad smell with them, the very +smell of the lagoons ashore with a dash of the niggers aboard the slave +schooner, only a thousand times worse, and we miles and miles away from +the land. It was most unaccountable, and most uncomfortable. I +couldn't make it out at all. + +"Jest as I was a-puzzling my brains as to the reason of these fog banks +and the stench they brought with them, Gil Saul came on deck too, and +sheered up alongside of me as I was looking out over the side. His face +was a worse sight than the morning; for, instead of his looking white, +the colour of his skin was grey and ashy, like the face of a corpse. It +alarmed me so that I cried out at once-- + +"`Go down below, Gil! Go down and report yourself to the doctor!' + +"`No,' sez he, `it ain't the doctor an will cure me, Jim; I feel it +coming over me again as I felt this morning. I shall see that sarpint +or ghost again, I feel sure.' + +"What with his face and his words, and the bad smell from the fog, I +confess I began to feel queer myself--not frightened exactly--but I'd +have much rather have been on Southsea common in the broad daylight than +where I was at that moment, I can tell you." + +"Did you see anything, Jim?" I asked the old sailor at this juncture. + +"I seed nothing, Master Charles, _as yet_ but I felt something, I can't +tell what or how to explain; it was a sort of all-overish feeling, as if +something was a-walking over my grave, as folks say, summat uncanny, I +do assure you. + +"The captain and the first lieutenant was on the quarter-deck, the +latter with his telescope to his eye a-gazing at something forward +apparently, that he was trying to discern amongst the clumps of fog. I +was nigh them, and being to leeward could hear what they said. + +"The first lieutenant, I hears him, turns to the captain over his +shoulder speaking like, and sez he-- + +"`Captain Manter, I can't make it out exactly, but it's most curious;' +and then turning to me, he sez, `Newman, go down to my steward and ax +him to give you my night-glass.' + +"I went down and fetched the glass and handed it to him, he giving me +t'other one to hold; and he claps the night-glass to his eye. + +"`By Jove, Captain Manter,' sez he presently, `I was right, it is the +greatest marine monster I ever saw!' + +"`Pooh!' says the captain, taking the glass from him and looking +himself. `It's only a waterspout, they come sometimes along with this +appearance of the sea!' But presently I heard him mutter something +under his voice to the lieutenant, and then he said aloud, `It is best +to be prepared;' and a moment after that he gave an order, and the +boatswain piped up and we beat to quarters. It was very strange that, +wasn't it? And so every man on board thought. + +"A very faint breeze was springing up again, and I was on the weather +side of the ship, which was towards the land from which the wind came, +when suddenly Gil Saul, who was in the same battery and captain of my +crew, grips my arm tight. `It's coming! it's coming!' he said right in +my ear, and then the same horrible foul smell wafted right over the ship +again, and a noise was heard just as if a herd of wild horses were +sucking up water together. + +"At this moment the fog lifted for a bit, and we could see clear for +about a couple of miles to windward, where the captain and first +lieutenant and all the hands had their eyes fixed as if expecting +something. + +"By George! you could have knocked me down with a feather, I tell you! +I never saw such a sight in my life, and may I never see such another +again! There, with his head well out of the water, shaped like a big +bird, and higher in the air than the main truck of the ship, was a +gigantic reptile like a sarpint, only bigger than you ever dreamt of. +He was wriggling through the water at a fearful rate, and going nearly +the same course as ourselves, with a wake behind him bigger than a line- +of-battle ship with paddle-wheels, and his length--judging by what I saw +of him--was about half a mile at least, not mentioning what part of his +body was below the water; while he must have been broader across than +the largest sperm whale, for he showed good five feet of freeboard. + +"The captain and first lieutenant were flabbergasted, I could see; but +Captain Manter was as brave an officer as ever stepped, and he pulled +himself together in a minute, as the fog, which had only lifted for a +minute, came down again shutting out everything from view so that we +could not see a yard from the side. `Don't be alarmed, my men,' he +sings out in his cheery voice, so that every hand could hear him, `it's +only a waterspout that is magnified by the fog; and as it gets nearer +we'll give it the starboard broadside to clear it up and burst it.' + +"`Ay! ay!' sez the men with a cheer, while the smell grew more awful and +the snorting gushing sound we had heard before so loud that it was quite +deafening, just immediately after the captain spoke, when it had stopped +awhile. + +"As for poor Gil, he had never lost the grip of my arm since we sighted +the reptile, although he had the lanyard of his gun in his right hand +all the same. + +"`Fire!' sez the captain; and, in a moment, the whole starboard +broadside was fired off, point blank across the water, in a line with +the deck, as Captain Manter had ordered us to depress the guns, the old +_Amphitrite_ rocking to her keel with the explosion. + +"Well, sir, as true as I'm standing here a-talking to you, at the very +instant the guns belched out their fire and smoke, and the cannon-balls +with which they were loaded, there was a most treemenjus roar and a dash +of water alongside the ship, and the waves came over us as if we were on +a lee shore; and then, as the men stood appalled at the things going on +around them, which was what no mortal ever seed before, Gil clasped my +arm more tightly, loosening his right hand from the lanyard of the gun +which he had now fired, and shrieked out, `There! there!' + +"Master Charles, it were awful! A long heavy body seemed to be reared +up high in the air right athwart the vessel, and plunged far away in the +sea to leeward; and, as the body passed over our heads, I looked up with +Gil, and saw the fearful fiery eyes of the biggest snake that ever +crawled on the earth, though this was flying in the air, and round his +hideous head, that had a long beak like a bird, was a curious fringe or +frill all yellowish green, just like what a lizard puffs out under his +throat when in a rage. I could see no more, for the thing was over us +and gone a mile or more to leeward in a wink of the eye, the fog +drifting after it and hiding it from sight. Besides which, I was +occupied with Gil, who had sank down on the deck in a dead swoon. + +"Whatever it was, the thing carried away our main topmast with the +yards, and everything clean from the caps as if it had been shot away, +and there wasn't a trace of them floating in the sea around, as we could +see. + +"`A close thing that!' said the captain, after the shock was over, +speaking to the lieutenant, although all hands could hear him, for it +was as still as possible now. `A close thing, Mr Freemantle. I've +known a waterspout do even more damage than this; so let us be +thankful!' + +"And then all hands were piped to clear the wreck, and make the ship +snug; for we had some bad weather afterwards, and had to put into Sierra +Leone to refit. + +"Gil was in a swoon for a long time after; and then he took the fever +bad, and only recovered by the skin of his teeth; but he never forgot +what he had seen, nor I either, nor any of the hands, though we never +talked about it. We knew we had seen something unearthly; even the +captain and Lieutenant Freemantle, though they put down the damage to a +waterspout for fear of alarming the men, knew differently, as we did. +We had seen the great sea sarpint, if anybody had, every man-jack of us +aboard! It was a warning, too, as poor Gil Saul had declared; for, +strange to say, except himself and me, not a soul as was on board the +_Amphitrite_ when the reptile overhauled us, lived to see Old England +again. The bones of all the others were left to bleach on the burning +sands of the east coast of Africa, which has killed ten thousand more of +our own countrymen with its deadly climate than we have saved slaves +from slavery!" + +"But, Jim," said I, as the old sailor paused at the end of his yarn. +"Do you think it was really the sea serpent? Might it not have been a +waterspout, or a bit of floating wreck, which you saw in the fog?" + +Jim Newman got grumpy at once, at the bare insinuation of such a thing. + +"Waterspouts and bits of wreck," said he sarcastically, "generally +travel at the rate of twenty miles an hour when there is no wind to move +them along, and a dead calm, don't they? Waterspouts and bits of wreck +smell like polecats when you're a hundred miles from land, don't they? +Waterspouts and bits of wreck roar like a million wild bulls, and snort +and swish as they go through the water like a thousand express trains +going through a tunnel, don't they?" + +I was silenced by Jim's sarcasm, and humbly begged his pardon for +doubting the veracity of his eyesight. + +"Besides, Master Charles," he urged, when he had once more been restored +to his usual equanimity; "besides, you must remember that nearly in the +same parts, and about the same time--in the beginning of the month of +August, 1848--the sea sarpint, as people who have never seen it are so +fond of joking of, was seen by the captain and crew of HMS _Daedalus_ +and the event was put down in the ship's log, and reported officially to +the Admiralty. I suppose you won't go for to doubt the statement which +was made by a captain in the navy, a gentleman, and a man of honour, and +supported by the evidence of the lieutenant of the watch, the master, a +midshipman, the quartermaster, boatswain's mate, and the man at the +wheel--the rest of the ship's company being below at the time?" + +"No, Jim," said I, "that's straight enough." + +"We was in latitude 5 degrees 30 minutes north, and longitude about 3 +degrees east," continued the old sailor, "when we saw it on the 1st of +August, 1848, and they in latitude 24 degrees 44 minutes south, and +longitude 9 degrees 22 minutes east, when they saw it on the 6th of the +same month; so the curious reptile--for reptile he was--must have put +the steam on when he left us!" + +"Stirred up, probably, by your starboard broadside?" said I. + +"Jest so," went on Jim. "But, he steered just in the direction to meet +them when he went off from us, keeping a southward and eastward course; +and I daresay, if he liked, he could have made a hundred knots an hour +as easy as we could sail ten on a bowline with a stiff breeze." + +"And so you really have seen the great sea serpent?" said I, when the +old man-of-war's man had shifted his quid once more, thus implying that +he had finished. + +"Not a doubt of it, sir; and by the same token he was as long as from +here to the Spit Buoy, and as broad as one of them circular forts out +there." + +"That's a very good yarn, Jim," said I; "but do you mean to say that you +saw the monster with your own eyes, Jim, as well as all the rest of +you?" + +"I saw him, I tell you, Master Charles, as plain as I see you now; and +as true as I am standing by your side the sarpint jumped right over the +_Amphitrite_ when Gil Saul and I was a-looking up, and carried away our +maintopmast and everything belonging to it!" + +"Well, it must have been wonderful, Jim," said I. + +"Ay, ay, sir," said he, "but you'd ha' thought it a precious sight more +wonderful if you had chanced to see it, like me!" + +I may add, that, shortly afterwards, I really took the trouble to +overhaul a pile of the local papers to see whether Jim's account of the +report made by the captain of the _Daedalus_ to the Lords of the +Admiralty was substantially true; and, strange to say, I discovered +amongst the numbers of the _Hampshire Telegraph_ for the year 1848, the +following copy of a letter forwarded by Captain McQubae to the admiral +in command at Devonport dockyard at the date mentioned:-- + + "Her Majesty's Ship _Daedalus_ + + "Hamoaze, October 11th, 1848. + + "Sir,--In reply to your letter of this day's date, requiring + information as to the truth of a statement published in the _Globe_ + newspaper, of a sea serpent of extraordinary dimensions having been + seen from her Majesty's ship _Daedalus_, under my command, on her + passage from the East Indies, I have the honour to acquaint you, for + the information of my Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty, that at + five o'clock, PM, on the 6th of August last, in latitude 24 degrees 44 + minutes south, and longitude 9 degrees 22 minutes east, the weather + dark and cloudy, wind fresh from the North West, with a long ocean + swell from the South West, the ship on the port tack heading North + East by North, something very unusual was seen by Mr Sartons, + midshipman, rapidly approaching the ship from before the beam. The + circumstance was immediately reported by him to the officer of the + watch, Lieutenant Edgar Drummond, with whom and Mr William Barrett, + the master, I was at the time walking the quarter-deck. The ship's + company were at supper. + + "On our attention being called to the object it was discovered to be + an enormous serpent, with head and shoulders kept about four feet + constantly above the surface of the sea, and as nearly as we could + approximate, by comparing it with the length of what our main-topsail- + yard would show in the water, there was at the very least sixty feet + of the animal _a fleur d'eau_, no portion of which was, to our + perception, used in propelling it through the water, either by + vertical or horizontal undulation. It passed rapidly, but so close + under our lee quarter that had it been a man of my acquaintance I + should have easily recognised his features with the naked eye; and it + did not, either in approaching the ship or after it had passed our + wake, deviate in the slightest degree from its course to the South + West, which it held on at the pace of from twelve to fifteen miles per + hour, apparently on some determined purpose. + + "The diameter of the serpent was about fifteen or sixteen inches + behind the head, which was, without any doubt, that of a snake, and + never, during the twenty minutes that it continued in sight of our + glasses once below the surface of the water; its colour a dark brown, + with yellowish white about the throat. It had no fins, but something + like the mane of a horse, or rather a bunch of sea-weed, washed about + its back. It was seen by the quartermaster, the boatswain's mate, and + the man at the wheel, in addition to myself and officers above- + mentioned. + + "I am having a drawing of the serpent made from a sketch taken + immediately after it was seen, which I hope to have ready for + transmission to my Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty by to-morrow's + posts. + + "I have, etcetera, + + "Peter McQubae, Captain. + + "To Admiral Sir WH Gage, GCH, Devonport." + +Consequently, having this testimony, which was amply verified by the +other witnesses at the time, I see no reason to doubt the truth of Jim +Newman's yarn about THE GREAT SEA SERPENT! + + + +CHAPTER FIVE. + +"OUR SCRATCH ELEVEN." + +This all happened a year or two before I went to sea, and so doesn't +come under the ordinary designation of a "yarn," which, I take it, +should only be about the doings of seafaring men and those who have to +toil over the ocean for a living; still, as it concerns myself, I give +it in pretty nearly the exact words I told it the other day to a party +of youngsters who had just come in from cricketing and asked me for a +story. + +I never played in such a match in my life before or since, I began; but, +there, I had better commence at the right end, and then you'll be able +to judge for yourselves. + +Charley Bates, of course, was dead against it from the first. + +"I tell you it's all nonsense," he said, when we mooted the subject to +him. "How on earth can we get up a decent eleven to play chaps like +those, who have been touring it all over the country, and licking +professionals even on their own ground? It's impossible, and a +downright absurdity. We can't do it." + +"But, Charley," suggested Sidney Grant, a tall, fair-haired fellow, and +our best bat--he could swipe away at leg balls; and as for straight +drives, well, he'd send 'em over a bowler's head, just out of his reach, +and right to the boundary wall, at such a rate, like an express train +going through the air, that they defied stopping. "But, Charley," he +suggested, "we've got some good ones left of our team, and I daresay we +can pick up some fresh hands from amongst the visitors to make up a fair +scratch lot." + +"It would be a scratch lot," sneered Charley--"a lot that would be +scratched out with duck's eggs, and make us the laughing-stock of the +place." + +"Oh, that's all nonsense!" Sidney said, decisively. + +Besides being our best bat, he was the captain of the Little Peddlington +Cricket Club, which, as it was far into the month of August, had got +somewhat dispersed through some of the team having gone off on those +cheap excursions to London, to the Continent, and elsewhere, that are +rife at most of the seaside places on the south coast during the season. +But now that the great travelling team of the "Piccadilly Inimitables" +purposed paying a passing visit to our rural shades, it of course +behoved the Little Peddlington Cricket Club to challenge the celebrated +amateurs to a match, albeit we were so woefully weak from the absence of +many of our best members, or else be for ever disgraced amongst the +patrons of the noble game. + +It was this very point we were debating now, our captain having +collected the remnants of the club together in solemn caucus, to +deliberate on the situation and see what was to be done. + +"I don't see why we shouldn't challenge the Inimitables," he went on. +"The worst that can happen to us is to get licked; but we might make a +good fight for it, and if vanquished we should not be covered with +dishonour. There are five of us here of the first eleven to form a +nucleus with: Charley Bates--whom I mention first, not by reason of his +superior skill with the willow," the captain slily put in, "as that is +known to all of us, but on account of his being the oldest member of the +Little Peddlington Cricket Club present, with the exception of myself-- +Jack Limpet, who is a very good all-round player if he didn't brag quite +so much,"--this was one at me--"Tom Atkins, John Hardy, and last, though +by no means least, my worthy self. Thus we've five good men and true, +whom we have tried already in many a fray, to rely on; and I daresay we +can pick out two or three likely youngsters from the juniors, while some +of those new fellows amongst the visitors that came down last week would +lend us a hand. There were three of them especially that I noticed +yesterday practising, whom I should certainly like to have in the eleven +if I could get them to join us." + +"They'd be glad enough if you'd ask them," grumbled Charley Bates, who +always seemed to prefer looking at the disagreeable side of things; "but +I don't think much of their play. And as for the juveniles, there isn't +one worth his salt." + +"Yes, there is," said John Hardy, who seldom spoke; but when he did open +his mouth, generally did so to the purpose. "That young fellow James +Black is first-class both at batting and bowling. I've watched him many +a time. He ought to have been in the eleven long ago." + +"Do you think so?" said Sidney inquiringly. "I'm afraid I've overlooked +him. I'll make a note of his name, even if we don't have him with us to +play against the Inimitables." + +Without much further demur, Sidney Grant proceeded to settle that he and +John Hardy should form themselves into a deputation and wait upon the +committee of the visitors' cricket club, requesting them to furnish the +assistance of the three members whom our captain had specified, to the +Little Peddlington Eleven, which would be also duly recruited from the +ranks of its junior team, not forgetting young James Black, in order to +enable them to challenge the Piccadilly Inimitables, and try to stop +their triumphal progress round the south coast. + +Charley Bates objected, naturally, as might have been imagined from the +position he took at first. He objected not only to the visitors being +asked to join our scratch team and represent the Little Peddlingtonians, +but also specially--just because John Hardy mentioned his name, and for +no other earthly reason--to the fact of young Black's being selected +from the junior eleven. He was over-ruled, however, on both points, +much to his chagrin, as he was in the habit generally of getting his own +way by bullying the rest, and he left the meeting in the greatest +disgust, saying that he wouldn't play, and thus "make himself a party to +the disgrace that was looming over the club," in their defeat by the +Inimitables, which he confidently expected. + +"He's too fond of figuring in public to care to take a back seat when we +are all in it, and bite off his nose to spite his face!" said Tom Atkins +when he went away from us in his dudgeon, shaking off the dust from his +cricketing shoes, so to speak, in testimony against us. "Master Charley +will come round and join us when he sees we are in for the match, you +bet!" + +And so he did, at the last moment. The other members having cordially +supported the captain's several propositions, they were carried +unanimously by our quorum of four, and immediately acted upon. Young +Black, with two other juniors, and three of the best men we could pick +out from the visitors that were at Little Peddlington for the season +that year--and there were some first-rate cricketers, too, amongst +them--made up our scratch eleven, Charley Bates relenting when he found +that we would have played without him. And a challenge having been sent +to the Piccadilly Inimitables without delay, which they as promptly +accepted, the match was fixed to come off, on our ground, of course, on +the opening days of the ensuing week--provided, as the secretary of our +opponents' club, very offensively as we thought, added in a postscript +to his communication, the contest was not settled on the first day's +play. But they reckoned without their host when they tackled the Little +Peddlingtonians, as you will see. + +We fellows who formed the Little Peddlington Cricket Club were for the +most part studying there under a noted tutor, who prepared us for the +army, Woolwich, or India; but we admitted a few of the townspeople. + +A cricket match at such a retired spot opened a field of excitement to +both residents and summer tourists alike. Even an ordinary contest, +such as we sometimes indulged in with the Hammerton or Smithwick clubs, +or the Bognor garrison, would have aroused considerable interest in the +vicinity of Little Peddlington; but when it became known that we were +going to play the celebrated Piccadilly Inimitables, who had licked +Lancashire and Yorkshire, and almost every county eleven they had met in +their cricketing tour from the north to the south of England, there was +nothing else talked about from one end of our seaside town to the other, +the news spreading to the adjacent hamlets, and villages beyond, until +it reached the cathedral city twenty miles away. + +Under these circumstances it cannot be wondered at that when Monday, the +opening day of the match--which turned out beautifully fine for a +wonder, as it always rained on the very slightest provocation at Little +Peddlington--arrived, there was such a crowd of carriages and drags, +filled to their utmost capacity, as to astonish even the memory of that +far-famed individual "the oldest inhabitant." These were drawn up in a +sort of semicircle around our cricket ground--a charmingly situated spot +with a very wide area, and nicely sheltered by rows of waving elms from +the hot August sun--and besides the "carriage folk," as the rustics +termed them, came on foot everybody in the neighbourhood, besides all +Little Peddlington itself. + +The Piccadilly Inimitables arrived early in the morning, having stopped +overnight at Brighton, where they had scored their last victory over the +Sussex eleven, and which place was not so remote from Little Peddlington +as you might suppose, consequently we were able to commence the match in +good time, and as our club won the toss for first innings we buckled to +at once for the fray, sending in John Hardy, who had the reputation with +us of being a "sticker," and the grumbling Charley Bates, to the wickets +punctually at eleven o'clock. + +The bowling at the beginning was rather shady, the Inimitables not being +accustomed to the ground, which our batsmen, of course, were perfectly +familiar with; so runs got piled on in a way that raised our hopes +pretty considerably, especially when Sidney Grant took Charley Bates's +place--that worthy having in his second over skied a ball that was +immediately caught, sending him out for five runs, two singles and a +three, or two more than he had totalled in his last match. + +It was a sight to see Sidney as he cut and drove the slow and fast +bowlers of our opponents' team for four almost every over; whilst John +Hardy backed him up ably by remaining, as he was instructed, strictly on +the defensive, and blocking every ball that came at all near his wicket +Sidney was the run-getter; he had simply to run. + +We had scored thirty-eight for the loss of only one wicket, and the +captain seemed to be well set and good to make the century--as he had +done a month before in our match with the Smithwick Club--when a new +bowler went on at the lower end of the ground, and "a change came over +the spirit of our dream." + +"I don't like the way that chap walks up to the wicket," said Tom Atkins +to me. "I saw him taking Sidney's measure when he was serving as long- +stop, and if he doesn't play carefully, he'll bowl him out almost with +his first ball." + +"Not he," said I sanguinely. "He seems too confident." + +"Ah well! we'll see," replied Tom. + +That new bowler was something awful. He sent in the balls at such a +pace that they came on the wicket like battering-rams, and their twist +was so great that they would pitch about a mile off and appear to be +wides, when all of a sudden they would spin in on a treacherous curve, +right on to a fellow's leg-stump. John Hardy stood them well enough, +blocking away with a calm sense of duty, and never attempting to strike +one. But poor Sidney lost his head in a very short time, and hitting +out wildly at what he thought was a short ball, it rose right over the +shoulder of his bat and carried off his bails in the neatest manner +possible--two wickets for forty-one runs, as the captain had only +managed to put on three runs since that fiend in human form had come on +to bowl. + +Of course there was a wild shout of victory from the Inimitables when +our best bat was disposed of, and corresponding woe in our camp, which +was sympathisingly shared in by all the Little Peddlingtons around, and +in the midst of the excitement I went to the wicket to fill the lamented +vacancy. + +"Mind, Jack," said Sidney, who did not allow the sense of defeat to +overcome his duty, "and be certain to play those balls well back. It +was all through my stepping out to them that caused my collapse. Only +be cautious and take things coolly, and you and Prester John will tire +him out." + +"Oh, yes," sneered Charley Bates, whose temper had not been improved by +his getting out for five, when, in spite of his assurances of the +superiority of our antagonists, he had looked forward to getting the +highest score against them,--"Oh, yes. Tire him out! Why, the chap +hasn't got into the use of his arm yet. He'll send Jack Limpet's stumps +flying presently. But I shall laugh when Tom Atkins faces his balls! +Our comic man won't have anything to joke about then, I'll warrant." + +He was a nasty fellow that Charley Bates! I don't know anything more +ungenerous than to try and dishearten a fellow just when he is going to +the wicket, and knows what a responsibility he has resting on him! But, +then, what can you expect from such a chap? I'm glad he got out for +five. I wish he had been bowled for nix. + +With these pleasant thoughts in my mind I walked leisurely up the +ground, from where I had been standing by the scoring tent watching the +game, and with an inward sinking at my heart faced the "Slogger," as we +had christened our opponents' terrible bowler. + +For a couple of overs I got on very well. Acting on the captain's +advice I stopped in my own ground, playing all the Slogger's balls +carefully back, and by this means managed to score two good leg hits in +the fourth over, that sent up six to my account, in addition to three +singles, which I had put on by careful watchfulness at first. + +Just then, however, Prester John made a hit for a wonder--a straight +drive for five; and fired with emulation I let out at the next ball I +received. Throwing all caution and the captain's commands to the winds, +I did "let out with a vengeance," as Tom Atkins said on my return to the +tent, for I "let in" the ball, which, coming in with a swish, snapped my +leg-stump in two, sending the pieces flying sky high in the air! + +Three wickets for fifty-seven runs, two for byes; so far, the scoring +was not bad; but in a very short time Pelion was piled on Ossa in the +history of our disasters. Prester John got run out through the absurd +folly of Tom Atkins, who stopped actually in mid-wicket to laugh at some +nonsense or other that had at that moment flashed across the vision of +what he called his "mind;" and with his fall our chances sank rapidly to +zero, wicket after wicket being taken without a run being scored, until +the whole of us were out for a total still under sixty. + +It was maddening! But what annoyed John Hardy even more than that ass +Tom Atkins having run him out was that the captain had never given young +James Black any opportunity of showing his batting skill, as, being +persuaded by Charley Bates, who pooh-poohed the youngster's abilities +_in toto_, he had only sent him in as "last-man," and Black hadn't, of +course, the chance of playing a ball. Sidney, however, promised to +right the matter in our second innings, should our opponents give us +time to play one, and not occupy the wickets, as seemed very probable, +for the two days over which the match could only extend: and with this +promise Prester John and his protege, young Jemmy Black, were fain to be +content. + +The three recruits we had engaged from amongst the visitors to join our +scratch eleven had, up to the present, done nothing to warrant our +captain's encomiums on their skill--at least in the batting line, which +they had only essayed as yet; it remained to be proved whether they were +worth anything in the field; if not, then our chances of receiving a +hollow licking were uncommonly bright, as Charley Bates pointed out with +his customary cheerful irony. + +Well, after luncheon, when we entertained them in the most hospitable +manner, as if we loved them instead of feeling sentiments the reverse of +amicable towards them, the Inimitables went in for their first innings; +and the way they set to work scoring from the moment they commenced to +handle the bat, prognosticated that Charley Bates' evil surmise as to +our defeat would be speedily realised. + +I think I have already hinted that I somewhat prided myself on my +bowling, being celebrated amongst the members of the Little Peddlington +Cricket Club for sending in slows of such a judicious pitch that they +generally got the man caught out who attempted to drive them, while, +should he contemptuously block them, they had such an underhand twist +that they would invariably run into the wickets, although they mightn't +seem to have strength to go the distance? From this speciality of mine +I was looked upon as a tower of strength in the bowling line to the +club; and, consequently, I and one of our visitor recruits, Tomkins by +name, were intrusted with the ball at the first start. + +Tomkins bowled swift with a pretty fair pitch, and I bowled slow, dead +on to the wicket every time; but the two men of the Inimitables who +began the batting on their side-men who have gained almost a European +reputation in the handling of the willow, and I wouldn't like to hurt +their feelings by mentioning their names now--seemed to play with us as +they liked, hitting the ball to every part of the ground, and scoring +threes and fours, and even sixes, in the most demoralising manner +possible. They hadn't been in a quarter of an hour when they passed our +miserable total, amidst the cheers of their own party--in which the +fickle Little Peddlingtonians now joined, and the blue looks of our +men--and it appeared as if their scoring would, like Tennyson's brook, +"go on for ever." + +"We must put a stop to this," said Sidney, when seventy went up on the +scoring-board, "and change the bowling," which he did, by going on +himself at my end and putting one of the other visitors, who was also +supposed to be a dab with the ball, in the place of Tomkins. + +For a time, this did a little good, as it stopped the rapidity of the +scoring; but after an over or two, the batsmen, neither of whom had been +yet displaced, began putting up the runs again, even quicker than they +had done with us; and the hundred was passed almost within the hour from +the time they started. + +"By George, Limpet," said the captain, calling me to him out of the +field, "you must go on again at the upper end, changing places with that +chap. Try a full pitch, and we'll catch that long-legged beggar out; +he's so confident now that he would hit at anything." + +Going on again, as Sidney had directed, I tried a full-pitched ball +after a short delivery or two, and the "long-legged beggar" skied it, +amidst the breathless suspense of our team. + +Unfortunately, however, no one was there to catch it when it fell to the +ground a long way beyond cover-point, and the Inimitables scored six for +it--disgusting! + +"That Atkins deserves to be expelled the club!" said the captain in a +rage. "He can't put on a bit of steam when it's necessary to use his +legs, although he could run Prester John out for a ball that wasn't +worth moving for. Play!" And the game went on again. + +Giving my opponent another brace of short balls to take him off his +guard, I watched my opportunity again and treated him again to a full +one, which he skied, as before, to the same point. + +This time, however, he did not escape scatheless. Young Black, whom I +had strangely missed from his position at long-stop since I commenced to +bowl the over, stepped out from beneath the shadow of the trees, where +he had concealed himself in the meantime, and amidst the ringing +plaudits, not only of our lot but of the spectators as well--who turned +round in our favour at the first breath of success--caught the ball with +the utmost _sangfroid_, sending it a moment afterwards spinning in the +air triumphantly, in the true cricketonian manner, as an acknowledgment +of the feat and accompanying cheers. + +It wasn't much to brag of, getting out the long-limbed one, as it was +only one wicket for one hundred and seventeen runs; but when the second +man went shortly after without increasing the score, our hopes began to +rise. They were hopes based on sand, however. The two newcomers began +making runs just like their predecessors, and completely mastered the +bowling. + +Every member of the club had now been tried with the ball, besides the +three visitors, who certainly bowled fairly well, but nothing +hysterically brilliant. Even Charley Bates had a turn, although I don't +believe he had ever hit the wicket in his life; and on his surrendering +the ball, after presenting our opponents with three wides and any number +of byes, our captain was at his wits' end. He didn't know who he could +set on to bowl. + +"Try young Black," suggested Hardy at this juncture, when we were having +a short interval of rest from our exhilarating game of leather-hunting, +which had now been going on for two hours and more. + +"Young Black, indeed!" repeated Charley Bates with intense scorn. + +"Well," said Prester John, "he can't possibly do worse than you." + +And the remark was so painfully true that even Charley could not but see +the point of it, and he said no more. + +On being called, Jemmy Black came up with a broad grin on his face, +which looked exactly like one of those public-house signs you sometimes +see in country villages, of "The Rising Sun," or "The Sun in Splendour." +He was otherwise a dapper little fellow, although scarcely five feet in +height, and strongly built, his legs and arms being very muscular. + +He endeavoured to receive with proper gravity and dignity the ball from +Sidney, who gave him a few words of appropriate advice, but he failed +utterly in the attempt. That grin would not leave his face: it was as +much a part of his physiognomy as his nose, I believe! + +Little chap as he was, however, his advent produced a change at once. +His first three overs were maidens, balls that were dead on to the +wicket, and so true and ticklish that the Inimitable champions did not +dare to play them. In the next, bang went one of the two stickers' leg- +stump at young Black's first ball; with the second he caught and bowled +the fresh man who came in, before he scored at all--four wickets for a +hundred and fifty runs, not one of which had been put on since he came +on to bowl. Things began to look up, or, at all events, did not appear +in so sombre a light as they had done previously. + +"Bravo, Black!" resounded from every part of the field; but the little +fellow took no notice of the applause, beyond grinning more widely than +ever, "his mouth stretching from ear to ear," as Charley Bates said, +green with envy and jealousy of the other's performance. + +The new bowler seemed to demoralise the batsmen even as they had +previously demoralised us, for I had a bit of luck a little further on, +taking one wicket by a low-pitched ball, and getting another man out +with a catch; and then Black, as if he had been only playing with the +Inimitables hitherto, braced himself up to the struggle, and began +laying the stumps low right and left. + +It was a wonder that such a small chap could send in the balls at the +terrific speed he did, balls that set leg-guards and pads at defiance, +and splintered one of the batsmen's spring-handled bats as if it had +been match wood; but he did it. + +His last over in that first innings of the Inimitables, however, was the +crowning point in his victorious career. With four consecutive balls he +took the four last wickets of our opponents, and sent them off the +ground without putting up a run--the whole eleven being out for one +hundred and fifty-six runs--or not quite the century beyond us; and the +principal feature of Black's triumph was, that from the moment he +handled the leather, the Inimitables only scored six to the good, but +one run of which was off his bowling. + +I should like you to beat that analysis, if you can! + +With the disposal of our antagonists so easily at the end, we began our +second innings with more sanguine expectations than could have been +imagined from our previous prostration. + +"Black had better go in as first man along with you, Hardy, and see what +he can do," our captain said. + +The two accordingly went to the wickets at the beginning of the innings; +and there they remained without giving a single chance until the +conclusion of the day's play, when the stumps were drawn at seven +o'clock in the evening. + +Young Black had scored by that time no less than eighty off his own bat, +and Hardy forty-one, after being in to their own cheek exactly as long +as the Inimitables' whole innings lasted. It was glorious, one hundred +and eighteen without the loss of a wicket, and the bowling and fielding +must have been good, as there were only seven extras all that long while +our men had been in. Why, that placed us thirty-one runs to the good at +the close of the first day's play. Who would have thought it? + +The next morning play began as punctually as on the first day, and the +crowd to witness the match was even greater than before, many coming now +who had stayed away previously, expecting our wholesale defeat in one +innings; and "young Ebony," as Black was called affectionately, and +Prester John resumed their places at the wickets amidst the tremendous +cheering from the whole of the hamlet and twenty miles round. + +The bowlers of the Inimitables were on their metal now if they never +were; but they bowled, and changed their bowling, in vain, for young +Jemmy Black continued his brilliant hitting without any cessation, while +Prester John remained on the defensive, except some very safe ball +tempted him, until our score turned the two hundred in our second +innings. + +Prester John here retired by reason of his placing a ball in short- +slip's hands; but on our captain taking his place and facing Black, the +run-getting went steadily on until we were considerably a hundred over +our antagonists. Young Black had not given a chance, save one close +shave of a run out, when he got clean bowled for one hundred and fifty- +one. Fancy that; and off such first-class bowling, too! + +It was as much as Hardy and I could do to prevent him being torn in +pieces by the excited spectators, who rushed in _en masse_ when he +abandoned the wicket he had defended so well, his face all the time +expanding into one huge grin, which appeared to convert it into all +mouth and nothing else. + +Sidney and I, and one or two others, scored well, although nothing like +what our two champion stickers had done; and the whole of our second +innings terminated for two hundred and eighty-eight runs, thus leaving +the Inimitables no less than a hundred and ninety-one to get to tie us, +and one more to win. I fancy that was something like a feather in the +cap of the Little Peddlington Cricket Club, although it was all owing to +young Jemmy Black, whose bowling, when the Inimitables went in to make +their final effort, was on a par with his magnificent batting. We had +finished our second innings just before lunch time; so immediately after +that meal the great travelling team, who were going to do such wonders +when they came to annihilate the Little Peddlingtonians--I can't help +crowing a little now it is all over--went to the wickets to finish the +match, or spin it out, if they could, so that it might end in a draw. + +Young Black was all there, however, and so was I, too, for, whether by +his example or what, I know not, I never bowled so well before or since +in my life. Really, between us two, and the efficient assistance of our +fieldsmen, who seemed also spurred up to extra exertions, even Charley +Bates and Tom Atkins distinguishing themselves for their quickness of +eye and fleetness of foot, the Piccadilly Inimitables got all put out +long before time was called, for the inglorious total of our own first +innings--fifty-nine. Hurrah! + +We had conquered by a hundred and thirty-two runs, and licked the most +celebrated amateur club in England. It would be a vain task to try and +recount our delighted surprise, so I'll leave it alone. Thenceforward +the rest of the chronicles of the Little Peddlington Cricket Club are +they not written in gold? At all events, I know this, that we never +forgot what happened to us in that ever-memorable match, with only "Our +Scratch Eleven." + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Tom Finch's Monkey, by John C. 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